The map's journey

The students of the 6th Grade Primary School of Antiparos Comenius

See the Sea 2010- 2011

This tale was written by combinig smaller tales using our imagination. We hope you enjoy it.

Animated by the students of 6th Grade

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Once upon a time, years ago, when pirates were travelling all over the sea and the oceans looking for treasures, there was a little ship owned by 5 pirates.

They had been united by the same mission. They were looking for a lost treasure, precious and unique. They had a map which they believed would lead them to a place full of treasures far away from there. However, they were fighting all the time about how they would share the precious treasure when they reached it. So one day, during their fight, they ended up to the bottom of the sea.

Their ship had been left ungoverned and hit on to a reef.

However though, they were washed out on the shore of a desert island where they continued fighting. This time not only 4

for the treasure but also for the new troubles that they had found themselves.

All their maps had been lost in the bottom of the sea and the waves had taken them to unknown places where sea creatures were living.

The first map was found in a place where strange creatures used to live. They looked like small colorful gelatines. If you didnâ€&#x;t know what they could cause, you would feel the urge to hold them in your hands because of their appearance. And then your hands would suffer from terrible itching. They were the infamous jellyfish (the greek equivalent word also means someone who is quarrelsome). They fought with other all the time and they were never happy because of that.

It was one o these rare days when one could see a swarm of jellyfish playing together from start to finish without any fighting or shouting. And it was that very moment when a map came to them out of nowhere. The jellyfish stared at each oth5

er in awe, opened immidiately the strange piece of paper and began fighting again.

“I saw it first so I must keep it!” they started saying to each other, as if they were trying to find a reason to start fighting again as they always did.

One of them, who was slightly different from the rest, said: “This is a map probably leading to a treasure! Let‟s follow the others” and their eyes glowed like gold.They decided to go for it and follow it‟ s route.

Meanwhile in another country far away, the famous Land of seahorses, there were two very good friends Jack and Joe. They were two young seahorses and they were a good example of friendship to the local community.

One day, while Jack was on his way to meet his favourite friend, he found a strange map. Poor Jack! He had never seen such a thing and got so terrified that he started screaming: “Aliens… aliens in the sea!”

Joe woke up by Jack‟s screams and run to help his friend who had turned green by fear.

“What happened my friend? What‟s wrong with you?” he asked him.

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Jack showed him the strange object and immediately hid behind a small seaweed. Joe laughed so hard when he realized that it was nothing more than a small piece of paper. On a closer look he understood that it was a map.

“We„ll become rich!” suddenly Jack screamed behind the seaweed.

Before making any decision though, they thought it would be wise to consult their friend, the mermaid Seagirl (Thalasenia) and headed towards her cave. Nobody dared to reach that cave because of Seagirl‟ s

bad fame. Everyboby believed that if

someone looked her directly in the eyes she would transform him into a dogfish for ever. Of course, such a thing had never happened but you know how rumours work!

In fact Seagirl was a very good, fairy mermaid. She had beautiful blue hair and blue eyes similar to the colour of the sea and protected everyone that needed her.

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She looked at the map that our two friends had brought for a moment and her face became alight as soon as she understood the value of it. Excited as she was, she said something confusing: “The map will guide you to a place where you will find the most precious thing in the world! In fact, it‟s about something that you already know, something that has existed before your eyes for long. Then she gave them her best wishes for good luck and advised them to embark on their trip to the place that the map showed right away. So Jack and Joe left looking for new adventures.

In the meanwhile, what had happened with the rest of the maps? Where could they be reached? In which tentacles tresses propably? The third map ended on the hands of a clumsy yet, sweet octopus called Octopustroublemaker. What a strange name! The poor octopus was so clumsy that he got in trouble all the time.

He couldn‟t even control his eight feet and strumbled upon every rock or grit. Sometimes he got so confused that he thought he had nine feet instead of eight.

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Nobody wanted to be his friend! Everybody made fun from him and he wandered all alone in the Octopus Land. It was one of those countless times that he strumbled something. But this time it wasn‟t just a rock, neither a little stone. It was a map that got stuck in between his tentacles. He started talking to himself: “Poor guy! Your nine feetgot all mixed up! But wait a minute! What‟s this? It looks like a map! Oh! It is a map!”

