The Tale of Carrot

Chapter 5

Carrot and Finn were swimming peacefully through the cold lake side by side under the fishing dock. Schools of goldfish swam around them, avoiding Carrot at all costs.

"Man, what's wrong with you fish?" Finn yelled at them. "He's just a regular fish like us!"

"Shush! I don't need you to confront them!" Carrot protested. "I'm fine with fish treating me like I have Ebola."

The school of fish swam up to Finn slowly. A leader emerged from their group.

"Children, stay behind me." The 'teacher' gestured to Carrot and Finn. "These fish may hurt you."

"Okay, now that's just bogus." Finn scoffed, surprising himself by saying bogus.

"Is it? Is it really bogus?" The leader of the school of fish spat out. She swam slightly closer to Finn, still avoiding Carrot. "Is it wrong to be weary of a middle aged fish and a fish oozing neon orange, yelling at my students for no reason?"

Carrot placed his fin on Finn's back. "Really, you don't need to argue with them. Let's just go somewhere else."

A couple of fish in the school murmured to each other in awe "It speaks!"

"See? This is what I'm talking about! Everybody is treating you as if you're a barnacle. Do you want to be treated like that your entire life? You gotta get some self respect, dude." Finn rambled to Carrot. "And your school should show some respect to my buddy, Carrot. He's a living, breathing animal. He has feelings too."

The teacher fumed at Finn's small speech. "Show that thing respect? It will contaminate our waters with its filthy colour! Do you want us to all look like it? Would you rather have that atrocious coloured skin than your regular shade of orange?"

While this argument was going on, a small fish was slowly making her way towards Carrot. Fish in the school were gaping at the small fish almost reaching Carrot. The teacher and Finn were still arguing, but the teacher finally saw what was unfolding in front of her. Carrot just stood still, staring intently at the petite fish.

"Dory, you come back this instance! Dory, don't you dare touch that abomination! Your mother will not be happy about this." The teacher desperately called after Dory. The teacher swam as fast as could to Dory.

Dory reached Carrot with a glint of satisfaction in her eyes. She raised her fin up and stared at her teacher in triumph. The fin whistled through the water down towards the torso of Carrot.

Finn smiled and the school was watching as Dory's fin slammed onto Carrot. The teacher finally reached Dory and attempted to push Dory away from Carrot. Dory moved away just in time and sent her teacher going to the uncovered edge of the dock at full speed-right into a net perfectly placed there that nobody saw.

The teacher widened her eyes in fear as the net was pulled up towards the unknown. She was struggling against the net, but to no avail as the net was brought higher and out of sight from the fish in the lake.

The school of fish were all freaking out. They were relieved that Dory didn't turn bright orange, but they just saw their beloved teacher get sucked into oblivion. Dory's eyes started to water. The disappearance of her teacher was all her fault, just because she wanted to prove a point.

"And that my friends, was a Taker in action." Finn finally spoke. "We don't know what their objective is, who they are, or where they came from. But all I know is that we need to be cautious when swimming around here. You could be their next victim."

"Well that's encouraging." Carrot mumbled.

Finn turned to the remaining fish around him. "Y'all need to broadcast this event to other fish. Warn them about the Takers. Tell them to spread the word around."