One morning a young schoolboy decided to take an alternate walking route
to his school. He decided to take a rural path with an old road adjacent to it.
The path was dark and unfinished, and the dirt road winded down lower into an
old forest near the back of his school. As the boy trudged on he noticed a
flicker in the distance and decided to follow it. For quite some time the boy
was mesmerized by the light and followed it for quite some time before being
awoken out of his spell by a man who spoke up to catch the boy's attention. The
forest was quite dark for the clouds and trees blotted the sun’s luminescence and
covered the man’s appearance. The only thing the boy could make out was that
the man seemed to be quite old. The old man explained that he needed help reaching
something in his crawl space for he was too old; the old man also offered him
candy as a reward. The boy slowly began walking the old man to his home and
looked around to unfamiliar surroundings. This was not the path his neighbor
had described to him. As they approached the entrance of the home, the young
boy felt the old man's grip grow tighter and tighter on his arm. The boy heard
a scream and his vision went black. There was no chance of escape.
Author’s Note: The story of the Old Lion and the Fox, from Aesop's Fables, is about an elderly
lion that uses his old age as sympathy to lure visitors into becoming his prey.
One day, the old lion invites a fox into his home. However, the fox is cunning
and notices the footsteps of the lion’s former prey leading into his home but
none leading out. My story is a dark twist on this fable with a not so happy
ending.
This was a pretty dark story and I think you did a great job at it! I don't think I've ever really wrote something that had a dark feel to it like this so I definitely admire it. I thought it was a very creative retelling of the fable! I think it's so fun getting to change up these stories to be anything we want them to be!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great story! It is a very powerful narrative and is full of expression. I like how you left the ending open to interpretation. It really allows the reader to use his or her own mind to determine an ending. Maybe the old man grabbed the boy because he was about to be attacked by a bear? It really is interesting because, even though it has a dark undertone, a reader could still come up with a positive ending.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the way that you adapted the story and changed the ending. When I began the story I was unable to tell what story you were retelling. It definitely changes the story by adding the details to the forest and making the characters human. I had fun re adapting my story. I hope that you had fun doing this!
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