‘It wasn’t here yesterday’ said Dancer. ‘It’s just appeared overnight’ she said.
‘Is it from the humans?’ asked Spirit.
‘I suppose it must be’ replied Dancer, but I cannot imagine where it might have come from. No boats have been past here in the last day or so.’
‘Maybe it fell from the sky’ said Spirit, marvelling at the shiny redness of the metal in the water. ‘You’ve seen those droning things, high above the clouds?’ he asked Dancer. ‘Well they’re not birds and they’re not insects. I think they’re something to do with humans. Maybe it fell from a flying machine that the humans have made.’
‘I think you’re becoming a bit obsessed by humans’ laughed Dancer, only half in jest. Spirit started awkwardly because Dancer was not entirely wrong. Storm, he knew, had a very low opinion of humans, but Spirit was beginning to think differently.
‘So what is it that has come over you Spirit in the last couple of days?’ asked his friend casually. ‘It seems like you’re in a world of your own now’ she added, glancing at him quizzically. Spirit turned his friendly gaze towards her.
‘I’ve seen one, a human….up close I mean’ he started.
‘You mean the diver we saw at the wreck the other day?’ asked Dancer.
‘No, yes of course we’ve seen one then, but I mean another human, more recently.’ He went on hesitantly, ‘I’ve seen a human swimming by my side, as close as you are to me now.’
‘Is that when you and Storm hid from the orcas by the side of the fishing boat?’ asked Dancer thoughtfully. ‘Did one of those humans swim in the water with you?’
‘No, although it’s true I felt as though one were with me then as well’ Spirit went on. ‘I…., oh it’s so difficult to say. Never mind.’ He turned and started to swim slowly away from Dancer. Dancer followed.
‘You know you can tell me Spirit. I’m your friend.’
‘You’ll just think I’m silly’ replied Spirit. ‘You won’t believe me.’ Spirit swam up to the surface and took a long breath through his air hole. ‘Never mind.’
‘Maybe later then’ said Dancer. ‘I’ll never think you’re silly, no matter what you tell me.’
Just then Moonlight swam up to them.
‘When the sun is highest, Storm is calling the council together. You two must come along.’
‘But we’ve never been allowed to come to the council before’ protested Dancer. ‘Aren’t we too young still to do so?’
‘I should say so’ said Moonlight with a smile, ‘but Storm thinks otherwise. He says that it’s important that you be there, now that you are a little older.’
‘I can’t think why’ responded Dancer. ‘I don’t know anything.’ Spirit said nothing. He knew that he did have something to say, but he didn’t know where to begin. If he couldn’t bring himself to tell Dancer about it, how could he tell the whole council?
‘Maybe it’s just my imagination’ he thought to himself. ‘Or perhaps I was just tired. I need a rest.’ It was true that after his and Storm’s experience with the orcas, he had felt scared and exhausted. When they’d got back, the rest of the pod had gathered around, touching Spirit gently with their noses to comfort him.
‘He’s such a young calf still’ said Breeze sympathetically. ‘He’s lucky to be alive.’
‘He wasn’t lucky, he was smart’ had been Storm’s reply. ‘If Spirit hadn’t taken us to shelter behind the boat, I don’t know what would have happened.’ Storm was an old dolphin. He’d lived through many experiences and many dangers himself. He didn’t like to admit it, but he’d been truly scared when the orcas had attacked, not for himself, but for Spirit. He knew what orcas might do to a young dolphin calf and he’d known that Spirit still wasn’t strong enough to withstand the chase. Storm had been immensely relieved when the orcas had turned and left the scene. He didn’t like humans, but he’d been truly grateful of the boat and the two sailors on board it.
Spirit had been grateful for the comfort that the pod had given him when they’d got back. He’d been practically shaking with shock and exhaustion when they’d returned, but his friends soothing song and gentle nuzzling had calmed him down and after an hour or so he’d been almost his usual self again. Only Dancer, it seemed, had noticed a subtle change. Something that was not explained by his experience with the whales. Or had Storm noticed something too? Several times Spirit caught Storm glancing at him with a thoughtful look in his eyes.
