Shark wars, p.5
Shark Wars, page 5
“I’m stuffed,” said Snork. “We never ate this well when there were just four of us!” It turned out Snork was nearly thirteen and a half, the oldest of the group by six months, although he didn’t act like it. Striiker and Mari were twelve like Gray and Barkley, and Shell had turned thirteen just last month.
“It’s probably a good time for hunting or something,” Gray said.
Striiker harrumphed. “Let’s go home. We don’t want to be seen by Goblin Shiver’s patrols.” For some reason, if anything was more annoying to the great white than having his leadership questioned, it was Gray being nice to him.
“Their name was much cooler when it was Riptide Shiver,” remarked Snork as he followed. “Since Goblin changed it, now we have the best shiver name in the whole Big Blue.”
They actually had performed a shiver creation ceremony. Snork insisted. Even Striiker went along with it, probably because he got to be leader. The others voted themselves in the order they had been subconsciously swimming in. Mari was elected first, Shell second, and Snork third. Gray was chosen as fourth in the Line. Mari wanted to vote Gray higher, much higher in fact, but he wouldn’t hear of it. It did seem pretty funny that Snork—now that he knew Snork—was technically supposed to be tougher than him. Gray let it slide. He hadn’t been in the open ocean for even one moon, and he knew the others were better suited toward making decisions.
Besides, Gray was happy to wait until the Tuna Run when he would rejoin his mother and Coral Shiver. Gray wanted to ask his new friends to come to the reef but hadn’t found the right time. He didn’t tell this to anyone, though, because he hadn’t mentioned it to Barkley yet. The dogfish’s mood was not good when he was chosen as Rogue Shiver’s fifth.
“Are you kidding me?” his friend wailed. “There are only six of us, total! That’s just embarrassing!” But when Mari asked whether he would rather be fifth in the Line or the only general member of Rogue Shiver, Barkley grumbled “Fine. Fifth. Great,” and swam away. It took an entire day to calm the dogfish down.
Their new home was only a short swim away and well hidden. Towering brown and blue-greenie waved majestically, forming a wall that made everyone feel safe. You could enter unseen by swimming beneath a short tunnel formed by a fallen cliff. And there was the perfect hiding spot. It was an old landshark ship, really old from what Barkley told them. And big!
The ship had three levels, and when it had ridden the chop-chop, humans used wooden planks called “oars” to move the bulky thing through the water! Aside from a large crack in the bottom of the ship now, it was through these oar openings that a nice current flowed, allowing easy breathing. This was much better than sleeping in open water where you could be spotted, or down in the greenie where you could get something in your gills. There was plenty of space inside, although one room on the end was filled with shiny yellow disks that spilled everywhere because the wooden boxes they were packed into had rotted through. No one liked that area, as the moldy boxes left a tang in the water you could taste, unlike the rest of the ship.
Even though the ship lay three times the depth of the reef, there was still good light from the sun and moon. But it wasn’t like the reef where other dwellers would talk with the shiver. Here the shellheads, lumos, fish, and urchins stayed out of the way when Rogue Shiver was around. Gray tried to ask a sea dragon if she knew Yappy, but the little dweller slalomed into the greenie without saying a word. He hadn’t thought he’d miss speaking with other dwellers, but he did.
Only when Gray and his new shiver were by the wreck did they relax completely. It had been a good day. No, a great day. Gray found himself staring at Mari’s sleek thresher tail as they went inside the landshark ship.
Unfortunately, Barkley saw this and whispered, “Mari cuts a nice wake, eh?”
He felt his face color. “She’s okay, I guess.”
They hung around the main cabin, enjoying the cool current streaming through the ship. Gray decided on the spot. It was finally time to tell the rest of Rogue Shiver how he got here.
“You’ve all heard of the Tuna Run?” he asked.
Striiker snorted. “I’ve been there twice!” Others in the group rolled their eyes. Apparently the great white spoke about this a little too often.
“Well, I think I should tell you how I got here and why I’m mentioning it now,” Gray told everyone.
