Son of Sand and Ocean

The sun had not yet risen, but Kai was already prepared for what the day had to offer. And when I say prepared, I mean prepared. Today he is going on an adventure. He had always dreamed of the day when one of the Rainbow Reef fishernin would ask him for help catching fish. But even though it was an adventure for Kai, his 'outfit' as an adventurer was not the typical explorer's hat with its compass and ropes, but a Reef Fishernin's outfit he had made himself with the help of the local fishernins: Instead of simple ropes, Kai carried neatly prepared nets made of mermaid's hair, which appeared from time to time loose on the shores of the beach, probably fallen in while these creatures were combing their hair, and which Kai had been collecting for as long as he could remember because of their magical properties: they were almost impossible to break and very elastic, perfectly holding the movements of almost any prey caught in the net. He probably would have brought a star map, in case any mishaps occurred during the hunt that would cause them to move away from the coast at nightfall, but Kai was far too skilled at reading the stars for that. He wore a waterproof vest that was as blue as his eyes and had fish and wave patterns drawn on it. He also carried his fishing rod, made of cane, in his hand. It was not the best, but that rod had fed him on countless occasions. He carried a small sack of straw on his back full of lures that he himself had made in different shapes and colors, as well as hooks of different sizes and shapes. He wore gloves to handle the fish and shellfish without hurting himself, and small boots to avoid slipping when holding the rod on the wet floor of the boats. A bucket decorated by himself with the same patterns as his vest was also hanging from his waist. Just in case he put an antique compass in one of his pockets. He went outside his cabin and took a good breath of fresh air from the sea. Today was the day he would catch something amazing along the best fishernins in the world!

He arrived early where his fishing party was starting to make preparations, for which Kai offered his help. He learned a couple of sailor knots he did not know, and listened to all the advice he could get from the fishernins. When the sun was already beginning to rise, the captain of the party appeared and greeted everyone, patted Kai with his left hand and invited him to get into his boat. The captain explained him that today in particular they had gone out to fish the mythical rainbow butterfly fish, whose scales were very valuable in the market because they had the inconvenient magical property of acting as a talisman: if some kind of evil is about to happen to the bearer, a scale will magically break and protect him. This object is usually given to small kittoms as protection against the miasma, allowing them to barely escape from it in exchange for the rainbow glow of the scale, which is lost when it breaks, chasing away the evil. We call it inconvenient because this property makes it almost impossible to fish the mentioned animal, since at each hunting attempt a scale is sacrificed for the carrier and in addition to the fact that the scale is destroyed, the prey escapes. Among the fishernin, several methods have been developed to hunt this animal, which range from creating a scenario where fishing for the prey is not a bad thing for it (but for which a situation where the prey is suffering was necessary, again being unlikely given the protection of hsi scales), to stressing the butterfly fish so that it loses the scales naturally without them being activated and then collecting them... And another series of occurrences in which if success was achieved was solely due to the fishernin being luckier than the poor butterfly fish.

But the clever group of renowned fishernins that Kai had joined for the day had a somewhat less laborious method: they were equipped with the spines of the natural predator of the rainbow butterfly fish - the storm oarfish.

This specimen, a native of Vahl D'sari, had in its spikes infused with a magic that was capable of suppressing the protective magic of the scales of that day's prey, and with them they would fabricate fishing nets and harpoons. To obtain this material, the captain himself had travelled to Vahl D'sari, where he had found one of these fish stuck in the rocks on a small desert island. The specimen looked young, and therefore inexperienced, but surely it would be enough to counter the magic of an equally young rainbow butterfly fish. The oarfish was totally dark and had a body similar to that of an eel, but really long, comparable to some 4M elnin tails. The most remarkable feature of its appearance was the huge black spikes spread along its back, which absorbed all the sunlight. Its appearance was quite terrifying, with too many sharp teeth and dark eyes like the northern sea. It was said that although the oarfish did not usually feed on other fish, in particular it chased the rainbow butterfly fish jealous of its scales, as the oarfish was only covered by a slippery and toxic skin. But this is just one more of the legends passed down from boat to boat.

Fishing one of these was a real nightmare because of its aggressiveness, so the captain considered himself a lucky elnin to have got its spines and spikes with half the effort, as that one couldn't defend himself as he was too tired and injured from struggling day and night against the rocks. The captain, however, had paid his price. His right hand had suffered severe intoxication when it came into contact with one of the organs of the storm oarfish, but he managed to reach Kyendi in time for the healers to stop the poison from spreading and to save the mobility of his fingers, even though those muscles had lost the strength they used to possess. Some say that the captain is himself a true rainbow scale, having barely survived such damage.

It was then, after the loss of strength in his dominant hand, that the captain thought he would need a right hand, and an apprentice as well. And that is how one morning he showed up at the hut's door that belonged to a little boy who had a reputation for being quite skilled with the net despite his young age.

"Use this net, Kai!" With his gloves on, Kai grabbed the net made of the storm oarfish spines that the captain had just thrown at him. They had managed to trap the rainbow butterfly fish in an area bounded by more nets made of the same material. The butterflyfish was quite small, so the spines had been sewn together fairly tightly, giving the impression of panels rather than a net. Kai dived into the water. There was only a short time left before the butterflyfish realized its situation and became scared, and they didn't want a magic strike from its scales to break the net in the hole just for him to get out, or for him to climb up the net and escape over it.

Kai opened his eyes under the water. His anima was much more adapted to seawater after having lived in symbiosis with it for so long, and in a short time he located the butterfly fish: he approached it by swimming quietly and... A flash dazzled Kai for a second, it was right at the moment when he was going to move his whole arm to catch the fish with the net; still Kai's reflexes and experience did not fail him, he blindly recalculated the movement of the prey during that second and he succeeded: the butterflyfish was swimming restlessly inside the small net made of spines. Kai climbed to the surface, raising the net with the catch of the day in front of the captain's boat, really satisfied. Everyone congratulated him and invited him to eat. It had been a hard work to chase the butterfly fish and now he was exhausted. As soon as the scales were sold, the captain would give him his share, and he had promised Kai to come get him in future expeditions.

Kai returned home at night, exhausted but happy. When he said goodbye to everyone, the captain had whispered to his ear "The ocean really expects things from you, huh?" Kai didn't understand why the nin had told him that. He scratched his head thoughtfully, and suddenly a small scale fell on the bed, shimmering in the seven colors of the rainbow as a moonbeam illuminated it. Kai's mouth dropped open in disbelief. A rainbow scale! He held it carefully with both hands and admired. Perhaps it fell off the butterfly fish before he caught it and it got tangled in his hair. Was this scale what had dazzled him? Kai pondered this hypothesis and the captain's words. The kittens on the island were told that if a rainbow butterfly fish gave you one of its scales then you owed the ocean a favor. Kai felt sad. The fish scales would probably save the lives of a score of kittoms or elnins, just as they would feed the families of fishernin, but he could not help but feel bad that he had stolen all the scales from the same fish who had given him one. He turned around and tried to sleep, holding dearly between his little paws the gift for which he was going to return the favor as best he could.