Okay, so part of the reason I have an (long) author's note for this chapter is because I wanted to write an "alternate" chapter, where Sky is awake during his transformation, with all the transformation horror and angst implied. Now, remember when I said that I had tried a story like this before? It's not the first time. This Squid!Sky thing has been an obsession of mine for years. So, of course, I had an old example written around a year ago ready for me to base the transformation of off.

The problem is, the story was good. The transformation, the realization, the way I blended my knowledge of real life squids perfectly with the exciting fiction stuff… it was all amazing. When I look back on chapters from this story, I cringe, but I was absolutely enthralled with my old work. It was something that I could read and like. I'm feeling proud of myself, of course, but I'm also really irritated. Like… how did my idiotic preteen self have such skill? Why has this skill abandoned me now? Am I too critical of my current work?

Anyways, I don't know where I was going with this. I just wanted everyone to know that I used to be better at writing.

After everything had been explained to Ty, everybody recognized one priority. The fishbowls had to go. Having Sky and Teuthida stay in the fishbowls was clearly dangerous for not only them, but whoever carried them. So now, the question was how to let Sky and Teuthida move (and breathe) without depending entirely on Ross or Ty to carry them around.

Ross proposed that they simply put wheels on the fishbowls. As Sky struggled to find a way to shoot that idea down without upsetting the cheerful narwhal, and Teuthida just stared blankly at Ross, Ty said that he could use magic instead. That was a much better solution.

Now, Sky was moving easily and under his own power for probably the first time since his transformation, zipping around the room in a floating bubble of salt water. Teuthida had not immediately taken to this new method of transportation, and was clinging to Ross's head, looking almost like a scared cat.

As soon as they could coax Teuthida off Ross's head, they were off to Barney's house to find something of his to track him. It took a lot longer than the trip to Ty's house. In fact, they had to stop for the night, everybody taking turns on watch except for Ty, who was using his wings as warm, leathery blankets for everybody else. The only upside to the long trek was that Teuthida and Sky had time to get used to moving with the bubbles.

As soon as they got there, they encountered a problem. Barney didn't have a ton of stuff, being a dinosaur and all. After everybody searched every inch of his house for something useful, they came up with a few buckets that smelled more of goat's milk than Barney, and…

"Oh, ewwwww." Ross said, staring at the eyepatch that Ty threw down on the pile of buckets. Teuthida came forward to look at the eyepatch, muttered "Bleh." and floated backwards a foot or two. Sky really couldn't blame her for that disgusted reaction. Like every eyepatch that Barney owned, the inside and edges were caked with dried blood, and Sky considered himself lucky that his saltwater bubble let him escape the smell.

"Well," Ross said, clearly not working forward to the task, " I guess I'll just sniff this, and we can go…" Ross trailed off when Ty grabbed his wrist, careful not to dig his claws into Ross's skin.

"I'll do it," Ty said, and things probably would have been fine if he left it at that, but he added "My sense of smell is better than yours anyway." Ross jerked his wrist away, glaring at Ty with anger in his eyes.

"Seriously? You're not even close." Ross snarled, clutching the eyepatch tighter. Ty rolled his eyes, looking merely annoyed, but Sky could see his irritation in the way he lashed his tail dangerously. Sky watched them, amused that this was a big deal to them, but worried that they might start to really fight.

Suddenly, Teuthida flew between them in a blue blur, snatching the eyepatch out of Ross's hand and settling out of reach. "Here, I'll smell it and get this over with," She snapped. She sniffed the eyepatch, then tossed it back, saying "Here, it's all yours."

Ty caught it, then growled with irritation when he smelled it. "I can't smell anything other than salt water, thanks to you!" He said, glaring at Teuthida. Ross stepped in, adding "And considering that your sense of smell is most likely worse than either mine of Ty's, you might have just ruined out only chance at finding Barney!"

Teuthida flinched back, bristling with anger. "You should know that squids have far better senses of smell than anything else in the ocean, including narwhals!" Ross snorted, looking amused.

"You don't really think that's possible, do you? Your sense of smell is like Ty's at best." Ross taunted, prompting Ty to start yelling about how his sense of smell was far better than any squid's, prompting Teuthida to start an indignant rant about the obvious advantage of a squid's senses over any other creature's, prompting Ross to protest that narwhals bested squids and dragons with their senses, which led to a fight erupting before Sky's eyes.

