Week 11 Story: The Jealous Turtle

     There once was a turtle named Franklin, who is remembered for his overwhelming pride. This pride made him intimidated by any other male force born into his family, because he was the alpha. Every time any of his siblings would give birth to a son, he would proceed to kill the newborn male turtle. After this had happened twice, Franklin's siblings devised a plan to pretend any newborn male was a female. When the next of kin was born male, he acted as a female would and the others treated him as one.

    This went on for many years, but Franklin began to become suspicious. He invited the youngest of the family, Riri (who was actually a male named Richard), to go search for bread left behind from humans. Riri's parents were uncomfortable with this situation, as they suspected that Franklin knew that Riri was actually their son. They weeped and warned Riri of the danger this would cause, but Riri left with Uncle Franklin anyway. 

    They reached the edge of the pond, where humans often camped and would leave scraps of food behind. Franklin and Riri began to collect bread, when suddenly Franklin pushed Riri into a trap he had set. 

"I know you are actually a boy, and the family wanted to trick me!" exclaimed Franklin. "I am leaving you here as a snack for the Ravens".

Franklin left Richard (Riri) and returned back home, where he was greeted by the Richard's weeping parents. A day went by and Richard's parents had given up hope of their son returning home, when big moving shadows approached them. 

"Mom! Dad!" a familiar voice cried out. It was Richard.  Their son had returned home, in the hands of a human. "This human set me free from the traps of Uncle Franklin, and is going to take all of us to a new home with him".

The family was united and whole once more, living in a new land with the humans. Uncle Franklin was left behind and never from of again, but the story of his pride still lives to this day.

Evil Uncle Franklin, via Drawception

Authors Notes:

This story is basically the same plot line as The Jealous Uncle from Native American Hero Tales. In the original story, the main characters are humans and the boy is saved by Eagle people from Eagle Island, but I reversed the roles of animals and humans for this story. The original story does not have names, but I thought adding names would make the story easier to follow, so hopefully that didn't get confusing. Also, the original story is much longer with more traps set by the Uncle, but I kept it short to not make it repetitive but easy on the reader.

Story from: Native American Hero Tales, http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/myth-folklore-unit-native-american_10.html