Heretical Fishing

Book 2: Chapter 14: Apex Predator

A lump formed in my throat, and my body involuntarily froze as a wave of adrenaline washed over me.

The water seemed to change temperature; where its cool touch was previously welcome, it now felt intolerably freezing as the shadow shifted beneath us.

Even with my eyes still adjusting, I’d seen enough footage of the terrifying creatures to identify one by shape alone. A shark of monstrous proportions swam through the bay. Twice as long as I was tall, the thing barely needed to kick its tail to send its gigantic form gliding through the water.

Maria moved beside me and latched onto my hand. I squeezed, trying to reassure her. Corporal Claws clung to my back, also wanting nothing to do with said shark. Sergeant Snips lacked the same sense of self preservation, and she sank to the ocean floor, both clackers extended and poised to deliver violence. Pistachio was also beneath us, and his head slowly turned, following the shark’s movement.

Meanwhile, the shark continued its passage, unaware or uncaring of our existence and moving with the ease of an apex predator. It slowly faded from view, swimming far enough away for us to lose vision of it. Snips swam back up to meet us, and we kicked to the surface, emerging as one while Pistachio remained below.

“Snips—can you keep an eye out and warn us if it comes back?”

Water sprayed my face as she gave me a crisp salute, then disappeared beneath the water.

“What in Hades’ influence was that?” Maria hissed, keeping her voice soft.

Claws chirped her agreement, poking her head around from where she clung to my back.

Both of them shook their heads, their eyes wide.

“It’s a shark. They’re pretty common in the ocean where I’m from, so I was pretty surprised you hadn’t seen one, Claws.”

“They’re common?” Maria asked. “I never want to get in the ocean again—I’m honestly rethinking my whole love of fishing right now.”

“I think we’d be alright considering we’re cultivators, but still...” My entire body shook with an involuntary shiver. “Something about seeing such a large creature in the water beneath us makes my brain go into nope mode.”

Maria shook too.

“If Snips and Pistachio weren’t beneath us keeping watch right now, I’d be swimming back to shore fast as I could.”

“That’d probably be a bad move. From what I know, they don’t usually attack humans—they only do so when desperate, or they mistake you for prey they’d usually hunt. Splashing around to get away might make you seem like a seal or an injured fish.”

She glared at me.

“Not helping, Fischer.”

Claws batted the side of my face, chirping her agreement and scowling.

“Sorry,” I said, laughing. “I couldn’t help myself. Let's get back to shore—I haven’t even told you what I want to build yet.”

Maria leapt at the extended branch, happy for any distraction.

“You have something you want to build?”

I grinned.

“I do—something to help us fish.”

A measure of fear left her face in an instant, and her eyes began glimmering beneath the morning sun.

“Go on...”

***

We swam past the river mouth and made our way south, following the shore as sand transformed into scattered rock, and scattered rock transformed into sheer cliff.

Snips had mentioned we could find boulders this way, and while I’d believed her, I hadn’t expected there to be so many. All along the cliff’s base, there were what had to be hundreds of tonnes worth of giant stones that had fallen from the jagged cliffs.

Rocky had returned from his Snips-empowered trip out to sea, and he now acted as guard-crab against any wayward sharks. He was flanked by Snips and Pistachio, and I smiled down at the reliable crustaceans.

I swam down and tried lifting a boulder wide as I was tall, and I easily brought it up. Maria was watching me, so I hefted it above my head with one hand, flexing my other arm in a Herculean pose. A white wash of bubbles exploded from her mouth as she laughed at me, bending at the waist and holding a hand to her stomach.

Dropping the rock, I kicked off the sandy floor. A moment after I breached the surface, Maria joined me, and she gave me a grin reflecting the excitement I felt.

“Are these boulders the right size?” she asked.

“They’re perfect, and there’s enough that I don’t think we’ll need to quarry any more.”

She shimmied her shoulders, unable to contain the anticipation.

“How do we start this construction, and when are you going to tell me what it actually is?”

I’d been extremely vague with my explanation, wanting to keep the details a surprise.

“To answer your first question, we just have to put the boulders there. To answer the second...” I shot her a wink. “You’ll just have to wait and see, but I promise that you’ll love it.”

She shimmied again, and I couldn’t help but smile.

“Let’s get started...”

***

Sergeant Snips and Private Pistachio joined the boulder-hauling efforts, leaving the rather-irritable looking Rocky as the main defender against shark-related threats. It wasn’t that his role as defender annoyed the neurodivergent crab… I suspected it was anything but—he just always looked like someone had insulted his ancestry and spit in his soup.

Even with the cultivator’s strength of our respective fleshy—and carapacey—bodies, it was a long process; we could each carry one boulder at a time, and it was quite a distance back to the river mouth.

Despite also being on the path of ascension, Maria couldn’t carry some of the boulders I could; her arms were shorter and her cultivation less advanced. The largest one I found was half-again as wide as I was tall, and I easily held it in my arms. When Maria tried to carry one slightly smaller, the best she could manage was repeatedly throwing it short distances. Snips had the same issue but worked together with Claws, who stabilized the boulders by swimming around them, correcting the positioning if they leaned too far in any direction. Pistachio had no such issue, and he easily threw massive rocks atop his back and scuttled along the ocean floor.

A few hours later, I threw a boulder down, adding it to the line extending from the headland. We were creating the base layer first; it was roughly five-meters wide and ten-meters long so far. Maria, Snips, Claws, and Pistachio arrived shortly after, and they carefully placed their loads down.

I pointed to the shore and they followed me up. Cinnamon greeted us with a squeak, her long ears upright as we emerged from the water. She was lounging in the sun, but got to her feet and jumped to a stack of towels, nuzzling them with her cute little nose.

