Hooks

Chapter 25: Coral Country

It was then that I heard a familiar but distant voice.

"Mark! Over here Mark!!!" said the voice.

I looked over, as my ears followed the voice, and to my surprise I saw Gummy in a different tank that was to the left of mine. He was swimming around happily, swinging his tail back and forth, and then he smiled at me. He had teeth. They were shiny, pointy, and sharp and he seemed so happy about it.

"I got teeth Mark! I'm not a toothless shark anymore!" he said with joy.

"Gummy!" I started. I then took a minute to process what I had just said and swam back a few steps.

"I mean...Gumbert! That's amazing! I'm so happy for you!"

I then realized someone was still missing. My head sulked and my eyes watered and shined as the light from outside the tank reflected back hitting them ever so perfectly.

"Gumbert..." I said.

"Where's Kambara?"

Gummy looked at me as a tear rolled down his eye. I could tell that he didn't want to answer.

"I don't know, I haven't seen him since they put us in those big cages," he said.

"Cages?" I asked as I started to grow even more worried than I was before.

"Yeah, they took us and threw us into cages and they put us on a big boat!" he said.

"A boat? What's a boat?" I asked.

"It's what you came here on..." he said.

"The sea car...?" I asked.

"It's called a boat," he said chuckling.

I ignored my lack of knowledge on human based things and brought my mind back to the original problem.

"I have to find Kambara..." I said as I started swimming around aimlessly in the water.

"Well my guess would be that he is probably in the Australia exhibit," said Gumbert.

"Australian exhibit? Do you know where that is?" I asked hoping for an answer.

"If I remember correctly I saw it on the other side of you when I was being transported in here," he said unsure.

"Okay, thank you so much Gumbert," I said as I began swimming off.

"Mark..." he said stopping me.

"Yes?"

"Call me Gummy," he said smiling.

I smiled back and nodded.

"You'll still visit me right?" he said shedding a tear.

"Of course! How could I forget my favorite toothless shark?" I said.

"I have teeth now you know..." he said laughing.

"Gummy, thanks for everything. I couldn't have done it all without you," I said gleefully.

"Don't mention it," he replied.

I smiled back at him one more time and then started swimming off towards the other side of the tank so that I could find Kambara. Because of the tank's vast size it seemed like it took ages to reach the Australian exhibit on the other side of the glass but eventually I got there. I swam up to the glass and looked in. I saw a lot of yellow coral just like I had seen at Kambara's home. There were many crabs, a lot of colored strange looking fish, and I even saw an octopus swim by. I still saw no sign of Kambara. Then, instantaneously, a long scaly creature emerged from underneath the sand. It shook the sand off of him as it went everywhere.