The Serpent & the Sailor

It is said that once, long ago, the seas of Belport were restless, violent things. Waves as tall as towers would churn and tides as strong as sorrow would turn. Boats and ships that strayed too far from shore were dashed without mercy, leaving seafarers fearful and ragged.

 

There was one sailor who was especially poor, for she was determined to sail so far beyond the ocean’s horizon that she could touch the stars. Again and again, she would set her boat upon the waters, only to be tossed back by violent waves. Again and again, she would patch her hull, stitch her sails and set off once more. Her fellow sailors warned her against her impossible goal: better to cut her losses, they told her, and live a small, humble life instead.

 

But this was not the life she desired, so she carried on. Eventually, she ran out of wood to repair her boat with, so she took to wandering the shore for flotsam and scraps. One day after a particularly fierce storm, she came across a great sea serpent on the beach. What a mighty creature it was! Its scales shone like sapphire and gold and its tail could span from sunrise to sunset. Yet here on the sand it was stranded, and the sailor could see that without the seawater to cloak it, the serpent was growing ill.

 

So she gathered up her bits of driftwood and rope and began to build a raft beneath the serpent. It snapped at her, as restless and unkind as the sea from which it came, but she was determined. As she worked, she whistled songs to distract it, wove stories to soothe it and skipped dances to cheer it. Bit by bit, the serpent calmed and quietened. Days and months passed before the sailor finally finished her crafting and sat to await the high tide that would carry the serpent back to the sea.

 

To her surprise, the serpent spoke. “Sailor,” it said. “You have shared with me not only your generosity, but your life, your story and the strength of your heart. I will repay you. But I will not only repay you. For when you offered me your dream, it became mine as well.”

 

The tide rose and lifted the sailor’s raft, which in turn lifted the serpent. It pulled the creature back into the ocean and as it did, a song rang out above the stormy waves. The violent thrashing of the sea abated and the water swayed no longer with discontent, but with a playful skip. The sailor recognised her own dance in it. “Come,” rang out the serpent’s song. “Beyond the horizon to touch the stars.”

 

The sailor smiled and set her boat, once again, upon the water. This time, with the serpent’s grace, it did not toss her aside. She sailed off, her determination paving the way as it always had and her wake now paving calm seas behind her.

 

She did surely reach the stars. Look up at night and you can see it: the constellation of the leviathan, the sea serpent, still keeping the seas gentle alongside the sailor as they seek out their dreams.

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