On 7/16/09 I will have been on the island for three years now. I would like to think I am one of the older members, but I haven't the faintest idea of when Shartak started.
How little do you realize.
Long, long ago...
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Sweat streamed from the blacksmith's brow as he beat and shaped the heated metal. But, laborious though this was, the real challenge lay ahead - carving the delicate inscriptions and designs into the iron plate which would form the backbone of a new land. Nearby stood the fisherman, who spent his time mostly catching oysters, and who never charged for the shellfish as long as the villagers fed him and kept his boat in good repair. And of course, let him keep any pearls he had found.
With a final "Clang!" the blacksmith let out a heavy sigh. "It's your turn," he said.
Smiling, the fisherman unsheated his pearl dagger and other assorted tools, and began the careful work. In places his task went slowly, in others he was able to use his dagger with such deft skill that it was almost as if details appeared as fast as he thought them. After some time passed, he turned to the blacksmith and said, "It is finished."
The blacksmith stepped closer and looked at it, frowning. "It is finely crafted, but what should we do with it? I'm not sure if we could get a fair price for it."
The fisherman smiled. "We should name it Shartak, and put it in a box made of solid pearl with no latches, no way to open it except smashing it apart. Then, on my next trip out to sea I shall head out farther than normal, and toss it in."
The blacksmith looked at him. He could not tell if the fisherman understood something about the world, and the smile was one of knowledge, or if it was simply a fool's smile and the thought amused him.
"I will go with you."
And so Shartak, both carved with and encased in pearl, was cast to the sea. Or so the legend claims. Whether such a thing ever happened, or it was a story concocted to entertain children is unkown. What is known, however, is that indeed a blacksmith and a fisherman often worked together, the blacksmith working forging metal hardware, and the fisherman using his pearl tools to give the metalwork detail and meaning, creating the softer aspects of its form.
But there is another legend, telling of an island in the shape of Hispanola, also named Shartak, that exists in an ethereal realm. It is said to be a place that people can interact with and see, but are never able to touch. But whether such a place exists,
how old it might be, or if it is in any way connected to the legend of Shartak I have just told, is a tale for another time.
