Squidopia

Hank stared up towards the hazy edge of the water’s surface, soon he would join his fellow squibs on The Dry.

Not much of the world had dry places like this. For the world had always been full of water with these strange islands in remote places.

All these islands were inhabited by various tribes of squibs. All working together, gathering resources and to keep the strange yellow creatures away from the spawning sites. Those yellow monsters with long noses, liked to pull the lava and eggs from the spawning sites and eat them if they could.

But once squibs were full grown, they could fight with those monsters and drive them back to their darkened corners of the world.

Hank’s three hearts pulsated with fear and excitement, he recalled all the practices he had done throughout his larval stage. All leading to this moment when he would finally breach the water. His mind raced with the rumours of what The Dry looked like. It was meant to be a utopia of vast grasslands and clear shallow pools.

He would soon see for himself if they were true. Although he preferred the safety of the spawning grounds and that soft sand, he knew, all had to eventually go to The Dry or be cast shamefully into the blackness of the abyss.

Stretching his coiled limbs out in all directions, hoping to get a feel of his place in the murk. One limb touched something hard and cold. He recoiled his limb immediately as images flashed in his mind of the metal pole he had touched. The sharp memory took him back several years, to the first time he touched something like this, although the scar had long since healed the trauma of the pain and blood could not be forgotten so easily.

“Hank” the gentle voice echoed in his mind, snapping him from that painful memory. He felt the comforting touch of his mentor’s tentacle wrapping around his.

He could barely make out her murky silhouette, waving in the muddy waters, but felt at ease. Knowing Sadie’s tentacle and soothing voice reassuring him that all would be well.

‘At least I’ll be able to see better on The Dry’ he told himself, trying to work up the courage to breach the waters surface. Passing the murk over his gills, tasting the dank bitterness of the water, he reached towards the hard surface the sloped out of the water.

He pulled and crawled out onto the blacken tar of the slope, the hot sun burning down on his soft moist skin, he felt as if he would be cooked alive. Everything was so bright and he had to close his eyes, to protect them from the harsh sun above.

Before the panic could set it a cooling shadow cast over the young squib, that struggled to breath with lung instead of gills.

He felt the touch of a tentacle ‘Easy now. Take slow breaths, really work those lungs’ Came the friendly, reassuring voice resonating in his mind.

Slowly his stinging eyes opened to take in the splendour of the crumbling ruins of jagged metal and concrete, surrounding the large pool of water.

‘This is nothing like what I heard.’ He thought, his deep brown eyes glinting in the shade of his fellow squib, who sat upon a large brown creature, its skin shone in the light. Its long antenna twitched the must air as all four of its limbs stayed put on the baking ground.

‘Welcome to The Dry! I am Heather, Climb up.’ The voice beckoned him, as tow more tentacles stretched down to grasp hold of Hank’s. With a heave, Hank now stay on the hard surface of the creatures tucked wings.

‘Fear not young Hank, this is a roach, they can be imposing to look on at first but they are tame enough.’

Hank felt Heathers’ mind pull away and command the roach to move off.

The ride was surprisingly smooth as the roach scuttled along the blackened tarmac; it gave way to a dirt road. On the left side was a large pen of roaches all huddled together in a pile of strange soft white things.

Heather helped Hank down onto the scorched bare earth. The gritty warmth, brought back memories of his beloved place in the sand.

He crawled over the pen and made his way up on the fence looking over the roaches.

He notices two other young squibs just opposite him, they too admired the sheen on the insects below them.

A roach, a little smaller than the others approached Hank with caution. He reached out to touch it. As soon as the tip of his tentacle meet with its smooth shell, he could hear its frantic, jumbled thoughts, mostly about food and if Hank had any. It would have to go disappointed for the moment as Hanks’s mind was pulled away by Heather’s gentle voice.

The two young squibs, Katy and Caleb, introduced themselves through their now combined mines. Before turning their attention back towards the insects.

“Once you have chosen your mount, go and rest. The process of combining your mind with it will take its toll.” Heather explained, leading them back to the pen and entered together.

The roaches scuttled away to their hiding places within their soft white homes. Slowly they approached them, reaching out their tentacles so the roaches could sense them with their antenna.

