What is going on? Why haven’t I entered the water yet? For some reason, his great escape had eluded him. He was supposed to get into the water and then swim away. Or failing that, wait for some of his Weight to be shed and then fly away.

While he was flailing around in something that had stopped him, caught him really, he wasn’t sure what it was. He had forgotten that he had senses that he could invoke. Eyes, ears, nose and mouth retracted. He had no idea what was happening around him other than what was touching him. His shock and panic addled brain had taken a few seconds to understand something had happened.

With no sudden movements so as not to alarm anything around him, living or dead, Aarav manifested his eyes first. Squinting to keep them as small as possible and as invisible as possible, it had taken him a few seconds to decide on this course of action. During that time, he was being held securely in what felt like a human’s hands.

The first sight to greet him was the palm of a pudgy hand. He had opened his eyes directly downward into the palm of the person who was holding him. Okay, that was lame. Let’s try moving around. Rather than using his body, Aarav could simply roll his eyes around. Okay, let’s see what is happening. Without opening his eyes any further, he panned them for a better view. From the palm beneath, he moved them around towards the top of his body. With eyes squinted to almost invisible, it made the view a little blurry.

From what Aarav had been able to tell before this sudden change in circumstance, there had been four people chasing him. He thought it was four men but wasn’t entirely sure. The excitement of the chase had made it hard to tell what was happening in his immediate vicinity. His focus had been on fleeing. Gliding and bouncing around between the bodies around him was the best he could do. Now he was stopped, and it was time to take stock. The thoughts just had time to rush through his mind when two curious eyes were staring into his.

For a moment, they just stared at each other, Aarav looking into grey irises and pupils dilated in surprise. The instant seemed to stretch ad infinitum until Aarav shuddered, manifested his mouth and screamed at the shock of coming face-to-face with the fat man. Aarav was close enough to see the hairs in his nostrils, not a pleasant sight. Stark curiosity in this man’s eyes’ morphed as he was startled by the sudden sound. Aarav, having still to manifest his ears, didn’t hear the sound he was making. Yes! Shock him into letting go! However, the man did not let go. After the initial flare of surprise, he seemed pretty calm about the whole situation. He was seemingly taking everything that Aarav threw at him in stride.

What is up with this guy? I scream in his face and nothing!? What do I have to do?

With the screaming and yelling out of the way and not working, Aarav decided a more subtle approach might be required. “Hello!” He spoke like he was talking to a child; this guy was a little slow if he didn’t have natural flinching mechanisms. Also, it was the only thing he knew how to say. What else am I supposed to do?

That got a reaction. The rotund one kept a tight hold on Aarav and turned to companions as they landed on the ground around him. “;.];’.;][.#’;#’;#/>?][;]#];’;.’, hello….” He was talking, and Aarav had no idea what he was saying except for the word ‘hello’.

The others kept excitedly chatting away to him, and Aarav just looked at them dumbfounded, not knowing what was going on. For some reason, he was having trouble slipping out of the meaty man’s grasp. It wasn’t that he couldn’t slip out; it was that the man kept shifting his grip to keep Aarav from escaping. He kept making small micro-movements that didn’t seem to require any effort or attention on his part. Still, he kept Aarav firmly in the centre of his palm. Damn it! Why can’t I do this!? And he couldn’t just go invisible and escape because of the man’s cursed glasses! Not that I can even get out of the palm of his hand at this rate.

The rest of those idiots continued to talk while almost exclusively staring at Aarav. It was very frustrating. “Hello! You know it’s rude to stare, right? What are you staring at?” This time Aarav spoke in English, but of course, they couldn’t understand a word he was saying. Manifesting arms and waving them around didn’t seem to do much except make them stare even more. Aarav belatedly realised his fins, wings, and legs were out as well. He recollected that he had done that to try and slow his descent through the water and possibly save himself from imminent death. That was no longer a problem, but he was reluctant to retract anything. An escape opportunity might still present itself, and he needed to be ready for it. Currently, he was nestled still in the palm of the golden oldie’s hand. I really need a name for this guy.

The gestures and excited murmurs from the group were starting to get to him, and he started squirming harder. He attempted to “spill” out of the man’s hand and onto the ground. That process was made much easier and less likely to kill him now that they were grounded. The one thing he hadn’t tried yet, though, which he was now kicking himself - mentally, of course - for not trying, was Consume. He could have eaten his way through an annoying man’s hand ages ago! Also, poison, he had poison! Aarav, you idiot, sitting here for at least a minute waiting for this guy to finish talking like some nineties movie villain!

In the following seconds, several things happened at once. Aarav bit down on the old, rotund man with Poisonous Jaw, which caused him to yelp and release his grip. The big dark man who had just dismounted yelled and dived under the bid man to attempt to catch Aarav from where he was beginning to fall. Aarav tried to flap his wings and realised that he remained with nothing but the dregs of his Stamina. He plummeted to the ground like a stone, all four feet that were. It might have killed him with how little health he had left.

But, for the second time in as many minutes, he failed to make it to his target. In some ways, it was lucky that he didn’t. Out of his view, the skinny man came up behind the old one and managed to scoop Aarav out of the air without seeing his clear watery form. Stroke of luck for him, Aarav thought bitterly, could have escaped. The big man dived to catch Aarav, sailed past under them all, and landed a couple of meters away. Urgh! Trying to run isn’t going well for me! Although the situation was not as immediately fatal as he had expected, it was still profoundly unnerving. What do they want with me? I feel like being a lab rat is in my future. I’m not too fond of this. At. All.

The skinny man wasn’t as deft with his hands as the older had been, so wriggling out of his hand was more manageable. The downside was that the older man was ready with a sealed container from which Aarav would have difficulty escaping. Not without time and effort. He also did not yet know what the material of the said container was. It was a transparent, glass-like substance, but Identify showed something else:

Clear Volcanite, High-Density Clear Material,

Aarav wasn’t wholly sure but wasn’t that similar to glass? Silicates and stuff? Anyway, whatever it was, it was crazy hard and super thick. No amount of slamming his dense body against it made it budge, not a dent. Very frustrating! “Why do you even want me? Huh? Has anyone got any answers?” Aarav’s pseudo-tentacles were waving around, but the sound didn’t travel out of the container, and they couldn’t hear anything he said. With nothing more to be done, he just watched the lot of them stand around and discuss what was happening next.

He assumed they would be discussing what happened next because he honestly could not follow what they said. He couldn’t understand the language, could he? They were just more things to be irritated about if his current predicament was not enough on its own. He was supposed to have Luck on his side, for crying out loud! Would it ever actually come in handy? He filled the jar to the brim with little excess space to move around. Lucky I don’t need to be concerned. I have no bones. I’m more malleable than an octopus right now.