Prophecy Approved Companion

Qube forced herself to stay calm as she stared at the Deep One. Its legs clicked as it slowly approached her. The lure hanging from its forehead wasn’t as strong in the full light of the castle’s room as it had been in the Water Temple, but it still drew the party towards it, making them meet it halfway.

She suspected she knew the reason the Deep One hadn’t joined the others.

And that reason was the very adorable baby Deep One she was about to take to face down the Evil Emperor.

She’d always known this day might come, when the Deep Ones would want their child returned to them. Well, that wasn’t exactly correct. She hadn’t particularly thought about it before, but looking up at the guardian looming over her, it felt so natural that it was almost as if she’d been awaiting this very moment.

The correct thing to do would be to hand Squiggles over to the Deep One, and not take a baby into the final confrontation between the forces of Good and Evil. Especially since the Evil Emperor had shown no hesitation in killing before. Having made her stand on her strength as a Healer, and the wisdom that came with the role, she couldn’t very well make an emotional decision based purely on her desire to fight a guardian just to stop it from taking her pet away.

Make no mistake, thought, she wanted to fight the guardian. Not physically, since that would end poorly (mostly for her) but with her words, and the dizzying power of being the mouthpiece for the Chosen One.

But she had to be responsible. Even though, as the mouthpiece for the erratic Hero, she would have had every right to not be responsible.

“Squiggles!” she called towards the other room, before glancing at the others. “Can one of you get Squiggles, and watch the Chosen One for me? I think the Deep One wants to talk to her.”

“Please, allow me,” Sencha Bard said with a flourish. “I shall fetch Lady Squiggles.”

But before he’d even moved, the tell-tale clang-slorp-clang heralded Squiggles’ arrival. She dove at Qube, wrapping her tentacles around her, and hugging for all she was worth. It was as if they’d been separated for months, rather than minutes. With a smile, Sencha Bard left to go watch over the Chosen One.

“Deep One, this is Squiggles,” Qube said, attempting to pry the sharktopus off her. Squiggles blinked up at the Deep One, her little black eyes tracking its approaching lure.

She was still wrapped around Qube when the rainbow lure touched her.

Images flashed into Qube’s mind. A sense of confusion, and a hazy image of an otter. Surrounding the otter was Squiggles. As she moved, the otter inside her followed, as if riding around inside her stomach. There was vague recognition, followed by more confusion. After a brief hesitation, a new image formed: one of a family of otters, swimming around the Deep One and its friends, twisting happily in the water, before breaching the surface and jumping onto the mermaids’ island.

Qube struggled to understand what the Deep One was trying to communicate. Was it asking Squiggles about Otto? The Deep One, as if sensing her lack of comprehension, replayed the image of Squiggles with the otter inside her. This time there was a swelling surge of concern, and fear.

And, at the very bottom of it, a feeling of loss.

Did it want Squiggles to go back to Otto? Did it think that Otto was supposed to be the mascot, and was upset that Squiggles had taken his place?

Squiggles released Qube, and dropped to the ground with a clang and a splat. She looked at the Deep One, tilting her head first one way, then the other. Eventually she reached a conclusion, and clang-slorped her way back to the room she’d come from.

“Squiggles!” Qube said, but whether it was to scold the young sharkotpus for rudely leaving mid mental conversation, or it was just her fear of the sharktopus leaving, she couldn’t say.

The mascot seemed to glow for a second, before zipping out of the room full speed, leaving traces of glitter behind her. In seconds she was back by Qube’s side, gently bonking her so she’d step away from the Deep One. In one of her tentacles she had her hungry caterpillar book, in another a small brush, and in a third was a much-chewed wooden ring from the Circus Bard from the Trials.

“Why have you got those, my little sweet?” Sexy Screamy Spider Briar asked, moving to take Squiggles’ brush and groom her with it. But Squiggles twitched the brush away.

Was she trying to say goodbye? She’d already packed all her things!

Qube wouldn’t cry. She couldn’t justify bringing such a defenceless baby with her to what was sure to be a terrible battle. She had to be strong, and support Squiggles in doing the right thing.

But Squiggles didn’t leave.

Instead she flopped over onto her side, and raised her brush, gesturing towards the Deep One. It didn’t move. She waggled the brush a bit, trying to get its attention. Once she was sure it was watching (it hadn’t been looking anywhere else the entire time, so that seemed a bit redundant), she started brushing her own stomach.

Then she carefully started chewing on her wooden ring.

Finally, she flipped open her book, and started slowly turning the pages, pointing out the longer words to the Deep One like Qube did when reading to her.

With a fourth tentacle she reached out, and gave the Deep One’s foremost leg a reassuring pat.

“Are you trying to show the Deep One what you’ve been up to?” Qube asked. Squiggles wrapped a fifth tentacle around Qube’s ankle, but didn’t stop any of her other actions, and continued to look directly at the Deep One.

The guardian slowly nodded. Its lure swung forward, and a powerful image hit Qube so hard she nearly staggered. In it, Squiggles and Otto were together, Otto curled up against Squiggle’s warm belly, enjoying the brushes, and watching as Squiggles turned the pages for him.

Squiggles jumped up, furiously wagging her shark tail and slorp-clang-ing in circles. The Deep One gave one last nod, slow and respectful, before it turned around, its multitude of legs stabbing at the floor as it dragged itself into the Water Temple room.

Squiggles watched it go, her doll-like eyes shining.

