PILCHIKAMIN AND THE THREE WHALES
PILCHIKAMIN WAS A VERY FAT AND NAUGHTY SEA OTTER who was so greedy and mean that the other sea otters chased him away from the raft. They had no choice because he wouldn't stop picking their pockets and stealing their rocks.
He swam to a far off place to learn how to behave but since there was no one around except himself he learned nothing.
Then came the middle of the day when all otters sleep, but Pilchikamin was too afraid to close his eyes. There was no one around to hold his paw so he wouldn't float away.
So he swam around getting more and more tired until he came across three sandbars in the middle of the ocean.
Pilchikamin swam to and climbed onto the first one and found it too narrow to lay on. It wouldn't do!
He swam to and climbed onto the second one and found it too broad. If he wanted to enter the water it was farther than just a hop, skip, and a jump away. It wouldn't do!
He swam to and climbed onto the third and found it to be perfect. There was enough room to lay, and to escape, all he had to do was roll off.
Pilchikamin took a nap and didn't notice the sandbars floating slowly up the coast. When he awakened he was very hungry. He was so hungry he didn't notice that he and the sandbars were in a different place than before.
Pilchikamin rolled off. He dived to the bottom of ocean. He came back with a sea urchin covered in spikes and dropped it on the sandbar.
The sandbar cried out, “Hm!”
It scared Pilchikamin so he picked up the urchin and went to the next sandbar over, the broad one. He hurled the urchin down and it rolled across the sandbar leaving pockmarks.
This sandbar cried out too, “Hm, hm!”
It surprised Pilchikamin so he took the urchin back and went over to the narrow one. He smashed it into the sandbar to break off the spines.
That sandbar jumped! “HMMM?”
They were not sandbars at all but sleeping whales and they were waking up! Pilchikamin left the sea urchin and swam away in a hurry.
The whales woke up and wondered how they all got stuck with spines from the same urchin. One even had a dream about a very fat otter.