The tale of Kubasa the fisherman

The sun shone bright and beautifully over the happy and prosperous Kitasoo tribe of
Bella Bella island; however, in the eyes of a fisherman Kubasa, the sun was glaring at him,
beating him with waves of heat and misery. Kubasa was the village fisherman and was responsible for bringing fish back to his tribe every day. He was a skinny tanned man who wore shorts and was often found in rags. His daily routine was dull, and he never had anything exciting to look forward to in life. Oftentimes, he would daydream about taking over Chief Omakali's role. Not surprisingly, as he gazed at the endless blue horizon which was supposed to be something that would help one reduce stress, he grew impatient and once again looked forward to the end of the day. The heat from the sun was torturing him when he was out at sea. He could feel the waves crash onto his boat. Once again, he felt unsteady, floating on water. He wished that he could be Chief Omakali all over again. He never had to go to the sea and catch fish for the village. To Kubasa, he lived a luxurious life as if he was a king! When he finally decided that he had enough fish, he pulled his net, but for some reason, it did not budge at all. He kept pulling until his boat flipped. Underwater, Kubasa looked to see what insolent pest was clinging onto his net. Right in front of his eyes, he saw a giant blue bear, with things that seemed like tattoos of the sea and creatures on his back. It was the most artistic back he had ever seen. It took him a moment to finally realize it was the legendary Sea Bear everyone talked about. He was part of all of their stories, but no one has ever seen him before. In a hurry, he swam back to the surface, flipped his boat, grabbed his net full of fish, and rowed back to shore. When he reached his village, he gave the net of fish to the women to smoke and went to see Chief Omakali. As he approached their longhouse, one of the women yelled at him, explaining that the chief was busy and had something to do. As the sun fell, Chief Omakali returned with a bowl of a precious rare assortment of berries. When villagers sat around the bonfire to feast, the island began to shake.

Never before in history, did the Sea Bear decide to march towards the village. With every
step it took, the trees danced in fear, the sky quaked with worry, and the very moon that would
illuminate the night sky scurried away. The villagers all hid behind Chief Omakali.
The Sea Bear demanded to talk with the chief about what happened earlier. "One of your
fishermen wrapped a net around my neck and tried to lynch me!" roared the angry bear.
"Our deepest apologies O-Mighty one. My men did not try to do it on purpose. He
thought you were a big fish," explained Chief Omakali. He then grabbed a large bowl of berries,
and offered it to their legendary Sea Bear, "Please take these berries as a sign of our apology,"
Omakali continued.

"If that ever happens again, I will not be so forgiving," roared the bear as it grabbed the
berries and returned to the sea.

"Why did you not kill it?! That bear could feed our village for generations! If I were the
chief, I would have killed it, not offered him our precious berries!" yelled an angry Kubasa.

"You're saying you could have done better?" asked the chief, "Fine then! I will step down
from the role as a chief, and let you be the new one from now on, Kubasa."

He was secretly screaming inside. He thought to himself, at long last, he no longer had
to wake up early each morning to take his boat and nets to sea to fish for hours under the
blazing sun. As it felt like it was a dream come true for himself, the villagers gasped in shock.
The next day, Kubasa sat in his house, chomping berries while thinking about how he was going
to sleep in and be spoon-fed by the village women.
Waking up from a sweet dream, he started to live his first day and last in reality. His
excitement was very soon interrupted by hungry and bored kids. The kids were fighting over the
berries and asked Kubasa to tell them an interesting story. Angry, Kubasa seized the berries
back and told them to annoy someone else. As he shooed them away, one of the village men
walked in and asked for assistance to help repair his house, but Kubasa said he was not in a
good mood, and pushed him out of his house. Letting out a sigh, Kubasa sat down and ate
more berries, until the village women stormed in saying that there was no more fish and the
children were hungry and restless. It was until that moment, he realized that being a Chief was
not easy. He could not believe that Chief Omakali had to deal with all these problems every
single day! For some odd reason, he suddenly wished that he could return to sea and only have
to deal with fish instead of these villagers who seemed to bring nothing, but complaints and
trouble.Just as he had that thought in mind, he stepped out and demanded that someone go get
fish, but no one else knew how to, so Kubasa went down to the shore and rowed his canoe out
into the ocean. He threw his nets into the water and waited. When all nets were being tugged,
Kubasa rowed to shore, but when he reached the warm sand, his boat was sent flying, and in
the net, stood a creature he saw not too long ago. He was part of what made his dream come
true. Kubasa, seeing this, yelled for the villagers to help shoot it down, but there was no
response. He quickly sprinted to his village, however, it was desolate and as Kubasa panicked,
the footsteps of the Sea Bear got closer and closer.
Finally, the Sea Bear arrived in the village. He picked Kubasa up as he screamed and
squirmed for help, and the Sea Bear easily had him for lunch. Meanwhile, from a mountaintop,
Omakali and the rest of the village watched the Sea Bear devour the feeble coward. After the
Sea Bear let out a mighty burp that sent trees flying, he returned back to the ocean and was
never to be seen again.