Multicultural Fairy Tales: RESULTSThe judges have deliberated and the results are in. Thank you to everyone who entered - it helped make my birthday a happy one. You can read all entries here. I was especially pleased to see so many people making use of lesser-known tales.
With no further ado, here are the winners of my Multicultural Fairy Tales contest.
FIRST PLACE
by :iconsaartha:
A retelling of Jack and Beanstalk (English) and Ghatotkacha, from the Mahabharata (Hindu).
saartha will win:
1500 points from Points Pool
Critique from LiliWrites
Custom poem or flash fiction from JessaMar
Journal features from LiliWrites, JessaMar, YouInventedMe, Asahi-Taichou, and Charlene-Art
SECOND PLACE
Jack and GhatotkachaThere had always been stories of a land of clouds, a land in the sky high above. A place of easy living. Jack had always dreamed about it, with the skeptic hope of destitute little boys. He loved his mother, and she did her best, but the disappearance of his father shortly after he was born meant hardship and struggle.by saartha
He spent his time while herding the cows in the fields daydreaming. How he would take his mother there, someday, and live happily together. “I’m a nimble sort,” he bragged to his favorite cow, Milky-White. “When I’m grown, I could jump there. One leap! Right over the chimney, you know, over the town.”
Jack leaped up to demonstrate, managing a foot or so off the ground. The cow chewed her cud politely. “Well,” he said, “You’ll see. I’ll start by jumping over you.” He jumped again, and if Milky-White minded the thump of boy against her flank, she was too genteel to say.
The years passed and soon Jack w
The boy who drew a life in the woods"What are you up to?"by ErlenmeyerKat
It was the first memory Nik had of his mother.
A toddler on her lap, he reached for her pen with one chubby hand. Heike smiled indulgently as she let him take it, watching him grip it in his tiny fist. She expected him to do what all children his age did, stick it in his mouth. The other mothers in the doctor's waiting room watched as well, many with judgment in their eyes, waiting for the coming disaster of ink everywhere.
"Ms. Branton?" The nurse surprised her, finally calling them. Heike followed, carrying her son into the pastel examination room. "Still not talking?" The woman ran a hand over Nik's blonde hair in sympathy.
"The test results...Is he okay?" Heike couldn't hide her concern.
"The doctor will see you, shortly," the nurse assured. "Until then, you can read the pamphlets." The woman gestured to the stack Heike held in one hand and left, closing the door behind her.
Sitting, Heike saw the booklets were now covered in ink. ADHD, autism, and a whole gam
Kago, The Wicked Young Man Once, on the outskirts of a small village there lived a man, Hiroshi, and his wife, Hanako. Hiroshi and Hanako were a kind and generous folk and living with them were Hiroshi's nephew, Kago, and his wife Saori. Now Kago was neither kind nor generous. Kago was a lazy, greedy, lustful man who could never be satisfied with what he was given in life. Each morning Hiroshi would announce that he was going hunting to feed the family and would ask Kago to join him. Each morning Kago would feign illness or claim some business far afield. Hiroshi would shake his head at the laziness of young men and go hunting alone.by SubjugatedSandwich
Though Kago had a wife of his own, one lovely and dutiful, he could not help wanting more. Each morning when Hiroshi would leave to hunt, Kago would pursue his love of Hanako, writing love poems and slipping them under her door. Hanako, upon seeing these poems, would shake her head at the greediness of young men and go about her day. Saori, would spend he