Moonfin Page 9

  Chapter 10

  THE WATERPEOPLE

  It was close to nine o’clock when Lizzy, Jeff, and Kai arrived grudgingly at Blowing Prawn Beach, buckets in hand, ready to join in on the hunt. The moon was full. People were all aflutter. And by the time they showed up, the old timers were well into their storytelling …

  “It happened once after the Charleston Earthquake of 1886,” wheezed Mr. Greer, owner of the unfortunate boat the seals had sunk many years prior (they capsized several more boats, but his was their favorite one to tip over in the harbor). Mr. Munt added his story to the trickle around the campfires with, “One bit my toe in ’39 on the shores of Kamogawa when I was a boy….” Mrs. Bickle passed around a recipe book she’d written on the subject, swearing up and down that gimpits were the remedy for gout and stuttering.

  And so, under the glowering moon, neighbors and shopkeepers, young and old, threw out their beach chairs ready to hold vigil into the midnight hours. Many wore funny hats with fish tails sticking out the back. And while they huddled under piles of blankets around the fire pits to stay warm, the children began to sing their songs of wooing:

  “Oh gimpit! Oh gimpit! Oh gimpit fair!

  Lay your eggs upon the beach if you dare!

  The savvy moon will light your way

  To our boiling pots this happy day!

  Fill our plates and tummies too,

  We’ll bake your purple gizzard goo;

  Diamond fins and yellow belly

  In a crust full of jelly!

  Oh gimpit! Oh gimpit! Oh gimpit least!

  Visit us soon, so we may feast!”*

  At the end of the song, everyone danced around like sweaty ogres, skipping and splashing in the water with hopes of enchanting the little sardines (which explains why they’ve never seen one).

  Sugar was all set with her white buckets and nets in tow, cotton candy hair tied up neatly in a bandana, polyester slacks rolled above her knees.

  “Are y’all ready? I can feel it in my bones! It’s gonna happen tonight and we are making fish stew!”

  Jade showed up to lend a helping hand, looking gorgeous for all to see—especially for Lee, who hadn’t arrived yet. Kai and Jeff rolled their eyes at the whole spectacle and plopped down in the sand next to the fire to make s’mores.

  “Might as well stuff our faces with chocolate and marshmallows if we’re going to be stuck here all night,” said Kai, looking on the bright side.

  The shoreline sparkled, and harmonicas lifted on the breeze. Occasionally someone would shout, “I see one!” then, “false alarm!” It was only a piece of driftwood or someone’s lost shoe.

  Lizzy wrapped herself snugly in Sugar’s quilt, which she always did when feeling a bit sad, and stared silently into the dancing flames. Brandon used to love these shenanigans, she thought to herself. She never let herself believe he was gone forever. But today—right at this moment—she felt herself giving in. A small tear trickled down her cheek.

  Her heart sank into her stomach, and the merriment around her soon became too much to bear (because when you’re glum, the last thing you want to do is sing songs about gimpits). She dropped the quilt and, grabbing a piece of driftwood to use as a walking stick, headed toward the coves to be alone and clear her mind for a bit. She could join in on the fun later.

  Climbing over some rocks, she tumbled into a small inlet covered with broken shells and found a flat stone near the lapping sea to sit down on. There she let the memories of all the happy times from her past flood her heart and the anguish of loss pour out through her tear ducts. A long and heavy-hearted time ensued as she wept into the salty night air. Until …

  The water made a rippling sound at her feet, and a gentle murmur rose up from somewhere—

  “There, there, young one. Let it allllll out,” she heard clear as a bell.

  “Wh-who is there?” she stammered into the thick darkness. It sounded deep and raspy—a man’s voice—and startled Lizzy from her glum mood.

  “You have been through so much, you deserve a good cry,” he said soothingly.

  Scared, Lizzy looked madly around the cove but couldn’t see a single soul.

  “H-how do you know what I’ve been through?” She wiped at her stinging eyes.

  “You have a right to be angry,” he cooed. “Aren’t you tired of being a perfect and doing the right thing all the time?” A strange, hypnotic buzzing began to course through her mind.