Ty and Ross were loudly trading insults, fists balled up, while Teuthida hovered over their heads like a harpy, screeching insults until something hit home. Sky watched in horror. After a few minutes of this this, four things happened at once. Ross threw his hands in the air and banged his hand against the wall, Ty whacked himself in the back of the head with a wildly flailing wing, Teuthida accidentally rocketed up and banged her back against the rough stone wall, and Sky screamed "ARE YOU ALL SERIOUSLY FIGHTING OVER WHO HAS THE BEST SENSE OF SMELL!?"

Stunned into silence by their injuries and Sky's outburst, the three who were fighting stopped, calming down slightly. Sky took a deep breath. "Let's… let's just go. The sooner we find Barney the better, and you've all smelled his eyepatch." Unfortunately, everyone was still acting hostile towards each other when they got outside.

This time, Ross was the only one travelling by sea. Ty was flying, and Teuhida had decided to ride on his back. Sky was invited to ride on Ty too. Sky had almost gone with Ross, to keep him from getting lonely, but the spell that Ty used to give Sky the bubble fell apart upon contact with water, meaning Ty would have to redo it as soon as they were back on dry land, and Sky didn't want to spend a single moment on land without his bubble.

It wasn't even a matter of breathing. It was a matter of both pride and denial. One of the first things that Sky noticed after Ross found him was how tiny he was as a squid. When he was human, he was slightly taller than Ross, but now, if Sky held himself upright with his tentacles, he was just below Ross's knees. When he was underwater or in his bubble, it didn't bother him as much, because he could just hover at eye level. When he couldn't do that, it made him feel as small as he actually was, which was hardly fun. Not to mention that his changed perspective when he was that small was annoying. When he was floating in his bubble at eye level and moving quickly, he could almost forget that he was a squid. Of course, the illusion broke easily, but he felt a lot better when the world didn't seem bigger than it used to be.

The swell of guilt rising in Sky for abandoning Ross vanished when Ty took off with a whoop of joy, rising into the air and flying out over the ocean. Flying was amazing. As Ty soared above the ocean, Sky leaned out as far as he dared, gazing out over the bluish-green expanse and searching for the flash of grey that meant Ross was along the same path. Teuthida was also cautiously peering out, to look at her home from above, but she was keeping a death grip on the short spines running along Ty's back.

Unfortunately, the excitement of flight soon wore off. Sky stared out at the unchanging ocean with unfocused eyes, the sun's heat beating down on him. Teuthida had apparently only come along to tell Ty "You're going the wrong way!" in a sing-song tone whenever he swerved from her ideal path , before realizing that he was only trying to avoid a rough spot of air, and then she would settle back down with a slightly disappointed "Oh." This had happened at least four times before Teuthida had finally shut up.

Sky thought that Teuthida looked apologetic, but was too proud to actually apologize to Ty, either for the fight in Barney's house or for constantly insisting that he was wrong. Sky was too tired to care really. He was half-asleep when Ty suddenly dipped in flight, jerking him awake. Ty was alternating between frantic flapping and struggling to glide, tossed around dangerously by the air. "What is up with these thermals!?" Ty screeched as he kept flailing about and trying to fly. "I'm going to have to dive down, swim the rest of the way!" Ty yelled over his shoulder.

"No way!" Teuthida said, wide eyed and clinging desperately to Ty. "We're almost there! The scent is coming from the island!" Ty turned his head back to the ocean, and Sky followed his gaze. There was a island a short distance away. There was a thin, sandy beach, but most of the island on this side of the island was coated in a thick rainforest. "We can make it if we try, right?" Teuthida asked, seeming desperate. Ty nodded.

"If I try to dive at an angle… all right, you might want to hold on for this!" Right after Ty said that, he put on a burst of speed, eyes locked onto the shore. Teuthida flattened herself against Ty's back, and Sky followed her lead, partially closing his eyes against the stinging wind. Just before they hit the beach, Ty snapped his wings open and sort of scooped the air to fling himself upright, landing on the sand in a suitably dramatic way. Seconds later, Ross hauled himself onto the beach.

Sky carefully floated away from Ty, still shaking a bit, and Teuthida followed. Now, they were all standing on the beach, looking at the rainforest that they would have to get through to find Barney. The rainforest looked very thick and unwelcoming, and everybody instinctively shrank away from it a bit.

Ross threw his hands up, yelled "For Barney!" and charged into the rainforest before anybody could hold him back, disappearing into the flora. Sky sighed. "At least one of us is excited." he said with a nervous chuckle. Silence.

"We should go find him." Teuthida said abruptly. "Agreed." Ty added. With that, they all bolted into the rainforest, calling for Ross to wait for them as the forest swallowed them.