Week 14 Story: Nine Years Ago

This is a prequel to my week 2 story Rescuing Eli which takes place nine years before.

 In the year 1975 there were once two mercenaries named John and Eli working out of an oil rig in the Caribbean Sea. And while these two were the best mercenaries in their group they were an even greater team. While on missions together John and Eli could work together to fulfill their objective without killing a single combatant. This is because John and Eli were masters in stealth, and they also believed in not killing their enemies unless they have no choice. After all, they understood that their enemies were often fighting not out of their own will.

One day, however, Eli was captured by the United States in a solo operation. On the mission John was tasked with extracting an operative who wanted to defect to their group, but it was a setup. When John heard the news he immediately sprang into action. Apparently, Eli was being held on a fortified U.S. military base in Cuba where he was being heavily interrogated about who he was working for hoping to get evidence that the mercenary company was working against U.S. interest. John knew Eli would not crack, but he worried that the U.S. might see that as well and dispose of Eli. Time was of the essence. 

John arrived on the military base under the cover of the night by swimming a mile from the boat he took to Cuba. He knew this would not be an easy mission and that it may even be a setup, but that did not stop him. Eli was his friend. From the mission briefing, John knew that Eli would be in an interrogation room. John stealthily made his way to the interrogation room and found Eli, but as he did he noticed that it was a little too easy. 

When John arrived at Eli's cell he saw his friend was on the brink of death, and in Eli's final words he told John that that night the U.S. was going to destroy the mercenary base. 

"That's why the military base is so empty," John realized. "It's because they are all at the mercenary base destroying it!"

John then took his fallen comrade and returned to the mercenary base only to see that it had been destroyed.

John rescuing Eli

Author's notes: This story is based on The Brave Little Bowman story in More Jataka Tales. In that story a weak yet expert bowman asks a strong man to help him in getting in the army. In that story, however, the bowman ends up being the one who does most of the work. In this story I decided to have the roles of the strongman and bowman be somewhat equal. I also decided to write a story where the "bowman" has to rescue the strongman, but I added a twist. This is also a prequel to my Week 2 Rescuing Einstein story.

Bibliography: More Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt, 1922 Link

Reading Notes: More Jataka Tales Part B

Monkeys ate from the mango tree and one day a king found the mango tree. The monkeys saw that the king was eating the mangos so the king decide to kill the monkeys. The king monkey then saved his subjects and the king decided to not kill the monkeys.

A man was good with a bow. The bow man was weak so he got a strong man to join the army so he could work under him. The strong man and the bowman did good work. The bowman then got some credit as well.

Two traders were friends. The town traders sold the village traders plow. The village trader hid his son. Then they went to court and they got their stuff back.

Wolves were eating goats except they couldn't catch one. The wolf played dead and his mate tried to trick the wise goat. The goat did not fall for it and the wolves left her alone

Two deer were told not to go into ripe fields. One of the deer listened and kept their herd safe and the other one did not listen and got their herd killed. 

Plow

Bibliography: More Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt, 1922 Link

Reading Notes: More Jataka Tales Part A

 A monkey stole the queen's jewels when the servant fell asleep. The chief guard played a trick to find out if a girl monkey stole the pearls. The guard found out the monkey stole the jewels.

There were three fish named thoughtful, very-thoughtful, and thoughtless. They lived near a town but very-thoughtful wanted to leave cause he did not want to be captured by fishermen. Thoughtful and thoughtless were captured, but very-thoughtful saved them and they got away.

A wolf wanted to eat some rats. The wolf acted like he could not walked on his front legs and that he only needed to eat air to survive. The rats would visit the wolf and the wolf would eat the last one of them. The chief rat found out what the wolf was doing though and the rats stopped going to the wolf.

A golden goose gave his feathers to a poor woman with two daughters. But the woman decided to try and take all of the feathers from the goose. All of the feathers were plucked and they turned into regular feathers. 

A king gave a holiday to the people in his city. The king's gardener got the monkeys to water the trees so he could enjoy the holiday. The monkeys pulled up all of the trees' roots so they could be sure that the trees had water.

A man tried to play dead so he could kill an animal and eat it, but a king wolf saw his trick and made sure none of the animals were fooled by it.

