The Cave of Gold

One day in a house on the outskirts of a forest, there lived a family of nine. A father and his wife had seven daughters. The dad went out late at night to gather wood for the fire and discovered seven wild duck eggs that would be perfect for breakfast the next morning. He hid them in his bedroom with the selfish thought of not sharing with any of his children.

The wife woke up early in the morning to cook breakfast for the family and discovered the duck eggs in a drawer with her clothes. She fried them up one by one for each daughter as they woke up and walked into the kitchen. She made each one promise not to tell anyone else or they would not receive a duck egg. The father was the last one to wake up and he excitedly opened his drawer to look for the wild duck eggs that he could eat for breakfast but discovered that they were no longer there. He caught a whiff of the lingering scent of the fried duck eggs coming from the kitchen. He ran out to the kitchen to realize all the eggs were gone. He was so consumed in anger that he went back to his room to cool off, when a thought came to his head. “What if I tell all of my daughters that I’m taking them to grandma’s house to visit and then leave them in the mountains instead to get eaten by wolves?” He gathered all the daughters in the living room and excitedly asked them if they wanted to go to grandma’s house to visit. The oldest five girls were skeptical of the random offer to visit their grandma and rejected his offer but the two youngest girls were excited to go see grandma.

The two youngest girls ran to go put on their jackets and got into the cart with their father. The father drove for a while until he reached the mountains and then asked the girls to get out for just a moment so that he could drive ahead and warn grandma that they were coming. The girls got out of the cart and waited. They started to get worried as the sun came down but the father still hadn’t returned. When the sky had completely darkened, they decided that they were officially on their own. The two girls went to go find a place to sleep and saw a shimmering sliver of light coming out from behind a rock. They pushed it aside to find a whole cave full of gold and jewels. There happened to be two beds in this cave for them to sleep on. The girls had no idea that the cave already had inhabitants. A wolf and a fox were returning to their cave after a day of hunting for food. They were exhausted and didn’t even notice the girls on their bed as they lay down on their beds to rest. The extravagant beds were large enough to fit multiple people on them so the girls were not woken up by this disturbance. The girls woke up the next morning in fear as they turned to see the wolf and fox next to them and quickly ran out of the cave. They decided to gather materials and start a fire as they had seen their mother do many times when cooking. They started a fire near the entrance of the cave to trap the wolf and the fox inside and they woke up to the smell of the smoke. The wolf and the fox begged the girls to put out the fire and let them go. The fox and wolf said they would offer the girls all the jewels, gold, and protection they could ever need. The girls agreed to their proposal and put out the fire. Every day, the wolf and the fox went out to find food for the girls and made sure no harm came their way.

A week later, the father started to miss the girls he had abandoned in the mountains and went out to go look for them. He saw how wealthy his daughters were in the cave of gold and asked, “Don’t you miss your family? Wouldn’t you want to bring home all of that gold so that we can live happily together again as a family?” The girls stared at him with contempt but did miss their mom and sisters. They asked their father to drive home to get their mom and sisters while the girls secretly asked the wolf and fox to let the mom and other sisters in but never allow their father into the cave. When the dad came back, the two youngest daughters were overjoyed to see their family members again and shared hugs with everyone. The girls showed their sisters and mom around the cave and had the wolf and fox block their father’s path. The family lived happily in the cave with the wolf and fox as guards to keep the father out and the girls never budged no matter how much the father begged to be let in.

Cave of gold: Linkedin

Bibliography. "The Cave of the Beasts" from The Chinese Fairy Book by R. Wilhelm, websource

Author’s note: The original story is about a dad that went into the woods and found seven wild duck eggs which is perfect because he has seven daughters but he brought them home and hid them for himself. His wife cooked all seven and gave them to each daughter. The father was so upset that he wanted to leave the girls in the mountains to get eaten by wolves. He invited them for a cart ride to their "grandma's place" and only the two youngest daughters agreed. He drove out to the mountains and left them there. They found a cave full of gold and jewels while looking for a place to sleep. The cave was owned by a wolf and fox that came home that night to sleep on their golden beds without noticing the girls so the girls snuck out and lit the cave on fire to trap them in. The wolf and fox begged to be saved but the girls refused and let them die. They lived in the cave until the dad missed them and came back so they all took some of the treasure home and lived happily ever after.

I changed the story to where the girls didn’t kill the wolf and fox because I thought that was too gruesome. It didn’t seem right for two little girls to be capable of killing other creatures. I was also upset that in the original story, the dad got to live happily and wealthy with the family after he abandoned his daughters in the mountains to die. He definitely doesn’t deserve a happy ending.