One day a group of fish were swimming about the ocean looking for a coral reef to stay in for the night. At night, the fish have to sleep in a coral reef because they are so small the fish have a risk of being an animal’s meal, especially bigger fish. In one particular reef, there was a sea urchin who lived there and waited for prey. The urchin was very scary and did not go outside of the reef as he was the local eel’s favorite snack. If any animal tried to stay in his reef, he would use one of his spikes to prevent him from swimming away and he would eat them for his meal. The group of fish were swimming all day looking for a reef to stay in sight when they all saw one insight. The reef was perfect. It was big enough for all of them to stay and was dark in color so it would not attract as many animals to it. One brave fish decided he would go scope it out and swam swiftly over to the reef. He started going in towards the reef and disappeared. All of the fish were shocked that he was gone so quick. Another fish, worried for his friend, quickly followed after him. He started to slow down as he approached the reef and anxiously began to swim inside. The urchin spiked him and the fish was eaten by the urchin too. All of the fish began to panic and swim around the reef sad that two of their friends had disappeared. The school of fish started to think they would have nowhere to stay for the night and would all be eaten alive.
A dolphin swam over and saw the fish looking worried and sad. He asked what was wrong and one fish told him that two of their friends had been taken in this reef. The smart dolphin knew it was an evil urchin. He remembered that all urchins used their spikes as weapons so he told the fish he would be back and hurriedly swam away. A few minutes later he came back with a clump of long, sticky seaweed. He told the fish to hold onto one side of it while he grasped the other side of the seaweed. They began to floss the coral reef. The urchin, noticing something had entered the reef, tried to spike the seaweed with his spiky body. He stuck one of his spikes into the seaweed and was shocked when he was unable to move. The local eel swam by to see what was going on. At the same time, the fish and the dolphin pulled up on the seaweed to see the mean urchin sticking to it. Finally, they were able to get it out. The local eel spotted his favorite snack, the urchin, and immediately swam over to eat it. The eel swallowed the urchin in one large gulp. The fish were pleased they had somewhere to stay for the night. They thanked the dolphin and the eel and settled down in the reef for the night.
Author’s Note: I was inspired by the jataka tale, The Goblin in the Pool, and wanted to create my own story. In the Goblin story, the mean goblin stopped the monkeys from drinking the pool water until they figured out a way to trick him. At the end of the story, the human was able to use a piece of bamboo to drink the pool water in order to avoid getting close to the goblin. I wanted the same idea behind my story, except with characters from the ocean. Telling this story in my own rendition was fun especially thinking of how to use a different setting than what was used in "The Goblin in the Pool". I thought using the school of fish would be a unique idea similar to the group of monkeys, and I wanted my hero at the end to be the smart dolphin. The dolphin was ultimately able to figure out how to trick the urchin into attaching to the sticky seaweed and pulling him out of the reef to be eaten. I also chose the urchin to be afraid of the eel, one of the urchin's main predators. I thought this gave a realistic twist to the story. I really enjoyed writing this story, and hope it was interesting to read!
Bibliography:
Author: W.H.D Rouse
Title: The Goblin in the Pool from "The giant crab, and other tales from old India"
Link:Â Story