The Story of the Badlands, Dance in a Buffalo Skull

[clairevanvoorst]

Grade 3 , Story and Art, Individual
Reed Veldhuizen, Sioux Falls Christian Elementary, 6120 Charger Circle, Sioux Falls, SD 57005, clairevanvoorst@sfchristian.org, 605-334-7397

The sun was slowly sinking below the horizon spreading colors like frostin. The evening star was twinkling above the highest peak. The last shine of the sun disappeared and billions of stars could now be seen.
In the quiet of the night a rabbit slowly and silently began to come out of his burrow. First his twitching ears appear, then his twinkling pink eyes, followed by a pinkish nose circled by long whiskers. Finally his whole body can now be seen.
He scratches the ground to signal his friends. One by one they come. Finally everyone is there. They build a fire to warm themselves. As they are nibbling, one of them finds a four leaf clover. "This is a wishing clover!" exclaimed the largest rabbit. "Let's keep it for when we're in trouble!" All agreed.
Suddenly they hear a sound in the still grass. Trembling with fear, they stand perfectly still, wondering what the sound is. There is a creature among them! They glimplse its fiery eyes as it slithers slowly towards them. Its body looks like a fiery stripe ready to attack. Terrified, the rabbit group huddled together as the venomous bull snake came closer and closer.
One of the rabbits screams in horror as the snake sees his chance to attack. He strikes immediately at the fattest rabbit and he hits him in the heart making him die.
The dying rabbit remembers he has the four leaf clover in his pocket. He lifts it to the sky and wishes for someone to help.
Suddenly a jackalope pops out of nowhere, running as fast as he can towards the rabbit. He swipes his paw over the head of the dead rabbit. Mysteriously, the rabbit twitches his nose, comes to life, sits upright and scurries off as fast as he can leaving the snake to wonder what just happened.
The snake slithers off in a bad mood, thinking about how a jakalope magically appeared. He remembers he saw a small, green, twirling leaf. "It must have been a four leaf clover; it had to have been!"
The snake gathers his friends to make a new plan. They decide one snake will come out from behind and the other from the front.
At sunset they try to put their plan to work. They search for the biggest rabbit but never found him.
The lesson of this Prairie Tale is. 'Always keep a magic four leaf clover with you in case you are in deep trouble!'

[Martyn_Beeny]

Thanks for entering Reed. Best of luck!