I yelp and thrust my spear down into the water on instinct, trying not to hit my own leg.
But the grip tightens.
I kick and writhe and knock my other heel against the soft tentacle down there.
Now I see the monster too, a shapeless blob, splotched brown and black, and full of green seaweed and barnacle-like growths. It’s pretty far away, so the tentacle must be long.
I stab the spear into the depths, unable to aim.
The tightness loosens momentarily, and I kick the tip of the tentacle off my leg. I throw myself frantically towards the beach and try to swim with the spear clutched in one hand.
Another tentacle grips me softly around the waist.
There’s a chaos of water and air as I stab and kick and go crazy trying to shake the tentacle off me.
Another tentacle grabs my wrist, and in desperation, I bite down on it.
“Aaagh!” comes the immediate response from very close.
I try to open my eyes and see what that is, but there’s a lot of hair in my face, and I can only get a glimpse of blue stripes and a wet beard.
“It got me!” I scream.
I see a big sword and Kenz’ox’s determined face as he grabs my arm again and pulls me to him. “Where?”
“My hips!” I gurgle, as another wave washes over me and the grip around my waist tightens.
He yanks me closer to him, then stabs his sword down into the water between me and the blob.
Immediately the tentacle is off me, and I swim frantically towards the shore.
I don’t stop until I feel sand under my feet. Kenz’ox is struggling, splashing and coughing. It crosses my mind that he probably doesn’t know how to swim if this is the first ocean he sees. But at eight feet tall, he might not need to.
“You can stand!” I tell him.
Then I realize he’s trying to, but the monster’s got him. It’s pulling his legs out from the beach, and despite his strength, he can’t stop it.
Standing on tiptoes and barely having my face above water, I furiously stab the spear into the water, again and again. I hit something, and I hope it’s not Kenz’ox.
The caveman grabs my arm and drags me towards the beach. “Thanks.”
I can’t see the krolts until we’re crawling up on the sand, both of us breathing hard and wheezing. One of them is dead, barely visible from this angle as it lies flat on the sand. The other one is also down, but still kicking viciously with two legs.
The blob is slowly pulling back. Checking my ankle, I find it full of red circles from the suckers. My jumpsuit probably saved me from being pulled down and out by my waist—the suckers couldn’t get a good hold on the fabric.
Kenz’ox is in worse shape. There are red circles all over his torso, as well as bleeding wounds. In the spot where I bit him, there are only teeth marks and, thankfully, no bleeding.
“You all right?”
“Soon,” he wheezes. “One krolt got me, and I can feel the venom.”
I get up on my knees and look him over. Yep, something sharp grazed his thigh, and his other thigh, and his lower back. “What can I do?”
“It won’t kill me,” he assures me. “I will be fine. Are you all right?”
“Yes.” I have a couple of scrapes and bruises, but I’m not bleeding much. “You killed the krolts.”
“I didn’t want to have to fight them after the sea Big,” he tells me between breaths. “I had to get them first. Why were you in the jungle?”
