Quests For Fire by Jon C. Stott

Author:Jon C. Stott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUVENILE FICTION / Fairy Tales & Folklore / Anthologies, JUVENILE FICTION / Legends, Myths, Fables / General, JUVENILE FICTION / People & Places / General
ISBN: 978-1-927051-60-3
Publisher: Heritage House
Published: 2012-09-12T00:00:00+00:00

WHY MAPLES

TURN A FIERY RED

CANADA AND THE UNiTED STATES :: The Anishnabeg (Ojibway/Chippewa) who lived around Lake Superior often told stories about Nanabozho. Although he loved to play tricks, Nanabozho sometimes used his cleverness and spirit powers to help the people. This story takes place at a time when the people did not have fire and the leaves did not turn bright colours in the autumn.

anabozho stepped outside his wigwam, took a deep breath of the cold morning air and then slowly let it out, watching the little cloud that formed. The ground in front of him was green and silver. During the night, frost had formed on some of the maple leaves that had fallen. A cold breeze from the north rustled the few leaves that still clung to the branches. The pale light of the sun shone through the nearly bare trees.

It is going to be a beautiful day, he thought to himself. It’s going to be cold. But it will be dry and bright and sunny. It will be a good day to go hunting. There may be a few ducks or geese resting on the pond. But first, I must say good morning to Nokomis.

He went over to his grandmother’s wigwam and called out, “Good morning, Nokomis. It is going to be a fine day.”

“Come in, you mischief-maker, you,” she answered in a voice that seemed to tremble. She loved her grandson, but she knew that the tricks he played often made the other people in the village very annoyed.

“Grandmother,” the young man said when he came inside, “what is the matter?” The old woman had a fur robe wrapped tightly around her. She was shivering, and in the dim light, her lips looked almost blue.

“It may be a nice day for you, Little Rabbit,” Nokomis answered, using her favourite name for her grandson. “But it isn’t for me. Now that the sun is low in the sky and the cold winds have started coming across the Gichigami, I can’t keep warm, and I can’t eat. In the morning my food is frozen. I don’t have many teeth left, and I can’t chew the meat.”

Nanabozho was startled. He didn’t often think about other people, and he hadn’t considered that it wasn’t a beautiful autumn day for his grandmother. Now he understood how she felt, but he didn’t know how to help her. “I don’t know what to do, Nokomis. Isn’t there something I can do to make you feel warmer and make your food easier to chew?”

“There might be something. I have heard that long ago, the people had something called fire. It made them warm. It helped them to soften their food, and it gave them light during the long winter nights. But then it was stolen by an old man with great spirit powers. He took it to his wigwam far away across the Gichigami. Many people went to him to ask for some of the fire. But none of them ever came back. No one has tried for a long, long time.

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