Kahiki

After ruling his celestial paradise of Heaven for countless ages, even the benevolent ruler Emperor Yu had to admit he was getting a touch lonely—and bored. Perhaps that was the reason for a competition among twelve divine creature candidates to find the best assistant, but for Horse, the thrill was in the participation alone. Though amiable with Ox, Horse was hardly as languid as his friend. Horse expected to arrive at idyllic, rolling plains where he could chase the winds to his heart's content, but instead found himself standing on the sandy banks of an island surrounded on all sides by a sparkling ocean. Science had advanced by leaps and bounds in the ages that had passed, giving rise to new concepts that was bewildering to an old spirit. The islanders, sporting an eclectic mix of tradition and technology, greeted him warmly, but noticed the way their strange guest shifted his gaze uneasily out to sea. The irony of an open space was not lost on him, caged as he was on all sides by that untraversable blue. It wasn't until he noticed youths conquering that watery swath on lightsteel boards and marveled at their casual confidence. The salt-sweet breeze tousling at his hair evoked a deep-seated sense of longing as he waded forth. As a single cresting wave lifted him clear above the horizon, Horse knew—this was his new calling. The once-terrestrial creature took to the open seas as easily as the plains, shedding his landbound skin for a marine mantle of whitewater and foam. It was the day Kahiki was reborn from the sea.