This short story is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, Places and Incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Isabelle and the Flying Shark

All rights Reserved

Copyright © 2016 by Fahad Sher Hussain

The short story is protected under the copyrights laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material or artwork herein is prohibited without the express written permission of the author.

It as a short story humbly written by the author Fahad Sher Hussain, and edited by Zaeem Mahmood. The story focuses on the value of friendship, and love in our everyday lives.

Not faraway in New Zealand is a small town called Arthur Town.  The town is a very small place, so small that everyone knows everyone. In this town, if you are a lonely girl, who has no friends, then life gets very lonely.  Isabelle at the age of 10, has not many friends, and the friends she has are not really her friends.  With long blonde hair up to her shoulders, Isabelle wears glasses and has recently got her braces done. Isabelle resembles a matured woman shrunk into a size of a little girl. It is this reason why that other girls in Arthur Town do not befriend her. Introverted and nerdy, Isabelle spends most of her time reading books and learning about the rest of the world. Isabelle lives with her mother, her mother is in her early 30's, but she looks like she is in her early twenties. Chontelle, Isabelle's mother, could not afford a house in the nearby city, hence she moved to this small town. They were lucky though, she rented a small batch by a vast farm, and right next to the small house is a beautiful stream. Surrounded by a beautiful native bush, the stream has ducklings, fish and glow worms at night. During the day she tries to spot dancing fish jumping out of the stream, while at night she goes on a search looking for glow worms. Isabelle loves talking to animals, she feels that the native birds, fish in the stream, the glow worms and swans are all her friends. They only love and live their lives, they never hurt other human beings. 

In a small and beautiful town like Arthur Town, there are three very mean girls; Alice 12, Patricia 10 and Phoebe 8. Alice is the leader of the clan, Alice is also the princess of her family. Patricia and Phoebe are her little sisters but also her charladies. Alice is a very popular girl in Arthur Town, she is smart, witty and pretty. Unfortunately, there are not many kids in Arthur Town, and not many of Isabelle's age. Alice does not like Isabelle, she finds her boring, and nerdy. Since Alice is the most popular girl in Arthur Town and in her family, Patricia and Phoebe also follow her opinion in disliking Isabelle. 

Unlike Isabelle, Alice and her sisters come from an affluent family, where they have had everything in abundance. Their father is the mayor of Arthur Town, while their mother owns the only hair salon in town. The girls have a huge house, unlike Isabelle they have their own swimming pool, a huge farm with a lot of animals, and many pets. They have two dogs, three cats and four rabbits. Isabelle 's room opens up to their farm. It is a vast piece of land, how Isabelle always wonders that it must be so wonderful to play in that farm, and so much better to have siblings to play with. Isabelle has always longed for friends, and siblings in her life. But she has not lost hope, she knows that one day she will find a friend, a very close friend who will understand her. 

"What do you keep looking through the window", asks Isabelle's mum, Chontelle. 

Isabelle does not answer. Today Isabelle has been feeling very lonely, she is feeling the vacuum of having a close friend in life. 

"Why don't you play with Alicia and her sisters", she suggests while cleaning the house.

"Mum they always tease me", Isabelle shouts at her mum with a frustration that her mum never understands the bullying she has to go through. 

"Honestly! I am a bit concerned about Isabelle", Chontelle picks up the phone while explaining that to her boyfriend. Her boyfriend suggests that she take Isabelle to a psychologist.

"Does she feel hopeless?", the doctor questions Chontelle while he sends Isabelle out of the room. 

"And very sad", Chontelle answers the questions still thinking about something.

"Maybe I think she misses her dad!", she tells the doctor. The doctor suggests Chontelle that she finds Isabelle a hobby where she could divert all her frustrations. 

"I also suggest these medications", he writes a prescription for Isabelle and hands it over to Chontelle. Waiting in the lobby, the pet cat in the office comes running towards Isabelle. Isabelle picks up the cat while patting her on its tummy.

Chontelle walks out of the doctor's room with a worrying face. 

"Baby you need to start making real friends", Chontelle tells Isabelle while asking her to put the cat down. Isabelle cringes at her mother's reaction, she feels that her mother never understands her.

"You are depressed", Chontelle tells Isabelle while driving back towards Arthur Town.

"And I have decided that you will try to become friends with Alice, Patricia and Phoebe", she continues on.

Chontelle is concerned that Isabelle would not hang out with the three sisters, go out of the house or even socialize with anyone.  However, Isabelle knows that everyone misunderstands Isabelle, if the right friend comes along, Isabelle will be the best friend to them. 

