I'm a Stingray?

Chapter 34: Recruitment and solidarity (2)

"We're where?" Tim questioned, his vision still captivated by the coral.

"This is lady Kaling, a needlefish like us." Amie described and the young stingray's vision became quickly captivated by a long fish 3 times his size.

Well the needlefish was about 2 feet long but compared to him, size was an advantage although not monstrous.

"What does he want?" Kaling asked, moody a bit as her tone struck harsh. "I have no food to give him."

Remembering just how good he had become at hunting, Tim answered. "I can get food myself, killed a barracuda before, no sweat."

Although that statement cocky and tad exaggerated, the first part was still true, he killed a barracuda in the new den he found.

But to such a sentence, the longer needlefish couldn't help opening her eyes wider, her mouth a bit more open than usual, signifying shock. "But you're a baby."

"Doesn't matter, I'm a badass." He answered once more, cocky no doubt but at least he didn't brag about killing an eel.

That would be a dumb thing to say because he only delivered the finishing bite, Drake messed up that eel before Tim tried his luck.

At this point hating his brain in general, Tim shook his head and recalled. "Anyway that's not what I'm here for. I want to tell you something."

"Tell me." The 2 foot long needlefish requested.

"I was sent here by Marlo the reef shark. We have a tribe of orphan fish. Anyway, the point is that our tribe will never harm you or anyone in this reef because we are bosses." Horrible description at best but that's all he could remember.

"Little too late to promise anything like that, the sharks already killed most of us." Lady Kaling reminded, quoting the 6 month siege where hundreds of sharks feasted upon the reef.

"Yeah well our sharks have nothing to do with the fishy massacre, we're suffering like you are." At this point Timmy realized that this lady is stupid.

Stupid and mean but he also understood a little bit that she is suffering emotionally. Tim can't really connect with these fish, even with his siblings come to think of it.

He never knew them before and boom, out of a sudden woke up as a stingray. It's hard to relate with everyone, most seem like strangers.

But at least he's capable of emotion, even though it was mostly vengeful wishes and or cocky sayings.

At this point he wanted to end the conversation, so he asked. "Do you know any orphans? We need more recruits or else what's left of this reef will die."

Thankfully willing to cooperate now, the old lady explained while pointing her front fin to Tim's left. "Go this way, there should be a few big crabs who suffered from the sharks. They might want to join you."

But then she pointed at the right, and yelled. "But don't be a fool to go this way, that's where the sharks live."

"Okay noted, I might go there anyway though, because that's what bosses do." This term had been overused at this point but at least Kaling can resist the urge to fish slap this young boy.

...

Travelling for about 50 meters, their field of vision was blessed by... well crabs.

They do seem big, specifically because they are wider and have a flat back and stomach that made their bodies seem stretched out, around 40 centimeters.

They seem to have a lot of legs as well, so Tim thought. "Oh nice, bigger leggy crabs."

Once one of them turned around though, the first thing that captured his attention were the pointy decent sized arms.

The arms carried one big finger, as if designed for stabbing the hell out of the enemy. Apart from that, there was one more smaller finger lower from the tip.

These claws are likely not used to cut prey but rather stab them, unique in many ways but it made Tim keep his distance.

"Lugulugulugulugulugu." One of them sounded out, making his 2 companions gather up closer as they saw Tim as a new face.

"Kekekekekekekekekeke." One of its companions followed as they all took the liberty of raising their claws up.

Out of a sudden, Rummy uttered the same language as them, sounding like a malfunctioning printer. "Gagagagagagagaga."

"They don't trust you." Amie finally started translating, making sense out of what sounded like cavemen talking. "So they want to strip you out of bones."

His pupils wider, he could only answer. "Kinky. Can you tell them that I just want to recruit them on the tribe?"

"Lugalugalugaluga, luga." Rummy recited, but to the crabs he probably sounded like a dictator as their emotion became transparent.

Claws arose higher and shouts became more common, all 3 of the crabs speaking out at once.

Tim's joy was brought down and stabbed on once Amie explained. "They don't trust you and threaten to kill. But they might join if you do something for them. It's a good idea to take the job, dungeness crabs are really tough."

"That's pretty stupid but they can molest a shark with this claws..." Yet still unwilling to go on with this, Tim thought out. "What do I do, system?"

[The needlefish girl is right. Dungeness crabs are tough so that can work to the tribe's favour.]

[They can't swim like you do so the task might be related to it, "easy peasy" as a past guest had said.]

[Take the task, it should be short.]

Understanding that the system was wise enough to not lead into a dead end, or a bitter result. Tim became a bit more confident with his decisions, the crabs would have noticed a smirk if they were crawling underneath where he was swimming over.

But yet easy by tone, he assured. "I can handle anything they throw at me, ask them what they want."

Speechcraft rather golden and intent aimed towards progress, Rummy dictated. "Glugluglu, glu glu. Glu gle gla."