Poseidon and Sharkules
By Avery Ruthven
Once upon a time, there lived Poseidon, the god of the sea. Poseidon was the son of Gai, goddess of nature, filled with love, kindness, and beauty. Poseidon had a long, white beard and crystal blue eyes that reflected his love for the ocean. He had enormous muscles and a long merman tail which was the color of fresh seaweed. All Poseidon wanted in life, he already had. The only other thing he wanted was to see his mother again. Happily, Poseidon spent most of his days swimming in the ocean and speaking to other sea creatures. Poseidon was feeling very tense one day and he didn’t know why. He had no idea of the disastrous chain of events to follow. On the other side of the ocean there lived Sharkules, the god of all sharks. His bright red eyes showed his love of death and sacrifice. Sharkules had razor sharp teeth and 5 gill slits on each side of his body. He was big and strong and very fast. He wanted to be the most powerful ocean ruler that there ever was. Sharkules enjoyed making other sea creatures miserable and eating seals. Sharkules would sit in his cave and sing to himself, “The only word to describe myself is perfect.” He was feeling very confident that he could be the best.
Poseidon lived in the calm part of the ocean where all the creatures were friends. It was clean and clear blue. The water tasted perfectly salty and was full of life. It was always quiet and calm in Poseidon’s part of the ocean. There was always a sweet smell of cinnamon above the surface.
“Ahh. I love relaxing here,” he would say on days when the sun peeked out of the clouds. Meanwhile, in Sharkules’ part of the ocean, although there was still a crystal blue ocean scene to look out to from land, there was always a horrible screeching sound and the smell of a dumpster. This part of the ocean was called the trash can.
One day, Sharkules was told by one of his dolphin servants that there was an ocean god much more powerful than Sharkules himself. Poseidon was his name. Greedily, Sharkules was furious when he heard this news and immediately became jealous. The king ordered all of his servants to prepare a sea chariot for him to travel to Poseidon. The whole journey, Sharkules was baffled as to how he became less powerful.
“Why! I am the most powerful, and there will NEVER be anyone else!!” Sharkules stated.
After a while, Sharkules arrived at Poseidon’s part of the ocean and approached him. “You! It's you. You’re the most powerful!” he screamed.
“Well yes, I guess I am,” Poseidon replied back calmly. “Is there a problem?” At this point, Sharkules was very angry.
Right after that, Poseidon remembered when Zeus had told him about a greedy shark king that wanted to rule the ocean. Realizing it was him, Poseidon fell back, swimming away, but not fast enough. Sharkules shot towards Poseidon and screamed, “Oh yes, there is a problem!”
Later on, after screaming at each other for hours and saying, “I will win!” back and forth, Poseidon and Sharkules decided that the only way to settle this was a battle. With their weapons and armor ready, they prepared to fight.
“You will never win,” Poseidon stated. As the town clocks struck 12 p.m., the combat began. It started when Sharkules jumped at Poseidon and tackled him. On his back, Poseidon pushed himself up and struck Sharkules with his trident, wounding him. The anger of Poseidon caused big waves in the water above them.
“You will never be most powerful ever again!” Sharkules screamed. With a loud, boastful voice, Poseidon said, “Oh, but I already am.” This angered Sharkules more than anything ever had.
Suddenly, he leaped forward and grabbed Poseidon’s trident out of his hands.
He heard a soft “No!!” slip from Poseidon’s mouth as he floated back in shock. Poseidon felt hopeless, like the world was over. Sharkules felt like he had already taken over the ocean as the most powerful. “Now, I have the power to do anything I wish. And I think that you have a pretty good guess as to what I’m going to do first.”
Then, Sharkules struck Poseidon with his trident, causing Poseidon to sink deeper and deeper into the unknown depths of the dark ocean below. As Poseidon lay at the seafloor, Sharkules swam back and forth between the creatures that had gathered, full of excitement. Sharkules was proud. So proud he could explode. He was proud at himself for getting the trident and killing Poseidon. Or so he thought.
Soon after Poseidon had sunk to the bottom of the ocean, Sharkules heard a frightening scream from above. As the goddess of nature, Gai, appeared, Sharkules swam to his chariot and hid inside. Gai swam to the bottom of the ocean and saw Poseidon appear in her view. As he appeared, Gai sobbed and sobbed. When she reached him, she realized that he was not yet dead. Still half-alive, Poseidon shouted out, “Mother!” He wasn’t ready to give up. His mother swam to him and said, “I will defeat Sharkules for you. I promise,” Gai cried.
At last Sharkules got what he wanted all along. Even though he had hid from Gai, he still had the trident. When Poseidon “died”, his powers were handed to only the owner of the trident, in this case Sharkules. But Poseidon wasn’t dead. Not knowing that his enemy, laying on the ocean floor, was alive, Sharkules tried and tried to strike things and kill small fish, but it wouldn’t work. “Why won’t this work!” he screamed in horror. “I am the king of the sea. I have to be most powerful!” Just as Sharkules was about to throw the trident into the depths of the ocean below, Gai appeared behind him. “My son will never die. He may be injured, but he will never get defeated by an amateur.” Gai swam towards him, striking him with her powers. He fell backwards screaming, “NO!” and Gai struck him again. Sharkules immediately turned into an ugly, horrible shark. He swam away vigorously. Suddenly, Poseidon appeared in front of her and took his trident from her hand. “Thank you, mother,” said Poseidon. “I would do anything for you, my precious son,” Gai replied softly. Gai swam back up to the clouds of the gods and Poseidon lived in his ocean swimming freely whenever he pleased. Neither of the gods were harmed since the accident with Sharkules. Having occasional visits with his mother, Gai, Poseidon was happy to be the ocean ruler. He banned Sharkules to ever enter the ocean again, and had him locked up in a local aquarium.