"Hmm?"

Now, Emily wasn't known for her perceptive capabilities. Even still, she could have sworn that she heard something, or more precisely, someone.

Emily's day so far was going really quite well. She woke up a little late to a beautiful sunny day, made herself a nice breakfast, did a little bit of homework, then went out into the sun to find a nice place to read her book. She donned her white sundress, which she had trimmed with tiny green embroidered vines, and her wide rimmed straw hat for the occasion. On the way out the door she scooped up her brand "new" softcover of "Nameless Fantasy Book" and headed into the woods.

At this point, however, she was hearing things. These things were: A. Falling water, and B. What sounds like a scream.

Upon consideration, the voice didn't sound female and it wasn't continuing. She considered both of these points to be positive. Second, she wasn't entirely sure that she had heard what she had thought. The falling water sound, on the other hand, was still present and quite interesting. It just had to be investigated.

She made her way towards where the sound was emanating. It was definitely a waterfall sound.

Emily had fairly quickly made her way through the woods, diverging from the path and towards the sound. The trees became smaller and more dense before suddenly stopping at a fairly wide sandy shore around a dazzling blue lake. She was shocked at just how pristine it looked, what with most lakes being nasty and green with slime. This one got constantly perturbed by a waterfall issuing from a small cliff, and a stream across the way carried away the grime.

This shock, however, was null compared to she shock she experienced when she was unwarrantably grabbed by something out of the movie "The Abyss" She gasped and dropped her book quite inadvertently on a small stack of very dry stones. Her knees gave out in surprise and she slunk down. She babbled as her eyes darted around at the thing wrapped around her waist, which was getting her dress wet and sandy. An attempt to pry it off failed, as she could barely get a grip on its wet and slippery surface.

Kyrios felt the rather futile scrapping of the girl's finger against the gooey flesh of his tendril and heard the rather incoherent babbling issuing from her. It was ironic, really. Kyrios did know about several of the other island's inhabitants which actively stalked and targeted some human females for their pleasure. Kyrios did no such thing, but somehow, fate always seemed direct him to these girls. And somehow, these girls always seemed to be rather attractive.

Now mostly on dry land, Kyrios was able to stand up, exposing his entire blobby body to the girl sitting in front of him. She was certainly cute, her eletrical aura seemed gentle, reserved and... perhaps even sweet? It was the kind of thing that made you want to smile at her and hug her gently or something like that.

Of course, Kyrios also realized that he had probably scared the poor girl senseless. She was sitting in front of him with an appearance appropiate of a doe caught in the headlights of speeding vehicle. Deciding that he probably shouldn't scare the girl anymore, Kyrios slackened the grip of her tenatcle wrapped around her waist. He also noticed that his tendril had wettened the girl's sundress. Feeling slightly responsible, Kyrios allowed his tendril to remain on her waist so that it could absorb the water from her dress. As he did this, his tendrils started wiggling and moving against her waist, trying to get all of the water out of the girl's dress. An unintentional result of this was that Kyrios unknowningly started caressing the flesh of her waist. But after a while of this, Kyrios withdrew his tendril the now dry waist of her dress.

"My apologies," Kyrios said in his soft, whisper-like voice, "I didn't mean to startle you."

Emily was, for all intents and purposes, petrified by the gooey mass that had grabbed and approached her. She had encountered creatures on this island before, but after each experience it seemed so unreal that part of her believed it was just a bad dream. However, when faced with one of these creatures, she suddenly was forced to realize that all of the previous encounters had been real. Combining this shock would be enough to throw even the most sane person alive into a nervous panic.

She was expecting the worst. Any minute that thing around her waist (that had begun wiggling against her skin) was going to haul her into the air, rip open her dress, or some horrible thing that she couldn't begin to imagine. When this didn't happen, however, and the appendage pulled away from her, leaving her with a dry (yet still sandy) dress and a very confused expression.

When the blob spoke to her, she gasped and hugged herself tightly. Did... Did that thing just apologize?

"Whh...waaha...aawaha.... Wha...?"

Hoist her into the air and tear her dress open, Kyrios wondered amused. Being completely, utterly honest, Kyrios wouldn't mind doing such a thing and having his way with the this young women. In fact, he'd probably enjoy it. She was quite cute and attractive. But his desires weren't that strong and there was really no call for that. Her response to his apology was somewhat to be expected. After all, a big glob of goo had just spoken to her. Kyrios was familiar enough with human mentality to undersand the sort of response that would envoke. Her verbal reply, however, too a little more effort. It actually took a read of the girl's mental state for Kyrios to figure out what she was trying to convey. Surprise? Panic? Fear?

"uh..." Kyrios replied softly, "You may calm down. I'm not going to hurt you." Quietly, however, Kyrios added, "I hope."

He had never intended to hurt any of the girls before. Yet somehow, one way or another, he had ended up raping every single one of them. It was actually kind of disturbing for him. Can it really be that he has such weak self control? Kyrios then began to ooze towards the girl, still almost cowering before him. He tried to be as slow, dliberate and non-threatening as possible in his movement, but he wasn't sure how successful he would be. On that note, Kyrios made sure to stop well away from the girl's body staying out of her comfort zone.

"And I had said that i was sorry," he repeated, "I did not mean to startle you."

As the creature oozed towards her, Emily tried her best to back away. Unfortunately, her body was still almost entirely frozen in place. Those bits that could still move were shaking a little. The thing spoke comforting words to her, but the mere fact that it was talking was terrifying enough.

