Kai awoke to the distasteful feeling of something slick slithering all over his chest. His eyes slowly drifted open and the first thing he lay his unfocused gaze on was a giant purple tentacle hovering not one foot away from his face. His eyes nearly bulged out of his sockets.
He sat up-or at least tried to. He couldn't move. Why couldn't he move-!
He looked down -or rather up- at his body to see that another giant tentacle had wrapped around him, completely trapping his arms and all in its slick grasp, and had lifted him off the ground to dangle him feet up.
"What the-!"
Kai couldn't believe his eyes. He was in a black 5x5 foot cage, with a giant tentacle monster right in the next cage. The misshapen purple beast -a mix between a giant squid and an octopus- had snuck its slimy tentacles past the widely-spaced bars and had had his way with the defenseless Kai while he was unconscious. The kraken-like monstrosity was trapped in a much larger cage than the one he was in, and though it was at least a couple of meters away, his cage was still within reach of it. It stared at him with its unintelligent, camera-like eyes, a dumb beast that he had no hope of appealing to.
His heart gave a sharp pang of alarm.
This can't be happening.
When the tentacles tightened around him, nearly crushing him, he had no choice but to concede that it really was. Hell, it wasn't even the most shocking thing he'd seen or encountered since his kidnap. At this point, him getting surprised by anything he saw or happened to him was the surprising thing.
And speaking of his kidnap, where was his black-scaled kidnapper who'd up until this very moment had -to some extent- ensured his safety?
His eyes scanned the cage and saw that it was empty except for himself and the handsy kraken. Kai then realized that the locked cage was covered by a dark-colored fabric fluttering lightly in the current. He heard noises directly outside of it. He couldn't make out what those noises were, so he strained his ears, hoping to confirm if he was in fact hearing-
The tentacle monster's grip crawled upward, the tentacle's suction cups nearly tearing his flesh as it did.
"Ngh-!" he stifled a groan of pain, biting down fiercely on his lip to keep from making a sound. He didn't want whatever- or whoever- was outside the cage to sense that he'd awakened just yet. "What the hell are you doing?!" he yell-whispered, as if the mindless beast could understand a word he was saying.
He struggled against his slimy restraints, but for all the slime and slick that the beast was excreting, he didn't even slip a tiny bit from his grasp. He couldn't even free one of his arms. He was wrapped up like a carpet that was about to be tucked away, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about.
Helplessly, he watched the tentacles slowly climb his chest to his nipples. He sucked a breath in anticipation of the pain that one of the many suction cups slithering over his sensitive nipple would undoubtedly unleash. Instead, the tentacle flicked his right nipple.
He blanched.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" Kai breathed as he was seized by a new crippling terror.
He'd seen enough hentai to know where this was going.
"I swear, if you do what I think you're about to do, I'll cut you into small pieces, roast you and eat you with BBQ sauce!"
What sounded like a crowd laughing drifted to his ears. The giant cover thrown over the cage stirred, and then it was swept away to reveal the source of the noise he'd heard.
It was a large crowd of merfolk of varying shapes, colours and sizes. Every set of shark-like eyes was watching him with terrifying smirks and grins on their pale faces.
From the way they were looking curiously at him, he felt like he was a circus animal on display.
"Look at that red hair." A fair mermaid exclaimed, her purple eyes fixated on Kai's red mane.
"It really is him," said a purple-haired merman.
Kai looked to see if he could locate another redhead. Most of the merfolk surrounding him were fair-haired or dark-haired, with the occasional pink or purple or even silver haired mermaid standing out. No redheads, however.
He appeared to be in a large courtyard of sorts. In his peripheral, he spotted some dark infrastructure, but he couldn't completely see it in his position.
Where was he, and how did he get here?
He tried to recall, but ended up drawing a blank. The last thing he remembered was seeing his unusual reflection in the magical mirror in the tunnel. Trying to remember anything else only served to hurt his head.
He looked back at the two merfolk closest to the cage. What drew him the most about them was their black and gold attire. The fair mermaid wore a black and gold chest plate that had a chiffon-like fabric extending to her arms like flimsy sleeves. She wore an impressive thin gold belt filled with precious jewels around her hips just above her pinkish tail. Large gold earrings dangled from her pointy ears, and a diamond piercing sparkled on the right side of her nose. The merman by her side also wore decorative gold and black bejeweled shoulder plates and arm braces. A beautiful sapphire necklace dangled from his neck to just above his chest. Both of them had a bangle-like piece of gold jewelry circling the base of their tails right below their fins.
Kai quickly concluded that these were no soldiers.
"Where am I?" he asked them cautiously, aware of the tentacle's repulsive flicking and fondling the whole time.
"Where someone like you ought to be," the mermaid purred in a voice that dripped of velvet and honey, but the ugly expression of disgust that momentarily marred her face betrayed her true feelings.
Clearly, they were in league with the black-scaled stranger.
But where was he?
He searched the many faces to try to find him and discovered that he was not here. Perhaps his mission was completed and he would no longer be seeing him.
By that line of thought, Kai had no choice but to assume that he was now in his greatest enemy's clutches: the Empire of Nostraza.
Kai had difficulty swallowing. He was afraid to ask, but knew that he had no choice. Heart thumping, he addressed his question to the purple-haired merman, "A-Am I in Nostraza?"
"Indeed you are, Astrian Prince," answered the merman, smiling smugly at him.
"What do you-" Kai let out a gasp halfway through his next question when the monster abruptly tugged at his nipple a little too aggressively. His eyes flew to the beast's, but he had no way of knowing if the beast was just messing about or if it had done that on purpose.
What the hell was this dumb beast doing to him? Did it plan to eat him?
Slowly but surely, the tentacles wrapped around him began to loosen. A ray of hope entered his heart -maybe the beast had gotten bored with him and was now letting him-
A tentacle shot out and ripped his clothes off, starting with his shirt and ending at his shorts, until he was completely naked. His torn clothes settled on the floor of the cage, shredded beyond repair.
Kai's stomach plummeted.
He clenched his teeth to keep a scream from ripping out of him.
Another tentacle came to fondle the other nipple. Kai finally noticed that, unlike an octopus, the monster had way more than eight tentacles to contend with.
Alarmed, he hissed, "Aren't you going to get me out of here?"
The mermaid laughed melodiously. The sound grated on his ears.
"There's only one who has the right to open that cage, and he is not here."
"Oh, think again, sister."
They both simultaneously turned around at the approaching presence. The crowd parted for him, and they all lowered their heads and eyes in deference.
"My Liege," purred the mermaid as she and her brother slowly backed away from the cage to allow the newcomer to stand in front of the cage.
Kai's green eyes met the blue shark-like eyes of the stranger.
