More Than A Friend
Chapter 2
Hunters' Journey, Private's Doubts
Hunter woke up to realise that she had dark spots on her skin. She was growing up. Oh oh. Hunter was scared that this day might come, since it meant that she might change, she didn't want to change. What if she turned into a monster?
I'm going to need to hurry, if I want to get to Private before I turn to an adult. Adults are blood-thirsty monsters in the leopard seal world! Hunter worried. Though she had forgotten that her father was most definitely and exception to this.
Without even saying goodbye, Hunter dived down as deep as possible and then surfaced about ten meters away from the ice floe she slept on. She swam as fast as she could, hoping that Private would at least help her from turning into the monster she hated. Her friend was better at reassuring animals and she planned to surprise him. She didn't look back and swam on.
After an hour in the cold water, she registered a slight change in temperature. She decided that she would rest for a minute or two before carrying on. As for her meal, it was the usual kind. Just plain old squid. She really wished she could swim faster, at this rate she wouldn't be able to get there in the month she had.
You would think it's easy for a seal to swim the whole day, but seals aren't whales or dolphins, they have to pay for their speed in water. They have to got onto land every while or else they would get too exhausted and they had to sleep longer than dolphins, so they had to sleep on slow moving ice floes.
She didn't even exactly know where she was going, she only ever been beyond Antarctica with Private, never alone.
In the next week she realised that she was no longer near the frozen, ice filled waters as she hadn't seen ice or anything like that in ages. She got accustomed to sleeping for short periods of time and faster food, which now even consisted of fish. Fish being more agile and faster than squid, maybe tasted better and filled her quicker, but they were harder to catch because of it.
The good thing was that the oceans and sea here were warmer and there were even marine plants in some places, making it a cheerful place. Although Hunter didn't realise it, she was near the coast of south America, which explained why she swarmed around by dozens of children on one of those days. After getting fish from them, she decided to renew her lost trust in humans. She had once been caught in a fishing net of a careless human, but that was now forgiven.
It was getting late and Hunter realised that here the sun falls at night time, even in the summer. This meant she was closer to her destination. Well not just closer, she was now next to the coast of Brazil, were it was filled to the brim with delicious fishes, but unfortunately there were also reef sharks.
"Yikes!" she muttered to her self as one came along. It sniffed her.
"Hey! What is a leopard seal like you doing here child?" the shark asked, seeming quite curious. It must have been an old shark, because it swam slowly and his skin was wrinkly and rough.
"I... I wanted to get ... to... to New York," Hunter stuttered nervously, fully aware of how deadly sharks can be when they need food. The shark shook his head.
"You know chile, I won't eat you, am full and you won't get there without help. I am the only one here who knows the way," The shark explained grinning. "You shouldn't be here anyway, but what else am I gonna do?"
The shark ended up guiding her to the coast of New York. The journey had been long and tiring, but by the end Hunter realised she made another friend.
"Philip, you aren't going?" Hunter asked.
The older shark shook his head. "No chile, I prefer salty seas to fresh water rivers and I am too old to go on adventures like you young ones do. But we are friends and you can visit me whenever you feel like it," Philip replied, sighing.
Hunter waved to the shark. "Bye my friend," she said and Philip smiled.
He looked at her for the last time. "If you go down that river you should find an easy travel route and remember the reading lessons, they might come handy."
And they did. Though her 1 month limit was almost over she managed to find a sign that said 2 miles to central Park Zoo. This was extremely handy, but since she wasn't very fast on land it took a very long time to get to the zoo.
Elsewhere...
Private was losing hope. He hadn't seen Hunter for ages and he was getting lonely. Tomorrow it was meant to be Christmas day and there was no sign of Hunter. Maybe he should visit her, but then he realised he had little chance of managing to get there on his own. He looked at the setting sun and his heart suddenly ached a little. He was sure she wouldn't come. She could have grown up to forget him and turn into a monster or worse, she could have got injured... or killed. The last thought didn't settle well with his stomach or heart.
As he slept in his bunk on Christmas Eve, nightmares shook him awake.
Private's First Nightmare..
Private was looking over the Antarctic landscape, searching for hunter. However, as he got closer, he caught a sight of other seals. Those were most definitely not Hunter. Or vegetarian, for that matter.
The seals chased him under the surface of the water and the bare icebergs were cold and unforgiving. It was not a great start, slowly diminishing his hope of finding his leopard seal friend. Yet, he searched on, bracing himself against all the peril. It was soon enough after his first encounter with the other seals that he believed he had finally found Hunter. Yet when he saw her, the attention brought to his eyes pointed to something far more dreadful than what he had hoped to see.
He saw a corpse of a dead leopard seal on an iceberg. It's pale body was marred with wounds, discomfortingly deeper than he had ever seen. Blood oozed from them slowly covering the ice, staining it a deep red. The seals bones poked out. The sight of the limp body of such a familiar seal made him sick.
Suddenly a ghost appeared in front of Private. "Hello Private!" it almost howled those words. Private jumped in shock. "Don't you recognise me?" the phantom seal asked in a suspiciously sweet voice, sound hurt. "I am your friend... how could you not?" Then, her gaze turned dark and hateful. "It's your fault that I am dead! It. Is. All. YOUR. FAULT!" Hunter blamed Private in a ferocious tone, roaring the words into his face, as she glared at him.
Private gulped. "S...sorry, I didn't mean to come late... I... I didn't know anything till now..." he begged for forgiveness, tears streaming in his eyes.
Private woke up shuddering and cold, jolting awake in his bunk. He wanted to scream, to cry, but he didn't want to wake up the others. He was left with no choice but to surrender himself to his nightmares...
Privates' second nightmare...
Private was so excited to see hunter. She had sent him a letter telling him that she would arrive in about a month. He couldn't wait to see his friend.
I the afternoon he saw Hunter coming up to him. At first she looked normal, but close up she looked completely different to the old Hunter, taller, longer.
"Hunter! Hi there! I'm so glad your back... I missed you so much!" Private greeted her cheerfully. "You've grown so much, too!" He looked at her. She was now black and silver and her used to be blue eyes were now red. Wait what red?!
"Hello food!"Hunter greeted him back, with an evil smile. She licked her lips.
"Why...d...did you call me food?" Private asked nervously, trembling in front of the seal.
Hunter didn't answer. Instead she pinned him to the wall of the zoo and the gnawing at his shoulder. Then she bit him in the head and tossed him ruthlessly into the air, with all her power. Then she started biting him even more.
"NO! STOP! PLEASE STOP!" he wailed in pain. She gave him another of those spine-chilling smiles.
"Of course, I will end this quickly," she assured him in an ominous tone. "But first let me enjoy some fun."
Private screamed in pain and fright trying to escape Hunters' grasp but she wouldn't let go. He cried as she continued hurting him, biting him and maiming him. And could only hope that she would keep to her word and end this quickly.
Private woke up screaming. No one seemed to hear anything though. Of course, they all had their earholes and ears covered! Private panicked for the rest of the night. This was one Halloween-like Christmas.
Elsewhere...
Hunter knew she was basically in the zoo, but she waited till morning to step in. Instead, she decided to take a peaceful nap. She would need energy, she felt.
I hope you found this chapter interesting, though am sorry if I made someone angry by scaring Private. I don't think that Hunter will turn out evil and you?