Group 10

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CUCUMBER THE ORCA?

Chapter: The Orcas

The big sweeping landscape of white ice was suspended in the middle of the freezing sea.  The wind swept wildly over the cool iceberg like a huge albatross swooping through the air. It was windy and cold.  Pieces of ice made crashing noises as they calved into the Southern Ocean.

A bunch of Emperor penguins glide through the water like bullets chasing fish and krill.  Bang! The animals fled.  Then out of nowhere three Orcas surged through the waters towards their prey. The Orcas were the kings of the ocean.  Suddenly a fluke smacked through the water and a whale jumped into the air, making a big splash.  These Orcas were a pod of whales who were busy everyday.

The orcas names are Cucumber, Mussels and Aqua. Cucumber is the smallest, most inquisitive orca of all time. Mussels is the strongest out of them and Aqua is the smartest.

One day Cucumber was swimming until he saw a leopard seal following him. Cucumber stopped for 20 seconds. He continued to swim but at a slow and steady pace. When the Leopard seal caught up to him, he introduced himself as Rex and he called Cucumber his lunch.

Cucumber was getting uncomfortable, so he decided to ignore Rex and swim along. Rex kept on following him and talking bad to Cucumber by calling him names. Cucumber got so mad that he decided to yell at Rex, “ Shut your mouth, you cruel seal!”

So Rex said, “ Fine! Gosh! I’ll leave you alone and go away.” Then Rex left and Cucumber continued to investigate around to see if there were any boats to research and collect data.

Later that day Rex came back with a lot of other Leopard seals. Then Rex said “Hey Cucumber do you remember me, sponge head?” in a scary voice.

Then Cucumber replied, “ Yes, I do. You are that cruel seal that calls sea creatures names.”

Then Rex said in an aggressive voice, “First of all, I’m not mean. And second of all, I brought some friends to eat lunch, if you know what I mean.” Cucumber got really scared because he had no one to back him up, but he was lucky because Mussels & Aqua came out of no where to back Cucumber up!

Then Mussels and Aqua said “Stay away from my brother you cruel seals!”

Rex said, “Fine I’ll leave you alone forever, gosh!” Finally Rex and the other seals left. And then Aqua said “ It’s okay Cucumber those seals are never coming back.” Then Mussels, Aqua, and Cucumber swam away.

The next day, Cucumber was swimming back to his pod after a long day of research. When he got there, Mussels and Aqua swam over.

“Soooooo…how was your research?” they asked sarcastically.

“Um… good I guess” Cucumber asked confused.

“Just like always. What a loser!” said Aqua

“Hey! I don’t care what you say because when you make fun of me there is no use in talking to you!”

“Whatever! The only thing you care about is lame old science. You need to understand that you will never be accepted by anyone! So ha!” yelled Mussels.

“Lets leave this dork alone! C’mon Mussels,” said Aqua.

Then they left to the krill stand across the tide… without Cucumber. He felt very upset. The next day he decided to leave, so he wrote a letter.

Dear Pod,

I am sorry but I must leave because you guys said that I am a crazy science nerd.  Rex called me a wimp and a loser and a stupid whale. You also said that I need to understand that I will never be accepted by any pod. Aqua and Mussels proved that to me, and I do understand. That is why I am leaving.

You said I will never be able to be a real scientist and that is exactly what I am going to do. Don’t worry about me. I will be fine even though you probably do not care because you never listen to me anyway. You made fun of me so I’m leaving and never coming back. I will live on krill and artic cod for the rest of my years.

Don’t even try to stop me,
Cucumber
P.S. I hope you are all happy!

Chapter: The Krill

After reading the letter, they both felt devastated. They didn’t even know if they could move.
“How could we have done this to our baby brother?” cried Aqua uncontrollably. “I regret everything I said to Cucumber.”
“Yeah me too, I totally hate myself right now,” said Mussels ashamed.
“Maybe we should start looking for clues to find where he has gone,” Aqua suggested.
“We really need to find him, even if it means going to the edge of the earth,” Mussels replied.
“There is no edge to a sphere,” Aqua gently replied.

Mussels and Aqua were swimming between two huge deserted icebergs shaped like a blue canyon.  The strong current pressed against their faces as they made their way past the blocks of ice in search of Cucumber.  Suddenly a group of adelie penguins swam past like a jet leaving jet streams as they swam towards the end of the ice hallway.