The next day Isabelle prepares for school. Arthur Town has only one school, and the school is very small with only a few classes. Alice goes to Isabelle's class. 

"I have heard that you talk to fish", Alice teases Isabelle during recess. 

Isabelle decides not to answer by taking her lunch box to the other side of the school ground. Patricia and Phoebe later join on to poke fun at Isabelle.

"Her mum rang yesterday....", Patricia talks as if she is going to reveal a secret.

"..and she told my mum that Isabelle is sick", Patricia whispers to the girls in the playground.

"What happened to you Isabelle?", Alice wonders while looking at the girls. 

"We always knew you were sick", Patricia chuckles.

Attending school has become harder for Isabelle, she faces the taunts of three sisters. 

"They are so friendly", shouts Chontelle from her room.

"Why can't you be like the sisters?", Chontelle continues. "And not be so picky about your friends." 

Isabelle never likes to be compared, yet she always gets compared to others especially the three sisters. Chontelle hardly puts in any effort into understanding Isabelle, that Isabelle is lonely, and that she also needs friends, those friends that can understand her.

"Oh so her dad is a mountain!", Patricia and Alice whisper to each other as they look at Isabelle walking past the school hall. They are poking fun at Isabelle who has always claimed that Arthur Mountain is her father as unlike other girls, she doesn't know who her dad is. Arthur Mountain is the only mountain in this beautiful town, some say the mountain is an active volcano. For years, the mayor of Arthur Town has banned entry near the mountain due to an active volcanic activity. But for Isabelle, her dad is hiding something else for her in this beautiful snow covered, yet warm mountain.

"It is dangerous", Patricia laughs at Isabelle's wild thoughts about the mountain. 

"How are your other friends?", Patricia wonders as she also tries to contain her laughter. "umm--which-ones?", although Isabelle knows what the girls are referring to, she tries to avoid the question.

"Birds? cats? rabbits?", Alice quickly covers her face to hide the bursts of laughter. Isabelle feels bullied by everyone, and wishes that one day she will have a real friend, that she can show off to everyone. She wishes for a friend who will prove to everyone that Isabelle is also capable of having a good friend.

"We are going to the river field trip", announces Mrs Coward. "We will clean the river from contamination!", she continues.

Mrs Coward hands the girls a list of things to bring on the day of the field trip.

"Gloves, life jacket, and a bin", she walks around the classroom explaining what to bring into the class.

The whole school is going on a river field trip to the nearby banks of Arthur River, to clean the river from contamination. Over the years, people have started throwing bottles, plastic bags and all sorts of other man made wastes into the river.

"Mum do we have a life jacket?", Isabelle asks her mother.

"No you know very well that this week I am totally out of budget", Chontelle replies. 

The next day the three sisters, and many other school mates come to the river prepared. Alicia, Patricia and Phoebe are wearing the life jackets, gloves and their dad has even brought them a small inflated raft to play in the river with. 

"Thank you Mr Smith", Mrs Coward thanks the father of the girls. 

"And what about you little woman?", Mrs Coward notices that neither Isabelle is wearing her life jacket nor has she brought it with her.

"Unfortunately, you cannot go cleaning with us without a life jacket", Mrs Coward advises Isabelle. However, Mrs Cowards hands Isabelle over a rod with a hook on it to capture any flowing plastic as she waits for the rest of the group.

The school group embarks on a journey around the the banks of the river, while Mrs Coward advises Isabelle to wait around and watch out for the raft.

The river is beautiful, Isabelle had always admired the beautiful green color of the river, and the sounds that surround the river. The sound of the flowing water, the nearby waterfall, the birds, the animals. As Isabelle is admiring the beauty around the river, she hears a splash in one of the deeper parts of the river.

She quickly gets up to notice where the splash could have come from. Right in the middle of the deeper part of the river, she notices a plastic bottle. 

With the rod, she tries to bring the plastic bottle over but it feels like a heavy object. As she pulls with more force to pull the plastic bottle towards her, a huge splash drenches Isabelle. "Sharrkkkkkkkkk", Isabelle screams out loud. She has just noticed a huge life size shark, with razor sharp teeth that has just jumped back into the deeper end of the river.

Mrs Cowards comes running to where Isabelle is. 

"I just saw a shark!", Isabelle points towards the deeper side of the river.

"O! silly girl", Mrs Coward shakes her head. "There are no sharks in the river", Mrs Cowards takes little notice of Isabelle's fears. 

"Why don't you join us at the banks on the other side with your rod", Mrs Coward asks Isabelle to leave the specific spot while Mrs Coward carries the raft over.

"Good trick!", Patricia tells Isabelle. 

