Danger in the Deep Blue Sea
Page 3
Finally Shelly found her voice. “What just happened?”
“The shark left,” Kiki whispered.
“But why?” Echo asked.
Pearl peered out of the skeleton. She jumped backward when a shadowy figure appeared. But it wasn’t a shark.
“Mr. Fangtooth!” Pearl said in shock. She couldn’t believe her eyes.
“Yes, Pearl, it’s me,” Mr. Fangtooth said in his grumpy voice.
“Be careful,” Echo warned. “There are sharks out there!”
Mr. Fangtooth swam over to Kiki’s killer whale skeleton bed. “Not anymore, girls,” he said. “I chased it away. There was only one. A big one, but only one.”
Pearl’s mouth popped open in surprise. “You got rid of it?”
Mr. Fangtooth smiled, showing a huge fanglike front tooth. “He’s gone. After all, I used to be a colonel in the Shark Patrol before I retired. Didn’t your guard tell you? He’s my nephew.”
“He is? You were?” Pearl asked with newfound respect for Mr. Fangtooth. Now she was sorry for the mean faces she had once made at him.
“Lucky for you ladies, my tail is ultrasensitive and it tingles whenever there’s a great white around,” Mr. Fangtooth explained. “The rest of Trident Academy is in lockdown in the cafeteria.”
“And I do have to thank Shelly,” he continued. “Her singing helped me find you faster.”
The girls rushed out of the skeleton and gathered around Mr. Fangtooth. “Thank you so much,” they said.
Even Pearl nodded. “You saved our lives.”
“All in a day’s work,” Mr. Fangtooth said, and started to swim away. Then he stopped. “Oh, I believe this belongs to you.” He handed Pearl her long, gleaming, white pearl necklace.
“My pearls! Thank you, Mr. Fangtooth,” she said. “These belonged to my grandmother.”
Kiki swam to Pearl. “No wonder you were so upset when you lost them,” she said. “They must be extra-special to you, right?”
Pearl smiled back at her. “Yes, they are. They make me feel close to her when I wear them.”
After Mr. Fangtooth left, the mergirls finished moving Kiki’s bed into her room. Even Pearl helped.
When they were done, Kiki looked around her new home and at her friends. “I want all of you to visit me, okay?” she said. “Now you know this skeleton won’t harm you. It even protected us from a great white shark, right?”
“And a new room is always better with friends,” Wanda added.
Echo grinned. “What an amazing day,” she said, “but we’d better get to class.”
Shelly giggled. “I’ll tell you what was really amazing,” she said.
“What?” Kiki asked.
Shelly grinned. “Pearl is the one who finally got Mr. Fangtooth to smile!”
Class Reports
GREAT WHITE SHARK
By Shelly Siren
The great white shark’s teeth can be as long as a mergirl’s hand. Their teeth have serrated edges that look razor sharp. They are able to rip through the toughest flesh. Luckily for us at Trident Academy, we have a retired colonel from the Shark Patrol, Mr. Fangtooth, working right here at our school to protect us.
CHAIN CATSHARK
By Echo Reef
This funny-looking shark is the only kind I hope I ever see. Its body is covered with what looks like chains from an ancient sailing ship. I like it because it only eats worms, crustaceans, and small fish.
FRILLED SHARK
By Rocky Ridge
My dad wouldn’t let me turn in a report on the bloodiest of all sharks, the great white. What a bummer that I didn’t get to see the one that came inside Trident Academy. That would have been totally cool. I had to do my second-favorite shark, the frilled shark. I like it because it always has this weird-looking smile on its face. Each of its huge teeth has three sharp points. The frilled shark doesn’t even look like a shark. It looks like an eel and eats little fish and squid.
TASSELED WOBBEGONG
By Pearl Swamp
All sharks are horrible, disgusting creatures. The tasseled wobbegong is not only a shark, but it also is the weirdest-looking shark. Once my dad was swimming along the ocean floor in the evening, and a tasseled wobbegong reached up and tried to eat my dad’s tail! My dad still has the scars to prove it. My dad didn’t even see the shark because it looks like the ocean floor!
BLUE SHARK
By Kiki Coral
I chose to write about the blue shark because I think it is the prettiest of all sharks. I like its beautiful blue color and its dark eyes rimmed with white. It is also an ocean wanderer, like me. This shark is very fast and can outswim most merfolk. Luckily, it doesn’t usually bother merpeople or humans, although it has on occasion. Its numbers are declining because humans have killed them for sport or food.
