“Back at the old forest, I can ‘read your mind,’ remember,” the girl said playfully with a sweet smile.

“I thought you know him.”

“Of course, I know him. I’m over four hundred years old. Your father is not even four hundred yet. I’m in fact your father’s senior.”

“No, I mean, do you know him personally? Have you met him?”

“I met him once. That’s a long time ago when your father is still not too middle-aged. But I don’t want to tell you the story. You have to go and ask your father yourself.”

“Ask him? Again? We don’t actually talk much. And why are you being so mysterious all so suddenly?”

“Well, I would think that it should be your father’s prerogative to decide what to tell you,” the girl said with a smile and walked on. “Now that we’ve crossed the tributary, I can’t know what you’re thinking anymore. We have exceeded the reach of Oldbark. So, you’ll need to tell me.”

“Oh. That’s really nice to know,” said Darius, with a big relief. He was following behind her so she probably did not see how grateful he was for the news. He had been refraining or rather refocusing his thought to think of everything else except the nightly affairs or some other naked equivalence. It was a painstaking effort and finally it was over as if a big rock that was pressing against him had suddenly been lifted. He could breathe more freely now. “Look, there’s a deer.”

It was a solitary deer strolling along the bank but once they looked further ahead, they spotted a few more drinking by the river or eating something from the mud. The deer, almost six feet tall turned to regard them for a while and walked away to rejoin its group in front. Obviously it did not think that they were hungry enough to go after its meat and they were a good distance away.

These deer were called periwinkle deer because the white spots on their body resembled the five petal flowers. They also had the most elaborate and ornamental horns of the deer family, making them the top target for poachers and hunters. Suddenly, everyone who had some cash wanted their heads to hang them up in their studies, or their living room.

“Should we get one for dinner?”

“I thought you said that you can’t kill a beast.”

“I can kill a deer. I can use my Spidersilk to catch one and then strangle it. I run fast. Catching them should be alright.”

“So you can kill a deer with that spider thing but …”

“Spidersilk.”

“But you can’t kill a beast.”

“Yes. The beast is strong and violent. It can fight back. I can’t fight one without proper weapon. A deer can’t. It can’t gore you with those beautiful horns. And it can’t bite.”

“Forget it. We still have a lot of berries. That’d be enough for at least three days. Don’t kill unnecessarily.”

On hearing that, Darius’ was deflated. He was tired of the berries. He thought he could get some meat to revitalize the body and satisfy the yearning for a meaty mouthful. But now, back to the berries. He said, “Don’t you eat meat? Are you a herbivore?”

Just as he finished saying that, the river exploded near the bank. The water burst high up into the air and carried the solitary deer up. It rose like a crane taking off. The water, as it rose, separated out into droplets, and they sparkled and shimmered as the midday light struck through them. Darius saw a huge dark figure hidden within. Elena could not see it clearly but she sensed something was amiss.

The mass of water reached their peak, stopped momentarily before they all fell onto the ground. The figure landed on both his legs, which sank into the mud half way to the knee, with the beautiful periwinkle deer dangling limply from his mouth. Its neck was caught between his massive jaws. He stood there like a mountain, hands on the side. The great weight of the deer did not bother him or hinder his every movement. The water came drizzling down wetting the ground, bathing the compound being and washing away the blood that oozed out from the punctured neck.

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The being was a solidly built crocodileman, ten feet tall and four feet wide, with devastating muscles everywhere. He wore a banana-yellow shorts, knee-length, dirty and stained, with leather belt and a leather shoulder strap with small pouches lining them. The strap was slung diagonally across his core muscles over the left shoulders and hooked at the right side of the belt at both ends. Darius thought that he was a lizardman since his attire did not differ very much from the ones he saw back at the tavern. This one looks rather old and bulky, he thought.

The yellow eyes of the croc scanned the bank for other possible preys or enemies that wanted to have a bite. The other deer had long run away into the safety of the forest, forsaking their kind, almost dead now, life slipping away. Looking round, he saw Darius and Elena who were looking back at him. They stood there, unmoving, and quietly looking at him.

He opened his mouth to speak and his prey dropped to the ground, which unsettled him as if it caught him off guard. “What are you two looking at?“ He looked at them sternly. He was definitely not very friendly. “No, I mean, what are you doing here? You have no business to be here.” His voice was like the sound of a large bell, bearing over the whole town.

“Keep quiet. I’ll handle this,” whispered the girl silently. She then greeted the crocodileman. “How are you, Mr. Croc? I see you’ve found your lunch,” she shouted as the distance was quite far away.

From the way Elena addressed him, Darius knew that he was not a lizardman. Mr. Croc? He did not know who anything about them. Maybe some close relative to the lizardmen, he thought. And since Elena knew him, he concluded that it would not likely to lead to anything disastrous. So, he relaxed somewhat and put on a less rigid outlook. Ever since the incident at the tavern and perhaps, Sanctify, he had become more careful with himself, whatever he would do he would think through it with more precision, especially on the possible outcomes of his action.

“Hahaha. The little pretty one, yes,” said the croc, recognizing her voice. “You have to excuse me. I’m old. The eyes don’t work like they used to,” said the croc, who suddenly became more friendly and conversational. “The deer on this side is always tastier. I like ’em RAW. Hehe. But roasting them over a nice fire was good too.” Then a thought crossed his mind. “You want a share?” He looked at them suspiciously. One deer was just enough for him, alone. Sharing it would mean he would not get his fill and he would have to hunt again. He brooded over the prospect. He was lazy to hunt again. But good manners required that of him since the little girl was a friend.

“The last I remember, you don’t eat meat. Or, is this young fella who wants some meat?” He looked at Darius in a rather hostile way. He could not see him clearly, but his posture and his overall bearing reminded him of someone familiar.

“No, no. We are just passing through. Thank you. We’ll be going on our way now. Enjoy your dinner, or lunch.” Elena made a move to go but the elf still stood there looking dumb. He was not aware of Elena’s signal.

“Passing through, eh? You’ve wandered off very far. What’s your business?”

“We’re going to the Elbow’s Creek,” said Elena, at the same time elbowing Darius.

“Elbow’s Creek. That’s still very far off. But there’re very nice fish there. You’re sure you want to go all that way? And bringing this boy along.”

Darius, thought that Elena’s elbowing was a signal that he should say something out of politeness. So, he shouted, “Yes, we are just walking through, and you ….” There was a pause. Saying ‘and you have just killed a deer’ did not seem very nice. Darius did not know what else to say, what was the proper predicate here?

“And I was just hunting,” the croc completed it for him. The way he spoke, his accent, rang a bell in the crocodileman’s mind. But he could not retrieve that damn piece of memory. It was just at his fingertips but he just could not grasp it. He became agitated.

Elena was surprised that Darius talked to the crocodileman. Something bad was going to happen. She knew it.

The crocodile shook his head in agony trying very hard to recall something that was lodged deep in his mind, getting furious.

“We should go now. It’s late,” said Elena pushing Darius along.

And he said, “Well goodbye, Mr. Croc.”

“I told you to keep quiet,” scolded Elena quietly and smacked his arm.

“But you told me to say something,” replied Darius indignantly.

“AARRRG!!!!” shouted the croc loudly. His shout was like an explosion causing ripples on the river surface to rush out in semi-circular waves. His voice reverberated in numerous echoes along the whole river. Birds flew away in flocks from the trees and and the animals ran away scattering into the forest. The shout was really like a sound blast from a great thunder splitting the sky.

“I know you. I know you. You are one of them,” shouted the croc angrily.

“Me… But, I … I don’t know you.”

Things were getting out of hand. Elena was thinking hard.