Cultural
Background
Storyteller's Cabin
Click-bok quickly pushed a root in the way and caught the bullet, letting out a painful cry. Ol' Taskmaster swung around, put the gun right up against the Click-bok and pulled the trigger. The gun let out a mighty... CLICK!
Click-bok had been counting on this, for she had been counting the shots, and she knew he was out of bullets. The Taskmaster turned to run, but Click-bok reached out with a root, wrapped it around his ankle and started to pull. Ol' Taskmaster reached for his Bowie knife and went to cut off her root, but she was too fast for him. She wrapped a root around his arm and pulled the knife away. Then she started to pull him into the ground. Ol' Taskmaster started to scream - it was a horrible scream, the scream of a dead man.
Zebedee's wife covered her ears from the sound. When Click-bok saw her, she wrapped a root around Taskmaster's mouth. The last thing anyone heard of the ol' Taskmaster was his muffled screams coming from under the ground. And then the ground was still, like that tree had always been there - all was quiet.
Then Zebedee's wife heard a whimper in the tree. When she looked up in the low branches of ol' Click-bok, she saw her Young'un. She ran to climb the tree, but Click-bok lowered her branches and gently handed Young'un to his mama. Then Click-bok spread her branches and stood up tall and proud. And she's stayed that way to this very day.
Now, in the fall of the year, you might find yourself seeking shelter from the rain under a big ol' oak tree. If you listen, you can hear the acorns hitting the ground (Click-bok! Click-bok!). Some folks say if you listen real close, you can still hear the muffled screams of the ol' Taskmaster. Now don't you worry, because as long as the red Alabama dirt is fertile and the rain comes down, the Click-bok tree will be protecting her children - now and for many rains to come.
To find out where this story came from, visit the cultural background page.
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