Nick had spent a day getting used to the tentacle. He had also received its favor when it possibly saved his life from a strange bird flying quickly right at his head. He wasn't afraid of it anymore.
However, he had been scared out of his wits when he first discovered it.
Kai's parents weren't just seeing it for the first time. They were realizing that a tentacle had been tying up their son, not a thick rope. It would be difficult for them to see the tentacle monster stretching out of the bottomless, menacing darkness encroaching on reality as benevolent.
Nick slowly looked at the scared caretakers of the young bear, subtly gesturing with his hand for the tentacle to withdraw for the moment.
"Now, I know what it looks like, but I promise, this…tentacle is not scary. It's just a…movie prop. I work in engineering or something. There's no reason to be afraid."
Contrary to Nick's words, the couple was still very wary. They were worriedly nudging Kai behind them while slowly backing away so as not to startle either Nick or the tentacle peeking out from behind the basement door.
"Please stop backing away. I just want to talk," Nick said calmly.
They didn't stop backing away. It was as if they didn't even hear Nick. All of their attention was focused on the tentacle. It was like it was magnetic. They couldn't tear their eyes away from it. It was hypnotic.
If their instincts weren't moving their legs backward, it was very likely they would have moved forward instead.
"Stop," Nick said loudly this time. He didn't know what had gotten into the couple, but he was not patient enough to let his only connection to the outside world just slip away.
He wasn't sure when he would meet another person again.
He liked the assumption that he had somehow been moved into the middle of a set for a prehistoric movie. But with the supernatural tentacle monster in his basement and the authentically wild appearance of the two people in front of him, Nick was pretty sure he was just dreaming.
There was something off about the whole situation.
The only way for him to find out more would be to talk with Kai's caretakers. That wouldn't be happening, though, if they fled and never came back.
Nick sighed.
"I asked you to stop!" He stood up and shouted loud enough for them to snap out of their tentacle-monster-induced daze.
Shocked, they turned to Nick with wide eyes like a couple of deer in the headlights of a fast car.
But Nick wasn't a fast car, and he wasn't going to run them over. He sat down again.
"Finally," he said with a sigh. "I just want to talk. It's the least you can do after your bear's tried to eat my food two days in a row."
The man and the woman exchanged guilty and hopeless glances before shooting Kai reproachful looks. They were understandably blaming him for this situation.
They glanced at the basement door.
As long as that scary tentacle monster was around, it was probably best to listen to the strangely clad man sitting on his porch with an impatient expression.
"Once again, we are awfully sorry for our son's behavior," the man said, bowing with his entire upper body. His shoulders were slouched, and his body wasn't parallel to the ground. It wasn't a proper bow that followed any rules or anything.
The man was just expressing his remorse with a pure heart and an honest body.
"It's fine," Nick waved off the apology. It wasn't like the bear had done anything other than scare him, but he figured they were even now.
"Just answer my questions, and I'll be more than happy to help feed the bear."
The man and the woman nervously glanced at each other. That was a good offer.
"W-what do you want to know?" The man asked.
"I have a feeling you don't want to tell me your names, so let's start with simple things. Where is this?" Nick asked.
"This?" The man repeated, pointing at the ground, a little confused. Didn't Nick live here? Was it a passive aggressive question about them intruding on his territory or something?
"This," Nick repeated, making a circle with his finger pointing upward indicating he meant in a broader sense.
The man looked at the woman for confirmation. She gave a slow nod.
"This is Tiabe Forest?" The man said uncertainly as if asking Nick if that was what he was curious about.
"Tiabe Forest?" Nick echoed. "Where's that?" He asked with a frown.
"Uhh…" The man wasn't sure how to answer that. "Here?" He said helpfully.
"What? I meant like which continent."
The man and woman looked at each other. Neither of them knew the answer.
Nick sighed.
"Okay. You don't know where Tiabe Forest is. That's fine. Do you know what's nearby? What country is it in?" At that, their gazes sharpened.
"Tiabe Forest belongs to no human country!" The man said with a strong voice.
Nick raised an eyebrow. He was not sure what that was supposed to mean.
"If you're wondering about nearby countries, you have the two kingdoms and the ruling," the woman helpfully chimed in. Seeing Nick's interest, she continued before he could ask.
"The two kingdoms are the Syttle and Vorad Kingdoms. The ruling is Matarok. It's a ruling because they are ruled by a ruler. They aren't bound by nobility, titles, or kings and queens," the woman explained. She had also been confused about Matarok the first time she heard about it. That was what she had assumed the confusion on Nick's face was about.
It was partially correct.
Nick was confused about what she had meant with ruling at first. A ruling was something a judge in court or something. The explanation would have helped if he hadn't already been led astray by the first half of her explanation.
He had never heard of Syttle or Vorad.
Nick had trouble chalking this up to just being far away from home.
But there was no way he was in another world, right?