Chapter 6

AFTER SWIMMING FOR THE REST OF THE NIGHT— the sun was

rising by the time Gray and Barkley got back—they reached the reef. How

had they gotten so far away?

The worst part was the place was in an uproar. Gray hoped in vain it

wasn't because of them.

Of course he was very, very wrong.

Atlas led the Line, along with many other shiver sharks, in a ragged,

three-level triangle formation. That was weird. Gray had never seen them

do that. What did it mean? They certainly didn't look happy, though.

"Gray!" cried his mom. "Are you all right?" She tried to swim ahead of

Atlas but was slowed by Quickeyes and Onyx.

Atlas gave her a hard look. "Sandy, please." Gray's mom nodded, and

the Coral Shiver leader spoke again, "Gray, Barkley—are you okay?"

Quickeyes and Onyx swam overhead, watching the distant waters. Why

were they doing that?

"We are," answered Barkley. Gray quickly agreed with his friend.

"Now tell me exactly where you were, and anything that happened,"

Atlas ordered. Gray had never seen the old bull shark so…commanding

before. Barkley told the story with Gray adding bits and pieces. Oddly, the

more the story went on, the angrier Atlas and the others became. Except

Gray's mom. She got scared.

A full council of all the reef dwellers was called. The sharks of Coral

Shiver wanted to make the decision by themselves but were overruled by

Prime Minister Shocks. Shocks would have probably let Atlas, Sandy, and

the others in Line hand out Gray's punishment, but the other reef dwellers

demanded their say.

Gray wasn't sure what was happening, exactly, but his mom was even

more upset than yesterday. Quickeyes and Onyx took turns staring at Gray

as if they wanted to eat him. Overbiter was busy gnawing on his own tail

fin. He used to be second in the Line years ago and sometimes didn't

remember he wasn't a member of the council anymore. Atlas and the rest

never said anything and let him stay. Supposedly he had been a great

warrior long ago. Yeah, right.

Shocks sent a weak bolt of electricity arcing into the water, calling

everyone in the area to attention. Gray had never seen so many dweller

leaders gathered at one time! There were all kinds of fish; tangs, grouper,

lantern fish, angelfish, hatchet fish, clown fish, puffers, wrasse, frog fish,

sunfish, doctor, and surgeonfish. Every other non-fish dweller seemed to be

here too: big and small rays, eels of all sizes and colors, anemones, urchins,

shellheads, turtles, and many, many others.

This would be really neat if I wasn't the reason they were here, Gray

thought as he floated above the flat stone that was traditionally known as

Speakers Rock. It didn't seem like he would get to speak, but there was no

good area for everyone to see him otherwise, so Atlas allowed it.

Barkley was asked questions by the manta rays, their pilot fish nearby.

Some of these rays were wider than Gray, and their larger cousins, the

giants, were bigger in all ways. Supposedly rays were distant cousins of

sharkkind from prehistore times. He didn't really believe it as they weren't

very good hunters, living mostly on floating greenie, krill, and shellheads.

They did have really cool stingers, but didn't use them for hunting. What a

waste!

Gray watched his mother become more and more agitated as Prime

Minister Shocks spoke with her. Gray wished he could hear, but they were

in a place where the currents masked their conversation. The other dwellers

who could listen in seemed satisfied, though. Suddenly the current shifted,

and Gray could hear parts of what his mom and Shocks were talking about.

"You know what's out there!" his mother said. "Battle shivers are on the

move! The Indi King's armada—"

The tide shifted, and Gray could only hear Shock's reply in bits, "…are

only rumors!"

Battle shivers? That was the kind of intensely interesting stuff Gray

always wanted to hear about—the stuff adults whispered and then stopped

discussing whenever he or Barkley got close. For a moment Gray thought

his mother was going to bite the distinguished eel. Shocks spoke to the next

group of dwellers, and pretty soon everyone except Gray knew what was

happening.

Come on!

Atlas and the other sharkkind in the Line tried to calm his mom, but it

wasn't working. Gray felt awful. Why do I keep disappointing her? She

broke free and swam toward him. Prime Minster Shocks tried to get ahead

of her, but she left the eel tumbling in her wake with a furious tail stroke.

"That's totally out of order, Sandy!" he harrumphed.

"I want a minute with my son!" she yelled, close to tears, her barbels

quivering. After a stare down, Shocks gave her a curt nod. She approached

Gray and said, "Just tell the truth, okay? We'll get through this."

Get through what? he wondered. Gray was becoming irritated. A

growing shark has to eat! They couldn't punish him for that. But a creeping

feeling in his belly told him that they could.

Prime Minister Shocks let off another low-voltage attention grabber that

quieted everyone. "Gray, please swim over here so everyone can listen to

you answer my questions."

"Umm, sure." Gray moved to the area where the current would catch his

words and broadcast them.

"Why did you leave the reef homewaters last night?" Shocks asked.

Everyone was listening and watching intently and Gray became

nervous. "I, umm, I mean, we—" He looked over at Barkley. "We saw some

fish and got hungry. They were mixed with shrimp, very delicious, by the

way, and also—"

The gathered dwellers' whispering rose in volume as Shocks cut him

off. "But wasn't it you who convinced your friend to go? In fact, didn't he

say that you shouldn't leave the reef?"

"Well, yeah. But he's always trying to keep me from doing fun stuff—"

Gray stopped in confusion as the murmurs from the dwellers got louder, in

some cases surging to outright yelling. Except for his mother. She was

crying now. Atlas glared again. Gray continued with his point, speaking

over the crowd so he would be heard. "Hey, I was hungry!" For some

reason this made things much worse.

Shocks zapped the water with a heavy charge to quiet the crowd enough

so he could speak. "ORDER!" he yelled. "I will have order!" The eel turned

to Gray. "Is that why you left the reef and drew the attention of a tiger

shark, who was himself a member of a shiver? Because you were hungry?"

"Umm, well, I didn't go out there with the intention of meeting anyone,

but, yes, I was hungry."

"So you put your hunger ahead of the safety of everyone on the reef. Is

that right? I hope you're at least full!"

It took a moment for Gray to realize what he was being asked.

Unfortunately, his mouth was already speaking. "I'm still a little hungry but

—wait-—what?"

The gathered dwellers exploded, everyone shouting, clacking their

claws, basically making any loud noise they could as a sign of their anger.

Prime Minster Shocks futilely shot electrical charges into the water. He

needed to call the rest of his eel friends to raise the voltage before he got

everyone's attention and order was restored.

"Mom!" said Gray as she swam close to him. "I'm really sorry! I'm—"

She cut him off with a slash of her tail. "I know you are, Gray. Look,

there's something I haven't told you. You're going to have a brother and a

sister."

"What?!"

His mother was much sadder than he would expect her to be as she told

him the news. "You're going to be a big brother. Oh, Gray, I'm so sorry."

She sobbed.

"Why are you sorry? Why are you crying?" he asked. "This is great!

I've always wanted brothers and sisters!" Then Gray grew confused. "I

really am happy, but why are you telling me now? I don't exactly get it."

There were tears in his mother's eyes as she said, "Because that's the

reason I can't go with you!"

"Go with me? Where?"

Sandy was led away by Atlas and the other sharks in the Coral Shiver

Line. "Meet me at the Tuna Run! Prove yourself as a strong and good

hunter and they'll take you back!" The noise grew so loud that Gray could

no longer hear his mother.

The Tuna Run! He was allowed to go! But what did she mean by take

him back?

He grew cold and afraid as Prime Minister Shocks swam near Speakers

Rock directly in front of Gray. It was then he noticed that Barkley was also

blubbering. This isn't going to be good, he thought.

Shocks cleared his throat to speak. There was absolute silence now.

"Gray, you've endangered the shiver because of your own selfish desires. If

this was the first time you needed to be disciplined it might be different. But

it isn't, so…" Shocks looked at him sadly but pronounced the sentence in a clear voice. "You are hereby banished from Coral Shiver!"