Week 11 Story: The Vampire Gets Married

Vampire by FriedC. Web source: Wikimedia Commons. 

A long time ago, there was an old woman who was a widow. She had a beautiful daughter named Zelda. The old woman taught her daughter that the most import thing is to marry a man who can cook so that she would never go hungry.

Years later, a handsome many named Henry fell in love with Zelda. Once he finally worked up the courage, he asked Zelda's mother for permission to marry her daughter. The old woman said that she would give her blessing if and only if Henry could prove that he could prepare a wonderful meal for all of them.

"I can do it. No problem at all," Henry answered nervously.

He left for a long time, and finally came back with a burnt and barely edible vegetable casserole.

"It's...umm really good," Zelda said, trying her best to not let her face give away how awful the food was.

"This is terrible. It's the worst food I've ever eaten!" the old woman exclaimed.

Henry felt terrible, and tried to prepare a delicious meal every night for a week, but every night was the same. He would disappear for hours, and would return with a disgusting dish that no one even wanted to eat. Henry even managed to mess up making a box of macaroni.

The old woman became very suspicious of Henry, so she instructed Zelda to follow him one night when he left to prepare dinner. Zelda felt bad about violating his trust, but decided to follow Henry anyway.

Zelda followed Henry to the edge of the forest and screamed when she saw him stop to drink the blood of a rabbit.

Henry turned around, blood on his face, and tried to explain himself to Zelda.

"I could never love a vampire who kills to live!" Zelda yelled as she ran away.

Henry stayed in the forest until all of his body disappeared and all that was left of him was his fangs.

Author's Note:

This is based on a story called The Owl Gets Married. In the original telling, the widow wants her daughter to marry a man who can hunt. The man is only able to catch a few fish each day and does not do well at hunting. The widow's daughter sees that the man she is married to is actually an owl and leave him. In my story I changed the concept of a man who can hunt to a man who can cook, and made him a vampire. The original story ended with the owl mourning in the forest until his head was all that was left of him, so I changed that aspect to the vampire's fangs being left.

Bibliography:

The Owl Gets Married from Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney. Web source: The UN-Textbook.