The Gift From Poseidon: When Gods Walked Among Us (Volume 2) Read Free

distress were well on their way.
    The seven Orcas that Diedrika could see suddenly peeled off in different directions.  Three of the whales – the massive bull was one of them – disappeared into the shimmering shadows below.  Diedrika’s head back above the surface, she watched warily as the other four, each about twenty pike lengths away, began to encircle her.
    Curse the gods!  Were they eyeing her juiciest pieces?
    Furiously trying to decide if she should flee (“To where exactly?”), bronze-make a weapon (“And do what with it?  There were FOUR of them!”), shout out to the heavens that just this once she should have listened to her Queen Mother ––
    The bull Orca suddenly breached.  All but the tip of a fluke and edge of his left pectoral fin fully out of the water, such an elegant presentation would have delighted Diedrika if he was not so close and she was not trembling in terror.  The colossal whale landed on his left side; an immense splash pummeled Diedrika’s face and the spectacular wave that threw this splash propelled her backward.  She frantically wiped the foaming water from her eyes.  The massive bull now nonchalantly cruising passed her; he tilted to his right side, and started to shove water into her face using his left pectoral fin.  After five or six of these unfriendly splashes, the boorish bull swam away, then descended into the deep, and was gone.  As if by magic, the four whales that had been circling her also vanished.
    “I guess I’m all alone now,” Diedrika gasped as she turned her head in every direction.  She gulped.  “Or not!”
    A dorsal fin rising high above the surface now charged straight for her.  She swiveled around; another dorsal fin in the exact opposite direction headed for her at full speed as well.  Diedrika submerged below the surface.  Loud, rapid clicking bombarded her ears.  The shadows caused by the setting sun gone, the sea was now as clear as a cloudless sky.  And sure enough, two Orcas were closing rapidly.
    Still slightly below the water’s surface, Diedrika pushed both hands behind her back.  As she brought her glowing palms to her front in an arcing motion, she bronze-made matching rectangular shields that curved outward – they were nearly as tall as she was.  One in each hand and held tight against her body, these shields molded what was essentially a bronze cocoon around her.
    The clicks and squeaks coming from the charging whales now almost deafening, Diedrika could feel these sounds repeatedly bounce off her shields.  Thrusting her powerful tail back and forth to keep from sinking, she looked through a crack where the two shields met: knifing through the water, almost upon her … mouths open….
    Silence.  Only harmless waves now bumped into Diedrika from each direction – neither whale had collided into the shields.  She released them and hurriedly surfaced.  Her disheartened eyes did not meet black and white sketching their way across the water, but pastels of orange and blue painting the sky.  The sun had departed.  And so too had any trace of the Orcas.
    Diedrika took in long, deep breaths and bobbed along the surface for many moments.  She hoped the whales would return, but none did.  Not tonight, at least.  She took her time as she then swam back toward the beach.
    “Princess!  Princess!” Penelope shouted as she rushed toward Diedrika as fast as she could with her walking sticks.
    Spent both mentally and physically, Diedrika exited where stones made smooth from an eternal washing at the hands of the always-moving sea covered the sand.  Penelope now close, Diedrika inspected her.  She looked like a wretched creature who had been plunged into the spirit world of the dead, somehow escaped to cheat death, and moments ago returned to the land of the living.  She shook uncontrollably and her skin was the palest blue Diedrika had ever seen on a Mermaid.  Forget blue – Penelope was Sapien white!
    Diedrika’s