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In ancient days when the seas were young, there was a young adventurer and storyteller known as the Starspinner. He sailed the great seas on a majestic ship and told stories to all who would hear. He made many friends on his travels, some of whom joined his crew and sailed with him. But of all the friends he made, his closest were the dolphins. They swam miles with him, dancing and singing and playing in the wake of his ship.
The Starspinner’s ship, the Astral Horizon , was truly a majestic vessel. A wooden sailing ship of old, she was ordained with gold, silver, and precious sea glass. Her sails were the color of the dawning sky, and her hull sparkled like a fish’s scales. The figurehead was a silver dolphin with a star in its mouth.
Starspinner himself was no ordinary man; he held an incredible magic. His stories held such magnitude that he could reach up and spin the stories into stars. That way, people around the world could look up into the sky and remember the timeless tales.
However, there were those who could not stand the sight of the stars and hated the Starspinner for lighting the night with so many. These evil monsters dwelled on the ocean floor and sought to bring their domain to the surface, but were held at bay by the stars.
One day, the monsters hunted the Starspinner’s ship and attacked without warning. They overturned the Astral Horizon and forced her crew to flee. The dolphins were scattered and the ship lost. Fortunately, the Starspinner escaped the monsters’ clutches, his dolphin friends taking him far away.
The monsters, angry that they could not capture the Starspinner, threw the seas into an uproar. They boiled the oceans and caused storms that blackened the noon sky as night.
Without the Starspinner, the stars dimmed and no new ones were made. The monsters kept stirring up the sea and provoking the winds into horrible squalls. People began to pray for the Starspinner’s return, for him to reignite the heavens and send the monsters back into the darkness.
For a time, the stars were silent. But the Starspinner was working tirelessly. He gathered his crew once again and called across the waters to his dolphin friends.
And now, he has returned to the place his ship sank. He is ready to raise his ship and spin the stars into story once again.
===
“Here in this very spot, my friends, is where our dear ship sank.”
Starspinner sat on a large dolphin, the head of a pod who had been his friend for years past. Next to him, also sitting on dolphins, was his crew, and treading water all around was two score more dolphins. All of them awaited their captain’s instructions.
Starspinner’s first mate raised a question. “How are we to raise her? She is on the ocean floor and even if the dolphins could dive that deep, they are not strong enough to dredge her.”
“Have faith my friend,” said Starspinner with a smile, “There is little more uplifting than the power of song!”
The crew and dolphins cheered.
“Now then, lift your voices! Dolphins, you as well with all your might! Together with me now!”
Man and animal sang together. Starspinner lifted his arms, letting his cape sway in the breeze. The fabric was one seamless piece, colored deep blues, royal purples, and rich reds. Star lights twinkled within it, making it seem less like a cape and more like a nebula had tumbled from the sky and settled around Starspinner’s shoulders.
As they sang, Starspinner’s cape lit up along with his countenance. The water bubbled and frothed, and soon a crow’s nest sprouted from the surface. “It’s working! Keep singing!”
Towering masts reached into the sky, followed by shining wood planks and a proud, glittering hull. With a final crescendoing note, the Astral Horizon settled on the sea.
Her crew let out a shout of joy and took their posts.
“Set sail!” Starspinner called. “We have much to do and many stories to tell. Sir Lookout!”
A young man waved from the crow’s nest. “Aye, Captain?”
“How long till dusk? Call me impatient but I wish to see my stars as soon as possible!”
The lookout laughed. “Sorry, sir, but it’s going to be another hour before even the brightest planets make their appearance.”
Starspinner put on a pouting air. “Oh, humph! If only I were better friends with Father Time. Perhaps then I could ask him to speed things along!”
A dolphin tossed water onto the deck, squeaking at Starspinner’s attitude.
“A jest, my friend,” Starspinner assured the animal, “I know patience and its value.” The dolphin let out a rude noise and flipped back under the water.
