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I present you a big collaboration between me and the always-amazing hdalby33 ; the story of how Nelson the shark made one of his dearest friends (its not all hearts and cuddles, i warn you )
written by:  hdalby33 ; illustrated by  RealDealMeal
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FIRST - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/32536306/
NEXT - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/32548030/
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Part 1 of 6

Beneath the waves, there was another world. Or so it seemed to Callum. He’d never been scuba diving before, on account of living far from the ocean and due to his… considerable girth. Whenever he’d gone to the pool, he’d found he could float along just fine without the aid of a tube or noodle. In his mind, fat was the floatation device.

So the notion of actually submerging twenty, thirty, forty feet below the surface on his own had been a rather novel idea.

Yet here he found himself in the warm, pristine waters of the Caribbean, swimming along with pleasant ease. The tubby dragon had been surprised at first, but then recalled that walruses, elephant seals and whales were a thing. Plus, he was weightless. That was even stranger.

Humming to himself, the dragon checked his depth gauge and found he could still venture another hundred feet or so. That’d been the other draw for the ponderous reptile to try it out. Whenever he thought of scuba diving, he thought of all the clunky gear one had to wear, but upon researching it more he discovered considerable breakthroughs had been made in the world of aquatic adventuring.

New breathing devices no larger than a grain of rice were installed in the side of one’s neck where it created a filter at the back of the throat that could pull the oxygen from the water. Learning to swallow water willingly had been one of the toughest parts of the derg’s training. (That and fitting into a wetsuit.)

The breathing device meant one could spend as long as they desired underwater without the fear of running out. As a bonus, the derg found his second eyelid, which protected a reptile’s eyes from debris during a hunt, functioned beautifully as a secondary mask.

In the end he’d only needed a depth gauge, which looked like a chunky watch, and wetsuit, which hadn’t been chunky until he’d filled out every last inch of it.

Once that had been sorted, he’d been given leave to go about and explore.

Now, as liquified air rolled through his lungs, the dragon admired the splendid world below. An incredible array of wildlife spread all around Callum, forming a world of coral spires dazzled in hundreds of different shades of blues, greens, pinks and purples.

The marine life was no less impressive. Callum lost count of the number of species he’d seen. They ranged from brilliantly-colored trumpet fish darting this way and that to massive grouper twice the size of the dragon floating by lazily to seahorses wreathed in kelp-like appendages blending in perfectly with the plants from which they dangled.

And not a one seemed spooked by the fat alien lifeform trawling along through their world. Callum suspected it was because they knew he had a donut’s chance in a cop station of catching them.

For an hour or so, the dragon contented himself with sticking to the shallower parts of the reef, paddling along listlessly like a round, rubber submarine as he watched the marine life go about. But eventually the derg grew bored and began looking around for something more intriguing.

Callum struggled to recall what the divemaster had said about these parts. He’d been partially distracted by the incredible aromas of an authentic seafood rickshaw passing by at that very moment. Fortunately, some of what the dive master had said stuck with the dragon, mainly something about a sunken ship somewhere nearby.