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.”

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.

The Body

The treaty lands were relatively barren. At first Lubic wanted to refer to them as a desert, but he quickly revised that thought. The barrens were a wasteland. In deserts, life is still present; in this wasteland, there was nothing. No colour. No movement. No life.

“It’s just a little further,” Azalyn called back to him.

“How can you tell?” Lubic was swimming hard, trying to keep up with her. “It all looks the same to me.”

“Remember what I told you about being able to feel where your people are?”

“Never mind. Forget I asked.”

Suddenly, Azalyn stopped, pointing ahead of her. Lubic was still looking around and almost ploughed into her. Luckily her attention was riveted on the area her webbed finger indicated. “He is there.”

Azalyn was indicating a hill, much like all the others they had passed. Lubic moved forward cautiously. As he came closer, a body gradually took shape before him. It was humanoid, but like Azalyn, rather fishlike. The scales on the body were a dull brown. Even the hair was a mousy brown colour.

“Do your people turn brown when you die?”

“What kind of question is that? Of course we don’t! Are all humans the same colour?”

“Look Azalyn, I have no idea how things work with your people.”

Getting a little closer to the body, he was able to see the mess of the torso. There were gashes across the man’s chest, where something had ripped chunks out of him. The left side of his body was a torn up mess. His right foot was almost severed.

“Wow. Whatever did this must have large teeth!” Lubic exclaimed after taking a closer look. He was amazed that everything looked so well preserved; being under the sea, he thought it would have decomposed a lot more by now.

“The Camathu are sharks. What do you expect?”

“Just because they are sharks doesn’t necessarily mean they’re big, Azalyn.” The marks from the teeth were relatively clear. Whatever did this knew exactly what it was doing; this man died very quickly. “Wait, you told me about some kind of war. Did the Camathu eat your people? Or did they just kill them like this?”

“I’m honestly not sure. Like I said, the war was before my time.”

“Can the Camathu see very well?”

“As far as I know, they smell better than they see.”

“Have you ever seen a Camathu attack anything before?”

“We try to leave them alone so they’ll leave us alone.”

“That didn’t answer my question.”

“Look Lubic,” Azalyn was darting back and forth in a controlled line, like she was pacing. “Why don’t we go and talk to their Starlord? He can answer your questions better than I can.”

Lubic took another look at the body in case he missed anything important. “Okay. Where can we find him?”

“I am here, Spacelord” said a voice from right behind Lubic.

Chameleon Sharks?

Azalyn paused before continuing. "But before we go on any further, I think we have something we should deal with first."

"Alright. So how does this allegiance thing work?" Lubic asked.

"I will swear it and you will accept it. That will bind us."

"If you say so."

Azalyn ignored his comment. "I, Azalyn Minara, Starlord of Imezza, pledge my allegiance to you, Spacelord Lubic."

Lubic hesitated. "What do I say?" he whispered. "Is there anything formal I need to recite?"

"Not really. Just try to take it seriously."

"Alright." He considered what to say for a few moments more. "I, Spacelord Lubic, accept the allegiance of Imezza’s Starlord."

They felt the familiar shiver as their allegiance was formalized into a new law. "That was actually pretty good."

"Thanks," Lubic grinned. "Now what am I doing here?"

"My people are being harassed by the Camathu of the North. They have left my people alone for over a hundred years, but now something has happened to anger them. They have moved into the treaty lands, which, in itself, is not troubling. But earlier this morning, they drew blood."

"Before you go any further, what are the treaty lands?"

"The treaty lands are the lands between the chameleon sharks and my people. They are a neutral territory where the two people can meet and trade. The treaty lands were put into place when the last war ended a century ago."

"Chameleon sharks?"

"Yes, the Camathu are chameleon fish. They are predators, built largely like a shark from your planet. But they can blend in with their surroundings. They are not overly bright, but they do have a primitive culture and a Starlord. They were at war with my people for hundreds of years. Luckily the war ended long before I was born, so I have not had to deal with it."

"Alright, so what exactly happened?"

"One of my people went missing late last night. His family told me he had gone into the treaty lands to trade with the Camathu, as he did every week. They told me he knew his way as he has traded in the same spot for years. He has always returned before sundown. So I went to investigate and found his body a little ways away from where he was supposed to be."

"And how do you know it was one of these Camathu? Are they the only predatory things on this planet?"

"They are the only ones who would dare attack my people, especially in the treaty lands. Those lands were chosen because they have little to offer either of our people in the ways of resources. And that is also the reason why they are safe - predators would most likely require the same resources as the chameleon fish."

Lubic sighed. "I guess first thing’s first. Take me to the body."

