Back in the day, the Redbird was very ugly and no one wanted to be his friend because of it. But Redbird knew of a campfire where the fire was not too hot to stand in, and he burned in this four times every morning for four mornings. Every morning he sang a magic song:
There's a red fire.
It lies there.
I went in.
I am all red.
On the fourth morning all of Redbird's feathers burned off and came out of the campfire just in his skin. But the next morning when he came out of the campfire he was covered with red feathers.
The Coyote was watching the bird for days. He contemplated jumping in and eating the bird, but he was too scared of the flames. He had no idea how the bird could sit in the flames and not get burned. He noticed on the last day that the bird went from an ugly grey bird to a beautiful RedBird. He wanted in on the secret so he asked the bird, "How could someone go from being so ugly to so pretty in one day? If you tell me how you did it, I will spare your life and not eat you."
"I can only tell you, if you will be my friend," squeaked the Redbird.
"I can only tell you, if you will be my friend," squeaked the Redbird.
The Coyote agreed of course and was taught the magic song. He went through the ritual just as the Redbird did and came out just as red as the bird.
The Coyote was delighted at how he turned out that he forgot the promise he made to the bird. He wandered off to show off his color and left his friend behind. He was so focused on making new friends that he was not paying attention to where he was going and fell into the water. He rinsed off to notice that he was no longer red, but the original color he started as.
Redbird Pixabay
Bibliography: How Bluebird and Coyote Got Their Colors from Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest by Katharine Berry Judson (1912).
Author's Note: In the original story, the ugly bird turns into a blue bird. He bathes in a lake that where the water does not flow in or out. He sings a similar song about water. The coyote is scared of the water and would not go into to eat him. I changed the water to fire because I thought that it would be more realistic for the coyote to be afraid of fire. I also changed some reasoning for why the bird gave the coyote the secret song as well as how he lost his red coloring.
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ReplyDeleteHi Michael! I liked your story I thought it was well-written and stayed fairly true to the original story. It makes sense to me that a coyote would be more scared of fire than it would be of water. I also like the image you chose, I thought it was striking when i opened up the page. All in all great job!
ReplyDeleteHi Michael! I like the way you changed the lake in the original story to a fire. It makes it seem more special that the bird was able to bathe in it, so it makes more sense for it to have magical properties that would change the bird's color. It also makes more sense for the coyote to be afraid of the fire.
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