Shark wars, p.7
Shark Wars, page 7
“Follow me,” the great white told him. They went to the edge of the central area and then a little farther. Suddenly Goblin turned and attacked! It was all Gray could do to evade his initial rush. Then they both spun a tight turn and rammed each other. Gray was dazed, then Goblin started laughing. “You don’t know your own strength. For a young pup, you hit like Ripper!”
Gray was confused but couldn’t help but puff with pride at the compliment. Ripper was a warrior, a true mariner. That much he knew from his short time here. “Umm, thanks.”
“You’ve been with us a month now,” Goblin said. “Are you getting your sea legs?”
“‘Sea legs’?”
The great white chuckled. “Right, you’re from the boonie-greenie.” Gray was about to ask where the boonie-greenie was but thought better of it. “‘Sea legs’ is a landshark saying for getting used to the ocean. Humans sometimes get sick on their boats when the chop-chop is rough. When they get used to the waves, they say their landshark legs have turned into ‘sea legs.’ Get it?”
Gray understood very little of what Goblin was saying. Barkley would have definitely known. Maybe he should have paid a little more attention in Miss Lamprey’s classes. In any case, an answer wasn’t required.
“Did you know sharkkind used to talk with the humans? They even use some of our words!”
“Aww, come on,” Gray said before he could stop himself.
But Goblin didn’t get angry. “No, really. These homewaters have been led by great whites for thousands of years.” Goblin thumped him on the head with his tail in a joking way. Gray didn’t mind, though, as the shiver leader was talking and listening to him. That was something that Atlas never did. “In those days the entire Atlantis Ocean was part of an empire that ruled with an iron fin over all the seven seas.”
Gray was fascinated. He listened as Goblin told him that an evil and corrupt mako empress by the name of Silander ruled everything from her giant kingdom in the Sific Ocean, which was a hundred times larger than Goblin Shivers homewaters. She ordered her brutal, armored squaline, which meant “fish soldier” in an ancient landshark language called Latin, to collect food from the shivers until everyone was starving. “Squaline is also where the concept of the Line comes from,” Goblin noted. “But good sharkkind in the Indi, Arktik, and Atlantis oceans rose up against her empire. Riptide was formed back then, and it teamed with tattooed Indi Shiver to strike the first blow in a long war.”
Gray was hesitant to interrupt but asked, “Tattooed Indi Shiver?”
“No, they’re called Indi Shiver, and they have tattoos.” Goblin saw that Gray didn’t understand and explained further. “They mark themselves with designs on their bodies by having urchins crawl along their skin and release acid.”
How cool was that? It was the most interesting story ever! Gray listened, totally captivated as Goblin described the pitched battle between armadas of sharkkind and dwellers on each side in the South Atlantis that broke Silander’s power. It was fittingly called the Battle of Silander’s End. After she lost, her own Line sent her to the Sparkle Blue. Then those sharkkind fought among themselves over who would lead, and the empire crumbled, never to rise again.
Gray just gaped. He couldn’t believe he had never heard of this before. What kind of school was Miss Lamprey leading? They spent a month studying plankton! But Gray knew it wasn’t her fault. The Caribbi sea was off the beaten path, and she probably didn’t know anything about the Battle of Silander’s End. Or maybe he wasn’t paying attention that day in class. It was definitely one or the other.
“So, are there still big battle shivers with armadas of sharkkind?” Gray asked.
“No, they all splintered into smaller ones like here in the Atlantis. Some say Indi Shiver has a new pup king who wants to be emperor of the Big Blue. They say he’s already taken over the Arktik.”
Gray gasped. “Is it true?”
The great white chuckled. “No. These stories bubble up every now and again. Ten years ago, a South Sific shiver was supposedly conquering everything. Somewhere far away, there’s probably a story about me wanting to be emperor.”
“Do you?”
The great white waggled a fin, pointing. “Can you guess how this part of the Big Blue got its name?” Goblin asked. Gray didn’t know, and the story the great white told seemed even more unbelievable and made him forget his question. The Atlantis Ocean wasn’t named after sharkkind after all. It was named for landsharks who called themselves Atlanteans! They lived on a faraway island. All the shivers, even when they fought each other, would protect Atlanteans if their ships sank in storms. In return, these landsharks taught them things, just like Oceana told him.
