Page 15 of Swimming With the Sharks

“Just how many of these things are here?”Foster asked himself, thinking about what Polaris had said toJabari.

There was only supposed to be three...at leastthat’s what Sacrin had reported, but Foster had counted fivewithout the one that had just tried to sneak up on his mate.Thatmeant more had come at some point, and most likely more would be ontheir way.Something wasn’t right.This squid thing was up tosomething and....oh shit!“He’s buying time!”

Needing to get Jabari’s attention, but notknowing how unless he called out, which would bring attention tothe fact that he was even here, and that could cause the suctioncrew to try and get to him...not a way he wanted to go...Fostertried to figure out what to do.

Okay, what about the stair game?He used to playthat from the window of his room when he was too sick to gooutside.It’s where he would look out the window and pick a kid andjust watch him until the kid would start looking around until hefinally looked up to see Foster...fine, it wasn’t a real game, butwhen you had little to do it helped deal with all the time Fosterhad on his hands when he was sick.

Knowing Jabari needed to keep his focus on thelargest squid, he seemed to be in a mental conversation with,Foster focused on Goboli.He started looking at the hippocampus anddidn’t take his eyes away.He didn’t blink.He didn’t move.He juststared and started and stared some more.It didn’t take a lot oftime before his new friend looked his way.

“Thank fuck.”Foster whispered, waving forGoboli to come to him.

The damn hippocampus shook his head, but Fosterjust gritted his teeth and waved harder.Finally Goboli looked atPolaris and must have used that mind link thing before making hisway towards Foster.

Goboli pretended to be looking around the areaat first until the other squid were no longer paying any attentionand made his way to Foster.

Once Goboli arrived, the damn hippocampus hissedlow, “What?I told you to stay down and quiet.”

“I am, but I think you guys better either getsome help or get prepared because that squid thing is buying time.”Foster stated, pointing at Formaci.

“What are you talking about?”Goboli asked.

Rolling his eyes, Foster explained his way ofthinking.“When Sacrin first contacted Polaris, he said there werethree of those nasty things here, but when we got here there werefour and since then another has showed up.I think he’s justwasting time until reinforcements arrive.Right now there are thefour of you, and I highly doubt that five of the nasties are athreat, but if there are ten or more, you four would be mush andthey could get to the kids.”

Seeing another dark shadow, Foster pointed,“Look, anther one is coming.”

Goboli turned in the direction Foster pointed,hissing out, “Shit.”

Goboli suddenly let out a braying sound like ahorse would when pissed as he took off towards Polaris, Jabari, andSacrin.He must have used his mind link thing, because one minuteJabari and the others were standing there looking constipated...because they were mind talking...at least that’s what Foster hopedwas happening because he didn’t want to consider anything else...and the next second they were in a fighting stance and Jabari wassnarling, “Get out of here now or die!”

Formaci must have realized the jig was upbecause he turned a bright red like Foster had heard they did whenangry, and lifted his long tentacles to snag Jabari as another wentfor Polaris and the other went to grab Sacrin.

Polaris used his puff-up thing, but the largesquid didn’t let go as he pulled the hippocampus in.Another showedup to attack, but Goboli let out some kind of pulsating tone thathad the other squid flying backwards and away from Polaris as wellas made Foster’s ears pop.

The fight was on, and Foster watched as his mateswiped at Formaci’s tentacles.It was also then he noticed no onewas paying attention to the cave the kids were inside.Giving acautious glance to his surroundings, he made a decision.As long asthe squids were distracted, now was the time to get those kids outof that cave.

Rushing as fast as he could, Foster made his wayinside, only to see four young boys huddled together behind a sharpjagged rock.They couldn’t be more than thirteen or fourteen inage, and another slightly older boy was standing in front of themwith a rock in hand.Seeing their fear and not wanting to get arock in the face, Foster quickly said, “Hi, I’m Foster, Jabari’smate.”

“Jabari is a devil.He has no mate.Evil doesn’tget mates.My dad told me that.”The boy with the rock said.

Raising a brow, Foster replied, “Is that so?Evil?How did you come to that conclusion?Has Jabari hurt you oryour people?”

The boy shook his head, “No, but my dad said soand he would never lie.”

“Oh, I don’t think you dad is lying, but surelyyour dad has made mistakes?”Foster asked.

The boy thought a moment, then shook his head,“My father is smart and...”

“And you’ve never heard him say he was sorry?”Foster asked.

Again the boy thought a moment, then answered,“Well, yeah.Mom was upset because dad tried to fix the crack inour dwelling roof himself and the malagnites started comingthrough.”

“Okay, I don’t know what a malagnite is and itdoesn’t really matter.The point is, he didn’t really know what hewas doing and it happened.That’s a mistake.Just like he doesn’treally know Jabari and he is mistaken about him.”Foster tried toreason.

The boy shook his head, “No.It isn’t just myfather that says Jabari is evil, all our parents do.”

The other boys behind the kid all nodded, butFoster thought about something.“And you always agree with yourparents?”

The boys all looked at each other, but saidnothing, but Foster wouldn’t give up.“I know I never always agreedwith my parents.They wanted me to do things and I didn’t want todo them, even though it might be the right thing for them, it justdidn’t seem right to me.”