Seni, Oscar and the Flap Pack
Oscar and Seni were out in the summer sun, playing as usual, on their favorite rock. Perhaps I must explain, you see Seni is a seal and Oscar is an otter, who just happen to be the very best of friends, and on a day like today in the hot summer sun, anything is likely to happen.
Oscar climbed to the top of divers’ rock, as they had named it, and looked across the point. He could see in the distance a black mass swimming in their direction. He knew what it was of course; nothing else could stir the ocean like seven seals racing across the sea. Seni would be thrilled, he often told Oscar about the gang of seals he wanted to join when he was older, how cool they were and the many stunt tricks they could perform.
“Hey Seni! The Flap Pack is coming.” He yelled down to his friend. Seni was in mid-dive when he heard the news and landed into the water with a terrific splash, not at all like the usual graceful ripple he was capable of. Excitedly he hurried up the rock to sit beside his friend.
“Where?” asked Seni, but before he was finished the sentence he had scanned the horizon and found their incredible wakes and splashes as they jumped and raced across the water. “Oh wait I see them now.”
“How can you miss them?” Oscar asked, amazed that he didn’t see them right away with all the commotion they made. They were coming closer and Seni could see that they were actually headed right for the seal and his friend.
“Wow Seni, looks like they are coming over. Maybe you will get to meet them after all!”
“Oh I hope so! Did I tell you about the jumps I saw them doing the other day?”
“Only about a million times!” Oscar said rolling his eyes. For although he was happy his friend was so excited about seeing the seals, a part of him was worried too. Saka the seagull, had told Oscar when Seni wasn’t in earshot, that she had seen the pack picking on some younger animals the week before and that in her opinion she didn’t think the pack of seals were nice at all. In fact Saka had said that she thought they were a bunch of bullies. Oscar hadn’t liked the sound of that, not at all. Not only was he younger then the pack but he was much smaller too, which would only mean trouble. He got up to go just as the seals were arriving.
“I won!” Sensha shouted to the others.
“No fair Sensha, you always win the races!”
“Go cry in the seaweed if you don’t like it Shema.” She replied with a smile.
“Would you look at this!” One of them, who looked like the leader, said to the others. “A seal and he’s hanging around with an otter!”
“Hi, I’m Seni and this is my friend Oscar.” Seni introduce the both of them to the pack.
“Not only is he hanging around with it but he says it’s his friend!” The leader announced. “What is the world coming to?” The seals in the pack laughed and splashed around as though it was the funniest thing they had ever heard. Oscar’s eyebrows came together in a frown; he thought perhaps his friend Saka had been right. Seni laughed with them, he didn’t know they were making fun of him and Oscar.
“Hey you guys are great! I saw you the other day when you were doing some of your stunts and they were amazing! I can’t wait until I am old enough to try out to be a Flap Pack member.”
“Why wait? Why don’t you try out for us now? By the way kid, I mean Seni, my name is Solkom. I am the leader of this here outfit and I say that if you pass the tests we give you, you can become one of us.”
Sensha shot Solkom a look of surprise. Oscar saw it and again thought that this would not end well for the youngsters but either Seni didn’t see it or he was too excited to care. The truth was Seni would do just about anything to be a part of the Flaps, he had said so to Oscar many times. Oscar worried they would make more fun of his friend or worse put his friend in danger. He wanted to say something to Seni but was afraid if he did Seni would think he just didn’t want Seni to be in the pack and get mad at him. Oscar had no idea what he was going to do. One thing was for sure, if he thought Seni was in danger at any time he was going to do something. Even if it meant Seni would be mad at him.
“What? You’re kidding right? Become one of you just for passing some tests? No problem!”
“Okay then, your first task is…” Solkom trailed off thinking of a test to give Seni, who was by the way, almost beside himself with excitement. A mean glint came into Solkoms eye as he thought of a nasty deed.
“You have to swim to the bottom of the sea and come back with five sea cucumbers, but you have to carry each one in your mouth.” Solkom smiled wickedly.
Sensha and Oscar drew in a breath at the same time, for this was a truly awful task. For anyone who knows the sea and its creatures know that the sea cucumber is a very peculiar animal indeed. Dull, dark and warty, its slug-like body will turn inside out if you touch it, and it gives off a nasty taste to all who would think it would make a good meal. To make matters worse, if Seni were to puncture the insides outside the cucumber, the animal would die. Oscar frowned in dismay and looked over at Sensha. She could only shrug her shoulders, as if to say what can I do?
Seni thought for a moment about how he could accomplish this task. He wrinkled his nose at the thought of the horrible taste he would have in his mouth for the next couple of days, but he thought it would be worth it if he was able to become one of the amazing Flaps. He would have to be very careful with the sea cucumbers soft bodies, not to damage them with his sharp teeth. With that last thought he climbed to the top of the rock and plunged into the deep sea to find his quarry.
It didn’t take him long to come up with only five of the strange creatures. However, to all of their amazement the cucumbers had not turned inside out and oozed their slimy glop all over Seni. Somehow he had found a way around the nasty defense mechanism. Oscar silently cheered for his friend on winning this task without harming any of the animals; he was also in awe of his friend and the clever way with the cucumbers. Oscar knew from the frown on Solkoms face, that not everyone was happy about Seni’s success. Solkom had thought the young seal would have never accepted the challenge let alone perform it in such perfect form. He would have to think of something much worse to get rid of him once and for all. At once he had it! There would be no way for the little seal to prove himself on this test, no way in a million years!
