Chapter 9

We were swimming and frolicking around for close to an hour before we even got anything achieved. Eventually, Jake had to get us back on track.

{Okay, guys.} he said in a semi-serious tone. {We need to get to what we were here to do. We can't be playing around here all day. We need to hurry up and see if we can find this ship.} he couldn't hold back his excitedness, he was a slave to the dolphin's mind.

{Bet I can find it first!} Rachel called.

{No way, I will get there first!} Marco countered.

That went on like that for the next fifteen minutes as we swam in circles, as it seemed, until we finally saw something worth seeing.

We were constantly using the echolocation that dolphins have to 'see' things that were farther away than we could see with our eyes, so, naturally, we all stopped at one time and looked around. We 'saw' nothing more than the rocky and sandy depths of the ever spreading ocean.

Temporarily disappointed, we continued on with our search.

After about an hour and a half, we were just about to morph back in the ocean when I 'saw' something floating on the surface about a kilometre away. It was large and was sending a disturbance throughout the 25 foot wide circle.

{Do you hear that?} I asked everyone. {That disturbance to the right, can you feel it?}

Everyone started to turn a bit to get a better 'view'.

{I can feel something, but I can't make it out.} Marco said.

Cassie did though, {It looks like something big being attacked by a bunch of other smaller things. Maybe a whale being attacked by a bunch of sharks?} she suggested.

{Maybe, but maybe we could help out somehow...} Rachel trailed off.

{No.} Marco said, {There is no way we are getting in a fight with sharks, we need to demorph or something, but let's not get in a fight here.}

I concentrated for a second on the wriggling, seething mass. There were five sharks and one big-ass whale. I definitely couldn't make it out from this distance.

{We have no reason to fight sharks.} Jake pointed out.

{He's right, Dolphins don't attack sharks. If a shark catches a dolphin, that is usually the end of it.} Cassie stated. Who was I to argue, she knew more about it than I did

But one thought did surface in my mind, why were sharks ganging up on a whale. Aren't sharks solitary and whales are social? So why were they doing that? Without a second thought, I kicked my tail and sped forward to the whale.

{Wait up!} I heard Rachel call.

{Why are you being such an idiot?} Whitney shouted, then kicked off as well.

{There are five sharks and six of us. Plus the whale, I am helping.} I yelled as I went faster and faster towards the melee.

{You are an idiot, you know that!} Marco said.

{But I'm an idiot with a cause!} I shouted back. After that, I could hear more arguments, but I ignored them. I was getting close, I could feel it in the echoes, so I went faster and faster until I made it to the closest shark. But did I stop and try to reason with it? Nooooo, I had to do the reckless danger by ramming it in the gills with my nose.

And was that ever a mistake. I reeled by the shock of the blow. I felt like I had the face of a determined moron running into a wall. I couldn't move properly for a second until I had come to my senses.

Unfortunately... by this time, the sharks had also come to their senses and were turning on me. Fortunately, Rachel and Whitney had made it there and had done the same thing to distract and anger them more.

So now I was back on track and the rest was useless, so I did what I always do, I attacked the shark again with my nose. I didn't have the speed, so it didn't hurt as much as before, but it was still painful.

{Here to save the day!} Cassie said as she got herself some shark.

At this point, all of them were now fighting, so I decided to try something new, I turned around and tried to whack the nearest shark in the face with my tail. It was a bit more effective than head-butting him, but now he was in direct access of my tail.

I tried to spin to the side because the shark jerked forward and tried to get a piece of my tail. He must have succeeded because I could see out of the corner of my eye a little billowing red cloud spreading from my tail.

I turned tail and tried to get away a bit do I could really do some damage, but it didn't work out quite that way. The shark was chasing me, probably from the blood that I had spilt. I made a roundabout turn and tried to make my way back, but the shark was right on my tail.

I tried to pull a fast one and do a quick turnaround to maybe get him off my tail. He got me in the side with one or two of his teeth. They sliced right into me because I could see a thin line of blood trailing from an apparent gash in my side. I ignored it and swam for my life, right towards the other sharks. You see, I seem to have had a wacky idea that I could draw the other sharks away from everyone.

I swam back up toward everything and everyone. When I made it high enough, I went back down and off to the side so I would draw them away.

It worked, all but one were now on my trail, and probably about ten others from around the sea. Sharks can detect one part blood in one million parts water. Scary if you ask me. But I was sure my blood was drawing on at least a few other lovely little hungry sharks.

