Hammer at Sea

The sea was wet, wet, wet, and moved like a field of grass in the wind.

The Sphinx sank like a stone Sphinx to the seabed where was encountered a Sea Cucumber.

Are you animal, vegetable, or mineral? The Sphinx asked.

I am a Sea Cucumber, certainly not a mineral anyway.

I give up, and I don’t really care anyway, said the Sphinx, je m’en fiche, in fact I’m leaving.

Don’t you want to interrogate the mysteries of my nature further? asked the Sea Cucumber, most people seem to be fascinated by my uncertain ancestry.

No, said the Sphinx, and I am by no means ‘most people’. If you cannot tell me something of interest in your next sentence, I shall leave.

I have discovered that the rings of Saturn are mostly made of cardamom seeds, said the Sea Cucumber, and then fell silent.

Cardamom seeds? repeated the Sphinx, Cardamom seeds? don’t be ridiculous. The Sphinx left and the Sea Cucumber followed.

Why are you following me? asked the Sphinx quickening her pace along the sea floor.

To be honest, life on the sea floor can be tedious, said the Sea Cucumber with a sigh, mostly days consist of trying to avoid being eaten. I am interested to witness what a strange creature like you might possibly do next.

Well, said the Sphinx, I am searching for a hammer which I at one time believed might have mystical powers. I have since learnt that it is merely a hammer that hammers, yet still, I have committed to the search and will see it through.

Oh, I saw a hammer the other day, said the Sea Cucumber, it was glowing with a strange aura, just over there by that massive rocky outcrop. Shall I show you?

The Sphinx stopped, frozen with one paw in the air. Take me to it please, she said, trying to still her stoney heart. The Sea Cucumber floated, in a controlled manner, using the cilia around its body to motivate, and soon enough they came to a large rocky upcrop. At is base lay an hammer, round metal at the top with a wooden handle all crusted with interested barnacles. From within the hammer came an mysterious light.

How shall you take away this hammer? Asked the Sea Cucumber, my cilia and your paws are not built.

I shall have a rope thrown down and then I will tight a rope around the hammer with my teeth.

What knot shall you be using? A Bowline, a Reef Knot (very popular) or a Clove Hitch?

I am not an expert in these things, so I normally go by the wisdom that if you don’t know how to tie a proper knot, then just do lots of them. In this way I have become a fan of the Gordian knot which I’ve discovered will never let go.

Well, said the Sea Cucumber, as it happens, I am an expert in knots and find them fascinating, being as they are basically just an organised tangle. Giving a name to a tangle of string is surely a joy in and of itself, don’t you think? The Sheet Bend for instance is a most poetic name and as for the Prusik knot, well, don’t get me started.

It seems that you have already started, and I wish that you might stop, said the Sphinx, please can you go to the surface and signal for a rope to be let down whilst I guard the Bright Hammer against all comers.