Image by Bryan Hermans on Google Maps
I am bored, said Tal-a-pus, and stretched and yawned and farted and grumped. Nothing to do but to watch people cavort in the calm rolling waves beneath me. Morning till night, night till dawn, day after day, year after year. Oh, yawn, yawn, yawn. Tal-a-pus grunted and scratched at his pits.
Then, one day, he had an idea.
Atop the mountain beside the calm sea, he created a fire. And into the fire he plonked plenty of rocks and waited till they glowed fiercely red.
Then he laughed and clapped. What fun to hurl the rocks into the sea, to hear them sizzle, to see the sea thrash. Such fun to turn the placid blue sea – oh yawn, yawn, yawn – into great heaving waves that played catch-me all day.
Word count: 129
Unfortunately, Google features no photos of waves playing catch-me.
An old Nehalem legend, retold; written for What Pegman Saw: Cape Disappointment, Washington State, USA
[see Claire Warner Churchill, Slave Wives of Nehalem, Metropolitan Press, Portland, OR, 1933. P. 32]
The Nehalem were part of the Tillamook tribe who traded along the Oregon Coast.
crispina kemp 
Great voice–so mythic and lyrical. That Tal-a-pus is not one to trifle with!
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Although it’s said the legend was locally told to explain the turbulent waters around the cape, I think there could be a hidden memory of volcanic activity.
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It seems likely! There are volcanoes all along the Cascades.
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There you are, then. I should have delved deeper. Though it would have made no difference to my writing.
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Yeah, well there are only so many hours in a day. I feel like we Pegmaners are definitely getting our lessons in geography, history, and culture just by participating. But one could spend their whole life becoming an expert on a place/time. Which would be challenging, but maybe not so fun. IMHO, the research is optional!
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As you might have guessed by now, I’ve a interest in primitive myths and cultures, much research having been done for *The Spinner’s Game* WiP.
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Oooh, intriguing. Where / when does it take place?
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A mythic fantasy quest, so locations aren’t real as we’d know them. But in my head it opens in Iran on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea and concludes in what is now Northern Syria. Between these two places the protagonist travels to Sundaland (Indonnesia) and Western Europe) and even to the Arctic Circle in her quest. It plays out over several centuries, beginning perhaps 300 or so years into the Younger Dryas, and reaching a climax around 6000 BCE. What one might call epic in scope, although it’s not an epic fantasy.
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It sounds epic!
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Complete with epic battle … which is where I am at the moment. Almost finished. But then there’s the betas, and any rewrites, and …. you know how it is. I really don’t expect to be ready to publish (on kindle) until Christmas/New Year.
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How lovely – such a peaceful, child-like tale of nature.
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As most early fables are. As the child who says of thunder that it is God stamping on his floor, and rain is God taking a shower, so in non-technilogical cultures, explanations are sought, and *likely* answers found according to their knowledge of the world.
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What a wonderful take, Crispina!
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I thank you. But then you know my interests so … it was a given
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‘Tis true…
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This is so whimsical! I live in the Pacific Northwest and there are plenty of volcanoes and promised earthquakes. Well captured.
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I thank you. I love myths and fables.
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Great stuff, Cape disappointment is such an evocatively named rocky outcrop!
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Isn’t it just. All because one man couldn’t find the river that lay just beyond it.
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I think there’s a fair few cape disappointments scattered around the world!
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Indeed. Capes, shores, plains, hills … farms
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What an interesting character! And it does have that great legendary sensibility and voice to it. I’d never heard of any of this — not even “catch me” — so this is a fun introduction.
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Well, it is a recorded legend, though given my own special slant. And *catch me* is just the kids game of tag. I thought that more acceptable than my usual descriptor of turbulent sea, i.e. orgasmic.
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More child-friendly, yes!
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