Week 13 Story: The Palace Dogs
In a great and splendid palace, belonging to mighty king, there lived two palace dogs. They were the king’s beloved companions. In the presence of their master, they were loving and obedient. When the master was not around, their character reversed and they became mischievous, pestilent things.
One night, a thunderstorm broke across the sky. The bright flashes of lightning and loud cracks of thunder filled the palace dogs with a wild passion. They broke from their collars and leashes and ran into the night. They ran throughout the royal gardens, taking special care to roll and stomp in the largest mud puddles. They bit off roses from their bush and muddied all of the fountains. In their furious frolic, they arrived at the idea to storm the throne room. The dogs ran teeth gnashing, paws muddied, and mind frenzied through the palace into the majestic court room of the king. They rolled on the rugs, tore down the tapestries, and chewed on the arm of the throne. When the room was properly tarnished, they happily trotted off to their den.
In the morning, the king awoke to his soiled throne room and became livid. He asked his counselors what could be responsible. The royal advisors to the king looked around at the paw prints and bite marks that adorned every inch of the room. They knew the culprits to be the royal dogs. Fearing that their answer would anger the king, they lied. “Your Highness, the city dogs must have broken into the palace and destroyed your castle.”
The king was furious and issued a decree that all dogs must be killed in the city. When the city dogs heard of this decree, they ran to their own king. “Help us! Help us!” they pleaded with their king. The king spoke to his subjects, settling them. “We are not at fault for this, and we will not be punished. I will go before the king and plead our case.”
And so the king of the dogs met with the king of the people. “Your Majesty,” the dog-king greeted the king of the land, “take mercy on us. For it was not the dogs of the city that soiled your throne room, but your own pets. Surely, if you call for them, they will arrive muddied with tapestry in their teeth.”
“Very well,” agreed the king. He called his dogs to him. Indeed, the palace dogs were covered in mud and bits of carpet. The king was very angry, but his love for his dogs outweighed his anger. The king apologized to the king of the dogs and retracted his decree. His final course of action in addressing the matter, was hiring an obedience trainer.
Author’s Note: I kept the story very similar to the original one. However, instead of the palace dogs destroying a bridle, they destroy the throne room.
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| Muddy Dog |
Hey Haley! I just wanted to say that I loved your story! Wow! I can see that you put a lot of hard work and creativity into your writing! You also grabbed my attention and had it till the very end! Therefore, keep up the good work! I look forward to reading more of your stories! Good luck with the rest of your semester! It is close to being over! Also, have a good Thanksgiving!
ReplyDeleteHey Haley! I loved your imagery. It is great to see someone putting our beautiful language to good use! One thing that I think could give it a bit more is just some more specific details. Stories actually become more relatable if we are given specifics, like the name of the kingdom or the breed of the king's dogs. You can totally make this stuff up too! It just gives a story a different kind of authenticity and it can be super fun to figure out what goes best with your story!
ReplyDeleteHi Hayley!
ReplyDeleteYour story is so relatable as I'm sure that we can all imagine our dogs our a dog that we are familiar with acting in such a way. Not only can we all relate to this but I'm sure that most people who read the stories LOVE or at least like the four legged companions... this definitely helped to keep my attention! Overall, great story and I look forward to possibly reading more of your stories in the future. Have a great Thanksgiving break and eat lots of food!
Hey Haley,
ReplyDeleteI loved your story and it was really fun being able to read it. It is so relatable and something that I am sure we can all imagine our dogs doing. It definitely helped keep my attention while reading your story. I look forward to more of your stories, have a great Thanksgiving break.
Hi Haley! Your story for Week 13 looks amazing. What grabbed my attention the most was your dog smiling on a pile of mud! That’s sweet. Overall, you did such an excellent job on creating your own story. I would never have thought about writing a story about dogs being royalty. Therefore, I applaud for that. Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteHey Haley,
ReplyDeleteI like how you were able to mimic the simplicity of the original in your own rendition while also making it very interesting to read! When you narrate the thoughts of the King's pets I think you do a great job with being descriptive and that really helps the reader visualize your scene and peak their interest. I think it would've been really cool to have a picture of a dirtied throne room but the muddy dog was pretty cute so I guess that will suffice! Excellent piece of writing you have here!
Hey Haley! You did such a great job on the imagery and description in this story! I really enjoyed reading it. I haven’t read the original jataka myself, but your story did a great job of laying out that moral/message that jatakas are known for. I think I’ve read a couple of your other stories this semester, and they’ve also had that wonderful imagery. Great job!
ReplyDelete