week 15 Reading B

Once again, The detail of these stories were intense. I could see every image that the author was trying to portray. I really enjoyed reading through the short version of Dante's Inferno. It was a nice touch to end the semester and I think that I will have to re read Dante's Inferno at some point over break because I really want to read that book again. The way that the story in the part B of the readings explained how Satan looked was horrifying. I saw exactly what he looked like and wanted to stop reading after that because I was like nope. But I do think a good thing to work on for future writing will be the amount of detail that I construct my sentences with in order to make the reader understand what I am trying to portray and it will interest whomever is reading my pieces! This was a good way to finish up the semester and I am glad I was able to read the week 15 readings.

Satan from Dante's

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Bibliography: "Dante's Inferno Unit" From The Divine Comedy Translated by Tony Kline Websource

week 15 Reading A

For the final week of reading I chose to read Dante's Inferno Unit and I really enjoyed it! The way that the stories were told really showed the fear of what hell would be like. I loved reading Dante's Inferno the book back in high school and these stories really brought memories back to mind about what the book was about. I really liked how the first story introduced the characters to the reader. It was cool how Dante and Virgil were explained. The detail of the stories were really intriguing as well. It painted a vivid image in my mind with everything that was explained. The first story started off with vivid imagery about the woods where the story took place. I was instantly hooked on the story itself. I think if I were to write another story this would be something that I focused on. A story full of detail would be really great to focus on. Especially if  I wrote a story about Dante's Inferno.

The Gates of Hell

Photo provided by Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography: "Dante's Inferno Unit" From The Divine Comedy Translated by Tony Kline Websource

Week 14 Reading A

Well the Russian stories were not what I expected at all! I figured they would be darker than they were but I guess that just comes from the historical facts that I know about Russia. I did like how throughout the first of the stories that the same characters were used and it made it feel like I started to know the characters. I think that this would be a great thing to focus on this week especially because I have thought about making one final story to add to my portfolio. If I were to add another story to my portfolio I think that I would have to do another Alex story. I have really enjoyed the stories that I have made with Alex the Reaper and I think it would be cool to have one more story. So for that aspect, it would be good to focus on making the readers focus on feeling more comfortable with who Alex is and knowing more about how he came to be.

Story idea of Alex fighting another creature

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Bibliography: "Russian Fairy Tales" by W.R.S. Ralston Webtext

Week 13 Storytelling:

The warrior was weary from his travels. Zarc had traveled for weeks through the desert on his own. He only had a canteen full of water and a pouch with a small portion of food. Zarc portioned his food and water and made it last for the two weeks that he wandered. The day that he ran out of food and water was the day he found an oasis was the day his life changed.

Zarc was banished from his community because of a minor mistake that cost him. He had misplaced the leaders knife while on a hunt and the leader banished him for it. He was sent out into the desert which meant a death sentence because no one ever made it out of the desert alive.

The oasis sat in front of him but he did not think it was real. In his mind his eyes were playing tricks on him. Though he was thinking this he still walked towards it hoping that he was wrong about the trick. As he approached the water line he was ready for nothing to be there but instead was greeted by a cool feeling on his feet and ankles.

The water was cool and clear. It was definitely the purest water Zarc had ever seen. He plopped his body down and completely submerged his body in cold water. He thought that he could not possibly be alive. As he was thinking this he saw a glistening object towards the middle of the pond. He was intrigued but decided to walk out to it. The object was just barely beneath the surface of the water and as he approached it the water began to pulse. He went to reach for it and grabbed it out of the water. As soon as it was out of the water the oasis disappeared right before his eyes. The object was a sword. It was the sharpest sword in the land and it was his.

He took this sword and continued his journey through the desert. A few days passed and Zarc did not see any civilization. The blade was becoming heavier and heavier with each step through the desert but Zarc did not let it go. He started dropping other objects like his food rations and water. The Blade was the last thing that Zarc had. There was no civilization anywhere around him when he took that final breath that day. Once he passed away the sword created another oasis around the lifeless body of Zarc. And a town could be seen in the distance from the oasis..

