To The Ocean!

Darkness broke around me as I pushed through the surface and into the light. The first sound that greeted me was the waves of the ocean. I blinked the sand out of my eyes and gazed at what lay far ahead. Light like diamonds were dancing along its blue surface. It waves rolling over them, pulling me towards it like a siren’s song. The sun blazing above the shoreline like a blazing beacon. And I could feel the salt against my face.

Ah, it felt so refreshing. So majestic. I allowed myself a moment to take in this sight. To breath in this sight.

The Ocean. My future home.

Pushing from my side I could feel one of my siblings brushing past me. Sand covering his face and shell as well, as he waddled forward one flipper after another. He was joined by another of my siblings, and then another. They seemed to be making a mad dash towards the ocean. I just chuckled, we would have our entire life in the ocean, why the rush? Why not just sit here and enjoy the view?

Then a shadow flew over me. My neck craned up to see a horrific figure gliding above. Wings stretched outwards, and a razor sharp beak aiming down. It let out a horrific ‘squawk’ before gliding down and scooping my brother up in its beak. I heard his screams as he was taken into the air.

Then another shadow came over me, and another. I gazed up and saw them all dotting the sky, winged horrors of death.

My siblings all pushed out from beside me now, all making a straight line for the shore. I began to hobble myself too, but my fins both felt atrophied. And I was still reeling from the horror of watching my brother being scraped from this mortal plane of existence. My muscles froze more when I noticed a shadow gliding across the sand towards me.

Dear Akupāra, please no.

I began to turn instead of moving forward, desperate to crawl back into the sand where darkness could protect me from the real world. I did not want the ocean now, hated that I allowed its majesty to seduce me. I didn’t want to end up someone's breakfast!

I heard its deafening squawk and could feel its beak about to grasp me when I was suddenly knocked out of the way. I heard its beak snap close as me and my savior rolled along the sand. Looking up I saw one of my sisters, glancing down at me. Her eyes sparkling like the diamonds on the shore but her gaze was as fierce as the sun’s beacon.

"Move! We can make it!" she screamed.

I followed her lead as the two of us began to waddle along the scores of our siblings. So many-so many-of us! Even if we all made it, would I still be able to learn all of their names? The two of us immediately began to waddle as fast as we could. All our fins were tearing up the sand, as shadows glided over us all. I gasped at every scream of my siblings as they were taken off into the skies.

My sister and I were burning sand, huffing along. She was much better than me, and eventually all I could see was just small clouds of sand bursting behind her. I wanted to call out to her, tell her to ‘wait for me!’, and that was when I saw a shadow coming towards her. My voice choked, but at the last minute I managed to scream out, ‘LOOK OUT-“

And then she planted one flipper under her and pushed off into a roll just as the bird came down, grasping only a beak full of sand. My mouth fell dumbfounded. Amazing!

Then another shadow was coming down. But this time it was gliding towards me.

Looking up, I could already see the gaping beak of death stretching out towards me. I went to plant my flipper into the sand like my sister did, but my muscles froze. My last thoughts were of the ocean’s roaring waves; how good they would have felt again my burning fins. But all I felt was the razor sharpness of the beak clasp me, and I was lifted from the sand, only to come crashing back down.

I was prone on my back when I saw that another bird had come crashing into my captor and sent us all tumbling. The two birds were now squawking and pecking at each other. I desperately began to flap about, trying to right myself. I managed to get a flipper under me, much in the way my sister did but just backwards now I suppose, and with all my might and a little scream-though I liked to imagine it was a war cry of defiance-I flipped myself over.

Gasping, I looked sharply behind to see one of my predators had won the battle and was now staring me down. I waddled for my life, pushing both fins into the sand as hard and fast as I could! For some vain reason, perhaps a boost of confidence from righting myself, I thought I could make it to the ocean before the avian death could claim me. However, my confidence was dashed as I felt its beak clasp me yet again.

“NO!” I cried as I was lifted up, feeling myself sliding down into its beak. Then suddenly I was ejected out yet again, crashing into the sand. Painful squawks filled the air as I glanced behind me and saw my sister clamping down her own beak on the bird’s webbed toes. The feathery bastard flapped a retreat as my sister rejoined me.

“Come on, follow me!”

Relieve washed over me as the two of us began to paddle and waddle once more through the sand. My sister by my side, barking instructions and shouting encouragement.

“It helps if you count! One-Two-One-Two-One-there you go you got it! ONE-TWO-ONE-TWO!”

We were beating a hard trail through the sand, the cries of our siblings and the squawks of death fading around us. I tried my best not to look back. I couldn’t afford it. I wanted to get to know them, and perhaps I still would with some of them. But for now, I could not dawdle. My sister was slowing down on my behalf, and I could not let her down.

