"Not that wa—" Breach clenches her jaw as the whale sharks do not listen and continue further out. She has to go after them, she knows this, but for a moment she sits and hangs her head. This is getting to be too much and a common recurrence. The wild whale sharks do not become tame easily and it is a chore to teach them to mind commands. They understand them most of the time but they are still wild and do not always respond well or at all. And today, well the recall lesson has gone straight to hell nearly immediately as they completely ignore her.

She loves the whale sharks she has found and introduced to the swamp. She loves them and she cannot help but loathe them a little bit. They have consumed her life and she is exhausted. She plans, eventually, to journey back into the swamp proper to rally her children and siblings to see if they would like to help. She will of course ask her mothers but she doubts Takeback would care for such a responsibility and already knows that Giveforward will do everything she can. (It rankles the slightest that the latter mare will make it look endlessly easy comparatively.)

Thoughts, however, must wait. The longer she sits here, the further out they go.

A deep breath and then a shrill, sharp shriek of their own language. It has taken a long time to learn it and she still fails at times but it is the surest way to catch their attention. Unfortunately, it won't call them back to her as she hasn't figured out the intricacies of their shrieks and yips and whines.

She climbs to her feet and sets off to find the missing sharp-toothed whale sharks.

The shriek catches another’s attention. A bird, soaring overhead; a kin’s ghostly shape on the ground. Real Big Fish’s Totoma shape gallops along impossibly fast, blinking and fading out of existence from time to time– eagles can soar faster than a kin can run, sometimes. Finely-tuned eyes catch sight of a pod of whale sharks moving out, but the call didn’t come from the water– it came from the land.

Breach, most likely. She knew the sharks, knew their ways, and knew how to work with them. Her own whale sharks had both been part of her initial finds, but tending them wasn’t easy. They were tricky creatures, especially the fierce, sharp-toothed ones. The filter feeders, those were much more manageable, but oh, how their sharp-toothed cousins could fight!

And being the one kin who understood them best... it must be a lonely thing, sometimes. Frustrating, certainly. She spirals down, having spotted their keeper.

“Need help?” she asks, her forms fading together, bird and Totoma becoming one once again. “They’re going that way. You probably knew that, but I can certainly spot for you if you need help chasing them down.” Her shuppy shape was fine for the shallows, but the whale sharks dove deep and swam fast. She’d be more helpful hunting from the sky, since she could get better visual distance that way.

There is relief and a small amount of shame at being caught without control of the whale sharks that so many are becoming to associate with her. They are now almost a reflection upon her and she feels inadequate for a moment until she realizes who it is that has come to her aid. Thank the Motherfather, she thinks to herself for the Totoma legendary knows what whales sharks are like. The toothless gentle whale shark had been a troublesome one for ages before she had tamed it enough and then a bond had formed between it and the legendary. The sharp-toothed rugged one the legendary owned had been far easier to train but now she knew it to be the trend of both types of whale sharks.

"Yes, if you have the time," she smiles, relief winning out as the red hot blush fades from her cheeks and down her neck. "The new wild ones are an unruly lot," she exhales and frowns. Shouldn't this be easier, she wonders to herself, but the answer seems to be a pointed no.

She nods, "They're headed for the perch again but they may dive for the deep sea. If you can take the sky, I can patrol the water and work my way in so that we can contain them." There will be some risk with only the two of them but they both have pets who can assist and know how whales behave. They can do this, she believes.

“I’ve got nothing but time right now! This’ll be fun.” She stretches- are those wings in the corner of her vision? “If they start to dive, I’ll leave Crash-Rapids up there to keep an eye on things and fly back as fast as I can to you.” She gives a keening cry, which is met by something between a roar and a shriek. Fish never travels without a small retinue of companions, and one of her most favored, an enormously ferocious griffin, has been tailing her. The beast is still out of sight, but distance is a strange thing in the sky. “Keep your ears open– we’ll try to get out in front of them and drive them back if we can. Fish this big can go pretty deep, deeper than I can go myself- but then you can swim with them, can’t you?”

