Ara blinked her cute red eyes in confusion as the vision of the clouds came into her view after she regained consciousness. She tried to move her fins but to no avail. They felt heavy and lethargic. It's not just because she was above water, the poison invading her body was finally full blown. She wondered why she still didn't die yet. She couldn't even conjure up some water to moisten herself.

"You're awake?" The voice made Ara directed her gaze at its source. She couldn't understand what was spoken by the creature who was sitting not far from her. The black snake watched her with menacing eyes while the white fox showed a wary expression. 

"Can it understand me, guys? Translate for it please." The creature scooped Ara up with both hands and brought her to the creature's eye level while the two animals accompanying it gasped with worry. Ara was only double the size of the creature's hand. Since she couldn't struggle, the creature was able to carry her up easily.

"It's alright. The fish can't even move right? It's not dangerous." The creature tried to appease the two worrying spirit beasts.

The snake came over and started translating on the go while the creature spoke to Ara with a warm smile. Ara felt very suspicious with this weak creature. She couldn't even sense a shred of energy fluctuation from it. It only meant two things; either it was an extremely weak being, or an extremely strong existence with a large strength disparity compared to her until she couldn't detect anything at all. She knew the snake and the fox accompanying the large creature were in the latter category. She leaned more towards it being a weak thing, if not, why did the two spirit beasts beside the creature kept on trying to protect it left and right? However, it made Ara confused, how did this weak being managed to make the beasts bow down to it and treated themselves as overprotective followers?

"Hi, little one. My name is Hana. I would like to apologize for what my child did to you. It's all just a misunderstanding. If you understand what I said, blink trice."

Ara listened to the snake explaining what the creature said and finally blinked trice while feeling dumbfounded. What does it mean, 'my child'? Is this being the famed Imperial Lightning Serpent Monarch's Queen? Something didn't feel right. Ara didn't know Hana's habit of addressing all her pets as her children as she treated them just like one. Hence, the fish became more servile and down to earth. Although she might feel suspicious, it was better to be careful. Moreover, it was unwise if she accidentally offended the snake's elder, if the creature was one. She observed how happy Kuro was when the creature introduced him as its child. His tail writhed to the left and right in merriment. It made her became wide-eyed and tongue-tied.

"Alright, Ku-chan. Give it the antidote."

Seriously Mom?! The brothers exclaimed together in Hana's mind. Before Kuro and Shiro could continue, Hana gave them a stern no-nonsense look. From Ara’s point of view, Ara watched with gleaming eyes on how the creature stared down at both of its meek subordinate/children before the snake slithered over and drip his saliva on Ara's tail unwillingly. 

This creature is so powerful. Ara thought in her heart. Ara did not know that the snake was even unwilling to lick it as how he usually treated Hana.

Slowly, Ara regained the ability to move her tail and fins.

Hana knew she needed to take the first step to gain the trust of the fish. She didn't want to make an enemy out of the locals in the area. Her pets were too feisty. She could only sigh and shook her head in dismay. Regardless of how big in size they were, their minds were akin to toddlers of five to six years. Hence, Hana felt the responsibility to maintain social networks of the surrounding inhabitants fell on her own shoulder.  If not, they would make enemies left and right! Hana didn't know her sweet little Kuro was actually a local tyrant in the area.

"This fish trap is made by us. It is ours. That is why we mistaken you as our haul." While exhibiting her sincerest smile, Hana explained slowly to make the cute pink fish understand the root of their misunderstandings. She realized the pink fish might've stumbled upon the fish trap and stayed inside to feast on the free-flowing fishes.

Understanding Hana's explanation, the little fish felt unwilling. Who didn't like free food?

Hana noticed the intelligent fish's unhappy expression. Deep in her heart, she lamented the intelligence of the animals around her in awe. It was her first to see some sort of expression on a fish's face. Surprisingly, it reminded her of a number of sea related animation characters. Too similar! She exclaimed internally. 

Suddenly, the aunty was struck with an idea! If they're so intelligent, it'll be great to establish some form of trade with them. It'll be easier for Hana to obtain difficult-to-find fresh water based ingredients later. Additionally, she won't have to crack her head figuring out Arash's tutorials to make new seafood-trapping devices. Thinking about this, it had renewed Hana's enthusiasm to 'gently' coerced the seemingly naive fish into doing her bidding.

