Week 11 Story: The Four Sisters

The Four Sisters

The Four Koi Fish Represent the Four Sisters
Reference Author's Note
Source: Google Image

There were four sisters who lived in a small village and made up the community's only military. Due to a recent natural disaster, the village was suffering from a ginormous lack of resources, and the sisters were sent out on a journey to find food and materials to bring back home. 

Each sister had a special ability that contributed greatly to the group. The oldest was a strategical genius and the leader of the clan. Her name was Samar. The second oldest had amazing strength and speed and was proficient in close combat. Her name was Shakti. The third sister had incredible sensory abilities and visual prowess that allowed her to hunt and navigate at a heightened level. Her name was Samaj. Lastly, the youngest sister had the ability to manipulate nature, such as water and wind, and was the most skilled archer in the nation. Her name was Sprakti. Without one another, they were nothing. Together, they were the most cohesive unit in all of the land. Unfortunately, they were not aware of how strong together they were until they decided to become apart. 

While traveling, three of the four sisters with physical, tangible abilities wanted to continue the journey without their oldest sister. They always believed she did none of the work and got all of the credit as her power was simply her intelligence. Hearing that the three sisters wanted to move forward without her, Samar was livid and felt betrayed by her siblings. She pulled her rank and demanded they rest for the remainder of the evening in order to regroup. 

The other siblings, however, decided to move forward with their plan and left Samar at their camp in the middle of the night in order to find the material and food for themselves. They planned on returning to the village without her proving she was not worthy of the leader position. 

As the three women scavenged for food, they came across a pack of thieves who were determined to kill them. The sisters could sense the thieves wanted a fight, but they were not concerned as they were confident in their skills. The thieves attacked, and the sisters quickly realized their powers were not working to the best of their ability. The synchronization they are so used to feeling during a battle was gone. 

Fifteen minutes into the battle, the sisters realize they cannot win this fight and start to panic. Luckily, Samar sensed something was wrong and tracked the sisters in order to determine where they had gone. When she sees her sisters in distress, she immediately jumps into the battle shouting commands left and right. The sisters were so grateful to see Samar and immediately started doing as she said. Suddenly, they were working as a strong unit again, and in no time they defeated all of the thieves. 

After the fight, the three sisters apologized to Samar and vowed to always stick together no matter what. They continued their mission and went back to their village with food and supplies to last them months. They never doubted their sister or their team every again. 

Author's Notes: This story is loosely based off of the Jataka Tale, The Three Fishes. In the tale, there are three fishes: thoughtful, more thoughtful, and thoughtless. More thoughtful ends up savings the lives of the other two demonstrating the power of this characteristic. I wanted to write a tale that was similar in the lesson, but was done with humans. I chose four sisters with separate powers as a nod to the brothers in the Mahabharata. The sisters' names each represent their power as they are all inspired by the Hindu translation. In this story, the sister with the most mental strength was able to save the day despite her power not being something people can see. I liked the way the original story taught a lesson without explicitly telling the reader what the lesson was; therefore, I attempted to copy that technique in my story. 

Bibliography: Ellen Babbitt's The Three Fishes