Suddenly, unexpectedly, the tentacle released it's grip. Eric bobbed to the surface like a cork. Through the rolling salty, bloody haze, through the fires, wreckage and the sickening writhing bodies of the drunken undead floating pathetically in the water, Eric saw a most unexpected sight.
Eric's mother, with her hair in rollers and wearing a yellow sou'wester, was thrashing the Kraken with an oar. She was standing in a small coracle laden down to near the waterline with food parcels, munitions and cakes. "Leave my son alone!" she bellowed at the animal, gesticulating wildly with the oar. The beast retreated. "Honestly, I can't leave you alone for ten minutes. Why do you always insist on getting into these messes?"