Chapter 8

Kiva walked out into the beachhead and found that the otters were less present than she had seen the day before. They had come out of the cave, but in smaller numbers, and did not appear to be swimming around as jovially and spread out as they had been days prior. In the daylight she could see one otter perched upon a small boulder sticking above the ocean. It was barking, occasionally, looking around, and anxiously moving, appearing to be unsettled to her point of view.

The waves were still violently crashing, churned and agitated by the storm that was hanging over the island. Lightning was flashing, but it didn't appear to bother the otters. Kiva wasn't sure what to do other than go hunting for crabs and fish. This time the otters stayed far enough away from her that she was able to catch a fish and bite into it greedily. It was a small red species. But it tasted good to her empty stomach. Growing up on an island she knew that fish were generally safe to eat raw if you had to, even though she vastly preferred it cooked.

There were no signs of the three particular otters that had lingered in the cave with her the night before. She wasn't sure she would recognize them even if she saw them. All the otters kind of looked similar, even if they had glowing markings. They moved too fast through the water to give any clear views. Her attempts to approach the group, were rebuffed by one particular otter, who she nicknamed Grumpy. He was scarred across his back, and she could distinguish him from the others by those marks. He swam patrol, in between her, and the handful that were surfing through the whitecaps, always keeping an eye out. As she approached along the shoreline, he swam to intercept, looking aggressive on all fours and stomping, where the waves met the shore.

Kiva approached no further, but she didn’t back away either. She simply stood, watching and waiting. Grumpy soon dismissed her and went back to his aquatic patrol. “Something’s got you all worked up,” she observed. He was darting rapidly around, quickly raising up on shallow rocks to glance around from a better vantage point, then immediately diving into the water again.

Taking a note from her time in the cave, she found the smoothest, fanciest looking pebbles she could, and set them on the beach in a small pile, just outside the tideline. A gift to them. She scampered backwards as Grumpy came darting back over, and she held her breath, waiting, watching.

Grumpy was bigger than the others, the largest that she had seen yet. He eyed her warily, barking a warning, before inspecting the rocks. Picking one up with both hands, he studied it, before dropping it and inspecting another. He eventually seemed satisfied, as he selected one, and hid it away in the skin folds under his arm before barking and setting off back into the surf.

“Weird. They must really like rocks.” Kiva considered it. She had thought the pebbles were gifts last night, and truthfully it was a little concerning that they had snuck up near her, while she was asleep and vulnerable, without her noticing. They obviously meant her no harm though, as she was fine.

Grumpy then splashed up out of the waves onto a rocky outcrop further out in the water, carrying a large crab in his mouth. He stared at her and dropped the crab onto the rock. It wasn’t moving, and she was certain his teeth could have ripped it apart with ease. It was hard to see at this distance, but she was pretty sure he pulled the rock out of his hiding spot, and started smashing the crab with it, breaking the shell, before greedily sucking out the meat. He watched her as he ate, quickly devouring the meal, and leaving the carcass for the birds.

“Using tools. Interesting. You seem to be very smart creatures. And family seems important to you. I see the way you defend your young. I made the right choice for sure.” Satisfied with her decision to pursue a convergence with these wonderful animals, she ventured knee-deep into the water. She was careful not to approach any closer to the den, but she also needed to get a better view. She found her own rocky outcropping to sit on, watching the romp do its thing. “Convergence is kind of boring,” she said to herself. She was in for a lot of sitting around, and progress would move forward and inch a time.

A small form darted through the water towards her, leaping up onto the rock, curious about this new intruder to their space. It was a small, young tidefang otter, and it couldn’t even have been a year old. Kiva’s heart skipped a beat in excitement. The pup was only a few yards away, and smelling the air, inching closer. This was her first real interaction with the animals, aside from the painful bite she had taken when she fell into the ocean. She tried to study it and use the opportunity to learn.

Its coat was dense, with thick fur, and it was oily to repel the water. Their pelts were known to provide good insulation. All the legs ended in sharp claws, easily capable of tearing her flesh, and even this young, its teeth were imposing, with large fangs accenting its mouth. A thick rudderlike tail, thumped on the ground nervously, and the strength in that appendage was obvious. She would not want to get hit with it. Water seemed to be a natural part of their fur. It constantly ran off it, like it was flowing through it endlessly. It also glowed in whites, blues and greens when they swam. The patterns were unique to each otter, but she wasn’t good enough to tell them apart. Did this trait provide them some sort of advantage? Maybe a special power with the water? She wasn’t sure, but she didn’t have to have all the answers right now. She just had to connect with it.

