The Green and the Violet

Ocean Titans

(BG Music: Ocean Bloom by Radiohead and Hans Zimmer)
"A Blue whale!"
For the longest time since that exclamation was made, Chris and Aviva were left speechless as they were face to face with the ocean going giant who was only dwarfed by the expanse of the deep blue.
"Wow. Que enorme,"remarked a wide eyed Aviva, marveling over the whale's immensity. Even the elephants on the land had nothing on this creature's sheer size which was unlike anything else they had before encountered. Slowly, and quite gracefully for an animal of its magnitude, the great leviathan rose to the surface, releasing a vertical column spout of used oxygen and vapor over thirty feet in the air. After taking in a breath of fresh, salty air through its blowhole, the whale dove back beneath the waves, cutting through the water as smoothly as a hot knife through butter, all without making a ripple or a splash.
Needless to say, the inventor had never felt so small in all her life.
Chris squeaked in response before he cleared his throat, regaining his composure. "You're–you're looking at the largest animal ever to exist on Planet Earth. Balaenoptera musculus, a.k.a the Blue whale!"
"Really?" The creature adventurer nodded.
"A hundred feet long and well over 200 hundred tons in weight. Far bigger than even the biggest dinosaurs."
"No way!"she snorted in disbelief.
"I'm not kidding! I'll prove it to you too!"
That being said, the green diver swam up to the whale's side, Creaturepod in hand. The inventor followed not long after, albeit more cautiously.
Wow. This whale's even bigger up close, she thought. Even the rorqual's relatively small front flippers were more than twice as long as her boyfriend was tall, and the rubbery tail flukes were easily the same width as a small aircraft's wings. Impressive though the Blue whale was, Aviva peered into the tiny eyes of the giant, which revealed a gentle soul. The whale in question didn't seem to be bothered by the rather minuscule creatures in its watery domain, and thus, gave no objections to being scanned by their gadgets which emitted green and violet beams.
"Wow!/¡Increible!"exclaimed the pair in unison once the results came in.
"This one's a female at over 110 feet from nose to tail, and as heavy as forty African elephants!"began Chris having taken measurements from his Creaturepod.
Aviva took her scans a little further. "Look at this! Her internal structure is incredible! A tongue as heavy as an elephant; a heart around four hundred pounds and the size of a piano; and a lung capacity of about 1,300 gallons of air! How does an animal get this big?"
"To answer that question, you'll need to go back to the whale's ancestry about 50 million years ago in the Eocene period."answered Chris dramatically as he pulled up a holographic timeline from his Creaturepod. "Dinosaurs had already disappeared 15 million years earlier.
"See, whales weren't always big; they evolved from a four-legged wolf-like ancestor called Pakicetus who may have foraged along rivers and streams for fish. Over time, the descendants of Pakicetus became more adapted to living life in water. Fast forward by another 15 million years, and you have Dorudon, among the first true whales.
"In Dorudon, we see the beginnings of what makes whales so special. Its nostrils had moved back from its snout to the top of its head. Its forelimbs had become stiff flippers, its snout was elongated, its hind limbs slowly became virtually non-existent, and its tail had evolved into two rubbery flukes, which propelled the animal forward through the water as they were moved up and down, rather than the side-to-side motion of a fish's tail.
"Then, something extraordinary began to happen: Because these mammals were free floating in the sea, supported by the buoyancy of salt water, whales escaped the limitations of gravity and became bigger and bigger, with the Blue whale out-monstering every other cetacean species."
The inventor was speechless to say the least; it was truly captivating to think that the mighty Blue whale and all other whales, creatures of such titanic proportions, had such humble beginnings. They were truly one of nature's countless masterpieces.
"She's beautiful."said Aviva, slowly reaching out to gently touch the giant's smooth, rubbery skin.
"She sure is," replied the Kratt in green before his eyes shifted over to the inventor in violet. "Almost as beautiful as you." Chris could see that his sweet remark caused her cheeks to flush pink behind her mask.
"You certainly have a way with words, Mr. Creature adventurer."she said with a giggle.
  Suddenly a much smaller shape revealed itself from behind the oceanic colossus, swimming into full view of the two divers. The pair immediately recognized it as– "A Blue whale calf!"exclaimed the younger Kratt.
"Awww, that's just about the cutest little animal I've ever seen."cooed the inventor with gray puppy eyes. Chris simply chuckled. Oftentimes the Kratt in green would wonder which was cuter: the baby animal or his girlfriend's reaction to seeing said baby animal. Perhaps sensing that these strange creatures in its blue world were not a threat, the young cetacean slowly but boldly swam up to the pair, and in doing so, revealed its true size, which was well over twenty feet in length.
Aviva's gray eyes widened upon that realization. "Did I say little?"
The Kratt in green chuckled. "Even baby Blues are enormous the moment they're born; about twenty three feet long, and they can weigh over two and a half tons when they're born. As much as a full grown hippopotamus!"
"¡Increible!"
"The biggest babies in the creature world,"here he felt a playful nudge from a certain young whale. "No offense, girl. And since Martin's not here to name you, that's what I'll call you: Baby Blue!"
"Didn't Martin already give that name to a tiger cub?"the inventor pointed out.
Chris opened his mouth to object, then paused. Aviva had a point there. "Oh yeah. Forgot about that."
