Week 10 Story: Hand and Hoof

"Wh...? Why do I...feel so stiff? Okay, get a hang on yourself, Ritchie. You set up camp, saw a nice savanna sunset, cleaned your gun for a while, then went to bed..."

Coming to, he sat in a strange situation: weary wooden walls surrounded him, assortments of bottles, masks, and tools littered the shelves upon them. Looking at himself, the same T-shirt and safari vest from yesterday adorned his scrawny frame, and the same khakis...

Oh, and his arms were bound with rope, his rifle gone. That definitely got him awake.

“What in the-?! Who?! What?!”

“Awake, are you?”

Ritchie froze at the rattly, feminine voice that approached from a large pot.

The…creature that spoke hardly appeared human, though it stood like one. Its short figure drenched in baggy robes, toned like acacia trees, with a head covered by a stoic wooden mask resembling a human face, a pair of curved horns rising from it.

“W-Who are you?! Where...?! Wh-”

“Silence.” She snapped. “You may call me Imani. You are in the forest, in my home. I am what you might call a shaman…a medicine woman…a witch doctor.”

“S-Shaman…?” Ritchie trembled. “What kind of...?”

“Whether they exist or not is irrelevant.” Imani said. “You are a hunter, correct? Your kind is not welcome here…”

“W-Wait…! Please! I just want to go home!”

Only the babble of birds outside filled the air, worried eyes staring at wooden eyes.

"If that is all you wish, then I will comply." Imani said, walking over the table next to the pot. "However, in exchange, you will help me."

Undoing his binds, Imani handed Ritchie a list of plants from the table, an ingredient list, seemingly. Some made sense, but others lied beyond the forest range.

"No...eye of newt or something?" Ritchie asked.

"I am against using animals in my work." Imani replied. "Besides, your gun remains with me. Now go."

"Wait! How will I know when-"

"When you have gathered what I need. Go."

For days, Ritchie foraged for Imani across the savanna, returned for dinner, then fell asleep. All with nary an exchange between them, even after an arduous day.

This did not stop Ritchie's growing confusion, however. He often asked Imani why she needed all this, but at every inquiry, the shaman kept quiet and sent him out with another list.

 (Dean Gle Mask (Late 19th-Early 20th Century), taken from Wikimedia Commons)

Returning to her shack one evening after a rather late excursion, Ritchie was surprised to find Imani's mask, missing its horns, laid to the side of her doorway.

Curious, Ritchie decided to ask Imani about it, stumbling across Imani without her mask... In its place was the head of a gazelle.

A score of screams echoed through the trees, and both sat for what felt like hours.

"So..." Ritchie led, "This is..."

"Yes," Imani sadly spoke, "Why I do not use animal ingredients..."

Ritchie sat befuddled. "I don't... How did...?"

Imani averted her eyes, sighing. "...Years ago...I was an ordinary gazelle. I was injured by hunters one day, and... a shaman saved my life. Grateful, I followed him for months and assisted with his work. In return, he kept me well-fed.

"But he grew more and more ill every week. He had no child to pass his teachings on to, but I still wanted to help him. Thus, he cast a spell on me before he passed, and at once I knew how humans walked, spoke, and learned."

"Incredible..." Ritchie gaped.

Imani's frown drooped with her ears. "Humans and animals...they both thought me unnatural... A beast daring to be its predator... A human form twisted beyond humankind's standards... That is why I remain here, and why I asked your help.

"I wish to construct a remedy to become human, then I can finally carry on his work..."

The crackling of cicadas filled the pause.

"Unbelievable?" Imani assuredly asked. "That is what I expected..."

"N-No! No..." Ritchie blurted. "I understand..."

Imani's ears straightened, eyes wide as she looked at him. "What?"

"My dad...always wanted me to toughen up, 'be a real man,' and all that." Ritchie admitted, rubbing his head awkwardly. "So...I thought hunting might...change that...?"

Imani just stared at the young man.

"I guess what I'm saying is...I-I know what it's like. With the...o-out of place and...stuff."