The Atlanteans were the ones who showed sharkkind how to repair battle wounds and even cure fever from the poisonous stings of urchins and jellies with algae and mosses from the ocean. They forged metal armor for sharkkind, with razor edges to cover fins, a spike for the tail, and protective plating for the flanks. Sometimes humans even swam into battle with sharks, protecting their dorsal topside while breathing air from a bladder made of animal skin! The humans who lived on Europa got jealous of the Atlanteans as they became more and more powerful and finally sank their island. They killed many sharks while doing that. Because of this treachery, all sharkkind vowed never to treat with humans ever again. Now any landsharks that came into the Big Blue were fair game.
“Although they’re not really worth it, even the fatter ones,” said Goblin as he made a face. “They’re bony and don’t taste good at all.”
Goblin also told Gray about the measurements landsharks used. These measurements did seem useful, especially when comparing them against the mako standard of flippers and body lengths. It would be easier to tell someone that a drove of halibut was a thousand feet down than to describe it in tip-to-tails. Gray wondered how the landsharks could be so smart and so stupid at the same time. After generations and generations of sailing on the Big Blue, they still can’t swim better than a turtle!
“Why are you telling me all this?” Gray asked.
Goblin smiled. “I see potential in you. Who knows, maybe one day you could be in the Line. Maybe even my first.” The initial emotion that hit Gray wasn’t pride—that would come later. His first emotion was fear, the image of the ferocious, giant Ripper coming to his mind. Ripper wouldn’t like being displaced. Not at all. Goblin seemed to know what he was thinking. “Don’t worry, I’m not asking you to fight anyone today. You’re not ready yet. And besides, we don’t battle for position much anymore. Sharks die often enough without wasting lives.”
“I—I don’t know what to say,” Gray stumbled over his words. “It’s so…umm…weird.”
“Weird to be appreciated?” Goblin nodded. “I get it. Sometimes when you grow up in a shiver where it’s quiet, the sharks in the Line only see you as the pup they scared in the greenie for a joke that one time.”
“Or when you got your head stuck in a bucket,” Gray added.
“What’s that now?” asked Goblin.
Gray coughed. “Nothing. You were saying?”
“What I see is a big fin with lots of potential. That’s why you’re going to the Tuna Run with me and the rest of the shiver.”
“You mean it?” Gray fairly shouted. He was being invited as a hunter! His own shiver didn’t even want him as a member. Or they hadn’t, until…. Suddenly Gray could only think about his mother. Goblin saw his sadness and bumped him.
“None of that now,” he told Gray. “You’re going to the Tuna Run, pup. And if you find your family, they’ll see what a great hunter you’ve become. But you need to practice first.”
“Practice for the Tuna Run? How can you do that?”
Goblin just smiled his toothy smile. “You’ll see.”
CHAPTER 14
THE GAME WAS CALLED TUNA ROLL. “IT’S NOTHING like the actual Tuna Run, but it’ll help you work on your quickness and side-to-side movement. That’s a good thing to have at Tuna Run and anywhere else in the Big Blue,” Goblin told Gray.
“Sounds like fun!” said Snork. The sawfish had regained some of his cheery nature since Gray saw him last.
Streak jabbed Ripper in the flank with her snout. “He’ll be swimming the Sparkle Blue in the first five minutes of a real run.”
“Yeah, he’s chum,” Ripper agreed in his gravelly voice.
“Quiet down, you two,” Goblin told them. He explained the game, which actually seemed fairly simple. There were two teams of six, symbolizing a leader and their Five in the Line. Both teams faced the same way. Gray, Barkley, and the other former members of Rogue Shiver were one team and hovered farther back. Goblin and his Line took their places closest to the starting end of the field of play.
Gray’s team was about twenty good tail strokes, or a hundred yards, away from Goblin and near the end line of the field. He taught the landshark measuring system to Barkley, who found it to be both fascinating and useful. In the game, a single drove of exactly one hundred fish would try to zip by both teams. For every fish Goblin’s group caught they received one point; any that Gray’s team caught were worth two points, as the fish would have time to gain speed in the water between the two teams. Neither team could swim outside their own zone, marked by glowing lumos. “The object is to make quick decisions and catch some fish!”
