Storybook Plan

  I got a bit carried away! I sort of told the story as it was coming to me!

 

El Salvador 

INTRODUCTION


I think I have decided to have 2 children as the protagonist. In this story, the children will somehow get lost or lured in the forest and have different encounters with the spirits. The introduction will be one of the children much older telling his/her story of that night to his/her children or grandchildren. The introduction will include the background information of each of the entities and their origin stories.
most of the background information can be found here: El Salvador Legends



First Encounter
 La Llorona  
 Background: She is a young woman who is hurt by her husband's incessant infidelity.  Despite his betrayal towards her, he loved his children that he had with her very much and she saw that. Feeling no love from her husband and in an act of blind rage, she drowned her two children. Realizing what she did she drowns herself but is not accepted into heaven for her actions and is cursed to stay and search for her two children and their forgiveness. She roams the land searching for children, she can call her own and takes them to replace the ones she killed.


 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Llorona

 
Brainstorm for this character :
The first encounter will be la Llorona I think the two kids will be lured out to the countryside by cries and whimpers of a woman.  They are led to a river and they will see this beautiful woman crying in the riverside and they reach her to see what they could do to help. She will try to take them to replace the children she lost as they struggle to get away she pushes them into the water and they feel as if they were drowning by a dark force.  They miraculously get away somehow the older sibling sees a glow from under the water and a tree branch is then submerged. He/she reaches the branch and grabs the hand of the other sibling is pulled from out of the water. When they are out the child is holding a tree branch in his/her hand but is unattached to a tree. He/she is left perplexed of what handed this to him/her and pulled them out. Hearing her cries again saying " My children" they run away from the river. That's when they reach their next encounter


 Second Encounter 
La siguanaba y El cipitio
 

Background:

La sigunaba
The story goes that La Siguanaba herself was a peasant girl who by using her charm and witchcraft made her way to being queen by marrying the son of Tlaloc. When her husband was away at war she would cheat on him and become pregnant with the child of her lover. Tlaloc who was the God of the rain punished her by cursing her and her son. She seduces men by appearing as this beautiful young woman and lures them deep into the countryside or canyons. Once they are lured she appears in this horrible form, her true appearance, and if they do not die of fright then they are driven insane by the sight of her. She also is looking for her son wandering the countryside.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sihuanaba

El Cipitio
He is the illegitimate child of La Siguanaba and her lover. He is cursed to be a child for eternity. Although he does not harm many people he likes to trick them often throwing rocks at pretty girls. Truly he is just a spirit that likes to annoy and cause trouble. Legend says that he wears a big hat and his feet are backward so that when he runs away no one can trace him. He also has the power to appear and reappear anywhere.


Brainstorm for this character : 
For this encounter, they will run away from La Llorona frightened and run into this young boy with a big belly and oversized hat. This boy tells them to follow him and he leads them deeper into the trees of the countryside. That's when they get separated one continues to follow the boy while the other gets lost in the forest. The child that got lost by looking at the strange boy and saw that his feet were backward and that the strange boy couldn't stop smiling while running; startled by this he/she loses their footing and falls. Left alone he/ she tries to continue to search for the other sibling worried that they are with the strange boy. The child that followed him never looks back just trying to keep up with the strange boy, not realizing the sibling was lost.  The child never so concentrated on follwing the boy and never ran so fast as if he/she were flying. The strange boy continued to look back saying "sigueme" which means follow me. It was so dark that the child just fixed on following the boy wherever he went trustingly imitating every step. As they kept running deeper in the forest the boy would laugh at first very soft but after a while, it was louder and more frequent. He then again said " sigueme" and ran even faster. They ran so fast not thinking just running and then his laughter the sound of his feet hitting the ground completely disappeared. The boy then felt this push like no other that sent him flying backward and when he looked up; he was within steps away from the edge of a cliff. He almost followed the boy off the ledge and when he looked down he saw no one no trace of the boy. As he/she sat trying to process what happened he hears the faint laughter of the boy deep below the cliff.
Then as he/she turns around he sees this white wolf run back into the forest. It glowed brighter than the moon with eyes that were icy blue. He/she stayed still frozen until the wolf was out of sight and he/she heard a scream within the forest.
following the scream, he/she sees its sibling and runs to them and that's when the other sibling explains they saw a horrid figure a woman but not the same from the river. She looked like death itself. When they try to go back running out of the forest they see her again and she begs them to stay with her and runs to them grabbing one of the children and then she stops and looks behind them and says " These are mine I got to them first" and the siblings looked back and see this black wolf darker than the night as black as charcoal. He looks at her stepping closer to them and she yells this horrid yell as if she's marking her territory standing firm. Then he growls and she steps back and says " this is the last time you will take mortals from me" and that's when they were left with their third encounter.

