The weekend was here at last! Not that I had overly minded class nor did I flock to the beaches like so many of the younger students here. The weekend afforded me free time away from my studies. Mind you I didn't need too much of it in order to continue my explorations of this island.

The mushi had been crossing over somehow and while finding this out may not have made much of a difference to my plans there was always the remote possibility that I could shut down things on this end. Being free of the mushi that crossed over was worth the risk that something could go wrong and it always did in the past. The closer to the source the more dangerous it was I supposed.

In any case there was always something that thwarted me.

But first I had to make a pit stop. Unloading the stack of books I checked out from the library I spent a little time searching the stacks for some light reading over the weekend to keep up on my studies. After all I had been here in order to further my education in order to assist Doctor Saladin better.

The first book I found was Grimm's Fairy Tales. I must have read it over a dozen times already and could always read a select story or two without needing to read it cover to cover. The next two books would assist me; The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins and Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson not that I had any luck stargazing here. The choice had been made when I discovered that the chemistry book I had wanted to check out already had been. So I opted to photocopy a few sections from this mundane chemistry text and that.

This done I debated whether or not to go back to my room, drop off the books and get out of the uniform. Or I could just head out now rather than having to walk all the way across the campus only to come back this way afterward.

I mulled it over, then decided not to delay. If I went back to the dorms I could get distracted or lack motivation in going back out so I might as well do it now and so I set out to the jungle heading towards the place where I had last seen the mushi.

The flora and fauna in these depths of the 'forest' region was so insanely rich that he could - if he wanted to; collect several samples, pack them for interstellar transport, blast his way out of the star system and return to his homeworld - there, sell the samples at an auction and live a life of luxury off the proceedings. But living a sedentary life in an abyssal mansion was boring compared to being an xenaut in an extant human settlement. Not only the samples he collected were groundbreaking - the field observations, data banks and sample analysis results were causing technological renaissances one after another.

Books, for example. An ingenious human invention - they had proven themselves far superior to the scrolls of old, and with his initial report taken from Etolie's bedroom, complete with construction data that he had radioed back to the homeworld; within weeks the technology was being utilized by deep-sea divers, and even as convenient computer-replacements by astronauts working in outer space. He felt a sense of pride as he continued his work - diligent as ever as he focused on his task of scanning the bark and taking cellular samples of a new kind of 'tree' with fin-like leaves and some extremely nutritious, yellow fruit.

"Perhaps if I'm lucky, we could engineer this into an undersea variant...." he mumbled to himself as he pulled back from the tree, just taking in its majesty. So focused was he on his task that the distant sounds of an interloper was missed - it was when the girl accidentally stepped on one of his tentacles that his attention was finally drawn. In a rush, she continued, ignoring the optical-camoflaged form of his central body hanging from the trees and... right towards a small pit he had dug to get at the mycelium of an unusual fungus that was growing under the shade of an ancient tree.

She must've been in a hurry because she didn't seem to notice as she stepped up to the hastily-covered pit. While it wasn't too deep, stumbling into it would definitely make her stop her high-speed powerwalk through the jungle...

The jungle had a plethora of plants that I failed to identify. But not being a botanist I had no idea how unusual they were. Nor had I paid them any more attention other than the fact that had hit me some time ago. There wasn't so much as a lowly insect to pollinate any of them.

Though I had been aware that there were more ways than insects to pollinate plants. Tropical storms were plentiful so winds were probably the chief contributor in pollination or maybe even the staff here did it by hand in some places. I had no idea nor did that matter interest me much.

What did was falling. I nearly tripped over something. Some concealed root which caused me to slow my pace though not by much. I had experience in getting caught in storms on otherwise clear days and had been in a bit of a hurry which proved to be a mistake as in stumbled into a small ditch.

“Whoa!” A hand touched the ground keeping me from falling flat. It wasn't a long fall but the suddenness of it unbalanced me and I may have landed smack on my face otherwise. As it was my left palm stung and my backpack fell to my side seeing how I had slung it over a single shoulder in my haste.

One of the flaps had opened spilling out some of my books and those photocopies. “Sonofabitch!” I cursed wiping my hands on my skirt before I begun collecting the sheets of paper before a gust of wind carried them away. The books wouldn't go anywhere and were safe where they were for the moment.

