A/N: I just got back from camp. Thought you might like to know. Do you care? I don't know.
Anyway, this is chapter four, and there are ONLY four… not five, like the stupid thing says. Okies?
Disclaimer: See chapter one.
Chapter 4 – "The Wizard at Shelter Mountain Reef"
It was mid afternoon. Marlin had spent all night traveling, knowing that if he even tried to sleep, he wouldn't be able to. He would be to worried that he was wasting time, so as you could guess, he was quite tired.
To his surprise, the trip had been very peaceful. He didn't run into anything dangerous… or anything at all, for that matter. The only thing he had passed was a couple schools of moonfish, but that was it. He hadn't even asked for directions, for he had been to Shelter Mountain Reef once before… with Coral.
It had been their honeymoon. It was actually a very big and beautiful part of the ocean, and they had stayed there for two nights, but Marlin didn't remember anything about a Medicine Wizard being there.
A couple more hours went by before there was any sign of Shelter Mountain Reef being anywhere nearby: there was now a lot more fish swimming around. Then Marlin saw the familiar tunnel that lead into the reef. He slowly swam through it, followed by two angelfish, and in front of him was family of shrimp. In fact, he seemed to be the only one alone.
Once through the tunnel and finally in the reef, Marlin looked around at everything. Above him, there were electric eels in cages attached to the tops of long posts, and they continually flashed their electricity to produce light. There was a post about every five feet, so the place was very well lit. Next to each cage was a lobster, obviously there to stand guard incase one got out. This made Marlin feel a little bit more safe, but uncertain, nonetheless.
Marlin looked behind him at the water past the tunnel; it was dark with the time of night, but Shelter Mountain Reef was very bright. He looked back in front of him and swam forward. All around him, fish were scurrying past him. At one point, he was almost knocked over by a huge school of butterfly fish, they were going so fast. He noticed alot of manta rays (a little bit smaller than Nemo's teacher, Mr. Ray) that were the object of transportation here. They would stop where a group of fish were and they would all get on it's back and it would swim off again. There were also a lot of caves and tunnels where he watched a lot of fish go in, and there was one tunnel where he saw a lot of bigger looking fish get kicked out. Marlin looked and looked for any signs of a Medicine Wizard, or any kind of wizard, but couldn't. So he decided to ask around.
The first fish he came to that looked nice enough to help was a small royal gamma.
"Hi, my name's Marlin, and I was wondering –," Marlin was cut short when the gamma started to cry. "Oh, hey, don't cry…" It was then that a bigger gamma came over, looking mad.
"How dare you! Torturing little children!" it exclaimed in a female voice. This one had to be the little one's mother. Marlin was awestruck. "But, I didn't --," he tried, but the two had already swam away. Marlin sighed and turned to find himself face-to-face with what he almost thought was a mirror. But then he realized it was just another clown fish.
"You need help?" he asked. It took Marlin a second to reply, and when he did he also said, "I'm Marlin, and I need --,"
"Marlin? Hey, you're not the Marlin are you?" he interrupted.
"What do you mean?" Marlin asked, confused.
"I mean, you're not the Marlin that everyone was talking about a few days back, are you? The one who was fighting the whole ocean to find his son?"
Then Marlin remembered what Nemo told him about how we was this huge hero and everyone knew about him and Dory's journey to save Nemo. "Oh! Yeah, that's me. Now could you…"
The clown fish's eyes grew wide. "No way!" he exclaimed.
Marlin rolled his eyes. "Yes way, now could you please help me?!" Marlin practically shouted the question. He couldn't help it; he needed help, and all this fish cared about was his fame. The clown fish held up his fins in a surrendering motion.
"Okay, okay. Now what is it you need?" he asked.
"Do you know where I can find the Medicine Wizard?" Marlin asked him. The clown fish grew quiet for minute, and then he looked as if something clicked inside his head. "Oh, yeah! I know where you can find him! You see that small tunnel over there?" he asked, pointing at something behind Marlin. He turned and saw the tunnel he was pointing at, which was so small it was almost hard to see.
Marlin nodded. "Yeah, I see it."
"Well, go down there, follow the passage until you come to a spot where there's four different ways to go, and go left. Then you'll find him right at the end of that passage, got it?" he said.
"Yeah. And, thanks," Marlin said. The fish nodded. "No problem. Hope she gets better!" He added the last part as Marlin was swimming away. Marlin was about to turn around and assure him that Dory would be fine, but then he realized: he hadn't told him about Dory.
