Prey

The tropical reef was a well-tended garden of colour and movement. Green and purple parrotfish paraded past multi-hued corals. Orange clownfish fed from the waving tentacles of a red and blue sea anemone which was attached firmly to the base of a limestone rock hurled into the sea during an ancient volcanic eruption. Two black and white banded coral snakes slithered over the rock and into a small hole below the anemone polyp. A lone tenggiri watched the snakes disappear then kicked away, her body faintly reflecting the dappled sunlight.

She searched a small crevice on the reef wall for crayfish. None there. Another hungry night ahead unless she found food fast. Little light remained, the late afternoon sun hung at an acute angle to the horizon. A one-eyed mako shark slid past. Its bare socket making him look more sinister, battle-scarred and ready to fight. She knew to stay on the blindside, giving herself a couple of seconds head start if the shark got aggressive.

She needed it, lightning speed an ancient memory. Most days she hunted bottom feeders instead of flashing from the depths to gorge on baitfish. Sixteen seasons ago when she left the school her back was a pretty blue, belly and flanks a lustrous silver with pronounced black stripes. Male tenggiri flocked to her in mating season. Now the colours had faded and she was losing weight. Still formidable though, her meter-long body narrowed to a fierce head with razor-sharp teeth.

The shark disappeared from view in the gloomy water. Stay close to the reef, she told herself, find something to eat then rest overnight in a cave. Mako shied away from small spaces, they had to keep moving.

Swimming over a large brain coral, she spied movement in the sand below. Possibly an octopus preparing an ambush or a gudgeon digging a burrow. She ate her first octopus the other day and it tasted OK, definitely filled her gut. A gudgeon wouldn’t suffice. Only one way to find out, she nosed into the sand, felt something wriggle and snapped down hard. A crab! She hated crab, all shell and little meat, spat it out in disgust and swam away. A moray eel shot from its bolt hole, snatching up the mangled crustacean.

She glided up and down the reef wall on cold currents swept skywards from unfathomable depths. Could only see down 10 meters before the water became black as night. Not much lighter above as the sun sank lower. An extra strong current pushed her above the reef into open water, she kicked down against the flow, heading back to the safety of the bottom.

A giant shadow blocked the little light left. Shark! she dived into a hollow and peeked up. A shark alright but a harmless whale shark. She looked in awe at the huge jaws gaping wide, feeding on millions of microscopic plankton. The mouth looked big enough to swallow three mako in a single gulp. She wished she could survive by swimming around with an open mouth, what a life. Watching the whale shark feed gave her an idea, she could find several smaller fish instead of a single big one. Leaving the reef's edge, she swam towards the shallows. Wouldn’t have to worry about a mako this close to shore until it was totally dark and she would be well tucked up in a cave by then.

A splash on the surface caught her attention. A small school swimming fast and then they vanished, another splash a few meters away and there they were again. Flying fish. She had never been able to catch them, even in her prime. Looking for what was chasing, she saw three barracuda zig-zagging, trying to pin-point the next landing zone. Forgetting her own rumbling stomach she followed the chase into the large cove where the dead whales floated.

Another splash and the middle barracuda struck. Success! The fish disappeared, she was jealous of the meal and the youthful speed and agility it took to get it.

Tracking the chase brought her into the cove alongside the biggest dead whale she had seen. It was huge, fifty times larger than the whale shark. Brown blood clouded the water making it harder to see in the fast diminishing light. Strangely, the brown blood tasted like sand. What sort of whales were they? The sides were encrusted with barnacles but had queer markings. No mako or tiger sharks scavenged these beasts and she didn’t blame them, tasting the weird blood they oozed.

Another shadow flashed overhead and she scooted towards the bottom. Looking up she couldn’t identify the fish but it seemed to be a smaller whale swimming on the surface.

A flash of silver and green a few meters away. Instinctively she kicked her tail and accelerated. It was a fast swimming baitfish but she had the correct angle to attack. Calculating perfectly she rose to the surface at the right moment and bit down hard on the prey.

It was a fish roughly twelve centimeters long and tasted like…Ughhh! Worse than crab. She went to spit it out but the fish was stuck. Pain flashed from her jaw, it was eating her! How was that possible? Worse, it appeared to be pulling in the opposite direction. Bewildered, she bit down again but only succeeded in getting the sprat to bite back stronger. Her lips tore and she started to panic, swam towards the bottom but was pulled towards the surface again.

Using all her power she swam as hard as she could. Left, right, down and away. Still, the minnow pulled her towards the light. OK, there was only one direction not tried, she kicked hard for the surface and breached a meter above the water.

“Whoa! There it is”

“Reel hard now.”

A small dead whale lay directly in front of her, obviously not dead at all. The attack intensified and with her last drop of energy she tried to outwit her tormentor by swimming underneath it.

“Watch out! It's going under the boat.”

“Get the gaff.”

A sharp pain pierced her gills and she was hoisted high out of the water landing with a hard slap inside the whale. Flapping her tail and twisting her body she tried to swim but couldn’t get traction.

Something smashed her head and she felt her skull crack. Helplessly she flopped onto her side and saw the one-eyed mako lying motionless next to her. Its fins were missing.

More blows struck her head and in the last moments, she dreamed of when she was young and pretty.