June 27th, 2015 ~Kathryn
Dear Journal,
We were all kept really busy, starting work on the three ships we planned to sink and preparing Surface Ship for anchoring.
We started first thing yesterday morning. Breakfast & morning chores were done hastily and even Raea sensed the excitement in the attitudes of everyone there.
Patrick had found a bunch of buoys in a ship yard not far from Campus City after a short flight with Griz. They were the older fashioned red hollow steel ones but he claimed that they were sound & would serve our purpose. We removed all of the little antennas from the tops of each buoy (only to discover that these had been modified with solar powered LED strobe lights!) and painted over the old numbers to “BC 1”, “BC 2” etc so they could be identified if any needed repairs or replacements. They had also found all of the anchor cables at the ship yard too; most had been liberated from existing larger ships that they beached for the sole purpose of removing the cables.
Since Sarah’s ship did not take much modification beyond taking out the glass windows & the old mattress and the removing of the engine (which was surprisingly easy for her's!), she offered to remove the same from the Escape while I helped Griz, Jazz & Dr Jamie with the loading of the cement trucks for sinking. {The Escape's engine took a bit more work to remove as it was older and heavier but it still came out ok. We piled the engines on the top edge of the beach and doused them in sand to prevent the oils and gas from leaking into the ocean or the water table until we could take them to the dump.}
Yeah, a bunch of big old ruined cement trucks with their full back loads totally gone off (dried and cured inside the barrels). We were originally going to anchor the cables to the bedrock but there was too much sand to reach them and boulders were unlikely to move for us. So this was our alternate solution!
Prior to, we removed both engine and gas tanks; power washing them to spotless. To sink them, I’d transform and jump into the water, checking for the location. Once a spot was chosen and Dr Jamie moved the barge into place a little back, Griz would put the truck into gear facing the direction of the spot; she’d drop the quick release hook of a heavy duty winch (behind the truck) down into the water; I'd swim the cable under and up the front of the truck where Griz would connect said hook to the front of the truck so that when we backed off, Dr Jamie could activate the winch and it would pull the truck towards the water; at the same time, he'd put the barge in motion in the truck's opposite direction. I would stay far back underwater and watch the truck sink to the bottom, ready to pull the quick release. Once the truck landed on the bottom, I'd attach the anchoring cable to the truck’s barrel and bring it up to connect to the buoy.
The cycle would repeat with each location!
Once all SIX trucks were sunk and buoys set up, we figured that there’s about 10 meters of cable between the ship and the buoy’s so that left lots of space underneath for Bermareda Circle but we could not move Surface Ship until the home ships were sunk.
Jazz had found us a nice big, empty old tug boat to use as our “city hall” of sorts and she had taken upon herself to clean it out and prep it for sinking; which included the removal of the old engine, which had been the worst to remove of all the boats. Old Tug would be sunk first, to give Patrick’s sinking method a try.
Griz & Jazz would hold the front and back tie lines from the air. Patrick was laying on Old Tug’s main deck, staring down into the lower, welding mask over his face, ever so gently guiding a welding torch that was hovering in Sarah’s magical field; Sarah was in the water, hanging onto the side of the boat, not looking but listening to Patrick’s instructions. She would hold the field just enough to keep it levitating while he moved it with his hooves. When everything was ready, he’d give a signal; Sarah put in a burst of magic to speed up the process and it would have cut a huge hole in the bottom of the boat. The second Patrick yelled “Done!” Sarah turned off the torch and yanked it back into the air, out of harm’s way. She would backstroke a safe distance away as Patrick would stay with Old Tug as it went down; Griz & Jazz would surrender their ropes to me and Patrick as soon as they ran out of line. The two of us would grab the lines and gently guide the boat down to where we wanted it.
Old Tug was dropped on the ocean-facing side of the center planter so that the side of the tug (which would have the main door) would be facing the planter.
While we were up on the dock, working to remove all of the ship’s engines, I had a battery powered mini radio playing music from my playlist. Most of my songs came from my tween to teen and college years.
At some point, a song started blasting out that made me smile and all of the others’ faces light up with recognition: S Club 7 - Bring it All Back. I wasn’t sure why at the time, but it kinda resonated with me... to not to give up on anything and to just be you.
Let’s just say... I wasn’t the only one to lip sync perfectly to that song! ;)
It took us nearly all day to sink the trucks and prepare the home-ships. By the time we were ready, my music tablet’s battery was totally gone, everyone was exhausted and it was getting too dark to see. The fliers took to the air while Dr Jamie ferried us back to CC in Patrick’s Coast Guard boat.
Us merponies managed to grab some strength from the ocean; just enough so we could cook a big dinner that night: thick vegetable stew (more veggies than stock), fruit salad and three hard boiled eggs each pony (Griz had caught three small fish on her way back and grilled them on a BBQ she had pilfered from a rich house long before we had arrived). When Griz had broken up her fish and added it to her stew, the rest of us could no longer smell it.
