The Monster and the Mittens

One day I was taking a leisurely stroll through the woods. I had never been to this part of the woods before.

I stopped to get a drink from the stream, when I saw two little kittens playing on the rocks nearby. I said hello and waved. The kittens looked up, and screamed very loudly. They pointed to something behind me, and shouted something that I didn’t quite understand. They looked very frightened. I must have just missed what they were pointing at because when I looked behind me I didn’t see anything. When I turned back around the kittens were scampering away.

I noticed that one of the kittens had left their mittens on the rock. I went and picked up the mittens, and called out, “Hey! You forgot your mittens!” They must have not heard me because they kept running.

I started to walk after them, thinking that it would be terrible later if one of the kittens could not find their mittens.

In the distance I saw the kittens briefly stop and talk to a cow and then started running again, this time with the cow running with them. ‘They must sure be in a hurry to get somewhere,’ I thought.

They stopped several more times, and soon they had a dog, a crow, a snake, a bowl of ashes, a package of needles, and a bowl of peas with them as they ran deeper into the woods. I lost them for a little bit in the trees, but knew that I was going in the right direction because I heard them rustling through the woods.

Eventually I came to an old farm house. I did not hear any crashing in front of me anymore, so I assumed that they were all inside. I did not see a front door. I walked up to an open window and called in. There was no response; I decided to climb in the window to place the mittens on a nearby table.

As I climbed in, the crow came up and nipped me on the nose! I stumbled into the kitchen, where I received a bite by the snake. I fell onto the couch, where someone must have accidentally left the needles, and I sat on them. When I looked up to keep from crying, a pile of ashes landed in my eyes. I tried to find a sink to rinse out my eyes, but ended up stepping on hard peas that someone had left on the floor. I fell out the front door, where the cow poked me with its horns.

As the dog rushed out to bite me, I cried out, “Wait! Stop! I have your mittens!” I frantically waved the mittens in the air. The dog stopped short. The two little kittens stepped out from behind the front door and slowly started to make their way over to me. “Why did you leave a trap for me?” I asked. The kittens looked at me, confused, and started speaking in a language that I could not understand. I then realized that they could not understand me either. They did not know that I was friendly. I imagined myself how the kittens must have seen me, a large creature with pointy teeth who was following them through the woods. I set the mittens down on the ground and slowly backed away, hoping not to frighten them further.

As I turned away, I heard a small noise behind me. When I turned back around, one of the kittens was smiling, and handed me a flower. Taking the peace offering, I smiled and headed back home. I still see the kittens in the woods sometimes. Instead of running, they smile and wave.

Author's Note (Edited): I wrote this story based on the Tibetan folk tale, The Two Little Cats, who were scared because they met a Handre, a creature with huge teeth that eats little folks, like cats. Throughout the story various animals and objects offer to help the cats escape, and the story ended with the dog eating the Handre. In my version, I made the Handre nice, and wrote it from his/her point of view. All of the extra characters in the original story made it into this one. I did not include the notion that the inanimate objects were semi conscious, or how all of the animals and objects had verbally offered to help the kittens escape the Handre. I also added the plot point of one of the kittens losing their mittens because it gave the Handre a reason to go after them that did not involve eating them. I chose mittens because it rhymes with kittens, and I can recall at least 3 children's books that are based on a similar premise. I also made the Handre and the other characters speak different languages, so they could not understand each other. This helped add to the confusion. I changed my writing style from my original version of this story. Originally, I had the story be one long paragraph. This style became rather hard to read, so I made several paragraphs in what I felt were logical breaks in the story. I wrote the story in first person because it was the easiest way to portray the Handre's thoughts and emotions. This story is also loosely based off of a story that I remember from when I was little about two creatures that were afraid of each other, but became friends when they realized the mutual fear.

Tibetan Folk Tales: The Two Little Cats by Albert Shelton

Finnish mittens, Source: Wikimedia Commons