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 Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 8:38 pm
The first major storm of the season had parked itself right over Aekea and was pouring down steady rain. It wasn't enough to do any sort of significant damage or put out the electricity, but it thoroughly thwarted any plans for outdoor adventures and made everyone a little bit stir-crazy. Finally, tired of his son's incessant whining, Prosper agreed to take Fish into town for a trip to the aquarium. (Ophelia elected to stay home and work on a school project.)
After arriving at the aquarium, Fish made his way towards the infamous Tunnel-o-Sharks. If this was typical boy behavior, then Fish was a typical boy. He strolled wide-eyed under the bluish light filtering down through the water, staring up at the sharks as they swam lazily over his head. They cut an imposing figure through the water, certainly, but they were sort of...
...well...
...Boring.
He couldn't talk to sharks. He didn't suppose they'd have much worth listening to to say, anyway.
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Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 9:49 pm
Sharks! Miles had never liked sharks, though he had never quite understood why. Perhaps because of the stories about them. So when his mother told him they were going to the aquarium, his first question was...
"Are there sharks?"
When assured that there were, indeed sharks--though not the Jaws-type (Risa advised him to never , he was relieved. Little sharks couldn't do much damage. Especially when they were behind glass.
They weren't doing anything exciting. He frowned slightly. When he thought shark, he thought of a creature with sharp teeth. These looked to be anything but. They just swam! Lame!
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Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 4:32 am
Fish's attention lagged from the ceiling. This was lame. He wanted to see, like, things biting into each other, or chasing each other, or even some dolphins doing tricks would be cool. He didn't understand how people could be so impressed by this. All they were doing was swimming around!
He scanned the crowd, trying to see where his father had gone off to, but Prosper had disappeared into the sea of grown up face. Fish sighed unhappily. That meant he couldn't leave just yet. He searched the crowd again, and then set off into it to see if he couldn't locate Prosper.
He did not find his father, but he did find a boy his own age, one with hair the color of a pumpkin and heavily freckled arms.
Miles? wondered Fish, and gave the boy a tap on the shoulder that was perhaps harder than necessary.
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Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 10:46 am
Miles turned around to face Fish. "Fish!" He exclaimed, almost instantly brightening. If he had a friend to talk to, the aquarium would be more interesting. Maybe they'd be able to find where they kept the kraken. The red head was determined to find where they kept the sea monster. It had to be here. All the other fish were.
"How are you?" Was the other boy as bored with the sharks as he was? He wondered. "Do you want to go look at the dolphins or something?" He asked, with a slight tilt of his head. "I don't like sharks much."
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Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 12:15 pm
"I can talk to dolphins," said Fish brightly in a way that was so offhanded that it had to be true. "These sharks are super-lame," he added with a sigh, and looked around for his father again. He didn't see him. Oh well. Maybe Prosper would never notice Fish had gone. As long as they found each other eventually there was no harm done.
"Let's go find something cool to do!" he exclaimed, grabbing Miles by the wrist and dragging him towards an archway labeled 'The Amazon Basin'. If they wandered around long enough, they were bound to find something neat!
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Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 9:51 pm
Miles was impressed. "Dolphins? Cool!" He said. "I can't talk to them--I can make sounds like them, though. See?" He gave a fairly poor imitation of a dolphin's squeeing.
Soon he was dragged off. Miles looked up at the archway. "I don't think there's dolphins in the Amazon--fish, but no dolphins." He guessed this because he'd played the old-school Amazon Trail game. The game in which stated that there were ocelots in the Amazon--when there weren't.
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Posted: Sat May 30, 2009 11:22 am
"No, there aren't," nodded Fish, who hadn't really been paying attention where they were going beyond getting out of the tunnel of sharks. He sighed - this looked like it might almost be just as boring.
A tank of dangerous-looking fish at the center of the room caught his eye. An aquarium worker was standing on a ladder by the top of the tank, where he had rested a bucket. He tapped a microphone, and the loudspeaker system in the exhibit amplified the noise.
"Good afternoon!" said the aquarium worker. "Thank you for visiting the Aekea Aquarium today! We're about to begin the piranha feeding demonstration, so if everyone would find somewhere to stand where they have a good view, that'd be great! You really don't want to miss this, folks."
Fish grinned at Miles and dragged his friend closer to the tank.
"This is gonna be wicked!" he said. "I read about piranhas! They can skin a cow down to the bones in like thirty seconds!"
