The Case of the Tentacle Terror

by Liam O'Donnell

  A pirate with a crooked snout stepped forward. “Apologies, Captain Stitch.” The kobold dropped his gaze to the ship’s deck. “The fellas got a little excited with the new haul.”

  “Don’t let it happen again, Deekin, or you’ll be swimming with the eight-armed beast,” Captain Stitch snarled. A badly stitched scar ran from the tip of his snout to his forehead. Whatever had cut him had taken one of his eyes with it, leaving behind an empty socket that had been hastily sewn closed. Stitch turned his one eye on the crew of kobolds. “That goes for all of you mutts. Keep your sticky paws off my loot, unless you want to go swimming with the beast.”

  The kobolds fell back at the threat. They scrambled off the boxes and watched their captain warily.

  “That’s better,” Stitch growled. “Now get the density-inverters in place, so we can get these off of this rust bucket.”

  A pair of kobolds came forward and placed a wooden chest on the ship’s deck. They opened the lid to reveal a pile of metal discs the size of my head. On each disc, little lights flashed like twinkling glowshrooms. The kobolds rushed to the chest, snatched up several discs and scurried back to the containers.

  Beside me, Tank pushed in closer and peered through our spyhole with hungry eyes.

  “Look at that tech!” she whispered. “Where did these mutts get their paws on density-inverters? I wonder what they’re using them for?”

  “Whatever it is, it can’t be good.” I said in a quiet voice. “These pirates must be the monsters stealing the ships.”

  “These guys are just the cleanup crew,” Aleetha said. “It’s the big monster with tentacles that’s doing the stealing.”

  Tank sat back from the hole. “What does a sea monster want with the cargo of a SlurpCo ship? It’s just a bunch of cheap appliances.”

  “Good question,” Aleetha whispered.

  “I’ve got a better question,” I said. “Who is that?”

  Another monster approached the containers and stood beside Stitch. The creature was as tall as Stitch, but too thin to be a kobold, and it wore a long cloak the color of the ocean. The hood of the cloak covered the new arrival’s face, but a blue-tinged hand poked out from the sleeve and gripped a staff encrusted with seashells.

  “A wave mage!” Aleetha gasped

  “How long will this take, Captain Stitch?” The wave mage’s words gurgled like it was speaking underwater.

  Stitch bowed quickly to the stranger before speaking. “Not long, Hilsa. Once the density-inverters are attached, you will be able to work your magic.”

  Hilsa scanned the deck of the Wave Dancer with his bulbous eyes. “I sense others on this ship. Have you searched everywhere?”

  “I have a team searching belowdecks,” Stitch replied. “If there are any stowaways, those mutts will let me know.”

  “Those fools are looking in the wrong place,” Hilsa said.

  The wave mage turned to our hiding spot, and my heart stopped.

  I wriggled, squirmed and kicked, but Hilsa’s spell held me tight in its grip. Who knew water could be as hard as stone? Next to me, Tank and Aleetha weren’t having any luck breaking free either.

  “Save your strength, young monsters,” the wave mage said.

  “Yeah, you’ll need it for the swim back home!” Stitch growled. “Throw them overboard. We don’t have time to babysit stowaways.”

  “Not so fast, Stitch. Let’s see who we caught.”

  Hilsa’s water fists held us in place, allowing him to get a closer look. He stopped in front of me and peered out from under his robe’s deep hood. His green-blue eyes bulged, and his skin had a watery sheen. I spotted gills on his neck, the telltale sign of a stream elf. Hilsa smirked and moved over to stand in front of Aleetha.

  “Curious,” he said. “Why are a goblin, a troll and a lava elf hiding on a SlurpCo cargo ship?”

  Stitch let out a frustrated bark. “What does it matter? Get rid of them. We’re behind schedule. You know I don’t like delays.”

  “And I don’t like mysteries,” Hilsa snapped. “That’s exactly what these three are. A mystery to be solved.” Hilsa turned his bulging eyes to me. “And you know all about solving mysteries, don’t you, little goblin?”