"I am not lying", Isabelle tries to explain herself. "I actually saw a shark!", she tries to convince the school girls that there is actually a shark in that river.

"Yes your mum was right that you are sick", Patricia shakes her head and continues on to clean the banks of the river while Isabelle waits sitting on a piece of rock.

After a long tiring day of cleaning, Mrs Coward asks the girls to head back.

"Can we play on the raft Mrs Coward", Alice asks for Mrs Cowards permission.

"OK but only where the water is shallow and still", Mrs Coward explains to the girls. 

"You have five minutes", she informs the girls. The still and shallower water is where Isabelle spotted the shark.

"Don't go there", Isabelle tells the girls. "The shark has scary teeth", she warns.

The girls laugh off Isabelle's warning and take their inflated boat to where Isabelle had initially spotted the shark. As they play around in the deeper part of the lake, they raft starts drowning.

Mrs Coward rushes to rescue the girls. Luckily, the water is not very deep and the girls swim off the boat towards the bank. Isabelle spots the shark again, she suspects that it is the shark that has done something. But she quite carefully, does not suggest anything to the class.

"Let us just go", Mrs Coward tells the class as she is still trying to sink in the incident.

"You know!", Mrs Coward gazes at Patricia. "You girls could have drowned, lucky that you were wearing  life jackets", Mrs Coward leads the girl out of the bush. After getting a growl from Mrs Coward, Patricia looks at Isabelle.

"You must be very happy now", Patricia tells Isabelle. But Isabelle is not even bothered. She is sure that she has actually seen a shark in the river and that she will return back to see it later.

The same evening Isabelle returns home and cannot stop thinking about the shark.

"Mum!", she calls out to her mother.

 "Can there be sharks in the river?", she asks Chontelle. "No darling!", Chontelle replies smiling.

"The river flows from the Arthur mountain...", she continues

"...as it melts from the ice there cannot be sharks", she explains. 

 Isabelle then wonders, "Do you think someone has thrown the shark into the water?", she questions Chontelle.

"Are you OK honey?", Chontelle starts to worry for Isabelle.

"Look we can work on this together", Chontelle pats on Isabelle's shoulder. Isabelle is tired of being misunderstood but she knows that this time round she is right. She will go to the bush herself to find out the mystery behind the shark in the river.

The next day, Isabelle goes to school and right after her afternoon class, she decides to walk home.

"I think she has even started to hallucinate", Chontelle talks to the doctor on the phone.

"Look I should be worried for all the right reasons...", she continues. "I have a sick child"

Isabelle hears the conversation before she tries to enter the house. It is time she decides, that she should prove to the world that she actually saw a real shark. And that, she is not that sick, not as sick as people think she is. 

Isabelle decides to walk down towards the stream when Chontelle spots her.

"Oh...", Isabelle turns around and walks into the house. However, she is determined that she will go to the river later in the evening. After the dinner is cooked, Chontelle awaits for her boyfriend. It is a perfect opportunity for Isabelle to slip out of the house, "Mum I am going to Patricia's for a science project", Isabelle yells out.

"Great and your dad will be here soon too", Chontelle tells Isabelle.

"He is not my dad", Isabelle corrects Chontelle. 

"...but I am glad you are hanging out with the girls", Chontelle changes the topic. 

 Isabelle opens the door, wearing her sandals, and a sleeping suit, she starts walking towards the bush. Lucky for Isabelle, she still had the torch from the last Christmas party. She pulls it out as the bush is going to be very dark. Sandflies, and maybe wild cats, Isabelle is scared of the dark. 

"Mummmmmy!!!!!", Isabelle screams as in the middle of the bush something is holding on to her left leg. Is it an unknown animal that has never been seen before, or a ghost from Arthur Mountain, or is it God telling her not to go see that scary shark? 

"Ahhh!", Isabelle takes a sigh of relief as points the torch onto a fallen brach of a tree. Walking deep inside the bush, walking towards the river, she hears a strange cry of a young boy. 

"I think someone is crying by the river", she tells herself while following the sound. It is so pitch dark that Isabelle mistakenly stumbles over a wooden log and falls down on her knees. As she gets up, she finds herself next to the shark fin.

"Helllllllp!", Isabelle screams at seeing the shark outside the water. The shark flies up into the air as birds do. It then opens its big mouth, Isabelle shivers, she has seen way too many movies on sharks, and way too many documentaries. 

"I am dead", she tells herself as she shuts her eye.

"Not quite", the shark tells Isabelle in his accented voice.

