Merchant Crab-Chapter 216: King Starfish

“Glurgh, glurgh—King… Starfish! Blurbbth!” the strange adventurer exclaimed again through the large starfish attached to his face, shaking his fists in anger from atop a sandy dune on the other side of the village square.

Bouldy tilted his rocky head slightly, feeling puzzled.

He wasn’t sure how he or anyone else was supposed to understand someone who only said the same thing over and over again. That was just no proper way to communicate.

All around the settlement’s center, villagers were still moving about, some struggling with the starfish attached to their faces, others running, crawling, or attempting to kick away the ones trying to climb onto their heads.

The golem was intrigued by the partying habits of the locals, but so long as they did not mind his presence, he was just glad to take part in the celebrations.

It was such a shame his friends were not there with him, Bouldy realized. He was certain Druma would have cheered everyone even more by playing the drum for them. After all, even a stone construct knows dancing is much better with music, which these villagers seemed to lack, for whatever reason.

On the other side of the village square, the self-proclaimed king clenched his fists and blubbered angrily at some of the unattached starfish on the ground near him. After a lot of wet noises and moist obscenities, the starfish-man punctuated his garbled command with a sharp jab of his finger toward Bouldy.

The limp creatures around him stirred and seemed to gain a restless momentum, using their soft limbs to pull themselves forward with purpose and urgency. All the other starfish around the square that weren’t already engaging a villager mirrored the same reaction, the king’s command spreading through them one at a time like a wave.

Soon, the horde of killer starfish were quickly moving in on Bouldy from all sides.

“Friend?” the living statue said, softly scratching the side of his head with the tip of his finger, unsure of what was happening.

With a slow spin, Bouldy looked down as he witnessed the invertebrates begin to climb his legs. One, two, three, and soon a dozen of the creatures were clinging to his smooth stone skin and making their way up, covering up most of his body below the waist.

The golem watched in shock and disbelief.

They didn’t just accept his presence in their party—they were going to let him participate in a dance too.

Bouldy felt ecstatic. Most people usually expressed fear and concern upon seeing the golem for the first time, likely feeling threatened by his massive size, despite the construct’s good intentions. But this nice fishing village was welcoming him with open arms—whether they had two or five of them.

The stone giant threw his head back and let out a roaring laugh that echoed through the entire village. He couldn’t help it, the tube feet of the starfish climbing up his body were tickling him into a helpless fit of giggling. How a golem made of rock was able to feel ticklish was anybody’s guess, however.

The sea stars were almost at his neck, and Bouldy grew worried.

Not about his safety, of course. His new aquatic friends were clearly just showing him their hospitality in their own way. He was worried that he did not know the moves to their dance.

A loud chirp came from the golem’s left shoulder. “Creeeee!”

Bouldy turned to Pebbles, who had a huge—but still tiny—grin across her face.

One of the starfish was close to reaching the shoulder the small pebble sat on, and Bouldy wondered if she could take part in the dancing too.

“Cree! Cree, cree, creeee!” the animated pellet happily chirped.

“Friend?” the boulder replied, intrigued by his little one’s request.

“Cree!” Pebbles replied, nodding her entire body.

The golem shrugged slightly, careful not to disrupt his new echinoderm friends as they scaled his body.

Pebbles wanted to take part in the fun too, and he saw no reason not to let her.

If she wanted to give the starfish king a hug, Bouldy was happy to assist.

The stone golem picked up the tiny rock from his shoulder with his right hand. Pulling his arm back, he took aim at the crowned adventurer standing on the dune on the other side of the village square.

[Pebble Toss activated]

“Frieeeeend!”

***

Three heads popped out from an alley, peering into the village square.

Bianca, the tallest of the three children, gasped as she spotted the golem they had met a few minutes before. His body was slowly being overtaken by the killer starfish that were attacking their village, dozens of the horrible creatures making their way up to the living statue’s face. They were no doubt aiming to do to him the same they were doing to their family and friends.

“No!” exclaimed the smaller girl, tears welling up in her eyes. “They’re going to hurt him too!”

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“Fay, stop!” said Bianca, grabbing her younger friend’s wrist as the little girl tried to run toward the golem. “We can’t help him!”

“Just like we couldn’t help our parents…” the boy behind them said, his gaze vacant and his expression one of defeat.

“Shut it, Freddy, you’re not helping either!” the older of the three said, pulling Fay back behind the corner and into an embrace as the small girl started bawling against her dress.

Bianca fought hard to hold back her own emotions as she looked around the square, seeing their neighbors and friends struggling against the invaders from the sea. The golem that had appeared out of nowhere was their last hope, but now it seemed he was doomed too.

The monsters were nearly at his face, and after what she had seen happen to the other villagers, she knew that once those things latched onto your face there was no escape.

No one could stop the starfish.

Suddenly, Bianca jumped in place as she heard something that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

The golem roared. A roar that rattled her bones and made the leaves of the palm trees all around shake as if a strong wind had blown through the village.

He was laughing.

“Why… Why is it laughing?” Freddy asked in a shaky voice, his eyes wide and unblinking as he stared at the scene unfolding in front of them.

