Fin the Dolphin

For you, who made everything seem possible...

Once upon a time, at the foothills of a mountain laid a thick green forest. Flowers were weaving colours on the banks of slow creak. Next to the creak, laid a little village of dolphins. Small grey-blue oak houses surrounded the creak and at the end of the village in smallest, most grey-blue house lived a curious, witty, little dolphin named Fin. Fin was living alone but he was loved by all the villagers. Fin's parents left when he was younger, for a quest against the dark dolphin wizard but haven't returned yet. His mother was a powerful forest sorceress too. She had knowledge of the arcane and some dolphins even believed that she could see the future.. Just before they depart, she gave him a necklace with a tiny vial and a tiny umbrella and made him promise to always keep them by his heart. Fin, true to his word, was always wearing them, when he playing with his friends, when he was riding his bicycle, even when he was falling and laughing his loud staccato dolphin laugh, "Ouch! eEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeE!" he said Everybody in the village loved Fin. They were bringing him all kinds of delicious food, roasted apples, warm loafs of bread and cheese. Younger dolphins were going to his cabin to play with their little dolphin toys since they didn't have to tidy up afterwards. He liked climbing on the trees and watching the birds flying. He loved to watch them fly. Actually, he loved to watch anything fly. When all other dolphins enjoyed mindlessly the blossoms of spring, Fin would rather study the butterflies, chasing them around just to watch them fly higher! In fact, Fin's dream, since he was a little dolphin, was to fly. He would conceive the craziest ideas to do so. When he was a child, he heard about the story of the Dodos. Dodos used to get together and perform a ritual dance which was elevating them to the air. Poor Fin was trying that for weeks until somebody told him the truth about Dodos and how they were probably neither good at flying nor running... But even with his feet sore from dancing, Fin never gave up. A wanderer passed one day by the village, selling what she called the "Elixir of Life". When Fin found the courage to talk to her, she produced the "Elixir of Flying" instead and Fin rushed to give her all his valuables in exchange. Specifically one and a half oak dolphin coins, a purple thread he always kept in his pocket and his favourite marble stone. She didn't seemed too happy for this exchange but gave Fin the elixir and rushed away.. He immediately drank the elixir and instead of flying he grew black stripes all over his body that lasted for a week. The other dolphins were laughing at him but louder than everybody you could hear Fin's laugh, as he was a jolly fellow who wouldn't let something like that ruin his mood, "eEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeE!". Also, he enjoyed being the most funky dolphin in the village. Fin then turned to technology. He built himself two big wooden wings and flew off from a tree. Two seconds later he was laying on the ground, after what he later insisted referring to as "the shortest flight in the history of dolphins". Fin was writing all his attempts down to a diary and convinced himself that all he had to do was try enough times. Just enough times. Specifically, one hundred times.