A monkey was eating some peas, but he dropped one. He then dropped all of his other peas to find the one pea he lost, but he could not find it. Then he was left with no peas. A king saw this and decided to not throw away his kingdom in pursuit of something lesser and he went back home.

A wolf wanted to give a fish to his mate, so he tricked some otters into giving him half of their fish.

Wolf

Bibliography: More Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt, 1922

Reading Notes: Twenty Jataka Tales Part B

An old woman took two pigs into her basket and treated them like her own children. One day the woman decided to sell one of the pigs, but then everyone changed their mind and nobody ate the pigs. 

One day a monkey was trying to annoy a buffalo, but the buffalo never let him bother him and a fairy drove the monkey away. 

One day an elephant walked towards some voices he heard. The voices were of men dying. The elephant told them men where to find food and water. The elephant then sacrificed himself so the men could eat him and survive.

One day quails were being hunted. The king quail told them to fly up so they would not be captured. But one day the quails started fighting and some quails were caught.

One day a hare thought the end of the world was happening so he told all the other animals the world was ending and they started a stampede. A wise lion was able to stop them though saving the animal's lives. 

A horse lived in the richest city and seven armies decided to join together to destroy this city so it would not become too powerful. A warrior took that horse and defeated six of the armies however the horse was wounded. The horse still fought and it died after defeating the seventh army. 

Elephant

Bibliography: Twenty Jataka Tales by Noor Inayat (Khan), 1939 link

Reading Notes: Twenty Jataka Tales Part A

 A monkey ruled over 80k monkeys and the monkeys were happy. Then a piece of fruit fell into a river and humans began to look for the fruit tree. Then the monkey king sacrificed himself so his subjects could flee and the king decided not to kill the monkeys and take the tree,

One night royal dogs chewed the straps of the royal chariot. Then all the dogs in the city were ordered to be killed. However, the city dogs were saved by the chief and they were taken care of. 

 One day a tortoise was carried by geese by biting a stick as they flew. However, the tortoise decided to open his mouth and he fell to his death. And a king saw the tortoise died because he talked too much so the king decided to talk less too.

A man decided to leave his wife and children to search for riches promising to come back rich. The man met a fairy and was turned into a goose with golden feathers. The man gave his feathers to his family so they could sell them. The man then had all of his feathers plucked and he then grew white feathers and lived with the birds.

A child parrot became the most glorious parrot in the world. He then went to the rice field and brought food for his parents. The parrot was then trapped in a trap by the farmer. The farmers said that the parrots could keep eating in the field.

There was a kingdom of 60k swans. A king wanted to see the swan king.  The king made a great lake for the swan kingdom. The swans then moved to the lake. But the king swan was captured by the human king. The king swan was brought to the human king and they talked and the swans decided to move to the beautiful lake.  

parrot

Bibliography: Twenty Jataka Tales by Noor Inayat (Khan), 1939 link

Reading Notes: Indian Fables and Folklore Part B

 Shibi was a kind king who loved all the creatures. One day he sacrificed part of his body to a hawk so that it would not starve and the pigeon would live.

Brahma was sneezing a lot and then a demi god named Kshupa was born from his sneezing. He became king of the earth because he fought the giants out of heaven. A sage named Dadhichi and Kshupa then had a feud between each other. Then they became friends.

Prince Poundra thought he was the real Krishna and made counterfeit weapons of armor that Krishna had. Krishna and Poundra then fought and Krishna won. A fire demon was then sent to kill Krishna but it failed. 

A merchant thought that in order to get salvation you needed to get wealth. The merchant then sent his son money to be traded. However, all of the money was taken by a cunning woman. The son then taught a money to swallow a bunch of money and he sold that money to the woman for everything she had. 

One day a teacher asked his student to bring him a cat to get rid of mice, but the student brought a boy.

One day a bird wife told her husband she wanted to move her eggs away from the shore. However, the husband did not listen and the sea took the eggs. Then every bird in the world fought the sea and beat the sea. 

Bird

Bibliography: Indian Fables and Folklore by Shovona Devi

Reading Notes: Indian Fables and Folklore Part A

 The man in the eye is death?

The hare started taunting an elephant to a fight, but the hare kept dodging. The elephants saw the hare on his back and thought he was super strong, so they ran. 

