Chapter 3: A Near-Death Experience

We swam for several minutes before things started to go wrong.

I had never used a tail to swim, so I had no idea as to how I was

supposed to carry myself. That, combined with the effort it took me

to move through the water, soon made me so tired that even Erin

outpaced me. Miles decided to stop for 5 minutes to let me catch

my breath. The whole situation was strangely humiliating for me. I

mean, I knew I was using a tail for the first time, but why did I have to be weaker than a 5-year-old? Why did we have to stop because

of me?

Of course, fate couldn't just stop there. As soon as we started

moving again, I nicked my hand on a jagged piece of tin foil that

was floating close by. Amelia told me that I needed to cover up my

wound so it wouldn't bleed, but naturally, being the idiot that I am,

I decided to ignore her. I'll bleed less than two drops from a cut this

size, I told myself, why bother covering it up?

Well, I soon learned that 2 drops of blood are enough to attract

sharks. In the time it took us to cover 3 kilometers, a shark the size

of a house decided it wanted Ebony sandwiches for dinner and

started chasing us.

Why, oh, why did I not listen to Amelia?! I internally cursed

myself as we swam in circles for nearly 10 minutes before finding

a small cave to hide in. Inside, Miles cut up a small piece of fabric

from his shirt and used it to bandage my wound. A little while later,

when we were sure the coast was clear, we snuck out of the cave

and swam for our lives.

We could still see the shark through the murky water, but Miles

was confident we'd be able to sneak past unnoticed. It was pretty

nerve-wracking, trying to go past a 20-feet long beast that was out

for blood. We were, however, soon rescued by a small diversion; a

giant squid came and attacked the shark. Pretty soon, the two were

engaged in a fierce battle. I don't really know who won though; we

didn't stick around to find out. I'd already used my daily dose of

adrenaline and I had no intentions of being chased by another

monster.