Contributed by Martyn Green Coordinator, Baywater Anglers
								For a moment, just a moment, Lenny quailed. The seal, with its powerful jaws, could catch him, crush him, chew him up and then spit out the pieces. He was in deadly peril or, now he looked closer, was he?” “Help me, please, help me…” Looking nearer, the lobster saw, with a feeling of horror, that the seal was caught in an old, abandoned piece of human netting. It was trying to swim closer to the surface, to breathe, but it could not quite make it. Only moments separated it from a horrible, terrifying, death. He did not stop to think. Regardless of the danger to himself he raised his claws and, with quick, decisive movements, ripped the net in several places, enabling the seal to free itself. The next moment it was gone, thrusting its mouth clear of the water and breathing in huge, ragged, gulps of air. Lenny, thinking to make himself scarce, turned and… ...found himself flying through the air. Up he flew, his claws clacking uselessly and then, with a feeling of absolute horror, found himself on the seal’s stomach, which had turned itself upside down in the water to look at him. The great mouth widened in a grin and, with an overpowering stench of fish, came closer and… ...dropped a big kiss on his shell. “Thank you,” it breathed, “I thought I was a goner, just then.” ‘So did I,’ thought Lenny to himself, but aloud he said “My pleasure, I do assure you, a pleasure.” The seal grinned. “If there is ever anything that I can do…” Lenny, having expected no reward, found that his mouth had dropped open in surprise, the germ of an idea in his mind. “It just so happens,” he breathed, and outlined his idea. Later, at the top of the tide, the great lobster dropped back into the pool, swinging himself through the seaweed with all of his strength, dropping to the ground just in front of the startled pollack. “Oh it’s you,” the fish frowned, annoyed at having been startled. “What do you want?” Lenny drew himself up to his full height. “I am giving you one last chance to leave the pool – NOW!” The pollack laughed. “Who’s going to make me? You?” “No,” a great voice boomed, “I will!” And, with a roll of his body, the seal entered the pool. The pollack, with a squeak of terror, turned to flee. And that was the start of the second great chase. The pollack, lashing its tail in panic, spun round and round the pool with the seal in close pursuit. The inhabitants of the pool, emerging once more into the light of the day, cheered while, back on the shore, a great crowd of humans gathered to watch. The chase ended far away from the pool, but its effects were visible later, when Lenny called his friends round to celebrate. “Silence,” he roared, with a big grin on his face to take the harshness away from his words. “Basil, our little friend from earlier, has just dropped us in a little bite to eat. Would anyone,” he dropped his voice, an evil grin dawning on his face, “care to join me in a little feast? At least…” he turned, then held up the ragged, bloodstained, remains of a fairly large tail, “at least there’s plenty to go around!”
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