The Treasure Cave: sea tales of Tiptoes Lightly (7 page)

“Why’s that?”
asked Tiptoes.

“Because we
come from the stars, of course,” said the starfish proudly.

“You do?” said
Tiptoes, surprised.

“Of course,”
said the starfish. “Why do you think we are called starfish? Everyone knows
that falling stars are baby starfish falling from heaven. We fall into the sea
and that’s how we’re born. My mother told me when I was little, so it must be
true.”

“By my wings,”
said Tiptoes, impressed. “I never knew how special starfish were until now.”

“Oh, yes,”
said the Starfish. “We are special in many ways. Did you know that we are the
ones that make the waves? The waves come from all the splashing the shooting
stars make when we land in the water.”

“That’s not
true,” interrupted a small fish, swimming up to them. He was odd looking, with
a tiny tail, a tubby body, and a pointy nose. He had long, bony side fins that
he used to walk on the rocks when he wasn’t swimming, and he had squiggly
patterns on his skin.

“Who are you?”
asked Tiptoes.

“Grunt,” said
the little fish. “Grunt Sculpin. Pleased to meet you. My mother told me the
waves are made by all the fish in the sea waving their tails. That makes much
more sense than starfish splashing.”

“It’s starfish
falling from heaven,” said the starfish. “Definitely. We make big splashes.”

“It’s fish
waving their tails,” said Grunt Sculpin, spiking up his spiny back. “It has to
be fish.”

Tiptoes held
up her hands to stop them arguing. “And I’m sure the waves are made by the wind
fairies, but perhaps all of us are right. Maybe the waves are made by wind
fairies and falling starfish and all the fish in the sea waving their tails.
All of them make waves so why can’t they work together.”

“Well, I
suppose,” said Grunt Sculpin, sending a bubble out of his mouth. “I hadn’t
thought of it that way.”

“Me neither,”
said the starfish. “Perhaps you are right, but my mum’s not going to be happy.”

“Nor my mum,”
said the Grunt Sculpin.

“Then mum’s
the word,” said Tiptoes, and flammed out of the pool before they could start
arguing again.

Tiptoes
meets Obaro again

It was late in
the afternoon. The rain had stopped and Tiptoes had finished exploring the rock
pools. She entered the cave and the sound of the surf fell away. She flew
through the passage that Tom and June had dug and stood in the almost dark.
Only a faint glimmer came from the opening—not enough to light the cavern. She
picked up a few grains of sand and sang:

“Golden
sand,

Full
of light,

Shine
for me

And fill the night.”

She tossed the
sand into the air and the grains burst into golden light and lit the cave.

“Now stay!”
she commanded and the grains of sand stayed floating in the air.

“That’s a nice
trick, nice trick,” said an echoing voice.

It was Obaro.

“Thank you,”
said Tiptoes. “It’s just a little spell.”

“If I could do
it,” said Obaro, “I would have had some light now and then, now and then—me
being here for such long ages and all, and all.”

“I suppose,”
said Tiptoes, looking around. She wanted to explore the cave.

“Go ahead! Go
ahead! Don’t mind me,” said Obaro.

Tiptoes blushed.
She’d forgotten that Obaro could read her mind.

“It’s just
that Tom found a pearl in here,” said Tiptoes. “I want to see what else there
might be.”

“Lots if you
could see it,” said Obaro, “and more if you could find it, find it.”

Tiptoes walked
around. This chamber was bigger than the first; it too had a flat, sandy floor
and smooth, water-worn walls. From the footprints she saw where Tom had
explored by following the walls. In one place the sand was messy. That must
have been where the pearl was.

“Yes,” said
Obaro. “It was, it was.”

Tiptoes looked
further but didn’t see anything. Perhaps that was all there was.

“No,” said
Obaro. “It’s not, it’s not.”

Tiptoes
searched some more but still didn’t find anything. It must be buried.

“Yes, it is,
it is,” said Obaro.

“Where did the
pearl come from?” asked Tiptoes.

“Oh, that’s a
tale, a tale,” said Obaro in his echoey voice. “It was a long, long time ago. I
told you I have been here a long, long time. Oh, the King of the Sea was mad
about that necklace of royal pearls, royal pearls.”

