Want to know what happens when The Wild Life moves to the Great Barrier Reef? Read on for a glimpse of the next race course in
Just then, a motorboat appeared from behind the nearby island. Javier waved it down. “Get ready for your first challenge,” he announced. He held out a canvas box and raised the lid. Inside was what looked like a smartphone, with a short antenna. “The ancam!” Dev declared, plunging his hand into the box.
“You sound so excited,” Russell said in a mocking tone. Dev had hated the ancam at first, but had quickly mastered the tiny device that combined a walkie-talkie and camera. It was how they received directions and clues from the race organizers. It was also how they submitted their answers so they could move on to the next clue.
“It’s time,” said Javier. “Get yourselves over to that boat.”
“You got it?” Sage asked Dev, making sure he would take charge of their communications device. Dev held up the ancam and gave a confident grin.
Sage instinctively checked for both earrings, then dove in. The chill of the water made everything feel real. The race really was on now. With powerful stokes, she made her way to the other vessel.
After she climbed the ladder to the small deck, she looked back at her teammates. Dev wasn’t far behind. His thick black hair was even straighter than usual, wet against his dark skin. Russell, despite his athletic frame and busy schedule of team sports, did not appear to be a strong swimmer. His kick was sloppy, and his breathing lacked an even rhythm. But Mari was struggling even more. When she finally reached the ladder, Sage reached out and gave her a hand. Mari looked disoriented with the salt water streaming down her face. “You okay?” Sage asked.
“I think so,” Mari answered, immediately sitting on the bench at the side of the deck.
Sage turned to the captain of the boat and her first mate. Both wore long-sleeved rash guards for sun protection. With the same sparkly blue eyes and space between their front teeth, they looked like mother and son.
“Hi,” Sage said. “We’re part of The Wild Life.”
“We know,” answered the woman. “That’s why we’re here. I’m Gayle. This is Cole.”
“We’ve got our next clue!” Dev announced, holding up the ancam. “I’ll read it.”
Two will start by flying high
To get a prime view from the sky.
Search and it will be no fluke
When your team sights a true fluke.
“Yuck. They need to get new writers,” Dev declared. “You can’t rhyme a word with the same word.”
“But they have different meanings,” Mari insisted.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s horrendous. And embarrassing.”
“Who cares?” Sage called out, throwing up her arms. “We have a clue!” She turned back to Gayle. “Is this a parasail boat?” she asked, eyeing the gear near the boat’s stern.
“Sure is. I need two volunteers.”
“Dev, you should come with me,” Sage said as she grabbed a pair of binoculars. When he paused, she added, “You’re the one with the ancam.”
Dev looked to Mari and Russell, then stepped into place next to Sage. There was a blur of buckles and snaps and straps as they put on life jackets and harnesses.
“Mari, any advice?” Sage asked.
“Well,” Mari began, “there are fish called flukes, but I don’t think any live around here, or are big enough to see from way up there.” Mari squinted as she looked into the sky. “So you must be looking for a whale fluke—two flukes make up a whale’s tail. You can see them when humpback whales breach. That’s when they throw themselves out of the water. It’s really beautiful.”
Sage nodded. Maybe she should have chosen Mari to parasail with her. But Dev was the techie. She knew he’d get the best shot.
“Now is a good time to see humpbacks,” Mari continued. “They’ve just migrated. Even in winter, the Great Barrier Reef is warmer than the Arctic.”
With breakneck speed, Gayle and Cole latched Sage into place on the small gondola. It reminded Sage of a ski lift. Dev paused, several steps away. His eyes seemed to be darting around, focusing on one thing and then another. At last, he came forward so Gayle and Cole could strap him in, too.
With the pull of a lever, Gayle released the parachute, which billowed behind the boat. The sail lifted and took Sage and Dev with it. Sage felt her stomach lurch.
“What were you looking at back there?” she asked.
“I was trying to figure out if this thing was safe,” Dev yelled over the swirling wind. “My dad would freak out if he could see me.”
“Why?”
“He’s an engineer. He is very concerned with the way things work.”
Sage had been so set on the race that she hadn’t even paused to think about safety. With all that had happened in the last year, she was surprised she hadn’t considered it. But her focus was always on the finish line. “Remember, we’re looking for whales,” she said, concentrating on things she could control. “Breaching whales, so that we can see a fluke.”
Sage took in the full view. They were now hundreds of feet in the air. Below them, the water was deep blue. Toward the mainland, she could see the reef. The water there was shallow and appeared much brighter. She could see how it was many reefs, hugging the coast. They looked like turquoise jewels from up high, strung together like an expensive necklace. It was hard to believe that something so big was alive—and that the animals that made the reef were tiny.
“It’s amazing up here,” Sage yelled. The wind plastered loose strands of hair across her face.
“Yeah,” Dev agreed. “I wish Russell and Mari could see it.”
“Yeah,” she said.
“Check it out!” Dev demanded, pointing at the ancam. “They added a telephoto lens! They kind of had to. We could never get a decent shot without it.” Mari had told them that she had read in the folder about how there was a buffer zone for whale watching. No boat could get within a hundred yards of a whale for safety reasons.
Dev lifted the handheld device to his eye and tried to focus in on something below. “Hey, look,” he said excitedly.
“What?” Sage asked hopefully.
“Russell’s driving the boat.”
“I thought you were worried about safety,” Sage said.
“They won’t let him do anything drastic,” Dev answered, but just as he said it, the gondola took a dip.
“Whoa!” Sage yelled. It felt like all her organs had jumped into her throat. “What was that?”
Dev scanned the water’s surface. “They must have spotted something …”
READ GREAT REEF GAMES TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!
Kristin Earhart grew up riding horses, pestering her cat, and reading books about amazing animals. These days, she lives with her husband and son in Brooklyn, New York, and writes books of her own. She still loves animals. But now, when she pesters her cat, the surly cat pesters back.
Text copyright © 2015 by Kristin Earhart.
Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Scholastic Inc.
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
First printing 2015
Cover art by Erwin Madrid
Cover design by Yaffa Jaskoll
e-ISBN 978-0-545-77375-1
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any inf
ormation storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
Rain Forest Relay Page 5