This one came out pretty fast! Also, I've noticed that Tentacled might not be the best title, so if anybody has any ideas for a better one, please suggest it!
"Good morning, Ty." Sky said, sipping his coffee. "Mornin'." Ty grumbled back, yawning. He didn't look towards Sky as he said it, not wanting to see the small, unintentional flinch that Sky gave every time he saw Ty's eyes. He didn't blame Sky for it. Sky had been dealing with the squids for longer than Ty had known him, so it was inevitable that Ty's new eyes would bring up bad memories.
Ty opened the pantry, checking the neatly stacked chests for something to eat. He didn't really feel like rummaging through the food for long, so he went with the first food he saw, which happened to be a hunk of bread. He sat down at the table, taking a bite of bread. Almost immediately, he spat it out again. What was wrong with it? It tasted like a bitter piece of cardboard, and it made him feel nauseous. Sky turned his head to Ty with a look of concern. "Are you okay?"
Ty nodded. "Yeah, but I think this bread has gone bad or something." Sky walked over and took the bread from his friend's hands, biting into it. He chewed for a few moments then swallowed, shrugging dismissively.
"Tastes fine to me." Ty got up again, resigned to getting something else to eat. Strangely, his eyes gravitated towards the refrigerator. As a group, everyone had decided that the refrigerator was going to be used to keep Jerome's supply of raw fish from rotting. Ty had never liked fish cooked, let alone raw, so he had never even touched the fridge before now. He walked over to it, Sky's eyes following him warily. "You're not actually going to try raw fish, are you?"
"It actually sounds pretty good right about now." Ty responded, opening the fridge and taking out a fish. He closed the door, looking at the fish with slight hesitation. It was completely intact, looking like it had just been pulled from the water. Not bothering to cut it up, Ty bit a chunk out of the fish. It tasted amazing, and he kept tearing away at it until there was nothing left but bones. Hunger not yet fully satisfied, Ty reached to open the fridge and get out another fish or two. He stopped when he noticed Sky staring at him, mouth slightly ajar in shock. "What? You look like you've seen a ghost." Ty said.
Sky shook his head a little, as if trying to clear it. "Nothing. It's just… look, I'm going to go now. See you soon." Sky set down his coffee and walked out of the room.
"Goodbye." Ty said, feeling slightly unsettled. He ran his tongue over his teeth. Was it just him, or did they seem a little bit sharper today? His stomach growled, and he reached for another fish.
Sky walked along a path just outside of the house where the Vision Squad lived together. The day was sunny, and birdsong filled the air, but Sky's thoughts weren't on his surroundings. It was easy to brush off Ty's mutation yesterday, but now he was getting concerned. Eyes like a squid and a sudden taste for seafood? It didn't seem very much like a coincidence. This could be a problem. He'd have to talk with the whole of Vision Squad later, but was there anything he could do now? Suddenly, an idea popped into his head. He broke into a run, breaking off the path. He knew exactly where to go to find answers.
He slowed to a stop outside his old house. He unlocked the door, pushing it open. He wished he could have time to appreciate the place, but he had to figure things out soon. He went straight towards his lab, the doors opening as he approached.
He gathered scattered papers from all over the place, taking a moment to regret not organizing his lab better. He sat down at his desk and began flipping through them, scanning for any trace of information that could help him. He finally found something that looked useful, one of the first papers he had found. He frowned. Strange. He didn't remember writing any of this. Then again, he had a bad habit of picking up every document that seemed interesting or exciting, and then letting them sink into the piles of stuff he had lying everywhere. This paper could easily be one of those. Well, it didn't matter how he got the paper. What was important was whether or not it could help Ty.
The Veraform Stone is a star-shaped rock, about the size of a human hand, that was once regarded as a powerful magical object. It was believed that this stone could reverse the affects of unwanted transformations to the user, although it was considered highly unlikely to work once the transformation was complete.
When enchantments and potions became known as the most practical and versatile forms of magic, all other magic fell out of use. The knowledge of how to transform one being into another was lost, surviving only in minor genetic experiments prone to failure, and belief in the Veraform Stone died with it.
Research currently suggests that the stories of this stone may be true, although not enough interest has been generated to conduct experiments. The stone is said to be found at the tip of the Northern Fang.
Sky pulled out a map of the surrounding area. The map was largely dominated by a massive bay, almost a sea. The two peninsulas jutting out at the mouth of the bay were the Northern and Southern Fangs. The Vision Squad house was close to the shore of the bay, directly across from the ocean. The journey shouldn't take more than a week.
Sky rolled up the map and pocketed it, grabbing the paper as well. He'd be able to get to the rest of Vision Squad sometime this evening, and then he could explain his plan. Despite the closeness of his destination, he felt like he needed start moving as soon as possible. So far, Ty's transformation was barely noticeable, almost enough to make Sky doubt that it was actually happening, but he had no idea if his luck would stay. For all he knew, Ty would wake up the next morning fully transformed.
Sky climbed up the stairs and walked out of his house. Again, he frowned at the paper, wondering how he hadn't seen it before. He never saw the small blue shape quietly slipping away.