Adam decided to disregard the Admiral’s orders and, as soon as the Admiral dropped out of sight, Adam took off. He swam low over the back of the manta, over the urchin crew and the cargo tied down atop the manta’s back. After he cleared the manta’s tail he swam down to a smaller portion of the kelp forest that was off to one side. He hoped Spot was paying attention.
Adam swam two rows deep into the forest then got behind the large base of one plant to keep watch on the manta above. Things seemed all right so far. Adam felt a fuzzy something tapping his shoulder and heard a slow, “Excuuuuuuuuuuse me,” behind him. Adam jumped and swam around to put the kelp stalk in between him and whatever had touched him. He peeked around the plant and saw a huge starfish, balanced upright on two of its five points. The starfish spoke to Adam through a hole smack dab in the middle of its body.
“Nooooooo neeeeeeed toooo beeee afraiiiiiid. Aaaaare yooooooou reeeeecruuuuuuuitiiiiing alllllreeeeeeadyyyyy?”
“Recruiting?” The question baffled Adam.
“Yeeeees. Loooooooook arrrroouuuuuuund yooooouuuuuu.” The starfish swept one of his thick, light-orange “arms” out to one side of the kelp forest. Adam’s eyes followed the movement, yet failed to see what the starfish was getting at. The starfish tried again. “Looooook dooooooowwwwwwwwnnnn aaand aarrrrrrrouuuund yoooouuu.”
Adam looked at the floor of the kelp forest. The bottom of the ocean floor was covered with tiny purple and red spiky balls; baby urchins.
“What is this place?” Adam asked while still trying to take in the massive number of urchins the forest housed. If hundreds rode on the mantra’s back…there must be thousands, a million, here.
“Whhhhaaaaaaaat? Whyyyyyyyyy, thiiiiiiiisssss iisssss aaaaaan Urrrrrrrrrchiiiiiin Aaarrrrmmyy faaarrrmmm, nuuuuuuummmmmmbeeeeerrrrr thiiiiiiiirrrrrrtyyyyy-threeeeeeeeeeeeeee, toooooo beeeee exaaaaaaaact.”
Jason Preu 