In Messina, on the very shore of the blue Strait of Messina, there was a hut. There lived a fisherman's widow with her only son, whose name was Kola.
When little Cola was born, he was greeted by the sound of the sea. When he first laughed, he laughed at the sunbeams jumping on the waves.
As soon as the boy learned to walk, he ran straight to the sea.
His toys were dried starfish, thrown ashore by the tide, and shiny pebbles rolled in water.
Is it any wonder that for the boy the sea was closer than a rare home!
And my mother was afraid of the sea. After all, it took away her father, brother, and then her husband.
Therefore, as soon as the boy sailed even a little from the shore, his mother ran out of the house and shouted:
- Come back, Cola! Come back, Cola!
And Kola obediently turned towards the shore.
But one day, when she called him, Kola laughed, waved his hand at her and swam on.
Then his mother got angry and shouted after him:
“If the sea is dearer to you than your mother, then live in the sea like a fish!”
She did not wish anything bad for her son, she simply screamed in her hearts, like many mothers when their children make them angry. But either this day was a day of miracles, or the evil wizard heard her words, only Kola really remained forever in the sea. A membrane grew between his fingers, his throat became swollen and became like that of a frog.
The poor mother, seeing what her rash words had done, fell ill with grief and died a few days later.
The hut, in which no one lived anymore, became dilapidated and lopsided. But once a year, on the very day when an unexpected curse escaped his mother, Kola swam to the shore and sadly looked at the house where he would never return.
These days the Messinian fishermen, their wives and children did not come close to this place. And not at all because they were afraid of the fish man. Cola was their great friend. He unraveled fishing nets if they were entangled in a monkfish stingray, showed which direction the schools of fish were going, and warned about the ever-changing treacherous undercurrents. The fishermen did not approach the old hut so as not to prevent Cola from overcoming his grief alone. After all, they themselves did the same - they tried to meet joy together, they did not share grief with anyone.
Once the king heard about the Cola Fish. And he wanted to look at such a miracle. The king ordered all sailors to keep a watchful eye when they go out to sea to see if Kola appears somewhere. If they see him, let them tell him that the king himself wishes to speak with him.
At dawn one day, a sailor from a sailing schooner noticed on the open sea how Kola was playing in the waves like a large dolphin. The sailor put his hands to his mouth and shouted:
- Hey, Cola Fish, swim to Messina! The king wants to talk to you!
Cola immediately turned towards the shore. At noon he swam to the steps of the palace staircase, which went straight into the water.
The chief of the coast guard reported this to the gatekeeper, the gatekeeper to the junior footman, the junior footman to the senior valet, and the senior valet dared to report to the king.
The king, wearing a robe and crown, descended halfway down the stairs and spoke:
- Listen to me, Cola Fish! My kingdom is rich and vast. I know everything that is on land firsthand. And what is hidden in my underwater possessions is unknown to anyone, not even me. I want you to find out and tell your king.
“Okay,” Kola answered and went into the depths of the sea.
When Cola returned, he told many amazing things. He said that he saw valleys, mountains and caves on the seabed. He spoke about groves of multi-colored corals, about cold currents and hot springs that flow from the crevices of the sea mountains. He talked about strange fish that no one had ever seen, because they live far below, in the eternal green twilight. There was only one place where Cola could not reach the bottom - at the large Messina lighthouse.
- Oh, what a disappointment! - exclaimed the king. “What I most wanted to know was where Messina stands.” Please, go deeper.
Kola nodded his head and dived again - only a wave splashed lightly.
All day and all night he disappeared into the abyss. He returned exhausted and tired and said to the king:
- Listen, king, I haven’t reached the bottom again. But I saw that Messina stood on a cliff, the cliff resting on three columns. What will happen to you, Messina!
One of the columns is still intact, another has cracked, and the third is about to collapse.
– What are the columns on? - asked the king. “We definitely need to find out.” Cola Fish.
“I can’t dive deeper,” Cola replied. “The water below is as heavy as stones.” It hurts your eyes, chest and ears.
“Jump from the top of the lighthouse watchtower,” the king advised. “You won’t even notice how you’ll sink to the bottom.”
The tower stood right at the mouth of the strait. In those ancient times, sentinels carried out their service on it, replacing each other. When a hurricane was approaching, the watchman blew his horn and unfurled his flag into the wind. Seeing this, the ships went into the open sea, away from the land, so that they would not be broken on the coastal rocks.
Kola-Fish climbed the watchtower and from its top rushed into the waves.
This time Cola disappeared for three days and three nights. Only at dawn on the fourth day did his head appear above the water. He swam with difficulty to the palace stairs and sat down on the first step.
- Woe to you, Messina, a dark day is coming, and you will turn to dust! – he spoke, barely catching his breath.
- Tell me quickly what you saw! – the king exclaimed impatiently.
- What's going on at the bottom?
Cola shook his head.
- Don't know. I still haven't reached the bottom. Smoke and flames are rising from somewhere below. The smoke clouded the water, and the fire made it hot. No one alive, neither fish nor starfish, can go lower than I went.
“I asked you before, but now I order you: no matter what is down there, you must find out where Messina stands.”
Cola Fish grinned.
- Listen, king! You can’t catch wind and waves even with the widest net.
And I am akin to the wind and waves! I can't give orders. Farewell, Your Majesty.
He slid down the steps into the water and was about to swim away.
Then the king stamped his feet in anger, tore the crown from his head and threw it into the water.
- What have you done, king! - Cola exclaimed. – After all, the crown is worth countless treasures!
“Yes,” the king agreed, “there is no second such crown in the world.” If you don't get her out of the bottom, I'll have to do what all kings do when they need money. I will impose a tax on all the fishermen of Sicily, and sooner or later my collectors will knock out a new crown from them.
Kola-Fish again sat down on the step of the stairs.
-Have it your way, king! For the sake of the fishermen's children, I will try to reach the bottom. But my heart tells me that I will never see my native Sicilian sky above my head again. Give me a handful of lentils, I'll take them with me. If I die in the depths, you will know about it.
Lentils were brought on a silver plate. Cola held the flat grains in his hand and threw himself into the sea.
The king placed sentries at the place where Cola-Fish plunged into the water.
For seven days the sentries did not take their eyes off the surface of the sea, and on the eighth day they suddenly saw lentils floating on the water. Then everyone realized that Kola would never return.
And after the grains swaying on the waves, an amazing fish emerged, the likes of which no one had ever seen. That's right, one of those bottom fish that Cola talked about.
In her toothy mouth she held a precious royal crown. The fish leaned out of the water, placed the crown on the bottom step of the stairs and, splashing its tail, disappeared into the sea.
No one knows how the fish man, who went to his death to save the poor from trouble, died. But stories about him were passed on from grandfather to father, from father to son.
And then the dark day of Messina truly came. Everything around hummed and shook.
The mountains split into pieces and fell down with a roar. The earth parted, and where there was level space, abysses gaped.
Instantly the flourishing city turned into a pile of ruins. Kol's prophecy came true.
However, people did not leave Messina. After all, what is dearest to everyone is the region where he was born and lived his whole life. The survivors built a new city, even more beautiful than the previous one. It still stands on the very shore of the blue Strait of Messina.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru