Fish of Wisdom: Ethnographic Sci-fi

He was waiting for the fish of wisdom. The three elders sat crouched outside the edges of the water within the cavern. Instead of a spear, in his hands he held a tablet of paper and a rough piece of graphite. To draw the fish of wisdom, to capture its form so that one would know it when one saw it again. That was the challenge. The fish of wisdom had first come to his people six generations ago, when the bright light in the sky had fallen to the earth and died in the sea that fed the cavern's pool. At first, the people had not known that it was the fish of wisdom. They had thought it was a regular fish when they caught it, and they had cooked it and served it to their families. Only when the family had begun speaking in oracles before dying had they realized what they had caught.


Inspiration: A dream. I was the young man, waiting to draw the fish of wisdom.
Story Potential: Medium.
Finished Length: Long short-story
Notes: The fish changes shape each time it is drawn...or there is a different fish for each person...but somehow drawing somebody else's fish helps one to recognize one's own.