Royal the Dancing Sea Lion on the Ship Destiny's Dreams

Royal the Sea Lion knew he could out-blubber all the other sea lions. He could out-roar them too. He loved the satisfaction of hearing his own guttural voice echoing over the ocean.

"So musical," he thought.

He hauled his 1000 pounds of wobbling blubber across the sand to the ocean with ripples bouncing. He paused, and raised his head and neck in his favorite pose so he could be admired.

"Aaarrrrrgggghhh."

He sent a raspy bark across the the water.

Then he erupted like a volcano and spewed out another one even louder.

"AAAAaaaaaaarrrrrgggh." He sighed and smiled.

"That was a good one." He was used to talking to himself. After all, he was a good listener.

Royal knew he was the Top Lion of the Sea.

No one else had the intimidating mass equal to his. He knew he was magnificent, and feared. .

If anyone got in his way on land he just kept going and flattened them.

Sometimes he enjoyed a warm nap on the dusty trail. He laughed when wild eyed horses pulling wagons leaped off the road, dragging the wagons through sage brush.

His flattened bulk shook and he giggled when horse riders dismounted and tried to Hollar a ND sweep branches to make him move.

"Go on. Git."

He would roll his eyes, lift his head and neck, and hold himself in the royal sea Lion pose, not to be reckoned with.

But now he had something even more fun. He began snatching fish off the sailing ship.

A series of steps led from the deck into the water down the keel of the ship.

From deep in his brain ideas sprang up like inventions.

"Yes. He would go up onto the big wooden thing and play while he looked around."

"They threw fish heads into the sea t hat he gobbled up. That meant there must be fish up there."

"First, he decided to explore. The sides of the ship were staggered with small ledges. Despite his size and bulk, he was strong and agile."

The first night he climbed up the side of the boat one of those strange creatures was holding a fish.

"GGGggggglllumppph."

He poked his head up in the dark and sucked the fish into his mouth.

“Yum.”

An odd sensation went through him when his whiskers brushed the creature on the ship with its dry, smooth skin on its useless flipper.

"But what a strange flipper. How does it swim with that?"

Curiousity and intelligence often go together. The royal papa sea lion had both.I

Mixed with his pride, they sometimes left him into interesting situations.

"Yes. Interesting. Not problems. He was way too smart for that. He knew how to handle things."

Now Royal was going out to feed on fish. The wooden sailing ship anchored off the coast threw fish heads back into the sea. He headed toward it.

The beach was covered with a moving mass of crowded mama sea lions, their Spring babies, and scattered other papa sea lions.

He slipped into the quiet waves off the coast of what would be called southern California.

The cool water felt good after thee dry, sandy beach, so hot during these Spring days.

"Mmmmm. Life was good. Now for some fun."

Later that night the peace was disturbed by a startling, horrifying sound between a bark and a roar.

“Aaaaarrrrgh.”

Royal Papa Sea Lion peeked over the side of the ship with his dog like face and whiskers. His gigantic bulk wobbled and rested on a ledge on the side of the ship.

Sitting in the dark, next to the railing, on the 1800s wooden sailing ship called Destiny’s Dreams, twelve year old Javier leaped.

“What was that?”

“Who goes there?”

Then the bubbling, rasping, guttural sound broke through the hours after midnight again.

“AAAaaaaarrrggggh.”

Royal Papa Sea Lion’s eyes gleamed in the dark and rolled around. He scanned the creature and the deck of the ship.

“What an odd being and place. There is someone there whom I can scare away.”

“AAAAaaaaaarrrrgggggh.”

Royal sent the loudest and most guttural roar he had ever made in his entire life. The surprised face that in front of him was frozen into a scream.

"Eeaaaak," Javier’s cry burst out. He couldn’t help it.

"Did I really see that?"

His eyes bulged. His breath stopped. His heart leaped.

"What is out there?"

Wild thoughts raced in his mind.

"Blurry. Face like a dog. Over the ship's side. Grunting or barking."

"Was this the face of the sea?"

“Did the sea have a face of its own? Like a monster? Is it coming after me?”

"Did I imagine it?"

"I won't tell anyone. I am afraid. They might make fun of me."

Shivers made pinpricks all over his body.

"My first few days on after midnight ship nightwatch. Like an adult not a kid."

Javier was voyaging on the sailing ship called Destiny's Dreams in the 1800s off the west coast of the continent called North America.

His father wanted to go to the Alaskan gold fields. They left their drought ridden inland farm behind.

The ocean stretched around him now, instead of dusty rows of dirt with dried up plants at their drought ridden farm.

"I want to be like them." Javier pointed to the sailors climbing high in the square sails on three masts if the wooden clipper ship.

"Way up there, like a bird."

"We'll see. First, we need to make a new home. Away from that heat and blinding sunlight."

