What better way to get the writing juices flowing than writing about cute puppy photos?
Let’s come up with a grand adventure for Pinecone to go on!
During the last stream, a subscriber requested that we do a prompt based on photos of their puppy Pinecone.
Watch the highlights here or scroll down to see what we wrote.
Chat voted on which of the five puppy photos we would use for inspiration, and they chose this one of Pinecone at the beach:
Here’s what we wrote:
The sea god Poseidon was floating on top of the ocean, feeling lonely and forlorn, swirling eddies in the ocean with his finger. His precious pet, an octopus named Oliver, had just been eaten by a shark.
Poseidon and Oliver had had so many wonderful memories together, him squeezing Oliver to spray ink on turtles and making them hide in their shells, him spinning Oliver around so fast that all his legs blurred together like a windmill, and playing ball with Oliver when he curled up his tentacles together and Poseidon threw him through coral hoops.
But it was exactly one of those throws that cost Oliver his life. Hiding in the coral was a shark who decided to put a bloody end to Poseidon’s game. Even though he had thrust his godly trident out and boiled the shark alive then and there, that didn’t bring Oliver back. It only sent him to the surface of the water to weep for his loss.
As Poseidon floated there, thick in his miserable thoughts about how he’d never have a friend like Oliver again, something floated past him. It was an unfamiliar object, prickly and jagged, and at first glance it looked like a fish, but it was none that Poseidon was familiar with. Besides, fish needed to stay underwater, not float on top of it like this thing. Poseidon reached out for it, clasped it gently in his mighty fist, and brought it close for inspection.
That’s when Poseidon realized what it was: a pinecone. His fellow god Dionysus, lord of nature and wine, had one of these atop his staff, but Poseidon had never seen a real one before. Looking around, there were no islands or trees anywhere. This pinecone must have travelled a far distance to come to this very spot, where Poseidon just happened to now find himself.
It was a sign! This pinecone was to become Poseidon’s newest companion.
Lifting his trident out of the ocean, Poseidon pointed it at the pinecone, and transformed it into a living creature that assumed its nature: small, round, and its fur sticking out at all awkward angles. With big black eyes, tiny toes, and a derpy tongue, Poseidon now had a small dog sitting in his hand, wagging his tail so hard that his entire rear wiggled in glee.
“I shall call you Pinecone!” Poseidon declared proudly to the world. “And we shall be best friends!”
And so they were. Poseidon and Pinecone went on glorious adventures together on the surface of the water. They rode waves that touched the clouds, and they fished for birds using water lines, and they rocked seaboats together and giggled at the humans running around, and they played Barko Polo, each of them covering their eyes and making cute noises to find the other. Even though Pinecone could not go under water, it didn’t matter to the fun they had together.
But their favorite game to play was fetch. Poseidon would grab onto driftwood, throw it as far as he could, and Pinecone would dash so quickly to bring it back to him that his paws bounced right off the surface of the ocean. The intensity and ferocity at which Pinecone went after the sticks never ceased to amaze Poseidon, and he bellowed out belly laughs that made him feel alive again.
One time, Poseidon was so lost in the moment of throwing the sea wood, that he accidentally used his wrong arm. Instead of the stick soaring through the air to the island in the distance, it was his godly trident spiraling over the ocean with Pinecone already in hot pursuit.
Poseidon was only worried for a moment. Pinecone would surely bring his trident back as faithfully and swiftly as all the other sticks he had thrown before. He waited in the water for Pinecone to return. And waited. And waited. And waited.
That was when the tsunami came up from behind him.
Poseidon was taken by such surprise that the wave engulfed him, thrusting him underwater. He hadn’t been fully immersed in sea water for so long, ever since Pinecone had arrived, that the salt burned his face and eyes as the currents spun him around madly. And yet, the only thought on his mind was if Pinecone was going to be okay.
Steeling himself steady, Poseidon clenched his fists and shot off a wave of heat around him that burst the water into bubbles. He shot forth through the torrent, erupting out of the surface of the water and gliding across it all the way to the beach of the island. He could not step fully out of the water and onto the sand himself, but he didn’t need to to see what was going on.
Pinecone stood on the shore, trident clenched between his teeth, shaking his entire rear with joy. But with every wiggle and waggle he made, the trident took it as a command. All over, as far as Poseidon could see, waves that splashed against the sky rose up like mountains, smashing human boats to bits. Whirlpools bigger than islands themselves swirled and howled, churning sea life into nothing more than fish paste.
