Interlude : Reef [Patreon Exclusive] (Patreon)

Something fun for the patreons :)

Interlude : Reefy’s Sea Story

The sea. The land. Reefy has only known the sea, until the land coral’s roots reached into the sea. Such strange things, land corals, but Reefy wondered.

The giant land coral is busy. Reefy could feel it, its visions through its tentacles were disturbed. Creatures that were clearly bad. 

Bad. They kill things.

Reefy wants to kill them too, if they ever come to the sea. Too bad they don’t come. Giant land coral says they are gone from the world. 

Gone. 

Reefy wondered how come they are gone. 

Could Reefy go? Land Coral knows where they are. What do they taste like? Do they become food like other dead monsters and fishes of the sea? Can corals grow on their bodies like the other monsters? 

The land. 

Reefy didn’t need the land. The sea still has so much space, and it is a nice place, once the pesky pests were removed. It’s always cold, and every now and then food rains from above. 

Occasionally the land people’s things drop. Big things, small things. Things drop into the sea all the time. They crash and sink into the sea floor, and that is good. Reefy likes these things, especially things that are super big and made of strange stones and hard coral-like materials. Ships, big land coral called them. Warships. They become places for Reefy to put more corals. 

Corals are great. They generate food. Food that feeds the fishes. Fishes that Reefy can control.  

Sometimes storms happen, and these ships sink into the sea too. That is also good. Reefy tried moving some of them to deeper places.

Over time, Reefy saw them fight. The land people shoot each other, and their warships battled each other. People kill each other. Land coral says it is the war of the land people. Land people fight each other. Kill each other. 

Reefy didn’t know why that was a bad thing, but land coral says it is to maintain order. Balance. Maybe it’s like when fishes eat too many corals, that corals cannot grow fast enough. So there is no balance. That would be bad. 

But things die. That is the way. Coral feed small fish, small fish feed big fish, big fish feed bigger fish. Bigger fish-

No. Reefy don’t like the really big fishes. Those are bad. They destroy corals. So Reefy killed them. There used to be many of these big fishes, they lived in the deep and dark places of the ocean. The sea is a big, big place, and even till now Reefy still knows of dark places where corals find it hard to grow. 

Reefy killed big fish, and their bones became the bed for more corals. That was the way. But big fishes were hard to kill, and there were many types. Some had many legs. Some had hard stone-like skin. Some were more like land people than fish. 

They were all enemies. 

Land coral says there is balance. That Reefy shouldn’t kill all the big fish. That didn’t seem right. Big scary scaled fishes threatened Reefy. They destroy corals. They eat all small fishes. They have powers of magic. 

Reefy was protecting corals. 

They ran whenever they were wounded. They ran into the depths, again. Where Reefy’s corals couldn’t go. It made Reefy angry that these giant fishes would come, destroy corals, and run away before Reefy could kill them. 

At least, until Reefy gained the ability to grow [Volcanic Corals]. These corals could grow in the underwater vents often found in the deep trenches. If he could grow corals, his corals could emit his cloud of influence, and he could then control the fishes to fight for him. He could heal them. He could give them powers to stand up to the big bad fishes. 

Maybe they shouldn’t be fishes. 

“Monsters.” Land coral said. 

Monsters. That makes them scary. They are quite scary. But Reefy has numbers and abilities. A reef is an army of fishes of all kinds, and shallow sea fishes are good at poisons. 

So Reefy had enough of these bad monsters that came and harassed his beautiful pretty coral reefs. 

It was time to take it to the depths, and find where these big fishes hid. It was slow, but Reefy found them eventually. 

The deep trenches of the sea were places where the sun could not reach. In the depths, the energy of the world was stronger. There were currents in the deep sea and trenches that felt like magic itself. 

No wonder the big fishes were strong. They were creatures nourished by the deep magical currents. 

Reefy’s corals adapted. It took years. 

