The troubles of knowing yourself

Benny's Quest, part 2

Months ago, the day after the fall...
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Benny awoke to a strange smell. That, and to the fact that his ink had dried up overnight. The latter wasn't much of a surprise; ink was known to disappear after a while.

He didn't have much time to contemplate the former, as the moment he sat up, his face smacked right into a frying pan. And he heard the gargling laugh of the one that held it.

Ah. Salmonids. He should've guessed. Considering the water they lived in, he shouldn't have been baffled by the smell.

He got to his feet and backed up a bit, nervously pressing his back against a tree. "H-hello." He greeted in Octarian.

He was ashamed to admit that, despite how long the truce between the two races had been going on, he'd never actually bothered to learn to speak Salmonid. He could understand it alright, but speaking it was another matter altogether.

The two - there were two of them - Salmonids glanced at each other. One swung his pan over his shoulder. "Well dang, do you speak octo?" One asked the other.

"Not a lick."

"That's lame. What should we do about him in our territory, then?"

Benny's face hardened. He really didn't want to fight. Especially now that he was without his helmet. He was practically defenseless.

The first Salmonid grumbled. "Maybe he speaks salmon. Hey, dude, you speak salmon?!"

Benny shook his head.

The second Salmonid blinked. "But you understood the question?"

Benny nodded.

The first once made a thoughtful sound. Then he groaned. "There is literally one fish in town that knows octo."

The other one paused, then groaned in turn. "Ugh, I forgot about that. Hey, octo, you planning on staying for long?"

Honestly, Benny didn't know. It wasn't like he had much else to do, and he did want to wait for Garratia as close as he could be to where he last saw her. So he gave a slow nod in response.

They both groaned together. One mumbled something unintelligible under his breath, then turned to Benny with an annoyed look. "Then you'd better come with us, then. I also want to apologize in advance for the guy you'll have to talk to; he's the local lunatic and none of us like talkin to him, but he's also the only one that speaks anything other than salmon. So you'll just have to deal with it if you want to stay in the village."

Benny nodded again, taking a step away from the tree and following them as they walked off in the direction of the floating town.

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Benny stuck close by his pair of escorts as they lead him through the town. The town was entirely filled to the brim with various Salmonids, and honestly he was a little uncomfortable with the looks he was being given.

Being such a sub-standard, basic troop...he wasn't used to being the center of attention. And being stared at by Salmonids of all things was arguably even worse. He'd heard horror stories of their aggression from other Octarians that had interacted with them during negotiations; the common Chum weren't that bad, but you go any bigger or smaller and you'll be faced with an individual that wouldn't hesitate to rip you to shreds.

That's what he'd heard, anyway, but weirdly enough, aside from his pan-brandishing escorts, the rest of the salmon in the settlement seemed to be unarmed. Most observed him as he passed with curious eyes, but a few seemed almost...afraid of him?