The Sea Witch's Revenge

Once upon a time a sea witch swam along the coast searching for a home until one day she spotted just the right place. A beautiful little cove quiet and serene. Just the perfect spot for a sea witch's home, she thought.

She made a home in the little bay, and dressed it beautifully with shells and corals. The witch planted seaweeds all around her home to keep her place safe from storms and to give the fish of the sea a safe place to raise their young.  It was a very happy place to be and the witch lived there many years without being disturbed.

But one day, as her hair flowed in the waters causing waves to form and glide to the beach in perfect curls, some survey men appeared on the bluffs overlooking the bay. Not long after that great homes began to appear on the bluff. The sea witch was wary of humans and all the trouble they brought with them and became concerned.

People began to come to the beach to surf in her curls. At first she worried what might happen, that they might throw trash  or rip out her garden of seaweeds. But they only seemed to delight in riding the waves made by her hair.

So, on a beautiful summer day as humans laid on the beach and surfed the waves, she transformed into a mermaid and rode the waves with the humans to see why they like to surf so much. The people delighted in surfing with the mermaid, for they thought she was just another surfer out to enjoy the day, her finned tail looking more like a surfboard. And the witch thought humans might be okay after all. But she was wrong, not all humans are okay.

The homes on the bluff brought families of the rich and powerful and they began to put up fences to keep anyone that didn't live there away. But the people missed surfing the perfect waves and tried to get to the beach below the cliffs. Then the homeowners sent guards to push them back and the children of the rich vandalized their cars to keep others away. Now only the homeowners on the bluff were allowed to lay on the beach and surf the perfect waves that the hair of the sea witch made.

One summer day the sea witch transformed herself once again and rode the waves with the homeowners children. But instead of welcoming the sea witch, they yelled at her and called her names. The homeowner's sons started to pelt her with stones and spit on her until she swam under the waves and went back to her home. There, in the safety of her house under the water, the sea witch brooded and worried about these selfish people. "Who do they think they are?" she asked herself.

She called on her friends the sharks to help her and they swam in circles around the surfers to scare them away but the boys only went home to tell their parents that sharks were now bothering them. The homeowners then called on sharpshooters and harpooners to kill the sharks and many sharks died until the sea witch made a plan.

"Who do they think they are?" She asked herself again, "They throw stones and spit at me and kill my friends the sharks. I will get revenge on these horrible humans."

One summer day with the sun and sea beckoning the cliff dwellers to come to the beach, the sea witch made the best waves anyone had ever seen. Each wave, curled into a perfect tube along the glass surface of the water. The boys called all their friends and told their families to come and watch them surf. There was loud music and fires burning on the beach, people brought food and drink to watch their children ride the waves.

When the sea witch saw that all the cliff dwellers were at the beach and their children playing in the water she gathered all her powers and brushed her hair into a great bundle that formed the largest wave anyone had ever seen. It roared toward the surfers and the beach. Some of the surfers swam out to catch the monster wave while others swam to the beach. But it didn't matter.

The great wave swept them all up in its waters. It pushed surfers and boards onto the sand of the bay and smashed with fury against the cliffs. Then it swept everyone away that was in the water and on the beach to where a great many sharks waited. The sharks pulled them under the water and tore off their arms and legs until the sharks ate the last human.

But the sea witch was not through. She gathered her hair again into a great bundle and with the help of gale winds made an even bigger wave. This wave rose high, so high that when it smashed against the cliff the whole hillside shuddered and collapsed into the sea. The homes of the wealthy lay scattered on the waters where the sea witch pulled all the debris far out into the ocean.

Now there was only a beach left, the cliff just a gentle rise from the ocean's water with no trace that a human ever lived there. The waves lapped at the beach instead of forming beautiful curls to ride, and people came no more to bother the sea witch or her friends the sharks.