Third Encounter 
EL Cajedo
Background:
 The final charcters are two wolf like creatures one black and one white. They both in a way symbolize good and bad. The black one symbolizes the bad and hunts for lone wanders and tries to steal their soul. The white one is the good one that protects those who are alone from evil especially children. Some say they have even seen these two fights. The origin of these two is said to be that the fortune gods saw the struggles of man and decided to create a protector for them which is the white Cadejo and seeing this the devil in a jealous rage created the black one.

I chose this one because I want to incorporate the white Cadejo into the story as a silent protector for the protagonist in all its encounters and they realize that this creature has been helping them the whole time when it comes to the final face down against the black cadejo. I think at this point I am leaning towards the protagonist being young children.



 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadejo






Brainstorm for this character :

The black wolf circled them and the oldest sibling put themself in front of the younger blocking the wolf from the younger sibling and the wolf stopped and looked directly into the child's eyes. The wolf's eyes were red as blood and mesmerized the child he was paralyzed and couldn't break free. The Wolf showed its teeth and stood in a position as if it was ready to attack and devour its prey. Then the wolf was tackled by a white figure. It was as fast as lighting and they fought viciously. When they separated the white wolf stood in front of both children growling at the dark figure. The dark figure paced side to side as if trying to find an opening to the children but the white wolf never let him. The dark wolf then attacked the white wolf and the older sibling took his younger sibling's hand and ran they both ran gripping to the hands of each other. concentrating on reaching out of the forest. That's when they saw a street at a distance and they ran to it. When they reached the street they didn't recognize where they were it was pitch black when they heard something across on the other side of the street. What could it be now another terrible spirit? They turned and saw the white wolf its white fur tainted by red. He was hurt but he stood as if his wounds didn't affect him. The older sibling once again stood between the younger sibling and this white wolf trying to protect his/her younger sibling. The white wolf didn't approach them but looked at them for what seemed like forever. They stood still not wanting to move to hope this wolf would just go away. After a while, the wolf walked forward and then looked back and nodded as if he was telling the children to move along with him. The younger sibling then tells the older sibling that they think he's good; he protected them from the evil black wolf. The older sibling still cautiously stood between the younger child and the wolf; even though the wolf was on the other side of the street. They kept walking that way with the wolf guiding the children from across the street and the children following on the other side. As they walked in complete silence the older sibling realized this was not the first encounter with the wolf, He/she then realizes the wolf was there with every encounter saving them and as they walked further he saw that his/her younger sibling was right. This was no malicious entity but the only good one they encountered. This wolf was the reason they escaped the evils they saw. Then they realized they were at the street they started from just a short walk from their home. The boy then turns to the wolf and looks at him says "thank you for your guidance" and the wolf then approaches the children from across the street. The wolf reaches them and sits in front of them. He was beautiful and majestic his eyes were icy blue but his presence held such warmth and pureness. The children both touched the wolf softly and the wolf licked each of them and howled. That's when the sun emerged and light broke from the heavens. The wolf nodded his head forward as if telling the children to head home. The children bowed and thanked this spirit again and walked forward. As they reached the street to their house they turned around and saw the wolf watching them from a distance as if to make sure they reach their home safely still serving as their protector. Once at their street, they looked again and the wolf's white glow got smaller and smaller as he walked off into the forest again.