I think we all slept like logs last night because we all went to bed right after evening chores were done and I heard nothing all night.
This morning was another early rise and rapid breakfast/chores so we could get back to the dock. Sarah & Patrick were very impatient so they swam all the way, ahead of the rest of us.
Those two merponies are so sneaky because as I climbed on-board the Coast Guard boat, I found two boxes of decorations, clearly labeled for each of them.
Sarah’s ship went down first, setting it northeast of Old Tug slightly staggering the spot so the front end overlapped Old Tug’s front.
My ship went next, practically identical to Sarah’s, except that I went southeast.
Patrick’s ship was placed directly west of the planter and did not overlap either of our ships but still left a sizable space between them.
The kelp forest was kept mostly intact... we took some sheers and knives to thin it out a little bit and to gather the kelp for making of entryway curtains.
I already knew how to weave as did most of them so we spent a good chunk of the afternoon in the shallow water, weaving large sheets of kelp and then rig them into hammocks to hang over top the built-in bed frames.
We also explored the flora for aquatic edible vegetation. Anything that did not make us gag or spit out was identified, uprooted and transplanted into our new water farm field. Patrick made a bad joke at one point of our field never going to die from drought; Sarah had tried to smack him over the back of his head but the water made it too easy for him to dodge it.
Throughout the day, we had some curious fauna come around to see what all the excitement was. Again, I apparently showed that creepy animal knowledge stuff I had been doing since Griz’s old farm because I was “conversing” with the dolphins that lived not far from Bermareda Circle. They saw us as a new breed of dolphin that would not harm them and so they welcomed us to the ocean; gave us the warnings of the migration of an orca pod every 36 to 48 moons (3-4 years) this being the in-between moons and told us of a “hot spot” gesturing southeast of our current location to avoid. We realized that they were referring to a small ridge of underwater steam vents.
The most amazing part happened a little later, after the Pod Squad (Pat’s idea!) had left, a large Great White had come investigating after I had accidentally cut my left foreleg on a bent nail we had missed when stripping the carpet. I had managed to rig a quick bandage with a balled up piece of kelp and string of seaweed; both from the lunch salad Sarah had brought to me while I was trying to nail waterproofed pictures’ frames to the walls.
The blood flow stopped, the shark still came within the boundary of the buoys. “Blood... meat.... food....” were the communications I got from it, besides knowing it was a male.
Patrick & I stayed back, not knowing what to do; but Sarah was like she was on auto-pilot. We watched, shocked, as her cutie mark, eyes and horn glowed. “You and your kind may not pass here; only those with pure heart!” Sarah let off a burst of yellow magic that radiated out from her like a shock wave. The wave passed over me and Pat just fine but the shark was hit and thrown backwards out of the buoy boundary. The barrels of the cement trucks and the bottoms of the buoys glowed briefly in yellow shimmery runes before dissipating into a barely visible cylinder of a shield.
Pat & I hovered near the shield; Pat passed his hoof through it like it was not even there but I gasped as the shark tried to come back, only to get slammed against the shield! He tried one more time before giving up and swimming away. The dolphin pod came back and easily slipped through the shield like nothing, the leader turning to me. *Are you all ok? We felt the waves were not right, came back as soon as we could,* he ‘said’. Pat hurried over to catch Sarah before she could hit the sand, muttering incoherently.
“We’re all ok. I think Sarah did something to protect us from all the bad. Thanks for checking up on us,” I had said to the effect.
Turning to Patrick, I said, “Get her to the dock; I’ll go find the doc.” I don’t think the pun was intended but he did raise an eyebrow before I could turn and swim for the waterway into CC’s bay. Two of the larger dolphins came with me. *You’re hurt and that meanie might come back. There’s safety in numbers,* they said, to which I nodded gratefully. “I’ll be coming back on the boat so you can return once I get on land.”
The moment I was on the side beach of CC and transformed - the two dolphins breached the surface going back the way they came - while I bolted to the U1 building. Raea met up with me as I passed my RV, barking happily but only until she picked up on my stress... then she whined. “Where’s Jamie, Raea? Where’s Doc?” I asked. She understood and took off for the orchard. We found him casually checking the leaves for signs of mold or insects. “Doc! Doc, come quickly! Something has happened to Sarah!” I screamed as I skidded to a stop, completely ignoring the gravel below my hooves and the pain in my forearm, which by now was seeping blood again.
“Kathryn, you’re injured,” Dr Jamie said. I waved my good hoof aside. “Never mind me! I think Sarah just used her special talent and then passed out. Patrick is bringing her to the BC dock,” I practically screamed in his face. I could feel the adrenaline coursing through me.
Dr Jamie simply walked around me and broke into a gallop as he exited the orchard. “You coming or what?” he shouted over his shoulder.
We had commandeered a second Coast Guard boat shortly after Dr Jamie’s arrival for just such an occasion as Patrick’s boat was currently being used by Griz & Jazz on their coastal raiding up north.
