Haida Legend
The Whale's Good Deed
Written and Illustrated by
Patrick, Grade 4IT
Once long, long ago when time
did not matter, there was a whale. This was a killer whale.
He was not as popular as the other animals, but he could do
something that the other animals couldn't do. He could swim the farthest
out in the sea. The thing he liked doing the most
was helping the other animals with their work. He
liked doing good deeds for the other animals.
One night as the sun went down
all the animals went to bed, but whale stayed awake to see the stars. Just
then a big tidal wave came. It formed into a
big body of water. It was the sea god, he was nothing but trouble.
He said "I have stolen the sun
and kept it in my cave down in the cold sea, no animal
dares go there or they would freeze to death."
"Well it happens that I am a whale
and whales can swim in extremely cold water."
The sea god laughed. "I
have locked it up in a magical sea box and there are
one hundred locks locking it up. I know you cannot
open it up with those flippers of yours."
"Yes I can because I'm
going to find a way to get the sun back!" yelled the whale.
The next morning... well what
was supposed to be the morning... the animals got
up. They noticed right away that the sun was
not up, so they had a meeting and whale told all the animals what
had happened. All the animals were sad, but they wanted to help get the
sun back. They tried many things, but nothing seemed
to work. Whale went to his dad and asked how he could
solve his problem with the sea god. His dad
said he just needed one thing and that was himself.
Whale was puzzled for a moment
but then he said, "I think I know what you mean."
He went to the sea god right
away. He was still in his fortress.
The sea god said, "So have you found a way
to get the sun back yet?"
"Yes I have," and with a big
scream the whale shook the sea. His big echo shattered
all the locks all at once and the sea god got sucked into the box when
the box opened and then the sun
rose up. Everybody had a big party
and all of the animals were invited. The sun was up
again and from that time on the sea god was never
seen again.