Codex - Crabcatching

Section 1

I embody calm and patience. The warm sea washes between my toes, as I collect sandy baitworms. I have been collecting along the crab coast for six years, and now I enter the second phase of my training.

Crabcatching, it you didn't already know, is a culinary art. It first became prominent during the Chabuti early kingdom, and era so they say, when we were as great as any civilisation. Sadly our oligarchy of Ephors, which had accomplished so much, grew corrupt and lazy. We became culturally and materially impoverished, were driven to piracy and sleazy circuses, and our star paled.

To many, it is time-consuming and quaint, but Crabcatching is just about all there is left of that time. I hope to master it, so that I may pass on its secrets to future generations.

My peach-coloured garments are starched to give the effect of ecoskeletal rigidity, where there is actually none. So, I drop to my knees smoothly. My costume ruffles with a practiced and exact movement. This way, the crabs do not know me from their own kind.

I haven't caught a crab yet, but my master assures me the time will soon come for me to try, The horde will come when the waters cool, thousands upon thousands of them.

I hand my master the worms I have collected. She puts one in her shrivelled mouth and chews. She gives the merest nod. I have handled them well.