“What are you doing here? You cannot be here,” the croc erupted.
Before the elf could reply, the croc continued, “Now, I know what you’re going to ask, you’re going to ask me back the same thing. What am I doing here? Well, what does it look like? I’m hunting. My food has legs. I have to chase them, all the way, to here.”
And again, before the elf could respond, he said “Oh, I know what you’re going say next. You pedantic fool. You’re going say, so the deer just ran across the river like it can run on water and you have to chase it all the way across. Well, … yeah!”
The crocodileman, who had a habit of speaking for other people especially when he was highly excited, glared at the innocent elf, wordless for a moment and said, “And who asked you. You’re not part of these lands anymore. Stay out of our business.” The croc was working himself up into a frenzy, shouting incoherently and ferociously like he was mad and finally, went back to his original question, “And, what are you doing here? Sneaking back, are you! Your kind had foregone the rights to these lands long ago. Are you going back on your words? Again?”
And the croc continued, “And of course you won’t want me to be here. Cause you don’t want me to find out that you’re here. If I’m not here, then I’d never know that you’re here, would I? I wouldn’t ever know. Isn’t that right?” The croc finally stopped talking and grinned like he had hit the target.
“Shut up!” the girl snapped at Darius quietly.
“I haven’t said anything.” Darius was trying to explain.
Then she said to the crocodileman, “He’s my pet. He’s just accompanying me through these woods.”
The crocodileman looked at her suspiciously. He asked, “A pet?” and then he laughed out loud. “Now, that’s something new. Having a fish as a pet. That’s a new one.” He could not stop laughing, “That’s a good one. A fish… a pet…” and as the laughter subsided, he continued, “I have no quarrel with you, little one. You can pass by anytime, anytime you want. This is neutral land. But, he’s a different story.” The crocodile narrowed his eyes looking at Darius and he was getting ready to pounce. Darius estimated that a distance of roughly three hundred feet separated them and he did not believe that he could jump that far in a single leap. So he felt rather at ease. Only Elena was tensed. Darius thought that if the croc really jumped, he would take Elena on his back and run. With his bulk, he would never catch up. He was too heavy. Then he heard the croc said, “It’s been a long while since I tasted a fish. I think I’ll make you into a stew, get you all tenderized and I can eat you, bones and all.”
The remark made the elf angry but he quickly suppressed it. He did not know whether the croc was just saying it or that he meant what he had just said. He also got confused on the point where the croc said that he was eating fish or really, did he mean that he was eating elves since the definition of a fish for these people here was not the same. If the mad croc had really eaten any elves, then the responsibility to avenge the death of his people certainly fell on him. It would be his duty to retrieve those lost souls from within his stomach though he did not know how to do it. Looking at his intimidating figure and how Elena had addressed him, this was not one of the ordinary Mr. Crocs that swam in the area and hunted for deer. Quietly, Elena’s right hand went into the little hidden pocket in her dress. In it, there was a small sack tied up neatly at the opening.
Just when they thought that the crocodileman was going to charge, he became distracted and turned to look towards the river for a second and back focusing on them. “Your little magic can’t stop me. Even in your full form, your magic won’t stop me. But don’t worry, I won’t harm you. I’ll let you through, my little one. You’re a friend of the forest. So, go. But your pet stays.”
“He’s my pet and I take care of my pet.” She stood her ground.
Then, unexpectedly, the crocodileman looked at the brown river again. The look of annoyance was all over his broad face. Then, even more unexpectedly, the crocodileman jumped into the river. The jump caught the two by surprise.
“What now? Should we run?”
The girl replied, “You’ll never be able to outrun him. He’s Grokku.” Elena took the time given and took out the sack, undid the knot and carefully took something out. Darius saw that it was a peanut the size of her little thumb.
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“You want to eat nuts, at this time,” asked Darius.
“Shut up and concentrate. It’s all your faults.”
The elf was surprised to hear that. Since when it’s all my faults, he thought.
