Cassandra the Sheep: Cursed! 🐑 | Greek Myths Adapted for Kids

0:13 ♪ Foggy Oak Farm ♪♪ Come on down to Foggy Oak Farm♪- Hi friends, welcome to Foggy Oak Fairytales. Each week, we'll bring you a new story. Some weeks, we'll share a story based on what's been happening on our real-life Foggy Oak Farm, where we have all sorts of animals and adventures. Other weeks, we'll use our imaginations and create new adventures together. I'm so glad you're here. This week's story is based on the Greek mythological prophet Cassandra. In this retelling, Cassandra is a sheep who is caught eating the flowers of a wizard.

1:08 The wizard curses her in revenge. She will know bad things that will happen in the future, but no one will believe her when she warns them. Unlike the Greek myth, this one has a happy ending. Cassandra learns from her curse and when it is removed, she is able to anticipate bad things that could happen and help her friends avoid them, even without the curse. Let's join her now. Once upon a time, there was a young you, which is a female sheep, named Cassandra. She was a happy little you and was friends with every creature she met.

1:50 However, she did have a tendency to wander a bit and one day as she was contentedly grazing in a field near a tall tower, she found herself in a beautiful bed of flowers. The flowers looked delicious. They smelled even better than delicious. Cassandra couldn't help herself. Before she knew it, she was chomping away at the gorgeous blooms. She was reflecting to herself that it was amazing they could taste even better than they looked and smelled when an angry, booming voice rang out above her. What are you doing?

2:36 How dare you eat my flowers? She had only just processed that the angry voice was coming from up in the tall tower when a tall, furious looking man with a long white beard and giant caterpillar eyebrows materialized in front of her. And that is when Cassandra realized that she wasn't just eating flowers. She was eating flowers that belonged to the most ill-tempered wizard in the world. She had never met him, but she'd heard him described. Everyone she knew called him grumpy stilt skin because he was known to be as grumpy and mean-spirited as the legendary grumpy stilt skin when he was having a bad day, which he usually was.

3:27 Cassandra tried to gasp out an apology and run away, but it was no use. Before she could even get out the first syllables of,"I'm sorry!" The wizard was bellowing at her again. You wretched little sheep for eating my flowers. I'm going to curse you. - Curs me? No, please, I'm so sorry. I didn't know they were your flowers. She managed to choke out around her fear. - Oh, you don't want a curse? The wizard asked slightly. Cassandra was very suspicious of the sudden change in tone. No, please, I'm so sorry.

4:11 Well, how about a gift then? The wizard responded ominously. I give you the gift of always knowing when something bad is going to happen. The wizard chuckled to himself as if he had just told a hilarious joke. Cassandra was confused. Why would he give her a gift? Knowing when bad things were going to happen seemed like a good thing. She was about to work up the courage to ask when he continued. - Of course, you can't expect a gift to come without strings attached. Now can you? - He demanded it another suspiciously sweet tone.

4:54 - No indeed. The only minor downside of this gift is no one will ever believe you when you warned them. - Cassandra felt her heart sink. So it was a curse after all. But maybe the wizard was wrong? Maybe her friends would believe her if she warned them when she saw something bad was going to happen. She let herself hope a little. And before the wizard could come up with any other gifts, Cassandra yelped out another so sorry again and ran away like her life depended on it. High up in the sky, a dragon who had seen the whole incident play outside, a little puff of smoke and fire emerging as she did so.

5:40 Grumpy stilt skin was really becoming a problem. As Cassandra ran back towards her home, she started to calm down. After all, she didn't feel any different and really would her friends truly not believe her when she told them things? - Not likely. She actually snorted to herself. Sure, she wouldn't meet his flowers anymore, but she wasn't going to waste a lot of time worrying about Grumpy stilt skin either. She slowed down to a walk appreciating the spring breeze. As she walked down the lane towards her home, she came across one of her friends.

6:18 It was Mr. Alligator who was, as usual, working on building his house. He was finishing some work on the roof, pushing supports into place and covering them and overlapping layers of bark and long grasses. It looked nice and Cassandra knew he had been working on the snug little house for some time. As she called out, agreeing to her friend and walked closer to the house, she suddenly felt like her whole body had been shocked. As if it was happening right in front of her, she could see that Mr. Alligator had forgotten to sufficiently brace some of the rafters of the roof.

