Noctuary

Damian sat with his legs dangling over the edge of the rocking deck of the ship, holding onto the lower rung of the metal railing and gazing at the horizon. The waning sunset was a blaze of glorious color, the drifting clouds purple against the red western sky, with the swells of the Atlantic ocean sapphire-blue beneath. The old adage red sky at night, sailor’s delight bobbed to the surface of his thoughts.

As stars materialized in the darkling eastern sky, Damian headed below deck, occasionally steadying himself with the rails lining the narrow hallways and stairs of the Jacques-Yves Cousteau. If the weather stayed clear, both of his parents would be busy tomorrow. He'd left them doing their preparation checks to watch the sunset before going to bed.

When he reached his deck, something was wrong. The hallway beyond the stairs was dark; the overhead lights weren’t even flickering. Strange. Too bad he didn’t have a flashlight with him.

Running a hand along the wall, Damian counted doors until he reached the cabin he was sharing with his mom. He left the door open as he went in, but it didn't help. The light from the stairwell didn’t reach this far, and the walls were devoid of windows.

Envisioning his path to the drawers under the lower bunk, he fumbled forward, intending to find his headlamp—until the ship pitched, and his shin slammed into something. Damian staggered a few steps, then doubled over in pain, groaning and hissing through his teeth, blind in the dark.

Something clammy wrapped around his bare ankle.

“YAAAGH!” He jumped, collided with something hard, and fell to the floor. Footsteps approached in the hallway, and a light flashed in his face.

“You okay?” The light pointed down, and he could see who was holding it. Nicholas Bradshaw, Dad’s friend. An octopus scientist—what was the word Dad used? Teuthologist. His brown beard looked like a pirate captain’s. “What happened?”

Rubbing his head, the teenager said, “Something grabbed my ankle.”

Nicholas knelt beside the bunks, his flashlight playing across the drawers. One was open, and something red was hanging out of it. The red thing squirmed in the light.

“There you are!” he exclaimed, pulling the drawer farther open. “Here's the monster under your bed!” he said, glancing at Damian with a grin.

Damian peered over the burly man’s shoulder. At first, he couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing. A writhing, slithering mass of thick, red tendrils spotted with white flowed around the inside of the drawer. Then a bulbous head that looked as big as his own reared up. An octopus. He shuddered and took a step back. “What a monster!”

“Kraken’s a big guy, but he’s hardly a monster. He’s not even full-grown yet.” Nicholas began gathering the octopus into a bundle, scooping its tentacles together even as they spilled out like water. Frustrated after several fruitless attempts to corral it with one hand, he looked up at Damian and held out the flashlight. “Would you mind helping me?”

Damian took it, and watched as his dad’s friend lifted the octopus into the air, higher and higher. The snaking appendages with their constellation-like pattern of white spots seemed never-ending. It had to be at least a yard long.

“Follow me,” Nicholas grunted, still trying to cradle all of the arms as he went out the door.

Damian complied, pointing the flashlight around and ahead of the teuthologist and his charge. Walking along the hall, he noticed a wet trail on the floor.

Finally, Nicholas turned aside through an open door, into a room with a large fish tank on a low table. There were no fish swimming in it.

“Could you take the lid off? And—” the man clutched at the octopus—Kraken—as it oozed out of his arms. “Sorry, he’s a handful. Will you help me put him back into the tank?”

Damian lifted the lid and set it on a table. He put the flashlight down, balancing it on its thick handle so it pointed at the ceiling. He didn’t want to touch the octopus, but it probably wasn’t good for it to be out like this if it lived in the water. He came close, hesitantly stretching his hands out. Would he hurt it?

“I’ll hold his mantle, you support his legs, okay? Don’t squeeze them.”

Damian tried not to flinch as the undulating arms came in contact with his skin. They felt strange. Soft but strong as they wrapped around his own arms, the suckers tickling slightly.

“In we go!” Nicholas heaved the floppy head up and over the edge of the aquarium, Damian just a little slower on his end. The octopus sank slowly to the bottom, arms outspread. It was a dark, saturated shade of red, with white spots swirling across its body like living stars. As Damian watched, the red changed, turning paler, with more orange in it, like the sky before he’d come below. Kraken was less startling now, and didn’t seem so monstrous. Only…different. Not the same as him.

“Phew! Thanks for your help.” Nicholas replaced the lid. “You’re Damian, right? Roberto’s kid?”

“Yeah.” Flipping a light switch up and down, Damian asked, “Why do you think the power’s out?”

Nicholas grinned. “Kraken did it.”

“What?! How?”

“See that tube there, coming out the bottom of his head? That’s his siphon. He squirts water out of it to swim, but he can also squirt it into the air. Look.” Nicholas grabbed the flashlight and pointed it up at the light fixtures, then down at the floor. Damian could see the puddle beneath.

“He’s done it before,” Nicholas continued, “but I thought I’d outsmarted him with the tank lid this time. I guess I didn’t.” He put the top back on the aquarium. “Are you helping your parents with the ROVs?”

“No. I’m not eighteen yet, so some other people don’t want me on the back deck. They think I’ll just be in the way during the deployments and retrievals.” He watched Kraken stream out of sight under a rock in the tank.

"Would you be interested in helping me take care of Kraken? More people engaging with him will keep him from getting bored, and then he'll hopefully stop looking for his own fun."

"Sure. I wouldn't mind."

From the way Damian was staring, mesmerized, at Kraken, Nicholas had an inkling that the Callistoctopus macropus would be getting a lot more attention in the near future.

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