Week 7 Storytelling: The Human and the Princess

At the school for young underwater creatures, the old turtle, Gale, is getting ready to tell one of his famous stories. "Gather round kids, it's a new story today!" he says to the children running around the playground.

The little sea creatures all form a circle around grandpa Gale, quieted down, and paid attention.

"One day a long time ago, so long, in fact, that I was still a little turtle, I was captured by a human. The human seemed nice, a young man just helping out his parents, so I was able to talk him out of killing me. He let me go, and I didn't see him again for quite some time. Years and years later, when I was a bigger turtle with a big shell and strong flippers, I saw this human again! He was lost, out at sea, all by himself."

The little sea creatures were captivated by this story. They've heard of those creatures that live above the sea, these humans, but they've never actually seen one! "You actually saw and touched a human?" whispered one of the little fish, in awe.

"Well of course! But don't you go swimming up to the surface without supervision! We won't want you to become some unkind human's dinner now, would we?"

The little sea creatures gasped, some clinging to each other, afraid of the unknown world above them.

Turtle going to take a break (source: riotofinvention)

"Now, where was I? Oh right, I saw this same man again, and he was lost at sea. I had to remind him of who I was, then offered to bring him back to his home. I hadn't realized how far away from the mainland he was, and I was growing tired, so I veered off and brought him down here with me so I could grab a snack and rest for a little bit. While he was here, he caught a glimpse of the princess.

The princess (source: tumblr)

"The princess, a beautiful mermaid, as we all know, and the daughter of our sea king, has never met a human before. The princess became fascinated with the young man, and slowly fell in love with him. The young man, never having met a beautiful mermaid before, experienced what most would call love at first sight. Since it takes quite a while for a big turtle like me to "recharge", the two got talking at got to know each other. When it was finally time to leave again, the princess begged the young man to stay. The young man, having just fallen in love with a beautiful creature, agreed.

"Years passed and they were happy together. Until one day, when the young man missed his parents and wanted to go back to land. The princess was reluctant to let him go, but she did anyway, giving him an ornate box, with strict instructions to not open it. I was to go to him when he called, if he didn't open the box.

"The young man went to shore, and that was the last I've ever heard from him."

"What?!" exclaimed a lot of the kids, "You can't just end there! That's a bad story! Was the princess sad? What happened to the man? He didn't open the box did he? She told him not to! What happened?!" Questions were coming left and right from all the little kids gathered for story time.

"Alright, alright, settle down! I wasn't done with that sentence! I meant to say, that was the last I've heard from him since this morning!" shouted grandpa Gale. "Hahahaha! I got all of you! Of course he came back, the young man and the princess got married and had loads of kids! Who do you think are those mermaids and mermen you see everyday?"

"What?! Those are the princess's kids! I didn't know that! They're so nice and friendly!" chattered the kids, realizing who those beautiful creatures are.

"Well of course they're nice! Well, that's all for story time today! Go back to your classrooms and pay attention in class! Go on, scooot!"

Author's Note
I chose to do this over Uraschimataro and the Turtle from the Japanese Fairytales Unit. I like happy endings, so I changed the ending again. In the story, the young man catches a turtle, the turtle argues that it's too small to be of any use right now, and the man lets it go back to sea. They encounter each other again when he's lost at sea, and the turtle, wanting to repay him, brought him to the sea god. He met the princess, they were happy. Until one day when he wanted to go back to land. The princess, dreading it, gave him an ornate box with instructions to not open it. When he was ready to come back, he was to call for the turtle. When he got to shore, he realized that years and years have gone by. He finds his parents' tombstones, with their date of death the day that they discovered their son was lost at sea. Drowning in sadness, he opens the box, purple vapour comes out, and he's suddenly a mummy, time catching up with him. When he goes to the shore to call for the turtle, it never comes.

I thought I'd follow the majority of it since it's a good story, but change the ending to make it happy.

Bibliography: Uraschimataro and the Turtle from the Japanese Fairytales Unit.