Suddenly, through the cries, the ocean’s roaring waves seemed to overcome all noise around us. I could see and hear the hissing of its white foam along the sand. And the ground was getting softer and darker as well. Now when we flipped up the sand, I could taste the salt and moisture of the ocean on it. It spurred me on even faster and I could hear the excitement in my sister’s voice as she continued to count out.

Then the ground broke apart in front of us.

A giant orange claw pierced upwards, sending a pillar of sand over both me and my sister. Three armored legs reached up and then pulled the crustacean out of its sand fortress. Two massive claws raised up as its bobbling alien eyes locked on us both.

I looked to my sister for guidance and saw fear in her eyes, but then she seemed to steel herself as she shouted, “ROLL!”

She planted a flipper down and I did the same, and we both rolled opposite each other as the creature’s claw came piercing down. We rolled along it, dodging its spear like legs stabbing into the ground. Its claws slashing around us as it desperately tried to grasp hold of us. When we were on the other side of it, we immediately began to waddle away. Pushing as hard as we ever did before, the foam of the ocean reaching towards us like Oceana’s own hand reaching to us.

Then I shrieked in pain as something tight wrapped around my back flipper. I didn’t have to look back to know it had clasped me. I began to dig my flippers into the ground and pulled with all my might. The soft sand gave way easier though, and I couldn’t get a traction to move forward. I felt myself being dragged back, when my sister suddenly dove forward and drove her beak into my shell, and began to pull me back. Though it felt like I was being torn in half, my sister and I were both able to pull against the crab, and with a tear, I felt myself break free.

We both tumbled forward, and that was when I felt it. Cold, refreshing salt splashed across my face, washing the sand gristle from my skin. But just as quickly as I felt it, it pulled away. But we were there, right at the edge of the shore.

“WADDLE!” my sister called out, and we both did. We both splashed into the foam and felt the ocean pulling us forward.

As we did, I saw a wave coming up and rushing towards us. An encouraging sight, as if it were also racing towards us. We both duck our heads down as it came blissfully over us, submerging ourselves into the crystalline waters. Lifting us off the sand as if to grant us flight. And we were flying. Flying through the waters now. The sand that covered our weakened, aching, burning bodies was washed away.

Freedom.

Then I heard my sister gurgle out a scream.

I looked over my shell and saw the hateful crustacean now had its iron clutch on my sister and was threatening to drag her back, its six legs working in tandem as it pedaled fiercely through the water. I turned but felt the ocean’s water pulling me further away from her as she drifted even further away.

Panic rose within me, seeing her desperately trying to break away. But it had a grip on one of her front flippers, and it wasn’t as easy to get away this time (Though last time wasn’t easy). I saw the fire leave her eyes, and that was when it came into mine.

I drove my head forward into the water and paddled as fast and hard as I could. Barreling through the water with nothing but determination and grit, I clasped my beak onto my sister’s shell.

The crustacean and I were now in a mortal tug of war for my sister’s fate. But my sister and I were not alone, as we felt the pull of the ocean fighting alongside us. Pulling all three of us deeper into the ocean.

Then there was a pop, and my sister and I went barreling through the waters. The waves carrying us further, until all we saw was a dark greenish blue hue all over us. We were now floating deep of it. Glimmering rays of light from above danced around us. Above the sun gleamed gloriously through the water’s surface, glowing with a brightness akin to a parent’s prideful smile.

The water felt so refreshing, and so weightless compared to the sand. With each flap of my fins, I could fee the sand washing off of me.

“Oh, isn’t this wonderful?” I said as I swam through the weightlessness.

When I did not hear her voice, I panicked. I turned back to see her struggling to swim. What made her struggle, I did not catch it at first, then I saw a little red cloud puff out from where her left front fin used to be. And she now seemed to be sinking despite her best efforts to swim.

I immediately dove forward and swam underneath her. I lifted her up, and she leaned against the top of my shell, her beak resting along my shoulder as her other fin clasped around the top of my shell.

“Brother, you should just leave me…I’ll only slow you down.”

“Not as much as I slowed you down,” I said with a smile. I saw a glimmer of her fire return to her eyes.

“We’ll make it together! You lead and I'll carry!”

I saw a glimmer of the fire return to her eyes, and she smiled.

“Okay,” she began, “Now swim, both fines now! One-two! One-Two!”

With her on my back, and our other siblings diving into the waters around us, we began to swim into the great wide wonder of the ocean’s majesty. Where it would take us now, we did not know, but we would tackle it together.

“ONE-TWO!”