Tallis shifted uneasily from one foot to the other as she stood just outside the pen, watching the mud crab slowly patrol the fencing, pausing every so often to grasp at a part of the fence with a brown-red pincher that was a little longer than her forearm. "Hi." She said softly.

Apparently the critter had worked out that she didn't have any kind of weapon and it no longer seemed overly concerned with her presence.

As the mud crab worked its way around the perimeter of the enclosure, Tallis hesitantly approached the pen, holding out a section of bear jerky she'd wheedled from the kitchen staff. When the crab was close again, she said. "Are you hungry? I read that mud crabs are scavengers."

A little distance behind her, Gaspar watched carefully. Even if the thing did break out of its enclosure, it was much more likely to run away than attack her. But all things considered, Tallis was not much of a physical fighter. Not that he was either, but an excessively powerful sorcerer didn't really need weapons.

The crab's antennae and shorter antennules waved back and forth, clearly smelling the jerky as it got closer. With her other hand, Tallis called up tendrils of magicka, weaving a gentle spell over the thing as it approached. As the spell finished, it stood still, antennae still waving, and reached slowly out with one pincher.

Tallis stepped forward, reaching carefully to place the jerky into the open claw. "I hope you like it." She said earnestly. "If you like watermelon, we have plenty of that too."

The creature appeared contented, pulling off and eating tiny bits of the jerky. Slowly, Tallis moved to one side, and reached out to place her fingertips on the carapace. For a moment, it paused, and then appearing to decide that such a slow approach didn't represent a threat, it went back to eating.

"Nice choice of approach, to mystically calm it first." Gaspar commented, once her spells were fully cast.

Tallis stepped away from the enclosure, looking relieved. "Well, all these gardens and whatnot," she gestured to the manicured grounds, "must seem pretty strange to it. I want to try and make friend with it if I can."

"It will be interesting to see your progress with that." Gaspar smiled encouragingly. Tallis appeared to have the perpetual belief that most of the inhabitants of the universe existed so that she could make friends, or possibly pets of them.

Borrisean, he recalled, had used words a lot more colorful than 'interesting' when the collection of cocoons Tallis had gathered last fall had spawned a group of moths that decided that the most expensive crimson robe in the Redguard's wardrobe would make a delicious smorgasboard.

Over the next few days Tallis found that the crab liked most seafood better than jerky, didn't care for melons, but really liked apples and berries. She also tended to do some of her studies near the enclosure. She often would murmur things aloud and it had seemed to be interested. So she used the mud crab as a sort of sounding board, reporting her assignments and reading bits of her required reading aloud.

This seemed to definitely settle it, and it would sit raptly when she read out loud to it, especially if it was something related to the military. By the end of the week when her spell-triggered growth was finished, she thought she had a pretty good relationship with it, though most of the rest of the apprentices either avoided it or bragged about how they would have defeated it easily. If they got to close, the crab would snap its pincers at them, which tended to mean that most of the bragging ended up being done over meals in the communal hall, and not in the garden.

So she wasn't being especially careful when she climbed halfway up the enclosure fence and leaned over to remove the magically-spawned pod off the mud-crab's carapace.

She felt hands against her backside, and lost her balance, falling not only into the enclosure but landing poorly; splashing into the small pool. Shrill laughter accompanied her fall. "Poor dear clumsy Ward." The last word was heavily and sarcastically accented.

Tallis shook her head and it took her a moment to focus on the slight figure just outside the fencing. Red garments, shoulder length light brown hair and a sneer. "Mariette." She said, deliberately leaving off the 'apprentice' title. Yes, Mariette was higher ranking than she, Tallis, was, but despite her unkindness and attitude, she didn't seem to be overly skilled at many spells.

Any reply Mariette might have intended to make was interrupted by the skittering rush of the crab. This close, Tallis could see that it's walking legs, which were almost as thick as Tallis' own legs, were edged with sharp projections. Her eyes widened as she realized that all it would have to do was stand on her to hold her down while it nibbled away. But it wouldn't do that, would it? She was sure it liked her. Pretty sure, anyway.

Marriette barely backed away, watching Tallis with a smug expression. "One shouldn't be so careless playing with seafood." She sneered. "Of course a mere Ward can't be expected to achieve much better than that." She brushed at the red and black shirt she wore, as if simply being near Tallis was likely to muss it.

The mud crab crashed into the fence, twisting a long pincer through the barrier, reaching forward and grabbing the edge of her long sleeve.

Tallis blinked. Yes, sleeve. The crab had clearly not intended to grab her arm.

Marriette jerked back. "Let that go, you overgrown mass of sushi and spell components."

The creature pulled on the cloth, and reaching forward with the other claw, gripped a section a few inches away. At that point it was a moment's work to shred the sleeve, which tore along the seam, almost completely in half. Then it let go.

