This activity really ties in with the TED video Mrs. Lahaise showed us in class about how education stifles creativity.  So why not give it a try?  Here’s my story: 

 Once upon a time…there was a Peasant’s daughter called May who lived in a hut in the shadows of a great black mountain. The hut was very small and very cold, because the Peasant was very poor and his wife spent every penny he earned on cakes and truffles and wine.

One winter’s day, the Wicked King came to the hut and called upon the Peasant to come out.

‘I have come for my rent,’ King Evil informed the Peasant.

‘Please, sir,’ the Peasant begged the King. ‘I have no money left to pay you. May I pay you next month?’

‘Certainly not!’ King Evil said angrily. ‘If you cannot pay me now, I will take your daughter instead. She will make a fine wife for my son.’

‘No!’ May sobbed, for the Wicked King’s son, the Ugly Prince, was a foul and evil man.

King Evil paid May no mind. ‘I will return in one week for my money or your daughter,’ he informed the Peasant. ‘If neither is forthcoming, I will send my soldiers to remove you from this place.’

‘Oh!’ cried May. ‘What can I do?’

Just then, a single tear fell from her cheek and landed upon a Dull Caterpillar crawling on the ground, and all at once the Dull Caterpillar changed into a Magnificent Butterfly.

‘You must go to the Starmaker’s palace at the top of the mountain,’ the Butterfly said to May. ‘You must sing for him, and he will make you rich beyond your wildest dreams.’

‘But I cannot sing,’ May said.

The Butterfly flew into the air and landed briefly upon May’s lips, and then, with a tiny flutter of its magnificent wings, it was gone. And when May opened her mouth and sang, it was the sweetest sound you’ve ever heard.

‘The Butterfly was right!’ she cried happily. ‘I can sing!’

After some time she came upon a Wise Old Poet sitting beside a stream.

‘You sing very well,’ he said to May with a wise old smile. ‘Perhaps you would care to sit with me for a while and sing for me while I write my verse?’

He was so old that May felt great pity for him. ‘Forgive me, sir,’ she said. ‘But I have no time to sit with you. For I am going to sing for the Starmaker and he will make me rich. And then I will not have to marry the Ugly Prince.’

The Poet shook his wise old head. ‘The Starmaker may indeed make you rich, but he will never make you wise. I am the only one who can make you wise.’

‘You?’ May exclaimed. ‘How can you make me wise?’

The Poet looked sadly upon her. ‘It takes time to find wisdom, my dear. You must stay with me here beside the stream and we will listen to the silence of the world together, and I will teach you how to see the things that cannot be seen.’

May shook her head. ‘Thank you, kind sir,’ she said. ‘But I have no time to spare.’

And then, with a grateful bow of her head, she carried on up the mountain.

The gate was guarded by a Barefoot Giant.

‘Do you wish to enter the Starmaker’s Kingdom?’ the Giant bellowed at May.

‘Oh, yes,’ she replied.

‘Then you must fight me,’ the Giant roared, raising his giant fists.

‘But why?’ cried May.  The Giant was frightening and he looked as if he can crush her with just his forefinger and thumb.

‘For only the strongest may enter the Starmaker’s Kingdom,’ the Giant answered, gazing fearsomely into May’s eyes. ‘That is why.’

As May looked back at the Giant, she thought of her mother and father, shivering in the cold of winter, and she thought how sad she would be if she were married to the Ugly Prince …

And without another word, she suddenly sprang at the Giant and stamped with both of her feet upon one of his giant-sized little toes. The Giant howled in pain, and as he bent over in agony to clasp his wounded foot, May leaped over him and rushed through the great wooden gate into the Starmaker’s Kingdom.

‘Sing for me,’ he demanded when he saw her old rags.

May sang, and her voice was as golden as the palace itself.

The Starmaker nodded his head in approval. ‘Do you wish to become rich beyond your wildest dreams?’

‘Oh, yes!’ replied May.  ‘I want my parents to be happy and debt free,” May said humbly.

‘Then you must stay here for ever,’ he said. ‘You must stay with me in my palace and never set foot beyond the door. You must obey me at all times. And you must never again speak to anyone else. Do you understand?’

‘But what about my poor mother and father?’ May said, tears filling in her eyes.

‘I will see to it that they keep their home,’ the Starmaker assured her. ‘But only if you agree to my terms. Your mother and father will be safe, but you can never see them again.’

May thought for a long time, trying to decide what to do, and eventually she said to the Starmaker, ‘I will do as you say.’

Epilogue

The Starmaker kept his word. He invited Kings and Queens from all around the world to hear May sing, and she did indeed become very rich. She wore fabulous dresses and the finest gold jewelry, and she ate the richest food and slept in the softest beds. But it did not make her happy. For the Starmaker was a charmless man, and he worked her very hard and treated her harshly. But, worst of all, May had no one to talk to. She had no one to share her riches with. And although her father was very poor and her mother very greedy, she began to miss them terribly. And after a while she became so forlorn and miserable that she completely lost her mind. And early one winter’s morning, while the Starmaker was still sleeping in his bed, May crept out of the palace and went down the mountain into the thick dark forests where she lay down in the snow and closed her eyes and waited for the darkness to come.

(My ending after the epilogue)

After May went to lie on the snow and waited for darkness to come, she heard a magnificent sound that caused her to stir.  She opened her eyes and sat up.  She looked around.  She followed the sweet notes that flowed high in the air.  The low notes compelled her to move forward.

 In a meadow where sunlight shone through, it revealed beautiful lush leaves on the ground surrounding an angelic and handsome prince.  She was mesmerized and could not tear her eyes away from him.  His faced was turned up toward the brilliant lights and he was singing his heart out to the sun and stars above.

 Before she knew what she was doing, May carried on the harmony.  They went on for a while and the prince barely noticed the added voice.  He was enraptured in the sounds of nature.  Then the key changed and May took on the high melody and the prince stopped.  He turned to face her. 

 May was so caught up in the sweet high notes of her melody that seemed to carry her upward to heaven that she didn’t notice when the prince was in front of her, staring into her deep green eyes.  When she finished, her green eyes focused and sparkled. She looked straight into the prince’s dark blue eyes full of untold secrets and they knew.

 The prince took May’s hand in his and they walked off into the sunset, their beautiful voices carried on by the wind.

P.S. I only wrote the ending, nothing else.

http://wetellstories.co.uk/stories/week3/