Monkeys thought the moon had fallen down a well and then the monkeys fell down the well.

A sage turned a rat into a girl and it was raised. Then the girl turned back into a rat and married a rat. A rat got turned into a cat then a dog then a tiger then a rat again.

An old snake tricked the frog king into letting him eat all of the frogs and the frog king

A sage threatened the sun to give his wife sandals and a hat.

Yudhishtir got a dog into heaven

The sun gave the Pandavas a magic food bowl that could feed them.

Frog

Bibliography: Indian Fables and Folklore by Shovona Devi

Reading Notes: Shri Krishna of Dwarka and Other Stories Part B

 Satrajit worshiped the sun god. Then one day the sun god came down in front of Satrajit. He then asked for the sun gods jewel. Satrajit gave the jewel to his brother who was evil, because he was afraid Krishna would take it. Then his brother was killed by a lion and the lion was killed by a bear who took the jewel. Krishna got the jewel after 21 days of fighting with the bear king. Satrajit was killed for the jewel. Krishna tried to get the jewel back again but he could not find it and his brother Balarama thought he was trying to hide the jewel for himself.

One day Balarama went back to hang with his cowboys and milkmaids and he drank some wine at a tree and got drunk. Pradyumna was Krishna's eldest son was thrown into the river and eaten by a fish. Then he was rescued by a fisherman. Rukmi died.

Jewel

 

Bibliography: Shri Krishna of Dwarka and other stories by C. A. Kincaid, 1920

Reading Notes: Shri Krishna of Dwarka and Other Stories Part A

 The demons, specifically Kansa, were harassing mankind. So Vishnu was reincarnated as Vishnu.  Kansa's cousin's 8th child was destined to kill Kansa. The 7th child was Vishnu as a serpent. Krishna was born as the 8th child and he went to Nagada's wagon. And they took a baby girl instead from the wagon. 

Kansa then released Krishna's parents. He then ordered that all male children be killed. Kansa then used a woman demon to kill the babies outside of his border. Krishna did a lot of mischief. Balarama was Krishna's friend. The villagers of Gokula then left their village for a better spot to live. Krishna ends up killing a lot of the demons that Kansa had sent. Krishna was nice to Kaliya.

Kansa plotted to kill Balarama in order to make Krishna sad and lose strength. Krishna convinced the cowherds to not sacrifice to Indra which made Indra mad. Krishna became god of the cowherds. King Kansa then acted like nothing was wrong and ignored his fate to be killed by Krishna. Kansa decided to hold a banquet and he invited the youth of Gokula, Krishna included, to the feast so he could kill Krishna.

In the capital Krishna and Balarama got new clothes. In the capital they had a wresting match. Then the boys killed Kansa and Kansa'a brother. Krishna said he could not rule over Yadava so he founded his own city. Jarasandha, Kansa's father in law made an army to avenge him but they lost 15 times but they continued to come so Krishna left the city. Kala-Yavana was tricked by Krishna.

Rukmani was an incarnation of Vishnu's wife Lakshmi. Ruk mi, Rukmani's eldest brother, refused Krishna from marrying her. However they ended up getting married.

Cowboy

 Bibliography: Shri Krishna of Dwarka and other stories by C. A. Kincaid, 1920

Reading Notes: Nivedita Ramayana Part B

 Hanuman killed a bunch of Rakshasas in Lanka but was captured and then he escaped and burned the city down. Hanuman then told Rama about what he had done and that he had found Sita. Then they began forming the army to lay siege to Lanka. Ravana's younger brother, Vibhishana, tells Ravana to give back Sita, because the Rakshasas will lose the battle against Rama. Vibhishana then joined Rama and Rama promised that he would rule Lanka once Ravana was killed. The army then built a bridge to get the army across into Lanka.

The monkey army was beaten back by Indrajit and Rama and Lakshman were wounded. Hanuman then got an herb to revive the monkeys who have died. Garuda came and revived the monkey army. Ravana woke up his brother Pot-earwho was the best fighter. Pot-ear was then slain by Rama. Indrajit then killed many of the monkeys, but he was killed by Lakshman after he had an illusion of Sita being killed. Also Hanuman got more herbs to heal the army. Rama then killed Ravana and Ravana's was mourned by Vibhishana, Rama and everyone else. And Ravana was given a hero's funeral.

