Chapter Thirteen

Prejudice

Waiting a small distance, Ecco watched as Sage dived, jaws lunging, at the teaming schools of red, blue, yellow, green and every other colour fish that surrounded the nearby reef that guarded the passage of stone to Atlantis. Sage grinned as he closed his jaws around a collection of fishes, swallowing the morsels and filling his belly.

Unsure of how to hunt himself, Ecco attempted to mimic Sage several times, but to no avail, for Ecco lacked the larger jaws and mouth that Sage used upon his prey to ensnare them. Instead, the dolphin backed off, to observe how his 'brother' did it so well.

However, well aware of the situation, Sage would trap a fish on occasion between his teeth, paralysing it by tearing the flesh and returning to Ecco with the small meal. Eagerly, the dolphin gobbled the offer down, and pleaded for more.

Soon, after they had fed themselves fat and feeling most sated, both Sage and Ecco began to travel over the reef as the moon and stars in the night sky hovered high above, heading for waters northern and cooler, as Ecco suggested his pod lived. "Mother used to sing…" Ecco hinted to Sage, his voice quiet. "Do you sing brother?"

Smiling within his eyes, Sage nodded, and slowly began a hymn his mother taught him, the very same song that he carried within his heart day after day.

"Life carries on,

Just like the tides,

A mother holds her children's gaze for a while,

But forever, their hearts…"

Spellbound by the song, Ecco blinked and cried out in glee, "More! More! Sing me more!"

Barking a laugh, Sage launched into another song, and then another and another. Ecco listened to all the songs, gulping down the majesty of the songs that Sage had mastered during his travels, and begged for them all to be sung twice, no matter if he liked them or not. To Sage, it gave him an audience to his songs that demanded more and more, filling his cup full.

Whence he was halfway through the song of the orca for the umpteenth time, the sun had long since raised on their fourth day together as brothers and the reef and sunken city long since left behind, Sage became aware that they were not alone anymore and paused his song to listen.

In the past four days, both he and Ecco had bonded greatly. Ecco was sure that Sage was his brother now, and even Sage was beginning to feel for his 'little brother' and his antics. In a way, Sage cared for the young one as if it were a calf of his own, feeding, singing and comforting.

"What is it brother?" Ecco asked, curious as to why the songs had stopped.

Sage froze, darting his eyes about. He was unsure, but he knew somehow that they were being followed and the waters seemed to grow deathly calm. Resounding his song about, Sage found nothing behind him, before him, to his left or to his right.

Taking a blow to calm his nerves, Sage's mind begged him to try again. Succumbing to the urge and ignoring Ecco's worried pleas as the dolphin huddled close to his larger brother for comfort, afraid of the sudden silence, Sage send out one more wave of sound, in the hopes of finding something…

Fat body, sickle pointed fins and dorsal, gaping mouth of teeth and slow side to side gait…

It was a hungry one.

But as the predator approached the dolphin and orca, Sage began to fear.

It wasn't just any hungry one, but a huge white one, close twice the size of Sage. Sage remembered the songs well from his birth pod; "Avoid the white death, for he alone brings death to all in the sea." He knew he was stronger and more experienced with the hunt now, but Sage knew there was little chance he could fight this monster and win. He would have to flee.

But Ecco, the younger dolphin was not a fast swimmer, and would never keep up to Sage's breakneck speeds he'd developed travelling, which even Sage was unsure was enough to outrace this killer. He would either have to fight an impossible fight, or sacrifice young Ecco, who'd only begun to live.

"How ironic… Uton's words shall most likely indeed come to pass…" Sage thought bitterly to himself, as he prepared to fight the fiend. "Ecco, I want you to slip past the hungry one when I distract him," Sage ordered the smaller dolphin. "Go in the direction we are travelling, don't look back and no matter what, do not turn around and come back for me… understand me?"

"But… But…"

"Ecco, you must do this for me," Sage growled, his eyes fiercely watching the circling monster, its cold black eyes observing for the kill. Sage would have to distract the hungry one, and once Ecco was far enough to avoid being caught, get out with his own hide intact. "Now go!"

As the younger dolphin surged past on its smaller flukes, the eyes of the shark darted towards the easier prey, and the mouth twisted towards Ecco, as if to swallow the smaller dolphin in a singular snap of its jagged jaws. It was Sage's one and only chance.

Slamming his entire bulk in a hefty charge, the shark turned its attention back to Sage, ignoring the smaller dolphin, to focus on the offensive orca. Sage meanwhile, suffered damage from his charge, for he'd expected the shark to take the brunt of the charge, but instead it was Sage, whom was hit with the recoil and floated away, slightly dazed and disorientated from the blow.

