Somewhat Mystical: A Story of Fantasy and Magic

By Victoria L Bullock

Get Ready for the Sea Adventure of a Lifetime!

A child lies face down in the deep North Sea, listless, abandoned, dying. The dolphin pod of Delphinus circles the small body, unsure how the child got there or how she still lives. Regardless of what or how, the pod has a choice to make-allow the sea t

• Language: English
• Publisher: Victoria L. Bullock
• Release date: Dec 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9798218315023

Book preview

Part I

Seasil

Chapter 1

Primal

The great white shark moves steadily, silently, and smoothly through the depths in search of his next meal. He is hungry as always, for he is never truly satisfied. No prey, no kill can satiate his hunger. It only fulfills his desire for more. As he swims, he is aware of all that moves in the waters around him. This awareness extends in a four-mile radius. Most movement disinterests him. The sea is full of life that means nothing to him. Only those who will ease his hunger and those who enter his territory motivate him. Mostly, they are one and the same.

The powerful great white, known as Primal, is never alone. He has followers, a school of sharks who band together yet remain separate from the one they shadow. These smaller creatures follow the mighty great white in hopes of snatching up his scraps and leftovers. Impatiently, they wait for those chunks that fall away while the massive shark ravenously devours morsels of bones, tendons, flesh, and muscle. Oh, the muscle, hunks and chunks of delicious muscle.

The school’s dependency on Primal is apparent. Yet, wisely, they maintain a comfortable distance from the fierce predator. Although those within this group of sharks are vicious competitors with each other, they never compete with him. Not one would ever enter his space from fear of becoming his next meal, or simply an example.

Mighty Primal is aware of his followers, tolerant even. The great white receives an energy of empowerment from them—Mass Empowerment—though that is all he receives, for they, too, are insignificant.

Primal is unlike his needy followers, not only because of his great physical size and indifferent attitude, but because he is milky white and void of all color. There are no gray or dark areas on his physical body. He appears ghost-like, drained of shadows and opaque in his being. This uniqueness adds to the intimidating energy that emanates from his presence with force. His overpowering strength, eightyish razor-sharp teeth, and intensity are all he really needs to dominate. Survival is a must.

Suddenly, Primal senses a charged current. A vibration radiating down from the surface touches the thick, tough outer layer of his physical being. Ahh, now this is a vibration he is interested in. Stealthily, he begins his ascent to meet the commotion above him, with Mass Empowerment following at a comfortable distance behind.

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On the surface, a pod of dolphins gathers around something floating in the moonlight. The moon shines on this something like a spotlight on a dancer. They circle the object just as curious dolphins do. What is it? they wonder. One brave dolphin taps it with his snout. It continues to float limply. It is small compared to most creatures in this ocean—about three to four feet in length—and it is barely alive.

Aztec, turn it over, instructs the highly respected Makalla.

Makalla is a large, sleek, and extremely powerful dolphin. This power does not come from muscle and physical strength alone but from a deep knowing of who she is and how she is connected to all in this world.

Aztec gently flips the object over with his strong snout. The pod knows at once that it is a young human, a child.

Finally, Aztec asks the questions the pod has silently pondered this whole time, How did it get here? Where does it come from? There are no ships for a ten-mile radius…. How has it survived?

Makalla quiets her mind and feels into the situation. After a moment, she addresses the pod. The answers to these questions are not being revealed at this time, but what is known is that the human must be saved.

Air expels from the pod’s blowholes, releasing subtle tension, for not one of them wants to leave the human behind. Aztec gently flips the body back over and drops below the surface to come up underneath the small human. The human lies listlessly on its belly, sprawling out on Aztec’s broad back with its limbs dangling in the cool ocean water. Its body feels light to the powerful dolphin. He silently estimates that it weighs no more that thirty-five pounds.

Just as the pod begins to move toward home, they slow. Their sonar is warning them. Something is coming. They feel a tremendous shift in energy. A tingling sensation forcefully penetrates their bodies. The pod instinctively and immediately surrounds Aztec and the human he carries in a protective stance. A cloud passes over the moon. A deep darkness grows over the pod as if to hide their little secret.

And then, he appears. Rising quietly and slowly from the depths as if he has all the time in the world. His great white dorsal fin makes itself known first, appearing as an overpowering ghost from below, somehow glowing its opaqueness even in the darkness of the night. This daunting fin is connected to a back so broad that it resembles the coldest snow-covered mountain. His movements are controlled, deliberate, and unceasing. His immense body shifts just under the dark sea water in an incessant side-to-side motion, parallel to the ocean floor and its surface, unlike the air-breathing dolphins that move in an up-and-down vertical motion that aligns with Mother Earth and Father Sky.

As for the great white’s followers, Mass Empowerment, they remain on the fringe and are barely seen but greatly felt, for they hold an anxious energy that is reactive and difficult to control, posing a different type of threat from the calculated predator they follow.

Mighty Primal, what brings you to the surface? asks Makalla, with soft confidence.

"Curiosity, hunger…. Certainly not fear."

His massive body glides through the dark water in perpetual movement, slowing but never stopping.

There is nothing for you here.

I will decide that. You are hiding something. I smell it. He pauses. It…is…human.

As I said, there is nothing for you here. Makalla’s voice is firm, with much deeper confidence than before.

And as I said, I AM HUNGRY!

Loud now, Makalla says, Go, mighty shark. There is no meal for you here. There are other sources to settle your hunger. You would not like its taste, for it is not in your nature to eat humans. Go now. Abundance awaits you.