Sita was glad to see Rama, but Rama refused to take Sita back since she lived with Ravana for almost a year. Sita then built a funeral pyre saying that she would die if she was unfaithful. She did not burn though because she was faithful and Rama took her back. Rama then returned to Ayodhya and became king. Sita then went into exile because of the rumors surrounding Sita. Rama then had a horse sacrifice and found out that Kusha and Lava were Sita's sons. Sita then told Rama that she was always faithful to him and she was received to the earth. Time then came to Rama and asked him how long he thought he would rule over the humans. At that Rama decided it was time for him and his brothers to ascend to heaven.

Horse

Bibliography: "Myths of Hindus and Buddhists: Ramayana" by Sister Nivedita

Reading Notes: Nivedita Ramayana Part A

 Valmiki decided to make the Ramayana and meditated until he saw the entire story. Then he made the story and had Rama's sons spread it. Dasharatha did not have a son so he had a horse sacrifice. Ravana was oppressing the gods so Vishnu was born to kill Ravana. Vishvamitra was the reason for Rama's and  Lakshman's love for strife. Rama breaks the bow and wins Sita. Rama was the favorite son. Manthara convinces Kaikeyl to use one of her boons to get Rama sent into exile. Sita and Lakshman follow Rama into exile. In exile they built a house to live in.

Dasharatha died grieving for Rama as was foretold since he killed someone's son in a hunting accident. Rama's brother tried to give back the kingdom, but Rama would not accept. The three spent 10 years in the forest doing various adventures. Rama killed Ravana's brother and 14 thousand rakshasas. Ravana stole Sita by using a golden deer to lure Rama away. Then Lakshman also left Sita when he heard Rama crying out for help. Jatayu the vulture died trying to stop Ravana from taking Sita.

Rama and Sugriva the monkey make an alliance. Rama decided to help Sugriva win his kingdom back from his brother Vali. After winning the kingdom back, Sugriva helped Rama find where Ravana lived. They found out Ravana and Sita were in Lanka. Hanuman crossed into Lanka and caused trouble. 

Deer

Bibliography: "Myths of Hindus and Buddhists: Ramayana" by Sister Nivedita

Reading Notes: Mahabharata PDE Part D

Shikhandin get her revenge on Bhishma, Arjuna and Bhishma fought and everyone watched and Arjuna killed him by tricking him. Arjuna was sad about killing Bhishma. With his dying breath he tried to make Duryodhana stop the war. Arjuna's son died. Bhima also lost his son because of the celestial arrow Karna had. Drona died because he was was tricked by the Pandavas because they said his son died when he actually didn't. Bhima then drank the blood of Duhshasana fulfilling his vow. Arjuna then killed his brother Karna.

The Kauravas then began to flee once Karna was killed. Duryodhana then hid underwater. But he came out and lost his fight. Ashwatthaman then raided the Pandavas with the help of Shiva. Arjuna then took the jewel from Ashwatthamann's head. Yudhishthira then became the king. Arjuna followed the horse that Yudhishthira sent out to attone for his sins. Arjuna was then killed but came back to life. The horse was sacrificed and Yudhishthira became the king. Krishna was killed by a hunter by being shot in the foot. Then the Pandavas went to heaven and everything was alright.

Mongoose

Bibliography: Arnold, Besant, Devee, Dutt, Ganguli, Kincaid, Macfie, Mackenzie, Nivedita, Seeger, and Tagore, Public Domain Edition of Mahabharata link

Reading Notes: Mahabharata PDE Part C

Pandavas go into exile again after losing the gambling match. There were good and bad things about exile. Arjuna goes on adventures to get the weapons that the Pandavas will need. Arjuna then had a vision and got a new bow. Arjuna lived in Indra's city for 5 years where he trained. The Pandavas saved Duryodhana and they were nice to him afterwards even though they were in exile. Karna and Arjuna become rivals. Karana loses his invincibility but he gains the ability to kill a strong foe. Yudhishthira answered some riddles. 

