The Merlion and the boy despaired. They had travelled hundreds of miles past thousands of islands only to find themselves in a dead end. For a few hours they lay in silence, the boy on the beach, the Merlion in the surf, exhausted from their journey and its discovery. Neither had really thought it might be this difficult, that anything would have changed on this remote shore.
“But it has,” the boy later told the Merlion, “And we have to deal with that.” The boy had noticed the Merlion’s hair starting to grow again and was trying to rally him into action and thus hopefully keep his morale up.
To begin with this entailed slowly circumnavigating the island in search of some break in the impenetrable fortress of cliffs. Then the boy tried, and failed, to scale those cliffs or make his way through the jungle blocking the only break visible.
And so the pair returned to the beach where they would have returned to despairing, had they not been hungry.
While the Merlion caught fish the boy stared out to sea trying to think of what to do next. Soon he might have a prostrate and long-haired creature on his hands once more. And that would not do.
Then, in the late afternoon summer sun the boy and the Merlion’s luck changed. At first the boy thought it was his Merlion swimming about. But then his surfaced, nearer to him, fish in mouth, and he smiled a big smile.
“But it has,” the boy later told the Merlion, “And we have to deal with that.” The boy had noticed the Merlion’s hair starting to grow again and was trying to rally him into action and thus hopefully keep his morale up.
To begin with this entailed slowly circumnavigating the island in search of some break in the impenetrable fortress of cliffs. Then the boy tried, and failed, to scale those cliffs or make his way through the jungle blocking the only break visible.
And so the pair returned to the beach where they would have returned to despairing, had they not been hungry.
While the Merlion caught fish the boy stared out to sea trying to think of what to do next. Soon he might have a prostrate and long-haired creature on his hands once more. And that would not do.
Then, in the late afternoon summer sun the boy and the Merlion’s luck changed. At first the boy thought it was his Merlion swimming about. But then his surfaced, nearer to him, fish in mouth, and he smiled a big smile.
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