Storytelling Week 10: Thunderbirds Abound

A long time ago in the far North, thunderbirds lived prosperously. After a while, there weren't that many of them (four to be exact). They decided to make their home on the top of a mountain overlooking the Yukon.

Once they had made their home safe and sound on the mountaintop, their numbers gradually grew more and more. The parents would fly down from high up the mountain and wreak havoc for the locals. They would take livestock, huge amounts of fish from the lake, and even a fisherman or two. Because of their actions, they developed a horrible reputation.

Now you must keep in mind these birds were massive. Much larger than any bird the locals saw on a regular basis. They flew with such speed that their curved, razor-sharp talons would flash in the sky like lightning cracking in the clouds. Their screeches were so loud that it could be heard extremely far away and echoed across the still, Northern landscape. This is why the natives called them thunderbirds.

How natives saw the thunderbirds.

One day, a hunter grew tired of his wife and children living in fear for their lives because of the winged beasts. After all, it hadn't been safe for them to do the things they needed to sustain themselves for quite some time. So he took his bow and a few larger-than-necessary arrows and headed towards the thunderbird nest. 

When he got there, he was shocked to find not one nest, but many nests, all filled with growing thunderbirds. He realized he wouldn't have enough arrows to kill all of them, so he improvised. He figured these birds couldn't fly just yet, so he took out his trusty flint and rock and tried to spark the nests. After he got the first one to catch, he repeated the same thing with all the other nests. He watched contentedly as each nest burned, and he felt a weight lift from his shoulders as he realized his peoples' troubles were gone. He started towards his village to tell the people what he had accomplished. 

What he didn't realize is that there were still more thunderbirds flying around away from where they usually were. By the time the birds were back to their nests, the hunter was long gone. They cried out feverishly, but realized finding and killing whoever did this wasn't worth dealing with until their numbers grew again. So the thunderbirds wait patiently, circling the mountain and surrounding areas for food. They cry out often and loudly to remind the people they are there. And this is why the thunder on the mountain seems to crack so often.

Author's Note: I chose The Last of the Thunderbirds as my story inspiration, from the Alaskan Legends unit. In the original, the hunter goes to the mountain and kills all the birds with arrows. There's also no mention of them sounding like thunder or anything of that nature, I just added that in there cause it seemed like something a non-advanced civilization would make up to explain thunder or lightning. 

Bibliography:

"The Last of the Thunderbirds."

Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911).