Week 9 Story: Fighting for Love

Fighting for Love

The Power’s family had just moved to their new farm and couldn’t be more excited to have finally gotten some of their animals put in pens. However, they let some of the animals including their dog Duke roam outside the land of the house because they didn’t really have anywhere to go for it was all farm land excluding a small forest about half a mile away.

Andy and his sister Anne were two coyotes who lived in this small forest and they couldn’t be happier that they had new neighbors.

“We must be patient. I promise we will eat some fresh meat, but we don’t know exactly what we are up against.” Andy told Anne as they were discussing when they wanted to attack the new animals of the area.

So, Andy instructed his sister to very carefully try and spy on the animals at the new farm house at night. When night fell, Anne crept her way towards the farm as quiet as possible without trying to be seen or heard by anyone. As she became close enough she couldn’t help but notice Duke sitting under a porch light. She noticed his strong shoulders, defined snout, dark brown coat, and thought he looked like a very well kept handsome coyote at first. As she crept a little closer she could tell that he wasn’t a coyote, but instead the most attractive looking dog she had ever seen.

Anne decided to head back to the forest, but she realized that she couldn’t let her, and her brother attack the farm. She had fallen in love with Duke just by his looks, but she knew that it was true. So, she decided she would go back and make an excuse to delay the attack in order for her to warn Duke.

Anne returned to her brother and told him that they must wait two nights for a surprise attack because she thought a bull might have seen her. Andy understood completely and didn’t want to rush into the attack, so he agreed.

The next day Anne realized that Duke wouldn’t love a mangy coyote like her, so she went to the river to roll around in the clay in hopes it would shine her coat and then bathed in the water. Once she was finished she looked into the water, was impressed by her reflection, and decided to trot over to the farm in order to warn Duke.

Anne after the cleaning in the river. I found this image on Wikimedia Commons.

As she reached the farm she saw Duke and approached him. Duke was at first excited to see Anne thinking she was another dog. They began talking which led to flirting which led to a day full of them hanging out together. Towards the end of the night, they both confessed that they loved each other.

Anne then told Duke about the plans she and her brother had about attacking the farm and how he should prepare before she returned to the forest.

As she returned, Andy could tell that there was something different about Anne. Anne began to tell him about her day and how she had fallen in love with Duke. She then begged her brother to not attack Duke or any of the animals at the farm, but Andy was determined.

“I’m going to get a meal out of those farm animals with or without you!” he told Anne.

The next night came way too quickly, and Duke was prepared with the animals for an attack from Anne’s brother.  As they waited he then saw Anne come sprinting towards the farm screaming “He is coming! He is coming!” To which he saw Andy trailing not too far behind Anne.

Knowing that Duke would be the toughest of the farm animals, Andy immediately ran towards him and tackled Duke. The two began scratching and biting each other until finally Duke found himself on top of Andy. He then tried to very calmly say “Let’s make a deal.”

Andy, as stubborn as he was decided that since he was losing the fight, he might as well listen.

Duke then explained how he loved his sister and promised to take care of her for the rest of his life if Andy would leave him and his friends alone. He then also offered to every now and then steal some of the beef that the Powers family had and give it to Andy.

Seeing that Duke was such a strong dog and was more than capable of taking care of his sister, as well as truly loving her, he agreed to the deal.

Andy and Duke never truly became friends with each other, but they did learn to respect each other, for Duke kept his promise and brought beef to Andy every week or so and Andy realized how happy his sister Anne was that she got to continue loving Duke.

Author’s Note:

This story is based off Hidimba and Baka from The Indian Heroes: Mahabharata - The Princes of Elephant City. The original story includes more plot, but I will only provide the information on what I based my story on. In the original story Prince Bhima leads a group of Pandavas through a forest disguised as Brahmins. Nearby where they were staying, two sibling monsters, Hidimba and Hidimbi, lived and smelled the humans and began planning an attack in order to eat them. In order to prepare for the attack, Hidimbi went to spy on the humans where she spots Prince Bhima and falls in love with him. She then transforms into a beautiful woman and tells Prince Bhima of her brother’s plan of attack, which he too falls in love with her. As Hidimba attacks the Pandavas, Prince Bhima personally handles him by throwing him down and killing him. Surprisingly, Hidimbi still loves Prince Bhima and runs off with him for a little while until he ultimately leaves her. In my story, I use Duke to resemble Prince Bhima by having him protect his farm friends and falling in love with Anne. I had Anne represent Hidimbi and Andy represent Hidimba in their quest to eat the farm animals. All in all, I kept the story the same except I had Anne just clean herself up rather than changing form. I also modified the original story by having the ending be more peaceful than Duke killing Andee, as well as having the two stays in a relationship together.

Bibliography:

 Hidimba and Baka from The Indian Heroes:Mahabharata - The Princes of Elephant City written by C. A. Kincaid

 1921