“Some things in life just get ingrained into your personality after you do it enough times.” - Old folk saying.
“What are those?” asked Kino curiously as she peered over the port railings of the ship. When a crew member of the ship looked over to see what Kino was referring to, he noticed what seemed to be rainbows slithering on the surface of the ocean, which made for quite a sight. It was not strange for the girl to be curious when faced with that sort of sight, as most anyone would.
“Ah, that be a pit of Rainbow Kraits on the migration, lass,” said Arquivaldo who also happened to be nearby. “That shimmering rainbow-like glow you see happens because their scales reflect and disperse light, and this close to the surface, the water makes it look like there’s a bunch of rainbows swimming together. Very pretty, very deadly too, though. Also makes for good eating. Bosun! Have some of the boys doing nothing toss a net over to see if we can’t get some for tonight’s dinner!”
What Arquivaldo had ordered was considered common sense amongst travelers most anywhere in the world. Even though most everyone traveled around with enough supplies to see them to their intended destination, people wouldn’t refuse a chance to enrich their diet or get themselves some delicacies when the chance presented itself.
Under his orders, a couple of the sailors who happened to be free scrounged up a net from the deck below and cast it out to the side, where the pit of kraits were swimming. They left the net in the water for a while before they raised it back up, and repeated the process a few times more, having mostly caught some unlucky fish in the first few throws.
Finally, on the fourth throw of the net, the sailors hauled up one of the kraits that had gotten entangled in the netting. The creature was very reminiscent of a snake, other than the three sets of fins that extended out of the sides of its long body and the fish-like fin at the end of its tail. The head also resembled a cross between a snake and a fish, with two prominent fangs that were clearly visible as the angry creature attempted to snap at anyone nearby.
The Krait was a good five meters long, with its body around as thick as an adult human’s thigh. It had iridescent scales that seemed to shimmer under the sunlight, which lent the sea creature a rather ethereal look. It was likely those same scales that caused the illusion of swimming rainbows when a whole pit swam by.
According to the good captain, however, despite its beauty, the krait was a very deadly creature. Its venom was particularly potent, capable of killing an adult in less than an hour. Because of that, the crew took precautions. They first allowed the Krait to struggle so it got further entangled by the netting, and then used the ropes connected to the net to keep it in place despite its struggles.
Arquivaldo himself stepped forward to deal the finishing blow with a harpoon. The unliving captain baited the Krait to make an attempt to bite him, then deftly avoided the strike before he stepped on the creature’s head and kept it immobilized with one foot. At the same time, he used the harpoon to stab the creature around a palm’s length behind its head, which caused the creature to still after one final convulsion.
From there, the crew went on to butcher the creature, which they actually handled like it was just an oversized snake. Aideen had taught Celia and Kino as well as the siblings while they traveled that snakes were one of the better creatures to run into on the road, if you could safely take one down. They were easy to prepare and almost always taste great, so long as one took the proper care to avoid touching the venom sacs of venomous varieties.
Such venom sacs were typically located in the head, or right by it, which was why the general rule of the thumb was to strike at the creature around a palm’s length away from where the head merged to the body if uncertain. In this case, the Krait was most definitely a venomous creature, and the sailor who removed the head did so gently and carefully, all while another held the dead creature’s head in place firmly..
It was not uncommon for a snake’s decapitated head to reflexively attempt to bite one last time, after all.
One of the sailors made a careful cut at the krait’s underbelly, taking care not to damage the skin or to cut too deep and touch the internal organs. Once the sailor made the cut all the way to the creature’s cloaca at the other end, several of the other sailors peeled the skin and scales right off the krait’s body, as if they were simply peeling a banana. The skin smoothly came off the flesh without too much resistance, and was carried away by one of the sailors for further processing.
The internal organs were sorted, the inedible ones tossed back into the ocean together with the Krait’s head, which was too risky to eat due to the venom sac being there. Such venom sacs tended to be fragile and the slightest mistake in processing would contaminate the whole thing, so most people didn’t bother to even try.
As for the rest of the creature’s organs and its pale, white flesh, they were sectioned up into portions, some of which were stored for later use. The creature provided plenty of flesh, though. They harvested at least a couple hundred kilograms of edible meat from the one krait they caught, and already the ship’s cook was working on a large chunk of flesh that was easily a couple tens of kilos as well as the edible organs to be used for that evening’s dinner.
Given what Arquivaldo said, the meal promised to be a rare delicacy, since most small-time fishermen wouldn’t dare to attempt catching such kraits, and they were rather rare to find to boot.
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umbrellluck· Apr 16, 2024
