The Australian outback is not to be underestimated, “This Weather is crazy!” Tomas said. He saw tornadoes, lighting and even some snow in almost every direction. Rain continuously poured down on him in buckets.

He tripped into mud for the third time in as many minutes. His robes were filthy. Repeated journeys to the ground added more mud each time. He sat up with a miserable groan. His right sandal wasn’t attached anymore and hadn’t surfaced from the puddle he had just tripped in. So he had to go searching for it by hand. He found it buried deep in the mud and pulled it out with a loud squelch. After shaking off the globs of mud still attached to the sad-looking sandal, he sighed and pulled the sandal off of his other foot as well, choosing to go barefoot rather than risk tripping again.

He made it all of two steps before he stood on a pointy rock. He screamed as he fell face first into the mud again. His foot stung like hell. He checked the sole of his foot and was relieved to see it wasn’t bleeding.

As he sat there, stewing over his predicament, he had an idea. He transformed into his were-octopus form, then wrapped his tentacles together into pairs so that he had four limbs total. Then he tried to run on all fours like an animal. He was delighted to discover that it worked. He no longer tripped in the mud and when the soft tentacles stood on a rock, they squished over it without causing Tomas any pain. Not only that, Tomas was elated at how quickly he moved with each long tentacle stride, “Much more convenient than legs!” he bragged to the air.

However, this method was only convenient for a short time. He quickly felt himself getting tired. Turns out leg bones are really important in energy conservation while hiking. Feeling exhausted after only half an hour, Tomas had to transform back and catch his breath. After that, he continued alternating between cautiously walking on his human feet when he was tired and dashing in octopus form when he caught his breath.

His next big problem was that he had fled into the wilderness without food or water. It was ironic that surrounded by so much rain and water, Tomas’ throat was parched. As the day progressed, his stomach growled like an angry Matriarch, demanding food. Tomas cursed Roy for not providing him breakfast before the ceremony earlier. His thirst continued to grow with every wet step until it became all-consuming. He held out for as long as he could but in the end, he swallowed his pride, threw himself down on his hands and knees and drank from the cleanest looking puddle he could find, “Pweh! Tastes like dirt,” he moaned.

Drinking didn’t alleviate his hunger, no matter how much dirt there was in the water to fill his stomach. He ended up chewing on random leaves, plucked from trees as he marched onwards.

Late in the day, Tomas shivered as the weather changed. Heavy rain gave way to chilly winds. He was growing worried until he noticed the scenery change. Trees grew greener and he spotted more plants and animals as he reached a river. Tomas thanked the heavens. He had been worried that he had walked out in the wrong direction. The river was actually the first landmark on his planned route to Chook's Creek. The water was deep and clean. He threw himself at it and drank heavily.

His stomach still grumbled but now he was too exhausted to care. He began searching for somewhere to rest, but the cruel winds found their way into every hidey-hole he discovered. Luckily for Tomas though, he didn’t need to rest on the land.

He took off his robes and hung them on a tree alongside his sandals. Then turned to the river and dived in. He transformed mid-air and landed with a graceless splash. The river threatened to sweep him away because of all the rain increasing its flow. Tomas swam down as fast as he could and found a couple of large boulders close together on the river bed. He grabbed hold and used his squishy body to wedge between them and got secure. Then, so that he wouldn’t be disturbed, he used one of his favourite octopus tricks: He changed his skin’s colour and texture to camouflage himself into looking like another rock. With all that done, Tomas fell asleep immediately.

A solid 14 hours later, he was awoken groggily by his stomach complaining in hunger. Both the river and the weather had calmed down while he slept. The sun shone down through the water. Before Tomas could unwedge himself from his spot, he noticed something in the water and stopped what he was doing right away. A plump fish swam right above him and It hadn’t noticed him. To Tomas, it looked a lot like breakfast.

