Read Online The Battle of Riptide by EJ Altbacker - Free Book Online

He knew his mother wouldn’t blame Shell for Razor Shiver’s actions, but to be safe he’d sent word that they would be coming with an ex–Razor Shiver bull shark before their visit. He couldn’t be absolutely sure how everyone else would react, and he didn’t want any surprises. “It wasn’t your fault, Shell.”
    Quickeyes and Onyx swam over with Gray’s mother. There were introductions all around, and then Rogue Shiver toured the reef. It had interesting coral formations that shined with ghostly yellow and blue hues. The sea moss covering the rocks underneath was light green and fluffy as it waved back and forth in the current. It wasn’t their old reef in the Caribbi Sea, but it was nice.
    They heard Yappy before seeing him. The little sea dragon came tearing through the greenie where he’d been hunting, shouting, “It’s Gray and Barkley! It’s Barkley and Gray!”
    â€œNot again,” muttered Onyx to Quickeyes at the same exact time Barkley said it to Gray. This made everyone chuckle as the little dweller zipped between Gray and Barkley.
    â€œI knew it was you two when I heard your voices, on the account of it
is
actually you two!” Yappy exclaimed. “Have you guys seen the coral on the other side? It’s pretty gilly, all right! Pretty
and
gilly, I mean! How do you think coral got its name? I mean, what if we called it
gracklenut
? I supposed coral sounds better than gracklenut, though.”
    Snork, the sawfish, chimed in. “Gracklenut sounds more like that rough kind of orange-greenie. Maybe we could start calling
that
gracklenut!”
    â€œThat’s a great idea!” said Yappy, his attention now thankfully focused on Snork. “Who are you? Have you named many other things?”
    â€œMy name’s Snork,” he answered. “I’ve always wanted to name things, but never got around to it.”
    â€œYou definitely should find the time. I can tell you’d be good at it. Why, I’ll bet we could go around the reef, and you would name three of four things right now. Do you want to?”
    â€œThat sounds like fun,” Snork replied. The pair swam off to the amusement of everyone else.
    â€œSo that’s Yappy,” Mari remarked.
    â€œYep,” Gray said, nodding.
    Barkley motioned with his tail at the retreating figures. “That’s a dangerous combination.” When everyone laughed, he added, “I’m serious. Those two? They might never stop talking. Ever.”
    â€œSnork seems like a good fin,” Quickeyes told Gray. “Like the rest of your new friends.” After that, the discussion grew more serious. Onyx took Shell off to the side, and they spoke intently by themselves, probably about Shell’s history with Razor Shiver. When they returned, the blacktip seemed at ease with the big bull shark.
    For some reason, Gray’s mom and Mari were talking. A lot. After every other sentence, they glanced Gray’s way and chuckled.
    A horrible thought hit him. The bucket story! What if his mom told Mari the bucket story? When Gray had been a young pup, he’d explored a galleon—a different kind of landshark ship than the one Rogue Shiver lived in now—and gotten his head stuck in a bucket. It was wedged on so tightly Prime Minister Shocks had to get help from the octopus clan to pull it off. Everyone had called Gray
buckethead
for a long time after that. His mother and Mari laughed again, but louder. “Not the bucket story, Mom,” Gray muttered to himself.
    â€œSo, what do you think?” Quickeyes asked Gray. “Will you and Barkley join our Line? You’ll be third, he’ll be fourth.”
    Gray was dumbfounded. He just clicked his teeth, not knowing how to answer. Barkley came tearing over and gave Gray a fin bump. He had obviously been told.
    The news traveled fast, and pretty soon everyone, even Snork and Yappy, were back. The