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There once was a young boy named Dru. He was a quiet boy who always liked to watch the sky. His mother, who raised him alone, always believed the Gods blessed him with special abilities. There was a glimmer in his eye the night he was born that told her he holds powers no one else has. She watched him very carefully as he grew up. She noticed he always knew when to step out of the way, when something was about to fall or when someone was coming. Everyone believed he just had amazing reflexes, but when she asked him about how he quick he was he would simply say "the sky warned me." He claimed the wind would whisper to him to gaze up at the sky and it would show him a picture. He would just see something others did not. Sometimes it was a clear constellation, and sometimes he would just see long lines connecting the stars. Some connected to the same star and some ran along the sky from east to west not touching anything. Dru saw the sky speaking a foreign language and felt he could easily translate the sky.
As he got older, he found the sky had started to talk to him less and he feared he might be losing his abilities. However, the sky actually began giving him more challenging puzzles, which would lead him to bigger realizations about the future. They took more of his energy and more time to solve. Dru would spend many sleepless nights charting the stars and constellations and attempting to decode the messages. He spent many years charting the stars and constellations.
The other villagers called him crazy. He called himself an Astrologer.
Caption: A web of stars obtained from unawe.org
Author's note: This story is the origin tale to Aesop's Fables (Winter): The Astrologer. I wanted to give the Astrologer more of a backstory, and allow him a moment to explain why he believed he could see the future in the stars. I really wanted to try to go in a completely different direction than my story from last week, so I decided to keep in the same era and genre as the original story. I used the name Dru because it meant "vision" in ancient Greece, so I thought it was fitting.
Bibliography" Author unknown, The Aesop for Children, with illustrations by Milo Winter (1919).
I liked the idea of giving a backstory to a character from Aesop's fables. I've always been dissatisfied with fables for that exact reason: it seems like the characters only exist in that moment in time, and there's no before or after. I also like the ambiguity of the story--if that was intentional. I read the fable your story is based on, and I kind of like that the sky talks to him. It actually undermines the original point of the fable, which is super bold and I dig it. I would actually read an epilogue of sorts. You've got a "before" and the fable that the Astrologer is based on, what happens after he falls in that hole?
ReplyDeleteGreat job!
Hello Sammie! I really enjoyed reading your story and seeing how you turn classic stories and make them your own. I agree with Alona, I really like the idea of giving a character a backstory. Most characters from mythological fables do not have backstories, and I believe that backstories can really add to a character and their appearance in other stories. I also really like that you kind of went against what the original story was supposed to be doing, and you made it completely your own. I definitely think you should continue this story and keep writing about this character, I am interested to read more!
ReplyDeleteHi Sammie!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite detail in this story is the idea of the sky compensating for Dru's growth. Adjusting the complexity of the message in accordance with his age and comprehension? I'd love to know if there was a specific deity associated with the story, or if he was originally portrayed as just "different."
I also wonder if the sky is deliberately helping Dru, or toying with him as the years go by and the puzzles take their toll. It'd be interesting to see what kind of personality is responsible for his later decline, and whether their influence is intentional. What if Dru is accidentally picking up on signals meant for someone or something else?
The description of the lines he saw between constellations remind me of ley-lines, somewhat dubious connections argued to exist between monuments and geographical features. I think some people claim to see them and feel their energy (I'm skeptical).
I'd like to know what happens afterwards. Does Dru's legacy remain questioned for centuries? Could an epilogue story bring him redemption in the eyes of the community?
Fun read!
Hi Sammie,
ReplyDeleteI liked the storytelling format of your story. You had vivid descriptions of the character Dru. I could clearly imagine what kind of young boy Dru was in my head. I also liked those special abilities of Dru: they sound somewhat intuitive in nature that Dru could always knew when he had to step out of the way, when something was about to fall on him, or when someone was coming to him. I think those are really unique, rare abilities that a character can have. Those abilities sounded somewhat psychic to me as well. While I was reading your story, it made me wonder if Dru could predict asteroids falling onto the Earth from the space. Even the most scientifically advanced space shuttles and satellites cannot accurately predict the asteroids that can possibly destroy and decimate the Earth, so I thought it would be really cool and beneficial for the humanity if Dru’s unique abilities can help save the Earth. I really like your story, but I think it could be even more interesting if the story could tell how he could figure out people’s future and destiny as an astrologer.