Snap the shore crab is a post crab at Crabby Delivery Service, or CDS for short. He is on his rounds in Seaweed City and the currents are very strong. High Tide Fishyway is still bustling with traffic, desperate to get to work in the rock pools before the tide exposes the rock. Snap must deliver all the post in time too! Snap is sitting in a queue on his weak little blenny, Fin. The stronger dogfish that most sea creatures ride can handle the currents much better than Fin, but CDS can only afford blennies. Just then, a very strong current cuts through the Fishyway. The dogfish manage to keep going, but Snap and Fin are swept into the high seas above the Fishyway!
The current eventually dies down and they swim back to the sea floor. But they are in a unfamiliar part of Seaweed City. Snap and Fin begin to make their way back to the Seaweed City rockpools that they can see in the distance. But blocking their way is the least popular delivery address on Snap’s round – Big Crab Tunnel, home to Biggie, the city’s biggest and most aggressive velvet swimming, or devil crab!
As he approaches, Snap sidesteps, as soft as a feather, through the sand, avoiding any trip hazards like rocks. Snap places Biggie’s letter on a rock. Suddenly, Biggie wakes up! “WHAT’RE YOU DOIN’ IN MY PLACE?!!!” roars Biggie. “J-just delivering your post, Bigton,” shivers Snap. Biggie will not listen to anything unless he is called ‘Bigton’. “WELL, YOU’VE DROPPED IT NOW, SO GET OUTTA HERE!” Biggie thunders. Snap turns around and runs sideways. Biggie blocks his way. “Please move, Biggie,” pleads Snap. “MY NAME IS BIGTON!!!!” roars Biggie. “Yes, of course. That’s exactly what I meant,” Snap says calmly as he edged toward the not-so-secret second entrance. Biggie saw what he was doing and dived at the secret entrance, giving Snap a few seconds to escape through the main entrance. “NOOOOOO!!!!” Biggie roars as he sees Snap escape.
Big Crab Tunnel caves in from the vibrations caused by the roar, but Biggie manages to scuttle out before any rocks hit him. Limpets abandon their home scars on seeing Biggie. A starfish takes a risk and captures the limpets before quickly retreating into another rockpool. Biggie snatches and eats a stray sea snail, fuelling his energy and making him push on with the chase. Snap hops onto Fin and he swims away at top speed (well, top speed in blenny terms, anyway). Biggie clambers onto the water highway and chases after Snap, blocking three lanes of traffic. Fish fire bubbles at Biggie; that is the equivalent of honking your horn in the underwater world. In return, Biggie eats the young crabs on the fish and, in one case, eats the fish as well!
Snap veers sideways, down Sea Cabbage Street. He has to stop as he finds that the cave-in at Big Crab Tunnel has left a hole in the road! Biggie storms into Snap and his blenny and they tumble into the rocks. The blenny quickly recovers and rescues Snap and swishes up some sand to block Biggie from seeing which way they went. Biggie gets up and steals a dogfish to ride. They set off twice as fast as Snap’s blenny. As the dogfish is such a better fish for riding, Biggie soon catches up with Snap. He gets the dogfish to shunt Snap’s blenny. Snap falls off and his blenny loses him in the bustling road.
They are back in the centre of Seaweed city now, where the currents are strong again. Strong enough to carry away a large devil crab! Biggie is swept up into the waves and Snap sees a shadow zoom across the water. The shadow deepens and Snap sees a seagull pull Biggie from the water by a claw!
Snap manages to deliver the day’s post to the rest of the city just before low tide sends everyone hiding in the water filled tunnels.
Back at the postal centre Snap’s boss, Sidewalk, asks him, “How was your morning?” Snap sighs, “Turn on the news and you’ll see”. Sidewalk watches wide-eyed. Afterwards, he says, “I see what you mean”.
By Max
