Onward: Purple

[voidtreckermods]

The second night of their trek is interrupted by the shaking of the ground. It only lasts a few moments and all the tunnels hold, but it is enough to be a frightening experience.

And it seems to have agitated the monsters. A wave of crabs attack not long after the shaking has stopped, emerging from the rocks around them.

They are close to one of the sandbanks and as they emerge, for a moment out of the caves they will find darkened skies and choppy seas. There is a feeling of a storm approaching. It is cooler then it has been.

But that is the least of their problems. As they cross the sandbank, wading in the water a giant squid attacks. Tentacles reaching out of the sea, to wrap around limbs and pull the voidtreckers and those they are escorting off the sandbank and into the ocean depths.

The tentacles at least seem to withdraw if damaged enough, hopefully they can be fought off before anyone drowns.

Comments

[laurefindil]

"Sharp Pointy Stick?" Glorfindel asked, offering him one. With his other hand he used his own stick to flip one of the crabs onto its back, effectively nullifying it. "If you can keep them from using their big claw, they can't flip back over!"

"We need to clear a path to get out of here!"

[bridgetothefuture]

Sam takes it, offering a mumbled, "thanks," before he nods, looking at the crabs as they start climbing towards them.

"They're pretty harmless when they're tiny little things. Not so much when they're the size of a kid."

As one of the crab starts towards them, Sam whacks at it with the stick, cause it to flip over, flailing its limbs angrily at Sam.

[laurefindil]

"At least they aren't the size of Joss or Romeo," Glorfindel pointed out. That would make him uncomfortable. Not that those two couldn't handle themselves, but against something as big as them, would make the chance of injury higher.

"Nice shot!" He flipped over a couple more, but kept an eye on the flailing overturned ones to make sure they didn't find purchase with their big claw to pull themselves back over.

[bridgetothefuture]

"Or worse, the size of you or me."

That sounds like something straight out of a pre-Stranding horror movie, to him.

But as it is, the crabs are pretty easy to incapacitate, so long as he keeps moving, and keeps himself away from their claws.

[laurefindil]

Glorfindel thought about that for a moment, as he continued to dodge the crabs and flip them. "Actually, they might be easier to stop, as their joints would be more exposed."

[bridgetothefuture]

"You think so?"

He narrowly avoids being grabbed by one of the pincers, kicking the crab, which goes tumbling a few feet away, legs flailing upwards as it tries to right itself without much luck.

"They'd have a much easier time of seriously hurtin' one of us, too. Those claws are already nasty enough."

[laurefindil]

"A fair," Glorfindel batted another to land upside down a few feet away, "point," he finished. "Plus, they'd be harder to flip. No, if we have to face them, this size is optimal, I suppose."

[bridgetothefuture]

"Honestly, I think I'd take a normal sized crab," Sam grumbles as he flips over another.

"Tiny, and they can't do much damage."

[laurefindil]

"Well, obviously, but if we were fighting them, we could just step over them and be on our way. Somehow, if the missions were that easy, I don't think we'd be needed," Glorfindel said with a laugh.

[bridgetothefuture]

Sam sighs.

"I still don't understand how I got roped into this to begin with." He says it, but he takes another swing at one of the crabs that comes a little too close. "I'm a porter, not exactly some great warrior."

[laurefindil]

"The Train chose you? Same as it did the rest of us?" Glorfindel offered. "We have all sorts, with a variety of different talents. I am certain you fill an important empty spot the Train felt we needed filling."

[bridgetothefuture]

"Mm," Sam says, though he doesn't entirely convinced.

...That's probably because he has trouble trusting people he hasn't met, or whose faces he's never actually seen. "Well. The sooner we get rid of these things, the sooner the people of this world can start getting back to normal, huh?"

[laurefindil]

"Absolutely!" Glorfindel gave him a big smile. "That's the spirit!"

[bridgetothefuture]

Sam doesn't smile, but he does nod. It's not so stiff of a movement, and he thwacks another crab out of the way after a moment.

"You think these things are common around here, or are they an invading force?"

[laurefindil]

Glorfindel shook his head. "Somehow I think that if they were normally this aggressive, the villagers might not have needed us. But how common they are, that I do not know."

"Watch out, that one's a little bigger!"

[bridgetothefuture]

"I don't know about that, there are a lotta them. Seems like it would have been easy to get overwhelmed."

Sam spins around at the warning, managing to hit the crab on the side before it's able to attack him. "Damn things. I like these better when they're little and already dead."

[laurefindil]

"I too like my enemies when they are dead," Glorfindel said with a laugh. "But it feels like they are swarming this place, as if summoned. I do not see any sign that they reside here."

[bridgetothefuture]

"I've never seen a crab that's not already dead," Sam clarifies, or at least, tries to clarify. "Only the ones I've seen are nowhere near this size."

[laurefindil]

Ah, Glorfindel understands now. "Served on a plate with a bit of butter? I do prefer crabs that way, too, I admit!"

[bridgetothefuture]

"No," Sam says distantly. "Washed up from the Beach, or on the Beach itself."

He sounds pretty revolted by the idea. "Eating something washed up from the other side sounds like suicide."

[laurefindil]

[Since we're now discussing the Beach in a later thread, he's not going to ask about it here, LOL]

"Mm, I agree, if you don't know what killed it, eating it might not be such a good idea." Glorfindel looked at the dead and helpless crabs they've been fighting. "Fortunately we do know what killed these ones."