  My claws curled. The watery gaze of the stream elf seeped under my scales. It was like he could see straight into my mind and read every thought.

  Deekin ran up to Stitch.

  “All the density-inverters are in place, Captain!”

  “About time,” Stitch said. “Get everyone back to the Hound’s Revenge. We leave as soon as this is done.”

  Deekin ran back to his shipmates, barking Stitch’s order as he went.

  I struggled against Hilsa’s spell and managed to turn my head enough to see the shipping containers. Each one of the massive crates was dotted with several of the flashing density-inverters. Hilsa faced the containers. Even with his back to us, his spell held the three of us in place. The wave mage called to a pair of kobolds standing on either side of smaller figure completely covered in a black cloak.

  “Bring the conduit to me!” Hilsa commanded.

  The kobolds dragged the cloaked figure to Hilsa. He placed a webbed hand on the figure’s shoulder. The monster under the cloak flinched at Hilsa’s touch but remained standing. With his other hand, the wave mage raised his shell-encrusted staff over his head.

  Stitch stepped away from the wave mage and grinned at us. “Ready for a show, little monsters?” The pirate captain chuckled.

  “Close your eyes!” Aleetha said to Tank and me as she struggled uselessly against her watery bindings. “He’s going to cast a spell.”

  But I couldn’t close my eyes. I couldn’t look away. The words of magic spilling from Hilsa’s mouth held me entranced.

  My brain hurt from trying to understand what I’d just seen. More than a dozen shipping containers had just vanished right in front of my scales. Beside me, Aleetha and Tank looked on, wide-eyed and speechless.

  Hilsa leaned on his staff, looking exhausted but satisfied. If casting the spell had tired Hilsa, it had completely knocked out the mysterious monster under the black cloak. As the pair of kobolds dragged the figure away, a thin tail not unlike my own poked out from under the cloak. I looked quickly to see if Tank had noticed, but she was still too busy trying to wrap her brain around the vanishing containers.

  “You just used magic and technology together!” my friend gasped.

  “That’s impossible!” Aleetha said.

  “Not impossible, little wizard.” Hilsa’s words came slowly, like he was trying to catch his breath. “It just requires a little creative thinking.” The wave mage looked at Stitch. “You were correct about our stowaways, Captain. They are of little interest to our mission.”

  Captain Stitch glared at us with his one good eye. “Then get rid of them.”

  “Very good.” Hilsa nodded to the pirate captain.

  The wave mage waved his free hand, and the watery shackles around my waist lifted me into the air. Tank and Aleetha were also raised off the deck of the ship.

  “What’s happening?” Tank squirmed against her bonds.

  The water carried us over the edge of ship and held us high above the choppy waters below. The kobold pirates gathered along the ship’s sides and yapped with excitement at what was to come. Captain Stitch stepped forward and waved a mottled paw at us.

  “I don’t know how you got on this ship,” the kobold said, “but I know how you’re getting off it. Goodbye, little monsters. Enjoy your swim.”

  With a command from Hilsa the fist of water holding us turned to vapor, and we fell.

  The world became a murky green blur.

  Frigid liquid gushed up my snout and under my scales as I crashed into the icy water around the Wave Dancer. I tumbled head over tail and spotted the blurry shapes of my friends. Tank paddled like she was crawling up a mountain. Aleetha fought to free herself from the tangle of her wizard’s cloak, which billowed around her and threatened to drag her de
eper down into the water. I began to swim toward her and then froze.

  A thick tentacle emerged from the swirling bubbles. It stretched back as far as I could see, disappearing in the murky water. Along the tentacle were dozens of density-inverters. Tiny lights flashed on the discs. The tentacle sliced through the foul water but stopped directly in front of us. The lights on the discs grew brighter and seemed to join together as one. In an instant the light leapt toward me.

  I woke with a snoutful of sand.

  Cold water rushed across my scales, jolting me to my feet. Next to me, Tank and Aleetha groaned and slowly stood up.

  “What happened?” Tank shook sand from her ponytail.

