Shark decided to walk close to a lake that nobody else but he knew. It was connected to a river about five feet wide. Sometimes fish would swim in, and it was interesting to observe some of them.
One day he came back to the lake, just to see if anything new had shown up. What he saw made his heart skip a few beats.
A shark. In the lake. Reginald immediately noticed that one of its fins was bleeding from a cut. He ran the whole way back to wherever he lived to get some medical supplies.
The shark was a feisty little guy. It took some patience to apply the medicine and then bandage the fin. Shark wondered if he should contact the animal hospital or something like that. But the shark looked better already, so he figured there was no point. It would be fine in a few days, and then it could swim out of the lake and back into the ocean where it belonged.
Still, Shark visited the shark every day. Just to check on it, he told himself. Nothing more.
What surprised him the most was the way the shark stared at him from underwater. It was like it was waiting for him to do something besides sit and stare. Shark stared back into those dark, intelligent eyes, trying to understand it (although he had not the slightest idea why he felt that he could befriend this ferocious predator of the sea), until he made himself get up and leave.
Maybe it should have a name. Shark thought as he sat on the roof, the usual place he stayed on at school. He preferred to skip class. He shook his head at the thought. No, if I give it a name I might get attached to it. Or worse— it might attach to me.
Despite his misgivings, Shark found himself thinking about the shark the whole day, even when Yuma and co. joined him on the roof for lunch. He was, for once, able to think outside of Yuma's loud chatter. His Duelist partner, Astral, was quite the opposite; silent and calm.
When school was over for the day, Shark found himself walking fast to get to his special lake. Sure enough, the shark was swimming around. It was getting stronger every day. Reginald knew it would only be a matter of time before it returned to the ocean. But he thought he should do this anyway.
The shark's head rose a little out of the water as it saw Shark approaching. Shark sat down to get on eye-level with it.
"Mind if I call you by a name?" Shark asked the shark.
The shark only stared back with its intelligent gaze.
"Okay," Reginald nodded. "I'll call you 'Veiss'." Like my Shark Drake Veiss, he thought. The shark did have a pale, a very pale silver coloring.
It seemed as though 'Veiss' had actually paid attention when Shark gave it its name, for it appeared very happy. It leapt straight out of the water and did a quick flip before landing gracefully with no more than a splash (and the water sprayed Shark). Shark laughed and splashed his new…pet. He actually liked this shark. Perhaps it was not just a pet, but a friend. For once Shark did not push the ridiculous-sounding thought out of his mind.
He noticed that Veiss was struggling to get food for itself. It could not swim properly with its injury in the way. So Shark brought a fish to it, carrying it in a cooler. He knelt down in front of Veiss and said "Here, take some." while stretching out his hand to offer it the fish. This was a bit risky— the shark could think that Reginald was offering his actual hand to it. However, Veiss had no problem accepting the fish as food. It rather gruesomely tore it apart before swallowing.
Veiss still looked hungry, so Shark brought out another fish from the cooler. And another, and another. It was not long before the cooler was empty.
A strange thought entered Shark's mind. Slowly, he reached out to Veiss. Veiss saw what he was doing but did not shy away. It just watched. When Shark's hand was an inch away, Veiss moved its head so that it just barely touched it— so Shark would not get scratched by touching its rough skin. Shark was surprised when feelings of happiness welled inside of him. Veiss was a very smart shark, and it knew a friend when it had one.
Shark knew that Veiss was his friend, too.
Shark stopped by to visit Veiss again the next day. Before he got to the water's edge, he saw the shark near the mouth of the river. Pain hit Shark's heart like the fastest tsunami when he realized what was happening.
"Veiss…" he said in an aching whisper. His tone was that of when you are so sad that you can't bring your voice above a whisper or else you'll break down crying.
Veiss turned around. It seemed to smile a big, sharp-toothed smile at its friend. "Thank you for taking care of me, friend." its eyes said. Then it turned and swam up the river, headed for the faraway ocean.
Shark stared after it, his heart actually hurting. He stood at the lake long after Veiss was out of sight. Then he lowered his head.
"Good-bye, Veiss..."
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