Breaking Barriers

The Inevitable

Squirt Octus:

The smattering of soft whispers reached me from my uncle's library. I maneuvered out of bed and peered through the peephole in my door. I could see parts of bodies and the Captain's deep voice rumbled,

"Bianca, I can't let you put yourself in danger for us."

"Barnacles!" Bianca protested, but her voice was even and calm, "You need to do whatever it takes to keep your crew safe. I know of no one who goes in there, we can hide you."

"Bianca-"

"I'd only be too happy to do it. I've got friends in my office who're members of the Partisans, if I can get them onboard, this might just work." My uncle was sitting with them in his chair, his tentacles to his forehead, he turned his head, and his eyes met mine. My tentacles seemed to lock themselves into the ground of my room.

"Excuse me for a second," He began to come in my direction, and my heart sped up tenfold. I quickly clambered as quietly as I could into bed and slammed my eyes shut hard enough stars began to flash in front of them. I heard my uncle come in, and I lay completely still, barely daring to breathe, pretending to be asleep. A weight on my bed made it dip a little, and I felt the telltale touch of my uncle's tentacle rubbing against mine.

"No need to pretend, my boy." He sighed. I hesitantly opened my eyes and rolled onto my back. He didn't sound angry, which had coaxed me out of faking sleep a bit. Our eyes locked, and I saw clearly that there was nothing but love and a brick wall shielding me from the flood of concern. I sat up, but his tentacles stopped me halfway and gently pushed me back down onto the bed.

To my surprise, I felt another reassuring weight sink itself onto my bed, and my uncle wrapped his tentacles around me. My uncle only got this close to me once in a blue moon, but it felt nice, and I wasn't going to let this slip away, so I curled myself into his grip and closed my eyes, but the question tugging at the back of my mind forced them open again, and escaped out of my mouth.

"What were the Captain and his sister saying?" I heard my uncle sigh, his breath escaping out of his chest, but he gave me an answer.

"I can't hide it from you any longer can I, Squirt?" I could only shake my head and stare him down. The ghost of a smile flitted across his face and he gripped my tentacle tightly in his.

"Nothing to worry about dear boy," I could hear the lie in his voice, "They we're just discussing preparation for if we'd have to go into hiding."

"But Uncle Inkling," Fear heightened both my voice and my drive to make myself heard, "We have until the 30th; We can't leave the country, so what else can we do?"

"Not we, my boy." The stern tone returned to his voice, "You don't have to worry about it, leave it to us, we'll figure it out, my boy, on my honor as a professor we will."

"Will anything happen to us?" I buried my head as tightly as I could into his chest. He held me back, rubbing my back and nuzzling my head.

"No, dear boy, as long as we all have each other, we'll be alright." He glanced at the clock, "Bedtime, Squirt." He pulled me closer to him and began to gently sing a lullaby. Through my fear, I tried to cling to my uncle's words, "We'll be alright as long as we have each other. But what if we didn't?"  Fear began to well up in my chest. My uncle noticed and ran one of his tentacles across the back of my head.

"We'll be alright, dear boy, we'll be alright, I promise."