NOVEL NEXT 1.47: Introspective meal
Henry and Maurice swam out of the half-darkness and landed near the entrance of the cave. Henry let go of the carcass, and the Mesmer eel fell softly on the seabed, sending up a cloud of sand and blood as it came to a rest.
“[It's Telekinesis was so strong! Also, why did you tell me to wait? When the eel had us in its Telekinesis?]”
Henry looked at the eel as he tried to recall the earlier parts of the encounter. His blood was still roaring in his veins and he was still coming off the rush of battle. After a quick second, he recalled his short sapience test. “[I tried to see if it was intelligent. If it could speak and understand. But it doesn’t look like it did. At least, I didn’t feel any understanding from it, only that it was pissed and hungry.]”
“[Oh. Oooh. Got it. To see if it was a possible friend, right? Like me?]”
Henry summoned a quick illusion–because if they were resting, he might as well continue acclimatizing Maurice to facial expressions. This time, he used the image of Elijah, an old friend and colleague. The illusion nodded at Maurice’s assessment. “[If it’s friendly and intelligent, we would have left it alone.]”
Maurice had already summoned his own persona. The crab cut a piece of the eel’s flank and started munching. Then, his illusion’s frown slowly deepened until it looked up inquisitively at Henry’s illusion. “[The Trickster can speak. Though I guess it’s not friendly. What if something is friendly but it’s not smart enough to understand us?]”
Henry shifted uncomfortably and stopped reaching for a piece of eel as he considered his response. “[The Trickster seems intelligent. In an odd sort of way… but it’s hostile. It tried to kill us multiple times. It feels more… like a monster. A malicious one.]”
It was the one that had opened the hostilities early on. At least one of its ambushes could have seriously endangered them. “It tried to take Maurice. It wants to kill me. It started things, not me,” Henry told himself. Though the fact that it was an intelligent being bothered him.
A monster. An intelligent one, but still a monster.
Maurice hummed as he ate, and Henry’s own words echoed in his mind. They felt empty. He looked down at the dead eel, and as he did, caught a peek of his own arms. A log-thick orange and blue-spotted limb unrolled itself as he took it in. “[I’m calling it a monster, but I guess we’re technically all monsters. In a way.]”
“[Monsters,]” said Maurice, as if tasting the words. “[It sounds cool. This is a monster too right? And those whales? Do you think we’ll meet them again soon?]”
That… helped with the unease Henry was feeling. The whales had been stunning, in their intelligence and friendliness.
Henry coiled his arms under himself. “[I hope so. They were friendly. And they knew a lot.]”
The Bahamut whales were no simple beasts. They were technically monsters as well. But Henry would never attack them. Unless he was forced to defend himself, of course, but even then he felt the whales would be reasonable enough to relent once his identity and intentions were clear.
Still, something kept nagging in the back of his mind. What was so different between a hostile Trickster and everything else? Why was it bothering him? Why did Maurice’s question unsettle him?
As Henry turned over the question in his mind, he caught the tail end of what was bugging him. As he pulled on it and examined it, he exhaled.
With one of his arms, Henry cut a bit off the eel and looked up. Maurice was slowly munching on the eel’s meat, and both the crab and illusion were watching him. Waiting.
Right. Telepathic crab.
“[It’s not the best comparison, but what’s bothering me is that the Trickster is sapient and hostile. That by itself is a problem, but the thing is, I’m a Trickster kraken as well. Which makes me think, what if it had been a person? A human, from before? Back in my world, we grow up being taught how abhorrent and unacceptable it is to kill someone else, but I’ve been focusing on the Trickster and its ambushes for so long I haven’t thought of it as ‘person’.]”
Henry was still getting his thoughts in order, and Maurice seemed to know that. So the crab kept munching quietly as Henry turned the piece of meat in his arms before putting it down. “[When I woke up in this world, I was forced to defend myself and hunt to gain power. I didn’t have a choice. Either I get stronger, or I’ll end up as something else’s meal. When I killed all those sharks, it was both for power, and for the fact that if I didn’t kill them, they would kill me. I had to put myself out there and hunt. The alternative was hide and crawl, until something found me and gobbled me up.]
