Week 11 Storytelling: The Crane's Revenge

There once was a young crane that lived at the edge of a small pond with his parents. He loved his home because there were tons of other animals around to play with. He was friends with turtles and frogs, but his best friend was a young crab that was the same age as him. The one species that the cranes had never gotten along with was the fish. This was because the cranes ate the fish. One spring day the crane’s parents were teaching him how to catch the fish. He watched as his mother and father tossed a dead bug into the water and stood very still at the waters edge waiting for a fish to spot it. All of the sudden the largest fish that the crane had ever seen shot out of the water and pulled both of his parents under with it. He waited horrified by the event, waiting for his parents to come back up, but they never did. He ran straight to the crab family home where he explained to them what had happened. They took him in and raised him as one of their own. That summer the crane hit puberty and grew to his full size. It was a hot dry summer and the pond slowly got lower and lower until it was so low that the fish were struggling to survive. The crane blamed all of the fish for what had happened to his parents and hated them all equally. He stood next to the pond one day thinking of how he could get back at the fish. A small fish poked his head out of the water.

“What are you thinking about crane?”

“I feel bad for all of you fish. I am thinking about how I can help you. There is a larger pond just across this field that I could take you to in my beak.”

“You’re lying! You just want to eat us!”

The cranes friend the crab who had been swimming in the pond swam over.

“I’ve seen that pond before. Does it really still have a lot of water?”

“Yes, it has tons of water! Come with me and I’ll show you.”

The crane leaned down to the water so the crab could grab his neck to hold on. Then he flew to the other pond and back and dropped the crab back off at the pond.

“Wow! There is tons of room for everyone at that other pond. I would go with the crane unless you want to dry up here.”

Not knowing that the crane and the crab were good friends the fish agreed to go with the crane one by one, and one by one the crane took the fish to a tree where he dropped them into a fork in the branches. He killed each one of them and he and the crab ate them all together. He finally got his revenge.

Dried Up Pond from Wikipedia

Author's Note:
In the original story the crane tells the fish that he will take them to the bigger pond, and when they don't believe him. He takes one of the larger fish to see it and brings him back so that he can convince the rest of the fish that it is alright to go with him. The crane then takes them all and kills them one at a time. Then he returns to the drying up pond to find a crab. He decides to try to trick this crab the same way he did the fish, but the crab is a little bit smarter than the fish. He convinces the crane to let him ride on his back and hold on to his neck with a claw. When the crane tries to make his move the crab decapitates him.

In my version the crab and the crane are friends that are trying to get revenge on the fish for killing the cranes parents. They work together to trick the fish and end up convincing them to go with the crane. The result is the same as the original story.

Bibliography: Jataka Tales (The Crane and the Crab) by H.T. Francis and E. J. Thomas (1916).