Week Six Storytelling: Violet Eyes

It wasn’t a rooster that woke me in the morning but an unfamiliar man’s voice.

“Nessa! It’s been so long!” His laughter drifted up to me as the horse snorted. I quickly slid my helmet over my head as my mother’s words echoed through my head.

No one can ever know, Alicina. But you are safe as long as you are with me. I touched the smooth purple stone of the necklace she left me.

Leaning over the edge of the loft, I could see the man’s pale skin and brown hair from under the rim of the helmet.

He’s definitely a Barric. I think Charleigh said they have a son. I climbed down the ladder, landing silently on the floor.

“And you are?” I asked quietly, authority and distrust evident in my voice. Even from my limited field of vision, I could see him jump in surprise.

“Who are—oh! My mom talked about you in her letters!” He crossed the room quickly. “Thank you for helping us. I’m Kolos.”

“Alicina.” Light was already beginning to peak through the gaps in the wood of the barn as I heard the rooster crow. Automatically, I turned to start taking care of the animals before heading to the fields.

“Wait! Let me help,” Kolos asked.

“I’m fine.”

“No really! Just give me something to do.” The childish excitement in his voice made him seem younger than me. “Please? I promise I’ll stay out of your way.”

“Alright.”

*

It felt strange to finish my work before the sun did. When I headed into the kitchen, laughter filled it instead of the usual silence.

“Alicina!” Charleigh wrapped her arm around me before guiding me to the table.

Kolos recounted a tale from his time spent studying as his parents and I listened until the sun finally went down.

When he finally finished, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“You are so beautiful when you laugh.” Kolos’s words sounded certain and guileless.

“You know, I think this is the first time I’ve heard it,” Charleigh said.

“I apologize for any rudeness—” I began, but she cut me off.

“No, no. Anyway, get along to bed you two.”

I nodded, slipping out the back door.

*

I slid my helmet off before splashing water onto my face. Just as I relished the coolness of my skin, I heard the barn door open. Ducking my head down, I wrapped the top of my face in my scarf.

“Alicina?” Kolos asked quietly. “Why do you hide? I have seen your skin, I thought you might have a burn or a scar, but it is flawless.”

“It is what I have always done,” I answered. “What do you need?”

“I can’t sleep. When I was little, I’d sneak out of my room and sleep next to Nessa. She never seemed to mind.”

“She’s very sweet.”

“I have to admit, I’m a little jealous. She seems to like you more now.” He laughed self-deprecatingly.

“Your mom said I had a magic touch.”

“Even my mother likes you better! Traitors.”

*

As weeks passed, we fell into a routine. Each week, Kolos worked in town for four days and on the farm for three.

It felt dangerous how much I cared about him. Kolos never asked about my helmet or scarf again, but he asked me about my family and what happened to them.

I didn’t want to tell him, but suddenly, I had to.

It wasn’t supposed to happen the way it did. We were repairing an old building on the edge of the property, hoping to make room for more animals.

Kolos pulled one board too many. The walls rumbled, and he dove for me, trying to shove me through the door as the building collapsed around us.

Kolos’s body took the brunt of the wood, pinning my legs beneath him as the planks dug into his body. The impact knocked my helmet off and out of reach, but I didn’t care.

“Kolos!” I shook his shoulder gently, praying his eyes would flicker open. I tried to move the boards I could reach off of his back, but they were too heavy. “Kolos, please.”

Taking in a sharp breath, he moved slightly, his eyes filled with pain.

“I think we’re trapped.” I stilled him with my hand. “Someone will come rescue us.”

“I’m just glad you’re sa—” He froze.

I tried to shut my eyes, but it was too late.

“Alicina? Is that it?” The fingers of his free hand brushed over my eyelids.

“It’s bad enough I’m left handed, but this too? I’d be burned at the stake.” I turned away.

“Your eyes are beautiful. They match your—” he drew in a rough breath, “necklace.”

“My mom gave it to me before…”

“I’m glad I got to see them.” His gaze was sure. He coughed hard as a pool of red seeped out from under him.

“No. Kolos, you can’t die.”

He smiled faintly. “I’m glad I met you Alicina.”

“No!” I shoved the earth below me hard, sliding out from under him with more strength than I naturally had. Kolos barely flinched as he hit the ground, and the wooden beams shifted around him. I yanked them off as my hands glowed, matching the purple of my eyes. “I will not let you die!”

His legs weren’t bent right, and his back was bloody. I ripped a section of my skirt off before wiping as much of the blood from him as I could. Sliding my hands across his back, I concentrated, trying to force everything back into its rightful place.

Kolos groaned in pain as I finished and set to work on his legs. I pushed them into the proper alignment. “I’m so sorry.”

He cried out as I accelerated his healing, knitting his bones back together.

“Where else does it hurt?” I glanced around his body for more injuries.

Kolos shook his head weakly before his hand found mine.