The first mate chuckled. “They are as impatient as you, sir.”
“Of course they are. Dolphins have some of the most intriguing tales of all sea creatures. Why do you think I listen to them so closely?”
“Because they’re so loud you cannot ignore them?” the first mate teased.
Starspinner laughed good-naturedly and turned his eyes skyward. He couldn’t see his stars yet, but he knew they were there.
“Sir, may I ask you something?”
“Of course,” Starspinner said without taking his eyes off the sky.
“How come your magic is tied to this ship? Surely it would be easier if you could spin your stories from anywhere. That way, if the monsters attacked again, the world wouldn’t be left without new stars.”
“Ah.” Starspinner sighed and let his eyes fall. “How do I explain? Imagine it like a sea. It is deep and wide, but still contained within its borders. Sometimes it is weightless and floats in the sky, sometimes it rains outside of its borders to form rivers and lakes, sometimes it is solid and stays on the surface. All of it comes from the sea.” He gestured to his heart. “Now imagine if all the water not in the sea was suddenly returned. What would happen?”
The first mate brought a hand to his chin. “It would overflow.”
“It would, yes. It would flood the low land, and all the places it used to be—rain, rivers, ice—would be left empty. The sea is not meant to be in one place, nor is its border meant to contain all of it. Do you see?”
“I believe so,” said the first mate as he tented his fingers together. “You are the source of magic, the sea. And you scatter your magic into the sky as stars.”
“As well as to creatures around me, so that I can understand them.”
“I see. So then what of this ship?”
“The Astral Horizon is… a cloud, for the sake of metaphor. You cannot put clouds in the sky by simply throwing water. It must evaporate from the sea.”
“And you cannot put stars in the sky by simply willing it.”
Starspinner laughed. “No, I cannot. Not in the way you would recognize the stars. If I were to try, they would go supernova, and the constellations would be thrown out of place! The ship is like a cloud into which I let my magic evaporate, then I am able to let it rain into the heavens and form lakes of galaxies and rivers of nebulae, while the drops themselves become the stars you know.
“That is why I could not make new stars during my time away. To try would undo everything, and I cannot erase the stories I have told. This ship has been with me since I have been telling stories; there can be none other like her.”
“Indeed there cannot,” the first mate agreed, running his hand along a railing. The ways of his captain eluded him like water through his fingers. But the Starspinner was not the kind of man to understand. He wasn’t entirely man, but he sought friendship with man, beast, and nature wherever he found it. The first mate was loath to wonder what would happen if the Starspinner was ever truly lost. “Captain. You mentioned the sea, the magic, overflowing. What would happen to you if that ever became the case?”
Starspinner visibly struggled to keep a smile. “Well, it certainly wouldn’t be fun.” His hand fidgeted with the front of his shirt and clenched over his heart. “Do not trouble yourself with it, my friend,” he said, smile returning. “You need not worry about such things as that ever coming to pass. After all, who could take down the stars?”
The sky darkened suddenly. Several dolphins around the ship whistled in alarm.
“That is odd,” Starspinner said. “Sunset is not yet upon us, why is it night?”
“Captain!” called the lookout. “Storm off the portside stern! There are ships sailing beneath it!”
“It cannot be! They’ve found us already?” Starspinner grabbed a spyglass and peered into the oncoming storm. Long scaly bodies writhed at the edges of the clouds while several ships tore through the waves. The ships glowed with an eerie orange, like a volcano about to erupt, while the ghastly forms of their crews waved stone and twisted metal weapons above their heads.
“It’s the sea monsters!” Starspinner called. “We cannot stay here! Full sails, we must stay out of that storm!”
A cold wind nearly blew Starspinner over, and a pained voice came with it, a voice Starspinner recognized. “North Wind? What have they done to you?”
“Starspinner!” The force of nature, personified as an old man with a long beard, strained to escape the storm. “They have chained me with a gruesome magic! You must flee! They seek to capture you and darken the skies forever!”
