The Globetrotters

by Esther David

  ‘Don’t give me that look, madame.’ Hudhud had started to flap forward at top speed in agitation, dispersing swarms of krill. ‘Only one in a thousand of our hatchlings make it to adulthood. My grandad died last year at the ripe age of forty-five. He saw the Pacific leatherbacks decline dramatically in number in the last twenty years. Can you believe that in 1983, all the eggs laid by leatherbacks on the coast of Thailand were poached by humans? We have just about 2300 surviving adult Pacific leatherback ladies today, and there are no signs of their population recovering. We get struck by their boats … or get caught in their fishing nets … our nesting sites are being destroyed by their coastal development. Development—really?’ Hudhud let out a short, bitter laugh. ‘We survived the dinosaurs; I wish I could say the same for humans.’

  Salmo scared away a floating lobster. He checked out the huge salmon with his tiny eyes and sputtered away, moving all his legs without missing a beat.

  ‘Slow down, will you?’ she boomed, catching up with Hudhud.

  He realized he was dashing ahead and relaxed his pace.

  Hudhud’s speech had eased the frown on her face but her jaws were still taut. ‘We all have a sad tale to tell, lad, especially when it comes to humans. So why do you want to be like them?’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Hudhud whirled around to face her.

  ‘This attitude won’t work with me, you know.’ Salmo bared her sharp teeth. ‘You are headed to kill a sea creature, a legendary one at that. Who else kills for revenge but humans?’

  ‘Kill …’ Hudhud chuckled. ‘You think I can kill the sea serpent?’

  ‘You can try. Not that you can.’

  ‘I just said I wanted her to pay.’

  ‘And how, pray tell?’ The fish seemed amused, moving her fins softly as she looked Hudhud in the eye.

  ‘That …’ Hudhud hesitated. ‘… is a secret.’

  ‘Ha!’ Salmo had a wicked glint in her eyes. ‘I’ll soon know your secret. We’ll be reaching the sea serpent tomorrow.’ She flapped her tail and swam ahead.

  Hudhud drew a long sigh and resumed following the ever-angry Atlantic salmon for the rest of the night. In reality, he had no plan as to how he was going to trouble the sea serpent. The leatherbacks were one of the giants of the sea, but the sea serpent was the stuff of legend. Yet Hudhud was confident about finding a way to get back at the serpent for killing his brother. He and Kilkila had always figured out ways to play tricks on hunters of the deep sea, making even deadly creatures jump—and sometimes tumble over their heads in the water. And then the two brothers would burst into laughter. The X-Brothers would also torment other kids their age with endless pranks.

  Hudhud thought he heard Kilkila’s lilting chuckle and whipped around to see two young sea turtles go past. They exchanged a high five and swam with a shameless laziness Hudhud had forgotten after his childhood, which was not really that long back. And suddenly, just like that, on their last trip to the tropics, they’d wanted to impress girls. If only he had not fought with Kilkila over the girl …

  Hudhud was yanked out of his guilt-ridden reverie as Salmo caught a squid leaping towards him and munched it with flair. The early morning rays of the sun had started to bleach the dark waters of the night ocean to a golden glaze.

  ‘And now the brat is crying.’ Salmo abruptly stopped chewing, eyeing Hudhud’s tears critically.

  ‘Nah …’ Hudhud looked embarrassed, avoiding a cuttlefish which scooted past them. ‘This is just the excess salt we secrete through our eyes.’

  ‘Hmm … Leatherback mums who come to the shore to lay eggs do that, right? Anyway, so what’s with the haunted look? Are you getting cold feet as we approach the serpent?’

  ‘Madame, your imagination is as wild as your anger.’

  Salmo glowered, but controlled herself and said in a soft, conspiring voice, ‘Look here, turtle. Or Luth. Or Hudhud. Whatever your name is. I have seen the sea serpent. You can’t even beat her in your dreams. She is a boundless, enormous being, who sweeps the deep ocean with her tail. You call her a monster? I call her the oracle. She is an old, wise sage. Even if she killed your brother, it would have been for a reason.’ Her low voice was thick and smoky. ‘Give up the idea of getting back at her. Let’s try to find a way to tackle the don instead!’

  ‘I’m sorry, madame. I must face the sea serpent. Kilkila—’

  ‘Seven blue whales!’ Salmo Salar’s retort was fearsome. ‘Kilkila is dead, lad! You want to end up dead too?’ Without waiting for an answer, she darted away.

