Chapter 29: Pirate Crab


    <b>I</b>adjusted the ck leather strap around Sergeant Snips’ carapace, her body wiggling in excitement.


    “It’s hard to get it in ce with you moving about, Snips!”


    She shifted even more to spite me, blowing bubbles of amusement.


    Iughed at her antics, holding her still as best I could with one hand, the other sliding beneath her and pulling the strap through a loop. Putting both hands underneath, I pulled tight, locking it into ce with the metal buckle. I took a step back, admiring the fit.“It doesn’t hurt?” I asked, looking at her now-hidden eye.


    She shook her head, but both ws moved up and down in joy, making it a confusing gesture.


    “Not to toot my own horn, Snips, but you look amazing.”


    She nodded, blowing bubbles of agreement as she felt her new leather ‘hat’ with one w.


    “It makes you look almost <i>dangerous—</i>you have a real air of mystique, Snips.”


    She squinted her lone eye, leaning into the im and cking her ws in an approximation of aggression.


    The hat I’d made for her was a ck eye patch, covering the scarred shell of her lost eye. The strips of leather acting as a strap were thick and wide, spreading out the pressure of its snug fit across her powerful carapace. I had feared it might cause her pain, but my worry was misced; it was <i>perfect.</i>


    “It should hold up in the water, too, but don’t stress—even if it wears out, I’ll dly make as many as you need.”


    She preened, walking beside me and rubbing herself against my leg.


    I bent down to pat the top of her shell.


    “I love you too, Snips—and you’re very wee.”


    We walked over to the fire, and I inspected the pot of saltwater atop it. I’d intentionally kept the heat of the fire as low as possible, and the liquid had reduced only minimally over the day.


    “Back in a moment, Snips.”


    I walked inside, grabbing anotherrge empty pot, a medium-sized pot filled with clean water, and a few tea towels. I returned to the fire, ced the tea towels atop the empty pot inyers.


    “Would you mind holding these towels in ce while I pour?” I asked the Sergeant.


    She nodded, scuttling over to hold them down with her wed appendages stretched wide.


    I picked up the pot from the fire, the handles cool enough to grab since the fire was so low. I walked over to the pot Snips held, and with a steady pour, strained the saltwater through the tea towels. The water took time to filter through thebined mesh ofyered cloth, and I waited for it to drainpletely before dumping more water in.


    When there was no more liquid left to strain, I inspected the top cloth in thete afternoon sun. A noticeable pile of sand sat inside it, interspersed with dark-brown flecks of other sediment.


    “No wonder thest batch went bad, Snips.” I pointed down at the waste.


    She got up on her tippy toes, peering down at the strained materials. With a tentative w, she grabbed a particrlyrge brown fleck and put it in her mouth. I furrowed my brows in abject difort. She tasted it for a bare moment before spewing bubbles of disgust. Iughed so hard that tears came to my eyes. I fell over, trying and failing to getforting words out through the fleeting giggles.


    “Snips—I could have told you that was a bad idea. Are you okay?”


    She scuttled over to the pot of clean water, sucking some out and ejecting it onto the sand.


    I held the emptied pot out to her. “Would you mind rinsing this off in the river to remove any remaining sediment? I’m gonna wash off these towels.”


    She nodded sharply, happy to contribute.


    I took the tea towels and, cing the sediment-filled side down, washed them in the clean pot of water. Snips returned with the washed pot just as I was finishing with the cloths, and I wrung any remaining water from them.


    “We’ll filter it one more time then chuck it back on the fire, Snips!”


    She blew bubbles of assent, setting the river-washed pot down next to the one filled with filtered seawater. I had her hold down the tea towels again and repeated the filtering process. The sediment was almost non-existent this time, telling me the seawater was mostly free of impurities.


    I put the pot of salt-filled water back on the small mes of the fire.


    “All right, Snips—that should do it!”


    She bobbed her head, clearly as happy as I was to make some progression on the seasoning front.


    “What do you say we put all this stuff away and go do a little bit of...”


    I waggled my eyebrows, drawing out the sentence. Snips danced on the spot, knowing what wasing.


    “Fishing!”


    A torrent of unreadable bubbles flew from her mouth, and she sprinted as fast as all eight of her legs could carry her toward the rods. I ran behind her with the pots and tea towels in hand, giggling like a boy running after his dog.


    “Looks like the wind has definitely died down—hopefully that means it’s a good day for fishing tomorrow!”


    Snips was so excited she let out a little squeak; my heart melted.


    I had my smaller rod with metal jigs on it, and we went to our usual hole by the heand for baitfish.


    “If we get plenty of bait before it goes dark, we can reset the crab pot and get right into fishing tomorrow.”


    She urged me with both ws, gesturing for me to get on with it.


    “All right, all right,” I said with augh. “I’m getting to it, you little scamp!”


    I swung the rod overhead, the short length of line leaving the ground. With a soft flick, the rock-sinker flew out and hit the water with a


    <i>plonk.</i> I expected a small thump from the rock hitting the floor. Instead, the rod almost pulled from my hands.


