Storytelling Week 13

The Traveling Band of Heroes

In the little town of Smallville, there lived an old donkey on a farm. This donkey had worked all his life, but now he was getting too old to be of any use. One night, he overheard his owner saying how he planned on buying a new donkey and selling the old one to the dog food plant. When the donkey heard this, he knew it was time to go, so he said, "I will leave at once and pursue my dreams of becoming famous!"

The next morning, the donkey had made it all the way out of town when he came across an old, sad dog on a farm. When the donkey inquired about the sadness of the dog, he explained that he was of no use to his owner anymore because he could not see well enough to help hunt. The donkey invited him to come on his quest for fame, and the dog quickly agreed.

They continued their journey on to two more towns and picked up two more companions: a cat who had lost her quickness which helped to catch mice and a rooster who no longer had the ability to crow. The group was quite an odd combination of animals, but they all made a pact not to fight with one another in honor of their efforts to become famous in the big city. After a week of traveling, they finally made it to their destination, Metropolis.

Metropolis was even bigger and more crowded than they had imagined. When they made it to downtown, they were worried about losing each other in the crowd, so they decided to stick together by carrying one another. The cat offered to let the rooster get on his back. The dog offered to carry the cat. The donkey told the dog that he could ride on his saddle. So there was a sort of pyramid of animals in walking around downtown Metropolis. Everyone was pointing and taking pictures and the animals loved it! This may be their chance to become famous. With the confidence found from the beginnings of true fame, they strutted down the middle of the street, each animal making noises as they were ogled at.

As the walked past a bank, some men in masks ran out with bags and weapons. The dog, thinking this to be a hunting group, jumped off the donkey, causing everyone to fall and let out a loud screech of pain. The robbers were frightened by the sudden sight of the animals, then the horrible combination of noises and a dog lunging toward them, and they immediately surrendered. The animals were caught on video and suddenly become heroes through the power of the internet. Before they knew it they were on every local and national news broadcast that could get their hands on them. They successfully ended their journey for fame, and it only took a couple of weeks.

The animal pyramid. Marcks statue in Germany. Photo information.

Author's Note: "The Traveling Musicians" features the same characters accidentally frightening a group of bandits in an old barn, but no one is around to see it. I tweaked it to be in front of a lot of people as well as cameras. I also added the wish to become famous because the donkey in the first one really wanted to be a musician even though he is a donkey. Being a youtube famous donkey is actually a lot more common than a musical donkey.

Bibliography: The Brothers Grimm. "The Traveling Musicians." Librivox. Original Story