Week 9 Story: The Insect King

The Insect King: The Beetle 

The ants have tried everything they could to try to escape the anteater. No matter what they did, it seemed to fail. The anteater has been ruining the ants shelter and destroying colonies for as long as the ants can remember. Their many days of hard work and labor would come to an end as soon as the anteater arrived. The ants who live in the trees originally lived on the ground with the other ants, but they thought they would be safer on a higher shelter. Even though they escaped the anteater, they had another enemy, the birds. 

The Queen Ant decided to call a meeting in the undergrounds of their ant hill. "I plan on talking to the Insect King at dawn. I will propose an agreement between us and our enemies, so they can leave us alone." The ants cheered and cried, as they were so hopefully that they would no longer fear their enemies everyday.  The Insect King was a beetle, who was known to cause peace between the insect world. The Queen Ant was hopeful that the beetle could talk to the anteater and the birds, but she had her doubts in the back of her mind. 

The Queen Ant and the Insect King met at dawn and discussed the Queen Ant's ideas and concerns. "The anteater relies on you all for food, as it has been like this for many years. I am not sure he would be willing to leave your colony at peace." the insect king said. "I will go tomorrow morning to see the anteater, and I will propose a peace treaty." 

The next morning came around and the Insect King approached the anteater. The anteater listened but refused the peace treaty. As they were talking, the Bird Queen came down and heard the Insect King's concerns. She felt guilty that the ants had been suffering for so long. "Why don't we try to feed on the plants and fruits instead?" the Bird Queen asked the anteater. After pondering his thoughts, the anteater decided that he would try to eat the plants and fruits instead. The ants, birds, and anteater all joined together and signed the peace treaty. After many years of living in fear, the ants were finally free. 

Author's note: In the original story, the Insect King never resolved the problems between the ants, anteater, and the birds. In my story, I created more of a dialogue between the insect king and the other animals and created a happy ending. 

Bibliography: Story source: South African Folk-Tales by James Honey (1910).

Comments

  1. Keana JoOctober 25, 2020 at 7:48 PM

    Hi Natalia, I think that your retelling was very nice. I appreciated and enjoyed the usage of more dialogue in your version and was very thankful that the Insect King was able to resolve the problems between the three species. I mean after all he is the Insect King you would think he would have more authority. Overall, great job.

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  2. Cade PosnerOctober 25, 2020 at 8:24 PM

    Hi Natalia,
    I think the way you retold this story was really nice, you did a great job. I enjoyed the dialogue you used. This made sure you could get a sense of how important and valued the king really was.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Caleb PinsonOctober 26, 2020 at 8:51 AM

    Hi, Natalia. Yay for a happy ending! My least favorite parts of so many of the folktales we've read are their abrupt and disappointing endings. I'm glad you made that change. I wonder if in a rewrite the ant queen could be the one to suggest the fruit idea and convince the bird to be on her side. we love an active hero!

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