Desert rock

Years have passed but Fin was still bound to the ground. His diary finally reached the hundred attempts and even Fin's determination was shaken. He was casually strolling around in the forest when he reached a pond and sat on a big rock. Once again, he watched the birds flying but for the first time he was questioning his formidable dolphin dream. Fin's eyes became watery and quickly looked away. He instead decided to focus on two little lizards running around the lake. Suddenly, the two lizards stopped, looked at each other in a competitive way and nodded. Then something remarkable happened. They ran so fast that they ran over the water in the lake, as if they were flying! Fin sprang off the rock as a fresh idea was born in his mind. "All I have to do is run fast enough and then I'll take off!" figured Fin the Dolphin. He immediately started joking. Days passed but still he couldn't fly. He then picked up some speed and continued with running. He ran and ran and ran, over the hills and over the mountains, but he still couldn't get his legs off the land. A few weeks later he was still running but didn't even feel slightly lighter. He ran faster than any dolphin had ever run but unfortunately he was still on the land. In the end, Fin grew tired and thirsty and stopped. To his surprise, everything around him looked different now. He was so focused in trying to fly that he didn't notice that the high mountains have turned to small hills. Instead of the rich forest, there were a couple of strange, thick, leafless plants. The meadows of his village were replaced by a golden thin sand, that was going as far as Fin could see. Fin was fascinated by the scenery but as thirsty as he was, he turned to find water but to his surprise there was nowhere to be found. It is well known that dolphins are not accustomed to the Desert climate and Fin was growing weary. He closed his eyes to calm and collect himself. After a few breaths, his was already grinning, feeling more confident. Suddenly, he reached out to his neckless and grasped the tiny vial. There was a tiny drop of water in it and Fin knew exactly what to do! He opened the vial and dropped the drop of water in the Desert. At first nothing happened. But then the ground started shaking and Fin got scared. He backed off just before a fountain of water sprang out of the ground. The fountain kept running for days and nights until it became a puddle. The puddle slowly gave place to a pond and eventually the pond turned into a lake. Animals from all around the Desert heard the news or read the newspapers and came to have a swim, drink and enjoy some summer vacation. "eEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeE!" laughed Fin when he found the Hippo in one of his hide and seek games. But it didn't take long before he eyes started looking up and his dream caught up with him. He made new friends and discovered new lands but his plan had failed. He was thinking just about that when two old and wise elephants noticing that asked him "Why don't you play with the other animals at the lake?". Fin then told him his story, about his childhood dream and how he didn't manage to fly despite all his efforts. The elephants thought about it for a while in the end, as elephants always do, they remembered. They have watched the Humans ride big metal birds and fly like them, somewhere far away from the lake. They drew a map on the sand using their crafty trunks and Fin was on his way to a new adventure with a smile on his face!

A pear and two flutes

Fin was travelling for months. He climbed high mountains, crossed rapid rivers, met extraordinary animals and in the end he reached the Jungle. The jungle was similar to the forest around his village but for every tree in the forest, a hundred more trees were in the Jungle. For every house in his village, a thousand flowers bloomed in the Jungle and for every Dolphin in his village millions of little animals were roaming and singing all kinds of songs around him. The Jungle was so loud that Fin had to pick up some leaves and make himself a pair of dolphin earmuffs. He was lost in the jungle, absorbed by its orchestra until he first saw the Humans. They were running around in a glade, shouting at each other and wearing frowns. Fin didn't like this game and and couldn't understand the rules. But brave and determined as he was, approached them. Walking out of the shadows of the tree, he found himself surrounded by the Humans. "STOOOOOP!" screamed one of them, "BAAAACK OFF!" shouted the second and "ON YOUR KNEES!" yelled a third one, all at the same time. Fin was terrified