chp. 2
the friendly inkling
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AS THE SMALL GROUP OF OCTOLINGS walked around to leave Octo Valley, they came to a halt when they saw two female inklings standing in front of a cabin.
The girls looked around the age of 17, one looked carefree with a big grin on her face while the other looked more relaxed.
The octolings hid behind the cabin, not wanting to interact with the inklings, afraid of what the outcome would be if the girls saw them.
"Gramps!" The girl with long shiny black tentacles and colored tips exclaimed. She wore a white shirt and some simple black shorts, with an open pink cardigan over her shirt, along with some light brown ankle boots. Lastly, she wore a pink beanie with a star on the side, wearing sunglasses with it, covering her eyes.
"Where are you?!" She exclaimed again before the other inkling hushed her.
"Callie quiet down." Said the inkling in green.
'Callie' sighed, looking around the cabin, "Also, where's Agent 3, haven't seen him around."
"Perhaps both Gramps and 3's whereabouts have to do something with this letter." The girl in the green said, holding up a letter.
"Lemme, see Marie!"
'Marie' handed the letter to 'Callie', allowing her to read the paper their grandfather has left for the two.
'Dear, Callie and Marie,
Me and Agent 3 went out to patrol Octo Valley, we'll be back around midnight!'
-Love,
Gramps'
Callie set down the letter down on the table in front of the cabin, looking over at Marie, "Now that we know about where both Gramps and 3 are, let's go eat, I'm starving!" Callie exclaimed as her stomach growled at the mention of food.
Marie chuckled at Callie, who was scratching the nape of her neck.
"Come, let's go. It's on me this time." Marie said, turning her heel, making her way over towards the manhole.
"Really?! Let's get pineapple pizza then!" Callie skipped after Marie with a big grinned on her face.
"Absolutely not, we had pizza two days ago and there's still leftovers that you'd eat." Marie replied, turning into her squid form and going inside the manhole.
The group of octolings noticed the two girls had left, the octolings quickly came out their hiding spots and walked over towards the manhole.
"Carlos, what time is it?" Jenna asked, looking back over to the tall octoling.
Carlos glanced down at his watch, "Around 10:30."
Jenna smiled to herself making her way over towards the manhole that the two girls went through.
"Great, that means less inklings will be around to spot us."
Jenna was about to transform into her octo form but Lela started to yell at her to stop.
"JENNA WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING? YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT'S OUT THERE!" Lela shouted, her voice could echo around the valley.
Jenna turned around to look at her friend and crossed her arms.
"Lela, we just lost our only home. If we stay here any long we might end up dead. It's best we take the risk and get moving."
The atmosphere was tense, the two girls stared down each other.
"Lela, Jenna's right we can't stay here. It's no better staying here as well." Carlos said breaking the silence.
"It doesn't matter, if you go out there you'll get caught by them." Lela voice was filled with venom at the thought of inklings.
Jenna sighed giving up arguing with Lela, she always too stubborn to change her mind on things. Jenna quickly turned into her octopus form before going into the manhole.
Lela watched in disbelief, her shocked expression quickly turned into a angered one. The girl scowled before storming off the other direction leaving the others.
"Lela, where are you going!?" Lee called out.
"Lela, come back!"
The girl didn't respond, she just continued marching off.
"There's no point going after her, Jenna is waiting for us," Carlos spoke, walking over towards the manhole, "We should join her before she actually gets caught."
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Jenna was standing against the wall as Carlos and the others popped out from the manhole. She frowned when she noticed when she noticed someone was missing.
"Figured she wasn't coming." She muttered, pushing herself off the wall and gesturing the others to follow her, "Come on, let's get moving."
As they walked, the octolings couldn't help be amazed by their surroundings. Big buildings, and lights shining, the plaza was way different from where they came from.
"It's so huge!" Joy exclaimed with a big smile on her face but it quickly faded when Carlos told her to be quiet.
The walk was fairly quiet, only the crickets and their footsteps could be heard. In all honesty, Jenna didn't know where to go, all she knew that they should get out from the light so they had a lesser chance of getting caught. One thing she didn't want to do is proving Lela's point of getting caught.
The octoling girl smiled to herself when she noticed an alleyway.
'Perfect, an alleyway, maybe we can hide for a bit-'
"Woah."
An unfamiliar voice behind made the group come to an halt. They all turned their heads to see an inkling.
An inkling boy, he wore a black hoodie and some gray shorts with some sandals, his tentacles were short and ruffled a bit, in his hands he held two plastic bags.
"You are octolings?" He asked, before smiling.
"Cool, never seen one before, the name's Apollo!"
...
...
...
Silence, the octolings just stared at him wide eyed.
Apollo scratched the nape of his neck, letting out an awkward laugh, "What? I'm not gonna do anything to ya'll."
He glanced around his surroundings to see if anyone was there watching them. Even if they were in a alleyway, someone could still see the octolings because of some features that make them stand out more.
"I do have to ask, what are you guys doing here? Roaming around the streets of Inkopolis Plaza where you could clearly get caught." Apollo said.
...
...
...
Again, awkward silence. Eyes still wide open filled with fear.
That's when came to a realization.
'They don't understand me.'
Honestly he should've noticed when they kept staring at him when he first spoke.
Apollo clearly couldn't just walk away, especially since it's dangerous for them to be out here in the first place. He has an idea but it was a stupid idea, he was going to let them rest at his home.
The young boy gestured the octolings to follow him, which they were hesitant to do.
"Should we really be trusting him?" Lee whispered, unsure to follow.
"I don't think so but if he's taking us to shelter we should go, it's not safe out here." Carlos said, following after Apollo.
"..I guess that's a yes.." Lee muttered, following after.
Apollo noticed the group joining him and smiled.
'Hopefully, Cosmo doesn't mind some visitors.'