Chapter 1: The Last Shepard
Darkness, absolute quiet, and the freezing cold were all things that I'm used to by now. Despite the fact that I was locked away somewhere roughly twenty feet underwater inside a small titanium box, I was still holding out quite well. But of course, light is always followed by a shadow, and there was a bad side to all this. I was stuck in a reinforced preservation shelter, all thanks to the engineers manufacturing them running out of resources during the great wars. And thanks to them, the timer on my shelter was made in a hurry, so of course, the thing malfunctioned. There was a keypad on the outside though, but until someone uses it, I'm stuck down here in this icebox in cryogenic sleep, waiting until someone gets me out of here.
Meanwhile… (Klara's POV)
"You sure about this, Leo?" Leo was lost in thought, but snapped back to reality after the question hung in the air for a bit.
"Klara, when has the Cap'n ever lied to us? You saw the thing with your own eyes! Let's just try to get them up to the docks as quick as possible, and please, don't freak out like you did last time we went on a mission, or it'll probably just stomp you into an inkblot." Leo said.
"Last time was when that eight legged thing tried to bite me! I'm ever so sorry for not wanting to get bitten by a creepy crawly the size of a dinner plate, your highness." I spat back.
"Eh, fair enough. Let's get this done, then we can head back to the headquarters. We'll figure out what to do from there... Heh, who knows, maybe humans will learn to speak Inkish." He chuckled to himself.
"Then you two can start chatting once I get this keypa-" *Beep*
Well, what do you know, century old codes can work after all.
The metal cracked open slightly, seeming to have been stuck, but then resumed opening. Inside: a human. A living, breathing -but still unconscious- human.
So, Cuttlefish wasn't crazy after all then.
The Human seemed to be Male, just recently seeming to have reached adulthood. He was tall, had tanned skin and dark brown hair that was cut a bit short to the sides, but still normal on the top. He was wearing some sort of mask, and it had a canister of something linked up to it. It wore a dark, sleek suit with weird boots that were flat and ran out a bit before coming to an end.
But then, he slowly started moving, seeming to be coming to. His eyes shot open, and he glared straight at me and Leo.
Well, time to shine.
After a long pause… (Human's POV)
Imagine me not being surprised that I was rescued by dwarfs with tentacles blooming out of their heads... Well, after a long, long time of doing nothing, I'm just glad I can leave that damn chunk of metal. Eh, I guess I should be in a better mood. After all, it seemed to be a decent day, (at least judging by what I could through the water) I looked down at the two, and they just stared right back, seeming to be either in awe, or just impressed.
I moved around to get my bearings, and surprise to say, I wasn't even sore after a few centuries of absolute stillness. Hell, elementary school gym class put more strain on me than that thing ever did. I looked back down at the two and the one with long cyan colored tentacles signaled for me to follow them. We swam up to the water's s surface, after I gave one final goodbye to my own personal prison, of course.
Two minutes later... Inkopolis Docks
Remember the surprise I didn't have at the looks of my saviors earlier? Well, that surprise got put to good use, because I'll admit, I was in awe towards the fact they had a whole functioning city. I took a minute or ten to admire the flashiness of it all, as well as the nice, warm morning with gold skies and a gentle sea breeze. I felt like a new man (which I basically was at this point). Before I left the docks, I took a moment to take off my dive suit, and check to make sure I still had my pants and shirt on underneath, which luckily I did. I folded the suit up, and did as the squid kids did.
Inkopolis Square (Klara's POV)
"I can't believe we did it!" I whispered to Leo.
"I know, I'm just impressed he understands what we're signalling him to do." He replied.
"Well to be fair, humans are pretty bright. The one issue we're gonna have if any, is talking to him." I thought aloud.
"Well, we can probably find something to translate our language into." Leo stated.
"But don't Humans have well over 6000 dialects? How in the shell do we get the right one?" I questioned.
"Just go through the most widely used ones and just hope for the best, I guess." He said
"Yeah, great idea genius." I said with a grin
It was then I realized crowds were gathered all around us in absolute shock and awe, some even recording us walking through the Square.
Well, this is going to be a long year.
Ten Minutes later...
*Knock Knock Knock*
"Who is it?" The Cap'n shouted to the door.
"It's us Cap'n! We have him." I shouted in reply
*Click* *Creeeeeeak*
The door opened slightly, and big, white eyes peered out through the crack.
"In all my years…" The Cap'n seemed lost in thought.
"Hurry! Get him in here, fast!" He snapped back to reality, seeming a bit paranoid.
"Yes sir!" Me and Leo answered in unison.
We signaled the human to follow, and he nodded his head in understanding. The Cap'n slammed the door hurriedly, meanwhile the human set his stuff down on a coffee table in the small wooden shack. He took something metal off his neck that shimmered in the morning daylight.
...Wait... Those look a bit like dog tags...
I'd seen them a few times on Octolings, as usually the elites wore them proudly, but recruits got no such treatment.
The Cap'n waddled over to his seat, sat down, and questioned us for a bit.
"Did anyone see him?" Cap'n Cuttlefish asked.
"Well, just the entirety of Inkopolis. Not that big of a deal." Leo snarked back.
"You know what I mean. Did spies see him?" The Cap'n clarified.
"We couldn't see anything suspicious in the crowd, mostly just onlookers in awe of seeing a human, so no, I guess." Leo replied.
"Klara, did you see anything out of the ordinary?" Cuttlefish asked.
"Nope, everything looked normal sir. We can check around just in c-"
"No, it's fine. I trust you two." the Cap'n interrupted. "I just wanted to make sure. And us snooping around would only make people suspicious." "Show the human his room over there and you two go about your tasks, I'll just sit here and lie back for the day."
After showing the human his room, we went back and said our goodbyes to the Cap'n, and then we headed off to go about our daily duties in Octo Gorge.
*Meanwhile*
The Cap'n decided to take a look at the humans gear that was rested on the table nearby. He had dog tags placed above his dive suit. They read "Jackson Shepard".
*Author's Note: Be sure to check out my profile, as you'll be able to find all of my characters, as well as important info that will serve as the guideline to the story. Thanks for reading, and have a good day!