Chapter XXV

Epilogue

A year later…

So the world goes round and round
with all you ever knew.
They say the sky high above
is Caribbean blue.

If every man says all he can,
if every man is true.
Do I believe the sky above
is Caribbean blue?

If all you told was turned to gold,
if all you dreamed was new.
Imagine sky, high above
in Caribbean blue. –Enya, "Caribbean Blue"

The sunshine sparkled off the misting ocean, casting diamonds soaring into the air as the boat charged through the froth and wake ahead. The gulls cried and screeched, gliding among the rays of light above. Their white feathers glistened in the mists when they dove downward to catch the spray in their beaks.

Leaning upon the bow's railing, her waist-long bronze hair flipping lively in the ocean breeze, a young girl stretched her hand out to them, playfully laughing as the birds danced in the gales against the sea. Her blue-green eyes shone in reflection of the sea's brilliant color. She wiped her wrist against her forehead, futilely trying to keep her bangs clear from her vision.

The boat rose and fell gently, the swelling calm and manageable. The girl felt no fear of the ocean or falling in. Her father was at the helm. She was safe and secure.

"Katrina! Katrina, do you see anything yet?" Her father called from the door leading down into the small cabin inside. He sturdily climbed upward, placing his hand against his eyes to protect from the glare, looking for his daughter. She spiraled around, gleefully giggling in excitement.

"Not yet, Dad!" she yelled back, waving to make sure he saw her. "I don't see them yet! I only see the birds!"

"Well, keep a good look out! Larry says he hears them clear as cymbals, if that makes any sense. They're down there, somewhere…"

The boat's bow dove downward suddenly, causing spray to whoosh upward over the nose. Katrina danced away agilely, laughing as she avoided getting wet.

Her father came closer, grasping firmly on the railing himself as he scanned the surface.

"The dolphins are somewhere. I wonder why they aren't coming into sight. Usually they are so excited for visitors," he wondered aloud

"Maybe they're busy with something," the girl suggested. Her father laughed.

"Well, I can't possibly imagine what dolphins can be busy with. The seas have been calm from chaos for a few years now. The waters of the Atlantis ruins have settled themselves now." He grinned suddenly, looking down at his daughter. "Would you like to hear them?"

Her eyes lit up, like little suns within the deepest part of the orbs. Her white pearl-like teeth flashed in a grin as wide as possible for the child width of her face.

"Oh! Can I?"

"Of course!" He laughed, as if there was no question to it in the first place. "Come with me."

He led the way down into the heart of the ship, ducking under the low ceiling as his hair brushed it in the wind. He was a tall, strong man, and the little girl bounded joyfully behind him, wishing she were someday tall like him.

"Larry! Larry!" Her father called out, the sudden darkness causing Katrina to pause. She rubbed her eyes, blinking rapidly in an attempt to clear the haze.

"Can you hear them well?"

"Yes sir!" The response came, higher in pitch. An arm waved once from along the wall, hands to his head as he pressed cups to his ears. He stared at the console screen, the bright colors, lines, and shapes confusing and slightly uninteresting to young Katrina, but Larry was deeply focused into it. He watched and listened at the same time.

"How many, do you think?" Katrina's father inquired.

"About….seven. I hear seven distinct voices among the chatter." He paused.

"Something wrong?" Katrina asked quietly. Larry glanced in her direction, got a quick a smile for her.

"Oh, no worries. I'm just curious. They sound agitated in some way, not that the dolphins would normally be quiet on a beautiful day like this, but it's not quite the same. I'm just wishing I was down there to see what's up."

"Bottlenose?" Katrina's father asked, crossing his arms expectantly. After a moment, Larry shook his head.

"No, I don't think so." The two men thought for a second, deliberating on what action to take.

"May I…listen?" Katrina interrupted their thoughts timidly, not forgetting the promise she was given. Her father's arms flew up when she asked, sighing.

"Oh, that's right! I'm sorry, Katrina. Larry, give her your headphones for a second."

