Chuck, the doubletail betta, lives in a 10,000,000 acre paddy field and knowing that the rainy season was due he must find himself a female to spawn with very quickly, but he sadly has the biggest complex about being a doubletail as all he wanted to be was a stunning purple & pink feathertail so that all the lady bettas swooned over him and so he could have his own hareen of devoted females to make his bubblenest for him as poor old chuck had eaten a tin of baked beans and the bubbles were coming out of the wrong end which meant that he would have to leave them there as he really did relish the thought of having to pick them up and move them to the water surface. Suddenly, a ton of females came swarming towards him as fast as they could move. The first thing that popped into his head was one of his rear end bubbles that had been thrown from the bottom of the paddy field by the shear force of the current produced by these females. This swarm females was led by a gorgeous female doubletail. As they all got closer, he could hear them shouting questions at her like, "how did you get a tail like that?" and she said, "Well I ate this tin of baked beans, coz I loves beans I do!!", she was Matilda, which was taken from the name on the baked beans, 'Matilda Beans.' Chuck was totally and utterly smitten by Matilda and knowing that she also back fired bubbles he knew he that she was the one. But the other girls were sooooo jealous and decided to hide her supply of beans for themselves to try to get double tails too and attract all the handsome halfmoon betta boys. But alas it didnt work. It just made them all turn ORANGE!! The girls were horrified that they all looked the same and Matilda was not only a beautiful fish but now was a unique colour. So the girls started to plot to rid the competition of Matilda, but many years ago Matilda did a course in juditsu and she was ready to take on the other girl's attacks. However, Chuck, after seeing the girls advancing, had tried to keep in his 'bottom bubbles,' and had swollen right up, leaving him looking like a big round ball. All the girls started to giggle at him. As they giggled, they all started tooting! This made them giggle more. It didn't take long for all the bubbles to accumulate. Chuck decided to make his move on Matilda whilst the view from the other females was obscured by the bubbles, but to his surprise Matilda was lying face down on the bottom of the paddy field with only her rear end sticking out, who could have done this to poor Matilda?. He made a dash over to the poor little "love of his life to be" but when he got closer he noticed she had, what seemed to be, a bad case of Ich. But not only did she have what appeared to be Ich, she also appeared to have longer ventrils and her fins were a brighter colour. Perhaps the chemicals in all those bubbles led to a kind of change Matilda almost looked like a plakat. Chuck went over to investigate. He pulled Matilda by the tail to help her out of the muck and she said in a manly voice, "Thanks, Chu..." then cleared her throat and said more femininely, "Thanks, Chuck!" He looked at her with horror as he realized that the largest and most horrific bean bubble was brewing and was due to erupt at any second, he turned away from Matlida with the intention to positioning himself towards a rock to minimize impact but as he turned BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR POP!!! OMG poor Matilda, she was directly in the path of the enormous bubble! She was caught inside it and started floating up to the surface. She called out to Chuck, saying, "My darling Chuck, I will always be yours forever, I do not blame you for the tragic end that i am bound to face at the surface of the pond, please do not blame yourself" Chuck swan up with her trying desperately to burst the bubble but this bubble was indestructible, suddenly when they both reached the surface, a human with a net scooped them both up and dropped them into a plastic bag! They were both so scared. As the human walked through the water, they sloshed around in the bag. Then everything went dark! After what seemed like an eternity, light flooded the bag. As their eyes adjusted, the could see only a few feet in front of them, Matilda huddled up close to Chuck who got rather weak in the fins as she did this, without any warning Matilda was scooped up again and placed gently into a plastic floating cage with tiny slits in it, as Chuck watched in fear for his beloved, he too was taken from the bag and swam up to Matilda's prison and rubbed himself on the side to comfort her, at that point Chuck could hear the muffled noise of a Barry white CD playing in the distance. Matilda was still so stressed that her stripes were showing and no matter what Chuck did she was just terrified. When she was a fry her