Taki's Story

Whirrrrr plop.

Taki tossed out his hook again. He watched to see which of the koi might be hungry enough for this worm and made sure all had their fill. He began humming a song that the koi enjoyed. They waved their fins in approval as he got a little louder. He dangled his claws in the water and mindlessly swished them around for the koi to play with.

His line went taught and scooped up the koi he caught, holding it up for inspection. "Oh ho, I see you've put on some weight my friend. Tsk tsk, you need to stop stealing food from your brothers, naughty one." Taki released it back into the water.

Two other dragons came and sat downstream from him on a rocky ledge beside the water.

“Hey, who--” began one of the dragons.

“Shhhhhhh!” said the other, “Just keep fishing. Don’t talk too loud, Taki gets annoyed if you interrupt his fishing with a lot of noise or questions. I know what you’re asking - who is Taki and why does he talk to fish - right? You’re new around here so listen well as I whisper his tale….”

~~ ~~ ~~

Taki was found as a young dragon by a local gathering team. Unable to speak and unusually shy around them, they befriended him and worked at teaching him dragon language. He’s a water dragon so he kept escaping into the water if they startled him. But soon he could speak dragon, and the team realized from bits and pieces of what he would tell them, that his strange behavior around the giant koi fish of the local river was because he’d been raised by them. He spoke to them as if to family and friends.

But dragons still made him skittish. He worked hard to fit into the lair that adopted him, but everyday he needed to get away and be with the koi. So the Lair helped him build a small hut near a beautiful pond on the forest nearby. When Take would find special koi, he would bring them to live with him in his koi pond.

He knew it made the others uncomfortable to find him in the water with them, so he saved that for special occasions, and every day he went to the river, brought worms, and spent a little time feeding the river koi. The other dragons learned not to disturb him or the koi. And what were a few worms, if it kept Taki happy? He always gathered mushrooms and herbs for the lair on his way back from the river, and he was always kind and gentle to all.

Every evening he returned to his pond and his little bamboo hut, fed the koi crumbs from dinner at the Lair, and watched the sunset from beneath the ripples of the pond and laughed with the koi.


~ The End ~