Each boat had been reconfigured to be controlled by hooves and so Patrick had given all of us lessons on how to drive adequately if not expertly. Dr Jamie saw how riled up I was so he had set me down on the floor of the boat and replace my seaweed/kelp bandage (for some real ones in a med kit kept on each boat) while he piloted the boat around the bay and under the bridge.
The bandage kept me distracted until we got to the dock but found nopony on the dock. Instead, dragging path from the dock to the lifeguard tower and a rescue flat back board showed that Patrick had taken Sarah up and inside.
The board had been abandoned on the platform’s deck while the door was left ajar. Inside, Patrick had somehow gotten Sarah up on a cloth cot and giving her a bottle of meal replacement drink (1). She downed it faster than it took for Patrick to open it and she begged for more. Her face was pale, her mane was ragged and her eyes were sunken; I’ll be honest: I was scared for her.
Dr Jamie went over and checked her from nose to tail and everything in between, taking special look at her horn, which seemed to still have dark scorch marks on it; a lot less since I had last seen her and I had pointed this out. Dr Jamie seemed to nod before turning to me. “Go back underwater and get her some food. Doesn’t matter what it is; just grab something, anything.” I was out the door before he could finish.
I came back carrying the same aquatic salad Sarah had brought to me. She ate it with relish, finishing it in minutes; a little color had returned to her face but she still looked weak. Dr Jamie then came over with a bowl; multiple mini packs of non-shelled peanuts littered the floor. “Eat,” he said, shoving the bowl into Sarah’s front hooves. She hesitated only a moment before dropping her head in and eating like the peanuts were grains from a feed bag.
Dr Jamie then turned to me! “While she’s eating, I want to check that cut on your leg Kathryn. I want to make sure it does not get infected... depending how badly, I may have to stitch it.”
He had me lay down and removed the haphazard bandage....
The cut was already stitched closed!
It was already scabbed over and disgusting as it was; we watched as little white sparkles of my transformation magic spiraled up and peeled off the scabs with no pain at all, leaving behind faintly pink scar tissue! Somehow I knew that by morning, the pink would be gone and just a white scar that would blend into my fur.
Sarah had finished the bowl of peanuts, her hoof nudging the bowl off the cot and letting it land on the floor. We all looked to her. “We are aquatic creatures. If we bleed too much, we’d attract the wrong kind of attention. And we are creatures of magic... so of course those two things combined mean we heal...” her voice got slurred as she fell asleep there on the cot.
I'm still in the lifeguard tower, reclining on a pile of the ships’ old mattresses, watching over Sarah while she recovers. Dr Jamie thinks she got ‘magic burn-out’ performing her shield spell. We’ve already learned that everyone, including Raea can pass the shield with no problems; we watched as a single barracuda pass through peacefully but three on the hunt got bounced back.
“Only those with peaceful intentions can pass. That’s how the spell was written,” Sarah had explained sleepily when I had asked while I gave her a bottle of salt water, as the doctor ordered.
I got a feeling we’ll be here all night. It is time for me to re-wet Sarah’s blankets. –Kathryn
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June 28th, 2015 (Extremely early morning) ~Patrick
Dear Journal,
It’s still dark out; so dark, I can enjoy the stars hanging over the ocean. I can see the BC’s buoys lights spinning and the buoys bobbing on the waves. According to Kathy’s tablet, the moon is a “waxing gibbous at 89% visibility”; we’re expected to get the full in three more days. To me, it’s just really pretty.
I had come to relieve Kathy from Sarah-watch only to find both ponies (and one Border collie) asleep. So instead of waking them, I've curled up on an old, grandma-style smelly couch and taken the tablet so I could write down my own thoughts.
I had tried to sleep down in the ocean but even with Sarah’s new shield, I didn’t feel safe all by myself. I'm sure that if I was so inclined, I could have gone back to CC and used either the common area or Kathy’s RV and no one would have minded.
But these two ponies are like family to me. Maybe it’s the whole thing about being horses and their herd-mentality I once read about. At first, I thought those of Harbor City had been my “herd”, so to speak. But now that I've spent time with Sarah & Kathy, I've come to realize that THEY are my herd. They know me; they know what it’s like to be merpony (Kathy most of the time); we have so much in common and we’ve traveled together.
I love them both. I love them like the sister I once had and may never have again. But that’s ok because I have Sarah and Kathy to fill the void.
Kathy is like the bossy, busy-body older sister who’s always trying to tell you what to do. Now that the CC has their own land pony, you’d expect Kathy to come to the ocean for good. But she won’t commit; and I don’t think it’s just Raea she’s worried about. Sure, Jamie is an Earth pony but he’s a doctor first and foremost; today ? yesterday ? was proof of that.
Sarah... well... she’s beautiful, kind, smart and funny. She’s more than a sister to me and I've known that I loved her for a while now but been too scared to tell her. After yesterday’s near miss, I might finally have the courage to ask her out on a date.
I'm encrypting this entry until such a time as I am ok with sharing it. -Patrick
\\hgfutlease//
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