Rescue

Giman dove, the powerful muscles in his tail propelling him deep under the water. He held the cone shaped basket in front of him, letting it cut the water ahead. In no time, he arrived at the ocean floor. it was pitch black to his common eyes, but it didn't matter. He knew this area better than he knew himself. He reached blindly for the huge stone anchor his ancestors had placed there long ago, and tied the basket to it. Transforming into full dolphin form, he swam up about twenty feet so he could see the whole area. The ocean floor was full of plant life, but he wasn't interested in any of that. What he was interested in, was the boslai colony migration happening about a click to the west. Clicking the location to anyone else in range, he headed back towards his basket. He transformed just the upper half of his body into common form again so he could grab the basket, . Blind again, he swam towards the area where he knew the boslai would be. Now came the hard part. Swimming low to the floor, he dragged the basket along under him so that the mouth opened to the oncoming creatures. Careful to keep his hands on the top of the basket so he wouldn't be pinched by the boslai's claws. A few of his clan had the ability to turn both their head's and tails into Clan form, while keeping their fins as arms, b so that they could see what they were doing. But, it was incredibly hard to do, an something he hadn't quite mastered. Changing naturally came from one direction and flowed to the other. It didn't matter where you started, but it was hard enough to stop in the middle, let alone have two stopping points. So, Giman collected the boslai blind.

Just as he was about to finish the run, the entire world was rocked by a n incredibly loud sound. Startled, Giman dropped the basket and involuntarily took a breath of water. The water hitting his lungs brought him back to his senses.

'Don't panic,' the words echoed in his mind.

'Don't breathe,' he remembered as he attempted to calm himself down. Panic would kill him as quickly as lungs full of water.

'Turn Clan,' simple steps, Giman relaxed his mind and his whole body turned to dolphin form.

'Find the surface,' childhood training never goes away.

'Swim for the light,' with powerful strokes, he propelled his way to the lighter water above. In moments, he was shooting straight up out of the water. The air felt glorious as it filled his lungs again. Reaching the apex of his jump, he nosed down to dive to into the water again. Or, not. Giman landed with a sickening crunch on something hard and very much not water. Stunned, again, Giman just lay there as waves of pain enveloped his body.

"What do you think it is?" he heard a voice whisper. Humans spoke a peculiar language.

"I don't know," a second voice replied. "I've never seen anything like it. I had no idea there were fish that big on this planet."

Giman startled at that, fish? He was not a fish. Fish were prey. He was lailani, predator. He tried to move, but the pain was too great.

"Is it dead?" the first voice asked cautiously.

Giman tried to look around, but the light was far too bright for his clan eyes to see more than dim shapes.

"I don't think so..." the second voice replied hesitantly, "I think I saw it's eyes move. Maybe we should take it back to port."

Port? That was a bad place, Giman remembered, it was where humans took fish they were planning on eating. Somehow, he had to prove to these humans that he wasn't a fish, and maybe they would let him go instead of eating him. But, let him go where? He was pretty sure that something was broken. There was no way to know if he could even stay afloat long enough for someone to find him. Few of his clan frequented this section of the ocean, and it would be hours before anyone discovered that he was missing. But still, he would not be gutted like prey. The pain had been growing more intense, Giman had never before realized just how much strength it took to change form. His attempt only briefly caused his face to changed before his boy snapped back to Clan form with a ferocity that scared him far more than the pain.

"Uh, Boss, something weird is going on here!" one of the voices called out.

"Just leave the fish alone and help me with the sail," came the reply, "We'll deal with the fish when we get back to port. We got a storm coming up on us, and I want to get back before it catches us."

'Nothing could ever hurt this much,' Giman thought to himself, oblivious to the conversation around him. If he couldn't change to common, these men would gut him like the fish they thought he was. His mate and baby boy were waiting for him at home. He couldn't just die, not like prey. Slowly, he gathered all his remaining strength, storing it in his mind until he didn't think he could hold any more. Eyes squeezed tight in concentration, he released the energy in one violent wave. A cascade of pain followed, and he moaned has he felt bones shifting and mass rearranging.

"Boss! Boss!" the voice sounded far off as his mind struggled to comprehend the daggers of pain trying to tear his body apart.

"King save us!" a different voice now, "that's a man!"

"What are we going to do? It must be one of those animal-people."

"We ain't gonna do nothing, he'll sit tight. Right now we got bigger problems!"

"King save us! Storm's here, look at those waves!"

Giman's mind barely registered the commotion around him. He was ready for whatever came, it was enough that he would not die as prey. His mate would never forget him, and his spirit would live on in his son.

"He's got broken bones, if he falls in the water, he'll die!" a voice shouted above the sound of the crashing waves.

"I'll tie him to the mast so he won't get lost," the voice was so loud, it must be close by. He felt hands pull him to a sitting position, and drag him to a wooden pole. Something rough compressed his chest, and then the hands were gone. As he slumped forward, another wave of pain overtook him.

"I hope he lives," was the last thing Giman heard before descending into unconsciousness.

The End.