“Everyone’s tired, Gray.” Barkley swished his tail furiously. “We don’t need to hear any of your long, boring stories.” But Gray was determined and told the entire tale. After he was finished, Mari, Striiker, Shell, and Snork stared at Barkley with a newfound respect.
The dogfish misread the situation. “What? Is there snapper between my teeth?” he asked, genuinely clueless.
Snork tapped his saw bill on Barkley’s head. “You are the best friend a fin could have!”
Even the normally quiet Shell remarked, “Not many sharkkind would leave their home like that.”
Gray never thought he’d see the day when Barkley was speechless, but that day had come. The dogfish stuttered, actually embarrassed by the attention. “Yeah well, that’s the way I roll. Anyway, we’re talking about Gray who still hasn’t said what any of this has to do with Tuna Run! So?” Barkley gave Gray a friendly bump in the flank with his snout.
“My mom wants me to find her at the Tuna Run. If I can prove I’m a good hunter, they’ll let me back in.”
The reaction wasn’t what Gray expected.
“You’re leaving?” asked Mari.
“I knew they were just acting like our friends!” huffed Striiker. “They only needed a place to stay for a while.”
Shell stared at both of them as Snork said in a trembling voice, “Is that true, Gray?”
Gray had enough of Striiker. “You know, you’re a real tail bender! I’ve been nothing but nice, and you just think the worst of me!”
“Tell me I’m wrong!” roared Striiker
Gray was ready to rumble, butting Striiker against the hull of the landshark ship. “If you’d let me finish, I was going to say you could all come back to the reef and be a part of Coral Shiver, you great, big krillhead!”
Striiker was speechless for a moment. “You’d do that for us?” he asked in wonder. “For me, even?”
Gray was taken aback by the vulnerability of the great white. “If you promised not to be such a flipper, then yes.”
“But if you think you’d be leading, or even in the Line, you’d be wrong,” said Barkley a little too loudly. He had taken up position above Gray and was still amped up and ready to fight the great white. “I mean, maybe one day, maybe. But you know how it is with new members. Take it from your fifth.” This got a chuckle from Striiker, which released all the tension among them. Pretty soon everyone was chattering excitedly, with Barkley telling the other four all the great things about Coral Shiver’s reef.
But everything took an odd turn when Shell asked, “So it was still there when you guys went back?”
“Went back when?” asked Gray.
“The day when Barkley was named fifth and swam off,” the bull shark answered. “We thought you went for a visit or something. Some of us do that, from time to time. We didn’t know you had been banished.”
“No, our home is farther than that,” Gray told him.
“And the reef’s been there since Tyro swam past it,” Barkley guffawed. “Why wouldn’t it still be there?”
Everyone grew quiet. A bad feeling prickled up Gray’s spine. He looked at Mari for an explanation, but she shook her head and didn’t say anything.
Striiker swam forward a bit. “You mentioned you were in a shiver by a reef when you fought Thrash. You shouldn’t have done that.”
Barkley shook his head. “Gray didn’t say where our homewaters were.”
“They found mine,” Snork whispered in a haunted voice. The happy-go-lucky sawfish was trembling. “They find every shiver they hear about.”
“Mostly, we’re from shivers that Goblin found,” said Shell sadly. “He’s at war with my old shiver, Razor Shiver. The only reason we’re still alive is because we have more mariners than Goblin. Not because he doesn’t want to destroy those homewaters.”
Mari was upset and didn’t seem to want to speak, but Gray motioned her to tell him what she was thinking.
“Thrash is dumb, but if he told Goblin you were from a reef where he could find new recruits, he will find your reef.”
“Then what?” Gray asked, growing frantic. “What would he do?”
Snork’s voice was faraway and reedy when he broke the silence. He whispered, “They eat anyone who doesn’t join.”
CHAPTER 10
GRAY AND BARKLEY LEFT IMMEDIATELY FOR THE reef and didn’t speak, conserving their energy on the long trip. After two nonstop days swimming with no food or rest, they finally reached the Coral Shiver homewaters. Gray saw that the greenie path into the reef was intact.
But it was quiet. Very quiet.