The Mysterious Oasis

Photo Provided by Wikimedia Commons

Author's Note: This story is from the King Arthur unit and came from the  Excalibur story. The original story had Arthur coming from a battle that made him tired. Arthur had lost his sword as well and was in search of another. He traveled to find one and ended up at a lake. He saw the Sword being held by a hand out in the middle of the lake and had to ask the lady of the lake if he could take the sword and she said yes so he went out and grabbed the sword. The sword brought him good luck. That is where my story differs, the sword in my story was a burden and it caused a man to be greedy and create his own demise. The way he just gives up his food and water shows that greed can make individuals not see clearly and make the wrong decision. I thought this was the best idea to show how I perceive greedy people and it really brought a strong image to the table. I enjoyed writing this story and hope it was enjoyable!

Bibliography: "The Sword Excalibur" from King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table by Andrew Lang Webtext 

week 13 Reading notes Part B

The second part of the reading was interesting. The battles were so intense and it made the stories super interesting to read. I thought the best part of the second reading was how they ended the story of King Arthur. He had passed and then weeks later so did his faithful knight Sir Lancelot. The story ending was sad but it left the reader with a good feeling. It showed that just because people die does not mean that people have to stay grieving and be sad about it. I thought that the messages that the second part of the reading were great and I will make sure to consider that when writing my story. Having a hidden message within my story could bring out a better more interesting look on the portfolio. I want to write a story that finishes off my portfolio project on a really strong note.

Battles of King Arthur

Photo Provided by Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography: "King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table" By Andrew Lang Webtext 

week 13 Reading notes Part A

This week I chose to read the King Arthur Stories. I chose well this week for sure. The way the stories were structured was great. I really liked how one of the stories that I had heard during my childhood had changed so much. At first the style of writing was a little difficult to read but I was able to adapt quickly to the style and it made the reading more interesting. I think that this week I will write a story on how the sword was pulled, or maybe how Arthur found his wife. There are so many options to chose from in this story set that it makes it hard to chose which story I want to base my story off of this week. That being said, my imagination has ran wild while I was reading. I wanted to make more than one story by the time I had finished reading all of the stories. The detail of each one had my brain analyzing so much information that I did not know which direction to go. But by Thursday I will have a better idea of which story I want to create. 

King Arthur's Battle gear

Photo Provided by Public Domain Pictures

Bibliography: "King Arthur's Tales of the Round Table" By Andrew Lang Webtext

Week 12 Story telling: The Hell From the Past

He was hiding from the beast. The beast was the most feared thing in the land. It stood over ten feet tall and it was not of human descent. The beasts grin showed its devilish teeth and as he spoke the man trembled.

"I smell the fear radiating from your soul," said the beast in a deep voice. 

The man was not the type to fight. This man was known as Xavier. He was born into a safe home but at the age of five he had lost his family. Living on the streets ever since, he learned to hide from the things of life that scared him. This though seemed like he would not be able to escape this monster by hiding. Still hiding he listened to the beast speak:

"Your scent is familiar, have we met before boy?" 

The beast ripped a tree from the ground and smashed it against another. Angered by the chase he yelled "you are just postponing the inevitable!"

The beast knew he was getting closer to the boy because the smell of the boy was growing stronger. The beast finally realized how the smell was so familiar and laughed. He said "Ah yes, the family of four. I killed three but a young boy was quick enough to escape my grasp. It's been what eleven years now?"

The boy froze. He stopped trembling and remembered that day. He ran and ran without looking back. The only thing he heard that day were the screams from his family as they were ripped apart limb by limb. He remembered feeling helpless. Wishing he could do something to stop the beast. That feeling turned in to a suppressed anger. It built up each day. There was not a day that he didn't think about it. 

Angered now he made a fist, there was so much anger. He started to feel different. His body temperature was rising. It was an abnormal temperature because he looked to the left and saw bush beside him catch fire. Xavier was confused by this but was not afraid of the beast anymore. He stepped into the line of sight of the beast. 