"It's not that you can't have any of the fishes inside this fish trap. However, you will need to barter the fishes with us for something of equal value. As long as every morning you leave a batch of fishes for us, you can harvest the rest any time. I won't be calculative with you, right now, what I want the most are freshwater prawns with noticeable two big blue walking legs. It usually inhabits deeper rivers." Hana shrugged. She wanted to try her luck. Letting someone else get the prawns for her will make her save more time on making a specialize prawn catcher.

Ara stayed silent for a moment to contemplate. After a while, it let off a few bubbly sounds. Kuro interpreted the fish's response directly to Hana's mind. How much do you want? It'll be quite difficult to gather.

Yes! The bait has been taken. Imaginary confetti were drowning Hana’s vision at the moment.

"I'll be fair, at least six freshwater shrimp the size of my hand, for a batch of fish you consume." She calculated that a batch of fishes will be about equaled to the price of a kilo of freshwater prawns.  Usually six prawns the size of Hana's hand will be about a kilo, with about RM70 - RM90/kg. Since a kilo of catfishes was around RM7/kg, 10-15 kilos of catfishes will amount to the same value of a kilo of freshwater prawns. It's a win-win trade. Depending on the prawns caught, both parties could slightly benefit more than the other. Hana didn't plan to be so calculative. As long as she didn't have to catch the prawns herself, she's good to go.

Hana added, "If smaller, you must add more, if bigger, you can give less. Take it or leave it." Hana tried some hard selling she learned from the uncles from the night markets.

Fine. Kuro faithfully interpreted the fish's response to Hana.

"Next time, we might request some other items. You can also suggest something you have for trade later." Hana smiled happily while making her most sincere-looking face.

Out of nowhere, the fish produced a shiny circular object from within her mouth and placed it on Hana's palm. It emitted a soft green glow. How about this? Do you like it? It’s very pretty. This is for last night's compensation. But I only have one right now. If you want, I can give you more, free of charge. 

Hana's jaw opened wide. It was a really big pearl! The luster, the uniformity and the size! This was AAA grade!

Hana didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. This was more expensive than the prawns she requested. She would probably get a few kilos of prawns with this single pearl. She hesitated to take it. However, deep in her heart, she really wanted it. No woman could fight their instinct of favoring shiny beautiful things. 

Mommy, just keep it. It has no value for the fish. Kuro lied smoothly. It knew the fishes didn't really treat this shiny thing as precious, especially this one. At best it could only be treated as a toy or a collectible to a rich descendant of the stream Lord. The amount of spiritual energy was also very low. However, Hana needed this more than ever, since she had no spiritual energy at all. Just by keeping close a significant number of these shiny balls would've helped strengthen Hana physical constitution by quite a bit over time.

"If that is so, thank you so much. Yes, I would love to have more of these. They're so pretty!" Her eyes shone with happiness as she pocketed the pearl into her pants.

Suddenly, she got an absurd idea, "If you can get me ten of these round shiny balls, I won't be calculative with you, I will deduct one prawn, alright? However, initially, at least I must get six prawns." Since these were just toys for the gullible fish, why not just gave it to her who appreciated them more? She laughed craftily in her heart. 

The kids were having a hard time maintaining a solemn expression on their face. Their mommy who was so upright just now was conning a little fish for the sake of a few shiny balls! This had affirmed the brothers' conviction to find more shiny things for their mom besides miscellaneous food ingredients in the future. 

The fish nodded happily, thinking that it had profited from their arrangement. She had so many of the round shiny balls in her treasure box since she loved to collect those. It meant that she only needed to catch six prawns and exchange the rest of the fishes with the shiny balls. So simple! She had begun to like the creature already! So magnanimous!

Since both of them had finally struck a deal, there's nothing else to do anymore. Hana squatted down beside the stream and gently placed the fish into the stream. She patted the fish's head gently. As it entered the stream, Hana asked a final question, "What is your name?"

A bubbly sounded came back.

"Ara."

...