She could hear them coming. Humans and their loud machines. This was exactly what Mother had warned her about. Gone were the times when her kind were hunted. A genocide of her people that had taken Mother. But this was different; this was her fault.

The shrill of the boats circled above as her pod chirped with agitation. The young were too slow, and her family worried they would be taken. They all knew the stories. But she knew this was different, they were after her.

It had been a mistake to question Mother, after all this time, curiosity had gotten the better of her. It had been countless moons since she had been so close to the humans, it could not be a coincidence they came for them now.

She kicked her tail as fast as she could, desperation driving her forward. Her siblings were faster than her, they were shaped entirely for the water. Even the calves were doing a better job of keeping up. She felt a familiar flare of jealousy, none of Mother’s gifts seemed to mean anything when she was half their size and a poor hunter. Mother had been large and magnificent, unhindered by their differences. She knew she was still growing, but patience was not one of her virtues.

Her sister whistled at her with encouragement, urging her to go faster, and she tried her best. The boats continued to follow them, untiring and metallic. She cried with frustration. She knew her family would not abandon her and that they cared about her, but they didn’t know what to do with her.

Mother had been their leader, the mother of many of her pod. She herself had little interest in children, even less in the men of other pods they came across. Mother had understood her differences, understood and appreciated them. The others did not understand so much, they did not understand why she liked collecting nice rocks and human trinkets, they did not understand why she liked to spend time by herself, and they especially did not understand her curiosity about humans. Mother had understood all those things.

A splash from above drew her attention as a boat tossed something in the water just ahead of them—a net. The pod began to turn to get out of the way of the net, but she knew better. She had witnessed the way humans herded and caught her people firsthand, she would not be so easily manipulated.

Unfortunately, her pod was too panicked to listen to her pleas. She tried to convince her brother to try and ram into one of the small boats, but he was too focused on escaping and protecting the children. Hysteria would be their downfall if she didn’t do something. She pleaded to deaf ears as they headed towards the coast.

Despite how bad this was, all she could do was try to keep up. She did not want to be left behind. Guilt gnawed at her. She had foolishly been spotted. Her mother had told her not all humans were bad, she was not taught to blatantly fear them like her pod, simply told to be wary. She had made a grave mistake. She had gotten too close to the city, lured by the unfamiliar calls of another pod, mismatched and depressed.

Her pod swam quickly, but they were forced to surface, giving away their positions to their hunters. She could hold her breath much longer than the others, still not as long as Mother had been able to, but that was of no use to her in a group. She stayed below as she swam, praying that the humans would not notice her.

Two of the boats split from the group, flanking her pod and only further scaring them. She didn't know what to do, Mother would have known. Mother had known she realized. Mother had lured the humans away, a bait that they could not ignore. But she was not brave, she did not want to die, she did not want to be taken. Yet maybe she could ensure her pod survived.

She looked back towards her niece, she was only a few moons old. She could give her a life free from whatever vile things humans did. Though she was barely more than a child herself, she was the oldest in the pod. Her sister had become the matriarch, but she was now nearing the end of her life.

Mother had been ancient, and she herself felt ancient. Blackfish lived until the moon died, her mother had said, and then the moon moved on without her. It had been so long without Mother, the pod had grown and shrunk. Only she had stayed the same, time moved much slower for blackfish. Despite her loving family, she was lonely as the only one of her kind. She had to be brave for her family, for Mother.

She split from the pod with a song, not one of farewell but one of ending, as she swam towards the surface. Her pod cried out behind her, her sister thanked her with a blessing, her brother pleaded for her to follow, and her niece said farewell. She hesitated to watch them disappear into the depths before she returned her focus to the boats above. She knew she would never see them again and her heart ached already.

With precision, she breached the surface and exhaled the stale air in her lungs. Quickly inhaling, she fell into one of the boats. Humans yelled and screamed as she rolled onto her front, her back throbbing from slamming into the boat. The boat rocked precariously, but she was not big enough to flip it.

She reached out and grabbed one of the humans, her hand wrapping entirely around its lower leg before she pulled them into the water and swam back down. She did not want to bite them, they were not food, but she wanted to keep them busy. 

She swam back up, the humans were trying to pull the one out of the water. So she pulled them back in. It was strange to find humans small, in her memories and dreams, they were always giant. But they were all far smaller than a newborn calf, half the size of herself. It would take more than three of them lined up to be the length of her brother, she couldn’t help but laugh at the thought despite the situation.

The humans were panicking and pointing at her, yelling loudly. One tossed a net at her, which she managed to swim out of. She dove down before coming back up, slamming her hands into the side of the boat, causing several humans to fall over as it rocked violently. She had never felt so powerful. She could drag them all down to the bottom of the ocean and leave them there to drown. They could not stop her, they were useless in the water. If only her pod had not been so scared, humans were not a threat at all.

The memory of humans dragging her mother’s body out of the water after she had drowned rather than being taken alive flicked through her mind. If only they had just fought back, this whole time, they could have just fought back.

A loud bang made her start, something pricked into her back, causing her to whistle with pain and trash at the offending object as something else hissed. She pulled it away and dove into the water. She had been too distracted to notice the other boat until it had circled up to her. She sent out a series of clicks, unable to not smile when she found the third boat nearby. If the three boats were focused on her that meant her pod could escape.

She looked at the offending object in her hand. She did not know what it was. A tube with a pointy sharp tip and a softer feathery end. She could taste her blood in the water from where it had pierced her. Another difference between her and her pod, they didn't taste anything but salt, not that they even chewed their food to have a chance to taste anything.

She tossed the object away and began to swim. Since her pod had escaped then if she could too then she could return to them. The humans were still above on their boats, she could hold her breath long enough to slip away.

Suddenly she felt wrong, her back tingled and she felt very tired. Not the kind of tired she felt after a long swim, something was wrong. She began to feel drowsy and sluggish, this wasn't something she had ever experienced before. This fatigue wasn’t like the way she would rest at the surface. It was a suffocating blanket, like being wrapped in a net and dragged into unconsciousness. 

Panic built in her mind as her body slowed. She needed to surface, it wasn’t safe to dive like this. But it wasn’t safe to surface either. Her body felt slow and unresponsive, if she didn’t surface she might not be able to. That was the decision Mother had made but she could not bring herself to make the same choice. Regretfully she swam up.

EldritchPotato

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