One evening, a man called Samuel was walking along the beach and he came upon a woman’s body washed up on shore. He saw that she still lived and so, quick as a spark, he built a fire. Soon, with Samuel’s coat around her shoulders, she opened her eyes.

“Do you always save the lives of drowned women where you find them?” she asked, and Samuel told her that this was so. “In the future, you may wish to be more cautious.”

Asking what she meant, the woman only said, “My father will be here soon.”

Then the whole ocean then rose up, and a voice boomed out, “Well, and so I see you have saved the life of my daughter, young man. More the fool she, for her desire to run away! I am the ocean, and I am boundless. But if this is her desire, so be it, and if you would save her life, it will be in your charge hereafter. Thus it shall be. Let no harm befall her, for I will drown you in the deepest trenches if it does. Not even the weightless souls of mortals can escape these depths, but must wander, lost, until the dark things make sport of them.” The ocean receded, and left Samuel with his charge.

Thus he cared for the ocean’s daughter over many happy years. Never did he allow her to be harmed, and never did he let sadness overstay its welcome in her life. Like the ocean, she did not age, but like the ocean she changed often.

There came a day when she paused in conversation, and said to Samuel, “My father is dead.” Samuel allowed to himself as that she would know of these things, and only asked what she would do. “I must be the ocean now, Samuel, lest its waters overrun the land and all the dark things have the earth again.”

She then took his hand, and smiled. “But I will still need you to keep me from harm, as long as I live.”

Thus the story of Samuel is told. They say he is still found at the edges of the ocean, and sometimes he drives the dark things back into her depths. It is said so long as her tides never still, his heart will never stop beating.