Chapter 57

chapter 57

CEPHARIUS

I had three of the amphibious rifles strapped across my back, the alien's home under one arm, and the creature itself still swimming beside me. It taken the form of a hatchling again.

"Do not do that. Please," I thought out at it, and it changed back into the furry larval form it had had earlier, when Elle had been holding it, so I knew it understood me. "Are you fully sapient? Or are you too young?" I pushed my thoughts at it, but only got a pleasant blankness in return. "Because I need you to wait here."

We were within viewing distance of the habitat's dock, and I would trade the two-legged man the child's habitat instead, since the child did not seem to need it.

I swam forward—and it followed me.

I shook my head gravely. "That is not allowed, little one. Wait here," I sent to it—only to have it follow me a second time.

"No," I explained, setting the tube it had lived in down. Perhaps it was only following the tube? I moved forward, and it trailed after me. "Do not," I said again, gently, this time capturing the creature in my hands.

It changed to a kraken child instantaneously, and I did not care how clear Elle's reasoning had been—I knew I was not hallucinating. It may not have been a kraken child, but it felt like one to me. It had the weight of one—I had held Gerron often enough when he was a hatchling—and I could feel it curling its tentacles around my fingers.

Nothing about the experience I was having was pretend.

"I need you to be safe, little one. And I am not moving toward safety. But I am doing this for your people. Please wait here for me."

I kept my thoughts separate and precise and finally the alien creature let go of me and jetted into the dark—I felt its departure with profound regret.

"I will be back," I promised it, and then picked up the box it'd come in and swam swiftly in.