“Hey Aqua, I’m hungry.  I need some food for my muscles,” Mussels complained.
A miniture orange flash swam in front of Mussels. It slowed to a stop and faced the two orcas.
“Come get me guys , come and get the sweet juicy krill,” the little krill taunted.
“He’s mine,” shouted Mussels as he leapt ferociously at him, the krill flashed  away from the Orca’s horrible teeth.

Can’t touch this,” sang the krill.  Mussels turned his head and the speed from his chase made him swim right into a huge wall of ice.  The krill dived off into the sea below singing their merry song.
“I’m gonna have a really big bruise in the morning,” Mussels sighed.”I think we should get you some help,” Aqua chuckled. “But I hope you haven’t forgotten about why we are here.  We are searching for Cucumber.”

The Polar World boat dropped a sonar recording device into the water to record the orca’s singing. Cucumber was swimming in the water and talking to himself, “According to my calculations” . . . “I wonder. . .” His voice trailed off. He didn’t notice that he was being recorded.

He saw the shadow of the Polar World boat, but he thought it was the shadow of another whale. He kept saying things to himself, “I don’t like Aqua and Mussels and I don’t think I am ever going to see them again.” They teased him way to much, that’s why he is furious at them.

The sonar recording of Cucumber that they dropped from the boat was just lifted up by the people in the boat. They played it and all they could hear was the sound of whales making loud noises. They heard those noises through the whole recording. Cucumber was yelling louder and louder as he swam.

He was so angry or so upset that you could hear him from miles and miles away, because he was yelling as loud as he could and nobody knew why. The people on the boat heard his voice so they turned the boat around and followed the sound of his voice.

Chapter: The Penguin

Mussels recovered quickly after the incident with the naughty Krill. He and Aqua were still looking for Cucumber when they heard the faintest calling in the distance of the blue ocean, they quickly looked around to see if it was Cucumber, but it wasn’t. The thing they heard was an Adelie Penguin with a six pack carton around his neck.
”Help!”gasped the penguin.
Aqua and Mussels quickly swam over.
”Here, Mussels - you chew off the six pack carton but don’t swallow the plastic, or him, and I will wriggle him out to make it easier to get off,” Aqua explained to Mussels.

Aqua and Mussles started to pull and the blue six pack carton snapped off the penguin.
”Thank you so much for helping me,” the Adelie Penguin said thankfully.
”It’s okay, have you seen our brother Cucumber? He went missing,” Mussels said, looking at the penguin hungrily.
” Yes I saw him head off in the direction of the ice caves,” the penguin said to Aqua and Mussels.

They both raced off in search for their lost brother. They searched everywhere and they even followed a red ice-breaker that was cutting a path of water through the pancake ice.  Eventually they reached the ice caves, this was the place where Cucumber would like to visit.

? Cucumber’s question: I wonder how penguins can survive the cold, harsh conditions of the Antarctic?

Penguins have short stiff feathers that are protected by a waterproof coating. The packed together feathers overlap to seal out wind and water.  the feathers can not easily be ruffled by wind and water as they are so short. Like an Orca, they have blubber to insulate them from the cold and Adelie Penguins have feet that are adapted for walking on the ice. When breeding penguins huddle together and some penguins, such as the Emperor Penguin, rest their eggs on their feet to stop the egg from touching the ice.  Penguins also have short windgs and heavy bones to help them swim and to help them dive low.

Chapter: The Leopard Seal

The ice cave was dark, black, cold and very, very icy. The heart of the cave was filled with lots and lots of beautiful blues; tourquoise walls and shimmering saphire crystals. Inscribed on the icy walls were pictures of maps, vessels and many question marks. The two whales looked around at the many walls and saw a marking that looked like this: ?UCUMBER.

Aqua and Mussels were astonished at what they saw. They didn’t know that Cucumber was so interested in the world and its surrounding. Mussels turned to see his old whale bones that he used as weight machine over in the dark corner of the deep blue cave. Even Mussels knew what this meant.

