Chapter 5: The shell Farming
It was the excited hustle and bustle of a nearby school of fish that jolted Mr. Tangle out of his reverie. He had fallen asleep near the warm springs and had not noticed that the day was already drawing to a close. Half asleep but driven by curiosity, he glided to the school of fish to find out what the commotion was all about. The small school of fish had gathered at a mussel bank that had formed at one of the many craters. The clams loved the warm, nutrient-rich water that made its way from the depths of the reef rock high into Octopus Garden. As he approached, he saw two fish trying to squeeze between the slightly open halves of a large mussel with all their might. Their efforts were in vain as the shell showed little interest in bending to the will of the two fish. Mr. Tangle reached out his tentacles and touched one of the little friends to connect with the collective consciousness of the swarm.
A slight twitch ran through him and at the same moment numerous images flashed through his mind. He searched purposefully in the flood of images for answers to his questions. When he found what he was looking for, a gentle smile crossed his features. One of his little friends had slipped one of the obsidian discs out of his mouth on the way to the store and had fallen into the maw of the said shell. Dutiful as the little guys were, they could hardly cope with the loss and did everything they could to coax the disc back out of the shell. Mr. Tangle, who knew the habits of the mussels well, knew that the fish struggled in vain, because the power of the mussels was immense and even for him it was almost impossible to open a mussel with his bare tentacles. He told the fish to be patient, because he knew that it would not take long for the shell to open on its own to filter the nutrients from the flow of the volcanic springs. The fish understood him and so he settled down near the mussel with the small fish that had dropped the disk.
After some time, strange sounds could be heard from inside the shell. As they tensely moved closer to the shell it happened… with a gurgling sound the shell opened its maw and spewed out something shiny in a high arc. Astonished, our octopus picked up the object and could hardly believe what had happened inside the shell. The obsidian disk seemed to serve as a kind of blueprint for the shell to create a shining white, well-formed, round pearl by forming mother-of-pearl. Like a small full moon, the pearl shimmered in the tentacles of the tangler and he could hardly take his eyes off the beauty. Beaming with joy, he took the gem into his cave and laid it down beside his sleeping place.
When he awoke the next morning and saw the pearl, he realized that it was not just a beautiful dream. He immediately set out to return to the place of yesterday’s events.
Arriving at the warm springs, he stood transfixed. He could not believe his eyes. Something unbelievable had happened here overnight. Below the crater that was the home of the said shell, a small pile of round, brilliant white pearls had formed. The shell had probably continued to form nacre and had thus literally become a small pearl factory. He took a deep breath to process what had happened. While he was still trying to sort out his thoughts, the suspicion grew in him that perhaps other mussels could be inoculated according to the same principle. Trembling with excitement, he took another obsidian disk and placed it in a neighbouring shell. Just like the day before, it didn’t take long for a beautiful pearl to make its way out of another shell with the familiar gurgling sound. The tangler immediately realized that he had stumbled upon a true treasure by chance.
