'~ CHAPTER 4 ~'

A/N: Here's an extra long chapter! At least longer than what I'd usually do. And the poll winner was CaptainSparklez! He and Bodil40 will make an appearance in the next chapter. Enjoy! #Bree !

Lea's POV

I walked further inside the house, as I watched Seto close the door. I didn't bother waiting for him to say anything, as I had walked out to the back yard and sat on the edge of the lake the jar on my lap.

"What's up, Lea?" Seto asked, sitting to my left, trying to capture my gaze. I just kept staring at my reflection in the water.

"Nothing much worth mentioning," I mumbled, letting my hand dangle inside the jar. The squid noticed this and climbed it. She stopped on the back side of my hand and stared at me. I looked back at the young squid and I lowered my head in sadness.

"Come on, sis. I know something is wrong when I see it," Seto pushes, touching my arm. I panicked, flinching from his touch. I held my other hand to my chest, catching my breath.

"We can talk about this a different time, ok?" I say, slowly dipping myself into the lake, changing to my mixed form, "I have to find something for this little girl to eat. Maybe I can find something at the bottom of the lake."

"Ok…maybe I should wait for y-"

"No, please, go on to bed…I'll be fine," I insist. Seto hesitated, but finally agreed.

"If you say so, good night, sis," As Seto got to his knees, I placed the squid on another tentacle to my right. I transformed just my top pair of tentacles to human form and gave Seto a hug. We stayed like that for five seconds before breaking it. Seto then got up and left the yard.

"Hold on, buddy," I whispered in a squid-like voice, placing her on my head. Once I felt some of my hair being grabbed by its tentacles, I started swimming back to Ink City. Hopefully she's from this city, or I just might be swimming till the morning to the next one. For some reason, out of instinct I guess, I kept looking up to see if the young squid is ok. I can reason that with my squid instincts, but…I don't know. We finally reach Ink City, and I swim into the first resident place I spot.

By this time, since there were many squids about, I took the squid into my tentacles and cupped it, making sure it didn't wander anywhere. Man, I felt weird doing this. I would swim up each time we reached a crowd, letting the young squid have a better chance of spotting her parents. Obviously I wouldn't know since we all look alike, aside from ones like me. It was rare for a squid to be a hybrid you could say, and any hybrids that the higher squids managed to find would report them to the king squid. We'd be forced to be army helpers, not necessarily for combat but gathering information about the enemy. Much like me sadly enough.

I grew tired, as I swam upward for now about the tenth time and suddenly the small squid swam out of my tentacles. I panicked watching the squid swimming towards a busy swimming intersection. I swam as fast as I could and caught up gently holding her in my tentacles again.

