Stolen Treasures (3 page)

“Where’s the milk? In the fridge?” Antonia asked, pointing over to it.

“Yes.” Claudia pulled the door open. “It’s the blue bottle.”

“This isn’t cow’s milk,” said Antonia, reading the label.

“It’s a specially prepared milk formula. Cow’s milk can give cubs the runs.”

“Yuk!” Antonia grimaced and Claudia laughed.

“Sit Stripes on that towel when you feed her to keep your school dress clean. And be gentle with her. She’s got a nasty wound on
her back leg where she was hit by a car. The bandage shouldn’t need changing yet, but give me a shout if it looks like it’s leaking. I’ll be at the computer,” said Claudia.

After snapping on a pair of rubber gloves, Antonia collected a bucket to put the soiled straw in and headed out to the pen. Stripes was very inquisitive, snuffling round her feet as she picked up the dirty bedding. Antonia went back to the shed for clean straw and when she returned, she noticed Emily outside. She was hovering a short distance away from the badger pen. She watched as Antonia put down clean straw and refilled Stripes’s water bowl. Then she followed Antonia when she went indoors to prepare Stripes’s milk.

“Haven’t you got anything to do?” asked
Antonia, irritated at being watched.

“I’m helping Cai,” said Emily vaguely, fidgeting with her rubber gloves.

Antonia lifted the bottle out of the sterilising fluid, waved it dry and filled it up to the line with the special milk. It took seconds to warm in the microwave. After screwing the teat on the top, she shook the bottle, picked up the towel and went to feed Stripes. The badger cub nudged at the bottle teat with her black button nose. Laughing, Antonia lifted her on to her lap, then guided the teat into Stripes’s mouth.

“Hungry, are we?” she held the bottle tightly as Stripes began to suck.

The baby badger looked so cute, Antonia wanted to stroke her black and white face but,
remembering Claudia’s warning, she didn’t. Emily edged closer, then hesitantly stepped inside the pen.

“How old is she?”

“About ten weeks.”

“She’s gorgeous,” breathed Emily.

Antonia’s hair swung away from her face as she smiled up at Emily.

“Isn’t she just!”

“Oh! Look at your necklace,” Emily reached forward.

Scowling, Antonia pulled back shaking her head so her hair covered her dolphin charm.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you. That necklace is beautiful too. Was it very expensive?”

“It was a gift,” said Antonia.

Emily sighed. “I don’t suppose I could afford one. My parents have spent most of their money setting up the shop.”

Antonia suddenly felt hot and her hands trembled slightly. She had wanted to say something to Emily about her parents’ gift shop and here was her chance. But before she could speak, another sensation swept over her. Spirit! He was going to call and this time it was urgent. Stripes was only halfway through her bottle. Antonia wiped a drop of milk from the cub’s nose then, noticing Emily’s rapt expression, decided to ask her for help.

“Emily,” she said. “I’ve just remembered I have a really important job to do. Can you finish feeding Stripes for me?”

“Me? Yeah, I’d love to.” Emily looked as if
she’d just been handed a million pounds.

“Come and sit down then.”

When Emily was comfortable, Antonia handed Stripes over. All the time the cub didn’t stop sucking on the bottle.

“Oh,” squeaked Emily softly. “Thanks, Antonia.”

At that moment, Antonia’s silver dolphin charm juddered.

“Don’t forget to check the pen’s locked when you’ve finished,” Antonia called. “The padlock’s a bit stiff.”

She hurried down the garden and through the gate to the beach. Leaving her sandals under the Sea Watch boat, Antonia ran into the sea. Her dolphin charm was vibrating strongly and suddenly it gave a shrill whistle.

“Spirit, I hear your call,” clicked Antonia, as she splashed into the water.

There was no question of waiting for Cai today. Spirit’s call was urgent. The dolphin charm thrashed against her skin, urging her on. The moment Antonia’s legs melded together she started swimming, effortlessly flying in and out of the sea, causing a spray of water that sparkled like diamonds. Antonia followed the coastline heading west. She swam fast, anxious to find Spirit.

After a very long time Antonia slowed, sensing two different types of vibration in the water. Looking up, she saw a boat in the distance. That could be causing the bigger vibration. The smaller one she hoped was being made by Spirit. The boat, a small blue
fishing vessel with an ancient-looking cabin, came closer. Nets, hung with fluorescent pink buoys, were draped over one side. A tall lady was moving around on deck. She looked vaguely familiar. Diving under the water so as not to be seen, Antonia tried to work out how she might know her. She kept underwater, swimming on a parallel path with the boat to avoid a collision. The vibrations became stronger and the sea more choppy as finally, the boat passed her by.

