Disclaimer: Gundam Wing does not belong to me. See below for the references that led to the making of this chapter.
A Fish Out of Water- Chapter 4
"Hey!" Trowa shouted, cursing himself for not giving the bird a name, "Little guy! Whatever you want to be called. Where'd you go?" Trowa shivered. Something really was wrong, he could sense it now. But his friend was in danger, so he pressed on. He dove under the water to increase his speed and to assure himself that his friend hadn't drowned. Soon he almost bumped into a huge white shape frozen like a statue in the water.
"What is this, a mountain?" he wondered out loud. Trowa supposed that that could have been a possibility; there were lots of mountains near his home, bigger than this one. He swam around it in circles, trying to figure out what on earth it could be, and came face to face with a gigantic eye, bigger than the size of his own head. It blinked at him and Trowa felt something poking him in the back. It felt rubbery and soft. He turned around slowly. A long tentacle, belonging to the thing that he thought was a mountain was right behind him. He jerked out of the way before it could wind itself around his middle, only to run into another one. He dodged it and broke through the water to the surface.
"Squeak." Trowa heard a faint sound, almost like a little mouse. But he would recognize the voice anywhere. It was the seagull, and he hadn't been quite as lucky as Trowa had. He was squeezed tightly by another tentacle, which was so large, only the bird's beak could be seen. Trowa saw its mouth move, opening and closing, to get whatever bit of oxygen he still could fit into his lungs. The merman knew he had to act quickly, or he would surely suffocate. In a not so brilliant move, he picked up an empty mussel shell that had just hit him on the tail and hurled it at the creature. It responded by lashing out with three more tentacles. Trowa ducked and dived, writhed and wiggled to avoid each one.
"So many arms, what are you, an octopus?" The description certainly matched, except he hadn't heard of any octopuses with appetites for seagulls, or mermen for that matter.
"Quack," the bird gasped out faintly. If it had any faults at all, one of them was certainly an obsession with technicalities. "Quack."
"What are you, a duck?" Trowa asked, a bit miffed. He really wasn't helping himself very much.
"Quack-ee!" It sounded like a mixture between someone being murdered and a toddler learning to talk. The second analogy made Trowa think, however. "Is that supposed to be a word?"
The bird couldn't exactly nod in its current situation, but he took his silence as a yes. "Let's see, quack sounds like hm, argh!" Trowa had finally gotten out his dagger by this point (and a good thing he had brought it, too) and jabbed it at the octopus-like creature, missing it by miles. At times like these, I wish Cathy were around, he thought, not so much because he wanted his loved one with him at death, but because she actually had good aim. He almost regretted not bringing her along. He tried again as he continued his guessing game. "Well, a 'w' could sound like an 'r', so maybe Qrack, but you can't spell it that way, so I guess a 'c' or maybe a 'k'- damn it, missed again! - Crack, crack-e, kraken!" He pumped his fist in the air in a celebratory gesture and managed to rip off one of its tentacles. "Yeah!" The bird was free, gasping for air, though unharmed. "All right, now that we know it's name, let's-" Trowa began, but his voice broke, and when he regained it, he could only shout, "Run!"
If the seagull hadn't been so busy flying with all his might, he might've tried to correct his friend on that one. The kraken's tentacle had regenerated at an abnormally rapid speed (but then, magically creatures never did things normally). It reached for the other animal again, but he was prepared and flew out of its reach in time. Instead of pursuing him, he decided to aim for Trowa, who, being stuck in the water, was a much easier prey. He tried to swim away, but he was too slow. It almost grabbed him, but was distracted by a loud "CAAWW!" Forgetting his own safety (another odd quality for an animal), the gull flew back to help his comrade, ramming himself right into the monster's head, beak first. It would've been funny, seeing a tiny little bird going at it again and again, if Trowa hadn't been scared to death. He had to find a way out of this.
"Hey!" he shouted, successfully directing its attention back to him. Two eyes peeked above the surface of the water. "Take that!" For once, Trowa's aim was true and he flung the dagger straight into one of its eyes. Black blood trickled into the once clean ocean as the creature let out a horrible cry of pain.