REFRAIN:
Let the water roar
Deep down we’re swimming along
Twirling, swirling, singing the mermaid song.
VERSE 1:
Shelly flips her tail
Racing, diving, chasing a whale
Twirling, swirling, singing the mermaid song.
VERSE 2:
Pearl likes to shine
Oh my Neptune, she looks so fine
Twirling, swirling, singing the mermaid song.
VERSE 3:
Shining Echo flips her tail
Backward and forward without fail
Twirling, swirling, singing the mermaid song.
VERSE 4:
Amazing Kiki
Far from home and floating so free
Twirling, swirling, singing the mermaid song.
Author’s Note
I AM VERY EXCITED TO BE GOING TO visit the ocean very soon. I am hoping to see lots of interesting creatures, but there is one I definitely do not wish to see—a great white! I do want to see a mermaid! Check out the Mermaid Tales section of www.debbiedadey.com to learn how to make your own mermaid club and to find out which kind of mermaid you are! I hope you’ll keep reading the next few pages for more information on the fascinating creatures mentioned in Danger in the Deep Blue Sea.
Dive into reading,
Debbie Dadey
Glossary
BLACK-LIP OYSTER: This oyster lives in the Gulf of Mexico, in the western Pacific Ocean, and in the western and eastern Indian Ocean.
CLAM: Creatures called mollusks live inside shells, like clams and oysters. The biggest and heaviest of the mollusks (there are over fifty thousand types of them) is the giant clam.
CORAL: Carnation coral is the most colorful of reef animals. They can be red, pink, orange, white, or yellow.
COWRIE: The flamingo tongue cowrie has an off-white shell that is usually hidden by two leopard-spotted extensions.
CRAB: When the blue swimming crab feels scared, it buries itself in the sand.
DOLPHIN: Dolphins love to travel in groups. The spinner dolphin will swim in groups of up to several thousand.
GRAY HERON: The gray heron is a tall, long-legged bird that feeds on fish.
GRAY LICHEN: The gray lichen forms little blackish-brown patches on rocks or shells.
HAGFISH: The Pacific hagfish lives in the mud, and it usually survives by eating dead fish.
JELLYFISH: The mauve stinger jellyfish makes a glowing light show, but its sting hurts!
KELP: Off the coast of California is a bed of giant kelp, the biggest of all seaweeds. Sea otters live in the kelp forest.
KILLER WHALE: The killer whale, or orca, is the largest member of the dolphin family.
LONGHORN COWFISH: This fish has very long fleshy horns above its eyes.
MOTHER-OF-PEARL: This is a shiny layer inside some oyster shells. In the past, it was often used for making beautiful buttons.
OYSTERS: Creatures called mollusks live inside shells. Some mollusks have the ability to create pearls and are called feathered oysters. One type of feathered oyster is the Shark’s Bay pearl oyster.
PLANKTON: Plankton are tiny anima
ls that drift with the ocean currents and live in the surface section of the ocean.
RED LIONFISH: This night-loving fish has poison glands on its dorsal fin.
SABLEFISH: Sablefish numbers have declined rapidly because they are slow breeders. It takes fourteen years to replace each fish caught!
SEA HORSE: The male sea horse stores the eggs until they are ready to hatch!
SEAWEED: There are many types of seaweed. The small jelly weed is used in making jam and preserving meat and fish. It’s even used in science experiments.
SHARKS
• BLUE SHARK: This long (thirteen feet) blue shark crosses the ocean looking for food.
• CHAIN CATSHARK: This shark has catlike eyes and strange markings covering its body, making it look like it is wearing chains.
• FRILLED SHARK: This shark doesn’t look like a shark at all, but it does look happy. The eel-like creature often swims with its mouth open, showing large white teeth like it is smiling.
• GREAT WHITE: This 3.7-ton shark can be twenty-four feet long.
• TASSELED WOBBEGONG: This shark manages to look just like a seaweed-covered rock.
SWORDFISH: This fish gets its name from its long, sword-like snout.
WHALE: Beluga whales were once called the “canaries of the sea” because their sounds could be heard through the hulls of wooden sailing ships. Today their numbers are greatly reduced because they have been hunted and they are hurt by pollution and shipping traffic.