The beast again grinned and said "You think your inherited power will help you? It did not help your family before when your father tried to use his magic on me."

"W-w-what magic?" Replied Xavier.

"Oh you don't know do you? Your family was the last of the supers, they were the last threat to me and I almost eliminated them but only you were left" said the beast. 

The anger kept flowing through Xavier as he listened, the power he felt became greater. Without thinking his legs started moving towards the beast at a sprint. Xavier was surprised. It was like something else was controlling him. The beast tried to react but it was too late. Xavier struck the beast in the jaw and sent him flying through the air. The beast hit every tree in his path and finally came to a stop after tumbling on the ground. In an instant the beast was sprinting towards Xavier. The beast struck Xavier in the chest but did not affect Xavier like he expected. The beast was shocked. 

"How is that possible?" Exclaimed the beast. 

Xavier paid no attention to this but was only anger more by the blow to the chest that he had just received. He started at the beast again and they both started to exchange powerful blows. With every hit that the beast landed Xavier seemed to grow in strength. The punches that he hit the beast with started to do more damage and broke through the thick bones of the beast. Xavier began to lose control and blacked out. When he awoke there was a desolated forest around him. The downed trees were covered in blood and flesh. With no explanation Xavier was unaware of what happened. Then a voice inside his head spoke to him. 

"I took over" said the voice.

"Who is there?" replied Xavier as he looked around. 

"There is no use looking around, I am a part of you. I was asleep until your anger woke me. This is late for you to wake your inner power." replied the voice.

"My power? What do you mean?" asked Xavier.

"Well my name is X, I am your power.. Well not so much just a power but basically a second spirit attached to yours which gives us the ability to do things that normal humans cannot." 

"What kind of things?" Xavier asked.

"Well Xavier we have a lot of stuff to practice, we will get you caught up in no time, but for now we need to leave here. The amount of noise we created last night surely sparked some curiosity." Replied X.

Xavier began to run, towards the mountains and there he began to learn how to use his power. His new life started and he was no longer scared. 

Xavier and his new found power 

Photo Provided by Pixabay

Author's Note: The original story was "The Battle with Grendel" from then Beowulf stories. I took the idea of Grendel and made my own beastly character. The original story showed Grendel as this horrid creature not like anything from this world that devoured humans. The fact that Beowulf wasn't affected by Grendel and his magic was like he had a super power. That is where my idea of the powers came from for the character Xavier. I wanted to create another hero that was unaware of his ability and overcame the fears that he held before. Working through them and facing his greatest fear, the beast. The battle was the most important part of the story and I intentionally ended the story abruptly because I want to make another story later on explaining what Xavier does with his new found power and if he used it for a good purpose or a bad one. 

Bibliography: "The Battle with Grendel" from The Story of Beowulf by Strafford Riggs Webtext

Reading notes Week 12 Part B

Reading B was interesting to look at today. I especially got really into The Battle with Grendel. The Imagery was really vivid in that story. I liked how it explained that a spell kept the soldiers of the kingdom asleep. I do not know how that would have been possible that Beowulf was exempt from the spell but it was and the battle was intense. I especially liked the fact that it described Grendel in detail and I saw the image of Grendel grow as I continued to read. The fact that he became an uglier beast with every small detail that was added was enough for me to keep reading. I think for my story this week I have decided to recreate this story in my own way and make it another Alex the Reaper story. Possibly a new hero will come into the portfolio. There would be a lot of opening left for the last story if I decided to make another hero because then for the final story I would be able to make a heroes meeting story.