Javier pictured himself standing high above the ship deck in the ship's crow's nest and ignored his father's words.

"Captain Alfonse," he said one day. "I want to learn to be sailor and live on the sea."

The braids of Alfonse's beard, tied with colorful rags, quivered and he chuckled.

"Doesn't every boy?"

"I mean it. How do I learn?"

"You can start by helping the nightwatch crew on the shift after midnight."

Now every night on watch Javier kept turning his head.

"Was the midnight face from the sea coming to him again? What did it want?"

On his next watch, Javier sat by the railing with a dried fish to eat in the coldest, darkest hours of night. He lifted it to take a bite.

"Splash. Bump. Splash."

A shadow came out if the dark. Javier saw flashing eyes and teeth. Something like dog whiskers brushed his hand. Wet, slippery skin dozed over his shoulder.

Something grabbed the fish. Then it was gone.

"Aaaeeeek." Javier's voice rose into a squeal. He fell onto the deck and rolled away.

Javier's heart pounded in his throat.

"Are you alright?" The words came from Captain Alfonse the next day.

"How did it go last night?"

"Fine, Sir." Javier stood very straight with his shoulders back.

"You look a little pale and tired." The captain's eyes rested on Javier's face.

"I'm fine, thank you, Sir."

Royal the Sea Lion climbed onto the ship on the following night after midnight. Clouds blanketed the moon and stars.

Lanterns glowed with dim light on the ship. Patterns of shadows painted the deck with shadows. The ship rocked and the shadows moved as if they were alive.

One of them was very alive.

"I can blend in here. Just another shadow."

"Easy," he said to himself.

Like a giant slug, his wet blubbery self slithered and flopped. His flippers pulled himself over the side of the ship. He timed it just right for a swell to make the ship rock so the side leaned toward the wave.

"There. I made it." His lips drew into a smile on the dark wooden deck.

His grunts and breaths came out in strange, soft sounds. "Haha..hehehe." He could not help giggling.

"Now this is fun. I've missed having enough adventures in my life."

Joy filled him. A sense of play came over him.

On the other side of the ship, Luciana, the wife of Captain Alfonse, came out if the door from the cabins.

"I can't sleep tonight. Maybe a walk around the deck will help me relax."

Then she paused.

"I heard something."

Her body froze.

From the other side of the wheelhouse the wooden deck boards creaked.

"It must be one of the sailors on night watch."

"Aaaarrrgh."

Luciana heard a gutteral gurgling raspy sound.

"I've never heard something like that before."

Her heartbeat sped up, her breathing paused.

"There. In the quiet. It's not the usual ship creeks, sails, and waves."

"I don't want to wake up Alfonse over this. I'll go see what it is."

Royal the sea Lion laughed to himself and gallumphed across the deck toward the corner of the wheelhouse.

"I smell fish here so n ewhere," He thought.

He rounded the corner. Shoulders and massive dog head with long a whiskers, eyes bulging, teeth bared, lips moving in s giggle of pleasure.

"AAaaaaarrrgh."

"Eeeeeeeek."

Luciana and Royal collided around the corner.

His blubber wobbled and his eyes rolled showing white rims

Luciana felt a swish of thick long whiskers and saw a ghastly face appear in front of her eyes.

"Eeeeaaaaaa." Her streaks rose to ear splitting high notes.

"AAAaAAAA." Royal's voice sang out with a gutteral accompaniment.

Voices on the ship hollered from the bow of the deck and the cabins.

Royal turned. His blubbering body became part of the moving shadows on the ship.

"Over the railing. Here I go. Into the water. Ugh."

"Splash." His huge body sent water and noise over the ship.

"Someone overboard." One voice called out.

"No," Luciana said. "It was a face and s giant body. I don't know what. It's gone now."

Later that night Royal chuckled to himself on the sandy beach. His blubbery body rested like a boulder there.

"I rather enjoyed that."

In the next nights his adventures escalated.

"Isn't life exciting," he thought.

He gobbled up fish he found after dark on the ship.

"The shadow beast of the sea." The sailors on the ship named him.

A myth was born.

He enjoyed his pranks until one night.

Anya, the Storyteller of the Blue Lantern, carried on the oral tradition of passing generations of wisdom, tales, and legends from the ancients on to others.

The crew and passengers often listened to her Weaving together the threads of nature and life into her stories.

She kept journals of the stories and life on the ship.

Over 150 years later one of her journals found it's way into a sailors' museum on the Mystical Coast.

No one knew how much of her tales was real and how much were her creative additions.

On story night at the museum they read the faded brown handwriting in her journals. The tale of Royal the Sea Lion was labeled "Beast of the Sea."

The artifacts in the museum seemed to come alive in the dim light outside the little circle of faces around the storyteller reading the journals.

One of the listeners thought she saw the statue of a magnificent sea lion move in the wavering light.

