The Rescue

CHAPTER 1

“Come on, I see krill right past the coral.” Icy says. We quietly swim to the other side of the coral and when we are about to catch it Slick grasps the krill between his teeth and swims away.

“Hey, we were going to catch that.” we yell. He looks back, chuckles, and turns away. We soon forget about Slick and start to play in the coral, dodging through the different colored and shaped reef.

Hi, I’m a Harp Seal. My name is Snowy, I live with my mom, my annoying brother Slick, and the best sister I could ever ask for, Icy. Icy and I are hunting for our favorite food, krill. Slick is the best hunter in the family but he is so rude that he would never help us. I’m the youngest, eight years old and Slick always brags about being older than me and Icy. Icy is eleven and Slick is thirteen. We used to live with Dad too but he got taken by an illegal seal hunting boat. Well, it’s not really for hunting but they sell the seals they catch to people at an auction that want them for their zoos or as pets or the worst I have heard is to kill them and use them for decorations. It was a long time ago so I don’t remember it.

We climb out of the water and go to our little cave. We don’t usually stay in our cave that long we just sleep there. I had to come out of the water early because it is Monday, Mom makes me take a nap every Monday. Mom is the most beautiful adult harp seal in the world, she has tanish fur with black splotches and deep brown eyes that make you feel happy the minute you see them. I am tired but I don’t admit it, Mom would probably make me have a nap on Fridays again too. I get in my bed, my bed is made of fresh algae and some snow to make it less slimy. It’s the most comfortable bed in the whole cave. I climb in, the minute my head reaches the soft algae pillow my eyes get heavy and I fall asleep right away. I start to dream about catching a lifelong supply of krill.

CHAPTER 2

When I wake up I ask my mom if I can hunt with Icy. She says yes, but only if I come home by lunch. I hurry to get Icy and soon we are swimming through kelp and coral, looking for krill. I love Icy, she is always there for me when I need her. She shows me around parts of the ocean I haven’t seen. Icy has soft cloud white fur and jet black eyes, just like me. Icy has long claws, they are black and smooth as a clam shell. I remember the first time I saw Icy, she was swimming with her friends. She is a strong, fast, graceful swimmer.

I look down and see krill. A smile spreads across my fluffy face because Icy is always proud when I find a krill. I quietly call, “Icy, Icy, I found a krill!” She doesn’t reply. I call again. Icy isn’t responding and I began to panic. “Icy!” I whip around, frantically looking for her. She’s not in the kelp. She’s not behind the coral. Where is she? “Icy!?” I see a dark shadow looming overhead. It is in the shape of a skinny shell, and is blocking out the sun. Everything is dark for a moment and I realize that it's a boat! Just like the kind Dad was taken from! I swim faster. “Icy! Icy!” I look up and my stomach lurches. I see Icy stuck in a net, crying for help. “Icy, I’m coming!” I swim towards her as fast as I can, but Icy is lifted up and out of the water, and the boat speeds away in a blur.

CHAPTER 3

My heart is pounding like a million whales flopping around in the water. I swim dodging through the coral to Mom. My heart sinks when I think of only living with Mom and Slick. I love Mom but she has a lot to do without Dad not here and she can never play and Slick never plays with me. I climb out of the water and quickly get to our cave. I tell Mom everything how we were fishing and she got taken by the boat.

Mom gets Slick out of the water and into our house. Slick gives us our dinner of krill, again. I do love krill but it gets old if you have it every night for dinner. It's because that's the only food Slick hunts for. Dad taught Slick how to fish but he got taken by the boat, he only had time to teach Slick how to hunt for krill. Mom taught him everything else, but he only hunts krill, in memory of Dad. I sometimes think that the reason Slick is so mean and keeping us away from him is to keep us safe, so we don't get taken by the hunting boat. Slick was with Daddy when he got taken and he thinks its his fault. I still love Slick even if he is rude and annoying most of the time.

CHAPTER 4

Mom explains to slick in a shaky voice about Icy. He looks like he is about to cry. I tell them I am getting to the boat to save Icy no matter what they say. I love Icy and I have to save her. We finish our dinner in silence. After, dinner Slick comes over to me and says that he missed Dad so much that he had to save Icy with me. I said ok, but we can’t tell mom. Slick told me the boat drops off in Winters Cove and if we get there in three days we can get Icy out of there. “But thats 100 miles away, we could never make it in time!” I explain.

“Sure we can, if we can take my short cut.”Slick answered.

“What short cut? This sounds like the shortcut to Mom birthday party when we got lost for a day.”

“No I use it all the time, don’t worry we won't get lost.” Slick said reassuringly. I had to trust him. How else would we save Icy?