"S-sure," Larry quickly took them off, handing them over to the smaller set of hands. The apparatus was little big for her skull, but she pressed the phones tightly over her ears, closing her eyes in anticipation.

Larry had been right. It didn't take long to hear them. There was only a moment of muffled quiet from around before her acute ears picked up the squeals and clicks of the dolphins. Katrina's eyes opened, a smile appearing. Her father grinned.

"Pretty cool, isn't it?"

"I think it's wonderful." She closed her eyes again, trying to picture them in her head. Their slender bodies darting in between each other. The skin glistening smooth and strong in the sunlight as they breached. Their seemingly perpetual smiles carved from their jaws, their voices rising in delphine laughter.

"They sound…happy," she finally said after about a minute of intense listening.

"You think so, Katrina?" Her father asked, tilting his head curiously. She nodded without hesitation.

"Yeah. They don't sound upset. They sound…excited. Something good is happening right now, I think."

"That's interesting," Larry commented.

Suddenly, the console alerted the man of something new. He glanced in Katrina's direction once, then nodded to her father in confidence.

"Their location is being picked up. The dolphins are approaching us from the northeast." Katrina gasped.

"Are they coming? I want to see!"

"Let's go back up; better let Larry have the headphones."

Katrina gingerly took them off, careful to not allow the chord to get caught on anything. Larry immediately put them back on, swiveling in his seat to get close to the sound system again. Katrina dashed after her father, who was leading the way back towards the blinding light outside.

"Hey! Hey!" Larry called after him.

"What?"

"I think I've got it! Their sound…it matches up with data from our references! I believe we've got a small pod of spinners coming to see us!"

Outside was just as brilliant as before, but Katrina wasn't interested in the scenery anymore. All she wanted to see were the dolphins coming towards her. Placing both hands flat above her eyebrows, she anxiously scanned the surface, looking for anything that could signify a dolphin. Any splash or wave made her jump, thinking it was a leaping cetacean.

"There they are!" Her father spotted them first, of course, being so much taller than she. He grabbed at his side, pulling a small pair of binoculars from his pocket. A few moments later, and he yelled out loud in satisfaction.

"Geez, Larry, I can always count on you! Without a doubt, those are definitely spinners." He turned to Katrina. "I've got to head under for a second."

"Can I wait here?"

"Sure! Just don't fall overboard, okay?" He ruffled her hair affectionately, and she playfully swatted his hands away.

As he walked back towards the darkness of the cabin, Katrina securely locked herself onto the railing. The wind was perfect, blowing her long locks of hair behind her.

The boat had stopped now, the engine being shut off. Katrina could clearly hear them, chirping as they came. She could see them approaching, whisking just beneath the surface like grey bullets. One decided to breath, and then immediately more followed in a frenzy of froth and spray. They came from the starboard side of the bow, dashing directly towards Katrina and then diving underneath the boat. They vanished, and then she heard them breathing on the other side, the surface cracking as they leapt about.

"Hey! Come back, I wanted to see you!" Katrina giggled. Whether or not they completely understood her, they did return, intertwining their paths, and yet somehow not running into each other, in front of her. She stood on her tip toes, leaning over to look at them dashing about.

"Oh wow, look at all of you! You're all so beautiful! And you sound so happy!" She commented, hearing the clicking as they spy-hopped multiple times in rapid succession, like little bobbing corks.

They chattered back at her, pivoting on their powerful tails. She noticed their dark colors and bright, lovely stripes. One of them had a bright, white mark on its dorsal fin, like a comet in the night sky. They were smaller and more slender then the other dolphins she had seen in pictures back home. But all their movements were quick, lively, and with a grace she had rarely seen in other animals back around home.

"Why are you guys so happy? I mean, it's a nice day, but you all sound so excited about something. Are you excited to see us?" She asked as if she could have received a direct answer, but she wasn't expecting one.