He would live.

Author's Note: Once again, I came in at exactly 1000 words. The myth I reworked this week is from the "Japanese Fairy Tales" unit. It is about a girl that is so lovely, her mother makes her cover her face with a helmet. When her parents die, she goes and works on a farm. The couple she works for's son comes home while she is washing her face (without the helmet on), and he falls in love with her instantly. They get married and live happily ever after. 

Out of all of the stories I've done, this one is probably the closest to the original myth. I knew I had to make her secret different, and purple eyes was the first thing I thought of. The very first short story I wrote as a PW major involved a world where purple eyes meant you were magic so I just adapted that concept here. 

As for names, according to different corners of the internet, Charleigh means farm, Barric means grain farm, Kolos means scholar, and Alcina is a Greek sorceress. I added an extra letter because it felt like it needed one more syllable for some reason. 

Bibliography: "The Maiden With the Wooden Helmet" by Andrew Lang.

Image Information: Personal photo taken by my mom.

Reading Notes: Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang) Part B

As I started Part B reading, I began to recognize a few stories.

I have definitely read Schippeitaro before in some other form. I found the translation of the name to be interesting too because there aren't three consonants all put together like that in Japanese. I like the idea of fighting off a beast to rescue someone, but I'd prefer it gender swapped. I would be more than happy to write a version of the story like that.

The Crab and The Monkey wasn't as much my style. I hate stories where someone's kindness is taken advantage of. I hated that the monkey was so rude to her, and that besides the monkey's death, she didn't get anything for her kindness and troubles.

I thought The Magic Kettle was an interesting story, but again, I prefer animal to human transformations rather than kettle to tanuki which was quite interesting. I found it odd how the man who hated the kettle/tanuki enough to see it would be more than happy to take it back when the buyer returned it. I was surprised he didn't just take the money and give him the kettle back.

As I read How the Wicked Tanuki was punished, I was horrified that he killed his own wife. They seemed like such great schemers together. I wanted to write them happily conning people as humans, but that broke my heart. It was even worse hearing how the son waited for his mother. At least she was avenged. I still wouldn't be opposed to writing a trickster couple though because it could be interesting.

Again as I read The Slaying of the Tanuki, I realized another version must have been in a reading I did for my storybook. In this version, I really hated how the tanuki said to the wife "..for rice pounding is very tiring work, and not at all fit for weak women." As a strong feminist, this made me want to rewrite it to where it is all the same up until the tanuki calls her weak, and then she turns around and brutally slays the tanuki. I hated how she was portrayed in this retelling.

In Uraschimataro and the Turtle, I liked how kind Uraschimataro was. The adventure the turtle brought him on was quite fun. But I could not believe he would be stupid enough to open the box. I was so disappointed in him when I read that part.

While I haven't decided yet, I think I will rewrite Schippeitaro gender swapped or the story I liked most from the A reading.


Bibliography: "Japanese Fairy Tales" by Andrew Lang.

Image Information: Personal photo of turtles from the St. Louis Zoo.

Reading Notes: Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang) Part A

This week I picked Japanese Fairy Tales by Andrew Lang.

I was underwhelmed by the first story of the two frogs. I didn't really understand the point of it. I wanted one of the two to learn something, but they both ended up just staying in their own cities. If I tried to adapt this into my own short story, it would end up being about two travelers, but I am not sure where I would go from there.

I liked the full circle style of the Stonecutter story, but I didn't really believe he had truly learned anything at the end so it didn't inspire me.

I really liked the tale of The Maiden With the Wooden Helmet! She was a hard worker, and it would be very easy to do something fun with this. I think I'd like to do a story where her mother trained her to fight instead of training her in home ec. The helmet would be used to shield her eyes, which would be lovely and entrancing because she had some sort of magic ability. Whoever her love interest would be would theoretically see her using the magic, and then it would go well or poorly from there.

As for The Envious Neighbor, I had read this story earlier in the semester while trying to pick out ideas for my Storybook project. While it is a very interesting tale, it makes me sad that the dog dies. However, while watching a Japanese game show special that I love, they parodied the story, and it made me really happy to understand the context.

For the Sparrow story, we actually read it in my Japanese class in Japanese. It was really difficult, and I didn't understand all of it, so it was interesting to see this version of it. While reading the original, I asked my groupmate who was good at Japanese not to tell me what tragedy the old lady brought on the sparrow, so I didn't really like finding out.

I really liked the cat story, but at the end, I wondered what happened to the cats' original owners. I liked Gon defending the princess so if I rewrote this, I would make Gon a stray who wandered in, saves the princess, and then he magically turns into a human, and they fall in love. Or something similar.

I think out of all of my ideas, I like the Maiden With the Wooden Helmet one the most at this point.


Bibliography: "Japanese Fairy Tales" by Andrew Lang.

Image Information: Personal photo taken by my mom.