Killer Croc

       For a while, business seemed to flourish for the four Wanderers….

       Their travel was not as hard as it seemed after their last stint with the vampire. Nothing was challenging, but it was for the best. They did not need unnecessary danger to survive and possibly start the settlement the four of them dreamed off. It seemed like an impossibility, but possible in their own rights. They became inseparable ever since the vampire business, and they slowly reaped up riches and fame as a four-people group who managed to get things done perfectly. There were no twists, no deception, and no second thoughts. When the name 'Wanderer' came into mind, they would always be the one who were talked about. It was easy to spot them due to the word of mouth circulating around. They always say the same. The four people were all different races and one was always a Chaos race. They did not understand the details, but such relationship was so rare for them.

       Another year had passed since the vampire job and the fame and wealth they got had started to show on the four of them. They no longer used the same clothes they used all the time, and opted to buy newly cured leather that was both stronger and easy to clean. Aranis, despite of saying that she was a wood elf, had a flare for fashion despite of the unforgiving land. Yet, her reason was similar to the rest of them, which was practicality. Raine also bought new clothes that's easy to clean.

       Narati, however, preferred to be humble, both in appearance and choice of clothing. Despite of getting new clothes, he did not quickly spend them for lavish fashion. He wore leather paddings that cover most of his upper body (which was left bare before). He no longer wore ragged cloth wrapped around his waist or old leather pants, but new black-colored fabric shorts that covered the same area with his ragged cloth, along with a modification for his long,  worm-like tail. He wore a special kind of leather shoes for his rodent feet. Most of the fortune he spent was to buy better equipment for his explosives and parts that was harder to get out in the wasteland. The most he spent was for a new horse-drawn cart for travel and equipment. With the fact that a Fa'ar could not get into settlements unless they were slaves was problematic to Narati, he opted to buy and find the necessary materials to start making a mobile horse-drawn home, like the ones humans once had long before the time of flying magitech car was a thing (in Aranis's time). It was comfortable for him and the group (though the rest of them preferred hotels).

       With all that fortune to show, come problems hounding them. The horse-drawn mobile home was a sight to behold, but for most people, not with a Fa'ar living in it. They tried to raid the home or making a small mob just because what they saw wasn't right (a Fa'ar living in a decent home). Fortunately for Narati, despite of them trying to forcefully take the mobile home from him, the rest of his group was ready to defend him. But, in many situations, Narati made camp farther from the town's perimeter. This had two reasons. First was to be away from unnecessary attention, and second was to justify killing raiders or otherwise angry mobs, with the reason that outside the town's perimeter, it's 'everyone by themselves', and that the town had no way to press charges against them since it was out of their jurisdiction. Still, it did not deter anyone to try, and in the end, they were just a pile of corpses. Fortunately, it did not happen that often. Narati was not considered dangerous enough to cause harm, so they usually did not care. Only those who hated Chaos races to an extent would be the victim.

       Other problems were either space or random raiding, but other than that, the four of them travelled relatively easy and with no other complications. It was a happy venture.

       And then, a faithful meeting would let their new group grow, albeit not as smooth as the four of them.

       As usual, travelling in a bleak desert wasteland with scorching heat of the day and the freezing nights was like every day else. Ever since they left the swampy and forested abandoned mega-cities to find more job, they had been travelling non-stop in the middle of the desert. Their horses were surprisingly resilient to the day's heat, possibly because of adaptation or mutation due to the war.

       That night was nothing special. The sky was clear with stars decorating it like distant diamonds on the ceilings of diamond mines. The four of them gathered around a camp fire and talked about their last job together. Like every day these past year, they discussed their experiences and share their loots together, but that night was different.

       The desert was silent and devoid of life aside from them (well, maybe critters, but they were sleeping at night) when suddenly, a load roar filled the silence. As usual the four of them were ready of anything. As usual, for precaution, Narati put mines all around the camp's perimeter and hid it well under the sand. While it did not guarantee anyone to be trapped, it could be remotely detonated by anyone on guard.

       They looked around, seeing if anything worth looking. That roar was coming from a giant beast, being loud and inhuman. Jek scanned the area while Aranis erected a shield around the group, ready for anything.

       “See anything?" asked Raine.

       “Aside from sand all over to the horizon, no," said Jek. “But keep your eyes peeled."

       Narati gasped, which prompted Raine to look towards him and said, “Something the matter, Nara?"

       “N-no, it's just…I thought I saw a big rock flying towards us. But that's impossible, right?"

