Week 1: Storytelling: The Battle to Rule

Storytelling: The Battle to Rule

Once upon a time there was a lion named Leo and a unicorn named Walter, they lived in the far away town of Utopia. These two animals were the finest of their kind, but were both seeking ultimate power. They had to compete in numerous challenges throughout town in order to wear the crown.

The first challenge brought them to the town square to show how mighty they truly were. There were stones placed with rope that they would have to pull, a winner was soon to be scored. Leo succeeded and pulled more weight than his competitor, he gained fame and they proceeded on to the next round. They went all over town competing and challenging each other that they had begun to lose sight of what the real prize was. They were destroying things and beginning to anger the rest of the town members…

The Crown Leo and Walter are competing for

Source: Flickr

Leo and Walter were still being offered foods of all sorts, from the town members but the fellow animals tempers were growing quick. They felt that neither one would become an adequate leader so the members began to ban together to drive Leo AND Walter away.

Two days later on the final day of the competition, Leo was leading by 3 points so he figured there was no doubt about it, he was going to be king…..But as dawn came upon the town of Utopia, all the other animals began to push Leo and Walter out. The two felt confused at first, they didn’t understand what was happening.

Leo and Walter were alone with nothing and then it finally hit them that they had lost sight of reality and had only been focused on destroying each other in order to win. When instead the real goal should have been to win the competition but to do it “the right way” in order to gain everyone else’s respect. This was a tough lesson to learn but they then banned TOGETHER and were later on welcomed back in to the town to live happily ever after.

The end.

Authors Note: This story was inspired by the Nursery Rhyme; The Lion and the Unicorn from The Nursery Rhyme Book edited by Andrew Lang and illustrated by L. Leslie Brooke. “THE lion and the unicorn, Were fighting for the crown; The lion beat the unicorn, All round about the town. Some gave them white bread, And some gave them brown; Some gave them plum-cake, And sent them out of town.” I really liked this nursery rhyme because it was short and I felt that there was a lot of room for me to use my creative side to embellish the original story. The nursery rhyme gave the original idea that the lion and unicorn were seeking to rule the town so I ran with that idea but added in events and a different final outcome. The fact that they were ran out of town made me think of writing how they were destroying things and not remembering what the true goal was so the towns residents wanted them gone. I feel that the ultimate message the author is trying to covey is that it is important to reach goals through ways that are still respectable.

Bibliography:

The Nursery Rhyme Book edited by Andrew Long (2008)

Web Source: The Project Gutenberg Ebook