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 Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 1:12 pm
Katalina, however, had no such inhibitions. She lazily drifted closer, inspecting the babies as they inspected her. Kra seemed to be speaking to the children in a low sort of rumbling. Then he looked over at Joshua and waved him closer before returning to the babies, occasionally pointing at both Joshua and Katalina as he rumbled at the young kraken.
When he stopped speaking, he told Joshua, "Come closer, if you wish. They know not to eat you, now. Most of them are not very hungry. The food in the eggs did its job."
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Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 1:20 pm
 A huge grin split Joshua's face. "Thanks Kra!" He moved closer to the young kraken. As excited as he was, he kept himself in check. He didn't want to scare the little ones. As he came closer, he used this chance to examine them. 'Even as newborns, they're almost as big as me!' The thought didn't deter him in the least though. Now that he knew he wasn't going to be eaten, Joshua wasn't scared of them. He looked way up, to see Kra. "How intelligent are they?" He was curious as to how much they knew at birth. They apparently were smart enough to understand Kra already. 
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Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 1:36 pm
"Very," replied Kra with a trace of laughter in his voice. "In the normal course of things, they would be ready to go out and find their own places in the world already."
"We're smart enough to understand you!" a higher, slightly tinny voice spoke up. Katalina grinned as the first-hatched baby kraken pulled itself to the fore and waved at Joshua. "Kra says you ask lots of questions." The little one seemed to be very proud of itself for having already tried out its voice.
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Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 1:42 pm
Joshua stared at the little kraken for a moment before bursting into laughter. "Definitely smart." He returned the wave, still chuckling. "Well Kra is right. I do ask a lot a questions. I like to know thing. Regardless as to how important others think the knowledge is." He shrugged. He hadn't tempered down his words, feeling that would have been an insult to them. If they were this smart already, he didn't need to act as if they knew nothing.
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Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 1:59 pm
The little kraken looked at him sagely. "Knowing things is important," it agreed. "That's why we're going to stay with Kra for a while. He's going to tell us everything about this new world. He says it's lots different from the one we should be in," the little creature concluded.
In its speech patterns, apparently, the kraken wasn't a miniature adult either. The others bounced up and down a little, as though doing their best to nod. Kra merely looked amused and said nothing - he let the child do the talking. It would be good for them.
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Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 2:09 pm
Joshua was amused by how the kraken was speaking. It was as if it was trying to show how grown up it was already. "The world has changed. Quite a bit actually, if I understand how old the eggs were." He drifted lower in the water until he was level with the young kraken. It felt weird to keep referring to the young one as 'it' in his mind. Scanning the crowd of young ones, he wondered if there was a way to tell genders apart. Asking just felt weird.
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Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 2:19 pm
Katalina drifted close enough to murmur teasingly in his ear, "What, out of questions already?"
A couple of the young kraken, those close enough to hear, giggled. It was a strange sound to hear coming from them. The leader kraken - apparently designated as speaker for the group - asked, "Can you tell us more about it? Kra said maybe you could. Because you're human, and all."
Katalina bit back another smile. They were adorably innocent, despite being smart enough to talk to a human - with a better vocabulary than she had, she thought ruefully.
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Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 2:42 pm
Joshua glanced at Katalina, giving her a grin. "What? Out of questions? Never!" The young kraken called his attention back to them. "I can tell you lots of things. Whether or not it's useful stuff I don't know. I'm not sure what all kind of info you need." He shrugged, but continued speaking. He might as well give them what he could. Maybe it would help them survive out in the world.
"There are areas of the ocean to avoid. The waters there have become polluted and poisonous. Not the best place to live. The farther from shore the safer. Humans think sea-side property is about the best homes you can find. Personally, I agree with that idea." He chuckled to himself. 'Obviously considering my home is within meters of the shoreline.' "Now you have to be careful of ships. Right now, you're not really a danger to them, but there are propellers in the water than could hurt you. When your older, check before you attack." Joshua glanced at Kra as he said this part. He wasn't sure what the elder kraken thought of this bit of info.
