Chasing Cthulhu

Chapter Two

—Lu—

Something is terribly wrong. I think my human has been attacked.  It is hard to tell from my vantage point where I have swum up from the seafloor to spy on them, but I am still too far away to know the details of what is happening. Perhaps it is Earth Human mating behavior? Many species engage in courting rituals that would seem violent to an ignorant observer. I do not like it, but if this is consensual then I need not concern myself. But the way she is hanging limply in their grasp, and the pungent medicinal odor hanging on the breeze- This does not feel right.

Drifting closer to the dock, more toward the surface so that my head can move out of the water. Now I can hear that noisy little animal of hers yapping and snarling in its high-toned way as it bounds around their feet. And now one of the males kicks out with his lower limb and strikes the animal! This cannot be right. She would never allow her animal companion to be damaged. Obviously, these miscreants are not breeding partners, they are predators that mean her harm!

Without realizing it, I have swum up to the rocky shore, next to the dock. They are wrestling her limp form into their land vehicle and if I must hurry or they could drive off. And how would I track her then? How would I save her from this attack?

I am not a violent male. I have never struck another being in anger. And I always work to find peaceful solutions to conflict. All of that is forgotten now. They have harmed this delicate little female. My female. And the thought of mercy does not occur to me. After silently sneaking up on them, my tentacles working quickly to get there before they can close the door after they have carelessly tossed her in the rear seating area of their conveyance, I grab both of these males up in my tentacle arms and squeeze the very breath out of them before they can protest. I hear their bones snapping and grinding together as I apply more force. I then lift them both high into the air and bash them together. I have surely killed them, but I bash them together one more time. I then heave and toss them as far as I can out into the ocean. I hear a distant splash and hope that one of those great sharp-toothed sea-predators disposes of them so that my female does not have to see their corpses wash ashore. Perhaps it would have been better to weigh them down somehow.

Stilling for a moment now that the threat is gone, I take a deep, calming breath and relax my tentacles. Then I look around, making sure there are no humans who might have witnessed my violent, murderous outburst. There are none.

I should leave.

In the conveyance that those males arrived in, my female is still unconscious. Thrown over a lumpy seat, she looks very uncomfortable. Looking around, I see a length of fabric stretched between two trees and attached with some rope. I have seen her reclining there before. That would be a much better place to rest her form until she wakes from this drugged sleep. So thinking, I carefully move her out and over to that fabric. As I carry her in my upper arms, her weight is warm and lush. Her mane is soft and fragrant, and holding her close is a pleasure. I am tempted to hold her until she awakens.

No. That is a terrible idea.

I deposit her gently in the tree-sling and then I go find her animal. It is alive, but unconscious as well and seems to have a contusion on its brow. And a cut by its ear. Poor little beast. I go place it on top of the human.

It is then that I notice that I'm covered in bright red blood. And I have gotten quite a bit of it on the human when I carried her. It's all in her hair. It's covering my tentacles and upper torso. How did that happen? I must have squeezed the lifeblood right out of those males. Gross.

A swim is obviously in order. But I feel like I should do more to ensure the comfort of my human. Will she feel alone and disoriented when she awakens? I should maybe stay and comfort her. No. That would terrify her. I have to keep squashing this impulse to reveal myself to her. It would serve no purpose at all and only upset her. Especially since I am coated in the blood of her enemies. I recall that my pod-mate's human was so easily startled. No, I cannot allow this human to see me. But neither can I let her out of my sight until she awakens. What if those males I disposed of are not the only ones who mean her harm? What if more come, and she is not even awake to defend herself?

I waffle, not knowing the right course of action. I need to be near but hidden. There is a copse of trees on the other side of the outdoor pool. I decide to duck into the shade there and camouflage.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

—Gloria—

Boo-Boo is yapping like crazy at something. As usual. But I have such a terrible headache right now, I wish she would stop.

"Boo-Boo!" I try to yell at her, but it comes out as a scratchy croak and talking hurts my head more.

I go to get up so I can go get her, but the bed moves, and I flip over out of it hitting my hip and elbow on...gravel? Why am I out by the driveway?

Must've fallen asleep in the hammock.

No.

There's that truck that those two guys drove up in. They grabbed me and- I don't know. But the inside of my mouth feels all dry and tastes like someone shoved a ball of cotton-candy in there and then dissolved it with some kind of hand sanitizer. Gross.

Something happened. Those guys did something, but I can't remember. And where the hell are they? Their truck is right there. Why knock me out just to leave me here in this hammock?

And what the hell is Boo-Boo barking at?

She's probably harassing some poor squirrel or something.

Squinting and shading my eyes because the sun is exacerbating my headache, I shuffle carefully over to my pup. I'm all woozy, obviously an aftereffect of whatever those assholes used to knock me out. I keep listing a little to the side and tripping over my own feet, but I finally make it over to Boo and-

Hole. Eee. Shit.

There is something a lot bigger than a squirrel, and Boo is attacking it, biting the heck out of it and snarling and just being so very dumb. That thing that she has a hold of is huge and monstrous. My brain won't even deal with it. It's that terrifying. I want to run, but I can't just leave Boo.

The creature is backing up and kind of shrinking away from me. For a terrible Lovecraftian horror, it's acting scared. But Boo-Boo follows, and she has bitten it so hard that she's drawing blood. And the blood is a blue-purple. Slowly, the giant beast lifts a leg- no, a tentacle up into the air, and Boo-Boo is hanging from it, still biting and snarling. It brings the tentacle out, closer to me, and bringing my dog with it until I can reach over and snatch her away.

That's when I see that Boo-Boo is hurt. She has a big cut over her eye, by her ear, and her fur is all matted with blood and sand.

"What did you do to my dog?!" I yell at the monster, my anger making me just as dumb as Boo-Boo, "She's just a little dog, you big jerk."

The thing continues moving away from me, holding up big human-like hands with long, black talons. Its eyes, big and yellow with vertical slits, are wide with alarm.

"You get the hell out of here!" I yell some more, waving an arm at it and stomping my foot. And it does. It starts backing up toward the shore. And now that I can see it in the light, it is the strangest thing.

Ok, picture Ursula, from Little Mermaid, with an octopus bottom and human top, but all grey. With a bald head and ruffled ears. And also huge, not curvaceous like Ursula, but strong-looking. So Ursula's giant, bald, beefy cousin. With long-ass claws on its fingers and a kind of flat bump for a nose.

So weird.

As it slips into the water, I recall the sea creature I had been trying to get a video of. It was this thing! The whole time I was kayaking in that cove, there was a giant tentacle monster lurking under there, concealing itself so well that I couldn't tell what it looked like at all.

I stand there staring at the water where the monster had just disappeared. The water is calm, with no ripples at all. There is nothing to give away that that enormous, terrifying creature is below the surface.

This has been the weirdest frickin day of my life.