Poseidon reached out to take his trident back, but Pinecone was just out of his grasp. With every adorable wobble he made, another ocean disaster was summoned, and Poseidon knew that this wouldn’t remain unknown for long.
A rumbling from above and below told him he’d already been caught with his tail between his legs. A thunderhead boomed above, from which Zeus descended, and a volcano rose from the depths of the sea, bubbling out magma and Hades himself. Poseidon’s two brothers were here to pour salt in his sea, as they always did.
“Is this what’s causing those unnatural waves?” Zeus thundered as he gazed at the very small dog on the beach.
“And all the excessive deaths?” Hades asked.
Poseidon was too embarrassed to answer. Meanwhile, Pinecone was busy conducting the most destructive orchestra in history.
“It’s not what it looks like,” Poseidon tried to explain. “We were playing fetch and I accidentally just—”
“No excuses!” Zeus stormed, crackling lighting all around. “This isn’t just about what’s going on now. You’ve been ignoring your duties for years now.”
“Actually,” Hades said, sticking a single gray finger in the air. “It’s only been a few months, but the point still stands. First you go weeks without sending me a single sailor, and now I get thousands in a single day? Do you have any idea how much more difficult this makes my job? I only have one abacus, you know!”
Poseidon knew that they were right. He’d just been having so much fun with Pinecone. He’d never spent so much time on the surface of the water before, that he’d never realized all the great things he could do there. Pinecone had opened his eyes to a brand new world!
“I’m sorry,” Poseidon said, as painful as it was to admit fault to his brothers. “It won’t happen again. But can one of you just please get me my trident back?”
Zeus and Hades exchanged glances, neither of them smiling.
“You’re right,” Zeus said. “We do need to make sure that this never happens again.”
“And,” Hades added, “if one of us just cleans up your mess, chances are you’ll just make it again. You need to get it back yourself.”
Poseidon looked back and forth between them, not understanding.
“But how can I get it back?” he asked. “I can’t go on the land. The only way is if….”
Then Poseidon knew what his brothers wanted him to do. Even if he couldn’t step on the beach, he could simply turn the beach into part of the ocean. By flooding it, taking down Pinecone in the process.
“There has to be another way!” Poseidon wailed. “Please, I already lost one pet. I can’t lose another.”
Neither Zeus nor Hades spoke. Poseidon knew that there was no arguing with them. In the distance, the cries and screams of sailors told him he had to do this now.
Slowly, sadly, Poseidon raised his hands, bringing the water up with them. The waves lapped at Pinecone’s feet, then covered his legs, then engulfed his body except for his head, still desperately clenching onto the trident, until that too sunk under the water with a small gurgle. The entire island was no more.
All around the world, the monster waves and whirlpools vanished. Sailors breathed sighs of relief and thanked the gods, and even the sea creatures beneath the waters went back about their business, no longer sucked into violent currents.
Poseidon brought down the water level back to where it was, revealing a drenched island. Two objects floated toward him on the surface of the ocean: his trident, which he took in one hand, and the lifeless body of Pinecone, which he took in the other.
Even though he despised showing weakness in front of his brothers, Poseidon didn’t hold back the tears. They flowed as salty as the sea right down his face and body back into the ocean, warmed by the memories that they made together.
Through his blurry vision, Poseidon could barely see Hades pointing his bident toward Pinecone. With his shaking hands, he barely felt the movement in his palm. But with his aching heart, he felt something stir inside of him when he wiped his eyes and realized what had happened.
Sitting in his hand was Pinecone… but he was different. Instead of furry, he was now smooth and gray. He had a long snout, a blowhole in his head, and a fanned tail that wiggled along with the rest of his rear, just like it always did.
Zeus put an electric hand on Poseidon’s shoulder. “We know how important that creature was to you. But you can’t ignore your duties underwater.”
“So now,” Hades said, “you can have Pinecone back, and he can stay underwater for a time with you. But when he resurfaces to breathe, you must stay and wait for him to come back.”
Poseidon was so happy, he didn’t know what to say. He released Pinecone into the water, and watched how he swam through it as easily as an eel, no longer struggling to doggy paddle. Pinecone dived beneath the waves, then surged up to the surface, clicking and squeaking with delight, beckoning Poseidon to play.
“Thank you, brothers,” Poseidon said to Zeus and Hades. “As a token of my gratitude, let’s play a game of Barko Polo. I’ll even let you be the barkers if you want.”
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Hope to see you next time, friend!
Featured image: Pakutaso (1, 2)