Risks and Rewards (Of a Life so Simple)

Zap and Fish

Deco poked his nose up out of the tub and breathed out. Warm water, warm steam...steam wasn't fog, and that was a comfort.

His egg sat in the water too, sunken to the bottom of the tub and just remaining there.

He breached the surface fully, and brought the egg with him. He rubbed a gentle fin across its surface, and saw his own face reflected within. His frown was smaller than usual, but it turned sadder when he saw it. "...egg hatch one day, yes? Deco not dum, know is egg. Egg hatch. Egg...egg protecc good. Egg safe, egg warm? Warm egg hatch? Fish egg hatch cold, but egg...not fish egg Deco think. Maybe need warm? That why not hatch before?"

He dipped it in the water again, then brought it up to the side of his face, listening. No sound at all.

He pulled it back, despondent. He clutched it close to his chest. "What if...too late?" He mumbled. "What if never hatch? Prove old neigh-bors right if not hatch. Not want."

With that, he set the egg back in the water, using his now free fins to climb out of the tub. He'd spread out a bunch of towels on the floor, and he rolled around on them to dry as many scales at once as he could. Afterward, he scooped up his egg again, and gently dried it off too.

He held the egg, bringing it out with him to the attached bedroom. He hopped up onto the bed, and set in in a little blanket bundle he'd made. He nodded affirmatively once he'd properly readjusted the blankets to best shelter the egg.

Then he went back to the bathroom and scooped up all the dirty towels. He knew they'd given him the room to do what he wished with it, but if he didn't move the towels outside the room, they wouldn't get cleaned and he'd get stuck with dirty towels forever. His egg deserved better than that.

He poked his nose through the doorway and saw empty halls. He pushed the towels forward so they piled outside his room, then carefully closed the door again. He rejoined his egg in the bed and curled around it protectively.

So far, the days had fallen into routine. Bathe to keep himself hydrated, polish his egg and check for cracks, explore the wing with Benny. They had quite a large piece of the building to themselves, and as long as they didn't leave any secretions anywhere, they were pretty much allowed to do as they pleased. Aside from take things, but there wasn't anything worth taking in the rooms they'd checked anyway so that rule didn't matter.

There was a knock at the door, and Deco hopped off the bed to see who it was. He pried the door open, and was met with a distinctly not-Benny face. He held back a growl.

Now, this wasn't an unfamiliar face. The man was a tall stingray, and was usually the one to come and retrieve the towels. He delivered food sometimes too, when Benny's friend was too busy to do it; he didn't mind her, she and Benny had similar smiles.

But he didn't speak Salmon, and he didn't speak Octarian, and as such Deco could not ever guess his intentions with any degree of certainty. That was true of most in this place.

The man leaned down and held out a sheet of paper. He held it there in place until Deco took it, which took a moment as Deco stared him down. But when he did, Deco was met with an interesting sight.

It was a detailed illustration, depicting the man offering out several plates of food. One looked like fish, one looked like vegetables of some kind, and the other looked like a loaf of bread. There was a question mark following the image.

They couldn't speak the same language, but communicating they were nonetheless. Seemed the stingray was a clever individual.

Deco set the paper on the floor and pointed at the bread and fish separately. The man nodded, gathered up the towels, and departed.