Both whales realised that Cucumber was always asking questions because he wanted to be truely part of the family. Smart like Aqua and strong like Mussels. Now they were even more determined to find their little brother…

They dived deep into the cave searching for clues but to their astonishment they found a struggling seal. The leopard seal was tangled in a vibrant blue net and struggling to get free.
“Have you seen our brother?” both whales whistled in unison.
“I can’t concentrate,” gasp…”this sea monster has tangled me and is slowly choking me. I need help!”  the tired leopard seal moaned to Mussels and Aqua.
”Why on earth should we help you?” Mussels shouted angrily. ”Your part of the reason our baby brother has gone missing!” added  Aqua madly.
”Just help me!” the leopard seal cried. Mussels and Aqua didn’t want World War Three to break out, so they agreed to help the seal.
”We will bite through the net, only if you help us find our brother,” Mussels growled.
”I’ll tell you where he went but be quick, I’m running outta breath,” the seal choked.

Mussels with with his strong teeth snapped the net open easily, freeing the entangled seal. The seal swam up to the surface and belly flopped onto the nearest ice floe, relieved his ordeal was over.

Chapter: Captured

After leaving his letter, Cucumber set off determinedly.  As he traveled along the Ross Ice Shelf, he wondered what it might be like in the arctic.  He looked at his map, suddenly becoming less confident when he remembered the other orcas’ teasing and bullying from Rex.  He was thinking of all the mean things the other orcas said to him and he knew that he was never going to go back to that part of the ocean.

He thought about all the research that he did on the vessels and that maybe he would go and continue to investigate for himself.  He could just imagine what it feels like to touch one and see if he could guess what the vessel was used for or what it was made of.  He wandered along the ice shelf to see if there were any new vessels around, perhaps a tourist boat or a new researching vessel.

He was swimming for hours when he came upon an old crab.  The crab scuffled his way over to Cucumber.
“Hello Sunny boy. I’m the old crab around these parts.”
“I can see that,” Cucumber said.  “Do you by chance know where there are any vessels?”
“Well let’s see here.” The old crab took out a map from under a rock and took a look at it.  It was about one minute before the crab said anything. “Well there was Mr. Fanstastic’s boat fixer upper.”
“Thank you sir. Do you think I could have that map so I can get there?”
“Oh yes of course.” He gave Cucumber the map that said “Polar World.”
“Bye Mr. Crab and thanks!”
“You are certainly welcome. Goodbye!”

He looked at his graphs of ships that had been in the area and then glanced at his maps and surged ahead.  In the distance he saw a dark shape.  A vessel, he thought.  He looked at his graphs.  There was not a vessel like this on them. This one said “Polar World” on the bottom and was this biggest ship he had ever seen.  The ship pulled up next to Cucumber, put down a net, and bam! He was captured.

When Cucumber woke up he was in a giant pool somewhere in the ship. He saw humans in blue uniforms with “Polar World” written on them, standing over him.  Cucumber cried out, but to no avail. The humans threw salmon at him, which Cucumber ate miserably.  They tasted so different from his usual meals.  The humans were making noises, and marking something on a map.  Cucumber cried sadly.  His maps and graphs were gone! They were probably floating somewhere in the Southern Ocean.

Chapter: The Albatross

High above the Antarctic waters, a wandering albatross glided over the icy landscape. Far below a small, red fishing boat was bobbing around the icebergs. The Albatross hovered lower, looking for Antarctic Cod to eat.

‘SPLASH!’ Aqua smashed through the icy waters with Mussels close behind her.
“Cucumber where are you?” Mussels cried out.

At that same moment the albatross dived into the ocean and then thought to himself, “my, my, my fish.”

A few minutes later Aqua and Mussels surged towards the fishing boat.  Bubbles exploded through the surface of the water.  Aqua dived down just in time to see the Albatross being dragged down on a long fishing line.
“Oh no Mussels, get down here quick. An albatross is drowning!” Aqua exclaimed loudly.

Mussels snapped through the nylon line, while Aqua pushed the albatross to the surface. Once the albatross reached an iceberg, he took the hook out of his beak and stretched out his wings. His feathers flew everywhere, he looked beautiful with the Southern Aurora flashing behind him.

The two whales surfaced next to the bedraggled bird.
“Wow! If Mussels and I weren’t here at that time you could have died a slow and miserable death,” Aqua said in her smart way.
“You’re very lucky because many seabirds die because of longline fishing,” Aqua says intelligently.
“My, my how can I repay you?” the relieved albatross asked.
“You can help us find our baby brother!” Aqua hoped. The albatross looked thoughtful and then said, “Oh, by the way I saw a, um, a piece of paper down there.  It had strange markings on it.  Maybe this could be a clue” the Albatross smiled.