However, since it was keeping its distance and not reaching out for her in any way, and since it was trying to sooth her nerves, some small part of Emily's mind relaxed. This small part, no longer stricken with terror, began asking all of those questions that you usually ask when you encounter something new. Some of these questions filtered down to the speech center. Most of that area was still terrified, so the questions came out as,

"Wh... who?... What....?"

There was a pronounced shudder in her voice. It was clear, however, that she wanted to know what she was dealing with before trying to get away.

Does this girl have a speech impediment? Kyrios didn't think that he would have shocked her that badly. The other girls that he had met have recovered at least to the point of speaking by now. But this girl was still truely jittered to the point of speechlessness. However, something in her head had recovered to the point of achieveing coherency. So Kyrios was able to comprehend what she was trying to say.

Kyrios was about the answer this girl honestly, but something suddenly caught his attention. A book? Kyrios's eyesight was too bad for him to make it out with sight alone, but a quick scan of the girl's brain gave him the answer. A fantasy book at that. With that piece of knowledge, an idea sudden occured to Kyios. This idea felt a little silly, actually, and seemed almost kind of devious. But the idea also felt quite fun. And it honestly couldn't hurt. With that, Kyrios found the idea suddenly irrestible. Time to test this girl's... imagination.

"I am Kyrios," he answered the girl, using his entire body to speak, giving his voice a resonating, omniscent quality, "The spirit guardian for this lake."

Well, she did have a fantasy book. And, gazing into the girl's mind, Kyrios had seen a spark of deep intelligence and imagination. Maybe she would believe him. Well, whatever the case, this should prove to be interesting. To make him more believe-able, Kyrios reared his gooey body up, making his mass seem tall, powerful and dominating.

"Tell me mortal," Kyrios went on in his loud, resonating voice, "How should I address you?"

The poor girl was sill motionless in shock, but her mind was finally becoming coherent. She looked at the creature towering over her, the intended intimidation having its effect. The white fabric that she wore, now somewhat dirtied by the soft soil, stood in sharp contrast to the dark woodland around her. The sun that shone through the think leaves and the void left by the lake alit her from her surroundings.

"You... you can't be serious..." In her mind she knew that there were no such things as spirits. However, given that she was being gazed upon by a huge flowing entity, both her mind and her tone faltered. When she spoke, she sounded less ridiculing and more hopeful. She did, after all, hope that this wasn't a spirit. She hoped that it was a dream.

"I'm Emily...." she said quietly.

Not exactly disbelief, but doubt. Not exactly acceptance, but a faltering conviction. Emily, as she said? So, Emily didn't immediately believe him for saying such a rather ludacrious thing, and that was honestly good. Kyrios would actually have been rather worried for the girl if she just accepted what he said a face value. But there was not exactly a total shunning to what he had said. There was doubt and a general hopefulness for a more logical outcome, but not complete rejection. Perhaps this ruse was still alive.

Now, how would a spirit respond? Kyrios decided that it would be best to present a facade of power. After all, if he was a powerful water spirit, he should be... well powerful.

"You doubt my power?" Kyrios said, still in that resonating tone. He raised his voice slightly, not to the extend of seeming angry, merely displeased. "Foolish girl."

With lightning speed, four tendrils shot of of Kyrios's body and, before she quite knew what had happened, wrapped around Emily's wrist and ankles. Their gentle, mid-day water like coolness contrasted soothingly with the heat of the sun as they pulled Emily's arms and legs away from her body. Then, eagle-spread, the tentacles hoistd the girl into the air.

"If is unwise to show a lack of respect for a spirit," Kyrios said, his voice dropping into a silky purr as he spoke. Slowly, his main body began to ooze towards the girl he now had helplessly in his clutches. "You should realized that you are at my mercy."

Kyrios allowed his sentence to hang ominously for a second. His grip on the girl's wrist and ankles were not harsh or uncomfortable, but they were firm, clearly showing the Emily that should could not escape even if she struggled with all her might. And just for shock, Kyrios floated the fleshy core of his body to the edge of his gooey mass, pointed his one large photo-receptor eye at Emily and opened it, cauing with looked like a giant, pupil-less and shockinly sky-blue eye to stare at the girl. It surprised Kyrios slightly how obvious Emily's form stood out against the background. Even to his rather primitive photo-receptive eye, Emily's silleuotte was easy to spot. Her white dress and her pale skin stood out extremely well against the spotty shadows projected by the shade of the trees. Kyrios lost his train of throught for a moment, reflecting on how much he liked girls with pale skin. To him, girls like that seemed, haunting, fragile and almost... etheral. Somehow, that struck him as being extremely beautiful.

However, Kyrios forced himself away from his contemplations and continued with his act. It must have shocked the poor girl, but Kyrios suddenly gentle set her back down, tendrils uncoiling from her limps and pulling away from her back into his main body.

"But I shall not harm you. You can relax," Kyrios said, reverting his voice back to his normal, very human tone. "For you see, young one, you have actually helped me out of a very dangerous situation. And for that, you have my gratitude."

As Kyrios spoke, he raised himself up again until he was more or less a vertical column of goo before bending his body halfway up his total height slightly foward. It was his best imitation of a human bow. That was an appropiate way to express gratitude, correct?

"In return for this server which you have rendered me, I shall grant you one wish," Kyrios said, "Tell me, Emily. What do you desire?"