Chapter Text
“A beast stalks these woods…
Every three weeks it appears, strange noises in the night ringing its arrival. Three days later it’s gone as silently as it came, the quiet almost more unsettling than the cries in the dark.
Shining orange eyes of fire gleam with an unknown light. Streaks like sparks in the night are the last thing you see before it tears you apart, eating you alive. It cleans your corpse so thoroughly, there’s nothing for anyone to bury— and you’re left missing, forever.
Its body is long and sinewy, its arms and legs unnaturally stretched, capped with spindly fingers that can grasp your throat with a vice-like grip. It’s faster than lightning, and strong as an ox. Its piercing gaze can see through the blackest pitch, and its sense of smell is stronger than a shark.
You can’t outrun it.
You can’t fight it.
You can’t hide from it.
There’s no escaping the Eel.”
—
It took every ounce of willpower for Shiver to not roll her eyes. Well, that’s what she got for chasing a rumor, but information about “the Eel”, as it had been dubbed, was hard to come by. The tales were all relatively fresh, but none of them could decide on the details— sometimes it appeared every three weeks and stalked the woods for three days and three nights; others it prowled for three weeks and slept three months. Three seemed to be the only constant, but three of what was what she currently needed to know. A shifting time window was the opposite of helpful.
Due to the ever changing and increasingly tall tales, she’d been forced to rely on shady chat boards until she had finally heard of someone that claimed to have real life connections. What followed was her current situation, after setting up a meeting in a coffee shop, picking something random off the menu based on the name, pretending that yes, she definitely ordered coffee all the time while praying it was decent. It was surprisingly good.
On the other hand, the male inkling across from her had so far proved… disappointing. He didn’t have much in the way of new information, and even then he wasn’t a very good storyteller.
“They say the beast—“
“I appreciate your flair for drama…” Shiver said, pausing to open her fan and drag her eyes around the little room before flicking them back to the inkling, snapping her fan shut. “But I am on a rather tight schedule.”
The inkling grumbled. “In other words, ‘get to the point’.”
She exchanged her fan for her coffee cup, taking a sip before putting the pen in her other hand back to the pad of paper in front of her. “If you would be so kind.”
He sighed. “Alright, alright. It’s supposed to appear every three weeks, and it looks freaky as hell. People hear creepy noises for three days and then boom— it’s gone. Always shows up in the same spot, though. Buddy of mine saw it, but he doesn’t like to talk about it. Been telling people not to go there, though.”
Shiver’s eyebrows raised, looking up from the notes she was taking. “They saw the Eel?”
“Sure did. He’s a good sort, know they wouldn’t lie.” The inkling grinned. “Oh, I could hook you up.”
The octoling suppressed a frown at his word choice. “A talk would be ideal, yes.” Whether it was helpful or not would come next, but a faker was almost always easy to spot.
—
And so Shiver once more found herself out at coffee, paper and pen on the table, sitting across from a rather fit octoling who looked a little too big for their chair. She had worried it would be difficult to set up an appointment, judging by the last informant’s concern that his friend didn’t like to talk about his Eel encounter, but things had gone surprisingly smoothly once she mentioned she was with the Investigators. Being an Agent had its perks.
“My name is Agent Fuuka, but you can call me Shiver.” She gave a slight bow. Best to be polite. “It’s a pleasure to meet you…”
“Just call me Dan.” He gave a nervous smile. “Should I just get right to it, or…?”
“If you don’t mind.” Shiver clicked her pen, readying it for any information.
Dan cleared his throat, leaning in but staring distantly at the table. “Alright, well. I was out hiking one night, along my usual route— I like this one evening path, see; take it pretty regularly. It’s out past the city, so it gets pretty dark, but the moon was pretty full and bright so I didn’t need a flashlight or nothing,”
“Anyway, I come to the usual turn around point; there’s like this weird grate on the ground a ways off and, I mean this isn’t really relevant but it kinda creeps me out so I don’t walk past it. But, well, I get there, and she’s just like—”
The Agent paused her writing, eyes flicking up from the paper. “She?” That was new. Shiver had only ever heard the Eel referred to with “it”, or occasionally “he”. Maybe this would be helpful.