“Wait, wait,” said Barkley, looking absolutely confused. “Are you forcing some poor dwellers to play a game in which they get eaten?” This struck Goblin and his team as hilarious. They laughed so hard they could barely breathe. Striiker and Mari also chuckled. Snork joined in, too, but Gray was pretty sure the sawfish didn’t know why he was laughing.
“Forcing them?” Thrash could barely speak he was laughing so hard. “He thinks we’re forcing them!”
“Like he’s going to catch one anyway!” yelled Streak. Barkley gave her a glare, and she burst into another giggle fit.
“Wisko! Get out here!” yelled Goblin. A fish that Gray had never seen before streaked forward and stopped between the two groups. This fish knifed through the water with ease! It shined silver and was shaped like a long, thin spine with jagged fins pressed close to its body. “This is Wisko, the wahoo. She’s been in charge of our Tuna Roll for the last three years.”
“She what?” Barkley asked, now even more confused.
“Watchu want, Goblin pup?” Wisko danced in front of the great white, tapping him on his head with her tail. For some reason this didn’t bother Goblin at all, and he playfully snapped at the fish. “What’s the hold up? Wahoo! We going or what? Or you too turtle to play today? Wa-hoo!”
“The dogfish is afraid we’re forcing you to Tuna Roll with us,” Goblin said dryly.
“Who? Who said that? Him?” After Goblin nodded, Wisko jetted over to Barkley, hitting him in the face with a tremendous tail slap.
“Hey!” yelped Barkley. “I’m making sure you’re not being abused! You obviously aren’t a dumb grouping fish.”
“We invented Tuna Roll, dog breath!” said Wisko. “We play by different rules than the rest of the dwellers in the Big Blue. Hey, did you know you’re named after a dumb land animal called a dog, which eats its own poo?”
“We’re not named after it,” huffed Barkley. “It’s named after us!”
“So you admit you eat your own poo? Ha ha!” said Wisko as she finned Barkley’s snout with another blazing fast pass. “Wa-hoo!” Barkley got angry and darted after the wahoo, but never came close to catching her. She taunted him as he flailed about. “Over here! No, here! Too slow!”
“Only the fastest wahoo are chosen for the Tuna Roll by their leader—that’s Wisko. It’s a great honor for them to test themselves against us,” Velenka told everyone. “They’re actually faster than the tuna we’ll hunt at the run.”
“Waaay faster! Wa-hoo!” exclaimed Wisko, a flash of silver as she pirouetted in the water. “We are the fastest of the fast, the quickest of the quick! So quick, it’ll make ya sick!” She flashed by Barkley again, making him duck. “We’re also the best tasting fish in the sea, pups!”
Velenka continued, “Tonight we have to bring dinner to the wahoo who get by us. As you can see, they are insufferable winners. If they get eaten, that’s also an honor. They call it the Way of the Wahoo.” The mako rolled her eyes as if she didn’t totally get the Way of the Wahoo either.
“Wa-hoo! It sure is!” Wisko told everyone. “Getting old and slow is no way to go! So we dancin’ or what, sharkkind?”
All thoughts of how the wahoo might be mistreated went totally out of Barkley’s mind. He stared menacingly at the fish. Well, as menacingly as Barkley could stare, which wasn’t very. “Then I’d love to ‘honor’ you, Wisko.”
This comment got the dogfish another slap on the snout. “You’ll be feeding me tonight, dog breath! Wahoo!” The fish twisted and swam back to the starting line, moving to a quirky beat in the tides only she heard.
“That is one odd fish,” Shell said.
“Odd or not, it’s so on!” Barkley muttered to himself as he ground his teeth in annoyance.
“Ready!” yelled Goblin, and his entire team swum into a ragged formation. When he bellowed “SET!” the line moved into a perfect two-tiered V-formation with Streak and Churn hovering topside.
Gray’s senses went into overdrive. He hadn’t noticed before, but there were loads of dwellers around. Squid, eels, octopi, crabs, and other bottom dwellers gathered to watch near or on the craggy rock wall facing the field. Fish of all sorts and colors hovered with the tide; smallest in the front, largest in the back. There were even a few whales in the distance, although they’d need very good eyesight to see the game. All of this was interrupted by Goblin shouting, “ROLL!”