The scene that played out before him had been absolutely no different from the computer funroms of the comedy genre. He managed to muffle a burst of internal laughter, the mental noise melding with the sound of the impact, followed closely by a “Sonofabitch!” delivered in perfect timing. Utilizing the natural shadows under the trees he was hanging from, he shifted slightly as he agilely worked his way closer to take a closer look - if he was visible despite the natural optical camoflage, it would remind the observer of a flattened, arboreal ape quietly swinging through the trees on elongated limbs. Utilizing the lower gravity of this planet, he easily worked his way through the foliage in total silence, finally getting a better view of this intruder.

The girl had dropped some papers... and some books in her backpack caught his eye. As she continued to grumble as she gathered them, he waited patiently for her to recover from that slight jolt of adrenaline. Her chest slowly eased off from breathing so hard, and looking around, as if seeing if anyone caught her amusing display just now. He remained silent, planning out the attack in his head - if she sensed his presence, he would have to go all out. If not, he would have an easier time of it. It had been some time since he last had a bit of fun with a human, and he supposed that after all his hard work throughout the week, it would be fine if he decided to study something far more interesting than the nonreactive plants and the few microchitineous life forms he had discovered so far.

He remained perfectly still - admiring the shape of her curvy legs and her perky rear covered by cute panties as she finished picking up whatever she had dropped. How he would continue would depend on what she would do next...

I continued to mutter to myself.

“Fucking hole! Fucking backpack!” The pack had seen better days and one of the flaps didn't close. The zipper had become unaligned and had been all but impossible to seal meaning that I could get it half closed on a good day.

Usually it didn't matter much unless it was raining or I fell into a fucking hole. Too busy to notice anything I managed to calm myself down once the last of the photocopies had been collect and stuffed back into my pack. Next went the books before I slipped the pack back on.

You'd think I'd learn and slip it on both arms but I slung it over one and stepped out of the hole, dusted my hands off and proceeded with a little more care.

Glancing to the sky I shook my head. Plenty of clouds, none of which looked like storm clouds but rain could come at any moment her. “It better not rain. Eh!”

I caught movement but it was a blur among the trees. A mushi? Probably though that alone wasn't alarming provided it hadn't crossed over. I looked but lost sight of where it had disappeared to.

Her head turned, giving him an excellent view right from her back, taking in her body's form as she turned her eyes away - towards the trees where he had swung off. Shifting his eyes to follow her gaze, he saw that retracting the tentacles had caused the branches to shiver as they moved with an equal, but opposite force to the propulsion he had used to approach her.

Impressive. he thought to himself as the motions of the trees were muddled as they slowly blended in with the sudden breeze that worked its way through the depths of the 'jungle'. She had somehow sensed his presence despite the fact that all his olfactory ducts had been squeezed shut and was nearly invisible to the human eye due to his military-grade optical camouflaging. For a moment, he mentally berated himself for moving too fast - but his own curiosity had driven him as it did now.

She turned slowly, searching the trees as he waited soundlessly in an undergrowth just beyond the shallow ditch. Failing to find anything further, she began to climb back up from the shallow ditch she had stumbled into. The clouds above were thick, and it was possible that she was annoyed by the fact it could possibly rain - damaging the precious books and notes she was carrying in her bag. Fortunately, her breathing eased off as she was unable to find any further traces of his intrusion. Satisfied that she could not sense him, he waited - coiling his attack tentacles like a mantis shrimp's.

Not really a surprise as he expected some of the students in the campus to have some level of training in military matters; theirs was an extant human settlement, after all. He had found a myriad variety of humans here - magic users, shape-shifters, models, artisans... this one appeared to have some training in surveying and scouting. As she straightened out after the effort of climbing out of the ditch and began to walk, he struck from below.

Four tentacles snapped around her limbs - the lengths using their inertia to quickly wrap around her limbs near instantaneously before he shifted his mass slightly forward to absorb the incoming shock. The surprise attack had been pulled off with perfection as he felt - rather than heard the rush of air as her lungs filled up to scream. Not giving her a chance to alert anyone, he pulled her up and inwards - letting her 'stick' into the wall of tentacles, the lengths rapidly coiling around her mouth, face and neck in the blink of an eye as the chemical ducts opened and drenched the surface of its skin with lubricant to avoid 'damaging the goods' as he slunk back into the ditch with her. Then, once he had secured her inside properly, he eased off on covering her mouth to let her breathe... maybe scream if she really wanted to.

