LAND OF SOOJ
Six Seahorse Stories
Fiction Book for Young Adults and Children Ages 7-19
By Shelley Gilbert
"Charming children’s book. The stories are beautifully written and morally relevant."
Little, Brown and Company
Published by Shelley Joy Gilbert, Ossining, NY, 10562 USA
Smashwords Edition - 11,550 words
Copyright © 2011 Shelley Joy Gilbert
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopying, without written permission from the author. www.shelleyjoygilbert.com. shelley@shelleyjoygilbert.com
ISBN: 978-0-9718317-7-3
Cover and Interior design: Shelley Gilbert
www.shelleyjoygilbert.com
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Other Books by Shelley Gilbert
Islands, A Coloring Book for Adults, 30 Drawings, 30 Poems, 2001
Swimming Naked with Jellyfish, 2008
Islands, A Coloring Book for Teens and Kids, 30 Hand-Drawn Drawings, 30 Poems and Recipes, 2010
Islands, A Coloring Book for Adults, Volume 2, 30 Hand-Drawn Drawings, 30 Poems, 2011
Islands, A Coloring Book for Adults, 2nd Edition, 30 Hand-Drawn Drawings, 30 Poems, 2011
To Hank, Into Eternity
CHAPTER 1
Apolla Seahorse
A seahorse discovers her purpose in life.
Long ago, when our Universe was pregnant with new planets, Earth emerged from her violent birth full of wonder and secrets.
Earth's body was immense. Her oceans were vast. Her land was lush and deserted.
Clinging to a shore beside a great ocean, the mysterious Land of Sooj was born.
The Land of Sooj was quiet and still, as no creatures lived on the land yet. Life began in the liquid belly of the planet. In the Land of Sooj, life began in the Midnight Green Ocean.
The Midnight Green Ocean was deep, dark, and dangerous. It was so huge that millions of seahorses lived and died there without ever seeing land. With their graceful S-shaped bodies and noble horse heads, the seahorses were the most elegant creatures in the ocean, and the most hunted.
Their mesmerizing charm attracted predators small and large. As their petite bodies glided slowly through the water, they were easy prey even for a small crab crawling backwards. Every now and then, a monstrous creature would thrust its fierce body through the giving water and suck thousands of seahorses down its muscular throat in one gigantic gulp. It wasn't long before the seahorses began to decline in number.
The seahorses had a mild, passive nature and accepted their life as it was. Complacent in every way, they didn’t feel sadness but neither did they feel joy. All were obedient and willing to be tamed by the majestic Midnight Green Ocean. All, that is, except for Apolla Seahorse.
Apolla was a sad seahorse. As much as she tried, she couldn’t move her body up and down, like the other seahorses could do. She could only go to the right and left. She couldn't even raise her long nose up. It always faced down into the darkness. Apolla saw all the other seahorses moving their heads up and down with an easy freedom and swimming in whatever direction they chose. They could sleep laying down if they wanted, but Apolla could only sleep standing up. Because Apolla was so different, all the seahorses avoided her. She felt like a freak. This is what made her the most unhappy. She could deal with her lack of movement but she couldn't deal with feeling rejected. Even her crying was pitiful. She couldn't even get her friends's attention by crying because her tears blended immediately with the ocean water.
Apolla's little head always hung down, always faced the darkest of the dark ocean below. Poor Apolla, she lived in terror of the fear-loving darkness. Her despair was great and she wondered why she was the only seahorse who suffered this way.
But Apolla was stubbornly defiant and would not allow herself to succumb to her anguish. To ease her pain, she rescued baby seahorses from the clutches of hungry shrimps and crabs. Though she wasn’t free herself, her only bit of happiness came when she was able to give freedom to others.
One day at noon, Apolla was hungry for lunch. She spied a tasty plump seapear floating lazily in the water. It was the most delicious looking seapear she ever saw. But when she swam toward it, the seapear shot up to the surface of the ocean. She thought it odd that it didn’t dive to hide under a rock like seapears normally did. With her head hung low, sad Apolla could no longer follow the seapear. Then, a strange hunger overcame her. Without thinking, she tried to swim up to the seapear but within seconds she crashed into a water wall that blocked her path to the surface of the ocean. She charged and bucked and fought the water in her struggle to swim upward, but her long pipe-nose pulled her down. Suddenly, her nose mysteriously shot up and Apolla lunged after the seapear in sharp pursuit.
In the heat of the chase, she was stopped by a sight she had never seen before. It was light! But light from where?, she wondered. The light was white and it was shimmering, as its strong noon rays filtered through the dark ocean and lit everything up. And colors! She saw colors! She had never before seen the beautiful colors of her home…the green water, the yellow butterfly fish, the red sea-fan coral fish, the purple seaweed gently floating by. This was an amazing awakening for Apolla.
Her black full-moon eyes stared longingly at the brilliant light. Something inside her desperately needed that light. The light filled her with joy, a feeling she had never felt before. This joy took away her sadness.