Qube wasn’t entirely sure what had happened. Had Squiggles managed to reassure the Deep One that she was having a good time, and being well taken care of? Was the Deep One showing its acceptance of her role? Was it trying to tell Squiggles that it had discussed this with Otto, and the otter was happy that the sharktopus had taken his role, and was looking forward to having fun with her when she returned?

It was so difficult when no one in the conversation could talk!

It was to remain a mystery. The only thing she was sure of was the Squiggles wasn’t following the Deep One into its room and, the instant the Deep One disappeared out of sight, the sharktopus immediately shoved her brush at Sexy Screamy Spider Briar and flopped back onto her side, trying to get the Hunter to brush her.

“Abandoned by my own mascot,” a familiar voice came from the other room. “Off getting brushies. ‘S a tragedy.”

Qube swung around to see the Chosen One, supported by Sencha Bard, limping into the room.

“Chosen One!” she cried out joyfully. “Are you feeling better?” She hurried towards the duo, resisting the urge to fling herself at the Hero.

“Bit, yeah,” the Chosen One said, reaching out and ruffling her hair, much to her dismay. “Gimme a minute.” He dis-entangled himself from the Bard’s supportive arm, and slowly walked over to the Save Point. As he swiped his hand through it, energy rushed into him. His back straightened, his head lifted, and the colour rushed into his face.

He rolled his shoulders, stretching his arms and legs slightly.

“Hey guys,” he said, yawning. “Good to finally see you again.”

As soon as he was safely clear of the Save Point, Qube grabbed his hands.

“How are you?” she asked eagerly. “Have you rested? Any lingering health problems from over-exposure to mana? Is the connection stable now the guardians are gone? What do you mean finally? How long has passed in the Devs’ realm?”

“Easy, easy,” the Hero said, laughing at her deluge of questions. “It’s, uh, been a while. I might have gotten into a tiny bit of trouble for staying in for too long. I managed to talk the others into letting me back in, but it means we’ve lost a lot of time.”

“Was there much damage from your prolonged time here?” Definitely Bad Guy, who’d been remarkably quiet, piped up.

“Eh, nothing permanent,” the Chosen One said with a shrug.

“That’s not a proper answer,” Qube said sharply.

“Totally is,” the Chosen One retorted. “It’s a great answer. The answer is: nothing permanent.”

Qube frowned at him, but was too happy to see him back to his normal cheerful self to quibble. When hearts could be regrown with a spell, using “permanent” as a measurement of damage meant next to nothing.

“So we’re gonna have to push a bit, but as long as we don’t have anything like that weirdness of all the head honchos in one spot, we should be fine,” the Chosen One said reassuringly. “Now, what did I miss?”

“We figured out that the Evil Emperor is trying to make us kill the guardians!” Qube blurted out. She beamed in pride at the Chosen One’s surprise. She rapidly explained her line of thinking re: crown, kidnapping etc., and how she’d neatly avoided falling into the trap. The Chosen One, obviously still not up to his usual mental fortitude, merely blinked at her.

“Allright,” he said at last. He looked at the crowns Squiggles was wearing. “Yeah, why else would he give us these, right?”

“Exactly!” Qube was pleased that he agreed with her. “Also Squiggles and the Deep One had a nice chat and the Deep One is fine with her joining us against the Evil Emperor.”

“Wait, is that the big angler fish thing? I thought it couldn’t talk,” the Chosen One said. He frowned at the sharktopus, who was still happily paging through her book. “Squiggles, you've been chatting, have you? And yet you refuse to answer my amazing questions! So rude.”

“Squiggles can’t actually talk, Chosen One,” Qube said, although she was reasonably sure that the Hero was just teasing. After all, he’d seemed to understand the answer to any questions he’d asked Squiggles, which were usually things such as: who ate this? Was it you? Who’s a good girl? And other such important queries. “It was more of a metaphorical chatting.”

The Hero grinned, confirming her suspicion that he’d just been messing with her. She was getting better at spotting when he was joking! So she knew when his smile faded and he looked around the room, he was becoming serious again.

“Okay, so, you don’t want the guardians to sacrifice themselves. Good call, I wouldn’t have been happy about it either. The question is, how do you plan to defeat the Evil Emperor?”

***

Qube had been trying for quite some time to figure out what to do about the Evil Emperor. She’d vowed vengeance on him, yes, but she’d also peeled open his mind and exposed him to reality. He deserved a chance to prove that he’d grown, and to redeem himself. Quite how one redeemed themselves of the slaughter of an entire village she didn’t know, but they at least had to try and talk to him.

She wanted to know how much of what he’d done was by choice, and how much he’d been forced into doing.

But if they confronted him with no protection at all, they might as well be throwing their lives away. While his attempt to trick them into sacrificing the guardians to put gems on what was probably a cursed crown had failed, he would still be tremendously powerful with the guardians remaining connected to corrupted gems.

She folded her arms as she thought.

No, the crowns were cursed. Or at least, if they were, they only activated when the gems were in them. Otherwise Squiggles wouldn’t be happily running around.

“Definitely Bad Guy, can you check if those crowns have any curses on them? Especially ones designed to go off when we put gems in them?” Qube asked as she tried to tackle the tangled question the Hero had asked. While the Mage’s eyes flared red and blue, she looked to the rest of the group.

“Do any of you have any ideas as to how we can defeat the Evil Emperor without sacrificing the guardians?” she asked.

“I think I might have a plan,” Sexy Screamy Spider Briar said, her tone serious. “I’ll have to go in there alone.”