Saturday 25 May 2013

Myths of our Solar System (34): Sedna, first water-bound traveller

Sedna was initially uninterested in the role Mother Earth tried to give her.  Water, to her,
was not a practical thing but, when warmed and scented, a thing of great pleasure.  Ah! to
be submerged, the water surrounding her every part and caressing each simultaneously,
arousing her senses beautifully.

But to do all the things Mother Earth was suggesting seemed wrong somehow.  When
her mother mentioned Neptune, however, something stirred in Sedna’s stomach and she
changed her mind.

After she had risen to her feet, her eyes wide and her cheeks covered with dry mud,
Sedna said goodbye to her siblings and quickly learned foraging skills from Ceres before
travelling out into This World in search of water.

Sedna soon found a river.  First she removed her shoes and carefully dipped her toes,
initially recoiling at the cold of the water.  But she was hot and sticky from walking and
soon felt there would be benefits to getting in.  Sedna therefore stripped naked and cooled
herself in the river, soon learning to float peacefully on her back and then swim through the
clear waters.

Sedna travelled on finding further streams and rivers as well as lakes.  Mother Earth spoke
to her again on a bank by her first lake and Sedna built her first boat, rowing it across and
around the expanse of water.

Onward Sedna continued until one day when she saw her first sand dunes, over which
blew a salty wind that intrigued her greatly.  Beyond the dunes Sedna found her first sea.
And in it she swam, initially put off by the salt but soon enjoying the waves and the beach.

She listened to the Sea Hydros and built a second boat, a sailboat, and took it along the
coast and then out to sea.  Here she found a much changed Neptune and together they
swam in the ocean and got to know one another while resting in Sedna’s boat, Neptune
introducing her to the fruits of the sea.  And Sedna enjoyed her time at sea, until she
realised that she had to go back to her people.

Upon her return to the First Settlement, Sedna showed the people of This World how to
fell trees and strip their branches.  Then how to hollow the trunk to make a canoe and also
how to make planks and use these to make larger vessels with oars and/or sails.  Then
to the waters she took them, at first to learn and for pleasure, teaching them to swim and
paddle their canoes, allowing them to get used to the strange sensation of being on water.

Eventually Sedna introduced nets and spears for finding food.  First on the rivers and lakes
and then out to sea, introducing mankind to the Sea Imps (or Seamps as they would later
become known).  Then Sedna travelled, locating other islands and lands, always travelling
with the protection of Neptune and his Seamps, a tradition that continued until the Second
Coming of the Dark Warrior.

Sedna became more and more attached to Neptune, her feelings gathering within her and
turning to the warm glow of love.  And the same occurred within him so that while they
were apart the two would-be lovers pined for one another, Sedna crying to Mother Earth
about the situation.  Until Mother Earth and the Sea Hydros came to an arrangement.

Sedna was told to say goodbye to her siblings and to enter one of Pluto’s wells where, as
had happened to Neptune during The Chaos, she was transformed and transported to the
sea.  And Sedna lived happily ever after with Neptune as his queen, continuing to help and
teach humans at sea.

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