"You shouldn't needlessly hurt humans." He stressed the key word, not wanting to seem as if he was turning them into pacifists. "Otherwise, they could come hunting you. Of course, if they come after you without reason, you should defend yourself. The sea and life within it shouldn't just lay down and take the destruction being wreaked upon it." Joshua was frowning by the end of his tirade.
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Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 3:35 pm
The little kraken blinked at him. Then it turned to a few of the others and chirruped at them a few times before turning back. "Okay," it said. "So if the water is dirty and all the fish are dead, we stay away..." Then it shrugged. No matter how young they were, a kraken's shrug was awesome. Clearly, the little creature intended to say that it hadn't been able to follow once he'd started talking very quickly, which was understandable.
Kra drew the young kraken's attention with a low grumble, then began to explain what Joshua had just said more slowly. The young ones' eyes brightened in comprehension, and then the leader of the young kraken turned to Joshua again. "Do you have a name? Kra says humans have names, just like we do. And they might sound funny, but it's their special language, like what we have."
Katalina was obviously struggling not to start giggling. This was one of the more amusing conversations she'd gotten the chance to witness.
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Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 4:10 pm
Joshua watched the kraken shrug, amused by the rippling motion. "That's about the gist of it." He gave one of his own shrugs. A twinge on envy passed through him quickly. The krakens managed to pull off shrugging much better than thin human shoulders.
He blinked at the question asked of him. Ignoring the obviously laughing Katalina, he answered. "Of course I have a name. I'm Joshua. Do you have one?" He hadn't realized just how funny the human language probably sounded to others. Especially to newborn krakens, no matter how smart they were.
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Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 6:47 pm
The baby kraken chirruped at Kra again, as though asking for a translation, though it had proven itself very capable of understanding Joshua. So that couldn't be it. Kra rumbled back, looking amused.
Blinking up at Joshua with its large eyes, the leader of the young ones said, "I probably do. But Kra hasn't had a chance to name us all yet. He says you can help me choose a name, if you want to."
Katalina's eyes widened. Heck of an honour, Joshua, she informed him mentally. Take your time choosing.
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Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 8:07 pm
'You know, I feel half deaf. I keep missing pieces.' Joshua though, mildly amused as he listened to the krakens talking. His eyes widened as the young one asked for a name. "Me?" He glanced at Katalina and nodded. He would considered this carefully. He thought for a moment before coming to a conclusion. To pick a proper name, he would have to know the young one's gender. "Um....This might sound weird, but what gender are you?"
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Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 8:28 pm
The young kraken blinked at him. "Female," it informed him patiently, as though humouring a young child. "Can't you tell?"
Kra broke in. "Female kraken tend to be smaller and a darker colour than the males, Joshua," he explained. "It's a little more difficult to tell when they are this young, but in a year or two the difference will be very distinct."
The young one nodded perfunctorily, then got back to what really interested it - her. "Do you have a name for me?" she asked hopefully. Apparently, names meant a lot to these young creatures.
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Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 8:07 am
"No, as a matter of fact. I can't tell. I've never met a kraken other than Kra." Joshua shrugged, before returning his mind to the matter before him. His eyes took on a far-away look as he ran through lists of names in his mind. He kept coming back to one in particular. Rolling the name over in his mind, he decided that he liked it.
"Well, I do have a name for you, if you like it that is." He told the young kraken. 'I hope she likes it.' He couldn't help but feel the pressure to pick one she liked. "How about Oceania?" Joshua liked the ring of the name. And to top it off, it had to do with the ocean where she would live her whole life.
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Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 6:45 pm
((HEY GUYS!! sorry for not posting, I was GROUNDED! and still am... my dad gives me 1 hour of comp like every other day so that's how i am on right now.... can I have a reacp?))
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