THE OCTOPUS UNHINGED

Chapter 4

"Good, your still here. I can't exactly tell which way you're looking but see that vine door I just came out of? That was the first piece of this hut I installed about eighty years ago. The vines on this planet will pretty much grow into any shape you tell them to as long as they have an anchor to grow off, hence this door was the anchor. The vines also carry the same strength as copper, which comes in handy during the big storm once a year." fffffffft.

"So...Interconnected, Brain, Stimulation. We were now able to feel each others' feelings and pass that knowledge onto others through the connection of our tentacles. We began linking tentacles within groups of three to six and discovered the emotional connection was greater than just one on one. Our emotion was becoming shared to a goal of oneness; a sense of wholeness. We were now transferring information and knowledge through our advanced neurons by linking tentacles rather than having to use our visual perception. Over many years we shared knowledge of our surroundings and of our enemies. We nurtured our young, but only nurtured those who had the strongest neurons to pass on knowledge." fffffffft.

"It's sad to think how many of my kind perished because their connection was weak, but that's just the way we went for thousands of years, and in doing so we became more complex as a species. Being out of the water more also helped our strength grow as the novel sensation of gravity made great impact upon our fragile bodies. We could've stayed in our safe water world, but curiosity pushed us above the surface." Thinking about the ocean always triggers that happy shiver, fffffffft.

"It's like when humans took that leap off a tree to walk through dangerous fields. Curiosity is a powerful sentience builder and it wanted us to know more. Because of gravity we needed more food to nourish our bodies and we began blending into sticks and stones to hunt land dwellers. This was when we began eating red meat and thus our brains grew at a faster rate than ever before. We still hung close to the water for a long time because that was our sanctuary... so oft do we cling to past comforts at the expense of new adventure. Eventually we developed the means to survive for longer periods further from the ocean. Once we established ourselves permanently on land, we explored nature herself. By this time we had developed clear, telepathic communication through interconnected, brain, stimulation and wanted to use this ability to tap into nature. Why do it? Well, why not. We were asking so many questions of why, and all needed answering without exception. We never began religion or believed in what you called 'A God' or 'The God'. It was like, let's just figure it out." I remember I was almost ousted by my own kind for failing to connect on a certain problem. What was that problem again? Hmm such a distant memory. I think I was only a couple thousand years old, fffffffft.

"I wish I could've been alive to have seen such events, when hundreds of my ancestors would link together and become one giant brain. You know, even if one out of the hundreds felt they weren't contributing to the overall goal they would disconnect and allow another to take its place, in the hopes of a joint success. I think humans would've learned a lot from us had they still been on Earth during that time. Our ability to share information through thought and completing tasks in this manner could've been a powerful tool for humanity. Perhaps too powerful. But here you are now wrapped in a green bubble. So maybe you're beyond communicating with physical beings like myself, maybe not." Maybe you're a figment of my imagination. This is the strongest Grote I've grown.

Funny to think how your species marveled at my species for taking crabs from a cylinder container.

"Occasionally we would come across bits and pieces humanity had left behind, such as plastics or shattered nuclear particles. We found satellites left by humans still spinning around the planet. As more land was explored, these bits and pieces of human existence constantly made an appearance. We understood there was an intelligence here before us. But what we wanted to know was, what happened? We had fossilized bones, metals, cut stones. We discovered hints of plastics in the middle of an ocean that had turned almost invisible. The picture we began putting together looked grim for your species. You were taking away Earth's valuables, mixing it up, using it and then simply dumping it on her doorstep. This is the one thing that saddens me for what you did, but mother nature has her ways of dealing with such behaviors." The way you float there in your bubble without reacting kinda gives me the wriggles. Instinct tells me you're human but you look and act nothing like one. I'll just say your one of those silent types, which is okay, fffffffft.

"I'm going to go inside and bring out the whole bowl of Grote."