There was usually noise by the reef. Keen shark senses picked up the sounds and disturbances caused by dwellers and other sharkkind talking or swimming. When you weren’t hunting, you’d ignore these as background noise. Now all Gray felt, all he heard, was the gentle tide swishing the greenie back and forth. There were no snatches of conversation, or shouting, or tail strokes from any ocean dweller. It set him on edge. Gray’s heart was pounding so hard, it felt as if it would hammer its way out of his body.
“Follow me,” he whispered.
The entire reef was still and silent. When he got closer, he noticed there were a few tiny, darting fish about, but not many. The larger dwellers had been scared away. Or eaten. He could smell the faint scent of blood everywhere. The beautiful corals and greenie were gouged and torn, as if hit by a mighty undersea storm. A few urchins and anemones were there, but faded their colors into muted browns and grays, the better to hide themselves. For a moment neither Gray nor Barkley said anything, hushed by the devastation around them. Gray had expected the worst, but it still didn’t prepare him for this. The reef was totally destroyed.
“Do you think everyone…” Barkley left the question hanging in the water.
“Mom! Mom!” yelled Gray, startling the dogfish. No one answered, though.
“All of them?” Barkley asked himself in a dazed voice. “How can…how?
“NO!” Gray sped around the entire reef but it was the same everywhere. Desolation and stillness. Gray and Barkley cried by the edge of the reef, where they had gone after the drove of bluefin. It was quite some time before either could speak.
“This is my fault,” Gray told Barkley.
“Gray—”
He cut his friend off. “If I had listened to you none of this would have happened! If I had listened to Mom! If I—”
Barkley gave him a sudden stinging tail slap to the flank. “You didn’t do this! You. Did. Not.”
This didn’t make Gray feel any better. He knew deep inside that this was his burden to carry. I’m sorry, Mom, he thought silently as the slow tide carried his tears away.
“Gray? Barkley?” asked a small voice. They looked to where a few sad strands of greenie were still in place. There! Something moved. Gray and Barkley tensed, scared and alert.
Out poked Yappy’s head. “Is it really you?”
Barkley exhaled loudly. “Yappy! You nearly scared us to death!”
Gray quickly swam up to Yappy and asked loudly, “Who did this? Have you seen my mother? Where is everyone?”
The little sea dragon zipped back into the greenie. “Stop yelling at me!” he squeaked.
Barkley nipped at Gray’s tail, almost getting bitten as a result. The dogfish couldn’t believe it and yelled, “What’s wrong with you? Yappy’s our friend.” Gray saw the look in Barkley’s eyes and was ashamed.
Yappy poked his head out of the greenie again. “Really, Barkley? I always thought you didn’t like me!”
“No, Yappy. Sometimes I get annoyed and take stuff out on you. Sorry,” said the dogfish. “Do you know where our families are and what happened?”
“I don’t know where your cousins are, Barkley. They were on the other side of the reef, so I didn’t see. The shiver, they tried to fight. They tried. But there were so many. So many.”
“My mom?” asked Gray fearfully.
“I’m not sure.” The little sea dragon choked back a sob. “I ran and hid! I’m a coward!”
“You’re not a coward!” Barkley told him. “The shiver—were they taken?”
“No! They got away!” Yappy told them. Gray’s heart leapt as Yappy continued. “Atlas was shouting, ‘Go! Go! We’ll meet at the Tuna Run!’” The sea dragon brightened a little. “You shoulda seen Atlas! He wanted everyone to leave, but Overbiter stayed with him, flank to flank! They held them off as Quickeyes and Onyx led everyone away! Sent at least three of them to the Sparkle Blue! But then…” Sadness returned to Yappy’s eyes.
Gray couldn’t speak, so Barkley prodded in a low voice, “Then?”
“They both were eaten.”
Gray felt a hotness growing inside him. A reddish haze descended over his eyes as he thought of someone eating sharks from his shiver family. “Who did that?” Gray asked in a deathly quiet voice.
The little sea dragon’s eyes grew misty. “They came at high moon when everybody was resting. But not me. I saw them. I saw…”
“Yappy! Saw who?” Gray asked his voice rising, Barkley gave him a look when the sea dragon cringed.
