Tempest

Moving to Water had been the best thing to ever happen to Tempest.
Oh, she didn't hate Lightning, there was nothing wrong with that territory.
Nothing except the lack of unlimited ocean, and just as importantly, the lack of sea slugs.
Yes, those seemingly inconsequential creatures who made the sea their home.
Dragons would sometimes eat them, though they probably weren't anyone's first choice of favorite food, and for that she was thankful.
The dragons in her clan had learned of her fascination, and adapted to a diet without them, but a lair full of them.
It had started simply enough, a few scattered tide pools built into the structure itself had suddenly begun to house some of the small creatures. That was all well and good, a minor amusement, a quirky thing.

The acceleration hadn't been so fast that it was much more notable than that, at first. A dragon wandering by would turn their head and see one or two more. Maybe they'd simply moved from where they were before, or were temporarily passing through.
In this manner of apparent innocence and happenstance the amount of sea slugs in the lair grew exponentially before anyone had really noticed the change.
No one knew who was behind it, if a dragon was the cause at all. Certainly no one suspected her.

She hadn't even intended for it to get this far, not really. At this early stage, Tempest wasn't even aware herself of how deep her affection for the little creatures ran, only that when given the opportunity, she never ate them, instead returning them to the wild.
Well, wild enough. After all, their lair was built in the wilderness, surrounded by the great ocean itself. Surely there could be no place more akin to their natural location than this.
She only had to recreate the appropriate measure of ocean water within the previously mostly freshwater pools.
That was incredibly easy, given the proximity of the sea and her love for the trip. It wasn't as though anyone was actually drinking from these inner pools, anyway. They were probably just for decoration.

So it continued in this way for quite a while, at least a week and a half. The problem, she reflected later, was after this. Having gained some confidence in the safety of her new charges, she branched outwards in endeavors. It wouldn't do to just save a few specimens that made the trip back. No, she would have to be better than that. There wasn't much convincing to be done in order to secure her place on the Food Gathering team, and Fishing even easier.
She had even expected some trouble standing in her way of reaching further afield into new territories and regions to fish, but nothing had happened even then.
It was a long trip, to be sure, but partially swimming the way had only strengthened her resolve. What sorts of glorious slugs and nudibranches would she discover in new lands, saved from the clutches of dragons to become imminent dinner?

While she had the power to help them, she couldn't simply stand aside and do nothing. At least, just a few. Not too many. That was the intention.
As it turned out, she admitted to herself later, she had sort of lost her head upon seeing the Blue Dragon Seaslugs for the first time.
Blue Dragon! What a name! What a pattern! What a challenge!
Every one of them seemed to have a new and different method of escaping her grasp, and she dearly wished she could commune with them, reassure them she was there to help, to save them, to give them a lovely home free of the fear of being eaten.

It had gone quite swiftly after she'd got the hang of capturing the Blue Dragons.
The long trek back gave her time to think, and soon enough she'd come up with another plan, to delicately raise the subject of bringing back any of the creature's line to be found among the battles in the wilds.
Luck was on her side yet again, as a number of dragons she approached with the idea had only laughed in amusement and promised to bring any they found back to a designated spot for her to pick them up.
She couldn't believe how easy this was turning out to be. In fairness, there were so many among the oceans that the ecosystem itself was never out of balance no matter how many she rescued. That had been a possibility she came to after considering this on the third day that the Fighters had delivered her some more precious cargo. Again, she raised a strange subject, and they gave her their honest thoughts on the matter. It didn't seem that any of these creatures were in enough danger through their entire line that her removing them would be catastrophic.

The guilt had been relieved slightly, though it persevered a while longer.
The next challenge was replicating the water in the other territories within the new and improved ponds she had dug in her downtime from scouting.
This work was busy enough to keep most of her focus, and then a most wondrous thing happened. The first true snag in her plans also happened then, but it was best to think on the positive, even in looking back at things.
It occurred while she was deeply involved in studying the rescued slugs.
Could a Blue Dragon and a Bluespine coexist together? What about a Glowslug and a Deepsea, a Chromodori and a Nudibranch? The Tropicals were disappointingly best suited to mingling only with their own, so far...
So deep was she into taking notes and checking these to previous journal entries that she didn't at all notice the noise of a dragon casually approaching.

It was only when he cleared his throat that her gaze and attention jerked up to meet his face, though she was already considering about the daily habits of the Chromodori that were yet to be written, and a regulation of water in three different habitats yet to be maintained...
The dragon had begun to talk, and she tried to focus her attention back onto him with another mighty effort.

"-decided that since you've taken such a keen interest in these, and we're not saying it's your fault that they're all here. But, as you know, they are all here. Anyway, as I was saying, since your journals have said so many interesting things about these creatures, we've sort of collectively decided to leave them off of the menu, so to speak. It just seems rather hard to swallow- no pun intended of course! I mean to say, rather hard to continue to eat them, knowing what we do now of their little habits and personalities, some say even intelligence."

Here he cleared his throat and paused meaningfully.
Tempest's heart was beating with an adrenaline surge, though she hadn't quite actually worked out what he meant yet, at least consciously. She hadn't even taken offense that someone had been snooping into her journals, not with what this could possibly mean.

"So you see, since there are plenty of other fish in the sea, so to speak, we've collectively decided to no longer eat any of the sea slug family. I can't promise you that any other clans will follow us, nor that we could change their views on such a thing, but at least here we shall no longer consume them, and are rather more interested to see what you find out next."

Tempest had felt full to the brim with excitement, and as he paused again, she flung herself into a full loop, then another, out of sheer joy.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, I never thought anyone else could ever see them as anything interesting!"

"There is just one .. shall we say, problem."

The way he said this, and his suddenly subdued, embarrassed expression gave no clues to what this problem could possibly be, not on the heels of the previous good news. So she waited anxiously, trying her best to give a knowing, worried look, all the while feeling fit to burst with emotions.

"We ah, we're not quite sure where to, well, where to put them all. That is, there are so many now that only the private quarters have none within them yet, and many believe it's only a matter of time in that regard. Some however, seem to be of the hope that their quarters will eventually end up with some of the delightful creatures?"

Tempest nodded, gathering her thoughts.
"Oh, yes of course. I can give anyone who wants some their choice of variety."

"Oh, that's very kind of you. Yes, we have a few who have expressed interest.
However, the overall problem otherwise you see, is that well, where do we put all of these creatures? However, we could expand a few of the smaller pools into a large pool, and potentially find some ah, unique locations for habitats. Perhaps you'd better meet with our contractor..."

As she followed the unofficial spokesdragon of the clan down the twisting pathways, she briefly considered her circumstance. Soon all thought would need to go into the upcoming designs, quality of a good environment and labor involved.
She would never have thought that all of this would come from that one day of finding a sea slug on the dinner schedule, and deciding to not eat it, but save it...