  Hudhud was shaken by Salmo’s anger, but it left him even more resolved. He had to avenge Kilkila,whatever it took. His secret regret was gnawing at him every moment. What if … He knew he had no plan. But he could do something. Instant plans always came to him and Kilkila whenever they were faced with a situation. And even if nothing came to him, he would bite the serpent with his scissor-like jaws that had backward-curving spiny barbs to trap slippery prey. The leatherbacks could eat only soft-bodied animals like jellyfish due to their delicate jaws, but he was sure that the serpent had a supple body as well.

  ‘I could bite her tail off … or … or … give her a scar for life!’ He flapped ahead in wrath. ‘Even if she kills me for that,’ he said loud enough for Salmo Salar’s ears. She didn’t show any signs of having heard him.

  The hot-headed salmon became a little uneasy. She looked ahead, her angry eyes—always puffed up like pufferfish—now squinting with a hint of fear. What loomed in front was a strange half-world, lit up in filtering sunlight. Hudhud, who had been surprised by many strange sights in the depths of the ocean and near islands and coasts on his journeys across the seas, too did a double take. For this surpassed them all. It looked like an underwater forest … made of bones. White stalagmites that looked like trees shot up from the seabed. Oblong caves made gaping mouths on them and thousands of crabs crawled around the openings, giving the illusion of the mouths moving. There was something else that was moving inside the caves—maggot-white and like the multiple tongues in a monster’s mouth. He couldn’t quite make out what it was.

  Salmo stopped. Hudhud followed her gaze, her head tipped up, and he drew in a sharp breath. Not at the mysterious and eerie vision, but at the amorphous grey forms that had started to take shape near the surface. Dozens of hammerhead sharks, with their oddly shaped heads, were circling above the white ocean forest, as if waiting for someone’s command.

  ‘The sea serpent’s?’ Hudhud murmured to himself. Maybe just biting the legend’s tail off and running away was not an option after all.

  ‘And what work do an old juicy Atlantic salmon and a young Atlantic leatherback have here?’ a voice cut through the cold waters.

  Hudhud and Salmo, transfixed by the sharks, had failed to notice a stingray approach them.

  ‘Seven blue whales! And who are you to ask?’ Salmo’s fury was back like it hadn’t gone anywhere to begin with. She looked at the stingray with withering contempt. ‘Even the sea serpent has her goons in place!’

  ‘Aha …’ The stingray moved her wings smoothly as she drew nearer, the venomous barbed sting on her tail looking harmless. ‘So we have a salmon with anger management issues? Haven’t tasted that yet.’

  ‘Try tasting me, you thug!’ Salmo darted ahead. Immediately the dark silhouettes of more stingrays emerged at the periphery of their vision.

  ‘Stop it, I say!’ Hudhud dashed between her and the stingray. Fear had lent his voice an aggressive edge. ‘It’s none of your business, Salmo, who guards the sea serpent. Stay here till I meet her and come back.’

  ‘And am I supposed to wag my tail too, master?’

  ‘Wait here.’ Hudhud pleaded and faced the stingray. The others had stopped where they were. ‘I have travelled from afar to meet the sea serpent. Will you take me to her?’

  ‘And what do I look like?’ The stingray moved her tail dangerously. ‘Her sidekick? Or her doorkeeper? Go meet her yourself!’ In one long liquid motion, she moved aside
to let him pass.

  ‘This is unexpected …’ said Hudhud. ‘So anyone can go meet her? Just like that?’

  ‘Meet her, all right,’ said Salmo. ‘But can’t escape her.’ She sneaked a nervous look at the hammerhead sharks.

  ‘I’ll tell you how it goes.’ Hudhud nodded at Salmo and flapped his flippers to go towards the white forest.

  ‘That’s if you live to tell the tale, you thundering great fool!’ Salmo called after him.

  As Hudhud approached the eerie tree-shaped stalagmites rising from the ocean floor, he could see barnacles growing on their walls. The crabs around the holes seemed to be working intently, going back and forth with business on their minds. Hudhud swam slowly to buy some time, but his thoughts travelled like the current of an electric eel. Rage had started to boil within him as he was thinking about his brother and, flapping forward, he began to gain speed.

  ‘The time has come,’ he gurgled, ‘to make the sea serpent pay! For Kilkila’s life … my brother, my buddy … I was not with you, because of some stupid fight … but here I am. I’ve found the crook. I might go down fighting, but I’ll bite off her tail, you’ll see!’