Despite the countless starfish that covered almost all of his body, the construct still managed to reach for his own shoulder and retrieve something. A piece of himself. It was a small stone—a stone with eyes and a smile?

The three kids gasped in unison as they saw the golem do something unexpected.

After pulling his arm back, the massive creature swung it forward and launched the pebble across the square, straight toward the one commanding the legion of starfish.

The small stone shot out through the air with unbelievable speed, leaving a blurry trail behind as it produced a high-pitched “Creeeeeeee!” chirp.

King Starfish looked up just in time to realize something was coming his way, but not in time to do anything about it except let out a sputter.

“King… Starfish?!”

POW!

The stone connected with the fleshy creature wrapped around the man’s face with a crack that echoed throughout the entire village like a wave crashing during a storm. The impact made the adventurer do a full backflip in the air before landing on his face—or rather, the starfish’s butt.

As he lay motionless on the sand, something started happening to all the other starfish around the village.

One by one, they began to fall off from the faces of their victims, limp and motionless. The ones that had been trying to mount the remaining villagers ceased moving, as if the energy that previously fueled their relentless assault had simply vanished.

Even the ones covering the golem’s body had flopped to the ground, barely a twitch coming from their arms.

The trio standing outside the alley watched speechless as everyone else regained their wits, the previously captured villagers being helped back up to their feet by those who had still been fighting off the attackers from the sea.

“Look!” Freddy said, pointing at the dune on the other side of the village.

Bianca turned to see the king standing back up, rubbing his face—or perhaps the starfish’s backside, it was hard to tell—as he stumbled and struggled to stay on his feet.

For a moment, she feared the worst. She thought the onslaught would resume and that his horde would attack again, but to her surprise, the strange human-starfish hybrid let out a muffled gargle, turned, and started running away toward the beach.

“K-King Starfish!” he yelled back as he tripped and kicked up sand in his clumsy escape.

His killer starfish stirred from their motionless states and began crawling away to the shore, following their leader, albeit much slower.

“M-mom?” Fay cried out before bolting away from her friend’s side, rushing to a woman who was standing back up after regaining full control of her body.

Seeing the young girl reuniting with her mother, Bianca started scanning the villagers for her own parents, but not before sparing the golem a glance.

He was calmly walking to where the starfish king had stood a few moments before, his massive figure obscuring most of the sunlight spilling onto the square from between the sandy hills separating the fishing village from the beach.

The girl did not know what divine being had sent them that stone giant, but she would be forever grateful for his help.

***

Bouldy picked Pebbles up from the sand where she was chirping and giggling with great amusement. The golem, however, felt bad.

Had his dance moves been so bad that they had caused the village’s guests to leave and the party to end early?

That was the only explanation the stone giant could find for the king to leave so abruptly along with his group.

“Friend?” Bouldy asked as he placed Pebbles back on his left shoulder.

“Cree?” she replied.

The golem dropped his head slightly.

Of course it couldn’t have been anything Pebbles had done when she hugged the king. She was so tiny and so innocent. What could she possibly do to warrant him departing without so much as a wave goodbye? It had to have been something the golem did.

Perhaps he had accidentally failed to adhere to some formal custom of the starfish?

Whatever it was, Bouldy now felt guilty. He had ruined those villagers’ party.

“You there!” a woman’s voice called.

The construct turned around and found an adult woman in simple work clothes approaching with a little girl hugging her waist, the rest of the villagers following a few paces behind her.

“The kids say you answered their pleas for help and that you saved us by defeating the evil creature attacking our settlement,” the woman said. “I don’t know who you are or who sent you, but… Thank you. We owe you our lives.”

A man, about the same age as the woman, stepped forward next to her.

“May we ask the name of our savior?”

Bouldy looked down at the humans gathering in front of him. He felt equal parts confused and flustered by their gratitude.

“Friend?” he said, rubbing the back of his rocky head with his right hand.

“That’s a nice name! I like it a lot!” the little girl attached to the woman’s waist said.

Another one of the kids Bouldy had met after entering the village, the taller girl, stepped forward too.

“I’m Bianca, by the way,” she said before pointing a thumb back at the little girl hugging her mother. “That’s Fay. And the boy over there is Freddy. We can’t ever repay you for saving our parents, our friends, our whole village from those things, but… if there’s anything we can do for you, just tell us!”

Bouldy offered a broad smile and a small shrug. “Friend.”

Other than reuniting with his friends back home, there was nothing the golem felt he needed.

“Oh no!” Fay exclaimed, her gaze fixed on the construct’s right shoulder. “Your flowers!”

It seemed that in their eagerness to hug him, the starfish had trampled over Bouldy and Pebbles’ flower collection. Several of them had fallen off the cracks he had planted them in, and of those that remained nearly all were flattened against his stone skin and missing most of their petals.

“Friend…” the golem said with a sad frown as he gazed down at his right shoulder.

Bianca looked up at the golem and then down at her friends before her brow knitted with fierce conviction.

“Fay. Freddy. Come with me. It’s our turn to give something to our new friend.”