       Raine looked towards where Narati was looking, but he didn't see anything out of ordinary except something covering the stars. But then, when he noticed how clear the sky was, he realized that what Narati saw was right, that there was a rock flying towards them!

       “Holy shit!" was the only thing Raine managed to exclaim before the rock hit Aranis's shield. The sudden strain of a falling rock was enough to break the shield and made Aranis stunned.

       “A fucking boulder?!" exclaimed Jek. “I've seen vampires and shits but a fucking boulder?!"

       “Who threw that thing? Can someone possibly have that kind of strength?" asked Narati.

       “I can only think of one race."

       They were too distracted to the boulder that they did not see a hulking figure running towards them. The figure ran towards Narati and grabbed him by his long tail. The sudden jerk from his back made Narati flew upward, surprising his companions.

       From the campfire's dim light, they could finally see the figure. It was clearly reptilian with greenish scales and big body. He was full of muscles, but also higher than most of the group. He looked back towards them with his glowing yellow reptilian eyes, clearly angry of something.

       It was clear to them that they were facing a crocodilian, a race of humanoid crocodiles they once met when they first found Aranis helping with a Croc's village. However, Jek realized something's wrong with the croc.

       “This guy's skinny," he thought. In his mind, a crocodilian would be all muscles and quite massive, but this one was different. He was thinner than most crocodilians, as if his body was built for swimmers than for bodybuilders (not surprising, given that he's a crocodile). But Jek of all people would knew that underestimating a 'skinny' crocodilian would be suicide. Despite of their obvious lack of muscle mass, the reptilian could still pack a punch and possess great strength, with obvious spectacle coming from the flying boulder.

       Jek knew a way to defeat a crocodilian, but not everyone of them rely on their muscle. While this crocodilian clearly had no protection to his softer front side, he knew how to protect it well. When he noticed that Jek was trying to shoot him, he quickly turned around and exposed his ridged back, hard enough to deflect bullets.

       He was not interested on the rest of them, however. He was more interested in Narati, who was dangling upside down with his tail above his head. It was such a weird sensation, being held upside down like that. For a four feet rat person, the crocodilian was like a giant, and his small body was clearly small enough for it to dangle upside down like a punching bag.

       The crocodilian then moved Narati upwards until he looked at the reptilian face to face. His eyes were menacing enough, but what's worse was his teeth. It was as if he was ready to eat the smaller Fa'ar, which was enough to make Narati scared.

       “W-what do you want?" asked Narati while trembling to hold on his spear. “I-I don't remember h-having a d-deal with a c-croc."

       “You don't, but you won't be, after I kill you," said the croc with a tone of contempt. Narati realized that this croc was serious and apparently angry of something. He believed that Narati, who had never talked with one of the big reptilians before, was responsible for something. Even if Narati wanted to know what, he could not let himself die first. Yet before trying to defend himself, he needed to overcome himself. The sight of the croc holding him upside down like a hunted beast was enough to make him start panicking and unable to think clearly.

       Luckily, he wasn't alone on this. Despite of being momentarily stunned, Aranis could focus enough to unleash a magic that distracted the croc, enough for Narati to regain his focus and pull out a grenade from his pouch. He knew how risky that move was, but he needed to do it. Otherwise, he would be the one getting killed. Unlike the others, Narati knew the extent of power his explosives had, so he could find one that was enough to cause distracting pain, but not enough to cause extensive damage for him and, hopefully, the croc.

       He pulled the pin and threw it towards the croc, who had just recovered. He was surprised by the sight of the grenade in front of him. Narati shielded his face in preparation for what's coming. When it exploded, it gave out a force that cause the croc to roar in pain and dropped Narati. However, the force of the explosion also threw Narati's small and light body, in which he was thrown at least nine feet from the croc, out of the mine border he erected.

       His friends saw what happened in surprise. Raine was the first to respond to Narati while Jek and Aranis tried to subdue the stunned and hurt croc. Raine found the Fa'ar was mostly fine, but the force of the throw was enough to cause pain to Narati. The arms that he used to protect his face were singed due to the explosion's fire.

       “That's one risky move there, Nara," said Raine while holding him up. “You can get yourself killed."

       “And yet I'm not," replied Narati with a weak smile. “But that might not be the last time I do that."

       “I figured so."

       As they returned to the camp, the saw Jek and Aranis had successfully subdue the croc. He was still trying to struggle, but Aranis's magic was holding him down while Jek was pointing a gun to his head.

       “Now I know you bunch have thick bulletproof skin, but that doesn't mean your eyes are," said Jek. “I know so many ways to hurt you without exposing your underside, crocodilian. Talk."