Bloodsuckers
CLASS, I HAVE A RIDDLE for you to solve: What creature has a head, a soft body, and one foot?” Mrs. Karp asked her classroom of twenty third-grade merstudents.
One excited merboy blurted out, “A dolphin with a big belly?”
Mrs. Karp raised one green eyebrow. “No, Rocky. Can anyone else tell me the correct answer?”
Shelly Siren pushed her red hair out of her face and slowly raised her hand. “Is it a mollusk?”
Mrs. Karp slapped her white tail on her marble desk. “Correct! And mollusks are the subject of our next project.”
Rocky groaned. “Mrs. Karp, do we have to do another seaweed report?” The entire class held their breath. They’d only been in Mrs. Karp’s third-grade class at Trident Academy for a few weeks, and already they’d done assignments on famous merpeople, whales, krill, and sharks.
“No. Instead of reports we’ll be making sculptures!” Mrs. Karp said. “Tomorrow our art teacher, Miss Haniver, will give us a lesson on sculpting. Won’t that be delightful?” Mrs. Karp smiled from ear to ear.
Shelly thought making a sculpture sounded hard, but she hoped it’d be easier than a written report. She’d much rather be exploring the ocean floor than sculpting or writing a paper.
Shelly’s good friend Kiki Coral asked, “Mrs. Karp, I read in the Trident City Tide that there’s a group of vampire squids living on the other side of Whale Mountain. Are they mollusks?”
Mrs. Karp nodded. “Yes, they are. Vampire squids have light organs at the ends of their arms and fins, so they have a lovely glow when they are disturbed.”
“Vampire squids?” Rocky gasped. “I’ve heard about them. They come into your shell at night and suck your blood!”
A few merkids squealed. Shelly’s other close friend, Echo Reef, looked ready to cry. “Is that true?”
Mrs. Karp frowned at Rocky. “Of course not. That’s just an old mertale told to scare merkids.”
Echo’s eyes widened and her pink tail shook. “It worked,” she whispered to Shelly. “I’m terrified.”
“Now, students, we have quite a busy day. First, we’re going to meet Madame Hippocampus, who will teach you all about merology. Then, after lunch, we’ll visit the merlibrary so you can decide which mollusk you would like to sculpt.”
Rocky and a few other boys frowned. “Do we have to study merology?” Rocky asked.
“Of course,” Mrs. Karp said. “To be a well-rounded merperson you must know everything about merhistory, government, and society. And, class, if you have never seen a hippocampus before, do not act surprised when you first see Madame. It is not polite.”
“A hippocampus!” Rocky shrieked. “I heard they have six heads and twelve eyes!”
Mrs. Karp glared at Rocky. “That will be quite enough. You must stop spreading these rumors. They can only cause trouble.”
“What’s a hippocampus?” Shelly whispered to Kiki as they glided to line up. Kiki was one of the smartest merstudents in class and usually knew the answers.
Kiki whispered back, “A hippocampus is part dolphin and part horse. But even I’ve never seen one. I wonder which part is which.”
“I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” Shelly said. “Whatever she looks like, I sure hope she’s nice.”
Debbie Dadey is the author and coauthor of one hundred and fifty children’s books, including the series The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids. A former teacher and librarian, Debbie now lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with her wonderful husband and children. They live about two hours from the ocean and love to go there to look for mermaids. If you see any, let her know at www.debbiedadey.com.
Jacket designed by Karin Paprocki
Jacket illustrations copyright © 2013 by Tatevik Avakyan
Aladdin
SIMON & SCHUSTER, NEW YORK
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Also by
Debbie Dadey
MERMAID TALES, BOOK 1:
TROUBLE AT TRIDENT ACADEMY
MERMAID TALES, BOOK 2:
BATTLE OF THE BEST FRIENDS
MERMAID TALES, BOOK 3:
A WHALE OF A TALE
Coming Soon
MERMAID TALES, BOOK 5:
THE LOST PRINCESS
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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First Aladdin hardcover edition January 2013
Text copyright © 2013 by Debbie Dadey
Illustrations copyright © 2013 by Tatevik Avakyan
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Designed by Karin Paprocki
The text of this book was set in Belucian Book.
Library of Congress Control Number 2012950425
ISBN 978-1-4424-5319-7 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4424-2986-4 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-4424-2987-1 (eBook)