We were so close to getting onto the island, so it was a matter of time before we started running again.

We're all gathered on the deck of the ship, watching closely about what will the king was going to do. He was looking at the ocean with wide-opened eyes and just then, he blew a strong whistle that everyone heard.

It was somewhat confusing to see the king just while towards an empty ocean. But not to our understanding, he wasn't aiming for something that we see. He was aiming for something beneath the ships. Something seemed to be coming towards us at a high speed. And that's when we started seeing fins above the sea.

These were the creatures that could mercilessly kill a person.

It was sharks.

They were approaching the ship as they got faster and faster. They showed their bodies much more on top of the sea and got very close to the ships shortly after they had appeared.

First one was a blue big shark that had a big size pointy teeth and a pointy fin. It was looking directly at the ship like it was going to destroy it, but it was waiting without doing anything. It was waiting calmly. The other one was a green shark. Compared to the other one, this one was smaller, but it looked like it had more pointy teeth and was faster. It was as if they were the lead.

The other two looked like normal sharks, but they were very scary too.

They all were very dangerous creatures. But why did the king call such dangerous creatures, when all these people were afraid of falling into the sea and being eaten alive? It was so confusing for all of us to understand his decision.

Babu was staring at the shark with his mouth open with mixed emotions.

He was both scared and surprised, so on the one hand, he was approaching them and looking closely, to examine them and on the other hand, he was retreating because he was afraid that they would bite. That was funny to watch but this was a very different experience for me as well. It was the very first time I had seen a shark this size so close in my life.

And just then the King talked,

"You will use the saddles that have been placed on top of the sharks. That way you all will be able to use them."

Saddles? I just realized when he said that. There were saddles that had been tied to sharks and they were looking like horses. But was it a good idea to use them like this? These were creatures that had nothing to do with that concept, but they didn't look bothered either.

They were waiting as if they were a pet.

And when I was looking at them with amazement, Hiroshi said,

"Riding sharks just like a horse? Hey majesty, have you lost your mind?"

But the King was sure about it, so he replied,

"There will be no other option for you to get away from here and reach our goal. If you don't take this chance, there will be nothing else."

"But it is somewhat scary to think that we are going to use them." Babu said sadly knowing that he wasn't convince him to give up.

I wasn't sure if they were going to help us or eat us too, but either way, it was faster transportation.

So I said while hopping on the one,

"We are taking it."

Then I looked at Hiroshi and Babu,

"It would be stupid if we didn't anyway."

Hiroshi sighed,

"And we can't waste our time convincing you too. Come on Panda, we are going."

He then hopped on to the other one and waited for Babu to get on.

But Babu looked more nervous,

"But how do we control them? What if they start going after something else?"

"I personally gave them their orders. And it's their job to keep up to date with their orders. They will lead you safely through the traps and into the island. These animals were trained and prepared for this. So make it comfortable for you."

He looked at the sharks once more, gulped, and said,

"Then I will imagine them cuter. They are cute little creatures."

He then finally hopped one of them shaking and sitting on the saddle.

Hiroshi then asked,

"We all got our rides now, but why are there four of them?"

"I would have provided more support forces if I had the option, but since this is a secret mission, we kept the number as small as possible. I've prepared one for each of you and a fourth support force in case you make any mistakes. If there is an incident, it is inevitable that you will be noticed."

But our conversation was interrupted by something worse.

The King had seen the enemy support ships approaching in the distance and said loudly with a tense tone of voice,

"There is no time! Get out of here as soon as possible before the support arrives, or there will be no such thing as getting in there!"

They were coming right towards us while getting to clash once more. So we got ready to ride the sharks and got out of there as fast as we could.

If it didn't get interrupted once more.

When we were trying to get away from there, someone shouted right behind us.

It was the knight.

He said,

"Hey! Where do you think you're going! It is impossible for you to help in such a battle with only three people! Allow me to accompany you to contribute to the plan in any case!"

However, the king did not oppose this situation. He could not say anything to him, because he was not an individual under his protection, and he could not understand the feelings he felt inside at that moment. But he could have done one thing. So he thought he would contribute to our work and revised his plan once again.

"I will not say anything to your decision."

The Knight looked at him with confusion.

Then he added,

"But if somebody will decide that, it is going to be, Ryuu. He will lead you at last."

Everyone turned their heads to me now, waiting for the words to come out of my mouth. For a moment, I was in command. And we didn't have much time.

So I looked at Babu and gave the order,

"Babu take him behind you. We will leave now."

Babu did as I said and held his arm when the knight jumped on. Now we were exactly four people.

When we were all on board, the King raised his hand and whistled again. This time, with his whistle, the sharks began to move quickly and got us out of there. At first, we swayed and had difficulty holding on, but after a while, we got used to it.

It was just like surfing, but as fast as a horse-drawn carriage. Maybe faster. And the wind that hit us in the face was really pushing and moving our bodies.

We got far away from the ship in a short time and thought everything was fine. But I didn't realize that we were facing enemy ships. There were so little distances between us, and they were ready to fire at us at a good angle. But we continued to move forward too. Without letting us do anything the sharks made a lot of maneuvers, and they made sure we got out of the way as if we were in a race.

And then they dived to the bottom of the sea and tried to get under the last ships. And although we went under the sea for seconds, we had a hard time regaining our breath after cutting it instantly. And unfortunately for us, the sharks didn't quickly resurface.

They kept going deeper and deeper towards somewhere.

The enemy ships suddenly thought that we had disappeared, and we got out from their field of vision. It was almost like the sharks had easily decimated us and we were out of the enemy ship's sight, but we were now dealing with breathing.

Everybody was trying to hold their breath as the sharks led us somewhere.

*What are they planning?* I thought to myself.

They were very well tamed, to be honest, to protect us in a hard situation like that. And we were safe at that point. But that made Babu feel worse and got Hiroshi a little bit angry.

I didn't know how much further they were going to go and I saw that the others were having a hard time keeping their air in. The force of water pushing our chest and lungs, made every bit of air go out and we were even getting deeper as time went on. It was either we were going to pass out or we were going to hold our breath. So I kept holding my breath tight and started opening my mouth less and less.

And seconds later, at last, we came across a very interesting sight.

I've never seen anything like this before. Some very big balls were tied to the bottom of the sea and were pushed to the ground. It was as if hundreds of bombs were lined up next to each other. Almost everywhere was full of those things and I thought these must have been the decoys the king was talking about. Because the sharks started to pass through them carefully and quickly without touching the balls, we made our way through.

But my eyes were closing and I started to see every around me black and white.

It was going deeper....

Deeper....

Just at that very second, sharks finally got out of the water.

The very moment I took my first deep breath, I felt like I was revived. Almost fainting underwater made me feel like I was going to stay there forever. Now that we were safe, it was probably going to be only a memory. So we looked at each other again and tried to examine the place around us.

"Finally some air! I thought we were going to die!"

Hiroshi coughed and added, while spitting some water out of his mouth,

"We are lucky that these bird brains didn't lose their way."

"But where are we now?"

My eyes were wet and I didn't clearly see any vision. I wiped my eyes to look around and I saw that we were in a cave that only had a small light source from above. It was like a big empty void. I dropped to my knees as I took a good glance and waited to move again.

"It is a cave that is somewhat connected to somewhere. Otherwise, I don't think the king would have sent us here. We have to find our way through." I said while trying to find a path.

Then the knight pointed at somewhere,

"There it is. We can go from there."

As the sharks find their way too, and lead us to the little piece of land that we saw, we finally stepped on it and got back on our feet.