The next day, we all agreed that we were tired of eating rations from the transport and should take advantage of the opportunity to eat something that hadn’t been processed and preserved. Since there seemed to be an abundance of various tropical fish in our lagoon, some of us set about making rudimentary fishing gear.
Matthew wandered off into the forest, planning to look for local fruits or vegetation that might add some variety to our meal, while Vomero scavenged together the ingredients from the bar to brew up something special from his home world. Apparently, it was going to take all day to perfect.
“Good spirits take time and precision,” he said as he set up a makeshift distilling apparatus in the cargo bay.
After working on our fishing gear, Ryuuk, the old man, and I were headed down to an outcropping of rocks that looked perfect to fish from. I carried a makeshift spear and net, which I intended to use on the crab-like crustaceans I’d spied in the tide pools at the base of the rocks.
Ryuuk and the old man preferred a traditional method of fishing, having fashioned poles from some thin stalks of bamboo growing on the island. They also carried a bucket of bait they had painstakingly dug from the ground.
Cash and Dick vetoed participation in the fishing trip, preferring instead to test their fighting skills in a wrestling match out on the beach close to where everyone was fishing. Cash wanted to try fighting a variety of Dick’s forms, but I secretly suspected he was still just curious which form the changeling had acquired the day before and hoped to draw it out.
The small creatures in the tide pool looked similar to crabs, with the exception that they only had four legs and their pinchers seemed oversized for their bodies. This luckily made them easy to catch in the net or skewer with the spear. Unfortunately, the giant pinchers made extracting them safely from the net a challenge.
“Does the book say anything about these crab things?” I asked Ryuuk. He and the old man were using Jack Trader’s book to identify whether the fish they were catching were good to eat.
Ryuuk scanned one of the skewered crabs on my spear with the tablet’s camera.
“Says they’re called Puff Crabs,” Ryuuk said. “Gen’raly tasty to eat, but watch out for the large pinchers.”
“No kidding,” I said, sarcastically and went back to picking the puff crabs carefully from my net.
While I worked on the tedious task, my attention pinballed between the wrestling match happening on the beach and the debate Ryuuk was having with the old man.
At the moment, Dick took the form of a large tree beast. I had seen this species once before, but they usually shied away from the public, preferring the seclusion of the woodlands and forests. They were strong and big, however, if a bit slow. I smirked as I watched Cash try to put Dick into a chokehold. The image was a lot less aggressive than it might seem, as if he was joyfully hugging a tree.
After a while, Cash realized it was fruitless to try and topple over a tree, especially since Dick could use his feet to literally root himself into the ground. They ended in a stalemate, with Dick transforming back into his human form. The two men sat on the beach for a moment to rest, Cash passing Dick a protein bar from a stash of snacks they had brought just for that reason. Apparently, Dick needed to replenish his caloric intake when switching so many times between forms or he would run out of stamina.
“A six-pound Swallow Stripe is a much better catch that a lousy Flick Tail of any size!” I heard the old man argue loudly with Ryuuk. Turning my attention back to them, I noticed that they were staring down at two fish in a metal crate they emptied to use as a fish bucket.
“I reckon’ ten pounds of anythin’ is always a mite better’n six pounds,” Ryuuk argued back. “Besides, the book says Swallow Stripe ain’t even that rare.”
“It’s not about the rarity,” the old man said, swiping the tablet from Ryuuk. “It’s about how hard they are to catch. See, the book says they are feisty and hard to reel in.”
“It also says,” Ryuuk countered, jabbing a finger down on the tablet for emphasis, “that they taste like manure.”
“Hmmm?” the old man muttered, looking skeptical. He scanned the contents of the book for a minute before shaking his head. “Ah, dammit!”
He tossed the fish he had placed in the empty crate between them back into the water.
“They’re still hard to catch,” he grumbled as he baited his hook and cast the line again. “That’s got to count for something.”
A loud crash from the shore drew my attention back that way. Dick had now taken the form of a Geovite, a species of rock people with tough outer skin and solid biomass. They were smaller in size than the tree beast he had been before but substantially harder to damage.
Instead of wrestling this time, Dick was simply standing on the beach with his hands on his hips and laughing as Cash punched him repeatedly in the groin with no effect. They both seemed to find the scenario funny and were soon doubled over in laughter.
Shaking my head at their antics, I returned my attention to the last puff crab in my net. It was proving more than difficult to extract. As I worked, I wondered why the book called them puff crabs, and a moment later, I found out why.
One of the crab’s pinchers finally caught me off guard and latched on to my finger.
“Fuck!” I exclaimed and pried my finger from between its claws.