Grendel and Beowulf

Photo provided by Flickr

Bibliography: "The Battle with Grendel" from The Story of Beowulf by Strafford Riggs. Webtext

Reading notes Week 12 Part A

This weeks reading was interesting because I chose to read the Beowulf stories. For the Part A reading, I thought it was great. I read Beowulf in high school and it was a very difficult text to read because of the style of writing. In the reading this week it was re-written to a more modernistic language which made it easier to understand contextually. While it was not exactly the same, I did enjoy how the stories were told. The warrior himself is seen as a mighty an powerful being as usual and is arrogant as ever. I think for this weeks storytelling assignment that I will try to write in this style. Giving the background information first while being very detailed in who the characters are and what their purpose to the story is. Even though I think the story will be longer this week it will be worth it because I think that it will be really interesting to read. I am looking forward to reading the Part B of the stories because I saw that Grendel comes into the stories.

Beowulf in Battle

Photo provided by Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography: "Beowulf" from The Story of Beowulf by Strafford Riggs Webtext

Reading Notes Week 11 Part B

Part B reading was a little different. The repetition was not as bad as the Part A reading and it made it a little less frustrating to read. What was different about these stories is that a lot of them could have been a bunch of interesting details leading up to a ending that made sense, but when it came time to end the story it would take a turn in a completely different direction. The Children of Cloud is a good example because the boys are just coming and going between their parents places and somehow get turned into agave plants. It was looking like they were just going to go home but instead got turned into plants. I thought this was an interesting style of writing and was intrigued at first by it but learned to enjoy it throughout the reading. There was also really cool ways that things were explained in how they were created. I think there could be some details changed and possibly have a really good story. I might just do an extra story this week just for fun!

Represents the Lightning cast down by Cloud

Photo provided by Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography: "Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest" By Katherine Berry Judson Webtext

Reading notes Week 11 Part A

This week the Reading was interesting to read mostly because I grew up in the Southwest and so the readings that came from the Pima tribe in Arizona were interesting to read simply because I have heard similar stories but from different tribes. The story that stood out to me most this week was The Creation of the World. This stood out the most to me because the way it started off really got me. It was different than the other stories because the other stories are super blunt and to the point as where this one was a little more detailed. There was more of a plot to it. It wasn't choppy like the other ones. there wasn't as much repetition either. The rest of the stories would use the same word a couple times over and over again. It was more annoying than anything but I get why it was used like that. The message still got across just in a faster way.

Creation from nothing 

Photo provided by Vimeo 

Bibliography: "Creation of the World" from the Southwestern and California Legends By Katherine Berry Judson Webtext

Week 11 Story: The Fading Light

Two orphaned boys were out living in the streets of a small town. Their names were Justin and Alex. They were sleeping in a box with no protection from the harsh winter. One night Justin heard a noise outside the box, he went out to check it out and saw a dark figure wandering through the alley. As he approached the figure he heard a woman crying.

Unsure of what to think he asked "Ma'am are you okay?" The woman snapped her head back and Justin froze. This woman had an evil grin and in an instant snatched Justin up and took off. Alex heard screams and came running out but it was too late. His brother was gone.

 Alex followed the tracks in the snow and was led to a shack outside of town. There he heard the woman weeping just as Justin had heard. A fire was burning inside and lit the entire shack. He looked through the small window and saw how hideous the woman was. In the light he could see her wiry hair, long dirty fingers and a scarred face. Chills were sent up the spine of Alex just by looking at this woman. He then saw his brother, something was wrong though. Justin's body was laying on the table, lifeless.

"Nooooo!" Alex screamed, this alerted the woman and she came running outside. 

Anger flowed through Alex at this point and he grabbed the closest thing to him. The object was a ragged branch and he swung and knocked the woman to the ground. As she fell unconscious Alex ran inside and saw the rest of his brothers body. It was cut open as if this woman was dissecting him. still furious, Alex looked around and saw a blade inside a glass box. It looked like a small dagger. He broke the box and grabbed the dagger. When he turned around the woman was right behind him. she threw Alex across the room. 

"You foolish boy, didn't you ever learn that you're not supposed to come near the witches house?" she asked. 

"Witch?" replied Alex nervously, "D-d-don't kill me." he stuttered.

"Oh I think I'll keep you around for a bit." she said as she walked towards Alex.

