Orca Damage

No time to be afraid. Act! Do something, Jake!

<Prince Jake!>

TSEEEWWW!! TSEEEWWW!

Another yellow beam lanced the murk, missing me by millimeters.

<Jake! You've been hit!>

Impossible! I hadn't felt. . .

Another billowing red cloud surrounded me.

And then I felt the pain. I clicked and saw a piece of the whale's body, my body, spiraling down, down. The top three feet of my dorsal fin! Shaved off.

Clickclickclickclick.

A different angle. I needed eyes not clicks! I needed to see!

No. No, the orca chased down sea lions with its senses. It was enough. Calm down. Get a gr -

TSEEEEEW!

The Sea Blade moved again. It was over us now, a dark cloud raining killer beams.

TSEEEWW! TSEEEWWW!

<Prince Jake, you are losing too much blood! You must swim out of range and - >

TSEEEWWW!

Another foot-long slice of me was gone!

Blood. More blood.

What should I do?

<What. . . >

I was confused. Couldn't think straight.

Thunk! Thunk!

Two of us slammed into the sub. And for a moment the sub was visible to my blurred eyes. I saw the black wings, the engines, the blister pods.

(...)

<Jake! You have to demorph! We have to get to the surface!>

I couldn't...

Cassie's voice. Desperate now.

<Jake! Roll over onto your belly. You're just back from my blowhole. I'm going to let my air out slowly for you to take in. Listen to me, Jake. It's your only chance!>

(...)

I woke from a gray dream.

Sprawled on the back of a killer whale.

Breathing air from its blowhole.

Carefully, weakly sucking a small mouthful of air at a time.

But this was no dream. This was my nightmare like reality.

We breached.

Cassie blew out the last of her air along with a froth of seawater. I started to slide off her slippery back. Grabbed onto her dorsal fin. Coughed and retched and spit out the water that had collected in my lungs.

<Jake?>

"I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm going to morph back to orca. You get back to the fight."

<Take a minute. Rest,> Cassie said. <Please.>

I shook my head.

"Impossible. Tell everyone to take them in the belly. Hear me? From beneath! Now go!"

I rolled off Cassie's great curved back and treaded water in the calm sea.

I watched as she descended. As she dove back into the thick of the battle. And I wondered for about two seconds if I were doing the right thing.

Then I looked up at the darkening sky and thought: killer whale.

And within minutes I became an orca for the second time that night. Eight tons and twenty feet of oceangoing, deep-diving mammal.