And so there they were, Willowmina buoyed on the ocean waves and Slub Glub perched upon her branches, both now black as tar and covered in the dank sticky ink sprayed by the giant looming sea horror before them, who had now turned its attention elsewhere. Slub Glub and Willowmina found themselves similarly distracted, by an irritating nipping at their heels.
Slub Glub raised his foot, which had been dangling in the water. A crab was attached to it, its pointy pincers dug deep into his toes. “Aaaugh! It’s a baby sea spider!” he screamed. “Why do things keep trying to eat me?” he moaned.
Willowmina, who was similarly afflicted, was shaking the crustaceans out of her leaves. “They’re crabs,” she said. “I wonder what they’re doing this far out at sea?” Indeed, there were many crabs among them – so many that they formed a pink chain as far as the eye could see. While Willowmina and Slub Glub were trying desperately to shake these bothersome crabs off of their bodies, the great pink tentacled ink-squirting monster-god of these worrisome waters, who was technically a giant squid, was engaged in a somewhat opposite activity. It was splashing furiously with his great gaping mouth wide open, ingesting and digesting these exoskeletal creatures.
In doing so, the huge squid created great tidal waves with its eight twirling tentacles, which had the unfortunate effect of drowning Slub Glub and Willowmina. “Glub Glub” was all Slub Glub could say as he found himself submerged in the briny depths of the endless ocean. As Willowmina also went deep below the black nefarious waters, she had the realization that this was how the ghost sailors must have died – they were drowned in the turbulent wake of the giant squid as it fed on crabs.
To be continued.
Table of Contents: “Slub Glub in the Weird World of the Weeping Willows”
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Illustration & text copyright (c) Andrew Goldfarb