Ocho and the Spirit of the Island
A Mother 3 Oneshot
"Ocho, what in Poseidon's name are you talking about?" said a small pink fish to a little red octopus. The young octopus adjusted his hat and glared at the fish.
"Lourdes, I'm talking about the spirit of Tanetane Island!" Ocho shouted. The fish shook her head.
"Ocho, there are no spirits of any kind on that island!" Lourdes insisted. Just then, a green turtle swam up to the two.
"¡Hola! What are you two talking about?" asked the turtle. Lourdes glanced at Ocho, then at the turtle.
"Oh, hello, Guillermo. Ocho's trying to tell me that there's a spirit on Tanetane Island," Lourdes sighed.
"There has to be! I'm serious!" Ocho protested. Guillermo looked confused.
"Spirit? On Tanetane Island? What?" he asked. Ocho sighed as he slapped a tentacle over his face.
"Look, there's been this rumor going around among the sea creatures lately. They say that a spirit inhabits Tanetane Island," Ocho explained.
"And ol' eight-arms here thinks that this spirit actually exists! He believes a stupid rumor!" said Lourdes. Ocho stared daggers at the pink fish.
"Well, I thought it was just a load of hooey at first, Lourdes. But I started having second thoughts when I went beachcombing one day. As I was walking along the shore, I heard a beautiful melody coming from the trees of the jungle," Ocho told his story. Lourdes shook her head.
"Are you sure it wasn't just a bird, Ocho?" she said sharply. Ocho growled a little.
"Lourdes, are you kidding me?! It sounded like no bird I've ever heard! In fact, it sounded like a two-leg," Ocho explained. Guillermo's eyes widened.
"A two-leg?! You're saying that the spirit could be a two-leg?!" Guillermo said in excitement. Ocho nodded. Lourdes was about to make another cynical comment, but Ocho slapped a tentacle over her mouth and continued on.
"Yes! In fact, on another day, I thought I even saw the figure of a two-leg watching from the trees, but it ran away into the jungle when I looked towards it and tried to approach," said Ocho. Lourdes forced Ocho's tentacle away from her mouth.
"Ocho, shut up already and stop getting Guillermo excited! There is no spirit, two-leg or otherwise, on Tanetane Island! The singing and everything, you just imagined it!" Lourdes snapped. Ocho looked like he was about to explode.
"LOURDES! I WASN'T IMAGINING IT AND I CAN PROVE IT!" Ocho snapped back, before realizing what he just said and slapped a tentacle over his own mouth and groaned. Lourdes and Guillermo stared at him.
"Oh yeah? If you can prove it, do it!" Lourdes said, swimming up to Ocho and poking his forehead with her fin. Ocho groaned again, knowing that if Lourdes tells someone to do something, she means it, and they have to do something. 
"You know what, Lourdes?" Ocho said, looking the pink fish straight in the eye. Ocho took a deep breath.
"I will prove it! By Poseidon, I will! In fact, I'm going to go explore the island right now, this morning, to prove whether there is a spirit or not!" Ocho declared, holding his two front tentacles out with the ends curled up like fists. Then, the young octopus rushed off, through the coral reef and out of the water.
"This is gonna be interesting," Lourdes remarked as Guillermo just stared.
++++++++++++++++++++
Ocho burst out of the water and rushed onto the beach. The sun beat down on his head, and the hot sand stuck to his tentacles and burned. Ugh. It was a blazing summer day above the water. Ocho felt tempted to go back in the water, but he had to get his proof. He just had to! Ignoring his pain, he marched across the beach and towards the jungle. 
The young octopus looked around at his surroundings as he walked. Tall trees with deep green leaves rose high above his head, taller than any kelp forest he'd ever swam through. The trees cast a shade which shielded Ocho from the sun, although they did nothing to help with the intense mugginess of the jungle. Although there was no more burning beach sand, there was now a bunch of twigs and other debris strewn across the jungle floor which irritated Ocho's tentacles and cut him a little.