Absorbed in her good feelings, she was astonished to realize that now she could easily pick up her head. When seaweed drifted by above her, she could now grasp it tightly with her mouth and curl up inside it. Happy for the first time in her life, she forgot she was a tiny seahorse with danger all around.
Suddenly a big wave pounced on Apolla, swallowing her up. It swept the dazed little seahorse close to land. When the sly wave slithered back out to sea, Apolla was left behind in a little pool of water. Squirming about, she struggled to the edge of the pool, trying to get back into the ocean. But as soon as her gills met the air, she couldn’t breathe. Straining her big black eyes to see where the ocean water was, her home now looked far, far away. She realized there was nothing more she could do but accept her doom. As her gills tightly hugged the precious water, the liquid slowly evaporated, making the pool smaller and smaller. She knew it was only a matter of time before her suffering would be over.
From high above, a golden shower of warm rain began falling lightly on Apolla. With her last shred of strength, she slowly raised her heavy head and breathed in the lifesaving liquid. Gliding gracefully from behind the rain appeared a gigantic seahorse. She was more beautiful than Apolla ever imagined a seahorse could be. It was Romantica, God of The Seahorses, God of Light. She had great expansive wings, thin as the skin of an eye.
Apolla thought she was seeing a mirage. She couldn’t understand how a seahorse could live in the air. But she was wildly hoping it was not a mirage and that she would be saved. She blinked her eyes hard and to her elated surprise the magnificent golden God was still in sight.
Romantica stood tall and majestic, with her wings sleekly tucked in. Her yellow form was an exquisite centerpiece to the golden radiance surrounding her noble body. And glowing from her belly was an intriguing soft red color.
The God looked down upon Apolla with a warm, protecting smile and spun around like a tornado. Her golden wings spun around so fast, their edges burnt to a blazing bronze. When Romantica was done casting her spell, Apolla was now able to breathe in the air, for the God had given her lungs, alongside her gills. Now she could live in water and on land.
With a fancy flare, Romantica fixed her messy coronet of hair and regained her regal manner. Then with ceremony, she blew a siren whistle from out her long golden nose. The God was summoning one of her many children.
Racing into view, huffing and puffing, was chubby Iris, the Rainbow Angel, oldest and most obedient child. Seeing that her mother had no place to sit, Iris flew to a large empty air space and rubbed her pudgy tube-like body against the space in the shape of the crescent moon. As she moved, she excreted and spread out plump dots of vibrant colors from holes evenly spaced all along her body. When she was done, a brilliant, perfect rainbow was painted in the sky.
Apolla was astonished by the magical creation. Romantica nonchalantly glided over to her rainbow, gently folded in her great wings like a fan, and serenely sat on its tip, which Iris had formed into a seat. Iris, fluttering her much smaller wings, quickly positioned herself near her mother...hovering, waiting for her mother's next need.
Romantica dangled her long wavy tail. Sitting firmly, she inhaled a deep breath and extended her long S body even longer. Like a towering mountain stares steadfastly down on the humble valley below, the God of Light fixed her powerful gaze on the captivated little seahorse and began to speak:
“I am Romantica, God of The Seahorses, God of Light. You have landed on Sooj, my domain. Your name is Apolla. I named you at birth. I have chosen you for a purpose in life far greater than your mere existence.”
Apolla’s full-moon eyes shot open even wider.
“I want you to lead all the seahorses out of the Midnight Green Ocean and onto the land. When they get here,” she explained, “I will give them lungs, alongside their gills, so they can breathe in the air. I will make their fins larger so they can fly. And I will do all this for all future seahorses in the Land of Sooj.”
“But...but why must we leave our ocean?” Apolla respectfully asked.
“You are too small and delicate to survive in the wild waters where all other creatures are larger and faster than you. Soon, none of you will be left. I have created a new home on land where you will be safe. It will be filled with delicious foods to eat, beautiful plants and flowers to delight you, and where a bright yellow sun will shine. The sun will give you the light and the bright joy that the dark ocean has always denied you.”
Deep in thought, Apolla asked the questions that were on her mind since the day she was born: “Why do I suffer? I can't move my body up and down, like the other seahorses can. I can only go right and left. I can't even raise my nose up. It always faces down into the darkness. Why was I the only one?”
Romantica’s powerful expression turned sympathetic. “I did that to you, Apolla. I made you suffer. I gave you an unbearable life because I needed you to have a reason to change. I wanted you to grow strong from your pain and yearn for happiness. I wanted you to be the one to lead all the seahorses to a safe life. The other seahorses were too set in their ways, too willing to go without joy. Even I, your God, could not budge their nature. But you, Apolla...you were different.”
The tender young seahorse bowed her head.
“When you were born, Apolla, I could see you were open. You were thinking and wise. I could see you were an individual. And you were compassionate. You longed for the freedom I denied you, yet you felt joy when you gave to others what you couldn’t have for yourself. That I did not teach you, Apolla. You learned that on your own.
“You were born with the power to change. I was searching for a leader, a hero among seahorses who the others would follow. I knew I could do it with you.”
