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Being a squid wasn’t that bad.
Besides the occasional predator trying to snap his gangly tentacles up, there was nothing that he had trouble with in his daily life.
The main thing is, he’s not a bad hunter at all. Rather, he considers himself a pretty good hunter, actually. With his skills, none of his prey ever escaped his tentacles. The ocean was practically a buffet, tailored towards him. A never-ending stream of crustaceans and fish, he could count on himself being full from dawn to sunset. It’s even better that his appetite is normally quite low.
Though, recently, things have changed. Nothing completely out of the ordinary, though. It’s a problem related to the predators chasing him. Who was he kidding, though? It’s always related to the predator issue.
Just… there was something bothering him, specifically. Constantly. It was more persistent than anything he’d encountered before. Which was bad. Because he didn’t know how to shake it off at all.
It was something dumb looking. A sunfish? He couldn’t even tell. It looked that dumb. Either way, he didn’t care for what it was. He just wanted it off his tail, or rather, tentacles.
Of course, it had to be dumb if it was chasing him, a harmless little squid in the vast ocean. It could go for any other fish in the ocean, and it would be way more filling than him. He doesn’t think he’d even count as even half of a meal.
It’s been several days of this. You couldn’t blame him at all for getting tired. Of course, you could say shit about the cycle of life, natural selection, eat or be eaten, blah blah blah, whatever, but it didn’t change the fact that Kim Dokja wanted to live. Honestly, it wouldn’t be crazy to say his life was worth more than this ugly sunfish, right?
“Hey!” Kim Dokja screams, his tentacle almost snapped off again by the maw nearing him. “What the hell is your problem?”
Unlike other times, the sunfish finally comes to a halt. It stares at him dumbly. It opens its mouth dumbly. It flaps its fins dumbly. Kim Dokja resists the urge to swim away or blast a jet of ink into its face. That would surely make the situation worse than it already is.
But how could the situation get worse, really? He’s tired of this. Being chased for several days would put a strain on anyone’s psyche. And he’s just a damn squid, living off of the leftover fish still digesting in his stomach. Of course, he’s worn out.
The sunfish continues to stare at him dumbly. Kim Dokja has his tentacles positioned so that he could quickly jolt away if this guy tried eating him again. But, surprisingly, he speaks. Kim Dokja has no time to feel shocked that this dumb thing can speak as he processes its words.
“…I’m hungry,” the sunfish says. Bubbles emerge from its gills, and its gaze does not waver. It’s a little creepy.
Well, duh? Why else would this damn fish be chasing him? Does this thing think he’s as dumb as it is?
“I know you’re hungry. You’ve been chasing me for three days now.” Kim Dokja gestures to his own body, his eyes blinking. “Why are you trying to eat me, though? You can clearly see I don’t have much meat on me. You could’ve picked off some of the jellyfish floating around by this time. Or some of the lobsters over there.”
To emphasize his point, he points with four of his tentacles. In the distance, scuttling legs could be seen. Translucent blobs—the jellyfish—slowly drifted in the water, carried to who-knows-where along with the waves.
“…I’m hungry,” the sunfish repeats. It stares at Kim Dokja with an open mouth. He backs off a little, afraid that the sunfish would try to snap him up.
“Don’t eat me.” Kim Dokja makes a cross with his tentacles. He glares at the sunfish, still at a standoff. What the hell is he supposed to do in this situation? His life, up to this point, has been a constant hunt for food. Leading up to this, he wasn’t taught how he was supposed to deal with an awfully persistent fish wanting to make a meal out of him. Honestly, there would probably be no experience in his life that taught him how to deal with such a thing.
Don’t tell me I have to hunt for someone else now, too? Kim Dokja shakes his squid head, trying to get rid of such inauspicious thoughts. He blinks his eyes, staring down the sunfish that hasn’t moved from his position at all. Is he just going to flap his fins there until he dies of starvation?
Kim Dokja sighs, bubbles forming. “If you’re really hungry, we can make a deal, alright?”
He pushes the water in front of him with his tentacles, sending waves over to the sunfish. He blinks at him in response.
This damn sunfish… What could he even do with an imbecile like this?
“Uh… Do you understand?”
The sunfish continues to stare at him. In his eyes, there’s an emotion that looks a little too intense for Kim Dokja’s liking. In particular, it looks too much like hunger.
“Hello? Do you understand?” Kim Dokja backs away slightly—about the distance of a coral stem, and the sunfish advances the same amount of distance in an instant.
Was it even worth it for him to try and reason with him? Kim Dokja doesn’t know. He’s made a bunch of dumb decisions in his life before, but this might be the dumbest yet.
Though, if he decided on not reasoning and swimming away, the sunfish would surely chase him. From the several days of experience he had with this damn sunfish, he knows he can’t win the battle of attrition with this stubborn thing.
“…Yes.” The sunfish opens its mouth, bubbles spewing out. It gapes at him dumbly.
About damn time… Kim Dokja had thought that he had lost his mind to hunger. Apparently not.
“Okay…” Kim Dokja glances at the sunfish, then looks to the side again. “The deal is, I’ll help you hunt down some food. The only condition is that you don’t eat me.”
The sunfish, as usual, stares at him instead of responding. Did he really need prompting after every sentence? He’s never met something this dumb in the ocean in his life. Which is surprising, since he’s met a lot of dumb things. As a seasoned hunter, he had firsthand experience with how dumb his prey could be.
“Do you understand?” Exasperated, he moves his tentacles again, saltwater swishing with his motions.
“Go.” The sunfish flaps his fins as he speaks, bubbles emitting from his mouth.
Shit. This deal definitely wouldn’t be worth it.
Whatever. Getting this damn sunfish away from his precious tentacles would be worth anything at this point.