He scratched the back of his neck, cheeks flushing. “Oh, uh… yeah. I mean— I’m guessing. Light wasn’t great, but like… you know. She definitely had a, uh… a female silhouette.”
Shiver fought her face into submission. She was not going to do much as smile at the sight of this large octoling ringing his hands awkwardly around his coffee cup, his too small seat creaking with his shifting. “Continue.” She took a sip of her own drink.
“Right. Well, anyway, I was walking, and I heard this noise, so I look over and see her kinda standing there, uh, taking her shirt off? I think.” Dan took another awkward sip from their paper cup, so Shiver used the moment to ask another, somewhat obvious question.
“She was on two legs?” Most sources, uncredible though they were, said the Eel only ever walked on four. “Not to downplay your story, but are you sure it wasn’t just another hiker you saw?”
Granted, it’d be a weird one who’d be out undressing in the middle of the woods, but hey. Some people were just strange.
“That’s alright, I mean, that’s kinda your job…” He trailed off, before jumping back to his recounting. “But anyway, no, as soon as she saw me she kind of… hissed? And her face twisted and her shoulders hunched like she was getting ready to drop. That’s not really… normal.”
Shiver hummed as she finished writing, looking up to see the other octoling staring at their hands.
“I uh… I’m sorry, I don’t know what she was gonna do after. I bolted all the way back home.”
“Well, I can’t say I blame you.” Shiver ended her last bullet point, reaching for her bag to pull out a small, folded up paper map. “Would you be able to show me your route?”
“Sure, yeah. Let me just…” They took out their phone, swiping to some activity tracker app or another before scrolling down to the correct date and pulling up the map section. Shiver handed him a pencil as he traced the paper with his finger, looking for a point of reference to start at.
Dan took the pencil once he’d found a point, and filled in the line of his walking route, circling the spot where he’d seen the Eel. “She was around here somewhere. There’s a bit of a clearing so… maybe start with that?”
She hummed in acknowledgment. “I know you didn’t get a good look, but did she appear as described? Sharp teeth, long limbs, all that?”
“Uh, yeah, think so. Though I mean, I ran pretty quick, so…”
Shiver made one last note before putting her pad and map away, tucking her pen and pencil into their own sleeve in her bag. “Thank you for all your information, it has been very helpful.” She gave another bow, standing to take her leave as they returned the sentiment.
“Ah, one last thing.” Shiver turned back towards the table after a step, a thought occurring to her. “When was this?”
“Oh, right, uh… probably two weeks ago now?” He glanced back at his phone, checking the date logged for the hike. “Yeah, it’ll be two weeks tomorrow.”
If she was going on a three week window, that didn’t leave her much time.
—
The octoling arrived at the place Dan had described, setting up camp in a clearing not too far off. She was a day later than she’d wanted to be— just over the potential three week mark of the Eel. Having to pass the details through work always took longer than she’d like, but, if she wanted to keep her job (which, some days, she did not), it was necessary paperwork. Signing documents, getting approval, alerting higher-ups and the like was always a pain, but afterwards she’d be free to do as she liked. Initial research didn’t require much, aside from alerting her direct superior what she was looking into, but once the “job” began, an initial report for details, listing potential damages and required supplies was needed.
She had, blessedly, finished the report and gotten approval in time. Shiver didn’t really want to have to wait another three weeks just because Tako was too busy schmoozing to sign her papers.
And so, here she was, in the middle of the woods without so much as a bird chirping in the trees, popping up a little tent in case this took more than a day. She hoped it wouldn’t. Not a bad location, though a little more off the beaten path than she would think was safe for a nighttime stroll. That was not her problem, however, so after getting her space setup she set about surveying the area.
A couple hours later, and still nothing. Shiver sighed. The worst part was, aside from a backpack that could’ve been left by some camper or hiker, she had no way to know if the Eel even returned here; or if she’d ever been there in the first place. The octoling informant hadn’t seemed like he was lying, at least, but it still could’ve been just a random person. Maybe he saw it wrong; it was dark, the eyes could play tricks…
Shiver grumbled, looking at the grate the hiker described. It was very odd, and indeed a little creepy— likely leftover from the human era or some abandoned project. It was the only place she had so far not looked into. Truthfully, she didn’t really want to— if there was something down there, there was only one way out. Having to climb a ladder when a creature of supposed superhuman speed and strength was after you was decidedly very low on the list.
