Week 11 Story: Transfiguration

Up North in the Artic, lived a man named Ugjuk. He belongs to a small tribe but unlike everyone else in the tribe, he lived alone in his own igloo. He focused all his time into hunting for food and resources as a distraction to his loneliness. This led to him being the one who return to the tribe with the most food and resources. One of the most abundant resources, however, were seals. The people in the tribe gave him the title of "Seal Hunter."  

One day, while Ugjuk was out hunting, he lost track of time, and the sun's body slowly disappear from the horizon. Just before he pack up his hunting equipment, he spotted a tiny baby seal emerged from the water. Ugjuk thought to himself, "this will be an easy catch. Just one more and I'll go home to my lonely igloo." Ugjuk sneaked close to the seal, footstep ever so gently like a wolf. He stabbed the seal with a quick motion and *Poof*, with a cloud of smoke, the seal suddenly turned into a man. Confused and terrified, Ugjuk jumped back and fell on the ground. The wizard approached Ugjuk with an angry expression and yelled, "You hollow husk of a man, have hunted the seals to near extinction! There is but a few of them left in this region of the world. For that, you shall be punish! In 7 days time, you yourself will turn into a seal and live the rest of your life as one." Ugjuk ran back to his tribe as fast as he can, abandoning his equipment.

The process was painstakingly slow. On the first day, Ugjuk's skin became a leather-like texture with spotted white and black color. Ujkuk was so embarrassed that he shut himself in his igloo for the rest of the time. On the third day, he had already grown whiskers and a layer of fat around his body. The people in the tribe was concerned that they haven't seen Ugjuk for a few days. They decided to leave him alone, however, because they assume he took a few days off to rest. Finally, the seventh day came, and Ugjuk had not left his igloo. When the people in the tribe came to check on Ugjuk, all they found was a small seal laying on the ground in the igloo.

Seal at Wikimedia

Author's Note: I based my story on "Tungjuluk and Saunikoq" from Eskimo Folk Tales. The source is in the bibliography. It is a story about two wizards and one can turn into a walrus and one into a bear. The one who can turn into a walrus, Tungjuluk, had a son and Saunikoq got jealous. Saunikoq tried to scare the son and Tungjuluk caught on and stole Saunikoq's bladder float. At the end, Tungjuluk's wife cook the bladder float and Tungjuluk humiliated Saunikoq in front of everyone. Shamed, Saunikoq moved north and never seen again. The transfiguration was based on the movie Tusk and seven day curse was based on The Ring. Instead of transforming into a walrus, I made my character turn into a seal.

Bibliography: "Tungujuluk and Saunikoq" from Eskimo Folk Tales by Knud Rasmussen. Source.