Week 9 Story: Treasure Cavern

Week 9 Story

Treasure Mountain

Author's notes: This story is based on The Golden Apple section of the Labor's of Yamato series in the Japanese Mythology section of the Un-Textbook. He is looking for a golden apple, which is a task assigned to him by a siren who is possessing his mind. When she gives him instructions on how to get to it, she does so in the form of a song. He is looking for this golden apple on the island of eternal life to please the woman he "loves" and gain her affection. I decided to make this story about treasures similar to the cavern of wonders from the Aladdin tale but focus on the song portion. I kept the rhyming scheme the same but made different verses for the song itself. My version involves a beggar who is desperate to gain riches and is granted a visit by an undefined character who will recite to him an ode that should help him locate the riches he seeks.

There was once a man who lived a bitter, dull life. Watching from the sidelines as his townsfolk walked the streets lavished in their earned riches. He was fated the dreads of poverty and envied those who fed on rich flavors the world had to offer; having only the vermin of life satisfied his hunger. He wanted more. Much more.

Among the streets always sat the rumors of Treasure Cavern. The myths and lore backed by the merchants and travelers who sold goods as well as stories upon their return. For the beggar had no glimmer nor silver-coated lining on life. He thought, “why not muster up the courage to see if the myths are fact?” So off he went. He searched high and low for more information about this Treasure Cavern, but fell short and lost motivation quickly. He had all but given up before he was greeted in the night by an unknown woman cloaked in crimson drabs encrusted in gold and ruby accents. Face hidden from all Earth-dwellers; carrying an ominous presence amongst her.

"Who are you," cried our wretched beggar.

"Is treasure not what you seek? Welcome my words to feed your hunger," stated the mysterious woman.

The beggar nodded. If one more word had escaped her veiled lips, tasteless foam would seep from his mouth like the ravenous dogs lurking the night.

"Listen," she hummed. A strong wind began to pick up, and her feet slowly lifted from the ground while her arms spread apart.

In the abandoned times of the gods and the mother,
Across the dusty deserts near the isle of Shikoku,
Heretofore dwelt a villainous mage, cruel of heart and stone of reason,
Whom was sought by the people, brewed devilish taboo.

The sage, greed consumed, collected gems upon detection,
Protesting leeches who thirst for generosity lest they scavenge themselves,
Curse upon curse he marked upon the rapacious making him grow tired and ill,
And twisted mind paid a visit to him as doth sinister elves:

“Hide thy treasure, neath the depths open to mortal steps
To a cavern molded of magic and magma of ethereal phenomenon,
House thine gold and silver and rubies and sapphires
So only magian conquest may enter and thus relieve thy vex.”


Reveled in the advice of foul impish creatures,
The mage embarked on crafting a chasm so deep even land would not convey its location,
For days and weeks and months he built through scorching sun and blazing winds,
Till the last bit of rubble had been placed amongst this magnificent formation.

This fortress then built on insanity and corrupted magic,
Left the mage stricken by deeper exertion than just physical ability,
He all but delivered his treasures to their crypt when he felt lifeless,
Only the motherland went to catch his fallen body coated by fragility.

Death was stronger than the envy that drove his mad actions,
And life's last response let the base of the cavern consume his force;
Emitting a brilliant glow along the walls that lined the mass,
Faintly visible to travelers who may walk above its source.

Below the hue of iridescence marked our Treasure Cavern,
Vastly haunted by the insanity and greed of its late creator;
To traverse one must be cunning, brave, the strength of mind flourished
Careful to chain sanity within, so that joy may peak from thy splendor.

As the last phrase was brought to life, the masked woman began to float backward and fade into the distance. Her disappearance led the wind to cease in violence. All was quiet and now undisturbed by the recent events to take place. After his breath regulated and the last drop of cold sweat slide down the base of his neck, the beggar stepped towards the door ready to locate the Treasure Cavern.

Image 1: Treasure gems (Pixabay)
Image 2: Golden treasures (Website)
Bibliography: Labors of Yamato: The Golden Apple by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (Un-Textbook)

Reading Notes: Japanese Mythology Part B

Reading Notes

Japanese Mythology Part B

I completed the reading for the second half of this unit. It was a lot easier to go through this portion because I read these sections aloud, and it also followed the story of one person, so the flow was apparent. It was similar to the Sinbad stories we were given the opportunity to read back in the Middle Eastern units a few weeks again. I loved the imagery used in this section because it was using other natural beauties to describe natural life forms. The way “foaming flowers” were used to describe the waves of the ocean was such a captivating observation for me. This section is definitely going to help me mold my storybook project pages further for the rest of the semester. I also got the hang of understanding the poem meters. It’s almost like a sandwich effect, which I like! Something I love to do when reading stories aloud is to give different voice tones and patterns to different characters. It was fun to play around with the rhythm of the poetry from this unit when reading aloud. I was also weirdly connected to Yamato based on the writing style he was portrayed under. They gave him very brief dialogue and most of his development was through action, but he had such strong passions that justified why he did what he did. It was realistic to the situation he was under, despite the mannerisms he chose to treat his wife. The only real critique I had was that the quotations thrown throughout the story were a bit confusing to me. Some of them seemed unnecessary, or like they weren't used for a character speaking. Overall a fun second half to review!