But, well… maybe just a peek. She wouldn’t step away from the ladder. Not without backup— she silently berated herself for not requesting anyone come with her. Honestly, she hadn’t been sure she'd even find anything out here, and making someone come along to look into what could just be an urban legend was somehow embarrassing. She wasn’t scared, anyway, and the Agent preferred to work alone. She could look after herself.
Shiver listened for a while and didn't hear anything, the silence of the wildlife only adding to the prickle running up her spine. More importantly, no sound was coming from the pit; though it was still the middle of the day, and the Eel might be nocturnal. In that case, if it was asleep, going down now would be better than waiting for night to fall. Right? Just a little look. Right.
The Agent pulled open the deceptively heavy grate with a grunt, flipping it up on its hinges to leave it propped open. She wanted to be able to get out as quickly as possible if need be. Shiver wiped her sweaty palms on her pants, removing her stiff black jacket and chucking it a careful distance away to a rock. One more wipe of her palms, checking to make sure her tachi was securely tied to her belt, and she dropped down the ladder into the semi darkness below.
Nothing.
No sound, not a whisper of movement came from either direction. She couldn’t see anything past the ring of light from above, hand releasing the last rung while her hard soled shoes tapped on the concrete floor. Shiver felt a mix of relief and disappointment wash over her, fingers sliding off the hilt of her tachi she hadn’t realized she was gripping.
The octoling sighed, going to grab the ladder to climb out when a quiet shuffle behind her made her pause, ice immediately shooting through her veins.
She turned just in time to see long hands reaching for her throat, a mouthful of needle sharp teeth lunging at her face.
Shit.
Shiver barely managed to duck past the grasp, hand flying up to catch the thing by the neck before those jaws could snap at her, tossing it mostly with its own momentum past her down the tunnel. It rolled, quickly righting itself onto all fours, scrambling sideways out of the light coming in from above and disappearing into the shadows with a low, throaty growl. She caught a brief glimpse of its elongated body before it disappeared, stooped and sinewy, a strange fin-like ridge down its back. The flash of its face cast half in shadow would likely be burned into her mind for weeks; gaping mouth too wide and full of two rows of wicked pointed teeth, jaws working to pump air past gills under exceptionally long, pointed ears. Now only its hands remained visible, spindly fingers on twisted palms padding the floor as it paced in a slow semi-circle. Orange eyes glinted at her from the dark, reflecting the glare off the floor and shining with a wild fire.
The Eel.
Her hearts slammed in her chest, but she didn’t have time to congratulate or berate her luck as it lunged again, lightning quick. Shiver recoiled, intending to pull her sword— and stepped the wrong way, her heel getting caught on the ladder and tossing the octoling flat on her back, crossguard of her tachi jamming painfully into her back. The thing jumped on her, reaching for her neck again with one massive hand while the other clawed at her side. The octoling got one hand up to interject the fingers reaching for her throat— only to have it painfully ripped to the side and pinned to the floor— the other shooting up to stop those wicked jaws from getting any closer to her skin.
The octoling snarled, keeping her hand on its throat as teeth snapped at her face, feeling hot muscle shift under her palm. She couldn’t keep this up for long; the claims about the Eels’ strength didn’t appear to be entirely unfounded. Shiver slid her hand up, jerking her face sideways as the movement made the creature push harder against her palm, thumb and forefinger pressed to the cusp between the thing’s jaw and throat. The octoling dug her fingers into the Eel’s gills, and it made a pained noise; Shiver pressed a little harder, fingers slipping in between the space below the Eels’ long pointed ears behind the cut of her jaw.
The thing leapt off of her with a hiss, scuttering off into the darkness. Shiver wasted no time rolling up onto her feet, grabbing the hilt of her sword and breathing hard as she peered out into the dark. A quiet, shuddering howl drifted back from somewhere, echoing between the walls in a way she couldn’t tell how far— or close— it was.
She risked the ladder, taking the rungs as fast as she could, hardly daring to breathe until she hauled the grate back down when she got to the surface. She hoped it didn’t crawl out in the night.