    “Woah!”


    Snips hissed in excitement, her spindly legs tapping along the rocks as she ran in circles. I stepped back and lifted the rod high, the attached fish shaking its head with vicious swings. The line darted in another direction, and the bamboo pole bent over in half. I stepped in closer, not wanting to put too much pressure on the rod or line.


    “Snips! Get in there! It’s gonna break!”


    She


    <i>flew,</i> her entire bodyunching from the spot she stood and into the river.


    I roared, half yelling, halfughing, unable to contain my joy. <i>This is the best!</i> I walked closer again as the fish on the line tried to swim away, doing my best to not let it break my equipment and get away. Suddenly, the tension eased, and I knew my trusty crab had grabbed hold of the fish. I walked backward, keeping tension on the line while still letting Snips do her thing.


    Four of her legs appeared above the water, and with a heave, she threw something up onto the heand. I ran back, dragging it further onto the rocks. The fish Snips had grabbed was an eel, the same as I’d already seen.


    Common Eel


    Common


    Found in the brackish waters of the Kallis Realm, this eel’s flesh has high oil content and a strong scent, making it unptable food but excellent bait.


    <i>So you return, my twicemon friend.</i>


    The line tried to pull away, and I felt a moment of disorientation; the sensation didn’t match the eel I saw slithering ineffectually over itself on the rocks.


    Sergeant Snips hissed, pointing down into the water, and realization struck me.


    <i>There’s another fish on the line!</i>


    I pulled back, slowly fighting against the strong fish.


    <i>It wasn’t the eel doing most of the work—it’s whatever is still in the water!</i>


    Snips cheered me on with her ws, waving them around frantically as I backed away from the edge. A sh of silver turned to orange as the fish’s scales caught the light of the sunset to the east. I took one more step, pulling it halfway over the edge, and Snips finished the battle, flicking it up beside the eel. I threw the rod behind me and ran down to it. Snips held the slippery eel down, and I grabbed the other. My vision was drawn into it.


    Mature Cichlid


    Umon


    Found in the fresh and brackish waters of the Kallis Realm, this fish is a staple source of both food and bait.


    <i>A mature version of the juvenile cichlids!</i>


    The fish was short and fat, just longer and wider than Snips. I grabbed it by the mouth, knowing the fish had no teeth. I reached behind me, slipping the nail from my pocket and dispatching both fish with a swift jab.


    “Sergeant Snips—you beautiful pirate crab!” I looked between her and the two fish. “We got bait <i>and</i> dinner!”


    She bubbled with delight.


    Gary slipped inside the Cult of the Leviathan Tropica branch, casting his vision around. His boss wasn’t in the main room, and he let out a sigh.


    <i>Thank Hermes’s divine guidance.</i>


    Sebastian had always been a disagreeable boss, but he’d be even more verbally abusive since the murder of Pistachio and his precious crickets. There were more crickets on the way, which Gary was holding out for.


    <i>Hopefully he’s a bit more agreeable once he has some little snippers to care for...</i>


    Gary walked through the room with padded steps, ensuring he made no noise to alert Sebastian of his presence, just in case the man was in another of the rooms. He winced as he walked past Sebastian’s bedroom and nced inside. Gary sighed again; he wasn’t in there, either.


    Just as he was about to leave the doorway behind, a red sh caught his attention. He dipped his head inside—the unnatural light wasing from a bag on Sebastian’s desk.


    <i>Oh—just the artifact.</i>


    He was about to leave, but something drew him in. Following the pull, he stepped up to Sebastian’s desk, reaching into the bag and withdrawing the shing artifact.


    “What the . . .”


    The light above the approximation of a human shed red as it always had, but something else had changed. The small bulb set below the drawing of animals also shed at the same rhythm as the other.


    He stared, uprehending.


    <i>. . . there’s an ascending creature . . . ?</i>


    Gary reflexively went to call for Sebastian but stopped himself. He thought back on his boss’s actions since discovering the shing light. He’d ruined practically <i>everything</i> on learning of an ascendant human—what would he do upon learning there was also an ascendant creature?


    <i>Nothing good,</i> Gary decided.


    He closed the bag, taking the artifact with him as he left Sebastian’s room.


    “How are you feeling, dear?” Barry’s wife asked from the door to their bedroom.


    “Bad,” he croaked from beneath the covers.


    “Can I get you anything?”


    “No—thank you.”


    She paused in the doorway, but after a few breaths, he heard her retreating footsteps.


    <i>How long can I go on like this?</i>


    After a couple days of no sleep and constant worry, Barry was no longer coping. He took a steadying breath, exhaling it slowly in an attempt to calm his fraying nerves. It worked—for a time.


    He drifted off to sleep, but after what felt like a few seconds, he was violently awoken. His tormentor had returned, once more making itself known and expelling him from his only reprieve—sleep. Barry’s unseeing eyes stared into space, lingering on the words before him.


    Please select a name.


    A line blinked after the sentence, drawing his attention with each flicker.


    “Please . . .” he said, fighting off tears. “Just leave me alone . . .”