The sun was shining as Chariot looked at her bill for the inn, letting her head hang low. She did not even understand how it could cost so much, but she understood that it had been a while since she had actually worked for a pay. The point was that she needed to do something that actually paid instead of just helping out others for free or small not-money rewards. Looking for such work she stopped at a wall of posters and started scanning them for work. Especially a rather high payment for a seemingly easy job drew her interest. A rich man was looking to expand his already big collection of Koi.... honestly the Mink had no clue what a Koi even was, but a picture below helped her to understand. Apperantly it was a big and pretty freshwater fish. She had no clue why anyone would collect fish and not eat them, but as long as it paid well she had no problem with it.
Following the instructions on the poster she borrowed a big bucket from the place that was looking for the Koi and made her way out of the city to start searching the surrounding lakes and ponds for said fish. Apparently she was not the only one lured in by the promise of a big reward as she soon saw multiple other people with buckets, some passing her by with what looked like a small collection of Koi's in their buckets others just freshly out of the town with still empty buckets. If Chariot remembered right the Koi she was looking for was especially big and rare and hidden in some pond that no one had found yet, at least that was what the legend said. Not that she wanted to trust said legend, so her first idea was just to follow the small map of the island, which she had also gotten from the rich man's servant and go from pond to pond, locating the biggest Koi in it and then as she saw fit replacing it with the next bigger one, till she was confident to have found the biggest.
The first pond she came across was already full with other Koi Hunters, so she decided to skip it, the biggest fish was most likely already found. The second and third pond she came across were no different. It made her worried that maybe someone had already found the legendary fish, but she remembered that it was said to be in a pond that no one knew, so instead of looking for a fish in the known pond, she decided to search for a pond instead.
Her search took her deep within the near by forest, she remembered having seen a stream when she was there before and a stream usually had a source, a source like some hidden pond for example. Locating the stream was more than easy and after doing so all she had to do was follow it upstream.
While on her way she began to wonder why no one else did the same, yet she felt lucky that she had thought of it, because soon she stumbled upon a big cave, from which the water flow originated. Curious to see if her hunch was correct she made her way inside, scaring away some bats and stepping over a few animal bones. To her relief non of them were of giant fish. Soon on her way inside she had reached what she was looking for. A dim lustre stretched across a small collection of water. It clearly was a pond, but if there really was any fish in it, it would be hard to find in the dark even with the eyes of a wolf. Yet she had no other option than to dive into the water.
It was freezing cold and nearly impossible to see anything underwater, while searching for the fish her limbs were far more help than her eyes. She somewhat wished to be half a seal or at least something that lived in the water. Each time her hands found something she quickly grabbed it and brought it back to the surface to inspect it, just to find one weird fish after another. One even tried to bite her just to end up thrown out of his cave. After pulling multiple wrong fish out of the water she was close to giving up and wanted to start looking for another pond, when she dove deeper and noticed a light water pull. Feeling her way around under water she found a hole in one of the walls and spotted a weak light at the other end of the hole. Well it was either giving up or risking to drown in an underwater maze, but Chariot was not the kind that gave up, that was already clear.
Without fear she dove into the cave and made her way through the tide hole. A seal Mink would have been smaller too! What she found made all the work worth it. As she gasped for air at the new found pond surface she noticed that she was not really in the cave any more, far above her she spotted the evening sky, framed by tall steep walls. Quickly she pulled herself on land and shook the water of her body, while gazing across the water and there it was! Directly in the middle of the body of water, a giant white fish, much resembling the shape of what she was looking for. Hasty she dove back into the water, got the fish at it's tail and pulled it with her back to where her bucket was waiting.
The fish struggled, it barely fit the bucket they had given her, it must clearly have been the biggest of all the Koi. Certain of that she smiled, sneezed and made her way back to town.
988 Words
Following the instructions on the poster she borrowed a big bucket from the place that was looking for the Koi and made her way out of the city to start searching the surrounding lakes and ponds for said fish. Apparently she was not the only one lured in by the promise of a big reward as she soon saw multiple other people with buckets, some passing her by with what looked like a small collection of Koi's in their buckets others just freshly out of the town with still empty buckets. If Chariot remembered right the Koi she was looking for was especially big and rare and hidden in some pond that no one had found yet, at least that was what the legend said. Not that she wanted to trust said legend, so her first idea was just to follow the small map of the island, which she had also gotten from the rich man's servant and go from pond to pond, locating the biggest Koi in it and then as she saw fit replacing it with the next bigger one, till she was confident to have found the biggest.
The first pond she came across was already full with other Koi Hunters, so she decided to skip it, the biggest fish was most likely already found. The second and third pond she came across were no different. It made her worried that maybe someone had already found the legendary fish, but she remembered that it was said to be in a pond that no one knew, so instead of looking for a fish in the known pond, she decided to search for a pond instead.
Her search took her deep within the near by forest, she remembered having seen a stream when she was there before and a stream usually had a source, a source like some hidden pond for example. Locating the stream was more than easy and after doing so all she had to do was follow it upstream.
While on her way she began to wonder why no one else did the same, yet she felt lucky that she had thought of it, because soon she stumbled upon a big cave, from which the water flow originated. Curious to see if her hunch was correct she made her way inside, scaring away some bats and stepping over a few animal bones. To her relief non of them were of giant fish. Soon on her way inside she had reached what she was looking for. A dim lustre stretched across a small collection of water. It clearly was a pond, but if there really was any fish in it, it would be hard to find in the dark even with the eyes of a wolf. Yet she had no other option than to dive into the water.
It was freezing cold and nearly impossible to see anything underwater, while searching for the fish her limbs were far more help than her eyes. She somewhat wished to be half a seal or at least something that lived in the water. Each time her hands found something she quickly grabbed it and brought it back to the surface to inspect it, just to find one weird fish after another. One even tried to bite her just to end up thrown out of his cave. After pulling multiple wrong fish out of the water she was close to giving up and wanted to start looking for another pond, when she dove deeper and noticed a light water pull. Feeling her way around under water she found a hole in one of the walls and spotted a weak light at the other end of the hole. Well it was either giving up or risking to drown in an underwater maze, but Chariot was not the kind that gave up, that was already clear.
Without fear she dove into the cave and made her way through the tide hole. A seal Mink would have been smaller too! What she found made all the work worth it. As she gasped for air at the new found pond surface she noticed that she was not really in the cave any more, far above her she spotted the evening sky, framed by tall steep walls. Quickly she pulled herself on land and shook the water of her body, while gazing across the water and there it was! Directly in the middle of the body of water, a giant white fish, much resembling the shape of what she was looking for. Hasty she dove back into the water, got the fish at it's tail and pulled it with her back to where her bucket was waiting.
The fish struggled, it barely fit the bucket they had given her, it must clearly have been the biggest of all the Koi. Certain of that she smiled, sneezed and made her way back to town.
988 Words