I ain’t linking to the original list this time but part 1 and part 2 are here.
For now I should get back to Cerule.
The *thing* powdered onto the surface as before but began to twitch in a very different manner. Each individual piece seemed to warp and flow until it finally merged into the screen, leaving purple etchings in their wake. Far fewer than the green, of course, but there was magic everywhere in this glob, it would seem. The Great Kelp Forest was chock full of purple dots of various sizes. There were large diffuse purple shapes moving in the deep and dim zones and two within the diamond zone that looked far too big to mess with or even dwell on much.
But only a few of the purple markings drew his attention as the possible Star-Collate Bone. They were packed tight, not diffuse at all, but intense and nearly glowing. One drifted only a nautical mile or two from his current position and Cerule set the ship en route to investigate.
Strange aquatic life drifted past his window, built on unfamiliar body configurations. [Skipping some description here.] Finally the map indicated he was right on top of the first purple blip. Cerule started scanning but saw little of interest, then noticed that a school of long, ridged fish was swirling in an odd pattern. In the center, one of the fish was staring at him with intensity. A sense of impending danger made Cerule turn the ship and dive rapidly, just as a boom and ripple passed overhead, a bizarrely powerful blast of current ripping through where he’d just been. Good thing he’d moved quickly. He struck that one from his list and moved to the next.
It was drifting in the deep zone and seemed to be vaguely circling beneath one of the smaller masses of condensed plant life. Cerule set his exterior lights to low and continued his dive until the water outside was dark, nearly impenetrable. The pressure meter indicated it was fairly crushing outside. Well, no elf would make it in this water without a ship. Cerule was not an elf, though; deep water held little fear for him. He was not as free in the water as the other aqui of his acquaintance but his body was more durable than the average surface-dweller. Cerule set the ship travelling in an arc through the planet, skimming around the outside of the dark zone, until he’d traversed sufficient distance that he was growing close to the next concentrated purple mark on his map.
Outside, something brushed against the hull of his ship. It spun a little in the water, swaying off course and bobbing as Cerule pointed his lights around. A shape appeared and disappeared. Then another on the other side. Was he surrounded? Cerule bobbed upwards a little.
Which is when he saw a better glimpse of what had hit his ship. A long, smooth tentacle. Smooth except for occasional barbs along its surface which, from what he could see, would come to his hip if he was standing next to one.
The other shape resolved from the murky water for a moment then vanished again. Another tentacle with suckers bigger around than his torso. He wasn’t surrounded, or at least not in the typical sense. He was encountering a single creature with long tentacles and arms. Some sort of squid or cephalopod and his ship was moving between its limbs as it swam. And… he checked the map. Yes, the bright purple marker he was following was further up in the direction the creature was moving. In other words, it might be the creature itself or something near it. Cerule needed to get closer. Closer… to that thing. Water might not scare him, but some of the things in it? They deserved healthy respect. And space. Which is just what he couldn’t give to this creature.
Cerule pulled a few levers and turned some dials, setting the ship to follow his beacon at a distance, then took off the outer layer of his starship uniform and went to the back of the ship. There was the airlock, or in this case, the waterlock. He took a deep breath and set off the mechanism, feeling the gush of water as it surrounded him. He took a deep breath in, feeling the salt water fill his lungs and watching the bubbles of air wobble to the top of the room. Then with a burble, the door opened and he swam out.
Cerule took a moment to orient himself as his ship obediently distanced itself, then he swam toward the direction the tentacles were moving. Presumably closer to the bulk of the creature.
Water moved around him, making him feel the most comfortable he had in this whole journey. He understood why he’d been asked on this mission but he hadn’t wanted to be here; he’d always been most at home alone and in the sea. A moment of sunken reverie was suddenly broken off as he felt a tentacle wrap around his waist and the abrupt rush of water as he was pulled inexorably toward the creature before him.
Before he had time to panic, the cephalopod’s head came into view and the tentacle pulled him past its massive beak and to its eye, bigger than Cerule’s entire body, possibly as big as half his ship. And a thought came into him; not words, not language, not even pictures, but a thought.
<<Why are you here?>>
Intellectual Property of Elizabeth Doman
Feel free to share via link
Do not copy to other websites or skim for AI training