“Cool, it must be one of Cucumbers maps, you know he was always drawing coastlines.  It might be one of his MAPS!!!” squeaked Aqua and Mussels.
“Ok, can you observe from an aeriel view?” Aqua asked the albatross hopefully.
“Sure thing, so look for a calf that looks like you and with a question mark splodge. Got it!”
“And observe the ships and boats please…” Mussels added.

The two whales dived again to retrieve the missing map pieces and clutching the pieces in their fins the three friends set off on their new adventure, trying to find CUCUMBER!!! Surging and swooping they all set off to find their next clue.

Chapter: The Blue Whale

The albatross soared above the two whales scouting around for anything that resembled a large orca whale.  There far below he saw a looming shape, was this what his two friends were searching for? He flew down to inform the two whales. Before they could see anything Mussels and Aqua heard a big choking sound.  The water swirled and tossed the two whales around, something huge was moving the water.

Mussels and Aqua got closer and closer to the large, shadowy shape. It was the largest whale they had ever  seen, It was a Blue Whale, the giant of the ocean. The whale was the colour of the big blue ocean and the grey of a stormy night sky.  He was tossing and turning, struggling like a fish on a giant hook.  Something was wrong and Aqua could see a plastic bag stuck in his throat.  The big bag looked like a white, shiny jellyfish.  It was lodged tightly in the whales throat.
The Blue Whale slowly asked, as he was choking furiously, “Could you please remove this smooth, shiny thing out of my throat. I thought it was a jellyfish, but it tastes like seaweed?”
“I think it’s a garbage bag, maybe it was blown off a boat,” Aqua replied intelligently.

Aqua stared at the plastic bag, she saw on the plastic bag the intitials PW.  She thought of the map they retrieved from the ice-cave. The symbol on the plastic bag was the same as the writing on the map.
In small writing the whales could only just read the words, Polar World, “the marine circus“.
“Is this from a vessel that was Cucumber’s last discovery?” says Mussels hopefully.
“Maybe this is the key to Cucumber’s weird disappearance,” shockingly said Aqua.
“He’s been kidnapped,” sobbed Mussels.
“Don’t you mean orcanapped” cried Aqua.
“How did this happen to you? We think this might be a clue to help us find our missing brother,” exclaimed Mussels and Aqua.
The Blue Whale replied, “Two days ago I heard noise that disturbed my hearing, it was in this area.  It came from a large vessel.  I think it may have been a sonar device. The boat looked new and different. If you travel north you should meet up with them in a day or so, ” repeatedly said the whale.

A few seconds later, Mussels and Aqua said bye to the huge whale and left. The whale dived into the deep, blue sea, it was camouflaged and all was visible was a dark shadowy shape descending into the ocean depth.

? Cucumber’s question: I wonder how blue whales eat without teeth?

Baleen whales do not have teeth, like Orca whales, but they have baleen plates instead. The Blue Whale is a baleen whale and they drain water and tiny animals like plankton, krill and small crusteceans through their baleen.  Baleen is used for filtering food from the water so these whales do not need teeth.The whale then wipes it off with their great big tongues.  The plates can grow up to 3.6 metres and is made of keratin.

Chapter: Long Journey

So Muscles and Aqua were trying to find their brother. They took the maps and graphs and started to swim northeast.  Time went by and they were at New Zealand. They saw a whale, but it wasn’t an orca whale. Mussels and Aqua were excited to see someone who could ask about Cucumber.
“Have you seen a boat that says PW on it?” they asked eagerly.
“What’s in it for me?” he responded slyly.
“We’ll let you come with us on our adventure.”
“No thanks,” he declined. “How about some fish?”
“How much fish are we talking about?” they asked.
“20 fish.”
“Deal, we’re in,” they chimed.
“So we’re looking for our brother, Cucumber.  He was orcanapped on a vessel called Polar World.”
“Uh oh, no way!  He’s doomed.”
“What?” they asked.
“I’ll tell you what I know.  They capture animals from the poles and they make them do tricks to earn lots of money.  When they get to old they turn them into “fish” sticks. Now that I think about it I think I did see their boat headed towards Gapuwiyak.

So after that they were swimming  more and reached the ocean off the north part of mainland in Australia. Some whales said they saw a boat pass by headed north. Mussels and Aqua  said, “Thank you,” excitedly and they kept on swimming.

Then  they saw some Orcas, then they asked if they saw a whale pass here and they said yea. And they thought it was cucumber so they looked at their map to see where they were.

