You'll be mine, Octavio!

Chapter 5: Snacks and Melancholy Feelings

  The next day arrived after a night of slight worrying. A slightly tired Craig rolled over in bed to peer at his alarm clock. Late morning. He had slept a little bit later than expected, probably due to all the physical activity yesterday. He sat up and rubbed his eyes.

 "I'm usually up and out way earlier than this. Guess I'm not going over 'til later."

 Not bothering to make his bed yet, he slid on his slippers and debated if he should eat breakfast or lunch on the way to the kitchen.

 He stretched his way into the main room of his home. Almost immediately, he noticed the crumpled brown bag of miscellaneous snacks he had bought yesterday, next to his notebook on the coffee table. He had eaten some of the sweets late last night while doodling.

 "Ah, I actually kinda forgot about those. I still wanna bring 'em today, though."

 He stopped to think for a moment. It would actually work out a bit better this way. He would go visit Octavio around lunchtime and bring the snacks with him. You can't really eat that kind of stuff in the morning, anyways.

 Abandoning the idea of eating at home, he changed out of his oversized t-shirt and shorts into his street clothes. He didn't feel like going through the effort of tying his tentacles back, so he just pulled them through the designated hole in his hat, even if it meant the moment he took it off they would fall down. He hastily straightened out the sheets on his bed just enough so it looked neat. He then packed the snacks back in his bag, along with his notebook and a nice pen. He slid on his boots, carefully locked the door behind him, and he was off.

 He embarked on his usual route to the palace garden. Because of his relaxed start this morning, a more mellow part of his personality was present. On his way, he noted the peculiarly lovely day. The sun was shyly peeking through the clouds, and he could smell the fresh sea air rolling in from the bay. Others would find a day like today gloomy, so he couldn't place why he found it so charming.

 He looked out towards the harbor, where there were fishers' boats and ships gathered at the pier with that morning's catch. Herring, Snappers, Tuna, Salmon... Usually, he would have appreciated the "feel" of it, but this time he felt a distinctive gloom welling up in him.

 "Yeah, that's right... I'll be leaving with the Salmonid Defense Force soon..."

 "Next year isn't all that far off now, isn't it?" He muttered to himself.

 He turned back to the path, pondering the time he had left before he would descend onto the salmonid spawning grounds.

 "I mean, it is my duty to help keep those guys at bay. There are already problems with lesser salmonids attacking people."

 He recalled a rampant chum forcing him to jump over the wall that contained the unknown, which led him to meet Octavio.

"That was super scary, but I suppose it did lead to a good thing in the end."

 He smiled. Since moving, he didn't have anyone to relate to. His 2 choices for socialization so far had been the 14-year-olds who had just moved to the city for high school, and the cephalings his age who had already been here since middle school and were way above his skill level. It was for this reason he was even too scared to participate in ink battles, despite it being one of the things he was excited for. They were all extremely intimidating! He's sure they're perfectly nice people but...

 He has always been great at socializing back home, but here it was oh so different. And although it was pretty easy to talk to shopkeepers, they definitely didn't qualify as "friends".