The Lonely Octofluff - 2 (Challenge No.01 winner)

Ryunnosuke, November 15, 2012; 22:55 / FB 6692
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The Lonely Octofluff - Finale
By Ryunnosuke

You and Dasher speedily swim your way back to Dasher's rock.
Along the way, you count the number of squidies you managed to collect.
1,2,3... you've still got seven squidies! One in each leggie.
You look sadly at the missing end of one of your leggies. You'll miss that leggie.
Dasher is looking a bit haggard from the stress of the munsta attack, but at the same time you notice he's a little bigger and has three squidies dangling from his mouth. He must have gorged himself while he was finding the squidies.
Let's see.. that's... 8... 9... 10! Ten squidies!
This should be enough to convince the horsies!
You and your friend arrive at the rock. Dasher's mate is overjoyed at the return of her husband, crying fat teardrops. Dasher's pups also cry for their Daddy.
"Daddy!" "Wuv!" "Babbeh wan Daddeh!"
Dasher comforts them as you deposit the squidies on the rock, and dive back under the surface.
You need something to carry all of the squidies in a bundle.
Soon you find what you are looking for; a long strand of solid, sturdy seaweed.
You swim back to the rock in time to stop the foals from nibbling off the squidie's leggies.
"Wha duu?" Dasher asks.
With a delicate touch, you bind the squidies all together with the weed, then wrap the remainder around the whole batch. Soon, you have a nice tight bundle.
You show the bundle to Dasher. "See?" you say, pleased with yourself.
"Oooo!" he replies, impressed. "Bu', why nee' dat fo?"
You hand your friend the bundle. "Ocki nuu can tawkies tu howsies... howsie taiws twy eat Ocki; think Ocki a squidie! New fwiend mus' tawkies fo Ocki! Git howsies tu wisten!"
"Un!" Dasher agrees immediately. "Dasha *make* howsie taiws wisten!"
"Nuuu!" Dasher's mate cries. "Nuu guu, again!"
The pups cry in unison with the mare.
"Nuu wowwy, new fwiends!" you say. You turn to Dasher. "Nuu gif owwies tu udda fwuffies. Git tu wisten. Nuu wisten, weave awone! Twy again waiter! 'Tay?"
Dasher seems less please with this, his cheeks puffed out aggressively. "..."
"'Tay?" you repeat.
"...otay," he agrees, finally.