The voice of the reader continued and the listener watched the sea lion. A plaque under the statue read “Royal the Sea Lion of the Mystical Coast.”

The story continued and the group listened.

On the sailing ship anchored in the bay the sailors and passengers huddled together on the deck one morning. Their voices filled the air and joined the sound of the waves splashing against the wooden ship.

“Have you seen it too?”

“You bet. As big as a horse.”

The stories and excitement grew.

“I heard about an ocean beast like this across the Pacific in the Far East.”

“I know that legend. Yes, it came from the deep and ate whole ships, sails and all.”

Royal the Sea Lion grew bolder in his raids on the ship, varying the times but sticking to darkness.

“I know what I’m doing.” His confidence grew.

The shipboard people tried to make a plan.

“What can we do?”

“It could devour the entire ship.”

“Even several ships.”

“The fearsome noise it makes makes me tremble.”

“There are trails of water all over the deck in the morning. It comes from the ocean’s depths.”

“Nothing like this has been seen before.”

Royal grew more clever and playful. Swimming through the seaweed kelp beds on his way to the ship, he adorned himself with decorations of dripping green like wet snakes.

“I’ll wear this disguise tonight. That will scare and confuse them.”

“Ooooommmph.” He hoisted his dripping body over the ship railing and sat like a pile of sails and gear next to it.

Footsteps sounded.

“Who goes there?” A voice called from the corner of the wheelhouse.

Luciana, the mapmaker and wife of Captain Alfonse, stood like a statue, listening.

“Drip. Drip. Drip.” The soggy seaweed kelp dropped water onto the deck.

“I hear you whoever you are.” Her voice rang out bravely across the deck.

“Stop, you.” She came around the corner.

“Time to leave.” Royal began to move.

“mmmm…aaagh.” He struggled. The seaweed kept was stuck on the wood railing.

“I can’t move. Aaargh.” He groaned softly. The ropes of kelp tightened every time he tried to get away.

“I hear you breathing.” Luciana shouted. She ran toward the writhing dark shadow at the railing.

“”What!?” She gazed at the mass of shiny kelp ropes and leaves and the wobbling giant beneath it.

Royal turned his big eyes up at her. They rolled showing the whites.

“It is over. They have caught me.” His blubbery sea lion heart pounded and he knew fear. It was a new sensation.

“I can’t move. I’m helpless.” Panic lit his body like a lightening strike. He began to tremble.

Luciana gasped. She looked into the big, dog like eyes. They held fear and pleading.

“Ooooh.” Her empathetic nature was stirred.

Royal and Luciana gazed into each other’s eyes for a long time. He saw himself as others saw him.

“I’m just a pompous bully having fun scaring others.” He now felt small, weak, and defenseless.

“So this is what it is like.” A new awakening of insight was born in him.

“I’m sorry I have been terrifying others just so I could have fun and feel important.”

He dropped his head in a submissive stance.

“Here. Let me get you untangled.” Luciana started to move the thick ropes of kelp.

Royal flopped there, surrendering to her.

“Something new. This creature is being kind to me.” He felt a shift occurring inside of his proud heart.

“I’m not afraid of you,” said Luciana. “There. Almost done.”

“I can move again,” Royal said to himself. He kept gazing at Luciana with big eyes. He had never known friendship before. A warm feeling flowed over him.

“Alright . There you go.” Luciana gave his head a pat.

“You are just a dog of the sea. I bet you did not mean to scare anyone.”

Royal did not understand her words but he read her face and body language.

“AAAaaarrrrgh.” He tried to give a softer, gentler, friendly roar.

Then Royal popped over the railing and came up in the waves.

“The creature is still there.”

He wanted to send a message. Down into the water he dove. Then he flew out of the water, twisting and dancing across the ocean, waving his flippers and tail.

“Yes. Good-by to you too, Dancing Sea Lion.” Luciana’s voice sang across the sea to him.

She decided not to tell the passengers and crew about her encounter with the sea monster.

“They might feel foolish now, if they find out it was only a sea lion.”

After dark she often came to the ship’s railing. The sleek, dark shape in the waves’ shadows would emerge and dance. Then she would throw the day’s leftover fish through the air for Royal to catch.

"I remember being helpless and caught in the sea kelp," Royal thought. A new humbleness and modesty grew in him.

"AAAooooeeeeerrgggh." He still sang and roared, but there was a new tone to his voice. He no longer posed in his proud stance to show his superiority. Now he made friends with the other sea lions. They joined him and together they swam out to enjoy the fish Luciana threw to them and to dance together.

"He's like a new sea lion," the other sea lions said to each other. "I wonder why."

The legend of Royal the Sea Lion grew and over a hundred and fifty years later his statue often seemed to come to life in the museum after dark. The villagers celebrated the myth of Royal by putting colorfully painted sea lions all over town and calling them "The Dancing Sea Lions."