Octopustroublemaker had read a lot of octopus books and adventures and he knew very well about these kinds of maps.

“I will become a rich octopus.” he said loudly.

“Then everybody will love me and everybody will want to be my friend.” Besides he had heard that rich men have a lot of friends. Without wasting time travelled to the place that the map showed looking for what he thought the real treasure was, that is, friends!

The forth map traveled far away to places where large and terrible creatures used to live. They were sharks of course. A 9

very smart and fat shark called Spake lived on the Land of sharks. His only worry was how he would fill his large stomach with food. He spent his days waiting to attack and eat as much fish as he could like mullets, readfish oreven breams.

It was a pity however! Everytime he was ready to attack and enjoy a delicious meal, he messed up! What would he eat then?

What else? Seaweeds! “I will end up a vegetarian shark in the end!” he used to say while chewing seaweeds again and again.

That day, he had left his house for the usual hunting when he suddenly saw something coming from a distance towards to him.

What could that be?

“I have never seen such a fish, neither have I eaten such!”

Then he opened his big mouth and swallowed it without looking

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around! Suddenly, he started choking as if got stuck in his throat!

“Maybe it‟ s the fish I just ate! Maybe it had a lot of bones!” he thought.

He started coughing and spat.

“But this is not a fish! It doesn‟t have either scales or flippers or even eyes.” He scratched his fat belly for a while (he used to do that when he was worried about something).

“It looks like a route! It must lead somewhere! Where else? To food?” he said to himself again.

Without losing any time, the shark followed the route that was drawn on the map. He knew how to find his way any time because his grandfather used to take him with him when hunting! That was the second thing he was good at except eating!

 If the last map could speak, it would rejoice in it‟ s good luck.

Do you know why? Because a dolphin found it. It was Roudy, the beautiful. Everybody knows that dolphins are the most beautiful and good - hearted creatures of the sea. They are friendly to all, even to humans. Roudy was exactly that. His kindness was such that many times some other vicious sea crea11

tures would take advantage of him. Poor Roudy. He was helpful at all, from the smaller to the biggest fish. Nobody however appreciated his effort.

He had never heard the word “thank you” in his life. But he didn‟t give up. He continued helping those in need. One day, while he was swimming, he saw something moving behind a rock.

Without losing any time, he went close to see if someone was in danger and needed his help. It was the fifth and the last map of our story.

Roudy knew a lot about maps. He also knew that humans used them to find their way. He followed ships many times before.

He had seen humans standing on the prow of ships holding a map like that.

He had no doubt it was a map. But where did it lead? To distant places perhaps? Who could live there? He wondered. It could be a really nice adventure and, without thinking much, he started off the unknown place the map was showing.

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That was the beginning of a long journey, full of surprises, adventures and dangers for our friends. It was an unbelievable experience for them when they eventually came across to each other at the same point.

They all stood still for a while without saying anything until one of the jellyfish couldn‟t keep her mouth shut any more:

“Who are all these guys?”

“Why are they holding the same map with us?” said another.

“I don‟t like that guy. I think he is staring at me all the time!” said another one and pointed to the fat shark.

Suddenly, Roudy the dolphin, stood in the middle and tried to give an explanation about how they had found themselves in the same place at the same time all holding the same map.

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“My friends…” he said.

“I think we are all here for the same purpose. We possibly started from different places but now we must follow the same route. I think that all these maps end up to a mysterious place!

Who knows what we might find there!”

“I hope it is something really special because I didn‟t leave my comfortable home for something totally undeserving.”

“Will it be something that we can eat? asked the shark.

“If so, I will have a double helping! We can make a deal! I say that everyone should eat as much as they can.”

“Your stomach can take a lot of food! It will not be fair for the rest of us!” said one of the jellyfish.

Then the two seahorses joined the discussion. “We are here for so long, we are going to continue the jorney together and we haven‟t even introduced to each other!”

