Cody

"I'm not sure if this is a good idea..." The kraken trailed off as the exit to the cave came into his sight. "It'll be fine! Look, it's night which means that no one will be there anyways. The lifeguards will have gone home and no one swims at night. Unless you want to avoid people that is, like we are doing now." I glanced in his direction. "Why do you want to avoid them again?"

A sigh escaped his lips. "You Atlanteans wouldn't understand." His voice was low when he said it and I almost didn't catch it. It took everything in my power not to ask what he meant. I stayed silent for a moment, but he broke the silence.

"Are you sure that-" Hesitation was in his voice but I quickly interrupted. "Don't worry. It'll be fiiinne!" KrakenKid still looked unsure but nodded eventually and we set off.

The journey wasn't too far. It only took a couple minutes before the sand came into view. The beach was almost exactly how I remember it. It had the two rocky hills just like before but the only difference was there were no huge umbrellas or giant chair for the life guard. Do they even have a life guard? That was a question for another day. On top of all this, the fishing shack was much smaller than from my time and there was no ice cream truck.

I led the tiny KrakenKid near the water's, allowing him to check for people. His face relaxed when nothing was found. I smiled and gave him a little nudge. "No one's around. Come on!" I launched myself into the denser water, making a 'Weeee!' sound in the process. After slowing down in it, I waited a second before breaching the surface once again. Still on land, the kid watched me with a childlike wonder.

"Come on! The water's fine!" That line seemed to do the trick as he grinned and plunged in after me. Breaking to the surface, a giggled escaped him. "I haven't done this in a long time!" He squealed. When his eyes met mine, something made him smile deviously. Before I could stop him, he started splashing me in the face with the dense water. I laughed and returned it, able to make harder hits than he did.

Both of us were laughing in the water when voices stopped us both cold in our tracks.

"I think it came from over here!"

"Come on! Stop lagging behind, we have a job to do!"

"I think you two are imagining things."

"How can they be imagining something if both of them hear it?"

"What are they hearing anyways?"

I froze in place, panic setting in. However, KrakenKid acted quicker than I did, pulling me with a force great enough to move me off to the side, shielding both of us from view behind the left hill. I tried to protest but his tentacle cover my mouth, the other on his lips. "Shhh..." He spoke softly and shook his head at me.

We both waited as the unknown voices approached, footsteps coming closer and closer. Soon, they met sand and I started to breath more quietly, with KrakenKid following my lead.

"I don't hear anything." A male voice spoke out when the shuffling stopped. "I did but now it's gone..." Said another, this time more feminine. It sounded almost suspicious of something. The child sensed this and tensed up. Silenced passed until another spoke up. "It must have been an animal. They're known for being around these parts. Nothing looks too bad here anyways so let's just check the last of Sector Four and go home. We've been patrolling long enough."

With murmurs of agreement, the group trotted away. The one besides me let out a breath before letting his hand fall. Curiosity got the best of me and I peeked out to see who was there, getting a better view than expected.

There were a group of about six people, all wearing full blue armor and carrying some sort of weapon. With both males and females alike and mixed species, there was one thing that occurred to me when I observed the outfit. They must have been the guards to Atlantis from the older days! Though in my time, guards were often cloned from the same person, this must have been from when it was just the citizens who joined the army. My eyes locked on to them, but they soon disappeared from sight. So many questions ran through my mind. I knew that I was back in time, but how far back was a something I didn't know. How old would I be right now?

Even if I knew what the year was, I wouldn't be able to know what I was doing. For some reason, I can't remember my childhood, only from when I went to medical school for training and working at the hospital.

Come to think of it, I don't remember my mom either. Or anything about my dad...

Once they were gone, we came out of hiding. The kraken let out a long breath in total relief. "Holy smokes that was close! At least they're gone now." KrakenKid shook his head and plopped himself down on the sand, then took out some bread and held it out. "Want some?" I nodded. He handed it over and soon I joined him on the ground. Almost simultaneously, we took a bite and chewed.

"So," I munched on the bread and started to think of questions I could ask him. "What's your favorite color?" I decided on eventually. "Purple. Yours?" He asked back. "Blue." I grinned, remembering how it reminded me of home. The kraken nodded along. Thinking more, I spoke again. "What is your favorite sport?" He thought harder this time but still came up with something fairly quick. "I like the arenas with the fighting challenges! I always thought that was so cool whenever I saw one." His smile became wider this time. I nodded. "What about if you could have one meal for the rest of forever, only able to eat that, what would you choose?" He hummed to himself. Has he tasted Special Chicken yet? I knew that would be his answer normally but this was past him. "Probably steak and chips. I had it a couple times before and it never stops being so good!" I couldn't help but feel surprised. Maybe me and him have more in common than I thought. As I was thinking of more questions, he asked one that shocked my soul.

 "So where do you come from anyways? How come you don't have a home?"

I paused. How was I supposed to answer? I don't have a home because I'm from the future and confronting my father is nerve racking plus you're the nicest person I've met so far and also the younger version of my greatest enemy who I want to know more about through you and you're pretty cool when you aren't completely evil and wanting to kill me? Yeah, that would go so well. So instead I took a different approach. A white lie.

"There's something I don't want to confront. A person actually. I mean, I know I should talk to them but..." I let out a low chuckle. "It terrifies me. Even the thought of it does." The yellow eyes bore into my brown ones understandingly. "Well, go on. What is so scary about it? If you want to, why not do it?" My eyebrow raised. I never thought I'd have this talk with the KrakenKid but... I don't really have a choice now do I? I sucked in a deep breath and spilled out everything.

"It's pretty personal. You see, the guy has always kinda been my hero. I've always wanted to follow in his example and always tried to do it. Never in my life have I had the chance to but now... Now I can. What do I even say? "Hey, I look up to you in every form and when I mess up I feel like I'm failing you?" An-" I stopped myself. Glancing in his direction, the young KrakenKid was gaping at me. "I-uh." I stuttered when I realized how deep I went. "That's some tough stuff!" He exclaimed. I half shrugged, unsure of what else to do. "I guess so but... I'm pretty used to it."

The kraken opened his mouth to respond but before he could, a wave crashed down on us and almost washed us away. For a second, we were in shock before bursting out laughing.

"That came out of nowhere! How did it get that big?" The child was amazed. I quickly moved him away as another one of equal size started to come. Together, we watched it crash down on where we were and the younger one was still wide eyed over it. I looked at him and grinned. "What?" He pointed to the water. "How does it do that?"

"Well, it must be since it's night. I think the tide gets crazier now when the moon comes out. Pretty strong right?"

KrakenKid didn't say anything for a minute and just watched the waves of denser water grow stronger. "That's amazing..." He spoke at last. "The tides are so strong... If you could just... Control them, you could be just as strong as them." I couldn't help but notice him zoning out.

"Tides are so strong..." I heard him mumble again before I finally stepped in. "Hellooooo? Earth to kraken? Come in kraken." He finally blinked back into reality when I waved my hand in front of his face. Shaking himself, he looked up.

"Huh?" I just smirked and started walking away, telling him to follow. "Come on, it's getting pretty late. We better head back."

He nodded but spared one last glance at the lake before he followed.

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And here we go! A little shorter than I thought it would turn out but it had everything I needed to put here so, here you go! I hope you enjoyed the chapter and be sure to comment and tell me what you think. Byeeeeee

--JustAnAtlantisWriter