She is right, Primal decides silently. He never attacks a human unless he mistakes it for a seal, which only happened once when he was quite immature. Now, any attack on a human is out of malice, not sustenance. Yet he chooses to leave the one they protect alone, so as not to cause a war on the pod of Delphinus at this time. But he will not forget their disgusting show of so-called kindness toward the human.

So, methodically and with an air of disinterest, the intimidating creature and Mass Empowerment circle around the pod one time, then descend back down to the depths and farther out to sea.

Chapter 2

Rock Island

With the threat of the great white and his school of followers subsided for now, Chakra, a young female in the pod, speaks. The human is dying. We should take it to Mother Walrus. She is a healer and will know what to do.

The pod agrees. They begin moving swiftly through the open sea toward Rock Island, also known as the Island of the Walrus. This landmass is in the southernmost regions of the expansive North Sea, yet it is the farthest north the pod ever dares to travel. And they only do so in the summer months, while the seas are warm. Dolphins are not cold-water mammals, but the inhabitants on Rock Island are, and they thrive in the bitter coldness of an icy winter.

Due to sonar, the pod does not need light to navigate; nevertheless, the moon exposes herself once again, as if eager to be a part of this daring endeavor. Her brightness radiates down, shining the way to Rock Island on the dark ocean surface.

Aztec is especially careful not to allow the body he is carrying to slip from his. The others gently nudge the little human when needed to hold it in place as they travel. Eventually, as the moon loses her brightness and night begins its transition into day, the pod, slowing their pace, approaches the rocky cove of Mother Walrus.

Rock Island’s presence is powerful and jets strongly out of the ocean. The ragged and rigid rock mass reaches extremely high above the sea and comes to a sharp point, as if to pierce the sky. This pointed peak resembles the rough triangular edge of an arrowhead created by the ancients. Miles of irregular, jagged stone protrude both above and below the surface, creating choppy, turbulent waters that encircle the entire island. This massive rock formation appears to sit completely still and unaffected amid the churning and slamming white water that constantly moves all around it. Yet the power of this moving water should not be underestimated since the rock mass loses bits and pieces of itself to the sea in every crashing moment. But for now, it is the home and a haven for many creatures of land, air, and sea.

The pod swims carefully into the cove of Mother Walrus. The ocean is less active and more settled here. This natural inlet contours into the island, while a large rock mass blocks the raging sea from entering with force—creating calmer waters. Mother Walrus’ rock bed is only a few feet above the sea at high tide, making easy access to and from the water.

Aztec gently places his body alongside Mother’s resting rock. Keeping the length of his body parallel with the smooth ledge wall and resting against it, he rocks gently back and forth with the movement of the smaller, kinder waves as if rocking a cradle to comfort a baby.

Welcome, Delphinus Pod of the Southern Seas! Mother Walrus calls out, respectfully identifying their ancestral clan. What brings you to our island at this hour? The great walrus moves her huge body mass closer to the water, slowly at first, then picking up speed from the momentum of her mass in motion. Then she stops abruptly at the precipice of the rock ledge, clearly demonstrating her ability to control her massiveness in ways one would never expect. On the edge now, looking down at the dolphin just below her, she stares at Aztec’s back and the body he carries.

A human child, Makalla replies.

So, I see, says Mother. "A weak and dying human child. Where did you find it?"

Deep in the North Sea, Aztec replies. "It was floating in the moonlight. Just floating. It was abandoned and all alone."

A group of curious sea lions and a couple of seals hear the commotion and begin gathering in a horseshoe formation around Mother Walrus and the edge of the flat rock wall that supports Aztec and the small human.

Mother Walrus instructs the two young seals among the group to gather what is needed to create a nest for the child. Coral and Reef, the chosen seals who love to be of assistance, head off to find the supplies requested.

The rest of the sea lions chatter among themselves, attempting to understand what it is they are looking at.

"It is so thin," claims one on the right.

And pale, another points out.

"It is weak and fragile," comes from somewhere in the middle.

"It does not come with any protection of its own," another observes.

"It is completely helpless," murmurs the smallest.

Then one last comment from the group in unison, hesitantly whispering, "It is...dying."

Mother Walrus swings her massive body from one side, then to the other in order to address the caring sea lions behind her. In a comforting voice, she says, "No creature is as fragile as they seem, for their energy is the same energy that raises the moon to the sky, rotates the earth, and holds the sun in place. Its body needs tending, but all healing comes from that power source within. This pure energy will either repair its body or let it go. Either way, the child will be healed."

Quietly heard from somewhere in the group of sea lions is, You are very wise and intuitive, Mother Walrus.

Phin, being the youngest in the pod and a very curious dolphin, asks Makalla, What is in-too-ah-tiv?

Intuitive, Makalla replies, means to have a deep sense of knowing. A knowing that is felt in one’s body. It’s the awareness of what one has always known, and it is a guide for us while in our physical form.

Am I in…tuitive? asks Phin, pronouncing the word somewhat more smoothly now.

Oh, yes, Phin, you are very intuitive.

With excitement, Phin says, Sometimes I know when a storm is coming even before the sky darkens and the seas rise up. I just feel it!

And that, sweet Phin, is an intuitive awareness of your surroundings. This awareness makes you very wise, young one.

Phin flips his tail a couple of times and bobs up and down, allowing this good knowing, love feeling to penetrate through his body and being. Phin never wants to jump too fast to the next thing while good is present. He loves to savor the good, to really feel it. To know it is a reflection of what is inside him. Even at his young age, or maybe because of his young age, he is able to allow the good of all that is to remain present in him.

Chapter 3

The Collective

As the sun