That smaller roach from before was the first to emerge and approached Hank. Cautiously its antenna flicked over hanks skin, he reached out and toughed it, creating the familiar link to its mind.

Hank could hear Heathers guiding voice very finally in the back of his jumbled mind, telling him to push thought the jumbled thoughts and to really connect with his roach.

It was soon over and Hank felt drain physically and emotionally. The next he knew he was waking up the following morning in a warm pool of water, in a large open space surrounded by crumbling bricks.

He felt two tenacle touch two of his.

“Morning” the two voices echoed in his mind.

“Morning, where are we?” he asked looking about the place, catching a glimpse of the other pools.

“The rest pools. You, young ones were brough here. Think of this place as your new home for a while.

You three are to go and investigate a ruin just north of here, a first taste of your new lives on The Dry.” Heather explained leading the way to the mounts.

She reached to the young squibs again. “Stay close, if you find anything come and find me.”

With that they set off north of the resting pools. The roached scuttling along and riders firmly holing on, with one tentacle pressed to the head of the roach.

In-amongst the crumbling ruins over grown with dead vines and other plants, Hank caught a glance of something stalking about. It moves quite fast and kept itself fairly hidden. But he could make out the yellow flesh of the creature, its elongated nose with large bulbus protrusions each side. And a single blacked eye at its centre.

It watched them move for some time before disappearing into the ruins. Heather had no doubt seen it to and beckoned them closer to her. She knew that thing would not come near them.

Soon enough they had arrived at the site. A large dilapidated building, half way still somewhat standing propped up with metal rusted beams.

He again felt the touch of Heather mind and she instructed them to start looking for things they could use.

They had been searching for few hours and had found a number of small bits that they could utilise to reinforce their home and also make into tools.

It was then Hank catch sight of something, half burring under some rubble, it was only a small gold thing. Cold to the touch and shaped like a love heart, that was often depicted in the sketches of strange things, he was show years ago.

He fondled with the object trying to work out its function, when suddenly a flash came before him. He had connected to some form of memory attached to this strange object.

The small yellow creature was swimming holding this thing tightly, in its yellow hand. panic and fear gripped him as the memory played out in his mind. The yellow thing had dropped it. And hank’s hearts leaped dragging him from the memory just as the roof caved in and buried the thing.

That memory lingered in his mind for the rest of the day, right through to the night sleep.

Before he slipped into his warm pool, he crawled over to heather and reached out to her.

“It’s about this thing I found today, can I share with you what I saw from it?” he asked.

“Of course. What ever you saw must have been terrifying for you. You hardly ate anything and have been very quiet.” Her reply came.

Hank opened his mind to her allowing her to reach into his memory, he felt her withdraw very quickly.

“I am surprised you didn’t come to me before about this. I can understand it must have taken you all this time to process. What you saw was one of those Amans. The creatures with the yellow skin. That what I call them anyway. Do you still have it?”

Hank reached over to his pool and pulled the thing from it.

“Keep it close, you may learn more from it in time. Try to sleep now if you can we head back to the site in the morning.”

Hank crawled away from Heather and slid into his pool holding the heart shaped thing close. Hoping for another memory, but nothing came as he drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

Returning to the site the next day, with the locket now fastened around one of his tentacles, Hank dung though the rubble looking for anything that may be of interest to the others.

As he willed his roach on to the still standing northern wall. His mind was pulled away from this place and back to when it was functional.

He could feel the locked cold and humming around his tentacle. This time it showed him something he could not believe.

He knew the world had always been the way it was. But what the locket showed him was vastly different.

He stood in the room full of the yellow creatures, they all were pulling on that garish yellow skin of theirs. Covering their large pale bodies in this exo-skin. Almost like his yearly moult but in reverse.

They were scared, so scared as he saw through the eyes of another the world, lush and green be swept away by the water after a blinding flash.

It grew cold and dark, water rising about him. As he scrambled to hold on to the larger monster, but it was no use. The small one was swept away by the raging water that brought down the very building.

As the vision faded, he came to his senses. He had to share this knowledge the heart shaped locket had gifted him. Else none would believe what they thought they knew was a lie.