“AAAAHH!! WHAA!!” Kylie yelled.

Keevan stood up from where he was seated and supposedly on watch, though there was a bit of drool around his mouth. Brody came out of his tent, plate armor still in place, with his sword drawn. Groll was shirtless in a pair of short shorts but had his enormous axe at the ready. Helen just poked her head out of the flaps to see what the danger was.

Kylie was buried in a tangle of canvas and poles that refused to give way as she struggled to find her way clear. When she finally managed to get free, she climbed to her feet and stomped over to Keevan.

“So that’s how it’s going to be, huh? Can’t take a little ribbing so you collapse my tent on top of me while I sleep?!” Kylie shouted accusingly, pointing a finger at the elf.

Keevan put his hands up in protest, “What? I didn’t do anything!”

“Oh sure, so it just fell down on its own, huh? Or one of the others who were in their tents did it?!” Kylie continued shouting.

Brody lowered his sword, looking fully unequipped to deal with the current situation. Dragons? Sure. Quarreling teammates? Not so much.

Helen finally made her way out of the tent, her robes hastily thrown on. She bustled on over to her two taller teammates and put her hands on her hips.

“Now hold your horses. No need to point fingers at anyone and certainly no need to raise such a racket and interrupt my beauty sleep. You could have just kicked your tent down yourself, don’tcha know. I’m sure it’s happened to everyone a time or two,” Helen said.

Kylie continued glaring at Keevan and just pointed down at the tent pole that was on the ground in front of his feet, a good ten feet away from Kylie’s tent.

Keevan looked down, “I didn’t put that there!” he protested. “Maybe it rolled there? Or maybe…” he looked around, “that did it!”

Keevan pointed at the small blue crab from before, peeking out from behind Keevan’s own tent.

“She would never do such a thing. Clawdia is a sweetheart. Besides, she’s too small to carry my tent pole, let alone dislodge it,” Kylie said, making cutesy faces at the little crab.

“Clawdia?” Brody asked dumbly.

“Yes. That’s her name. You’re a good little crab, aren’t you? You would never do anything to auntie Kylie, would you?” she said, baby-talk voice fully engaged.

At that, the little crab fully hid behind Keevan’s tent.

The scene shifts to reveal Groll seated in his chair.

The muscular orc was hunched over, dejected. He let out a long sigh, his shoulders drooping more as he breathed out.

“I guess it could be worse. She could have gone with ‘Shelley’,” he said.

Groll hung his head again and shook it slowly from side to side.

The scene shifts back to Kylie confronting Keevan.

“So if you didn’t do it, who did? You were the one on watch,” Kylie said.

Keevan rubbed the back of his head, “I… uh… I didn’t see anything? Maybe you kicked it? Like Helen said?”

The scene shifts to show Keevan seated in front of a stone wall.

“I have no idea what is going on,” Keevan said earnestly.

The scene shifts back to the adventurers.

Kylie just stared daggers at him. 

“Good. That’s settled. I’m going to sleep. Kylie, you seem to have lots of energy. You wouldn’t mind taking this watch, now, would you dear?” Helen said, patting the rogue on the shoulder.

Before Kylie could protest, Helen was already back into her tent with the flaps closed. Brody and Groll ducked into theirs, too. Keevan stood there awkwardly for a moment before retreating into his own tent.

Kylie set to putting her tent back together, grumbling under her breath the entire time. Two tiny little eyes peeked out at her from behind Keevan’s tent, but she only noticed them once. 

“Clawdia! Come here, girl!” Kylie said, pitching her voice to be friendly.

The little crab disappeared once more. Dejected, Kylie sat down in front of her tent and wondered how much sleep she had lost.

The scene shifts to reveal Kylie seated in front of a rock wall.

“I did not kick over my own tent,” Kylie said, peeved.

The scene shifts to the adventurers getting out of their tents.

Brody was doing stretches and other exercises in front of his tent when Groll emerged from his with a book tucked under one arm, looking for his chair. He spotted it in front of Keevan’s tent and retrieved it, frowning.

Helen stood in front of Keevan’s tent, calling for the elf to get up and start the morning’s cookfire. 

“Come on, sleepyhead. I need to get breakfast started, don’tcha know,” Helen said.

A groan sounded from inside the tent. Then a high-pitched squeal.

“AIIIEEEE!!!” Keevan screamed and scrambled out of his tent, knocking over one of the support poles and causing the whole thing to collapse as he did so.

“What’s the matter, dear? Bad dream?” Helen asked, concerned.

“No! It was that… that… crab!” Keevan shouted.

The rest of the group wandered over, curious as to what in the world he was talking about. The little blue crab scrambled out from under the fallen tent as they all stared. It looked around at each of the eyes staring at it, then scuttled away toward the water.

Brody reached down and grabbed the little crab before it could escape. He had it in his hand for half a second before he yelped and dropped it, grasping his hand.

The scene shifts to reveal Brody seated in front of a rock wall.

“Adventurer Tip: Catching crabs often leads to severe discomfort,” Brody said seriously, absently rubbing his hand.

The scene shifts back to the adventurers standing around Keevan’s downed tent.

“What did you do to Clawdia?” Kylie asked accusingly.

“What did I do? That creepy little monster was standing on my chest when I woke up! Staring at me with those dead black eyes and those sharp claws!” Keevan shouted.