“I cannot abandon you, old friend! They torment you!”
The North Wind shook his head. “All the world will be tormented if the stars are lost. Go! Before they make me turn against you!”
With a heavy heart, Starspinner turned away. “Helmsman, take us away from here, quickly!”
“Aye, aye, Sir!”
The North Wind offered a final farewell in the form of a heavy gust that filled the sails and sent the ship away. Before long there was a fair distance between the Horizon and the sea monsters’ ships.
Starspinner paced the deck, eyes on the sky. “If only it were night. My magic is strong enough to free the North Wind, but I would need starlight to then banish the monsters.”
“If you can free him,” said the first mate, “Why don’t you?”
“He is too weak to fight or flee. It would only make him a target again. Much as I hate it, this is our only option. We are fortunate he has strength enough to send us out of their reach.”
By a cruel twist of fate, the winds suddenly died. The sails fell slack and the ship drifted to a halt. The dolphins whistled anxiously and tried to push the ship along, but it was too heavy. Starspinner looked back at the black cloud. What he saw chilled his heart.
The North Wind was shackled with ugly black chains above the monstrous ships. He thrashed and twisted and howled, but the chains held fast. A red glow snaked over the chains and infected the North Wind, making his howls ever louder. His cloud-white eyes turned black as his mouth fell agape.
“They are controlling him,” Starspinner said, aghast.
The wind changed course, inverting the sails and dragging the Astral Horizon toward the evil fleet.
“Sir!” the first mate exclaimed, “If you are to free him, do it now before we are captured!”
“It seems we have no choice,” said Starspinner. He stood tall on the deck and raised his arms. His cape shimmered as he summoned his magic, holding it in his palms.
The first mate gave a slight smile; he never tired seeing his captain’s powers. Small pricks of light orbited Starspinner’s hands, and more danced around his feet and through his cape. He crossed his arms with palms outward, then clenched his fists and threw his arms wide.
Lights like millions of fireflies erupted on the black chains and dissolved them. The North Wind, wound like a spring from the monsters’ control, scattered into the air leaving clouds streaked across the sky.
“What happened?” the first mate asked. “Where did the North Wind go?”
“I don’t know,” Starspinner replied. He looked up. “It is not yet dusk! I need the stars to deal a final blow to these beasts!”
Below the ship, a dolphin let out a shrill cry of alarm. More cries followed as the creatures were ensnared in deep red ropes.
Starspinner aimed his magic again. “They are taking the dolphins!” He struck at the ropes, but they moved of their own accord. Starspinner realized they were not ropes, but tentacles of a deep sea squid. It coiled around the dolphins and hauled them under the clouds and storm of the monstrous fleet. He spotted its main body and prepared to strike, but by then it was too far and he feared hitting the dolphins.
The fleet was fast approaching and the Astral Horizon had no wind with which to escape.
A voice from the monsters’ flagship sounded out. “Oh Starspinner!” it called with a mocking lilt. “Your little friends here are making such a racket. Surrender and we don’t turn them into squid food!”
To emphasize, the squid held a few dolphins above the water and shook them like dolls. The poor things cried and squeaked miserably.
Starspinner kept his hand lifted and his magic at the ready. “I may not be at full strength, but I can still defend what is important to me.”
“Are you sure about that?” the monster captain sneered. “We might have had the element of surprise the first time we met, but we far outmatch your little parlor tricks.”
“Let the dolphins go,” Starspinner demanded.
“Or what? Will you throw a little star dust at us?”
By this time the evil ships were beginning to surround the Astral Horizon. It would not be long before they had no means of escape. Starspinner directed his magic at a smaller ship flanking him. A burst of light and the ship’s side burst into pieces. It wasn’t enough to fully sink the vessel, but it was a strong display nonetheless.
