Gauravani Larwood, age 13

Dark clouds grew in the seaside town of Saint–Jean–de–luz, France. The light breeze turned to a wind, and the ocean’s waves grew steadily higher. Adeline shut the cow and hens in, and, battling the strong wind, made her way to the door of the small hut. Once inside, she lit the stove and carefully, without waking up her sleeping great aunt, heated her small dinner of the last potatoes from their dying garden.

Adeline’s parents had been lost at sea when she was one year old. They had gone on a sailing trip, leaving Adeline with her grandparents, and had never returned. Her grandparents had been kind people, but they were old, and when they died, there were no relations to look after Adeline. So, at the age of six, she was sent to the orphanage. After two years at the orphanage, a woman called Agathe had come there and taken Adeline home, stating severely that she was a long lost relative – her Great Aunt. After she had left, the women at the orphanage talked long about this, and most believed that Agathe was just an old woman wanting someone to help around the house.

The past few days had been nice, full of sunshine and breeze, but today was terrible. When Adeline woke up and went to see the cow, she could hardly move against the wind. Anyway, this weather continued for three days, and on the fourth day, the wind and rain stopped, and the sea grew calm. Very early that morning Adeline got up, dressed quietly and sprinted down to the beach. There would be at least another hour before Agathe woke up and demanded breakfast.

When she got to the beach, deserted and empty, Adeline gasped. There on the sand lay a huge whale, very still. Adeline had always loved any animal; in fact, she felt more comfortable with animals than people half the time. Adeline had often seen whales; men were always out whaling and hunting them. She had never seen one this close, but she still ran down to it without fear. Adeline noticed that the whale looked worn and tired, and when she got to it, close enough to touch, it was looking straight at her. Adelina crouched down and without fear touched it gently on its side. Its eyes were a deep brown, clear and very beautiful. Adeline sat with the whale for a few minutes and then, very clearly, the whale spoke. Adeline knew straight away that it was the whale speaking, and she heard its voice in her head. It had a strange voice, musical but somehow underwater sounding, and this is what it said.

“Oh, little one, I am forever grateful that you have come here, even if I die here. Help me if you can, but do not worry. Having a little human about again does me good, so please stay.” Adeline smiled.

“Dear whale, of course I shall stay, but I would like to help you if I can. Please tell me how?”

“Well,” said the whale rather weakly, “I need water to stay alive. Perhaps you could…I don’t know. I think you are rather small to help me much.”

“Oh no!” cried Adeline, and the reason for her distress was rather good, seeing as a group of townsfolk were just now coming round the bend towards them.

“What can I do?” cried Adeline frantically. “They will surely want to hurt you. They would use you for blubber and oil. They would see you as a perfect opportunity not to go whaling today. But I can’t let that happen. “You are my friend.”

“Do nothing’,’ said the whale, calmly. “We must just see what happens.” The townspeople marched towards them and began calling to each other.

“Look, it’s a whale!”

“Wow a big one – shall we kill it?”

They wanted the whale for its blubber and oil, for making candles and for other things. Upon hearing that last remark Adeline screamed.

“Nooo! You can’t kill him; instead please help me put him back in the water.”

One of the men laughed. “Not kill it? This is our work, little girl. A whale stranded on the beach is a perfect place to get our blubber and oil.”

“Adeline,” said the whale (Adeline later wondered how he knew her name). “Please don’t. There are too many of them against you.”

The townspeople were rather annoyed now after Adeline’s outburst and some of them went back to get spears and weapons. Adeline screamed and cried but eventually she ran out of tears and sat in front of the whale, staring into his eyes. She vaguely remembered one time when Agathe had been mistreating their stubborn cow, and Adeline had cried about it. Agathe had harshly said that animals don’t feel pain. Now, looking at the dying whale, Adeline saw how untrue that was.

The tide was coming in, swifter than usual, and Adeline noticed how they seemed closer to the water then they did before. She wondered if it was possible that the water would come right up to them soon enough for the whale to escape but thought it unlikely.

The men with the weapons returned over the hill. Some of them shouted to be careful of the whale’s tail, which made Adeline furious, for she knew that the gentle whale would never hurt anyone. She yelled at them, tried to explain that the whale could talk, and had talked to her! But of course none of them believed it. The men were just getting into a quarrel about who was to kill the whale, when Adeline noticed that the water had reached their ankles and was swirling gently around. She moved to the whale and asked how deep the water needed to be to get him out.

“Just a little more, so I can float out. Almost, just a little more, yes, I think we can try. Please try to push me.”

Adeline pushed with all her might, feeling hopeless against the massive animal but trying her hardest. With the huge animal and the little girl both pushing, the whale began to move. The men, seeing what was happening, rushed into the water and tried to stop him but he was already moving slowly, half swimming, helped by Adeline. The deeper they got the faster he got. Quickly, some of the men threw spears at him and a couple went into his side.