Spirit thought over recent events and what they meant to him.
‘Do you think that if we swim back to the wreck, we will see that human there again?’ he asked.
‘We might do’ replied Dancer. ‘Do you want to?’ They told the pod what they were doing, promising to be back in time for council and set off at an energetic pace, round the headland, towards the cove where the wreck was to be found. Spirit felt that the brisk swim made him feel better and helped put energy back in his sinews and muscles. Dancer did not ask Spirit why he wanted to see a human again, but sometimes she felt that patience brought answers when questions did not.
They approached the rocky shelf where the island jutted out underwater and swam slowly through the kelp forest until they broke through the seaweed and into clear waters again. Then they saw the old, decaying ship, sagging against the rocks where it lay. Spirit was in luck. The wreck was frequently visited by divers and a small boat bobbed above them. A line of rope trailed down to the wreck and the shapes of three divers swam slowly around it with flashlights so they could peer inside, with trails of bubbles tracing up to the surface every time they breathed.
Spirit hesitated and he and Dancer took refuge amongst the strands of kelp to observe the divers unseen. The humans were clad in black and had things over their faces that were connected by pipes to a long tube-like thing on their backs. Their feet were black as well and it looked as though they had fins extending from the end of each foot. Spirit had not really had a chance to look at the humans on the fishing boat when he and Storm had taken refuge from the orcas. He had never seen other humans except …..
‘Is that what humans look like then?’ he asked Dancer in a whisper.
‘The only ones I’ve seen look like that’ Dancer replied, ‘but Moonlight told me that they have special skins they can change depending on what they’re doing. This is their skin for swimming underwater.’
‘So they have different skins to wear? They must have skin underneath all of that.’
‘Moonlight says that she saw them once with only a small outer-skin round their middle near the beach one summer. She says that underneath, some are sort of pinkish-pale and others are brown.’
‘That makes sense’ said Spirit, thinking of his vision…..A small human, pale but with a trace of pink on its arms and legs and face. The human had long black fur like very fine seaweed on its head. Over the main part of the human’s body he remembered there had been a sort of shroud, floating in the water. The human he had seen had no flippers at all on its feet and there was no black second skin like the divers they were looking at now. The human had floated near to him in the water and seemed able to keep up with him without really trying to swim; like a gull wheeling in the sky, he thought. When he had looked at the human, the corners of its mouth had turned up, a bit like a dolphin’s. He could see small regular teeth in the human’s mouth. Because the human had upturned corners of its mouth, it had looked friendly and, although he’d been shocked, he was not scared. Somehow it had felt natural that the human was so close to him. Then, in a way that he did not understand, without any dolphin clicking, a word had passed from the human to him and that word had been ‘hello.’ Then in the same way, speaking to the human with his mind and without any whistles or clicking, he had replied ‘hello’ as well. It was the same human he knew from his dreams.
‘Come on’ said Dancer, ‘let’s get closer to the humans.’ They sidled through the water, from the safety of the kelp, keeping close to the rocks and shadows as they approached. They c
ould see the humans better now. The thing over their faces was clear and occasionally they could catch sight of their eyes behind it. The tube passed into their mouth and air bubbled out of it regularly. Spirit could see now that even though these humans were clad in black, there were patches of pink skin showing in places. They did not have fins like dolphins, but their front limbs ended in small paddles or hands and Spirit could see with surprise that each hand could hold things. He saw one diver pass an object from the ship to its companion, who turned it over, carefully looking at it, before putting it in a sack attached to its middle. The two divers swam slowly round to the other side of the ship without having spotted Spirit and Dancer.
