Pesky Pretty Corals: Reef Tenders

One of Azurae’s favorite pastimes is tending to the coral. She loved the colors the most. Those coral with the pink hue were her favorite. The way the light would shine through the water and hit them, oh they’d light up the lagoon something fierce. That made answering Mochi’s call all the easier. 

 

“Cleo! Can you believe all those pink corals were actually bad for the lagoon?” Azurae’s normally cheerful tone, a solemn one. “I wish I had known, I wouldn’t have kept so many near our home.” 

 

That all familiar chuckling from her wisp, “I mean, they sure do look pretty so who’s to blame ya? Besides, now you’ve got this full pack to give to Mochi. So if ya think about it, we’re helping Mochi and the lagoon at the same time.” Dancing around Azurae as he always did.

 

It was Azurae’s turn to chuckle, looking down at the pack held gingerly in her mouth, bits of pink coral peaking out. “Mm, you’re right Cleo. We’ll help Miss Mochi, and take care of the lagoon!” 

 

The chatter between the two followed their normal pace of conversation, Azurae asking Cleo about some hidden grotto or cave that they’d need to explore. Making good time in their travels they decided to stop near a local reef, to see if they can’t find more of the pesky, pretty corals. And find them they did, this local reef seemed unattended and forgotten. Normally vibrant coral and plant life sway listless and grey, choked by the pink counterparts. How has no one seen this reef? How had they not seen it? 

 

“Oh, oh how did we let this happen Cleo? Have we not been this way before?” Not waiting for an answer, she takes to digging out the pink coral, her massive saberteeth excavating the roots and all.

 

Cleo, not knowing how anyone could let their reef die, had nothing but silence for Azurae as the two did their best to clear all the invasive coral. The two worked and worked until the light began to fade engulfing the lagoon in the dark of night. At last, did they manage to remove all of the infestation, their efforts yielding to be troublesome. They had managed to remove more than what could fit into her pack.

It would seem that the gods would favor them tonight, as they contemplated their dilemma, Azurae managed to spot an unfamiliar starfish among the barren reef. Unknown to either of them, this particular starfish was known as a Crown of Thorns, the coral eating starfish. As she swam nearer, a broken piece of the gathered coral fell from her jaws, landing atop the strange starfish–long spines jetting up from its vast amount of legs.

As the coral rolls down the spines of the starfish, into the sand beneath the dying reef, the starfish chases after it, slowly until it sits above it–eating and digesting it. Upon seeing the starfish eat the coral, Azurae had a crazy idea, which she of course explained to Cleo.

 

“We can’t carry all of this, and we can’t leave it here! What if we fed some to this,” she gestures toward the starfish, “and maybe we can take it to Miss Mochi too! I doubt she’d like something like this,” once again gesturing at the spiny starfish beneath them, “roaming freely.” 

 

“Zuzu, I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. We don’t even know what it is.” Cleo wanted to leave that thing where it was, and for good reason, neither of them were equipped to deal with something with so many spines, nor legs for that matter. “This thing has danger written all over it, can’t we leave it for someone else to get stung by…..” Shaking his head, he knew that his little Zuzu would never do that, even if it meant she were to get stung herself. “Gahh, fine Zuzu. Leave it just enough so that we have a full pack, while we go find some kelp to wrap it in. Lots of kelp.”

 

Beaming as he agreed, she set off to find as much kelp as she could. Though the kelp would do nothing to keep the spines from poking through, it was a precaution that neither of them were willing to forgo. So as the two of them watched the starfish eat their extra pink coral, they talked of how to best scoop it up to be taken to Miss Mochi, and they talked of the possibility of relocating to this dying reef–even if it were only temporary, neither of them could bare the condition it was in. When it was finally time to head to the coral dropoff, they took care to keep the kelp in cased starfish away from the invasive corals–both while being carried and when they finally arrived at the dropoff. Handing it to Mochi, retelling the tale of the starfish that eats coral and the nearly lifeless reef, they left for their new part time home.