Red Ribbon Fish Farm

The humble wood building had an equally humble looking young man standing in front. He wore cleanly washed blue overalls, and with a fishing net in his hands, was staring out into the sea. Noticing us approaching, he turned his body to face us and gave a big wave.

""Hey Ken! Did someone pay you to bring them out on a tour outside the barrier again?"

The young man started walking towards us as Ken shouted back "That's not it!"

When we were close enough for us to smell the scent of fish reeking from his clothes, Ken explained.

"This is my new friend from Mors, she's a chef and is really interested in studying our cuisine so I brought her here!"

Hearing the word Mors, the smile on the young man's face froze as he seemed to stare at me more closely for a couple of seconds. Then his smile immediately thawed.

"From what ethnicity is she from? She doesn't look like she's Venenum."

Ken gave an apologetic look for the young man's staring.

"She doesn't know. You see, she said she awoke on that island in a house near the sea, so she doesn't know anything."

Making a slight humming sound, as if he didn't believe me because who in the world would fall for such an obvious lie. He nonetheless lessened his guard and hostility towards me and opened the door.

"Since that's the case, come in!"

Peering into the door, I found that although the farm looked very humble from the outside, the inside was filled to the brim with extremely fancy looking high technology. There were many screens showing footage of fish under the sea, as well as several small fish-like robots laying around. The young man gestured to the clothes rack that contained several overalls with boots at its feet.

"I am the owner of this red ribbon fish farm. Name's Jim. You can first wear those overalls and change into those boots. Would be a shame if Candice saw your soiled clothes and came down here to nag at me again."

Finding our sizes, we did as we were told while Jim was picking out several nets and one bottle of red pellets.

After changing, we walked up to him obediently. He then pushed open the door on the other side of the cabin from where we entered.

"You better be careful where you step. The wood's always wet because we are out at sea, so you might slip and then I would have to fish you out from the farms. Other than that, the fish are tamed so feel free to touch them. Don't feed them anything though. You just missed feeding time, so we are going to have to go to the wild area if you want to feed some fish."

Stepping out onto the wooden planks, Jim walked forward while occasionally looking back at us.

The fish farm that we saw when we exited the cabin was several large rectangles made of sturdy looking wooden planks. Beneath the planks seemed to be fishing nets that were attached to them.

The wooden planks made some squeaking noises as we walked a little faster to catch up with Jim.

"The water here is pretty deep, so if you ever fall in, remember to swim, or flail, to the sides and try to catch on to the nets to climb up. That or don't panic and let the fish bump you upwards. Red ribbon fish have long been dubbed the life buoys of the sea as they usually help bring anyone who has fallen into the sea up towards the surface. In fact, if you see the life buoys over there, they are designed after the color scheme of the red ribbon fish."

Pointing to the far corner of the farm, we could see an elongated air filled 'life buoy' with a red collar.

Jim stopped when we reached the wider planks on the other side of the fish farm and he squatted down, dipping his hands into the water.

Immediately the red ribbon fish started to be drawn to where his hands were, and their fish snouts were bumping against his bare hand. Calmly, he held one of the fish still in his hands and checked the red 'ribbon' around their gills. Then taking a pair of scissors from the toolbelt around his waist, he trimmed a little of the red ribbon parasite and released the fish. He placed the trimmed parasite into a glass jar attached to his toolbelt.

"The red ribbon parasite is usually harmless to the fish as long as they are not overgrown. If left alone for too long, the parasite will completely block the gills of the fish, suffocating its host and ending the lives of both host and parasite. In the wild, overgrown red ribbon parasites are rare because they are trimmed by much smaller fish that treat the red ribbon fish like moving banquets. In captivity, however, it is my job to trim the parasites. These trimmings are usually checked for their quality and then sold to the market. A win-win-win situation if I do say so myself!"

As Jim talked, he checked several more fish. Then he gestured for us to put our hands inside the water.

"The fish won't bite, so feel free to play with them. They're usually stuck with a land-bound old man, so they are quite bored. Just be careful to not poke them in the eyes with your fingernails."

The moment Ken heard that, he immediately placed his closed fist into the water. In very practiced motions, he gently moved his closed fist in the water, letting the fish bump their snouts into his fist. Then, he would open his fist slightly, creating a hole between the web of his thumb and the side of his fingers. The fish would then stick their snouts into the hole and try to escape before Ken would close the hole gently and try to 'catch' them.

