Little baby Karna screamed and reached out his arms towards
his mother as she placed the basket he was in into the river. Though he was merely
an infant when he was placed into the river, his mind and body were
growing at a rapid pace. As he grew, the basket and clothes he was wearing grew
with him.
He watched the sun fall and rise up again and the birds fly
overhead softly singing to him as he drifted into the unknown. Suddenly, he felt
a thud and realized he was no longer moving. He sat up in the basket, looked around and realized his basket had washed up on to shore.
"Is this where my mother had intended to send me?" Karna
wondered. Feeling hopeful that it was, he climbed out of the basket and
wandered into the forest before him having suddenly aged into a young man. He was a little clumsy at first learning to walk in his outstretched legs but was quickly able to gain control and proceed to the forest like a regular 7 year old boy.
He wasn’t sure where he was headed or what he was looking
for until he stumbled upon a rock cave covered in moss and leaves. His stomach
was making loud grumbling noises and he was beginning to feel light-headed from
lack of food and water. He had become exhausted from walking and
thought the cave appeared to be a suitable location to rest.
He walked inside the shelter and found a fluffy-looking bed
tucked away in the corner. He looked around to see if anyone was there but concluded
that it was vacant. He walked over to the bed and laid his head on the pillow.
He had never been so comfortable. His eye fluttered shut and he drifted to
sleep in the peaceful home.
His sleep was abruptly interrupted as the ground began to
shake and a thumping sound grew closer and closer. His eyes shot open and he
shuffled into the corner to hide from what was approaching him.
“Who goes there!” roared a deep, angry voice. “I demand you
show yourself!”
“My name is Karna,”
he squeaked, his voice trembling with fear. “I was just looking for a place to
rest,” he explained as he made himself visible to the beast.
“Where do you come from, young man? You must be far from home
as there is not a village for hundreds of miles.”
“I came from the river,” Karna said hesitantly, knowing that
wasn’t the answer he was looking for. “My mother placed me in a basket and sent
me into the river. I floated until I reached the shore just over there and
walked to this cave,” he said gesturing to the direction he had come from.
The air was still and silence lingered as the beast looked
Karna up and down. Karna was unsure how this beast was going to react to what
he had told him or if he would believe his story at all.
“My child,” he said with sincerity in his voice, “I have
prayed for a son and my prayers have been answered. I shall raise you as my
own.”
The beast, who went by the name of Shrek, was cursed with
green skin, enormous size, and an appearance that sent woman and men alike
running away in fear at the sight of him. He had dreamed of having a child of
his own but because of this curse, no woman would even look at him. Having
spent that so many years alone, hiding in his cave and only leaving to retrieve
food and water, he was overjoyed to have someone enter his life.
Karna’s fear had only stemmed from the anger in Shrek’s
voice and not in his appearance. Upon hearing Shrek say he would take him in as
his own, Karna’s fear vanished and a smile spread across his face. Since the
curse, Shrek had never been in the presence of someone who wasn’t scared of
him until he met Karna.
Shrek took Karna into his home and kept his word to raise
him as his own child. Because of the generosity and love Shrek showed to Karna,
the gods lifted the curse they had placed on him and he returned to his normal
form.
Author's Note: In the Mahabharata, Kunti has a secret son
from Surya, the sun god. Because she is unmarried, she sends this son in a
basket into the river. He was born with celestial earrings and an invulnerable
coat of arms that grew with him as he grew. I began my story using this concept
that Karna’s mother sent him into the river in a basket.
Instead of his earrings and coat of arms I
had the basket he was floating in and the clothes he was wearing grow as he
grew. He then stumbles upon a beast named Shrek who takes him in as his own
son. For this story I attempted to include more dialogue than I usually include
in my stories. The main interaction is between Shrek and Karna when they meet
in the cave.
While the previous additions to my
portfolio have been focused on romantic relationships, I felt this story was a
fitting addition because it tells the story of the beginning of a father-son
relationship. I think this is a new dynamic of a relationship and with this
addition my portfolio now consists of a failing relationship, a thriving
relationship and the budding of a new relationship.
