The Hardworking Dolphin’s POV

Saras floated over cautiously in between her comrades. The Mistress was calling for her; she could hear it telepathically.

Around her, everyone was busy practicing Micro-control over the lump of soil-weed combo in front of them, especially her three new soul-brothers. Their aim was simple; they were eager to impress the Mistress. At the moment, only the beautiful Saras have the highest immunity apart from Chomper; hence they need to double up to show their worth.

Obviously, Gramps Alpy performed the best. He was very meticulous and deft with handling hundreds of spiritual energy threads simultaneously. Once upon a time ago, Gramps Alpy had told her about himself; a lone little spirit turtle who didn't have a connection with any of the higher-ups in the clan but was quite promising in terms of talent. He fell from grace after he crossed a petty Young Master who framed him quite miserably. He should've been killed. However, a kind Elder stepped in and reduced his sentence. He was turned into the lowest level servant instead since then. This happened hundreds of years ago.

Such was the fate of a nobody.

The struggle was bitter.

That was why it was crucial to have strong backing as you will be tethering on a tightrope all the time. And rightfully so, the Mistress was the biggest thigh one could ever hope to cling on around here.

After successfully entering the inner circle of the Mistress, Saras admittedly felt a great relief washing through her heart. Nonetheless, she still remembered Gramps Alpy's advice. Regardless of winning the grace of the Mistress or not, they couldn't become complacent. The Mistress already had many strong attendants around her. Without showing their assertiveness and worth, they might be side-lined even before they got to be assigned with tasks.

Gramps Alpy gave her a knowing acknowledgment nod as she passed by him. Under his breath, he whispered in a low tone.

"Always do your best to be in the Mistress' good graces. Woo her if you must."

Saras blushed and nodded shyly.

She wasn't as good as Gramps Alpy. She could only weave no more than a hundred spiritual energy thread, and of course, she knew her limit. She was lucky to be doted upon by the Mistress. Somehow, the Mistress found her pleasing to her eyes and she was determined to make the Mistress kept on liking her by following her instructions to the best of her abilities.

Saras hesitantly neared the Mistress who was industriously peeling the fruits known as coconuts again while sitting cross-legged. She had done the same thing before riding on those large birds to an unknown destination previously, but all of them were already used up by Lord-brother Shiro who performed Blender-no-jutsu on them. He did it while explaining the fundamentals of spiritual energy attunement and manipulation to everyone present on the field. Saras felt grateful to be part of this group. It seemed that knowledge was shared freely around here without considering about caste. Such generosity. On the clan's ground, only clan members of certain standing could enjoy such benefits. Thus, they progressed faster with the added meticulous guidance from the Elders.

"You're here already, Saras? Wait awhile, let Mistress finish this bit."

The Mistress continued peeling off the outer layer of the brown fibrous husks and the inner hard shell, albeit with an increased pace. The white flesh was then placed on several large pink 'plates', piled up a bit too high already.

Attendant Chomper was there, gawking at the Mistress' action with intense concentration, his thoughts unknown. Young Miss Aranyella joined the others practicing with soil and weeds as she shed tears of melodramatic sorrow at the Mistress' direction. Her intentions were clear as day; she dearly wanted to join the group over here. But it seemed that she had been shot down by the strict white fox and was forced to practice making mudballs. It seemed that Attendant Chomper might have more presence here than the Young Miss.

The ten minutes of silence was excruciatingly awkward for Saras.

She felt that she should make herself useful and help around rather than just floating quietly by the Mistress' side. However, when she looked at her own two pinkish grey flippers, she could only sigh resignedly with a bitter smile. These two flippers were useless. She couldn't perform that level of intricate movements with these. Her only hope was when she could seamlessly manipulate spiritual energy thread like it was the extension of her own flippers, just like Lord-brother Shiro.

[Excuse me, Mistress. What can I do for you?]

Saras couldn't endure the silence anymore. She tried communicating with the Mistress using telepathy and was glad it went through.

"Ahh.. Saras, sorry, sorry. Mistress got distracted a bit. Come, come, help Mistress."

To Saras surprise, she could sense the Mistress longed for a small water bubble the size of a tiny melon. Reflexively, Saras conjured up the water bubble in front of her.

"Thank you, Sweetie." The Mistress looked surprised, but later a smile bloomed on her lips; an indication that she was very pleased. A water bubble was exactly what she preferred rather than a stream of water spat from one's mouth. If felt rather… unhygienic. Saras didn't even realized she had scored brownie points from the Mistress.

