Challenge #01844-E020: Considering Coconuts
http://otherwindow.tumblr.com/post/168918610430/ -- Anon Guest
[AN: Before I dive into this story - I am sorry about the lack of Blasts From the Past of late. I literally forgot that my computer has to be active for Streemian to operate properly. I am busily scheduling the gaps to make up for the lack, and I sincerely apologise for the inconvenience.]
Merfolk didn't want to have much to do with the surface. There was plenty more to eat under the water and they knew it. But the two-legs-like-us[1] were getting deeper and deeper nets, and something had to be done. Let's just say mistakes were made on both sides. Most notable of these is coconuts.
For eons of Merfolk civilisation, they understood coconuts as ill omens. Something that is made to float, sinking slowly to the bottom of the sea? That was just as much a herald of disaster as -say- something going amiss in the stars is to us. And since they were found with their husks rotted off, the merfolk spun the legend that they were human eggs, rejected by their mothers. Much in the same way that humans call shark eggs a "mermaid's purse".
By comparison, the truth was boring, as Iiriita found out when a human caught her in their deep net, and injured her fin. She had to stay in a tide pool while she healed and the human who caught her brought her food by way of an apology. They were a shipwrecked human, Iiriita found out as their words and understanding came together. Only able to build a small boat that would not survive the first reef, and knowing that building a bigger boat would only come to ruin, as demonstrated by the decaying wreck on the sharp rocks at low tide.
The human, named Mel, had cut their nets short so that no other merfolk would get caught like Iiriita had. Mel learned the words of the Mer, as well as she could, and Iiriita did likewise for the words of the humans. And together, they learned.
The first lesson Iiriita learned was that coconuts were fruit. She had shrieked in alarm as Mel had taken one of her eggs and cracked it open. But it was not an egg. Inside was sweet water and a crunchy white meat that could be squeezed for milk. It was stunning to know.
And when Iiriita went back to her home in the sea, after she helped Mel cross the deadly borders of that island and return to her human home, that was all that Merfolk knew of the surface. There was a thing called 'fruit' and one was 'coconut' and not 'bad-to-fall'. They were heavy and hard and could hurt if they fell from a thing called 'tree'.
And the Merfolk learned that fruit could hurt you.
When a ship sank from the surface world, the Merfolk almost immediately raided it for anything useful. But this one... it had crates that leaked floating-things. Things of all colours like the poisonous fish. Red and yellow and green and every shade in-between. And coconuts, shorn to look like eggs. One of the crates had a human word. Fruit. The human word for coconuts.
This was all coconuts?
The Merfolk did what they could to drive it all to shore before it could fall and hurt someone. And then they saw seagulls - which would eat anything - pecking at all these different coconuts. Turtles and tortoises snapped out big chunks. And one of Iiriita's granddaughters took a chance and bit one of the red ones.
It was sweet. And good. And not poison at all.
For centuries after the Ocean Amnesty, Merfolk insisted on calling assorted fruits 'coconut'. Which lead to some interesting miscommunication issues. The Mer Ambasadors attempted to clarify, but it only got worse. Apples were variously red, green, or pink coconuts. Pears were pointy coconuts. Bananas became 'dick coconuts'... and so on.
It took humanity some time to learn that the Merfolk word for 'coconut' was 'death-from-above' when it wasn't 'human-egg'.
[1] Some merfolk words don't translate well
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / oilslo]
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