Story to feature in WTF, an out-of-the-box anthology by Rose Mambert, Pink Narcissus Press
Book can be ordered here
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0982991347
Never before had I found such a big hermit crab. It was so big I thought it was a divine creature. The shell itself was the size of a fist, which was normal for this type of shell. But I had only known hermit crabs that dwelt in shells as big as a finger. It was crawling among the rocks in the middle of a brooklet that flowed from Mount Hòn Hèo into Nha Phu Bay. At first I thought it was the current that pushed the shell around. Then I saw the lengthy crab limps, which stopped me dead in my track. I knew I had found something.
Mount Hòn Hèo was a peninsula that reached out into the Pacific Ocean. [Into the South China Sea to be more specific, but there were already too many disputes over these waters]. It was actually a range of mountains, with peaks from seven hundred metres high. Its thirty kilometres stretch effectively protected the Nha Phu Bay from monsoons. The bay was as still as a lake: you only saw waters and mountains. But the salty smell of the breezes made it clear that you were at the seaside. It was my secret place to go for a walk and watch the sun go down.
Although they lived along the seashore, the Vietnamese seemed to get on better with mountains. The sea was always too unpredictable. In one of their folk stories, Sơn Tinh, or the Mountain God, competed with Thủy Tinh, or the Sea God, for the right to marry the princess, daughter of the King of Powers. Glorious was Sơn Tinh because he was able to offer a nine-tusked elephant, a nine-spurred rooster and a nine-maned horse, which the King asked for. But Thủy Tinh and his deep sea armies didn’t give up. He made the sea rise and flood the lands. His troops of giant sharks and crabs went after Sơn Tinh and his bride. Sơn Tinh wasn’t without spells either. His mantras made the mountains rise even higher. His troops of elephants protected the princess. Thủy Tinh’s attacks were weathered out and he could only curse himself. And yet every year ever since, he still flooded the lands whenever his old wounds hurt again. Another story however reconciled the two forces of Nature. In a strange marriage between a goddess and the dragon king, one hundred children were born from a single egg. Fifty of them would follow the mother to the highlands, while the other fifty would stay with the father at the the seashore. This explained why there were so many races in Vietnam nowadays. Some of them were barely surviving.