Fish didn’t envy Breach’s position. “They sure are an awful lot of work, aren’t they? I’m certainly glad you brought them back, but when you found them... it took a lot of guts, bringing them back the way you did. Almost like eagles, with how hard they can be to follow.” The Totoma smiles kindly- she doesn’t think this is a failing in any way. Animals are animals, and sometimes they have a mind of their own. “Anything else I should know before I take off?”

She nods, nearly laughing, but instead of voicing her agreement, she lets herself fade as a startling pink gentle whale shark materializes before all assembled. The whale shark lets out a sound that is somewhere before a groan and a coo, before fading as Breach comes back to full visibility.

Breach feels her cheeks warm and she ducks her head at the compliment, "Thank you. I don't think anyone's ever said that before." And they hadn't. The kin were enthralled with the whale sharks to be sure but so few knew what the ocean was like. To have found and brought them to the beach and then into the swamp, she wondered sometimes that it worked at all. These creatures are not docile by nature though they enjoy and are glad to seek out company. It is only breeding them that she has made some easier to tame individuals but she cannot forever use tame ones. The wild ones have to intermingle at points and often she does not force them to stay unless they want to. There are quite a few wild whale sharks that come and go as they please and she considers that alone a success but she could not have foreseen this future.

"The journeys and the taming are arduous, unfortunately, and I cannot know how prepared they are until I actually start to take them on journeys. There are new smells and sounds and everything is a potential distraction. I," she sighs, "I'm taking them into the swamp to see if I can convince my siblings or children or niblings will want to help. I don't think I can do it alone anymore." And it hurts to admit it aloud but it always feels like a relief to have the truth out. She's done it for nearly a year on her own and it's time for fresh blood and new eyes to be welcomed into this task. But first, they have to regroup the new wild ones.

"The gentle ones are more likely to make a break for it alone; the rugged ones prefer to stick together in pods like peas," she lets Fish know. "Oceansnake can help patrol the shallows; they'll work with anyone or anything harmoniously. Seacat will stay with me for extra breadth." And that sound be all there is to tell. "Let's go get them!"

Fish nodded solemnly. “If we were meant to do everything on our own, then we wouldn’t be so good at communicating, would we? The whale sharks like being in pods. Perhaps having more hooves to help might actually be good for them, too.”

With a whumpf, she took off, becoming her birdself once more. Eagle eyes scanned the surface of the water, looking for the telltale signs of dorsal fins breaking through the waves.

There they were! She shrieked, sounding exactly like a red-tailed hawk. It was a misconception that eagles were capable of the wailing keen that traveled for miles. Eagle cries were chirpier, shorter- but nobody had ever told this to Real Big Fish. The noises she made as an eagle were just as loud and free-wheeling as any hawk, and they carried long enough tell Breach that she definitely saw the pod on the move. She dipped low to get a better count of them, and to help Breach see which way to go. At least they seemed to be sticking together so far- the whale sharks’ herd-like nature might be their saving grace here.

@anemosagkelos

Hooves, she began to paraphrase the totoma's sentiment in her head, good for them. It brought a vision of kin and whale sharks together to her mind that she wanted to sit and explore. More than family and also less than family, a gathering for the whale sharks to—wings had never held much of an allure for Breach but it was impossible to deny the majesty as Real Big Fish transformed and shot into the sky. It wasn't for her but that didn't mean she couldn't appreciate it. Not that she had the time to think on her vision or wings, now. She had whale sharks to find.

Breach let out a brief whistle to bring her own two whale sharks to attention and then break into a run to head towards the ocean's edge. It would be difficult for her to see them but that was what the eagle's eyes were for. All she had to do right now was keep on the trail. The shriek, nothing at all like the natural bald eagles that resided near the water, was all the sign she needed that the pod was seen. And it was time to divide and conquer.

It was easier to give instructions in their native tongue at times and so Breach let herself become that which she held dear. Once solid, she groaned out position and details to her companions before the trio broke into two groups.

She could hear them in the water as her body and head submerged. The clicks and chirps that rarely seemed to stop from the rugged type that clung so closely into tight knit groups. It was often a wonder that Oceansnake had never abandoned her for a friend or a pod. There, however, was not much that she could do to signal to the eagle except spout water up into the air as she surfaced for air (not that she needed it yet but she had to stay in sight).

