Working title: "The Castle of High Waters"
First draft, last updated: Saturday, the 14th of December, 2002
© Original Copyright 2002, Copyright 2003, Ikasatu Kirasawa. All Rights Reserved. Published online, with permission, by KeyAny Press.

Once long ago, in a land like this, but very far away.
There was a man who stood on the shore, and decided he would like, very much, to dip his toe into the ocean.

He did. And decided he liked it very much...
And so he decided to build a house under the waves.

It was going okay at first, until he realized that he didn't have enough wood.

He thought about using sand...
but it wouldn't stand the way he wanted, and the roof kept caving in.
He thought about using seaweed, but it was too stringy...

The more he thought about his beautiful house, the more he doubeted his ability to build it.
He sat and worried on the shore...

One day an old man passed him by.
"Why are you so distressed?", the old man asked.
"Because I cannot put a roof on my lovely ocean house.", the younger man replied.

"Young man, you live under the sea! Of what good is a roof to you? You don't need to keep the rain out, and there is no one here to disturb you."
This made sense to the younger man, and so he thanked the wise man and decided to leave the house without a roof..
The wise old man went to tell his daughter about this strange man.

His daughter loved to swim, and had often thought about going out to swim one day, and just staying there.
The old man was wise, and knew his girl's love of water, and advised her to swim in the ocean where she could swim to the contentment of her heart.
But she was worried about him, and could not bear to leave him to care for himself.

The old man came up with a very clever plan to unite his daughter and the young man.
He walked the beach again, looking for the man, and found him reading in his study.
He went under and knocked on the man's door, leaving a note. "I am trapped by my father, I have escaped and have no where to live. Please help."
The old man then turned and ran home to his daughter.

When the younger man answered the door, he found the note, and was so worried for the young woman, he borrowed a friend's horse and rode to her house.

In the meantime, her father had craftily told her she was not to leave until she found a man to marry, and that he was going to the ocean to swim.
The old man was going to the ocean, but did not swim, and instead he waited behind the man's house, for he wanted to see the young man and woman find each other.

The younger man rode up to the girl's house and looked inside.
He fell in love with the young woman and decided to ask if it was she who had sent him the note...
She, of course, did not know about the note, and decided it must have been another girl in the house.
She said she did not have any sisters, so he showed her the note...
She recognized her father's handwriting and she knew what had happened and understood her father's clever plan...

She asked the man to bring her to the ocean...
He was confused, but thrilled.
When they got there, she saw the house, and was quite taken with it.
The younger man led her inside, while the father climbed on the shore to watch them fall in love.

The girl fell in love with the ocean man because of their love of water, and he fell in love with her too.
The old man was happy, until he went home, and realized how empty his house was...and he cried until his tears filled the house.

The girl missed her father, and asked the man to bring her back to her home...
The young man was now a little saddened, because he did not want to leave the girl, but he loved living under water.

When they came to the tear-filled castle, the man was overjoyed, for he realized he could live there as if he really were under the water, and he could live with the girl.
The girl was happy because she could care for her father, live under the water, and be with the ocean man.
And the old man was happy because his house was no longer empty, but even more full than it had been, and because to this day, he believes that it was his clever trick that brought the couple together.

And so they lived, and continue to live, in an ocean above the shore.