Heeeere, Monstrous Kitty!
The blue crab shuffled down a hallway lit by massive anglerfish that swam alongside them. Aru tried not to stare at their gaping jaws and long rows of sharp teeth. From their scaly brown foreheads swung tiny pendulums of light. Aru realized she hadzeroidea about what she had just agreed to do. Was she supposed to find something for the gods’ makara to eat?
MaybeVaruna had been talking about a different pet. Aru crossed her fingers and hoped it was a dolphin. Or maybe a non-stinging jellyfish. Or, better yet, a seahorse.
Aru was so busy thinking about what kind of pets Varuna might keep that she nearly stepped on the blue crab.
“HEY!” it shouted. “WATCH IT!”
“You can talk?” she asked, startled.
“No,” said the crab bitterly. “This is all in your head.OfcourseI can talk.”
“Sorry,” she mumbled. “Still getting used to this whole talking-to-underwater-animals thing.”
“Hmpf.”
“So … can you sing, too?”
The crab went utterly still. “Why. Does. Everyone. Ask. Me. That?” It turned around and snapped its pincers sharply. “Did you also expect me to be bright red and have a Jamaican accent? Because if so, I amnotsorry to disappoint! Just becausemy brother went Hollywood doesn’t mean thatIsing and dance, too!” The crab scuttled ahead, muttering something that sounded a lot likeMother wouldn’t understand.
Talk about crabby, thought Aru. Her second thought wasHa! No pun intended. Her third thought wasI am talking to myself again. I should stop.
“You should never seek help from the Lord of the Waters,” said the crab darkly. “He isfickle and unpredictable, just like the ocean. The sea has a temper. Also, it keeps things it likes. Bright baubles that catch its eye. Pretty girls and boys who look at their reflection in the water for too long … never realizing that the water is looking back.”
Aru shivered.
“The sea is hungry today.” The crab’s voice sounded intentionally dramatic, and Aru imagined it holding a flashlightup to its face, like one of her classmates at a sleepover.
Too bad the sea isn’t hungry for blue crab bisque, thought Aru.
The crab seemed to glare at her, its two stemlike eyes narrowing, and she wondered whether it could read thoughts, too.
“So, what exactly is this pet, and what am I supposed to feed it?”
“You’ll see.”
Aru followed the crab down a darker, narrower passageway. There wereno fish lanterns here. The only light came from naturally phosphorescent shells that had been set into the walls.Theypassed several wooden doors locked with menacing iron bolts until they stopped at the last one. The crab tapped it with a pincer, and it swung open. Inside, the room was massive. It was hard to see much in the dark space, but it looked like an arena of sorts. Smooth black sandcovered the floor and a net stretched along the sides of the room, as if to keep back spectators. It took her a moment to realize that she was no longer walking underwater. The room was some kind of magical air pocket.
But she didn’t see any pet. Was she supposed to call it? Howdidone summon a celestial pet?Heeeere, monstrous kitty!Aru stepped in, peering into the darkness … and a cold shadowfell over her thoughts. If she was supposed to be feeding this thing, then where was the food? Because there was no big bag of Otherworld pet kibble lying around here.
What Aru did see was a cage dangling over the middle of the arena.
And trapped inside were Mini, Brynne, and Aiden.
Brynne was the first to see her. “Aru!”
Aru’s heart nearly burst with relief. “You’re here! Did you come tosave me?”
“What’d you say?” shouted Aiden. “Do I like gravy?”
“No!” said Mini. “She said, ‘Do you guys blame me?’”
“She said ‘Did you come to save me?’” grumbled Brynne, loud enough that Aru could hear.
“Oh! Well, we wereaboutto,” said Mini. “But a naga guard threw us all into a pod and transported us here.”
“In other words, we got trapped,” said Brynne, crossing her arms.
Aru turned tothe little blue crab, which had been oddly silent the whole time. A horrible feeling snuck through her.
“Why are my friends in a trap?” she asked. “And where, exactly, is the food I’m supposed to feed the pet creature?”
The crab didn’t smile, probably because it couldn’t. But it did do a weird happy scuttle, like it was sayingGotcha!“You already know the answer to that, Pandava girl.”
Arubegan to slowly spin around the chamber. “What about the creature?”
A shadow grew over her then, and a louderclick, clicksound filled the air. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled all at once, and Aru turned to look behind her. The blue crab was beginning to grow bigger and bigger…. Now it was three times the size of Aru. It crouched and said:
“That would be me.”
