Andrew Elaryan's Mythology and Folklore Blog

As the group of five strolled through the unfamiliar town, a chill ran down Bluejay's spine. He could feel the eyes peering through windows and doorways. However, the fact of the matter is that his group needed food and a place to sleep for the night as they continued their journey home. Even if the locals weren't friendly with them, they would surely be friendly with their gold. "Stop," boomed a deep voice. The group turned to see a towering man in a fabulous headdress and the longest tobacco pipe they had ever seen. That was a Chief if Bluejay had ever seen one. "State your purpose," we commanded. Bluejay looked to his group, who had made him the de facto leader after losing their Chief to drowning earlier in the trip. He straightened his back to try to get to eye level with the village's Chief. "We are simply here to trade for food and goods, for we have nothing to eat and nowhere to sleep. However, we do have gold and will make fair trades ...

"I don't know, honey, this seems dangerous..." "Oh hush, darling, trust me we'll be fine. Have I ever let you down before?"  Mr. Tanuki grabbed his flashlight and peeked around the corner. It was almost midnight and time for another one of his heists. The mission was simple: sneak into the jewelry store under cover of darkness and take whatever they could fit in the bag. The jewelry store had just moved into the city from the next town over and had made the mistake of bringing over some of their inventory before the security system was fully installed. Mr. Tanuki, of course, would take advantage of this. The store was fairly protected from the outside. Standard camera setup, barred windows, motion detectors, the whole nine yards. The inside, however, did not have these same cameras and motion detectors yet, so it was only a matter of finding a way inside. A classic break-in would be futile and certainly leave evidence. However, the ventilation sys...

Portfolio Entry:  https://sites.google.com/view/taletwists/grass-cleaving A vast field of grass and weeds sprawled Yamamoto's front lawn. A suburban jungle grew completely unhindered in front of his house and the time for apathy was no more. With a sigh, Yamamoto resigned himself to spending the morning bringing order to his chaotic lawn. Opening the door to his garage, Yamamoto found his way to his home improvement tools. There lay a standard pull cord lawnmower, the red exterior covered in dust from months of lacking any sort of use. Yamamoto took a nearby rag and wiped the dust off of the handle, coughing as the particles entered his lungs. Yamamoto's lawnmower. Source:  Wikimedia Returning to the daunting task before him, Yamamoto made up his mind that there was no going back. He allowed the lawn to grow unkempt for this long, so it was his job to eliminate it. Bending down, Yamamoto gripped the handle of the pull cord tights, braced his core, legs, and back, and...

Egyptian Myth and Legend  by Donald Mackenzie Ra and Hathor "I bet you wonder why I have gathered you all here today," belted Ra, king of the gods. "It seems that humans no longer respect my authority and wish to revolt against me. This is unacceptable and as the gods, we must come up with a suitable punishment." "Poison their water!" yelled Isis. "Let the earth open beneath their feet and swallow their cities whole!" exclaimed Geb. "Scorpions in their bedsheets," suggested Serqet. The room was filled with cruel and unusual ideas as to how to punish the mortals. Ra took note of each, and, although there were some clever ideas, he finally settled on a quite simple one. "Hathor," Ra beckoned. "You are to go and slaughter as many mortals as possible so that those remaining will become reverent of my power again." "What, no that's psycho," said Hathor. "If you kill them all they'll j...

CURRENT VERSION:  https://sites.google.com/view/taletwists/pig-out Homer's Odyssey , translated into English by Tony Kline. (2004). "Wow, I can't believe we're gonna meet an actual goddess!" exclaimed Eurylochus. "Thinking about it, when was the last time we even saw a girl at all. This voyage home has turned into the longest boys night ever and" Odysseus shushed him. "Be quiet, Eury. We don't know if this goddess named Circe is on our team or an enemy, so we need to proceed with caution. However, I cannot deny the need to investigate. Let's draw straws to see who will go to Circe's home." The straws decided that Odysseus and Eurylochus would stay behind with the main crew, while 22 men went on their trek to the house of Circe. Eurylochus was unhappy with this result and decided to sneak out of the camp to follow the mission group. After some walking by the group, unknowingly followed by Eurylochus, they reached the large, b...

Susan, a 26-year-old accountant living in Lincoln, Nebraska, lead the most extraordinarily ordinary life you could think of. Wake up at 7:30, work 9-5, watch whatever is new on Netflix, then head to bed. Rinse and repeat Monday through Friday. And on weekends? Well, Nebraska wasn't exactly designed for those in their mid-20s.  However, there was one thing that could brighten Susan 's day without fail: coffee. Dark roast, light roast, Columbian, Ethiopian, Americano, Espresso, Cappucino, Black, sugar, no sugar, it didn't matter. Susan loved it all. Every morning, she woke up, took the beans that she just roasted the night before, ground it up so it would be as fresh as possible, and took her choice between her pour-over, french press, espresso machine, or one of the many contraptions she had collected over the years. This ritual resulted in a perfect cup of coffee that added a boost to her day. The effects of that first cup of coffee would last her until about 1 pm....