  Aleetha wrung water from her cloak. “And where are we?”

  Above us, the sun shone and puffy, white clouds drifted across the blue sky.

  “We’re still outside the mountain,” I said.

  We had washed up on a wide beach with warm sand the color of a vanilla slugshake. Beyond the beach stood a tangled forest of green. Trees, vines and plants covered the ground and reached toward the sun above. I’d never seen plants like this before. In the darkness of Rockfall Mountain, only slimes and fungi grew. Here, under the sun, flowers of all colors and sizes flourished alongside fat green leaves and thick branches of dark brown. The forest and the beach ran uninterrupted in both directions before curving out of view.

  Aleetha shielded her eyes from the sun and looked out at the water. “There’s something way out there.”

  Tank pulled her zoomers over her eyes. She turned the dials on the goggles and studied the water. She pulled them off and opened the pockets on her tool belt one by one.

  “All my tech is wet,” she growled. “It will need to dry out before anything will work again.”

  She turned her back to the water and continued inspecting the pockets of her tool belt.

  Aleetha kept her focus on the dot floating on the water in the distance.

  “I bet that speck is the Wave Dancer,” she said. “And we must be on the island we saw earlier when we were standing on the ship’s deck.”

  “Okay, but how did we get here?” I asked. “And what was that arm that zapped us under the water?”

  “It wasn’t an arm,” Aleetha said. “I think it was a tentacle.”

  “Do you think it was the same creature we saw grab the Wave Dancer from Fang Harbor?”

  “There’s more to that monster than tentacles.” Tank brushed sand out of the pockets of her tool belt. “Did you see the discs running along the tentacle? They were the same density-inverters those pirates put on the containers. They’re used to make things lighter and easier to move.”

  Visions of the discs washed into my mind. The light from those discs had reached out and swallowed us whole. And that wasn’t all.

  “Those discs did more than just transport us.” My scales burned at the memory. “It’s like they reached into my brain.”

  “I felt that too!” Tank’s ears stood at attention. “They sent some kind of energy into us.”

  “I remember that.” Aleetha nodded. “I felt like the creature was trying to tell me something.”

  “I felt that too!” Tank’s ears stood taller. “But all I saw was a drawing of a monster’s eyes.”

  My claws dug into the sand. “I saw that too. And a rocketboard, I think.”

  “I saw a rocketboard too,” Aleetha said.

  “A SlurpCo rocketboard,” Tank added.

  “We all saw the same things?” I gulped.

  Aleetha’s brow furrowed. “It sounds like a shared vision of some kind. I’ve read about creatures who can project thoughts into the minds of others.”

  “You think that’s what the owner of the tentacle did?” Tank asked.

  “I don’t know what to think.” Aleetha sighed. “Somehow the three of us saw the exact same things, and now we’re stranded alone on this beach.”

  The plants behind us shook back and forth. A low growl came from within the greenery.

  “Stranded, yes. Alone, no.” Tank gulped.

  Farther down the beach, the source of the noise stepped out of the trees.

  Now I wanted to run away. Staring down at us from the face of the cliff were the eyes from our shared underwater vision. Smart detectives don’t use visions to solve mysteries, but seeing this painting had to be more than mere coincidence. I was lost and clueless, but clearly someone knew why we were here. And the tingling in my tail told me that someone had tentacles.

  Tank found the entrance to the cave by accident.

  “I was looking for something to dry the receptors on my sonic hatchdriver, and look what I found.” She pushed some leaves aside to reveal a hole in the cliff face.

  Aleetha peered into the darkness beyond the opening. “There’s a path leading deeper underground.”

  I scratched the back of my neck. My scales were hot. “Underground sounds good to me. I’ve had enough baking in the sun like a slinkworm pie.”

  “Me too.” Tank wiped sweat from her forehead. “I don’t want to be around here if those beak-brains come back.”

  “Maybe getting us underground was the plan all along.” Aleetha stepped back from the opening. Her eyes drifted up to the drawing on the cliff face. “Back in the water, that tentacle zapped us and we all had a vision of this painting.”

