Week 14 Story: Where are the parents?

Hi, my name is Ella. I am ten years old, and I have a little brother that is eight years old named Kit. This is the story of how our parents left us. While it was scary, to begin with, we figured out how to survive, and even though our parents eventually returned, we still have a hard time while they were away. All of the events that I am about to tell you can be traced back to playing a game of hide-and-seek.  
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It was a normal morning; our father was out hunting in the woods and our mother was busy sowing clothes in the house. I had decided it would be fun to play hide-and-seek, so I made Kit close his eyes and count. While he was counting, I went behind my father’s chair and was planning on hiding underneath it when I noticed that some of the boards on the wall behind his chair were loose. I pushed them to the side and had the perfect hiding spot inside the wall. While I was hiding in the wall, I felt something soft. Curious I abounded my hiding spot and brought the item out with me. It was a robe made of feathers, while it was a little dingy, it seemed like it had once been a lovely robe. I called out to Kit telling him the game was over and showed him the robe. We thought it was best to show Mom; it looked to be her size.

When we showed our mother the robe, she became excited and hurriedly slipped it on.  Then she knelt down and gave both of us a kiss and began to walk outside. We had never been left alone before, so Kit and I followed her outside, and I asked, “Mom where are we going?”

She turned around with tear filled eyes and told us, “I am going home. Tell your father if he wishes to see me again, he must find me in the Land East of the Sun and West of the Moon.” She then flew off in the feather rode.

I could not believe what had just happened and when our father returned that night I told him precisely what mother had told me. He then got up and left the house leaving Kit and me alone.

The first night I kept going to our parent’s room to check if they had returned. Finally, I became so tired I passed out. In the morning, I had hoped it was all a dream, but Kit woke me to reality by asking, “Ella what are we going to eat? I don’t think Mom and Dad are coming back? How are we going to live on our own?”

Kit eyes were welling up with tears. Quickly I told him, “Why don’t we play a game? You be the father and go out and see if you can catch or trap any animals. I will be the mother and fix breakfast while you are away. Remember not to wander off too far.”

So, Kit and I learned how to survive on our own. At first, the food wasn’t very good. But over time I learned how to cook, and Kit was able to bring back larger prey the more he practiced hunting. It seemed that this was how we were to spend the rest of our lives when one night while we slept, we heard someone trying to open the front door. Terrified I woke Kit, and we grabbed some weapons and went to check out the noise.

When we readied ourselves for the intruder, we found Mom and Dad standing in the front doorway. They started coming towards us wanting a hug. Kit was overjoyed to see them. He dropped his weapon and ran to them hugging them with all of his might. Then they turned to me.

The first thing I did was DEMAND to know where they had been? Why had they left? Why hadn’t they taken us with them? I began to sob and fell to the floor. My mother and father came over to me, gently picked me up and started the tale of where they had gone.

A swan on the lake. The robe the story is made from swan feathers. 

Source:WikiMedia Commons by Yerpo

Author’s Notes: This is a tale based off of a story found in Joseph Jacobs book, Europa’s Fairy Book. In the story, The Swan Maidens, a hunter is entranced by a beautiful woman who can fly with a rode made out of swam feathers. The hunter decides he wants to marry the women so while she is playing in a lake with her sisters, he steals her robe. He then makes her marry him and hides her feather robe from her so that she cannot return to her homeland. The married couple ends up having two children who play hide-and-seek and one day the daughter finds the feather robe. When her mother gets her robe back, she leaves and goes to be with her family telling her daughter to let their father know where to find her. When the father returns home, and the daughter explains to him what happened. The hunter leaves in search his wife. He spends a considerable amount of time looking for her, but finally, he finds her homeland. It turns out she is a princess and the youngest daughter of the king. The king test the hunter to make sure the daughter is his wife. When the hunter passed the test, the king then grants the hunter permission to marry his daughter (the women that was already his wife), and they return home to their children. I kept my story parallel to the events in the original story. What the original story did not explain was what happened to the children while the parents were away? I decided to create a story explaining what the children did to survive while the parents were gone. I thought it was best to show the daughter as being the stronger sibling since I had pictured her as the older sibling. She attempts to make the best of the situation even though she is angry with her parents and shows that when they return by not forgiving them immediately like the brother. I hope you have enjoyed my story and would love to hear feedback! Good luck on finals!!