The Pandavas hid for their 13th year of exile otherwise they would have to spend another 12 in exile. The exile ended and a war with the Kauravas was about to start. Krishna, however, tried to have peace. Karna discovers the Pandavas are his brothers. However, he does not betray the Kauravas. Arjuna does not want to fight but he does. 

Answering riddles

Bibliography: Arnold, Besant, Devee, Dutt, Ganguli, Kincaid, Macfie, Mackenzie, Nivedita, Seeger, and Tagore, Public Domain Edition of Mahabharata link

Reading Notes: Mahabharata PDE Part B

 Vindru warns the sons of Pandu of Duryodhana's plot to kill them. The Pandava brothers move into the forest with their mother. Bhami marries Hidimbi (Rakshasa) after he kills her brother.  They then had a son and Hidimbi left. In hiding the pandava brothers go on various adventures. The princes wanted to marry Draupadi. The daughter of Drupada. Karna tried to win Draupadi, but she said she did not want to marry him.

Draupadi then marries all five of the Pandava brothers. The Pandava brothers were then invited back to the country and they ruled the southwest part of it which was prosperous. Arjuna then goes into exile for a bit and has some adventures. He then had a child Iravat with the daughter of the king of nagas. Arjuna then continues on his adventures and marries a bunch of women and has kids with them. 

Arjuna and Krishna help Igni burn a forest so he can be restored. Maya builds a palace for the Pandava brothers since Arjuna saved his life in the burning of the forest. Duryodhana was acting like a clown in the palace that was built and he became angry. Yudhishthira gambled everything away.  Then the princes went away.

The Princes Gambling

Bibliography: Arnold, Besant, Devee, Dutt, Ganguli, Kincaid, Macfie, Mackenzie, Nivedita, Seeger, and Tagore, Public Domain Edition of Mahabharata link

Reading Notes: Mahabharata PDE Part A

Devavrata (Bhishma) has the powers of 8 gods. Vyasa is the composer and main character of the Mahabharata. Ganga became Shantanu's bride only if he never treated her badly. Vyasa is the son of Satyavati. Satyavati marry's Shantanu and gives birth to Vyasa. Devavrata became Bhishma (the terrible) because he said he would not marry or claim the throne so Shantanu can have Satyavati as his bride. Amba lights will be reincarnated to defeat Bhishma.

Pandu is Vyasa's pale son who becomes king. Dhritarashtra is his blind son. Vindru is Dharma as a human. Karna is the son of Pandu's wife. Pandu died from a curse because he killed a brahmin.

Dhritarashtra becomes kings and his and pandus sons become rivals. His son Duryodhana became evil. Duryodhana hates Bhima because he's powerful. Bhaima gets strength. Arjuna is the best warrior. Karna and Duryodhana became friends.

Sun God

Bibliography: Arnold, Besant, Devee, Dutt, Ganguli, Kincaid, Macfie, Mackenzie, Nivedita, Seeger, and Tagore, Public Domain Edition of Mahabharata link

Reading Notes: PDE Ramayana Part D

 Rama had a bridge built to get to Lanka. Although it seems like it would be easier to just build boats instead of a bridge. It also seems like Ravana's pride is the cause of his downfall. This plot point would make for an interesting story. Also for some reason Ravana tried to make Sita think that Rama was dead. I did not really like how Rama is crazy powerful to the point where nothing was really at stake. Throughout the story there is never any question if Rama is going to win, but during the battle it starts to somewhat feel like a battle where both sides suffer and we really see Rama struggling to win. As a result, I want to make my stories have the hero struggle and even lose at times.

Ravana being sad about his sons death is somewhat similar to how Achilles is sad in The Illiad when Patroclus dies. And Ravana decides to go on a rampage as well. I do not really like how Hunaman is able to just keep going to the Himalayas super quickly to revive the warriors who died. It was interesting how Rama tested Sita to make sure she was faithful to him, and although it looked like he was being unreasonable at first I think he knew that she was faithful so she would be able to pass the trial.

I thought it was dumb that Sita was exiled by Rama. Especially because she went into exile with Rama on her own will, it kind of stings that she was forced into exile.

