Nick just shook his head. He did not understand how a lot of things worked in this fantasy world he had somehow ended up in. How could half of everyone he met just disappear as soon as they entered favorable conditions?
How had she even moved from the ground to the branch that quickly without making a sound?
Nick sighed and gave up thinking about it. It could be an innate trait of their tribe, just like Sosora's wings was an innate trait of her Aer tribe.
He was curious about what tribe Mijko and Tilo came from. It seemed like they at least weren't hostile.
He had agreed to keep their conversation a secret, but he was tempted to ask Sosora about it anyway. She seemed trustworthy enough to keep it a secret that he had met the two siblings. But he knew that was how secrets spread.
He told someone he found trustworthy. She did the same to someone who, in turn, did the same. It continued like a chain until a link finally snapped and spilled the secret.
Nick figured it would be best to just stay silent and wait for the results of Sosora's social mission. Maybe the two siblings' tribe would accept sharing some of their information with him.
If that didn't work, the charm of food always existed. He didn't know how long the two siblings or their fellow tribe members had watched him, but they could have missed the sausage parties, or they could have restrained themselves during those.
He needed to hold another one or make something else that could lure them out.
They had been drawn out by the tree-felling, after all. They weren't immovable, motion and emotionless watchers, especially not Mijko. And now that they had talked to him once, getting them to come out a second time would be easier.
Nick looked at his hands and decided to take a break. He didn't want the blisters to get too bad on the first day.
He turned to the tree. He had made a decent wedge-shaped notch in the trunk. He was satisfied with his progress. He could probably finish tomorrow if the muscle ache and blisters didn't do him in.
There were still several hours left on the day. But he had worked several hours as well. He wasn't in a rush.
Nick fixed up some food for himself and the tentacle and sat on the porch, watching the forest, abused tree included. They ate in silence. When Nick had polished his plate, he started talking with the tentacle. Some of it were questions he was curious about, but most of it was just the things he had thought about during the time the tentacle was asleep.
He didn't know when it had happened, but when something happened or he had an idea, he wanted to share it with the tentacle. Maybe it was because he was lonely without the tentacle.
It was his crutch in the foreign and dangerous fantasy world. The tentacle grounded him and kept him sane.
It was only natural that Nick bonded with it and wanted to share his experiences with it.
But that much hadn't happened while it was asleep, so after a while, Nick started talking about the past with it. He still couldn't believe that it had lived in his house even before the move. Even if he couldn't see or hear it back then, shouldn't he have noticed something, felt something?
He ended up asking the tentacle how long it had squatted in his basement. He thought that maybe it was a recent arrangement.
It was far from something recent.
After some back and forth with Nick asking a few inefficient questions, he finally got a number.
The tentacle monster had been living in his basement for six years.
"That's…" Nick stared at the tentacle, who made a question mark after a few long moments of that.
"Six years, you say…?" His brow sank into a knot as he thought about it. He still couldn't accept that he had shared a house with an unfathomable monster for six years.
The tentacle nodded. It technically hadn't 'said' anything, but that was right.
"Wait, six years?!" He suddenly realized something.
Six years ago, he had experienced a splitting headache. It had been so bad that he thought the ground was shaking and the world was ending. But the next day, after it passed and he asked his neighbors why there wasn't any damage after the earthquake, they all looked at him like he was crazy. And when he looked it up, he realized that he might in fact just have gone crazy for a while.
There were no reports of an earthquake anywhere close to where they lived. It had felt extremely real, but he chalked it up to being a side effect of the migraine. It went after his sense of balance or something.
But he still remembered it clearly because it was such an unsettling feeling.
"That earthquake back then…! Was that you?" He asked, unsure what his face was doing.
The tentacle was also unsure what Nick's face was trying to say, so it nodded with some hesitation.
"That headache…I thought I was going to die. Was that also you?" He asked with clear suspicion this time.
The tentacle hastily shook from side to side. It was responsible for the earthquake but not the headache.
"I thought I imagined the earthquake due to the headache…But you're saying that's not the case?"
The tentacle nodded. It pressed flat against the ground and shook back and forth before pointing at itself and nodding. Then, it went up and smacked Nick on the head before pointing at itself and drawing an 'X.' Nick couldn't misunderstand even if he wanted to.
"Was it just a coincidence, then…?" He asked, confused. It felt strange. He had never experienced such a headache before or after. What were the odds that he had one on the day the monster decided to take up residence in his house?
The tentacle didn't answer. Instead, it pointed at a magazine with a close-up of someone's mouth.
It would explain when it could talk. It was too complex of a situation for Nick to figure it out with yes-or-no questions or charades.
Nick nodded.
The conversation died down and it wasn't long before he ended up heading to bed.