ZIA
by Alicia
Once there was a girl named Zia. She had a mom, dad and two annoying brothers. They lived in a large village. Zia was very shy and did not have many friends. She had one very little friend who was a skunk. He was a black furry animal and very popular to hunt.
Once every year the men and sons would go hunting. They would hunt close to winter to collect food and store clothing. The men hunted for bears and the sons would hunt for skunks. Since there were very few skunks in the world and most of them were near Zia's village, she knew her skunk would die. The night before the Hunting Day Zia's two brothers were tormenting her. They told her, "We're going to kill your skunk and eat it and use the skin to make a hat." Zia was so sad and angry she ran off crying.
She went into the woods where the skunk lived. She shared ideas with the skunk and the skunk respected and listened to her. She said to the skunk, "I know! I'll put white painted stripes on you and they won't recognize you."
That is what she did. She was so happy she ran home and opened the door and yelled, "Isn't it a great day."
"Yes it is" said her parents.
Her brothers just kept saying, "I'm going to kill your skunk."
She just turned away and smiled. The next day the men and sons met and started hunting. They killed loads of skunks, but could not find Zia's skunk. They just thought someone else killed it.
At the end of the day the boys came back and said, "We killed it." Zia just smiled and went into the woods and saw her skunk in a hole. The skunk had babies. For some reason the babies had white stripes also. Since there were not very many skunks left in the world their survival depended on Zia's skunk.
That is why skunks have white stripes today.