Once upon a time…

There was an unhappy fisherman named Plunk. He asked the Dawn Queen for good luck, and she gave him a wife. He thought she was a fairy wife, but nope, she was just human. When he found out, three years and one baby later, he was very upset and sent the wife away. The Dawn Queen gave him directions to the Sea King’s palace, and he went.

Well, the palace was everything he’d imagined it would be and more. The walls were made of bright coral, with strings of pearls making up the ceiling. Plunk explored one fancy room after another, until he came to a big ball room.

There, the Sea King himself was sitting. He was being entertained, but obviously didn’t find his people very entertaining.

When Plunk walked in, the Sea King sat up. He was like “you aren’t from around here. Maybe you can entertain me and my heir. Do something entertaining!”

Plunk hesitated, then did a few cartwheels across the floor. The Sea King found this immensely entertaining, but the heir thought it was amazing. He laughed and clapped his little hands.

The Sea King motioned Plunk over, so the fisherman went.

When he got closer, he saw the heir. It was a little boy, just over two years old. He was dressed in a silk, gold-embroidered tunic, with a coral crown on his head. But more importantly, Plunk recognized the boy.

It was his son.

Plunk asked “where did you get your heir?”

The Sea King chuckled, explaining how he’d wanted a son, but didn’t want a wife. So his people had gone out and made a present of this human boy to him.

Plunk was like “and what about the boy’s mother?”

The Sea King was like “what about her? Come! Tell us a human story!”

So Plunk sat down and told them one of his wife’s stories. The boy enjoyed it so much that Plunk was assigned his official caretaker/entertainer, given a necklace of pearls, and asked to live in the palace.

A while later, Plunk’s wife finally got home. She knocked on the door and went in, but no one was home.

Not surprising, since Plunk fished all day and his boat was gone. But the place looked like Plunk hadn’t been there in a while. There was dust and sand everywhere, which wasn’t surprising, but the dust on the floor hadn’t been disturbed in a few days. Like no one had walked through the house in half a week.

Mrs. Plunk (she’s never given a name) cleaned up a bit, then went to visit her mother’s grave. She cried a bit, wondering what to do. Suddenly a deer came out of the woods and spoke to her in her mother’s voice.

“Here is what you must do: make dinner every night for yourself and your husband. If he doesn’t come home, the next morning take the food and some hemp onto the cliff and sit there, playing two songs on your flute. When the songs are done, go home. Do this for three weeks, then come back.”

Not about to disobey a talking deer, Mrs. Plunk went home and made dinner.

Her husband didn’t come home.

So she went out and collected hemp. The next morning, she took the food and hemp to a nearby cliff and sat down, looking over the ocean. She played her first song, and as the music rolled out a few snakes came by. The snakes ate the food, thanked her, and slithered away just as the song ended.

Then she switched to her second song. As she played, a few birds flew over and took the hemp. They thanked her, flying home to weave the strands into their nests.

The next day, Mrs. Plunk repeated the process. This time more snakes appeared, and more birds came.

And so it went.

By the end of the three weeks, there were dozens of snakes and birds coming by when she played her flute.

She went back to her mother’s grave and asked what to do next.

The same deer appeared. “Here is what you must do,” it said. Sadly, a hunter happened to be passing by at that moment, and shot the deer through the heart with an arrow.

…

Kidding! Hahaha, nope, the deer didn’t die! But admit it, you believed me for a second, right?

Heeheehee.

Anyways, this is what the deer told Mrs. Plunk: “Your husband and son are trapped in the Sea King’s palace. Take your flute and a fishing hook, and go west into the Unknown Ocean. You will pass through three clouds. For the first two, play your songs, and all will be well. For the third, tear off your sleeve. When you get to a millstone floating on the water, let down your hook, and you’ll catch a bass with a golden fin.”

Mrs. Plunk thanked her, and went to make preparations.