"How about Pequeña Giganta?"the inventor suggested.
"Pequeña Giganta?"
"Mm-hmm. It means 'Little Giant.'"
Chris seemed to ponder it over, absentmindedly stroking the calf's massive head. "I like it! Pequeña Giganta it is,"
At this point, the young cetacean nudged Aviva, as though she liked her new name. Curiosity satisfied, Pequeña Giganta returned to her mother's side where she nestled her head underneath the giant's flipper and began to suckle.
"Aww! She's feeding from her mom's milk!"cooed Aviva as she observed this heart melting scene as her boyfriend looked on with a smile.
"Blue whale milk is extremely rich, composed of about 40 percent fat and 13 percent protein. A calf can drink over a hundred gallons of milk every day, and they grow quickly, as much as two hundred pounds every 24 hours for her first year."
The moment Pequeña Giganta drank her fill in nourishment, her mother uttered a deep, rumbling bellow that seemed to echo across the ocean depths. The haunting sound caused Chris and Aviva's heads and eardrums to ring and shivers to crawl up their spines.
"Talk about being loud!"said Chris, clenching his ears as he recovered from the blast.
"Well, sound does travel faster and farther in the water than it does in the air."stated the scientist before turning her eyes to see the great whale glide along the water, her tiny calf in tow. "Chris, look!"
"She's on the move!"
At first, the Blue cetaceans sank like stones, diving deeper and deeper before they began to swim quickly at such an astonishing pace that it was all Chris and Aviva can do to catch up to them by Manta Rider.
"I️ don't believe it. How can an animal so big move so fast?"she wondered, flooring the Manta Rider at almost full speed just to stay within neck and neck of the living torpedo that was gliding effortlessly through its natural element.
"Blue whales can reach speeds of over 30 miles per hour, thanks to their sleek and streamlined bodies and powerful tails."answered the creature adventurer, one hand hanging onto the vehicle, the other holding his Creaturepod to film all the action. "They're easily one of the fastest animals in the sea!"
"Where is she going?"
As Chris looked up, something caught his attention as he pointed out: "There's your answer: a swarm of krill."
Aviva peered upwards where her eyes were greeted by a living cloud that stained the seas red. There were easily millions of the centimeter-long shrimplike crustaceans floating close to the shimmering surface, undoubtedly feeding on the abundant microscopic phytoplankton enriched by the sun.
Meanwhile, another pair of eyes was watching the shoal's movement from its place among the dark depths.
"These tiny crustaceans are an important element of the oceanic food chain, and they make up the stable diet of many sea creatures from small fish and seabirds all the way up to Whale sharks, and various marine mammals –"
"Thar she blows!"shouted the inventor as she caught something moving from the corner of her eye.
Rising up from the abyss, the adult Blue whale lunged forward, opening her cavernous mouth wide open the instant the krill were within range.
  "Wow!"exclaimed the spectating divers simultaneously, watching the leviathan break the surface as she gulped down an enormous mouthful of reddened water which caused the pleated skin on her throat and belly to expand. The sack of blubber soon deflated as torrents of seawater cascaded out of the whale's mouth through thin, overlapping comblike bristles attached to the upper jaws. Trapped inside the inescapable baleen prison, thousands of krill are left behind—and then swallowed down the giant's gullet.
  Soon there were only a handful of survivors who scattered as Pequeña Giganta playfully charged into their midst, earning laughs from the couple.
"That's what I️ call one whale of a feast!" Chris remarked, having recorded the entire feeding frenzy from his Creaturepod.
"¡Increible! I️ definitely gotta program a Blue whale Power Disk some time,"she said thoughtfully.
"Really? That would be so kriller!"he replied with a wink.
Aviva's hand was on her forehead as she giggled at the awful pun. They then looked high and low for the Blue whales, scanning the sea in all directions before spying them just in time as they swam away, ultimately disappearing into the gloom.
"They're gone."she murmured.
"Oh whale."shrugged Chris, although inwardly he was saddened by the whales' disappearance. "I guess there's always next time,"
"Okay, okay, enough with the whale puns!" Aviva interjected, feigning exasperation. The Kratt in green chuckled.
"All jokes aside, that was an unforgettable experience."
"Mm-hmm,"
A moment of tranquil silence... before a ghostly wail as deep as a hundred tubas seemed to be heard from all around, an eerie yet captivating call that could only be produced by the largest inhabitant in the sea.
"Sirena."mumbled the inventor, her voice hardly more than a whisper.
"What was that, Aviva?"
"That's what the mother's name should be. It means 'siren' or 'mermaid'." As she stated this, the unseen whale continued her melodies.
"Sirena. I like that. I really like that."
   Chris and Aviva continued to listen to Sirena's song, both inwardly wishing that they knew what it meant. The call grew fainter and fainter until silence reigned long and long. For the longest time after the notes were ended, not a word was spoken between the pair.
The Kratt in green was brought out of his trance by a hand on his shoulder. "C'mon, Cariño."said Aviva. "Martin will probably be wondering what's taking us so long."
Chris shook his head, returning to reality."Yeah, you're right. He's not gonna let me live it down." He then added with an ecstatic grin,"But wait till we tell everyone at the bonfire! They're gonna be so psyched."
With that, they retraced their steps back to the Tortuga, with one whale of a tale to tell.
**** Just one more part to go! ;)