I'm a Stingray?

Timothy decided to swim forward and interact with these odd fish, as he hilariously was the most talkative one of what remained in this group.

With enough of a casual tone, he spoke to them. "Hello crystal creature thing... Do you understand me?"

"Well of course," One of them answered softly.

But the team instantly managed to notice a weird thing about that answer. Simply put, this odd fish didn't move its mouth whatsoever.

Yet it still spoke! It was tremendously difficult to understand however the hell that worked, but the team were lightly spooked already.

They tried to collect their thoughts enough to give a proper reply, but these motionless fish had concerns of their own.

Likewise one out of this bundle questioned, "Who created you? We haven't seen anything like you before."

"What do you mean who created us?" Dana decided to intervene, as she was quite curious.

Through a bit of hesitance, one of these crystal fish described. "Who's your mother... do you have a big mother like us?"

Timothy was the first to catch up on what these fish meant, and he decided to cure all confusion out of this situation.

That was why he boldly revealed, "We have mothers, yes... but we weren't born in this big tunnel of yours sir shiny fish."

"You came out of one of the sister tunnels? How's that even possible? The gate had been sealed since... forever." One of these odd fish yelled thanks to perplexity.

"Your home isn't sealed off anymore," Timothy pointed out casually just to push such a topic aside.

And before that concept could have been fully pondered by the others, the young man decided to extend a similar topic for the sake of reaping information.

Likewise he asked, "Do you have any idea what could have blown the gate open?"

After a moment one of these crystal fish answered, "We don't know... you probably should ask the source."

"Who's the source?" The hero instantly asked.

He felt positive that they could finally get a lead regarding what happened around here, simply since a source sounded rather useful.

Through a mumble one of these fish specified, "The source is like a, uh... very weird fish with skin."

"Don't all fish have skin?" The hero pressured.

But the other didn't answer and simply mumbled through the topic, "She's the one who commands this entire tunnel, and could be powerful enough to open the gate after so long..."

"Okay to the source we go then. Can you tell us where we can find her?" The young man asked as hope enveloped his heart.

"Uh... we don't know," One of these odd fish admitted.

Afterwards the same one offered, "But our mother knows, would you like to come and ask her?"

"Long as you don't kill us," Dana intervened with a joke.

She had been feeling a lot better ever since she got her body back. So unsurprisingly, her true personality could unravel itself as there wasn't much to worry about. So far she seemed and sounded quite peachy.

These weird fish lightly giggled to that joke, and afterwards they all swam towards one side of the tunnel and gestured to be followed.

At first the small team of stingrays were hesitant, but then Timothy exchanged a glance with them.

Dana could literally read the young man's mind, so she felt confident to proceed with such a task.

As for Snoopy, his intelligence was always rather high so he could intercept body-language quite effortlessly.

And with that confidence they followed the bundle of crystal fish, and made their way towards some small tunnel.

The area here was coated in a dark-red colour, and these weird creatures were mostly yellow and red by skin.

So now the team of stingrays could comprehend just how these oddities looked like.

The best way to describe them was that they gave a retro vibe. Sure they seemed like flawless diamonds, but they barely had any texture on them and literally did not move while they swam!

In a short note, they just seemed like floating shiny stones; they weren't exactly incredible, but their existence alone was thought provoking.

Thankfully they were just a foot-long each, and weren't so chubby either; otherwise Tim felt nervous about fighting any of those if the situation developed in such a matter.

The tunnel they entered right now was short lengthed, as they suddenly met with another opening.

Unsurprisingly they were surrounded by more gem-encrusted walls, as this portion of this whole underground society featured only such details.

But the aura that this portion gave was equal to the sense of home. The place seemed more like a cavern, and was less spiky in comparison to what they left behind.

In other words, one could lay over this place's flooring and feel at ease.

The cavern-like structure was about fifty meters wide, so obviously that was quite convenient as well in terms of calling a place home.

The team’s attention was instantly captured by other fish of this same species, they counted in the tens in number.

Such numbers didn't exactly seem massive, but that was understandable.

Since apart from this odd species being real, the massive tunnel behind them was supposedly sealed away for thousands of years.

Such circumstances could end any civilisation, so the existence of these fish was an amazing oddity itself.

These fish mostly had a red colour, so they could be easily told apart from this cavern, which had a relaxing light-blue colour coating most of the area.

After a moment the few fish that befriended them, led the team to a bigger crystal creature.

It took little thought to figure out that this massive, seven-feet wide fish, was their mother.

This community probably worked similar to ants, they all had one mother. And considering that every crystal fish was like a copy of the other, such a perception made quite some sense.

But for a moment the team was a tad confused regarding why they were being led towards this large crystal fish.

They couldn't quite catch up, until one of the smaller ones decided to speak out on behalf of their name.

“Sorry to bother you mother, but these new fish are seeking your help. I assure you that they too have important information to give you.” That same smaller fish recited.

It was difficult to understand why such a diplomatic form of expression was embraced between them, but at least this tiny fish proved useful.

After a few grunts, the large fish that laid across the crystal cavern’s flooring, mumbled. “New? What do you mean new fish?”