Chapter 6: Cresting the Waves
His senses were on the whale, on killing it as cleanly and swiftly as he could. It was the natural order of life and nature. Predator killed the prey. Hunting and killing the minke was no different than hunting deer, boars, turkeys, or whatever animals were available in the wild. Or fishing for catfish or trout or diving for oysters in the ocean. Food was food and he had his always hungry and growing girls to feed. He always made sure not to hunt the endangered critters and he kept far away from the other human animals. He also tried not to go after other sharks but sometimes the shark brain took over and food was food and what was a little cannibalism here and there?
The whale had been bigger than what they normally hunt. But they happened upon the young minke and it was already injured. It would feed them for a few weeks if they got it back to the island before other predators showed up. The whale, despite its injuries from what looked like a run in with a large trawler propeller, had raced off and fought hard. The group of sharks had given chase. Blue was the fastest, outswimming him and cutting in front of the whale. Echo shot forward with a burst of speed then and cut off the other side. Delta bit down hard on the whale's fluke and locked her jaws. Charlie hung back, keeping all her senses on the ocean all around them, watching for other predators.
He paused, watching them. They moved so well, worked as a team. They'd really grown up, right under his nose. He couldn't believe they were already 14. It felt like just yesterday that he trailed their pregnant mother across the ocean. He knew she was a purebred, he recognized her scent. He'd met her a few times before, over those earlier years. A few encounters that he wished he didn't remember. He'd been young and he suspected he might have been the father but that wasn't the only reason he followed her. She was one who hated her human half and spent all her time in the ocean, only coming out when forced. Spending so much time in animal bodies tended to make their kind feral. The animal brain just took over. And Owen knew what great white shark mothers sometimes did after giving birth.
He shook his massive triangular head, pushing the thought away. It wasn't the time to reminiscence. It was time for dinner. He zoned out as the shark brain took over. He had no clue when he lost the girls but he swore, one moment they were there, attacking with him, and the next moment, they were just gone. He wasn't worried though. He could handle the whale on his own and they could handle themselves.
He ripped off a large piece, severing the whale's spine and finally killing it. Blood gushed out of the open wound, clouding the water around him. He shook his head again, trying to dislodge the too large piece. He effectively spit it out and then turned towards it. He bit into it again at a different angle and bit the large piece in half. He chewed on it a moment before swallowing it mostly whole. It was a rather small bite for a shark his size but it would hold him over for now. Because now he needed to get the whale back to the island. Once they all had their fill, then he and Barry could work on getting it gutted and cut up and stored for the rest of the week.
He stopped as a high pitched, shrill whistle vibrated through the water towards him like sonar. They couldn't exactly talk. Sharks don't have any sound producing organs. Other than the oddity that is the barking swellshark, sharks made no sounds. They were the perfect silent killers. Even their scales had evolved to allow them to slice through the water with ghost-like silence. Sharks communicated more by body movement than anything. They tracked by scent, searching out prey and mates. But human sharks were different. While they couldn't form words in a human sense or other audible sounds in an animal kingdom fashion, they could emit these almost whistling sounds that vibrated through the water, almost like sonar.
Sharks had a tongue-like cartilage structure called a basihyal. It ran down their throats, helping in supporting the lower gill bones. In normal sharks, it was immobile. It was completely useless and probably only compared to and called a tongue because it looked flat and was a light fleshy pink color and laid at the bottom of a shark's mouth. But in the human sharks, the oddly named basihyal not-tongue was actually useful. Much like a human tongue, it could move freely. It wasn't enough to form words. Their mouths still weren't capable of creating actual words. But the odd whistles along with body language and their heightened sharky senses, as Echo called them, were enough to get points across. Plus their small family unit had come up with their own signals and whistles, almost like a form of language between them.
He turned his whole body around, already sensing the newcomer before he even saw him. The mako was shaking, Owen assumed, in fear. It was almost comical to see a shark shaking like that. He was a rather good size. He looked healthy and strong, meaning his human body was as well. The fear turned Owen's heart. He'd met a few animal people who didn't know they had an animal heart. All fish and water mammals. He knew very few non-water ones. He didn't exactly spend a lot of time roaming the land, searching for others. The very few he met were in small, secluded cities, home to only those who were ones themselves or related. And they all knew what lurked in their bloodlines.
But this poor mako, Owen would bet his left pelvic fin that this was the first time the mako shifted and that he was completely freaked out and it was totally unexpected.
Blue let out another whistle, sharper this time, and shook her head. No talk. She communicated.
Owen nodded his head. That much he understood. He also could tell the mako was a halfbreed. That in itself wasn't an excuse to be clueless. Owen had met more purebreds in the ocean, stuck in their animal forms, unaware that they were even half human. The mother stays in animal form too long, going feral, giving birth, and abandoning their offspring. Lots of shark species were notoriously bad parents. He'd even heard of purebred babies being born to animal people while human and then abandoned, to later be adopted and giving their new family a real surprise. He arched his back slightly, turned back to the whale for a moment, then spun back to the girls. Take dinner.
