A Thousand Bites Skullfish Pilgrimage

I peered up at the bright moons in the sky. Even in daylight, the triple moons over Tantrum were visible high above, their edges only slightly blurred through the transparent shielding of the inflated biodome surrounding me. It was an impressive view, and I took a long moment to enjoy it.

My pilgrimage took me three years and four months to reach Tantrum, a large exoplanet classified as a super-Earth orbiting Pollux, the brightest star in the constellation of Gemini, approximately 34 light-years from Earth, in the constellation of Gemini. The pilgrimage will end soon as I completed the brutal existence in the Tantrum wilderness for the compulsory period of six months to make the spiritual and traditional transition into manhood. All I need to do now is find the elusive Skullfish, remove the protection biodome, and swim with the school of the primordial fish allowing them to bite my skin and flesh a thousand times creating my unique tribal marks, the symbol for my rite of passage to adulthood.

Deep in the water, I caught a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye. The majestic Skullfish glanced at me. It knew what I was and it signaled the rest of the school my location with a strange underwater squeal.

Another flash of movement drew my eye as I saw hundreds of Skulfish darting from behind an outcropping of rocks into the shallow ravine I was standing in, a streak of red blood across the water signaled the first bite in many to come. I smiled, closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and dove under the water slowly.

The time has come.