Dolphin Child (17 page)

‘
How do you mean?’

‘
You know how some fish can puff up to make you think they’re
bigger than they really are? Or other fish shake their tale at you
like they’re really fierce when you know that they aren’t?’ Dancer
nodded. ‘Well I just had this strange feeling that boy was like
that. I felt as though he’d just crumble if you touched him. Yet
there was…. There was fear and wonder in his eyes and it made me
feel very strange.’

‘
Why was that?’

‘
I don’t know really’ said Spirit quietly. ‘I just think
there’s something not quite right about him, like when you look at
white clouds on the horizon but somehow know that a storm is just
behind. You just know without understanding how.’

‘
So did this little human swim with you too?’

‘
Yes he did. When he got in the water I thought he was going to
sink like a rotten lump of wood, he was so bad at swimming. I had
to let him hold onto one of my fins and pull him through the water
so I could be sure he’d be okay. I thought he’d want to get back
out of the sea as soon as possible, but instead it seemed as though
he wanted to stay there with me forever. I felt this strange kind
of energy come off him. Lucy gives off energy too when she touches
me in real life.

‘
Yes I know’ replied Dancer, thinking back to the time that she
had carried Lucy on her back, with the girl clinging on to her
dorsal fin as they swam.

‘
But Lucy’s energy is more calm and constant’ Spirit continued,
‘while this boy’s energy reminded me of one of those insects you
see flying just above the surface of the water; all full of jerks
and starts and sudden turns.’

‘
So why did Lucy bring this boy to you then?’ asked Dancer
curiously.

‘
I don’t know. She says she wants to tell me and that there’s
some reason or other why she can’t just yet. I wish she would
though.’

‘
Hey you two!’ called Breeze. ‘Are you ready to hunt for squid
or not?’ Spirit glanced around. Even Summer’s tiny calf seemed to
be ready for the foray, though he still only drank his mother’s
milk.

‘
We certainly are’ Dancer called back. They set off, moving
along as fast as they could without Summer’s calf falling behind.
He’d quickly gained strength though and despite his size was much
better able to keep up with the pod than he had been even just two
weeks before.

It was always exciting to be on the verge of a hunt and even
though Spirit was not so keen on squid, his heart quickened as they
approached the shoal and his stomach reminded him that it was
hungry and needed feeding. They fell upon the squid and snatched
hungrily at their white rubbery bodies and their tentacles. As was
their way, they did not seek to eat all the squid that were there.
Storm always said that it was better to take a few and leave the
rest to live on. That way the dolphins could live and so could the
squid and the delicate balance of life would be maintained. Storm
said that that was a lesson that humans, with their big clanking
ships and rapacious nets had yet to learn.

Just then, the call of other creatures echoed across the
seas.

‘
What’s that?’ asked Dancer. All the dolphins listened intently
for a few moments.

‘
They’re pilot whales’ replied Summer. ‘It seems to me like
there’s a lot of them’. Spirit had never encountered pilot whales
before. He gulped down the squid he had in his mouth. Summer’s calf
instinctively sought the safety of his mother’s flank as while they
watched, the pilot whales quietly appeared all around them, sighing
languorously as they broke the surface for air.

Spirit had imagined that they’d be as least as big as orcas,
but instead they were little larger than the dolphins themselves.
Their great bulbous foreheads glistened as they broke the surface
of the water. Their eyes and mouth seemed dwarfed by their
foreheads, which were their most prominent feature. They were such
a dark bluey-black colour that it was hard to see them amongst the
shadows of the waves and if it weren’t for his echo-location,
Spirit would have had trouble at guessing how many there were
around him. As it was, he could tell that there must be forty of
them at least.

‘
Do they talk?’ Spirit whispered to Dancer.

‘
We talk’ replied a pilot whale surprisingly close to him in a
slow lazy accent, before sighing again dreamily and rolling heavily
onto one side. If the Pilot whales too had been intending to hunt,
the squid had by now dispersed and the pilot’s seemed in no hurry
to pursue them. Instead they appeared happy to rest and Spirit felt
many sets of eyes trained on him and the others, calm and unhurried
under their huge foreheads. Spirit heard Storm speak up.