but even more confused because he couldn't possibly do all three at the same time. Thus he chose to do the only sensible thing and introduced himself. "Hi, I'm Fin the Dolphin and I want to fly" said cheerly. The second Human grinned a questionable smile and ordered him to follow them. They walked for a while until they reached something that Humans called the Base. Indeed, Fin found the Base very basic. There were no decorations of any colours or types and everything was either square or with sharp edges. Fin couldn't understand why Humans chose to live there when everything out of the Base was definitely better. Everybody there was genuinely unhappy and was running around in circles. There was a terrible smell of burned wood over the Base and Fin noticed some Humans cutting the poor trees around. Deafening clacking sounds were coming from a man-made hill of metal scraps where sweating humans were hammering metal with metal. Fin was trying his best to understand all these when he first encountered the most extraordinary and biggest bird he ever show in his life. It had one giant glass eye, a long tail and had its wings on its head instead on its sides. A howl interrupted his thoughts, "GET TO THE CHOPPER, PRIVATE" howled a Human. "The what?" politely asked Fin but somebody throw a bag to him and rushed him to a line of other humans instead. They were running towards the big bird, finally! As they were getting closer, Fin terrified noticed that the bird was empty on the inside. But the line of humans were running fast and he was getting pushed forward. When they reached the Bird, the Humans halted and one that seemed to be in command, probably because he was more sad than the others, shouted "GET ON BOARD!!". The line of humans, including Fin, ended up in the belly of the bird. But for Fin's surprise, a somehow kind looking Human smiled to Fin and asked "First time?". "I tried many times before but I never managed to fly" answered Fin. "I would love to fly" added. The Human started doing circles with his finger next to his head indicating something that Fin couldn't understand. "My name is Lucky" he finally said. "Nice to meet you Lucky, I'm Fin the Dolphin" Fin said and following the awkward pause he added "I'm coming from my village!". Lucky was doing yet another weird sign with his finger when the noise became unbearable. "WEAR YOUR PARACHUTE" yelled Lucky over the noise of the chopper taking off. "WHAT PAIR OF SUITS?" asked Fin. "YOUR P-A-R-A-C-H-U-T-E" spelled Lucky but in the end chose to help Fin who was in the mean time in the search of a "pe-ar -and- two flu-tes". Fin was so involved in the quest of "a pear and two flutes" that he noticed neither that the chopper was flying nor that the door was open and the Humans were standing in front of it. Suddenly Lucky pushed him out of the chopper and told him to jump, quite redundant since it was in the wrong order. Fin found himself flying! For the first time of his life he was really flying! He felt the rush of the cold wind to his face and quickly learned to steer himself with the help of his fins. Finally his dream came true! "Thank you humans!" he thought. But it didn't take him long before he realised he couldn't fly upwards. The ground was coming closer and Fin found himself in cold sweat. That is specifically difficult to know because all types of sweat are cold when you are flying with that speed but deep down in his heart he knew, Fin was scared. Lucky managed to fly to the level of Fin and started doing again more funny moves with his hands and to point to his bag. He then pulled something out of bag and an enormous umbrella emerged from his back! Lucky stopped falling, he was rather floating. Fin reached out to the same thing but due to his short fins, slippery skin and sudden moves he suddenly saw the bag flying in front of him and then away. Fin had lost his umbrella-bag and was doomed to fly for the last time! "At least I managed to make my dream come true and beat the record of the longest dolphin flight" he thought grinning. He closed his eyes and tried to calm himself. That gave him some clarity and suddenly he knew. He quickly reached for his necklace and grabbed the tiny umbrella his mother gave him. He pulled it out and opened it. The magic tiny umbrella started growing and growing until it became huge and slowed down Fin's flight until he was merely floating, his umbrella at hand. The breeze took him away from the humans, away from their noise and rancid smell and away from the music of the jungle. He drifted three days and three nights until he finally landed on a tiny island..