As the two dolphins swam closer, the third diver rounded a corner and they found themselves looking at each other. Although all three humans looked the same to Spirit, he could see that this one appeared to be older because its face was lined and not smooth. The diver had shorter, patchy hair. Dancer and Spirit stopped uneasily in the water.
‘Is that the one we saw before?’ whispered Dancer nervously.
‘I think so’ replied Spirit just as cautiously. Then, overcome with a sense of curiosity, he swam forward again slowly, until the diver was within a metre of him. The diver floated still in the water, looking towards him, a hand extended in a friendly open gesture. Spirit desperately wanted to see the divers face better, but it was mostly obscured by the clear mask and breathing pipe. He wanted to look into the diver’s eyes more deeply and to know what kind of creature it really was. He stared intently at the human.
The diver kept his hand extended and slowly Spirit let himself float closer and closer, until the diver’s hand almost touched him. He kept staring at the diver’s mask and could see his eyes clearly now. They looked like a dolphin’s eyes. He knew that the eyes of a fish or a shark were empty and did not show the nature of the creature behind them. This human’s eyes though, did seem to give off a kind of warmth and it reminded Spirit of the look in his own mother’s eyes before she had disappeared.
Just then, the other two divers appeared suddenly from the other side of the wreck. Spirit and Dancer instinctively shied away and retreated back to the safety of the kelp. They glanced back. All three divers had stopped and were looking towards the two dolphins now. The diver he had got close to had raised his arm now and he waved it slowly through the water.
‘Goodbye!’ thought Spirit, as he turned and swum away with Dancer at his side. The two were silent for a while.
‘Do you think they can talk?’ asked Spirit.
‘Not down here’ replied Dancer, ‘and not with that thing in their mouths. Moonlight says that above the surface they can make noises, but that it’s not talking like dolphins can.’
‘Surely they must be able to talk?’ said Spirit again.
‘Well I don’t know’ answered Dancer. ‘If they can talk, it’s certainly not proper talking.’
Spirit thought back to his vision. ‘My name’s Lucy’ it had said, or at least those words had passed somehow from the human’s mind into his. The voice was soft and light. ‘I’m Spirit’ he had replied. They had stopped to look at each other and Spirit had wanted to touch this small pale human, but had a feeling that somehow he would pass through her if he tried, as though she wasn’t entirely there.
They surfaced to take in air through their blow holes and Dancer looked up at the sun above them. The wind had got up now and the sea had turned choppy. There were clouds on the horizon.
‘We’d better get back to the pod’ said Dancer. They sped along.
‘So before the council starts Spirit, can you tell me what’s going on?’ asked Dancer as they swam. Spirit stopped and turned to look at his friend.
‘I….I’ve seen a human’ he said simply.
‘Haven’t we both?’ asked Dancer in reply.
‘Yes…., but something more than that. I’ve seen a small human in the water, without a diver’s skin, swimming with me, talking to me. It was far from the coast’ he added. ‘It was….extraordinary!’ Dancer smiled.
‘Surely that was just a dream’ she said.
‘I don’t think so. It… it was something more than that.’ Dancer did not understand, but whatever was troubling her friend, she knew that she wanted to help him.
‘Let’s tell the council when we get back. They’ll be able to tell you what you saw.’
‘Yes,… no’ answered Spirit hesitantly. ‘I don’t know if I’m ready to tell them yet.’
‘But Storm is as old as the sea itself’ replied Dancer. ‘If anyone knows, he will.’
‘I don’t think he’s so keen on humans though’ said Spirit anxiously. ‘And I don’t even really know what I’ve seen. I don’t think I’m ready to tell the council yet. Promise you won’t tell them.’
‘I promise’ said Dancer in a definite way. Spirit immediately knew he could trust her.
As they approached the pod, they could hear dolphin chatter spreading out through the water. There was not just their own pod, but many other dolphins as well. As they came closer, Breeze swum up close to them.