“Okay, okay so you got that one, but this one will be much harder and indeed you might never complete it at all.” Solkom said. Everyone was listening and could not wait to hear what it was that could be such a hard task. Sensha waited for the worst for she knew what Solkom was up to from the beginning and now she was cheering silently for the little seal. Oscar too thought it would be awful judging from the first task but now he feared it would be dangerous as well.
“You must leave us and not return until you have a freshly plucked eagle tail feather.” Solkom announced proud of the task he had come up with. For as anyone knows this would be an impossible task for any seal, let alone such a young one. Seni would have to wait until he found an eagle hunting for fish and when it was close enough to come to the water he would have to jump up and pull one of the feathers from the eagle. Then high-tail it out of there before the angry bird came and clawed his back with its sharp talons. You can see the dilemma Seni faced with such a feat. A dilemma that is, if he didn’t have a friend named Emilio. Emilio was an eagle, and although he could be very grouchy and proud of his feathers, Seni thought he might be able to persuade him out of one.
After Seni replaced the sea cucumbers, Seni found Emilio at one of his favorite fishing spots. By the look of things Emilio was not having much luck. This would work out to Seni’s favor; a hungry belly would be easier to persuade. Seni grinned and swam closer to his grumpy friend.
“No fish yet Emilio?” Seni asked although to be honest he already knew the answer to the question posed.
“Not a one! I have been fishing all morning.” Emilio flew over to a rock to rest and Seni followed.
“What if I could help you get a nice fat salmon for your yowling belly?” Seni asked.
“Awe come on Seni it is not nice to tease a hungry eagle, he might get nasty and bite your nose!” Emilio growled.
“I would never tease about something as serious as a hungry stomach!” Seni assured him.
“Just how are you going to help me?” asked Emilio.
Seni began to tell the eagle about his idea and what the eagle would have to give up if his plan worked. Emilio thought it over long and hard, for an eagle to give up a tail feather was a great sacrifice. In the end his hungry stomach made the final decision, pulling out a tail feather was painful but it would grow back. The pain in his tummy was getting stronger by the minute.
“Okay Seni you have yourself a deal.” Emilio complied.
“Great, get ready and I will be right back.”
Off swam Seni to fulfill his promise to the young eagle. On the way he silently hoped beyond all hope that Emilio would hold up to his end of the bargain, for eagles were known not to work well with others when times were tough, and Seni knew giving up feather would be very tough indeed. Alas he didn’t have to worry for long for Emilio was true to his word and handed Seni a large tail feather, as was his part of the bargain.
Seni swam back to the pack as fast as he could. He knew they would all be surprised at the feather. He found the seals on the same rock as he had left them, he interrupted their diving contest. Seni swam right up to Solkom and displayed the eagle feather. Every one of the seals stopped what they were doing to stare at the young seal. Not only had he done the impossible, but he had also completed the task in record speed! That was, all the seals but one. Solkom was not cheering for the little seal; in fact Sensha could see the hatred in his eyes. He was very angry that Seni had gotten the eagle feather but most of all he was mad because the rest of the pack were now cheering for him and not Solkom. Oscar too saw the look and thought not for the first time that this would not end well for Seni.
“You think you are so smart! So you got the eagle feather, big deal, you still hang around with that otter.” Then he knew what the final test would be. “For the last test to join our ranks, you have to give up your otter friend.”
Everyone was surprised except for Oscar, he knew something like this would happen, and now he thought the worst, he was going to lose his best friend in the whole world. All he wanted was for Seni to be happy, and if this is what it took then so be it.
“What?” asked Seni. He had heard Solkom well enough mind you, it was just he could not believe the leader of the flap-pack would be so cruel.
“Why do you want me to give up my best friend?”
“Everyone knows that seals are not supposed to play with otters.”
“Do you know any otters or any other animals for that matter?”
“No and I certainly don’t have any plans to!”
“That’s too bad… you are missing out! Not only do I have Oscar as a friend but you will be surprised to know that I have many others as well; a seagull, and eagle, a dolphin and a killer whale to name a few.”
They all drew in a breath at the last animal, the Orca are one of the most feared animals for the seal population.
“Are you crazy?”
“On the contrary, I have learnt a lot from each and every one of them. Take Oscar for instance, did you know that otters go to the bottom of the sea and collect clams? They take a rock, roll onto their backs and will smash the clams with the rock on their bellies. Until I met Oscar I never knew that, I had never tasted what a clam tasted like. Now I do and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. He has also shown me how to sun myself on a fed of floating kelp. A great way to spend the day! That eagle feather came from another friend, all I had to do was push some salmon his way so he could catch a meal and he parted with it. The sea cucumbers didn’t turn inside out and give me the bad tasting liquid because I asked them first if I could take them to the surface. Many were excited by the idea, and when I promised not to hurt them and put them back where I found them, most agreed. Those who didn’t I respected and left alone.”
“Yeah, yeah, so are you going to dump the otter and join us or what?” Solkom asked.
“You just don’t get it do you? I thought your pack was so cool because you could perform some cool jumps and maneuvers. Now that I know what you’re like, I don’t think you are cool at all! You have no respect for others or the world around you. If I have to give up my friends to join you then I will enjoy their, not your, coolness.”
“Suit yourself, come on guys, this was such a waste of time.” The rest of the pack followed Solkom except for Sensha. “Hey Sensha, come on, I’ll race you to the other side!”
“No, I think I will stay here with Oscar and Seni. Unlike you I think it has not been a total waste of time. It has opened my eyes to your true nature, and Seni’s smarts. Truth be known I would like to join Seni’s pack of friends.” She turned to Seni. “How about it?”
“You bet! Come on Sensha!” Oscar was so happy he did a double back flip that impressed even the flap-pack members.
© 2009 Tigra