I'm a Stingray?

Chapter 18: The grand offer

The hunting session has been going good so far but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are close to fixing the entire food shortage.

It's confusing why they didn't use the massive sardine storm that passed, to tame the food shortage but hey Timmy doesn't take part in the administration, he's just following the demand or in this case, the request.

One other thing specifically limiting them is the amount of food they can carry, regardless of the size they have between their jaws, grabbing more than a carcass at once is harder for most of the group Tim's in.

Eriz the reef shark can carry 3 or so carcasses at once if they were smaller but at the moment he has taken out a tuna fish almost his size, carrying more than 1 carcass at this moment can be labelled as impossible.

So after waiting for Basilia the sea snake and Tevenot the sea turtle to catch a hunt of their own, the team of 5 started making their journey bag to the big den.

The journey is 300 meters worth of their time but for Tim this can play out for the better. Yes he still felt sore because of all the recent injuries but that will slowly fade.

In this case, the best way to make it fade is poop out all the food he ate and consume anything that raises health.

...

Squeezing in the den, they thankfully don't see any enemy here causing havoc, big enemies can't really make it down here without bringing down the whole den.

Upon first glance, Tim figured out that the 6 other groups that were spread around the reef have succeeded at a rather stronger pace.

They can see a pile of food right in the middle that could easily feed the entire tribe of fish, even though there were sharks here.

The food pile is 6 feet across, a couple of feet tall and a few sharks even went out to go fetch more food.

Seeing Tim's group approach, Marlo swam a few feet closer to them and congratulated. "Nice catches, your hard work is appreciated."

Spitting out the clam he caught, Timothy contradicted. "Are you kidding? One of you killed a tuna 10 times my size!"

And that is no bluff, there was a large fish in the middle of the food pile. It's hard to imagine that survival demands to possibly break a fish family apart, but it's either them or the group.

This tribe of 38 has a good relation with the rest of the reef but what ranges out of the reef isn't their responsibility.

Take it this way, the reef acts like a community while anything out of it are more like lone wolves, so chances are no families got broken.

"That doesn't matter, you'll land bigger kills eventually Tim." Marlo complimented, lowering the standards so no one feels small.

As the other groups of fish made their way towards the exit, Tim's team felt encouraged to do so as well but before they could leave, Marlo swam near the young stingray and requested. "Tim, can I have a talk with you?"

"Sure." Answered the little stingray, truly expecting the worst.

Gazing at the rest of the group, Marlo orders. "The rest of you can continue the hunt, I think it's best if Tim relaxes for a while, he's hurt."

To that, his team could only nod and swim away, most of them can reason which is surprising for fish.

Truly thinking that this is about relaxing, Tim swims a few feet away and dug himself in the sand with a few flaps.

"Tim, wake up." Marlo interrupted just a few seconds later, weighing in right after. "I need you for a special task."

"I knew this was too good to be true." The young boy mumbled and flapped his fins to escape the sand. "I'm listening."

Unleashing a ray of sentences that planted seeds for another request, Marlo cited. "The entire tribe can't help admiring how brave you are. Dealing with an eel and facing a large shark is something either the craziest or the bravest can do."

Having the shark's words fairly misinterpreted, Tim counter expressed. "I did it for leggy crabs, I'm not sorry about it. Those bastards were the ones who tricked me."

Laying out the plan that forced the young boy's eyes wide open, the little shark interjected. "Whatever the motive was, you have it in you to deal with a task that nobody else wants to. Tim, I want you to spy on the enemies for us!"

Forced into a mumble, he expresses. "Enemies?! I could get eaten!"

Going on with the praises, Marlo weighed in. "But you didn't. Escaping those big enemies needed more than one skill, it's like you're 3 animals all in one body."

Wiggling his numb tail and carrying a rather smirking face although it almost kissed the sand, Tim boasted. "Well they were too dumb to find me, I used the reef to hide."

Getting his point firmly proven, Marlo elongated. "See exactly, you know where to hide and avoid getting killed, that makes you perfect for this job."

"But what will spying on them do? I can't kill them just now." And that has been his leading thought ever since this new task has been offered.

"You aren't supposed to kill them, we just need to keep an eye on them. So if one day they discover this den and choose to attack, you can come and warn us." Once more, this fish proved smart to a human standard.

Liking the idea of having to sit around all day considering all the damage taken from exploring, Tim finally agreed. "Sounds easy enough for me, but I can't spy on them now. My tail still hurts, I need time to recover."

Moving around happily because of this agreement, Marlo offered. "Of course, I remember you said something about food that raises health. I don't know how that works for you stingrays but feel free to feed on the pile here."

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