Page 66 of Free for Adventure
“Cool. I am going to change.” Thera grabbed her bag and paused. “Guys, where is my wetsuit?”
Skaay sighed. “Darn. We must have left it on the line.”
She pulled out a handful of fabric. “Pervs.”
Kayak grinned. “That you did say last night.”
She looked to Amby. “Come on; we can get changed below.”
Amby followed her, and they got into their bathing suits. Thera laughed. “I guess a giant stamp on our butts would be overkill.”
The black and white bikini Thera was wearing lay flat against her skin. It would not give her any drag, but if she got any small predators caught in her cleavage, she would give the pod hell.
Amby looked stunning in her manta ray swimwear, and with the boat slowing, they headed up to the deck.
They discussed the plan, and Thera settled her mask and fins, grabbed the camera, and eased herself into the water. Skaay was waiting for her, and they swam away from the boat to watch Amby and Ohno enter.
Thera took a deep breath and dove down, the weights on her hips helping her stay under. She turned toward the boat, watched as Ohno entered the water, and then took Amby’s hand. They took a breath and then swam out to explore the reef.
Thera smiled and followed. She didn’t breathe. Her time limit was nearly five minutes. The next hour was spent following Amby and going to and from the surface. The moment Ohno disappeared from the area, Thera positioned the camera at Amby as she descended again with the huge ray swimming toward her.
Amby remained calm and stroked the ray as it moved close, and as if she was on a pre-arranged signal, she slid her hands between the eyes, and Ohno began to fly.
Ohno carried his mate, brought her up to breathe, and then dove again, flying over the reef.
Thera kept them in her sights until Amby called a halt, and Ohno flew her back to the boat.
Thera got a final breath of air and looked for Skaay.
A huge shadow soared over her, and she slowly continued to move toward the boat as the fifteen feet of shark passed between her and the surface. An angry dark shadow came from below, and another approached from the boat. She kept swimming, holding the camera as an orca scooped her up from beneath and swam her to the boat, out of the reach of the hungry searcher.
She sighed as she stepped off his back and into Orc’s arms. “The shark was just cruising. He wanted to see more of Ohno. Rays are tasty.”
Orc paused. “You can understand them?”
“I dodged the same moray three times because he had a weird interior giggle. So, yes.” She handed Amby the camera. “There you go.”
Orc rinsed her off with the freshwater hose. Amby was blinking. “What just happened?”
“My pod hates sharks leering at my thighs, so they are out there beating the hell out of someone who was just trying to grab a burger.” She shrugged. “The burger being me.”
Amby blinked. “Oh. Does it happen a lot?”
“More than average, but I can hear them coming. I have always heard them. It’s like listening to a restaurant.”
Amby stared. “Oh, right.”
Thera looked and saw the two orcas circling the shark. She focused and tried to recall them. Orc wrapped her in a towel and said, “Try it again.”
She yanked on the new links they had just formed, and the whales turned and swam for the boat. Kayak came out first and walked over to hug her. Skaay was the last out and whirled to watch the stunned shark turn and swim away, going deeper with the flick of his tail.
Thera smiled. “I do have a countermeasure for attacks, but I don’t think I am going to be able to use them.”
Skaay snorted. “Absolutely not.”
Kayak shook his head. “Nope.”
Orc explained, “Our beasts have discovered they have a mate to themselves. They are not letting any jagged-toothed bastard get a bite in.”