  “Where are you?” she called out, looking hard in the direction of the sound, which seemed to come right out of the black water.

  “You hurt so much inside you think you might explode. Wouldn’t you like someone to pay? I know exactly how you feel, my dear …”

  “No, I would never….”

  It was hard to block out what he was saying. The words seemed to be piercing and poking her brain in a steady beat and bringing all the feelings it suggested along with it. The rage bubbled up like a fountain within her, drowning her thoughts.

  His voice grew stronger and he clanged and hissed.

  “It isn’t fair. Some girls get it all—the new toys, beauty, popularity, happiness—but you! Tsk, tsk! I don’t want to say it, but life has not been kind to you.”

  Lizzy jumped to her feet, digging pointed fingers into her forehead, but dizziness forced her back down to the rock. Something was squeezing her brain! If self-pity were a living fireworm, it was burrowing into her skull at that moment.

  “You should come to me, and we should talk some more. Trust me, it will sooooothe you.”

  “Um—okay,” Lizzy said blankly, unable to resist, “Where are you?”

  “Right here—come a little closer to me….”

  She felt a sudden longing to walk right into the water—she was sure it would calm her anger. Of course! It all made sense to her that the place she loved the most, the ocean, was going to wash all her pain away. She rose from the rock and slipped her toes into the billowing tide.

  “Yeeeeesss, just a little more … that’s right. I will make it all better—”

  Then, in a moment and a flash, yellow eyes rose up out of the water, and something like a thick, black, slimy vine wrapped around her leg. The vine turned and plunged down into the sea, taking her trapped with it, slithering and zipping, dragging her body along like a limp rag doll to the ocean depths. Lizzy, still in a stupor, tried to make it out.

  Was it an eel? How could that be, it’s so big!

  They traveled into the dark recesses, her lungs burning. She began to suffocate. As if by instinct, she reached out and grabbed a conch shell from the sandy floor as they flew by. She put it up to her mouth and took deep gulps of air.

  Aaaahhh, she breathed. Good thing Xili taught me about this.

  The eel was surprised to see her breathe from the conch. He hadn’t counted on that. She had learned quickly!

  He sent a jolt of electricity through his tail and zapped Lizzy, causing her to drop the conch. Her body went limp. A steady stream of current and confusing thoughts pulsated through her mind. Paralyzed, eyes rolling back into her head, she began to lose consciousness …

  SCHWAACK!

  A green ball with a hard shell swiftly rammed into the eel, stunning his slimy trunk. The eel roiled sideways, hissing and spewing in pain. He lost hold of Lizzy’s leg and she tumbled backward. Through fluttering eyelids, she could see the attacker was a giant sea turtle!

  Without strength left to breathe from a conch, even if she could find one close by, her body floated listlessly toward the murky floor. Unexpectedly, the sea turtle whipped around and came under her, offering its shell. Then she realized: it was the eel he was trying to strike, not her.

  “Hold tight! I will take you safely back to shore,” a boyish voice cried out.

  Her fingers stretched long, and with her last ounce of strength, she curled them around the shell’s soft corners, right behind his head.

  The eel recovered from the blow and came at them from behind.

  Big mi
stake.

  The sea turtle paused to take strategic aim, using his pointed tail for precision sight, and blasted a massive air bubble from under his posterior shell—a deafening foghorn to say the least. It smacked the eel square in the gob, knocking him back against the sharp coral, scraping up his fleshy belly.

  Threat definitely neutralized.

  The turtle rose up from the ocean depths carrying Lizzy on his back. She saw a little blood trickling from his front leg and felt the urge to place her hand over the cut. A warm, golden glow washed over the jagged wound and something astonishing happened—it stopped bleeding. He brought her back to shore, to the rock where she had been sitting before her wild ride with the eel, and waited patiently as she climbed from his shell.

  Lizzy turned and knelt down to touch his dappled head. “Thank you,” she said shakily, but he quickly submerged and swam out to sea before her hand made contact.

  “Oh, I did want to speak to you,” she whispered miserably.

  With eyes burning anew, she crumpled onto the rock and cradled her head in her hands.

