A Mother Octorok and Her Clutch

By Nechoic

Newly a mother, an octorok swam her way up Zora's River back to her underwater nest. She was carrying a bellyful of river stones, which she started depositing with care around her newly hatched clutch forming a protective den. She gazed caringly at her newborns, nibbling at the kelp stalk that she had freshly plucked from the river bed that morning. The circle of life was continuing, and she couldn't have been prouder.

Suddenly she heard a dampened thumping from above—footsteps. After making sure her babies were safe inside the den, she furtively peered above the surface. There she saw something that she had never seen before. It wore green, and it carried a shiny and menacingly sharp object. This being wasn't like the Zoras who respected and cared for the aquatic life in the river, no, this was something completely different. Hoping it would head back downstream, she nervously watched the creature as it moved closer and closer. She panicked, this monster could hurt her babies, and she had to do something about it.

Popping fully above the water, she gazed at the creature with her timid light green eyes. She made a gasping noise with her gills trying to say don't come closer in her octorok tongue, but this seemed to just make the creature wearing green come closer. What could she do? The newly formed outer skin of her offspring would be torn to shreds by that sharp shiny thing it was carrying, dead in a heartbeat. She remembered that she had one stone left in her belly, perhaps she could use it as a warning shot?

This was her one and only chance to save her family. The octorok timidly drew air in through her gills, positioned the stone from her belly to the end of her snout, and forced the air behind it. Like an airgun the stone popped out of her snout and sailed towards the threat. The creature wearing green quickly rolled to the side, avoiding the rock.

I'm dead, thought the mother octorok, I've failed my family, and all she could do was watch with horrified green eyes at her imminent death.

The creature wearing green produced a small wooden device from its backpack. It pulled back an elastic portion of the device and let go. She didn't even see it coming, but when she felt it she knew instantly that it was a Deku seed. They occasionally washed down the river from the forest, and she learned at a very young age that they were not to be touched. There was nothing she could do as she felt the paralyzing effect of the seed pass through her body. Her skin turned a pallid shade of blue, and she couldn't move a single tentacle.

All she could do was make pathetic squeaking sounds with her gills, trying to plead for mercy as the creature drew closer, sharp metal object in hand. In no time the creature wearing green was on a ledge next to the octorok. It jumped off the ledge, wielding its weapon above his head, then he brought it straight down through the mother octorok's head.

As the bubbles underwater cleared, the mother octorok's body sank to the bottom of the river. She landed next to her newly hatched clutch, and gazed on them with defeated green eyes, as her vision went dark, she let out one last squeak, a squeak that quivered with the regret of 8 little lives subject to the cold harsh realities of Hyrule.