Stare.

"Um...Imani?"

Stare.

"If, uh...if it helps...I'm more of a vegetarian..."

Stare...

Then...a snicker.

The mood soon turned warm like the pot's water, the gazelle-shaman breaking into a giggling fit.

"You...are an odd human…!"

"H-Hey! I'm serious about this!"

"So you ventured into the forest with no prior knowledge, then? Hahahaha...!"

The raucous ribbing between the two continued on for a few minutes until Imani looked at Ritchie's arm.

"You are injured."

Ritchie looked at his right arm, noticing a small scrape on it. "O-Oh, must've been just a tree branch or something.”

"Tree branch or predator, it is an injury. Let me see..."

The gazelle grabbed a bottle off one of her shelves and applied some ointment to Ritchie's cut.

"It should heal in time."

"Uh...thanks... My arm..."

Imani then realized she had applied the ointment cleanly, feeling only Ritchie's bare arm in turn.

"Ah...A-Apologies...!" Imani yelped, jerking her arm away.

"N-No! It's fine...!" Ritchie blushed, scratching his left cheek, hoping to scrape the red away.

Imani felt the blood rushing too, though her fur mercifully obscured whatever red flooded her face.

Suddenly a stray thought flew out of Imani's mouth.

"Say..." Imani drawled. "If...hardiness is what ails you, I am wild-born. I can share what I know about the wilderness."

Ritchie looked confused at Imani. "But...that wasn't in our bargain..."

For the second time in years, Imani smiled. "Let us say we are striking a new deal."

For the first time in days, Ritchie smiled "Okay! I-In that case, I'll keep helping you with your remedy!"

Ritchie paused, scratching his cheeks in embarrassment before putting his hand out.

"M-Maybe...we can leave this forest together? Maybe?"

Imani's black eyes gleamed, grasping Ritchie's skinned hand with her furred one.

"I would like that."

Author's Notes

The Native American Marriage Tales have a few prevalent elements in them: interaction and tension between the worlds of humans and animals, marriage or romance as a plot device, end result, or obstacle, and a slight dash of the supernatural as evidenced by the usage of vivid, often illogical imagery and situations integrated into the story. This story does not take from one particular story, but instead uses elements common across many of them to create a new, original tale.

The initial plot of this story was very different, involving a confrontation at the end with Ritchie's hunting mentor about the role of animals and humans, as well as more explicit moments of Ritchie being enlightened to the struggles of animals. There was also something about a supernatural forest in there. Both were dummied out due to elongating the story and feeling like the ideas went nowhere. So I brought the scope of events down to focus on the conflict and reconciliation of both human and animal worlds, with a smatter of romantic implication near the end rather than a full-blown display to keep consistent with the characters' emotions and leaving the future open, while also wrapping up the main conflict.

Which brings me to the toughest part of writing this: the characters. Ritchie and Imani are probably some of the most difficult characters I've ever had to construct, due to the direction I wanted the story to go and wanting to keep their interactions realistic. Imani, I'm fairly confident in, but I feel once again the character length castrated my ability to do  more about that.

The choice to make Imani a gazelle and a shaman is for paradoxical meaning: gazelles are often attributed to beauty and grace, and I wanted to contrast this with an image that gets some shifty notions attached to it and I feel would deal in supernatural matters - more on name than anything; while witch doctors and shamans were more known as healers dealing with injuries from supposed witchcraft and not very feared, the name does carry some occult undertones. The image I went for is "true to life, but misunderstood." Imani's name means "faith," falling in line with her backstory.

Ritchie's conflict of masculinity served mainly as a linking point to bring together the two worlds, and I wish I had more space to flesh it out. Ritchie's name  was born form the desire to have a youthful sounding name, befitting his slightly awkward personality.

In conclusion, I'm happy with the characters I've conceived, and I'm happy with the story idea. But due to the criteria I was under to write this, I'm not too satisfied with the execution. I would very much love to revisit the lives of Ritchie and Imani some other day, but it's time for me to move on. I hope you enjoyed!

