The Sailor's Karma

The moon is high in the sky and the waves are getting choppy. I can see the storm heading towards us, and there is no land in sight. The crew hasn't slept all night because we the know the ship won't survive the storm. We're sailing towards the island of Ceylon hoping we get to land before the storm hits.

Just as the storm reaches us, I can see the island through my telescope. I can see a town lit by lanterns, but no one is in sight. Even with the wind of the storm, our boat is not able to get to land fast enough. The waves are over forty feet high, and crashing on the deck with authority.

The crew tries to maintain the ship, but it is impossible. As the ship tips over, we all jump into the ocean and start swimming towards the land. As we wash up on the beach, the storm passes, and the sun begins to rise. With five hundred sailors on my side, I know we need to find food and water quickly. To my surprise, a group of a few hundred women greet us at the beach and offer us food and clothing. When I saw the city from the sea, it looked like a ghost town. While the whole crew does not hesitate to follow the women, it seems suspicious to me. However, I do not have much of a choice. Trusting my suspicion, I ask one of the ladies where all of their husbands are. With no hesitation, she tells us that all of their husbands had gone out to sea years ago, and never returned. She explains that they must have crashed and drowned. This makes me less suspicious. Considering the hospitality that is being shown to my crew and me, we all become comfortable living here.

After being on the island for some time, I and all the sailors have found our soul mates. For a while, we all live happy lives, but I can tell something is changing.

I wake up one night from a deep sleep, and my wife is not next to me. I get up to search for her but she is nowhere in sight. Suddenly, I hear someone approaching and lay back down and pretend to be asleep. Out of the corner of my eye, I can barely see anything, but what I see is not my wife. There is a Goblin in my house. It is chewing and crunching on what looks like flesh. I feel as though I am next, but I calmly watch as the creature sits in the next room. It starts walking towards me and right before I plan to jump up and run, the Goblin turns into my wife. She lies back in bed with me and falls asleep.

The next morning, I try to tell the other sailors and warn them about what is going on. Some of them agree with me saying that they have heard their wives saying a chant about eating human meat, but the others tell us that we must be dreaming. I am thinking of ways to escape but there is no way out. The sailors start telling me of old tales they have heard about man-eating Goblins. My best mate tells me how there are pirate stories that describe a hidden dungeon somewhere in the village where the Goblins keep all the men they plan to eat. He says that his father once told him that Goblins hate water, making it the only way to escape them. A ship would be the perfect getaway, but we do not have one anymore. I know we need to leave the island, but I cannot think of a way to get out.

As the crew and I are out on a walk, I see a bright flying horse with huge wings flying down towards us accompanied by a Fairy. The horse asks us if we want to leave the island, and many of us, filled with joy, agree and start getting on the horse. The Fairy, with her magic powers, starts to shrink us one by one so that we can all fit. I try to persuade the other men to join us, but they are content with their lives there and do not want to leave. As the horse starts to carry us away, I see the massive group of women shape shift into Goblins and mangle the rest of my men. I thank the kind Fairy that rescued us, and the horse takes us home.

Author's Note: The original story is told in third person, and gives multiple point of views throughout the story. In the original version, the captain's point of view is followed briefly, but mainly follows the Goblins. In the original version, the point of view from the Goblins themselves is followed much more closely than any other.

This gives the reader a much more in-depth view to the story of the Goblins instead of the sailors. In this version, I tell the same story, just from the captain's perspective in first person. I go into much more detail of many aspects of all of the sailors, specifically the captain. The original version doesn't mention how the ship crashed, but in my version, I create a beginning scene that introduces the sailors to us before we even meet the Goblins. With this interesting perspective, I aimed to tell the same story, just from the perspective of the sailors.

Bibliography: "Goblin City" From The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India By W. H. D. Rouse. Web Source

The Flying Horse That Carried the Sailors Away

Web Source