Waiting and Other Short Stories

~Waiting~

There once lived a young girl who was considered very beautiful by many people in her village. Young boys fawned over her twinkling blue eyes and long brown hair. This girl was very kind and generous, welcoming anyone and everyone into her cottage with open arms.

One day, while the girl (who will remain nameless for security purposes) was pulling up the bucket full of water from the well, came across a beggar in ratty clothes and obviously malnourished. She took him into her home, too which he was very grateful, and immediately started to care for him, providing the beggar with food and an old pair of her brother's clothes.

Well the beggar eagerly stuffing his face with the oatmeal the girl provided, a knock sounded through out the house. Informing the beggar she would be back in a moment, she pulled the old wooden door open to see a rather large toad on her doorstep.

"What are you doing here?" she inquired, perplexed. The toad looked up at her with big black eyes and replied,

"I am waiting for the rain."

With that said, the girl closed the door and returned to taking care of the beggar. She forgot all about the toad until later the next day, when the beggar left and she was sweeping the floor. All was quiet as she hummed to herself when a knock came from the front door.

Smiling wide, she opened the door to see the large toad once again, but this time was joined by a cat. Once again, she questioned,

"What are you doing here?" And she was answered the same way as before.

"We are waiting for the rain."

The young girl, a tad creeped out now, shut her door and turned around to continue sweeping the floor. But in front of her stood the toad and cat, blinking at her with dark, mysterious eyes.

"How did you get in here?" she asked, starting to get scared.

"We are waiting for the rain," they said in a monotone voice. Just then lighting flashed and thunder shook the house. A strong gust of wind came rushing in from the open window, making the candles flicker and almost go out.

After using all her strength to shut the window, she turned around to see a large array of animals filling up every nook and cranny of her little cottage. The fire that was heating up her stew was out and all that was left was the dim lights of the candles.

"Why are you in my house?!" the girl screamed over the roaring of he wind outside, positively terrified.

"WE ARE WAITING FOR THE RAIN. WE ARE WAITING FOR THE RAIN!" the animals chanted. Not even bother to look back, she untied her apron and dashed out the door, headed towards her barn. Making it to her horse, the young girl began to saddle him up.

Lightning flashed and all the animals appeared in front of her yet again, their faces lit by the one kerosene lamp on a box in the corner. Her face went pale and her hands started shaking, her heart pounding in her chest.

"WE ARE WAITING FOR THE RAIN." As the animals continued their chant the clouds opened up and rain poured from the sky in bucket loads.

"You have what you want!" She screamed, crying despite herself. "Go! Leave me be!"

So the animals did, but not before chopping her to bits and leaving her body for the rats to eat.

:) :) THE END :) :)

This literally was a story my friends and I wrote for English and my teacher read it to the class and the one after. I just touched it up a bit and added more detailed. Everyone laughed so hard and left the classes saying 'We are waiting for the rain' and 'What kind of folktale was that?' Well, my friends, that was a CATE FOLKTALE! :)