“Silver Dolphin?”

“Yes,” clicked Antonia, answering Spirit’s sudden urgent whistle.

“Get the name of the boat.”

Immediately Antonia somersaulted and surfaced so she was facing the boat’s stern as
it sped away from her. The boat was travelling fast and the boat’s name was already too small for her to read. She screwed up her eyes trying to make out its registration number painted in much larger characters.

“SB…is that a 6 or an 8?”

It was no good. Antonia couldn’t read the registration number either.

“Did you get its name?” Spirit surfaced alongside her.

Antonia shook her head. “Sorry, it was going too fast. The first two letters were SB so it’s a Sandy Bay boat, if that’s any help?”

Spirit looked disappointed.

“You’ll need more than that to report it.”

“Who am I reporting it to and why?” asked Antonia, puzzled.

“I’ll show you when the second Silver Dolphin arrives,” said Spirit.

Suddenly Antonia was aware of vibrations in the water, pinging against her skin like tiny stones.

“Cai,” she remembered guiltily.

C
ai swam up. “I came as fast as I could,” he puffed. “Thank you, Silver Dolphin.” Spirit swam forward and greeted Cai by rubbing noses. “And thank you, too,” he added, ruffling Antonia’s hair with a flipper.

“But I failed,” said Antonia miserably.

“You answered the call and that’s what
matters,” Spirit answered her.

“What happened?” asked Cai.

“The boat that dumped the rubbish came back. This time it put down nets in a protected area. It’s damaged a bed of pink sea fan coral. Come with me and I’ll show you,” said Spirit.

He dived down, followed by Antonia and Cai. At first the water was murky but gradually it cleared enough for Antonia to see that they were swimming over rocks. Spirit swum deeper and then stopped.

“We’re here,” he said. “It’s beautiful,” said Antonia, venturing forward to stare at the miniature forest stretching away from her.

“The coral looks exactly like fan-shaped
trees!” exclaimed Cai.

“Each pink sea fan coral is made from thousands of tiny organisms, so they’re actually animals not plants. Look again and you’ll see the damage the net caused.”

“Oh!” cried Antonia. “Some of them are broken.”

She swam closer, pointing in dismay at the pieces of coral scattered like broken china around the stems of the pink sea fans.

“Pink sea fans are very fragile,” Spirit continued. “They also take ages to grow. This area is protected, but not everyone is aware of that. If you give the boat’s details to the coastguards, they will make sure the owners know that the coral reef is a protected area.”

Antonia started to swim round the pink sea
fans. It was like swimming in a huge garden of flowers. The corals were so colourful. She loved them all, from the palest pink to the vibrant cerise ones. As she swam, a plan of how to find the boat causing the damage was forming in her head. She was almost ready to share it when she noticed Cai signalling upwards. Antonia followed him and broke through the sea’s surface at the same time as Spirit, creating a sparkling blue fountain of water.

Cai gulped at the air with huge greedy breaths.

“Sorry,” he panted. “I can’t stay underwater as long as you.”

“You will with practice,” said Antonia.

“Remember you are very powerful,” Spirit
warned Antonia. “Not every Silver Dolphin will develop all of your skills.”

Cai stared at Antonia in surprise.

“You never told me that,” he said admiringly.

Antonia shrugged, letting her wet hair flop forward to hide her face.

“It’s nothing really. Listen, I’ve had an idea. Let’s go home and walk round to the harbour. I might recognise the boat, and the lady on board, if I saw them again. Then we can get the name and registration number, and tell the coastguard.”

“Careful, Silver Dolphin,” warned Spirit. “Some of the boats are very similar. You must be sure you have the right one before you report it. I think you should wait.”

“But the owners might come back and cause more damage,” said Antonia.

“Spirit’s right,” said Cai reasonably. “It won’t solve anything if we get the wrong boat.”

“I suppose not. I just hate waiting.” Antonia sighed heavily.

The sea began to churn and Bubbles suddenly appeared from underwater, followed by Dream.

“I never felt you coming,” squeaked Antonia. “Too busy talking,” teased Bubbles. “Have the Silver Dolphins finished, Dad? Can they play?”

