Many days and nights passed overhead before the mighty humpback pod reached a point where the sea began to get considerably colder. During this section of the journey, Ecco and Sarastro had not only been feeding to regain strength, but also had been swimming as hard as they could alongside the gigantic whales. This had resulted in their bodies and muscles within becoming toned and hardened and, as such, they found they could swim a lot faster than ever before and also for longer distances at such a pace. Sarastro's terrible wounds had healed amazingly well, although her body would forever carry the terrible marks of what the sharks had inflicted upon her. Her pectoral fins would forever be ripped so it looked as though they were flowing sails with ragged ends on them. Ecco's heart was lifted, though, as he noticed these things did not bother the Irrawady at all; she was simply happy at being alive. Neither of them had noticed the chaos in the sea around them as they stayed very well hidden among Wavediver and the other members of her pod. After almost being eaten by Ligalotean and then a large school of sharks, the dolphins weren't ready to take any chances that some other creature of the sea would want to feast on them. Once they reached the part of the world where they could see large areas of ice floating on top of the water, Ecco knew that this was the place where he and Sarastro would once more have to carry on alone. The pod stopped abruptly and the dolphins swam to the front of the humpbacks.
"This is where we part ways, Ecco," Wavediver sang gently, "beware the shifting of the ice floes, for they have claimed the life of many a singer who has ventured among them. If you swim to where they part in the middle, at the very top of the world, I believe that is where the Big Blue swims. I wish you luck on the rest of your journey, stay safe my small friend." Ecco and Sarastro sang their farewells before swimming among the sheets of ice on their own. Neither knew what to expect in these cold and alien waters, but certainly Ecco was caught completely off guard when he spied upon a large school of sharks. From what he had heard being sung from the singers who had travelled these far, sharks were very much ill-equipped to survive in the freezing temperatures. Any shark which attempted to survive in this place would surely die a slow and agonising death, a fate like that only being spared from those who were well insulated against the cold. These sharks looked remarkably different to the others Ecco had encountered, with the body shape similar to a great white, but the colouration more akin to a leopard shark. Reacting on instinct, Ecco rammed Sarastro in the side and forced her down before the sharks could detect their presence.
"By Delphineus, I thought the polar seas were free of sharks!" Ecco squealed nervously, "these are truly strange and dangerous waters we find ourselves in, Sarastro." After he finished singing, the bottlenose heard the cries of a singer in distress. Turning to where he could hear the sound coming from, he spotted Sarastro being dragged down towards the frozen seabed by what looked like a gigantic crab, but it lacked any sort of pincers. It had gripped Sarastro with several long, spindly legs and was merely sinking to the bottom, dragging the squealing singer with it. Not wasting a second, Ecco butted the strange creature hard with his hard beak, repeatedly until it relinquished its grip on Sarastro and sank to the seabed lifeless. Unnerved by the alien life forms in the water around them, both dolphins wasted no time in staying in one area for very long as they searched for the big blue. Ecco was scanning every square inch of his surroundings with his sonar, hunting for the gentle giant he knew to be lurking somewhere. Silent songs of wisdom were creeping through the water to both he and Sarastro, which filled them with hope that the big blue was not too far off. Sarastro, meanwhile, was trying to keep a keen eye out for any danger while her friend continued his searching. She had to shove him out of the way of an attacking shark on more than one occasion, trying desperately to get him to pay more attention to his surroundings. The bottlenose male was too busy concentrating to pay her any heed, but he was abruptly brought out of his reverie by the sound of something very heavy crashing close by. Instinct told him something was terribly wrong, which was only clarified when he saw that the open area Sarastro and he had come into was full of giant ice blocks falling downwards at random.
"Sarastro, try and stay close to me while we get past these ice floes," Ecco sounded more sure than he felt inside. These things terrified him to look at, but he remembered the words of Wavediver, telling him to travel beyond the ice floes to reach the big blue. His heart was telling him to continue in spite of the danger. Both of them swam swiftly, darting back and forth between the chunks of ice. Ecco felt his heart soar; they were going to get through this obstacle course in one piece. Once he was at the other side, he turned around to check Sarastro was unscathed. Immediately, his heart leapt into his mouth as he saw his friend was nowhere to be seen. Sonar going frantically, he only relaxed when it picked up her shape and presence not too far away. However, the sonar also alerted Ecco to another dolphin shape closer to him, one that when he turned to look was in eye view. It was black and white, much larger than even the great white sharks he had encountered in the open ocean and gave off a tremendous aura of power. The curved dorsal fin on the creature coupled with its colours reminded Ecco vaguely of the orca Trankrena he had encountered before he had started his journey north, but this animal was much larger than that female had been.
"I can tell by your body shape you are dolphin," he sang bravely, "I can tell by your colours you are orca. Can you tell me what manner of orca you are and what you are doing here alone?" The other singer swam over to Ecco, a gleaming glint shining in its eyes.