…There’s never any mention of why Plunk didn’t have to pass through the clouds, but whatever.

Mrs. Plunk got a boat (from where? Who knows) and rowed west. Soon she came to a long cloud bank, where the mother of all snakes was stirring up the waters.

She asked “excuse me, but would you mind letting me through? I need to find my family.”

The snake was like “no.”

Mrs. Plunk didn’t want to argue, so she picked up her flute and started playing. Soon snakes of all shapes and sizes- well, snakes only come in one basic shape, so all sizes -came swimming across the water to her. They recognized Mrs. Plunk and turned to the giant snake.

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“Let this poor woman pass,” they said. “She’s been very kind to us. Every day for the past three weeks she’s fed us breakfast while playing her beautiful song. Surely you can do this one thing to repay her?”

The giant snake was like “no. I have to keep waves moving. If I let her through, the sea will calm. And no one wants that.”

The snakes looked at each other, then said “surely all your constant movement has made you tired. Why not take a nap, and we’ll agitate the water for a while?”

The giant snake was like “awwww, you’d do that? What good children you are! Ok, I’ll lay down and take a quick nap while you stir up the waves.”

With that, the mother of all snakes curled up in the ocean and went to sleep.

The snakes looked at Mrs. Plunk and said “quickly! We’ll give you five minutes to get as far through the cloud as you can before we stir up the waves again!”

Mrs. Plunk thanked them, and started rowing.

She got about halfway through the cloud bank before the waves hit her. But instead of hindering her, they seemed to push her through faster. Soon she was on the other side, approaching a second cloud bank.

Inside this bank was the mother of all birds, flapping her great wings to bring water up and make clouds.

Mrs. Plunk rowed up and called to the bird “excuse me! Would you mind stopping for a few seconds so I can get through? I need to find my family.”

The giant bird was like “no can do. Have to make clouds.”

Not wanting to argue, Mrs. Plunk pulled out her flute and played her second song. Soon birds of all types were flying up to her. They recognized her and turned to the giant bird.

“Let this poor woman pass,” they called. “Every day for the past three weeks she’s gifted us hemp to line our nests while playing her beautiful song.”

The giant bird said “sorry, but if I don’t make enough clouds, there won’t be enough rain. And no one wants that.”

The birds said “well, what if we took over for a bit? It looks like you’ve been flapping for hours, which must be very tiresome. Take a nap, and we’ll make clouds while you do.”

The mother of all birds was very touched by this. She said “awwwww you’d do that for me?? How sweet! Thank you very much!” She landed on the water and tucked her head under her wing, instantly falling asleep.

The birds turned towards Mrs. Plunk. “Row as fast as you can. We’ll wait five minutes before beating the water with our wings, to help you through.”

Mrs. Plunk thanked them, and started rowing. She got about halfway through the cloud bank before the birds started flapping. Since she was so far away, the wind helped push her the rest of the way through.

She kept rowing, and came to a third cloud bank. This one had the mother of all bees zipping back and forth through it, creating lightning.

Mrs. Plunk called out “excuse me! Would you mind stopping for a moment to let me through? I need to find my family.”

The giant bee was like “no. If I stop, there won’t be any lightning in the storms. That would be very bad.”

Mrs. Plunk, remembering her mother’s words, tore off her sleeve. Then she tied one end to make a butterfly net-shaped thing, and caught the bee as she zipped by. She tied the other end of the sleeve, and stuffed the angry bee into the corner of the boat for future use.

So Mrs. Plunk rowed and rowed, until she passed through the cloud bank. On the other side, she spotted the millstone surrounded by mermaids. She rowed up, said a polite hello to the sparsely-clad fish ladies, and dropped a hook into the water.

A few days earlier, after Plunk entertained everyone by doing cartwheels, the Sea King asked Plunk if there was anything he wanted.

