The sun was dipping again and the night time shrimp were coming out, but Sally ignored them and slowly made her way to the cave of the octopus.

To say she was nervous was an understatement and she hoped, as she popped her eyestalks around the cave mouth, that the eight-legged beast was asleep again.She was in luck! The blubbery mass dozed away atop its rocky throne, the stupid creature’s prized but useless treasure chest (and the remains of the last person foolish enough to try and take it) half buried in the silt before it.

As quiet as a mouse she crept into the cave and up on to the missile the horned man has stashed down here. How he got it and why, she had no idea; he was always up to something and it was probably best not to know all the sorry details.

Once on top, she flipped open the control panel and began to tap in the launch codes and target coordinates as he had told her. The number strings were long and she had to go slowly to make sure she got them just right – she didn’t want to take out The Great Wall or Moth Temple by mistake.

The codes entered, her claw hovered above the big red ‘LAUNCH’ button as she considered what she was doing. The furry man had told her to launch the missile after two days whether he had returned or not, and he most certainly had not returned. But to launch a nuclear missile with no more information than that seemed a little outside her sphere of responsibility and comfort. But then there had been talk of stopping a great evil; what if not launching allowed a more terrible fate to befall wherever the missile was set to, well, befall?

Oh what was a crab to do?

Her claw quivered, uncertainty paralysing her. Guaranteed nuclear destruction or some crazy half-tale about some form of hokum-sounding evil schmevil. Put like that, the decision was obvious. She moved to hit the ‘CANCEL’ button.

The tentacle that had silently snaked towards her took her totally by surprise and the speed with which she was pulled backwards off the missile towards the octopus’ waiting maw stunned her. The last thing she saw as she was swallowed into a mass of writing flesh and ink was the red ‘LAUNCH’ button winking away to itself…

To be continued…