P.S.
For those complaining about implied beastiality, my counter-argument is this: Beauty and the Beast. 

Bibliography

Mythology & Folklore Native American Marriage Tales Unit, stories take from Tales of North American Indians by Stith Thompson

Research on Tokai Forest, gazelles, witch doctors

Reading Notes: Native American Marriage Tales, Part B

(Gazelle in the savannah, uploaded to Pixabay by user chillervirus)

One thing I've wondered while reading this is the possibility of the animals' capability of human speech. It's not given much thought or consideration in the stories themselves, but I think questions posed related to this could make for interesting humor!

Offspring between species is an idea that caught my eye in The Dog-Husband. A story from such a child's point-of-view would make a compelling story.

The previous story goes one step further as the woman decides to teach the pups she gave birth to how to behave and act more human, including teaching them how to hunt.

With the thought of upbringing and the divide between the worlds of man and animal in mind, a story about separated siblings, one raised as a human and one raised as an animal, sounds like an enticing idea.

A secret society of anthropomorphic animals (The Youth Who Joined the Deer) sounds nice, but I feel as if I've already run that concept before in The Cravin' Raven. The image of a deer as a graceful being, like a dancer, is a vivid image, however.

But a character development stemming from a hunter living amongst animals and coming to a new understanding of nature sounds intriguing.

The Youth Who Joined the Deer also proposes some young deer wanting to be slain for the sake of others which is a very interesting detail considering the food chain philosophy of the wilderness! The bones restore the ones they belong to to life when dropped into a river.

The Girl and the Turkeys, a.k.a. Cinderella and her Feathered Godmother.

And a not so happily-ever-after.

The True Bride brings about the notion of an animal raising human children, in the form of the dog Spióola.

Consider what species of animals that this set of readings did not include a story to focus on. Are there any that would make good subjects?

Bibliography

Mythology & Folklore Native American Marriage Tales Unit, stories take from Tales of North American Indians by Stith Thompson

Reading Notes: Native American Marriage Tales, Part A

(Bull Buffalo by George Catlin (1796-1872), taken from Wikimedia Commons)

Before formally picking up ideas from the reading, I think I should preface by saying I have not done much of a love story this semester, so maybe this reading will change that?

No one appears to question the ethics of interspecies romance in these stories. Perhaps that could make for an interesting conflict.

Let it be known that we can also tackle the elements of polygamy and tragedy in love stories, as evident in the story of Bear-Woman and Deer-Woman.

The animals and anthropomorphic or otherwise in these stories are more of the realistic species, but what if we could write a story around a mythological species? A phoenix could be a cool idea.

There's a dynamic present in some stories of a division between the world of man and beast. An interesting conflict that can be explored through the nature of humans, the nature of animals, or the natures of both.

Sometimes the above divide is written with character roles in mind, like hunters.

Other times it is by the behaviors or qualities of animals, such as the fox's odor in The Fox-Woman and the primal instincts of The Eagle and Whale Husbands. Because of the latter kind of story, we often see the animals in an antagonistic role. A sympathetic animal would be nice change of pace.

The Bear-Woman shows a blend of the worlds in a disastrous fashion by having a character transform into bear.

These stories also explain other natural phenomena like the British America Unit stories do, such as why the bulls and buffalo have short horns in Splinter-Foot-Girl.

As the the title implies, a marriage or marriage proposal is often at the center of every conflict in the stories. State of the family (The Piqued Buffalo-Wife) and implications of marriage (Splinter-Foot-Girl) are often at stake.

There is a sense of human as the dominant species be it in principle (The Piqued Buffalo-Wife) or quite literally (The Eagle and Whale Husbands).

Bibliography

Mythology & Folklore Native American Marriage Tales Unit, stories take from Tales of North American Indians by Stith Thompson

Week 9 Story: The Cravin' Raven

The prestigious city of Plumière. Far above the clouds, laid out in pristine towers and cobblestone streets, it's the ideal environment for its residents: a community of humanoid avians, whose hustle and bustle stems from aerial commerce, exercise, and an abundance of proud history.

