Week 4, Storytelling: A Search for Love

There once was a poor, village boy named Ron. Ron lived with his two parents and worked on his family farm for a living. In order to make money, Ron milked the cows, mowed the fields and planted rows of corn every single day.

When Ron accomplished his daily duties, he would go back to his barn and enjoy a home-cooked meal prepared by his mother. Every night, his mother would tuck him into bed, say I love you and turn off the lights. Ron had the same routine everyday, but was very content with his life on the farm.

Ron's Family Farm

One night, before his mother turned off the lights, Ron asked, “Mom, what does the word love mean?”

His mother smiled and responded, “Ron, love is indescribable. One day, when the time is right, you will discover the magical powers of love on your own.”

After hearing the word “magical,” Ron was determined to find love as soon as he could. The poor, village boy fell asleep that night knowing he would start his journey for love the next morning.

Ron rose early, mounted his favorite horse and headed straight towards the magical forest.  Ron thought he could surely find the powers of love within the magical forest!

On his way there, he got very thirsty and stopped at a small pond to fill his can up with water. The second he reached into the water, a fish-fairy flew out to greet him.

The Tricky Fish-Fairy

“Who are you and what are you doing at my pond?” said the fish-fairy.

“My name is Ron and I am searching for love. Do you know where I can find it and it's magical powers?” asked Ron.

Laughing to herself, the fish-fairy knew this would be the perfect opportunity to pull a prank on the young, foolish farm boy.

“Yes, I do!” said the fish-fairy. “You must keep traveling north until find the genius genie.”

(What Ron didn’t know was that there was no such thing as a genius genie. Genies were very dumb creatures that were only good at cleaning lamps.)

Excited and ready to keep searching, clueless Ron hopped on his horse and headed north. On his journey, Ron began to feel hungry. Ron saw large, colorful trees in the near distance and thought that surely one of them would bear fruit.

Once Ron got closer, he saw that they were massive apple trees. The second Ron reached up to pluck an apple, a large wizard appeared out of nowhere.

The Apple Tree Wizard

“Do you think you can just walk around and pluck anyone’s precious apples boy?” said the wizard.

“I’m sorry,” said Ron. “I have been on a journey searching for love and got hungry on the way.”

Laughing to himself, the wizard felt bad for the boy and let him eat an apple.  Just like the fairy-fish, the wizard also saw the perfect opportunity to play a trick on the boy.

“In order to find love, you must climb the magical mountain and wait for the witch to find you. The witch will cast a spell and will then show you the magical powers of love,” said the wizard.

Tricked once again, Ron set off for the magical mountain. On his journey to see the witch, he heard a strange noise. Ron turned around to see a young girl trapped in a weeping willow's branches.  The young farmer boy jumped off his horse and untangled the girl from the tree.

“What are you doing in the magical forest alone?” asked Ron.

“I am on a search for love,” said the young girl.

“I am on my way to the magical mountain right now to find the love spell,” explained Ron. “Come with me and we can experience the magical powers together!”

The next moment, the two were mounted on the horse riding at lightening speed towards the magical mountain. They were almost to the mountain when the horse stopped suddenly in his tracks. There was a massive drop off only a few feet ahead of them.

Cliff before the Magical Mountain

Feeling determined, the two decided that they were going to have to finish their journey by foot. They jumped off the horse and made their way to the drop off. Slowly and carefully the two started rock-climbing down the cliff.

All of a sudden, the young girl’s foot slipped on a loose rock and she was dangling by only her fingertips. Without thinking twice, Ron released his hand to pull her back up. It was too late and the girl started to fall.

Ron opened his eyes, shot out of bed and was drenched in sweat. In that moment, he knew that love was like a dream. Love was indescribable, exciting and dangerous all at the same time.

Author's Note: My story is based off of a famous Turkish Fairy Tale called "Fear." In this Turkish fairy tale, the main character is searching for "fear." In the end, he realizes that you cant explain fear, but you must experience fear yourself in order to understand it. I took this theme and applied it to my story by having my character search for love. I made my character, Ron, go on many tasks and journeys in order to experience love for himself.

I also took some of the magical creatures and difficult tasks from the Turkish fairy tales that I read and applied them to my own story. In the story "Fear", the main character meets many unusual creatures on his search for fear. I applied this to my story by having Ron meet a fish-fairy and a tree wizard in the magical forest.

At the end of my story, Ron wakes up and realizes that everything was just a dream. This idea came from the Turkish fairy tale called "Katerburnt." In this fairy tale, the text is written as though the events were actually happening. At the very end of the story, the last line says "it was just a dream." I loved how the author drew me into the story and then ended it suddenly in the last paragraph. I decided to add this element to my story to provide an exciting "plot twist" for my readers. 

Bibliography: My story idea came from the Fourty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales written by Ignacz Kunos in 1913.