Crab Fight
Have you ever seen a clan of Chilean Stone Crabs migrating?
The sea floor is covered with them, crawling along in their sidelong gait,
raking up the muck of the sea bed. Thousands at a time, inching sideways towards the other clan like
well-trained fencers preparing to duel. Uniformed in spiky orange combat gear,
they rear up, exposing hairy undersides, and clash like symbols in epic
proportions. The front lines form a momentous stalagmite as the battle for king
of the hill begins. Clambering, creeping, groveling, writhing, the skilled
crabs draw their claws like epee and descend upon their foes. One finds the
sweet spot in the other’s joint and makes a fatal plunge, popping the claw like
a rotisseur pops the joint of a chicken
leg. Recoiling, threshing, astute and bold, the king of the hill is
uncompromising.
There are a lot of good details in this; I especially liked the inclusion of the fencing term epee. Just a cool word. The "epic proportions" after "clash like symbols" is a bit cliched. And I think this would benefit from replacing the symbols image with one more fighter/swordsman oriented. I thought about how I might use this to convey some meaning and the question I thought of was "What would I be fighting for if I was one of those crabs?" or "What do I need to fight for in my life?"
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