Arakmatan Sandfish

 

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The Arakmatan Sandfish (sometimes spelled "Arakmatian Sandfish") is more reptilian than fish, but it also has many of the characteristics typical of fish. Like a reptile, its scales are large and it is cold blooded. It depends on the heat of the suns to stay alive as it swims through the sands of the Desert of Arakmat. They eat grains of sand and small desert bugs, roots, and even larger reptiles when they can get a hold of them easily. Their fins have claws on the end, as if they were trying to be legs, but could never quite make it. A fierce fighter, the Arakmatian Sandfish has been known to claw a traveler's legs to shreds before the traveler could react, though the speed of this is probably exaggerated.

Although beautiful, valuable, and deadly, the Sandfish has a very bad taste to it. Some wandering packs of Dorin have taken to it in the past, but civilized tongues tend to dislike it so much that some have even vomited at the taste of it. High in salt content, the meat is very bitter, and it has a peculiar taste to it, almost like a mix of vomit and vinegar. The salt is not possible to remove, unfortunately, as metal and the foul oils that flow through the fish’s body, the oils being the cause of the horrid taste, contaminates it.

Its golden colored scales have made it a popular sight, as it flashes in the light while leaping from dune to dune, dazzling those who watch. Its scales have high portions of iron, gold, and sometimes platinum in them, as small portions of metal dust are in the sand and end up mixing between and eventually into the scales themselves. The delicate mixture of oil and salt sometimes, however, strengthens the metal, making it harder to break and slightly more valuable. The scales, after being melted down, are commonly referred to as Sandfish Iron, though most smiths prefer to separate the individual metals and claim to be better than they are, using the metals strength to their own fame's advantage. Usually, however, the Sandfish will have a very weak metal content, making very brittle metals. Sometimes the oils of sick fish even become acids that eat through the metal when it is heated, causing a lot of work to go to waste. Overall, it takes a highly skilled miner or smith to identify the truly valuable scales.