Coco's Magic Compass and The Mermaid

The Paradise People: 

The soft waves were lashing on the soft sandy shore. From the blue waters emerged an energetic image full of life and a smile which looked like a billion-sun shining! It was Coco who was landing on the golden beach after a fresh swim in the sea!

Coco was a smart and naughty little boy who lived by the beautiful beaches and the sparkling blue sea. Where the majestic waves lashed the seashore and created foamy lathers on the fine white sands. It was just pure music to the ears. The climate was bright and sunny all around the year with just a few rainy days. Coco’s home was nestled on this exotic paradise. 

Coco’s father was the head of the fishermen’s tribe. He was tall and handsome with a muscular built. He was known for his simplicity and kind-heartedness. His mother helped to educate all the children of the fishermen tribe. She was the head-teacher. She had the eyes of an angel with soft glowing skin and she always had a smiling face. She was highly skilled in reading and predicting the weather and excellent in weaving fishing nets. They were an honest and hardworking couple.

Coco asked his mom “Which is the strongest sea creature in the world?” His mother asked, “Which is that Coco?”. Coco said “It is the Snail. Because it carries the full house on its back! and he laughed. His mother said, let’s see you answer this! How do Oysters call their friends? Coco laughed and said, “With a Shell Phone” The laughed heartily together. One last question he exclaimed, “What is in the centre of a jellyfish?” His mother laughed and said “Jelly Button” and laughter continued all over again.

The beach was filled with tall coconut trees. These trees swayed in the wind and the palms shook like the tail of the beautiful dancing peacock. The coconut trees made a beautiful green border for the white sandy beaches alongside the bright blue sea. Just like his mother’s green jade necklace beautifully creating poetry of colours with her blue dress.

Meeting at Tritons Wharf: 

That night, all the fishermen had assembled at the Fishermen town hall which is called the “Tritons Wharf”. The biggest wooden structure by the sea where all the fishermen met with their heads of their tribes and discussed the problems in their village and pondered over solutions. The point of discussion among them was about the problem of fishes dying in the sea.

This was a serious problem since it impacted the food chain. Because of which all the other living beings depending on this food were beginning to starve. In simple the sea was dying! It was a difficult time for everyone. The fishermen could not go fishing or sell the dead rotten fishes. It was their major source of livelihood/income.

The village was starving without food and felt doomed under some evil spell! They all assembled and prayed to the gods of the sea in tears asking for help till late in the night and returned to their houses hoping for a miracle! 

It was a bright sunny morning. The sounds of birds chirping were heard all around and it was a warm day as usual. Coco was always up to some mischief. His mother had to run behind him, trying to get him to eat. Coco had the habit of avoiding eating vegetables and skipped his breakfast and lunch carelessly. Because of which Coco had stomach pain often.

Coco took a stroll down to the beach; he saw children starving with no food and birds fighting over a few rotten fishes. Seeing this he was thankful for his parents who made food readily available for him always. He was feeling bad about the times he had wasted food without eating it fully. While he was thinking about all this, Coco heard an eerie voice in the breeze which said: “Coooocoooo, Coooocoooo go up the mountain and find me”. Is it a voice or just the breeze? is it a trick or a treat? Wondered Coco.

He was very hungry and tired, yet he climbed up the mountain remembering last night’s prayer with all the fishermen and their families. There in the “Triton’s Wharf” his father explained to all, that this problem of dying fishes had happened many generations before and the sea spirits had guided their tribe to a solution long ago. His great grandmother “The brave SURAORCA” had saved their tribe and had revived the sea back to life! 

Whispering Sea:  

Coco thought to himself, were the sea sprits calling to guide me or is it hunger creating a wild imagination? If so, Why me? Why is this happening? Why Now? Why are the fishes dying? Why are the innocent children going hungry? He was talking aloud to himself. Just then he tripped over a big conch shell. It was pure white as milk in colour and beautiful with a touch smooth as butter. Coco always loved the songs of the sea. He had the habit of keeping the conch by his ears to hear the wind sail through the conch shell and make a beautiful of piece music.

He took the conch shell and brought it close to his ears as always. He heard the soft voice of the breeze whisper! It said, “Coooocoooo do you see me? Unlock the gold fountain of life, below the question, lies the answer, find the key and unlock me!”. Coco heard this message repeatedly when he placed the conch shell on his ears. The message never changed! This was fascinating for Coco.

He asked himself “Where and what is the golden fountain of life? and where will I find the key?”. He then turned around and looked down at the sea from the mountain. He was awestruck to notice a spot in the sea glowing in gold and it was in the shape of a perfect circle! Like the tyre of a cycle or like the ring around the planet Jupiter! Coco got excited; he knew at once that this is where the golden fountain of life lies! “Now, where is the key? Even if I found the key, how will I get to the centre of the sea to unlock the golden fountain of life? I am too young to sail a boat!” said Coco to himself!

“Let me focus on one solution at a time” he resorted. He anxiously was repeating “Below the question lies the answer to find the key!” means What? And WHY? Then he looked at the beach.

WHY: 

Alas! there was a brilliant sight of nine trees together crossing each other creating the shape of the word “WHY”! Coco remembered “Below the question lies the answer to find the key!” and ran towards the “WHY” shaped trees to search for the key that can unlock the golden fountain of life.

Coco ran as fast as possible, once he reached the spot, he could see the shadow of the trees on the sand. The first alphabet “W” was very clearly visible. He walked close by to find the complete word “WHY” made by the coconut trees. 