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Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 11:30 am
Miles followed his friend to the tank. He too, had read about piranhas. He was quite glad he wasn't whatever was in the bucket. There was very little chance of escaping.
"After this, do you want to go see the whales? I heard they have an orca on display!" Killer whales were the most awesome--the coolest--in short, they were sweet. If Fish could talk to dolphins, maybe he could talk to whales too! Miles had always wondered what animals would say if they had the chance.
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Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 7:26 pm
"I can talk to those, too," said Fish offhandedly as he gazed intently at the tank. As far as interesting went, this definitely qualified. The piranhas, seemingly conditioned to this feeding ritual, had begun to grow antsy.
"Upsy-daisy," grinned the aquarium worker, and dumped the bucket into the tank.
The fish went wild. Fish struggled to see what they were attacking.
"Oh, gross!" he said, with a horrible mix of revulsion and glee in his voice. "Those are live mice!" Like most boys his age, he found a sort of morbid fascination in things commonly thought to be disgusting.
And then, as quickly as it began, the feeding frenzy ended. Not even the slightest trace of mouse-parts was left. The piranhas resumed their lazy swimming. They looked a bit self-satisfied, thought Fish, like diners after eating at a fancy restaurant.
His curiosity sated, Fish turned to Miles and tugged him towards an exit labeled
'Arctic and Antarctic Mammals'. "Come on!" he told him, his enthusiasm unencumbered by the grisly scene they had just watched.
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 12:00 am
Miles watched the piranhas with a mixed look of disgust and interest. "Gross!" He agreed. "But cool." He knew his mother wouldn't have agreed with him--she would have covered his eyes. She had a habit of doing that whenever she spotted something she didn't think 'little' boys should see.
"We're going to see the whales now?" Miles asked, looking at the sign. Whales would be even cooler than the piranhas. "Hey, have you ever heard of the Kraken?" He asked. "I think they keep him here somewhere--in the aquarium."
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 5:28 am
"Krakens aren't real," said the boy who could talk to whales, and did not realize the irony of the statement. "And even if they are, there wouldn't be one in an aquarium. They live in the deep ocean. That's why they're legendary. No one's ever seen one."
They broke free of the crowd in the amazon exhibit and tumbled into the arctic exhibit, which was far cooler and quieter. Fish pulled Miles towards the first tank, where a small white whale and her calf swam back and forth in front of the window.
Fish glanced at the sign.
"It's a beluga!"
The whale made a few bursts of noise that was somewhat muffled by the glass.
"It says hi."
Fish waved to the whale and made a few sounds of his own back.
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 7:32 pm
Miles frowned slightly. The kraken had to be real! Just like Nessie and the sea monsters and the giant squid and all those things! "But there's so many stories about them--so they have to be real." He said, more for his benefit than for his friend's.
Of course, his confusion with legendary creatures was forgotten as he spotted the beluga. He oogled at it. To talk to a whale was beyond his wildest dreams--well, besides meeting the kraken (which he was still determined to do). "Tell it I say hi back!" He said. "It's a she, right? She has a baby." He'd taken notice of the calf. "Not a very small baby, is it?"
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 7:33 pm
Miles frowned slightly. The kraken had to be real! Just like Nessie and the sea monsters and the giant squid and all those things! "But there's so many stories about them--so they have to be real." He said, more for his benefit than for his friend's.
Of course, his confusion with legendary creatures was forgotten as he spotted the beluga. He oogled at it. To talk to a whale was beyond his wildest dreams--well, besides meeting the kraken (which he was still determined to do). "Tell it I say hi back!" He said. "It's a she, right? She has a baby." He'd taken notice of the calf. "Not a very small baby, is it?"
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 8:34 pm
Fish added on a few more sounds. The beluga responded by letting a burst of bubbles out its blowhole. He studied the baby.
"No," he said, "It's a kind of big baby."
He gave the beluga a wave and moved on down the exhibit, still tugging Miles behind him by the wrist.
He paused on front of another tank.
"Oooh, a walrus!"
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 9:01 pm
Miles hurried beside his friend. "Wow--I've never seen one of those before!" He exclaimed. It was strange looking, to say the least. "Can you talk to them too? Like you did the whales?" He asked eagerly.
For a moment, he studied the walrus. It had the longest 'teeth' he'd ever seen. "Bet he uses a big tooth brush!" He told Fish with a smile. How else would the 'teeth' be so white? He had to brush them--it was the only way.
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