Dolphin Child Read Free Page B

the
ordinary. Spirit felt pretty normal really, but some extraordinary
things had happened to him over the last few months and he knew
that his life would never be the same again.
    Since then Spirit had learned much more about the lore of the
sea and was confident to swim alone, even if it was always safer
with the rest of the pod. Spirit was careful to use his ability to
echo-locate using clicking and monitor what was in the sea around
him. He didn’t want killer whales to ambush him like they had done
once before when he was with Storm. Spirit like all dolphins was
able to emit high-pitched clicks from his head without even opening
his mouth. When water visibility was poor, which was often the
case, the high-pitched clicks would bounce off any fish or rocks in
the water and return to him, enabling him to construct a mental
picture of what was in front of him, even when he could not
actually see with his eyes. This echo-location was a valuable tool
and he had learned to rely on it much more over the past few
months.
    Spirit listened as he swam. Across the vast expanse of ocean,
he could hear whales calling to each other in the far distance,
their eerie and haunting songs travelling tens of miles between the
great mammals of the deep. Spirit could not yet hear the whistles
and clicks of his own pod, but he knew that he soon would. His pod
used to live much closer to islands but now, though they never
stayed in one part of the sea for too long, they had moved nearer
to the mainland and that suited Spirit well.
    Spirit had been sent on what Storm had called a mission,
though Chaser, another dolphin in the pod, had jokingly said that
was too grand a term for what was really just a messenger errand.
Spirit knew what he meant, but it had been an exciting trip
nevertheless and he was eager to get back to the pod and tell them
what had happened. Before long he could hear the calls of his own
pod members and knew that he did not have far to go before he was
back amongst them.
     
    It was Dancer of course that was the first to swim up and
greet him.
    ‘ Hey Spirit, it’s so good to see you again’ she called happily,
swimming up and around him. He chased her and they leapt excitedly
from the water before twisting tightly around each other.
Eventually they rested on the surface and laughed.
    ‘ So were you successful?’ asked Dancer curiously.
    ‘ I’m not sure. I hope so’ he replied. The other dolphins in the
pod swam up and greeted him, gently rubbing noses. Moonlight and
Summer both nudged him affectionately while Storm, Chaser and
Breeze looked on. Summer’s newly born calf hung in the water next
to his mother, not knowing what to do. Dolphins do not name their
calves until three summers have passed, once the pod know the true
character of the new addition. Until he was old enough to be named
properly, the pod called any calves ‘No-Name’. Yet already Summer
said that she had a feeling that her calf might be called Shimmer,
the same name as a wise old dolphin that had died a few months
before.
    ‘ What of your trip Spirit?’ asked Storm seriously. Though the
pod did not have a leader, Storm was the oldest among them and
carried most authority. Spirit had been sent on a special journey
to try and restore peace among two neighbouring pods. A young
dolphin called Blue, just a little older than Spirit himself, had
argued with his own pod and run away to another without telling
them. It reminded Spirit of the time that he himself had swum away
in the dead of night to go on his ‘coming of age’ swim. Blue though
was angry with his pod and did not want to go back. He had taken up
with another group of dolphins further away from the islands and as
a result the two pods had become estranged. They had clashed
angrily, chasing the same shoals of fish and the council of
dolphins had asked Storm to go and intervene. But Storm had sent
Spirit instead, saying to everyone’s surprise that the younger
dolphin was better able to