Listen to the Water | FULL SERIES | Wattys 2022 Shortlist | ✔

(41) Singing Shoal

Taiki doesn't stab me. I hate that I'm surprised to wake up unscathed, running a mental inventory of my body before I stir and give indication that I'm awake. When I open my eyes, though, there's an even bigger surprise. My dagger is lying safe and sound beside me, tucked on a ledge where I couldn't accidentally stab myself on it if I moved in my sleep. Did my parents put it there? I push myself up, but my mother and father are still absent. Taiki is still by the doorway. There's a pile of food midway between us, but it's only big enough for me, and the biggest fish in it has been split in half. Taiki's already eaten.

I don't know what to say, and I'm not sure saying something is a good course of action, so I wordlessly sheathe the dagger and set about my now-near-sunset grooming. There are more parasites on my tail. I've woken up to at least one or two every morning since first noticing their presence, but they've started finding me with a vengeance ever since I raked off a couple scales under Telu. I have a sneaking suspicion they're a normal part of ocean life, and I'm a little embarrassed to think that it took me so long to notice.

The parasites, luckily, are easily plucked off and crushed against the rocks. They bleed red. Given the raw, painful spot each leaves between my scales I doubt it's their own blood, a conclusion that makes me feel slightly better about tasting its iron tang in the water. I never thought I would find something that would make me jealous of Taiki's squid tail, inflexible and not-silver as it is. This is that something. I've never seen him so much as run a parasite check, even when he wakes up in the morning. And I've never seen one on him.

Taiki's not looking at me, but he's also more relaxed than he was yesterday, and if he gave me my dagger back, that says something, too. I'm not exactly sure what, but something. I'm contemplating asking when my parents came by just to start a conversation when he suddenly stiffens.

"Hold still," he signs.

My hand finds my weapon before I obey. After another moment, Taiki beckons me to the mouth of the crevice. The motion is tight and subtle, and I take my cue, staying as low as I can as I glide up beside him. I can see nothing of consequence outside. Taiki, though, hasn't moved, and his narrow eyes sharpen with every moment he spends staring out at the water.

"Stay low," he signs.

I want to know if this is something I need to swim warn my village about, but voice-vibrations outside indicate they might be one step ahead of me. "What's the matter?"

Taiki starts to lift his hands, then glances at me and changes whatever he was about to say. "Fish. I can hear them. Can you feel them yet?"

I turn my focus back outside, frowning. There's a vibration in the water, but it's so vast, and spread so thin, that I'd sooner assume it's rain on the surface than anything down here. It's a cloudy day, I can already tell.

Taiki is still watching me. "That's them."

The realization creeps up on me slowly. Very slowly. "Wait..."

His face is grim.

I spread my fingers, mimicking the faint hum of the vibration. "This one is the fish?"

He nods.

"How—" Rashi help me. "How many are there?"

"A lot."

No shit.

"I've never seen a school this big," signs Taiki.

Somehow, that manages to send a bigger chill through me than anything he's said or done thus far. He knows this ocean. He's been more places in it than I can even imagine; more places than even his tribe knows about, let alone one they themselves have been. If Taiki hasn't seen something...