Tanok's entire being danced to the music his spirit conducted. He twisted his body so it was opposite of the position he using while he was diving. His snout collided with the water creating a salty spray. Everything about the aquatic world he had entered was unworldly and so was the air. He pumped his tail and launched towards the clear surface. The moment his snout felt air he gave his tail an extra pump for propulsion and4 breached towards the surface. This was what being a dolphin was like.
The second Tanok returned to the real world he immediately started to travel back to the pod. If times were normal he wouldn't be avoiding the pod. But he couldn't face them again. It seemed like infinite worries were swimming through their minds . Food was scarce, less and less of it was in their ocean every day. Because of the disappearance, Karina's newborn son Naro had died of starvation. It was a sorrowful time.
Members of the pod were now willing to sacrifice generations of instinctive habit for the pursuit of food . He thought about how many leagues spirited and hopeful dolphins had ventured. How far away from the point of no return, the pod had to keep moving . Most never returned home.
He never though he would but now he was one of them. He the unfortunate dolphin with enough stupidity or wisdom to abandon the living graveyard that was home. He was only doing it temporarily. He hoped he was. But if life continued to descend in the wrong direction all would abandon their sense of right and wrong. Soon the pod would be home only to those who would rather perish than leave home.
All that surrounded him was nothing as far as the eye can see. Just pure ocean. Not a single sign of life. Never did a crab scuttle across the sand. Or shreds of kelp and krill float in front of his eyes. When he looked down all he saw was sand instead brown leafy sea grass. Everywhere he looked the he only saw the exact same water . Bleak wet and endless water.
He had to stop this madness. If not all would fail. And so tanok made the most stupid decision he could think of and swam where no dolphin had ever swam before.
Suddenly, a school of cod appeared out of nowhere. Tanok's tongue could almost feel the fish laying on it. There was no way he could eat the fish without the other dolphins herding them into a tight group. Even if his hunting partner Jerico was able to hunt fish with him it wouldn't matter, the cod were some of the fastest he had ever seen. But the fish looked so good.
He had to go after them. He whacked his tail against the water creating a jet of water which propelled him forward. If he could somehow herd these fish the pod would be fed for a few precious days. So he hunted like he had never hunted before, pumped his tail until he lost all feeling of it. He wasn't even sure he could stop if he tried to.