Hyperion Evergrowing

Hylon pushed his way through the gawking crowd of townsfolk, moving his way towards the source of the morning's commotion. Most stepped aside as they noticed him, their heads dipped in greeting, others he had to gently move out of the way with a hand or the occasional shoulder bump. Most of them recognised him, he had lived among them for months, but even still they shot wary glances at the spear strapped to his back. He stifled a yawn with a fist as he broke free from the crowd, not wanting to let the fact he had only just woken up to be too obvious.

It probably worked, most people were looking at the corpse of the beast that had been carted into town. Not that he realised what it was right away, at first glance the thing looked more like a large bolder than any living being. Only the eight rust red coloured legs, and two shovel shaped pincers poking out from under the rock, that itself was as tall as his shoulders and almost as wide, made him finally comprehend what he was seeing.

It was a Summit Hermit Crab, a beast local to the Varan mountains that flanked their homeland to the west, a natural barrier that divided the northern kingdom from the empire to the south. Hylon hadn’t personally seen its like before, but having been forced to study the local bestiary’s by his grandfather, it wasn’t a completely alien creature. With an affinity for the rocky landscape of the mountains, the beast, while not a monster, had a habit of causing trouble for itself whenever it wandered from its natural habitat.

But why is it here? Did a hunting party from the mountains bring it back? He thought, his bleary eyes taking in the scene. Did this species migrate? Hylon was pretty sure they used ancient water filled caldera to lay their eggs, so there wasn’t any reason for it to be so low in elevation.

“- with well over a dozen more spotted in and around the fields.” A man was saying, his appearance unkempt and wild, his tanned skin and hardy physique common among those who lived along the border. “We only just put our livestock back out to pasture, and already three are dead. Things are already bad, if they get any worse we’ll starve!”

“How on earth does something like this kill a sheep?” Said someone from the far side of the beast's corpse, Hylon only noticing them for the first time as they stood and planted a solid kick into the animal’s rocky side. Their voice was familiar, and not in a good way. Hylon wanted to turn around and go back to sleep, he already knew this would end in some sort of disaster.

“Goats, not sheep.” The first man corrected, one of the local farmers from the look of him.

“Same thing man, who cares.” Said the second with a dismissive snort. “The question still stands. What did the crab do, roll on top of them?” He kicked the massive boulder atop the crab’s back once again. It didn’t budge.

Hylon pinched the bridge of his nose. It was too early for this. The kicker was Jed, a man half a dozen years Hylon’s senior, and an adventurer just like him. Though, technically the man was in the employ of an official guild, while Hylon was not. A fact the more experienced adventurer enjoyed reminding him of. Hylon had shared a turbulence shelter with the man, alongside some others of similar background, and it was three months of his life he would never get back. He took a step back, retreating into the agitated crowd so as to not draw attention to himself.