“Pull them out! Quickly!”, he gasped, and he was gone, moving through the waves. Adeline collapsed crying on the sand, half relieved, half sad and worried, for one of the spear’s wounds had gone deep. She was still furiously angry at the men. After watching the whale until it disappeared, the men retreated back to their town, feeling rather humiliated for their failure; they left Adeline on the sand, after completely ignoring her.

Adeline was exhausted, but she wearily made her way back to the town to her hut, and finally to bed. Ten minutes later she was angrily awakened by a furious Agathe, who felt humiliated because this girl, living in her house, had defied practically the whole township. She had easily heard about the whale’s escape from the townsfolk when she’d been looking for Adeline. She felt especially infuriated that Adeline hadn’t made her breakfast yet.

That day was terrible. Agathe had never before been so angry, and Adeline had never been worked so hard, on a day where she felt unable to do any work at all. Adeline prayed for strength and managed to get through the day. That night she was sent to bed with no dinner, but she dreamed happy dreams of the beautiful whale.

The days, weeks, months, and finally years went by. Agathe grew a little less angry, but she never said a kind word, and Adeline began to seriously doubt whether Agathe was indeed a relative. Adeline thought every day of her beautiful whale, wondered how he had known her name, and what his name was.

One night, Adeline couldn’t sleep, and she decided to take a walk to the ocean, only a few minutes down the road. The night was beautiful, clear and cool. When she got to the water it was calm and peaceful. She looked out to sea, and, just like that morning two years ago, gasped. A huge ripple was coming closer to shore, swimming slowly. Adeline didn’t have to think or to look again to know that this was the whale. Without thinking, she sprang into the dark cold water, swam out to her whale and greeted him excitedly.

“Dear Adeline,”, said the whale. “I have come back to this region because I know of your troubles. I know of your hard life, and I never thanked you properly for saving me. Before I continue, hop on my back, for we shall go to my kingdom, and you shall never be a slave again.” Adeline was quite amazed, and, hopping onto the whale’s back, she felt strangely that she would never again see this land, so she turned and looked at it for the last time. The whale murmured a quick, “Hold tight’,” and dived under.

The water was cold, but Adeline was astonished to realize that she could breathe and understand the whale, even under the water.

“Thank you, Adeline for saving me.” he continued. “You may have felt that you didn’t do much, but you did. You were a support that kept me alive, as well as being the much-needed last strength that got me out to the water. Now, I know you have questions, so ask away.”

Adeline proceeded to ask how his wounds were, how he knew her name, and where they were going. The whale showed her his scars, and told her that all would be revealed when they got to his kingdom. They journeyed right up into late morning, and Adeline noticed that the dark waters became clear, the murkiness vanished, and she could see the yellow seabed.

At first it was just sand and coral, but soon she saw what appeared to be roads, intersections, and coral shaped into beautiful buildings. They were swimming quite a way above the ocean’s floor, for the whale said he was much too big to swim less than a few meters above the floor. He said he was one of the gatekeepers to the palace where the queen lived.

Adeline wondered why he smiled at her happily when he mentioned the queen. After about an hour of travelling over what appeared to be small townships, roads, underwater forests, and more, they came to a huge set of gates. The gates continued as a wall that curved around huge towers and buildings. In the centre sat the biggest building of all, a massive coral palace, easily recognized as the queen’s residence. Adeline had seen little beauty in her life, and was most amazed at everything she saw.

The whale stopped at the gate, and told her to hop off. She did and was escorted into the gates by a superior looking clownfish that seemed to know exactly who she was. The whale said goodbye and when Adeline was rather reluctant to leave him, he smiled encouragingly (don’t ask me how a whale smiles). It was only when she reached the palace doors that she realized she had forgotten to ask his name.

The guards at either side of the huge palace doors seemed to regard the clownfish as someone important and they let him knock without a problem. He clanged a huge golden bell, and the doors were opened by a group of serious-looking seahorse butlers. They were ushered to the door of the throne room and told to wait. As soon as the one of the butlers went into the throne room (presumably to tell her highness of the arrival, the clownfish told Adeline), the huge door opened. On the throne sat a beautiful young woman dressed royally in very colourful clothes. But we must not waste time on what she or the room looked like, for it was what happened next that matters. As soon as Adeline saw the woman, she knew who she was. Mother and daughter ran towards each other and embraced for the first time in ten years.

Epilogue

Adeline lived with her mother in the palace and found out everything. She cried when her mother told her that her father had never made it to the kingdom after their ship was wrecked. Her mother had been rescued by the father of Adeline’s own dear whale however, and taken to the kingdom. Adeline’s ancestors had ruled the underwater kingdom for centuries, but one time, when a queen went up to live on land, the chain was broken. Adeline’s mother was the first of their family to rule the underwater kingdom in one hundred years.

After the queen died, Adeline became queen. One of her children ruled after her and so on, and their family’s royal chain was never again broken. She visited her dear whale often, and finally found out that his name was Graywater.

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