Pearl's Ocean Magic

by Catherine Hapka

  “Sure,” Pearl said shyly.

  “All right, class,” Bay said. “The rest of us will learn to send messages to other species later. We’ll also learn more about guiding on another day. Now, let’s focus on messaging other dolphins. As you know, that’s how we can communicate with one another at long distances …”

  She went on to explain how to focus their energy to send messages. Once again, Echo went first when it was time to try. This time Pearl helped by swimming to the other side of the kelp forest. A moment later, she received Echo’s message: Swim back here now.

  Echo turned out to be the best at messaging, though Pearl did fine, too, thanks to all her practice with Squeak. Splash wasn’t very good at it, though. He couldn’t get his message out at all until Pearl touched his fin to join her magical energy with his. Suddenly, Splash’s message (which was I love jumping!) beamed out to the whole class!

  “Very nice,” Bay told Splash and Pearl with a smile. “Our magic is always strongest when we work together.”

  Almost before Pearl knew it, class was over. “We’ll continue working on messaging tomorrow, along with some basic guiding,” Bay said. “We’ll also start learning about how to use music to make our magic stronger.”

  Pearl wished tomorrow would hurry up and arrive. She couldn’t wait to learn all that stuff. Magic was fun!

  “WHAT DID YOU THINK OF YOUR FIRST DAY OF school?” Echo asked Pearl and Splash as the three of them swam out of the lagoon.

  “It was super!” Splash did a flip.

  “How can you say that?” Flip asked, swimming over to join them. “You were terrible at Music, Splash. You weren’t that great at Magic, either.”

  “I know.” Splash laughed. “But that’s why we go to school, right? To get better at that stuff.”

  “In that case, I shouldn’t bother to come back tomorrow,” Flip said. “I’m already the best at everything!”

  Pearl didn’t think that was true. But once again, she remembered what her father had said to her that morning: Always choose kindness.

  It wouldn’t be kind to tell Flip he wasn’t as good as he thought he was, Pearl decided. So she kept quiet.

  Just then Mullet swam up to them. “Are you still bragging about how great you are?” he asked Flip. “If you’re so great, I think you should prove it.”

  “Okay, watch this.” Flip did a double flip. “Pretty awesome, huh?”

  “That’s nothing. Anyone can do a silly flip.” Mullet did one himself. “If you really want to prove you’re great, you should swim across Bigsky Basin.”

  “Why would I do that?” Flip said. “Anyone can swim in open water. But not everyone can flip like me!”

  “Besides, Bigsky Basin isn’t safe,” Echo put in. “There might be sharks out there.”

  “Exactly,” Mullet smirked. “If Flip is the best swimmer, he’ll have no trouble outswimming a shark or two.”

  “That’s true,” Flip said. “Sharks don’t scare me!”

  “Prove it,” Mullet said. “I dare you!”

  “Don’t listen to him, Flip,” Echo said. “Come on, we should go find our pod.”

  Mullet ignored them. “Are you scared, Flip?” he taunted. “I thought you were the best swimmer.”

  “I am.” Flip blew a burst of bubbles out of his blowhole. “And I’ll do it! Just watch me.”

  “Come on,” Mullet said. “I’ll swim with you to the edge of the Basin right now.”

  “You can’t!” Pearl blurted out in shock. She didn’t trust Mullet.

  “Don’t do it, Flip!” Echo added.

  “You can’t tell me what to do,” Flip said. “I’m not scared.”

  “You should be,” Splash said. “Sharks are scary! My pod ran into this huge bull shark once. We had to swim super fast to get away!”

  Flip flicked his flukes. “Sharks are only scary for spineless jellyfish, like you guys,” he said. “I’m going, and that’s that!”

  FLIP SWAM AWAY WITH MULLET. PEARL watched him go, feeling worried.

  “What if Mullet puts Flip in danger?” she said. “Should we tell the teachers where they’re going?”

  Echo blew out a small stream of bubbles. “I don’t know. Flip isn’t as brave as he acts, though, so as soon as they get to the Basin, he’ll probably swim away and hide like a hermit crab in its shell.”