Mariette fell backwards, landing on a group of waist-high red fungi topped in twisted branching tendrils. There was a wet sound as the plants were crushed and Tallis quickly held her nose. Mariette took an angry breath, her eyes widened, and then she half-turned, half rolled to one side and began violently throwing up.

The mud crab pulled its claws back into the enclosure, rotated toward Tallis, folded its legs and set down. It wiggled it’s eyestalks in the direction of the still angry apprentice.

Sputtering with frustration and fury Mariette struggled to her feet, and wiped ineffectively at the gooey combination of red stinkhorn pulp and yellow-green emesis that stained most of the back and left side of her pants. Between that and the sleeve the mud-crab had ruined, she was a far cry from her normally pristine self. Normally she would have had a lot more to say, but clearly it was taking most of her willpower to do anything other than continue to vomit. She ran in the direction of the garden gates.

Ignoring her, and frankly grateful for any reason for the high-ranking but unkind apprentice to go away, Tallis sat half sprawled looking up at the calm mud crab that had just caused so much trouble. She looked with wide eyes from the crushed fungus back to the mud crab.

"Stinkhorn." Tallis whispered. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?" In a half-whisper, she continued. "Can you understand me?"

The mud crab's right eyestalk slowly moved to it's right, and it gestured with it's right pincer. First pointing it down to the ground, then then up toward the sky, then down again. Then it moved both eye stalks to focus on her and stood which raised its whole carapace up. It then dipped its front toward the ground and then up again.

That was as close as a mud crab could possibly get to a nod. Tallis' mouth fell open.

That explained why it showed a distinct preference for her reading aloud from some books and not others; it hadn't just been listening to the sound of her voice, it had been paying attention to what she was saying.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Belatedly closing her mouth, Tallis raised up her left hand, and mimicked the same up and down gesture that the crab had done with it's claw. "This means yes." She said softly.

The crab answered her with the same gesture. Then after a pause, it made a brief back and forth motion with it's pincer. Then it slightly raised it's right eyestalk. The effect put Tallis in mind of Borrisean's raising an eyebrow when he thought he shouldn't have to actually ask the question.

So she said. "And that would mean 'no', wouldn't it?"

It gestured 'yes'.

Okay, even if a mud crab was really really smart, Tallis didn't think it would be possible for it to learn a language that well without being able to speak it. Which meant ...

"You weren't always a mud crab, were you?"

It gestured 'no'.

A thousand questions came to mind. Had it been human? Or mer? How old was he? Or was she a she? What had happened? But before she got too much further, she realized that all these questions didn't really matter, because the two very important issues were first that this crab needed to not be a crab any more, and second, the Arcane University was surely the perfect place for that to be accomplished.

Her first impulse was to get up and find Gaspar or Borissean. But turning in that direction, it occurred to her that as soon as she left the pen, the mud crab itself would be in danger. After all, it could be argued that it had attacked Mariette Rielle. Or at least Tallis was certain that Mariette herself would make that argument. unfortunately she had a couple of really skilled scholars for her patrons; all were the type to blast first, complement each other on skill level and ask questions the next day over brunch, if at all.

And that wasn't fair, because it was the clear thought behind the way it had dealt with her that had been the first clue to the mud crab's not actually being a mud crab. Not that Mariette would see it that way. Tallis had heard far too many of her seemingly endless speeches about the proud and magical and mysterious associations of the house of Rielle, and if Tallis wasn't impressed, it wouldn't matter because at least half the apprentices and many of the instructors were, including the Proctor. Who had a temper, and hadn't wanted the mud crab to be here in the first place. Or so Gaspar had implied but carefully not said.

Gaspar would be sympathetic and Borrisean would at least be intrigued. But they were likely to be in the Praxographical Center. Tallis had her doubts about being able to get a seven-foot wide mud crab through the doors, much less that far into the University proper before being stopped by someone.

Who was nearby who could help? And who actually would help? Tallis looked around. The gardens themselves were empty, which was pretty normal. The most likely person to be here was one of the apprentices to gather some ingredient or other for spell or potion making. Since the pen had been set up, most of the apprentices assigned to that duty had just given their chores to Tallis, arguing that since she was responsible for the mud crab and the safety of the garden, she would keep everyone safer if she just gathered anything needed herself. And since a Ward was a much lower rank than an actual Apprentice, she hadn't much choice in the matter.

The doors to the University itself were closed, so if she shouted, no one was going to hear her anyway. Hear. Listen. That gave her an idea; just on the other side of the wall was the lecture area, and every afternoon one of the mage scholars gave a lecture. Granted it was usually poorly attended but surely one of the scholars would know enough magic to solve this problem.