In another section of the polar seas, Sarastro was swimming aimlessly, searching back and forth with her sonar. She could find no trace of Ecco anywhere and it disturbed her somewhat to be in such an alien place alone. Just as she was giving up any hope, the young dolphin's sonar picked up what was undoubtedly another delphine shape in the gloom. It was too big to be Ecco, but she figured any singer in this frozen hell would be welcoming and friendly. As she got closer, she saw it to be an orca not unlike the pregnant Trankrena from Johnstone Straight. However, this orca was much larger than the resident had been, with a dorsal fin that stood higher than any she had seen before. His left eye was maimed by a deep and ragged scar which ran down his face. It looked fairly fresh and only added to the aura of ferocity this creature was giving off. Turning swiftly, the leviathan sped straight in the direction of Sarastro, jaws champing eagerly for a piece of her flesh. Barely avoiding the orca's teeth, Sarastro turned and darted away frantically. Her heart was pounding, her mind completely gone into blind panic as she tried with all of her might to get away from the predator in pursuit. More than once, she felt the graze of the orca's teeth against her flukes as she continued pushing her body to its limits. It was only her agility which saved her from being caught on those occasions, as she managed to twist her body out of reach of the much faster hunter. However, the Irrawady could only keep this up for so long before her body would run out of energy. It seemed as though this was the case, as her eyes began to droop and her body began to slow. Every muscle was spent, every organ in desperate need for oxygen as Sarastro felt the black of unconsciousness consume her. Satisfied that he was about to get a meal, Okura opened his jaws wide and was set for tearing a large chunk from his prey when he was completely disorientated all of a sudden. His head felt as though it was about to explode with pain as horrendous screeching reached his ears. This was coupled with hard butts into the orca's sides; repeated ramming motions which he could tell were causing immense bruising. His sonar picked up the shapes of singers, but his one good eye couldn't see anything.
"You have no right chasing a singer through our waters, beast!" a male sang angrily, "Especially as you are of dolphin kind yourself. Such an act is punishable by death alone among our kind!" Okura squinted his good eye, trying desperately to pick out the form of who was addressing him, but he could see nothing but white in each direction.
"And what exactly is your kind, singer?" he roared back, refusing to be intimidated, "or are you too proud or fearful to show yourself to that whom you have prisoner!" This got a reaction as the orca had anticipated, with several of the dolphins his sonar had picked up showing themselves. They reminded him of narwhals in their shapes, with the same swollen melons and the slightly chunky bodies with small pectoral fins and no dorsal fins. Their bodies were larger than those of the narwhals, however, and were a brilliant white all over. The singer who had addressed the incapacitated orca so forcefully swam forward and drew his body level with the predator, glaring into the monster's good eye.
"We are beluga, orca!" the male's voice lost none of its rage; "we may look in many ways like the tusk-bearing narwhals, but let me assure you, we are not as weak as those creatures are!" The beluga's eyes were a cold brown colour almost as black as night, filled with the utmost hate for Okura. Although this singer as only about a third of his size, the orca found himself admiring and respecting the strength which the white one radiated. These were surely singers not to be messed with and it looked as though his fate would be sealed with them.
"My name is Okura, beluga," he snarled, not used to being polite to what he would normally hunt, "I'm guessing you and your kind have heard of the fun me and my mate had with the narwhals before, otherwise you would not have made such a blatant comparison between yourselves and them." He noticed out of the corner of his eye that a couple of the white whales had taken Sarastro towards the surface for air. His chosen prey just drifted limply, supported by a beluga on each side for a few minutes, before showing signs of movement. The small singer swam painstakingly downwards to where her pursuer was subdued. His body showed signs of injury, with a large piece ripped from his dorsal fin and gashes along his back. She could tell by the uncomfortable position he was in that his sides had been hammered repeatedly to cause internal bruising. The orca's eye while defiant was full of remorse and loneliness.
"You realise, demon dolphin that your idea of fun,"the beluga roared, "is what caused the many-toothed killer to be set free! The idiotic narwhals released her in a narrow-minded attempt to get revenge on you and your mate. Now, because of them and you, we are all doomed. If I were you, I would pray for mercy from Delphineus when you see him!" The belugas all swam closer to Okura and lined up side by side together to create a wall of white around him and began summoning all of their energy to unleash their greatest weapon. Sarastro, although she had never encountered belugas before, knew that if they all sang at once, the orca would be dead within a second. Her heart was screaming at her not to let such needless carnage happen.
"STOP!" her high-pitched song rang out and the beluga group stopped before singing. They all turned to regard the Irrawady dolphin with curiosity and irritation. The male who had sang before approached Sarastro, fins flattened in an act of aggression.
