The Adventures of Jack Bunyun and Flamin' Pete How Pete got his Flames

Jack Bunyun was a mountain of a man, being Paul Bunyun's third cousin twice removed and all. Of course Jack had more in common with Paul then just his size. For one, they were both lumberjacks, and they both had an ox for a best friend. But Jack's ox wasn't blue like Paul's. Jack's ox was red like an apple and snorted fire out his nose.

Flamin' Pete is what they called that ox, though he didn't always breathe flames out his nostrils. It was way back when Jack had first met Pete that that ability had been acquired by the ox.

It had been a hot summer that year. Most days if was one hundred and fifty degrees in the shade, two hundred under the noonday sun. Ole' Jack and Pete were out walking in the northern woods one day just enjoying nature at its finest. The heat had dried up the trees and emptied the lake of their water. With a good strong breeze the trees could be blown bare and the lakes would fill up with the crumbled up leaves.

Well, Jack and Pete had been walking for quite some time when both noticed their stomachs a growling up a storm. It was near lunchtime and neither Jack nor Pete had bothered to pack a lunch, Jack `cause he didn't think to pack one and Pete 'cause he's an ox and oxen don't exactly pack lunches. Nope, oxen don't pack lunches, 'specially not Pete. Normally that fiery red ox would just find himself a nice field o' grass and graze until he weren't hungry no more. But with it being so hot all the fields were just full of grass that crumbled to dust if ya sneezed on it.

It was about when Jack and Pete got hungrier than a hibernatin' bear that they came across a field full of red hot chili peppers. No one exactly knew where the field of hot peppers come from. Some said it were them Mexicans that traveled up north that planted it, others say someone just spilled a packet of pepper seeds while they was walking by, and still others think it were just a natural phenomenon. But Jack and Pete didn't care too much about where the field came from; all they cared about was the fact that the peppers were thriving of the heat and were ripe and a ready for the eatin'.

Well, Pete was so hungry that as soon as he caught sight of those red peppers he ran to them faster than God could get the news. But Jack, he knew when the peppers were red like that you had to be careful and upon seeing Pete racing towards the field mouth open, eyes bulging with hunger, and tongue slobbering out of his mouth he let out a yell. "Pete! I don't think that's a good idea! Them red peppers. Red peppers is hot!" Pete, unfortunately, didn't hear Jacks warning.

As soon as Pete had gobbled up a dozen of them hot peppers he realized they was hot. Soon there was steam coming out his ears and he were breathin' flames out his mouth. Poor Jack had to back away to keep from being lit on fire by the ox. It didn't take long for the flames to calm down though, but as soon as Pete was breathin' normally a new problem arose. The field and forest were on fire and no water to be found for miles around.

"Now what are we going to do?" Jack asked Pete.

Pete snorted out a flame and shook his head in answer.

"Well, you're a lot o' help. You started this fire Pete; you should be the one to put it out."

Pete shook his head again and stamped a foot which is oxen, "It's not my fault there were chili peppers out in the middle of the northern wilderness just as was gettin' hungry and you didn't get a warning out fast enough to stop me from eating several and snorting flames out my nose during one of the hottest summers we've ever seen and catching the forest on fire and there not being any water around for miles and miles."

"Fine, I'll take care of it."

Now, it's a little known fact that Jack was the spittin' champion of the North. Usually spittin' competitions are held down South `cause that's where the spittin's done. But up North there's a huge spittin' competition held by the lumberjacks each year and for the last five years Jack had easily won the distance competition and the most spit competition.

So, seeing as how there was no water for miles and miles around Jack took it upon himself to spit on the fire to put it out, which he did. It didn't take him that long either, it were like a frothy rain. It wasn't till a few days later that anyone noticed that Pete hadn't got all the flames out o' him. Him and Jack had been at a pie eaten' contest when Pete snorted out a flame the set all of Jacks pies on fire. The fire never did get out of Pete, so naturally we started calling him Flamin' Pete, the only ox to eva' breathe fire.