A Bigger Fish?

"Yup. Those sharks are dead."

Lubic, Azalyn and Blorgscht were looking at the corpses of the two dead Camathu. To Lubic, their bodies looked mangled. "Lubic, you have to remember that they have been dead for some time. Blorgscht did not think to preserve them." "The sea claims their bodies. I do not interfere." Lubic was ignoring the other two. The two bodies had many large gashes all over them. "What weapon could have done this?"

"I do not know," Azalyn finally answered. "I have never seen anything like this before. The Camathu scales are tough. It would take a lot for any of our shell weapons to pierce their hides. To do this would be nearly impossible!"

“Do you have any other weapons at all?”

“No,” Azalyn replied. “We use that which the sea provides.”

At first glance, it looked possible that the lacerations were caused by a sharp weapon of some sort. But whatever had done this was much stronger than a shell. In fact, on closer inspection, the gashes appeared similar to the lacerations found on the dead Immezzan. "It looks to me like whatever killed the Immezzan also killed these two." "But they do not look like they were bitten! These marks are not the same!” Azalyn cried.

“Well, whatever killed these two took a lot of care to make it look different than the Immezzan. Plus you have to take into account the decay on these two, as the Starlord didn’t preserve them the way you preserved your guy, Azalyn. But these markings here,” Lubic indicated a few prominent gashes across the trunk of one of the Camathu, “are very similar in size and shape to some of the ones on the Immezzan. And if the Starlord here is a large Camathu, then whatever killed these three is larger than any of his people, judging from the size of these gashes.”

Azalyn was staring at Lubic in amazement. “Something bigger than a Camathu? Nothing is bigger than a Camathu on Immezza!”

“Well, the easiest way to prove it would be to see our friend here attack something. We could compare the size of his bite marks with those on these sharks.”

“If that helps,” Blorgscht said.

“It will. At the very least, it will prove to Azalyn that your people are innocent. Then the three of us can figure out what actually did kill your people.”

Azalyn was still staring in amazement. “You think you can prove the Camathu are innocent here?”

“Azalyn,” Lubic said, “I can see that they are too small to have inflected those wounds on your man. And I highly doubt that your shell weapons could tear through these two, especially after you said it would take a lot for your shell weapons to pierce their hides. Whatever killed these two ripped through their skin like a knife through butter.”

“But Lubic, you’re not listening to me! The Camathu are the largest creatures on Immezza! If they did not kill him, then what did?”

“You asked me here to figure out what happened. And that’s what I’m going to do. We’re going to find this thing.”

“If something bigger than Camathu,” Blorgscht began, “I can find it.”

“Azalyn, it’s up to you. Do you need proof that the Camathu did not kill your man? Or do you want us to stop whatever is hunting both the Camathu and your people?”

Azalyn glared at Lubic. “If there really is something larger than the Camathu hurting all of us, then we need to find it. Find it and kill it!”

“We are agreed,” Blorgscht said. “Follow.”