  He had reached the edge of the white forest. He slowed down and peeked from behind one of the stalagmites. White tongues moved inside a cave close by, and crabs trotted about with something soft, like tiny jellyfish, in their claws. The chalky stalagmite forest stretched ahead, the sunrays making it shimmer. Bubbles rose in columns somewhere from the depths. There were many more stingrays moving around here. Hudhud’s heart fluttered in his chest like the strange, soft creatures of various hues floating everywhere in the white forest—ghost jellyfish! So this was what the sea serpent was letting loose in the ocean! This was what so many leatherbacks were eating and dying from! The tales were true after all.

  Hudhud gritted his jaws and swam forth into the dense silence of the underwater forest. That’s when he saw the first glimpse of the monster he had only heard of in stories. The giant electric-blue serpent hung from a white stalagmite, her pointed tail moving in a serpentine motion in the water. Orange spikes, in stark contrast to her blue tapering body, ran down the length of her spine. Her body went on and on, up and farther up. But where was her head?

  A chill ran down Hudhud’s leathery back and he knew it was not the cold waters. The sea serpent had stirred a primal fear in him. Something else stirred within him as well, and he tasted bile in his mouth. This creature had taken Kilkila’s life! He wanted to yank her from the outcrop and bite hard till she shrieked murder.

  Hudhud’s mouth curved in a snarl as he prepared to lunge forward when someone whispered, ‘Hey there.’

  He turned to look right into the face of the sea serpent! She had a flat face, as if someone had punched her there, an orange crest on her head and curious round eyes.

  Hudhud flinched and flapped back.

  ‘Are you lost?’ She had a balmy voice.

  Hudhud tried to get his bearings as raw fury surged through him, gritted his jaws and looked into her stormy grey eyes. ‘I challenge you, serpent.’

  The serpent’s orange crest trembled as she tittered. ‘Oh, I can’t beat a fast-swimming leatherback!’

  ‘I’m not talking about a swimming competition!’ Irritation pricked him. ‘I’m talking about combat, you cold-blooded killer!’

  ‘Oh, that.’ The serpent’s voice was full of mirth. ‘I hope it won’t be hand-to-hand.’ She looked up at her long, limbless body, which went on for no less than forty feet, coiled around the stalagmite.

  ‘Are you teasing me, serpent?’ Hudhud glared. ‘I don’t care if I’m in your abode. I have to settle with you!’

  ‘I’m flattered, lad.’ The serpent shook her head daintily, bringing her whole body down. ‘Don’t you think I’m too old for you, though?’

  Hudhud groaned. ‘I have to settle a score with you, if you know what that means?’

  The serpent gave him a toothless smile.

  ‘Arrrrrgh …!’ Hudhud cried out in frustration but stopped on hearing the silvery chuckle he knew so well. He looked around wildly. ‘Are you playing tricks on me, you vile magical serpent?’

  ‘Play? Why would I play when you wanted combat?’

  Hudhud left the serpent where she was and began to swim from one stalagmite to the next as the chuckling drew nearer. He looked to the surface, where the hammerhead sharks were circling, and saw a leatherback diving down towards them.

  He shook his head with force as if a crab were stuck there. ‘Don’t use your sorcery on me, serpent! I came for a fair fight.’

  ‘Was fighting with me not enough, Huddy?’ The leatherback came flapping right in front of him.

  Hudhud reached out and touched the other turtle gingerly. ‘Kilkila?’

  ‘Who else, bruh?’ Kilkila raised his flipper for a high five but Hudhud eyed him suspiciously.

  ‘You are supposed to be dead.’

  ‘I would have been, had Regalis not saved me.’ He dropped his flipper and glanced gratefully at the sea serpent.

  ‘Saved you …?’

  ‘Oh, yeah. See all these ghost jellyfish here?’ He pointed to the soft, fluttering creatures around them. ‘These are not ghosts as we believed from all those stories! This is something called “plastic”, dumped by humans in our oceans in tons and tons! We mistake it for jellyfish, feed on it and choke and die. You are what you eat, they say. Eat a ghost and become one.’

  Hudhud studied the lifeless ghosts floating around him and his jaw dropped open like the shell of a clam.

  ‘Me and a few other leatherbacks would have gorged on the ghosts had Regalis not appeared in front of us like an oracle and warned us about the danger.’

