The three Samanians swam a good distance before coming across a large mass of entities that illuminated the water around them with a serene glow. "Ah-ha!" said Ulaka, "Just as I thought. We've found ourselves a smack of tentasparks!" She turned around to her cohorts, clapped her webbed hands together, and asked, "Okay, who here can tell me the best way to gather these tasty jellies?"
Siquioce eagerly waved his hand and answered, "Ooh, ooh, I know this! You have to swim in really, really fast and grab them by their caps! Then you gotta knock em out with water!"
Ulaka smiled and responded, "Very good, Siquioce! And what must you never do?"
Siquioce quickly replied, "Never touch their…their…tentacles." He shuddered as his mind flashed back to that day. He could still feel the tingling on his light blue skin even after a whole year.
Seeing her sibling's distraught face, Ulaka said encouragingly, "Don't worry, little brother, all you have to do is be more careful this time, okay?" She nodded and faced towards the tentasparks, "Alright then, is everyone ready? We begin on one. Three…two…" In the middle of the countdown, Makun hastily swam forward at max speed. Shaking her head at her brother's impatience, Ulaka finished, "One. Let's go, Siquioce." With that, the two Samanians surged on, although one of them was noticeably less fervent than the other.
Despite his knowledge of how he was supposed to hunt the tentasparks, Siquioce was too scarred by his previous experience to do so with confidence. Rather than going straight through the smack and grabbing as many creatures as he could, Siquioce instead picked out tentasparks one by one, swimming back several feet every time he saw the faintest crackle of electricity. Every time he managed to nab a tentasparks, he promptly swirled his hands around to form a tiny vortex that he then sent at his prey by forcing both of his hands forward. Although he was not as good as this technique as his brethren, Siquioce's targets were not known for their resilience, so they became knocked out.
As Siquioce was doing this in-and-out strategy, he looked up at his two siblings, who were swimming in and out of the smack with efficiency and expertise. Seeing this, Siquioce's grey head fin wobbled with jealousy. This wasn't right, he thought, he wasn't supposed to be moving so slow. He was meant to be collecting tentasparks in groups, not individually.
"No," he said to himself, "I am not a baby. I am 9 years old! I can do this!" As he reared up, he continued, "I'm not gonna be scared! I'm not gonna be careful! I'm gonna—" He started to dart forward, but suddenly stopped. "Okay," he said after shaking his head, "I'm gonna—" He once again tried to go forth, but he could not muster up enough courage. Huffing in frustration, Siquioce declared, "Okay, seriously, this time I'm gonna—" For the 3rd time, the Samanians attempted to begin his hunt, but to no avail. He was simply too afraid of getting electrocuted.
After a brief period of thinking, Siquioce came upon a solution; if he was so disturbed by the sight of electricity, then the best remedy was to just close his eyes! Smiling at the cleverness of his plan, Siquioce shut his eyelids over his nictitating membranes and got himself into position. "Okay," he said for the final time, "Here we go!" The fish boy jetted towards the smack, his webbed feet kicking up and down as fast as they could.
Just before he could get one tentaspark, Siquioce was intercepted by Makun, who had bolted through the smack at with more than 7 tentasparks.
Knocked back by the impact, Siquioce was sent tumbling a great distance away. Rubbing his sore forehead, the young Samoan groaned, "Ahh, was that a tentaspark? I didn't know they were that strong!" Shaking his head, Siquioce looked back towards the group of glowing creatures and said, "Time to try again. Nothing will stop me this time!"
As the 9-year-old was saying this, he heard a faint rumbling from behind him. At first, he wrote this off as a churning of the water, a minor quake, or possibly even his stomach; he was getting pretty hungry, after all. However, this vibration, it felt…different. Almost…monstrous. Siquioce's heart skipped a beat as he considered the other possibility. No, he thought, this couldn't be true. It just couldn't! The Samanians slowly turned around, and what he saw made his skin turn white.