Welcome to Imezza

He couldn’t breathe. Lubic opened his eyes, thrashing wildly about. There! Way above him, he could see the spot where the sun kissed the water’s edge. It looked like quite a ways above him, but his lungs were screaming and he knew he had to try.

"Lubic, just breathe normally."

He glanced around wildly, but there was no time! He thought his lungs had been screaming before, but that was a mere whisper compared to now! He kicked his way towards air, towards life.

"LUBIC! JUST BREATHE NORMALLY!"

He hesitated, and in that instant accidentally breathed in through his nose. Instead of the nose-full of water he was expecting, he got air.

"What the...?"

"Lubic, why the heck did you bring yourself to my planet under the sea? I thought you would meet me on one of the islands, where I could explain this to you before you started panicking!" Azalyn rolled her eyes once again. "My predecessor made a rule that all visiting Starlords and Spacelords would be able to breathe beneath the seas of Imezza. It was put into effect after one of the Spacelords made it so that we could breathe the air of other worlds."

"So I won’t drown?"

"No."

Lubic took in a deeper breath this time. Sure enough, no water. "Neat. And this will remain true for the whole time I’m on your planet."

"Yes. This whole time and every other time you visit."

"So how do I move around then?"

"You can swim."

The Question of Allegiance

"I need you to come to my planet to help me." Azalyn repeated slowly.

"How the heck am I supposed to get to your planet? And why should I go to your planet anyway? Isn’t it enough that I have to take care of my people?"

"Lubic, I pledged allegiance to you, which means that -"

"Wait, yesterday? I never accepted."

"WHAT?"

Lubic grinned sheepishly. "Back in the park. I never accepted your allegiance."

"Then why the heck was I helping you with the witch?"

"I don’t know. Maybe you felt sorry for me?"

Azalyn rubbed her temples. "Alright then. I will re-pledge my allegiance to you. And this time you will accept it. Then we will talk about Imezza."

"Wait a second. Before any of this is finalized, what does this allegiance do for us?"

"Well, if I pledge allegiance to you, then you have to help me look after my people. And I in turn will come to your aide whenever you need me. That is the Spacelord/Starlord bond."

"Sounds kind of like the feudal system."

"Sure. Whatever. The point is, you have more power than me, so I need your help to deal with something."

"I have more power than you?"

"Yes. Lubic, do you remember when you stopped time? When Jaleesa said that Jared could not have stopped time? Well, that is the same as me. I can affect my planet, Imezza. But you, you can affect the entire Universe."

"Really? Why would someone give me that kind of power, but not you?"

"It is someone’s cruel joke on the universe. My people have not yet left Imezza under their own power. Your people have."

"Well, we did go to the moon."

"I don’t think that is what did it. Otherwise Jared would have been a Spacelord, too. But he wasn’t."

"Oh." Lubic thought about that for a bit. "So there are humans running around on another planet somewhere?"

"Can’t you tell?"

"Should I be able to?"

"Yes. Most Spacelords can feel where their people are if they try."

"Okay, that sounds kind of creepy. Let’s get your problem sorted out before I even think about that some more." He took a deep breath. "How do I get to Imezza?"

A Meeting of Minds

"Spacelord! It's Azalyn! Please, stop screaming!"

Lubic looked again at the reflection staring back at him. It was a bit distorted, and every so often the reflection seemed to ripple a bit, but yes, it was the fish woman. "Azalyn! What are you doing in my mirror? Get out of there!"

"Lubic, I am not in your mirror! I am just talking to you through it!"

"Then where are you?"

"I am on Imezza."

"Imezza?"

"My home world! Weren't you listening to anything I told you yesterday?"

"Quite honestly, no."

"LUBIC! You are a SPACELORD! How are you going to help anyone when you can't even listen when people introduce themselves?"

"Azalyn, look at it from my perspective for a minute. One day I'm a normal guy. The next, I have aliens and witches telling me I'm a super hero or something. Did you honestly think I would take that at face value?"

"But you should have been told all of this years ago! It should not have been a big surprise when I first showed up!"

"Look darlin, it is what it is. If you want my help, you're going to have to be really patient with me."

"Do you still think this is a dream, Lubic?"

"Honestly, I'm starting to have my doubts. I've never had a dream as long and crazy as this one. Although I guess it's possible I'm in a coma..."

"Lubic," a roll of midnight eyes, "why is it so hard to accept that I am real?"

"Remember, my perspective."

"Alright. I will try to be more patient with you. But you in turn have to try to have an open mind!"

"Deal. So what did you need?"

"I need you to come to my planet to help me."

"WHAT?"