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| - Purple helped the sobbing boy through the service ducts while Blue Tentacles kept insisting he couldn’t climb as Purple wanted. Patrician Blue Tentacles was in no way used to that type of scrambling the way a young Centaurian born to manual work would be. Carefully Purple guided the smaller tentacles of his charge to supports designed for adults that were too far apart for Blue Tentacles. “I can’t climb these horrid tubes the way you want!” Blue complained repeatedly. The boy was weaker than he usually was through hunger and thirst and Purple felt Blue Tentacles was going at a snail’s pace. Food that Purple had brought him had helped but Purple began to wish he’d faced the danger more times and brought more. The journey took far longer than either would have liked as Purple feared he must avoid vertical shafts and worried he could not hold Blue Tentacles if the boy slipped. Purple urged his friend, “Be brave, little brother, later we’ll both be free.” “I can’t! I’m tired.” “Please try and go faster little brother, they could still catch us here.” Fear gave Blue Tentacles strength and he managed to clamber a bit less slowly though Purple still felt every moment they were still in the mansion was a moment too many. This time Purple was careful to avoid the area near the bridal chamber. He didn’t want the boy to see what they were planning for him and more importantly he knew servants might be working in service ducts. Purple was sick with fright as he thought of the risk he'd taken earlier when he didn't know about the work they were doing round there. The fugitives were right over the boathouse but a different problem emerged. Blue Tentacles could smell the water and he was desperately thirsty. In an instant Blue changed from going too slowly and tried to dash down a dangerous steep slope. Blue Tentacles slipped, hurt one of his tentacles and Purple rushed to stop him howling. “Keep quiet, little brother, they’ll hear you.” Purple massaged the injured tentacle and drew out several strong tentacles helping the lad to walk. Blue Tentacles was so eager to get to water that he went quite fast despite his injury and Purple had to stop the youngster going into a vertical pipe leading directly to the water. “Little brother, if you fall in that tunnel you could die!” When they got to the boathouse Blue Tentacles raced to the water and started drinking. Purple knew that water was polluted but couldn’t easily stop him. Eventually Purple brought Blue Tentacles to the boat he had prepared and gave the lad a pack of emergency food rations. Both knew those rations were for emergencies but this was an emergency, anyway Purple knew where the rations were stored and came back with several new packs. Before Blue had even finished eating Purple got the boat ready for the journey. "Will life ever get better?" Blue asked a bit desperately. "Life should soon be very much better for both of us." Purple answered, then added, “Be brave, little brother, be strong, I’ll have to drive the boat fast!” “I never ever want to see that Leering character with the Slithery Tentacles again.” the boy’s tentacles became ultramarine with revulsion, “Please get us away as fast as you ever can.” Purple put several sensitive tentacles into the control area and prepared the submarine to dive smoothly changing shape sensitively. Centaurians know the best shape to travel straight through water is not best for rounding a corner without friction so the natural way to design a boat for fast travel is to make it a shape shifter. Sensitively the sub changed shape almost like a living thing, going round curves it was curved the way the bend curved while sailing in a straight path the boat was straight. Little Blue Tentacles who had already been through so much was pushed and shaken in the passenger section as the boat changed shape to meet each new challenge. He didn’t complain and tried to be stoical, tried to remember that life should soon get much better. Swiftly, expertly Purple guided the boat on a path away from his master’s mansion, away from slavery and towards freedom.
* The Aliens of the Flaming Red Sun/27 Fruitless hunt
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)