Kingdom of the Deep by EJ Altbacker

peaceful and quiet! Days would pass with nothing at all happening but the sun shining into the water.
    What a huge chowderhead I was to complain, Gray thought.
    It wouldn’t do to bellyache now, though. He was older, and things were expected of him. But a day or two spent lounging in the Caribbi would be great. He would even settle disputes if anyone asked. Gray could see it now, solving the big argument between the shellheads and urchins over who got to eat a squid who had died of old age. That would be sweet. . . .
    â€œThere’s a problem, Aquasidor,” said Shear.
    â€œHuh?” Gray’s daydream had been so complete he almost bumped into Shear, who had stopped dead in the water. He recovered and hid this by harrumphing, “Yes, of course there’s a problem. That’s why the Seazarein sent me.”
    The prehistore tiger rolled his eyes and gestured with a fin. “No, we have a problem because it seems that a war is beginning right this minute.”
    Gray looked past Shear’s flank and saw an armada of at least two hundred sharks facing off with two battle pods of orcas!
    â€œFor the love of Tyro!” Gray huffed. “I
told
them not to do that!”
    â€œSeems they didn’t listen,” Shear answered.
    Gray slashed his tail through the water. “We can talk about your sarcasm later, Shear. But right this second, how about we stop this stupidity from happening?”
    Shear snapped to attention hover and dipped his snout. “Orders, sir!”
    â€œBull Shark Rush, straight in. Keep them from fighting, but don’t hurt anyone.” Gray considered how far he should go. He had to make it clear this sort of thing wouldn’t be tolerated. “Shear, what I mean is keep yourselves safe and don’t hurt anyone
permanently
.”
    The great white guardian leader cracked a smile. “You heard the Aquasidor! Bump and bruise, nothing more!”
    â€œLet’s go!” shouted Gray. He switched his muscular tail back and forth, accelerating into an attack sprint. The frigid water whisked past his gills and Gray felt more focused than he had in weeks. He wouldn’t let these two groups go to war. That would be good for Hokuu and bad for everyone else. “Not on my watch,” Gray muttered as he angled toward Tik-Tun.
    It took two hundred tail strokes to get within shouting distance. “Stop! Stop, I say!”
    Tik-Tun saw Gray as he skidded in front of his hundred orca mariners, all ready for battle. “It’s too late! We will defend ourselves!”
    Gray circled so he had a better view. Palink was swimming the diamondhead, and Hideg Shiver’s triangular formation was gaining speed.
    â€œGive it a second,” he told the orca leader.
    Shear’s twenty finja smashed right through the entire Hideg Shiver formation from one end to the other. The guardian captain was good as his word. Though the finja bumped, rammed, and tail whipped any mariner in their path, none were hurt. Well, none were
permanently
hurt, though more than a few drifted unconscious in the clear, cold water.
    The entire formation collapsed. Palink was mashed between Shear and another finja and brought before Gray and Tik-Tun. The blue shark was furious. “Treachery!” he shouted. “How could you turn on your own kind? I knew you were a flipper at heart!”
    Gray wanted to tail slap Palink so hard that he’d spin for a day. However good it might feel, that wouldn’t help solve this problem. Instead, he gnashed and ground his teeth. In the quiet waters between the two forces, it sounded like rocks tumbling in a strong current.
    â€œI judge everyone I meet the same way. Are they a chowderhead or not? And you, Palink, in addition to being prejudiced, are a chowderhead.”
    â€œWhat?” Palink sputtered. “You can’t call me that! You’re the Aquasidor—you can’t favor one side over another! I’ll