Tea at Tiffany's

The island was surrounded by a crystal clear blue lagoon. Colourful coral riffs were emerging from the water and birds of any possible colour combination were painting the sky. White sand was covering the seashore followed by a sea of tall palm trees. Each of them had a bunch of coconuts on top and Fin noticed some monkeys playing a familiar game: one monkey was throwing a coconut to another monkey. The other monkey might catch it. Or might not.. Fin thought of using his umbrella as a shield but instead he decided on exploring the seashore instead. He was walking and collecting seashells for a while until he bumped onto a group of fascinating birds. They were pink, with long legs, funny beaks and each of them was wearing a monocle and a tiny tie. Fin approached them and introduced himself "Hi, I'm Fin the Dolphin". "I've never seen such a big flock of birds" he added trying to start a conversation. They all stopped their endless discussions and stared at him through their individual monocles. Fin felt embarrassed. "Oh, my" a flamingo said noted with a strange accent. "We are rather a flamboyance" said irritated. "Where are my manners. My name is Reginald and we are the club 'Around the World with 80 cups of tea'" he added with a heavy northern accent and a considerable pause. "We travel the world, drink tea and talk about everything" Reginald said. They definitely talk about everything suspected Fin, as he already heard his name a few times over the flamingos murmuring on the back. "And how do you travel..?" Fin asked. "Oh my, what a cheeky question!" Reginald responded. "We are excellent...aviators" added after a pause. Fin's face sparked with joy, "Maybe you can teach me how to fly!" he requested. "What a lovely Dolphin!" Reginald remarked, probably to the ears of the flamboyance as there was a little laughing . "Then I will personally teach you the art of aviation, over a cup of tea of course. You see, the secret of flying is not about flying but rather being like us because we can fly" explained Reginald. "How did I not think about that before?!" said Fin nodding in agreement. "When do we start!?" he asked. "Oh my, you are an impatient student" marked Reginald. "But of course at 12:00 o'clock" he added. Fin then wandered off around the island as he couldn't stop hearing his name over what was definitely gossiping from the flamboyance.
At 12:01 he went to meet Reginald who was waiting quite upset. "Would you consider a clock Fin?" asked Reginald but Fin had no idea what that meant. Reginald scowled and after a long pause he decided to continue "Let's start with the tea then. I would suggest you follow me" and started walking. "What makes a flamingo?" asked Reginald. "But of course, your long legs and your funn.." Fin quickly sealed his mouth using his fins ".. and your long beaks" added. "With the greatest respect Fin, you are partially wrong" Reginald replied. "It's neither the legs nor the beaks". Fin wondered how he was partially wrong in that case but he decided not to ask.. "It's fashion Fin. Fashion makes a flamingo and flamingos make fashion. Have a cup of tea first" he said as they reached the table. Reginald offered a seat to Fin and then seated himself too. "I'm going to explain you everything, I would suggest you keep notes" explained Reginald seriously. "A flamingo's guide to etiquette starts early in the morning. First things first, we prepare our morning tea -" Fin prepared to interrupt but Reginald discouraged him with a strict look over his monocle. "... and read the 'Daily Flamingo Fashion" newspaper. After we are done, we prepare ourselves for the world. The world of flamingo fashion, Flashion!" said with a grin, something that looked unnatural over his ever-serious face but he continued "We wear our fashion ties, our neat monocles and remove any non-pink feathers". "I thought flamingos are all pink!" interrupted Fin. "We choose the Pink, Fin, because it's the best colour ever, not because we are born that way. We can be any colour we want!" said Reginald matter-of-factly. He took a deep breath, gathered his thoughts and continued "It's simple, we will need to paint you pink, give you a monocle, a tiny tie and after a couple of cups of tea, I'm sure you will be able to fly. At least that works for us. Unfortunately there is one things you won't be able to do.." Reginald said with faintly sad tone. "What would that be?" asked Fin already trying to copy the accent of Reginald. "All things considered, I'm afraid you won't be able to join our 'Around the World with 80 cups of tea' flamingo-only club" said Reginald and Fin couldn't help but notice a tone of pride over his sad voice. "With the greatest respect Reginald, I agree that this wouldn't be appropriate" agreed Fin, thinking that he cannot possibly have another tea. Ever. Little did he know. Reginald took a tiny tie and a monocle out of his pocket and helped Fin wear them. The tiny tie looked even tinier on Fin's thick dolphin neck. "Keep them on at all times. And now let's get you pink!" said Reginald and headed off to a place known as the Pink Valley.
Upon arrival, Fin was astonished by the shear beauty of the valley. Volcanic mountains, erupting thick pink volcanic ash clouds, surrounded an enormous valley covering and painting it completely with the ash. The sky was pink too and in the field there were some rare tiny blue flowers emerging from the ground. Fin instinctively just knew what he had to do and started rolling down the hill, covering himself with a thick fluffy pink layer of ash. Laughing and rolling, rolling and laughing "eEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeE!" hours passed by and Fin was so happy that he almost forgot his dream. Almost. Reginald interrupted "It's time" he said seriously, "you are ready to fly". Fin felt very much happier but not any lighter but trusted Reginald with his life, he was all pink now anyway. "We will now go to the Cliff of Graduation" he said and Fin felt a cold shiver running down his spine. They walked through the valley and over the volcanic mountains until they reached the Cliff of Graduation. Fin thought that there is nothing educative in that cliff but chose to follow Reginald regardless. In the mean time, the flamboyance of flamingos had already gathered to witness the graduation of Fin and of course gossip about it. "After we have our first cup of tea, our first monocle and our first tiny tie as offsprings, our parents bring as here to leap to our first flight, in fashion. Now that you have all that you need, you are ready to do the same" said Reginald. Fin reached the edge of the cliff and looked down. There was the rough sea hundreds of meters away crashing over sharp rocks. He backed off but met the reassuring stare of Reginald over his monocle. Fin took a deep breath, stretched his fins, walked to the end of the cliff and jumped!. He opened his fins, just as the flamingos do, all pink and wearing his monocle and calmly said "Oh my". To his surprise, nothing of these worked and found himself falling, once again. He fixed his tie and straightened his monocle but he kept falling. Fin closed his eyes and tried to think. His mother came to mind and he reach for his necklace. But there was nothing there.. He have used all the magic items his mother gave to him. Just before he hit the water, he heard Reginald saying "Oh my..".