Then they left then they were at Commander Island, Russia. Then they found these really cool orca whales and Mussle and Aqua said they look really cool and the Orca whales said thank you. And then they asked if they saw a boat and Orca whales and they said yea. Then they were learning and they did mainly a whole night and the next day they were in Alaska. They said it was really cold then they found a big pack of Orcas and they asked them if they saw a boat and they said that they had. After this they continued the search for Cucumber.  Where is the world was he?

Chapter: The Crabs

Mussels and Aqua were swimming along the Bering Sea and saw a big metal cage going up to a boat. They went towards it and saw some crabs in the cage. So they swam over to talk to them.

They said, “We’re trapped and we’re going to be eaten!” So Aqua bit the chain and it fell fast to the bottom of the sea. The crabs were blue and purple. At first the crabs scared Aqua and Mussels, but they saw that the crabs where nice. Although they where typically grumpy, they were nice today because the orcas let them out. Aqua’s tooth fell out when she bit the chain, so she wasn’t going to make that mistake again.

Mussels said, “Now we’re going up to the far north.” The whales saw lots of boats that were crabbing and fishing for salmon, whatever was big enough to catch. The adventure was very fun. They came from the Southwestern coast of Alaska  following the Polar World ship.  so that’s where mussels said, we started from.

“We still can’t find Cucumber, he’s been gone for a long time.  I miss him!”

Chapter: The Arctic Tern

Mussels  and Aqua  still  awaited the sight of Cucumber. In the icy blue and cold of the arctic there was an arctic tern named Herald who migrated back and forth from the north to the south. Before anything had happened to Cucumber, Herald and Cucumber were very good friends. They met after a big storm occurred. Usually these two animals couldn’t communicate, but they became friends instantly. Just about 1 year and 3 months ago Cucumber had been taken away from his home in the Southern Ocean by these Polar World workers.  Herald did not know that Cucumber had been separated from his pod until now. Herald went around finding foods like fish, berries, and other tasty things. When Herald was eating he heard a noise and spotted something. Then he got closer. It was a boat. So what he did was sneak around the boat to see what was going on.

Fashhooo, whoosh. As he flew he went in circles around the boat. While he was still circling the boat, Herald heard a sound. He knew that voice anywhere. Herald went flying down to the boat and there lay Cucumber in a tank. Herald flew quietly and anxiously to see what was going on. When he landed on the deck of the boat he noticed a wound on Cucumber’s back. Herald didn’t know what to do at all, but Herald thought that wasn’t important at all right then. Then he flew all the way back to shore as fast as he could to get more help. Cucumber wondered where Herald was going, so he waited and waited until he saw a whole bunch of other animals coming his way. They rushed to get him out of that terrible tank.

They had to look out for the polar world employees at all times. Herald’s dad, Jake, was the lookout for any of those polar world employees.  When one would come by, Jake would have to stomp on the deck 5 times to get everyone’s attention. There was a group of employees coming Cucumber’s way so a flock of birds rushed and attacked them. The sailors ran inside and closed the doors, leaving the birds helpless outside.  Unfortunately they were just to small and weak to save Cucumber.

Chapter: Pollution and Whaling

Mussels and Aqua continued on their journey to get Cucumber back, but the boat was too fast for them. They saw a trail of oil. They thought that since there was a lot of oil that leaked, the boat would stop running soon. They followed the trail of oil to the northern part of the Bering Sea. After a couple of minutes, they noticed something that smelled like burnt plastic. It had the taste of rotten krill. They were determined to get Cucumber back, but this ocean was so polluted. Oil got in Mussel’s eyes. “OUCH! It stings really bad!” Mussels said.

After an hour or two, they saw a boat from a distance. Then when they got closer to it, they saw “POLAR WORLD” written on the side of it. So now they knew it was the boat Cucumber was in. They yelled “CUCUMBER!” really loud so you can hear it from miles away. Cucumber heard them. They didn’t want to risk going over there and getting caught, but they went anyway. When they went over there, they tried to be as quiet as they could, but the Polar World people heard them.

The vessel started chasing Aqua and Mussels, but the orcas were too fast and out swam them. They noticed something interesting going on in the distance.
Aqua and Mussels saw 3 small strange boats from a distance. When they got closer, they saw seven or eight people in each one and they had four harpoons and five bouys. They started heading over there, and they tried to be as quiet as they could so they wouldn’t be heard.

