Page 89 of Citrine

I doubt his species has any interest in biology.

I'm not the judgmental type, but I have my limits. If I accept the tentacles and the gills and the fins, what else will I have to accept? Being oviparous and laying eggs like a cephalopod?

I retch.

He has tentacles, so that's the closest biological earth group I can place him in.

My stomach grumbles, reminding me that I'm still unfed. Wroahk has gone off somewhere and I'm still at the bottom of the lake. I'm not curious enough to venture out, not with Many Teeth out there.

No need to become fish food.

I look around, my eyes resting on the kelp-looking things at the bottom, wondering if I can eat them instead, but I stop myself.

My little fit up on the land was stupid, and I'll forgive myself a lot, considering how much stress this has been, but not that.

Stupid means dead here, and as much as I've tried to keep myself alive, I'm terrible at it. I would have been dead a dozen times over without him.

No sense in making his job harder. I won't survive without him.

Dammit, that sounds like something he would say. I refuse to be the weak thing he thinks I am, though I suppose I can't do much about my physical strength.

That doesn't mean I should keep ignoring my most important one, as I have a very unhelpful existential freaking crisis. This is my new reality, and I am way smarter than this. It's time to stop letting my emotions run wild.

Wroahk comes back as I steel my resolve. He studies my face for a bit and holds out something that resembles a cuttlefish. He seems to war with himself for a moment, but then pushes it toward me.

I push it back and shake my head.

"You have not eaten yet."

I haven't been feeling well these past few days, but my pride is all I have left. Eating the poor, defenseless animal he hunted for my survival is the one thing I'm not going to do. I refuse him staunchly.

"You have to eat it, or you will starve."

His tone has become more forceful, and he is more demanding. I turn my head away, but he isn't lenient.

He wraps his tentacles around me in an instant, drawing me closer to him. For some reason, he is very considerate about not covering my gills, even though he is holding me against my will.

I feel my anger rising, and then remind myself that not two minutes ago I decided to not be stupid. I need to eat the fish.

He lets out an echoing growl as I hold my arms up.

He stops, and I gesture for the fish. He holds it out and before I can overthink it, I cram it into my mouth, somehow swallowing it before it can sit on my tongue, the taste of the water already vile enough as it is.

Since when can I gulp down entire fish? I retch

He looks pleased with himself when I look back, and it makes my eye twitch. I push past him, out of the cave, and after spinning around to look for Many Teeth, I try to make my way to the surface without looking like prey.

I don't get very far before a tentacle wraps around my leg and yanks me back, then I'm wrapped securely with tentacles writhing around me.

"Not without me," he clicks out.

I glare at him and point at the surface of the water, shocked when he takes me there.

The moment we break above it, I give him a piece of my mind. "That was disgusting. I hate this."

"You seem to want death. Is being like me really so repulsive?"

I struggle to give him an answer because I'm supposed to be the nonjudgmental one. I've prided myself on it.

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