Recovering, Sage noticed the shark twist its body around and below him, clamping its jaws into a death grip around his exposed belly. The jaws closed around Sage's ribcage nicely and cleanly, clamping down to prevent flight. Shrieking in terror, pain and hopelessness, Sage thrashed his flukes and pectorals in hopes of dislodging the teeth from his belly and to break free, but the shark clamped down harder.

Then, it suddenly released. Leaving Sage, with bleeding holes in his belly, a crushed ribcage and a very confused thought, the shark backed away and began to circle slowly around Sage, sweeping its deathly eyes over the ensnared orca. Why did he let me go? He has me cold, yet it lets me go… Why?

In a rush of cold blood, he remembered the song from a pod of shark-slayer orca. The song-master, Cariu, had sung it to him. "Hungry ones strike first to taste, not to kill. Hungry ones kill not what they do not eat, thus they taste before they kill. Once the hungry one has tasted and decided, it either move for the kill or swim away."

Sage's eyes flickered towards the shark that circled, considering him. "I am not your prey," Sage growled, knowing that the shark did not understand the dialect of the singer's song, but trying nonetheless. "Go find some fish to feed upon and leave me be."

The shark veered away, and Sage, floating at the surface, blew in relief.

Then the shark swung around, its jaws opening wide and its eyes rolling back. Cariu also had sung of this action with grave urgency. "When eyes roll back and jaws open wide, the blind charge is before you. Though blinded, hungry ones rarely miss, and for many it is the final sight."

Mother, Elli, Gol and everyone else, Sage prayed within his head, his eyes fixed upon the charging shark, his final sight down the gullet, where he would meet the end… the beginning. His flukes were frozen in fear at Cariu's song, and thus flight was impossible. I am sorry I have failed you all…

Unexpectedly, a cacophony of squeaky voices erupted and a hoard of several hourglass dolphins intercepted the shark, slamming their bodies into the predator, and knocking it from its blind charge. With its eyes rolling back, the shark glared at the dolphins, clacking its jaws in anger.

Collectively as if one, the five dolphin warriors moved between the shark and Sage, protecting the orca from the monster before him. The shark glowered for a moment, before charging once more, rolling into the blind charge once more.

Scattering, the dolphins warned one another and Sage, "Scatter!" But one warrior wasn't fast enough, and the shark struck, clamping its jaws down as the elder singer, who gave a shriek of horror, its eyes widening and flukes thrashing. Refusing to let one of his saviours die, Sage charged again, sensing the force of the four remaining dolphins also torpedoing towards the shark.

Knocked back again from the recoil, Sage felt exhausted and weaker. His vision turned a hazy red as blood filled the waters again, both from the trapped dolphin and also the wounds upon his skin. Again, one of Cariu's songs he remembered all too late, "Beware the skin of hungry ones, smooth one way; cuts the other."

The elder warrior gave one last blast of song, his passing note, as he fell limp within the jaws of the hungry one, that began to toss its head from side to side, tearing the flesh from the passed dolphin as he swam away with his prize, leaving the waters silent.

"Hera, hera. Kulio rho delta hesa Sarm wa nonoi gesta," the dolphins prayed, their dolphin death prayer as their companion passed from the end to the beginning.

"Sui wayhi delta vho saviour ceesee hera," Sage whispered, the orca death prayer, adding in the word saviour for the dolphin's name, which he did not know.

Upon hearing Sage, the largest of the warriors turned, eyes cold and hard. It was a male, covered in scars and mars, with a face of determination and anger. "So, you are the brother that Ecco claims of. A filthy demon dolphin. Why Sarm gave his life to save your cannibal skin is beyond me, but it earns you no favours that Sarm has passed on your account."

Gasping in shock, Sage back-finned from the kick in the teeth he'd received. It wasn't his fault that the shark got this dolphin Sarm, was it? "I… I…" Sage stammered, unsure of how to answer.

A smaller warrior, a female approached, "Stone, it is not this orca's fault that Sarm died. Who knew that he would not react in time to avoid the blind charge?"

"Azure, it is not your place!" the leader, Stone, barked at the female fiercely. "I am pod-master of this pod, the Star Reef pod is under my control, not yours. And you, demon dolphin are trespassing upon our waters! Your kind is not welcome here for your cannibal ways."

"I… I…" Sage stammered for a moment, before his anger set in. How dare this dolphin discriminate against him, a seeker of knowledge, as if he were the hungry one? "I am Sage, of the White River pod. I seek knowledge of songs from pods across the worlds, and bring no harm. I believe the calf Ecco is of your pod is he not? I have protected him, and brought him back to you."

