There is an animal in the forests of our ancestral land in North America called the wolverine by colonizers. The Mi’kmaqs call it Kek-oua-gou. That trickster is known for his villainous pranks such as stealing game form hunters, destroying bask lodges and many other annoying little tricks.
When the Mi’kmaqs catch Kek-oua-gou, they kill him. They do so without apologizing or smoking the peace pipe, as they do when they kill a bear. No, instead, they simply kill the wolverine without ceremony.
However, we have here today the account of two older ladies who took their revenge on the little beast.
In a beautiful glade in the forest, the two women had erected their lodge. They had started a fire to keep them warm for the night and went to bed with their backs turned towards the heat source while keeping their moccassins on as they slept.
As soon as they fell asleep, the wolverines entered their home. Kek-oua-gou picked up the ash tree branch beside the fire, which was used to stoke the flames earlier. He put it to the flames, then touched the bottom of one of the women’s moccassin with it, burning right through it to the skin.
The woman woke up in pain and ran towards the water basin they always kept in the lodge. She soaked her foot in it and felt immediate relief from the sharp pain of the sudden burn she was given.
As son as she felt better, she went on to scold her friend.
“What are you doing? How can you not sleep without making a fuss at your age?” said the first woman to the second.
The latter maintained her innocence, saying she was sound asleep when it happened and couldn’t have done anything to disturb her. The women argued for a bit, then went back to bed again, both their backs to the fire again.
As soon as both women were asleep for the second time that night, Kek-oua-gou picked the ash tree branch back up and brought it to the flames again. The wolverine then burnt through the occassin of the second woman, hurting her flesh with a devious giggle. The woman then ran to the water basin to soothe her burn. She looked at her friend, still asleep, with rage.
“How could you do this to me? What a stupid prank. You shouldn’t flutter like a trout at your age!” she shouted, waking up the other woman in surprise.
“Why are you calling me a trout when you know my totem is the beaver?” answered the lady angrily.
The two women then took off their burned moccassin and started swinging at each other with them, to the delight of the wolverine. The women were fighting quite vigorously at this stage, pulling hair, and knocking each other out slightly.
The wolverine laughed so hard, he startled them. The two ladies stared at once at the corner in which he stood, realizing they had fallen victim to one of Kek-oua-gou’s villainous pranks.
The wolverine laughed so hard in fact that his skin split open at his ribs. He cried out in pain. Once discovered, Kek-oua-gou was in danger, as the women wanted to make him pay with its life.
One woman pulled the wolverine’s tail and the other hit hi head with the fire poker, killing the animal quickly. As the commotion of the night had made the ladies hungry, they decided to eat the wolverine.
In four strokes of the knife, the carcass was ready for the fire and thrown into a big water pot over the flames.
Then, one woman asked the other what they should do with the skin.
“We should hang it over that door, as a reminder never to accuse someone without proof,” she responded.
Thus, the women suspended the wolverine’s skin over the door and kept cooking the meat. As they would require more wood soon, the old ladies went to the woods to get some and left the pot unattended.
As the water started to boil, the wolverine woke up and reattached the pieces of his body together. The heat had darkened the animal, and you can still see those markings today!
As he escaped the pot and ran back to the forest, Kek-oua-gou grabbed his skin on his way. Once he reached a safe distance from the lodge, the wolverine put his skin back on. However, as the heat had not only darkened it, but also shrank his body size, the skin no longer fit him. It was too big, and it’s still too big to this day.
The serie Obscure Fairy Tales encompasses an array of tales, myths and legends from around the world. To read more, visit this page dedicated to fiction writing.
Kelly Asselin-Tousignant 
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