by Don P. Bick
Chapter 40
For days the group of eight traveled north along the coast. They were gradually leaving the wind behind them. Surprisingly, they ran into few animals along the way. Those they did come across were dispatched quickly and easily, or were far enough away not to pose a serious problem. The only thing they could attribute to the lack of animal attacks was a statement that kept echoing in Druc's head. The forces of darkness needed time to recover from the success the seven had already enjoyed. When asked how he knew that, he said he just knew, although he couldn’t recall any particulars from his memory.
For most of the three previous days the group traveled in the foothills of the mountains. These hills extended down to the sea, abruptly ending in high cliffs, sometimes dropping hundreds of feet to rocky beaches. The going was slower and more strenuous than some of the other sections they had traveled. They constantly had to work their way around large crevices and fingers of land that extended out into the sea. Finally, after the last three days of that type of terrain they came to a smooth long sandy beach. It was the first straight and smooth piece of ground they had seen or traveled across in a long time. The going was much easier and by the time they reached the far end of the stretch of sand it was nearing evening.
At the northern end of the beach they came to a rocky outcrop, extending up from the water line to some two or three hundred yards inland. It looked as though there had been a large rock slide from the inland hill. There, in the shelter of those large rocks, they decided to make camp for the night.
Bran and Druc disliked fishing in the sea. They much preferred the streams. Since they had come back over the mountains, they were not catching those nice small fish they had grown accustomed to and liked so well. It was anyone’s guess each evening what they would catch in these unexplored parts of the world. Some evenings they caught some things they wouldn't eat, even though they kind of resembled fish. Eagle didn't seem to have a problem with eating them, however.
They hadn't crossed any streams or rivers during their last hour of walking, before stopping at the rock slide, so that evening Bran and Druc were forced to fish in the sea, if they wanted to fish at all. They checked ahead a little ways as well, but there were no streams nearby for them to try out.
They decided to try the sea rather than not fish at all. Gathering their gear they headed off to the water, Eagle right behind them. He was flying much better and was capable of staying in the air for several minutes at a time now. He would oftentimes fly a short ways ahead, and then wait for them to catch up, rather than follow.
Bran waded out in the water until it reached just below his knees, shortly followed by Druc, gripping the Golden Staff in his right hand and fishing pole in his left. Eagle started to follow until the water came up on the beach and chased him back. He didn't like it and the normally quiet bird began to chatter his disrespect for the inconsiderate waves. Bran and Druc watched and laughed for a while before throwing in their lines.
While Bran and Druc went off to fish, Uri and Twil scouted on ahead of where they set up camp to make sure there were no surprises waiting for them during the night or the following morning. They climbed the rocky slide of rocks and disappeared from the campsite.
Camran stayed in camp with Gena and Ve-Nah. He had developed a blister on his right heel a couple of days previously and it was still bothering him. It was almost gone but he wanted to apply one of Twil's creams to it and stay off his feet that evening. Gena and Ve-Nah went about setting things up for dinner and the night ahead. They decided not to start fixing anything to eat until after they see whether or not the two fishermen came back with something for them to cook. They also wanted to make sure it was safe to stay where they were, based on information from Twil and Uri's scouting trip.
It didn't take long to organize and ready the camp. When they finished, the women settled down with Camran to visit over a hot mug of tea. The tea was one the three fondly liked. It came from a plant Twil had pointed out to them. They found it in abundance on the other side of the mountains. It apparently was rare along the coast for they only found a couple of plants along one river bank since returning through the mountains. Before they came back over the pass, Gena and Ve-Nah gathered as many of the leaves as they were able to take with them for their future use. Camran commented to the two women that he didn't understand why the others didn't seem to like the tea as much as they did. As they sat and enjoyed the hot brew they discussing the travel of the past few days.
From where the three sat they could see Bran and Druc out in the water fishing. They laughed as Eagle started several times to walk out to them and hurry back as the next wave came up on shore. He would jump up and down and the three knew the wave was getting a stern talking to. Without anyone actually meaning for it to happen, Eagle had become the family pet.