Fish caught Breach’s signal easily, and dipped near the water, harassing the whale sharks just a little bit. When you were herding anything, sometimes annoying them would get them to stick closer together, and then you just needed to direct the tightly-knit group. Get one, get all of them. With two kin working the pod, it wasn’t so bad once they’d caught up to them. Once they got them moving as one, it only took a little effort to turn them. It would have been quite tricky if either of the kin had been alone and attempting this maneuver, but when you have two working together… well, that’s not so bad. Fish looked them over as she strafed back and forth across the pod. They were majestic, beautiful creatures. Nobody should try to manage them alone- they’d respect a pack, she thought, more than they’d respect an individual. Show them some solidarity, and they might understand what kin wanted just a bit better.

Brought together now, the action was bordering on thoughtless. Although the eagle was not within the family, the nuisance it had used to gather them offered a sheltering effect with its wings spread over the pod. Behind, Breach anchored and centered the whale sharks; their wild instincts were focused on forward movement and soon they would hit the shallows where more reinforcements waited to play on that desire of togetherness. The difficulty of gathering them had passed; now, it was all about maintaining their attention and movement.

It hadn't been easy for the two of them but it had been far harder by herself. Instead of shame, however, there was a lone question: what was she supposed to do? She, unlike these creatures, had no pod of her own. It was why the whole fiasco had started; if only the kin she knew did not live in the swamp so far from the ocean's edge. If only she had family, friends that resided on the beach to help in the manner that Real Big Fish was now.

The ocean was beautiful but the journey from the swamp was arduous and she knew few kin who were insane enough, like she was, to make the trek multiple times. It'd nearly killed her a number of times in the beginning. And while now it was a common journey, it was no less dangerous to undertake. She couldn't force those she loved to come to the fine sands of the ocean's side which meant the journey, for her, never was over. It did not mean the whales could not come with her, they had and they would but it meant that it simply could not be a solo endeavor anymore. She needed help; she needed her own pod. The question was, would anyone answer such a call?

Nearing the shallows, Breach shifted into kin form. The change did not startle the whale sharks for they had known already that she, whale or kin, was with them. Unlike kin who needed that epiphany that they were in the company of a legendary, she had yet to meet an animal that did not seem to know it at first sight or scent. Their instincts told them what a kin's mind overthought. And thus she had no fears about the pod scattering in fear or confusion. They knew her already, they always had. And it was not their respect she had failed to earn; it was she who had, in a life spent in search of something that had always eluded her, failed to realize that they had no search. As long as they were with companions, they were whole. Now it was time to find her own companions.

It did not take long to reach the shore once they entered the shallows, and Breach emerged from the ocean's salty waves as happy as ever. The water had always been her home more than land and while it offered a plethora of time to think, it also offered the option to simply be. The swamp had never offered her that kind of comfort. There, something had always been missing and while the ocean had been where she found it, there were still things it lacked. Help being the obvious answer.

"All accounted for," Breach turned her attention from counting over the pod to Real Big Fish. "I couldn't have done this without you; thank you for all your help."

“I was right! It was fun!” Fish said, turning seaward once more. “While we were herding them, I saw a whole shoal of skipjack and lookdowns in a feeding pattern. I’m going after them. I’ll swoop over on my way back, make sure that everyone’s still here.” She paused before transforming again. “But- hey, you know, it really might be easier to keep them in one spot in numbers. You don’t have to do it alone. If I’m around, I’ll always be ready to help– but they travel in pods. Maybe they’d be easier to manage if you had a pod, too. There’s other kin who love them, kin who would be willing to help. Kin who maybe can’t do aerial reconnaissance, but kin who can help feed them, tend them, and at least let you know when they’re making a break for the ocean. It’s like up at the Cres- the shuppies drew in a lot of kin who just like being around them. For what it’s worth, I think it’d work. If you wanted to do that.”

"You're right," Breach admitted with a smile and nod. "I'll start putting the word out that those who want to learn more or be around whale sharks are welcome to help."

It was going to take time and be a process though but that'd never stopped her before and it wouldn't now either.