But, sure enough, my plan backfired. The gash was bigger than I had originally anticipated, and I was getting weaker by the second. I dipped down, turned around, and tried to go under the first one and in between the other three. Down I went, confusing the hell out of the first one. So I went deeper and turned around. Looking up towards the surface, I could see the sharks swimming down to me. I swam directly to the middle one.

They say sharks can turn on a dime looking for food. But do they have split second reflexes? Apparently not. I turned about half a second before I would hit the shark head on and diverted myself out of the way and toward the surface. And at that precise moment, four other dolphins came in to the side and hit them, knocking them off to the side as I continued to swim straight to the surface.

I broke the surface and flew into the air. Hovering there for what seemed like eternity, I could see something under the surface of the water, coming at us like a rampant train. Dolphin eyes were pretty good in air.

As I landed in the water, I could see what it was. It was the whale, coming right at us. I stayed near the surface, so I could get lot's of air. The chase had drained me. But I was pleasantly surprised to see that the so called gash was merely a pinprick. The way I was moving must have made it look like a gash. Plus, I guess it was the air that weakened me, because I was fully refreshed, except for the chunk missing from my tail, but oh well. I raced down to join up with everyone else.

When I got there, most of the fun had already been taken. They were all gone, the sharks, I mean. {Where'd they go?} I asked.

{We injured one and the others chased it away.} Rachel explained.

{We got off pretty easy today, we need to demorph.} Jake said.

We all demorphed and remorphed in the open sea. I noticed the lack of one vital element. Marco. {Where its Marco?} I asked.

{I don't know...} Whitney said. I turned around and started using the echolocation to look for him. I could see a vague object floating on the surface.

{Marco!} I called. {Marco!}

I swam up to him and nudged him. He didn't move. I could see his midsection moving, so I could tell he was breathing. I nudged him a little harder, he still didn't move.

The others all got there and tried to wake him up, all with no effect. You see, he was almost ripped in half. Well, actually, about the back third was ripped off by everything except a few measly shreds of flesh. It was horrible.

So I swam deep and came back up, landing on Marco with a splash, hoping to slap him enough to wake him.. He sunk under me and started to sink more. He wasn't waking up.

{Help Me!} I heard Marco scream. He was underwater and couldn't swim to the surface. So I went down and pushed him up to the surface. But at least he was alive.

{Demorph!} Jake yelled.

{Just demorph.} I said, {you will be fully healed, as long as you demorph.}

And so he did, slowly but surely, he demorphed. The pink patches of rubbery dolphin flesh gave way to the softer, pink, human flesh.

{Good, just keep going.} Cassie urged.

Eventually, Marco was a little, short, human in spandex floating in the middle of the ocean. Completely out of place in the vast expanse of the ocean. He was having a rather difficult time keeping afloat, so Cassie swam up to him and lent him a dorsal fin. He was probably tired. From what I've heard, morphing makes you exhausted, mentally and physically. I have never had a problem with it.

Anyways, we floated there, holding Marco afloat for about fifteen minutes before he decided to remorph. When he finally did, he noticed something.

{Hey, guys, do you feel that?} Marco asked. I guess the rest of us all were too busy with Marco to notice our surroundings. I guess it didn't want to go near the human that was Marco, until it was gone, because as we were about to leave, something large swam towards us. It was a whale, the one we rescued. It had tear marks all over it's side.

{What is it?} Cassie asked.

{It's a whale, idiot.} Rachel commented, {What else?}

{No, not that, I can feel it too, Cass.} Whitney said {Like a song.}

{Yes, like the whale is trying to communicate.} Cassie answered.

{I can't hear it.} Marco said as he went up for air. Neither could I, but who was I to doubt cassie? She saw the images of the sea, just like me. So I could tell she could feel something, just because we couldn't feel it didn't mean it wasn't there.

{Well, we have no time for small talk and songs.} Jake said, {Let's go.}

We all agreed and started swimming away, only to notice that two of us were behind. they were Cassie and Whitney. We went back and tried to convince them to come. They wouldn't.

{Whit, come on, we only have a little while left before morph time runs out. Let's go.} I said. They didn't answer.

{This is stupid.} Marco said, {it's those little voices in their heads again.}

{Who are you to criticise? Just because you can't hear it, doesn't mean that is isn't there.} I said.

He shut up real quick, but Cassie and Whitney still didn't reply. We waited there for about ten more minutes. I was getting sick of all this waiting. I was about to leave by myself right before I heard Whitney go, {Whoa.} she was back with us. Cassie took just a little longer to come back.

{Welcome back.} I said. {Good to see the two of you again.}

{Let's go home, we have a lot to say to you.} Cassie said to us. And with that, we were finally ready to go.