Chapter 25: Tutor

Chapter 25: Tutor

Sergeant Snips stretched her claws wide, gathering power in her joints. She prepared to unleash a mighty clack of the claws on whomever was foolish enough to sneak up on her.

Who dares attack the benevolent Sergeant Snips—beloved crab of Fischer?

A small object sunk down toward her, and she scuttled to the side, her eye watching it with keen hesitance. It hit the bottom with a soft

thud. Sergeant Snips waited, but nothing happened. She crawled over to it, tentatively poking it with a calcified stick of dead coral. Again, nothing. Slowly, ever so carefully, she snipped a metal padlock and lifted the lid. Her lone eye sparkled as moonlight reflected off the chest’s contents.

I woke to the sight of a rather pleased crab hovering above me, tentative little bubbles of greeting coming forth.

“Morning, Snips.” I stretched out, unleashing a mighty yawn. “I missed you yesterday, where’d you get off to?”

She jumped off the bed, urging me to follow her with both claws.

“Not so fast, you little scamp!” I jumped down after her, rubbing the back of her head.

“You thought you could just get away without a good scratch?”

She leaned to the side, one of her limbs kicking up and down in a rather doglike manner.

“Ohhhh, is that the spot, Snips?” I smiled mischievously, scratching the carapace harder.

Her foot tapped away on the wooden floor, a staccato rhythm to match my laughter. I released her, stretching my hands to the roof and yawning again.

“All right, what did you have to show me?”

She shook off the aftereffects of the scratch, scuttling out into the living room and leading me through the front door. I followed her, muscle memory moving my arm and grabbing my hat from a hook on the way past.

I took a moment to stare once I stepped outside. Predawn light lit the scene, small waves atop the river reflecting glimpses of the eastern sky that shone a pale pink. A claw tapped me gently, grabbing my attention. Snips gestured to keep coming, and she led me around the corner to the side patio my barbecue would one day occupy. She scuttled to a corner, gesturing at something hidden in the shadows.

“What is it, girl?” I bent down, squinting into the gloom.

It was a small chest, made of dark lacquered wood with metal casings around the corners. A padlock hung in the lock, clearly snipped by my trusty guard crab.

“You found a treasure chest . . . ?”

She nodded vigorously, gesturing with her entire body to open the lid.

I picked it up and took it out the front, wanting to see the contents in the rising sunlight. I knelt down, opening it at Sergeant Snips’s eye level.

Before I could make out what it was, I saw the reflected light of the eastern sky bouncing off the contents just as it did the waves. Countless points of light hit me, and it took my sleep-addled brain a long moment to realize what I was looking at. When comprehension hit me, my eyebrows tried to leave my face.

“Snips . . . where did you get this?”

She shrugged her spiny carapace, gesturing to the sea.

I looked at her, stunned, then returned my attention to the chest. It was filled with jewelry; silver and gold rings, necklaces, and bracelets. Most of the precious-metal pieces had pearls set in them, and I struggled to grasp just how much wealth was in front of me.

I stared at it, mouth hanging open. I quickly counted the pearls; there were eleven of the orbs in total.

“Jesus, Snips . . .”

A claw tapped me again, arresting my attention. Snips peered intently at me, blowing a soft stream of questioning bubbles.

“You . . . you want to know if you did good?”

She nodded, cocking her body to the side.

“Sergeant Snips, you beautiful, majestic crab queen—you did great!” I bellowed a laugh, giving her long, stroking rubs atop her treasure-finding head. “I can’t believe you brought this home! This was an insane find, Snips!”

She nodded and blew content bubbles, responding to my praise.

What in the banished gods am I going to do with all this, though . . . ?

It was entirely too much wealth, and trying to sell it would draw way more attention than I was comfortable with.

“I guess we just stash it for now . . . do you have any use for it, Snips?”

She shook her head, and I got an idea. I picked up a bracelet with a single pearl affixed, then set it atop her head.

I grinned as I eyed my handiwork. “A crown befitting a Queen, Snips!”

She bubbled her excitement, scuttling to the glass-paneled door to admire her reflection.

I knelt down behind her. The makeshift crown slid almost off as she moved, and I readjusted it to the front of her head.Vissit novelbin(.)c.om for updates

writing. I recognized some of the letters from the deed George had brought me.

I stared at the words then down at Snips. She gestured at the letters, nodding sagely.

“Uh, Snips—I . . . I can’t read.”

She blinked at me; I blinked back. Small hissing noises started coming from her mouth, and she shook, kneeling down and rolling in the sand.

She’s laughing at me!

I roared with laughter, and her hissing noises increased. She rolled onto her back, legs kicking out as she blurted a stream of sporadic hisses and bubbles. I fell over beside her, unable to contain my mirth. We rolled in the sand, tears coming to my eyes as I lost myself to the laughter.

When my cheeks ached and I could no longer see through swimming vision, I rolled to my front, getting to my feet just as Snips did the same.

“I—I’m sorry, Snips,” I said through tears and fleeting giggles, pointing down at the ruined script. “I rolled in your message—not that I could read it.”

She fell backward again, her limbs quivering in delight as her hisses came bubbling back up.

“Oh, you think me being illiterate is funny?” I leaned over her, tickling under her chin with both hands.

Her kicking increased, and I moved with her as she tried to get away from my assault. Eventually, I let her go, and she got upright, settling into the sand and seeming to sigh with contentment.

After a moment of regaining her composure, she started drawing again, and this time it was a picture. I leaned down, seeing a rather good approximation of an oyster with a pearl inside. She wrote a word next to it.

“Oyster?” I asked.

She nodded emphatically and started drawing again. She wrote a word then gestured at everything around us with both claws.

“Area?”

She made a so-so gesture again, shaking her head.

“Everything?”

She made the same gesture, which I took to mean “not quite.”

“Surroundings?”

She nodded, pointing her claw at me, then the word.

“Okay—so we’ve got oysters and surroundings.”

She drew another word, then an “X” in the sand beside it.

“Here?”

She shook her carapace, then pointed at the word, crossed her claws in front of her, and shook her head again.

“Ohhh, no? That word means no?”

She blew victorious bubbles, nodding. She drew the word for “surroundings,” then “no,” and finally, “oysters.”

“There are no more oysters in the surrounding area?” I asked.

She hissed with delight, her whole body going up and down.

I laughed. “I can’t believe you’re my language tutor, Snips—what would I do without you?”

She sidled over and rubbed against my leg affectionately. I stroked her head.

“Ah, I love you too, my literate little scamp. So you guys harvested all the oysters within a reasonable distance.”

She nodded again.

“No wonder the otter has been coming to our headland, Snips—you and your crabs harvested the rest of them!”

She froze, her body going rigid as she blew tiny bubbles of comprehension.

Ah, she hadn’t realized it was our fault the otter came here.

“Well, no matter.” I rubbed her head again. “That just makes it easier for us to befriend it!”

She blew a single, oversized bubble of anger, and I barked a laugh.

“I know, Snips. I know.”