It was difficult to wait until dark to slip into the water again. Our time between was filled with storing our food purchases appropriately and taking Vanessa’s much larger quantity of food to the house. We asked her if she would like fresh fish tonight, so that we could catch extra for her, but she declined the offer. She intended to start consuming some of the fresh human food.
The water felt cool and inviting.
Maria hesitated on the vessel, concerned. “Should I replace the fuel supply on Vanessa’s house generator before we go? It was near empty.”
I laughed, shaking my head. “Is it difficult to do?”
“No,” Maria began thoughtfully. “I suppose she can change the fuel lines herself if it is required before our return.” With that, she slipped between the waves with a small splash.
There were samsonfish and kingfish in the anchorage, grown to enormous size on food scraps from the camps. We had been cautioned not to catch these, the humans’ pets, and so we swam further afield. To the north east, we found tuna with yellow fins and dhufish. Algae were varied and plentiful, too. Sick of the human habit of scaling and cooking the fish, we ate the fish as our people always had, seasoned with nothing but salt water. Watching Maria with her fish, I was reminded of a human child crunching through a chocolate bar.
When we had eaten our fill, we sang up the dolphins. They had missed us, they said, and wished to play in the channel, where they had found a large school of tuna fish that morning. Perhaps some would remain as a snack after a play.
We raced the dolphins to the channel, through reefs and around rocks and islands. It felt good to swim at full speed, to feel the power of muscle and tail flukes as we streamed through the water in what felt like a cloud of bubbles. I wondered if this was what it felt like to fly through air, but caught myself in time before my dreams flew too high. Even humans could only fly with the aid of an aircraft, which was a metal tube with wings. My sensation of speed was as little like flying in a metal tube as travelling on the carrier boat this afternoon had been like swimming: no comparison.