The Fools of Amphidor

The Man With Six Legs (and Two Arms)

When the boat reached the shore, a ramp descended onto the dock and a strange-looking man emerged from a panel on the floor. A VERY strange looking man. And not strange in the conventional sense, like "oh, he has a messed up eye". No. I mean strange in an eerie, more fishy way.

His head was like the body of an octopus, rounding up at the top and narrowing near its base with tentacles tethering to the edges like frilled lace. His mouth peaked through the mass of slimy appendages, sitting underneath one as if the tentacle itself was a mustache just hanging over his lip. Slimy, smooth arms led into hands looked nearly the same as human hands, but with sharper, claw-like nails. The palms of his hands were bristled like a cat's tongue and his fingertips were like suction cups. Webbing stretched in between his fingers as he waved at us. He wore a captain's uniform that seemed tailored perfectly to his cephalopod body.

"Something is fishy about this guy," Alfie said quietly, snickering. Claire smacked his arm.

"Hello!" The octopus man smiled a little. Or at least I think he smiled, "My name is Octavius Hildebran. You must be our explorers! We've been expecting you ever since the Reuben...incident!" He sounded way too cheery about whatever had happened to this mystery man.

"Uh--" Claire stepped forward, nervous looking, "Hhhi? My name is Claire Stallar! This is Max Undergrove, Alfie Albertine, and Roger Larken! We come in peace, I-I guess..."

Octavius laughed, "Well, of course you come in peace! You're here for the game, right?"

"How did you know?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"I'm here to come get you," He smiled a little and gestured for us to get on the boat.

We all traded a glance before deciding that we'd all traveled here. Why not give it a try? We didn't know that this would be the most dangerous thing we'd ever done. How were we supposed to know? Octavius seemed nice enough. Plus, he seemed to already know us. We had no reason not to trust him.

So, we climbed the ramp and got onto the boat. It seemed that, where there used to just be empty space, there were now all kinds of people milling about. They all seemed just as strange as Octavius. They all had different aquatic animal qualities. Most of them were fish-like, having scales all over them and gills on their neck with fins in place of where their ears would be, but some were more... unique like Octavius.

And so began our long trip. We had no idea where we were going, but we were excited to find out. A fish man took our bags and led us across the massive ship's deck, leading us downstairs to a bar/casual waiting area where fishpeople were milling about. He led us past the crowd of sailors and workers to a long corridor of doors.

"This way to your room," he grumbled before walking to one of the suites at the end of the hall.

"Room?" I asked, "How long will we be staying here? On the boat, I mean?"

"About two days," the fish man huffed, "The lighthouse is very far away."

"Lighthouse?" We all chimed in unison.
He grunted as a form of agreement.

"What do you mean lighthouse?" Claire asked, sounding more nervous with each syllable.

"I mean the entrance to Amphidor?" He cocked an eyebrow, "I thought your note mentioned that already."

"What in God's name is Amphidor?" Max scoffed.

The man simply chuckled sarcastically and walked out of the room, dropping our stuff on the floor, "I'm not helping you with your game," He thought we were just looking for answers.

We looked around the room. It was decorated like the average hotel room. From the printed paintings hanging on the walls to the stiff blankets that seemed like they'd been watched in pure starch, it reeked of "Hotel-Chic" decor. It also just plain reeked. The room itself smelled like the inside of a tuna can. Not even the flavored tuna. Just regular old tuna. I'm sure they saw my face scrunch in disgust as I sniffed the air.