A month had gone past since Hoolan had brought you to the beach. Your leg was healing really well. Between your body getting back on track and Hoolan taking care of you it was healing like a miracle. You felt better than you had in a long time, even considering your leg.
The good supply of food, being a mix of fruit and seafood, that Hoolan fed you was really doing wonders for your body. You were gaining weight again. It was wondering considering your near-death experience turned you into little more than skin and bones.
Hoolan helped you do what exercise you could on your mat, and also moved you around so your body did not get hurt from being in the same spot. It really seemed like he was trying to be better to you after what had happened. But... you did not think you would ever be able to forgive him after what he had done to you. After what he had done to countless people. Your friends, the marines, the people he killed for hosts.
Speaking of that, In the month that you had been on the beach, Hoolan had to get a new body. The other one decayed a lot faster than Hubert's did. Even with Hoolan using his abilities to keep it from decaying faster. The new one was one from a Hawaiian looking guy. He had dark tan skin and lumbar length black curly hair. The tan body made his black eyes a little more intimidating than normal.
Back to the subject at hand though. A month had passed since you were taken to the Island. Your wound had healed a lot but was still nowhere near being fully completed.
- -
You took a deep breath through your nose as you woke up from a deep sleep. Another good thing the Island and its food was doing for you was that you now got good rests. You were not fidgety in your sleep anymore but instead soaked up the much-needed rest.
You layed on your back for a couple of minutes. Enjoying the warmth of the day and the breeze of the sea. The smell brought with it and the sound of the waves. Keeping your eyes closed and letting your body soak in all of its other senses.
Hoolan was gone, he usually was in the morning. Looking for things to collect for you. So you enjoyed the time where there was no stress stiffening your body. Where there was no fear of the Demon.
You heard the sand shift to your left and you quickly sat up. Using your arms to hold you steady, you looked around, but Hoolan was not there. What is he playing some kind of prank on you?
" Hoolan?" You called out. Only the waves answered you though. it was not like him to play with you like that, so maybe just the wind shifted the sand?
You sighed and looked out to the horizon. Looking at the waves far on the other side of the world. You pressed your lips into a thin line and looked down. Suddenly finding yourself making eye contact with a curious little creature.
" Oh, hello there." You said to the white and yellow crab that sat in the sand next to your matt. Looking at you with small, cute little eyes. In response to your voice, it's little mandibles rubbed together. At the sight, you were painfully reminded of the time in the cave where Hoolan had done the same thing with his fangs.
You cast that thought aside and brought your attention back to the crab that still looked at you. It did not look to be the slightest bit afraid of you. Instead, it gazed into you with what seemed to be quite intelligent eyes. In fact, after looking at it for a minute, you realized that its eyes were not black like normal crabs eyes, but was actually a deep blue.
They were pretty and almost unnatural. You gazed into those eyes for a minute and found them to be almost...Hypnotic in a way. You realized you were getting lost and snapped back into your mind. You looked back down at the little crab and smiled, reaching your hand out to it.
It didn't climb on, but it did inch forward. It started to gently nibble on the tips of your fingers. You giggled as it's little mandibles tickled your fingers. After hearing your giggle it stopped and then started to scuttle along the edge of your matt. You watched it, smiling at the cute little thing.
It would set a leg on your matt, then quickly move back. Then after moving to another spot it would approach and do the same thing. You laughed again, throwing your head back slightly. When you regained your breath you held your hand out for it again. It hesitated for a minute but actually climbed on your hand.
You were surprised, this was not normal crab behavior. Maybe the scuttling around, but not climbing on you. You cast those thoughts aside though. This was a better company than what you've been having so far. You set it down on your stomach and watched as it explored your shirt.
It grabbed the fabric in its claws and tried to pull it up, but gave up after it would not budge. After that, it edged toward your missing leg. Stopping at where there was no longer a leg and slightly feeling at the leaf bandage with its legs. You watched it with sad eyes. Tearing up as it turned and looked back at you.
" Yeah, It was taken from me." You said, reaching up to wipe the tears from your cheeks. You took a deep breath though and gave the crab a bigger smile. It stood there on your hip for another second before moving up your torso, moving closer and closer to your face.
You leaned back on your elbows to give it a better angle to climb on. It's legs slightly tickling you as it climbed. Once it got to your heart it stopped and stared into you with those mesmerizing blue eyes. You smiled widely, this would have been such a find back at the lab.