"I've got an idea, you go that way!" The team split up, weaving and twisting as the blinded creature tried in vain to catch them. "It worked!" Trowa cried out triumphantly. The kraken was quite literally, tied up in knots, its tentacles tangled together.
"That should hold him there awhile." Trowa boldly reached out and pulled the dagger out of its eye. It was sopping wet with blood, tears and mucus. "Yuck."
The bird landed on his shoulder to examine it. It picked up the dagger by the hilt and then dropped it back into Trowa's hand. "WAAA!" He began pecking at him furiously. Trowa didn't need to speak bird to know what that meant. It clearly said, "You went on a dangerous mission with this measly little weapon?"
"It was all I had," Trowa replied defensively. "Let's get going." They turned to leave, but the kraken had one more weapon to use against them. The water began to fill with an inky black substance and the air, a vile smelling smoke. "Run!" Again, the seagull had no time to correct him, as he soared high in the air and Trowa made a jump that would've knocked Free Willy's socks off (if he had any feet to wear them on, of course) in order to get away from the fumes. They moved as fast as they could. For such a large animal, the kraken didn't have enough ink to reach them. The toxic substance remained nearby, poisoning its creator, who was still too stuck to move.
Once they were a safe distance away, both Trowa and the seagull let out sighs of relief. "Well, now we definitely won't have to worry about that thing anymore." Trowa commented with a laugh. It was the second time he'd done so that day, but it was more a "I'm so glad I'm still alive" laugh than a "Wow, that was so funny" Laugh. They exchanged a manly wing to hand high five (or however many fingers and feathers they had all together) congratulating themselves on a job well done.
* * * * * *
Later that night, while Trowa and his friend were celebrating with a Lobsterfest-sized dinner, Cathy was eating some of her revolting soup, which went down even worse considering that she was as nauseous as hell.
"Whatever Sally puts in her medicines," she said, "I doubt she considers the side effects." Feeling trapped, sick and very betrayed, she was surprised to hear an insistent knocking at her cavern door.
"What, does someone want to poison me again?" she muttered. "Who is it?" she asked loudly, then she added, "in case you haven't noticed, I can't exactly open the door here." That was easily solved as her caller managed to knock down the stone and everything in front of it with one karate chop. By that alone, she knew it was Wufei, Sally's husband who was a master of martial arts (as much as one could be without legs, at any rate). "You could've just moved it all, you know, instead of breaking down my door."
"What the hell is going on here, woman?" Wufei demanded, in his customary male chauvinist tone. "The prince sent me to check on you and I find this place closed up like a fort." He was frowning, but only to feign ignorance. It wouldn't do to have her know why he was really there. As soon as he returned home from what proved to be a fruitless quest, Sally had sent him over to give Catherine a dose of a new drug with fewer side effects. A small syringe was hidden in a pouch attached to the sash (belt would've been a more accurate term) across his chest that indicated his military status.
Cathy didn't answer, instead she said politely, "I take it things didn't go very well?" She fluttered her eyelashes at him in a manner that irritated him greatly.
Wufei rolled his eyes. "No kidding. Whatever gave you that idea, woman?" he replied rhetorically.
"I don't know, the fact that you're back after only two days?" Cathy suggested. She smiled at him sweetly and grabbed his arm, leaning on his shoulder. "I can help you," she sung into his ear. Unlike her friends, Catherine had the misfortune of not knowing Wufei well. If she did, she would've known that A) flirting and sweet-talking didn't work on him and B) she should never stand too close to him.
"No, you can't," he answered, with a smirk.
"Ouch!" Cathy gasped in pain and collapsed into his arms.
"Learn now, woman," he said quietly, not taking a chance that she wouldn't wake up. "Don't try to mess with me." He put her to bed in her prison, foiled for the third and hopefully last time.
References on How to kill an Octopus: Encyclopedia Britannica and World Book Encyclopedia- No use to me at all, unless I secretly wanted to know how octopuses mate.
Two friends, two parents and a teacher: More helpful than books, one suggested strangling with its own tentacles. I modified that idea to suit my own purposes. (Yes, I polled them to figure this out)
When in doubt, visit a website created by a seventh grader. Go to the Ask Jeeves and type in this question to find the website with this and more fun facts about octopuses.
