Raven Tales: Season Two

Epsiode 14: Dream, Dream, Dream

Gwayum is worried about Widi's day-dreaming, so Frog tells her about the earliest times before the world when the Great Spirit decided to fill the space with light and life. He created the land and said, "Everything is ready now." He thought about what kind of creatures he would make until he fell asleep, dreaming of plants of all colors, insects, animals, birds and human beings. When he awoke, the Great Spirit saw Raven, Eagle and Frog at play in this first world, and he realized the world of his dream had become his creation. “We must not question the dreamers amongst us,” says Frog, “but be patient and help them if we can. They are the creators.” Widi jumps up. “I’ve got it!” He runs to the others and tells them he knows how to make a boat fly. They all laugh at him, but Gwayum offers to help. Working together, they take a length of fabric and attach it to a pole, which he puts in his tiny boat. It is a sail, and sure enough, it makes the boats fly over the water.

Epsiode 15: Dog Days

The children are fishing when a great wind takes them to a beach far away where they meet a huge animal that looks like a wolf. He introduces himself as Dog, and he helps the children hunt for food and keeps them warm at night. Eventually, he brings them home to his master, a Giant, to ask if he can help the children to go home. The Giant transforms dog into 3 times his size so that he can carry the children home on his back, but he nears the people’s village, Dog becomes smaller as the magic leaves him, shrinking to half his original size and starts to lose his ability to speak. Dog turns to leave the children on the beach apologizing that he is now so small, and surely will be of little use now, but the people offer to let him stay and he becomes a member of the hunt.

Episode 16: Great Bear Rock

The children are playing in the forest, making up games and competing with one another. Winadzi climbs too high onto a rock wall, but he's too proud to admit he is too scared to come down. Raven comes and tells him the story of how he tricked the great bear, who was always bragging of his great strength and bullying the other animals. Raven challenged the Great Bear to prove his strength by jumping to the small rocks off the coast, something that Raven and the other birds could do easily. Initially the Great Bear declined, but Raven questioned the Bear’s strength and courage and his pride drove him to accept. They jumped from rock to rock, each just a little bit farther than the last, until they were too far to jump back without help. Rather than admit he was weak, Bear decided to stay out on the rock until finally he turned to stone; and the rock remains on the beach to this day to teach the people humility.

Episode 17: Baby Blues

A new child has been born to Gwaiyum and all the family is excited, except for Widi. When the baby is born, she is not given a name because she will not stop crying. Then her eyes land on Widi’s warrior doll, she stops abruptly and breaks into a wide smile. The parents ask Widi to give the doll to her, but he refuses. Eagle tells him the story about when the Great Spirit was angry with the people for taking from the land and giving nothing in return, so he caused a great drought. Everyone was worried, but a little girl, Agas, knew what to do. She offered her most prized possession, the doll her late father had given to her, to the Great Spirit to ask for rain. The Great Spirit was pleased, and the rains returned. Widi decides to make his new sister happy and to help the people of the village by giving her his doll. Widi names the baby, who is now quiet and happy, Agas, which means, “She who is not alone.”

Episode 18: Starlight, Star Bright

The children sit outside looking up at the stars, wondering how they came to take the shapes that they have. Eagle tells them how the Great Spirit gathered all of the stars from the sky and called together all the animals to sit before the Old Man and his Daughter and give them a pattern for all to enjoy. Coyote, being a trickster, waited until everyone, including the Great Spirit was gathered to gaze at the newly-placed Morning Star. He tiptoed over to the box of stars and lifted the lid just a little, and the stars rose to the occasion, pushing the lid away and racing into the sky, which is why so many twinkle without order or pattern, and why so many are not named.

Episode 19: The Games

Raven, Eagle, Wina and Qos become lost at sea, coming to rest on a strange island. They find a village of people much like themselves, complete with their own Raven and Eagle. They are surprised to see Frog, who explains that there are many other people in the world, and many other Ravens and Eagles. She introduced everyone and an evening of dancing, storytelling and gift giving ensues. The following morning, the rest of the first people, led by Gwai, arriving in canoes of their own and the two villages decide to visit together. The children become bored, so Frog suggests that they organize some games to pass the time. Soon, both villages are competing in a variety of activities, which culminate in a huge feast and the exchanging of prizes. Through competing, they realize that hey have come to know and respect each other’s culture all the more, and come together in friendship. The people decide to join together in friendly competition once each year.

