Storytelling for Week 9: The Porcupine and the Two Sisters

It was a regular day, just like any other in our sleepy village. My sister Hannah and I didn’t have anything to do, so we decided to make a trip to a neighboring village. This village was a solid two days’ walk away for most people…but Hannah and I were widely known for being the swiftest runners in our tribe.

Once we got the idea of the trip in our heads, there was no going back. We began to run and we ran and ran until noon. At noon, Hannah noticed a hollow tree lying across the trail, so she stopped our run to examine it.

Inside of the log sat a porcupine. The porcupine was minding its own business, but Hannah couldn’t leave it alone. She had always been the mischievous one. Something inside of her needed to poke and prod, to get up in everything and disrupt the natural order.

Hannah broke off a stick and pushed it into the porcupine, hoping that he would come out of the log and do something. She said, “Let’s have some fun with him.”

“Hannah,” I began, “Let’s leave him alone. Let’s be on our way. Something is not right.” I had a bad feeling that this porcupine was a manido, or an evil spirit.

Of course, Hannah paid no attention to me. She kept doing what she was doing until the porcupine came out. Before the porcupine could run away, Hannah caught him and began to pull out his quills.

“Stop!” I shouted. “There’s no reason for you to do this! It’s cold outside. He needs his quills. Please, Hannah,” I begged.

Still, Hannah continued. She pulled out each quill, one by one, until all of them were gone. They she threw the quills on the ground and began to run the trail. With a heavy heart, I followed her up the trail. The village was still several hours away.

We didn’t know it at the time, but the manido porcupine began to use his magic as soon as we were out of sight. He crawled to the top of a pine tree and began to shake his small rattle, singing in time to its sound.

All of the sudden, the sky got dark. It was still early afternoon, so this was unnatural. Snow began to fall, which slowed Hannah and I down considerably. I looked back and saw the porcupine and tried to convince Hannah to turn around.

“We’ve made a mistake,” I said. “We’re in danger and we aren’t going to make it.”

Hannah told me I was ridiculous. She was never afraid of anything. We continued on, because Hannah wasn’t going to turn around and I wasn’t going to leave her by herself. The snow kept accumulating and the temperature kept dropping. The sun was setting and the village we were headed to was nowhere in sight. We continued on, doing the best we could. Later in the evening, we reached a stream that we knew was pretty close to the village.

However, by this time, we were completely worn out. It was freezing. The snow was feet deep now. We had not strength left. We fell to our knees and froze to death there.

I wish I could have convinced Hannah not to mess with the porcupine that day, but I couldn’t, and now both of us are nothing more than ghosts.

(Porcupine in a tree, Wikipedia)

Bibliography:
Book: Myths and Legends of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes
Author: Katharine B. Judson
Year Published: 1914
Web Source: Myths and Legends of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes

Author's Note: I decided the change the point of view from which the story was told in my retelling this week. The original story uses a third-person narrator, but I wanted to give the perspective of the second girl who wasn't really guilty in this story but still had to pay the price.