Fairy tale about Octo-Pus and Crab-Mac-Claw

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Octo-Pus the cuttlefish and Crab-Mac-Claw the crab

by Asbjorn Lonvig

The cuttlefish has many arms

or are they legs?

Try to count the arms or legs.

That's right, it has eight.

In Greek eight is called octo.

That's why this cuttlefish ought to be called Octo.

But his mother's and father's sirname was Octopus

so

we will call him Octo-Pus.

If Octo-Pus becomes afraid of something

he is very good at hiding himself.

He can change his color so that he matches his surroundings.

He can become red, he can become yellow,

he can become green and he can become blue, too.

Point out the red Octo-Pus. And the yellow Octo-Pus.

Point out the green Octo-Pus and point out the blue one.

And if Octo-Pus hides in a place that is blue

...he is very difficult to find.

Can you find Octo-Pus?

If Octo-Pus becomes afraid that some animal might eat him,

he gets angry.

When he gets mad he sprays ink.

That's why the cuttlefish in some languages is called an ink sputter.

When Octo-Pus sprays ink,

only you and Octo-Pus know

where he is.

OOO

Octo-Pus has a friend on the bottom of the sea.

He is called Crab-Mac-Claw.

He has more legs than Octo-Pus.

How many legs does Crab-Mac-Claw have?

Yes, he has ten. That's because you must remember to count the two claws,

even though the claws look like arms.

Crab-Mac-Claw uses his claws when he eats and when he fights.

That's why he is called Crab-Mac-Claw.

He is dangerous to his enemies.

The legs are, of course, used for walking,

but he can't walk forwards,

only sideways or backwards.

Which color is Crab-Mac-Claw?

You must see Crab-Mac-Claw's brothers and sisters.

They can't change colors,

so they look very much alike.

He has so many brothers and sisters

that we can't count them.

There might be more than one hundred.

But.

You can see, they are different in size.

The big ones are his brothers.

The small ones are his sisters.

A he-crab is big and a she-crab is small.

OOO

One day the whole family Crab was sitting on the bottom of the sea.

Suddenly a huge fish came by,

a huge fish that eats crabs.

The fish was blue and very, very ugly.

The crabs shivered.

They were scared.

They knew that the huge, blue and ugly fish would eat them.

The blue fish grinned with satisfaction;

it knew that before long

it would enjoy a feast.

It opened its jaws and...

But.

Octo-Pus had seen his friends were

in danger.

He jumped into the middle of the crowd of his

crab friends,

and as the blue fish was about to eat the crabs,

Octo-Pus sprayed a huge cloud of ink

into the blue devil's eyes.

The blue fish coughed and

it could see nothing.

It could not see where the crabs had gone.

The blue fish disappeared.

It was angry, as angry as a huge, blue, ugly fish can possibly be.

Can you see who are in the cloud of ink?

In the middle of his crab friends?

That's Octo-Pus.

He has a red nose and he is smiling.

Everybody was happy.

Octo-Pus had saved Crab-Mac-Claw and all his crab friends.

And Octo-Pa-Pa,

that is Octo-Pus' father,

and Octo-Ma-Ma,

that is Octo-Pus' mother,

you can see

she is ten times bigger than his father,

they were proud.

COPYRIGHT ASBJORN LONVIG