The monster captain gestured to the squid and it began squeezing a young dolphin. Starspinner swept his hand and cut the tentacle, setting the dolphin free. The monster captain sneered. “It seems we might be at an impasse. Indeed you might be able to protect your ship and the dolphins, but can you truly protect all you hold dear? Even your crew?”
Starspinner turned around. The bestial sailors had boarded the Astral Horizon and captured his crew! They knelt on the deck, bound and gagged and looking to him for help.
He turned back to the monster captain, who was now within a sword’s throw distance. Try as he might, he could not fight all of them, not without his friends being harmed.
So, with little other option, Starspinner lifted his hands in surrender.
The monster captain grinned, revealing rows of needle-sharp teeth. He leaped onto the deck and stared down at Starspinner.
This captain was truly monstrous, with slimy grey flesh and long stringy hair. A row of spines crested his head, back, and arms. Gills waved on the side of his neck, and his eyes were glassy orbs that protruded from his face.
“What manner of fish are you?” Starspinner asked. His response was a heavy blow to the abdomen that sent him to his knees.
“I am your better,” said the captain. “And I am the one who will rule a world of darkness.”
Starspinner regained his feet and glanced up. Through the encroaching clouds he could see the first glimmers of starlight. He reached, hoping to catch some of their power, before a red glow in front of him caught his attention.
He brought up his magic just in time to parry a blow of red energy from the captain’s fist. The force of it hurled Starspinner to the deck. He let out a groan and struggled to sit up.
The captain laughed and played with the red energy. “You’re not the only one with magic tricks. However, unlike you,” he seized Starspinner by the collar and hauled him off the ground, “My power is strongest in the dark!”
The monsters’ clouds covered the stars and with them any hope of their help. Starspinner summoned what power he could and thrust it into the monster captain’s face.
The captain recoiled and let go. A brief struggle ensued, the captain’s red power clashing against Starspinner’s until the latter was backed and pinned against the center mast.
“I recommend you stop struggling if you don’t want something… unfortunate to befall your crew,” the captain said with a grin.
Starspinner relented. The monster captain proceeded to chain him to the mast with magically summoned iron and stone. Though he kept silent, Starspinner glared resolutely into the monster’s glassy eyes.
The captain waved to the sea beasts surrounding them. “Crush the sails and rudder! We can’t have the star thing making a daring escape, now can we?”
The beasts did as instructed. All the while, the captain paced the deck between the mast where Starspinner was chained, and the forward deck where the rest of the crew knelt bound and guarded by the monsters. The captain fidgeted with the red power, letting it tumble across his fingers like a coin.
“This ship,” the captain mused, “It holds a fair amount of power. Your power, I presume?” Starspinner gave no answer so the monster continued. “I fail to see why you feel the need to filter your magic into other sources. This ship I know, but what of your dear comrades? Do the whistling creatures hold it? Or your crew? Maybe we should start breaking them open to find out!”
“It is me alone you want, and you have me!” Starspinner cried. “Let my friends go!”
The captain laughed. “No, not yet. They still have a purpose to serve.” He pointed his hand upward and shot a red bolt into the clouds. They parted only above the ship, revealing a darkened sky and glittering stars.
Starspinner’s eyes lit up with an inner glow as his magic surged. But then the monster captain, hand covered in red energy, grabbed him by the jaw and forced his head down. “Ah, ah, ah. Keep your focus here. No tricks or we find out how long your friends can hold their breath.”
The red power burned where it touched Starspinner’s skin, like the heat of the sun focused through a glass. He did as told and kept his head down and magic tempered, though could still feel the growing strength from the stars.
The monster captain hunched his shoulders under the starlight. “Soon they will all be gone and the night sky will be empty. So it was before, it will be again.”
The monster crew let out a horrid cheer.
“And who better than to take down the stars than the one who put them there in the first place?”
Starspinner’s heart raced. Did the captain have that kind of power?
