I'm a Stingray?

Chapter 170: Funeral

He began grinding those little jaws, trying to suppress anger. It took a few moments to truly analyse the situation, but he realised that this dead sea-snake was none other than the old lady he had talked to, while journeying to the north in order to recruit other fish!

This woman was the same one who had acknowledged that the reef was dying. And due to her guiding, the reef has over 20,000 new inhabitants at least! Just by being observant, this lady has helped the reef make a tremendous first step towards full recovery.

But yet there she laid, dead and even had her head coated with a layer of green. Which signified that she had either attacked something that was contaminated, or somehow dipped her head in the pool.

If tears would be visible underwater, one would have dropped. Timothy felt an uncontrollable ray of grief for this lady, what he would feel towards a dead relative was pale in comparison. He only knew this lady for a short while but understood how kind spirited she was.

And the thought of a friend in age dying, felt just a hunch more sad. He did not know what happened here but it must have surely been related to the holy tar. There just weren't too many hints that would explain where this reef came from.

But one thing was easy to understand. However this tar came here, this old lady has put in all effort to fight it and whatever companion such a bizarre situation brought. A hero would be the best way to describe this lady.

But now the prime problem was relating to getting rid of this tar. Which itself was tremendously difficult because it wasn't underground, but above the coral surface. This painfully meant that he couldn't destroy a whole holy-tar tribe, by simply causing a cave or cavern collapse.

Instead this little boy would have to figure out how to bury this 5 meter patch of the unholy. But regardless how much he thought, no idea came by.

Which led to the thought of asking out, "System how can I bury this stupid pool, do you have any ideas?"

[You have a body strength that can aid lift underwater objects, that are equal to you in size. So you can slowly but surely drop enough rocks and coral on this pool to completely cover it]

"That will take forever! There are other tribes that I need to destroy." The little boy answered, trying to excuse that he was just too lazy for such a task.

[Okay then you need to figure out another way of covering the pool, perhaps with more animal-power]

Such a sentence was difficult to understand for a short while, but the grief that was generating today gave an extra boost that aimed towards solving this problem. So he put that little brain in a bit of more work, and figured out the first portion that will help.

"We need more help huh... maybe I can get one of my siblings here." That plan was somewhat good but it also aided to figure out another, which added weight to this overall situation but also a possible solution.

"They are too far now, maybe I should ask others for help." And after taking that possibility into consideration, the idea just grew for the better right after. "That's it!"

Happy beyond prepare, he hollered like a spooked cow. "I'll ask the shrimps for help. They have no option but to obey the king!"

With that idea in mind, he wanted to turn back instantly and fetch workers but instead another thought poked out first.

And it managed to instantly obtain top priority, "I need to bury her somewhere first, can't have some random fish using this old lady for food."

Saying that out loud, it stung the boy's heart that a great portion of his relationship with this sea-snake was providing food for her. The thought of an older animal slowly starving because of immobility, just hurt worse than a tail sting.

So within a half hour, he had chewed and swiped through sand and a bit of dirt too. The prime goal was to create a hole that sunk a couple of feet down. He felt confident that any animal wouldn't sink that deep just for food.

Such a goal was achieved and it was time to bury the body now. Tim gave a peek at the carcass but had a difficult time digging his jaws in this lady's tail, it felt more difficult than expected to touch a dead friend.

But regardless of that fact, he finally just decided to get on with this and lightly dug jaws in the lady's flesh; avoiding the cause of any additional damage.

With a bit of struggle he managed to drag the sea-snake in the hole. To make the carcass fit better, he curled the lady in a way that surface snake usually did - which was apparently far less common in the underwater world.

Finally, he could bury the lady. Which was a task that was the easiest done in terms of physical effort, but the most difficult in terms of emotional baggage. It felt difficult to comprehend that this lady will be gone forever after being buried here for good.

Such feelings made the boy feel a bit more certain that his connection to humanity hasn't completely diminished. Sure he had animalistic instincts, but senses like this pointed out that his soul truly belonged to a human being.

Eventually he pulled through and completely buried the old sea-snake, and wanted to give a few seconds of silence in front of the grave. Perhaps a prayer too but to what would he pray here? This environment was hell on earth itself.

Well the deed was done and now it was time to snap out of these devouring feelings. The prime mission needed attention, as this whole reef would have a far worse fate if he didn't continue.

With the possibility of death proven plausible, he just thought. "I hope my siblings are doing okay out there."