Kappa

There was once a boy born of earth and salt, with glittering eyes and emerald skin. He lived at the bottom of a glass lake where people would come to confess their sins to their reflections. Lonely at the lake's floor, the boy befriended these orphans: fragments of people's souls, unwanted and cast into the lake's depths like river stones. As he listened to these Sins he began to crave life beyond the boundaries of his lake. He turned to the Sins to find a way to leave the lake and walk among those above. First he went to Greed, banished to the lake from the soul of a miser, and asked what to do.

“So you want to leave this lake, and give up all this water?” asked Greed. “You are bound to this lake so if you want to leave it you must take some with you wherever you go.

And so the boy then carved a bowl upon his crown to carry the lake's water wherever he went. But as he went to leave he was stopped by the Sin of killers, Bloodlust.

“So you want to leave your home?” grinned Bloodlust. “There must be balance in nature: if a person is born another must die, and before an answer can be reached another question must arise. If you want to leave your place, you must leave someone in your place.”

And so the boy gathered the prettiest and smoothest stones from the depths of the lake, of all shapes and sizes, and used them to lure children close enough to the water's edge to be snatched and dragged to the bottom.

Finally he was ready to leave, but before he could break to water’s surface he was halted by Hunger, the insatiable Sin of Cannibals.

“Hello boy, are you trying to leave the lake looking like that?” Hunger asked, licking his lips. “ If you want to walk among the humans you must look like them as well.”

“How?” the boy asked.

“You must consume their flesh.” Hunger replied.

And so the next day the boy waited for the day's first fisherman to cast his line.

Pretending to be a fish, he grasped the line and began to thrash it, ensuring the man would hold on tighter to the rod. Then with a mighty pull, he launched the man into the lake and pulled him below, further and further until the man’s body grew still. He brought the body to Hunger and they began to feast on it.

When they had finished the boy saw that his skin was still green, and asked Hunger why he hadn't changed.

“The Lake will not let you leave, you belong here,” Hunger laughed.

“What do you mean?” the boy screamed.

“You have stolen water from the river, you have drowned children in its depths and eaten the flesh of man in its body.” Hunger replied.

“This lake is the home for sins. It is where you belong.”