The Crustacean's Collection

Looking down upon the little crab scuttling across the sands, you might be inclined to think he lives a rather unremarkable life. Such a simple creature with simple instincts, surely. The truth of the matter is that you couldn't be further from the truth.

Now, he's not inclined to hold the mistake against you. After all, you've never lived the life of a crab, much less spared an extra thought towards the complexities of his nature before now. In fact, that little crab before you boasts a rather peculiar fascination, one that rivals even the most distinguished sentience upon planet earth. His life is rich with adventure, with purpose, and his mission commands the entirety of his focus.

Hermes was on one such mission the day the invaders washed ashore. He scuttled forth from his burrow with the rise of the sun, eager to pluck the spoils carried in with the tide following the elemental battle that raged the night before. Storms always produced the greatest riches: dead fish, salty sea grass, and even the occasional squid from time to time. But the greatest treasure, that which brought Hermes scrambling militantly across the beach, were the precious trinkets. The colorful shells and smooth stones he coveted and used to adorn the entrance to his burrow. Hermes fought hard to build his priceless collection, scraping with other members of his consortium and winged pests that sought to pilfer his shiny prizes.

But as he made his way across the warming sands, his focus intent on the future of his growing garden, he was greeted by something else entirely. Splintered debris littered the beach. Nothing more than unsightly trash. Hermes had no interest in anything so grotesquely mundane. But laying amidst the debris sprawled something pink and fleshy, soaking with the tide.

He scurried closer. Not simply one, but four. Four, enormous blobs in varying size sprawled across the coarse grains like sea stars. Only these had no spiny protrusions dotting their skin. They bore no scales or fins, nor hardened shells to protect their meaty bits. No claws on their gangly appendages to grapple, nor pincers primed to snatch their prey. Even their mouths looked fleshy, plump skin puckered around bony, flat teeth.

Hermes clacked his mandibles questioningly, wondering whether these foreign creatures tasted like squid or fish. As if in response, the intruders began to sputter and cough, rolling on their bellies and crawling further from the tide. One by one, they began to recover, flopping their bodies away from the salty brine like seals beaching themselves on the sunbaked sands. Hermes scurried to the safety of a shadowed rock, partially burying himself for camouflage.

Intrigued, he watched them scamper from the sea's touch and cling to the crop of palms that marked the boundary between the beach and the sparse jungle. They arranged themselves in a half circle, clinging to one another and stripping the outer layer of their skin to wring between their improbable appendages. Only when their attention turned away from the beach, did Hermes resume his search, making sure to give the strangers a wide berth.

***

The days following the initial invasion proved tiresome for the little crab. The endless stomping of gigantic feet storming back and forth across the beach gave him little peace. When he did venture from his burrow, he found the strangers scattered across the small island engaging in peculiar behaviors. Some stood in the shoals with sharpened sticks while others shimmied up the trees to knock down coconuts. One even had the audacity to try and eat him.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Of course part of a crab's life is dodging predators, successfully or not. Hermes even had to avoid his own kind until he grew large enough to fend them off, but the fact that one of these newcomers sought to make a meal of him so soon after landing on his home irked him tremendously. While he wasn't one to hold a grudge, Hermes couldn't shake the immense pride he felt when he snapped his claw around the stubby, fleshy protrusion from the creature's lower appendage, loosing a strangled howl from the invader's throat, before scuttling back to the safety of his burrow.

The only relief from the invaders disrupting presence came at the peak of the afternoon when the sun's rays cooked the little island enough to keep even the hardiest of the consortium within the cool shadows of their burrows. Lacking shells or other adequate protection from the heat, the invaders also hunkered down in the sparse shade of the swaying palms. Hermes watched them from the safety of his home, observing their strange customs while simultaneously admiring his garden. His collection had grown impressively with the last few changes of the tide. Shimmering shells glittered in the sparkling light while his polished stones glistened beside them.

Seeing a few flecks of sand encroaching on his closest stone, Hermes quickly brushed it away, then set about rearranging his garden until he felt satisfied once more. But as he fussed over one particular shell at the edge of his collection, a distant sparkle caught his eye. Hermes surveyed the beach, scanning for the source until he found it at the water's edge. A small glittering spark of green. Hermes clacked his mandibles eagerly, then flicked one wary eyes towards the intruders lounging beneath the palms.