Mussels and Aqua didn’t know what the people in the boats were doing until they saw something big in the water. They went closer and saw that it was a bowhead whale and realized that the people were whaling. He was so big! We tried to warn him that he was in danger of the people and their harpoons, but it looked like he didn’t mind at all. Then, all of a sudden, it was over.  It looked like he gave himself to the people. Aqua and Mussels didn’t know why the bowhead whale did this, and wondered why he didn’t try to protect himself since he’s so big compared to the people.

Then they heard the people talking. It sounded like they were happy that they got the whale and they were cheering. They heard the people thanking the whale for giving himself to them. They said, “Our people will survive because you gave your life to us, and we will not waste anything you gave us. Thank you. ” Aqua and Mussels thought to themselves, now I understand why the bowhead whale wasn’t afraid of the people in the boats. They realized that they weren’t really bad people after all.

Mussels and Aqua swam on towards the Polar World boat and tried to think of a better idea of how to rescue Cucumber.

Chapter: The Polar Bear

The polar bear blended in with the snow and fell through the ice after a fifteen mile swim. He was only a 7 month old cub and he started to drift away from his mother and his mother was exhausted. After the polar bear fell through the ice after getting up from swimming Aqua and Mussles said, “Oh no!” The polar bear was going to drown so they helped him by going under him so he could on his back. Then they took him to safety because the sea ice was melting.

The ice was flying everywhere. It was so windy that the water was rocking back and forth like in a hurricane. It was so hard to swim in these currents. The ice was so thin that if a seal got on it the ice would shatter. The sky was dark gray, which meant it was at least November. The deep dark water had many shades like light blue, blue green, and one color was as blue as an Alaskan blueberry in late August.

As soon as the orcas finished helping the polar bear cub. They just saw these lights that were dancing in the sky: blue, green, orange, and purple. The ice was crystal clear and there were more clouds than last time they looked. When they got a little farther it had lights really bright from a boat or city that blinded them from seeing. There where all kinds of birds and land animals unlike the ones in Antarctica. The ice was even thinner here for some reason.

When they came from under the water to breathe they saw the polar bear they helped was on the land winking at them.

Then Aqua and Mussels came to the rescue and pushed the cub back to his mother to try to save her but she weighed 565 pounds. Then hunters came and started shooting. They had to escape…..but how they had to think and fast.

“Go to a safe spot,” said Mussels.

“Ok, and thank you,” said the polar bear.

“GO! HURRY! We’ll distract them,” said Aqua then the polar bears took off swimming.

Mussels and Aqua tried spraying them but it wasn’t working. They had to get away so they went under the ice were they could not see them. Then they took off and met up with the pure white polar bears.

“Are you all right?” asked Mussels.

“Yes, we are fine,” replied the polar bear.

“This is Mussels and I’m Aqua , what’s your name?” Aqua asked.

“I’m , um ,um , I don’t know my real name .My parents were killed by hunters when I was a cub, ”said the mom polar bear.

“That’s awful!” said Aqua.

“Yes, I lived on my own for a very long time,” said the mom polar bear fighting back tears.

“Ladies, can we get back on task? Have you seen a ship?” asked Mussels.

“Yes, one that said Polar World on it,” said the polar bear.

“In which direction did it go?” asked Aqua excidedly.

“That way,” said the polar bear pointing North.

“Thank you! Bye,” said Aqua and Mussels and they took off swimming.

? Cucumber’s question: How do polar bears survive in the freezing arctic?

Polar bears have many adaptations to survive in the arctic. The polar bear’s skin has blubber, which helps prevent heat loss to the body while in -30 degree weather. The polar bear’s eyes are binocular, which allows them to see straight forward to help with hunting. They are also opaque which reduces a glare from the sun like we use in sunglasses and allows them to see better in the bright white around them. The polar bear needs every trait to survive.  They are covered in fur except for the tip of their nose. They use their fur to camouflage in the white snow. As you can see, polar bears have many adaptations to survive in the arctic.

Chapter: The Narwhal

Cucumber woke up to a huge commotion. The humans were yelling. Suddenly a large splash occurred. A huge animal with a horn on its head landed next to Cucumber, “My name is Cucumber. What is yours?” Cucumber asked curiously.

“I’m Bubbles,” the creature replied, ”I’m a Narwhal”.