The crab wouldn't fit through the lobby, but if they could get over the wall, maybe a scholar could help them. Tallis turned back to face him (or her, she reminded herself). "Can you climb well?"

The crab's eye stalks moved a bit as it examined the wall. Uneasily Tallis took another look herself. It wasn't really weathered much, and despite Julienne's ideas about wanting to cultivate vines, nothing was growing on it at the moment. Mostly it was a sheer expanse of worked stone with not a lot to grab onto.

After some consideration the creature made a complete rotation, scanning all of the gardens it could see. Finally facing her again, it pointed to the wall, and gestured 'no'. Tallis' heart dropped into her stomach.

Then it pointed to a tree that stood fairly nearby, and cautiously gestured 'yes'.

Tallis turned to look at the tree more closely. It was fairly near the wall. Unfortunately the branches that reached in the direction of it, didn't quite reach far enough, and though they would certainly support her, she didn't think that they were quite long enough or strong enough to support the mud crab.

"Maybe." Tallis muttered. She walked closer to the tree. "I can make some of these branches longer and stronger." She put her hands to the tree and gently caressed the bark. "I'm pretty good with helping plants to grow."

Then she thought of a problem, and turned to the mud crab. "I'll do my best. The problem is that I can't actually climb very well."

The crab wiggled its antennules and she gave it her full attention. Then it carefully touched her shoulder with its right claw, and then reached the claw up to indicate the top of it's carapace.

She looked at the wall again. In order to get to the top of the wall, they were going to have to go pretty far out on those branches. Even though mud crabs had so many legs and surely could climb pretty well, wouldn't her added weight make it fall?

She felt a brush at her shoulder again. She turned. The crab was holding out a pincer, clearly indicating her, then it opened the claw a very small amount. Then it indicated 'yes' again.

Well yes, even for a Breton she was pretty small. Her face flushed red.

"Okay." She said, and putting both hands to rest on the bark of the tree, she closed her eyes and concentrated. She let magicka flow through her, out of her hands, and into the tree, guiding it, shaping it, giving it more energy, more life, more growth. For a little bit she felt as if her arms were extending through the tree, and the wind in the leaves was the wind in her hair. Push farther, reach toward the wall, stretch and grow strong.

Eventually she opened her eyes to see that two very large branches had extended themselves in the direction of the wall. The tree did seem a little off balance now, but maybe she could come back and correct that later. "By the nine," She breathed softly. "It worked."

Then from the doorway of the University Lobby she heard two voices. Both female, and both sounded irritable and arrogant. It was not a surprise to identify Mariette as one of the speakers. Tallis listened closely to the other voice, and noted an Altmer accent.

"Well I am not surprised. This is what comes of Arch-Mage Traven's willingness to share the secrets of the University with un-lineaged rabble from the prisons. Don't worry, my dear Mariette, I shall make this quick." It was Caryana. Nobility, arrogance and a lot of skill in destruction magic to go with it.

"Sithis!" Tallis cursed, and then clapped her hands over her mouth. Which was lucky, because the mud crab promptly picked her up with both claws and plopped her onto the top of his carapace. If she hadn't already had her hands over her mouth, she surely would have said something loud enough to draw attention from Caryana's bragging and Mariette's fawning.

The top of the mud crab was not only irregular, and fairly easy to grip onto, it was also home to several fist-sized, limpet like half-shelled critters which gave her a number of textured options as hand holds. She grabbed onto the nearest couple.

The crab gathered itself and jumped out of the pen, onto the lower part of the tree. Tallis stifled a yelp and held on as tightly as she could. Belatedly, she realized that the mud crab could have escaped at any time. Had it been waiting for a mage to try and talk to it?

It skittered quickly up the branches, and she had cause to be grateful for the handholds; as it tilted and turned in most alarming ways as it moved along. It straddled both of the branches she extended, and slowly worked it's way to within about four feet of the wall. Maybe not a big jump for a mud crab, but not one that Tallis herself would have tried. It pause long enough for Tallis to realize she was holding her breath, and then leapt to the top of the wall, landing easily.

On the other side of the wall, one of the mage scholars was sitting near the podium, reviewing lecture notes on a scroll. It was an altmer woman with long blond hair, dressed in silken green. She was humming softly to herself.

Tallis sagged in relief. Earana was very skilled, and almost as unconventional as Gaspar. She would probably at least listen to the story.

There was a feminine curse from behind the wall, and the crab scooted forward just barely holding to the top of the wall with its rear claws. They would be out of sight from ground level in the gardens. Tallis scrambled to find better handgrips as he shifted, and she nearly fell off.

They must have made some sound, because once Tallis caught her balance, she found herself looking down at a very surprised Earana.

Hastily Tallis tried to explain. "It's not exactly what it looks like, but we need your help, please."