A few moments later, you find yourself swimming just outside of view from the coral reef the horsie tails call home.
Dasher is quickly swimming over to them, bundle in mouth.
Next to you waits Dasher's mate and foals, waiting in anticipation.
Dasher approaches a small group of the horsie tails; three in total.
They talk briefly.
Excellent! Everything is going well!
One of horsie tails suddenly dives for the bundle, after realizing what it is.
Oh no!
Dasher smacks the fluffy back, with one flipper. He's much bigger than the three horsie tails, and they cower from him.
Whew. That was close.
Still, it's not good to be a meanie. Then they might not listen to Dasher.
Dasher barks something to them. One of them disappears under the water, swimming towards the reef, while two remain. They continue to talk.
You release a breath you had been holding in. Dasher's mate does the same.
After awhile, the horsie returns.
With 5... 6... 7 more friends! Being led by a big sea horsie, almost as big as Dasher.
Will they listen?
The ugly looks on their faces mean not likely.
You expect Dasher to look afraid, or at least a little concerned.
Instead, you see that his cheeks are puffed again, and he's slapping one flipper in the water, loudly.
No! Dasher don't be a meanie! Just leave!
The two sides begin arguing. The big sea horsie keeps pointing at the bundle, his own cheeks puffed.
In fact, all of the fluffies cheeks are puffed.
...why do they puff their cheeks, anyway?
Dasher yells back at them, holding the bundle closely.
The fluffies are closing in on him.
"Dasha! Wun!" you call.
One of the fluffies sprints foward, as another splashes Dasher in the face with sea spray. Dasher chokes and sputters, and when he looks again, the bundle is in the flippers of the big horsie.
You feel sad. It's over now.
The fluffies didn't want to listen to Dasher or you about the kelpies. Instead, they'd rather steal the gift you wanted to give them.
...wait. Dasher isn't leaving. He's swimming towards the big horsie.
"DASHA! WUN! NUU GIF OWWIES!" you scream.
The fluffies quickly surround your friend. One pushes him from behind. Dasher tries to retaliate, but is too slow.
Another rushes in and bites his ear, pulling. Dasher knocks the small horsie away.
Yet another headbutts him in the back. He lets out a yelp of pain.
"Nuu!" Dasher's mate wails. "Husban'!"
You grab her and the foals before she can try to swim to Dasher's aid. "Nuu! Nuu guu! Meanies gif you owwies tuu!"
"BABBEH!" Dasher's mate suddenly screams.
You look behind you. One of the foals ducked under your leggies. He's swimming for all he's worth towards the fight.
"Nuu huwt dadda, meanie munstas! Babbeh nuu 'fwaid of yuu!"
You want to swim after the foal, but Dasher's mate is trying to break your grip. "Wet guu, wet guu!" she screams.
"Stay wit babbehs!" you yell at her. "Stay!"
You take off after the foal. It's not a terribly strong swimmer, but neither are you, and it has a large lead.
You look ahead. Dasher is being attacked from all sides now. The sea horsies are merciless; they bite his ears, tail, flippers, and nosie.
Dasher is brave, but even he can't stand the pain from all of his wounds. He cries loudly. "Pwease! Pwease nuu mo huwties!"
The horsies ignore him. They continue the relentless assault.
However, you manage to catch up to the foal. You quickly wrap him up in a leggie.
The foal slaps at your leggie, and bites you as hard as he can. "Wet guu! Wet guu, wan save daddy!"
"Nuu! Babbeh tuu wittle! Ocki hewp daddy!" You shove the babbeh back towards the mumma, but he doesn't swim back.
"Guu!" you order again, and resume swimming towards Dasher.
By the time you reach the fight, Dasher is the worse for wear; his eyes are rolling, and blood flows freely on several areas of his body.
He's almost unconscious, and trying desperately to stay afloat. If he passes out in the water, he'll drown.
You're not sure he's going to make it.
You quickly swim up and impose your body with his, latching on to him with your leggies.
You're... *angry*. "Nuu huwt fwiend nuu mo'!" you declare, your cheeks puffed.
The sea horsies sneer at you. "Who yuu!?" the big one asks. "Squidie?"
"Nuu squidie, am Ocki!"
"Wook wike squidie to fwuffy!" he says. The horsie gestures to the rest of the pack. "Gif owwies!"
As the fluffies close in on you, a small form buzzes past. "Babbeh gif owwies to meanie!"
"Nuu!" you cry. You reach out but can't grab the foal in time.
The pup swims up to the nearest fluffy and tries to bite it. Unfortunately for the foal, the horsies fluff is too thick to chomp through.
The horsie sneers and slaps the baby, hard.
"WAH! Why huwt babbeh!?" the pup cries in despair. "Big meanie!"
The big horsie looms close to the baby. The foal finally seems to realize the trouble it has gotten itself into. It stares the big fluffy in absolute fear.
"N-n-nu huwties, pwease!" it begs.
In response, the big meanie grabs baby by the tail flipper, and shakes it back and forth, violently.
The foal screams in pain and terror.
You want to help, but if you let go, Dasher is doomed.
You watch helplessly.
Finally, the foal goes flying, dripping a trail of blood through the air. His tail has come completely off.
"HEWP! HEWP! HEWP BABBEH! PWEASE, HEWP! WAAAAAAAAAH!" it cries desperately.
In the near distance, you hear the mare crying and calling for her baby.
The rest of the pack take turns on the foal.
One dashes in and pushes the foal. It tumbles painfully through the water, gasping for breath.
Another reaches in slaps it on the back with a loud crack, elicting a wail.
A third bites the foal's ear off.
The baby's cries penetrate your very being.
You're sorry. Sorry, Dasher. You should never have gotten him involved.
Sorry mumma. You couldn't save her husband or baby.
Sorry baby...
Nuu! You have to save this baby!
These are your new friends!
You have to save them!
But what to do!?
You look around, frantically. Nothing above the water offers any help.
You duck your head under the water and look around.
Directly into the large, yellow eye.
...MUNSTA! your mind screams.
It's massive. Larger than anything you've ever seen before!
It's a... squidie?
It's a munsta squidie! A squidie bigger than you've ever seen!
You can't help yourself. You make the biggest scardey inkies you'ver ever had. The dark liquid fills the immediate water around you and Dasher.
The horsies scream "Icky!", or laugh at you, before going back to tormenting the foal.
They don't seem to have realized the danger all of you are in.
...waitaminute!
This could be your chance.
Maybe you can save everyone!
"Sowwie, Dasha," you apologize, before letting him go. You hope he doesn't drown before you can get back to him.
You quickly swim down to the munsta.
Even with your limited abilities as a fluffy, you can't help but marvel at its enormous size and great and terrible leggies.
You drift down lightly onto the munsta's body, next to the eye. It looks at you with curiousity.
"Sowwie, munsta!" you say, before raising your leggies and spraying inkies into the giant eye.
It takes a lot of ink, but you have little difficulty blinding the munsta.
You were expecting it to be angry; you would be awful sore if something sprayed inkies in your eyes/eye.
But you weren't expecting this.
The wawa shifts and heaves, as the munstas leggies thrash violently.
You are tossed end over end in the torrent of wawa, head over leggies.
You swim desperately for the surface.
The munsta's great eye follows you, but it squints, unable to see properly.
It does see your fleeing form, and a bunch of little others who are about your size as well...
You breach the surface. The fluffies are in a panic, the turbulance of the wawas throwing them around.
You spot Dasher floating nearby. By some miracle, he's floating belly up.
The foal, also miraculously, managed to climb on top of his daddy's belly. He's hurt badly, but the brave but stupid foal will live.
"Wha yuu do!?" an angry voice shouts at you. You turn in time to see the big horsie and two others trying to swim over, but make little progress.
Suddenly, the munsta's leggies erupt from the bottom, snatching random fluffies.
A look of horror overcomes the big meanie horsies face, as he is lifted into the air, and brought crashing down into and through the waves.
You latch onto Dasher and swim away, trying to ignore the screams.
Even though they were meanies, you can't help but cry for them.

