Week 5 Storytelling: Fish Out of Water

My friends and I Source

My story is an interesting one, my life has not been easy and it definitely has not been normal. My name is Blue, as in Blue Damselfish. I was born out of water and have somehow found my way back in it. Do not get me wrong, I have many friends in the ocean where I live, many who have great powers and owe me many favors, which you will see I use to my advantage later in the story. Speaking of story I guess I should start to tell you mine.

I am a Blue Damselfish, ironic isn't it? Being that I am trapped in a fishes body and stuck in the ocean. Well, turns out I am not stuck in the ocean nor a fishes body(under certain circumstances).
The story starts when one sunny day I was caught while I was swimming, on my merry way to go to the store to pick up some oil for my scales. Some old wretched net caught me of all things. I have prided myself on dodging such things and yet, here I was in some water in a little bag. The man that caught me was clearly poor, living off nothing and looked as though he hadn't eaten or washed in days. He took the rest of the fish he caught and myself to the trading post. When we get there he sold all of the fish...except for me. At first I was grateful, for I was not going to die at the hands of a butcher. Then I found myself questioning if something was wrong with me (besides what I already know). The man who caught me looks at me with fascination. Through the water I heard muffled words of beauty and something of a well.

I soon found out that the well I heard of would become my new home. He put me in the well and the next day left off to fish. When he was gone I tried to escape and flopped out of water and after about 30 seconds I felt a funny tingling in my fin...turned feet! I turned into the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, not that I have seen many. Thankful to this man in a twisted way for showing me my new talent I decide to help him out and clean up a bit around the place. After all it really was a mess. When I heard him come back I was startled and found myself back on the floor flopping as a fish! I flop my way back to the well as he walks in. The next day the man, whom I have named "puppy" cause of his puppy dog eyes, looks at me in awe. For he had stayed back, spied on me, and found out my secret! He took my fish body and threw it in the fire where we watched it burn! He should not have done that, as he now wants me to become his wife. He took me to a King to get his approval of the marriage, and in a sick twist of fate the King decided he would like to marry me as well. Puppy becomes very upset and I use my favors from my ocean friends I mentioned earlier to help Puppy complete all of his tasks the King gives him.

Crazy to think that all of this happened in the span of 40 days, and here I am about to walk down the aisle. I love the man standing at the alter and while it took some time, I am so grateful to him for catching me on that day. Who knows where I would be if he had not.


Authors note: I read this story and immediately fell in love with the idea of the story being from the fishes point of view. In the original story the author goes into much greater detail about the fisherman and the tasks he was given by the king. I chose to focus on the love story and her point of view as she was the main character in my opinion! I chose the Blue Damselfish as the fit was too perfect to pass up. Damsel in distress as the little fish was also a damsel in distress!

 Bibliography: This story is out of Fourty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales By Ignacz Kunos, The Fish-Peri.