Not that it'd help; the interlocking tentacles forming a 'pod' as they closed in effectively muffled her.

And not too soon - a mild rain began to fall as the pod sank into the ditch, its outer 'skin' quietly shifting and changing until it finally achieved the color and texture of jungle overgrowth. Someone could walk right past it and they'd be none the wiser...

My papers and books secured I wasted little time in proceeding onward. Either something was here on this side or not there was no way to tell which. If the mushi had already crossed over then it was already too late. And since I could no longer detect movement I put it out of my mind since there was nothing I could do about it. If something lurked out there there was no way I could outrun it with my scoliosis nor did I think I could effectively fight back if it came down to it.

Still I scanned the terrain for potential weapons and problem spots that could trip me up or others. Just because my options were limited didn't mean that I wouldn't attempt to resist. Normally there was no sense in resisting but I knew that there may be times were that would be necessary.

Then it happened. Something came up at me, I could feel the disturbance of air as it was displaced by that sudden movement, even got so far as to open my mouth to exclaim as I caught the glimpse of something … tentacles, vines, they were a blur of motion that sealed around me yanking me up and back before I could utter a sound.

The air grew stale as I was enclosed in something. Tentacles winding around my mouth cutting off that scream, others about my neck. My backpack had fallen off as I was yanked backwards and my skin felt moisture of some kind. Wherever I was it was being lowered down until I felt it hit the ground.

Struggling in my bounds I couldn't see much more than a dark green. Was I in the stomach of some creature? Were these things lethal now? This was a terrible way to find out not that there was much I could do about it as I thrashed in my bonds and even tried, rather unsuccessfully to bite the tentacle coiled over my mouth. But seeing that it was just covering it and muffling that scream I hadn't been able to make much more than grazing contact with my teeth as I continued to squirm, heartbeat accelerating given the predicament I found myself in.

I don't get it. You saw me coming, yet you didn't run... he mused. he had seen her head move for a split second as the powerful frontal graspers shot forward noiselessly - how had she perceived him, when he was utterly noiseless and nearly invisible to the human? There was no doubt - he had snared a very interesting specimen this time. He shuddered in excitement as he 'reeled' in the catch, bracing to take the impact of dropping his catch onto the central hub of his body for preliminary analysis.

The suckers on the fleshy lengths that coiled around her face worked to latch onto her skin and neck, holding her head still as the curious lengths swarming around her head began to feel her out - finding her eyes, facial features and such in the dark. An unnatural, low chirp emanated from somewhere behind the girl, and his eyes drew towards the sound to notice a warning; the atmospheric oxgyen was rapidly being consumed due to the girl taking the unusual route of struggling AFTER he had wrapped her up good. Which was particularly odd - his last 'test subject' had been quite the reasonable type - attempting to negotiate after he had caught her. This specimen on the other hand, began to struggle as the second set of tentacles began to idly explore her body.

She had dropped her bag at the point where he had snatched her out of the air. Looking around, he spotted the item to the right of the ditch and quickly brought it under as well instead of let it sit out in the rain. That was when another warning chirp went up from the cortex computer, alerting him to the fact that the oxygen levels in the fleshy pod were rapidly falling to dangerous levels to her hyperventilating. In response, he began to use his gills to pump oxygen from the surrounding air into the enclosed space and watched as the atmospheric analysis cease its warning as he balanced out the girl's rapid breathing with his own ventilation.

Her teeth found his flesh - but desperate as the girl's efforts were, they had no chance to breach the thick, leathery hide evolved to withstand extreme pressures under the depths of an oceanic abyss where his kind were most comfortable in. He simply let her struggle for a while, occasionally moving and shifting his grip on her to give her a show of her struggles having some effect. However, her biting down on the tough hide gave him the opportunity to do what he wanted to next - to blindfold her with another set of tentacles now that she was holding her head in a fixed position. Suckers found skin as the lengths attached themselves to her face and at last, he dropped the optical camoflage he was using to cloak his tentacles with a sigh of relief. Now that he didn't have to focus so hard on maintaining that difficult skin transformation, he looked over his catch properly - the tentacles exploring her small tits, her petite waist and her svelte hips with the careful touch of a biologist inspecting an unknown species.