father would tell her stories about humans and how they would take bettas and no one would ever see them again. She was living one of her worst nightmares, or so she thought. Chuck in the meantime was checking out his new surroundings, a massive cluster of moss balls seemed to patrol the base of the tank whilst a Nymphaea Rubra lily pad sheltered the bright light shining from above which reminded him of the comfort of his paddy field, beyond the moss balls lay a dark object that was sucking in water and particles at the rate of knots and throwing out the most beautiful crystal clear water that he had ever seen before, he decided to take a closer look as he passed Matilda giving her a friendly wiggle of his tail which made her feel a little bit more comfortable with their new environment. As he got close to the object, he could feel the pull of the water, so he decided not to get too close to this. He went up to the surface and started checking out the clear water. It was moving so fast! Being distracted by the water flow, he didn't see Matilda swimming around like crazy trying to catch his attention. By the time she got up the courage to shout, it was too late, a human was already opening the top of the tank! Chuck darted to the bottom and Matilda froze in terror, but to their surprise, just a few little round things fell on the surface and the human put its big, ugly face close and stared at them. FOOD! Chuck swam up and went crazy eating them as fast as he could as the previous journey had made him very hungry, Matilda battled with the side of her prison but couldn't understand why she couldn't quite reach the these little round things, she suddenly felt something hit her tail, spinning around she was face to face with 3 large red worms, OH WOW!!! she screamed in a muffled noise as she chewed the living day lights out of one, with shear delight she turned to Chuck opened her mouth to reveal a mushed up bloodworm "NAH NAH NAH NAH NAH" and grinning from gill to gill with the delight that she had got live food and not pellets. Chuck was happy that she got such a treat since she had to be stuck in such an awful little cage. He started swimming around, exploring all the plants and caves in this new place. He saw the big ugly human thing coming in the room again,,,uh Ohhhh he thought what is going to befall us now. But the human thing was carrying something and placed it next to Chuck & Matilda's new home. Oh thought Chuck, that looks like the thing we are in. He went up and gave Matilda's prison a knock and showed her this new thing next to them. As they both looked at each other and then the thing a sudden dread hit them,,,,were they going to be split up??Matilda started to sob , little bubble tear drops rising gently to the surface, Chuck felt sad and longed for the days back in the paddy fields. A week or so passed while Matilda & Chuck just swam aimlessly around during the long days feeling utterly trapped. Then it happened,,,the human came back carrying something else. Chuck swam to the side of his tank and hid behind a plant, peeping out through the plant he watched the human place a plastic bag in the new big prison. OMG thought Chuck,,another one of us. It was a very grey colour and stripey and hardly moving, Chuck felt so sorry for it. He watched avidly all day the goings on and kept swimming back to Matilda to keep her informed. Poor Matilda was so frustrated at not being able to see properly and her fins were feeling weak as she'd not had a good swim for ages and needed to exercise them. At the end of the day Chuck watched the human thing let the new prisoner out into the tank. The new fish immediatly hid down in a corner and didn't appear again that night. Chuck & Matilda drifted off to sleep wondering what fate would befall them the next morning. The sun rose and streamed in the window and Chuck woke thinking he was in his field,,,,then reality set in and he felt so so sad. After saying good morning to Matilda he remembered the new prison and swam to have a look,,and there,,,,right in front of him.....was the most stunning and gorgeous purple & pink feathertail female. He was totaly stunned his little heart started to thump and he could feel his tail expand without even trying. Matilda looked on and wondered what she had ever done to deserve to be taken out of her field, placed in a small tank only to see the love from Chuck to be diverted towards another female..... WAR was looming, there was no way that Matilda would allow Chuck to be taken from her after all she had been through. Even though, becoming increasingly sad that they were both miles from their field, she has secretly beamed with pride that she had been placed in the same place as Chuck without the constant advances of the swarm of female whilst in the field. THIS FEMALE MUST.....