“Stop in the name of the law! Further resistance will be met with appropriate punishment!”

“Gonna have to catch me first, jailbird!”

Though it's easy to miss the ruckus of robbery among that hustle and bustle.

The guilty party swerved through the high-rise corridors, swooping with the help of black-feathered wings, knocking over clotheslines and balcony pottery with his talons; satchel at the waist and a blue scarf fluttering behind his neck.

Following behind, rust-colored plumage and piercing eyes dove and weaved through the chaos left by his target. He wore a beige vest, a shimmering badge patched on the left breast pocket like a beacon.

"You're not getting away, Crave!" The officer exclaimed. "The perimeter's surrounded!"

The raven looked back swiftly with a sneer. "And that's the third time this week I've heard that one, Officer Rapnel! And who's the one getting the last laaaaAAAUUGH?!"
 

Facing forward again, the thief came to a quick halt upon seeing a group of officers blocking the way. Many clotheslines further obstructed the way forward.

"Well...no way forward but upward!"

Acting in a flash, Crave thrust his talons into a clothesline and flung his wings down! With a mighty "whoosh" the raven bounded over the rooftops!

"I'll pursue!" Rapnel barked at the officers. "You trail from all lateral routes possible! Cut him off at any adjacent escape!"

Resounding cries of "Sir!" affirmed Rapnel and the group dispersed.

Atop the buildings, Crave ran along the rooftops to rest his wings and reached into his satchel, resting its contents in his hands: a golden chain gleamed, flowing into a jewel-carved moon hanging from it.

"You'll be back where ya belong soon. I just gotta make it home without the coppers following..." With that, he promptly stashed the pendant back into the satchel. "No pressure, Corvin... Should be safe to head down again."

Spotting some awnings below, Corvin bounced back down into the flow of traffic and beat his wings as fast as possible.

"Just gotta make it downtown..."

"Gotcha!"

"Whoa!"

Springing suddenly from behind a wall, an officer blocked off Corvin's path, forcing him to dart down a different way. Corvin quickly started scanning for other escape routes...

"Maybe..."

"Hah!"

"Shoot! …How 'bout...?"

"Halt!"

"Oh, come on!"

Left, right, up, down... No matter where he turned, there was police there. It kept going and going until...

"...This just went from 'bad' to 'worse'..."

A fountain stood in the middle of a wide, white stone circle. Various businesses lined the radius of the area. It was one of the city plazas.

And there were many officers, by the street entryways and hovering above.

"Like I said..."

The words came above as Officer Rapnel landed behind Corvin, forcing him to flap back to the fountain in shock.

"The perimeter's surrounded." Rapnel sternly spoke with sharpness behind his beak and gaze. "Now, return the pendant to the museum; where it belongs."

"Oh, come now, Officer. You're mixing things up again." Corvin chuckled. "The Lunar Lantern is already where it rightfully belongs! Safe in my wings."

"How arrogant can you be?!" Rapnel shouted. "That is a priceless piece of history!"

"That's right!" Corvin cheered with mocking glee. "Long ago, when we were at the mercy of darkness, the powers-that-be delivered moonlight unto the world through the Lantern!"

Rapnel growled at this. "If you understand that much, then why-"

"Yes, that is the big question: Why?” Corvin interrupted. “All I can say is...it's a shame that piece of history was stolen, but let it be known that no one stands in the way of the Cravin' Raven."

"I've heard enough of this foolishness...! Arrest him!" Rapnel barked, and the squad began

 to converge on Corvin.

"Oh, my... I didn't want to do this, but you've left me no choice." Corvin muttered ominously.

Clasping the Lunar Lantern in his hands, Corvin began to whisper into the pendant, the air grew tense, and for a moment, the Lantern glowed white.

"What the...?" Rapnel spoke, feeling the atmosphere build, until suddenly...

"Fall back!" Rapnel screamed.

