Oliver

  Something was creeping

  and creeping

  and waiting

  to be seen and felt and heard.

  The thing erupted from the water like a volcanic explosion, flinging a good portion of pond into the sky like a heavy rain. Thirty feet out from shore stood something like an enormous manta ray, but with elephant legs underneath and a nest of writhing feelers dangling from its mouth. Its wide wings draped down into the water, making him think for a moment of the bell curve he’d learned about in math. It towered a good twenty feet over the water, and it was still up to its knees. It shrieked, a bellowing blast that sounded like the thing underneath the library, but bigger. Louder.

  YOU MUST GO.

  Oliver turned tail and ran. He hesitated over his bike but didn’t dare stop to pick it up and get on. He sprinted for the woods and tripped on the very first root that crossed his path, sprawling out full-length into the dirt. The Kraken bounced from his grip as he fell, squeaking as it hit. He scrambled toward it, heedless of skinned palms and torn jeans, trying desperately to gather it up and keep running. It slid from his grasp, thump-thump-swishing with surprising speed back toward the water.

  “Wait!” he cried, reaching for it.

  DO NOT FOLLOW.

  “But it’s tiny! It’ll get killed!”

  THAT IS LIKELY.

  “I can’t let it do that!”

  YOU CANNOT PREVENT IT. THE LITTLE ONES HAVE MANY TASKS, BUT PRIMARY IS TO PROTECT YOU. WE ARE SOMETHING NEW, WE TWO, AND THERE IS WORK YET TO BE DONE.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  The elephant-manta was swamping the shore as it reached land, and the Kraken was washed aside in an errant wave. Still it struggled forward. “How’s it gonna protect me from that?”

  I CANNOT MOVE YOUR LEGS. GO NOW.

  Oliver listened, retreating another thirty feet back into the trees, but he couldn’t keep himself from pausing to look back. The Kraken was flinging itself toward the feet of the behemoth, and he cringed as the great thing reared up and stamped its huge feet.

  At first, he thought his little black monster friend had been crushed, but a moment later he saw it swarming up the great beast’s leg, hoisting itself ever higher tentacle by tentacle. The much larger feelers of the elephant-manta plucked at it, and the trumpeting blasts seemed more panicked than vengeful. Somehow the tiny Kraken evaded the probing onslaught, and then the great thing reared skyward, the Kraken attached to one of its face tentacles, climbing toward its maw.

  ITS CHANCES OF SUCCESS DO NOT INCREASE IF YOU STOP TO WATCH. PLEASE RESUME YOUR MOTION.

  Oliver was rooted in place, fascinated by the David and Goliath battle in front of him. The elephant-manta’s panicked shuffling crushed his bike into the mud, twisting it beyond all recognition. The Kraken had reached its face, and it nimbly threw itself from one tentacle base to the next, its tiny head wings flapping to give itself a little more lift on each leap. The black beak at the center of the great tentacles snapped helplessly, and the Kraken moved onto the underside of the thing’s head, clinging with sucker tentacles and wing claws. It approached one great red eye and immediately burrowed into it, disappearing from view.

  Now the roars were ones of pain, and the enormous monster slapped at its own eye cluster with its feelers.

  “It’s going to kill it!” Oliver crowed.

  NOT IMPOSSIBLE, BUT STILL UNLIKELY. DO YOU DESIRE DEATH, THAT YOU WILL NOT LISTEN AND RUN?

  The Kraken burst from another eye, a gout of black ichor falling to the ground behind it. It dashed toward the front edge of the broad, flat head and crested the side like an expert rock-climber, vanishing from Olly’s view. The topside of the thing might as well have been a four-story rooftop for all he could see down here. The elephant-manta’s great nest of feelers arched upward, sweeping over the crown of its own head.

  They came away with a tiny back body held between the end of two tentacles. In one swift motion they pulled apart, ripping the tiny Kraken in half. The great beast trumpeted its triumph.

  “No!” Oliver screamed into the cacophony. He felt it die, a faint echo of pain that flashed and was gone.

  NOW RUN, OR THE SAME THING WILL HAPPEN TO US.

  Scared, angry, and hopeless, he turned and bolted back toward the highway. Only a moment later he heard footsteps thundering after him. The thing was giving chase. He’d never make it.