Week 6: Storytelling: Smoke

-Smoke-

In the forests of India lived a young snake named Smoke. Smoke was a piercing black king cobra. Smoke's family of cobras were known to other animals as deadly and dangerous. The other animals kept their distance to stay safe. Smoke, on the other hand was not as mean and violent as the rest of his family.

Smoke the Black Cobra

Souce: Youtube-deadliest animals 

One day smoke was out and about roaming the forest grounds.  Smoke arrived at the river he had seen a human on the other side. Humans are not meant to be in this part of the forest. This was the darkest and deepest part of the forest where no human ever ventured into. 

Smoke was a curious snake so he made his way across the river to get a closer look at this human. Smoke was somewhat admiring this human that he had made it so far into the forest. He was a strong man with dark black hair and a full grown beard. He wore all black and carried a sheath on his side that held a sword. The end of the sword had a snake head engraved on it with black diamonds as snakes eyes. 

The man started to walk upstream of the river and Smoke followed. The man began to talk to himself so Smoke listened. The man was headed to find his lover, she had been kidnapped. Clearly Smoke believed the man because he was in the dark forest. Smoke knew no man ever dared to go through the dark forest. 

Smoke knew he couldn't let his family harm this man or take his life. He wanted the man to find his lover and rescue her. Smoke decided to help this man through the dark forest. The king cobras were not the only creatures you needed to worry about in this forest. There were also black panthers that hide high up in the trees. 

Dark Forest
Found on Flickr by Craig Cloutier

Smoke was keeping a close eye on the man and was impressed by how well the man noticed his surroundings. Yet, the man was not looking up into the trees. Smoke knew the panthers hide there though and spotted one up ahead.  Smoke had to do something so he took off and headed up the tree. Right as the panther was about to leap down onto the man Smoke sprung from the branch he was on and began wrapping his body around the panther. The panther and Smoke fell to the ground right in front of the man. The man quickly grabbed his sword and stabbed the panther through the heart. Smoke uncoiled himself from the panther and was staring at the man. They both paused and no one moved. The man was hesitant but also took off sprinting. Smoke felt a sense of relief then took off after the man. 

Smoke caught up to him and found him near a small waterfall. This was no average waterfall though. It was the spiders waterfall. One bite would kill any man. Smoke snuck up close to the man and checked for any spiders. He looked around but couldn't see any. Then he looked up and saw about a hundred spiders hanging from their webs right above the man. Smoke had never had to worry about being bit by one of them. His scales were too thick and strong for any creature to bit. Smoke made his way to the top of the waterfall then in one swift motion leaped from the top and caught all the webs the spiders were hanging from. The spiders were no longer hanging over the man, he was safe. 

When Smoke had snatched up all the spiders the man had been looking down in the water. The man saw Smoke flying above him in the reflection of the water. The man thought the snake was following him and became anxious. 

The man got up from drinking the water and slowly started walking again. Smoke noticed and quickly followed behind him. The man and Smoke were almost out of the dark forest. Smoke was starting to feel very pleased and happy the man was going to make it. Then, all of a sudden the man fell. Smoke slithered up ahead and found the man in a pit of quicksand. Smoke began to panic because he could not fight back with quicksand. It was just as dangerous to Smoke as it was to the man. Once again Smoke looked up and a branch hung directly above the pit of sand. Smoke made his way up and curled his tail around the branch. 

Smoke slowly lowered himself down and bit onto the back of the man's jacket. The man did not notice until he felt himself being lifted up. The man had though the Smoke was about to eat him as soon as he pulled him out of the quicksand. Smoke had pulled him out and set him on the branch next to him. All of a sudden the branch broke. Smoke fell in the pit of quick sand. The man looked down at Smoke and climbed down the tree. Smoke was trying as hard as he could to get out but he was falling fast. Once the man got out he ran the side of the pit and pulled out his sword. He swung it right at Smoke.  The sword stopped right before it hit Smoke. Smoke look at it and it was the handle of the sword, the snakes head.

The man was saving Smoke. Smoke grabbed on and the man pulled him out then set his sword down on the ground. Smoke crawled off then looked at the man. The man looked back and said thank you snake. The man had pointed his sword at Smoke and motioned for him to crawl up. Smoke accepted and crawled up onto the man's shoulders.The two finished their journey through the dark forest and found and saved the girl. 

Authors Note: I generated this story from reading,  How the Raven Saved the Hunter. In this story, a man was about to drink from a poisonous river. Then a raven swooped down and stopped him. At first, the man thought it was a mistake. Then it happened again, this time, the man was a bit upset. One last time the man tried to drink the water and the raven stopped him once more. This time, the man was very mad and killed the raven. After the man was curious and thought maybe the raven did not want the man to drink the water. So the man hiked to the head of the river and saw the water coming from a snakes mouth. The water was poison then the man felt terrible for killing the raven. 

I got the snake (Smoke) idea from the water coming from the snakes head. I wanted to chance the main plot of the story be instead of killing the animal (raven) they became friends. The man in the forest realized that smoke was trying to save him. So instead of not noticing before it was too late and killing him, they became friends. 

I choose the forest in India because it is one of the places king cobras live. I also like to change the scenery in my stories from the original. 

Bibliography: 

From the Tibetan Folktales unit, Tibetan Fold Tales by A.L. Shelton (1925) Story: How the Raven Saved the Hunter. 

Info on the king cobra found on wikipedia.org