Himalayas

Bibliography: M Dutt, R. Dutt, Gould, Griffith, Hodgson, Mackenzie, Nivedita, Oman, Richardson, and Ryder, Public Domain Edition of The Ramayana, link

Reading Notes: PDE Ramayana Part C

 Sugriva and Rama have many similarities. They both have been exiled and have had their wife stolen from them. Vali was trapped in a cave because of Sugriva despite Sugriva having good intentions. It would be interesting to write a story similar to this one in which there is a misunderstanding that causes a power struggle among former friends. The fight between two brothers like when Vali and Sugriva fought could also be a good story.

It would be interesting to have a story where the hero helps someone and then that person ends up not fulfilling his promise. Hanuman finds Sita who looks sad and sick and she refuses to be Ravana's husband. Sita refused to be saved by Hanuman. It would be interesting to have a story where someone refuses to be saved out of pride and that choice is their downfall.

It does not make a lot of sense why Ravana did not kill Hanuman even though he was an "envoy". Hanuman was clearly not an envoy anymore once he started killing Ravana's guards. And Hanuman then set half of Lanka on fire. Additionally, Ravana's brother decided to ally himself with Rama.

Monkey

Bibliography: M Dutt, R. Dutt, Gould, Griffith, Hodgson, Mackenzie, Nivedita, Oman, Richardson, and Ryder, Public Domain Edition of The Ramayana, link

Reading Notes: PDE Ramayana Part B

 Bharata returned back home and discovered what his mother had done, and he is sad that he no longer has his brother or father. He then vowed to not be king and to bring Rama home so he could be king. Once Bharata found Rama he told him to come home and to become king, but Rama refused because he must obey his late father. This is because Rama believes that what makes a person good is their deeds, and that by ignoring his late father's orders he would be betraying him. I do not agree with Rama's decision though, because once the king died he no longer had power, and Bharata, being the new king, should have the power to right the old king's wrongs. Rama then continues to go deeper into the forest and along the way he meets various sages and battles against the demons. Rama then met a Rakshasi who is Ravana's sister and jokingly suggested she try and seduce his brother. The Rakshasi was angry so she attacked the brothers, but she then ran away. She then went to her brother who said he would take care of Rama and his brother with an army of 14,000 Rakashasa. However, Khara's army was defeated. Ravana then decided to talk with Maricha to decide what he could do, and he was told to leave Rama alone. However, Ravana decided to kidnap Sita. Once kidnapped Ravana tried to get her to become his queen but she stayed strong. Jatayu the vulture then tells Rama what happened and Rama and his brother set out for the ape king.

Jatayu

Bibliography: M Dutt, R. Dutt, Gould, Griffith, Hodgson, Mackenzie, Nivedita, Oman, Richardson, and Ryder, Public Domain Edition of The Ramayana, link

Reading Notes: PDE Ramayana Part A

 Dasharatha had no sons from his wives, so he made sought to make a sacrifice. This can act as the plot device for starting the story he then had four children from his three wives. Ravana is the king of the demons and he is invincible except he can be defeated by apes and humans, so Vishnu became the king's son, Rama so that he can then defeat Ravana. Rama was given celestial weapons after battling demons for the first time, and he was able to summon these weapons by thinking about them. I liked in the chapter Ahalya how it was written as a poem. Vishwamitra acts as Rama's mentor. Rama was able to bend the bow and won Sita from her father. Dasharatha then chose Rama to be king but Kaikeyi was persuaded by Manthara, who hates Rama, to use her favors to stop Rama from being king. Rama then went into exile with Sita and Lakshmana. Dasharatha  then dies a sad death due to his bad karma.

 Bending the bow

Bibliography: M Dutt, R. Dutt, Gould, Griffith, Hodgson, Mackenzie, Nivedita, Oman, Richardson, and Ryder, Public Doman Edition of the Ramayana, link

Reading Notes: Week 2 Anthology

The monkey and crocodile stories

• Told from the point of view of the crocodile and the monkey and then from the point of view of the Buddha
• The plot device driving the story both times is the wife of the crocodile wants to eat the heart of the monkey
• In the first story the monkey is somewhat fooled by the crocodile, because he rides on the crocodile to get to the island with better food. As a result, the monkey has to fool the crocodile to get out of the bad situation he put himself in
• In the second story the monkey has to fool the crocodile to get back to the island he normally stays on
• In both stories the monkey outwits the crocodile and the crocodile gives up

A crocodile waits for a monkey