Alex had the dagger gripped tightly in his hand hiding it behind his back. As the Witch walked closer Alex felt a hatred surging through him, the dagger seemed to amplify the effects. The witch grabbed him but as she did this Alex sprung forward and pierced through her heart. The dagger began to grow as the witch's life faded. It started to melt the witch and Alex noticed that the dagger had grown slightly but also became red hot. He was unaware of how this could be possible until a ghostly figure appeared. 

The figure began to speak "You have freed me from the curse that bound me to the witch. To show my gratitude I will serve you and continue to grow in power with every enemy that you defeat."  

Then like that it vanished back into the blade etchings. Alex at this point realized exactly what he needed to do. He began a journey that would define the rest of his life. He started small but he took on quests that required him to kill the supernatural evils of the world. He became, Alex the Reaper.

The Magic Dagger

Photo provided by Pixabay

Author's Note: The original story was The Eagles Revenge by Kathrine Berry Judson. It was originally about a Native American hunter whom woke one night to a loud whirring sound to find that an eagle was eating a deer. The hunter decided to shoot the deer and the eagle and bring them both back to his tribe claiming that he had killed both. The tribe had a celebration for a successful hunt but did not realize that eagle had a brother. Eagles brother appeared as a warrior and pretty much snapped his fingers and killed three of the tribe members without touching them and then vanished. For my story I decided to take the idea of revenge and make an origin story for an earlier story of mine "Reaping Feared Demons." Alex the Reaper is the main character in that and is also the main character in this story. I thought I would incorporate how the Broadsword from the earlier story got its magical powers. Kind of a follow up idea on the original story. Overall the story turned out how i wanted it too and I am thinking about doing a final Alex story in the next couple of weeks. 

Bibliography: "The Eagles Revenge" from Myths and Legends of the Great Plains by Kathrine Berry Judson

Reading notes Week 10 Part A

This weeks reading for part A was a little frustrating by the fact that the stories seemed choppy and didn't flow as smoothly as they could have. I understand that the way it was told is in part because of the culture and how they told stories but it seems repetitive when every paragraph or sentence starts with the word now. Other than that I think that the stories proved to get the messages across to the listener. I especially liked the one with the Eagle and how the hunter shot him and then the Eagles' brother came and avenged his death by killing three members of the tribe. This story would be a good one to recreate. I think there would be a good chunk of detail that I could add to beef up the story and make it a story that is even more so interesting to the reader. I'm not sure if I would put a modern day twist on this one or if I would maybe do another Alex the Reaper story. I could say that Alex was a normal person working as a Blacksmith maybe and then his brother was killed by a witch (how the blade in the first story got the power) and Alex went and hunted the witch. Once the witch was slain he meets up with a random traveler that tells him what he must do with his new found powers. I think this might be a good origin story.

Eagles that was shot in the story. 

Photo provided by Pexels

Bibliography: "Myths and Legends of the Great Plains" by Katharine Barry Judson. Webtext

Week 9 Reading: Tibetan Folktales Part A

The story that stood out most to me during this weeks reading was The Tiger and the Frog because it was a trickster story. I liked the way the story portrayed the frog as terrified when he had first saw the tiger coming. Instead of cowering the frog decided to stay and trick the tiger. The style of story telling is simple and straight to the point with details that instill imagery in the mind. I want to try and write a story similar to this because I think it would be interesting to do. I want to focus on changing the characters but keeping the main idea. I think I might do an Alex the Reapers origin story by incorporating this idea and change the ending to fit a beginning story line. I like the idea of the small guy standing up to the bully because bullying was a part of my life growing up. I do not want anyone to feel that misery that I felt growing up.

Small size of frog shown traveling. 

