The Shards of Dawn

Chapter 2: Hunt

  Shane blinked awake and yawned a bit. He still felt tired from the walk he had taken again last night, the one he couldn't even remember.

  "Wake up Baka." Shane heard Eela say from somewhere beside him and he perked up a bit.

  Eela was starring at him with her dark green and brown eyes and he yelped."What?! What do you want?" Shane demanded and she frowned."I just wanted to tell you that your friends are outside right now...I wanted to ask if you wanted to go join them?"

  Shane started to calm down and let the tension out of his shoulders."I'm sorry Eela...I'm having a hard time adjusting to the cold weather up here..."

  Shane knew that wasn't true but Eela seemed to buy it."oh...Alright Shane. Go on than...We need to start planning how to get you and your friends across that river without being killed."

  Eela had explained how a shark they called Cova lived in the vast river of Sharkwater Cove.

  Cova was a son of Poseidon ad Eela had explained. She said that he had angered some god by offending him with...Sharks? Don't ask how. Eela and Conner didn't know. All they knew is that the shark was huge, smart, and scary. That's all Shane needed to know to be afraid of the river.

Shane followed Eela down to the bay line where she said it was shallow and that Cova wasn't able to reach it since he was too big to fit his fat little body up to it. Too bad so sad Mr.Shark.

  "Your friends are upstream right now. Cova is on the hunt, and I wanted to show you his hunting skills. It's impressive I must say Shane." Eela said softly and Shane stared out toward the river and watched the sun make it sparkle like a million diamonds.

  "Shane?" Eela asked softly and put a hand on her shoulder and Shane jolted up."Oh! Yeah yeah...I'll go watch." He stumbled up the ridge line of the coast and spotted Blister down by the shore, her feet in the water, which he thought wasn't smart, but he didn't feel like yelling at her to get away from it. Mystic was there, just far from the shore.

  Shane looked around for Max and spotted his golden hair in the distance, farther upstream.

  "Max is being stubborn once again Shane. Do not feel bad for him. Perhaps being alone will help the boy?" Eela said in her normal soft tone and Shane sighed deeply."I would expect as much from Max...And perhaps it will."

  "I hope soon. He's way too far up stream! He won't get a good glimpse at Cova." Eela said in disappointment and her eyes wondered out to the river and Shane suggested,"You can go join Blister with your toes ready to be eaten off. I'm going to stay with Mystic for a bit. I'm guessing she is the only sane one."

  Eela chuckled."No one is sane. Especially not you Shane." She made her way to the shore line and Blister perked up with having a new visitor to her little spot. Shane sighed. Blister looked like she was about to see a puppet show. But Shane knew what laid ahead: a small hunt for a shark. No doubt some creature was bound to die in its jaws today. The thought made him nervous...and sick.

  "Is everything alright, Turnswick? You look like your gonna puke." Commented Conner from some way back and Shane yowled like a cat and jumped away from him and Conner laughed at him.

  "Scaredy cat...Go join Eela and Blista." Conner said and Shane sighed."I will I will...And its BlistER." He corrected and Conner shrugged."That's what I said. Now go on. Cova should be on the hunt soon." He walked down to the shore and Shane slowly followed him.

  Conner took his seat beside Eela like Shane expected he would. Conner never gave Eela the chance to be away from him, and Shane doubted that bothered her one bit. She seemed to enjoy it if anything. He didn't understand how two people could be so close. It must be horrible to be that close to someone.

  Shane shook his head to clear those thoughts out of his mind and sat behind Eela and Blister, tall enough to look over them.

  "How much longer till he goes on the hunt?" Blister asked in an angry tone and Conner said,"Be patient. We have to wait till he sees something interesting."

  "Well, maybe I can push Max in." Blister suggested and Eela rolled her eyes."Your way to little to pick a fight with someone twice your size. You'd be the one in the river." She said stiffly and Blister laughed."if he did I would just swim to shore! I'm a great swimmer. I come from Riverclan. No one has died of a shark yet there."

  Shane paused then said,"This isn't Riverclan territory Blister. It's not the same." He said it gloomily and Blister was a big surprised."Oh well...I understand that Shane. But...You just don't understand. It's in my blood..." She stopped herself and sighed with her eyes closed.

  Shane felt a little bad for being harsh but he knew it was the right thing to say. Blister shouldn't feel overconfident of the river, even if it's in her blood to be around one and survive off one. It's not in her blood to survive a magical shark biting her in half.

  Shane just hugged his knees as he watched the water slush along until he spotted something black and sharp looming above the surface, slowly gliding along the surface surface like a black spot on white. It was a triangle sharp, and it cut through the water like a knife.

  "There he is. Cova." Eela said in a growling voice and Shane titled his head."He's a triangle?"

  Conner chuckled."I wish. Cova is much more than some triangle."

  Shane shrugged and watched the black knife-like thing move above the water and Shane caught sight of what it was after: a bear was making its way across the river, but Shane noticed it wasn't even half way there and the shark was catching up, but the bear didn't notice the looming danger yet.

"This is so wrong...Can't we help the poor thing?" Shane asked and Conner shook his head."No. This is the way it has to be. When you try to cross, you'll have to wait till its feeding. That would give you a distraction to get your way to the center of the river."

Shane sighed deeply and just ducked his head as the shark crept closer to the bear.

"Don't be a scared baby Shane. Don't you wanna se for your own eyes what your up against?" Eela asked with a questioning tone and Shane sighed and slowly rose his head to see the shark pounce, or so as he would see it.

The Shark rammed into the bear, and Shane caught a glimpse as it sunk its teeth into the bear's whole body and the bear didn't even get to make a sound as it was dragged down under, never to be seen again.

Shane could picture the shark now: a thing of dark black and white, maybe longer than the base of his farm. It had cold dead black eyes that reminded Shane again of the darkness in his body that made his temper flare and his bones weak, and made his sleep walk at night. The shark reminded him of those terrifying things, and he could feel a part of his brain screaming at him to run a fast as he could from the river to safety, but he stayed frozen in place.

Shane felt like he would never move again.