The Frozen Ocean (315 hits)
Category: UberMadness! EntryRating: 2 on 1 review (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by John Galt <UberJohnGalt.at.gmail.com> (View user info) at 2005-07-26 08:25:13 EDT
This post was an official UberMadness! entry. Click here to view the original matchup.
Once upon a time, a young peasant girl was walking on the beach, collecting shells to make a necklace. As she strolled along the shore, feeling the wet sand squish between her toes, she came across a boy crying in the sand.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
The boy was startled by her words and tried to leap to his feet. He stumbled immediately and fell back into the sand.
"I'm sorry," she said, "I didn't mean to frighten you."
"I-It's okay," he replied. "I-I g-guess I'm just not used to people."
The boy continued to sob as she pressed him for an explanation. The boy explained that he was really a dolphin. Earlier that day he had mistakenly taken a magical plant belonging to the Mer-King. The plant he had taken was used by Mermaids to turn themselves into humans, and it had done the same to him.
When the Mer-King found out what had happened, he was furious. He'd long suspected the dolphins of taking these magical plants. With his suspicions finally confirmed, the Mer-King demanded that the dolphin-boy make him a gift while in his human form, or else he would freeze the part of the ocean where the dolphins lived. You see, the King knew that since he'd never had any hands or feet, he wouldn't know how to use them. The boy would be sure to die at the edge of the ocean, and the King would have an excuse to get rid of the dolphins forever.
The little girl wiped the boy's tears from his eyes and took his clumsy hands in hers.
"Calm down," she said softly, "I'll help you."
The girl laid her seashells out on the beach between them and took two lengths of string from the pocket of her tattered dress. One shell at a time she showed the boy how to use his hands to tie the knots and make the necklace to save himself and his family.
When they were finished the boy thanked her. The girl smiled and kissed him gently on the cheek. Although the boy feared for his family, the King had given him plenty of time to make the gift, and neither of them wanted to part. They laid the necklaces on a rock for safe keeping, and walked by the water until late into the night. The girl helped the dolphin-boy along, and he picked up walking quite quickly. By the end of the night, he was hardly stumbling at all.
They both fell completely in love by the end of the night, and sat by the water talking and kissing in the moonlight. As they stood up to say their goodbyes, it was the boy's turn to wipe away the peasant girl's tears.
"Thank you," he said, "I shall never forget you."
"And I'll never forget you either." she sobbed.
The boy grabbed the necklaces from the rock and gave his to the peasant girl.
"Here, keep this to remember me by, just in case."
They kissed once more, and the boy jumped back into the water. Almost instantly he was transformed into a dolphin and swam off into the distance. The girl stood on the beach watching until she could no longer see him, then turned and headed back home.
When the dolphin got back to the King and offered him the necklace, his face turned red with anger. He knew instantly that the necklace had been made by someone else's hands. The king laughed as he waved his trident and the dolphin was thrown back to his family. With a second wave of the trident, the ocean froze solid for miles around them.
The next day the girl rushed to finish her chores and ran to the beach as fast as her feet would carry her. When she saw the frozen water she was heartbroken. She felt the weight of the necklace around her neck and realized what had happened. She ran out onto the frozen ocean and slipped, slicing her knees on the jagged ice. The cuts stung her as she picked herself up, but she knew that she had to carry on. Each step she took tore into her feet. What seemed like an eternity later, she was at the edge of the ice.
"Mer-King!" she screamed. "I have your necklace! Please, set the dolphins free!" She waited, but no reply came. Again she screamed, "Mer-King! Please, I have your necklace!," but it seemed it was pointless.
She sat on the edge of the ice, her feet had gone numb from the cold. She was almost ready to give up when something stirred in the water. The Mer-King rose from the water and towered over her.
"How dare you ask anything of me!" he bellowed, "Just who do you think you are?"
"Please," she begged, "I meant no harm. You see, I helped the little dolphin-boy to make this necklace," she dangled the necklace in her hand, "and it seems that he brought you mine instead."
"Hmm," the King replied, "I see."
The King looked down at the little peasant girl and saw the blood on her feet and knees. The King, in all his anger and pride and arrogance, felt humbled.
"In return for this remarkable gesture," he said, "I will set the dolphins free. I shall also grant you one wish, but choose wisely, you only get one."
The girl pondered the situation, and thought of the boy on the beach, and how wonderful she felt when she was with him. But she couldn't leave her family to live in the ocean as a dolphin, and she knew that she couldn't wish the boy away from his.
"I wish," she spoke slowly, pausing to make sure she was ready, "I wish for you to make peace with the dolphins, and please give my necklace to the dolphin-boy as a token of that peace, and so that he'll always have a way to remember me."
"As you wish. I shall free the dolphins and let them be, so long as they let us be as well. As soon as you reach the shore it will be done."
The girl made her way back to the shore, and, just as her feet touched the sand, the ice melted and the water was warm again. She sat on the beach for hours, hoping the dolphin boy would return. She came back to that same spot every day and sat, staring at the ocean, searching desperately for a glimpse of her long lost love. And, day after day, she only saw water. There was no sign of the dolphins or of the boy.
One warm and sunny day, over a year after the ocean had been frozen and then melted by the Mer-King, the girl walked to the beach as she always did. Once again she saw the water and the sky, smelled the same cool breeze that filled her mind with such sweet memories. Today, however, she saw something else in the water as well. Off in the distance she saw a group of dolphins playing and jumping in the water.
She ran to the edge of the water and jumped in head first, swimming as fast as she could out to meet them. She hadn't gotten very far when one of them broke off from the group and swam in her direction. When he was almost at her feet she noticed a strange plant in his mouth. The dolphin swallowed the plant and was instantly transformed into the boy she loved.
"How'd you-" the girl started, "I mean, what about the King? Where'd you get the plant?"
"Well, once upon a time this beautiful peasant girl gave me a necklace. The thing is, it made me miss her every time I looked at it. But it just so happens that the Mer-King loves seashell necklaces, and he was more than happy to trade it for one of his magical plants."
The two kissed as the rest of the dolphins jumped up one last time and flipped their tails, bidding their parting family member farewell. They stood there by the ocean for quite some time before they walked back to the peasant girl's farm, where they lived happily ever after.
User Reviews
Submitted by FunnyAsCancer (user info) at 2005-10-30 05:27:07 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment