Getting a Pet
The boat rocked from side to side, swinging in the water, holding me, and some provisions. It was a peaceful day for fishing and that is what I have been doing. Until the boat rocked. I looked under the water to see an aquatic critter, a sea glider of blueish hue. The sea glider was a pale blue with a darker grayer color on its back and limbs, and it had small white rings following the curves of its body on the darker areas. The sea glider’s horn was of an even darker blue, and its gills, paw pads, and eyes were of the same color. I could see that it was not hostile, it merely seemed curious as to what I was doing. I leaned down the side of the boat to get a better view while being careful not to tip over. It swam closer to me tentatively and peered up at me. “Hello?” I asked to the creature.
It let out a few chirps and flipped underwater, splashing the rocky waves into my face. I laughed and wiped the salty liquid from my face and shook my head to remove water droplets from my ears. It chirped some more, and swam in circles around my boat, rocking it even more under the weight of the waves.
I smiled and turned back to my boat, rummaging through the provisions sack I had brought, and found a couple of pieces of hardtack. I turned back to the sea glider and attempted to break off a piece of the baked good that was made with literally three ingredients, for the curious animal. I failed. Miserably. Instead, I went through my bag again and found some dried dates and some salteen crackers. I took a moment to decide, but eventually put back the salteens. Who even likes them anyways? I returned the hardtack and offered a date down to the glider. It swum back a bit, hesitant. I noticed this and softly threw the maroon colored date down into the water. It splashed down before bobbing in the water along the waves. It seemed satisfied with that and swum closer to the date, nosing it along closer to my boat. Once they had gotten the date to an acceptable position, it dove, deep into the water, swimming far below the surface and then quickly propelling upwards, catching the bobbing date in its mouth, and gracefully flopping onto my boat with a light thump. Once it got used to the haphazard rocking of the ocean waves against the boat, it turned to me with its mouth open. It took me a moment to understand what it meant, but I again threw a date towards the sea glider, watching it chomp it up enthusiastically. I took a chance and tried to offer the date with my paws, and to my delight, it carefully reached its neck out to grab the date between its sharp white teeth and flip the date in the air to catch it in its mouth and then swallow it. I offered another and with more confidence, it ate it. I kept feeding it more and more dates, and before I knew it I was out of dates. “Oh calamity, oh despair, I am full of dread, for my dates are gone, oh whatever shall I do, except cry and reminisce over my dates of which I shall never have returned!” I shouted into the open air poetically before falling down laughing.
The sea glider looked confused as to why I wasn’t feeding it anymore, and also slightly annoyed by my bad acting, until it noticed that there were no more dates on the boat. It again looked at me, then looked back at the sparkling ocean before diving into the blue ocean again. I looked forlornly down the side of the boat in an attempt to keep it in my view, but before I could blink, it had disappeared into the blue depths of the ocean. Worried, I paced ‘round my small boat, wondering why it had left me, before I spotted it ascending through the water, with several fish in its mouth. It flopped back onto my boat, getting readjusted quicker than before, and spit the wriggling fish out onto the deck. I picked the fish up, and placed it into my fish bucket, and extended my paw out slowly, hoping to pet the cerulean sea glider. It stood still, still as a statue, and allowed me to stroke my paw down its head, and scratch behind its ears. It purred with enjoyment, and after a few moments of soft stroking and scratching its soft head, I started stroking more along its lithe body and back, before it flopped onto its back, anticipating belly rubs, which I provided quite easily to the sea glider’s delight, rubbing it’s soft short fur up and down while it kicked its legs, at my paws. “Hey, you need a name right?’” I asked to the happy animal.
It turned upwards to be in a sitting position and looked puzzled but seemed to understand the general idea of what I said. “How about Snorkel?” The sea glider ferociously shook its head, showing its loathing for the name.
“Well then, how do you like Cassandra?”
It’s nodded gleefully and spit a spurt of water into the air, as I began setting up to sail back to the mainland.