"Wow! a talking shark", Isabelle carefully opens her left eye and then her right eye. She then pinches herself, deep inside she just wishes that it is a dream, and that it will all over very soon. 

"Please don't make any noise!", the flying shark tells Isabelle in a very different accent.

Isabelle then tries to whisper, while  she firmly holds on to the torch, as a way of poking into the shark's eye in case the shark makes any further move.

"Ok! I get it", she tells the shark in a questioning tone. "That you speak and all!", Isabelle continues.

"But you sound like Mr Young", she tells the shark.

"Young?", the shark gets closer to Isabelle. 

Isabelle tries to explain to the shark that Mr Young owns the local fish and chips shop, and they come from China. 

"China!", the shark repeats the word in excitement. 

"I want to go back to China!", The shark tells Isabelle.

"So maybe the sharks in China talk?", Isabelle questions the shark. 

She also realizes that it is no time to joke around. If the shark wished, she could be eaten easily. But at the same time, she is happy. She is happy because she is right, there was a shark that everyone else didn't believe. The shark comes closer to Isabelle, opens its mouth.  Isabelle fears that she will be eaten alive by the shark.

"I cannot do this", the shark suddenly turns around and starts crying.

"Look I can help!", Isabelle touches the shark cautiously. 

"I am hungry", the shark tells Isabelle. 

Isabelle sneaks back into the house. The shark follows Isabelle. As Isabelle walks towards the house, the shark flies, while following Isabelle. It is a good sized shark, maybe the half  the size of a car. Isabelle has to be careful, because if anyone sees the shark, they might take her away. And Isabelle is not going to let the shark go away without first trying to feed it. 

"Shhhh!", Isabelle puts her finger on her mouth suggesting to the shark that he needs to be quieter.

They manage to sneak inside Isabelle's room. Not only that there was a shark in the river, but it is a shark which comes out of the river, its a shark that talks, flies around, and also likes to eat human food. Oh and it talks like Mr Young. There is so much to that shark, much more than what Isabelle had initially thought. But she has to feed the hungry shark first. 

The snoring becomes louder, as they approach Isabelle's room.

Isabelle turns around.

"Shhh!", she gestures towards the shark. It is Chontelle's boyfriend, who snores very loud. 

"Can you wait on the bed?", Isabelle instructs the shark while she goes to get some food. Isabelle is feeling happy, for the first time in her life, she feels that she might have found a good friend. In all these years, she has not had any friends which she could sneak into her room, like other kids do.

Isabelle brings out the leftover dinner for the shark. As soon as she puts the food on the table, the shark uses its small fins to gather the food. 

"You are a very strange shark", Isabelle tells the Shark.

"My name is Chi", the shark mentions its name as it struggles to eat.

Looking at the shark struggling to eat, Isabelle tries to feed it with her hands. As she approaches her hand in the Shark's gigantic mouth, she fears that the shark may swallow her hand as well. 

"Don't worry", the shark backs off. "I'll let you put food in my mouth first", the shark then churns the food. 

"What do you think you are doing", Chontelle opens the door. Isabelle quickly turns the light off, turns the lamp on and tries to hide the shark under her duvet. With its head and tails out, and the fin poking out of the duvet, it is obvious that there is a shark hiding inside the duvet. But not for Chontelle, who is sleep walking.

"I was looking for you", she tells Isabelle as she clears her vision. 

"Then I realised that you might be playing with the girls", she tells Isabelle.

She then notices something really odd. She then starts sniffing around the room.

"It smells funny in here", hiding the shark underneath the duvet, Isabelle is sitting on the shark. 

"I have been eating in here", Isabelle tries to cover herself as the shark smells like muddy water. 

"You better clean the room tomorrow", Chontelle instructs Isabelle as she walks out of the room. 

Trying not to move, the shark gets off making Isabelle fall on the floor. "I am sorry!", the shark tells Isabelle.

Having fallen down, Isabelle gazes at the shark with an upset face. 

"There is something not right.....", Isabelle tells the shark.

"Ummm...what?", the shark questions.

"Sharks don't talk, they don't come out of water, they definitely don't sound like Mr Young and they don't fly", Isabelle questions the already shaky shark.

"They definitely won't be scared of a little girl like me!", Isabelle shouts at the shark.

"Is there something you are hiding from me?", Isabelle further questions the shark. "ummm...nothing", the shark replies back.

"Ok..Ok... well if i tell you this you probably will not believe it.", the shark talks in a very fast tone.

"Ah...", Isabelle takes a sigh and sits down in front of the shark on her room chair opposite the shark which is lying on the bed.

"Trust me...I probably will", as is it is very strange that she has a talking shark in her room, what is more to come, Isabelle is now ready for it.

