Summer 2024: Not A Drill

Blitz usually stayed far away from the beach. He hated all of the sand. For starters, it made it so much more difficult to run. He sank into it and couldn't run as fast. After living his whole life on the plains, chasing down prey and generally being able to outrun anything bigger than him, the idea of being slowed was daunting. Beyond that, it stuck to everything and ended up everywhere. So he didn't go. Well, not until now.

It had all started a few weeks ago. He had come across some odd remains of some huge fish or something. A lot of it had been gone, but Blitz wasn't picky about where he got his food. After all, a guaranteed meal was better than not eating at all. He'd finished that fish, bones and all. It hadn't been like any fish he'd ever eaten. Pungent, a little salty, a little sweet, but delicious. Plus, the thing had been huge! There had been enough left of it to fill his stomach, even with so much missing.

Last week the craving for more had started.
He'd described the fish to others and found out that it was a shark. They called them hammerheads, specifically. They were apparently seasonal and would be gone at the end of summer.

He'd tried to forget about them after finding out that they lived in the sea, but the craving kept nagging at him. It nagged and nagged until it finally dragged him out of his home plains and towards the sea. He didn't know why he was going. He wasn't a fisher. He'd almost turned back on that logic alone several times, but the craving for that pungent, salty-sweet meat had always kept his feet moving.

He curled his lips when his feet touched sand. Why would anyone want to live here? With each step he found himself shaking the sand off his feet. As he got closer to the water the problem got worse. What had once been loose grains that fell away were now clumps. To make matters worse, the ground couldn't even be trusted. It would feel solid when he put his foot down, only to turn liquidy if he didn't move quickly. Mud wasn't as bad as this!

He hit the water and curled his lip further as the waves beat at him and the ground became even less solid. He entirely wasn't sure that the shark meat was worth all of this. He turned, ready to head back when he watched a Suchomimus plunge into the water and re-emerge with a small hammerhead.

His mouth watered as he watched the Suchomimus run back out of the water, escaping with its prize. Red blood streamed down the shark and into the water. Fins began to cut above the surface, following the trail of blood closer to shore. Blitz tilted his head and turned to head towards the sharks. If he didn't have to go out very far, maybe it would be worth it.

The Suchomimus had made it to shore and was now hunkered down with its meal. Blitz turned his attention back to the sharks. One seemed to be stuck in the shallows, thrashing about. Dinner was served.

He picked his way over to the shark, noticing that the rest had seemed to head back into deeper water. That Suchomimus had moved quickly into and out of the water. He circled the flailing shark, examining it before diving forward and seizing it behind the head, just as the Suchomimus had. Unlike the shark the Suchomimus had been carrying, his shark went limp almost immediately. He couldn't help the feeling of satisfaction that washed over him. Suchomimus might be bigger, but they weren't better at everything

He lifted his dinner out of the water, blood beginning to stain the water as his feet. He heard the splashing before he saw the fins. He nearly dropped the shark in alarm and dashed towards the shore. No wonder the Suchomimus had moved so quickly!

He didn't stop running until he was far up the beach. He had felt one of those sharks bump his leg. It had been much bigger than the one he carried. He shuddered as he settled down in the long beach grass. He had seen the teeth on the first shark he'd eaten. If that had bitten his leg, he might not have made it back.

As he ate, he found himself disappointed with his meal. This shark didn't taste nearly as good as the one he'd scavenged. This whole trip had been a complete waste of time, and now he had sand caked to him. He didn't even finish his meal. His lip curled in disgust as he shoved himself up, shook off what sand he could and trudged back home. He was never coming back to a beach again.