"And what of his mother Kia?" Stone sneered, his song low and dangerous. "Where is the mother of our calf, who should follow his every move? I bet of all things, she is currently resting within your gluttonous belly, and you travelled with the calf to gather another meal later on."

"Take that back!" Sage roared suddenly. Never before had Sage felt this angry. Being accused of killing his friend's mother and intending to kill again, it was unbelievable. He was so angry, he'd completely forgotten about the wounds he'd sustained from the shark. "I would never harm Ecco, or any of his family. I am a brother to him…"

As if to answer, the rest of the pod arrived, a total pod of thirteen dolphins including the warriors floating before him. With a squeaky cry, Ecco came flying up to Sage and rubbed himself against his skin. "Big brother! Big brother, you're ok!"

Sage glanced up to Stone, his tone as calmed and neutral as possible, "As you see, Ecco trusts me, and considers me a brother. I have befriended him and cared for him while he was lost. What have you done during the time he has been missing?"

A chatter broke out among the dolphins, with whispers of not knowing that Kia and Ecco were missing at all, and playing and hunting meanwhile. "Silence!" Stone roared, quietening the pod with his fiery temper. "That is none of your concern demon dolphin! What we did was not of your business! Now Ecco, come here, away from that killer!"

Staring up with hurt eyes, Ecco stared at Stone, "No. Sage is my brother, and I will stay with him."

Stone glared back, an evil glint in his eyes, "You know Sage, that one so young cannot accompany such a journey that you with take. Ecco will not survive it. Do you want the death of another, of a calf, on your conscience?"

Sage glowered back, a serious distaste for this dolphin. In a way, Sage wished he was big enough to hunt dolphins alone, because this would be the first dolphin he'd eat. "No, I know that. That is why I will remain with your pod until Kia returns or Ecco is old enough to fend a bit more independently. I will stay alongside as Ecco's brother, providing comfort and…"

"Never!" Stone screamed at the comment. The dolphin blew in raspy short breaths, his eyes livid with rage and anger and pectorals itching to attack. "My pod will never allow a demon dolphin such as you among the ranks…" There was a small chatter, all of which praised Sage and accepted his offer. Again, Stone bellowed, "Silence! I am the pod-master, and I will never allow a demon dolphin near the pod. After I lost my calf and mate to those killers…"

"You blame me for sins of another?" Sage asked, appalled and disgusted. "I am not the one, who killed your mate and calf, so why do I get punished? Why deny Ecco here of a companion to he until his mother returns, or he is old enough to fend alone? I see no sense in your actions except for petty discrimination towards my kind."

"I need not answer to the likes of you," Stone spat. As Sage glanced about, he saw all the disgusted faces and heard whispers of bad things about Stone. It was rather apparent his pod did not like him. The female Azure glared at him, but looked to Sage with sympathy.

"Then fine," Sage spat back, sick of it. He'd heard some singers didn't like other singers, but this was plain out intolerance towards the orca-kind. "I will go."

"And what of Ecco?" Stone hissed, a sneer reminding Sage of the white pointer. "Do you take your 'brother' to his death?"

Narrowing his eyes dangerously to Stone, Sage turned to Ecco with his expression softening, "Ecco, you need to stay here, with your pod. I cannot stay with you…"

"But… but…" the baby pleaded, unknowing of what was transpiring. "What about us being brothers?"

With a smile in his eyes, Sage answered softly, "Just because I am not here, doesn't mean we aren't brothers… I will be your brother as long as you wish me to be. Just remember my song, my mother's song, and you'll remember me. And one day, we will meet again."

Nodding, tears welling in his eyes, Ecco buried his head into Sage one last time, weeping his tears into the bulk of his brother, before Sage pulled back away. "I'll always be your big brother Ecco, as long as you wish me to be…"

"As I'll always be your little brother…" Ecco wept, as Azure moved towards the calf, and took him in.

"Thank you Sage, and my apologises for Stone," Azure whispered to Sage.

"Go on! Get! Begone!" Stone barked as Azure took Ecco away. "You're no longer needed or wanted around here, so get going!"

Glaring at Stone, Sage gave a warning, "I warn you Stone, and I warn you but once. I may be a lone-swimmer at present, but a pod I indeed do have. If I should ever catch wind of Ecco having difficulties with you, I swear, by the stars of Delphinius, I will bring my pod with me, and then you will join your mate and calf."

And then, without waiting for an answer, Sage turned, and fluked away from the dolphins, glad to be getting far away from the undue pod-master Stone.

But whence he was far enough away, he began to weep, already missing the squeaky company of his little brother…