"How did he…" Marlin wondered aloud, but when he did turn around, the clown fish was gone.
Shaking it off, Marlin continued to swim towards the small tunnel. No wonder I didn't hear anything about this guy when I was here before. I never would have noticed it, he thought. Because when he was in front of the tunnel, it looked even smaller than when he was looking at it from a distance, and when he went into it, he only had a couple inches of space between him and the wall. He wondered how any other kind of fish would be able to come to see him.
Marlin had only been in the tunnel for a short time when he came up to the four-way intersection he had been told about. He went left, as the clown fish had directed, and that passage definitely seemed longer. Marlin almost thought that it wasn't going to end, but then he saw a small light coming from the end of the tunnel. He swam faster, anxious to see this guy and leave. When he got to the end, he looked to the right and saw that it opened into a huge room. The ceiling had to be at least ten feet above him.
Marlin looked in awe at the huge room, but his mouth gaped open when he saw the giant creature in front of him. Because of the animal's size, Marlin almost sped out of the room, but then he realized that it was an octopus. But he was still a little frightened.
"Are, are you the, uh… Medicine Wizard?" Marlin finally managed to choke out.
The octopus stirred. "Ah, yes. You're Marlin," he said in a scratchy voice. Marlin raised an eyebrow.
"How do you --,"
"Know your name? Malachi told me you were coming," he said and then added, "Malachi is the clown fish you met who told you how to find me." Marlin stared blankly at him and then simply said, "Oh."
"Now then… what have you come for?" the wizard asked.
Marlin paused before answering. "Oh, yeah. Well, my friend --,"
"And what is your friend's name?" the wizard interrupted. "Her name is Dory," Marlin replied.
"Okay, continue," he said.
"Anyway, well, we were taking a swim, and we went to this part of the reef to be alone…" Marlin paused for a second, noticing how weird that sounded. "… And there was this barracuda, and panicking, I told her to get into this anemone that was nearby. Well, we both got to safety inside the anemone, and that's when I realized that only clown fish can go into anemones… she's a blue tang, by the way. And I'm here to ask how I can help her. That is… if she needs help."
The octopus nodded and didn't say anything for quite some time. Then just when Marlin was about to ask again, the wizard turned around to what Marlin now saw was a large cabinet.
"I'm out of what you need…" Marlin heard him say. The wizard closed the cabinet doors and turned back to Marlin, who looked like he was going to flip out any second. "But I know where you can get her medicine. Here," he said, handing Marlin a small bag and a flat rock.
"The bag is for carrying that rock, and the ingredients to make the antidote. On the rock is the list of what you'll need and where to get them," he told Marlin.
"You mean Dory's gonna have to wait even longer? What if it's too late by the time I get all this stuff?" Marlin asked worryingly.
"Don't worry. There are seven items on that list, and if you obtain one each day, you'll be back in time to give it to her. In other words, she'll be able to last for one week, and if she doesn't get the medicine by midnight on the seventh day, then it will be too late, and she will be gone," he informed him. Marlin simply nodded, trying his best not to think about that.
"You care about this girl, don't you?" he asked.
"Of course I do," Marlin said. "Just how much?" the wizard wondered aloud. What's this guy getting at? Marlin thought.
"Well, next to my son, she's the most important person in my life. And I'd do anything to make sure that she's okay," Marlin said. "Does that answer your question?"
"Yes, that question. I've got just one more to ask: you've been hurt before, haven't you?"
Marlin was shocked. How could he know about… "Yes. My wife was killed by a barracuda, along with all our eggs, except one," Marlin told him. He shook his head. "Why do you need to know all this stuff?" Marlin asked.
"I'm just making sure that you'll be able to give your friend the medicine if and when you do," he stated. Marlin was definitely confused now. "What do you mean?"
"You'll find out in time, Marlin. In time. Now go get some rest and the second you wake up in the morning, Dory's clock will start ticking."
Marlin nodded slowly and left the room without a last glance. The trip out of the tunnel seemed a lot shorter than when he had gone in. And he was relieved to finally be out. Marlin left the city and found a clear spot behind a patch of brain coral to sleep. And to his own surprise, Marlin fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.
A/N: I'm sorry I took so long for this chapter, but out internet was down last night, and I hadn't realized how long it had been since my last update until yesterday. I hope the length of this chapter made up for it!