Staring at him with a sinister, toothy grin was a massive megafin! Siquioce looked at the imposing shark, with her dark purple top, sandpaper-like belly, and notched fins, and started hyperventilating. Almost as if she was feeling pity, the giant fish allowed her victim to get a grip on himself, which he did to a minor degree. With his heart in his throat, Siquioce barely managed to turn around and squeak, "Ma…Ma…Makun!" However, his words were unheard. He tried again, "Mm…Ma…MAKUN!!"
Hearing his brother's pitiful cries, Makun rolled his eyes, turned around, and responded, "For Tomanil's sake, Siquioce, what do you…" At that moment, Makun noticed the large predator that was nearby. With his eyes widened in surprise, Makun called, "Ulaka, we must stop the hunt for now. We've got trouble."
Swimming over to her sibling with some tentasparks encased in bubbles on her back, Ulaka asked, "And why is that, dear brother?"
Makun pointed to the west and answered, "That's why. We've got a megafin inbound!"
As if she were waiting for a proper introduction, the megafin let out a fearsome roar, causing Siquioce to frantically swim over to his older siblings.
Ulaka, however, remained calm, stating, "Everyone, the hunt is over. We've got to leave NOW. Come on, move, move, move!" Ulaka let out a shrill cry, prompting her family members to join her in swimming away.
The megafin chuckled cruelly. She loved it when they ran.
As the three made their escape, Makun looked down at his younger brother, who was swimming for dear life. As frantic as his style was, Siquioce was quite good at making his way through the water, even considering his age. Makun could at least respect that. However, no matter how developed any of their swimming skills were, there was no way that they would outswim the megafin. "Sister," he said, "Do you have any plans for getting out of this bind? Because I do not think that we have much longer." Unbeknownst to him, the situation was not as dire as it seemed. The megafin was holding back in her chase, always staying a few meters behind the trio; she enjoyed the pursuit more than the catch.
Ulaka thought for a moment before coming up with a solution. She hummed deeply as she swam along, once again using echolocation to locate a medium-sized entity. Motioning in the direction of the object, Ulaka said, "This way!"
Looking in that direction, Makun retorted, "Sister, I hardly believe that simply turning right will deter this beast."
Ulaka gave a quick, fierce looks at her sibling and returned, "For once in your life, Makun, will you just listen?! Our lives are at stake!"
After hearing this, Makun stayed silent for a moment before sighing and replying, "Very well. Lead the way." So, the two swimmers headed off to the supposed safe zone, with the third following along at a frenetic pace.
The chase continued for a good while longer, with each Samanian giving it their all in getting away. Siquioce's heart and muscles were burning like a hydrothermal vent, but he knew that if he were to stop for even a second, then it would all be over. With this fact in mind, he allowed his adrenaline to fuel his movements as he followed his relatives for another several miles. Eventually, the trio came across a moderately sized red and white fish with circular fins, and Ulaka made a clicking sound to signal everyone to stop.
As the Samanians did so, the megafin suddenly halted in her path and stared at the smaller piscine. This was a blue-headed mobfish, natural enemy of the megafins. Despite their significantly smaller size, mobfish had the ability to call in thousands of their brethren of they felt as if they were in danger. Even the strongest megafin had to be careful lest they found themselves picked to the bone by legions of sharp-toothed fish. The megafin looked with fear at the mobfish before giving the other sea creatures the death stare and swimming away.
Siquioce looked around in disbelief, his eyes open wide in a mix of disbelief and extreme gratitude. The latter feeling overtook him as he looked at the mobfish with sparkling eyes, excitedly saying, "Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, mobfish! You saved us!" The fish looked back at the Samanian with a suspicious expression, still wary of this larger lifeform.
"Calm down," said Makun while smacking his brother's head, "You're going to spook the thing. And we can't afford to be loud; we might attract more attention."
Ulaka nodded and added, "He's right, Siquioce. It's best for us to head home for now. We could use the rest."
As the three left, Siquioce gave one final wave to his savior. The mobfish, however, simply blinked and swam away.