Time to show this fish my skillz, he thought, coming up with an elaborate fishing plan. Careful not to alert the fish, he slowly stretched all of his tentacles upwards. They surrounded the fish from every direction and began to draw in closer. The fish eventually noticed one in front of it and turned to swim away. This was all according to plan; his trap was sprung, “I’ve got you now!” Tomas boasted, twirling his tentacles together all at once into a cage. To his great embarrassment, the fish easily swam right through the gap between tentacles and got away. So much for your skillz, a voice in his head mocked. He grumbled about stupid fish luck and made his way up to the surface.

Upon emerging from the water, Tomas almost inked himself at what he saw. A mythical creature of legend was standing on the river bank nearby, ripping up his robes and eating his sandals. The two-and-a-half metre tall, bipedal creature was covered, head to foot, in long, dark, shaggy, fur. Its pitch-black, simian face expressed anger at the lack of flavour provided by the sandal it was currently chewing on with its pointed, oversized teeth. There was no mistaking what he had just bumped into. A Yowie.

Yowies are extremely rare, Australian yetis. Considered to be a fictitious myth by even most conspiracy theorists as no one who went out trying to find even a hint of one has ever returned with success. This is likely because anyone unlucky enough to find one was undoubtedly hunted down and eaten.

Before today, Tomas had known that they were more than just a myth because tales of The Matriarch hunting them were recorded in the New Wolf Chronicles. The tales were so frightening that they had given Tomas nightmares as a child.

The Matriarch considers yowies to be the greatest hunters in the world (after herself of course). She claims that not only are a yowie’s natural senses second to none, but they can become aware of you as soon as you lay eyes upon it through some kind of supernatural sense. One time, she defeated a yowie by throwing it down a cliff. As it was no longer able to fight, she left it and travelled elsewhere to begin her next hunt. Days later and over 300km away, she was attacked by the same yowie she had thrown down the cliff. It had unbelievably, recovered from its injuries and tracked her down over such an extreme distance. The only way to stop it from coming back again was to end it.

That’s the kind of creature Tomas was looking straight at now. He cursed his luck. He may have considered himself a great hunter, but he was no Matriarch. There was no way he was going to risk going against one. He tried to sneak back into the water but it was too late.

The yowie’s 6th sense, the one that let them know when they are being looked at, picked up Tomas’ brief gaze immediately. As he was trying to slink away, the yowie stopped what it was doing and looked straight in his direction. It let out a wild roar that shook the air. Throwing the remains of Tomas’ ripped-up robes into its mouth, it dashed for the river, kicking up dirt with the sheer force of its acceleration.

Tomas stopped trying to sneak and quickly dove down, shooting ink up behind him. When he reached the bottom of the river, he kicked up as much dirt and rocks as he could before camouflaging himself.

The yowie dove into the water and shot downwards. Because of its crazy strength, it was a very strong swimmer. It passed through the ink and arrived at the river bed in moments, halting because it lost track of its prey. As octopi were masters of camouflage, Tomas was confident that he wouldn’t be spotted. He closed his eyes and prayed for it to go away. It didn’t. Instead, it started grabbing random rocks off of the river bed and smashing them together.

Tomas was in a predicament; if he moved now his position would be given away, but every moment he stayed, increased the odds of the yowie finding him. He stayed still and kept praying, desperately wanting to flee. His patience paid off, the yowie tore up a huge part of the riverbed before running out of air and swimming back up to the surface. Tomas opened his eyes and took the opportunity to move further away before the Yowie swam back down and started smashing rocks and digging up soil again.

For hours this game of hide-and-seek continued. Every time Tomas looked back to see if he was clear, the yowie would sense him again. He figured out what he was doing wrong eventually, and with an embarrassed grimace, kept his eyes forward, away from the yowie's general direction. It ended up taking him the entire day to get far enough away from the yowie to consider himself safe.

That night, he got lucky and spotted another fish. He was too hungry and tired for elaborate tricks and so went for a much simpler tactic than last time. Simply by camouflaging and moving close enough he was able to snatch hold of the fish with a single tentacle from behind. He wanted to kick himself for not trying the simple method the first time but didn’t have the energy for it.

