I'm a Stingray?

Chapter 188: Old friend

Timmy had arrived close to this patch of white-legged shrimp, but his entrance wasn't exactly dramatic. There was enough commotion on the sand and above the coral, to allow him swim over without being noticed.

Natural camouflage levels were still level 12, so that aided to make a completely smooth entrance. Upon further observation, he noticed that these shrimp were simply walking back and forth through a single, wide route.

Such a quantity of shrimp, just crawling around, would be enough to muffle sounds of any new arrival such as the stingray's. But now, it was difficult to figure out what to do next. He located this patch of shrimp and they were likely working on something, but where would the workplace be for these marine critters?

They were just crawling in a long straight line. It was difficult to see the end of each side, darkness along with his weak vision, didn't nearly help to figure things out. He could of course charge against any shrimp and demand information, with the aid of brute force: but that would require to kiss stealth goodbye.

Thinking about it for a little while longer, he decided to just follow the right side. The worst thing that could happen, was the waste of time. If the result would be just finding residential areas, it would be easy to turn around and follow the opposite direction.

Swimming a few feet above the shrimp, he slowly began to feel a bit more relaxed. There were hundreds if not a thousand of these shrimp, just simply crawling in a straight path. It was satisfying to see, and helped the boy understand that he wasn't the only life-form around here, and there could be millions more out there.

And as bizarre as it sounded, after a short train of thought: he managed to find a bit of sympathy for these crawlers. It was a rare occurrence for him to feel anything about anyone in this new life, apart from rage. But these shrimp are to be pitied.

They behaved as one big unit, and what work they're going to put in, would tire their souls and bones - yet they still do it, simply because they were told to. No individuality stood between them, neither of them seemed particularly special. Any swoosh could just kill them, and it wouldn't affect anyone; because the life they lived was not significant.

Thoughts like that were raging for a little while, at least until an external factor made the boy pay attention. Something was poking the boy's booty, thankfully it wasn't anything violent.

But a brief panic swiftly emerged. No one is supposed to be able to see the little sea-disk, yet some creature has gotten close enough to be almost molestive. Swiftly turning around, he saw a face familiar enough to steer emotions in his heart, happy ones.

Although happy, he was also shocked; so a mildly pissed question erupted, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Snoopy sent me here, he has new information about this holy-tar bullshit." Upon ways of expression, it was even easier to assure who this was.

The lady he was talking to, was none other than Osira the blacktipped grouper. Along with her, the hero had caused quite a bit of ruckus, while recruiting fish for the hidden-den.

But somehow, whenever Tim had the chance to go back to the hidden den, this lady was never there. It was a bit distressing but he hadn't exactly spoken out that stress, as everyone would simply tease right after.

Neither of the shrimp below were paying attention to them, but talking about such a topic here wouldn't be the best idea. There are quite a number of elders in this white-legged community, and chances are that a lot of them are aware of the grand problem.

So without asking just how the hell she could spot the boy, even when he had such grand levels of camouflage, the sea-pancake waved a fin and whispered. "Follow me."

...

They've found a coral crack to hide in, it was located about 50 meters from the line of working shrimp: so some privacy was granted without losing the target.

This place was a bit snug, which led the two being almost nose-to-nose, but it wasn't all bad since it brought back old memories, even if those memories were less than a couple of weeks old.

Osira broke the silence first by adding, "We've figured out that this dumb sect, is using some weird brick to drain the souls of any sacrifice."

Such a sentence sounded most definitely bizarre, but that's when a brief memory hit the boy! In the very beginning when he was just trying to find food, for the sake of survival ~ there was a brick shaped item, that carried a thick green colour.

It had a faint source of illumination, but at that point it seemed tremendously random. Although he could not understand what that brick was, and he nearly couldn't understand it now, come to think of it. But the opposing sect using it makes sense in some way.

So first he expressed, "I knew it!"

But that was a tad exaggerated, as he was tremendously unaware up until this point. He was mostly celebrating about the new bit of information, but expressed it differently.

Afterwards he asked, "But how could snoopy figure that out?"

"Snoopy had stalked a new tribe that was in the making. He had arrived a bit too late, but managed to notice that the tribe used a weird green brick, along with some balls of the same colour to finish creating a holy-pool." Such information came in as a blow, but it was expected.

Before the blue-dotted boy could say anything, the grouper continued. "Before those things were used, the pool just had some weird pink colour."

Although a bit hesitant for a few seconds, she continued to explain. "But after they were used, souls were being dragged away from the sect members. And afterwards they talked about a ceremony that was done before that."