"Hello? Anybody out there?" Ocho called into the forest. Aside from the squawking of exotic birds and the screaming of various primates, Ocho got no reply, and continued further into the rainforest. He looked around some more. As he went in deeper, he began to see all sorts of vines and flowers everywhere. Ocho noticed fruits hanging from some of the trees, and he wanted to taste them, but just kept going, deciding it unwise to attempt climbing the trees. The jungle was getting progressively more colorful as Ocho continued forward, what with the rainbow of fruit and flowers he was seeing. Just then, among all the colors, Ocho saw something pink and blue move.
"Huh? What's that?" Ocho called out. The pink and blue whatever-it-was moved again, and for a moment Ocho saw a pair of deep blue eyes staring right towards him before the pink and blue something took off into the jungle with a high pitched giggle. 
"Was that... the Spirit?" Ocho wondered aloud in bewilderment. Feeling excitement welling up from within, Ocho ignored whatever pain the jungle was causing him and took off after the figure he had just seen. Ocho tried to run across the land, but land was not water, and he discovered all too quickly that he wasn't as fast on land as he was in water. He lost sight of the figure not long after seeing it, and found himself alone in the jungle again.
"Darn it! I find the Spirit, and it escapes before I can catch up to it," Ocho moaned as he picked up a stick and started smashing an orchid just to get his frustration out. Ocho sat down and stared up at the rainforest canopy, listening to the squawking birds. 
"Ugh... you know what? I'll just go home and tell Lourdes that she was right and there is no Spirit of the Island!" Ocho shouted to no one in particular. He got up and looked around, trying to find the path that he had taken to get where he was. However, no matter which direction he looked, the jungle looked the same. 
"Well, if I could remember which way home is..." Ocho groaned. As if losing track of what had to be the Spirit wasn't enough, he was lost in the jungle to boot. Ocho tried to look towards the sun to see which way was east and which was west, but the trees blocked out so much sunlight he couldn't really tell how late in the morning it was, much less what direction he was facing. A compass would have been a godsend, but of course there were none to be found. Biting his lip, Ocho just adjusted his hat and marched off into the jungle. He pushed his way through bushes, shoved vines out of the way, and trampled several flowers, only getting himself even more lost than before. After what must have been an hour or two of running around, Ocho grew weak. He was starting to dehydrate a bit from being out of water too long, and he was very hungry, feeling tempted to climb up the fruit trees and grab some of the colorful plant food. 
"Oh, Spirit, if you're really not just my imagination, and you can hear me, please come help me!" Ocho whined. Just then, he noticed a patch of small purple things growing on the ground. 
"Mushrooms," Ocho said. Seeing as they were just in reach, Ocho was very much tempted to fill his stomach with them, but he hesitated. He had heard rumors about Tanetane Island's mushrooms from a few crabs who had gone ashore before. From what he heard, the mushrooms were strongly hallucinogenic, and just one bite would always result in a hellish nightmare of a bad trip. Ocho did not want to experiece THAT, but...
But the mushrooms. They looked so... alluring, like they were just screaming at Ocho to eat them. They were so beautifully colored, and so perfectly round. They just looked like they would make a delightful treat for a hungry octopus. Ocho's stomach growled loudly, and, assuming that the rumors were false, Ocho picked up a large mushroom and took a big bite. Ocho chewed thoughtfully, and giggled when nothing happened.
"Those stupid crabs. They lied when they told me these mushrooms were bad," Ocho laughed as he savored the flavor of the colorful fungi. But then suddenly, his joy was cut short by a searing pain in his head, followed by a flash of color before his eyes.
"Or maybe they were telling the truth-!" Ocho gagged on the mushroom as he was overwhelmed by a splitting headache and flashes of color. His vision blurred out, and he collapsed.
-----
Ocho groaned as he got up. He was still hungry, and still hurting. And for some odd reason, the rainforest trees were pink now, with blue trunks. There was a mailbox nearby, and Ocho, now quite confused, walked over to peek inside, and see if there was any food waiting for him inside, or perhaps a compass. However, he had no such luck, and instead, he saw Guillermo the sea turtle inside.
