Chapter Text
They moved as one unit, closing in on their target as a pack. Dick swam at the head of the pod and echo-located on the rudder of the yacht. Their prey was the largest target they had struck, and internally, Dick felt a measure of unease. Could he do this? It was the largest vessel they'd hunted thus far.
Jason. Jason would be better at this, he thought. But his brother's strength was needed elsewhere, or this would have been his assignment. However, Mother was confident that Dick had the size and strength required for this critical task, and Mother was never wrong. Plus, Dick had his brothers at his back, filling the ocean with a cacophony of clicks and encouraging whistles celebrating the start of another hunt. He could and would do this. For Mother and First Mother, too.
The sun had only started to set beneath the horizon when the hunt began. According to Mother, this was to make it easier for the humans to rescue each other and pull them from the water before full-dark. Neither Dick nor the rest of his brothers understood why they needed to protect these humans, who worked for the man who took First Mother from them, but again, Mother was never wrong. So, he and the others would obey like good sons and soldiers.
Dick stayed beneath the waves keeping his dorsal fin out of sight until he was upon the target. Then, with jaws wide, he latched onto the rudder and violently shook his head like Mother did when he ripped into his meals.
Meaningless bells and whistles rang out as the boat pitched back and forth in the ocean swells. Then, the shouting began. Humans had so many ways of being loud. Yet, among all that noise, they never managed to utter a single word or sound that made any sense. It was dumbfounding.
The wooden rudder began to crack between his teeth. He shook his head again, and the rudder came free. Elated, Dick wheeled away from the vessel, and when he was a safe distance from it, he leaped up into the air acrobatically, proudly displaying his trophy for the world to see.
Stop showing off. We have a job to do.
Shame washed over him. Dick let his prize go and bowed his head in embarrassment at having disappointed Mother. 'Be quick.' That was the cardinal rule, and he had let himself grow distracted from pride.
Go help your brothers. Mother's words were firm but gentle. They did not carry the flavor of reprimand, and Dick felt soothed. He raced back to where the others were taking turns ramming the side of the boat with their broad noses.
Dick. Jason. Together this time. Damian. Tim. Stand clear!
Jason pulled back and met up with Dick. The two bulls quickly fell in synch with each other with a precision that wasn't entirely due to practice alone. Dick and Jason were closest in age and competitive to a fault. But that competition had also instilled in them a complete understanding of one another's timing and strengths. In battle, they were two halves of the same brain and moved as one towards their target.
26,000 pounds of power crashed into the fiberglass hull of the yacht, which immediately cracked on impact. Jason and Dick repeated the maneuver once more, delivering the fatal blow with their second charge.
Excellent work, everyone. Let's go home.
The objective met, Dick swam off and rejoined the pod to bask in the warm glow of Mother's praise and a job well done.
But Jason lingered by the yacht. Something had fallen into the water beside him. Something small and frail. Something that moved like prey.
An instinct—visceral and ancient—stirred to life inside Jason, demanding to be noticed.
The human thrashed on the surface of the water signaling for help, but Jason found him first and circled the terrified man like a shark might. Under the encouragement of those unrelenting primordial urges, Jason slipped beneath the surface and caught the man's foot in his maw. He didn't even give the human time to scream before he dove down into the black waters of the sea at twilight. Dick could have that stupid piece of driftwood. Jason had a prize he could eat.
JASON! DROP HIM! Mother's furious voice shouted into the young bull's mind with the force of a boat propeller, and it cut just as sharply. Drop him now!
Jason let go of his prey before a flash of white mixed with mottled purple zipped past him and snatched the human up with two strong arms. But Jason's prey was bleeding heavily from the wound in his leg, and too late, did Jason realize what he had done.
He keened a wail of apology to Mother and delivered a warning to the rest of the pod.
Mother had not yet reached the surface before the haze of blood drifting through the water overtook the pair. The effect was instant. Mother convulsed, head shaking violently, trying to get clear of the blood, but it was much too late for that. They all knew that once Mother had caught the scent, one of his strange moods would follow.
A wave of sadness and self-loathing rippled across their mental link, along with a deep, unquenchable blood lust that was familiar to Jason's kind and yet deeply alien to the adolescent whales.
Dick reappeared at Mother's side, allowing Mother to release the human to the young bull's care so he could flee.
Dick guided the human to a piece of floating debris and left him there to be picked up by rescuers from his own species who were shortly to arrive on the scene. Then, even knowing it was futile, Dick searched for Mother. The young bull dove down to the ocean floor, where the water was cooler. He called out in a sad and soothing song of concern that he hoped would reach their strange protector whom he and his brothers had adopted as their new matriarch after First Mother's death.
But the only response he received was faint and distant. It came in images and sense memory instead of words. Deep, black water. Cold. Empty except for the bitter scent of blood and the electric current of nearby, hapless prey animals. And above all, Mother's relentless hunger, which once-freed, colored every thought. There was little of the warmth that Dick associated with Mother, which meant there was nothing more that could be done for him until his business was completed.
Mother? Tim asked when Dick rejoined his brothers.
The eldest bull turned north towards the cave, which was their usual meeting spot. Mother would be okay. But for now…
He hunts.