"So...well..", the shark starts off.

"Can you come to the point please?", Isabelle stands up in annoyance. 

The shark then musters up the courage to tell Isabelle, he tells her that he is actually a 10 year old boy from a small province in China. His parents are fishermen back home, while his mother does not like her husband killing the sharks for shark fin soup, her husband has continuously killed many sharks. Until one day, he caught a big catch, and as usual he was ruthlessly cutting off the fins, and was going to throw the shark alive in the sea, to die without mercy on the sea bed. It turned out that, it was a queen shark, the protector of all the sharks in the area. The queen shark head learnt many magic spells. And as a revenge, she decided to put a magic spell on Chi's fathers most beloved thing. 

"For all my species, I turn the dearest to you, into a shark", she read the spell as her father cut the fin off. 

"Did that shark talk as well?", Isabelle questioned. 

Chi tells Isabelle that the Queen Shark, was the only shark known in the sea to have learnt the human language. Seeing the declining population of sharks, she came to talk to Chi's dad. But instead, his father also slaughtered the Queen Shark. Chi was the only child of his parents, and the most priced possession of the family. When his father returned home, He found Chi turned into a shark. 

"But that does not explain why you are here?", Isabelle questions.

The shark explains that no one knew in their province to undo the spell, his mother traveled far and beyond to meet the many magicians. And one day, she found the excerpts from a book of magic, I Wong. I Wong is an ancient book, the language is very difficult to read, but in the book, it has powerful solutions to undo any spells. She found the excerpts from a library almost 800 years old in the temple above the hills, where I Wong spoke of a mountain in a land where the sea meets mountains, there is a lonely mountain which has been burning for centuries. The mountain is far away from the world, the mountain has a fountain, the fountain has a cure for all magic spells.

"It is easy then...maybe you can..", Isabelle suggests that the shark can go into the mountain the next day.

The shark explains to Isabelle that the mountain protects itself from intruders.

 "The mountain embodies a greedy king", the shark explains.

Once there were monks living up the hills in China. They had a prized possession of  magical liquid. The liquid they had was used to cure the sick, and those under evil magic spells. A cruel king threatened to kill the monks and the villagers when he heard that the liquid had special powers. He wanted the monks to use the liquid in making him eternal, and big. The recipe to the magic liquid was very complicated, and only those monks knew how to make it. When the king started killing the local villagers, meeting the king's demand the monks made a fountain of the liquid for the king. So when the king would die, the fountain would create an eternal life for the king in the shape of something grand. Upon realising that the monks had made what he needed, he ordered to get the monks killed. And when eventually the king died, his soul escaped his own body and embodied a newly formed mountain somewhere far away.

"How do you know?"

"It is all written in the text of I Wong"

"I Wong mentions that that liquid has the power to heal from the hardest of all magic.", the shark continues.

The king, which is now the mountain, protects himself from intruders, and whoever dares enter, does not survive. 

"But why won't it help you?", Isabelle questioned. 

"The water of the fountain is only limited and very important for the life of the mountain", the shark explains.

As a result, no matter what, the mountain would never let the liquid waste.

"That explains why no one can enter the mountain", Isabelle announces as if she has had a revelation.

"And the mountain is Arthur Mountain", the shark adds.

"But how did you come here?", Isabelle still is not sure of how the shark made it to New Zealand.

"It wasn't easy", the shark explains.

For days on, the shark traveled hidden in a box, which landed in a small Buddhist temple, not far from Arthur Town. When the monks opened the package, after seeing the shark in the box, they all ran for their lives. 

Then the shark in search of Arthur Mountain, traveled by night, and hid himself in the freezing waters of rivers during the day. Where then at last the shark made it to the mountain, the mountain got to know of him approaching. The mountain started to burn with the lava, so much so that the shark couldn't bear the heat and had to hide back into the river. 

"Do you know where is the fountain in the mountain?", Isabelle is getting curious to find out about the liquid.

"The mountain is so huge that it can be anywhere", the shark tells Isabelle.

It's late at night, Isabelle and the shark have been talking for the whole night. In the morning, Isabelle has to get up for school. 

"Can I cuddle you and sleep?", the shark asks Isabelle.

"I have been missing the warmth of my family members", The shark sleeps next to Isabelle cuddling its fins around her. 

Tonight, something special had happened, Isabelle had found a friend that she had always wished for.  The new friend had come with such a huge problem, yet at the same time the problem gave Isabelle and Chi a chance to form a  lifelong bond of friendship, sometimes life with its problems brings us so many blessings in disguise.