>>6128306Recalling Cara-Zi’s conjecture, you repeat it back before the murmuring crowd: “You expect me ta’ believe THIS little maggot ate up half the lake’s fuckin’ fish, an’ poisoned the other half? It’s smaller than you!”
The young adventuress reels back at the implied (and very deliberate) jab at her weight. She’s not fat in the least, of course, but very CAREFULLY not fat, which is how you know I the blow will land. Her stout, somewhat slanty-eyed little brunette friend in the oversized spectacles plainly cares little for her appearance and far more for matters practical, which is why when you address HER you chance tack:
“Hey, four-eyes! How much can a thing that big eat? How much poison can it produce, ya’ figure?”
You freckle-faced Eastern-looking human girl chews her lip as she crunches the numbers. She doesn’t even need to speak up: the people on the pier can see as swella s you do that the math doesn’t add up.
“Either there’s more of ‘em out there,” you say with absolute certainty, “or that ain’t even the actual monster. Either, way—"
“The hunt’s still on!”
You turn your head sharply to stare at Leif. Of COURSE it’s fucking LEIF, stealing your goddamned thunder! He grins at you, cocksure as ever, and you stew in the potent mix of annoyance and, okay, sure, FINE, a LITTLE bit of arousal at this back-and-forth with the bastard who nearly broke your cold-streak less than twelve hours ago.
“Yeah,” you grumble, “what that loser said.”
The kiddies’ own blonde alpha-male steps forward, smiling the smile of empty-headed himbos everywhere, and says:
“Well, if there’s more of them, we’ll just need more cages! Or a single, really BIG cage!”
The redhead and brunette on the dog-owning delinquent squad protest at their fearless leader’s immediately acceptance of your argument, but you only smile. It simply serves to set into the mind of the local folk that, indeed, you’re still in contention for the pot of gold at the end of this particular rainbow. It also provides an opening…
“Ya’ know,” you say, flashing your early whites and sticking out your assets at the overgrown oaf, “yer trap id a pretty good job, even if ya’ nabbed the wrong newt. If ya’ want, em an’ my more EXPERIENCED crew could lend ya’ a hand with analyzin’ the fucker, figurin’ out how he ticks…?”