Apolla humbly lifted her head. “What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to go back to the ocean and tell all the seahorses that you have found a safe place to live, a beautiful place to delight their senses, a place that is full of the sun's light. Tell them it is a new world but it is very much like their ocean world. Tell them, Apolla, that in the Land of Sooj, long floating clouds will remind them of floating seaweed. They will love wrapping the curl of their tail around the grass on the earth, just as they do with the grass in the ocean. They will eat delicious new foods and lovely music will inspire them to song.
“Sooj is a place where creativity is encouraged and revered. The more creative the seahorse, the more she is respected by me. If I see that someone is truly dedicated to a creative life, I distinguish her enlightenment with a red glow in her belly.
“Tell them, Apolla, that in Sooj they will see colors and shapes and textures and each other. But, most importantly,” the God’s gold eyes penetrated Apolla’s more deeply, “they will have All-Knowing Light. In the All-Knowing Light there is clearness, and in clearness there is wise thinking. Not only will you see your present life but you will also see your past and your future. You must see it all. When you see it all, then you will know the Truth. And when you know the Truth, you will feel Whole, the true desire of all seahorses.
"But there is more. Sooj is not without its own dangers, like in any world. Sooj is a land of extremes. It is both beautiful and horrible. There is a beach that is a mirror of sparkling silver flakes but the ocean, as you know, is dark, dark green. A violet-feathered turtle is loyal and kind but watch out for the mean-spirited bullybears. The petit lilac meadow is a sweet place to sleep but avoid at all costs the hot cherry tar pits. Cute puffy clouds offer places to dance but a family could drift away from each other.
"There will be lessons to learn how to live a meaningful life. You may need to protect your serenity. Punishment will be harsh for being dishonest. And you will discover how precious a creative life really is when it is threatened. Sooj is a place where each seahorse can be herself. She may be good or she may be bad, but the bad seahorses will have the chance to become good, for something good will always come out of these tests of courage."
Apolla cocked her horse head, puzzled.
“I know you do not understand what I am telling you, but do not worry. As you grow older, you will understand. I want you to tell the other seahorses what I have told you. Have no fear, brave Apolla, for I am the Light and I will show you the way. The darkness of the ocean, my dear one, was dark in more ways than one."
With the supreme God’s final words trailing off into a whisper, Apolla dove into the ocean to find the other seahorses.
Serenely gliding down to where they lived, Apolla positioned herself on a flattened peak of high coral. Sitting straight and tall with her nose held high, a brilliant white glow surrounded her confident form and lit up the dark water. Her strange, new presence drew all the seahorses to her. They knew this sad little creature had profoundly changed.
As they swam toward her light, they instinctively stood at attention. They rested on their tails like they were resting on rocks beneath them. Apolla firmed up her body and drew in a deep breath, stretching her sleek form even longer.
She began to tell them all she was meant to tell them. When she was done, she beckoned all the seahorses to follow her. She turned and swam up toward the surface of the ocean. She turned her head back at them but they were not following her. They were in shock. Apolla made her white glow more brilliant and the mass of seahorses obediently followed her.
When they landed on the shore of Sooj, they clung together in a tight knot, full of fear. Romantica was seated on her rainbow, waiting for them. Like a grove of olives, thousands of round black seahorse eyes stared anxiously at the golden God. She spread her translucent golden wings and flew over to the delicate creatures. As she had done with Apolla, Romantica swirled above them in a furious storm and cast a spell to give them lungs to breathe in the air, alongside their gills. Now, they too could live in water and on land.
Romantica and Iris took all the seahorses on a tour of Sooj, their new home. Joining them was Romantica’s silver-eyed beautiful son, Sterling, Angel of The Beach and Water. In Sterling's honor, when he was born Romantica made the beach mirror with sparkling silver flakes and renamed it Mirror Beach With Sparkling Silver Flakes.
The mass of seahorses floated great distances through the air. They saw towering pink palm trees, a snapping duchess plant, a shack in the forest, and a bright yellow light beaming from Sooj to another land far away.
But their biggest thrill was yet to come. When the tour was over, the exhausted seahorses fell to the ground and slept for hours. Upon awakening, they realized for the first time that each of them was a different color.
One seahorse was a radiant orange while another was a sweet light blue. One was chocolate brown and another vanilla white. There was a group of burgundy seahorses, and beige ones too. Some had a gray cast to them, while a few glowed a reddish hue in their bellies. The seahorses were amazed at how distinctly different they were from one another. In their enlightenment, they knew they were individuals.
Apolla tooted a soft sweet whistle from her nose and summoned the group to gather around her. She told them to select names for themselves, names that have meaning to them.
One brave little seahorse, with the curl of her tail tightly wrapped around some beach grass, raised her nose, cleared her long throat and asked Apolla what her name was. She serenely replied, “My name is Apolla, which means to see the Light. I was named at birth. What will your name be?”
The little seahorse looked at Apolla’s beaming white body and then she looked down at her rich green color and she named herself Emerald Seahorse.
CHAPTER 2