Page 20 of Swimming With the Sharks
Formaci used one of his smaller tentacles tolatch onto a man.The guy started screaming in pain as blood filledthe waters around him, and Formaci used more of his smallertentacles to begin shredding and shoving pieces into his mouth allthe while pulling on the arch.Another man was grabbed and Jabarishouted, “Polaris!”
Polaris must have heard the sounds or smelledthe blood, and immediately joined Jabari in the fight.He and themen with him quickly took over the fight with the squids blockingJabari’s way, and Goboli with his group joined in this fight whileSacrin and his team were fighting the remaining squid that had comein to do battle.
Polaris tried to do to Formaci what he had doneto the other squid they had been fighting, but there was noeffect.
Formaci laughed, “You think you can stop me,Polaris?I am an original.I was once a warrior for Poseidon.Agreat warrior that fought by his side.Then he fell in love.Pfft...love.The asshole created Atlantis and shoved us all outlike we were nothing.We couldn’t be allowed to go into the openwaters because the surface dwellers might hurt us.Like puny humanscould do anything to harm us.That’s such bullshit.”
“But it’s not.”
The sound of Foster’s voice had Jabari’s bloodrunning cold, and when Formaci went to grab at him, Jabari aboutlost it completely.However, before Jabari could do anything,Foster was back behind the arch, shouting, “I can tell you why itis Poseidon was helping you not trying to isolate you.”
“You can tell me nothing, Atlantean!”Formacisnarled.
Foster pushed his head out through the arch,saying, “I’m not an Atlantean, I’m a surface dweller and I knowthat if Poseidon hadn’t kept you from my people you would mostlikely be dead right now as well as the rest of your squad.Hell,just ask the great white or the orca what they think of the surfacedwellers.”
Formaci stopped pulling on the arch, snarling,“You lie!There are no surface dwellers in Atlantis.”
“Well there is now and if you are like theothers around here, you should be able to scent that I am allhuman.”Foster shouted out.
“Come forward and let me scent you.”Formacisnapped.
“He will do no such thing.”Jabari snapped.
“If I come out there do you give me your wordyou won’t harm me?”Foster asked.
Jabari snarled quickly swimming to the sound ofhis mate’s voice, “Foster keep your ass behind the arch!”
Formaci’s eye seemed to take interest as hesaid, “I give my word no harm will come to him.
Formaci then said, “If this person is truly asurface dweller and speaks truth to me, my squad and I will go awayand never bother Atlantis again.”
Foster stepped out and Jabari hissed, “What thehell are you doing?”
“Trying to stop this before anyone else getshurt or killed.”Foster insisted.
“You are not safe out here.”Jabariinsisted.
Foster raised a brow, “Jabari, I have been keptin a bubble my entire life.If I can help with things out here thenI want to try.Formaci is angry because he feels he’s beenisolated...secluded.If anyone can understand how he feels, it’sme.I just want to talk to him.Please.Let me try.”
Jabari pursed his lips and turned to Formaci,“One wrong move and there is no one in these waters that can saveyou.Of this I am sure.”
“I gave my word, demon spawn.Now let thedweller speak.”Formaci snapped impatiently apparently smelling thehuman on Foster already.
Foster let out a long breath muttering, “Wherethe hell do I start?You have to understand that not all of thehuman race is selfish and gluttonous.Most of what has happened wasout of ignorance and later...well, I guess it changed to thealmighty dollar.”
“Who is this god?I’ve never heard of theAlmighty Dollar.”Formaci stated firmly.
Shaking his head, Foster replied, “That’sbecause it’s not a god it’s an expression.It means the greed setin.Fixing the problems that were caused whether purposefully ornot became about money.Things like toxic dumping so a companydidn’t have to pay so much to clean up their leftovers.Bringinglarge oil rigs to deeper and deeper waters to get more fuel, thatin itself when converted to gas for our way of transport put morepollutants in the air, making it a big reason for global warmingthat turned around and caused climate change to occur, although alot of people think they’re the same thing but they aren’t.”
“I do not understand.”Formaci said soundingconfused.
Sighing, Foster said, “I’m sorry, I’m muddlingthings, but you have to understand there are so many reasons forwhat I’m talking about and it’s not just the oceans being affected,but I’ll do my best to stick to what you’re interested in.Becauselet me tell you we have destroyed so many things like therainforest and ozone and shit the temperatures on Earth keeprising.This is making our ice caps melt and causing the ocean torise, but it’s also causing an imbalance of salt to water.Thething is that the water is warming and this is causing their ownset of issues.Then there is all the pesticides humans use onplants and to control things like mosquitos and shit.That crapgets into the water and...and depletes the oxygen levels and iskilling the plants and shellfish.You have oil spills, airpollution issues, and don’t even get me started on the overfishingthat’s done to the point that some fish are almost nonexistentanymore.”
Foster snorted, “However, for someone like you,well let me tell you Formaci, you and your pod would have to worryabout more things than polluted waters and lack of food sources.Your kind would be hunted and marine biologists and otherscientists...as well as radical groups that would look at you as asea monster and they would just want you dead.As for the scienceaspect, I don’t know if that’s just a catch and tag thing, or akill on sight so we can dissect your ass, but they would do it andthere would be nothing you or anyone else would be able to do tostop them.Hell, ask the sharks if you don’t believe me.Over onehundred million sharks are killed all over the globe every year andwith those poor guys it’s usually because people want shark finsoup so they just find ‘em catch ‘em and slice off the fins, thenthrow them back into the water so they can drown.Ironic isn’t it?A fish can drown.”
“Holy shit!They really do that?”Goboli askedin shock.
Nodding, Foster replied, “Yeah they do.Oh,don’t get me wrong, there are groups that do what they can to stopit, and even those that are trying to save the ocean by taking outall the pollutants.It’s just not easy and it’s really fuckingexpensive, and with it normally being the rich business ownerdumping shit into the ocean to begin with to save a few bucks, itisn’t like they’re going to be willing to put out the cash to fixthe mess they’ve made.Some people believe we are going to lose abunch of our beaches and stuff because of everything done toit.”