The shadow was exactly in the shape of the word “WHY”. Coco thought to himself “Hmm, this clue has been hiding in plain sight”. Quickly Coco began to dig between the trees and found an old chest made of metal. The chest had a symbol of a “Key” engraved on the top of the metal box. He opened it to find another box inside. It was made of Oakwood and the exterior of the box was decorated with the shining mother of pearl. It exhibited a huge pink pearl on the top of the wooden box. “Wow, this is the most precious and rare pearl in the world. Only one in ten thousand queen’s conch produces a pink pearl” exclaimed Coco. He opened the walnut colour oak wooden box to find a beautiful shell with a symbol of a trident at its centre! As soon as he held the shell in his hands, it moved! The magic shell with the trident symbol was moving and began to point directions as a compass would do. Coco’s happiness knew no bounds. The trident symbol was like a pointer and it was pointing towards the sea. It was showing the way to the golden fountain of life, which is in the middle of the Magic Golden Circle! Far into the sea!!!

The Sea Walker: 

Coco followed the path pointed by the trident and walked towards the sea. Coco pulled himself up with all the courage and lifted the trident shell above his head and said, “My king, My Ocean help me save my tribe”. It began to rain as the dark clouds gathered above. The lightning followed by loud thunder on the sea! Coco walked towards the magical golden circle in the sea. He watched the giant waves that crashed on to the shore with a loud thud. At once he pointed the trident shell to the sea. The sea gradually opened a magic path, it appeared as if the sea gave way and created a path towards the Golden Circle! It was magical to see that the water raising like a glass wall on both sides and providing a soft sandy path for Coco enabling him to walk through into the sea!

 Coco ran through the path with an ‘aww’ watching the water float like a liquid wall on both his sides. Many colourful sea creatures were watching this magic unfold from the sea. He saw beautiful corals, dolphins, colourful starfishes on the way and it felt amazing. He was able to see the centre of the magical golden circle which glowed like the morning sun rising over the horizon. 

Magic Compass and The Mermaid: 

In the middle, 12 beautiful mermaids were glowing in Gold and playing different musical instruments. It looked and sounded like a musical orchestra. The 12 mermaids were placed in a perfect circle. The mermaid in the centre said “Welcome Coco, unlock this golden fountain of life and save the world. Insert the shell to unlock the heart of the sea to safety and save us all. In the centre of the circle was the heart of the seven seas. Coco gently placed his trident shell and then nothing happened! Coco was wondering “What next?”. The queen mermaid took a shell that looked exactly like Coco’s trident shell and united them together to form a single clamshell. They attached like magnets at once!

They were a perfect match of two shells like twins. The queen mermaid handed the clamshell to Coco.

Coco at once received and accepted the trident shell in his hands respectfully. Then he sincerely kneels on the soft grains of sand which were flowing with sparkling blue water. He prayed to his ancestors and the almighty and placed the clamshell with the trident symbol on the middle of the heart of the sea!

A blue light started gradually glowing from inside the shell. Beautiful droplets of water started floating and dancing around in circles in the air all around Coco and the trident shell. There was a deep voice which was heard saying, “Thank you, Coco, you saved us all and the sea”. The blue water drops formed a circle that grew bigger and bigger in radius and expanded and spread across the sea creating ripples.

The mermaids exclaimed, “Hurry Coco the path between the beach and the heart of the sea will close soon, Hurry! head towards the shore”! Coco started to run towards the beach and the path was beginning to close right behind him. It got closer and closer the wall of water was collapsing constantly and he had to run faster to survive and not be drowned by the sea. He could feel the water right by his heels and suddenly the water took over and Coco was submerged underwater!

He felt as if someone was lifting him from the water. It was a powerful wave that took him right up. At that very moment the wave receded, and Coco realised that he was on the shores of the beach alive and happy as the hero of the tribe. As he walked back, he noticed his pocket was heavy. To check he had put his hand inside and found a lot of sand. In the sand, to his surprise, he found the seashell with the trident symbol! He looked around. He could see hordes of fishermen rejoicing and dancing by the sea. Coco felt very happy. 

The Mystery Gift: 

What if this key to the heart of the sea is needed again in the future to revive it? Coco asked himself. He felt very sentimental to let go of the trident shell. But he knows that this trident shell can help people in the future. He said to himself “Let me do my duty and place this shell back just where it belongs. Then Coco carefully went back to the metal box which had the symbol of key engraved on it. Opened it and found the second box with the pink large pearl on the top and to keep the trident key shell. The wooden box was as usual decorated with mother of pearls. But there was one big change. The mother of pearls was emitting and glowing in silver and blue light. It looked glorious. Coco opened and was surprised! 

In that box was another beautiful shell. It was engraved “Gratitude”. There was a note under it. 

It said…

Dear lucky one, thank you for being the wonderful person that you are. We appreciate the efforts you take every day to help others and make the world a better place. This good luck charm “Gratitude” the seashell is a gift from the sea to you. 

The one who has this lucky charm “Gratitude” can focus well on studies, will have improved memory, will have a good appetite to eat wonderful home food. Most importantly will be attractive and make a lot of good friends! 

Coco was excited to read this. He happily accepted the lucky charm “Gratitude” the seashell. And placed the shell of the trident back into the box. As soon as he placed the metal box with the symbol of key started to close itself slowly! Then the unexpected happened!

The sand below became like quicksand and the box vanished into the sand below!

Coco went back to his family happy with a glowing smile and “Gratitude” in his pocket. He was so excited that he waited for his parents to come home and shared his adventure as he sat by his bed and showed them the lucky charm and the return gift from the sea the seashell “The Gratitude”.

As they touched the beautiful gift together there was a beautiful sight of a shooting star on the night canvased sky. Coco’s family gazed at the night sky watching the beautiful shooting star pass by knowing that Coco had saved the day. They hugged Coco together and happily watched the sky filled stars and made a wish together. “Let gratitude be present in everyone’s life and may everyone rejoice life filled with love and abundance”