#AtoZChallenge: The Princess and the Outraged Octopus

As things went, it wasn’t unusual for Oliver the Octopus to be upset. He was usually upset about something or other anyway. But what Princess Opal didn’t get was what he was upset about. He’d been fed and exercised as usual. Someone had refilled and cleaned out his tank. They’d even decorated it for Christmas. But still, Oliver sat staring at her, an accusing look on his face, tentacles knotted in frustration.

“I don’t know what you want,” Princess Opal said, staring at the octopus. It wasn’t as though she spoke Octopi, or whatever language octopuses spoke in. She highly doubted Oliver understood her either.

Oliver unknotted his tentacles and waved them about in the water.

“I don’t know what that means,” she repeated. Ten minutes of staring and waving later, she gave up.

Princess Opal shook her head and headed down to the kitchens. It had been a long day, and arguing with Oliver was tiring. She hugged the cook, snagged a plate of oatmeal cookies and headed back to her room.

That was when Oliver started screaming. At first Princess Opal ignored him, sitting down to eat her cookies. When the noise started to annoy her, she finally turned to look at him. She had never seen the octopus so outraged in all his life. He was halfway out of the water, leaning out of his tank and stabbing a tentacle in her direction.

“What?” she asked.

The octopus jabbed with his tentacle again.

She looked down at her plate. “This?”

Another jab.

“You… want a cookie?”

There was a frenzy of tentacles and more jabbing.

“Okay… though I’m not sure if you can actually digest this.” She reached over and handed him an oatmeal cookie.

The outraged octopus started to calm down, something almost like a… smile… crossing his face. Oliver sank back into his tank, tentacle wrapped around a soggy cookie that was starting to disintegrate into the water.

Princess Opal stared at him for a while before shrugging her shoulders and munching on her own cookie. She had no idea what that was all about. And she didn’t really want to know.

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Head over to Yuin-Y's for today's illustration.