One of the dolphins bobbed especially higher, squealing out in delight. Flapping its pectorals, the dolphin showered her in mist, and Katrina giggled in delight. Gazing around, she suddenly paused in slightly confusion.

"Wait a minute…" she pondered. The dolphins had stopped moving, watching her in curiosity. Then, lifting a finger, she began pointing at them one by one.

"One…two…" she started, making sure she didn't miss or go over any dolphin a second time. They miraculously held their positions, as if excited to be counted.

"Five…six…seven…" She then pointed to the dolphin right beneath her, the one that had sprayed her.

"…eight." She cocked her head.

"Hey, I thought Larry said there were only seven of you. I guess he was wrong!" She laughed. Leaning over further, careful to keep her balance, she eyed the eighth dolphin with high interest.

"Hmmm…wait, you're a little different from your friends."

The eighth dolphin turned its head, staring at her deeply.

Katrina gasped lightly, in awe at its actions. It was slightly larger than all the others, a living cloud in the water. It was bulkier, stronger. But what dazzled her most were its eyes. They were a bright, crystal blue, shining like the sky above her. They radiated a light and intelligence unlike anything she had seen before. Not in her dog or her cat back home, or even the horses at her grandma's house. It was almost as if the dolphin was trying to talk to her, but sadly it couldn't. But it looked at her, with more meaning than words could ever say.

"You're not like the others. I don't think you're one of them at all, but they're obviously your friends. Are you just visiting them?"

The dolphin spun slowly around, eyeing her with an eternal smile. Katrina abruptly gasped.

"I bet I know! Your friends are so excited because you're here, aren't they? You are visiting them, and they just missed you so much, they're singing about it!"

The grey dolphin popped its jaw, its voice cackling in high pitched laughter. After that, without a second glance, it dove straight downward, instantly vanishing. The waters were very clear in this particular spot, and Katrina could see spinners further down than where the grey dolphin disappeared…

Katrina waited, but the grey dolphin didn't come back up.

"Daddy! Daddy!" She whipped around, eyes glittering in excitement.

"Dad, you're not gonna believe this! There's another dolphin! An eighth one!"

"Eh?" She heard him rumble from down the door.

She skipped over towards it, stumbling slightly in a sudden gust of wind that squealed across the seas. It came out of nowhere, throwing water higher than before, spraying the deck violently. Katrina couldn't prevent her clothes and hair from getting hit. She screamed in sudden chillness.

In the background, she heard something odd in the wind. Turning her head in the direction the gust headed, she swore she heard something…someone…whisper.

"You all right, Katrina?" her father chuckled, seeing her dripping wet. He already had a towel in his hand.

"Dad, I saw an eighth dolphin," she said grabbing the cloth, completely forgetting about the talking wind. "He was bigger than the others, with grey skin and the bluest eyes I've ever seen!"

"Really, now?" The man asked, seeing his daughter speaking so earnestly. "Could Larry have miscounted? Let's double check; are our friends still there?"

Again, they went to the railing, Katrina putting a hand to her brow to see better.

"One…two…three…" she jabbed a finger at each dolphin, the spinners still watching in amusement. The one with the white comet on its dorsal fin seemed to chuckle with its rapid clicks.

"Five…six…seven…" she looked around, but the eighth was no where to be found. "Where…where did it go?" She asked. Looking at her father, he only shrugged his shoulders, not knowing what to say.

"But Dad, I really did see an eighth dolphin! It was right beneath me, and I talked with him!"

Katrina was a very sincere and honest child. Her father had never known her to make up fairy-tales or stories, so he didn't get upset. He just shrugged, letting the idea slip away.

"Whatever you saw, Katrina, the sonar isn't picking him up, the little sneaker. Unless he just vanished from existence…or my machine's broken!" He suddenly laughed. "Come on, now, let's get you dry."

Using his large hand, he steered his daughter towards the cabin where warmth and dryness waited. The spinners cackled and squealed when she left, and she was allowed to turn and wave at them. She smiled again, almost forgetting the mysterious disappearing dolphin.

