Chapter 5 – Cleaning the Pond
It took 20 minutes to arrive at the fief. The sun was already beginning to set thus Abyss decided to cover the wagon with the covering that it had. This way it can avoid letting his provisions and boxes from getting wet. He himself entered and laid down in between the boxes.
On his face was a noticeable smile as he said “I got a lot of work ahead of me. I might as well catch up on my rest and begin tomorrow.” Closing his eyes he let his conscious drift off into dreamland where he went scuba fishing.
200 feet away from Abyss there were a pair closely watching him. “Maria, I don’t think we should be keep an eye on him. It is rude and he hasn’t done anything wrong.” The one who just spoke was Luigina. Maria though answered with a scoff “Not yet but you never know. He might be planning something. Let's keep an eye on him for a couple of days. Plus its already clear he is here with malicious intentions. Did you not see how he caused trouble around Toad Town and the guard toads had to pay for it?”
Luigina sighed not knowing what to make of it. She looked at Maria and said with uncertainty “Maria we are not even sure if he is planning anything malicious. All we know is that the Guard Toads don’t like him enough to chase him. This is no reason to instantly suspect that he has ill intent for the kingdom.”
Pouting Maria gave in “True but I just want to make sure. You will help me right?” Maria looked at Luigina with puppy dog eyes causing Luigina to sigh in resignation “Fine.” Maria cheered for a moment before returning to watch Abyss with a keen eye.
This though did not continue long because Luigina quickly set a schedule of an on and off duty so they could at least sleep for a while.
Abyss woke up the next day with the musky air filled with the scent of grass and rain. Taking a deep breath he looked at the map. There was now a blue area inside the red colored area that designated his fief.
Rolling up the map he began moving slowly towards the location. He was worried that the seaweed might act as a covering that would lead to a disastrous event if he were not careful. It took me 20 minutes of searching to find the pond. Looking at it he was grateful for his cautious nature. It was somewhat difficult to tell the difference between the limit of the solid ground and the pond.
Getting up he began to unpack the boxes before stopping to stare at the seaweed imaginary eyes. He glared as he said “I will definitely clean you out.” After finishing a great battle ensued. He jumped into the pond only to scream in terror as he said “AAAAAH! Disgusting! It is wrapping around me!”
He soon disappeared into the pond causing both Maria and Luigina to worry about him and wonder if they should run over to help him. This lasted only half a minute as they prepared to rush towards Abyss aid.
Inside the pond Abyss was struggling to fight the mighty seaweed, god of the small pond. Throwing kicks and punches only led to the seaweed tightening around him. 10 seconds passed in this manner until Abyss just snapped. Opening his jaw he bit down hard tearing through the seaweed. This repeated until he finally freed himself. He soon popped out of the pond in hurry to take a deep gasp of air. Crawling onto solid land he let his body collapse.
This thing is more dangerous than the guard toads maybe they should place this thing as a guard instead of them toads. Looking back at the pond he sighed as he said “This is going to take forever.” Finishing these words he ran 10 feet away from the pond and puked. A seaweed infested pond was really disgusting. Especially when one had to use their teeth to liberate themselves letting the water touch his taste buds.
Maria and Luigina were giggling at this sight. Luigina was the first to recover as she said “See? How can this person be dangerous? He nearly got himself killed by seaweed.” Maria nodded with a smile as she said “True. I’m starting to doubt myself now but I still want to keep an eye on him a bit longer. I feel like he will do more silly stuff.” Luigina smiled as she said “Count me in.”
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If Abyss knew these two girls were watching him for the enjoyment of his suffering then he would have most likely charged a fee. At least that way his suffering goes rewarded but he did not know of this.
Nonetheless Abyss was a quick learner so the same tragedy happening twice to him was rare. Instead of jumping into the pond he began to trim down the edges. This continued for 5 hours until he had 3 boxes filled with broken pieces of seaweed. His mouth was now covered with its taste but his expression was focused.
He did not mind going through a bit of suffering to accomplish his goal. Now he had a clear sight of the edge of the bond. Now it was time to begin the next phase of the excessive seaweed removal. He once again took a step into the pond but with caution as he soon felt the floor. Standing at the edge of the bond he grasped a pair of seaweed and tried to yank it only for it to break apart. Abyss groaned knowing that it would be pointless to do it like this.
Thinking for a moment he thought of how he would remove weeds when he was younger. He would grab their base and yank it out. This though was because the ground was hard. With these thoughts in mind he crouched down and dug his hand into the muddy floor of the pond. After loosening the mud he grasped the roots of it and pulled it out.
To his surprise the method was effective as the entire piece of seaweed was removed. It was 7 feet long by the looks of it too. Abyss smiled idiotically as his brain went to an auto work mode. His focused smiling expression was completely integrated as he worked with gusto throwing the seaweed into boxes.
2 hours later he woke up as he felt that a good portion of the pond clear up. Looking around he calculated that he at least cleaned a good 15% of it. The boxes were full though so he could not longer continue.
Walking to the wagon he began pulling it back to the shop. Maria and Luigina though were just silently watching. Maria was hoping for something humorous to happen but to her surprise it did not. Luigina though was confused as she did not understand what exactly was going on in Abyss’s mind.
She even began to question if the Abyss she met back at the castle was this current Abyss. His actions appeared too honest and pure hearted to be related to the devious demon of not long ago. She just shook her head and stayed silent. She was the younger of the siblings and she did not want to upset Maria just because she wanted to express her opinion.
Abyss reached the store that the previous toad brought him. Entering he smiled as the receptionist toad was still working. Walking over he sat down and said “I got 10 boxes filled with seaweed. Also, what are you going to use them for? I’m more than sure you found a perfect balance in your meat scale fish farm.”
The toad just gave him a smile and said “Can never be too safe. I will freeze them to preserve in case I ever have a need for it. Also I can sell them for a bit of extra cash. Haven’t you realize around this place there is where little edible plants?”
Abyss nodded as he said “True. Well, thanks for the job though. Also, I never got your name. Mind telling me?” Toad chuckled as he said “Isn’t it rude to ask for someone else name when you haven’t said your own? Well whatever. You can call me Doff.” Abyss nodded as he said “I got only 1 name for people of your kind. Abyss. That’s my real name not a title that I carry.”
Toad looked at him and without restrain said “What a strange name.” Abyss laughed hearing this as he said “I got it from my parent. He saw an endless Abyss in me so he called me Abyss. You’re not much better Doff. I can’t make any sense of it.”
Doff laughed hearing this and said “My name is Doff for certain reasons. I will tell in the future.” Abyss shrugged as he said “Better late than never.” Doff laughed at this before asking Abyss to exchange the boxes for new ones.
For the rest of the day Abyss spent it working diligently. When going to Doff store he talked to him for a while before going back to work. In the process he asked about how to take care of the meat scale fish and received plenty of answers. A single meat scale fish can live their life in peace with a single seaweed plant.
This means that the seaweed plants and meat scale fish must be in a 1:1 ratio for the pond to be at a balance. Abyss began announcing his worries of how much he needs to keep himself alive while also keeping the fish living well.
Doff calmed his worries by answering all his questions while also giving advise of how to manage them. Abyss paid careful attention to this as the idea of living off Meat Scale Fish became more feasible. By the end of the day Doff offered him a small room to stay as he learned that Abyss technically did not have any place to go.
Abyss expressed his sincere gratitude as he did not reject knowing full well that it would be similar to devaluing his friendship with Doff. If Doff ever needed him that Abyss would definitely take action to help him in any matter even if the matter involves blood.