The Tooth in the Current — Under the warm reef ledge, Tavi kept a tiny white tooth tucked in a crack of coral. It was not his tooth. Read the full story →
Under the warm reef ledge, Tavi kept a tiny white tooth tucked in a crack of coral. It was not his tooth. That was the secret. He had found it as a pup, smooth as moon-shell, and every morning he touched it with his nose before circling the same safe rocks. But this morning the current whispered shhh-rrr past the ledge and rolled the tooth into open blue.
Tavi slipped after it, beyond the coral’s peppery smell and the clicking shrimp. Two silver fish darted beside him like commas. Farther out, the water grew colder and pulled at his fins. To catch the tooth, he had to squeeze through a ribbon of current, scraping one fin against rough stone. “Don’t tell the reef I’m brave,” he muttered.
The tooth spun once, then settled on a sandy ridge where wide water hummed below. Tavi picked it up—and saw other sharks moving in the deep lane, steady and sure, as if the sea had saved his place. He tucked the tooth under his tongue and swam home slower, carrying something better than luck: the map of where he belonged. If you trace the sweeping current lines, can you find the secret path that led him out and back?