Imitating him, although more carefully, I stuck my hand into the water. Instantly a group of fish detached from the crowd near Ken to investigate my fist. Not at all weary to the new stranger, they encircled my fist and bumped it with their snouts. Opening my fist slowly, I felt the cool water flow into my palms, as well as one curious snout that immediately stuck itself into the new hole. Slowly closing the hole, the snout immediately retreated and the fish swam one circle around my fist in victory.

Repeating this movement several times, the both of us stuck both fists into the water to play with the fish. Finally, after a long time, I saw Jim stand up from the corner of my eye.

"Ok, let's move on! I've checked all the fish here so now you guys must help me entertain the others in the other 3 plots so I can check all of them."

Ken removed his hand from the water and whispered to me.

"We're being used as free labor again."

Not that we minded though.

Repeating this game with all the fish in all 4 plots, our hands were freezing and our thighs were aching before Jim declared the end to our free labor shift.

"Now we go to feed some wild red ribbon fish. Don't stick your hands into the water this time though. The red ribbon fish aren't the only species to turn up for free food."

Walking over to the right side, we stood on the several planks jutting out into the wild sea. Telling us to hold out both hands, Jim poured some red pellets into our hands.

"Don't throw them too close to us, if not you'll find some more aggressive creatures snapping at your feet. The best distance is to hold out your hand as far as you can, then release your grip. Also, don't put too much at once, only up to five pellets, if not you'll cause a slight bloodbath for food. Remember to keep your face away from the water too. I don't want anyone here to end up with one less nose than they arrived with."

Cautioning us for almost five minutes, Jim finally allowed us to feed the wild fish.

I first observed Ken to see how the experienced did things. Ken first stuck his arm fully out, then released 3 red pellets into the sea. From the time we walked up onto the planks, a shadow was already growing under us. And as soon as he held out his hands, a dark shadow formed right under his hands and I could even slightly see the face of several fish. Including at least one sea dragon.

When the red pellets hit the water, the fish immediately begin to stretch their 'necks' or heads' in an attempt to snap up the pellets first. Soon all 3 pellets had disappeared into the creature's bellies. However the dark shadow did not lighten, waiting for more food to be released.

Stretching out my hand fully, I also released 3 pellets into an area that was slightly farther away from Ken. 'To prevent a bloodbath', Jim had said as he physically moved me away once he saw that I was preparing to feed the fish too.

Similar to what happened with Ken, a dark shadow formed underneath my outstretched hand. When I released the food, I took this chance to get a good look at what type of sea creatures were showing up. Other than several red ribbon fish, which were super obvious due to their coloring, there were also 2 sea dragons that had gathered. Other than that, many different species of fish that I had never seen before appeared. There were some with green tinted skin, some with what looked like horns growing out from their head, some with parasites attached to their bodies, as well as others who did not look like fish at all.

The moment the sea creatures had swallowed all of the fish pellets, I would move my hand back to pick up 3 more pellets. Then I would observe them as I fed them. This cycle continued until, before I realized it, all my red pellets had been used up and I retreated from the outstretched planks.

Heading back in slight disappointment, I followed Ken and Jim back into the cabin. Jim had a slightly conflicted expression on his face, Then the two of us changed out of the overalls and boots.

Hearing a sigh from Jim who was standing a little away, we both looked up to see him holding out a glass jar of red ribbon trimmings.

"...you said that you were a chef right, and that you were interested in our cuisine. If that's true, then you would certainly need some red parasite. It's present in more than half of our dishes after all."

Accepting the jar with a smile, I thanked Jim, who gave an embarrassed scowl before he chased us out of the cabin. Looking at the orange tinted sky, we said goodbye to Jim as Ken led us back to the inn.

"Today's harvest was certainly great! We got to meet Fern, who supplies all the hard to get ingredients, as well as got the approval of Jim, who can give us a reliable supply of red ribbon fish trimmings. You can finally start experimenting and creating new food right? Chef."

Freezing, I glanced awkwardly at Ken. Ken saw my look and laughed.

"Leaving out the locals who refuse to look at anything even related to 'Mors' or 'International food', you are actually pretty popular you know! And besides, during such an off peak season for tourists, for someone who comes around snooping at usually unpopular, stigmatized or at best ignored food cultures, there are really very few people who fit the bill. Plus, you show your face in the livestreams anyway."

Ken gave me a wink.

"Looking forward to helping you in your next big livestream! Our inn is going to be so famous after this!"

Giving a helpless sigh, and shaking my head a little, I followed Ken back to the inn.

[Busted]