6:54 In a few days, there would be a terrible storm and the winds from the storm alone were going to cause the roof to collapse, bringing down the whole house around Mr. Alligator in the midst of a massive storm. The vision only lasted a moment, but Cassandra knew she looked stunned. Posing from his work on the roof, her friend called down to her. "What, Cassandra, you look like you've seen a ghost. Whatever is the matter." Forgetting what the wizard had told her about not being believed, Cassandra immediately blurted out,"Oh, friend, I just had the most terrible vision.

7:33 There are a couple of spots up there on the roof that are not fully supported, and we're going to get a terrible storm in a few days that will bring the roof down and the rest of the house with it. Won't you fix your roof and prevent it?" Mr. Alligator laughed. "Oh, you silly little sheep, what nonsense. I don't believe you for a moment. Go on home now and leave me to my work." He turned back to what he was doing and would not hear anything else that Cassandra said. Now she understood, "Oh no, oh no!"

8:09 She said to herself, continuing home, there was nothing she could do. He didn't believe her. It absolutely felt like a curse. Cassandra worried and worried the next couple of days, but the weather stayed beautiful. Perhaps she had really just imagined it all. She went to bed feeling better. It must have just been her mind playing tricks, but late that night she heard the skies open and buckets of rain fell down on her own snug little cottage. The wind began howling outside like a tornado. All she could do was huddle in her house and hope she was wrong.

8:55 The storm calmed by morning and Cassandra rushed out to check on Mr. Alligator. When she got to his house, she saw a sad looking alligator serving the ruins of his house. "I can't believe this happened!" He met her to himself as he worked to clean up the mess and start over. He was okay, but the house sure wasn't. Her vision had been true. Cassandra worried over it and decided to go down to the beach to watch the waves and calm down. When she got down to the beach, she saw her friend Peggy the pirate with her parrot biscuits getting ready to push their little rowboat out into the water.

9:37 "Guided Martin in the arca Sandra," Peggy called. "Biscuits and I are going to look for some treasure out on the islands. Care to join us?""Joyn us, join us!" Biscuits asked, but just as Cassandra was about to respond, another vision came over her. "Oh Peggy, I wish you would fix your boat before you go. If you go out today with the boat like it is, you're going to spring a leak and you and Biscuits are going to sink.""Oh, nonsense Cassandra!" Peggy laughed. "My boat is as sound and leak-proof as the biggest boats on the ocean.

10:21 Don't worry, your head laughs." And Peggy placed Biscuits on her shoulder and finished pushing the boat into the ocean. Cassandra could hear them singing as they rode along. "A long, long, long we go, singing an island song, a long, long, long, long we go." But then, apparently inevitably, Cassandra heard the shout,"Oh, no, fly away, Biscuits, fly away! We've sprung a leak!" Peggy cried out loud enough for Cassandra to hear her over the waters. She saw Biscuits launch into the air and she saw Peggy dive off the boat and swim towards shore as the boat slowly began to sink under the water.

11:10 Just like Mr. Alligator, at least Peggy and Biscuits were fine, but the boat was lost forever. Realizing the beach wasn't going to be at all relaxing now, Cassandra took herself on a walk to the big meadow instead. "It doesn't work when I try to tell my friends that I can see what's going to happen, but I wonder what if I just started fixing things myself before they can go wrong? I won't even tell them what I've seen. I'll just fix it so there's no issue of them not believing me," she said to herself.

11:46 Cassandra gave a delighted woohoo of happiness, feeling as if a giant weight had come off her shoulders. She trotted happily along to the big meadow where she spent the day happily grazing and feeling much better about the world. When she headed home that afternoon, she noticed a giant pothole forming in the dirt road. As she glanced at it, she had a vision of her friend Harvey the horse trotting along and not seeing the hole. He twists his leg badly. She knew how dangerous a twisted leg was for a horse.

12:23 They sure weren't fun for she, by the, and she immediately fetched a bucket and some sand from the nearby beach. She packed the hole with the sand, covered it with another layer of fine gravel, and then more dirt, and stepped back to admire her handiwork. You could barely tell there had been any issue with the road. As she took a rest after her hard work and felt the pleasure of a job well done washing over her, Harvey himself galloped by on his evening run. Before she could even wonder if a vision would overtake her, Harvey ran right over the repaired hole and passed her, continuing on his run with no issue at all.

