Generous Fish
In the Kingdom of Not each territory is given to itself to govern, held in trust of the Throne by its Exemplar. Some Exemplars govern wisely, some immoderately, and some with such circumspection that their province seems scarce ruled at all. But only in the town of Generous Fish is the government actively feared.
This is how Generous Fish got its name. Once in the prehistory of the Kingdom of Not, there was on the left-hand shore of Colorful Lake a large family of fishers, who every day set out onto the surface of the lake in their tiny vessels (hardly more than life preservers, made from cottony wood and white paint). Working together they cast nets all morning, and when the sun was high in the sky they would return to shore and spend the afternoon cleaning and gutting and mending nets. When the weather was stormy, they would stay in their long narrow huts and drink a beverage of fermented fish ichor (an acquired taste) and wait for the sun to return and bless their nets.
Once the weather stormed for many days, and then many weeks, and the fishing-family ran out of their beverage and they ran low on their stored food reserves and they began to starve. Some of the boldest cousins climbed into their tiny vessels and tried to net fresh fish, but the swelling waves smashed their rafts apart and they drowned. It was a dark and dreadful time.
As the last of their stores were emptied the family, hungry and grumpy and tired of the storms, gathered outside their huts, on the shore of Colorful Lake, and sang songs chastising Death for coming to them prematurely. And in the water nearby a great pike heard their song, and was moved, and climbed ashore to console and advise the family. For in those days pike could walk on dry land as well as swim, and breathe air as well as water. And this pike, the mightiest surely in the whole of Colorful Lake, measured fully twenty-two feet from tail to tip.
And with great hue and cry the fishers took their nets and threw them over this mighty fish, and shouting thanks to Providence they clubbed the pike to death with sticks, and cooked it and ate it and drank its ichor. And in this way they survived the long stormy time, and lived to see the sun return. They returned to their practice of fishing, but never forgot the sacrifice of the pike, and today the town which grew up on the site is called Generous Fish.