They waited, stood there without knowing what to do, suspended in anxiety. Some monster was about to jump over and slaughter them and all they could do was wait. Grokku burst out of the water and landed right back at the carcass, his bulk towering over the dead deer, dripping wet. He seemed a little grudgy. He shook his head several times, not looking at them. He picked up the dead deer and slung it over his shoulder mumbling something. He finally turned to them and said while looking at them intently, especially at Darius, “I got things to do. Till another day, little one.” With that, he jumped back into the river with the deer and disappeared.
“Now, that’s an unforeseeable outcome. Do you think he’s afraid of us?”
The little girl put the peanut back into the sack and the sack back into her dress pocket.
“We should go before he changes his mind.”
The rest of the walking for the day was uneventful. They did not meet with anything, not even an insect. The shout from the old croc had really done it, scared all the lives away. They walked silently, reluctant to talk, distrubed. Grokku was on their minds. Why did he run away? Or, did he run away? The silence did not help. Darius broke the silence. It was always him. He hated the silence.
“So, who’s Grokku. You two seem to know each other.”
“Not really. He was way before my time. He’s probably six hundred years old by now.”
“Six hundred? Crocs live that long.”
“He’s an anomaly. They usually live for four hundred years. No one knows why he wouldn’t die. It seems that his regenerative power is overly strong and it kept him from aging normally,” explained Elena. “They were born with it, all of them, the reptilians. It kept them young and dragged their lives on. Without it, they would probably max out at three hundreds.”
Regeneration or Regen for short was an ability unique to the reptilians. No other races in the lands could Regen. Perhaps, this was nature’s compensation for their lack of wit. By using Regen, the reps could regenerate continuously, replacing damaged and dying cells and replenished used energy at a speed of several hundred times faster than normal beings. This made it difficult for them to age. They could keep their metabolism up at peak level at all time.
“Just look at Grokku. He’s six hundred and he looks like he’d just passed middle age. At this rate, he’ll probably die around nine hundred,” Elena continued.
“That is definitely not fair.” The elf was unable to hide his envy and amazement. Some being can really live long. His was almost double the lifespan of an elf. It was hard to believe but he had to. The longest living elf that was ever recorded – the elves were known to be remarkable record-keepers – was five hundred and nine. And thus he asked, “So how long does a lizardman live?”
“Lizardmen? I think they can live to… five hundred, maybe more.”
“What! How can that be? You must have been mistaken. They cannot live that long. Did Oldbark share you the wrong info,” argued Darius, unable to stomach the fact that his arch-enemy could live longer than him.
“They have really strong Regen. I think they probably max out at about five fifty. They have the strongest Regen among the reps. I told you that already. They could regenerate their lost limbs. Even the crocs couldn’t do that. Didn’t you see the scars on his body?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“I thought you’ve good eye sight. He has a big wide gash running diagonally down from the left shoulder, across the chest and to the right side of the abs. Their Regen cannot cope with that much loss of flesh. Hence, the scars.”
“You could see that?”
“Nope.”
“Then, how do you know? And in such details.”
“From memory. Once I know something, I do not forget. But I don’t know whether it’s my memory or Oldbark’s. I could no longer distinguish that accurately. But anyway, my memory becomes Oldbark’s too. The share is two ways.”
“And you don’t mind?”
Elena turned to regard Darius in a peculiar way. She could never understand the fish’s obsession with secrecy. “Nope.”
“But what happened to that old croc? He is so strong. Who can do that to him?”
“Some fights. They’re always in a fight. They can heal quickly. So, they have lower cost. So don’t get into a fight with them. They’re unstoppable.”
The elf started to think about what Elena had said. The little girl astonished him. But then, she has a four-hundred-year knowledge, he told himself. Then he thought about the lizardmen back in the tavern. He thought that he must have looked very much like a fool back there. He did not know anything about the lizardmen; he did not know about their abilities and yet he got into a fight with them. How stupid is that?, he thought. That’s probably why the goat said that I should apologize. If I’ve died, it would be for nothing. This was the first time the idea that the goat had actually helped him entered his mind. He wondered why his mother or his father had not thrown in the Encyclopedia of the Races into his education. Obviously, it would be a big help. If there wasn’t such a book, they should have it written. After a long pondering silence, the elf popped another sensitive question. “So, how long would you live?”
Elena looked at him, wondering whether to answer.