Feeding Frenzy | Rapid Rush

He lifted a foot, shook off a strand of seaweed, and waded back toward the mangroves. The frenzy would come again. Tomorrow. Next week. The moment the next chunk of bait hit the water, the call would sound, and Kael—patient, grey-feathered Kael—would answer it. Because in the rapid rush, there was no past, no future. Only the beak. Only the now. Only the frantic, beautiful, bloody business of staying alive.

The gap between the root-entangled shore and the boiling kill-zone was twenty feet. He covered it in three desperate, splashing strides, his wings half-cocked for balance. As his feet left the bottom, he plunged his dagger-beak into the froth. feeding frenzy rapid rush

He launched.

The moment the first chunk of bait hit the water, the surface shattered. He lifted a foot, shook off a strand

The frenzy had a rhythm. The bait ball—a frantic, silver sphere of sardines—would dart left, and the predators would correct, a single, pulsing super-organism of hunger. Kael was no longer a bird. He was a needle, a dart, a piece of shrapnel. He stabbed again. This time, his beak closed on a soft, wriggling body. He swallowed without tasting, his throat working like a pump. Next week

From the mangrove shoreline, a young heron named Kael watched with an eye that could count fish. He was lean, grey-feathered, and patient by nature. But patience was a luxury that evaporated the moment the tuna scraps hit the current.

Miss. A jack’s flank slid off his mandible.