“This is realy rude!” agreed Roudy.

“Let‟s introduce ourselves then.”

They all started saying their names, where they came from, what their places were like and so much more. The shark went close to Octopustroublemaker and said:

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“I know you! You are so lucky sir! You have so many feet so you can use them all in order to eat faster than anyone else because you can use a lot of spoons at the same time.�

Octopustroublemaker then laughed so much that fell down!

Then they all started laughing and came closer to each other in this way. So they took a decision to become co-travellers! They also agreed to share the once they found it.

They were swimming for hours towards the direction that the maps showed when they suddenly saw a school of fierce sharks coming in their direction. They froze for a moment waiting for something really bad to happen. Then the courageous Spake swam fast towards them. The rest of the company were surprised when the sharks turned back! What could the smart shark possibly said?

They had been tricked. Spake told them that there were a lot of delicious salmons travelling in the opposite direction so the sharks caught the opportunity and changed their way at once! That was a realy smart way for Spake to protect his new friends.

Unfortunately, further troubles soon arose!

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What was this thing that made the colour of the water so dark? Soon our friends realised that it was a big fishing boat which had stopped in the middle of the ocean throwing fishing nets into the sea to catch fish.

The closer the company came, the more terrifying the ship looked. How could they made their way through those waters without being caught in the fishing nets?

“I know the way” said Roudy. “I will reach the surface and I will try to draw their attention. Fishermen don‟t usually set up their nets in places where dolphins swim because they don‟t want to hurt them. So they will be forced to move to another area to fish.”

Octopustroublemaker proposed that the best way to get away would be to use his feet in order to hold the nets and make way for the other to go through them while Roudy distracted the fishermen.

Everybody agreed that it was a great plan except from the jellyfish. One of them whispered to another: “What a selfish dolphin. He thinks that everybody loves him. This is nonsense.”

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She didnâ€&#x;t dare to state her opinion aloud because she knew that everybody loved dolpins. Even she did. So they followed the plan.

The sailors saw Roudy swimming and doing some tricks like a bird in the sky without understand that their nets were being pulled. Everybody managed to go through them and soon the fishermen pulled up thein nets and left the area.

They were swimming for days and nights in the dark bottom of the sea. They had been far away from their home when the next danger appeared. This time things seemed to be really bad. They had just come so close to that area that the map showed. But wait a minute‌What was that huge thing standing

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in front of the cave? That was exactly the place that the map was pointing.

There was a huge eel guarding the entrance of the cave.

Huge and scary. It was the guard of the treasure. What could they do now in order to distract it? They would have to do their best. But there was something they hadn‟t realised. The good mermaid was helping them all along this long journey. They decided to put a plan in action.

The jellyfish were the fist to take action. The plan was to come as close as they could to the eel and start talking to each other making as much as noise as possible.

When the eel heard all that noise, obviously upset, he told them: “Go away, go to another place to talk. You are annoying me!”

At that very moment in the right time, Octopustroublemaker took the opportunity and caught the eel with his tentacles.

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The eel tried to bite the octopus but Octopustroublemaker was lucky enough because Joe, the little seahorse, got in the way and the eel didnâ€&#x;t dare to attack it as many believed that the seahorses meat, was poisonous.

The eel got so scared and fled when he saw Spake coming towards him. Roudy, quick as he was, got into the cave and snatched the treasure chest.

So that was the treasyre that the had all put their lives in danger for. Everyone was so happy because they had managed to get over difficult situations together and nobody really cared about what that chest had inside. Do you actually know what the real treasure was?

They had all found each other and they had become so close friends that nobody and nothing, not even the most precious treasure in the world, mattered anymore.

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When they finally opened the chest, a light came out and nobody complained ther was not gold inside‌

Primary School of Antiparos Students of the 6th Grade

Viazi Petroula Triantafilou Artemis Marinatou Magdalini Marianos Christos Marinatos Alexandros Viskouli Isa Skiada Kiriaki Monastiriakos George Stativa Elena Kapoutsos Aggelos

The teacher of the class: Noula Elena

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