Earlier that day,

(Quinten's POV)

Banging on metal cell bars woke me up. "Wake up you lousy excuse for a fish!", the cell guard yells at me. "I'm n-not a fish", I mumble with my gaze on the floor. "What did you say!?", he shouts in his very aggravating squidish accent. "N-Nothing S-Sir", I stutter. "That's what I thought". He unlocks my cell and drags me up off the ground, the bruises and small cuts from yesterday's 'training' still throbbing. He snaps a metal chain onto the shackles that warped around my wrists and leads me down the hall. All the walls are a boring white, somehow keeping the thousands of pounds of water from crushing it. I might of been able to escape somehow during these last six years, but even though I swim fast, I'm not as fast as a full-blooded squid.

As we get closer to the main room, at least a hundred squid voices assault my ears. I can't help but cringe and cower down because of all of them. "Captain, here's the hybrid scum", the squid guard says before pushing my to my knees. The squids seem to hate any hybrids, except tolerating squid hybrids. They just hate every other type of hybrid. My grandpa was human, but my grandma was a full-blood mudkip. That makes me at least a forth, even though I look more mudkip then human. My dad's side of the family could swim faster, stay underwater longer, and use their attacks so much better then me. My mom's mom fell in love with a human, and I'm glad that they loved each other. But the bad part is that I'm the reason that my parents are both dead, even though mudkips are nearly extinct as it is. The squids came for me, because I was young and weak, and would serve a 'good purpose' in their war. And now I'm being taken away to fight those who I should be fighting for.

The squid Captain frowns at me as I'm forced to kneel before him. "Let's hope he gets a bunch, then dies. He should've been dead the second you were found", he snarls. That's true. I should be dead along with my parents, but the squid king thought it would be fun to train me as a weapon. The Captain has a squid from the crowd take my chain, the guard going back to whatever he does all day. I'm dragged to my feet as the squids are given orders to start moving out. I'm taken into the middle of all the marching squids and through a pair of metal doors. Once we're all inside, it shuts behind us. Everyone is so closely packed together that it's hard to breath. Just as my panic is starting to reach its high, giant metal doors on the other side of the room open up.

Water rushes into the room and slams into me. I'm momentarily stunned, but still being dragged forward through the water. The gills on my sides start working quickly to try and keep me breathing, but I can only stay underwater for about an hour and a half. My gills can't replace oxygen as fast as my body uses it, so I can't stay underwater. I come to my senses and try to partially swim with my tail and legs, my hands still bound together. The squid pulling me seems to be very annoyed with having to watch me. Don't worry buddy, the feeling is mutual.

     It's at least 40 minutes before I start to see the bottom of the ocean start to slant up. I was honestly starting to get terrified that I would drown. How ironic is it for a mudkip to fear death by drowning? It's still another 29 minutes until we reach land, and I can definitely feel the growing pain in my lungs by then. The squids clumsily pull themselves out of the water, me being lurched into the shallows. Curse my lightweight-ness. I quickly push myself to my feet before I can be dragged any further.

The squid pulling me doesn't even glance back at me, just tugs on the chain to make sure there's still a weight at the end. This is the start of an hour long walk. I'm not sure how they know where they're going, but they seem pretty sure of themselves. Please let the people we're attacking be well prepared. We eventually enter a wooded area, trees casting a cool shade everywhere. The sound of distant voices has my panic instantly spiking through the roof.

     While I'm not looking, the metal chain is suddenly taken off the shackles. I turn around to be met with the stare of the squid Captain. "Try to run, and you will be hunted down. Stay and fight. If you try to fight for the human scum, you will die with alongside them", he barks in my face. I flinch back and nod my head. I really don't want to do this, but I know just how far the squids will go to find me if I run.

And soon, the battle has started. The squids outnumber the humans three to one, not good. The only weapons I have are my weak attack moves and my wits. Luckily, I was shoved into the back, and can't really get close to be expected to hurt anyone. But as the battle continues on, a flash of gray and reflected light flies across the sky. It's a guy wearing gray, jumping into the mass of squids with only a small dagger. Is he trying to die!?

My question is soon answered when he starts fighting. Everything in his path seems to just die. But what scares me the most is that the humans are now getting past the squids' fronts and moving to the flanks and back. I've never met any humans besides my dad. I will admit they slightly interest me, but not enough to die for. Curiosity killed the cat. In all the chaos, I'm shoved to the side of the battling squids, exposing me to the human soldiers. One comes sprinting at me, and my instincts from six year of training burst into life. But I don't want to kill anyone.

     I hit him with a weak water gun, knocking him over. They seem just plain annoyed with me. His dog tags catch the sunlight as he lunges at me again. I jump to the side and just mage to avoid his sword. He tries this one more time, me hitting him with another water gun. He seems to pause for a second before drawing a bow. They quickly fire an arrow that I duck from. But I don't see the next one coming, and it sinks into my arm.

I lurch back with a cry and fall over, scrambling back until I hear someone cheer. My attacker and I both look over to see all the squids dead, or running away. Two people stand covered in blood, one is the guy who jumped earlier.

     I take my chance and lurch to my feet, clutching my arm. I blindly run while trying to think of where to go and what to do. But a weight crashing into me sends me to the ground. My arm throbs in agony as I stare into the blue eyes of a human. It's the same one who flew. "W-Wait! M-Mercy p-please. I never w-wanted to fight. Th-They made m-me!", I cry out. He seems to not care, but the knife does move to my arm. I wince and let a tear fall down my face when the knife digs into my arm. My attacker leaves a new cut on my arm, blood flowing freely from it. But after that, he seem like a totally new person.

"Well why didn't you say that in the first place? Now let's get you patched up!", he says with a cheery grin. He stands up and pulls me up with him, making me wince again from the pain in my arm. He slings an arm around my neck while saying, "Ya know, I'm actually not feeling to good at this moment. If I pass out, tell Chameleon that me and you are good". He leans against me while trying to move forward, and I stumble a step before catching myself.

The second guy who was all bloody hesitantly walks up to us, seeming to be watching the other person more then me. "Ian. Nice of you to join the party! Meet my new pal here, um, what's your name", the guy leaning on me asks. "M-My name? No one has c-called me by n-name in years. B-But it's Q-Quinten", I stutter. It feels so nice to know that someone wants to know my name. "You don't look very old, how long has it been since you were born". "Sixteen", I reply evenly.

     "Well Quinten, Cobblestone here is going to make sure your patched up and all good while I take a nap", the guy says. Before I can ask any questions, he falls forward and drags me down with him. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it seems that satisfaction brought it back.