Chapter 42: Perks
A metallic scrape cut through the silence as the reeds shifted under the crab’s many feet. It loomed, massive, rusted orange as if painted with mud and orange peels. Razor-sharp pincers clicked.
Huang Niuniu grabbed Yu Han’s Coveralls and dragged him backward.
“It’s going to eat us!” she screamed.
“Calm, Sister,” Wen Liujie said.
The creature came ashore, each leg shifting in eerie unison. Jagged spikes jutted from its back, long vines of weed and moss hanging from them like ornaments. Its two enormous front claws were asymmetrical and bristly, while its eight walking legs were long and pointed.
Its obsidian eyes remained empty of emotions, except for a hint of orange from those narrow, flame-like vertical pupils fixed on its onlookers. Each of the eye-stalks resembled a club topped with a long, pointy horn. One of stalks rotated left, the other leaned forward.
“The Non-Thinker Crab.” Wen Liujie stepped forward. He bowed, and the giant orange crab inclined its head in return.
It shook its bigger claw. A piece of leather parchment fell out, and Yu Han saw strange scribbles on it.
“I don’t know what it says,” Wen Liujie said.