Plunk was like “y’no, the food you’ve got here is great. I never knew shrimp fried in garlic butter could taste so good. But I’ve been craving spinach. Could we have that instead of seaweed salad tonight at dinner?”

The Sea King raised his eyebrows at that. “Spinach doesn’t grow at the bottom of the ocean. It’s incredibly hard to get, and extremely expensive. But, if you really want it, I can get it.”

Plunk really did want it, and the king’s heir wanted it too, so the Sea King snapped his fingers and ordered his servants to go find some spinach. Plunk was very grateful.

At dinner, Plunk couldn’t help but think that his wife made spinach much better than the king’s cooks did. He missed spinach. He missed his wife. He missed his home.

So he decided to take his son and run away.

Unfortunately, his son had a spell on him, and didn’t remember that Plunk was his father. The boy didn’t remember his mother, or the hut, or even spinach. Plunk knew he had to go about this carefully.

So he requested a little cart, and one was made out of gold for him. Then he put the boy in the cart and pulled him around the palace in it. The boy loved these rides, and almost completely gave up walking in favor of them. The Sea King wasn’t a big fan of walking, so he approved of this.

On the third night after getting the cart, after everyone was asleep, Plunk snuck into his son’s room. He woke the boy up, and told him they were going for a ride. The boy was groggy, but let Plunk put him in the cart. Plunk tied him in with strings of pearls, tying the cart to himself, and told the boy to hold on tight.

Then Plunk stepped out of the castle and swam up. He swam and swam, dragging the cart and boy with him.

He’d underestimated just how far underwater they’d been. He couldn’t hold his breath for that long. When his breath gave out, and he pushed his arm up for its last stroke, his sleeve caught on a fish hook.

Up on the surface of the water, Mrs. Plunk finally felt something catch on her line. As fast as she could, she reeled in the line. Whatever it was was heavy, but didn’t struggle as she hauled it closer to the boat.

Finally she pulled her catch into the boat, and was shocked to find her son and husband! It took a bit of CPR, but they woke up just fine. When the son saw his mother, the spell broke, and he remembered who his parents were. They had a wonderful, tearful reunion, and started rowing back home.

Unfortunately, the mermaids had recognized the boy. They swam down to the Sea King’s palace, and woke everyone up. They said Plunk was kidnapping the heir, and had to be stopped!

The Sea King was furious. He jumped into his magical boat with his army, and they shot off to the surface of the ocean.

Meanwhile, the Plunks had reached the first cloud bank. When they got through, Mrs. Plunk released the mother of all bees.

She shot out of the bag, ready to electrocute anyone and everyone in her cloud bank. This turned out to be the Sea King and his army. They were hit by bolt after bolt of lightning, almost sinking their ship. Half the army jumped overboard and swam down to safety.

The Plunks then got to the second cloud bank. The birds, sill making clouds, heard Mrs. Plunk’s song on the flute, and collectively decided to take a ten minute break. As soon as they were through, the birds took to the air and flapped twice as hard as before, creating storm gales and thick clouds.

The Sea King and his army were almost capsized by the winds. Even more of the army jumped overboard, not wanting to be in a storm that fierce.

The Plunks then came to the last cloud bank. Mrs. Plunk played her tune on the flute, and the snakes stopped making waves. The Plunks rowed through a calm, glassy sea to the other side of the cloud bank. When they were through, the snakes started thrashing twice as hard as before, creating giant tidal waves just short of being tsunamis.

The Sea King and his army saw the waves, and knew their ship was lost. They abandoned it to the waves, jumping into the water to swim home. The Sea King swore vengeance on Plunk, declaring he’d get his heir back eventually.

The Plunks landed on their beach and went into their home.

…Where they packed the little they had into the gold cart, and moved to a city far inland. They used the gold from the cart and the pearls from the rope to buy a small restaurant, where they served simple meals of fish and spinach every day.

And they lived happily ever after.

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Moral: Spinach is a delicacy, and you should be grateful for it.