Too starved and exhausted to even care about cooking the fish, he stuffed it into his mouth and ate it raw using his octopus beak. Initially, he found it gross, but after a few bites, it grew on him. He realised that might even enjoy the flavour more this way. Hunger satisfied, Tomas fell asleep quickly, camouflaged on the bottom of the river again.

Things were looking up. He awoke to another beautiful day, whatever that storm was a few days ago, it seemed done now. He found and caught another fish for breakfast. Then, because he felt like he had gotten far enough away, he decided to leave the river and start travelling on land again to make up for lost time. There was no way the yowie could pick up his trail after he’d moved so far underwater. Leaving the river, he transformed and began walking naked along the river bank.

He was wrong. After a short time, despair gripped him again as he heard a thundering sound of something large coming his direction from behind. He already knew what it was but turned to look anyway. The yowie had tracked him down and was sprinting his way.

Tomas transformed and used his new paired limb trick to dash away like a racehorse. His long strides let him outpace the yowie. When the distance between them grew enough that Tomas couldn’t hear it behind him anymore, he dove back into the river.

Apparently, the stories of Yowie's relentlessness were not an exaggeration. Tomas was going to have to continue underwater for some time. He contemplated what to do about his situation as he continued upstream.

It took a few days to reach the lake that the river was fed from. Tomas forgot its name, Lake Chance or Lake Luck or something like that. From here he had no choice but to travel overland to reach his next landmark. And so it was time to do something about the yeti.

Deep within the lake, he considered his options, “I could try hurling rocks at it… na, if I miss it's game over. Besides, what I really need to do is get close to it. Stealth would be best but its senses are OP. Maybe I could build a trap to hold it in place… na too much work. Hmmm?!” Tomas’ thoughts were interrupted when something caught his eye. Everything at the bottom of the lake was either green or brown. However, Tomas spotted something bright white within the murk. He swam over to investigate.

He was surprised when he came across a stunning marble statue of a strange fish on the bottom of the lake. His eyes sparkled as they got lost in the statue’s life-like appearance. It was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen, “This could work!” he exclaimed. Not only was it a masterpiece, but it would serve as the centrepiece in an elaborate plan Tomas had just made up in his mind. He grabbed it and began dragging it behind him as he made his way out of the lake.

🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙

Several kilometres away the yowie sniffed the air. Its prey had finally left the water again. It took off running in the direction of the smell.

After chasing the scent for a few hours, it came across a lake. By a lake, several trees had been stained in octopus ink, making everything stink like the prey it was tracking. It was all fresh so it couldn’t have gone far. The yowie had to slow down and search to find its prey now.

It had enough intelligence to remember that this prey was good at hiding. Seeing a suspicious pile of rocks, the yowie ran over to kick them. They were just rocks, kicking them hurt the yowies' foot. Unperturbed, it looked around and spotted several similar piles had been placed around on both the ground and in the trees. The yowie growled.

Out of the water, no matter how tricky the prey was, it was only a matter of time before it was found. The yowie sniffed the air and followed its nose, kicking rocks and smashing trees in its path.

Shortly after, it felt some eyes fall upon it with its 6th sense. It followed the feeling and came across an oddity. A pure white creature sat on a pure white rock in the middle of the forest. The yowie hesitated because it could tell that this was not an ordinary creature. For starters, it was more beautiful and divine than anything it had ever seen before. Furthermore, something wasn’t right, the white creature was staring right at the yowie, and yet its 6th sense didn't react at all. Moving closer, it realised the beautiful creature wasn’t moving at all. Was it dead? The yowie sniffed the air and approached, its original prey was close.

A few steps away from the frozen creature, the yowie felt a gaze land on it again. Not from where it was expecting though, it came from straight above. The yowie was too slow to react as a slippery, boneless mass fell on it from the branches above. Eight strong tentacles wrapped around its limbs and body and tried to squeeze its life out. The tentacle's colour shifted from that of the branches above to a bright yellow with flickering rings of blue. Something bit down on the back of the yowie’s neck.

