Apex Predator

Gura stretches, arms high above her head, as she stands up on the small boat she's taken out here. The sun is bright overhead, and feels wonderful on her skin. Heading out on the ocean to revisit her undersea life during her break was a genius idea. She lets her arms fall and swing by her sides. She's smiling. The clear blue ocean is gorgeous to look out upon. She steps to the railing lining the edge of the small boat and takes a deep breath of the ocean air. It smells like home. Without hesitation, she dives over the edge and into the cool waters. Her shoes and outer clothing are left back on the boat. Even in deep ocean waters, she wouldn't be cold, not like a human would be. Her eyes open to a wonderful world she had been apart from for what felt like centuries. Dark blues all around, fish swimming by in schools, and even a turtle here and there. Looking down and around, there's no sign of ground anywhere. She grins, and dives deeper, eager to see more of what she had long since left.

After a few hours of exploring the dark of the ocean, she comes back up. She's a little disappointed if she's honest with herself – there really wasn't much for miles, and having adjusted to the business of life on the surface, her distractible mind just couldn't take the emptiness for too long.

Gura laments this loss.

She breaches the surface with a splash, and has to quickly cover her eyes as they are assaulted by the light. The sun isn't yet setting, but is high in the sky, and the contrast of water diluting light to it shining full force is blinding. Paddling around with one arm a bit, she squints from underneath her arm, trying to find the boat.

Not that way. She turns. Not that way either. She spins in a circle and anxiety wells up in her as she doesn't see her ride, along with the navigation on board. It's gone, No way it's gone! She starts to panic. I made to sure to mostly just swim down, right? There's no way I went so far away I can't see it! Her heart starts running a mile a minute and she chooses a direction at random to start swimming.

After a few minutes of swimming she stops, treading water. Her tail twitches anxiously. She sinks until her face is halfway under. Calm down Gura, just... calm down. You're a big shark. You used to live in the ocean. You can find your way back. Except the ocean was big. Really big. Way bigger than she'd ever been able to explore the tiniest fraction of. Her mind echoes back words from thousands of years ago, Don't stray too far from the city. Don't go too deep. If you get lost, you'll never find your way back. She shivered despite not being cold.

I just gotta find a shoreline, right? Which way did I come from? Gura thinks long and hard, trying to remember. The sun was.... behind me, when I left? Yeah, I left... west shore? Sun behind me means west, right? She struggles with herself about directions for a while until a fish brushes against her leg and she yelps, nearly jumping out of the water. Her heart hammers. "Right, west, let's go west." She swims towards the sun.

It's nightfall and the sun isn't there to guide her anymore. She realizes she needs to rest and dives down, looking for any kind of cave or alcove. It takes minutes before she even finds any kind of ground, and after a few more minutes of searching she simply gives up and decides to float on her back on top of the water. Despite the occasional wave splashing water into her face and the tiny pinprick of fear that maybe she'd be attacked just floating there like a sitting duck, she can't help but feel herself relax as she stares up at the vast expanse above her. Countless stars shine in the sky, a beautiful light she could never truly see and appreciate in the city. The moon isn't obscured, shining brightly overhead. She's lost, and hungry, but despite all that, she feels some measure of peace, and allows herself to drift off to sleep.

She wakes up to her stomach grumbling. Gura groans and covers her face with an arm to try and block out the light. "Five more minutes, I don't wanna go to school yet..." No person or alarm clock criticizes her for laying there for another five minutes. Or ten minutes. Or twenty minutes. Gura really doesn't want to have to face her predicament. She feels pains of hunger. It's enough to finally get her to stop laying back and lean forwards, treading water again. Squinting as she looks upwards, she sees the sun rising. What way was I going? West? She takes a deep breath again and starts swimming. Her muscles are a little sore from yesterday – she become used to sitting around a lot on the surface, so as natural as it felt, swimming long distances for nearly an entire day was still tiring. And hunger inducing. She swims for about an hour before she can't stand it anymore and dives down to see what she can find.