The octopus loses interest and wafts away and squeezes into its tiny little hideyhole, which should not be able to accommodate so much octopus.

"It is very squishly," Helen observes. "Look at it squish!"

"It doesn't have any bones," says Ranata. "It's an invertebrate!"

"No bones at all? Wow," says Helen. "No wonder it squishes!"

"Well, lobsters don't have bones either, on the inside," says Ranata. (They saw lobsters a little while ago.) "They have exoskeletons - their shells hold them together. But octopuses don't even have those."

"I like octopuses more," she says. "Because they squish up."

"They do! They can get through really tiny spaces."

"I saw!" she says. "It's coooool."

"The next time we come to a saltwater swim tank maybe Kalavar can try." It won't make any difference to the inhabitants of the tank whether Kalavar is an octopus or a shrimp or a shark; daemon is daemon, exactly the same threat level as attached person and less edible due to their habit of disappearing.

"Squishy!" says Kalavar, twining her green-gold tentacles in Helen's hair.

"Wiggly!" says Helen, thoroughly charmed.

"Yep! This is related to the octopus. They're both molluscs."

"Does this one squish too?"

"Not as much," says Ranata. "A little, though, it still doesn't have any bones."

"What makes it less squishy, then?"

"This sign says it has something a little like a shell inside of it. It's called a cuttlebone, but it's not really a bone." Ranata picks her up for a better look at the sign.

Helen oohs at the sign and reads it carefully. It contains knowledge about the squishiness of cuttlefish!

Ranata will let her observe small squids for a good long time, certainly.

Helen being delighted by creatures is adorable.

Kalavar turns into a tiny sea serpent with brilliant turqoise scales and a dragonish head, and she swims around with the pretty pretty koi.