The four sisters nodded their heads in turn and zipped off towards the whale. Charlie had paused and brushed against the mako gently. Echo saw and clearly not wanting to be forgotten, darted in and practically smacked into the slightly smaller shark.
Owen shook his head and snapped his jaws at her as she passed. She burst off to join her sisters. He turned back to the shark. He had to give the mako credit, he still hadn't fled. Makos were the very fastest of sharks and easily outpaced great whites by 10 miles per hour. Owen might have been able to catch him, depending on how good a swimmer the kid was before. The newly shifted didn't always immediately understand all the finer points of shark life and what their new bodies were capable of. He lifted his head and pointed upwards with his nose. Then he looked back at the mako and tilted his head to the side.
The mako had stopped shaking as much. He looked past the great white, to where the girls were crowding around the whale carcass. Owen swam closer. The mako looked like he was trying hard not to flinch away as the great white pulled alongside him. Owen easily dwarfed the smaller shark. At just over 18 foot long, Owen was a record holding male. He'd been photographed a few times, much to Barry's chagrin, and was once featured on a documentary about great white shark migration patterns. The mako looked to be slightly smaller than Echo's 11 foot stretch. Owen would guess about 10 foot. It was a good size for a mako and the kid might grow a bit more.
He bobbed his head again before he pumped his tail and started ascending. The mako was quick to follow and the two sharks breach the surface at the same time. Owen turned, facing the new shark, and half shifted. His whole form shrunk first. Then the dark gray skin on his triangular head lightened and turned to skin. His nose flattened, his neck thinned, and a mop of golden brown hair was suddenly plastered to his very human looking forehead. The last to change were his eyes, from the dead, black looking, all consuming orbs of the ocean's finest killer to the bright, shining green eyes of the living embodiment of Adonis. The dark gray skin of his dorsal fin still poked out of the water as he floated on his belly, looking like some prankster's prop.
He lowered his tail and lifted his human half out of the water. He shook his head, sending water droplets flying. He breathed out loudly and tilted his head to the side, popping his neck. "Damn. Whale did a number on my spine."
As if on cue, the whale carcass popped to the surface with the girls right behind.
Owen turned and waved his arm at them. "Good job, girls!"
The tiger shark lifted her head out of the water. She bobbed it and wiggled, her whole body moving and creating tiny ripples in the water. The blue shark shook her head and the bull shark looked bored. The nurse was closest to the whale and let out an impatient whistle.
Owen waved again and let out a laugh. "Okay, okay. Charlie's right. You girls get going. Barry should be keeping watch on the beach. He can help you. Tell him we found a pup and I'm bringing him in slowly. I'll take him to the lagoon."
Blue nodded her head and turned. She snapped her jaws at her sisters. Then they all lined up behind the carcass and started pushing it.
Owen turned back to the mako. The shark looked more at ease. He still looked lost and confused and Owen didn't blame him one bit. But at least the fear was gone. Owen held up his hand and reached out. The tips of his fingers brushed against the slick rubbery hide and the shark didn't pull away. Owen gently rubbed tiny circles along the tip of the shark's nose. Their noses were highly sensitive and it was a way to calm a shark, petting it's nose. Although he wouldn't recommend attempting to do it to anyone. Most people couldn't get close enough to pet a shark without losing an appendage or two.
The mako exhaled a burst of water over his gills, as if sighing in contentment.
Owen smiled again and shook his head. "Let me introduce myself." He dipped his head. "I'm Owen Grady. I'm a great white shark. You understand, right? Just… nod your head." He pulled his hand away and mimicked a nod with it.
The mako nodded his head.
"Okay, good. So… my family, my girls and my brothers, we live on a private island. Restricted waters because it's documented shark breeding grounds." He smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "It's not exactly, but we faked some videos of the water around the island being full of sharks… which it technically is… but yeah. I assume you're pretty confused and scared and this is your first time going shark."
He nodded his head again.
"You really had no idea?"
He shook his head.
Owen exhaled loudly and shook his head. "Okay. Come back to the island with me. I'll help teach you how to shift back and control it. Then we can talk a bit and later, I can take you home, okay?"
The shark nodded again.
"Okay. I'm going to shift back because I can move faster in full shark mode, okay? Stick close to me. Near the beach, there's an unground channel that leads to this secluded lagoon at the center of the island. It's nice and calm and private. No one around to jump out and surprise you." Owen sighed and shook his head. "You met my girls. They can be really friendly. And really judgemental and overprotective. And nosey."
The shark just stared at him.
"Just come on." Owen waved before diving down into the water.