"Stupid elders. Stupid Outsider. Why do I have to do this?" Malak complained to himself as he walked through the forest, pushing aside bushes and branches.
"Because you're a pushover?"
Malak flinched in surprise and turned around at the sudden voice.
"Soso…! You almost gave me a heart attack!"
Sosora hopped down from the tree branch she landed on and walked next to Malak.
"Don't you mean I made your heart skip a beat?"
"...That too," Malak said, clearing his throat in the other direction to hide the blush on his cheek. Sosora covered her giggle with her hand as she looked at Malak fiddle with his hair.
Eventually, Malak remembered what he was doing.
"Wait, what are you doing here? I'm supposed to visit the Outsider. You shouldn't follow me."
"I know." She winked. "The elders are free to come and stop me if they dare. Did you know most of them refuse to even get close to the center of the forest?"
"Isn't that just because they don't have their own elders telling them to go there in their stead? Kind of like they are doing with us?" Malak complained. If he were an influential elder, he would also just sit back and relax in his home, waiting for the youngsters to do stuff and give him something to complain about with an angry frown.
He also liked to imagine an elderly Sosora by his side when he thought about that scenario, though she would be hurling berries instead of complaints.
"Do you also think it's dangerous in the center?" Sosora asked curiously, dragging Malak back to reality.
"Obviously." He gave her a deadpan look. If it wasn't dangerous, why else would everyone believe it was?
"Because of the monster kings?" She asked.
"Well, what else?"
"So, if the monster kings aren't an issue, you wouldn't have trouble settling down there?" She continued, ignoring his question.
"I mean…" Malak was distracted by that question. Was she talking about it in general? Or was she proposing they live together? He didn't dare ask.
"If the monster kings weren't an issue, I doubt everyone else would stay still," He said with a shrug. The center of Tiabe had the richest fruits, soil, air, and minerals. It was the best place to live in the forest for almost all tribes.
The only reason no one was living there was because it wasn't feasible. The monster kings held everyone at bay. But without the monster kings, the different tribes would fight, feud, and squabble over it.
Malak didn't even think settling down there was worth considering.
"Mm, that's what I thought," Sosora said with a nod. "I hope the monster kings are smart."
"Why…?" Malak was a little worried. He couldn't tell what Sosora was thinking about. It wasn't the first time that happened. She was smarter than him, after all. But he could tell that she was thinking about something serious. Considering she had just been talking about the monster kings, it might also be dangerous.
Sosora looked ahead.
"I'll tell you if what I'm worried about happens. But for now, we've arrived!" She said excitedly as they stepped into the glade in the center of the forest where the Outsider lived in his strange nest.
***
Nick was still reeling from what the tentacle had just revealed to him. He had temporarily forgotten that it could only answer yes-or-no questions and asked it what it was.
That was apparently the one question it could answer, seeing as how it pointed out the bride in the bridal magazine. He hadn't even known he had a magazine like that.
No, he wasn't quite reeling from the revelation. It was more that he just didn't know what to think.
Apparently, the tentacle had also read his magazines. That was worrying, depending on which magazines it got into.
But the tentacle monster in his basement was smart, more than smart enough to know what it meant by calling itself his wife.
That was the part he didn't know what to think about.
He thought he was still a bachelor and just waiting for an opportunity to meet the one. Yet, the one was lurking in his basement all this time without him knowing a thing. He didn't even know when they got married.
He didn't even know if he accepted this marriage.
But what was he supposed to do if he didn't accept it? Did he tell the big and scary tentacle monster that can carry a bear cub with ease and move fast as lightning that he didn't want to?
Was he supposed to say, 'No, I don't think this works for me. I think we should go our separate ways, and since I had this house before our marriage, you should leave.'?
Even a kind monster might take offense to that, not to mention a monster that fought with a kid over food.
Nick would be lucky if his death was painless.
Besides, what if he just didn't remember that he got married or didn't know about it?
He could have been drunk or accidentally completed some strange marriage ritual native to the tentacle monster.
What if letting it live in his basement was the same as proposing to it? He hadn't known about it, but it had still happened.
Wouldn't he be a jerk if he asked it to scram?
It would be like getting blackout drunk one night and confessing to your roommate and then waking up, pretending like nothing for a few years. Then, when they ask why you haven't made a move again, you're suddenly confused and ask them to leave.
Until he knew more details, Nick wasn't going to do anything that might get him eaten. He looked at the tentacle waiting patiently in the basement entrance.
"We'll talk about this more later. Uh, will you someday acquire a mouth or the ability to speak?"
The tentacle nodded.
Nick thought it was a little less enthusiastic than usual, but he wasn't sure if he was imagining it or if the tentacle was imagining eating him.
"I-I'm not surprised, against it, or shocked. Or anything like that. I just have guests."
The tentacle nodded even slower this time.