“Thanks, Cinnamon,” I said, reaching down to rub her head after I dried my hand. She leaned into me, closing her eyes in delight as my pat turned into a good scritching.

She then walked over and dipped her chin, inviting Corporal Claws to pet her. The otter cocked her head, but reached out to oblige the soft little bunny. Said bunny’s expression turned downright malicious, and faster than a normal eye could see, she spun and kicked out her back legs, spraying Claws with more sand than such a small creature had any right displacing.

Cinnamon tore off across the shore, angling around the headland as Claws went stock-still. The otter ran paws over her face, wiping away sand. Her eyebrow twitched, and her lip curled to reveal needle-sharp teeth. She hunched and gathered power in her legs, her entire body shaking, causing more sand to fall away.

Lightning sparked out, and she rocketed from the headland. Her form curved and twisted; she flew like a heat-seeking missile for the trail of kicked-up sand that was Cinnamon trying to escape. Corporal Claws arced high, then slammed down on top of the bunny. A mushroom cloud of sand and dust sprayed up, obscuring whatever was happening within.

“Uhhhh,” Maria said. “Is Cinnamon going to be okay?”

“She’ll be fine—Claws wouldn’t hurt her.”

Maria shook her head, letting out a light sigh.

“I can’t believe our daughter has become such a prankster. I thought we raised her right...”

“Claws has no one to blame but herself.” I chuckled softly. “She set Cinnamon on the path of treachery, so now she has to deal with the consequences.”

The sand started to clear, revealing a slap battle happening in the distance. Both creatures were up on their rear legs, batting at each other in a blur of forelimbs.

“Should we get lunch started?” I asked. “I’m sure they’ll be hungry when they’re finished.”

“I don’t know about them, but I’m starving after you forced me into physical labor all morning. The least you could do is prepare me a snack...”

“Forced, huh? I recall you shimmying so hard you created waves...”

“Shimmying? Oh, no—I was shaking in fear of what you’d do if I refused your orders…”

I bent down toward Snips, giving her a conspiratorial glance.

“Take note, Snips. If you want your subordinates to behave, the threat of unmitigated violence is unparalleled as a motivator.”

Rocky rubbed his chin with one claw, then nodded his agreement to the statement.

Snips walked over to Maria and patted her leg, blowing bubbles of solidarity.

“I know,” Maria said, bending to rub Snips’ carapace. “We’re surrounded by clowns, but I’m glad to have you here for support.”

“Clowns? I have never.” I raised a hand to my chest in mock affront. “Would a clown make you a feast of sand crabs for lunch?”

Both ladies froze, their farce failing before the promise of a delicious meal.

Maria raised an eyebrow at Snips.

“Perhaps clowns was a bit... aggressive.”

Snips’ head bobbed up and down energetically, her mouth blowing bubbles of hunger.

***

Butterflies took flight in my stomach as I pulled in the line.

Ever since Maria had started joining me daily, we had been catching a lot of fish. As a result, I hadn’t been using the crab pot, not wanting to waste any meat. After finding the new type of bait in the pungent eel, however, I just had to try it out.

The cage at the end of the line felt heavy; the butterflies within me multiplied, and a broad grin spread over my face.

“How does it feel?” Maria asked, whispering from beside me.

I turned to look at her, and when she spied the look on my face, her eyes crinkled in delight. We cast our gaze back toward the shallows just as the first corner of the crab pot became visible. It was impossible to make anything else out, so I kept pulling, bringing the cage closer to us.

My excitement dwindled as it came into view. The back half of the trap was filled with sand, somehow getting caught on the ocean floor and dredging it up in passing. Then a claw extended from the mass of sand, and the entire pile seemed to move and undulate.

I realized the truth of it: it wasn’t a pile of sand—it was a pile of sand crabs!

There were so many as to fill half the trap, and before I could make a sound, Maria let out a loud whoop!

“There’s so many, Fischer! Demeter’s harvest—I’ve never seen so many!”

I grasped the handle and dragged the crab pot up onto the shore. There had to be dozens of them, all of which were unhappy about being removed from the water. Those on top of the stack held their claws high, warding off any would-be attackers.

“Holy frack,” I eventually said. “That bait wasn’t kidding about being effective...”

Corporal Claws dashed to the cage, running around it and twisting her head at strange angles to inspect the pile of creatures. Cinnamon was atop her back, also cocking her head to peer down at the crabs. The two had worked out their differences and were once more the best of pals. Their eyes were alight, and following their example, the rest of the creatures stepped forward.

Pistachio watched the sand crabs with an intent gaze; there was always a startling intelligence hidden within the stoic lobster’s eyes, and I once more wondered at the depth of his thoughts.

Snips and Rocky were much easier to read; they both blew hungry bubbles as they scuttled up to the cage.

Not wanting to drag it out any further, I opened the cage up and started sorting them.

“Come closer, everyone.” I gestured for Maria to stand beside me. “Snips already knows, but I’ll show you how to differentiate between male and female. Females are breeders, so we let them go.”

***

Corporal Claws—trickster of the sands and espionage extraordinaire—dashed over the dunes.

She had a freshly cooked sand crab held under one claw, and thinking of the meal to come, she redoubled her speed. Her master had promised they’d wait for her return before feasting, but it would be downright rude to make everyone else delay longer than necessary. Her haste had absolutely nothing to do with her desire, nay, her need to partake of the crab.

With a spark of lightning, she activated her ability and flew between the trees, bouncing from trunk to trunk. As she catapulted into the clearing, her eyes locked onto something before the tree. She lost control of her power; the lightning guttered out and died.

Corporal Claws slammed into the trunk and slid down its trunk. She blinked dumbly as she took in the scene, not once taking her eyes off what had arrested her attention.