‘
Cousin Pilots, it is good to see you in these waters. What
brings you here?’

‘
We go’ said one of the pilots and then paused for a long
moment before continuing, ‘We go towards the North islands. There
is good fishing there’. ‘Yes, good fishing’ murmured others behind
him. It was a wonder to Spirit that they had energy enough to do
any fishing at all, they seemed so slow and lethargic.

‘
And which waters have you come from?’ continued Storm in an
effort to draw them into conversation.

‘
We come from everywhere and nowhere, we are of all of the seas
and none of them. We are at one with the tides’ replied another
pilot enigmatically, but uninformatively. ‘We have come from the
deep ocean where the days are long and the sea is wide.’

One of the pilots brushed against Spirit’s side as it passed
and Spirit jolted nervously in surprise.

‘
Don’t worry little dolphin’ the Pilot said slowly, turning to
fix Spirit with calm eyes. ‘We mean you no harm. You are safe with
us.’ Spirit half expected the pilot to fall asleep in mid-sentence,
it was so calm and somnolent. He was glad that they were benign
though. Spirit glanced at Summer’s calf. He thought with a shudder
of his own experience not so many months ago when orcas had tried
to attack him as he and Storm swum alone. He was immensely glad
that the pilots were so different from the great black and white
orcas and that the pilots were no threat to Summer’s calf or any of
the others in the pod. He was reminded almost of a great cloud of
jellyfish, floating along where the current took them, blind to the
seas around them.

‘
And have you news?’ another pilot asked, as they drifted
around the few dolphins. Breeze answered.

‘
We have a Child See-er amongst us, though the reason for his
gift is not yet apparent to us.’ A murmur of surprise rippled
through the congregated pilots.

‘
Who is this Child See-er’ asked the pilot which had just
brushed against Spirit. Breeze nodded with his head in Spirit’s
direction.

‘
It’s this one’ he said, indicating towards Spirit. All of the
eyes in the great pod of pilots now seemed to be focused on Spirit.
He found their steady gaze unnerving.

‘
You speak with…humans?’ asked the pilot.

‘
Only one human’ mumbled Spirit shyly.

‘
We do not like humans’ sighed another pilot. ‘In the past
humans have herded us onto the rocks to kill us. They do not do so
anymore, but still we do not trust them. They are dangerous. They
still cause death. Another pilot added his voice.

‘
This human. The one that you talk to. Has it pledged to
safeguard the life of all living things in the ocean?’ Spirit was
surprised by the question.

‘
Err, I’m not sure’ replied Spirit uncertainly. ‘I know she
would never do anything to harm us. I…’ The pilot whale seemed
dissatisfied with Spirit’s answer.

‘
Look at these calves’ he said, indicating with his great
bulbous head toward a group of five pilot juveniles swimming in a
group just to his left. ‘None of them now have mothers and for
three of them, humans caused their mother’s deaths.’

‘
But how?’ asked Spirit. The pilot whale continued to regard
him seriously.

‘
One was killed by a propeller, one was poisoned by rubbish and
one was captured and taken alive by the humans. They lifted her out
and took her away.’

‘
I don’t understand why humans would do that’ said
Dancer.

‘
Neither do we’ replied the pilot, ‘they are a mystery to us
too.’

The dolphins looked at the orphaned pilot calves. They seemed
so young and vulnerable. Spirit looked at Summer’s calf, nuzzling
into her flank. Spirit knew that Lucy was absolutely committed to
help all the dolphins in the pod. After all, she had risked her own
life to help save Spirit himself. But what about the small human
that he had met with Lucy only that morning? Who knew what he may
do to threaten their safety.

In the same way that they came, the pilot whales sighed again
dreamily and turned to swim on.