The Mistress immediately dipped her two hands in and scrubbed them thoroughly within the water-containing bubble while she longed for an unknown item known as 'soap'. Once done, Saras could sense that the Mistress hoped for the water bubble to be dismissed. She dissipated the bubble and dispersed the water conjured into thin air.

Although it felt like a simple matter, to Saras, it wasn't simple at all. She could read the Mistress' intention even before the Mistress communicated telepathically to her. She too, was amazed at how attuned she was with the Mistress' wants and needs.

She could even glean over new amazing information from the Mistress' busy thought process. She was always thinking about random things all the time as the info jumbled up into a big pile of mess. She detected a lot of familiar terms she learnt today. Things like 'tapioca', 'getuk ubi' and its variation, and even the orangey tuber known as sweet potatoes. Although outwardly the Mistress told others she wanted to introduce two new kuihs for all to learn and taste, it seemed that there were tens of lists in her head depicting on how to process the tubers into tasty-looking meals of different shapes and textures.

[Is this the famed Soul-link effect? Such a wonder…]

[Dear, make a large bowl for me. Errr..it's an empty bubble, but cut to half. Can you try doing that? Try, try.]

It was the first time for Saras to receive such a weird request. Making a circular bubble was something that comes naturally to spirit freshwater creatures. She had never thought to alter the shape of her bubbles. She contemplated for a while and tried her best to manipulate the water-attributed spiritual energy within.

A partial uneven bubble the size of a washbasin appeared in front of Saras as the lovely pink dolphin scrunched her brow in concentration. (Mr Mooncat: Do dolphins even have brows, wifey?! Mrs Mooncat: Let me do whatever I like lahh)

[Is this alright, Mistress?]

Hmm… Hana walked around the large bubble and nodded. [Not half-bad. Add another layer of partial bubble outside, insert water in between the bubble.]

The pitiful dolphin became speechless, yet she concentrated and tried her best to achieve the Mistress' request. The second bubble appeared inside rather than outside, and it was perfectly round. The dolphin closed her eyes again, and slowly the bubbled changed its shape to mimic the one a tad bit smaller than itself. Water appeared in between the sandwiched bubbles.

[Excellent work, Deary.] Hana patted Saras' head approvingly. [Shi-chan, a hand please?]

From afar, the white Lord who was busy barking commands at the spirit freshwater creatures suddenly released something akin to a fast-moving white fog towards the Mistress location. Everyone was deeply horrified! However, the Mistress didn't even budge, but she in turn gave the white Lord a smile and an acknowledgement nod.

The 'attack' reached the distorted bubble in front of the Mistress, the greenish black snakehead and the pink dolphin. The bubble immediately froze and turned solid.

Due to the sudden increase in weight, Saras lost control of the bubble, but it slowly descended on the clearing gently; an indication that the meticulous Shiro must have spared a spiritual energy thread to assist them from the very beginning.

The Mistress smiled contentedly.

"Saras dear, prepare a proper water-filled bubble immediately. Do not let them dissipate, alright? Once the water turned cloudy, just change the water, no need to ask me."

Saras finally got a job to do!

She made a washbasin sized water bubble again. The Mistress nodded wordlessly and started transferring the overflowing coconut flesh from the pink plate into the water bubble first, and then, stacked them nicely within the newly made transparent bowl.

…

[Shi-chan, is Suria ready with the Blender-no-jutsu? Mommy could let her try blending these coconut flesh for once.]

[No, it's a no go. The stupid bird is still at the level of playing with mud.]

Hana chuckled awkwardly. It seemed that only her Kuro and Shiro were lead character-material; learn new skills and level up extremely fast just like in those fantasy novels. She thought that the head of a clan must be the most talented of all, hence their comprehension level would be off the charts.

"Aihhh…" Hana sighed deeply as she stared a second longer at the gigantic hornbill in the middle of the clearing while shaking her head. The aunty turned her attention to her own work.

[If that is the case, please come over for a while to help blend these for me, Shi-chan.]

[Alright, Mom.]

The white-furred fox walked over languidly, performed the Blender-no-jutsu in all its glory in a few seconds while letting others gaped in amazement, and sashayed back without breaking a sweat. He started to bark at the 'trainees' strictly again as soon as he returned to observe them. Especially Suria, the dejected hornbill had been subjected to verbal abuse fifty percent more than the rest.

…