13:04 It had worked. Cassandra could barely contain her glee. She did a jump in the air and frolict all the way home. And if she didn't notice the winged shadow that seemed to follow her all the way home, and then circle off and away again, well, clearly whatever that shadow was didn't mean her any harm, because no vision had interrupted her to light a trip home to warn her of a forthcoming problem. The next morning, Cassandra set off to continue helping her friends. No visions came over her as she walked along the main road, but when she reached her friend, grandmother Hughes' house, she was caught up in one almost immediately.

13:47 As with Mr. Alligator, the recent storm had hurt grandmother Hughes' roof. Unlike Alligator, it hadn't fallen down yet, but it was only a matter of time before it fell down around the sweet old sheep. Cassandra sprang into action. She dashed to grandmother Hughes' tool shed, grabbed a ladder and a bucket of tools, nails, and rope, and brought them carefully into grandmother Hughes' house. "Oh, Cassandra!" grandmother Hughes greeted her kindly,"How lovely to see you, my dear, but why do you have a ladder in all those tools?"

14:21 Cassandra had learned better than to answer and have her friend tell her no or forbid her from helping. She said, "Oh, don't worry about it, grandma,"you and just checking something be right there." She quickly and carefully repaired the areas she had seen would cause the collapse and made her way back down the ladder. "Well, dearie, how about some cookies and tea?" grandmother you asked, seeming perplexed, but not upset by Cassandra's behavior. "I would love that, grandmother," Cassandra responded.

14:54 She sat down to tea and again, didn't notice the large shadow out on grandmother Hughes' lawn as it sort away. After tea, Cassandra decided to head back to the beach to watch the waves and get in some relaxation for a while. "I'm pretty tired from all that work today," she sighed to herself. "But I think I found the solution that helps everyone." She started to settle down on the warm sand when she noticed a large fishing net on the beach. The waves were getting closer and closer to it and a vision immediately told her exactly what would happen.

15:32 The net would wash out to sea and one of the friendly dolphins she often liked to talk to when she was relaxing at the beach would be caught in it. Then the dolphins' friends would also be caught while trying to save their friend. It didn't have a happy ending. "Well, I'm not having that," she woofed firmly. Cassandra marched over to the troublesome net, grabbed it in her teeth and dragged the heavy net all the way home. If that same shadow had been trailing her as she dragged the net, she certainly had no energy to notice it.

16:07 "Mate, this will be a project for later. For now, you are not going to entangle any of my friends." And so saying Cassandra dropped the net, went in to her house and collapsed into a deep, exhausted sleep. When she woke up the next morning and headed outside to find some fresh grass to munch, she saw the large net neatly folded by her front door. She knew she hadn't left it that way. Surprised and confused, she looked around. Who on earth? She trailed off when something giant stepped out from behind her house.

16:46 "Good morning!" boomed the creature. Cassandra almost jumped out of her woolly coat in fright. She looked up, up, up, up into the kind eyes of a dragon. Cassandra had in the past seen this dragon flying around, and it had never caused any problems for her or her friends, or really anyone else as far as she knew. But it was one thing to know that in a vague, distant kind of way, and another to try to believe it when a dragon, ten times bigger than her, was towering over her house, telling her good morning.

17:26 "Uh, hello, dragon!" Cassandra managed to nervously wobble out. "How can I help you this morning?""Oh, I don't think it's how you can help me!" The dragon corrected kindly, if loudly. "It's how I can help you! I've been keeping an eye on you, Cassandra, ever since grumpy, still skin-curse to you the other day. I don't think you noticed me, but me and my shadow followed you all the day, the past couple of days. I was planning to immediately take you back to the wizard when it was clear your curse was really going to make your life miserable with your friends.

18:12 But then I saw you turn your curse around. Without asking for attention or credit, you've been helping avert disasters left and right, helping your friends and expecting nothing in return. I was going to help you before on principle, because no one should have this kind of curse, but now I really want to.""Thank you!" Cassandra stammered, "But I'm not sure there's any way to help me. I've been cursed. I really appreciate that you wanted to, though." She concluded sorrowfully. "Oh, my dear little sheep, that's where you're wrong!"

