So, for today, this is an excerpt from the Myth section of the anthology, concerning the formation of the country of Salme. Enjoy.
Hido prodded the fire with his stick, sending a shower of sparks to meld glowingly with the sparks of heaven.
“In the beginning, long before man came to be, the world was covered in water – one vast sea. Even the fishes were scarce. But one fish, a great whale, made the southern half of the world his home. Slowly he swam, round in broad circles as far east as Carist is now, and back west to here. There were no predators for this great whale, and ‘old age’ had no meaning.”
“Why did he stay in the south?” Kamaga asked.
“Because,” Hido replied, leaning forward slightly and beginning to gesture with his stick, “to the north was a shark; a great shark, that also had no enemies, and grew as old as he wanted. So for years and years, these two great fish swam the oceans, eating what they could find, and growing very, very large indeed.”
“And why did the shark stay in the north?” asked Kamaga. Demodro glanced at him and rolled his eyes.
“It’s just a story, Kam,” Demodro said.
Hido’s eyes glittered, but he said to Kamaga: “Because the time for the shark to venture south had not yet come. Until, suddenly, the shark – who was a better eater than the whale – ran out of food. He circled once more in his territory, but no fishes could be found. So then he turned south, just as he would have been where Andelen is today. Now was the time,” he continued, sending another burst of sparks skyward, “for the whale and the shark to meet.
“They did nothing at first – they had never seen anything like one another. The shark contented himself with circling and looking for small fish. But it did not take long for the shark to realize that the food supply would run out in the south before very long. Upon eyeing the whale, however, he knew such a meal could feed him long enough for other fish to return to the rest of the oceans. The crafty shark knew he had to move first.”
Hido paused to pull a pipe from his bag, filled it and lit it, and took several long pulls. Demodro gazed wearily into the fire; but Kamaga kept his eyes on his grandfather, his eyes lighting as Hido sent curls of smoke like sharks and whales ascending into the night.
“So,” Hido continued finally; “when the whale returned from the east, the shark waited deep in the ocean, coming upon the whale suddenly. The whale turned at the last moment, biting at the shark; their fight was monstrous; they stirred the oceans with their great tails, and the surface bucked and wallowed with their heavings, so great were these two fish. All the lesser fish were forgotten, and sometimes sucked into the maelstrom to be battered against one another, as the two great beasts fought for their lives.
“Finally, their battle reached the ocean floor; the world could not take the strength of their malevolence, and a great chunk was ripped from the bottom and sent to the surface – forming our island.
“As you can imagine, this frightened the shark and the whale terribly; suddenly forgetting their battle they fled as swiftly as they could, their powerful tails churning water over the newly formed land. All the little fishes that had been pulled into the battle were flung onto the dry land and flopped for days and days. But, as can happen in a wondrous time when whales and sharks grow large enough to displace rock, life continued breathing into the flopping fish. Slowly, they grew arms, legs, and lungs. Their faces broadened, and their heads grew upon necks. Soon enough, they became human and learned speech – and became what we are today.”
See you tomorrow.
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