Slowly, he inched from his burrow. When none of them moved, he scuttled faster, pausing every now and then to ensure none had moved. Hermes repeated the process until he reached the shallows and plucked the shimmering slab of green from the tide's clutches and began hauling it back towards his burrow.

Smooth and polished by the waves, his newfound treasure slipped from his claws, unable to get a satisfactory grip. But Hermes refused to abandon his prize and made his way painfully slow across the sand as he dragged, dropped, clutched, and repeated.

Halfway across the beach, Hermes felt more than saw the shadow loom overhead and turned one eye up to see the smallest of the invaders kneeling over him. Raising his claws, the little crab snapped them defensively and prepared for a fight, but the fleshy fiend refused to move. Instead, its lips parted slightly, showing its flat, white teeth as it continued its observation. Hermes stared back, debating whether to flee and return for his treasure after dark or stand his ground. There was no guarantee he'd find it again when the sun went down, nor that the stranger wouldn't snatch his prize for itself. The idea that it might ignore something so valuable was simply unfathomable to the little crab.

But a crab is stubborn above all else; rigid in its focus and determination once its mind has been set. Hermes refused to lose his newest trinket, and slowly continued his march across the beach beneath the invader's shadow. All the while, it watched him, never moving to attack or losing interest in the little crab's trek across the sand. When Hermes finally reached his burrow, he quickly secreted his treasure down into the safety of his home, deciding to arrange it in its proper place when fewer eyes watched him.

***

The following morning began a ritual that Hermes didn't fully understand. He awoke late to the retreating pound of heavy footsteps across the sand and emerged from his burrow in time to see the little invader marching back towards the rocks that overlooked the consortium's territory. Hermes blinked, then noticed the unfamiliar trinket placed at the edge of his burrow. Another bit of shiny, polished glass, only blue instead of green. Hermes looked back at the invader curiously, watching its lips part gleefully as it observed his reaction.

When it made no sign of abandoning its watch, Hermes set about arranging his collection in search of the perfect place to display his newest treasures. He hauled his green trinket from his burrow and placed it on the northern edge of his entrance. He moved it twice before finding a satisfactory placement, then moved on to the blue. Hermes placed it down beside his favorite white shell, scuttled back, then changed his mind and half-buried it beside his largest, blue-striped pebble. Happy with its placement, Hermes flicked one eye back to the little invader, intrigued to find it clapping its appendages admiringly before it returned to its own kind.

The next morning began the same, and every one after that until Hermes began to wait at the edge of his burrow in anticipation of his strange acquaintance's return. Each day, the little intruder left a trinket for Hermes at the edge of his burrow, then sat upon the rocky overhang to watch him rearrange his collection. A pink shell here. A grey and white stone there. A cracked hermit crab's shell that still had a small bit of meat tucked inside. The ritual became routine, growing Hermes' collection far beyond the bounds of his burrow, and made the little crab's heart swell with pride.

Until one morning, Hermes awoke instead to a bellowing honk reverberating in the distance. He scrambled from his burrow and, finding no new treasure or sign of the invaders, scampered off across the sands in search of his newfound friend. Hermes scuttled across their empty burrow, investigating the litter of coconuts and fish scraps longer than he meant to. He scurried across the warming sands, taking shelter amidst the same rocks and detritus that washed ashore with the invaders.

Reaching the water's edge, Hermes saw them bobbing up and down upon a strange craft that carried them over the ocean's surface towards a larger structure waiting further out to sea. Claws raised, he stopped at the tide's edge and watched the invaders disappear from whence they came, the smallest amongst them waving its appendage back and forth.

Hermes clacked his mandibles and lowered his claws. He watched motionlessly until the invaders vanished beyond his line of sight, then scuttled back to his burrow to rearrange his collection once more.

Overlooked in his haste, he stumbled upon a small, golden trinket twinkling in the waxing sun, a length of chain coiled around it. Hermes studied the treasure, his pride swelling once more, then clutched the chain gently in his claws and dragged it down into his burrow until he could find the proper place to display it.