Chapter 336 - Irema part 2

I say I guarded her, but I don't know what I could have done if the God King's warriors had found us that day. I couldn't have protected her. I couldn't have even shouted a warning. Perhaps, if someone ventured near enough, I could have nipped them on the ankle. As it turned out, I needn't have worried. The God King's warriors didn't find us that morning, but it was several days before I learned the reason why.

About noon, I heard a scurrying sound.

Despite my determination to guard my granddaughter while she slept, the rhythmic shushing of the sea had lulled me into a doze. I was sitting there leaning against the log Irema had propped me against, dreaming of my mortal wives and husband. It was not a sexual dream for a change, just the four of us having a pleasant evening together. Nyala was repairing some boots, Brulde was playing with the children, Eyya was singing a song, and I was carving a figure from a piece of driftwood I had found down by the river, intending to give it to one of the children. I often carved little toys for the children, doling them out as rewards for good behavior.

That was when I heard it: a stealthy scuttling sound.

I snapped to attention, the dream vanishing like a bubble pierced by a fingertip. I rolled my eyes around, searching for the source of the skittering sound that had disturbed me, and saw another pair of eyes staring back at me from the entrance of the cave.

It was a crab of some sort, about twice the size of a man's hand. It was a mottled tan color with a cream colored underbelly, what looked to be about a dozen scuttling limbs and two lengthy eyestalks. It also had one extremely large and very unpleasant looking pincer.

The crab stared at me. It was using its small forelimbs to sift the sand in front of it for food, stuffing the bits into its wriggling little mouthparts. I didn't like the way it was looking at me and bared my fangs. The crab preened its eyestalks, unperturbed, and then took several skittering footsteps further inside the cave.

Would that I had a throat to give voice to my revulsion! The creature was grotesque, as inhuman things so often are, and the size of its great pincer was somewhat intimidating, especially considering how defenseless I was. The creature couldn't hurt me, not in any permanent way, but I could not help but envision the unpleasant things it might do to me with that pincer. I imagined it hauling me away by my hair as Irema slumbered, taking me to some dank earthen lair and picking out the softer parts of my anatomy to dine on at its leisure. It was certainly large enough to drag my head away.

The creature shuffled forward again, still eyeballing me, and I assigned an air of menace to its bearing. I began to think of it as a malevolent creature, rather than simply a curious crustacean. I imagined it smacking those busy little mouthparts hungrily. That it meant to pluck out my eyes, nibble on my tongue. I was letting my imagination get the better of me, but that is an easy thing to do when you are as helpless as I was.

The crab scuttled around the ashy embers of the fire, approaching in cautious fits and starts. The clicking sound its exoskeleton made as it moved toward me set my teeth on edge. It sounded like the clattering of bones in a soothsayer's cup.

I bared my teeth and tried to hiss.

The crab scurried closer. It was close enough now to snap at me with that outsized pincer—

Irema's hand shot out, faster than the eye could follow, and snatched the crab from the sandy floor of the cave. I rolled my eyes to the left and watched as she brought the crustacean to her mouth and bit into it with her fangs. She had sat up to do this without waking, her eyes still closed in deathlike slumber. The crab's shell made a brittle crunching sound as her fangs penetrated. There was a spurt of bluish fluid, and then she cast the wounded creature away, a look of revulsion on her face.

Crustaceans do not have blood as mammalians have blood. Inside their casings is a watery fluid called hemolymph, which is a mixture of water and electrolytes and a protein called hemocyanin. The presence of oxidized copper is what makes the fluid blue. Though vampires can subsist on the blood of all mammalian species, the hemolymph of crustaceans is of no nutritional value to us. Also, it tastes terrifically vile.

The crab, oozing like a burst tomato, hove away haltingly. Its limbs quivered as it retreated. It made it to the far side of the cave and then it collapsed, dead.

Good riddance, thought I.

Irema spat the creature's juices from her mouth, lips curled comically in disgust. Still she hadn't awakened. A moment later, she flopped back down on her side and went still again.

I returned to my vigil, eyeing the crustacean nervously from time to time, but it did not stir after it collapsed against the far wall. It was, in the modern vernacular, dead as a doornail.