She reached out a hand, gently holding it out encouraging the pup to approach. A large splash and thump sounded behind her, and she withdrew her hand, trying to remain unthreatening and very still. Grumpy had made his appearance, circling around her, interposing himself between her and the pup. He scolded the pup, tossing it back into the water by the scruff. After the pup swam away, he immediately turned on Kiva, smacking his large tail on the water, and growling. It was a sufficiently threatening display to intimidate her. She had no hope of surviving an attack by him, as he was nearly as big as she was, and without a doubt stronger.

She didn’t move, just waiting, looking at him in the eye. She didn’t want to provoke him, and worried about looking directly at him from this close distance, but she had to establish that she wasn’t going to just do what he said. She may not be the victor in this situation, but she was a human, higher on the food chain, and capable of so much more. They would have an equal truce, or none at all. Convergence could never be achieved when one party was subservient. That’s not how things worked.

After a few moments of a threatening display, Grumpy huffed, turning around and diving back into the water with a final warning look. Kiva let out the breath she didn’t realize she was holding. That was not great, but she would have to keep pushing, and eventually earn his trust. They had to mingle blood for this to eventually work, and she had no plans about how to do that. But for now, Grumpy seemed to be the gatekeeper to the rest of them. If she couldn’t live among them, she would never converge. “I’m going to win you over, Grumpy.” She stared at him, as he swam through the water, keeping the curious young pup away from her perch.

Suddenly, a bark cried out, from the cave mouth. Kiva’s eyes darted that way automatically, and she caught sight of a dark shadow of movement, slamming into an otter and knocking it below the surface.

“What was that?” She immediately waded back to the shore as fast as she could, to approach closer and see what was happening.” She could hear the panicked sounds as the tidefang otters had taken up the alarm barking warning cries all around. Grumpy darted, faster than her eyes could follow through the water towards the cave. He cut off the young swimming back, and drove them towards the rocky outcropping where she had been moments ago. Three pups leaped up, climbing as high as they could go, with a warning growl from Grumpy stopping a pup from diving back in the water to seek the safety of its mother. After the correction, Grumpy dove off towards the den again.

Kiva followed him along the shore, easily able to see the glow through the surface on an overcast day. He got to the cave mouth, circling around any otter still in the water, and driving them towards the den. A few made it, but as Grumpy circled back to protect the others, a set of thick purple tentacles wrapped around him, impossibly fast, dragging him fully under. Blood bubbled to the surface soon after.

“Oh no!” Kiva had to intervene. What could she even do? You’re smart, get a weapon!

Her knife was somewhere in a wet backpack on the ocean floor, so Kiva scavenged, but didn’t have much besides heavy stones to make use of on the rocky beach. She picked up one particularly good stone, that she could hold in one hand and shoved it into her shirt, so she wouldn’t lose it. She ran out to the water, past where it was safe, and dove downward, until she could reach the coral reef. She bashed at a branch with the stone, using up her air supply quickly. Coral was sharp, and dangerous if you were unprepared. She grabbed a daggerlike branch as she broke it free. It sliced her hand, but she ignored the pain. By the time she made it back up, to the surface, she was almost blacking out, gasping for a lungful of air.

On hands and knees, she crawled out of the water, and ran to the mouth of the den with her makeshift weapon. Her stomach nearly revolted when she arrived. Several otter corpses were floating, ripped apart by sharp gashes and cuts. They had retreated into the cave, and she could hear them barking threateningly.

In front of the cave was a tentacled creature. She wasn’t sure how many tentacles it had, as they were constantly in motion, but one was curled around a dead otter, bringing it along behind it. It was large, nearly the size of the full-grown otters, and if it wasn’t crawling up the rock towards its prey, she never would have been able to see it. It had coral growing on its purple and blue skin, making it blend completely in with the coral reef below the surface. She knew what this was but had never seen one. It was a reefmaker. A significant threat in the ocean, smart enough to lay in ambush, or corner its victims if the situation required it. It hunted anything it could eat. If not at the top of the food chain, it was a significant threat. The name described the coral that grew upon their back, breaking off in the many battles it engaged in, settling on the ocean floor to start new coral reefs. While good for the ocean ecosystem, it was bad for the tidefang otters. They needed to get out of the cave, and it was crawling in the entrance, blocking escape.

The beast had arrived with the storm, hiding in the camouflage of the reefs, and it was hunting. Indiscriminately.