  Pearl hoped she was right. “I guess we should swim home. I want to tell my pod all about today.”

  “We’ll swim part of the way with you if you want,” Splash offered.

  Pearl smiled at him. “Thanks. That would be great.”

  She, Splash, and Echo set out through the warm, shallow waters near the school. Fish were everywhere. A stingray swam past, and a few minutes later the dolphins were surrounded by a huge school of sleek, silvery mackerel.

  After the little silver fish passed, Pearl could see the sun shining down into deeper water off to the left. Echo saw her looking that way.

  “That’s Bigsky Basin over there,” Echo said. “Don’t worry, it’s just the edge.”

  “I know.” Pearl shivered, imagining how many sharks might be out there.

  “So what was your favorite class today, Pearl?” Splash asked, distracting Pearl from her scary thoughts.

  “Magic, definitely,” Pearl said. “Music class was great, too.”

  “You’re really good at music,” Splash told her. “And Echo, you’re amazing at magic!”

  “Only because my mom taught me.” Echo blew out a curtain of bubbles to hide her face. “You guys will be just as good as me soon.”

  “Maybe,” Pearl said. She sighed. “But I’ll never be any good at jumping and swimming.”

  “Sure you will.” Splash nudged her with his fin. “You just need to practice.”

  “Riptide is a little scary, though, isn’t he?” Echo said.

  Pearl nodded, relieved that she wasn’t the only one who thought that. “Definitely!” she said.

  “He’s not that bad. He’s just trying to make us the best we can be,” Splash said, doing a quick flip in the water. “All the teachers are. They want us to learn a lot so we’ll be just as good at everything as they are.”

  Pearl knew he was probably right. But it was hard to imagine ever being that good at everything.

  “I have to turn here to get to my lagoon,” she said as they passed a craggy coral formation swarming with colorful fish. “I can go on alone from here.”

  “Are you sure?” Splash said. “Then I’ll guess we’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Yep!” Pearl was already looking forward to her second day of school. “See you tomorr—”

  She cut herself off with a burst of bubbles. She’d just received a sudden strong mental message!

  “What’s wrong?” Splash asked her.

  “A message,” Pearl blurted out. Her mind was filled with pictures, but they were changing so fast she couldn’t make them out. “I’m getting it right now. A really strong one!”

  “A message?” Splash sounded confused. “Who is it from?”

  Echo closed her eyes. “I feel it, too,” she said. “It’s really cloudy, though.” She sounded frustrated. “I wish my mom were here! She’d be able to get the message with no trouble at all.”

  “What can you see, Pearl?” Splash asked.

  “I—I’m not sure.” Pearl swam up and pulled in some air through her blowhole. Then she sank back down toward her friends, focusing on the images filling her mind.

  At first she thought the message might be coming from one of the sea creatures nearby—maybe that horseshoe crab swimming past, or one of the oysters on the seafloor below. But even though it was only pictures instead of words, somehow she was sure it was coming from a dolphin.

  That was strange. Because until today’s Magic class, Pearl had never received a mental message from another dolphin except for Squeak and her parents. Usually she only got messages from turtles or some of the other creatures in her lagoon. But this message was much stronger t
han those ever were.

  “What do you see?” Splash asked. “Maybe we can help you figure it out.”

  Pearl focused even harder. “I see water with lots of sunlight coming through,” she said. “Wait! I’m finally getting words, too!”

  She focused even harder, trying to hear the message: Help! Help me! Please help me!

  Echo gasped. Pearl could tell she was working hard at her magic. “I think it’s coming from Flip!” Echo cried.

  Pearl blew out all her air in a rush as another picture jumped into her mind. “Oh no!” she cried. “It’s a shark!”

  “A SHARK? WHERE?” SPLASH CRIED, SPINNING around.

  “Not here,” Pearl told him. “I saw it in Flip’s message. He seems scared. He must have run into a shark in Bigsky Basin!”

  “This is terrible!” Echo exclaimed. “We have to get help!”

  Flip’s terrified words rushed through Pearl’s mind again: Help! Help me! Please help me!