“[At some point though, I started looking for the fights. And that’s fine. I still need strength to survive the ocean, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the challenge. When I come face to face with a being and its first reaction is to try to kill me, then I don’t feel bad about killing it first. But in the case of the Trickster, it’s not as simple anymore. It feels… premeditated. It isn't a savage beast that’s attacking me just because I happened to be in front of it. It’s holding a grudge. It’s plotting. It spoke, and it hates me because I’m different. It knows I’m not one of its own. That I’m not really an octopus, and so it wants to get rid of me. Which–funnily enough–is a pretty human behavior.]”
Henry looked up toward the surface. It wasn’t visible from down here. When Maurice spoke up, Henry brought his attention back.
“[You said before that the people of this world could attack us, and that we’ll need to be strong enough to defend ourselves. I think if we defend ourselves like we always do, some of them will die. What happens then?]”
“[I don’t know,]” Henry lied, then shook his head. “[I have… some ideas. There’s a lot I don’t know, but what I do know is that I don’t intend to lie down and die. That’s for sure. I don’t want to kill people. I don’t think I’m ready for such. But this might not be a world where I’ll have a choice. Even back where I’m from, such standards are not always upheld. There’s always wars and genocides going on, and those ideals are barely a century or two old. I used to listen to podcasts–they’re sort of recordings of people speaking about all kinds of subjects–about history and no centuries goes by without a handful of wars or a war crime or two. So… I don’t know. I feel like we’ll need to be strong enough to defend ourselves. To survive. I don’t think that’s possible without bloodshed, but, I think, in the same vein as the Trickster, if something’s coming at us, relentlessly, to kill us, then we have to fight back. Maybe give it a chance to stop. But if it doesn’t–if they don’t–then we fight back.]”
Henry stared grimly at the dead eel and pictured people with pitchforks. A sea of torches and a shouting throng of people with weapons. Guns? Magic?
Who knew what this world had in store. But even though he felt he was being pessimistic, he recalled the whales warning him away from people. If this world’s civilizations were accepting of intelligent monsters, the whales would have known about it. Or at least, they would have had more to say.
“Unless their warning was more informed than it seems.”
Maurice stared at Henry for a few more seconds, then a large blue pincer appeared–which Henry saw and didn’t react to, thanks to the Octominds–and bopped the kraken on the head. When Henry looked up, Maurice pointed simultaneously with a hand and a pincer at the eel. “[This is really good. You should have some. It will help, I’m sure.]”
Henry sighed, then picked up a slice. The meat was soft and just melted once he started chewing. It reminded him of an order he’d usually get the first weekend after his pay.
“[If we find civilization, and if they’re not absolutely awful, you’ll have to try grilled eels. With rice and sauce,]” said Henry. He let himself try the delicate flavors, the smokiness of charcoal and the sour and sweet taste of the eels. “[Actually, I should cut a few morsels and save them. Especially now that Hunger’s about to evolve and I’m about to have a lot more storage space in Maw.]”
“[Oh, that sounds good. What’s rice and sauce, by the way? And what’s grilling?]”
Henry decided to go with a demonstration instead of explaining every small detail. Plus, it would help him take his mind off things.
“[So, on land, we cook our food over fire. Fire’s a source of heat–like those Stoneskin krakens–and when you put food on the fire, or on charcoals–]” Henry displayed a charcoal grill, with skewered eel filets glazed in sauce, smoking as they were turned over the glowing embers, “[–the heat changes their texture and taste, and very often makes the food a lot tastier. Especially because you can add sauces and play with the textures of a lot of ingredients. Whereas this,]” added Henry as he picked up a piece of eel meat, “[is good on its own, but it would be so much better with some extra preparation.]”
“[That looks nice. Also, the clone’s nearby.]”
Henry immediately tensed. He looked down at Maurice, but before he could speak the crab took the initiative.
“[Should we ask it to leave us alone? That way, if it doesn’t stop, we can beat it up guilt-free!]”
Henry sighed, and felt some tension leave his shoulders. He didn’t forgive the Trickster. He was still pissed at the crap it tried to pull. But what if it didn’t know any better?
This way, at least, they could give it a chance at peace. And as Maurice said, if it spurned them or insisted, then they would have at least tried.
