Anastasia's tale: A macro adventure

Chapter 22: Trouble at Sea

“Well there’s a bit to tell before your fathers mishap” Anastasia told them. They whined “Aww. Father, will you tell us what happened to you?” Vladimir huffed “Fine! I’ll tell you what happened”. Once more the two youngsters and Shadow paid close attention to Vladimir as he continued. “So, we found these two huge floating travelling boxes, nearly as long as us. So we both swam on over eagerly. It looked as if they were trying to get away but we easily caught up with them”. Anastasia nodded. As Vladimir glanced at her.

“Yes, it was so easy to catch them. I was feeling playful. I did try to tell the tinies as I could smell their fear and hear their screams. So I dove completely under water and rolled onto my back under the floating travelling box as I headed back up. I outstretched my paws as I came up. I brought my paws up either side of the floating box and wrapped them around it. My chest and head lay before the box. I lifted my head and grinned at the tinies within ‘gotcha!’ I giggled to them”.

“Wooooow… I bet you looked like a great god coming out of the sea to wrap the tinies box in your embrace father!” Gasped Valentina with admiration. Vladimir chuckled. “I bet it was a sight to behold, right love?” He looked over at Anastasia. She nodded “It sure was the way the water cascaded down your paws and legs was so majestic. Though seeing those thick legs and paws of you wrapping up the travelling box did make me worry at first”. Vladimir snorted “phfft, I was only being playful and letting them get a close up view of my thick legs and paws”. He lifted a paw and wriggled his toes, partially unsheathing his sharp claws. “You didn’t have your claws out, did you father?” Asked Boris. Vladimir shook his head “No. But I did during my mishap”. He looked a little embarrassed as Anastasia continued.

“Well as your father floated along wrapped around the travelling box I swam over to the other one. The tinies were drawing me again. I couldn’t really pose much. So with my chest, arms and head out of the water I stiffened my shoulders and held my head high and proud. My arms folded before my chest. All seemed to be going well until I heard a ferocious snarl from behind”. Both youngsters' eyes went wide “ooh what happened?!” They said together. Shadow whined as both adults eyed each other uncomfortably.

Vladimir sighed “I slipped up, well down. Literally. I lost my grip on the smooth surface of the travelling box. As I slipped down into the water I instinctively unsheathed my claws fully as I tried to grip the box”. Both youngsters cringed. Vladimir saw and sighed “Yes, with a horrific shrieking of metal my claws, always razor sharp tore through the metal as though it was soft as mud. I fully plunged under water. I thrashed back to the surface alongside the box but the damage had been downe”.

“The poor tinies! Did you kill any?” Asked Valentina. Vladimir shook his head “no, I didn’t”. Anastasia huffed “Luckily for you. But now the travelling box was sinking as it had twenty gashes going clean through it. Tinies also leapt off into the water. I rescued them but your father didn’t…” Boris huffed “Why didn’t you help father? You made them jump?” Vladimir snarled at his son. Making Boris cower. “So rude! In fact I did help fix my mess!” Anastasia held up her arms “calm down you two. Continue the story my love”.

Vladimir gave Boris a dirty look then sighed and continued. “I swam behind the travelling box and began to push it along towards the shore. It was quite heavy but I made good progress. But tinies kept jumping off, understandable I guess as it was sinking lower into the water every second. I couldn’t stop as I had to get it to shallow water before it could sink fully”. Anastasia chimed in “Don’t worry, I rescued the jumpers”. Both youngsters sighed in relief as Vladimir continued.

“I made it to shore in time. With a crunch it ground against the seafloor. It was quite a hard final push but I managed to push it half up on the beach. I was quite exhausted so I walked up onto the beach beside the box to catch my breath and apologise to the tinies. They screamed at me. At the time I grumbled, but I understood why they were scared of me”. Boris whined “But it was clearly an accident”” Anastasia interrupted him. “Well it was but to the tinies it probably looked more like an attack. The ones I rescued were screaming and stank of terror. I placed them back on the travelling box with the others and they ran inside”.

“Your mother wasn’t happy with me for my accident. But I couldn’t help it. The sides were so smooth and wet I couldn’t keep my grip without using my claws”. Anastasia huffed “But you should ob realised you was struggling before you did lose your grip. Well it happened and no tinies died so all was good. But then your father made a sad but understandable decision” Boris jumped “Ooh what was his decision?” Valentina whined “No more interacting with tinies?” Shadow himself whined at Valentina’s guess.

Anastasia sighed sadly “Not that extreme. But he decided it would be best if we didn’t carry them around on our backs anymore”. Boris shook his head “But how would you help them?” Vladimir crossed his arms “Of course we would help, just not carry them around anymore on our backs. We don’t really like carrying others on our backs anyway”. Anastasia snorted “I didn’t really mind carrying the tinies. But I agreed with your fathers decision. But it didn’t stop us finding more to go and interact with. In fact once we’d redressed we headed off to find more tinies to meet”.

Vladimir nodded “Yeah I led the way. We followed one of the tinies trails inland. It was quite a while before we found anything”. Anastasia nodded “Yes. The Trail was so quiet. But we soon had an idea on how to help protect the tinies from other giants and soon after we found some more to help”. Boris cocked his head “Oh Let’s hear how you protected the tinies”. Both adults laughed “Oh we will. We’d already discovered it actually”. The youngsters leaned forward with anticipation. Shadow listened just as keenly. His short tail thumped against the ground.