Camran sat straight up, Ve-Nah jumped to her feet. A very large crab was approaching the two fishermen from behind. Apparently it had come from the north, out of the rocks somewhere. It was a good eight feet tall on its long legs. Two giant pincher claws extended out in front of the crustacean. It looked remarkably like a crab from Earth, only lots bigger. The three started shouting at Bran and Druc, who were unable to hear them due to the noise of the surf. Camran retrieved his crossbow and began to run bare footed toward the water.
The crab was only twenty yards or so from Bran and Druc, who remained completely unaware of its presence. Eagle, however, was beside himself. He had spotted the monster and hopped excitedly up and down flapping his wings, while the crab continued to stalk the two unsuspecting men.
Camran ran as fast as his legs could carry him. The camp was more than a hundred yards from the water. The two women had also grabbed their weapons and were in pursuit of Camran. There was no way Camran would make it to the two men before the crab. As he ran he yelled and waved his arms, trying to get the attention of one of his friends.
The crab was a few scant yards behind Bran and Druc when Eagle had had enough. He took to the air and attacked. Camran couldn't believe what he was witnessing, especially after the incident with the tiger animal when Eagle hid behind Druc.
Eagle flew right into the face of the crab pecking the hard shell of the crustacean. The huge pinching arms of the crab came up to ward off the attack. Eagle barely escaped those pinchers as he flapped his wings and climbed above the extended claws.
As Eagle escaped up into the air his wings caught the attention of the two fishermen, barely missing their heads. They turned and saw the huge pinchers of the crab only a few feet from them, Eagle was coming in for another attack. Bran and Druc, as quickly as possible, moved off to the side while reaching for their crossbows. The crab had reared up on its hind legs waiting for the bird to come at it once again. Both men were afraid Eagle, with his wide wingspan, could be easily caught by those large pinchers if he came in too close to the crab. Eagle fooled them by swinging behind the crab and coming down hard on the back of the crab's head. The impact knocked the crab down onto all its legs.
Bran got off a shot, while Druc was yelling at Eagle to get away from there, muttering "stubborn bird" the whole time. The arrow hit the crustacean's shell and bounced off. He had been aiming for the crab's eye, but the crab moved at the last second.
Eagle had risen above the crab and was coming in again for another attack. This time he hit the crab behind the head with his powerful beak and tangled his wings in one of the crabs pinchers as it was coming up to defend itself. Eagle lost all momentum to climb back into the sky. He tried to flap his wings and rise but only succeeded in maneuvering himself off of the crab and landing in the water, not more than five yards from the reach of those mighty pinchers. Eagle was mad. Druc didn't know whether he was mad at the crab or at the water, but he was mad. Druc, disregarding his own safety went to help him. Eagle couldn't fly out of the foot and a half deep surf without some help, although he was trying hard to do so.
Camran had reached the edge of the water by the time Eagle had lan
ded in it. The crab was going after Eagle and he could see Druc going to Eagle's aid. Camran didn't have a target at which to shoot. He knew the hard shell would only deflect his arrow, so he started into the water to get around the crab and into a position to get off a shot from a better angle.
Druc reached Eagle in two strides, seemingly in slow motion as he moved through the knee deep water. He had discarded his pole but held fast to the Golden Staff. He didn't know whether Eagle would strike at him in his anger or not. There was no time to waste concerning himself with that possibility. Druc stooped down, put his left hand under the bird and lifted straight up with all his might. Eagle not only didn't strike out at Druc, he purposely closed his beak and moved it out of Druc's way. Eagle was heavier than Druc had anticipated but Eagle rose up, flapping his wings. The wings caught the air and he flew up out of the water, slapping Druc lightly as he went.
Druc was now within reaching distance of those large claws, and he began to quickly back away from the advancing crab. Bran was still trying to maneuver into a position to get a shot into one of the crab's eyes; there was nothing he could accomplish by trying to reach Druc in the water. His sword would do nothing to the shell of the crab, it was just too thick.
While Bran and Camran were trying to get into position to shoot, Eagle attacked once more. The crab was concentrating on Druc at the time and was caught off guard as the bird flew into his face. Eagle got hold of the right eye of the crab and wrenched it from its socket. That gave Druc the distraction and time he needed to move to a safer spot.
