Transcript
00:00:14
Welcome back to foggy oak scary tales.
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The ocean is a mysterious place, covering 70% of the Earth's surface. Researchers estimate that less than 25% of the global sea floor has been mapped with modern technology, and that we may have discovered only about 30% of the animal species alive in the ocean.
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Indeed, almost 2000 new species are discovered every year.
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There's still a lot left to discover and learn, and many wonder if creatures we think are extinct, like the silicate are actually still with us and we just haven't found them yet.
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This week involves a scary discovery that isn't precisely what it seems.
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Our protagonists encounter a prehistoric mystery when they are almost crashed into by gigantic reptile, who turns out to be a mosasaur.
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Do you think he'll be a friend or a foe?
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Let's find out.
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Kalia and Kai were out on a sailboat with their family like they were most weekends.
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On this particular Saturday, the sun was shining. The wind and water conditions were favorable, and they'd been clipping along at a brisk 6 knots for most of the morning.
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Knots are how speed is measured for ships. One nautical mile is a little more than one mile on land, just like we have mph when you're driving in a car, you have knots on the sea, 6 knots per hour is pretty good for the kind of small cruising sailboat they were on.
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They've gotten an early start and were well out to sea at this point, enjoying the vast expanse of ocean and the way you could see far into the water in the morning sun.
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A pod of dolphins had visited them earlier, swimming alongside the sailboat and playing in the wake for a while before disappearing to hunt for breakfast.
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The kids loved the ocean, loved the days of exploring and swimming, and the vast expanse of stars at night.
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Their parents were always careful about when they took out the sailboat, and so while everyone knew that storms could sneak up on you unexpectedly at sea, Kalia and Kai had only experienced the gentle side of the ocean. If you were careful and you respected the sea, they thought it would respect you back.
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Kids who have been stung by an unseen but very present jellyfish while swimming by a beach, among many others, might take this opportunity to disagree. But Kalia and Kai only knew their own experiences.
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They were seated at the stern or back of the sailboat, playing a game and absently gazing out at the water in between turns. When they saw something emerge from the waters behind them.
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It was something dark and ridged and pointy, like a shark spin, but bigger.
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It wasn't like any whale or dolphin or shark fan they'd ever seen, though it moved rapidly from side to side in wide sweeps.
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As their brain began to process what they were seeing, they noticed the shadow.
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A hulking form lurked beneath the bright blue waters attached to those protruding ridges, too far away to make out anything clearly. Except now it was apparent that whatever was sticking out above the surface was at the.
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Act of the creature, not the middle.
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Uh, Dad, Kai yelled. There's something behind the boat.
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The shadowy form speed up quickly, shifting from a few boat lengths away to only one in a matter of moments.
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Now you could tell that the dark, ridged armored protrusion from the water was the flared flange of a gigantic tail.
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I've never seen anything like that.
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Their dad said as he hurried to the stern and looked out at the rapidly advancing shadow.
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It's larger than the boat.
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Kalia cried and the rapid back and forth swipes of the tail increased.
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And then suddenly, when it seemed the creature was going to crash right into the stern, it dove.
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There was no sign of the shadowy form.
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We need to get back to shore, their mother said, joining them at the stern.
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Everyone sprang into action, sheeting the mainsail and hacking the boat to make as quick a turn as they.
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Could manage.
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Hoping the wind would be with them. They also fired up the inboard motor to move more quickly back towards land and away from whatever that shadow had been.
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Kai and Kalia let out sighs of relief as the boat began moving as quickly as it could back towards land. At that a little over 6 knots per hour speed we mentioned earlier.
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After all the repositioning to tack the boat, they had ended up starboard or on the right side of the sailboat.
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What do you think it was?
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Kalia asked Kai quietly. Since all the grown-ups seemed tense and worried and were focused on other things.
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I don't know. Maybe it was that, but before Kai could finish his thought, they both shrieked as the Unknown Leviathan resurfaced in a terrifying burst.
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Shooting out of the sea like a great white shark after a seal and slamming back into the water with an enormous crash of sound and water, it really didn't look like a shark, though.
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It looked like if you crossed a whale with the meanest alligator that ever existed.
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It was dark with modeled patterns along its dark Gray back, fading to a pale Gray, almost white on its belly.
