“What did Mr. Bloodtrail say?” Bognar asked.
“He said you’re bad at rowing… Hey, Trax, any chance we could toss you a rope and you could pull us there faster?”
“I shall do so. Watching you flounder about so pathetically is depressing.”
After we got a pair of ropes secured to the boats, we tossed them to Trax, and in short order, he got us moving quicker than the rest of us put together could row. That really was kind of sad.
“Did anybody else get to the island ahead of us?”
“Yes. A small group of humans arrived a few hours before I did.”
“Dammit.” I shouted toward the other boat where Rufus sat, “Your big mouth has brought us more trouble.”
“Do not worry, Carnavon. The invaders were promptly eaten.”
“By you, or the monsters?”
“By the monsters. You asked me not to eat any people until you arrived. I am good at following instructions.”
“What about the monsters?”
“They are chewy.”
To be fair, that was on me for telling a Squalo to use his best judgment. “How many of them did you kill?”
“Only the ones who swam out to challenge me.”
“Trax…”
“I slew four. I only ate one, though. The other bodies sank before I could, and I would not abandon my post in pursuit of flesh. I am very responsible. I could not identify the creatures from your earlier description, as these are not native to my plane. However, I believe these are mutants. A combination of human, mollusk, and other unknown species. They are likely a leftover experiment from a prior age.”
“Can we communicate with them?”
“You would waste your words. They are very noisy but do not speak. From their mind pictures, they are of minimal intelligence. Perhaps a bit dumber than ratlets even.”
Trax mostly thought of ratlets as convenient snacks. “How tough are they?”
“Their meat is rubbery and tastes similar to squid.”
“I don’t mean to chew. How physically tough are they? Can we kill them?”
“Yes. They seem vulnerable to normal wounds.”
Finally, some good news.
Trax must have read my thoughts, because he immediately brought me back down, “I smell approximately fifty more of them.”
I sighed, then raised my voice so both boats could hear me over the waves. “Trax says they’re some kind of mutant, probably an old wizard’s experiment, but our weapons should work on them just fine. Issue is, there’s a bunch of them.”
“Approximately fifty,”Trax sent just in case I’d not gotten the number the first time.
“You’ve got to dole out bad news slowly, so you don’t overwhelm people.”
“Fascinating. Then when I have bad news for a human, I should deliver it gradually. This is good to know. There… are… too… many… monsters.”
I shouted, “Trax says we’re badly outnumbered. There’s at least fifty of them.”
Most of the Outcasts grimaced in fear at that, except for Rade, who got excited at the opportunity for heroic swordplay, and Rufus, who counted on his fingers, before saying, “Aye, each of us only has to slay three of them! That’s an easy battle.”