Pink news travel fast

Some time after Fin decided to jump the cliff, specifically 76 cups of tea later, Reginald and his travelling club found themselves in a little village, in the centre of a forest at the foothills of a high mountain. It was a dolphin village and Reginald couldn't help but think of Fin, his first and last student. The flamboyance was tired enough to sought settler to the village's inn, regardless of its noticeable lack of pink colour. Joe, the inn keeper was struggling to catch up with the tea orders when he overheard a discussion about Fin. He quickly jumped out of the bar and rushed to the flamingos. "Fin?! Fin the dolphin? Do you know him? Tell me everything about Fin!" he demanded. "Fin is my best friend. How is he doing?" he asked. A grim silence covered the inn. Joe was petrified. "Oh my... It seems that you don't know.. I am in the terrible situation to inform you that Fin is no longer walking among us" he said and wept a tiny tear but behind the safety of his monocled eye. Joe grabbed a sit as he felt his legs weakening and heard Reginald reciting the story of Fin the dolphin. Well, not all of it.. Due to the gossipy nature of flamingos and the love that the village had for Fin, the grim news quickly spread through the village. The whole village gathered and decided to go to the Cliff of Graduation, which was renamed soon after Fin's jump to just "cliff", and bid farewell to Fin for the last time. The preparations were quick, each family packed supplies for the trip and the village contributed to the creation of a small wooden winged statue of Fin and their journey began. They travelled South following the rumours about the racing dolphin. That was quite the sight because as we all know, dolphins usually walk. They met with the animals living around Fin's lake and heard the story about its creation. They consulted the elephants and headed off to find the Humans. They were lucky enough to meet Lucky in the jungle rather than in the Camp. Poor Lucky looked older even though only a few months have passed. They managed to carve a brief smile over his tired face reminding him about Fin. Lucky described Fin as the most fearless dolphin he ever met and spoke about his incredible escape. The pod, looking at the mess Lucky was, felt pity for him spared him the details of Fin's last next journey. They headed off to Fin's final destination. One day, they finally arrived at the blue lagoon and fell in love with everything they saw. Except the monkeys. The monkeys looked suspicious to them, just like they did at Fin. They went through the pink valley and stopped briefly to roll down the hills but also to thank Fin for giving them the opportunity to witness the wonders of world. They owed to Fin more than they could ever repay for gifting them the experience of travelling and the strength of dreaming. Over the volcanic mountains they went, until they reached the cliff. They gathered in a circle while Joe said a few words. Joe placed his statue at the end of the cliff and paused for minute of silence while watching the sun setting on the horizon. What followed next is something that happens to all of us, when we see something we can't comprehend, our brain chooses to filter this out. In Joes's case, he kept staring at the sunset because he couldn't comprehend Fin jumping out of the water, happy like a bird. Fortunately, Fin was also laughing with his characteristic dolphin laugh "eEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeE!" so eventually Joe and the other dolphins connected the sound with the image and their mouths dropped open. A dolphin in the water! Living in the mountains, they thought flying is impossible but they haven't even dreamed swimming. As a matter of fact, forest dolphins avoid even rain. They all started shouting to Fin and it wasn't long before he noticed and swam towards them. They all rushed to the beach and met in joyful tears. They hugged and laughed and shed tears of happiness all together. Then Fin told his story of how he was falling from the Graduation Cliff. At that moment Joe turned to look at the flamingos and would have risen his eyebrow, if he had any. Fin fell into the water and instead of drowning he found himself levitating in the water. He could go up and down and all around, he would splash his fins to go faster and twist them to steer himself to any direction, even upwards! And it felt just like flying! He could look upon the sand in the bottom of the sea just like the earth he was walking on before. But he was flying in the sea! He was so excited that he forgot to breath and then had to rush to the surface. He rushed so fast that he broke through the surface of the sea and flew a few meters up to the sky! At that point Fin's dream came true and he never left the sea again. The other dolphins joined him and since then they spend their days jumping around over the sea and swimming, singing and laughing "eEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeE!".

And that's how dolphins learned how to swim