“I smell fear on you, Starspinner. Perhaps a whiff of doubt?” The captain leaned in close. “Perhaps a demonstration is in order?” He extended his hand over Starspinner’s heart and let the red power grow. It snaked over his hands and down his arm until it reached his eyes and turned them a bloody crimson.
Starspinner felt pressure in his chest and a weight under his feet, like an anchor had been tethered to his ribs. The red power sparked, and a star tumbled from above and slammed into Starspinner’s body.
Starspinner let out a cry of pain and strained against the chains. Light pulsed once down his body before settling into his chest. He sagged against the restraints, the pain fading to an ache that pounded through his veins and left him breathless.
This shouldn’t be possible. They had just dragged a star from the sky and stuffed it into Starspinner’s body like a shell into a deflated balloon. The star was not meant to be returned, nor was its story.
“Now do you see?” the monster captain asked. “You understand what our intention is?”
Starspinner shook his head. “You cannot! The stars are meant to be in the sky. I cannot hold them!”
“You did. Once. They all came from you.”
“Not as stars, as stories . Those stories were so great that they could only be shared in the form of stars. Now that they are told, they are more than they were before! You cannot return them to me any more than you can return words to the inkwell!”
The captain shrugged. “This seemed to work well enough. And when the sky is empty, we shall take the seas, then the land. Humanity will become as scarce and as unknown as we once were!”
“You can’t do this!” Starspinner shouted. “Without stars, not only will there be no light at night, but people will forget the stories!”
“That is the point! Without stars, there are no stories. No stories mean no dreams, and no dreams mean no hope. Without hope, humanity is nothing! Thus will be our victory! Now—!” The monster captain dug his clawed fingers into Starspinner’s chest. “Take back your stars, you dreaming fool!”
The red magic ignited its full power. Starspinner’s back arched off the mast as his head was thrown upward to the sky.
It started slowly, but soon the stars twisted from their anchors and spun to Earth, spiraling faster and closer like a winding galaxy that would have been glorious were it not for the circumstance.
They plunged into Starspinner’s body, encasing it in a white shine that bled into him. His eyes, mouth, and veins glowed with the stars’ power, and his colorful cape was bleached white.
After what felt like a small eternity, the last star vanished. Starspinner was left writhing in the chains, overflowing with power he never should have taken in. Light glowed from his skin and eyes and even his hair.
He knocked his head against the mast, hoping to lessen the overwhelming power by putting some of it into the ship. But the monster captain grabbed him by the throat. “You are the source of this horrid light. You will take it all back.”
The ship creaked under the red power’s pull as whatever magic it held funneled into the mast and then into Starspinner’s body. His struggles weakened. His stars were not meant to be contained. His bones creaked with their weight and his veins threatened to burst into flames.
The monster captain finally released his hold. Starspinner hung listlessly, liquid light dripping from his eyes as he wept from the unbearable pain.
The chains dissolved and Starspinner fell listlessly to the deck as the monsters laughed around him. Their victory was complete, and the Starspinner would no longer stand in their way.
“The world is dark and ours for the taking!” the captain gloated. “The only stories anyone will tell, Starspinner, are those of our triumph!”
One of the monster crewmen flexed his clawed hands. “Captain. What of the crew? The dolphins?”
“What can they do? It is not they but him who holds any real power.”
Starspinner, his body trembling, turned over and looked up. They’d blotted out his canvas, turned his glittering masterpiece into a blank void with nothing to say, no stories to tell.
But the stories weren’t gone. They were written, but trapped within him. He needed to release them once more, shine their light on humanity for all to see.
Long ago, a star he spun had led his old friend, the North Wind, to his ship. The old man was now lost at sea, thrown to the corners of the world by the monsters’ chains. If Starspinner could reach him again, cast that one light as a beacon, perhaps the North Wind might come to his aid.
His fingers stretched toward the empty sky. That star flew from his hand and glimmered in the dark. “My friends,” Starspinner whispered, “Can you see me? I need your help.”