"Guillermo? What in Poseidon's name are you doing in this mailbox?" Ocho asked. The young sea turtle looked at him.
"I don't know, Ocho. What are you doing on this island?!" Guillermo snapped, not sounding like himself at all. Ocho became worried.
"I'm... uh, looking for the, uh, Spirit? I think...?" Ocho stuttered. 
"Who's spirit? Yours? You stupid cephalopod, it's right there inside you... but maybe not for long," Guillermo said, as his mouth widened into a huge creepy smile and his eyes merged together into a demonic cyclops eye. 
"AAAAAAHHH!" Ocho screamed in terror. He shut the door of the mailbox and ran away, only to run into an entire group of sea turtles floating in midair, with similar dark smiles and cycloptic eyes glaring at him.
"Get off this island, Ocho."
"Leave now!"
"You're so stupid, coming here!"
"You should have stayed safe in the sea, instead of coming here to die."
"The Spirit does not exist! It can't save you! You fool!"
"What is happening?!" Ocho shouted in horror as these demonic sea turtles berated him. Just then, they all took a dive at him, jaws wide open as if they just wanted to tear into his flesh. Ocho started running in another direction as the turtles pursued him. 
"Is this because of those mushrooms? Oh Poseidon! What's real? What's not?!" Ocho cried out as he ran. Were those evil turtles completely a hallucination, or was he really being attacked? Not wanting to get caught by them and find out, Ocho tried to run faster, only to crash into a large garbage bin and tumble head over heels into a pool of blood red water.
Despite it's unnerving color in this state of mind, Ocho was fairly certain it was ordinary water he was in, and tried swimming down to the pool bottom to hide. On the way down, he saw a pink fish that looked familiar.
(Huh? Lourdes?) Ocho thought, wondering for a moment how the little pink fish got there. But Ocho had a hunch that "Lourdes" was not Lourdes at all and was just another vicious hallucination like the mailbox Guillermo or the sea turtle army, and just tried to lie low. The fish turned and looked at him. Ocho gulped. Of course, he got noticed when he didn't want to.
"Well well, look here! It's ol' eight-arms! ¡Hola!" the false Lourdes said in an abnormally cheery voice as she swam closer.
"N-no no, stay away!" Ocho shouted to the pink fish. False Lourdes laughed.
"But what if I don't want to stay away? What if I want to just come over there and eat you up?" False Lourdes said, her face starting to deform.
"Go away!" Ocho shouted as he swam towards the surface. Before he knew it, he felt something strike him, and there was a searing pain in his side. If the water only looked bloody before, it certainly was now, as Ocho looked to see that False Lourdes had wounded him.
"I'm going to eat you, eight-arms!" she shreiked before preparing to strike again. Ocho squirted a cloud of ink into the water in self-defence before rising to the water's surface.
"HELP! SOMEONE HELP ME!" Ocho cried as he rose above the water's surface, only to be dragged back down into a cloud of his own blood and ink. Ocho felt himself being struck again, and he weakened.
"Nobody's coming to help you, you weakling! You're going to die all alone!" False Lourdes yelled again. Ocho struggled to surface again, and, with tears in his eyes, screamed for help again.
"THERE HAS TO BE SOMEONE! HELP!" Ocho thought he saw a two-leg with long blonde hair come running, but he was dragged down again.
"You're weak! Nobody's coming to save you!"
"SHUT UP!" Ocho cried. Just then, he heard a splash, and through the murk underwater he saw a female two-leg swimming towards him, holding out her hand, which was glowing with energy. In a strange blast of light and raw power, Ocho's attacker was blown away, and as he started to pass out from blood loss, the last thing he saw was the two-leg reaching her arms out to embrace him...
----
Sometime later, Ocho woke up. His wounds were patched up, and he was sitting in a blue pool of pristine water. In front of him, he could see a vast expanse of green forest from above, and he knew he must have been up on a hill. Above him, stars were beginning to twinkle as the sun set. Behind him, Ocho noticed a large house sitting in the center of the pool, with pink stepping stones leading up to its door. The house was pink, and shaped like a spiral seashell. 
