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A long time ago, a town named Gobbleton lay under the Pacific Ocean. Gobbleton was the home of goblins. Every day, the goblins would mine for gold, singing their traditional tunes and sending gusts of joy as they worked. After mining the precious metal, they would craft it into newly-minted treasures. All goblins were endowed with smashing carpentry skills and are born with sturdy muscles, except one.
Burbly was born without muscles and he was horrible at carpentry. Other goblins often jeered at him.
One day, he was forced to mine like all the other goblins do.
“All is well,” Burbly thought. “I will just do my best.”
So, he started digging. Only after 10 minutes, a sense of fatigue started lumbering in. After merely half an hour, Burbly slumped to the ground, pain searing through his body, making his veins throb.
The other goblins saw him and shouted, “This kid can’t even mine! He is useless!”
The goblins held him upside down and threw him into the nearest river.
Even though the water had saturated Burbly’s shirt, making his body sag, he didn’t drown. Suddenly, an old man with a trident in his right hand emerged from nowhere and his trident touched Burbly, changing him into a human!
The man was Poseidon, the god of the sea. “Burbly the goblin,” said Poseidon. “I have realised that you bear an extraordinary gift for swimming! Therefore, I will train you by hand, preparing you to join the first Olympic Games, which will be held in my homeland, Olympia.”
Seeing this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Burbly journeyed to Olympia and trained secretly under the sea with Poseidon.
Soon, the big day arrived. As Burbly leapt into the water, he felt the water fill him with energy. Streaking forward at breakneck speed, he set the first-ever swimming world record!
After a hundred years, a parchment with ancient Greek script was found in the Pacific Ocean, telling Burbly’s story.
