Cephalopod Snippets #3

The final batch of four single paragraph cephalopod stories. These take place in the final frontier.

Space Cuttlefish

Floating lazily through space, a shimmering figure is seen from the ship's deck viewport. The crew stares speechless at the sight of the space cuttlefish, all thinking the same thing 'this can't be real'.

Space Octopus

The astrobiologist furiously took notes as he observed the space octopus. His scientific reputation would be made once he presented his work on this new species. It was truly a remarkable example of convergent evolution, so alike the earth octopus in appearance yet not even a carbon based life form.

Space Squid

Black tentacles flashed with shimmering waves of color as two space squid were locked in battle. Great fins along their heads flapped angrily and beaks snapped at one another. The battle stretched on and on, other denizens of that area of the galaxy learned to avoid it.

Space Nautilus

The first anyone saw of the space nautilus was it's long pale tentacles the color of a winter moon. It's dark shimmering shell blended into the depths of deep space. Most didn't survive love enough to see it.

Cephalopod Snippets #2

Here's the second set of one paragraph cephalopod stories. This time for mechanical creatures.

Steampunk Octopus

It lurks in a crevice of the reef, an oddly shiny tentacle darts out. Ignoring the usual prey of an octopus, this one searches the sea floor for shiny bits of glass and metal to decorate its lair. Tiny treasures to remind it of the past while waiting for its gears to finally wind down.

Steampunk Squid

A soft ticking sound trailed the sleek body of the squid. It was lagging behind the school of reef squid. Other stragglers were being picked off by predators but they shied away from this bizarre metallic squid with it's whirring gears on it's back.

 Steampunk Cuttlefish

Gliding through the ocean the clockwork cuttlefish quietly whirred and clicked as it swam. Where this strange creature came from no one know, some strange creation of a mad scientist perhaps? It has been traveling the ocean for years along with it's brethren, the mechanical squids, octopuses, and nautiluses. Until the day their mechanisms finally slow down and they wash ashore to be marveled over by curious beach combers.

 Steampunk Nautilus

A solo wanderer of the sea, a relic of some contemporary of Captain Nemo or maybe even the captain himself. The mechanical nautilus makes its way through the water year after year.

Cephalopod Snippets #1

So the story I set this blog up in order to share hasn't been coming along too fast, I keep changing my mind on where it will go so I'm going to share some little one paragraph stories I wrote a while back based on my cephalopod themed jewelry. Here are the first four.

Octopus

Darting in and out of crevices in the coral reef the octopus hunts for food. Tiny crabs scuttle out of the way but not fast enough. Arms dart out and wrap around the small crustacean and pull it towards it's hungry beak.

Squid

A giant squid swims through murky deep sea waters. Many of the creatures it passes are lit up by bioluminescence, glowing in this realm where the sun's light never reached. This squid isn't interested in a meal, it's trying to keep from being one itself. Sperm whales have invaded, the greatest enemy and predator of the giant squid.

Cuttlefish

A group of cuttlefish glitter in the tropical ocean waters. It's the mating season and they are on full display, flashing bright colors to attract a mate. It will be the final act of many of their lives, the females living only long enough to lay their eggs. They will never see their young.

Nautilus

As it had many times before the nautilus rose from deeper waters that night to feed among the coral. It was an old nautilus, unlike other cephalopods it didn't die after mating once but could live upwards of 20 years, it's shell was scratched and battered by the sea. Each night the journey got harder and harder, soon it would no longer be able to evade the predators.