Tiptoes opened
her mouth.

“Yes, I will,”
said Obaro. “I will,” and this is the tale he told.

The
Sea King’s fairest Daughter and how she broke the Law

Long, long
ago,” said Obaro, “in the days when this cave was young, the Sea King had a
daughter. She was the loveliest of all his daughters, and his favorite. Her
hair was golden, but gleamed with an emerald sheen, and her eyes were deep,
deep aqua-green, like the sea-green of the coral lagoons. She played in the
waves and swam where she pleased, for the King hardly ever told her not to do
something, and if he did she didn’t listen anyway and he never scolded her
afterwards.

One day the
Sea King’s daughter came home with sand in her hair. She had left the sea and
played on a beach. This she was not meant to do. ‘Never leave the sea,’ the
King had commanded his daughters, and all his daughters obeyed, except her. For
the daughters of the King of the Sea are mermaids, and if they leave the sea
they lose their tails while on the land. And even if they only leave the sea
for a short time, they will long ever more to be human.

But the King’s
fairest daughter did not listen to her father. She went to the beach and played
on the sand and breathed the sea air. Then she returned to her cave at the
bottom of the sea and sat and combed her golden hair. As she combed she never
noticed the sand falling out of her hair and sinking to the floor.

The cave of
the Sea King’s daughter was a royal cave and lined with oysters. Royal oysters
they were, large and beautiful, with their shells wide open and glittering with
mother-of-pearl to delight the eyes. O, how they gleamed silvery-white and all
the colors of the rainbow. One by one each grain of sand sank into a royal
oyster, and when it did the oyster closed. Then, from that grain, a pearl was
made, a royal pearl, large and silvery and white and full of the colors of the
rainbow.”

Suddenly Lucy
barked and came into the cave. Behind him were Tom Nutcracker and June Berry.
Quickly Tiptoes clapped her hands and the sand lights winked out. She looked
back to Obaro but he had disappeared. So she stood to one side and waited.

Pearls

Tom Nutcracker
and June Berry crawled into the cave after Lucy. Their dad had let them come
down to the beach as long as they were back by dusk.

“Stay here,
Lucy. Sit!” said Tom, and Lucy lay down on the ground. He whined because he
wanted to run about, but he stayed where he was.

Tom and June
squirmed into the second chamber.

“It’s so
dark,” said June Berry. She was a bit afraid.

“Give me the
candle,” said Tom.

June took the
candle from her pocket and held it upright. Tom struck a match and lit it. She
held it high. This room was twice the size of the first one. At the back it
seemed to go on, but there the rocks were broken and they couldn’t go further.
Carefully Tom and June walked about searching the floor.

“This is where
I found the pearl,” said Tom. “It was half buried in the sand,” and he began to
carefully sweep the sand away.

June Berry
held the candle for him and watched. “How did a pearl get in here?” she asked.

“I don’t
know,” said Tom, “but here’s another one!”

“Let’s see,”
said June, taking it from his hand and wiping away the sand.

This pearl was
as lovely as the first, though a little smaller. It had a delicate hole drilled
through it, filled with fine sand.

“We’ll have to
wash it clean,” said Tom, beginning to search again.

June Berry
placed the candle in the sand and helped Tom look. They found six more pearls,
all beautiful and of different sizes. June lined them up. The first they’d
found was the largest; she put it in the middle. Then came three on either
side, each one smaller than the one before. All of them had holes drilled
through them.

“It’s a
necklace,” said June. “I wonder who it belonged to?”

“I don’t
know,” said Tom. “How could someone lose a necklace in here? This cave has been
underground for ages.”

“They used to
be on a string or chain,” said June Berry. “Let’s look for it.”

They searched
until the candle went out, but couldn’t find it.

Hide-and-Seek

After supper
the Nutcracker family played a game of hide-and-seek. They decided, because the
cottage was small, that the seeker had to wear a blindfold. That way the hiders
could hide in the middle of a room as long as they stood still and were quiet.
But when it was Farmer John’s turn he didn’t have an easy time. He searched and
searched, but couldn’t find Tom and June anywhere. They’d curled up on the
shelves in the linen closet and covered themselves with sheets.