Image: Evil Tenkeisei (Wikipedia)
Bibliography: Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. C (Un-Textbook)

Reading Notes: Japanese Mythology Part A

Reading Notes

Japanese Mythology Part A

Last week, I wanted to get into reading some of the Japanese Fairytale stories that the Un-Textbook had to offer. This week, I tried to get into the root of the stories I wanted to tell in this class, and that's the Japanese Mythology story unit. The goal from the reading was to get a better idea of how the Japanese myth characters were born and utilized in storytelling, as well as getting more idea of the flow of these stories. Getting into the first half of the reading, it took me a few read-throughs to get the flow down to comprehend the story. There was a mix of different story elements, including poetry, dialogue, and third-person omniscient perspective.  The mixing of these methods led to me being confused, especially in the beginning because I didn't notice it until the sentence structure thoroughly changed up. I guess I just glazed over Professor Gibb's note, in the beginning, to read aloud due to the poetry. She is not kidding when she recommends to read it out loud. I also suggest you do so! It just sounds better to hear it when you read over just going through it in your head. I wished this section had an audiobook attached so that my first experience with the story was more natural to process. The dialogue took me by surprise because it was very similar to the Greek Mythology writings. I guess in my head they had different dialects and different ways to address the characters aside from "thy" and "thou" and such. They used terms in that fashion so heavily that it got harder to read if it wasn't being read out loud. It made the reading feel condensed and complicated. The third-person view of the story was my favorite part by far. Those parts of the story were the most exciting for me, which made me sad since I usually live for the dialogue. The pavement of the story was best done for me when looking at that method over the other two.

Image: Untold Stories of Japanese Mythology (Wikimedia Common)
Bibliography: Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. C (Un-Textbook)

Week 8 Progress

Week 8 Progress

I'm actually extremely pleased with my progress so far. I always get a sense of accomplishment when I submit my final assignment for the week (usually my project based assignment) and see how many points I've earned for myself and how far I'm going in the class. Professor Gibbs helps me in getting a better schedule for this class after not getting the best out of my original plan. Once I got my schedule sorted, everything fell into place much better. I love doing the story posts. Creating has been the best way to help alleviate my stresses of the semester from my other courses and really express myself through a different platform. With my love for story writing, I also get more inspiration when looking at the stories that my peers post as well. I've done one of the extra credit assignments that involved additional blog commenting. Giving me a reason to look at more stories is always super helpful and motivates me to be better! My website definitely gives me struggles sometimes when it doesn't do all that I want it to do, but after a bit of fighting it's not terrible. I may make changes in the future to it but if I did, it would be with the site I use to create my website, not the actual content. Just to have a bit more creative freedom with the structure. I may love to just lay around and do nothing when I'm able, but inside I'm always excited to work on my assignments from this class!

Image: A pug representation of me (Flickr)

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

I think that the feedback for this course is more interactive than most feedback I've ever had to give in a class before. It's meant to be helpful but also to try and find a positive from a post, and a piece that could be better and suggest improvement. I believe that the comments and feedback that I am receiving from my peers are fair and helpful. My favorite ones would have to be the Pretend feedback! I don't think I'm good at writing those types of comments, but I love seeing them on my posts. I can get into the mind of MY character and see what makes sense to others after they read my story. I think that my feedback as over time become pretty much the same, which probably stems from how much I've learned about fixing my sentence structure. I get so excited to have a better writing style that I just want to share with others what has helped me achieve it! I want to get better at doing Pretend and TAG feedback. I love how creative everyone's Introduction posts have been as well. I usually read the introductions before their story posts, and this helps me in understanding why they write the way they do and their theme for storytelling. I'm going to do my best as the weeks move forward to get better at leaving more different, specific feedback based on the individual I'm reviewing.



Image: Constructive Feedback (Growthmindsetmemes)

Week 8 Reading and Writing

Week 8 Reading and Writing

I actually really like that we're doing this review week. I've been going back and forth on my blog site theme since the course started and I finally think I'm happy enough with it to leave it be! It wanted a more chilling site to make my story posts also come off as a bit more of a twisted side. Just helping to hype up the vibe I was going for. I think I have my good weeks and my bad weeks when it comes to storytelling. Some stories just really inspire my creative side, and it helps to motivate me to put more into my stories. You can even tell based on some of the peer reviews that when another student is confused by something I've written about or wanted more out of it, I usually feel the same way in the end. Overall, I'd say I'm satisfied with everything going so far this semester. My most significant accomplishment so far in my writing for the class would be to getting my sentence structure down. I never realized how passive of a writer I was! I can't be compelling and slightly creepy if I don't sound more assertive. The information I got from Professor Gibbs, as well as the writing technique assignments, have helped immensely. I hope that in the future and second half of this class, I start being a bit more analytical to story structure from our readings and not just the story plot as a whole. Also going into it more open instead of thinking only about how I would take a story.

