150 Words: "Neptune" and "Sedna"

I spent a lot of my childhood holidays watching out for the fantastical and rarely believed in the area around my grandparents’ house.  After devouring their books on the matter, I would head out to see what I could see.

After reading the love story of Neptune and Sedna, the first Sea Imps, or Seamps, I became obsessed with spotting one of these mysterious creatures.  I would sit on the beach through summer evenings, trying to spot them popping up.

One time I did.  And they were screaming in pain.

Into the water I dove, out I swam as quickly as I could.  

So sure I had been of my Seamp.  

Yet all I found was another gangly youth, who could swim underwater a curiously long way.

I helped her to the shore, bound missing fingers with my shirt, took her to hospital.

And so this Neptune met her Sedna.

---

Written for Flash! Friday from the following picture prompt (we were also asked to add a Fire Element (include a stolen identity) or Ice Element (include a mistaken identity)) and had a word count limit of 140-150 words.  

Summer Joy. Black Sea: Odessa, Ukraine. CC2.0 photo by Dmitry Kichenko.

Myths of our Solar System (20): Neptune, first protector of humans at sea

In the First World Neptune had been a servant; and one of the ones who would later
became known and remembered to this day. He had been a water carrier, one of the boys
who collected and distributed water from the great wells in the lowest level of the tower, far
below the great fields and the Tree of Life.

Not long before the end of the First World, Neptune had become the water carrier to
Mother and Moon’s chambers. It was Neptune’s job to ensure they always had cool water
to drink and hot water for washing.

In doing so the young man caught the eye of Sedna, one of the daughters of the great
leaders, and she his- something that did not escape the notice of Mother. Not that a
romance could have blossomed in the First World, of course. For various reasons, not
least of which was The Great Change that was about to occur.

Neptune found himself in the bowels by one of the great wells when the First World began
to break-up. The shock of the first earthquake flung him head first into it and was followed
by a great chunk of ceiling, under which he sunk quickly toward the centre of the earth.

As the world above began to shift and change, so did Neptune. The young man was
prodded and poked by the rocks about him, their sharp fingers scratching into his neck-
and just in the nick of time- before he drowned Neptune had received a means of
breathing underwater.

They then continued to alter the boy, skin was removed from Neptune’s back and used to
form webs between his fingers and a special film formed over his eyes and within his nose.
Then Neptune’s fingernails grew rapidly and Neptune was pushed against the wall and his
toes were fused together and then his feet were flattened and stretched to form flippers-
then, finally, his ankles were set as if he were forever on tip toe and his heels shaved off,
completing the job.

Once this was done Neptune stopped sinking and began to rise a little. Then suddenly
he shot up and up and up until he, all the other water carriers who had gone through the
same process as he, and all the water in all the wells shot out of the ground, through the
empty space where the First World had been.

Then over the plains of rock they flew until they all landed in the sea, dazed and
bewildered. Here Neptune was, at first, very confused by all he had been through. But
the young man was a survivor and he quickly learned to swim, finding his new feet very
useful indeed. Soon Neptune and the others were hungry and he led them in catching
fish, finding he now had much faster reflexes than before and that his longer fingernails
were very handy for grabbing the little blighters.

Through this quick recovery and leadership, Neptune was able to further organise his
colleagues and so it was he who became the first King of the Sea Imps.