"Where am I?" Ocho wondered aloud. Just then, the door of the shell house opened, and a very unusual two-leg stepped out. The two-leg appeared female at first, with long pink hair and a blue dress that had a white collar with two drawstrings that ended in fuzzy balls. However, at the same time, the two-leg had some male qualities, having a completely flat chest and some blue facial hair. Ocho was a little confused, and wondered for a bit if he was still hallucinating. The two-leg was humming a tune in a beautiful voice as she (or was it he?) approached Ocho.
"Ooh! I see you're awake~! I just came to check on you~!" the two-leg said in a cheerful tune. Ocho looked up.
"You saved me, didn't you?" asked Ocho. The two-leg nodded.
"I heard a terrible commotion in the jungle, and I found you in a lake being attacked by a crocodile! And you were under the influence of those horrid mushrooms, too!" she responded. Ocho shuddered at the thought of those mushrooms he ate. The two-leg scratched her (his?) head.
"So, what brings you to my island? Aren't you supposed to be in the sea?" asked the two-leg. Ocho frowned.
"Well, see, there had been these rumors going on about a spirit of the island, and I had a feeling they were true, and... and... I wanted to find proof that there was in fact a Spirit..." Ocho confessed.
"Is that so~?" asked the two-leg, sitting down and dangling her feet in the water.
"Well... are you the Spirit?" Ocho asked. The two-leg giggled, and a little bit of mirth danced in her blue eyes.
"Well, kind of. I'm not a spirit, really. I'm a Magypsy~," the two-leg said with a sweet smile. Ocho raised an eyebrow.
"Magypsy?" he said in confusion. The Magypsy laughed again.
"I am one of seven powerful beings, neither human nor animal, neither male nor female, that guards something very special which holds back a power even greater than myself. That is a Magypsy," she explained. Ocho smiled with wonder.
"Wow, that's so cool, Miss... uh.." Ocho started to say, then realized he didn't know the Magypsy's name.
"My name's Mixolydia. But you can call me Missy~," the Magypsy replied.
"I'm Ocho," the octopus introduced himself. Mixolydia smiled.
"Ocho~. What a cute name~! Pleasure to meet you~," she said with a twinkle in her eyes. Ocho nodded and tried to get up out of the pool, but a sharp pain shot through him and he fell back in the water. Mixolydia looked concerned and immediately jumped into the water. She placed a hand on Ocho's side and her hand started glowing with green energy.
"Ocho, I don't think you should try leaving yet. You need rest and more treatment for your wounds...," she said, before muttering something about "PK LifeUp" under her breath. Mixolydia looked up at the sky.
"It's getting dark. You should stay here and get some rest, and I'll guide you through the jungle tomorrow morning to get you back home."
"Thank you, Missy. You're a good person..." said Ocho, as he started falling asleep again and sunk beneath the water. Mixolydia got out of the water and walked back into her house.
------
"Where is ol' eight-arms?" Lourdes wondered aloud as she swam back and forth, worrying. 
"Yeah, he left yesterday morning and hasn't come back," said Guillermo. Lourdes sighed.
"I knew I shouldn't have told him to go," Lourdes griped, biting her lip. Just then, they heard a splash behind them and turned to look. There was Ocho!
"There you are! Where have you been?!" The fish and turtle asked in surprise. Ocho shrugged.
"It's a long story, but first I want you to meet someone," said Ocho. He swam to the surface and shouted before coming back down. There was a splash, and a Magypsy swam up to the group and wiggled her fingers in a teasing manner as her pink hair and blue dress billowed in the water behind her. Guillermo and Lourdes's jaws dropped.
"Who is that?!" Lourdes shouted. Ocho grinned.
"This is Mixolydia. The 'Spirit' of Tanetane Island."
----------
Author note: I was a little tired when I'm pretty sure theres mistakes here.