30 When Organic Catfish meets Turmeric Tubers (1/2)

Kuro panicked when it saw its mommy fell! It immediately inflated itself and supported its mommy's head so that she won't get a concussion. It knew its mistress' head was her weak spot. She could die if it didn't help her from the fall since its mommy was so very fragile.

After it placed Hana's head gently on the forest floor, it slithered around her body to check for problems.

[Aha! There was a fish stinger on her palm!] Kuro pulled out the venomous stinger with its mouth, but it made the condition worsened as the blood splattered everywhere and kept on flowing for a while. Kuro was very worried. It didn't know what to do when it noticed the palm swelled bit by bit as its mommy was losing her consciousness.

It went to the stream and sucked in a large amount of water. Slithering back to its mommy's side as fast as possible, it sprayed the water from its mouth towards Hana's injured palm to clean the wound. It then 'kiss' the injured location in attempt to stop the bleeding.

Hana was currently drifting in and out of consciousness as she felt a warm feeling on her injured hand. She opened her heavy lidded lashes to see her beloved little snake trying to treat her using its own means. Her heart felt warm inside as she gradually calmed down. She knew she won't die from this tiny little thing. She did hear about catfishes' ability to sting but had forgotten all about it due to being too excited when reeling in her harvests.

Her head became clearer and she felt so much better gradually. Whatever little Kuro had been doing, it was effective.

Unbeknownst to her, Kuro was actually very poisonous. Its clan was famed for their highly lethal venom in the beast community. Nobody would willingly offend them if necessary. Although Kurohad left its clan long ago to establish itself on its own, the surrounding beasts still remember and revere the young snake beast's prowess. Some stupid beast ignorantly pissed it off and was immediately disposed. Since then, they could only submit to it; stepping back a pace to give it a personal territory for it to play to its heart's content. Hence, to Kuro, the venom of a small unassuming fish was just a small white bean thing (1).

While extracting the venom, Kuro inadvertently tasted Hana's blood. As Heaven fated it, the familiar feeling was getting stronger, as the bond between it and Hana consolidated perfectly. Kuro nearly couldn't stop itself as it accidently sucked in a little more without endangering Hana's life. As it understood the properties of the venom and in turn released the counter-antidote into the same puncture wound, it reminded itself to be more careful in taking care of its fragile mistress. The venom was actually not harmful to any of the beasts around; it was super low-leveled. Yet, its mommy couldn't even take it.

The wound automatically closed after a short while after Kuro licked it with its forked tongue. It turned out that Kuro's saliva had healing properties!

Kuro vengefully went to the flopping fish and bit its head off in fury! The top part of the fish was pulverized into meat paste before it spat it into the stream. It tossed the lower part back into the trap hole in disdain. Kuro made a murderous hissing sound and all the fishes in the trap froze in fear. Some even died on the spot due to fear!!

Kuro then fetched out the dead ones with its mouth. None of the surviving fishes dared to move.

Then, it coiled itself beside Hana's head and waited patiently. It placed its head on Hana's cheek and made a soft hissing sound, as if it was singing sweetly into Hana's ears. Kuro waited and waited.

....

Fifteen minutes later, Hana was trying to open her eyes when she was blinded by the sun. She kept on blinking while looking up at the beautiful clouds in the sky. She just realized she was lying face up beside the earthen fish trap she made. She could barely remember a soft hissing 'Twinkle twinkle Little Star' tune beside her ear. Looking at her healed hand, the missing stinger and the dead fishes around, she realized that it was her 'magical' Kuro that helped her once again, as usual. Turning to the side, she realized Kuro was looking at her just beside her head.

She smiled and kissed its presumably 'nose' location. ”Thank you, sweetie. I don't know how you heal my hand, but I know it's you.”

Kuro swayed to the left and to the right in elation.

Chuckling, Hana sat up and saw a few dead catfishes in various sizes placed in a neat line a few meters away from her. None of them were flopping. She patted Kuro's head and added, ”I love you so much Kuro!”

She took a long stick and cautiously prodded the dead fishes before touching them. She had learnt her lesson. One can never be too careful.

Once she confirmed that each one of the fishes were deader than dead, she carefully carried each one to the edge of the stream to wash them and tried to gut it and remove the gills and internal organs using a sharp stone she casually found at the stream. Thank goodness these catfishes didn't have scales. If not, her work would be doubled.

It was real hard work!

The stone was not up to par in sharpness, but Hana persisted until all fishes were cleaned well. She even made three to four diagonal deep gashes into the soft yet firm bodies of the fishes on both sides.

An hour went by just like that.