What he found was quite fascinating. Was she actually able to sense his movements even in the pitch darkness? Did this girl have ESP?

He had to know.

I struggled in that darkness hearing a chirping sound. What the hell? I've never seen an animal here, not even bugs. So was that the creature? Another thing that had surprised me had been the fact that I had been making some progress in my struggles. Still I had been secured and I could feel tentacles roam over me as I twisted and turned.

Another chirp sometime later. That time I determined that the sound wasn't organic, that it was something mechanical. I could have been wrong. It was hard to think as the air grew stale. The tentacle over my mouth actually shifted enough for me to bite it.

Though it was thick and hard, some kind of rubber that my teeth barely depressed into. That taste on my tongue, was it what shoe leather tasted like? I would have retched if I was able to. Another tentacle looped over my eyes blinding me. Which confused me since I couldn't see in the first place.

At first I thought that it was blindly groping like those other tentacles that felt up my body. Was that rain I was hearing? My brain had been addled until the air grew fresh for some unknown reason. I had no clue as to what was happening though I felt that continued touching stimulating me, my nipples puckering against my say so.

I didn't feel any juices dissolving me but it was too early to say for sure. Why would it bind me? Blind me? If it intended on devouring me. So I might have been wrong. On a whim that I assumed would not work I attempted to speak though with that tentacle clasped over my mouth the words were muffled so badly that I couldn't make sense out of them and I was the one thinking of them!

The sound of the rain picked up - going from distant, to a steady downpour as he continued to feel her up - the motions less that of an an animal preparing to eat its catch, and more reminded her of a careful inspection. Her limbs were studied, and feedback tested as the tentacles coiled around her wrists and ankles and shifted slightly every now and then to give her the illusion that her struggles were working, even if a little.

With the subject secured and initial diagnostics checks done, he moved on to studying her body proper - her skin was healthy. Her muscles responded instantly whenever he felt her up. Finally, satisfied that he didn't have to splint any broken arm or bones, he began to undress her. Instead of ripping her clothes off, he used his finger-like lengths to loop around the buttons, undoing her uniform top with precise motions before peeling it back with the care of a craftsman dealing with a delicate fabric. Her nipples poked slightly from her bra as he set the school uniform top aside. While that would be fun to play with - he had another goal for now; to make sure she didn't crack any ribs due to her impact in the central hub.

Humans can be so fragile. he thought. If he was to collect the requisite samples, he had to make sure his catch was left uninjured.

That was when she made a 'mouth noise' again. Not a scream this time... was she trying to say something? Was she in pain? Was she injured somewhere? While his grasp on human speech was relatively decent, he would have to study her speech first, so as to craft a specific vocabulary set to respond to her with. She had eased off on the teeth, too - having realized that it'd be impossible for her to bite through. Now, if she had the jaws of a Mohorovicic beast... maybe she would have a chance at cutting through his flesh. Responding to her stopping the biting, the tentacle over her mouth pulled back, leaving her mouth clear.

Those tentacles secured me in that dark cocoon I found myself in. They shifted appearing to have some give in them but alas I was still held fast. Even if I could escape from them I would be left with the problem of getting out of this thing, a stomach I guessed but there had been no digestive juices that I had been aware of.

No liquid bathed me but smaller more dexterous tentacles began manipulating buttons, hooks and zippers. The touch appeared to examine me thoroughly. There were no brakes or cracks would be discovered. I did tense when that touch turned to my back, the curvature of my spine hadn't been severe but still hindered me in many ways. It was more sensitive too, contact set off warning bells in my head as I braced for something worse that never came.

Still confused even though there had been more oxygen circulating I found myself being stripped of my clothing. For now only my shoes and socks remained by the time that tentacle slid away from my mouth. Was it letting me speak? There was no time to reflect on it. I ceased my struggles seeing how fruitless they were. Even if I escaped those tentacles would be upon me before I could escape the stomach so I was twice fucked and needed a plan to get out of the stomach and free at the same time. Plus fleeing in my state wasn't an option not that I had been concerned with being seen streaking. Actually that sounded like fun but I couldn't allow my mind to wander.