His hand fell to his side.
The monstrous captain seized Starspinner by the shirt. “You imbecile! Do you think this will save you? One star cannot do a thing!”
Despite the pain, despite the fatigue, Starspinner smiled. “You misunderstand. That is the North’s star. It is the star that has guided many a sailor home. It is the one with the most stories and the most hope. It is the one humanity will recognize forever.” A cool breeze passed over the deck. “It is also the one my oldest friend knows me by.”
The breeze became a gust. The air shifted around them and suddenly a blast of wind carried the monsters off the ship. Another wind slammed into the sea, driving beasts below the waves.
The North Wind had arrived, and he was angry. He railed against the monsters with a vengeance, destroying their traps and their vessels, surging the sea into currents they couldn’t navigate. The dolphins joined in, bashing and biting and slapping until the monsters were forced to retreat. Starspinner’s crew, no longer held at bay by the monsters, retook their posts and prepared to sail away.
The first mate lifted Starspinner to his feet. “Captain, we must go! The way is clear and the sails are set!”
“No,” Starspinner said. He looked around at the monsters fighting to stay at the surface. “I must banish these beasts for good. But… I will need your help.”
“How?”
Starspinner leaned against the mast and looked up once more. “Not just you.” He called to the sea. “Hear me, my water-borne friends! You are known for your play and your wondrous leaps into the air. I need your strength now, to help me cast the stars and light the heavens once more.”
The dolphins chirruped and whistled in reply.
“Now,” he said, “Reach up.”
They reached. Starspinner’s cape glowed with the light of the trapped stars. Little by little, the lights bled away from him and gathered around his comrades, both human and animal. Some dolphins grabbed the lights in their beaks and dove down to jump and throw them skyward. Others prepared to hurl the stars with their tails.
Starspinner walked across the deck to lay eyes on the sea monsters who were still trying to regain their senses.
“You who would plunge this world into darkness, who would rob mankind of its dreams and stories—” His hands stretched outward, spreading his cape and making the stars shiver in anticipation. “—begone!”
Millions of lights cascaded into the sky. The monsters howled at the light and dove for the darkness of the depths. The captain of the evil ship hurled curses at the Starspinner, but was forced to follow his fellows.
Then one particularly cheeky dolphin decided to throw one last grain of salt into the monster’s defeat. She swept her tail outward and gave a small star a mighty slap. The star struck the evil captain and revealed his true form to be an angler fish, then settled between the fish’s eyes and to this day the angler is doomed to stare at the light of the stars it so despises.
Starspinner waved his hands in a glorious dance, conducting the stars precisely where he set them before. It wasn’t long before the sky was restored, the reflection on the sea making it doubly marvelous.
“This is quite the story we’ve just lived, captain,” said the first mate.
“Indeed,” said Starspinner. A gentle breeze from the North Wind filled the sails and his cape, which was restored to its former sparkling luster. “I believe a new constellation is in order. But what to make?”
In response, the eldest dolphin and the head of the pod surfaced and whistled at Starspinner. He leaned over the railing to listen. “It is a noble cause, my saltwater friend,” Starspinner said. “If you are certain you want to be my template, then I will grant your wish.”
The dolphin chirped, tossing the water with his fins.
“Well then, dear friend, give us one last leap.”
Following the magician’s order, the dolphin summoned all his strength and hurled himself above the water. Starspinner reached out and in an instant, the dolphin became pure light and landed gently in the endless sea of space.
“Swim forever, Delphinus. And tell your tale.” Starspinner and his crew, along with the dolphins, stopped to admire the new constellation. “Tell how you were there when I reached out for help. Tell how man and beast can befriend each other, and rely on each other. Tell our story. Inspire men’s dreams. And give him hope that no matter the trouble, a friend will be there to help, sure as the stars shine in the sky.”
Fin