As the minutes ticked by with no more sightings, Anika’s adrenaline rush began to subside. She was just thinking of giving up and turning back when she glimpsed it again—not just one glowing tendril, but several. Smoothly they coalesced into a banded length of shimmering blue, before vanishing altogether into the shadowy depths beyond.

Anika stared. There was something about the arc of those tendrils as they trailed out of sight. Something in their motion that struck her as strangely deliberate. Like the curl of a finger, beckoning her to follow after.

But that was crazy, she told herself, as she gave her head a little shake. Sea creatures didn’t gesture like that. Not even ones as bizarre and captivating as this.

Deliberating for a moment, Anika decided to follow. Though she couldn’t explain it, she didn’t sense anything predatory about this creature. Before she’d noticed it, it had seemed to be watching her, as if it were simply curious about her itself.

Anika knew her own curiosity would never let her rest if she didn’t at least attempt to get a good look at the creature. What if it was some undiscovered species? She’d certainly never seen anything like it before. This might very well be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

She swam ahead, in the direction those pretty glowing tendrils had gone. The water was certainly much darker here, beyond the shallow reefs. A deep, sapphire blue.

Treading water, Anika glanced about, turning in a slow circle. For a few minutes there was nothing. Then she felt a shiver in the water, running eerily counter to the waves. What Anika spied at first through the inky blue darkness was just a pale glimmer. Then, as if melting into view from the depths below, the creature materialized before her.

Anika’s breath bubbled up around her as she gasped.

The first thing she felt upon seeing the creature was a jolt of primal fear at the size of it—it was at least twice as long as she was tall. But the creature was so graceful and serene in its manner that her initial fright quickly faded. As it spun up to float gently glowing before her, sheer awe overtook Anika instead.

The creature looked somewhat like a squid or an octopus in shape. But Anika realized at once that this was no animal—this was a sentient being. Phantom-like and incandescent in a way that was extraordinarily lovely, it beheld her with uncanny awareness as she beheld it in turn.

Diaphanous ruffles fluttered along its smooth, translucent body, tapering to a spade-shaped crown at the head. Its two large central eyes regarded her with unmistakable alien intelligence, their irises pure mirrored silver. And trailing from the creature like so many shimmering, ethereal streamers were dozens of ghostly blue tentacles.

Anika gazed at this strange being, mesmerized. One waving tendril extended only a few inches from her. Hesitantly, she reached a hand out toward it. To her surprise, the creature reached for her back. The tentacle curved as it met her palm. Anika closed her fingers around it. The texture of the tentacle was jelly-like, but lighter somehow. Firmer than the water around them, but still strangely fluid.

The tentacle flowed up through her hand, coiling around the fingers that held it. The alien appendage squeezed a little as it flowed, as if the creature were studying the texture of her skin and bones with as much fascination as she was studying him.

Him, Anika thought, bemused. Why she sensed that the creature was male was beyond her.

But somehow, intuitively, she did.

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Original Publication Date: 1/17/24

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The Cove © CS Dark Fantasy