"Thanks for coming to see us!"

One-by-one in rapid succession, the spinners dropped downward into the depths of the ocean. Their stripes glistened in the sunlight beneath the surface as they dashed away. Their powerful tails made their bodies become agile blurs vanishing in the reaches far away.

They were gone in almost an instant.

Katrina took her father's hand, walking quickly across the deck towards the darkness of the inside. Together, they too disappeared to the world to the comfort of inside.

The dolphins could not be seen from above the surface. Their bodies had merged with the ocean's depths, the water swallowing their image from eyes above. Along the surface, the wind whistled and whispered, a comforting voice hidden within containing a heart felt goodbye. The boat was left for tranquility and solitude, the only obstruction along the endless blue surrounding them. It rocked gently back and forth in the waves, the ocean a careful guardian.

According to the console within the ship, the dolphins were gone.

But in Larry's headphones, one could hear them singing continuously until their voices finally faded away into the farthest distance. And when the final audible note was sung, the happiness that Katrina had heard could be still be felt in every single beautiful, wondrous pitch that formed the dolphins' music.

The End

Abcdefg

From the Author-

And here we are, the final conclusion! Well, what did you think? Apparently, since you've made it this far, you must have been either enjoying yourself or extremely curious and/or tolerable. For either reason, I thank-you from the bottom of my heart. I'm glad I was able to bring you some sort of entertainment or at least interest.

As for this particular chapter – sorry it took SO LONG to get it on. To be honest, I had a terrible fit of writer's block. I had no idea how to end this story! -.- I could have left it as it was for Chapter 24, but I didn't want to. Not only had I said that I would add an epilogue in, but I also just wasn't satisfied with the ending. I wanted to add one more shorter addition, but of what?

Then college hit, and before I knew it I was submerged in homework, music, and so many others things… 0.o I'm sure if any of you are in college right now, you would understand. There are times when I have tons of time on my hands, and others when I feel like I don't have a second to spare. Later today, I'm actually going to go prepare for a Chemistry exam coming up and practice my instruments for an evaluation coming later this week. So, not only was I clueless as to what to write about, but I had little time to think about an ending! But I finally got so sick of not having this story finished, that I made myself sit down and type. Well, look what happened! I finally finished. I kept my word. 

I had originally wanted this tale to end from the dolphins' perspective like the rest of the story, but just kind of out of the blue, I got this random idea to end it from a human's. I'm still kind of iffy about it, but it's definitely unique and unexpected, so I went with it. Overall, I'm rather pleased. It was made shorter because it didn't need the length, as well as me not knowing exactly where to go with it. But I got it down, and we're done!

Well, this isn't my first ever story written, but it is the first one I've ever written and finished when all the writing was my original idea. And, it took longer than expected to do it, but it was quite a journey. I began the first chapters when I was sophomore in high school. Now, after typing the last chapter, I'm almost done with the first semester of my freshman year of college. Wow.

And I believe that this story was wonderful in developing my own sense of writing. I can definitely see a change throughout the years as I grew older and tried different things. I personally believe that I've improved quite a bit since the first installments of Uniting of Times. (I certainly hope I haven't gotten worse!) But I feel like my writing has matured by a large degree, and I don't think I would have improved as much as I have without having a large project like this to work on. It's quite a satisfying feeling to have it completed.

I may read through it again sometime and re-upload corrections in words or passages, make odd phrases make more sense, but I won't be changing any major part of the story. As of now, this tale is officially complete.

To all my readers, thank-you for getting through this adventure with me. And thank-you for the support. It brought such joy to find other people enjoying my writing. You were a great motivation to make time to write, to be creative, to think and ponder about what would happen to Ecco in the next transition between main events. This was so much fun! I hope it was for you too.

Anyway, take care, all of you. I'm happy to know you share a joy of reading and writing (and Ecco!) like me. Keep on dreaming!

Sincerely,

~Aldara-Nerita~