Fourteen Little Cephalopods (Splatoon fanfiction) [Cancelled]

Chapter 4

They all stood in silence, staring at the broken bridge. Fjord sank down, her expression thoughtful. "Why did we stop?" Camo asked, his pale eyes staring into thin air. Opal looked at him. "The path ends here," she said. "We're trapped."

Camo's expression became more serious, and the silence resumed. After a while, Richie spoke up. "Did you guys see any other paths down?"

Mia and Opal shook their heads. "What about you?" Mia asked. Fjord rose back up. "No," she sighed. "This was the only pathway down."

Fjord walked over to the broken remains of the bridge and inspected it. "What are you doing?" Irina asked. Fjord didn't reply. Opal looked over the cliff. "Maybe we can send some sort of signal?" she said. "Lighting a fire, or something like that?"

"Well, there has to be a town nearby for people to see it," Mia replied. "And so far, I haven't seen a single town."

Camo looked in their direction. "If that bridge you're talking about was the only way down, how did we even get here in the first place?"

"I dunno," Opal replied. "Maybe we got here by a helicopter?"

"I think we would've remembered coming here by a helicopter," Mia replied. Camo raised one eyebrow. "Well, there's a lot of things we don't remember at the moment, wouldn't be surprised if we forgot about a helicopter."

Fjord rose back up. "We came up this way," she said and turned. "This bridge only broke recently."

The others looked at her, dumbfounded. "What... what do you mean?" Irina stuttered and put one hand over her mouth. Fjord looked at her. "The wooden splinters are fresh," she said and handed her a little fragment of wood. "If the bridge had broken long ago, the splinters would've sank into the ground, and the grass would grow over them."

She pointed at the ground, where remains of the wood were scattered around. "These are on top of everything. It's newly broken."

Irina took a deep breath. "So basically, we're stuck here?"

Fjord nodded. "Oop," Mia muttered. Camo stared ahead of him, his expression blank. Richie looked down at Luna and saw that she was shaking from the cold. "Guys, shouldn't we go inside?" his voice broke the silence. "It's freezing out here."

Irina looked down at Luna, and smiled sympathetically. "Yeah, we should! There's no point in waiting here and staring at this bridge, it's not going to rebuild itself!"

The others silently agreed and they walked back up the path. "Well, technically I wasn't staring at the bridge," Camo said. "Oh, you know what I mean," Irina said and laughed a bit. They walked in silence. When they reached the trees Mia, who was walking in the back with Irina, whispered into Irina's ear. "Do you really think the bridge broke down by itself? Or is it possible that someone intentionally broke it so we couldn't escape?"

Camo, who was walking a few feet ahead of them, slightly turned his head, so that his left ear was pointed towards Mia and Irina. Neither of them noticed however. Irina hesitated to Mia's question. "Well..." she said after a moment. "It's unlikely for a bridge to break down like that on its own. But why would anyone not want us to leave?"

Mia didn't answer, lost in thought. When they reached the clearing where the house stood, Richie froze. "What was that?" he said and pointed. Everyone except Camo looked at the window, but couldn't see anything. "What is what?" Mia asked. Richie peered his eyes. "I could've sworn I saw a shadow moving inside that room," he murmured. Fjord looked sceptical, but still whispered back. "Then we should be careful, we have no idea what else might be in there!"

"Well, a house is a bit of an understatement," Irina whispered. "Looks more like a mansion."

"Mansions are just big, fancy houses, calling it a house is still right," Camo said. Richie looked like he wanted to say something, but changed his mind. "Well, there's nothing else we can do than just go inside," Fjord said. She walked over to the door, and opened. Richie tightened his grip on Luna, and followed right behind him, leading Luna right behind him. Opal made sure Camo didn't bump into anything as they stepped inside, and Mia and Irina followed right behind and closed the door. The lights from the oil lamps lit up the big room in an eerie way, and the shadows danced over the walls, forming all kinds of shapes. The chandelier lay on the ground, reflecting the firelight with its many crystals. "So, now what?" Irina asked. Fjord scratched her head. "Well, we could explore the rest of the houses, maybe we can find a phone or something."

Opal raised one eyebrow. "A phone in this house?" she said. "Doesn't really look likely to m—"

But she was interrupted by Camo, who put his finger up to her lips. He was staring into thin air, his face filled with concentration. "What?" Opal whispered. Camo said nothing, still staring into thin air. "What are you—" Fjord started, but was interrupted by Camo. "Voices," he said. "To our left. Multiple of them."

He turned and pointed to their left. In reality, he was pointing at a big painting, but a little more to the right was a door. The others looked at each other and shrugged. "Might as well go investigating," Richie said. "Maybe they can help us?"

"Only one way to find out," Fjord said and walked over to the door. "Let's go."

The others followed right after, but the only one that looked hesitant to go was Mia. "What's wrong?" Irina asked and turned to face her. Mia's face had a weird expression. "I just have a really bad feeling about this," she answered. "Something just doesn't... feel right."

Irina smiled. "Don't worry, nothing about this feels right. But at least if we stick together, nothing can go wrong!"

Mia still looked a bit skeptical, but finally agreed and followed the others through the door towards the direction of the voices.