Storytelling - The Toddle Family

The Toddle family is just an everyday ordinary family, or so it may seem...They do have one characteristic that makes them a bit unique. You see, this family comes from the same bloodline of ducks. While this was thousands of years ago, the bloodline still flows through their bodies even today. So what does this mean? Well, this family from the outside looks like all other human families and really they are, but they are also able to turn into ducks.

This family can decide when they want to change their appearance, which has allowed them to blend in easily with the rest of civilization. However, they often choose to live out in the countryside on their own where they can spread their wings and soar high in the sky when they freely choose.

As if turning into a duck wasn't different enough, there is even more. This family is also able to die in bird form and be brought back to life. Often when the family is living off in solidarity one of them will change into bird form and be killed. The rest of the family will gather all of the duck's bones and throw them into a nearby body of water. The next morning at sunrise the duck's bones will again become a living duck and then is able to change into a human.

Now that you know the secrets behind the Toddle family, it's only fair that I tell you who the members of this family are. The first is the grandparents of the family that go by Bip and Ronald. This couple had three children Lou, Ray, and Carch. Ray married a sweet lady named Anna, and Lou married a strong and large man named Trevor.

It has always been important that this bloodline is carried on so that this special family can continue. From a young age, the elders of the family have taught the children that the most important thing in life is to marry and create children. Ray and Anna were unable to ever have kids no matter how hard they tried. This made Ray very sad because he felt as if he was a failure to not be able to provide the most important thing in life. After Lou married Trevor, Ray didn't feel as bad. Lou was able to have kids very soon after getting married and ended up having three little boys.

Now as the boys were getting older it was time for the entire family to educate them on who their family was, where they came from, and the most important part of life. But these three boys were turning out to have more problems than the others of the family with who they are. They would often joke around about turning into a duck and never fully appreciated their heritage. The elders of the family tried their best to educate the boys and show them how fortunate they were to have this gift, but the boys usually couldn't seem to care less. With the years of their youth slowly becoming a thing of the past and the boys coming into adulthood will they ever learn to cherish the gift that they have and be able to carry on their family's blood line and bring new women into their weird and unique lives?

(A Member of the Toddle Family - Public Domain Pictures)

Author's Note: This story is based on a Native American Marriage tale , The Youth Who Joined the Deer. This story originates from the Nlakapamuk people, also referred to as the Thompson River Salish, in British Columbia. In this story there is a village of people who can turn into Deer. These people hunt each other for food and then throw the deer bones into a river and the deer comes back to life. A hunter marries one of these deer women and lives with their tribe. He learns about them and is well respected. The hunter and his wife have a child together and decided to return to his people for some time. During the time they spend with his people they teach them to always throw the deer bones into the river. They decide to return to his wife's people and the hunter ends up turning into a deer too.

I thought this was a very interesting concept so I decided to make up my own story with a similar theme, but place it more in today's world. I thought the concept of a group of people changing into another animal was really neat. I also liked the aspect of killing the animal for food and then bringing it back to life. I wanted to keep this aspect of the story as similar to the original as I could, but created a different plot line surrounding it.

Bibliography: Native American Marriage Tales, The Youth Who Joined the Deer, By Stith Thompson (1929)