‘
Farewell dolphins, farewell!’ Slowly they eased away. The
group melted into the background of the ocean and then they were
gone. The dolphins had been overwhelmed by the pilots and now they
had swum on, they felt a very small group in comparison.

‘
What did you make of that then?’ exclaimed Chaser. ‘They’re a
strange bunch. They all seem the same as the next one.’

‘
Only to us’ said Storm. ‘Pilot whales have very strong bonds
within the pod, stronger even than us. They will not leave a fellow
pilot hurt or in danger, even if that means that they may die
themselves. They value each member of the pod equally, large though
it is.’

‘
What do you think they meant about humans herding them to
their death?’ asked Dancer.

‘
It is true’ replied Summer. ‘Humans have hunted and killed
whales and dolphins in years gone by. Once my own mother told me
that she saw a great blue whale swimming in the ocean with not one
but two harpoons stuck in its side.

‘
And what about that calf’s mother being captured and taken
away by the humans. Why would they do that?’ continued Dancer
incredulously.

‘
Who knows?’ said Breeze in reply. ‘Maybe you can ask the human
child’ he said to Spirit. Spirit had been equally affected by the
story.

‘
I will’ he murmured, ‘I will. Do you think…?’ he began to ask,
before tailing off again, lost in thought.

‘
What?’ asked Dancer.

‘
Oh nothing’ replied Spirit awkwardly, turning and swimming off
a short distance. His mind began to swirl with uncomfortable
thoughts, but he did not want to share them with the others, not
yet at least.

The dolphins rested lazily amongst the gently lapping waves.
Summer and her calf floated off a short distance from the others.
Spirit turned to Dancer.

‘
I need to speak to Summer about something. Come with me’ he
said.

‘
What about?’ Dancer asked.

‘
You’ll see’ he replied. They swam up to her.

‘
Summer, I need to ask you something’ Spirit said.

‘
Of course, anything’ she replied.

‘
It’s about my mother, Star-Gazer. All I know about the day
that she disappeared is that you and Storm had swum out with
Star-Gazer to feed. A squall blew up and then a ship crossed your
path. The noise of the ship’s engines disorientated all three of
you. After the ship had passed you and Storm found each other, but
you could not find Star-Gazer. She had disappeared. Is that
right?’

‘
Yes that’s right Spirit’ Summer replied with a worried look in
her eyes. ‘Why do you ask?’

‘
I don’t know, but I can’t seem to get it out of my head and
what the pilot whales were saying just made it all come back.
Surely there must be something more, some detail that I don’t know
about. Something that would help me make sense of her
disappearance?’

‘
Well you know all the important things’ said Summer
uncertainly.

‘
Where did it happen for example?’ asked Spirit. Summer
brightened at the thought that she had something more to tell
him.

‘
Oh, in fact it wasn’t far from these waters. We were near the
mainland at the time. You know the rock on the cliffs that looks a
bit like a dolphin leaping, before you get to the mussels? Yes?
Well it was along there.’

‘
Oh I know where that is!’ exclaimed Dancer. ‘I was swimming
along there just the other day.’

‘
It wasn’t such a big ship’ continued Summer, but it gave off
such a strange sound. Storm said it was the sound of the engines,
but I felt at the time that it was something else. I couldn’t be
sure though.’

‘
And a storm blew up?’ Spirit continued.

‘
Well, I’m not sure you could call it a storm, or even a squall
really’ replied Summer, glancing back at her calf idling peacefully
by her side. There were some choppy waves, but nothing that we’re
not used to. It was mostly the strange noise from the ship that
confused us, not the seas.

‘
Do you think that humans could have seized her, like they did
with the pilot whales?’ asked Spirit, anxiety snagging his
voice.

‘
I don’t know. Maybe, I suppose. I couldn’t say.’ Summer
answered. ‘We certainly didn’t see the ship taking her. The noise
didn’t last that long and afterwards Star-Gazer had simply
vanished. We called and we called and we looked and we looked, but
we couldn’t find her.’