The creature holding her was a three-meter sphere, covered with stony plates that were pockmarked with impact craters. From the gaps between the plates, long green tentacles emerged, each with a specialized organ at the end. Some, like the ones gripping Dale’s body, split into clusters of smaller tentacles and served as hands. The ones stabilizing its body against the floor and walls were thicker, ending in heavy paddle feet. A few terminated in large eyeballs, unblinking orbs with star-shaped pupils in their livid red irises.

Dale struggled against the monster’s grip, thrashing her arms and legs and shouting at the top of her lungs. Suspended in midair, however, her struggles had no impact on the beast. Its powerful limbs held her spreadeagled while three of the creature’s eyes moved in to inspect her from only centimeters away. Their attention darted from landmark to landmark, focusing for one moment on her dainty, elegant face, the next on her shoulder-length black hair, then on a jiggling, chocolate-tipped breast, then on the narrow triangle of pubic hair between her thighs.