Kiki jumped away from the whale. Oh no! “I… I can’t!” She really couldn’t go, not without her good-luck charm.

“Then stand back,” Shelly said, “because here we go!”

Echo jumped onto Mortimer, behind Shelly. “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Echo said with a nervous giggle.

With a flip of his tail, Mortimer sprayed Kiki with a big splash of water. Then Mortimer, Echo, and Shelly were gone.

Deep-Sea Danger

WHEEE!” SHELLY, ECHO, AND Mortimer dove deep into the ocean.

“Come back!” Kiki yelled, but her voice was lost in whale song. All around her, whales sang. Kiki held her hands over her ears to block out the noise. “We’ve got to stop them. They’re going to be hurt! Won’t someone help me?” Kiki cried.

Everyone was too busy talking, touching, splashing, and learning about the other whales. No one heard Kiki. She couldn’t see Mrs. Karp anywhere.

“I have to find her,” Kiki said. She rushed between the huge whales, searching desperately for her teacher. “Where did she go?”

With no sign of Mrs. Karp, Kiki was frantic. She realized she would have to be the one to save her friends—there wasn’t a second to waste. Up went her tail, and down went her head into the water.

Whoosh!

Mortimer raced by. Kiki swam as fast as she could, but a small mergirl is no match for a speeding humpback whale.

As she got closer, she heard her friends screaming.

“Oh no!” Kiki said. “They’re in danger! I knew it!

“Help!” she yelled. “Somebody help me!” If only I hadn’t lost my starfish, she thought, none of this would have happened!

“I can help,” a voice said.

Kiki came face to face with… a whale!

A Big Decision

DON’T EAT ME! DON’T HURT me!” Kiki pleaded in the humpback dialect.

“Why would you say that?” the whale asked.

“Because that’s what whales do. They eat everything in their sight. Especially small things. Like me,” Kiki whimpered, and backed away. This whale was only half as big as Mortimer, but that was still too large for Kiki.

“Please don’t leave,” the little whale said. “I’ve never met a mergirl before. And all these merkids are splashing and making so much noise, they’re scaring me!”

Kiki stopped. “What? You’re scared? How could something as tremendous as you be scared of something as little as me?”

“I’m just a baby whale,” he said. “But my uncle Mortimer always told me to help all creatures of the sea. And you were calling for help. What’s wrong?”

Kiki couldn’t believe her ears. “Wow!” she said. “You sure are big for a baby.” Surprising herself, she didn’t swim away. After all, the baby whale was kind of cute. Kiki continued, “Your uncle sped away with my friends on his back. They’re in danger, and I’ve got to find them now!”