It hurt like hell, almost as bad as the blaster shot Katra had put in my arm. Frustrated, I yanked the crab from the net, uncaring if I ripped it apart, and threw it in the bucket with the others. That one would just be a few legs and claws short.
“Whaaa...” I said confused, but the words came out muffled as I felt my tongue starting to swell in my mouth.
Looking down at my hand, I noticed that it had also swollen and was turning an interesting shade of purple.
“Umm...” was all I could manage to communicate as I looked frantically around at where Ryuuk and the old man were still fussing and fishing. Caught up in their own drama, neither seemed aware of my distress.
“MMMMM!!!!” I tried again. It felt like my whole body was tight, like I was straining to fit into my own skin. More alarmingly, my throat also felt like it was starting to close.
Am I really going to suffocate to death while these idiots fight over who’s fish is bigger?
Desperately, I turned toward the shore and looked for Dick and Cash, waving my arms as I did so. In that uncanny way he had of always seeming to know when my gaze was on him, Dick glanced over toward me.
“Skye?!” he said, concerned.
“Holy shit!” Cash said. “She’s swole’!”
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They were both on their feet and making their way down the beach and to the rocks. The commotion also drew Ryuuk and the old man’s attention. They were also making their way toward me. It felt like they’d all be too late, however, as my vision began to swirl.
I was trying not to hyperventilate with fear and rob myself of what precious air was able to snake its way down my inflamed throat, but it was quickly becoming a losing battle. A wave of dizziness caused me to slip on the rocks, and I found myself plummeting head first into the water.
I had barely slipped beneath the surface, however, when something wound tightly around my waist and hoisted me back up. As I emerged back above the water, a viscous slime engulfed my torso where the appendage was wrapped around me.
My vision hadn’t quite cleared, and I felt my eyes must have swollen shut, as well. I thrashed frantically as I struggled to breathe.
“It’s an allergic reaction,” I heard Cash say. “Put her over here. Good god, man, what the hell is this stuff?”
I felt the stab of an auto-injector in my leg. The anti-allergen was blissfully fast-acting. A moment later, my airway started to clear enough that I could heave in precious drafts of fresh air. With oxygen restored to my lungs and brain, my vision began to clear, as well.
Still panting from the ordeal, I glanced down at the appendage that had pulled me from the water. It was already withdrawing and transforming, leaving behind a gelatinous secretion in its wake. By the time I could muster the effort to lift my eyes to the side, Dick knelt beside me, now fully transformed back into his human form. He was also covered from head to toe in the nauseating goop.
“Skye, can you hear us?” Ryuuk asked from somewhere above my head and out of my line of sight.
“She’s coming to,” Cash said. “Good thing I always keep a dose or two of that anti-allergen in my stockpile. She’ll be fine. Just give her a minute.
I met Dick’s worried gaze and tried for a smile. I felt like it probably came out as more of a grimace. I tried to say something but the effort just wheezed weakly through my still tortured throat.
“Take it easy,” he said. “You gave us quite a scare.”
I nodded weakly, and glanced down to where Ryuuk and the old man were staring into my crab crate. Ryuuk scratched his head thoughtfully, and the old man did the same with his chin.
“I guess that explains why they call them puff crabs,” the old man said.
“We should probly’ start takin’ notes about these things,” Ryuuk commented. “Maybe we could send em’ into Jack.”
“Think he’d credit us in the next edition if we did?”
“A’course he would,” Ryuuk responded. “That’d only be right.”
Even after nearly suffocating to death, I found the strength to roll my eyes at the two. I heard Dick let out a quiet chuckle and looked back at him.
“Yeah, you’ll definitely be alright,” he said with a hint of relief in his tone.
I tried again to speak, this time barely getting the words out above a whisper. He leaned in close to pick up my words.
“What is it?” he said tilting his ear closer to my lips.
“I said...” the words came out as a breathy rasp, “you got your goo on me.”
At that he laughed and shook his head, pulling away to look down at me again.
“We’re not ever going to talk about this again. It’s my fee for saving your life.”
I laughed involuntarily, but it turned into a sputtering cough. When the coughing spell settled, I tried sitting up. Dick lent me a hand, holding my shoulder tightly to steady me and keep me upright as I adjusted. The world was starting to feel normal again, and I managed a smirky grin.
“What?” he said suspiciously, then leaned in again to hear my response.
“I knew it was tentacles.”
* * *
Later that evening, the entire group gathered around the campfire for a delicious meal of grilled fish, fresh fruit pie, and plenty of Vomero’s micro-brew concoction.
Someone had steamed the puff crab legs and claws, which made for an excellent appetizer and compliment to the meal, or so I was told. After the day’s ordeal, I had lost my appetite for all things crab related.
