Week 2 Story:HEART

There wasn't much to be said about the island of Ceylon. No one outside of its inhabitants even knew it existed and anyone who was unfortunate enough to stumble upon the unexplored land, never left. No one ever left. The island of Ceylon was home to a group of She-goblins. The She-goblins in their truest forms were violent, hungry monsters. But the face they showed their guests was beautiful. They were kind and inviting, ensnaring men with a simple gaze. They loved the game of capturing a man's attention, letting love blind them. It was in that moment that they would strike. She-goblins are always hungry for the flesh of men.

A group of sailors were traveling West in order to deliver an important shipment of goods to a neighboring country, when they encountered a terrible storm. The storm pounded their ship, ripped their sails, and stripped them of any chance of survival. Somehow, most of the crew floated adrift on to a miracle island. As the crew ventured further on the island, they saw no sign of life. Eventually, they found themselves in a small village. The village was alive with noisy activity, paying no mind to the group of strangers observing them. Someone did notice and soon a group of villagers had gathered around the sailors. 

The sailors noticed that the villagers were all women, attractive women. The women greeted the sailors kindly and offered them food and water. Soon, they were all seated around a fire eating a feast prepared especially for them. The sailors found themselves enamored with these strange village women. Long gone were the feelings of despair, the men felt at home. And so, this strange little village on this miracle island, became their home.

The men adapted to village life. Some began to help with fishing, others helped built huts. But all the men found themselves married to a village woman within the first month of living there. They were happy and in-love. Life seemed to have taken a weird turn for the better. It was also around this time that men began to disappear.  

Sailor after sailor went missing. The village women blamed it on animals in the forest. coming in the middle of night and stealing the men away. They calmed the fears of their men and surrounded them in their love. One night, a sailor awoke to his wife getting into their bed. She told him that she gotten hungry and had gotten something to eat. The man wasn't bothered by this because his wife frequently grew hungry in the dead of night. But, the man caught sight of something in his wife's hair as she laid down to sleep. It looked like a tooth. In fact it was a tooth, a gold tooth. There was a crew member on his ship that a gold tooth...The man didn't sleep the rest of the night.

In the morning, the man gathered his crew and explained what he saw. It wasn't long before they figured out that they had married into a group of She-goblins. They were once again filled with despair, estimating when the next man would be eaten. Fortunately for them, a fairy godmother who hated She-goblins also lived on the island. She told them that if they could solve a riddle, she would provide an escape for them. The riddle went "A face of gold, never growing old. Words like honey, make a man feel funny. People can be art, but it's more important to look at the..." The men were puzzled for a moment, but realization sank in as they learned the riddle was about them. Instead of being captured by the appearance and words of the She-goblins, they should have been more aware of who these women really were. "HEART" the sailors yelled together. A beautiful tiger appeared and carried the men away. 

Authors Note: The main things that I changed from the original story is the fact that the fairy godmother challenged the sailors with a riddle before granting them safe passage off the island. Instead of leaving on a horse, they left on a tiger.

Bibliography: "Goblin City" from The Giant Crab and Other Tales from Old India by W.H.D Rouse. web source

A savior. web source