"Watch where you're going, buddy," I cooed, "I could have lost you. Where to?" I asked, and she pointed to one of the houses to my left. I followed her directions until she told me to stop. Swimming up to the door, I stretched my one of tentacles to knock on the door. By the time I reached the front door, a squid opened the door. The little squid jumped out of my tentacles and stuck to her mother. I smiled contentedly to myself, as they embraced each other. The mother nodded out of gratitude before closing the door, and I was off. Nothing made me happier than helping people…or squids even. But I worried if I was doing too much…

~~~Line Break~~~

Sky's POV

"Dude, why didn't you tell me that happened yesterday?! Or at least to someone," Husky exclaimed at Deadlox. Deadlox and I were helping Husky clean up the pool a bit and we all decide to take a small, relaxing break…turned out to be something different.

"Sorry, Husky," Deadlox holds his hands up in surrender, "I didn't think it was that important."

"Didn't think it was important? It was nothing but important. The least you could have done was tell Seto," Husky snapped back, making me wince in my chair. I had the luck of sitting between the two fussing Minecrafters.

"Ok, look," Deadlox stops Husky from rambling further, "I'll go over and apologize to Lea for 'barging in'. Will that make you happy?"

"Yes, that will," Husky calmly said, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms.

"Good, I'll go now," Deadlox states, getting up from his chair, pushing it forcefully behind him.

"And I'll go with him," I volunteer, following Deadlox out the door. I closed the front door, jogging up to Deadlox, who was a ways from me.

"Are you ok, Deadlox?" I asked my downed looking friend.

"Ok, I guess," Deadlox replies, "Husky's tone shocked me a bit though."

"Don't take it personally," I place a hand on his shoulder, "Husky…may be a bit stressed right now, but I'm sure he'll snap out of it soon, ok? Don't dwell on it too much."

"Yeah, I should give Husky some time," Deadlox nods his head in agreement.

"Here, buddy, you go knock on the door," I push him lightly towards the door. Deadlox stumbles a bit but catches his balance and knocks on the door three times before stepping back a bit. And Seto opens the door.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Seto casually leans on the door post.

"Um…I was wondering if Lea was here? I needed to talk to her," Deadlox nervously asked, easing his hands into his jeans pockets. Seto took a second to look back inside his house before answering.

"She's not here right now," Seto replies, scratching the back of his neck, "But…you guys can wait inside if you want, or I could come over to your place with Lea instead. Whichever you feel more comfortable with." Deadlox and I looked at each other mentally deciding.

"We don't mind waiting inside," I answer for both of us.

"Well, come on in then," Seto steps aside. Deadlox and I strode in, taking in the view as Seto closes the door.

"So, Seto, do you firstly know where Lea is?" I ask, taking a seat on one of the single seaters to the far right of the room and Deadlox on the love seat in the center.

"Not really strangely enough," Seto slurs, sitting on the table in front of Deadlox and to my right, "I haven't seen her since you brought her here last night. Besides that, what did you need to talk to her about, Deadlox?"

"Well…"

Lea's POV

I blinked my eyes open and sat up from my spot. Widening my eyes, I suddenly realized where I apparently had slept. I was only at the entrance of the pipe back to Seto's! Swimming up to the surface, I noticed that the sun had risen already quite some time now.

"Oh crap," I muttered, diving back down and immediately went for the pipe. All of my energy back, I swam as fast as I could, making clean sharp turns along the way. In about five minute's time did I get back to my home lake in Seto's back yard, and I sighed in relief. I was about to climb out of the lake, until I heard multiple voices. I panicked splashing back down in the lake…and everything was quiet. I crossed my tentacles and bit my lip in worry, as I slowly sank down further into the lake.

Seto's POV

"Guys…did you hear that?" Sky suddenly asked, in the middle of a 'Q20 game' I was playing with Deadlox. We all stayed silent for about fifteen seconds before Deadlox spoke up.

"No, dude. What'd ya hear?"

"Sounded like something was in your lake…" Sky trailed off getting up from his chair and walked out to the back door. I hitched my breath and jogged till I was beside him. For some reason we didn't speak until we were standing in a line on the lake's edge, staring into the water. In the center stood me.

"Do you have a…pet or something in here, or do you have any sort of animal in here when you bought this property?" Sky asked turning to me.

"Uh…we had a squid in here, and it wasn't the one Lea brought home from Husky's place," I plainly responded.

"Maybe that's how Lea became like a squid whisperer," Deadlox suggested. Sky and I simultaneously looked at Deadlox with puzzled looks Sky shaking his head also.

"Don't look at me like that!" Deadlox raises his hands in a surrendering position.

Sky's POV

"I said that as a compliment. She handled that squid like a…professional or something." I nodded my head in a sort of agreeing way. One got to admit it did look like she knew how to handle one. There's definitely something she's not telling us. Maybe she is a squid whisperer. Or maybe she's a squid specialist. Or a squid trainer!

'Come on, Sky, you're not that stupid. You very well know there are no squid trainers in Minecraftia.'

'Shut up, you' I hissed mentally, making a face in the process. Luckily, no one seemed to notice.

"Yeah...when we first moved here, the squid already lived here, which is what, I found out, caused the previous residents to move. I suggested that we call a pest or animal control, but she objected. And this is what the decision had led up to," Seto explained, staring at the lake.

"So, is this squid basically considered Lea's pet?" I furrowed my eye brows in a disgusted way.

"Well…yeah you can call it that," Seto responds, "She is a tamed one, at least that is how I have always thought of it."

"In this case, the squid will almost obey and learn stuff like a dog?" Deadlox questions. Gosh, these questions are just getting weird.

"Yes," Seto simply says. He then awkwardly gets down on his knees and leans in a bit towards the water. Deadlox and I look at each other, both of us curious as to what Seto was doing.

Seto's POV

As I looked calm on the outside, I was panicking inwardly. 'Oh Notch, what to do…what to do?' I thought for a few seconds more, and I got hopefully a good idea.

"It seems Lea's pet is too scared to come up," I fakely say in a saddened tone.

"No offense, Seto, but that is fine with me," Sky intervenes, and Deadlox sends Sky a small glare.

"What?"

"Ok, I think I'm going to have to swim down there," I state, apparently making Sky's eyes grow wide.

"Are you serious? Because from here, that looks like a pretty deep lake," Sky exaggerates his motions as he says it.

"It's ok, Sky. The squid knows me too. So once it recognizes me, it'll swim higher."

"Say, how come this one is called an 'it' and the small one yesterday Lea calls a 'she'?" Deadlox randomly asks, in my opinion.

"Lea doesn't tell me much about this squid thing. Even I'm still trying to figure things out," I dully reply. I just want to get this over with. I then took off my purple cape and got ready to jump in.

"Here goes nothing," I dived in like a dolphin, going in head first. I look around and saw Lea in her mixed for, sitting in a corner. Soon enough I caught her eye and she met me halfway down the lake.

"Seto, what are you doing here?" Lea asks worriedly. I just pointed upward.

"Ok, I know about the visitors. How many are there?" I pounded my fist in the water twice.

"Two, ok. I'm gonna go change to my fully squid form and make a run for it, and I'll come back to the yard after doing the transforming thing," I nod rapidly, already making my way back up to the surface. I gasp, taking in as much air as I could, taking Sky and Deadlox by surprise.

"Seto, are you ok?" Deadlox asks, as he and Sky help me out of the lake.

"Yeah…just forgot that I needed air," I chuckled, as I dropped and lied myself down on the grass.