The Sea Giant

 

The Sea Giant

The seaweed salad stood ready for the giant the other day. A mountainous mount had been piled up behind the boats. That's how the giant would get to the island: on his colossal craft of a boat. He would alight with his fork the size of Triton's trident ready and gobble of up the salad in a few forkfuls.

Luckily, the island's residents have discovered the giant's penchant for seaweed salad. They had been deathly afraid that he would demand human or animal sacrifices like in the tales everyone knows so well. (Take Jack the Beanstalk, for instance.) However, the good giant explained that he was actually a vegetarian. You see, he was quite a polite fellow and apologetic about his duty to demand as a giant. No one doubted this fact because it was well known from the Dealing with Giants handbook written about the same time as King Arthur and his Noble Knights.

The thing is, in modern times knights have gone out of business, so the poor people knew they had to appease his appetite in some other way. While it is true that modern missiles and technology have all but wiped out the race of giants, some have survived in remote places and can be quite stealthy. Others have adapted to living with humans and can actually be quite helpful, as the giant in question turned out to be.

"Look, I don't want to be a burden," the Sea Giant tried to whisper but what came out was a bellowing wave. "I've thought of a win-win answer to our conundrum ."

He then went on to tell the small committee gathered to greet him that he loved seaweed salad. (Everyone, including the giant, had agreed that it would be easier to keep the media out of the affair.) Gathering the seaweed into a neat pile would benefit both parties because while the giant hated collecting the weeds, the residents didn't know what to do with them.

Everyone agreed that this pact was a splendid idea. So, some citizens and a tractor swept up the seaweed each day, and the giant came by in his silent ship to finish them off so that no one would be frightened of his presence.

And they all lived happily ever after.

Photo: "https://pixabay.com/users/prettysleepy1-2855492/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=3306177">Amy</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com//?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=3306177">Pixabay</a>

Text: Kristen Mastromarchi