  “And now we’re here,” I said. “You think the tentacle was trying to tell us to come here?”

  “But we were chased here by those birds,” Tank said. “We found this place by pure luck.”

  Aleetha shrugged. “Maybe it wasn’t luck at all.”

  “I don’t buy it.” Tank shook her head. “It’s just a coincidence. There must be a scientific reason for us seeing the same thing. And we ended up here by chance.”

  “Whatever the reason, let’s see where the cave leads. Standing around here won’t help us find a way back home.” Aleetha tugged at the collar of her cloak. “You’re right, Fizz—it’s getting hot out here.”

  Tank grinned. “You’re a flame mage! You’re supposed to like the heat.”

  “What can I say?” Aleetha chuckled. “I like my heat from pools of lava, not from big balls of fire in the sky.”

  My scales relaxed the moment I stepped through the opening and into the cave. Cool darkness wrapped around me like a hug.

  “That’s much better,” Tank said, stepping through the opening. “How is anyone able to live outside with that sun shining down on them?”

  The path in the cave led us steadily downward. Each step took us away from the surface and its burning sun and deeper into the coolness of the underground. The path was wide and smooth, and the dusty ground was covered with traces of footprints. Wherever we were, this was once a busy route. Questions bounced around my brain as we walked. Where did this path lead? Who had built it? Would they help us get home?

  My stomach ached at that thought. I’d been so busy trying not to drown or get eaten that I hadn’t realized how much I wanted to be back home, snacking on a pile of choco-slug cookies with my mom bugging me to finish my homework. She was probably freaking out right now. This was all my fault. If I hadn’t been so eager to solve a big-time mystery, we wouldn’t have snuck into the stakeout. We wouldn’t have gotten too close to the SlurpCo cargo ship and been picked up by that giant tentacle. And we wouldn’t be here in a strange land, lost and alone.

  “Fizz, hurry up! You have to see this.”

  Tank’s words echoed down the tunnel. Lost in my thoughts, I had fallen behind. I ran to catch up with my friends.

  We followed a set of winding stairs down to the cavern floor. The dirt path turned into a cobblestone road wide enough for three ogres to walk side by side.

  “Let’s find someone and see.” Tank slapped me on the back and walked quickly along the cobblestones.

  Finding someone turned out to be hard. The streets on the outskirts of the village were deserted. The houses were empty, and the yards were free of any children playing and parents watchi
ng them. At many of the homes the front door hung open, but there wasn’t a monster in sight. We walked a couple of blocks in silence, watching and waiting for someone to show their face.

  “Where is everybody?” Tank asked.

  Aleetha pulled her cloak tightly around herself. “It’s definitely odd that it’s so quiet.”

  After walking for a few minutes we arrived at a plaza. Shops with brightly colored awnings lined the edges of the open area. Many had their doors open but looked deserted. In the middle of the plaza sat an empty fountain carved of dark stone. A statue of a big-eyed creature with tentacles rose from the fountain and loomed over the square. The stone tentacles stretched out in all directions, as if it were climbing off its pedestal. It was the same creature we’d seen painted on the cliff face.

  Aleetha moved slowly through the square, keeping one eye on the fountain. “They really like that creepy creature around here.”

  Tank walked through the doorway of a shop that looked like it sold tools. A few seconds later she emerged holding a long pipe with wires poking out at either end. “This store is amazing,” she announced. “Check out this multisocket ionizer. For a place in the middle of nowhere, they’ve got a good selection of tech.”

  Aleetha ran her hands along a rack of shirts standing outside a clothing shop next door. “And it’s all just been left out in the open, but no one is around. Weird.”

  “Maybe this town was abandoned,” I said.

  Aleetha frowned. “Why wouldn’t they take their things with them?”

  “They had to leave in a hurry?” I suggested.

  “It makes no sense.” Aleetha peered through the clothing shop’s window. “Why would monsters abandon a perfectly good town?”

  “I’ve got a better question,” Tank said. “Why is there smoke coming from that fountain?”