How Not to Date a Skunk Read Online Free

peer up at him. “It won’t help.” He chuckled. “But if you are willing to listen?”
    “Start talking.”
    “Okay, as it was told to me, once upon a time an Indian maiden was born. She was beautiful and perfectly formed in every way, except that she had a head of white hair. Her family and the medicine man took this to mean that she was special, that her beauty would be legendary. And it was. The people came from miles around to admire the Indian maiden with the hair of snow and the beauty of a summer’s morning. But all that attention caused her to become vain and puffed up with pride. She would spend all day brushing her hair by the riverside and perfuming her body with the petals of flowers. Instead of putting people off, this only encouraged the young braves to vie for her hand. And she turned away each and every one, but they kept asking. She would tell them why would she waste her beauty on plain-looking men? She was meant for better things.”
    “A bit of a Narcissus, wasn’t she?” Bilana put in.
    “Very much so.” Chaska chuckled. “In fact, she was so vain, she declared that only a god would be fit for her beauty.”
    “And she got punished for it?”
    “Oh, yes. One day when she was brushing her hair by the river, a wrinkled old man came up to her and complimented her on her beauty and asked for her hand. Now, he was an extremely homely old man, wrinkled and short, smelling of pond water and old earth, wearing the oldest of worn and rotting leathers. And of course she told him,
    ‘Why would I take your hand, as old and ugly as you are? I am fit for better things. I am fit for gods. Now go away! Leave me alone!’”
    “But she was in for a surprise. For the wrinkled old man pulled off his garments and there emerged Turtle, handsome, healthy and very godlike. Then the maiden was excited, ready to take the hand of the god she had seduced with her beauty, but she was in for another surprise. Turtle would have none of her.
    “‘You think you are fit for gods because of your beauty? Well, I tell you this.
    From this day forth, the very sight of you will disgust people. When the braves see you coming, they will run in horror. And that is not all. The very smell of you will be enough to make people vomit. For no longer will you smell of flowers, and no longer will The People lie in awe of your beauty. Everyone will run at the very sight of you!’
    And her beautiful skin became furry and dark. And the smell of the flowers she rubbed into her skin was replaced with a repugnant odor. She had become the skunk. The only sign of the woman she once was, was the white stripe down the skunk’s back.”
    He finished speaking and smiled at her.
    She frowned. “And that explains what?”
    “That explains my ancestors.”
    “But you are not a skunk… well, not all the time,” she allowed.
    “No, but that is not all of the legend.”
    “There is more?”
    “Yes. After a few years, the maiden learned her lesson. She avoided The People but she remained on the outskirts. She used her smell to herd animals toward her village. She left tufts of her fur to be used as medicine. And eventually, Turtle saw she had learned her lesson. With that, he changed her curse. She would only be a skunk sometimes. As long as she lived her life in benefit to the people, she could retain her beauty and her human form. This she did, but as a warning and a reminder, each of her children carried the same curse and the same burden as their Mother. The curse has been handed down from generation to generation until this day.”
    “And you are her descendant?”
    “Yes.”
    “And I am supposed to believe this?”
    “Well, you saw me turn into a skunk.”
    He had a point. So Bilana just sat back and tried to take this all in. “You are a legend,” she said finally after several beats of silence.
    “My many times great-grandmother was a legend. I am the poor fool who got caught with her curse.”
    “But… this is amazing!”