Episode 20: Spiders and Dreams

Dza is having nightmares. She cannot sleep and is confused and scared. Finding it difficult to decide on exactly what she’s afraid of, Eagle and the people decide she must be afraid of spiders because she said there was a spider in her nightmare. To help keep her from being frightened, Wina tries to watch over her as she sleeps. Unfortunately, he too falls asleep and enters the dream world. Here he meets the Spider and She gives him a gift of knowledge to protect the children from evil spirits. When Wina wakes up, he teaches the other parents of the village how to fashion the wood, leather and feathers into special gifts for their children, called a Dream Catcher.

Episode 21: Bukwas

Caught in a storm at sea, the men find themselves shipwrecked on a strange beach and are captured by Bukwas an evil spirit who takes their souls. When the men don't return, Igis goes to Dzunukwa, who tells her that the men are with Bukwas. She sets out to sea with Raven, who seems more interested in fooling around than helping her find the men. Raven builds three stick men and dresses them with clothes and hats from the village and they spring to life, clumsily following him and Igis into the forest. Raven tricks Bukwas into playing a game, wagering Bukwas' prisoners against his own. Raven wins, then loses, then wins again, each time trading men with Bukwas, until the men are all on his side. Raven calls the game a tie, but Bukwas is angy at being tricked, and tries to stop them, but Igis fends him off with her spear until the sun emerges, scaring him away and they escape.

Episode 22: Work and Play

After an argument with his mother for avoiding his chores, Klundux decides to live on his own with Raven in the forest, where they can play day and never work. Morning comes and Klundux realizes he’s hungry, but they have no food. After a failed day hunting, Klundux steals some food from his parents hut but it leaves a terrible taste in his mouth. At night the rain pours, making them so miserable that Raven abandons him and runs back to live with Eagle. The next day, Igis and Qos find that all the chores have been done for them - the house is clean and the stores are full. Klundux appears in the doorway and apologizes for stealing the food. His parents tell him he never stole anything, for their food is his food, he need only provide a little help now and then to earn his share.

Episode 23: Change and Butterflies

The Great Spirit tells the children a time of change is coming, that the world will soon be different. He then asks the children if they would like to grow up and have children of their own? The children would like this but first he assigns a task to them to learn about change, growth and responsibility. In his hand are 4 cocoons. He tells the children that their gifts will be revealed after they take care of and guard the cocoons until he comes back the following year. After Great Spirit leaves, the children almost immediately forget about the cocoons and Eagle spends an entire year frantically trying to keep track of them for the children. Finally a year passes and the Great Spirit returns. Eagle presents him with the cocoons and when he holds them to his mouth and blows on them, hundreds of beautiful shimmering butterflies emerge and everyone is in awe. Great Spirit gives them butterflies to remind Eagle and the people that there is beauty in everything, even change.

Episode 24: Day in the Life

As the villagers work hard at their chores, Raven works equally hard avoiding them. After escaping to the forest, he finds himself in the middle of a dispute over a giant salmon between bear and wolf. The Great Spirit hears their grievances, and asks Raven for his opinion, but Raven, who is always hungry, can identify with both parties. To everyone's surprise, the Great Spirit decides to give the salmon to Raven, for unlike bear and wolf, who have become prideful in their claim to the fish, Raven simply appreciates it for what it is: a nice meal.

Episode 25: Return of Kulos

S'gaana the Killer Whale won’t allow the villagers to fish. Faced with starvation, Wina decides to fight back. After a disastrous attempt at catching S'gaana, Wina takes inspiration from his dreams of the spirit world that tell him to look to the Kulos for a different strategy. He sets out again to battle S'ganna using the power of Kulos, a great hook that is shaped like one of the giant bird's talons. Exhausted from fighting the hook, S'ganna finally surfaces, and he promises Wina he will respect the villagers and share the ocean with them.

Episode 26: Musicians of the Sun

It is winter in the village and the sun is not shining. The snow is piling up, trapping the people inside and making them irritable. Frog comes to relieve the tension by telling the story of how the Great Spirit sent Raven to free the musicians of the sun, so that the people can have music and the world could have light. The Sun selfishly kept the musicians and their music for himself, but with Frog's help, Raven is able to free them, though their instruments are burned to ash in the process. The Great Spirit comes to the villagers and teaches them how to make new instruments, and they make beautiful music and the people are happy and the world is bright again.