The Girl Who Climbed to the Sky

Ahead of her was something flat and shiny. Had she reached the very edge of the sky? She touched the surface. That moment, she fell backward, but not out of the tree. She fell onto a ground. Looking around at the brown bushes and gray skies, she said, "I must be in the Sky World. What a dreary place it is, not at all pleasant like Earth."

"Get used to it," sneered an old man.

"Who are you?" said Sapana.

"Who do you think?" he hissed, and transformed himself into a giant porcupine. "I knew I could lure you here. It was so easy! I've been watching you and knew you would make a fine wife for me."

"What? I won't stay here! You can't make me!" Sapana cried.

"Really? And exactly how do you propose to leave?" He turned and aimed his giant quills at her.

Sapana had no choice but to stay with the porcupine-man. When he brought home buffalo hides, she had to scrape and stretch them, and sew them into robes. If there were no hides to work on, she was told to pull up wild turnips for dinner.

One day, she was tugging at a turnip that she knew was too large for her to pull. Yet she tugged at it anyway. was especially stubborn. Maybe because she was so frustrated with her unhappy state, maybe because she was so angry at the porcupine-man, but she would not give up on that turnip. She worked it and tugged it from all angles until it finally started to give way. She pushed it back and forth, using her digging stick for leverage, until finally with one mighty push she rolled it on top of the ground. Gasping from the effort, she noticed a patch of light shining up from the hole where the turnip had sat. She peered down the hole - it was the sky! Far down she could even make out patches of green that must be the earth. Her heart racing, she rolled the turnip back over the hole. Now she knew how to get out of the Sky World! She just had to fashion a way to safely lower herself back to Earth.