  The water moved again.

  It swirled and churned below the rock, swishing faster and faster, and before Lizzy realized what was happening, three fountains shot up into the air. The likeness of people now appeared before her. However, they weren’t the flesh-and-blood kind, but water-flowing-through-and-around-them kind of people. At one moment an arm and leg would appear and disappear, or a nose and ear would form on a head, then sink back into the constantly moving fountain, dripping and streaming into and out of their watery bodies. They spoke to each other in a strange language for several moments, not paying any attention to her. But to Lizzy’s surprise, she understood some of the words coming through their drippy mouths.

  “She is young.”

  “She is weak.”

  “She hurts,” said the last. “Be kind.”

  Lizzy recognized the last who spoke.

  “Xili.”

  “Yes, Lizzy, I am here.”

  The first one spoke.

  “Zshe-ma mogo hida zhen fremp! She’s lucky Corky was able to free her. No telling what would have happened!”

  “Yes, this will not do. She must be strong,” trilled the second. “Martufa bel kapix a harambu and all will be lost!”

  “Please, you are being rude,” said Xili. She turned to the other two, drippy arms outstretched. “Speak slowly so she can understand.”

  “Humph—she should understand. It hasn’t been that long—not in our understanding of things.”

  Xili moved her flowing water-body closer to Lizzy, who, entranced by what she saw, reached up to touch her. Xili met Lizzy’s hand with her own and let the warm fountain fall over Lizzy’s arm.

  “Do not be afraid,” she said, and Lizzy wasn’t anymore. The water-arm was warm and friendly and alive.

  Xili pointed to the first water-being to the left and said, “This is Rhizoo,” then motioned to the other being on her right, “and this is Cheroo. We live here with many others in the waters of Blowing Prawn.”

  Lizzy was shocked. “You—you live here in the water?”

  “We are keepers of the sea,” said Rhizoo, in a twittery feminine tone.

  “We help the fishermen and nurture the sea bed,” said Cheroo, in a proud masculine tone.

  Lizzy thought about the mutated fish beneath the aquarium, and, somehow, Xili knew her thoughts.

  “Yes, it is cruel. When we find them, we feed and comfort, but they always die. This is why we need your help.”

  “It is why you are here,” said Cheroo impatiently.

  That familiar feeling of smallness crept over Lizzy.

  “Me? What can I do?”

  “Ah! Sokofameshira pamx bestima! This girl does not even know who she is!” said a quaking Rhizoo. “There is nothing left for us to do!”

  “Patience. Time will sort her out,” Xili said to them both.

  “Or mix her up some more! It will be too late by then!” Cheroo snipped bitterly.

  Xili glided a little closer.

  “Lizzy, do you understand that all of the animals on the earth have their special purposes and jobs?”

  “Yes, mostly. I mean, I don’t get why flies exist,” she said in a small voice, “or mosquitoes for that matter … or crocodiles even. But dogs are man’s best friend, and in the sea, dolphins frolic and protect other animals, even people.”

  “And polyps build the coral bed to make a home for other animals,” said Cheroo.

  “Sharks are like the collectors of the sea,” Rhizoo chimed in. “Sometimes man runs into them, and there are problems, but on the whole they are helpful scavengers, and without them the ocean would be quite messy, indeed!”

  Lizzy nodded her head in understanding. Her parents told her all about the important jobs the animals do.

  “You understand! Well, you see, Dr. Krell is hurting the balance that was established in the ocean from the beginning,” said Xili, notes of suffering in her voice. “His experimenting has hurt many creatures—you saw the animals in the underground cavern where you found Iddo—but this is not the worst.”

  “No, no. He has found the Ancient One,” said Rhizoo

  “The Fierce One,” echoed Cheroo.

  “She was created with a heart of stone,” continued Rhizoo, along with many other descriptions she and Cheroo chorused together in succession.

  “She seems frightening,” said Lizzy after they finished. She was getting used to their language and even found it very comforting to listen to. It wasn’t like anything she’d ever heard before—and lots of foreign tourists came through Blowing Prawn in the summer. It was like ripples and bubbles and the sounds of a stormy sea.