“He looked disgusting,” Cash said.
The topic of conversation had turned from my near-death experience to the secret form Dick had selflessly revealed to save my life. While the rest of the group discussed his grotesque transformation, Dick silently sulked at the end of our makeshift banquet table on the beach. Someone had lit homemade torches around the area, casting a soft, warm glow.
“It was some sort of squid?” Matthew asked. “Dangit! I can’t believe I missed it.”
“Technically, it’s not a squid,” Ryuuk said. “The book calls it a Tuckwiler, on account that they can squeeze and tuck themselves into just about any space.”
“Also, unlike a squid, the Tuckwiler can manipulate the girth and length of its appendages,” Vomero added, reading from Jack’s book. “In other words, it can make its tentacles longer or shorter, wider or skinnier. Also, it can release a viscous slime as a defensive or offensive mechanism.”
“Seemed way more offensive if you ask me,” Cash said. “You said it can, but Dick here was slinging that stuff all around. I thought I was going to lose my lunch.”
“It’s a new form!” Dick finally joined the conversation. “How am I supposed to know how to control it?! Besides, nobody seems to be focusing on the fact that I saved Skye’s life! Have a little decorum here, people. I say we forget it ever happened and never speak of it again.”
The six other people gathered around the table looked silently at each other for a moment as they considered Dick’s point.
“It was the ugliest creature I’d ever seen,” Cash finally said, and the table erupted once again with chatter about Dick’s new form. Dick simply groaned in pain and poured himself another brew.
“How did you manage to catch one and nothing else?” Vomero asked Dick, who ignored the question completely. Luckily, Ryuuk was happy to fill in the details.
“He didn’t actually catch it, per se. It was more like it caught him. He was trying to catch a shark-like species but it kept eludin’ him. Next thing I know, he comes struttin’ outta the water with one of them things stuck to his...well...”
He pointed over his shoulder to indicate his ass, and the entire table burst out with laughter. Even I, who was profoundly grateful for Dick’s actions today, couldn’t help but laugh at the image Ryuuk described. At least I was polite enough to hide my mirth behind my mug of brew.
As the night wound down, the conversation turned more serious.
“So, what’s our next move?” Cash asked. “You know we can’t stay out here playing summer camp forever.”
“Agreed,” Dick said. “I don’t know what this orb is up to inside me, but I know I need to get back to my brother before it’s too late. At the very least, I'd like to find a way to contact him, see how he’s doing, maybe even give him a little hope to hold on longer.”
Everyone was quiet for a moment. All of us had lives to get back to, but the reminder of everything Dick was facing and fighting his way back to was sobering.
“The best plan of action would be to head for a Malunite city,” Vomero said. “Even if they’re looking for us there, which I doubt given the recent history between them and the Syreni, it’s highly unlikely they’d be unsympathetic to our plight.”
“I got the impression from some of the newscasts and from some stuff Celo said on our mission that the Malunites are more technologically advanced than the Syreni,” Cash said. “They’d be our best bet to get back to the Pact Worlds. If they don’t have direct passage, at least they might have a better ship that could get us headed in that direction.”
“Tor, Par and Celo,” I said. “The clothes they left in my bag had labels on them with a name. It might be the name of a city or just a retailer, but it’s a starting point and a destination. Tor also had some sort of access pass or identification card on him. If we have to navigate around a new city, it might not hurt to have that at our disposal.”
“I reckon’ it’s settled then,” Ryuuk said, but I could tell by his tone that he wasn’t exactly happy returning to the fray.
“You don’t want to get back to your life, Ryuuk?” I asked.
“Not the one I left behind,” he said, candidly. “Truth o’ the matter is, I was already runnin’ from my life when the transport exploded. Ain’t much to go back to for me. But you’re right, we cain’t keep playin’ make believe out here. Otherwise, I might as well’ve stayed back in...”
He trailed off, not bothering to elaborate or complete his thought. Once again, the table descended into contemplative silence.
“Son,” the old man finally joined the conversation. Sitting next to Ryuuk, he put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “You aren’t ever going to find what you’re looking for out here in the middle of nowhere. Whatever you’re running from, you can’t escape it by avoiding it. You got to shake free of it, and you do that by living the life you wish you’d always lived, becoming the person you wanted to be from the start.”
Ryuuk thought about his words for a long moment before straightening his shoulders and nodding resolutely.
“I know just who that man is, too,” he said. “I’ve always been the one to face things head-on, no matter how impossible it seems. Even if my whole life has changed lately, that’s one thing that has always been true...just as sure as they call me....well...Ryuuk.”