“Saw who?” the dogfish asked in a soothing tone.
The sea dragon answered in a shaky whisper, “Bull sharks. They were bulls.”
Barkley was struck dumb with a look of disbelief. Gray swam over, but not too fast or close this time. He kept his voice low so he wouldn’t scare the sea dragon off. “Yappy, this is no time for stories. Who really did this?”
“STORIES?” he yelled into Gray’s face. “Look around, you big lumpfish! Two of my sisters were eaten!” Gray actually backed away from the tiny sea dragon’s rage and grief. Yappy got hold of himself. “I’m sorry I yelled. But they were definitely bull sharks. The one who ate Paxson had a weird scar on his snout. Looked like a clam shell.”
Paxson was the sea dragon’s oldest sister. She had always made fun of her brother for talking with Gray and Barkley. Now she was gone.
“Do you want to come with us?” Barkley asked. “We have another place.”
The sea dragon shook his head. “My family’s leaving. We have cousins in the Dark Blue. We’ll stay with them for a while.” Yappy’s eyes grew hard for a moment. “When we find those bulls, we’ll get them. You’ll see.” The diminutive sea dragon flicked his flippers in a wave good-bye and left. “See you around. Maybe.”
Barkley shook his head. “Yappy and his giant cousins getting revenge on a shiver of bulls. If it wasn’t today that would be funny.”
“But it is today,” said Gray. “And it’s a good idea. We’ll find who did this and somehow, someway—”
Barkley flicked a fin at Gray. “Whoa, whoa,” he said. “Didn’t you hear the good news? Yappy didn’t see our families get taken or eaten. He said the shiver escaped! We’ll go to the Tuna Run and find them.” Gray was about to ask if Barkley really believed that everyone was still alive and there would be a big, happy reunion at the Tuna Run. His friend saw the question in his eyes and answered before Gray could say anything. “I have to believe that,” he said. “We both do.”
Barkley was right. No matter what, their families would be at the Tuna Run.
They would find them. Or swim the Sparkle Blue trying.
CHAPTER 11
THE SWIM BACK WAS QUIET. GRAY WAS WORRIED sick about his mother. But there was another thought that cut through this sadness, and he was ashamed that it terrified him more than anything else. Gray was homeless now. Barkley was also, of course. And the dogfish was certainly worried about his family. But Gray’s overriding feeling wasn’t sadness, anger, or confusion. It was fear that he had no place to go. And this made him feel awful because he was only thinking about himself. Again.
Before this, after his banishment was over, Gray’s exile would have turned into an adventure he’d tell stories about around the reef. But now his mother was missing, and there was no Coral Shiver reef to go back to and he was petrified.
Gray could feel that Barkley was also scared, but grief was the biggest sensation coming from him right now. He grew mortified when he realized that his friend could probably feel his state of mind, too. “I’m the worst shark ever,” Gray muttered.
They reached the edge of the Rogue Shiver homewaters, where they were met by Mari. Her silhouette was easy to spot with the sun shining overhead. She raced over. “Are you okay?” Then she saw the looks on their faces and knew everything wasn’t okay. “I’m so sorry. I hate Goblin!”
“It wasn’t him,” Barkley told her. “They were bulls.”
“Oh, no! Please don’t tell Shell that!”
Gray was going to ask why, when the big bull steamed toward them. “Striiker saw Thrash on patrol! We should get back to the wreck and hover low.”
They began swimming, picking up their pace with steady, powerful tail strokes. They were nearly home when they saw Striiker and Snork. They were being circled by at least ten other sharks!
“Goblin Shiver!” Mari exclaimed.
There was no trouble picking Goblin out of the pack. He was as large as Gray, but all muscle, his teeth flashing in a harsh grin. Striiker and Snork had nowhere to run. The seabed was clearly in sight, and the greenie and rock formations in the area were too sparse to hide in.
“We can make it home without being seen if we stay away,” whispered Shell.
“Shell’s making some very good sense,” said Barkley, tapping Gray’s side with his tail.
Mari bristled. “We can’t just leave them!”