A slow, grappling battle began between them. The yowie struggled as its breathing and movement were restricted by the coiling tentacles. They weren’t strong enough to stop it from moving entirely though. Bit by bit it slowly began to overpower the tentacles. Its muscles strained as it reached up to grab the tentacle wrapped around its face. Slowly, the yeti began pulling it off. Suction pads that had been sticking to its face came loose one at a time with a loud ‘pop’ each time. One suction cup, right on its eyeball, threatened to pull the whole eye out, but the yowie managed to wiggle it off and keep its eye.

Growling through a constricted throat, the yowie clenched down on the free tentacle it now held in its hand. The tentacle writhed and wiggled, but couldn’t get free from the yowie’s grip. Opened its mouth wide to reveal dozens of jagged yellow teeth, the yowie strained as it slowly pulled the tentacle in. Another tentacle unwrapped from around the yowie’s waist and coiled around its wrist, pulling tight to save the other one. It wasn't enough, bit by bit the tentacle drew closer to the mouth until it was all the way in. The yowie bit down.

"Aaaahhhh!" The prey stopped biting the yowie’s neck and screamed out in pain.

The yowie’s sharp teeth bit all the way through the tentacle meat. It convulsed in pain. The yowie let out a muffled laugh of pleasure around all the octopus flesh in its mouth. Its laugh stopped short; something was wrong.

The tentacle around the yowie’s neck tightened. The yowie was having greater difficulty breathing now. Its grip on his tentacle began to weaken and its ferocity diminished. Another tentacle unwound from around its leg and reached up and grabbed the yowie’s face. With some pulling on the yowie’s jaw, its mouth was successfully pried open and the damaged tentacle pulled out. Slowly, all of the tentacles unwound from around the yowie.

Despite now being free from constraint, it didn't move to take advantage of the freedom. Or rather, it couldn’t. Its body was frozen. The last tentacle to release was the one around its neck. It watched motionless as its prey hopped down in front and nursed its wounded tentacle. It was severed all the way through and dripped blue blood onto the forest floor. The yowie fell backwards, struggling for breath and stared up at the were-octopus.

A blue ring octopus has enough neurotoxin in one bite to kill dozens of men. As a were-octopus, Tomas possessed a venom several times more potent than that and could deliver significantly more poison per bite. He only needed the opportunity to get close enough to his foe to deliver it. Afterwards, the challenge was in living long enough for the poison to take effect. As long as he succeeded in those two things, he could walk away from just about any fight victorious.

Tomas ignored the frozen yowie and focused on his wound, "Noooo, not this tentacle!" he whined.

He transformed back to his human form to see the damage. His left hand was missing from the wrist up. Blood started pouring out of the stump as soon as he was in human form. He swore loudly and changed back.

The good news was: all wasn’t lost, octopi could regrow limbs. The bad news was: It took time. Time Tomas didn't have if the Matriarch was still alive, recovering. This was going to complicate things, how long could he afford to wait before giving up his powers? Should he give them up at all? They had just saved his life after all. As he couldn’t decide, he put it off for now. He’d have time to think about it on his way to Chook’s creek.

Turning to the yowie next, he considered what to do with it. Its life was draining slowly as it lay motionless on the ground. Tomas highly doubted it would recover given the amount of venom he had injected into it. Though it was icky to do, he didn’t want it to suffer any longer so he decided to put it out of its misery. With another bite, this time to its throat, he injected more venom until the yowie stopped breathing and died.

Finally, he turned to the fish statue. Who made it and left it at the bottom of the lake? And what were the odds of Tomas finding it? It was so beautiful, he wished he could bring it along with him. It would look sick in his bedroom. But, alas, he couldn't bring it, so he thanked it and left it there as a gravestone to the Yowie and continued on his journey.