  Pearl looked back the way they’d come. “We could swim back to school,” she said. “The teachers are probably still there. They all have much stronger magic than we do—they could save Flip from that shark for sure.”

  “Sure they could.” Echo sounded anxious. “But can we get to them in time? Even you might not be fast enough, Splash.”

  “Maybe we can try sending the adults a mental message,” Splash suggested. “You two are both good at that magic stuff.”

  “But I’ve only practiced at short distances!” By now Echo sounded frantic. “And Pearl is only used to sending messages to turtles!”

  Another cry for help came into Pearl’s mind. “It sounds like the shark is really close,” she said. “There’s no time to get the adults. We have to help Flip ourselves!”

  “Us?” Echo said. “But what can we do? We’re just kids!”

  Splash looked uncertain and scared, but he nodded. “Pearl is right. Aren’t we the defenders of the ocean? Let’s go defend Flip from that shark!”

  “O-Okay.” Echo sounded nervous. “But how?”

  Pearl started swimming in the direction of the deeper water. “I don’t know,” she said. “Let’s try sending mental messages to the adults while we’re swimming. Maybe one of them is closer than we think.”

  She felt a little better after having that idea. Focusing her magical energy, she sent out a message asking for help. She could feel her friends doing the same thing.

  “I’m not sure mine is working,” Splash said, reaching for his friends’ fins. “Let’s join our energy. That should make it work better.”

  They sent out their message again. By then they were entering deeper water. The seafloor fell away quickly, and soon Pearl could barely see it through the murky darkness. The sun’s cheerful light didn’t reach far into the deeper parts of the Salty Sea.

  “How are we going to find Flip?” Splash asked. “Bigsky Basin is huge!”

  Pearl turned until she felt the message getting stronger. “This way, I think.”

  The others followed her. “I think I see something up ahead,” Echo said after a moment.

  Pearl swam faster. Soon she spotted Flip floating in the water just below the surface. Circling him was an enormous tiger shark! Mullet was nowhere in sight.

  “Oh no!” Echo whispered. “That thing is huge!”

  Splash looked nervous, too. “What can we do to help Flip?” he whispered. “That shark is big enough to swallow all four of us in one gulp!”

  “Maybe we could find some seaweed and try to tangle him up in it,” Echo said. “I heard sharks can’t breathe if they stop swimming.”

  “That won’t work.” Splash did a backflip. “For one thing, it would take too long to find enough seaweed.”

  “Okay, maybe we should all crash into the shark at once,” Echo said. “We could hit him with our flukes, too. That might confuse him.”

  Splash looked dubious. “That sounds pretty dangerous. We need a better plan than that!”

  Pearl tried to come up with a better plan. Her friends were making it hard to think, though. Echo was blowing air out of her blowhole in short bursts, creating a sea of bubbles. And Splash was so nervous he kept doing flips.

  Watching her friends suddenly gave Pearl an idea. The dolphins weren’t strong enough to fight the shark, or fast enough to outswim it. But they did have their own special skills.

  “We need to distract the shark, right?” she said. “That might give Flip enough time to get away. Maybe we can do that by working together.”

  She quickly explained her plan. Her friends nodded.

  “That just might work,” Echo said hopefully.

  “Let’s do it,” Splash agreed.

  Pearl floated to the surface and took a deep breath. Then she started singing, whistling a lively tune. She tried to remember the song she’d heard her father use once to soothe an angry squid. Pearl’s song didn’t sound exactly like that, but it was pretty close.

  At the same time, Echo started sending out magical energy. She used it to make Pearl’s music louder. They hadn’t worked on that sort of magic in class yet, but Echo knew how to do it thanks to her mother’s lessons.

  The shark moved a little farther away from Flip. He seemed to be looking at the other dolphins now, though Pearl couldn’t tell for sure. He floated closer, moving slowly, his tail flicking in time to Pearl’s song.

  “It’s working!” Echo told Pearl. “We’re distracting the shark.”

  “But now he’s coming right at us!” Pearl was so nervous that she forgot to keep singing. The shark kept swimming toward them.

