In real life, animals that make themselves look like things — other animals, for example — is a fairly common evolutionary development.
In Fantasy literature and gaming, the iconic example of that is “Treasure Chest that’s Actually a Monster.” Though, my understanding is that the actual, well-known Mimic is one of the few things the makers of Dungeons & Dragons claim as part of their integral Intellectual Property and disallows other creators from using — as you may remember from my Recommendation of Dungeons & Dragons, there was recently a whole big thing about the DnD licence.
Also, potential IP issues aside, I just wanted to try to be at least a little creative with the concept. Hence, “Box Crab.”
As a cat, Lucia hates wet. She hates the ocean. She hates mysterious seaside caverns. And she absolutely, positively, especially hates, hates, hates the marine kinds of marine wildlife that are trying to eat her!
“Apolline!” Lucia exclaims. “Help!”
The lynx Wilderling comes barreling around the corner, her footsteps and distressed mewling echoing through the caverns.
Apolline, Petra, Alda, and Roland blink in bemusement as Lucia disappears around the next corner, then blin again at the sight of her pursuer, by all appearances, a large box scuttling after her on multiple pairs of legs, claws clacking.
“Is, um, is a treasure chest trying to eat Lucia?” Roland mutters.
“I’ve never seen a treasure chest with legs before,” Petra notes.
“I think it must be a Box Crab,” Alda notes. “It’s a species that disguises itself as a chest or box, and then attacks.”
“Can we eat it?” Roland asks. “Do they taste good?”
“Why aren’t helping me?” Lucia cries, bringing the others make to reality.
“Don’t worry, Lucia,” Alda says, “it’s more afraid of you than you are of it.”
“Somehow,” Lucia says, finding herself backed into a corner by the Box Crab, “I really doubt that, Alda.”
“Play dead,” Apolline offers.
“Flip it over and strike its soft underbelly,” Petra offers.
“And then drizzle butter over it,” Roland adds.
“Don’t just stand there!” she exclaims.
“Let’s crack that sucker open!” Roland exclaims. “I’m in the mood for some crab legs!”
“Roland, no!” Alda tells her brother, leaping to put herself between Roland and the Box Crab. “It’s just an innocent wild animal! We can’t just eat it!”
“I’m an animal, too!” Lucia protests. “That’s just stopping it from trying to eat me!”
“Don’t worry, Lucia,” Alda says. “I’ll handle this.”
“You’d better know what you’re doing,” Lucia says.
“Hey!” Alda sternly tells the Box Crab. “No! Lucia is not for eating!”
She bops the thing on the nose as if it were a misbehaving pet. For her part, Lucia didn’t even think crabs have noses to bop in the first place.
The Box Crab cautiously backs away.
“Lucia is not for eating,” Alda repeats.
The Box Crab lowers its claws.
“You don’t need to eat my friends,” Alda continues, “why don’t we find you some nice fruits and nuts? Or maybe some tasty fish? But first, you need to leave Lucia alone.”
The Box Crab backs off and settles on the ground like a dog being told to heel.
“Right,” Alda says. “Who’s got the backpack with the food in it?”
“Lucia does,” Apolline notes.
The Box Crab promptly advances back towards Lucia.
“Gah!” Lucia cries, flinching backwards again.
“Just find something to feed him,” Alda urges.
Grumbling, Lucia reaches into the backpack with the group’s food.
“Here,” Lucia says tersely. “Here’s a coconut. If I give it to you, will you leave me alone?”
Lucia holds out the coconut. The Box Crab snatches the coconut and settles down to start munching on it.
Alda looks hopefully up at her brother.
“Roland! Look, look! He’s the goodest boy! Can we keep him?”
Alda be like:
The Simpsons: Twentieth Television Animation & Gracie Films.
Also, I’m not entirely sure why Lucia even has a coconut. But coconuts are one of the things that terrestrial crabs are known to eat, though coconut crabs themselves are named more for living near and climbing coconut trees than actually eating them.
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