18:57 The dragon chuckled, "Limond you my claws, and I'll take you to grumpy, still skin, and we'll see about this curse of yours." The dragon extended a paw, tipped in wickedly sharp claws. Cassandra allowed herself a gulp, but climbed into the dragon's paw anyway. The dragon delicately wrapped its claws around her, creating a very safe cage from which Cassandra would not fall while flying. "Oh, we go!" The dragon cheered and launched herself into the air with a giant push off the ground from her strong hind legs.

19:34 They flew quickly to the wizard's tower. The dragon gently landed on the ground and released Cassandra, who, while a little wobbly from the flight, was entirely unharmed. "Wizard!" The dragon shouted,"Get out here at once!" From the tower they heard a grumbling yell,"Who dares to demand anything from me? The greatest and most powerful wizard in the world?""That would be me!" The dragon called, putting a little bit of fire into her last statement to send smoke furling through the tower windows. Grumpy, still skinned, appeared in front of them.

20:16 "You! You're that terrible little sheep who ate my flowers!" He snarled,"I do hope you're enjoying your curse!" And as for you, dragon, I can't imagine what you are thinking, showing up with that wretched little creature. "I'll tell you what I imagine, wizard!" The dragon retorted sharply,"You will remove your curse from Cassandra immediately, and you will swear to me that you will never issue another curse from this day forward.""Or what?" The wizard taunted,"Or else I'll eat you up this very moment!"

20:59 The dragon said, leaning her head down and showing her sharp white teeth to the stubborn wizard,"Very well," he he huffed,"I hear by remove your curse sheep, and I swear to never issue another from this day forward." The wizard waved his wand and a thunder clap rang out when it touched Cassandra's head,"Let's go Cassandra!" The dragon said kindly, opening her claws again for the little sheep. They flew the short distance back to Cassandra's house, where the dragon let her down. "I think I feel better, but I guess there's only one way to find out," Cassandra said cheerfully to the dragon.

21:46 "Call me if it isn't completely gone, and I'll make sure that Grumpy's dead skin is," the dragon said with an ominous look. "I promise I will. Thank you again, dragon," Cassandra said as the dragon took off and flew away. The day was still young, so Cassandra headed off to get in some more grazing. Walking to the pasture, she came across her friend, Barbara the Bird, who appeared to be gathering a large pile of sticks. "Oh, hello, Barbara! What are you up to?" Cassandra asked, sweetly. "Hi, Cassandra," Barbara chirped,"I'm gathering materials to make my nest, just about to fly off with these, and I should be all set to get building when I get back to my tree."

22:35 Cassandra looked at the pile, and she looked at little Barbara. No vision appeared, but she could tell that the bird was not going to be able to carry the pile in her small feet without dropping it. Cassandra had an idea. "Barb, hold on for just a minute, okay?" She said as she ran back towards her house. "Uh, okay, Cassandra, I'll wait," Barbara responded, confused, as the sheep disappeared down the road. A few minutes later, Cassandra returned carrying the net from the beach on her back. "Here, Barbara, try this!

23:12 If you attempt to carry all that without a net, you're going to lose it and have to start over.""Oh, what a good idea, Cassandra! Thank you so much!" Barbara said happily as she immediately began stacking sticks into the net. Cassandra was surprised. "You, you're, you're listening to me?" She asked us downed, "Well, of course I'm listening to you, you're my friend!" Barbara laughed as she continued stacking sticks. Cassandra bent to help her. And once they had loaded everything into the net, the bird easily grasped it in her claws and flew away to build her nest.

23:52 Cassandra realized that while she might not have the curse of seeing bad things happen in the future anymore, it had taught her how she anticipate where a problem might happen, and figure out how to fix it. From that day on, when Cassandra made a suggestion, her friends listened to her, and she gained a reputation as a wise and caring friend who always helped others avoid problems. The wizard had tried to curse her, but the curse had turned out to be a gift of empathy and ingenuity that lasted for the rest of Cassandra's days.

24:30 The end. Remember, your part of the story too. What did you think of this story? What did you imagine when you were listening? We'd love to hear your part of the story. If you and your grown-up want, you can share your thoughts or a picture you drew with our Foggy Oak podcast family. You might find it easiest to share with us on Facebook at Foggy Oak Farm, but we have lots of options on our website, foggyoakfarytales.com. You can also check out pictures from the farm and learn more about us. Thanks for being part of this story, and I hope you'll join us next week.

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