“They can,” Spirit agreed. “Have fun, everyone.” Spirit gently rubbed Antonia’s nose, saying, “Don’t worry, Silver Dolphin. You did your best.”

“I can’t help worrying,” said Antonia quietly as Spirit swam away.

“Seaweed tag,” said Bubbles happily.

He dived underwater, then surfacing behind Dream, flipped a crinkly strand of brown seaweed at her. “You’re ‘it’.”

Antonia tried to forget about the boat as Dream chased after Bubbles, tagging his tail with the seaweed before he could dive for cover. Bubbles flicked the seaweed on to his flipper then took off after Antonia, who neatly somersaulted out of his way. Bubbles slowed and rolled on his back as if he was thinking. Then suddenly he righted himself and leapt after a surprised Cai.

“It,” clicked Bubbles tossing the seaweed. It fell a metre short and Cai laughed, then dived
under water. Snatching up the seaweed, Bubbles gave chase, tagging Cai as he did a clumsy somersault turn.

“Aw!” Cai exclaimed.

He swam towards Dream then suddenly changed direction and threw the seaweed back at Bubbles.

“It,” he whistled, triumphantly.

“Not bad!” clicked Bubbles. “Your swimming’s improving. But you’d go faster if you used your hands like flippers instead of that funny thing you keep doing with them.”

“That’s breaststroke,” said Antonia, swimming over.

“Teach me how to do flipper hands,” Cai challenged Bubbles.

“It’s easy. Just move like this,” said Bubbles, demonstrating with his flippers.

Cai copied Bubbles and ended up swimming in a circle.

“It helps if you keep your fingers together,” said Antonia.

“That’s better.” Dream swam alongside, clicking encouragement.

Cai practised some more and managed to swim in a short wonky line.

“Well done,” said Dream kindly, as he stopped for a rest.

“That was brilliant,” Antonia agreed. “Look how far we’ve swum. Perhaps we’d better go back now? I didn’t have time to tell Claudia that I’d left Stripes with Emily.”

“Emily will be fine,” said Cai. “She’s
really keen to help.”

Antonia didn’t answer. What if Claudia and Cai were wrong about the new girl?

“We ought to go home,” said Dream. “Mum told us not to stay out too long. The pod’s going fishing later.”

“One more game of tag,” said Bubbles. “I’ll be ‘it’. You get a three waves’ start.”

Everyone scattered in opposite directions. Bubbles waited for three waves, then sped after Antonia. He almost tagged her straightaway but she darted behind Dream. Bubbles clicked a laugh, too surprised to tag his sister instead. At last, Bubbles caught Antonia, throwing the seaweed so it landed over her shoulder like wrinkly brown scarf.

“Game over,” Antonia panted. “Well
done,” she added, high-fiving Bubbles on the fin.

Bubbles and Dream swam with Antonia and Cai until they could see Claudia’s beach. They rubbed noses with everyone then swam back out to sea, their silver bodies flashing in the sunlight. Antonia and Cai headed ashore at a slower pace.

“I wonder who owns that fishing boat,” Antonia mused.

“Fishermen?” suggested Cai.

Antonia shook her head.

“The local fishermen look after the sea. There would be nothing left for them to fish for otherwise. It’s more likely to be holiday-makers. They sometimes hire out old fishing boats to go diving from. Or…” she slid a
sidelong glance at Cai. “It might be Emily’s parents!” Her voice rose in excitement. “What if they’ve been taking things from the sea to sell in their horrible shop?”

Cai laughed so much he swallowed a mouthful of sea and choked.

“Wicked imagination!” he spluttered. “Emily’s parents are too busy making souvenirs and selling them to go out collecting stuff as well. They’ll buy the shells in.”

Antonia fell quiet, miffed at Cai for laughing at her.

“I suppose we could go and have a look around the harbour,” said Cai eventually. “If you think you see the boat then you could make a note of its name, but not report it yet.”

“OK,” said Antonia, slightly appeased. “Have we got time to go now?”

“I guess so,” said Cai. “We haven’t been gone that long. Time seems to slow down when we’re with the dolphins.”

“It does,” agreed Antonia. “I never really noticed that till now. We always get loads done when we’re with them.”

When the sea was shallow enough, Antonia and Cai waded ashore. Water poured from them and their clothes dried almost instantly. They rescued their shoes from under the Sea Watch boat and sat on the warm sand to put them on.

“We’d better go and tell Claudia where we’re going,” said Antonia.