Please Keep Your Tentacles to Yourself

She heard whispers from the darkness worming into her ears; she felt a cold gaze clinging to her skin. Then something wrapped around her, soft and slick. She tried to cry out, but the sound sank into her throat. A vast shadow swallowed her, coiling around her and tightening as it dragged her toward deeper, darker waters. Yet death was not what awaited her. It was a monstrous love. … Out on the ocean, there was a Storm Lord of legendary renown. The entire storm season was named after it. It was a tyrant of the sea, with the fiercest storm heart of all, the furious heart of the ocean. It was also a tyrant that brought disaster, death, and change. One day, it found a human. It declared that it wouldn't kill her as long as she told it a thousand and one stories. It poked her, and she let out an “Ah.” It poked her a thousand and one times, and all she could do was cry “Ah” a thousand and one times. It thought it had found someone with a strong backbone. Much later, it realized that the human it had found was a little mute girl. … Zhou Liu thought it had a touch starvation problem. Its eight tentacles were always desperate to coil her into a ball of yarn, every single one wanting to touch her. Sometimes, she found it a little overwhelming. She thought it was clingy and asked if it was a puppy. It said, “Puppies only have four legs.” It was a double puppy. … The Storm's human form was gorgeous. Tall, long-legged, with ashen skin and wild, handsome features. But after holding the form for a while, it grew a third and fourth tentacle from its long legs. The fifth one couldn't bear to be left out and shot out too. Whenever they walked together, it never wanted to hold her hand with just one hand. It couldn't help secretly hooking her fingers with its tentacles, each one earnestly holding one of her fingers. Zhou Liu thought: People shouldn't have five legs and three arms. At the very least, they can't. Still, whenever they walked together, she held every one of its tentacles. Hand in hand, never parting. … Zhou Liu met a terrifying sea monster called Storm. She thought it was bad luck and bad weather, a punishment for stepping outside with her left foot first. Later, whenever she encountered a rainy day, eight tentacles would jostle in front of her head to shield her. The rain always found a way through. But each time, the raging storm would turn into a soft drizzle. Theme: Love life