Monster of the Deep

Ath'enialla was drifting through the deep of Immezza, satisfied with a job well done. Everything had gone according to plan - the Immezzan and Camathu Starlords were ready to reignite the war between their people. And all it had taken was a couple of well timed attacks on Ath'enialla's part.

Ath'enialla had found a large cave, well away from where the Immezzans and Camathu frequented. She had been on this rock for the better part of three months, planning and plotting. When she had discovered how easy it would be to start this war, Ath'enialla had rejoiced - she would be able to return home much sooner than anticipated. So now she waited to hear from her people, and hopefully to return home.

She was just dozing off when something sharp struck her left flank. Ath'enialla let out a scream of rage and pain. Her head swung around on her long neck in time to see an Immezzan getting ready for a second attack, shell-tipped spear raised and ready to strike. As Ath'enialla was about to retaliate, something ripped a chunk out of her right pectoral fin. Her large head swiveled in time to see a Camathu swim off. She let off another hate-filled scream. A Camathu and Immezzan working together?

And then the third assailant stabbed her tail. There, directly behind her, was a human. A human! Ath'enialla, though enraged, knew she had to make a run for it. For a human to be beneath the waves of Immezza meant one thing: the new Spacelord was here! And the other two must be the local Starlords of Immezza. Ath'enialla knew she had to make a run for it; if she were lucky, she might be able to kill one of them, but not all three.

"Ath'enialla," a voice spoke suddenly within her mind, "a gate is ready. Return home immediately or you will die!"

"But Lord, I have failed! The Camathu and the Immezzan attack together! Somehow they have discovered that I killed their people!"

"That does not matter. It is a set back, but we can recover nonetheless. But, you must make it to the gate if you want to live! Swim!"

Ath'enialla swam. Her three assailants were fortunately caught off guard by the move, which meant that only the Camathu now had a chance of catching her. Luckily, Ath'enialla didn't have far to go. Normally she would have had no problem outracing the smaller Camathu, but that human must have known what he was doing when he stabbed her tail! It was bleeding freely and hurt like hell! If she could not make it to the gate, then she was done for; the Camathu would be able to follow her blood trail.

Luckily, she made it to the gate just as the Camathu started to gain on her. He had just entered the cavern when the gate disappeared, leaving only a small trace of her blood behind her.

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.”