Image: Enchanted Forest (Web Source)

Week 7 Story: The Girl Who Never Wanted to Age

Week 7 Story:

The Girl Who Never Wanted to Age

Author’s Note: This story was based off the of the Ozaki Unit from the Asain Fairytale section of the Un-Textbook. Specifically, form the story The Man Who Did Not Wish to Die. This story is about a man who fears death and begins to change his lifestyle. In the process of this change, he remembers a story of King who also did not wish to die. This King decided to find an elixir of eternal life, and on his journey to obtain this elixir, he is put in a situation where he gets what he wishes for, but it doesn’t turn out the way he had hoped. I wanted to make a change so that the story follows a child. I think that most kids go through wanting never to grow up and staying young forever. It’s to keep the type of storytelling method similar while also making it a bit more of a modern approach.



Once upon a time, there lived a young girl named Sophie. She loved to dance, sing, and play all day without responsibilities. She could run all the way to her clubhouse and hide out for the day with her own mental company. She could stay outside and make mud cakes in the leftover puddles from the rain with her family dog all afternoon. She was satisfied waking up and munching on cookies, chips, ice-cream, and any delectable junk food she could reach. Life to her was perfect. She never wanted her fun to end. One night, as her family has gathered for dinner, Sophie decides that she doesn’t want to eat the chicken and veggie platter that her mother had made for her.



“I don’t want this. I want cake instead!” Demanded Sophie.



“Sophie that’s enough. Finish your dinner, and then you can have dessert.” Said her mother.



“No. I won’t eat vegetables. I hate them!” Sophie said as she threw her plate from the table onto the floor.



“That’s it!” Exclaimed her mother. “To your room, now! You can go to bed without supper!”



“UGH! Adults are no fun!” Sophie screamed and ran to her room. Tears were streaming down her now rosy, flustered cheeks. “I never want to be like mommy. I want to eat sweet all day and play outside whenever I want and never have to brush my teeth!” After much pacing, crying, and diabolical scheming, Sophie had tired herself out and fall onto her bed to sleep.



Crash! A loud sound wakes Sophie from her slumber. Wiping away at her eyes, she tries to focus on what the sound was. Crash! The noise happened again. She leaps from her bed to slowly open the door and listen. It had been daybreak, and with the light shining into her house from the windows, she tried to look for who made the noise.



“Take that! And that! And this!” Said a voice from downstairs. As curiosity consumed her, Sophie ran down the stairs to find two young boys fighting each other with kitchen spatulas.



“Aha! I’ve got you now. Any last words?” The voice from before matched the voice coming from this boy.



“I surrender! Spare me!” Shouted the other boy.



“Who are you? Why are you in my house?” Yelled Sophie from a distance. “Your house? This house is everyone’s house. No one has their own house here.”



Sophie became puzzled. She looked around to see that all her family photos were gone. She searched for the rest of her home and to not her astonishment; her family was not in it. “Are you new here or something? Only adults have their own house, but there are no adults here. We can have any house we want!” Said the first boy.



Sophie takes a look out of one of the windows and notices all the children outside playing, running around, and doing all the things she loves to do herself. “There are no adults here? That’s impossible!”



“Well, it is here! Come on; we’re going to play outside!”



Sophie ran outside with her new friends and spent days eating all the junk she wanted to, continually playing outside with the other children, and going to bed whenever she wanted to. As the day went on, she noticed that she was not feeling too good. Her body had become sick from all the sweets Sophie had consumed. Her constant fun outside without any clean up had caused her to get infections in any of the scrapes she had earned running around. She had grown tired from avoiding sleep to play with everyone because she didn’t want to feel left out. Sophie’s health had taken a dramatic turn for the worse.



“Hey, Sophie! Want some cake?” Said one of the children.



“No, I don’t. I don’t feel good. Do you have carrots or crackers maybe?”



“Ew of course not! None of that can be found here silly. Here eat more cake!”



All the children started eating cake and trying to force Sophie to eat as well. The more they got her to eat, the sicker she became. She got so ill that she ended up vomiting up all of the forced cake and passing out on the floor.



A few hours had passed by when Sophie awoke to a soft knock at her door. She was in her bed after passing out on the floor with the other children. After a moment, you could see Sophie’s mother walk into the room. Sophie nearly leaped for joy when she saw her mother before her.



“Mommy! I’m so sorry! I want vegetables now please.” Sophie exclaimed as she ran to wrap her arms around her mother. Confused at the sudden change in behavior, her mother pushed the child back to her bed so that she could sit beside her.



“Sophie,” she said, “You cannot throw food onto the ground like that. What I make for you, I do because I want you always to be happy and healthy. You can’t be that way if you eat cake all of the time.”



“I know mommy. Trust me, I don’t think I’ll want to eat cake for a while” Sophie says as she grips her stomach. “I want to be healthy too. I won’t do that again.”



Sophie had learned during her dream that she might like what she usually does, but she knows that she may not want to do these things all of the time. To be a healthy kid, Sophie needs to develop a balance in fun and responsibility.

Image: Pinata Cake (Food Republic)
Bibliography: Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki