----This chapter amuses me greatly. Sir Robert Reginald Haniball III is a bit of a priggish lout. He's a good friend, but bigoted and unpleasant to strangers. I enjoyed having him on the defensive.

In case you haven't figured it out, octopodes taste with chemophores on their skin, they basically have taste buds all over their arms. All octopodes are venomous, but most are not venomous to humans, this includes our MC. I've given our MC the ability to hear because otherwise I would have a hard time writing this, but he has retained his lack of vocal chords. He also cannot smell. The buzzing sound he makes is produced by blowing air through his siphons while shaping them in a specific way. Most octopodes are capable of this, but they can't hear, so they don't. I've given him a few other small extras, like the ability to breathe air and the whole eyelids thing for story reasons also. I hope you enjoy!----

The humans used drawn symbols to communicate! After many hours of painful struggling over the course of the day, I figured it out! The creature had labeled each picture with a set of symbols that corresponded with sounds from its mouth. These symbols were an advanced form of communication! I waved my arms excitedly, buzzing happily, then drew a clam on the wall and painstakingly copied the symbols underneath it. The creature nodded its head. I started drawing new pictures and getting the creature to label them, eager to study this new form of communication.

----Lorence----

I think the octopus had finally figured it out. We had gone back to the cave for more lizard meat after I had cooked and eaten the arm, this time I was cooking for Sir Robert, if I could get him to eat. It had taken a very long time, but it was eagerly drawing, attempting to add new words to its vocabulary. I was slightly frustrated, trying to communicate abstract concepts like "where?" was very difficult throught drawing. At least I could teach it some vocabulary first, then go from there. I had an idea as to how to extract some information from him anyway.

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It had labeled each of its kind I had seen with a set of symbols, the drawing of it, the drawing of the shining one, and the drawing of the other like it. It then wrote the symbols in another location, and above its own symbols, it drew a crude picture of it getting bitten by a bear. It was a terrible artist. Above, it drew another set of symbols, then beckoned me closer and guided my stick to the space above the shining ones label. I got it instantly. It did not know what had happened to the others. It had been injured. It wanted to know.

I drew a picture of the shining one being struck with a reflective stick by the one who rode the bear. I wasn't sure how to draw the part about its other friend, so I took it across the cavern to see the scene of the battle on the other end. It called a light to it, and as we approached, it looked around, taking everything in.

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A great charred mass lay in the corner, bones showing through in places and just starting to smell. It was the rider and the bear, I assumed. There was also a massive pool of sticky blood, bigger than any man could survive losing. The octopus labeled each site with the names of my friends, horribly mispelling them both. I corrected it carefully, mulling over the new information. This explained why Sir Robert was so weak, and also why it had not simply drawn this part. Likely it had no idea what to draw. I recalled the flash of light and the destruction that followed at Banner's Rock, and shuddered. The octopus led me to the entrance tunnel of the cave, then labeled it. Aelina. It pointed down the tunnel. I was glad to know she was safe. She could take care of herself, plus she was probably hiding somewhere like we had planned. I needed to get Sir Robert healthy again and meet up with her once the trail was cold. Suddenly, I remembered. The meat! How long since I had turned it? I rushed back to the fire, sprinting to reach it in time.

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The creature rushed forward, running towards its fire. I watched, confused. I followed, arriving in time to watch it turning the lizard meat above the fire. I poked it in the head with my tentacle, annoyed. The creature turned the meat just a little more, then charred its stick again in the flames. I followed its example, then accompanied it to the wall, where it began writing again, attempting to explain itself.

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Several days pass

----Lorence----

The octopus was proving an adept student. It was learning insanely quickly. It had already mastered the alphabet, and was writing crude sentences with ease. I had moved our fire several times because we had run out of space on the wall. I taught it the question mark and many abstract words by asking it questions until it figured out the answer. I was teaching it the word "who" right now. I found a previous drawing of myself, and wrote "who?" next to it. The octopus wrote "Lorence" in the space I had left. I wrote "what?" next to the drawing, and the octopus wrote "Human". "Very good" I wrote. I trawled my mind for new things to teach it, as it had mastered this excercise in minutes. I had an odd thought. I drew an octopus on the wall. I wrote "what?" next to it, and soon the blank was filled in with "octopus". I wrote "who?" next to it, and the octopus went completely still. It moved deliberately and drew a question mark in the slot. Then rushed off into the darkness as fast as it could manage. I heard a small splash in the distance, and went back to smoking fish, chagrined.

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I returned to my secret place, mind racing. I squeezed into the area I had hidden my treasures in before the humans woke up. That's what they called themselves. Humans. They called me an octopus, and the one called Lorence, a patient teacher, wanted to know what I was called. When the others had been here, I had been adressed with 2 clicks, a low buzz, and two more clicks. I found the notion of a name both fascinating and terrifying. What if I chose poorly? I felt helpless. I went to touch my most precious treasures for comfort.

As I picked up my favorite, a translucent green stone with comfortable ridges, I realized I didn't know its name either. I didn't know the names of any of my things. I quivered in nervous fear. A light dawned on me. I looked through my things with vigor. I could take one item to Lorence and take on its name as my own, and learn its name in one go. Which to choose? Suddenly I remembered the three tined shiny object I had slept with the night before the humans had arrived. It was a symbol of my ignorance, it was appropriate to get it named and take that away. It was a tool of some sort, and it was very bright. It had 4 limbs. I would take its name.

----Lorence----

Just as I was becoming worried, the octopus rushed back, flailing wildly and clacking its beak rapidly. It rushed up to me, and I jumped back, surprised by its agressive behavior. It slowed, visibly calming, and came up and handed me an object. It was a fork, made of gold. I looked at the octopus confused. It buzzed and clacked, turning a splotchy red. It picked up a charcoal stick and drew a fork on the wall. I suddenly understood. It wanted me to name the object. Where does an octopus get a golden fork? I wondered, writing fork beneath the drawing. Then it surprised me. It wiped clean the question mark under "who" with one wet arm, then wrote "Fork" there. I stood there, stunned for a moment. It wanted to be named fork. Finally, I shrugged off my surprise and wrote "Hello Fork, nice to meet you. Who was I to judge the name of an octopus. Besides, it kind of fit.

----Fork----

Lorence taught me more words, and asked me where the fork had come from. I simply wrote "No", not willing to share my treasures with him, at least not yet. It seemed the better we communicated, the more differences we found between us, and the more conflict we discovered. I asked him about his floating light, and he said it was "magic" but when I asked further, he said "No" just like I had.

I still learned many useful things from him. The humans could eat anything, but they had to burn most things first, but not too much, which I thought was both odd and kind of disgusting. I asked if Aelina had wanted to eat the bear, but he only said no. I asked if humans ate other humans, and he got really weird, then wrote "NO!" In giant letters with shaking hands.

I realized he was upset, and steered our conversation back to other subjects. Apparently humans ate plants too, which was also kind of gross. I asked if humans ate octopus, and he didn't answer right away. This made me feel uneasy. I grew slightly agitated, and finally, he wrote "Yes. Small ones. Not you." After more questioning, I discovered that it was against their rules to eat intelligent creatures, which lessened my tension immensely.

I asked him questions about humans and their clothes for a while, "Why did they come in so many pieces? What were they for? Why did humans shake without them?" And he answered each with patience.

We discussed humans for quite a while until the conversation moved to me. He asked if there were others like me, and I said I was alone. I ended up telling him all about my brothers and sisters. That took a great deal of time, and we headed back inside my secret place when we were done talking, bringing the fish he had been burning to feed to Sir Robert.

I took my fork in one arm and squeezed under the wall into the new treasure room, content to rest after a long day.

----Lorence----

After we had returned to Fork's home, he squeezed into a 2 inch high gap under the wall and disappeared, completely taking me aback. How did Fork fit through there? I lay down next to the hole to look inside, only to see a square pupiled eye staring back. Fork poked me in the eye with one of his arms. When I stopped cussing and recovered my composure, he was gone.

A week ago I would have scoffed at the idea of non human intelligence, but now I was being poked in the eye by one. Though his vocabulary was still improving, I never had to teach him something twice. He was learning grammar and picking up vocabulary with a speed that was, well, inhuman. I rubbed my eye and wondered if I was doing the right thing. Sighing, I returned to Sir Robert. I took the two rocks I had selected for the purpose and pulverized some smoked fish between them, placing the paste in his mouth and dripping water in slowly with a clamshell. This time, Sir Robert sputtered and blinked his eyes open. I held back my excitement, looking on with glee as his eyes focused on me. "Robert! You live!" He looked groggily at me, confusion in his eyes. "Of course I live, I'm breathing aren't I?" I saw realization in his eyes "That dwarfy bear riding bastard! I'm gonna rip his arms off!" "Calm down!" I said, authority in my voice. "You've been out for a week. He's already dead. Aelina killed him." "Oh." He said, slumping back down. "Why are you walking about? That thing chewed you up last I saw."

"I called on the strength of the earth, plus my new robes kept the damage at a minimum. It dropped me on my head though, and I was out for a few hours, as far as I can tell. Aelina burned the thing and its rider to death and ran off though. I couldn't risk leaving you to look for her though, and she's probably hiding or flown away anyway. She's far stronger than me, so she'll be fine for a while yet. Emotionally, maybe not. If she thinks we're dead…" I trailed off. "Well, I've got a todo list then." Said Sir Robert. "Get well, find Aelina, report to the council, kill these bastards. Seems simple enough" "There's a slight complication." I stated hesitantly. "Our host…" "Someone lives in this place?" Robert interrupted. He looked around, eyes lingering on the pile of bones against the wall. "It doesn't look like I want to meet this person."

"That's exactly the thing, Robert, his name is Fork, and I've been teaching him Valan…" "He doesn't even speak our language?" Interrupted Robert again. I ground my teeth, growing agitated. "I definitely don't want to meet your friend now." Robert said, as I grew even more annoyed. "You and your savage can hang out all you like, but I intend to get out of here as soon as possible."

"Robert!" I snarled. "He saved your sorry life, and has been feeding and washing you for a week! The least you can do is say thank you. I'm starting to think he has better manners than you. There's a twenty foot wide puddle of dried blood out there that would have your corpse in the middle without his aid, and you will be a polite guest and be nice! I insist!" I practically shouted the last words, leaning over Robert and glaring with all my power. He shrank back, visibly giving in. "Well, if it's that important that I play nice with… Fork you said? I can be polite. I'm sorry, I didn't realize…" he trailed off, looking in horror at the wall. "There's something crawling under the wall!" He exclaimed, shuffling back and looking on with horror. "Don't worry, that's Fork." I said with a smile.