The Final Six of Violet Tree Town

In this together

The sun was just beginning to rise, as early as it was, it felt like a whole day had passed already. It's been a long night, that's for sure.

As soon as the warm sunlight hit his eye, the sea otter awakened. He sat up, temporarily forgetting everything that had happened last night. Stretching his arms with a scratchy yawn, Russell was well rested, and was about to get out of bed and start the day, maybe go fishing later...

Then he remembered everything. All that happened before, and where he was, still on that same rock he fell asleep on earlier. Russell looked around for anything important or unusual. The waters were as calm as ever, but no one had found him yet.

"Hello!!?"

His call echoed throughout the landscape, but got no reply.

"Can anyone hear me!!?"

Still nothing. Russell knew that he couldn't stand up because of his broken peg leg, so it wouldn't be the best idea to search for the others when he got back to shore. He decided to get a little closer to land so that he would have a better chance of being heard. He was about to slip into the water, but he suddenly heard water spout in the distance.

It was when he looked to his right, where he saw a large black fin approaching him.

"YAAGH!!"

He frantically looked around, where he saw two smaller black fins coming his way as well.

"O-Oh n-noo...!"

One of the smaller fins came right up to the rock, revealing the fins to belong to orcas. Russell backed away frantically, but he bumped right into the nose of the other small orca. The orcas appeared to be calves, babies, but that didn't make the situation any better, their mom was close by, circling them. The orca behind him tried to grab him with it's mouth, causing him to scream as he quickly crawled away. The mother was slowly closing in, and the calves were getting closer. It was a small rock, about four feet across. Russell almost swung his hook at the calves, but knew that a mother's wrath is inescapable. The otter's breath shortened as his eye widened with fear, if he wasn't shaking already, he sure was now.

The poor otter started screaming at the top of his lungs for help, if anyone could hear him, they would come rushing over. The black and white creatures came closer nonetheless, and the mother was right behind Russell now, who was near the edge of the rock. He had nowhere to go, and it seemed like no one heard his desperate cries.

"OH GOD, PLEASE HELP ME!! I-I'LL DO ANYTHING!! I JUST WANT TO LIVE!! PLEASE HELP!!"

Russell cried up to the heavens as tears began to fill his eye, but got no response. The two orca calves preformed one of their hunting techniques, and flung themselves onto the rock, causing Russell to fall over the edge, where he was only a foot away from the mother's face. The calves wiggled back into the water, and made happy chirping and clicking noises as they joined their mother. Russell had his back against the rock, seemingly struggling to breathe from how terrified he was. Shaking violently, he tried making one last cry for help, but his throat was in a knot. One of the calves came right up to Russell and touched his face with it's nose, causing the poor otter to flinch and release a tiny, scared noise.

He waited, but pain didn't come. He opened his eye a little bit, where the calves were surprisingly giving him space. Russell didn't know how, but he sensed that the orcas felt concerned for him. The mother swam up to him, before making those same clicks, chirps and squeaking noises. The scared otter thought the orca was going to eat him, but he couldn't move due to his fear of these mammals.

The mother orca sensed that Russell was not a threat to her babies, and backed off. Russell got the sense that these animals weren't going to harm him, and let out a sigh that was probably the biggest sigh of relief he ever made.