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At least 45 feet long, or 15 meters, it now was clear that the creature had long, flexible tail and four flippers. Its huge mouth could easily consume a grown up without chewing, and both kids caught sight of razor sharp teeth as it snapped its jaws.
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In the air.
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The sailboat rocked in the wake of the creatures splash and both kids were almost thrown from the boat and into the open ocean.
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Get away from the edge of the boat, their mother yelled as she dashed towards them over the rocking deck.
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Kai and Kalia were about to hurl themselves backwards when the creature reemerged, its head bobbing at the surface and its eyes boring into theirs as it kept pace with the boat.
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Both kids fell back on to their mother in shock.
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If this monster bigger than their boat and unimaginably powerful and deadly wanted to bash their boat to shreds and gobble them up, it was clear it would only need to smash into their boat with a jump or a swipe of its tail.
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Their mother pushed both of the children behind her and prepared to yell at the creature to try to scare it away. Their father and their parents friends would come on the trip formed a protective circle around the kids shoe. Get out of here, their mother yelled, waving her hands and making her body language as aggressive and don't mess with me as possible.
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The creature turned a bit in the water to better regard her, and then to everyone's shock.
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It spoke to you. There's no need for that. I just wanted to say hey.
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What? Their mother gasped. Hey, I'm just Moe. I'm a Moser. Sore. How's it hanging?
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You folks seem stressed.
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The creature now the mosasaur, announced in friendly tones that were completely incongruous with its terrifying demeanor.
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Kai, a major dinosaur and prehistoric reptile enthusiast, couldn't help himself. Mosasaurs are extinct, he blurted. They've been extinct since the end of their Cretaceous period.
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Hey, do I look extinct to you? Don't you think I know what I am? Mo responded. Nah, they're just they many.
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Of us these days.
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I never run into people, so I thought, hey, I'll say hey, make some friends. It's lonely being the only one around who can talk, you know?
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You do look like a Moses or Kai conceded.
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I am Moe agreed. You folks want some fish? He asked.
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Uh, no, no, I I think we're fine. Thank you there, mother gasped. All right. Well, nice talking to you. I am hungry. The monster responded. Their mother threw her arms out protectively to better block the kids from view.
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So I'm gonna go catch some fish you folks take care here. There's lots of scary stuff in the ocean you don't even know.
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I yes, we are gathering that, their mother said. See you, most shouted, loud enough that it hurt everyone's ears and disappeared below the surface again.
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I think we better get out of here before Moe realizes that people can be food as well, their father said firmly. And all the grown-ups went into a flurry of activity to make sure the boat kept going as fast as possible.
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I think he seems nice, Colia protested.
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But no one listened.
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Their grown-ups radioed the Coast Guard on the way back to report what had happened, but the Coast Guard didn't believe them. Boats met them as they drew nearer to shore, but only for medics to come and check everyone out, not to get a description and to go look for a very chatty mosasaur that absolutely should not exist.
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The kids and grown-ups, of course, all had the same story, and it's true a group hallucination was pretty unusual, but the Coast Guard and everyone else chalked it up to stress and maybe some dehydration and told them all to go and get rest and have water.
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And somehow that was the end of that for everyone except Kai and Kalia.
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They made it back to shore, docked the sailboat, and went home to rest.
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And while their parents had been equally adamant with the Coast Guard that they had met a talkative prehistoric reptile who almost capsized their sailboat bit by bit and moment by moment they seemed to forget it had been real.
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By the next morning, their parents fully believed it had all been a hallucination, like the Coast Guard said.
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Kai and Kalia were unshakable in their memory of what had happened, and once the initial shock of the whole experience wore off, they were rather desperate to find MO again and learn more about the talkative, friendly mosasaur.
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Since none of the adults believed it had happened, there were plenty more sailing weekends in the future.
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And plenty of time to again find quite the most unusual friend either of them had ever had.
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The end.
00:12:11
Well, friends, I don't know if I would make friends with the mosasaur, but it seems like Kai and Kalia are going to do you think they found him again?
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What would you say if you ran into a mosasaur?
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I hope you've enjoyed our foggy oak scary tales this month, featuring music by the fabulous Lee Knight who composed and performed the music for these stories, we'll have one more foggy oak scary tale coming soon for those who are signed up for our bonus episodes on Patreon, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.
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Thank you so much for listening and happy Halloween.