I pull my lips tight. I’m honestly not sure if I should tell him? I mean-, I kind of feel like I should be more upset, I mean, he did try to kill me and all, but I think I’ve had too many things try to kill me to really get upset by it now.

Still, just telling him might be a little… A parody of the truth might be right.

“I am a man, sir,” I say, trying to smile. “Just like you.”

He doesn’t seem too happy about my answer, threateningly pointing his zappy thing at me again. “You may speak like a human, Mort, but it hardly makes you one,” he says, eyes growing into shards of broken glass, eyebrows furrowing in frustration. “However, you will not take me for a fool. My memory is skewed and incomplete, but I remember your colour. It was darker out there.” A hesitant, desperate grin paints his thin lips. “Tell me, monster, did you kill my shipmates?”

He spat out that last part, a strong accusation that actually makes me a little upset.

“I haven’t laid a hand on them! When I found you, all were dead but you. I would never kill.” Maybe a weak defence, but there is nothing more I can say.

“Bah! You expect me to believe a creature such as yourself on matters of human life or death?”

I look down. “I cannot change your mind, sir. Sorry.” I look back up at him. “I will return when you feel better.” And before he can say anything, be it an accusation or otherwise, I slink out of the jungle-like cavity, leaving him to his own devices. Oxygen fills almost the entire cave system, but due to the cold, I doubt he’ll try to go too far. And even if he does try to leave, I’ll keep a few thinner tentacles inside the cave system, just out of sight.

Man. That-, that could probably have gone better.

Sure, he wasn’t very nice, and constantly calling someone “sir” feels kind of weird, and him shooting me in the head wasn’t very kind, but: hey! It’s a human man!!

Even better, he called me by my name at the end! Right before he accused me of killing all his friends. Weird.

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I hope he’ll change his mind if I leave him for a while. In the meantime, I’ve got something to do. To do this, I begin by switching to my main consciousness. Standing taller than the temple by far, I turn away from it and raise one of my primary tentacles, spreading each secondary and tertiary tentacle wide. And then I just sort of hold it over the nearby area, scanning it for any signs of life, until, finally…

-White monkey!

It looks up to me in pure fear but I quickly wipe off the expression on it by grabbing it in a few tentacles and lightly crushing all life from it. Lightly killed. Hehehe.

But I don’t eat it. Oh-no-no.

I bring it to the temple. And then, once I feel that enough time has passed (maybe an hour or so), I drag it inside the temple, barely fit it through the door beneath the stairs, and after a minute or so of dragging it through the cave systems, I finally return to the grassy room, with my little humanoid body in tow. I switch my consciousness into it. Shake my head a few times. Slap my cheeks to prepare, and step back inside.

He’s standing by the side of the cave, inspecting a strange, bulbous plant that provides the room with a certain kind of glow. He’s mumbling something to himself but I can’t really hear it, so I grab his attention by clearing my throat.

He jumps about a meter into the air before twisting around to face me, face firmly blushed. “A-, ah, it’s you again.” He avoids my gaze. But I won’t be the first to initiate this talk. “...I realize I may have treated you somewhat… unfairly. Forgive me, it wasn’t my intention to accuse you.”

I smile warmly. “No worries, sir! I am not unhappy. Thank you.”

“Though, my question remains. What are you, truly?”

Mrm. I frown. I honestly don’t want to answer that since it seems it might have caused his adverse reaction earlier, but… I guess, if I really want to be his friend, he deserves to know.

I turn towards the cave my tail is extending into, and slowly, carefully, I reel in my tail. Soon it branches into several thicker tentacles, some containing eyes, others branching as well. I can fit only a small part of the actual tentacle into this room, but given how Typhin looks, I can tell it’s enough.

“I am a man, sir. I think. Feel. But also, I am a large creature. I wish to be friends. Not to hurt you. This small human form was not meant to frighten you, sir.”

His eyes remain glued on my larger form. “I see. Very well. Thank you, now return that part to where you had it. It is disturbing to gaze at for too long.” I nod, and with a thought, the large tentacle retreats back into the darkness. Looking at his face, I recall my former idea.

“Ah, sir! I brought you something!” I beam at him, but as I drag the carcass of the monkey through the cave, I realize it might be too big to fit in here. But with tenacity and hard work, I push it through! “See? You look very hungry. You must eat to remain alive. Being that thin is not very healthy.”

Typhin calmly observed the white ape several times his own size, left eye twitching. “No, Mort, that is-, I have no use for that. As an Officer of the Galactic Empire, finding pleasure in eating is beneath me.”

I frown lightly. “Are you sure, sir?” He nods. “Well… alright.” I pull it back into the cave, wasting no time to pick the carcass clean. (78 900 -> 79 000) Meanwhile, I turn back to him, a vague series of questions floating through my mind. “Um, say, what’s the Galactic Empire?”

He frowns deeply, but there’s a glint of understanding in his eyes. “...Your ignorance is not unexpected, since you are an inhabitant of the unknown regions. Very well. I’ll enlighten you.”