Eagle rose up above the crustacean and readied for still another attack. The crab had reared up and was clawing the air with his pinchers, looking with the one good eye, trying to locate the bird. The men had maneuvered into a better position but were unable to fire with the crab's head up in the air.
Eagle attacked and somehow got his beak into the good eye and pulled it out before the crab was able to maneuver his pinchers to ward off the blow. With the crab's sight gone in both eyes the men were at an advantage. Eagle attacked again but hit the shell of the crab, and due to fatigue more than anything again landed in the water. This time he landed quite a ways away and behind the crustacean; it couldn't see him anyway. Once more he strenuously began trying to get out of the water. Gena and Ve-Nah who had been standing helplessly on the beach came to Eagle's rescue.
The two women reached him easily. It took both of them to lift the bird enough to move him a little ways back toward shore. Eagle was too tired to fly, not having flown all that much so far in his young life. Three times they had to reach below and lift him before he was free of the water. Although he didn't make any menacing movement toward the women, he continued venting his anger with his shrill cries and screeches. Once back on the sandy beach Eagle started back into the water after the crab. Gena and Ve-Nah had to physically restrain him while he gave them both what they guessed passed for a dirty look.
While the women were rescuing Eagle, the crab had dropped back down onto all its legs. It started circling; reaching out with both pinchers, trying to find the prey it knew was there. The opportunity finally came for Bran and Camran to get off shots with their crossbows. Both arrows went into the same eye socket, causing the crab to rear up once more. When the crab returned to the water the crossbows let go with another round of arrows. One entered the other eye of the crab. Camran missed, still not as good with the weapon as the other men. Three more times they fired arrows into the eye sockets before the crab began to show signs of slowed movement. One final round of arrows and the crab slumped to the water in resignation. Slowly it ceased all movement, as the ebb and flow of the surf washed the sand from under the shell of the dead monster.
Only when Druc left the water uninjured did Eagle settle down and the women let him loose. He promptly resumed his non-caring appearance and kept a respectable distance from the others.
In all the excitement they forgot to look around and see if there were other crabs within sight. They looked around the beach and saw none, much to their relief.
Camran started laughing and ran back up to camp. The others shook their heads, wondering what had gotten into him. In a few minutes he returned carrying some rope. He waded out into the water and tied the rope onto one of the hind legs of the dead crustacean. He talked the others into helping him pull the crab up onto the beach out of the water, before it sank too deeply in the sand. It took all of them straining on the rope to move the giant crab, but finally they managed to get it free of the water and up onto the sandy beach.
Camran picked up the stone ax, which he had also retrieved from camp when getting the rope and started hacking away at one of the joints in the crab's leg. The membrane at the joint cracked easier than Camran expected. He and Bran peeled it back, exposing the white meat inside. Camran took out his knife and cut out a foot long section. He gave the meat to Druc to give to Eagle. It was his crab.
Druc walked over to where the bird stood and fed him the white meat. At first the bird wanted to attack it and tear it apart, until he tasted it. He gulped it down and two more pieces like it before he had his fill. Bran commented that Eagle was going to want them to catch one of those every night from now on, which brought on laughter from everyone. Druc said he hoped they didn't see anymore of them, even out of the way of danger. Eagle would probably go and try to eat it.
Once Eagle was through eating, Camran called on the others to help cut off the other legs. None of them had ever heard of eating anything like this before. Camran assured them they would like it.
They finished dragging the legs up to camp before Twil and Uri returned from their scouting trip. They reported they had found nothing important. They certainly were astonished to see and hear what had taken place while they were away.
That night, while they kept a constant watch for more crabs, Camran fixed dinner for them all. He placed the white meat on wooden racks set across boiling pans of water. It didn't take long to stream enough crab for them all to have a feast. They considered it the most delicious dinner they had yet eaten in their new found world.
The story of what Eagle had done was retold to the two men who weren't there to see it. By the time they finished the story, anyone who didn't know better would have thought the bird was twenty feet tall and went around killing giant crabs at will.
Eagle ate a couple more pieces of crab that evening while he perched on a rock near Druc, completely unconcerned about what was going on around him.