In the morning we quickly ate our breakfast. The hard part is making sure mom doesn’t see us when we leave for Winters Cove. We tried to get out by asking to go hunting but mom said we weren't allowed to go hunting until she said so because of what happened to Icy. That didn’t work so we decided that I would distract mom while slick left and after I would sneak out. Slick got out but Mom made me do chores around the house. Finally Mom let me go outside for some fresh air. I quickly jumped into the water and swam to Slick.

We swam for a while, but then Slick got hungry so I hunted him some fish and we got going again. We swam through a forest of seaweed. The seaweed was dark green with small brown speckles. It reminded me of when me of when Icy and I would race through the seaweed. It made me sad to think of playing with Icy. But we will get her back, I hope.

CHAPTER 5

We find a place to rest for the night in a small cave. I lay my head down and because of a long day of swimming fall right asleep. When I wake up Slick is frantically flopping around the cave yelling “GET OUT, GET OUT!!!”.

I look up and see a huge Polar bear looking down at me with a snarl. Then I see Mom come into the cave my heart sores, She would always say whenever any of us were in trouble she would sense it and come to save us. As soon as Mom was all the way inside the cave she made the loudest sound in the world. The bear looks away from me to look at Mom. She yelled for me and Slick to leave. She tells us to find Icy and save her. At that moment the Polar bear pulled its arm up and gave her a huge gash in her throat. I screamed a scream the whole galaxy could hear, even Pluto, And with her last words she told us to leave and save Icy. My tears burn on my face as I see my Mother get torn apart by a polar bear.

I dive into the water with Slick right behind me. I couldn’t believe Mom would risk her life for us, and died. I start to cry Slick comes and cuddles me for comfort.

We keep going and I wonder where we are. “Are you sure you know the way” I asked

“Not really it looks different than usual.” Slick answered

“What, you said you knew the way!” I yelled in frustration.

“I did, but I think we took a wrong way about a mile back.”

“What! We can’t be lost we have to get there in like a day and a half. We have to turn around and get there somehow.” I said.

We turn around and swim all the way back to where we turned the wrong way and went the right way. I was getting dark and I was super tired, but I kept going because we had to get there in a day. We swam and swam, I saw so many boats but none of them were the boat that took Icy. We finally got to the cove but still none of them were the right boat. “I think we missed it.” I said sadly.

“Yeah me to, we came all this way for nothing.” Slick answered glumly.

“Lets sleep here and head home tomorrow.” I suggested. We found a clean spot to rest and fell asleep.

CHAPTER 6

I wake and hear people yelling, I listen closer and her, “Juvenile harp seal for sale, Juvenile harp seal for sale, only 100,000 dollars!” I shake Slick awake, “What” Slick said in a tired and annoyed voice.

“We have to go save her the boat came late there about to sell her! What's our plan?” I asked frantically.

“I don’t know, maybe while know one is looking we can take her and get into the water”

“No that wouldn't work because we can’t move really fast. Wait, I have an idea, I look just like Icy so, I can distract the man while you get Icy out than I can escape.”

“Ok fine, just stay safe I will meet you at the opening of my short cut.” Slick answed.

“Ok, got it” I said. I knew this was dangerous and I was terrified but so was mom when she saved us I want to save Icy and be just like mom.

I go near the man, I inch closer and closer. I can’t see Icy anywhere. But she hadn’t been taken by any buyers yet because the man was still saying “Juvenile harp seal for sale, Juvenile harp seal for sale, only 100,000 dollars.” I go a little closer, the man whips around I start to look like I am escaping I see Slick grab Icy and dive into the water. I try to get into the water but the man grabs me by the neck and puts me in a cage I try to get out but its locked. I yell for Slick.

A Woman with a white bun and a nice green dress. She asks if she could buy me, for her indore aquarium. She winked at me. The man was very pleased that someone wanted to buy me. He handed the cage right to the woman. She quickly wrote a check and left with me. The woman put me in her car and drove me out of the cove. She brought me to the edge of the ocean and let me out of the cage, I was confused because she was letting me go. What was she doing? She urged me to jump in so I jumped in and thanked her with a little squeak.

I swam to the opening of Slicks shortcut and there was slick and Icy there waiting for me I swam up to them as fast as I could. I couldn’t wait to tell them how I got out of the cage. But then she asked where mom was and that was the hard part because we had to tell her about the polar bear killing mom. We shared hugs and snuggles. Icy starts to cry, “I never got to say goodbye to her I will never see her again. I don't understand, why did this have to happen.” Icy says.

“Its ok we will find another place to live near here and we will always keep an eye on each other so we don’t get taken.” Slick answers. I was so happy Icy was back.