  “Mhmhmhmhm, Iddo showed you at the aquarium, I believe?” said Xili.

  Lizzy thought back to the vision she saw. “Her scales are like a metal armor, her eyes are like the sunrise …” She felt a tingle in her mind when they spoke about her.

  “Nothing on earth is her equal, a creature without fear,” continued Rhizoo.

  “Smoke from her nostrils, merciless, beware!” finished Cheroo, both reciting the words as if from an old poem they had memorized.

  Lizzy wasn’t happy talking about this sea monster after being nearly drowned by one only moments before.

  “But—what does Dr. Krell want with this creature? I mean, couldn’t she just swim off, or fight in some way?”

  “He discovered her out near Otter Island where she hunts for food on her migration from the south and north poles,” explained Xili. “We are not sure how, but he found a way to track her whereabouts around the globe. Preparations were made to trap her in a hidden place somewhere beneath one of the seven islands where she feeds.”

  “Disagreeable.”

  “Abominable.”

  “And let me be clear, Lizzy, whatever Dr. Krell has done, has never been done before”—Xili paused to choose her words carefully—“because it is not humanly possible.”

  “But you keep saying ‘she.’ How do you know whether the animal is male or female?”

  Rhizoo spun in dizzying circles as she spoke.

  “It has always been known she is a female. There is only one for all time!”

  “One? You mean there isn’t another anywhere?”

  “For the ocean. She is one of three. When the earth was in the Yawning Void, they roamed freely. But when the time of man began, three were brought through: a swimmer, a walker, and a flier. She is one with the waters since the beginning of earth, and she will be until the end of time. If there were more than one, the ocean would be destroyed, along with all the fish and men who travel in and on it. That would be a disaster!”

  “And yet, that is what is happening now and why you must stop it,” said Xili earnestly.

  “Me? What can I do?” said Lizzy. “I still don’t get why anything so dangerous would be created in the first place.”

  Cheroo seemed to explode. His watery form expanded outwardly and upwardly to twice i
ts original size. “You humans cannot control all that exists! She leaves well enough alone,” he said sternly.

  “We believe Dr. Krell is trying to create another like her, and that is why he experiments so much on the sea animals beneath the aquarium,” said Xili. “We need you to find her and set her free, before he can do the unthinkable!”

  “If he succeeds, do you know what that would mean?” said Rhizoo, spinning into a blur.

  Lizzy pictured the fierce beast in her mind, the razor-sharp teeth and fiery eyes …

  “Yes, but can he do it? Can he make another?”

  “No, no, no!” exclaimed Rhizoo.

  “No, no, no! The seal, the seal!” echoed Cheroo. If Rhizoo and Cheroo weren’t a shaking spout of water before, they certainly were a frenetic mess now.

  “He tries to clone her using this world’s technology but fails to keep any of them alive—because there is a seal upon her,” answered Xili.

  “What do you mean—what’s a seal?” asked Lizzy, confused.

  “The cells in her body have a lock, and the key is hidden away. Except—”

  “That cannot be!” said Rhizoo.

  Xili continued, “There is a legend that says the dragon’s helix is hidden in the heart of the Blood Star … but it is more tale than truth.”

  “The helix, the star,” repeated Cheroo solemnly.

  “Henricia leviuscula,” whispered Lizzy.

  “Yes, the Blood Starfish. We think that is what it means too.”

  “Then Dr. Krell will never be able to clone her. The Blood Star is extinct—it hasn’t been seen around these waters for many decades,” said Lizzy, shivering. She started to bob up and down like a yo-yo to keep warm.

  “Let us hope so. Even if the legend is true, it will be an impossible task for him to replicate a complete double helix.”

  Lizzy considered what she knew about helixes—that they were shaped like the rail of a spiral staircase; and in science, a helix is one-half of the DNA strand, the genetic coding for all life. It made sense that Dr. Krell would need both helix codes to replicate this sea monster. Without them, it wouldn’t be possible—it’d be like having the spiral staircase without one set of rails and half the stairs.