An older man gathers his quilt and a couple of his other belongings. He gets up and begins to walk to the the big fire set a blaze in the middle of the camp grounds. A young girl follows behind him. The older gentleman is so majestic and tall that when he walks it is as if you can hear the thunder in the distance gather with his foot steps. The young child tries to emulate her grandfathers walk in an overly exaggerated and playful manner. The little girl looks to be about seven or eight years of age. She has warm brown skin, chubby checks and two long kinky braided pigtails that befall her shoulders with big bulbous berets at the ends. Grandfather finally reaches the fire, and the little girl is so bent on imitating her grandfather that she forgets to pay attention to where she is going and when he stops she keeps on walking. She bangs into the back of her grandfathers legs and she is knocked back by her own gumption. "HEY!" she yells, as she is flung backward onto the soft grass that breaks her fall. "I didn't even notice you Aliyah. What are you doing back there?" Grandpa says in a voice as thundering as his walk. "I'm tryna walk big like u Big Daddy!" Aliyah says excitedly and hops back up dusting off her blue and purple shorts where she had fallen. She walks toward Big Daddy normally this time and careful as to not make a repeat of her last tumble. "Are you ready to hear an old time story?" Big Daddy asks. Aliyah finishes her journey to a big oval rock where her grandfather is already sitting and climbs on top to sit. "Now I am!" shes says as she cuddles up next to Big Daddy. He lays a bit of the quilt hes already under, on her legs. "Better cover up those pretty little legs don't want those knees shaking." Big Daddy says. "Your right" Aliyah agrees.
"Big Daddy tell me about the time when you and Daddy went fishing when he was my age." Aliyah asks as she smiles excitedly. "Aren't you tired of hearing that story leelee? Why don't I tell you a story my grandpa used to tell me?" he inquires. "You used to have a Big Daddy too?" Leelee asks. "Yup" Big Daddy answers "When i was little like you. He used to tell me story that his grandpa told him and his grandpa's grandpa told to his grandpa and all they way back until the story was first told." "Wow, that's an old story. What is it about big daddy?" "It's about a great snake and the seven scales" said Big Daddy. "I want to hear it big Daddy! It sounds way better then how daddy almost fell out the boat trying to catch the big fish when he was young." Aliyah said with a bright an beautiful smile she was intrigued and couldn't wait to hear the new old story that her grandfather was about to tell her.
"Well are you comfy and set kiddo?" Big daddy asked. "Yes" liyah replied. "Okay. In the time before time, when men didn't walk the earth, before the earth was even created. There lived a beautiful serpent who had seven great scales. They were bright and beautiful they glistened and glowed and resonated with the a brightness that gave light to the darkness of this space. Even though the great snake was very young it was very big. The great snake always traveled with its seven scales each one glowed with the different hues of the rainbow and they shown in the darkness of space like we see the stars in the skies now.
The great serpent loved each of her scales greatly and everyday she would count them by lighting them up one by one until they all glowed in a harmonious light. One day while the serpent was on her daily travels she noticed a far away light off in the distance. Intrigued she decided to investigate and see where the light was coming from. As she moved closer to the light she realized it was a small and odd creature one she had never seen the likes of before. Still curious she proceeded to move closer to the small creature. When she was close enough she called to the creature 'what is your name small one?' The creature did not answer her back so she called once again 'Do you have a name? Who are you? Where did you come from?' The creature still remained silent and still. The great serpent decided that maybe the creature could not hear her so she proceeded to move even closer and blink each of her scales to the creature maybe it would notice her then. So she did and each scale in all its splendor and beauty blinked and glowed in the darkness and created vibrant patterns across the skies. At that moment the small creature revealed itself and it wasn't so small after all. It turned out to be a great and powerful monster of the heavens. The creature grew large and long and powerful tentacles grew from the center of the being and millions of eyes opened all of them glowing almost as bright as the serpents scales. The serpent was frightened and tried to escape." Big Daddy paused for effect. Liyah looked at big daddy with intense anticipation "Oh no KEEP GOING BIG DADDY KEEP GOING!" she yelled excitedly. Big daddy proceeded "When the serpent moved away from the creature one of the monster's testicles emerged from the darkness and wrapped itself around the serpents body. The serpent twisted and struggled and tried to wriggle free, but the harder she fought the tighter the tentacles griped. The tentacles began to pull the serpent back in to the abyss of its center. The great serpent was very scared but the tentecals had begun to grip her so tight that she was not able to move and so she was paralized with fear and tried to accept her fate. But while she wrestled in her own mind to understand what was happening to her she refused to accept it. Just as she was about to descend into the deepths of the great monsters abyss, she thought of her scales and with all her might she made them glow as bright as possible and the light that came from them over powered the darkness of the skies and blined the moster's millions of eyes they all shut and the monster was confused by the light and let the great serpent go. At that moment the serpent fled the monster and continued on her travels but not with out being very shaken up at the experience, but something felt very different. She had been so taken back by what happened that she didnt even notice that her seven scales were no longer on her long body and at first she was devastated and began to cry. 'Oh no i have lost my scales' the great serpent said with great sadness. Just as she began to cry the hardest she noticed from the corner of her eyes seven great spheres that glowed even brighter than her scales had in the past. At first she amazed and a bit confused at how they had gotten there but as she peered closer the spheres possessed an uncanny familiarity and she felt a great connection to them. When she looked even closer she noticed that they all glowed with the beautiful hues of the rainbow. Instantly she knew, 'My scales' the serpent gasped.' Each of her scales had become beautiful bright spheres that gave an even greater brightness of light to the darkness of this space. So to commemorate and honor the great spheres that used to be part of her she did a great dance around each of the seven spheres and cried great tears of joy. These tears became what we know as the stars in the skies. And some say that some where far away out in the depths of space the serpent still dances the dance of the seven spheres of light!" Grandaddy finished with a great smile on his face. "Wow that was a great story Big Daddy!" Aliyah said with a great big smile. "Yes it was and there is a dance that goes along with it. Would you like to see it?" He said. "Of course." Liyah smiled. "Okay, here we go first you take your left arm and you wave it like this." Aliyah looked on in amazement and fascination and tried to emulate the movements her grandfather did before the fire. "That's right your getting it Lili." Big daddy's great voice thundered into the darkness of the forest. And so they danced and danced until their hearts were content and Aliyah never forgot the story that her big daddy told her. When she got older and had children of her own, she told the story to them to honor the traditional telling of the great snake and the seven scales.
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