Storytelling Week 2: Nobody

Nobody

There was once a fox and a pack of wolves that lived in the same forest. However, both the fox and wolves were enemies. The fox, although cunning and smart, was no match for the ferocious strength of a wolf. The wolves were very territorial predators so they owned the hunting game in a large part of the woods. This meant the fox would struggle very hard to find food at times. Although the fox didn’t have the strength or size of a wolf, it was still good at catching smaller prey such as rabbits. This was enough to survive regardless of the disadvantage due to the wolves claiming everything.

           

Winter was coming so this meant food was scarce and surviving would be hard for other predators such as the wolves. However, the fox was smart enough to have survived many winters before in the presence of the wolves and their territorial habits. On one of those snowy cold days the fox was starving and had yet to catch food. To its luck it saw a little rabbit. Although little, the rabbit was very fast, making it hard for the fox to catch it. So the fox ran after the rabbit chasing it as fast as its legs would let it. The rabbit also, running as fast as it could, went into a cave at the bottom of a mountain and so did the fox right behind it.

The fox quickly ran into the cave and just as it entered the cave the ground started to tremble and the fox was startled by the supernatural occurrence. Soon after the opening of the cave was closed with the large amount of snow form the avalanche occurring. There the fox looked around and it saw a larger then average wolf lying on the cave ground. The fox instantly realized that it had gone into the home of a wolf and to make matters worse the fox knew that this was the alpha of the pack. The fox had earlier encounters with the alpha wolf however, it had been lucky enough to escape. However, the exit was blocked in this situation. The wolf slowly rose up from the ground and said, “What is the name of the poor creature that has walked straight into the den to feed its inhabitant?” The fox answered, “Oh great alpha wolf, commander and chief to the wolves of the forest, my name is Nobody."

           

The wolf then answered, “Well then, nobody, I shall now feast for I am more hungry than ever before on this cold winter day." So the wolf quickly leaped into action and attacked the fox going for its neck but the fox quickly retaliated by scratching one of the eyes of the wolf with its sharp claws. As the wolf howled in pain, the fox lost no time in biting and scratching the wolf's other eye blinding the wolf completely. The wolves outside of the cave then heard the howls of their leader and ran to aid to the snow-blocked cave and asked, “Commander and chief, is everything alright?” The alpha wolf responded, “Nobody has injured my sight and now I cannot see nobody." The wolves then heard their leader and responded, “If nobody is bothering you, then we believe that is something you can handle being our leader." So the wolves went off on their way and left their leader in the cave.

            

The fox, although stuck in the cave with the great wolf, had survived and would survive for the rest of the time being until the snow melted and he could then escape. Once again the fox cleverly outsmarted the wolves and nobody was eaten in the end.

A fox biting a wolf.

Source: White Wolf Pack

Author's Note: The Original Story that inspired “Nobody” was from Homer’s Odysseus, translated in English by Tony Kline (2004). In the original story Odysseus and his men were trapped in a cave by a man-eating giant cyclops named Polyphemus. One by one the giant would kill some of his men every day until one day Odysseus got the giant drunk. While the Polyphemus was drunk he asked for Odysseus's name and the name given was Nobody. Odysseus then blinded the Polyphemus while he was drunk and when the neighbor giants came to help, Polyphemus told them Nobody had hurt him. Once Polyphemus was blinded and without help Odysseus was able to escape.

    This part of the story shows the cleverness and wits of Odysseus when he gave the name of nobody to the giant that was going to kill him. In the same way I picked the protagonist to be a fox because when I think of a fox I think of a clever and smart animal. In the story although the odds are against the fox it is able to overcome in the same way Odysseus did. I used the wolf as a representation of Polyphemus because when you think of the mightiest of predators in the forest, you think of a wolf. I also kept the story the same in the sense where the fox seemed to be hopeless just like Odysseus found himself in the cave with the Cyclops. I kept a lot of the details the same to have the similar feel of story. I also tried to word the response of the wolf in the same manner that Polyphemus responded to his neighbors. In this way the reader can see the similarity in stories and it shows a different version of the clever answer that Odysseus gave.