A New Perspective of the Far Off Future

Feeding Frenzy

My fellows started to crowd around me, drawn to the same tantalizing smells and warmth to the air as I was. I knew not if they were as hungry as I, but I didn't care. All that mattered to me was that I was starving.

But I could not feed, not yet. The predator tore hungrily at its meal, the hot flesh giving way easily to its massive anterior incisor. I crept forward cautiously, upper tentacles reaching forward in the hopes of snagging a bite. It snarled, turning on me quickly with a snap of the labrilas (molar-like teeth embedded into the lips), the sound was enough to make me jump back, but the spark that jumped forth certainly didn't help.

For a moment it stared me down, eyeing my aggressively. My leg were tense, ready for another attack, my four tentacles splayed wide. So wide were they in fact that my palatal nares were exposed, the soft flesh visible as it pumped in air. With a final growl, the predator turned back to its meal and I was finally able to relax myself.

I would not be able to feed yet. Get back! I snarled as another person knocked it me, this one small and much younger. My tentacles snapped shut in a clear warning. No spark jumped forth like with the predator, but the sound of labrilas grating against each other could be heard. The young individual yelped in fear, stumbling away from me. She was young and didn't know. But feeding was a battle for our kind, it was a lesson she would do best to learn quickly.

My ear twitched as I heard the sucking sounds familiar to me as feeding. No one said anything. That's not how it was to us. As soon as the food was free, you would try to sneak in before everyone else noticed and the feeding frenzy could begin. 

I rushed forward, practically leaping over the young female and trampling her into the ground in my crazed dash to the food. My tentacles were splayed wide as I fought to push my way towards the meat, shoving away another female. I hissed and snarled, keeping my tentacles wide open as I lowered my jaws to eat. Small, peg-like molars ripped away the soft flesh, blood and viscera being sucked greedily into my gullet as my jaw worked, rolling back and pulling the food inward.

Tonight, I would not go hungry.