The Story: Shark-Man
In the previous story, I took you through the origin of the Shark-Man and how he was born. Now I will take you on the journey of the development of the Shark-Man. I found a music playlist for you to play in the background while reading the story here's the links to some options, option1 and option2!
Hokulani would smile at the sight of Nanaue swimming in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall, thinking back to her husband's same actions. Hokulani was still sad about her husband going away for an unknown war, but she knew he would be okay due to his strength. She always told her son, "You must never take off the cloak around your back when you are around the other people. They will not understand your beauty that your father gave to you."
The other children would come to ask Nanaue to play with them in the ocean, but he would tell them no. He still found ways to have some fun. His father had created a tunnel at the bottom of the waterfall for him. The tunnel ran to the ocean, and he could swim there without worry. When the children passed by, he would ask if they were heading to the ocean. If they said yes, he would dash off to the waterfall pond and disappear for some time. Hokulani worried because he would stay underwater for so long. She always assumed the worst. Little did she know, Nanaue would transform into a shark after being in the water for some time.
The news came from the village that the children were taken away by sharks in the ocean. When Hokulani heard of this she told Nanaue, and she saw his frightened and guilty reaction. Hokulani knew that he had been the culprit of these deeds. To make sure, she would test her theory. Hokulani noticed that Nanaue would go into the pool and would not come back until the children would return. She scolded him for frightening the village and knew he would be in danger now.
In the village, the people gathered together to decide what to do about the problem. Some feared they had a harmful spirit among their people. That became the consensus of the people and they set up some tests to prove each other's innocence. The main test would be the villagers walking over ope leaves to see if they were bruised. The people knew that if they were not bruised, that was the person who needed to be driven out of the group. Hokulani reassured him that he would be fine and to go and appease the villagers' minds.
Once all the men and young men were lined up, the test began. The reason for only having men needing to pass the test was due to harmful spirits not being able to take the form of a woman. The villagers were not sure why this was the case, but it had been proven all over the island that it was true. One by one each of the males walked over the ope leaves and they were bruised. It came close to Nanaue's turn to walk over the leaves and his heart raced. It was then his turn and he ran as fast as he could over the ope leaves. He ran too fast and lost his footing, and one of the men near him grabbed his cloak to balance him. The whole village saw the shark mouth that was hidden by his cloak and knew that he was the one who needed to be driven from the village. Nanaue ran as fast as he could to the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. The whole village was hot on his heels trying to catch him to banish what they thought was the harmful spirit. Nanaue dived down into the pool, and once the villagers came to the pool, they started throwing objects into it. Stones, wood, leaves, anything they could get their hands on they threw into the pool. After some time, the pool was filled with all of the objects, and no human would be able to come back up for air. The villagers, satisfied with their work, went back to the village.
When night came, Nanaue came back home secretly to show his mother he was okay. Much to her surprise, Nanaue told her that he had met his father and he would spend the rest of his time out at sea. The unknown war was prevented with another neighboring god by the Shark god going back home to restore peace. Nanaue explained, "Father had to leave you to go and make peace between another powerful ocean being. There was a war about to break out because Father had been away from home for too long. He didn't quite explain who the being was was, only that it was dangerous." Hokulani was happy for her son but saddened for her situation because she would be all alone. After telling his mother about his new exciting life to come, he remembered his father had given something for his mother. Nanaue pulled the gift out and gave it to Hokulani to open. When she opened it, she saw a strange-looking plant and was very confused. Then suddenly, the Shark God walked into their home. Overjoyed, Hokulani ran over to him and told him how much she missed him. He had been watching over the two from afar and knew that the time had come to take their son away. The strange plant was a magical plant to allow Hokulani to breathe underwater. The Shark god wanted her to have the choice to come with them or to stay in the village. Knowing that she wanted to stay with her son and her husband, she started to eat the plant. The three of them ran to the ocean hand in hand, ready to live the rest of their lives happily ever after.
Later on, the Shark god consulted with the Kāne, who was the highest deity in the land. Kāne had granted that Hokulani and Nanaue were to be immortal to stay with the Shark god for the rest of his life.
The villagers say that you can still sometimes see Hokulani swimming with sharks in the ocean. The story of seashells on the shore then came not long after. The shells were small gifts she left for the people that raised her and to remember her by.
(Caption: Shoreline by Pixabay)
Author's Note: I decided to keep going with the story of Nanaue otherwise known in my stories as the shark man. I wanted the last story to flow into the next story so I set up the birth of Nanaue, and now will be able to tell his life's story. The story is similar from the book, The Legends of Old Hawaii as told by Tutu and her grandchildren by Betty Allen. I wanted to keep the story the same but add little excerpts to explain parts of the previous story that the readers didn't quite understand, like the reason why the Shark god left for a war and what he was building at the bottom of the waterfall. I also decided to add the ending where Nanaue came back to his mother. In the original story it doesn't go into detail about Nanaue's mother and what she did when he was banished. I wanted her to be with her husband and her son instead of staying in the village alone. I gave her the choice in the story because she would be leaving everything she knew behind for her new life. I also added the part about her becoming immortal and about the seashells. I thought it would be a good way to carry on her memory with her people in a good way. This will be my last addition to the storybook, thank you for reading this project and for all of your commentary!
Banner Image: Seashells