Week 11 Story: Rainbow Path to the Clouds
One Saturday, Kaia brought freshly picked flowers and fruits and hiked up the slope to the mountaintop. As she arrived, she found the gods in poor spirits. They were angry at humankind, they said, for being careless, selfish, and violent. They told her that in two moons' time, the rains would start and not stop until everything was covered in water.
"But what about the animals?" She asked the gods. The gods responded that the plants and animals and all living creatures except for humans would not be harmed.
"Are we all to die?" Kaia asked, weeping.
The gods thought about this, and they remembered how good Kaia and her village had been. Should they all be killed because of the poor decisions of others? Their conclusion was no, so they decided that only the bad humans would perish.
"Anyone who wants to survive must come here to this mountain by the night of the second full moon. There will be a rainbow to the clouds, and they must walk this rainbow path to safety . The good-hearted will feel the path under their feet. The bad will fall to their deaths."
Kaia nodded and returned to her village, telling everyone what the gods declared. Afterwards, the whole village packed their belongings and caught plenty of food, and they spread the news to everyone around, and everyone around spread the news farther until nobody was ignorant.
The two moons passed, and the mountain was crowded with people waiting anxiously for the rainbow to appear. As the sun rose the following morning, a rainbow path appeared, and the people nervously walked along it. Kaia and her village walked to the clouds safely, not a single person falling through the rainbow. Others were not so lucky. But the humans hardly had a choice: walk the rainbow and hope you don't fall through or stay on the mountain and surely drown.
And within hours the rain began, and it poured until all the land was covered in water. All the bad people fell to their deaths, a big pile of bodies on the ground slowly washing away with the water. The good people sat safely above in the comfort of the soft clouds, waiting for the rain to clear. The rain stopped later that afternoon. By the next morning the ground had soaked up all the excess water, and the land was restored. The people walked down a second rainbow and returned to their homes which, despite the flood, had not been damaged, and all the wildlife prospered as if nothing had happened. Thus the gods were happy, and everything was good.
Author's Note:
'Why There Are No Snakes on Takhoma' as you may have guessed is a very similar story to Noah's Ark, but in this Pacific Northwest version, a tribe shoots arrows into a cloud and climbs the arrows, taking all the good animals but leaving the bad animals to die when it rains. I changed it so in my version, they climb to the clouds via a rainbow that can filter the good and bad people, and the flood won't harm the wildlife, plants, or homes, but would only kill the bad people. I also incorporated a spinoff of Noah, a young woman named Kaia who is a seer. A seer is like a soothsayer: someone who can communicate with gods and/or tell the future.
Howdy Kyra,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your retelling! I definitely got the Noah vibes you were throwing down with Kaia as I read (I actually was wondering whether it was a Noah's ark retelling because I'm an idiot who somehow failed to read the bolded bibliography at the top of the page). I also liked how you had it filter people instead of animals. There can't *really* be bad animals can there? They're just doing what animals do. (except wasps and seagulls which are both capable of understanding, and regularly commit evil) Great work!
Sidenote: Isn't it odd how many great flood stories there are?
Hi again Kyra! What a beautiful story! Truly the idea of walking along a rainbow is so enchanting, but you managed to write it in a way that didn't make it seem all cupcakes and glitter. The rainbow as a weigh station, as a place where judgements are made, is really beautiful but also quite frightening. You really clearly conveyed the struggle of the people here; how frightening it must have been to try to walk the rainbow path, not knowing if you'd fall through or not. And the image of the pile of bodies being washed away by the flood gave this struggle a very visceral representation. What a well-crafted story!
ReplyDeleteI wish I had a suggestion, but really it was such a pleasure to read.
Kyra,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading the story. I liked your idea of people being able to walk on a rainbow that filtered the good people from the bad. I bet everyone was so scared and questioning if they were going to fall through. I also wonder if the animals just remained on land and were not affected by the big flood or how they were able to survive. The idea of Kaia giving the gods fruits and flowers each week in exchange for knowledge and prosperity has a magical element to it. Great story!