Week 6 Storytelling: Zarro and the water

Tiki was King of the land for hundreds of years. He was very well known and had eternal life. He had lived to see lives changing during his time as king. Tiki also enjoyed the finer things in life, such as the prettiest women, great big feasts, and commanding his servants around. What Tiki enjoyed the most was the array of women he was allowed to chose from. He was allowed to have multiple wives, but wasn't entirely satisfied as his wives would soon get old and eventually die, while he stayed young and everlasting. The king called upon his servant to find him an eternal love.

"Zarro", the king yelled, "If you can find me eternal love, then I will denounce my thrown unto you. Your fate lies in the hands of my happiness."

Not sure quite what to do, Zarro was off to find what the king was looking for. He hiked up mountains and through the desert storms, asking, hoping, and praying for any sort of sign that would lead him to what the king was wishing for. Zarro was poor servant, and this was a once and a life time opportunity for him to become something other than that. He loved the people of the land, and desired fame.

Twenty nine days passed, and the servant still had yet to find someone for the king. He thought to himself that there must be someone else out there with eternal life. Although he thought this, there was nothing he could do except wait for a sign.

Suddenly, Zarro was stopped by an old man on the streets who said he could help with him with his problem. Without hesitation, Zarro agreed.

The old man was a fisherman and had many tricks up his sleeve. Not many people had heard of him, but he felt bad for the servant and wanted to offer up his services. He led Zarro to his boat and took him on a fishing adventure.

Zarro had never been to the water or on a boat, so he was nervous. All his life, he only knew of the land to be safe. He didn't know what the waters contained so people of his kind stayed away from it. Trusting the old man and wanting to be successful, he went on the boat anyways.

While on the boat, Zarro and the fisherman had a nice conversation. The fisherman told him stories about the water and what lies beneath. All of the sudden, the fisherman threw his fishing rod into the water. They waited ten minutes to before something finally caught the hook. Reeling it in with all his strength, the old man pulled a fish out of the water. Zarro was in shock. He had never seen anything so wonderful, he did not want to let that moment go.

What happened next was magical to Zarro. The fisherman somehow was able to turn the fish into the most beautiful lady in all of the land who had eternal life, or so he thought. Zarro was so thankful for what the fisherman had done and he led the girl back to the king for him.

The king, Tiki, was overwhelmed and happy that he had finally found someone to share life with. Zarro was then made the king of the land, while Tiki went off to be with the girl.

Little did Tiki know that the beautiful girl would lead him to the water where he would later die and drown. The king didn't know much of the water, but saw how the girl transformed into a fish and thought he could do the same...

(Fish in water)

Author's Note - I got the idea for my story after reading multiple stories from the Nigerian Folk stories. I thought they all very interesting and different at the same time. Most of the stories began with a king having several wives, so I thought I would make mine similar in that way. The moral of my story is that looks can be deceiving. The fisherman isn't who the servant thought he was going to be and the girl isn't who the king thought she would be. The servant and the king had no idea what the water was like nor had they ever really explored it. The story worked out well for the servant, but the king was unsuccessful at living eternally happy with the fish. I though I would include some type of animal my story because most of the folk stories did and twisted things to where I didn't think something was going to happen.


Bibliography - Nigerian Folk Stories by Elphinstone Dayrell