  Echo sent out a big burst of bubbles that floated off to the left. The shark slowed, looking that way.

  “Hey, shark breath!” Splash shouted. While the girls were distracting the shark, he’d swum off to one side to do his part. “Over here, dorsal face!”

  He started doing flips and spins, churning up the water. The shark turned again, moving toward Splash this time.

  “Quick, start singing!” Echo cried to Pearl. “Otherwise he’s going to catch Splash!”

  The shark was swimming faster now, aiming straight at Splash. His mouth opened wide, showing his jagged teeth. Splash let out a squeak and darted to one side, but the shark followed his movement.

  “Sing, Pearl, sing!” Echo cried.

  Pearl started singing again. She made the song as loud as she could, but she wasn’t sure the shark could hear it.

  Then Echo sent out a burst of magic energy. The song got louder, and the shark slowed. This time when Splash darted to one side, the shark didn’t follow. He turned back around and stared at the girls.

  Pearl kept singing. At the same time, she noticed that Flip was still floating in the water nearby. He didn’t look hurt, so Pearl guessed that he was too scared to move.

  Go! she told him in a mental message. Get out of here!

  She wasn’t sure the message had worked. But finally Flip started moving. He swam off in the opposite direction. A moment later he’d disappeared in the gloomy water.

  “Good, he’s safe.” Echo had seen Flip swim away, too. “Now how are we going to get out of here?”

  Before Pearl could answer, the shark burst into motion again. He spun around and shot toward Splash, who had stopped swimming while the shark was distracted.

  “Splash, look out!” Echo cried, magical energy exploding out of her in all directions.

  “The song isn’t working anymore!” Pearl exclaimed. “We have to do something!”

  PEARL’S HEART POUNDED. SPLASH WAS swimming as fast as he could. But the big shark was faster! The only way Splash could stay ahead of the shark’s deadly jaws was by twisting and turning in circles. The shark was so big that he couldn’t turn as fast.

  “Splash can’t keep that up for long,” Echo said, her voice shaking.

  “I know. And if he swims in a straight line, the shark will catch him.” Pearl had never been so scared in her life. “What are we going to do?”

  “We could try t
o confuse the shark’s mind,” Echo said. “Magically, I mean.”

  “But that’s really advanced magic—you said so yourself !” Pearl said. “We won’t even start studying it until next year.”

  She felt ready to give up. Her plan had gone wrong, and now the shark was going to eat Splash!

  But Echo looked determined and brave. “Mom taught me a little,” she said. “Anyway, we have to try something!” Echo reached for Pearl’s fin. “Come on, Pearl. Just add your magic to mine …”

  Pearl could feel Echo trying to send a strange, confusing whirl of magical energy toward the shark. Would it work? Pearl knew that mental confusion had saved her father from the shark that had left that scar on his dorsal fin. It had happened when he was just a little older than Pearl was now. His pod had confused the creature’s mind just long enough for him to get away.

  For a moment it seemed to be working on this shark, too. He slowed down again, turning halfway toward the girls. Pearl felt a surge of hope.

  But after a second, the shark shook his whole body and then turned back toward Splash. “Our magic isn’t strong enough!” Echo cried. “It’s not working!”

  Suddenly a sleek gray shape appeared out of the darkness. Pearl spun around, afraid that all the commotion might have attracted another shark. But it wasn’t a shark at all.

  “Flip!” she cried.

  “Here, let me help.” Flip touched his fin to Pearl’s, then wrapped his tail around Echo’s. Magical energy started pouring out of him.

  Pearl gasped. “Echo, keep trying to confuse him! Maybe it will work with all three of us helping!”

  And it did! The shark slowed down, and finally stopped chasing Splash altogether. He floated in the water, turning in slow circles. His black eyes looked dull and unfocused.

  “Swim, Splash!” Echo cried. “Hurry! We’ll follow you!”

  Splash darted away from the shark, heading for the edge of Bigsky Basin. Pearl, Echo, and Flip followed. But they didn’t stop sending the confusing energy until the shark faded out of sight behind them.