Then out of nowhere, it started to freak out. Quickly sliding off of your side and heading back to the shore, sliding and disappearing under the water. You were kind of freaked out yourself when you heard a deep all too familiar moan resonate throughout the air.
You looked around hurriedly to try and find which direction it was coming from. When you turned your head you caught sight of something in the water. An enormous shadow from underneath the waves was surging toward the beach. Oddly enough getting smaller as it got closer.
You watched it in fear as it got smaller and smaller, closer and closer until a figure broke the waves, and Hoolan strode onto the beach a bit to your right. His dark tanned body shining with sea water and his long black hair smacking onto his back. He started to walk in your direction, and you looked back over to where the crab disappeared to.
You jumped when a sound very alike to the snorting of a pig rang out. You peeking from behind your hands back at Hoolan who was about fifteen feet away from you now. He was just standing there, with his nose to the air. Smelling and snorting into the air.
You were stunned, there was no end to the surprises that this creature brought with him. You flinched again when he snapped his gaze back in your direction, but his gaze was almost frightened. He almost ran up to you and you started shaking.
" H-Hoolan?" You whispered out as he approached you. he quickly slid down next to you and started to look over your form.
"Polyp are you all right?" he asked in an almost scared voice that was very unlike him.
" I'm fine, nothing happened, you're scaring me Hoolan." You replied, looking up at him. He looked down at you.
" There was an intruder on our beach, I can smell their traces." He said, lifting his face and smelling the air again, snorting like a pig. Then suddenly he leaned over your form and started to smell all over your body. You could feel the vibrations of his snorting against you.
You tried to form words, saying that you didn't see anyone when he let out a deafening roar that shook your soul and rattled your bones in your body.
" THEY TOUCHED YOU!!!" He bellowed in a voice that was far from human. Deep and almost demonic. You clutched onto yourself and you could feel the tears well up again. Was he talking about the crab? could he smell it and think it was a person?
" Hoolan, there was no one here." You said, cowering slightly as he turned his black gaze to you. You saw his teeth were no longer human but were now long and needle-like. When you saw that the words caught in your throat for a second, but his gaze demanded an answer, so you continued.
" There was a crab here earlier that climbed on me but there was no person here." You said, but your answer only seemed to anger him even more.
" There was no animal here, there was another one here!!!" He said and to your surprise and horror, started to grow slightly. You were so confused, another one here? what did he mean by that? Then it hit you like a tidal wave.
When Hooalan possessed something, their natural eye color turned to his black. That crab did not have blue eyes, the thing possessing it did. One of Hoolans kind had just visited you. You flicked your eyes back to Hoolan and could only watch as he bulked up and big stump like growths started to build on his back.
His hands and feet turned into big claws and his jaw was completely rearranged into a pair of mandibles. A thick, blackish liquid started to ooze from his mandibles and from the stump like growths on his back. He crawled on all fours much like a gorilla to the tree line and started to rub himself against the trees.
You realized he was " Marking his territory." and kept watching as he did this to the trees, disappearing into the treeline for a minute before coming back over to you and rubbing some of the oily substance on the shade tarp that he made. You also noticed that he was being very careful as to not get the substance on you.
Something came over you and you reached out, grabbing his cheeks in both of your hands and turning his head to meet your expression.
" Hoolan!" You said sternly, holding your gaze with his, you don't know what came over you that gave you the strength to do this, but for some reason, you hated seeing him like this. So you took a deep breath and continued.
" It's ok Hoolan, it's gone, you scared it off, and I don't think it's coming back. Everythings going to be ok." You said as softly as you could, even if you did not necessarily believe in all of that yourself. You didn't know if everything would be ok, but you needed to calm him down.
He stared at you for another minute before he started to shrink and turn back to normal again. The stumps on his back disappearing and his jaw reforming back into a human one. Once he was back to normal he rubbed his face with his hands.
" I'm sorry polyp, I just, can't stand the thought of something possibly hurting you." He said, looking up at you with a sad expression. You smiled at him. and he smiled back.
" You are the most important thing to me Y/N, You know that...right?" He asked, a look of hope in his face.
" Yes Hoolan, I know." You replied. He sighed in relief before leaning into your form. You sucked in a breath, surprised and not knowing what to do, but eventually, hesitantly wrapped your arms around his form. He was unusually warm.
The two of you stayed like that, he stayed close to your form, as if afraid he might lose you if he didn't. You looked over him and out to the ocean. To the waves and the light reflecting off of them. Looking out to the world beyond.
" I know."