The group all shared looks. 

“That doesn’t sound like normal crab behavior,” Brody said.

“Yeah. That sounds clawful,” Kylie said, grinning.

Groll groaned and rubbed at his face.

“Well, no sense standing around crying about it. It happened. Now, be a dear and put the cookfire right over here, Keevan?” Helen said, pointing to a central location in the camp.

The group dispersed as Keevan walked over with Helen and summoned a fire so Helen could start on breakfast. The dwarf hummed to herself as she pulled out her frying pan and some of the food she had brought with her to cook. 

A little blue crab stealthily scuttled over to the fire. It stood there, claws in the air, seemingly mesmerized by the dancing flames. It began to sway back and forth. Oddly, the fire almost looked like it followed the motions. Or maybe the crab followed the motions of the fire.

“Hey, Kylie! Look at your crab. It’s acting weird,” Keevan called.

The rest of the adventurers all gathered around the fire to watch the odd little crab. 

“She’s probably never seen fire before,” Kylie said. “Maybe she’s cold down here.”

“You know, maybe we were too hasty before. The crab doesn’t look that small. We could probably… you know,” Brody said, pointing to the frying pan.

“No! We are not eating Clawdia!” Kylie shouted.

“Brody is right. The crab looks… larger than I remember. Do you think this is a different one?” Groll asked.

The crab did seem to be a bit larger. Perhaps an entire inch taller than the one they had first seen in the cavern and another inch or two wider.

Before any of them could react, the crab leaped into the flames.

“No!” shouted Kylie, half-reaching for the crustacean.

The fire winked out. Kylie was about to thank Keevan for extinguishing the fire but realized that wasn’t what happened. The crab was definitely larger, now. More than double its previous size. It stood over a foot tall and was about eighteen inches across. The claws that had pinched Brody’s hand now looked like they might be able to sever it.

The not-so-little blue crab turned and looked up at Keevan expectantly. The rest of the adventurers all looked to the elf.

“Hey! Don’t look at me! I didn’t do anything!” Keevan protested.

“I hate to be the one to suggest this, but should we kill it? Magic or fire or something makes it grow. I do not want to be around if it gets to be the size of a house,” Groll said.

Even Kylie seemed to be considering the implications around a magically growing crab. Groll reached for his axe, but the movement made the little crab dash away toward the water - much faster than before. The click-click-click-click-click of its legs contacting the stone floor echoed loudly as it sprinted. It caught everyone flat-footed and disappeared beneath the surface before anyone could take more than a few steps.

Keevan resummoned a fire where it had been moments before. Everyone stared at him pointedly.

“What?” he said. “I’m hungry.”

"No magic," Brody said. "Be smart about this. We'll take cold rations this morning."

"But the little sausages!" Keevan keened.

"Come on, dear. Let's pack up and get some food in you," Helen said, guiding the elf toward his tent with an arm around his waist.

The group began packing things up between bites of jerky and travel biscuits. Keevan, despite being completely inept at putting up a tent, was very good at taking one down. 

Once everyone had packed away their supplies into rolls, they gathered together.

"So, we have two tunnels to explore. The one to the right seems to slope more downward, while the one to the left stays steady. At least for the first hundred feet. It would make sense for our nemesis to be further down," Brody said confidently. 

"Perhaps. Though how are we to know whether the trend continues throughout the length of the tunnels? Perhaps the left passage plunges precipitously towards that powerful point of perversion that is our foe?" Groll said.

"Guys…" Kylie said softly.

The rest of the group turned to see what she was talking about. The not-so-little blue crab was out of the water near the edge of the camp. And it wasn't alone. Hundreds of tiny blue crabs were arrayed around it. 

The big crab lifted its claws and snapped them shut with a loud click. The smaller crabs repeated the gesture and they all continued with rhythmic click click clicks. 

"That doesn't sound good," Brody said. 

Thousands of bubbles began to appear in the water. Two enormous black eyes broke the surface, followed by a massive chitinous body. 

Bright blue pincers the size of horses rose from the water as the giant crab's legs extended, lifting it clear of the water in the pool. Bubbles and steam rose from the water as the crab vacated it, revealing that the pool was an underground hot spring of some kind.

Several of the crabs closest to the water ran back into it, growing slightly larger and causing the flow of steam to slow.

The huge black eyes swiveled to focus on the adventurers, more specifically, on Keevan. The elf had reflexively summoned a fireball to hurl at the enemies, but Kylie slapped him on the back of the head, breaking his concentration. The fireball winked out.

"Idiot, they eat heat," the half-elf said. 

Brody bent down slowly, grabbing a strap on his pack. "How about the closer tunnel," the warrior said, indicating the tunnel on the right with a tilt of his head. 

The rest of the adventures grabbed their packs slowly, following Brody's example. The crabs seemed to catch on and moved forward as one like a wave. 

The group wasted no time and sprinted for the tunnel - an area much too small for the thirty-foot crustacean to fit. The smaller crabs followed the racing adventurers down the tunnel for what felt like miles, though was only a few hundred yards. 

As one, the crabs all stopped and began running back toward their cavern. 

"I can't decide if that's a good thing… or ominous," Groll said, the only one not panting.

The scene shifts to reveal Brody seated in front of a rock wall.

"Adventurer Tip: sometimes a tight fit is a good thing," Brody said.