Once upon a time, there was a man who lived on the shores of a rough, stormy sea. Legends told of a time long ago when the sea had been calm, and prophecies whispered that it would one day grow calm again. But that was not the world the man lived in.
He had a loving family, many friends in the village, and a life he cherished deeply—though he had lost two brothers to the brutal storms that battered the shore. He had built a sturdy boat, and every day he ventured out to sea, catching enough fish to feed his family and sometimes share with his neighbors. Some in his community had very little to eat, and the man spent long hours dreaming of how he might help them.
One day, while far out at sea, he heard the voice of the wind, which whispered of a remote cove where schools of golden fishes lived. They were magic fishes, the wind promised, that would solve all the village’s problems.
From then on, the man spent longer and longer at sea, searching for the golden fishes. One day, in a bay far from home, he thought he had found them at last. He caught fleeting glimpses of shimmering gold, rising and falling on the waves. He readied his fishing gear and cast his line, but they would not come. Day after day he tried, but not one fish would answer his call.
He decided to sell his one cow to buy better, sturdier fishing gear, including nets, and he went out again to try his luck. But no fish would come. Even worse, a fierce gale swept in on his way home, driving his boat hard onto the jagged coral reef. She stranded fast, wedged tight and unyielding. In his desperate efforts to free her, he made a gaping hole in the hull. He frantically tried to plug it with everything he had—rags, nets, and splintered planks—but the sea swamped her relentlessly. At last, he was forced to abandon the boat and his gear and strike out to swim for shore. It was a long, grueling walk home, his foot gashed deep by the coral's razor edge.
After this defeat, the man wasn’t sure what to do. His one remaining brother suggested he forget fishing altogether and come work with him, cutting lumber from the land. A neighbor farmer urged him to take up the plow instead. But the man could not forget the wind’s voice or its promise of golden fishes—and when he thought of his hungry neighbors, he knew he had to keep trying.
He went into the forest, felled one sturdy tree, and fashioned a new boat from its timber. This time, he had to borrow fishing gear. He confessed the wind’s whisper to his wife and a couple of close friends, and they offered to come help. Though he cherished their company, he decided it was too risky to take those he loved on such a perilous journey. He would shoulder the danger alone—but if he caught the golden fishes, he would share their magic with all.
He devised a plan. He knew the cove’s location but not how to capture its fish—ordinary gear had failed. He resolved to camp on the cove’s shore under a full moon and watch. Gathering a blanket, bread, and cheese, he returned to spend the night. Though weary, he stayed awake, eyes fixed on the dark water. Again, he glimpsed gold swirling in the waves.
At the blush of dawn, he stirred awake to a faint, lovely song drifting on the salt-kissed air. Turning his gaze, he spied a brown pelican perched upon a weathered rock nearby. "Surely," he mused, "no pelican sings such melody." Yet sing it did—a tender refrain that wove through his weary soul, granting comfort such as he had not known in many a moon.
When the song faded like mist before the sun, the pelican rose on mighty wings, soaring above the ragged coast. Then, wheeling back toward the hidden cove, it plunged into the sea's embrace.
Up it burst, a golden fish gleaming in its beak—not to devour it, but to bear it as a gift. With a graceful tilt, the bird let its prize fall at the man’s feet, then vanished down the wild shore.
There, before his wondering eyes, the fish shimmered and shifted, melting into a single gold coin, bright as the promise of forgotten prophecies.
Here the story reaches a fork in the road and will have two endings. Choose the one you like best.
Option A
The man picked up the gold coin, turning it over in his weathered hands. What message had the pelican given, and how could he claim the rest of the shimmering fish coins? He could not dive like a bird through the sea's fierce embrace. Days bled into nights as he stared into the restless waters, answers eluding him like shadows on the tide.
At last, his bread and cheese dwindled to crumbs, his stomach rumbling like distant thunder. With a heavy sigh, he resolved to go home. He wrapped the coin carefully in a rag and tucked it into his fishing tackle box.
When he reached his cottage, he poured out his tale to his wife and pried open the box to share his treasure. But the coin was gone. In its place lay a single long brown pelican feather, wrapped in the rag.
The man cried out in rage and bitter disappointment as his wife soothed him with gentle words and hugs. "It was never true," he exclaimed, voice breaking like waves on coral. "The wind never whispered secrets to me. There were no golden fishes that turned to coins. Pelicans do not sing sweet songs or bear gifts to men. I was just dreaming all along."
From that day forward, the man turned from the stormy sea to the treasures on shore. He worked the land alongside his brother, started a small farm, and even reclaimed his cow from the trader's herd. No gold coins filled his pockets, but in time he found small, subtle riches: the warmth of his family's hearth, the rhythm of the seasons, and the quiet bounty of a life well-tended.
Option B
The man picked up the gold coin, turning it over in his weathered hands. What message had the pelican given, and how could he claim the rest of the shimmering fish coins? He could not dive like a bird through the sea's fierce embrace. Days bled into nights as he stared into the shimmering waters, trying to solve the riddle. Slowly, he started to sing. He sang the song the pelican had sung and he started to sing it louder and with more confidence. Soon, he was singing it with actual joy, and the wind started whipping about him.
For the second time the wind whispered in his ear but this time it wasn't a message. The wind was singing the song. "Wind," he told it, "I cannot do this alone. Go to my wife and my friends and tell them where I am and to come." With a mightly gust the wind departed. The man keep singing and a pelican appeared and perched on a near by rock. Was it the same pelican?
Finally, after many hours he saw a small boat approaching the cove and he saw with joy it contained his wife and two friends. They had come. He wasn't alone any longer. His heart swelled with joy. As they made their way to the cove they sang to him the song the wind had taught them and he sang in return. Once on land they gathered to hug and he told them of his adventures. They had brought food and they sat down to eat a meal and the man felt refreshed.
We will sing together, his wife announced. I have brought our flute and drums. The four of them started to sing the magical chant and with every round more and more joy entered the small cove until the sky was dark with wings of hundreds of pelicans singing and the shimmering fish were poking their heads out of the sea.
Finally the fish lept out of the sea and threw their bodies on the rocks, turning into gold coins.
The four kept singing in gratitude and they loaded the two boats full of the gold coins and slowly headed back, singing all the way to their village. The pelicans followed them overhead the entire way.
They did many great things with the coins for their village. Everyone had healthy food all of the time. They bought new cows for all. They hired an architect and builders who built a sturdy sea wall that made the village safer. They sent any youngster who wanted to go to college and some came back to share their new skills with the village. And every week, the village would gather on the shore, and the pelicans would come and they would sing and dance together with the magical song of the wind.