Week 11 Story (Grandmother River's Trick)

The scurry of frightened fish often overpowered the otherwise serene waters of the river. It was a common scene. Just as the sun began to set and the first glimpses of nightfall arrived, you would hear the first painful cry of a mother fish mourning her new little babies. The predators often struck at night. It was easier for them to sneak around, without fear of being eaten themselves. Every living species in the river understood that being prey was a risk, but the recent uprise in baby fish death was due to the predators gluttony and greed.

The mother and father fish were terrified. Every night when they went to bed, they would tuck in their baby fish and pray that they would awaken with them the next morning. Recently, more often than not, frightened parents wold awake in the middle of the night to the loud chomps and chews of the predator munching on their children. Each day the parents would grow angrier and angrier, but due to their size and position in the natural food chain, there was not much they could do to prolong their untimely deaths.

Early one morning, many fish mothers and fish fathers decided to bring the problem to the ruler of their turf, Grandmother River, herself. Grandmother River was alarmed at the gluttonous behavior of the predator and she decided once and for all, that this must not go on any longer. She assured the mother and father fish not to worry any longer. She had a plan. She told them to rest peacefully that night, for she would never allow another baby fish to be eaten by the predators again.

Like usual, later that night the predators waited for each and every fish family to go to bed. They snuck out of their own homes and headed for the homes of the tiny helpless fish. Just as Grandmother River felt the rumbling movement of the predator she began to swell ferociously. The waters erupted with forceful tidal waves and grew to ten times their size. She swept across the land next to bank and took the predators with her. Her forceful waters made a small hole right next to the pond where she emptied all of the predators. She then quickly shrunk back to her normal size leaving only the helpless smaller fish sleeping peacefully in their homes. Now and forever, the predators would be stuck in this small helpless pit of water with only each other to prey off of.

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Author's Note:
This story is an adaptation of Grandmother River's Trick by Florence Stratton. I really enjoyed reading this tale but thought I might retell it adding a bit more imagery. The vast majority of the story is the same. Generally, these types of stories were told by youth and so I decided to take the story and tell it form my own point of view as a 21 year old. I think it would be interesting to hear this same story from other age groups as well.

I really liked that the story had a clear antagonist and protagonist with a clever ending. I wanted to play up the ending a bit. In the original story, Grandmother River asks for her from the clouds in the form of rain to help swell the water,  I decided to allow Grandmother River to have this ability on her own mostly to show her own power.

Bibliography:
Grandmother River's Trick
Noah NG