  ‘But why …’ Hudhud demanded. ‘Why didn’t you come back?’

  ‘See all the crabs, stingrays and other creatures around here?’ Kilkila asked.

  Hudhud had noticed them all carrying small bits of plastic and stuffing them in the mouths of the caves in the white tree-shaped stalagmites.

  ‘We are all helping Regalis pack away some of the plastic dumped in this part of the ocean. We have volunteered to lend a helping hand for a few days before we carry on with our journeys. The ocean is our home after all.’

  ‘Oh …’ Hudhud blinked as all the information sunk in. ‘The sharks too?’

  ‘Yes. They collect plastic from near and far and bring it here to be put away.’

  ‘And … and … you are … alive, Kila!’

  Kilkila chuckled and raised his flipper for a high five again. Hudhud slapped his brother’s hand this time and tittered in immense relief.

  ‘I’m sorry, Kila. I’m not going to leave your side now.’

  ‘So let’s get to work, Huddy! The X-Brothers are back!’

  ‘First I must apologize to the sea serpent.’ Hudhud turned around to swim back and almost bumped into Regalis’s face. ‘Will you stop doing that?’ he fumed.

  ‘I’m not a sea serpent, by the way.’ Regalis flashed a smile, which softened her flat face. ‘I’m an oarfish. Most of us live in deep waters and some of us grow this long. We are the creatures behind the sea serpent legends the world over.’

  ‘Are you now …’ Hudhud stared at her orange crest moving with the waters. ‘I have promised …’ He gulped. ‘You know, since I had to get to you, I promised Wolf Don your crest if he showed me the way. The crest … it’s supposed to hold your magic, isn’t it?’

  ‘I wish it did!’ Regalis smiled wistfully. ‘But I’m sorry I can’t chop off my crest to present to that cheeky Wolf Don. Believe it or not, I have better things to do.’ The oarfish moved her long electric-blue body and swam away into the white forest. She was one of the most majestic and mysterious beings Hudhud had ever seen. He kept staring after her curving body, as if in a trance.

  ‘Huddy.’ Kilkila sounded dead serious. ‘Did you make a pact with THE Wolf Don? You know he’ll not let you off the hook, don’t you? He will find you—anyhow—if you don’t get him what he wanted.
’

  ‘We’ll see when he gets to me, Kilkila. If we can tackle a shark, we can tackle him.’

  ‘You forget he has many sharks and other such creatures serving him.’

  Both the brothers looked at each other darkly.

  ‘Reputation … reputation …’ came a deep bass of a voice, ‘and …?’

  ‘Image?’ Hudhud answered spontaneously.

  Salmo Salar swam towards them.

  ‘Who’s the fat one?’ asked Kilkila.

  ‘Who’re you calling fat, mister?’ the salmon snarled.

  ‘Peace, madame. Why are you talking about the three things that matter to Don?’

  ‘What if …’ Salmo spoke to Hudhud but scowled at Kilkila. ‘… we spread a rumour that is sure to reach Don—the crest of the sea serpent gives you a bad case of gas?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘You heard it right.’ Salmo faced Hudhud now. ‘Do you think he would want the crest if the ocean creatures fear he’s going to fart whenever they come to him?’

  A grin spread over Hudhud’s face. ‘Reputation is key after all.’

  ‘But how do we spread a rumour that will reach him?’ Kilkila asked. ‘The ocean is a big place, no?’

  ‘There are thousands and thousands of Atlantic salmon that travel the Atlantic Ocean. I only need to whisper the word to them.’

  ‘Brilliant!’ A chirpy voice made them tilt their heads up as Salmo bumped into the flat face of the oarfish.

  ‘Seven blue whales!’ She staggered back.

  ‘It’s a brilliant suggestion,’ said Regalis, not minding their reaction. Her long body trailed among the white stalagmites. ‘The don is a bigger sucker than suckerfish!’

  ‘But what will you do, Salmo?’ asked Hudhud. ‘Your brother is still his captive.’

  ‘Don’t worry about that, lad. I have done my job, and as per the don’s reputation, he has to keep his word and release my brother.’

  ‘Super!’ Kilkila beamed. ‘That sorts it all! Let’s get to work, Huddy.’

  ‘Madame, thank you, thank you, thank you for all your help!’ Hudhud chimed in, swimming in circles around Salmo. Her face cracked in a rare smile.