After they left Joe, Rita, and Ralph, Ran lead Gaz toward Mieni Atoll. The two swam side by side, and despite the large breasts that Gaz now sported, she still made excellent time as they swam. She was fairly curious about many of the things that Ran had mentioned. She had some nervousness about Animalia having uplifted Orcas, but Ran seemed trustworthy and appeared to be enough to indulge her natural curiosity. There was a lot that Ran had presented that was new and interesting, especially with some commentary on things to eat. Gaz didn't know what "beef" was, but she certainly wanted to try some.
"So... we're to swim up to the island and go talk to these other Animalians?" Gaz asked.
"A few are Animalians... most of the rest are humans," Ran answered.
"The hairless beach apes?" Gaz asked.
Ran chuckled and nodded, "but the ones we're going to talk to are going to be fully dressed..."
"They won't like seeing me naked, I take it," Gaz answered slowly as she looked down at her chest.
"They generally don't," Ran answered, "but I did take the precautions of having some swimwear made ready for you. It may not fit perfectly, but it would cover enough to be respectable."
The two continued to make their way in, and as they came closer to the shore. As the water became shorter, she found that her arms and legs were strong enough to stand and even walk. The actually started by following Ran as he moved from a swimming stance with his arms and legs held beside and underneath him. Gaz followed suit and was soon taking some unsteady steps as she began to learn to balance on two legs for the first time, but like all Animalians, her capacity to learn was very high and it wasn't long before she was walking alongside Ran.
"This is all so strange," Gaz spoke in amazement, "I've never experienced walking before..."
"It's amazing ... and provides for a new look," Ran answered, "the big thing..."
Gaz watched as Ran walked forward and and literally emerged from the water. Gaz hesitantly followed, but remained prepared to dive back into the water, but to her surprise, Ran had no trouble. He stood and turned to her and smiled.
"Is that we can breathe air as well," Ran said with a smile.
Gaz was hesitant at first, but took her first breaths of air and was very amazed by it, but that only made her more interested in the island. She could breathe out and in with no trouble. It was something that she never could before. Ran then went into explaining how the Animalia Virus for them also mixed their DNA with that of a lungfish to let a set of primitive lungs develop inside their chests. As he explained this, he walked to a nearby bag that had been stashed within some of the plants that were close to the beach. He then produced a bikini from the bag and presented the item to Gaz and she allowed him to put them on. They fit surprisingly well, tough some things tickled against her sandpaper skin, particularly in the parts on her breasts and her lower opening where Ran's claspers would enter her during matting, when they could get to that. Her skin in those areas wasn't quite as rough as it was in others.
"There," Ran spoke, "that should have you ready to meet with the others."
He then offered Gaz his arm and remained careful, for if Gaz didn't like him, he didn't want to provoke a fight. However, Gaz actually smiled back and took his arm gently. They then quietly walked along back toward the air force base on the island. They found the plane moved to a point where it was being refueled for when it would fly back to either Hawaii or California before connecting to flights to Animalia and Lyre. The found Clara, Richard, Robbie, Martha, and the military liaison under a tent near one of the old hangers. They heard the two uplifted sharks coming and turned to face them, though the liaison had the most surprise.
"WOW!" the man gasped with no real control over his surprise as he looked at Gaz.
"Hello," Gaz spoke, "My name is Gaz."
Clara, a large female brown furred cat Animalian, a Mountain Lion, but Gaz wasn't familiar with land species, yet, "Hello. I am Clara, Mayor of Animalia and I look forward to working with you and hope that you find Ran as an acceptable mate."
"He is tolerable," Gaz answered with a glance to Ran, though her tone of voice gave an indication that she was teasing and that she actually liked him very much.
Clara meanwhile introduced the others.
"This is Richard, my mate," Clara spoke, "We are Mountain Lion Animalians." She then gestured to Robbie and Martha, "And these are Robbie and Martha. They are Red Fox Animalians."
"I am Lt. Colonel Lance Corporal," the liaison spoke, and waited for any attempt at a joke that his name was also a rank, but Gaz did not make any contact. "I have been put in charge of the negotiations regarding the transfer of ownership of this island between the US military and Animalia."
"I take it you have taken each other as mates?" Martha asked as she rubbed Robbie's shoulder.
"Not as yet," Gaz answered, "we wished to speak with you first."
"Do you go for women bigger than you?" Lt. Colonel Corporal asked to Ran and then blinked wen both uplifted sharks began laughing.
"That was funny," Gaz laughed.
Lt. Colonel Corporal only blinked, which seemed to tell Gaz and Ran that he truly didn't understand. Both sharks then sighed and Ran answered.
"Sharks are not like mammals," Ran spoke, "while with mammals where the male is bigger than the female, with sharks it is the inverse. The female is bigger than the male. If I were to go after a female smaller than me, I would be going for an immature female. Which I am to understand humanity considers immoral."
"I... I didn't know that," Lt. Colonel Corporal said to Clara as he looked over to her.
"So you learned something," Clara said with a chuckle.
"So, I take it everything went well?" Clara asked.
"Relatively," Gaz spoke, "You must not blame Ran..."
"What?" Richard and Robbie wondered.
"Is something wrong? Are you hurt?" Martha asked.
"What did you do?!" Lt. Colonel Corporal demanded in a more aggressive tone.
"You see... I've NEVER had breasts before," Gaz explained, "sharks don't need them. We Great Whites do give birth to live young, but like other sharks we don't raise our young the way whales, dolphins, porpoises, sea lions, and seals do. Thus when I grew breasts when I became an Animalian... I might have released a little milk trying to figure out what they were."
A barrage of questions followed and it took a few moments for things to quiet down enough for Gaz to answer.
"No... there was no great spill," Gaz answered, raising her hands to indicate a call for calm, "it wasn't a lot of milk and the only ones who drank it were a pilot fish and two remoras that accompanied me before my uplifting. And Ran and I made sure that whatever milk they didn't drink, WE did. So there is no problem."
"Where are they now?" Clara asked.
"They are investigating a large sunken ship that I swam over yesterday," Gaz answered, "Ran gave Joe the Pilot Fish one of your communications devices so that they may report what they find."
"We'll look forward to hearing that," Richard commented. "What were the Remoras' names?"
"They chose the names Ralph and Rita," Gaz answered.
Shortly after, Clara heard a voice come from the walkie-talkie she had in one of her pants pockets. It said, "Hello? Is anyone there?"