“I taste like shit!” It was out before I could really think about it seeing that it didn't show signs that it was going to consume me after all though I couldn't be sure.

“How are you guys crossing over?” In the event it was going to eat me I might as well die knowing the answer to the question that I sought to solve though under the current circumstances it had been a wonder that I had remained that focused.

He was carefully undressing her when she had tried to speak. Curious to hear what she had to say, he peeled back the flat-headed tentacle from her mouth and watched her as she drew breath, finding the oxygenated bubble to be relatively breathable as her asphyxiation eased off now that she was able to breathe properly.

“I taste like shit!” she suddenly blurted out and he began to translate it in his mind, occasionally checking the output runes on the cortex computer to see if he had the correct translation.

I, as in - yourself, taste - like shit; similar to excrement... he read out, mentally rather than using his crude vocal cords.

The laugh that this comment wrung out of him registered as audible sound from his gills - as if a long, slow hiss filled the artificial gap he had created for her. Getting his laughter under control, he quickly righted himself as he realized that his catch thought she had been eaten alive. Still, she did raise an important question. How DID she taste like? Opening his jaws a crack, and glad that he had blindfolded her beforehand, he ran the shifting palps of his 'central tongue' down her arm as his taste buds took note of her subtle taste and warmth. That was when he saw the strange markings on her left forearm.

What's this? In human language... a shopping list? he thought to himself as he absentmindedly touched it - only then realizing that it was inked into her skin, rather than drawn onto the skin much like a child would do with careful notes. The way his interest lingered was noticeable to his catch as he finally stripped her almost nude, leaving her in her stockings for some reason. By then, his catch had finished struggling and was - oh wait, she was talking to him directly.

“How are you guys crossing over?”

Again, he spent a few seconds translating her speech with his computer - then he realized that he was confusedly scratching his head as the sound that vaguely sounded like a deep, gravelly 'huh?' bubbled up from his lung tubes - from right below her. She definitely mentioned 'guys' - and then he began to explore her body again. Maybe she thought he was some kind of amalgam organism. Or perhaps she was aware of extraterrestrial life... thinking back, he had proven that other species outside of humans had survived the Fall. He looked at the translation again.

Isn't crossing over an euphemism for... well, you know... dying? he thought to himself as he continued to explore her body. First, he had to figure out how to copy her language runes, then mimic speech in a way she could take it and understand. While he wasn't that good with the second part, he had gotten some experience with the spoken word recently, thanks to that magician girl he had sampled before. However, there were some things he had learned during his stay here - some things were universal and didn't need language to be understood. One such thing was the humble question mark. With one of the more prehensile limbs, he began to draw on her bare abdomen - a large, clear '?'.

Sound exploded all around me, vibrations pressing upon my naked body though it was unclear what it was. It was alien, that was for sure, but could have been a burp for all I knew. The scent hadn't changed, the oxygen was still rich and it was still caressing me, exploring me with those various tentacles.

The hair at the back of my neck stood on end as I felt it sweep over my tattoo. Oddly it wasn't from the current situation but memories from my past. My mind had turned to the distant past, the names recorded on my arm were the very people that I would destroy someday. But not today.

While I had not realized the laugh I felt a tentacle trace over my abdomen. I had a delayed reaction at first not expecting communication in this simple form. What I did expect had been another caress to go with the countless others. So it took a few seconds for awareness to hit me.

It understood me? Well enough to seek clarification of what I just said. How to explain?

“Transitioning between your dimension to ours. Moving between the two.” I could have gone into complicated hypothesizes and so on but there was no telling if it would have a similar baseline understanding so it was best to keep things as simple as possible. I had no idea about the truth of this reality.

She remained non-responsive, quivering at the touch of the sensory palps slowly running across her body for a moment. So he kept up his motions while she seemed to recover some of her thought processes thanks to her breathing returning to normal. In fact, something in her head seemed to have snapped - she wasn't resisting at all now. Did it have something to do with the natural, odorless skin secretions he was slowly emanating into the air? He had assumed that humans would panic and fight to their last breath before their bodies gave out, judging by the hentai videos he had watched in his youth - but here, he noticed how quickly they yielded.

Not that he minded, though - it was a lot easier to collect the samples from someone who wasn't fighting with their backs against the proverbial wall.

