Rita and Seph, a Patience mother and Persistence son, were up early, as usual. After filling themselves with the remaining stew from the previous night, they set off to the docks. They lived on Integreco's ocean shore, a tiny village with a pebbled beach that sloped down into the waves just fast enough for a few smaller trading vessels to come in. They found their way to the dock, where they climbed down into their fishing boat.
Rita untied the lines and they set out, Seph rowing their little boat out past the harbor point and down the shore to where their fishing nets were located.
Throwing a Patience-string out to a point marked by a floating cork and wrapping around the rope firmly, Rita pulled one of the nets they'd set out of the water. Empty. She frowned, and Seph rowed further down the line. A second one that she pulled out of the water turned up empty as well. And a third.
Rita cupped both her hands around her mouth and shouted "Carota!"
After a few minutes, a huge octopus monster with a tuft of hair on its head and giant shining eyes slowly rose from the water. "Heyyyyyyyy," it said. "What's up?"
"This is the second time this month you've emptied our nets, Carota." Rita's hands were on her hips. "How, pray tell, are we supposed to eat if you keep doing this?"
"There haven't been as many fish lately..." Carota said, blushing and ducking its face in the water. "I don't know how I'm supposed to eat either..."
Rita sighed.
"I guess I could move down the shore... and join my friends in the city... and eat leftovers like the seagulls do..."
"Carota," Rita said more gently, "I want you to stay. We like you here. You rescue people when their boats sink. You make sure the trading ships don't run aground. I just... can you leave something in our nets? Please?"
"All right," Carota said, sinking slowly back down into the water. "I'll see youuuuuuuuu..."
Rita sighed. "There probably won't be anything in these ones either. Guess it's harvesting oysters again. Seph, row us down to the abandoned piers?"
When they came back around in the evening to check the nets one more time, the pair found that a large plank of wood had been entangled in one of them.
"What is this?" Rita said, pulling the plank free and examining it.
Seph said, "Well, you did ask it to leave something in our nets..."
"CAROTA!!!"
