“That’s a good morning’s work. These things are worth their weight in gold.”
“What does it do?”
“Repels insects.”
The others were still asleep; they skirted the clearing, and made their way to the beach. The sea was now magically calm, with gentle wavelets breaking on the smooth sand. A dazzling road of gold stretched out of the rising sun.
“What now?”
“Now we try to find some breakfast.”
They inspected the pool with the porifids; the creatures immediately swam towards them, the mouths opening to reveal tiny pink tongues. Simeon took one of the yellow fruits out of his bag, peeled off its hard skin, then placed it on a flat rock and chopped it into small pieces. Niall watched dubiously; he felt that it was unlikely that the porifids would be interested in fruit. But as soon as Simeon tossed it into the pool, the porifids rose to it and caught it in their open mouths; within thirty seconds, there was not a fragment of fruit left. Niall picked up the skin and sniffed it, then dropped it with disgust; it smelt exactly like decaying flesh.
Simeon said: “It’s not just the smell that does it. It seems to contain some oil that animals find irresistible.”
They continued along the beach, to a point where weed-covered rocks sloped into the sea. They climbed across these until they found themselves looking down into a deep pool, whose bottom was covered with a seaweed that looked as if it was made of trailing green gossamer. The rocky bottom sloped upward in the direction of the sea, so that it would remain half-full of water even when the tide was out. They sat with their legs dangling above the water, while Niall and Simeon both peeled the yellow fruits. Simeon then chopped each of these into large cubes. He squeezed one of the cubes in his hand, so that the oily juice ran down on to the surface of the water. The juice, like the dense flesh itself, was slightly stained with purple. When Simeon dropped the crushed pulp, it sank slowly to the bottom and disappeared among the seaweed. Almost immediately, there was a movement at the far edge of the pool, then a flash of pink; a strange iridescent creature, more than six inches long, shot out from under an overhanging ledge and vanished into the seaweed above the fragment of fruit. Niall had never seen a shrimp or prawn in his life, so was unaware that this one was a giant. Others followed from other parts of the pool, while from a black cave below the surface emerged a small brown and green squid, which instantly seized a fragment of fruit and vanished back into its hole. Simeon finished chopping both fruits and tossed them into the pool; by the time he had finished, the water was full of shrimps fighting for the pieces.
Simeon, meanwhile, moved round to the seaward end of the pool, the long knife in his hand, and waded cautiously into the water. The shrimps were too interested in their feast to pay any attention as he speared one of them against the bottom, and tossed it out on to the sand. In less than five minutes he had caught a dozen more. Niall picked them up, still wriggling and twisting, and dropped them into the shoulder bag.
Simeon had his knife poised above a particularly large specimen, and was waiting for it to sink to the bottom, when Niall observed the shimmer of red at the far end of the pool. For a moment he assumed it to be another shrimp; then, as it emerged into the sunlight, he saw from the wavering feelers that it was a big shellfish. For a moment, its sheer bulk held it trapped in the entrance to the underwater cave. Simeon reacted instantly to Niall’s shout of alarm, and leapt towards the shallow end of the pool. The giant lobster followed him with unnerving speed; its fighting claw was closing on Simeon’s leg as Niall pulled him out of the water.
Niall was appalled by the apparition that was now scrambling out of the pool towards them; to him it resembled a huge scorpion. But Simeon stood his ground; as the lobster slithered on the smooth rock, he raised the knife and brought it down with all his force. The severed claw fell at Niall’s feet, closing convulsively on a rock, which splintered like a cracked nut. Simeon raised the knife again, this time towards the eyes; but the lobster was already in retreat. There was a loud splash as it vanished into the water.
Simeon looked down at the calf of his right leg; the flesh had been torn, and it was bleeding heavily. But closer inspection showed that the wound was less serious than it looked. The claw had pinched the soft part of the flesh, and torn away a long strip, which was now hanging down; but the damage was only superficial. Simeon was evidently prepared for such an emergency; he took a roll of bandage from his pocket, and expertly wrapped the lower part of his leg. Niall, meanwhile, looked with horrified fascination at the fighting claw, which was still opening and closing. It was almost two feet long, and was obviously powerful enough to sever a man’s leg. When it had stopped moving, Niall picked it up; he needed both hands to lift it. Simeon chuckled grimly:
“Put it in the bag. We’ll have it for breakfast.”
In fact, the claw was too large to go into the shoulder bag, and Niall had to carry it with both hands.
While they were still five hundred yards away from the camp, a plume of smoke told them that someone had lighted a fire. The smoke was rising straight into the air. Simeon said:
“The wind’s dropped. I thought it would.”
They met Manetho, returning from the stream with a saucepan of clear water. Ulic had climbed a palm tree, and was throwing down bunches of dates. Doggins had spread a blanket on the ground to serve as a tablecloth, and was hacking chunks from a long white loaf. When he saw the shrimps he chuckled and rubbed his hands.
“My favourite dish. But I’ve never seen them that size.” His eyes widened at the sight of the lobster claw. “It would take all day to cook that.”
Tossed into the centre of the fire, the claw hissed and bubbled as the heat forced out the water. Meanwhile, the shrimps were pushed into the hot ashes at the edge of the fire, and covered with burning twigs. It took about half an hour for most of them to cook; then they peeled off the blackened shells, and ate the flesh with salt and butter. Niall decided it was the most delicious food he had ever tasted, and consumed two of them with the appetite of a starving man. About an hour later, when the fire had turned to red-hot ashes, the lobster claw was raked out, kicked on to the blanket, then dragged across the beach to the sea. The shell, which had withstood the heat of the fire, cracked as soon as it was thrown into the water; Niall was able to remove a splinter-shaped fragment, and allow the sea water to cool the interior. When the claw was cold enough to handle, they took it back to camp, where Simeon smashed the shell with a rock, then served a portion of lobster to each of them. Niall regretted that he had eaten two of the shrimps; the lobster flesh was just as succulent and appetising; but he had to confess defeat after eating less than his share. Simeon ate every mouthful with stolid determination; Niall could see that it gave him immense satisfaction to consume the limb that had come so close to amputating his own.
When they had finished eating, and washed down the food with an aromatic drink made from herbs steeped in hot water, Simeon found a flat stone, and used it as a chopping block while he hacked open the grey spiny globes. Each contained a soft, white fruit with a peculiar, penetrating smell that made the eyes sting. One of these was handed to each of them, and they were ordered to strip naked and rub themselves from head to foot with the juice. It produced a tingling, burning sensation that was almost painful on the more tender parts of the body. When told to rub it on the bald spot at the back of his head, Doggins pulled a wry face. “Do I have to?”
“Yes. You’ll be glad of it before the day’s over.”
Doggins shrugged and did as he was told.
Simeon unwrapped the bandage from his leg, and squeezed the white fruit on the wound, clenching his teeth with pain as he did so. But when he had rubbed the remainder of the juice into the torn flesh, then wiped it carefully with a handful of grass, the bleeding suddenly ceased, and the wound seemed to whiten and contract; the juice obviously possessed powerful healing properties.