Photo provided by Maxpixels

Bibliography: "The Tiger and the Frog" by Albert Shelton from The Tibetan Folktales 

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

The comments and feedback that I have been receiving have been for the most part have been fairly helpful. I think the best feedback has been the critical feedback. I like taking the feedback from people that criticizes my stories and turning it into a better story. I feel that I respond best to that kind of feedback. As for my feedback, I feel that I have given some really good feedback. I try to start off with some positive feedback that emphasizes the good pieces of the story, and then I add one or two things that I believe would help improve the story. After that I reinforce the feedback by adding more positives. While reading my classmates stories I consider the styles of writing that they are using and learn new things to maybe try in my writing. I believe that the introductions to others blogs have been fun to read because you get a little insight of who your classmates are. I do not think that I am fully happy with my layout on my Portfolio at the moment but I am happy with my blog posts!
Looking forward I think that I am going to try and be more attentive to the small details in others stories because those are just as important as the other parts of the story. I think that I am going to change the look of my portfolio, just the theme and colors. Other than that I think that I'm satisfied with the blog as of right now.

Listening actively is Important to me

This photo is the one that really stood out to me because actively listening is something that I focus on when having a conversation with someone or reading their writing. Just something that I hold as a high standard of others.

Week 8 Reading and Writing

The reading and writing assignments overall are working well for me, sometimes they can be stressful because of everything going on but I usually manage to get them done. My favorite reading so far has been the Sinbad reading. I really enjoyed those stories and I loved how they were all linked together. The reading notes help me a little with my story posts but they are not the most helpful thing. The way my mind works is that I will have a great idea one minute then the next minute I will overrule my previous idea with another one. Needless to say, it is very difficult to keep on one idea before I decide to write my story. So far I am really happy with my class project. My favorite thing about it so far is the First story that I put on there. Reaping Feared Demons is great because I put a lot of thought into writing that story and spent a lot of time revising it as well. I really hope I will find a new story to write about soon because I think that having a portfolio full of great stories is really important.

This photo Is provided by Pexels

This is my favorite photo that I have used all semester, not only because it is part of my favorite story, but also because it is such a dark and mysterious photo. It really helps illustrate what I wanted Alex the Reaper to look like in my story.

I think looking forward I would like to focus more on creating stories more from my own imagination rather than using storybook details. I would like to maybe take the main idea of the story and really change it up a lot to make it a lot of my own story. I think this will make me feel like I have accomplished more in this class this semester!

Story planning: Week 7

This weeks stories have been a challenge to read. Diving deeper into the stories I decided to do some research to find out the origin. Turns out that these stories surfaced during the time of slavery. The Brer Rabbit stories were meant to symbolize the underdog in the situation. I found this to be a really intriguing fact. Understanding the history behind these stories brings out the powerful message that is hidden within them. The rabbit is meant to be a trickster but not a normal trickster. The type of trickster that the rabbit is can be explained as not using any type of power or size to defeat his enemy but rather his mind and silver tongue. This is what makes writing the story interesting and why I have chosen to plan this week rather than write. I think that I will be making my own version of the story "How Mr. Rabbit was too Sharp for Mr. Fox" which is a story about how the rabbit has to outsmart the fox in order to survive and not be the fox's next meal. My idea is to keep that main idea but make it into a story more modern in nature. Maybe doing a story about surviving in todays world with the people around us. Or possibly doing a modern rabbit and fox. The story will be interesting to write and will take me a little bit longer to write than usual so I will make sure to plan ahead for that. The nature of the text is really difficult for me to read but I have read the story at least six times now and am starting to understand more of what it is about.

This Fox represents the greedy/hungry fox that is trying to eat the rabbit

Photo provided by Flickr

Bibliography: "Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings" from Brer Rabbit by Joel Chandler Harris 

"The History of Brer Rabbit" from Wikipedia by Multiple sources

Week 7 Reading Notes: Brer Rabbit Part A

Well this weeks reading was difficult at first to follow along with. The style of writing was written in a different english. After a while it did get easier to read and understand. Things I liked about this weeks reading in part A were the amount of images that were used. They all correlated to the story in some way and made it a little more interesting. This is something that I would like to try and do in the future. Another thing that really stood out to me was how direct the story details were. There really wasn't a lot of vivid imagery to pictures in your head. I think that this would be an interesting technique to play with because it could be challenging to tell a story without a lot of vivid detail and still have the story be interesting. I would like to write in the same language style but I do not believe that I have enough knowledge on that in order to do so. I think for my next story though, I will be taking from this section.

