Week 9 Story: The Great Raid

 

The Elephant from the Raid. Source: Pixabay.

    Once upon a time, there was an old man that had an old dog. The dog had been with the man his entire life and did almost everything together. The dog waited for the man to get home from work every day, went on long walks in the evening with him, and laid with the man each night watching tv. They were inseparable... well, for the most part.

    One day the man was just too old and decided he did not want the old dog anymore. He was going to take the dog to the vet in the coming days to put the old dog down. The dog found out about this and decided he needed to escape. He left his home and set out to find a place known as the "land of the aged."

    He had heard about this place as a little pup and knew many types of animals went there as they aged. The "land of the aged" was a place of peace where animals could live happily and live an undisturbed life.

    The dog eventually stumbled upon an old horse in a field.

    The dog approached the horse and asked, "would you like to come with me?"

    "To where?" asked the horse.

    "The land of the aged," responded the dog. "It's a place of peace for older animals of all kinds."

    "Sure, why not?" said the horse.

    The two continued on and ran into a pig.

    The pig joined in on the journey. They all eventually stumbled upon an elephant, a bobcat, a rooster, and a snapping turtle. All of the animals decided to come along on the journey as well.

    One night all of the animals ran into a house that was dimly lit from the inside. Inside, they could see a group of drug dealers that had just purchased a huge feast with all of the money they had just made from their latest drug deal. The animals were all so hungry from their long journey, so the smell of the feast from the inside of the house was very tempting.

    The animals decided to climb on each other's backs and all started to make noises. The dog was barking, the pig was squealing, the elephant was blowing its trunk, the bobcat was screeching, the rooster was crowing, and the turtle was snapping.

    Scared to death, the drug dealers all hopped up from their chairs and booked it out of the house. Two jumped out of the window, and three went out through the door.

    All seven of the animals were quick to run inside. Even the turtle was sprinting to the table. They all sat at the table and chowed down on the feast. There was so much food that they couldn't even finish. They decided that they didn't want to let it go to waste, so they made the decision to guard the house until the morning and eat the rest for breakfast.

    The dog said, "I'll guard the front door"; the horse said, " I'll guard behind the door"; "I'll stay upstairs," said the pig; "I'll wait by the couch," said the elephant; the bobcat said, "I'll be next to the fireplace"; the snapping turtle, "I'll be by the back door"; and the rooster replied, "I'll watch up top from the roof."

    The drug leader sent one of his guys back to the house to see if the animals were gone. He slowly approached the front door of the house. He looked inside the house, and it was still dimly lit without an animal in sight.

    When he reached out to touch the knob, the dog bit him on the leg. The man fell into the house where the horse kicked him up the stairs. The pig was ready to be a part of the action and head-butted the man onto the couch below in the living room. The elephant was on guard and threw the man with his trunk to the fireplace. The drug dealer landed near the fireplace, and the bobcat began clawing the man, attempting to shred him into pieces. Scared, half to death, the man took off to the back door to escape the house. The snapping turtle was ready and began snapping at the man's heels. The man let out a yelp, which woke up the rooster who was supposed to be on guard. Startled by the yelp, the rooster let out a loud crow as the man ran away for miles.

    When the drug dealer returned to his gang, he fell to his feet and was completely out of breath. The drug leader asked him what happened, and the drug dealer looked at him confusingly. "I honestly have no idea," said the drug dealer. "The house was filled with all kinds of traps, and I barely made it out alive," said the man.

    The drug leader chuckled at the man's struggle and replied, "Have you ever seen Home Alone?"

Author's Note: I kept a bunch of the original story as the same for my story. Both stories start with talking about a man with an old dog. The man, in both stories, wanted to get rid of the old dog. The dog decides to leave the man to escape and goes on a journey. I had my dog start to head to the "land of the aged" just like in the original story. However, the animals that the dog encounters along the way are different. In both stories, the animals stumble upon a house, which has a big feast of food. In the original, the house had robbers, but my version had drug dealers. I thought this might be an interesting twist. The animals get the men out of the house in both stories, so they can feast. A drug dealer returned to the house just like a robber had returned to the house. In my story and the original, the man gets attacked and returns back to his people. In the original, the man who was attacked describes what attacked him throughout the house. However, it must have been dark because the man described things inaccurately. In my story, the animals attacked him, and the man had no idea what was happening. The story reminded me of the movie, Home Alone, so I thought it would be fun to try to include the reference at the end of my story!

Story source: "The World's Reward," from South African Folk-Tales by James Honey (1910).