A hundred shining wahoo cried in unison, “WAHOO!” and accelerated past the start line the instant after Wisko snapped her tail as the signal to move. Goblin’s team stayed in their formation until the last second, then blasted out every which way. Streak, a very fast blue shark, got one. All in all, only two or three wahoo were caught.
“Stay together until they’re right on us, then break!” yelled Mari.
But Gray’s team couldn’t hold their formation like Goblin’s, and the fish were past them in a fin flick. It would have been nice to know that teams did that before the game, he thought sourly. The wahoo easily avoided them. In fact Gray was pretty sure Wisko herself shouted “Wa-hoo!” into his ear and gave him a slap on the snout as she whizzed by. While the wahoo were amusing earlier when they were having fun with Barkley, now they were super annoying to Gray.
Goblin’s team was in stitches, laughing so hard they had to call a time-out.
“Did you see the look on Gray’s face?!” yelled Churn.
“Nothing compared to doggie!” agreed Streak, still gnashing her teeth from her meal.
Goblin and Velenka explained the rules more fully between rolls, which referred to the rounds of wahoo swimming through the field. There were ten rolls to a game, and each team got to be up front for five of them. “Ohh, you’re taking too long,” Goblin told everyone. “Now you’re gonna get it.”
Goblin pointed with his fin as Velenka added, “Tyro had an off day when he created the wahoo.”
The ninety-seven wahoo who made it across the line in the first roll were still slapping fins with each other and hurling insults at the sharkkind. But when Wisko snapped her tail, they swam into a tight formation.
“WHO-ARE-WE?!” she shouted, each word more of an exclamation than a question. The entire formation of wahoo began doing the same slow fin moves: three strokes one way, then a tail clap with the wahoo on their left, then three strokes to the right and a tail clap to the nearest wahoo the other way. They moved together perfectly in this massed victory swim, and sang in time to their tail claps!
We are the wahoo, the speedy, speedy wahoo!
WA! HOO!
You are the drifters, the jelly, jelly, drifters!
SO! SLOW!
We are the wahoo, the speedy, speedy wahoo!
WA! HOO!
You are the drifters, the jelly, jelly, drifters!
SO! SLOW!
“What the heck are they doing?” Snork asked.
“Right now? Insulting us,” snorted Striiker.
“Don’t let it get to you,” said Mari. “Huddle up!”
Mari tried to explain the strategy for the game, but Gray couldn’t hear her at all. It turned out that the gathered dwellers were cheering as loud as they could for the wahoo! The entire bowl-shaped stadium was alive with their energy. A school of glowing lantern fish circled the edge and all the dwellers rose when they went by—even the bottom feeders who couldn’t swim raised a claw or tentacle—which made it look like there was an undersea wave rolling around the edge of the field! And lumos of all sorts were blinking together forming pictures in the shape of a wahoo!
Shell nodded. “Yeah, the dwellers always root for the fish.”
Tuna Roll was incredibly fun and exciting! How could anything else compare? After Gray caught his first wahoo, Tuna Roll immediately became his favorite thing ever. First, wahoo were delicious, just as Wisko said they would be. And second, after having been so embarrassed by the fish, it felt absolutely wonderful to catch one! The game ran for four more rolls, with Goblin’s team in front. After taking a small break, they switched positions and went five rolls with Gray’s team in front. At the end of all ten, whichever team had the highest total score won. And flip, Rogue was getting killed! The score was twenty-one to seven heading into the last roll. Goblin accounted for eight points on his own!
Cheers from the dwellers rose as Gray began what was called the “sound off.” “Ready! Set! ROLL!” he shouted.
The wahoo streaked past their line with a swimming start. Wisko was playing again! She angled the cluster of a hundred wahoo to the right. Gray was at the diamond head of the formation—there were so many cool terms in this game—and moved to intercept. Wisko was the fastest of the wahoo and blew by them. But the stragglers, if any fish so fast could be deemed a straggler, were forced to change direction. Striiker ate one wahoo in a single bite. Mari and Gray each struck home as Barkley just missed. Both Goblin and Ripper were successful, though, further increasing their team’s score. Gray’s team lost but, wow, this game was fun!