Maybe decades. Reefy didn’t really notice the time. The sun came and the sun went, but the sea remained. Land coral keeps track. Reefy didn’t notice, but some of the corals in his reefs did. Some of them were sensitive to the seasons. Occasionally the sea was colder. In some parts of the sea, the underwater currents changed direction depending on the time of the year.

Somewhere, maybe some land corals knew how many years passed by.  They know from the small bends in their corals’ shape, as their growth was guided by the annual change of direction in the sea’s currents. 

It didn’t matter, Corals took forever, but Reefy’s corals eventually grew in these magical currents, and they gained some magic abilities. Ability to glow in the dark. Ability to shoot small bits of magical energy to deter bad fishes. Ability to emit certain scents to attract the right type of fishes to spread more corals around. 

With magic, Reefy crawled closer to the trenches where the big monster fishes were. Leviathans. Krakens. Land corals have many strange words to describe them. Words didn’t have meaning, because Reefy didn’t know what they meant or what history they had.

Reefy’s first venture in the depths did not end well. 

The fishes there were different. They were not colorful like the fishes of the shallow seas. And they attacked the fishes he sent. 

And he still didn’t find where the big fishes hid. 

But Reefy didn’t give up. More fishes hatched, grew, and then, Reefy sent many fishes into the depths. 

Many fishes died. The fishes of the depths were territorial. Reefy understood that. Fishes have territories. Hunting grounds. Fishes that tried to explore were threats. So Reefy was a threat to them, and they were a threat to Reefy.

War was inevitable, and Reefy prepared for war like any good fish-controlling reef would. It bred bigger fishes for war. Bigger teeth. Sharper spines. Spines with poisons. Fins with poisons. Tentacles that caused paralysis and messed with the fishes’ ability to control itself.  

Land coral had many ideas. Land coral and the land creatures used tools and magic. Reefy tried to train fishes to use tools. Stones. Sharp weapons. Magic. 

But fishes couldn’t take that many commands. Fishes were quite dumb. Like Land coral’s insects. Dumb. 

Land coral claims he could create ‘souls’. He planted them into his beetles. Made one of them smart. 

Reefy thought that was a good idea. Smart fishes could help defeat big monster fishes. Land coral shared how it was done. 

Reefy didn’t understand it at first. It was magic. A kind of weird magic. It needed the spirit of those living people to die, and to take the remains to make into something new. 

Eventually, he came around and realized it was just the same thing in a different form. There were some fish that ate big dead fish. There were some corals that grew on the bones of the dead. 

It’s the same. Nature recycles. 

Reefy asked whether land coral could share some of these fragments, and land coral did. Land coral says it had too much. Too many people die on the surface, because people liked to fight each other.

It was strange, playing with these soul fragments. They were like Reefy’s own core. A fragment. 

As Reefy tried to use his own power to put these soul pieces together, it made Reefy wonder how Reefy came to be. Was Reefy always a [Reef Gestalt]? Was Reefy the spirit of a dead being that found itself nestled amongst a collection of mature reefs? 

Land coral seemed happy when Reefy asked about Reefy’s origin.

“I do not know how you came to be, Reefy.” Land Coral answered. “I merely found you when you were here when my roots touched the edges of your reef. I have some theories, but would it help you if you knew?”

Reefy decided it didn’t. Reefy could come from anywhere. Reefy just needed to be, and for these soul fragments to be a Smart Fish.

Somehow, intention, magic and action fused with the soul fragments, and the soul fragments fused together to create a blob that he could then use. 

Land Coral was impressed. “Oh, you’ve discovered [artificial souls]!”

Artificial. It didn’t seem artificial to Reefy. It is as real to Reefy as a fish. Reefy decided to find a big fish. He found a big Reef Shark, commanded the Reef Shark to approach a cave made of Reefs. 

Inside, the blob fused with the Reef Shark, and that was how Reefy had his first Smart Fish.

The [Shark Commander]. 

