Week 11 Story - Three Friends

One day three friends were enjoying each others company by a pond in the forest. They were the deer, the turtle and the woodpecker. They had met long ago when they were each very little. There had been a very large fire in the forest that separated all three from their families, so they became their own little family and grew up together.

"It is such a nice day today." The turtle acknowledged.

"It really is!" The deer replied, "And look, I brought some berries that I picked earlier today."

The friends happily shared the treat and then went back to their homes for the night. But as the deer was walking back to his home, someone was watching him. A hunter who had wondered over to their area of the forest noticed the deer and wanted to catch him. The hunter decided to leave a trap on the path between the deer's home and the pond. The hunter set his trap and then went home for the night.

The next morning the deer rose to another beautiful day and decided he was going down to the pond to see how his friends were doing that morning. Just as he was about to get to the pond though the trap caught him and he was stuck. His friends were close by and heard his cries for help and were there instantly. Woodpecker quickly thought of a plan.

"Turtle, you use your strong teeth to cut through the trap. I will go to the hunters house and distract his for as long as I am able to."

The turtle quickly started to work on the tough leather attached to the tree and the woodpecker set off for the hunters house. Just as soon as the woodpecker had gotten to the hunters house, he noticed him leaving out the front door. He dove down with all of his strength and struck the hunters head. The hunter quickly went back inside and laid down for a while because he hurt so bad. After an hour or so had passed, he decided he would try and go out once more. The woodpecker was ready though and thought to himself, the hunter will probably try to exit out of the backdoor this time to escape me. The woodpecker was right and he caught the hunter just as he was leaving out the backdoor. The hunter went inside once more to lay down. After a couple more hours, the hunter set out. This time the bird flew far ahead to warn his friends that the hunter was on his way. Just as the hunter got close, the turtle chewed through the last piece and the deer pulled away and ran into the woods. The woodpecker flew up into the sky and got away. However, the turtle was so tired from all the hard work that he wasn't able to get away in time. The hunter picked him up and put him into a sack.
The deer was watching from close by and knew that he had to save his friend. The deer ran out in front of the hunter to distract him. The hunter hung the bag up on a tree and ran after the deer with his knife. While the deer was leading the hunter far into the forest, the woodpecker flew to the turtle.

"Are you okay, friend?" The woodpecker asked.

"Yes, I am just scared." The turtle said.

"Don't worry, we'll have you out of there in no time at all."

The woodpecker grabbed the strings of the bag and pulled up away from the tree. The bag was heavy but he didn't stop trying. Eventually he was able to lift it off of the branch and set it in a grassy patch down below. The turtle wiggled out quickly and was so happy to see his friend. Just then, the two of them heard a noise coming closer. The deer burst out of the trees with a smile on his face.

"He is so far away and very lost." The deer said proudly. "Thank you both for taking such good care of me. You are the best family I could have ever asked for."

The three happily went away to enjoy the rest of their long lives together.





Author's Note:

I really loved the original Jataka version of this story because I thought it was very sweet how well all three friends cared for each other. There wasn't much backstory on how the three became friends so I added a little to my story to help explain what brought them together. Also, the woodpecker doesn't do too much to help the turtle when he gets caught, the deer mostly does the saving but this time it was more like a team effort. Everything else in the story was pretty much the same

The Woodpecker, Turtle, and Deer
Source: Story
By: Ellen C. Babbitt

The Deer
Source: Jataka