She was speaking again - and little by little, he figured out the language patterns of this human girl; no longer needing to peek back at the cortex computer's output to figure out what she was saying. Of course, there were some complex words here and there that he needed to look up, but overall - he could reply to her much faster. If only he could practice with humans every day...

“Transitioning between your dimension to ours. Moving between the two.” she tried again.

Oh.

What came out of his simple breathing hole sounded less like an 'oh', and more like garbled, extremely low speech as his brains began to run with this new possibility.

Transdimensional physics was a realm of super-science - techno-sorcery, even; the sheer amount of calculations necessary to understand the subject made it restricted to the greatest scholars and the most powerful supercomputers on his home planet - only an Elder with over a hundred stellar years of experience in studying these natural phenomena had the brain structure to truly understand the metaphysics of trans-dimensional travel and operate the vast processor banks of the optronic computers necessary to 'visualize' it properly. Sure, their scientists had managed to 'jump' tiny, uniform objects across interstellar space at faster-than-light speeds using their theoretical prototypes... but even with their technology levels, it wasn't enough to reliably 'warp' more complex objects into other dimensions. Even the telecommunications systems he used integrated the same 'warp' technologies to 'feed' data back across a hiertho undiscovered 'subspace' to their homeworld's observatories at speeds that far surpassed even the speed of gamma-wave radio signals. If humans had a technological renaissance as they did while they hid from the great flux storms...

No, that was impossible. Maybe she was going off science fiction - yes, that had to be it. That last girl had talked to him about magic summoning. It was possible that this girl had an interest in flux zones, or perhaps it was his eye-addling optical camouflage that had caused her to think of him as an 'inter-dimensional traveler'.

Her movements against his tentacles drew his attention - and he realized he had completely halted as his brains ran wild with the theory that humans had somehow found out a way to travel across flux layers. Quickly correcting this error in his actions, he carefully considered how to answer this. Before he could, however - he then noted just how sensitive her back was; and how she shuddered at his touch. For a moment, he was reminded of that girl who had shown some understanding of 'magic' - and how sensitive her breasts were. Perhaps he could use this to work her thoughts away from this subject...

With the soft touch of a diagnostician, he took a closer look at her back - the enhanced sensory feelers carefully running up her back as he took in her sensitive body into his mind's eye - memorizing her body's form as he prepared to collect those vital samples from her.

The response had been unintelligible to me. A grumbling retort that could have been a 'no' or something far more complex. I had no clue to it's language though most of the others spoke English. Not all of them, there were those that lacked speech or at least didn't attempt to communicate with me like that slime that attacked me in the showers.

So not all the mushi spoke but I found that most did. All I could imagine was that there had been some sort of rift or tare in the fabric of space and time. I even had a hypothesis as to why they were so varied. I pictured several different tares that all spilled out into a central hub of sorts with a tare leading from the hub to hear.

Or perhaps there had been an assortment of tares on the island making this a hub of sorts. My scientific curiosity had been awakened and there had been no way in finding this out without taking risks. Which landed me here wherever here was.

“I don't understand.” I grunted feeling a touch upon my back. Inspection there would reveal that the bone structure was off. As if the primal forces putting me together reckoned that this was close enough. I could walk but not run. My feeble attempts at running amounted to a slow jog for others.

Clearly the reason why I chose not to run seeing that that hadn't been much of an option. My legs were in good condition but my spine was out of alignment. Signals from my brain didn't reach them in a timely fashion spanning along the curve that hindered me throughout my life.

I managed to deal with it reasonably well. I wasn't going to be a gynmist. Nor was I very flexible as a consequence but my condition was minor. For many years I got away with wearing a brace and now I no longer used it. I would hate to know how life would have been like had it been worse and I needed surgery. It was rare that I thought back on those darker days unless catching sight of my own tattoos or having them caressed as if the very touch drew out my remembrance of the names there.

First things first, get educated to assist Doc Saladin then worry about all that. With any luck dad would have already kicked the bucket so to speak. I knew that he shouldn't even be a thought at this stage but some things could never be forgiven.

“Eh! That hurts!” The light pressure becoming unbearable in quick succession. My wriggle kicked up at that moment in a feeble attempt to pull away from that touch.