A Story of Trickster

“Gram, can you tell me another story about Trickster?” I ask this as I help her cut up potatoes for dinner.

She sits down from me and says, “Do you have any requests?”

I stop cutting for a second and shake my head.

She hands me another potato and says, “Alright then, since we’re making dinner, I know the perfect story.”

I nod and wait for her to start.

She takes a moment and smiles at me.

She opens her mouth, then closes it again and purses her lips. “You know that Trickster isn’t just one person or animal or thing, don’t you?”

I chuckle. “Yeah. I mean, mom never really lets me forget it.”

Gram nods. “That mother of yours really loves Trickster. Well then, why don’t we begin?”

She closes her eyes for a moment and takes a deep breath.

Back when our people relied on the hunters in our villages for food, Raven, as Raven so does, was causing trouble. She saw a whale poke its head above the water. The poor whale, who knew that Raven was tricky, didn’t know that Raven was watching him. And since Raven isn’t really good at thinking things through, she flew straight into the whale’s mouth.

Raven spent quite a bit of time in the whale’s stomach, where she met an old woman. The woman, mind you, plays no part in this story. She’s just there to teach Raven something that Raven doesn’t learn anyway.

Eventually, the whale washed ashore and was found by a group of hunters. They began cutting into it and made a hole into the stomach.

From Raven’s spot, it came as a surprise. A good one, but a surprise nonetheless.

Raven flew up to a nearby cliff in a black blur where she decided to watch the humans work. It was there, where she was perched, that she formulated her plan.

Gram shook her head and chuckled to herself. “Can you guess what Raven did next?”

I took a moment to think. Then I gasped, “She didn’t take it, did she?”

Gram nodded. “That’s exactly what she did. As soon as the hunters were out of sight, Raven took the sacks of meat and flew away with them.”

Gram chuckled and shook her head again. “That mischievous bird,” she said, with a hint of fondness in her voice.

Once the hunters finished taking the all of meat off the whale, Raven flew down to them.

“I saw a terrifying black cloud leave the whale earlier. Are you sure that this meat isn’t cursed?” Raven’s words were intended to spook the hunters, and that’s exactly what they did.

After hearing what Raven said, the hunters abandoned their meat, and left.