The Bestiary

OCTOPUS

Polypus

The Octopus, or Many-Footed One, is a creature of endless transformation. It changes color with its moods, becoming red with anger, pale with fear, and mottled when it wishes to hide. Eight arms radiate from its body like the rays of a dark sun, each thinking for itself yet serving the whole. The Octopus has three hearts and blue blood, as if it were royalty of an alien realm. It squirts ink to confuse its enemies, then escapes through impossibly small spaces, for it has no bones to constrain it. Some grow vast enough to pull down ships; most are modest in size but immodest in cunning.