A few hours later, you find yourself outside the coral reef, exploring. You took Dasher and his family back to their rock, making sure their wounds weren't too grievous.
The munsta has left. And he took most of the sea horsies with him.
The few fluffies from the group earlier led the munsta straight to their homes. Their families never stood a chance.
You imagine them trying desperately to hide in the shallow crevasses of the coral, only to be plucked out and snacked upon by the deep wawa munsta.
It must have been horrible.
Even now, the horsies and flipper friends who live here are trying to pick up the shattered remenants of their community. Foals cry for their missing parents and siblings, and fluffies try to find their special friends.
You sigh, a deep sadness overcoming you.
You resolve never to go to Deep Wawa ever again.
Fluffies love to eat squidies. But in Deep Wawa, squidies eat fluffies.
You swim morosely back to your home, a large shell made from some strange creature.
If you could read, you would notice the side is printed with the words, "Hasbio Fluffy Research Department".
You lay down in your nest, wishing you had never left it to begin with.
Because of you, the fluffies were hurt.
Even Dasher and his baby were hurt because of you.
You're a bad fluffy.
"Ocki?" a voice says from outside. Or tries to at least. All you can hear is an assortment of bubbles. A head pokes through the door, looking at you.
It's Dasher.
You look at him sadly.
Dasher is happy to see you, but you aren't happy to see him; he's still hurt and came looking for you, a bad fluffy.
Dasher grabs one of your leggies with his mouth and tugs. You don't move. You want to be left alone.
You curl up in your nest some more.
Pain spreads from your leggie. Ouchies!
He bit you!
Dasher tugs on your leggie again.
You sigh, and finally follow him to the surface.
"Ocki!" Dasher exclaims. "Fwiend!"
You look at Dasher. "Ocki nuu fwiend... Ocki bad fwuffy..."
"Ocki siwwy, Ocki bestest fwiend!"
You smile, but still feel bad.
"Wook!" Dasher says, pointing behind you.
Turning around, you see Dasher's mate and babies nearby. They swim up, and to your great surprise, all of them give you big huggies.
You cry a little. "Wha saddies, Ocki?" One of the babies chirp.
"Nuu hate Ocki?" you ask. "Meanies gif huwties cuz of Ocki..."
"Un-un!" Another baby responds. The one that was tortured by the meanies. "Dem big meanies, nuu Ocki! Ocki guud fwiend!"
"Ocki saf' babbeh! Fwuffy wuv Ocki! Ocki bestest fwiend!" Dasher's mate announces.
The family gathers around and gives you even more huggies.
You can't help yourself any longer.
You return the huggies in earnest.
You're happy, the happiest you've been in a long time.
And you have a feeling that you won't be lonely ever again.

The End.

Man, this was harder to wrap up than it was to begin. Sorry for the lateness.
I realize that people may have a hard time with some of the elements of this story due to Ocki's unnatural intelligence, but the original premise calls for Octofluffies to be very, very intelligent comparied to the other varieties. Try and go along with the ride, because this story wouldn't work without it.
Hope you all enjoy it!