This Is the rabbit and the fox in the stories.

Photo provided by Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography: "Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings" from Brer Rabbit Unit by Joel Chandler Harris Webtext

Week 6: Betrayal Hidden Within

As a young boy I grew up in a family of wealth. I was never in need of anything. New clothes, new house, fresh food, fresh clean water, I had it all. But an ailment took hold of my parents one day. As they grew more and more sick I became more and more worried. I started to lash out and just buy things of luxurious taste. Soon my parents had passed, and I had blown through all of the money that was left for me. Now in debt and lonely I had no purpose. I began selling my possessions and finally I sold the house that I had grown up in. Just when I thought I couldn't find my way I stumbled upon the beach. As I looked out I felt a need to leave, not just leave, but travel the world. There was a spark, a spark to explore new things, new places. So I hopped on a ship, the captain promised three meals a day and that any treasure found there would be a part of it tossed my way.

Traveling the sea was not the most pleasant thing. Out on the sea for months at a time there would be harsh weather, pirate battles, and even the occasional crew death from illness. But one day there was an island off in the distance. It was not very big but we decided to dock near it and paddle towards it.

"Take a stroll around the island boys, the night is yours, do with it what you please. we set sail at dawn" said captain Gimmer.

"Aye" shouted the crew in unison.

The sun began to set and we gathered firewood to cook our food and drink around. The fire was lit and began to burn hot and bright. The flame got hotter and a rumble shook beneath our feet. The Island was moving. It began to shrink and dive into the water.

"It's a whale that ye be standing on" Yelled the captain from the ship. "Get back the the boat"

The crew scrambled and got to the boat, I was still stumbling from one too many drinks round the fire. The whale was under water now, I grabbed ahold of a piece of driftwood as I sank below the surface. "Help!!" I shouted as I resurfaced but the crew had already left. The ship was gone and I was afloat.

After a day I hit land. A real Island this time, and a sight to behold, I found that my crew had landed there as well to avoid the storm coming in. As I walked closer I was unseen. I overheard a couple of the crew members and they were talking about the whale.

"Ah the newbie was tricked successfully. Now we don't have to worry about sharing the wealth nor stealing his."

I was shocked to hear this, especially from the crew member that I was most close to. I quickly came up with a plan.

I snuck aboard the ship at sunset, Found the captain in his quarters and revealed my plan.

"Aye boy, you're alive! But how, I saw you sink before my eyes?" said the captain.

"I surfaced moments later but the crew made you think I was gone"

In shock the captain listened to my request, "Lets leave this untrustworthy crew here upon this island" I said.

"But boy we couldn't make it with just the two of us you see" replied the captain.

"We will make it, and a new crew that is more trustworthy is bound to appear upon land."

We left and found the new crew, as we sailed we gained more treasure than ever because the crew turned everything in to the captain and waited for him to distribute the wealth evenly. I traveled many years with this crew until one day I could afford a ship of my own. The ship was a small enough ship for a crew of ten. And so that's what it be, A crew of ten and me set sail and traveled the rest of our days.

The sunset that I see every night as I sail the rest of my life

Photo Provided by Flickr

Author's Note: This story's idea came from the Sinbad reading. The First Voyage was a story that stood out to me the most because that is how Sinbad began his long journey. The fact that the whale was the island was a detail in the original story. Sinbad was lost at sea and found an island to land upon. As he wandered the island he found civilization and they took him in as one of their own. Later on in the Second part of The First Voyage Sinbad is reunited with his old crew and his captain is relieved that he is not dead. Sinbad was not Betrayed by the crew in the original story, I just thought that it would be a good way to switch up the story. I thought that it turned out to be a good story in the end because Sinbad still got to travel the sea like he wanted to and got his own boat in my version of the story.

Bibliography: "First Voyage" By Andrew Lang from The Arabian Night's Entertainment: Web source