16 Sardines; Deadly, or not?

Waking up, no doubt drowsy but eager to know more about progress, Tim hears the system announce it as a type of emergency. [Hunger bar 3/15]

Staggered but unwilling to move just yet, Tim questions. "That fast? I just took a nap."

Thankfully willing to be talkative about statistics this time, free of charge. The system takes a second before specifying.

[You've been asleep for quite a while now, your injuries drained energy, even while you were sleeping.]

[You're currently 34 days old.]

These are helpful without a doubt, they decipher how long he has been asleep. A couple of days maybe, or tad less but Tim still worries about other topics.

Worrying, flapping a foot away from the sand beneath him even, the young stingray utters. "The shark probably thought I stood them up."

Approaching the sardines which are piled up close to where he slept at, Tim thunders through a prime thought. "I have to get there quickly."

And so, the young boy chomps through the smallest sardine he could find, for the sake of not getting a full stomach too fast.

Asking about the health bar would be a waste of time this moment, he knows it's low and understands that getting health asap is crucial.

Sardines are interesting creatures when it comes to effect, the size of a sardine affects hunger but it doesn't affect health, the health benefit will always be +1 bar.

After devouring 6 sardines whole, some of them being bigger than what he hoped for, Tim hears the system as if congratulating. [Health bar = 61]

"I never thought this would make me happy." And it's indeed true, while in the beginning he was worried when health dropped around 80 bars.

And this short raise of health proved efficient in another aspect, his tail feels a lot less numb. About 30% of the pain is still there, he can feel it amongst every wiggle but it's a lot less in comparison.

Good thing too, as this tail is a bit of weaponry crucial for survival. I mean, he took an entire barracuda down thanks to the tail, it's value can't be looked over.

Feeling ready today, he heads for the exit and murmurs. "Time to meet that group."

...

Soon as he gets out of the den, aiming to swim for the reef in front of him, young Tim spots a fish figure approaching from a distance.

Thankfully the sardine school have swam away from here, that should help in terms of orientation.

But that fish figure, it looks tad too big for Tim to face considering the current condition. Getting demotivated, tired no doubt, he slides back in the den's entrance with an aim to observe.

His vision isn't the best, so taking a risk here would be considered a dumb idea in general.

As the big looking fish got closer and closer, Timothy started recognizing a familiar face, well... form. Fishes of the same species tend to look almost identical.

But Tim can recognize his tone, the fish spoke out. "What are you waiting around for? The group is waiting for us."

Rising out of the hole, Tim excuses himself. "Oh it's you, I thought it's another shark coming to kill me."

Well now finding that group of 37, likely hidden in the coral reef will be easier now, security feels better with a shark following him around, although this shark only half a meter long.

With joy, the young stingray flaps his tail around while following the friendly shark named Marlo.

...

Following the shark towards the coral reef, being guided between a few twists and turns, reef's dark blue in colour mostly, tagged along with yellow shades shredded scarcely amongst the tunnel.

The tunnel itself is stretching long, Tim thinks it's about 50 meters up until this point, thankfully it's roomy enough for a stingray to pass through without bashing fins.

However, it's somehow narrowing downwards, sinking deeper.

Swimming about 30 meters more, any colour of a coral slowly disappeared while making this distance.

Now, he can mostly see rocks, cobblestone perhaps but it's far smoother in texture although sharper than it's projection portrays.

The scene he submerges into after, well... it's certainly unexpected.

This place, it looks more like a room now, after leaving the tunnel behind. The same colour shares it's radiance, except here he can see sand at the bottom.

This... hidden den in a way, feels restricted in a certain way. For example it's only 5 feet tall, Tim's den is deeper than that.

However, width is a grand advantage, it's round in one portion and square in another corner. Fairly random and nature generated, an underground cave of some sort, it seemingly stretches 20 meters wide.

"This place is amazing!" Tim slightly shouts, simply staggered by the width of this den and not quite paying attention to everyone else here.

"It is, we've been down here ever since the sharks flocked the reef about 6 months ago." The reef shark deciphered, slowing down just a tad bit for the sake of alluring attention towards the rest of the group, but still privileged to express. "It's amazing what someone can achieve under desperation."

To that... well Tim doesn't know how to react or reply to it although every cell of his body relates to it, ever since reincarnating into this stingray body.

Swimming towards a small shark, Marlo introduces. "Meet this new member we recruited just yesterday, Husat the great white shark."

"Aren't great whites supposed to be huge?" Tim asked, remembering how popular these fish were when he was a human.

"I will be large! What's the problem ha? I'm small now because I'm young!" The great white shouted, invading the young stingray's personal space.

Well now this fish here doesn't look so small, has quite a large face and at length longer than Marlo, stretching 5 feet long.

"Husat shares the same thought with us, he wants revenge, although not against the killers of this reef." Marlo interrupts, swimming in between the two to stop a possible battle.

Raging, the young great white shouts once more. "Yeah, I'm going to kill that colossal squid that ate my mom! You'll see!"

Understanding the pain of which this little shark is experiencing, Tim offers. "And I'll help you, we are a group now aye?"

Before the young shark could say anything else stupid, Marlo makes another introduction. "And this is Alba, we found her guarding our brave great white here."

Upon appearance, it is easy to understand that this one is a stingray and that's why Tim kept his cool, there is a fish of his branch watching.

Liking the thought that this one is a female, Tim swims forward and asks in a tone that projects romantically. "So, what species are you?"

"Whip-tail species." Alba answered and Tim suddenly feels his ass getting hit, with a prime aim to shun this flirtation attempt down.

Well thankfully Tim didn't get stabbed, plus this lady looks larger so it probably isn't the best idea to piss off someone that's double his size.

Breaking the romance, Marlo interjects. "Okay people, there are a lot of introductions to do and we will do them, but right now we're running low on food and see, we gotta fix that."