‘Where have you two been? You’ve been missing all the fun.’ He explained that this was a council of all eight pods who lived in this region of the sea. Though Spirit and Dancer had never experienced it in their own lifetimes, the pods would sometimes come together into a great group and stay together for hours or even days at a time. Sometimes this was to fish. Other times it was for council to take place. There must have been forty or so dolphins altogether, though it was nearly impossible for Spirit to count them all as they swam around below and past him, all talking and playing together.
The older dolphins all seemed to know each other and talked happily. Some younger dolphins, like Spirit and Dancer, had never met the young of the other pods before, but before long they were all chasing each other in a mad headlong rush, challenging one another to who could take the highest leap out of the water or turn most quickly from one direction to another. They dove deep and leapt high. They soon got to know each other and revelled in the chance to show off and tell stories. They chased fish and looked for crustaceans on the rocks below.
Though Storm had wanted to call council together when the sun was highest, the dolphins were so engrossed in the fun of catching up and playing that it was half way between noon and dusk before Storm was able to exert his influence and call council together. The elder dolphins floated just under the surface of the water, as they were the most senior. The young grown-ups could participate if they wished, but the youngsters like Spirit had been told clearly that they could watch but not take part. Gradually sufficient calmness fell in anticipation of council that Storm was able to start.
‘It is a long time since we came together in council’ Storm begun. ‘Too long. Our ways are many and our lives take us far apart from each other. Yet we are all connected and it is that that makes us stronger. We are an ancient race, the wise ones of the seas. Through millennia we have guarded the seas and sought to live in harmony with all living creatures. Our lives depend on theirs and theirs on ours and it is that knowledge which sets us apart from the fish and sharks and creatures of the deep. Our cousins, the whales. know this too. Even the orcas, dangerous though they are, know it is for us to pass the ancient knowledge forwards. Since before the time of my Great Great Grandfather now, man has plundered our seas and poisoned our waters. They are to be feared. While some are good, too many are bad. We cannot protect the seas from man as we once did.’
There were murmurs of approval for this traditional introduction. Storm continued.
‘We have many things to speak of. The migrations of fish, the stories our cousins the whales carry to us across the oceans, the way the currents seem to be changing, the new dangers that man creates. We must remember the dead and celebrate the new born. Not only that, but we must look to the future and which of those young amongst us will have the wisdom to lead us in the years to come. We have much to talk about my friends.’
The d
olphins gathered then settled down to several happy hours of discussion. Spirit, at the outer rim of the group, listened intermittently, his attention wavering at times as the conversation ebbed and flowed. Some of the other youngsters slipped away to play and were called back sharply to listen and to learn. Voices were raised occasionally in disagreement and Storm would try to lead them back to more tempered and calm discussion.
Spirit listened in awe at the stories that the whales had carried across the oceans and passed on to the dolphins. They spoke of the great frozen hunting grounds of the south which they would travel for weeks to get to and where fish abounded. They spoke of the polar bears and seals that lived there and how you could swim for hours under the ice, with only the occasional break where you could come up for air.
They spoke with concern about the rubbish that man tipped into the sea and the multitude of man-made things that floated, discarded upon the water. There were white flimsy sacks that turtles bit into, thinking they were jellyfish, which they could choke on. Spirit heard about the great steel structures that man built in the sea. He heard that in the warm seas towards the Americas, a great ship, as long as ten blue whales had foundered and black oil had burst out in an ever-widening slick and poisoned all life about it. The dolphins there had had to flee, but not all had made it to safety. Storm was harsh in his condemnation of man at this point.
The dolphins talked intently about the currents of the seas, of the gulf stream carrying warmer waters across the ocean from the Americas, and the migrations and shoals of fish that the currents brought in their wake. This was of keen interest to the mature dolphins, who always needed to fill their stomachs and those of their young. The passage of fish across their hunting grounds had changed in the past few years and no one knew quite why.
The Girl Who Dreamt of Dolphins Page 7