       “I'm not sure how long that little rat is going to keep it up, but let me give you a fair warning, wolf," said the croc. “You don't trust the rats, especially him. When your backs are turned and you think he's docile, he's going to stab you in your sleep and take your things. Oh, he might not have the courage to do just that, so he would just take your stuffs and leave you to death. Isn't that right, Asran?"

       “Who the hell is Asran?"

       “Don't play with me, wolf. He's that wretched rat who tricks people and take their belongings," replied the croc.

       “I know a dozen or so Fa'ars with that kind of attitude, so be specific. And besides, his name is not Asran. His name is Narati."

       “He might be using assumed name."

       “And for your information, croc, he's 16."

       This stopped the croc in his attempt to argue, during which he looked towards the injured Narati. After staring at him for a while, he said, “He's still a rat for all I know."

       “Trust me, croc, he's not like the others," said Jek. “I understand your hatred to Fa'ars, but give me one reason why you're attacking the rest of us."

       “You are all trying to protect that little rat," said the croc. “That means you are also my enemy."

       “Heard that one before."

       Before Jek could pull his trigger, however, he was stopped by Raine. He shook his head and said, “This is not how things work, Jek. He's clearly a victim, too."

       “He's trying to kill us, Raine."

       “Yes, but I have a feeling his prejudice towards Fa'ar is much more than a simple racist mindset. He's just like you, Jek."

       “Except this guy holds a grudge," said Jek. He then decided what to do with the croc. Part of him wanted to kill him right there and now so he wouldn't bother them, but the other part of him wanted to spare him and possibly recruit him instead. He was a formidable crocodilian who could hurl a boulder towards them like it was nothing. Yet, somehow, his misgivings towards Fa'ars would make things complicated.

       After a while of hesitation, Jek removed his gun from the croc's head and said, “I guess you're right. Aranis, release your magic. He's harmless now."

       “How can you be sure?" she replied.

       “Trust me, he won't be a problem anymore." Jek then stared towards the croc. “Unless you still want to kill an injured rat."

       The croc looked at Narati, who by this point had lost consciousness due to pain and injury sustained from the explosion. The croc sighed, and said, “I guess so."

       Reluctantly, Aranis released her magic. The croc quickly stood up and looked around towards the group, but his gaze was fixated towards Narati more than the other. There was an awkward silence before Raine said, “Why don't we clean things up and get to rest? You, uh…can you please put that boulder somewhere else? Oh, and mind the mines."

       The croc grunted and lifted the same boulder he threw, which he threw outside the camp's perimeter. He then sat near the fire (that miraculously unharmed) and said, “Do you expect me to ask forgiveness?"

       “Not from us. From Narati," said Aranis.

       “Don't get me wrong, elf, but I don't need that from him," said the croc with a huff. “But, I think your little group has a better chance of survival than this lone croc."

       “So you're joining the Wanderers?"

       “Wanderers?" He then looked at them and laughed. “Just the four of you?"

       “There's five if you want to join," said Jek. “Want in or not?"

       “I guess I don't have a choice. Between travelling alone and with a group, I choose the latter. But again…you might need someone outside your circle of trust…to keep an eye on that rat."

       “Still not trusting him after all that?"

       “I've seen worse rats willing to do anything to deceive others. They like to gamble with twisted results. You may think he's fine, but his mind is always calculating for the highest chance of survival. They are intelligent and cunning at the same time."

       “Like someone I used to know," said Jek, reminiscing. “Wanna hear a story?"

       “Not tonight, Jek," said Raine. “We need to patch ourselves up, okay? What's your name, croc?"

       “My name is Karkas Sobesk," he said. “And don't bother with your names. I prefer not to remember."

       “I'll tell you anyway. Name's Raine Winlow. Jek's the wolfman, Aranis's the elf, and…"

       “Yes, the rat is Narati. You told me his name so many times already."

       Raine wasn't sure if they wanted a crocodilian to be in their group, especially a crocodilian with a bad history with Fa'ars. While Raine trusted Narati to the point of being able to work together, he knew what Karkas said was right. He thought like that once, about the Fa'ars. But, meeting Narati changed his view towards the rat people. Narati's innocent and fragile mind were the factors that made the three sympathized with him. But then, it still felt like they were 'cheating' a bit to Karkas.

       If they did not tell Narati's age to the croc, he might not hesitate to kill or otherwise maim the young rat person. They were gambling against that fact, and they apparently won.

       They just wish that trusting Karkas was not the worst mistake they ever made.