In an instant, Corvin's hands radiated white light. Rapnel was far enough away to escape, but the flock of officers flew close enough that every single one dropped to the ground in cries of blindness.

"See ya later, jailbird!" Corvin's laugh echoed, as distant flapping brought the scene to empty silence.

"Argh... 'Craven' indeed..." Rapnel cursed. "I'd better call in backup."

However, Rapnel sat silent, an odd nagging feeling prodding his mind.

"What’s that idiocy about 'history being stolen?' It sounded almost...spiteful. He’s one odd character... Aren’t ravens an exceedingly rare population? Not to mention that pendant shouldn't have any power... What's all this about?"

A crackling from the intercom in Rapnel's vest pocket cut his train of thought. "Officer Rapnel? What's the situation?"

Rapnel sighed. "Think about it later..."

"What was that?"

"Nothing, Chief. We have men down, and the convict got away... Again."

Meanwhile, downtown, a cramped, boarded warehouse lays dormant.

A hatch opens in the ceiling, allowing an exhausted Corvin Crave to drop through.

"Hoo... Home, sweet home." He hummed, flicking on a lamp in the corner.

The lighting, dim; the furniture, unappealing; but the eye-catcher in this warehouse was a desk where two items sat, ancient in appearance: a scepter and a hand fan, as well as a stack of papers. And Lunar Lantern sat down beside them by a tender touch.

"When civilization began, the world's creator used his sacred tools to let it flourish...yet those same tools were stolen from him, their meaning lost to extravagance and the people he trusted.

"Such a shame...but anyways..." Corvin pipped, reaching for one of many papers on the desk with fire in his eyes. 

(Moon-shaped pendant uploaded to Pixabay by user KRiemer)

"What should my next target be?"

Author's Note

Another case where there is no clear-cut source of inspiration for the story, but rather a mixture. The Alaskan and British North America Units refer to a trickster hero in the form of a raven, a clear example being in Raven and Moon Woman, where Raven (in the form of a child) tricks Moon Woman into letting him play with the moon, eventually bringing it out for mortals to enjoy, and this story is how the Lunar Lantern and the idea of a raven deity bringing about the world's current state to mind.

Then I went a little crazy. Considering the raven is often associated with misfortune, I became attracted to the notion of a scorned raven god. Throw in the affable thief qualities (e.g. Rhythm Thief and Lupin III) and a (un)healthy dose of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild making me think of the Rito bird people, and I ended up with this odd mixture of ideas that I was determined to find chemistry in somewhere. The story was written under having a larger scale world in mind, so my regret here is not being able to get all the details of the world in. But I tried to leave enough details to have a self-contained story with vivid details and background.

The primary characters' names are a result of research on the birds they are meant to represent. Corvin is a raven, and Rapnel is a falcon.

Starting with Corvin Crave, "Corvin" is a corruption of "Corbin," with associated meanings of "little crow" and "raven," but the source of the corruption stems from the genus of birds ravens belong to: "corvus." "Crave" serves to highlight the character's nature of thievery. His clothing was partially inspired by Kay Faraday from the Ace Attorney series, another example of the affable thief character.

Officer Rapnel's name stems from the term associated with birds of prey, "Raptor," of which falcons also belong to. It also stems from shrapnel spreading from a fired gun, aligning with his conducting of group strategy during police pursuit.

The city name, Plumière is a combination of "lumière," the French word for "light," and "plume," because bird puns.

Motion was very important to me in writing this, making some odd choices in dialogue structure and balancing controlling speed with exposition of information to convey a message, which I decided to take a crack at leaving unclear this time. I wanted to leave both characters with open-ended situations going into their futures to represent a conflict involving law, society, and personal duty. Even now I still feel iffy about it since I couldn't get all the ideas I had for this world in here, but hopefully you find something of value, and I can revisit the world of the Cravin' Raven some other day!

Bibliography 

Raven and Moon Woman from Myth-Folklore British North America Unit

Wikipedia research on ravens and falcons