“Cool!” Cucumber said, convinced that this strange creature with a horn on its head could help him.

“Do you know what these humans are going to do to us?” he asked. ”I’ve heard about these strange humans,” said Bubbles. “They come from a place called Polar World which is like an amusement park for humans. They train animals to do tricks.”

“I don’t want to do that!” Cucumber said, shocked.

“Then why not escape? I bet I could do something with my horn,” offered Bubbles.

“That would be great!” Cucumber’s hopes were restored. He wondered, however, what the horn was for.

Bubbles immediately started to drill a hole in the side of the ship with his horn. As the hole gradually got bigger, the boat began to sink. The humans where yelling and screaming at each other as they climbed into the large yellow life rafts. The marine animals where leisurely floating around, while the humans where speaking in there radios trying to get help. The land animals’ cages were floating around in the water, soon to be swiftly carried away by the current.

Cucumber swam up to Bubbles “We escaped!” he said, hardly able to believe it.  - - - - - -  - -

Suddenly, Bubbles screamed. A Great White shark had come up to them.

The shark laughed, “It’s okay, I won’t eat you, you two saved my life!” “But…”he added” I may not be so grateful later. I love small orca.”

After that, the shark swam off. ”Seems nice,” mumbled Bubbles. ”We better swim away.”
“No,” Cucumber said, ”I have to get back my maps and graphs.”

“ Crazy orca,” Bubbles said, ”Can’t you see . . .”

Suddenly, they both saw a frightened Arctic Hare, struggling to stay above water.

“Come on, we have to save this hare!”

Cucumber knew that this was more important than any maps or graphs, so he swam to Bubbles’ side.

“Come on. Why not swim to the shore? It’s only a couple 100 yards away,” Bubbles said soothingly.

“I’m too tired,” the hare whined.

“We are going to have to push him to the shore.” Bubbles whispered, not wanting to alarm the hare.

They pushed the hare as far as they could, and then he swam the rest of the way.

“Thanks!” he yelled from the shore.
“Take this map of the arctic as a gift,” as he said this he threw the map at the whales.  “Thank you again.”

“You are welcome!” Cucumber yelled back. Then the two friends swam away.

“What about your maps and graphs?” Bubbles asked.

“They are not important as long as finding my family!” Then the two set out to do just that.

It didn’t take long for Cucumber to start to get curious about the arctic.

? Cucumber’s Question: What is the horn on the Narwhal for?

Almost everyone knows that Narwhals have a large ivory horn on their heads, but what are those horns for? Scientists have many theories, some belief they are for bashing through ice and for fights for territory. They also use them to hunt.  Other scientists believe a Narwhal’s horn is a sensory organ. Those scientists think that the horn helps them navigate, and acts somewhat like a cats whiskers. Today the most followed idea is that the horn is a sensory organ.

Chapter: Reuniting
One year later . . .

It had been a long and horrible year for Cucumber, Aqua and Mussels. Aqua and Mussels still hadn’t found Cucumber and they were able to celebrate the New Year together.  They always did.  If they didn’t find him, they would have to start the second year without him.

Cucumber was depressed.  He’d lost his maps and graphs, had to leave his new friend Bubbles, couldn’t find his family, and he had no one to celebrate the New Year with.

He had never felt so alone than right now.  Not even when the orcas teased him or when Rex made fun of him.  He was alone with no family, home or friends.

Aqua and Mussels thought about how he’d be alone with no one to help him, alone by himself.

Cucumber started swimming towards two other orcas.  They were very good looking.  Just keep swimming past them, he thought.

Meanwhile, in the distance, Aqua and Mussels saw an orca.  They thought maybe they could be nice and introduce themselves.

“Well, hi there,” Aqua said happily.  Mussels joined in quickly, so as not to be rude.

“Uh . . . hi,” Cucumber stuttered.  Darn. No getting past these guys.

“I’m Aqua and this is Mussels,” Aqua said cheerfully.

“Um. I’m Cucumber, “ Cucumber said vaguely.

Cucumber started off.  Then he began to think.  Aqua and Mussels.  Aqua and Mussels.  Where have I heard those names before?

He quickly turned and stared at them.  They must have thought his name sounded familiar too, because they were staring at him.

“It’s you!” they shouted at the same time.

When they got home, they had a blast as the New Year kicked in.

If you ever see three inseparable orcas, we’ll bet that it’s Cucumber, Aqua, and Mussels.