Shark Commander was smart. It was bigger. It was faster. It has [skills]. Most importantly, Smart Fish was linked to Reefy, and now Reefy could get a better sense of what lurked within the depths. With the reefs he controlled, Reefy built an army of fishes for Smart Fish to lead into the trenches. 

The [Reef Gestalt] could finally explore the depths, and find the gigantic reef-destroying fishes. 

***

Reefy mounted ten large scale invasions into the nearest trenches, and in eight of them, Shark Commander was the only one that managed to escape. 

In the deep, dark trenches, there was no light. Nothing to guide them on what to fight, or where their enemies were. Even though Reefy’s fishes were poisonous, armed, and had sharp teeth, it didn’t help much against creatures that blended into the darkness.

Land coral said it sounded like fighting blind, and Reefy saw some of Land Coral’s visions. 

Spirit vision. Magic vision. Heat vision. Sense. Touch. Vibrations. 

It made Reefy realize that his army of fishes needed new ways of seeing, and Shark Commander, as the only Smart Fish around, was the only one who gained ‘vision’ skills. 

Tweaking his fishes’ way of seeing was hard, but Reefy decided he could fight in other ways. Some of his corals emitted light, and if he could fill the trenches with his light-emitting corals, he could give enough light for his fishes to fight. Each time, a little more of Reefy’s volcanic corals managed to sneak into the depths, and he began to have a clearer understanding of what lurked beneath. 

There were underwater caves where the fish-creatures lived.

There were secret jets of hot water where his fishes were cooked alive, but the hardy, armored giant fish monsters could endure. There were bones from centuries of dead fishes that piled up into a mountain that did not rot, because in the depths, there was nothing to consume them. Instead, the underwater mountain of bones became fortresses for these giant fishes. 

Armed with knowledge, and an ability to better ‘see’ what happened in the trenches, Reefy realized that the giant fishes were smart. They fought strategically. 

They knew that Reefy sent an army of fishes, so fought in narrow caves and areas where Reefy’s numbers didn’t help. 

Reefy needed more Smart Fishes. 

“Is everything alright?” 

“No.” Reefy answered. “Big fish are still down there.”

Yet, land coral was experienced in the ways people kill each other. Land coral shared visions of how wars were fought. How land coral’s people destroyed the bad demons. Bombs. Tools. Weapons.

Big fishes were too strong, too smart, too fast, in the depths. 

Reefy now had a big idea. He wanted a bomb. Because the trenches were also a trap. 

And he knew exactly where to find it.

***

Reefy’s fishes fanned out across the seas and oceans, and scoured every single submerged wreckage. His goal was the crystalline core used by the recent era of magical warships. In the last few decades, the warships adopted a significant amount of magical weapons, many of which were sunk during big battles. Some of them were destroyed, but quite a few survived. 

But his fishes didn’t know what to find. In the wrecks, everything looked useful, and Reefy was promptly frustrated.

It needed more Smart Fish.

“Need more soul fragments.” Reefy decided to ask Land Coral for it.

“What will you use them for?” Land coral asked, curious.

“Exploring shipwrecks.” Reefy answered. The part on the bomb didn’t need to be said. Blowing up big fishes should be good, anyway. Maybe he’ll give one to Land Coral. Land Coral always wanted to know what lived in the trenches, but it never actually sent anyone to explore them. 

“Oh. Sure. Have fun then.” Land Coral was nice. Land Coral shared. Too bad big fishes were not nice. Maybe someday he’ll meet a nice big fish.  

Reefy took the soul fragments, and tried to do what he did the last time. This time, he found a small fish. A fish that was already magically sensitive, and so, created his first [Fish Scavenger].

And the little fish scavenger, escorted by a team of other fishes, set out to retrieve magical artifacts from shipwrecks. 

It’ll take some time, but Reefy will get back at those big fishes one day.

They may flee into the trenches. They may think they are safe down there. 

But Reefy doesn’t forget. 

And Reefy is coming. 

Maybe it’ll be a bomb. Maybe it’ll be something else. 

But the laws of the Reef are the same. 

A fisheye for a fisheye.