JLE#38: Panther Story
Panther
David
wakes up in the savannah of a land unknown to him. All he has with him is his bow and quiver of
lethal arrows. His arrows have an
enchantment which enables them to be the most lethal ranged weapon in existence. The tips are glassy and obsidian-like with strikingly
sharp tips. The arrows have a red hue and
have red vein-like lines running through the obsidian tips and they look to be
as if they are beating like a heart. He
stares at his weapon as he remembers why he is in the savannah—to find and kill
the predator that preys on animals and humans alike.
Panther
is a fierce being and is quite intelligent.
He understands the language of man and inhabits the savannah to hunt
those who stray too far from their homesteads.
Panther is agile and a large being capable of clearing great distances
with each stealthy step. David studies
what he knows about the panther and spends most of his time preparing for the
day when he is going to face his most challenging enemy. David understands the savannah is not his
domain and he may be at a severe disadvantage.
Several
weeks pass and David is preparing for his inevitable confrontation. He knows Panther is watching as he trains
each day, but he is unable to detect Panther for his is the most skilled in the
art of stealth. David wakes in the
middle of the night to Panther at his campsite.
“Do not go for your bow or I shall kill you where you stand” says Panther. Panther says, “I have a proposition for the
one who trains day by day to defeat me.”
David listens to Panther as he describes the rules. Panther says David is to have a head start
and to hide from him as he tries to find David and kill him. David, with his confidence in his training,
accepts this challenge and says to Panther, “I am going to end your reign in
this land you call your own and bring peace.”
After
days without success Panther is angry, he cannot find his opponent and begins
to make his way home to his lair. He arrives
only to sense another presence sitting in his lair. Suddenly he feels a sharp pain around his
back leg and realizes David set traps and now Panther is helplessly suspended
in his own home. David draws back his
bow and arrow and nothing is visible except the glowing red veins in the tip of
the arrow. David releases the arrow and
upon impact the darkness of the lair became blinding!
David
wakes in his camp only to find he dreamt about everything. He thinks a moment and grabs his gear to
begin training once more.
Authors
note:
I
ended up writing a story based off the elk and the eagle. I wanted to replace the elk with something
that seems more fierce and deadly. Not
that elk are not massive animals, but to me it seems more fitting to have a
known predator in the place for the antagonist of the story. I like stories of heroes, so I named my hero
after King David and thought it was fitting because he was a brave King. I think I strayed away from the plot a little
bit, but I ended up liking how it turned out.
Specifically, Panther and David were not massive beings as they were described
as in The Attack on the Giant Elk and the Great Eagle. I went away from that idea and implied that
they were of normal size so if one fell it would not create mountain ranges. In the original story, the elk makes an
awkward movement and falls which lead to the formation of vast mountain ranges. I thought it would be interesting if I added
that David dreamt the whole battle! I wrote
it at the end in brief so If I end up not liking it I can always edit it out
and add more to the story.
Story source: Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson (1929).
Hi Jack!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this story especially at the end. It shows the hunters point of view so well and really encompasses how you have to know what you're hunting better than it knows itself. It's a constant game of outsmarting the other. I also got a sense of the panther being his spirit animal and kind of getting that energy from the panther. It was crazy it was all really just a dream.
Hi Jack!
ReplyDeleteI actually made the connection and thought this story was possibly based off the bible since the name was David. I think this was very smart because the reader would automatically make the connection of the brave warrior David and the man in this story. I at first was confused why Panther wasn't plural when you were talking about the characteristics, but ended up really liking that it was basically that specific panther's name in David's mind. I also like that you ended it as a dream! Great job, I thought it was a very creative story!