Monday, December 29, 2008

Blorgscht

Lubic slowly turned, coming face to face with a wicked grin. Sure enough, there was a shark in front of him. But this shark was unlike anything he had ever seen before. For one thing, antennae grew out of the shark’s forehead, two esca with bioluminescent tips. But besides the esca, Lubic could barely make out the shark’s outline; the shark’s body was camouflaged, blending in with its surroundings.

Lubic took a deep breath. “You are the Camathu Starlord?”

“Yes,” the voice said. “I am Blorgscht.”

Lubic stared at the creature in front of him. Blorgscht was not exactly what the Camathu’s name was, but it was the closest thing that Lubic’s mind could make out. “Well, Starlord,” Lubic said after a moment, deciding not to offend the shark by attempting to pronounce his name, “will you tell me your version of events?”

“Now wait a minute!” Azalyn interjected. “You can see it as plain as the sun through the waves! A shark bit him, and so the Camathu are at fault! There are no other sharks on Immezza!”

“Hey, you asked me to look into this, Azalyn. Let me do my job.” He turned back to the Camathu. “What do you know about the death of this Immezzan?”

“Not why I come here now,” Blorscht began after a moment, talking rather slowly. “The carcass, he was a friend. He brought us things we cannot make ourselves. He was friends with two Camathu. They always met here.”

“After which they killed him!” Azalyn snarled. “It was no yaash that ripped his insides out!”

“What is a yaash?” Lubic asked her.

“A yaash is a tiny predator fish. They have sharp teeth and usually swim in schools. They will swarm fish that are a bit bigger than themselves.”

“No, it definitely couldn’t have been them,” Lubic mused.

“Of course it couldn’t have been them! They’re tiny!”

Lubic ignored her, turning back to the Camathu. “What did you come here to talk to me about?”

Blorgscht regarded Lubic with an eye that was black as shadow. “The Camathu friends of the carcass are dead.”

“How did they die?”

“By Imezzan hand.”

“Lies!” shrieked Azalyn. “We would not violate the treaty!”

“We would not either,” Blorgscht stated.

“Okay, let me get this straight. Both of your people only met with very specific members of each other’s races. Now all of them are dead, and it looks like they killed each other?”

“Yes,” said Blorgscht.

“Before this gets too far out of hand, will you take me to see their bodies, Starlord?” Lubic asked Blorgscht.

“Yes,” said Blorgscht. “Follow.”

“Oh, and Starlord, I needed to ask you another thing. Are you an average sized Camathu, or a large one?”

“I am biggest.”

“Thank you. Lead the way.”

“Lubic, what are you doing?” Azalyn asked him. “His people attacked and killed one of my own! Why are you looking into the deaths of his people?”

“Azalyn, I want to know what happened here. It’s a little hard to believe that your one guy killed two of them at once.” Lubic started to swim after Blorgscht. “And anyway, I’m not entirely convinced this is as simple as it seems.”

Azalyn stared after him in amazement for a bit, and then had to hurry to catch up to their disappearing forms.

3 comments:

Dust said...

I think I like Blorgscht. I've got a good first impression from him. He has a very honest predatory edge to him. He'll rip your face off but only because you are food and he is hungry. He's honest and you can trust him.

Gustavo B. Rockwell said...

Yay! You used the name!

And it's true, it's not as simple as it appears...it was Ron, wasn't it? C'mon, admit it...

Dust said...

What? Aw crap. Way to ruin it for me!!!!