For hours, the two tsabhua and single belemoid had been camped at the edge of grassy boulders, staring at an overgrown dirt patch leading to a rusted sewer grate. In all the time they'd been watching from afar, the horizontal door had not so much as even creaked in the wind. A cobbled wall kept the grate up against the back of an overgrown knoll. Occasionally, a brown-pelted jaebo relishing in the sun would stick a tongue out at Shenzi, making her furious that she couldn't be hunting instead.

"We've been watching for hours," Sharkbait complained, his voice hoarse and dry–the mid-shamesh weather had made sure of that, even in the more temperate Mireh. "Fools!" Skritch shrieked in complaint, "You turn away for one moment and you'll miss it. We have a job here!" Sharkbait, the belemoid, caught the raised eyebrow of Shenzi–a sly act of rebellion against the Captain. "One you haven't even explained to us yet," she reminded him with a bit more bite in her tone than she'd intended.

The Sea-Cucumbers tribe was one of very few enemies. They'd made a few construction contractors mad, sure, and they'd pissed off some bankers, once or twice. But other colonies hardly regarded the deep sea base, both for its extreme distance and inability to appear threatening whatsoever. The "main three members"--Skritch, Shenzi, and Sharkbait, were usually too busy arguing among themselves to plan any assaults on anyone. So when the Captain had ordered a spying mission–in Mireh, of all places–it had raised some alarm bells.

"All that you need to know is that this mission is of critical importance! If we miss by even a moment–" Behind Skritch's furious eyebrows, the gate to the Mireh bunker was pushed open by two figures leaving–both tark'ee. Shenzi's eyes widened on the first of the two, a gorgeous pink pale with a stunning unicorn horn and large wings. Sharkbait reeled at the sight of the second, a fluffy-yet-terrifying giant snake, his head alone the size of the former's whole body. The two locked eyes, passing along a message of confusion–were these who their Captain wanted them to spy on?

"Shh!" Skritch hissed, despite the fact that none of them had spoken. In fact, the sound alerted the snake-tarkee, who raised his head. "Did you hearssssthat?" He grumbled in a low voice. "No," Rosethorn answered casually. "The wind in Mireh is strong. Don't let it frighten you." He gave a yawn and stretched out his front limbs. This guy sure is calm, Shenzi thought, wondering if they'd gotten it wrong. Sharkbait sat down his binoculars and raised an ear to better hear them instead. "Sssooo…" The snake, Floofer started, "We're going to need much more prey than we thought."

Prey? Skritch furrowed his eyebrows, ears pricked forwards. The captain tsabhua stood so tall and proud that he must've forgotten that this spy mission was supposed to be covert. "I mean with that many tark'ee, yeah," Rosethorn responded matter-of-factly, "But before you even worry about them, we better feed the royal family first. You think a king is scary? The queen looked ready to bite your head off, Floofer!" He waved his tail dramatically, while Floofer lowered his head with an expression of benign guilt.

"A queen?" Shenzi whispered. "Here? In Mireh, or in the tunnels?" Sharkbait retorted, having never heard of such a thing. Both turned to eye the white runt behind him, though his face was contorted with something else–a soft blush and dreamy eyes. "Boss?" Sharkbait balked, "What's gotten into you?" Skritch's expression hardened, his chest filled with air, and he declared, "We shall do whatever it takes–to feed this beautiful and legendary tark'ee queen!" Floofer stared up at their spies with shock, while Rosethorn just appeared begrudged. "Hey, don't hide and stare at us!" He complained, "As beautiful as I am. Don't you know–there's a whole tunnel full of starving tark'ee?"

Smooth. If they were enemies hiding a secret, they would've just let the cat out of the bag, Shenzi rolled her eyes lightly. Sharkbait blinked at the figures in the distance, shocked that they'd been discovered. "Of course I see you, snails-for-brains! You three, get to catching prey too, or the Queen is gonna be pissed." Skritch jumped into a half-salute, his tail tucked between his legs heroically. "Yes Sir!" He proclaimed, their noble captain immediately demoted down to an obeying servant. "Well," Shenzi sighed. "Some spy mission, right?" Sharkbait gave an awkward smile.