"This demon almost killed you and has condemned the rest of us," he blasted, "yet you want him spared! Do you realise that because of the many-toothed killer, every single narwhal has been wiped out? What is your reason for wanting this sick creature to live!" Despite her smaller size and youth, Sarastro refused to be intimidated. Facing down at least a dozen hungry sharks coupled with the cavernous jaws of Ligalotean meant she had very little fear left when facing another singer.
"The many-toothed killer as you call it has a name, and she's called Ligalotean!" her song was full of fire, "plus, you're obviously not as strong as you make out to be, otherwise you wouldn't just decide you're all food for her without a fight!" This surprised the beluga rather than infuriate him more. He swam around the smaller singer, taking in her countless scars and enlarged pectoral fins. It seemed to spark something within his mind, a flicker of recognition passed across his eyes. Indeed, his eyes were an odd colour, as one was brown and the other green.
"You have fire in you, reminiscent of the belugas of old," he commented, "indeed, your markings and body shape I have only seen one other such creature bear. Perhaps there is a way to defeat this Ligalotean. Come with me." With a nod to the other belugas, the male swam silently back into the never-ending white from whence he had come. Sarastro kept pace alongside him, curious yet uncertain about what she was about to uncover. There was nothing on each side of the Irrawady aside from bright white walls. She began to feel somewhat claustrophobic after a short time of swimming, silently praying for a wide open space to present itself. In a short time, her wish was granted when the beluga male had led her to a wide underwater cavern. Unlike most caverns, this one was bathed in an almost heavenly light, making it shine a beautiful light blue and the walls of ice appear a luminescent white. Sarastro couldn't recall when she last had seen anything so beautiful, for in the centre of the room was a large crystal. Through the transparent walls, she could see something concealed within which was a mixture of brown and white.
"This is our kind's greatest treasure," the male beluga's song made Sarastro flinch in surprise, "none alive really understand what lies imprisoned within this glyph, many legends and stories circle of the creature held captive inside."
"Then why are we here?" she sang in response, "if you don't know for certain what manner of creature dwells inside this thing you call a glyph, then why would you set it free?" The beluga said nothing at first, instead swimming down to the bottom of the cavern. Sarastro looked and noticed a small indent with some strange kind of red liquid resting inside it. The beluga lowered his pectoral fins and swam through the strange substance so that his fins were coated in a deep, bright red. He approached the glyph once again, drawing his body up so it was almost vertical in the water.
"Narwhals and belugas are two halves of one great circle," he explained, "We are both very alike, yet completely different at the same time. Our ancestry is the same, though neither of our kind can recall where it all began. My belief is that if the thing narwhals unleashed is a bringer of death, then the treasure of the belugas must surely be a bringer of life and hope. We are very much depleted in number anyway, due to Ligalotean. Every pod of belugas was affected, with the survivors of each pod retreating to this isolated area of the sea. Unless we find someone who can help and protect us, we are surely doomed to extinction. Now, I ask you little Irrawady if you would be kind enough to swim away from the glyph." Sarastro backfinned so she was almost touching the cavern wall. The song which the beluga sang was in the same tongue which Ligalotean had sung, very primitive and soulful.
"Swift messenger, come forth, reveal your healing presence to us, your humble servants. Cleanse this world of its evil; restore the peace and harmony long denied. Awaken, strong one, awaken."
The entire cavern filled with even more light than it previously had. Sarastro closed her eyes quickly; feeling the sting of bright light hit them even when covered with her eyelids. A completely alien song began emanating throughout the cavern, completely disorientated and angry. The Irrawady could only catch bits of it, as it was like delphine rambling as opposed to proper sentences. Opening her eyes once the light had faded, she spotted what appeared to be another beluga in shape swimming frantically around the cavern. However, this creature had even longer pectoral fins than Sarastro and her body was a strange mixture of brown and white. The white formed markings along the animal's body were similar to the emerald green patterns which Sarastro had, especially on the pectoral fins. However, this swimmer was physically completely flawless with no scars adoring her colourful hide. The eyes were the same cold, bright blue as Ligalotean's and this made Sarastro very nervous.
"Do not be afraid," the male beluga sang gently to Sarastro, "this creature is one of our kind. She is a beluga, but different from the rest of us in many unusual ways. She will not hurt you." The creature turned and locked eyes with Sarastro. Something passed between the singers, a hidden communication which let both of them know there was nothing to fear.
"What is your name?" Sarastro asked gently while approaching the strange beluga. The female reached out and brushed pectoral fins with the smaller female, apparently finding comfort in one who had large fins similar to her own.
"Refer to me as Okapi," her song was full of fear and uncertainty, "you remind me of someone I once knew. Where is Ligalotean?" Sarastro and the male beluga exchanged surprised looks at Okapi's ability to sense she was summoned to fight Ligalotean.
"First things first, I am called Saleiro," the male stated calmly, "at present, I am caretaker of the belugas. I want you to come with me and my small friend here. We shall explain everything as we swim." With this, the three singers swam silently from the cavern, each trying to process what had just happened.