TTT Vol. 2 pt. 9

The next day—well, later in the day since me and Lada ended up having fun until the middle of the night despite having a full day’s worth of work ahead of us like always, I found myself in the kitchen being given a new order by Granny.

Granny was in the process of filling a few picnic baskets with food and drinks for me to take over to the island’s teacher and children.

I THOUGHT SCHOOL WAS CANCELED?

“It was, but those brats have been gettin’ restless. They’ve organized a little trip to the edge of the island. There’ll be guards watchin’ them, and I’m sendin’ you, so I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Granny explained as she finished loading up the second of three baskets with sandwiches and jars full of tea. “Figure that sweet lady teacher of theirs will appreciate the surprise.”

THEY’RE NOT EXPECTING THIS?

“That woman would never ask anybody for anythin’, so no.”

YOU’RE SO NICE, GRANNY.

“It ain’t about bein’ nice. It’s about making sure those brats don’t drive her wild since she probably forgot to pack food for all of them.”

THAT’S BEING THOUGHTFUL OF HER SITUATION AND HELPING HER OUT. THAT’S CALLED BEING NICE.

Granny rolled her eyes and sighed. “Alright, fine. Maybe it can be called bein’ nice, but it ain’t like that matters much. Now, what does matter is that you leave your tentacles off of her. You’ve already got Lada and Korova. You need to leave some ladies for the rest of the boys on this island because not all of them are into my wrinkly body.”

IT'S NOT LIKE I’M GOING AROUND TRYING TO SEDUCE EVERY WOMAN I SEE WITH MY TENTACLES.

“Uh-huh.”

I PROMISE I’M NOT.

“Yeah, yeah. Regardless, ya can’t deny ya have a habit of doin’ exactly that. Even I wish I could spend a night with them. Ya know, when you’re a lady, and ya see somethin’ cute like you, and you’ve got all those tentacles that are long, flexible, and can fit into any position, it’s only natural for her to think of everythin’ she could do with them.”

DO… DO YOU REALLY THINK EVERY WOMAN WHO LOOKS AT ME THINKS LIKE THAT?

“If she’s any fun she will be. Figure most men probably think it, too. Assumin’ they’re not cowards.”

I DON’T KNOW HOW TO FEEL ABOUT THAT.

“Ya should feel lucky. Not everybody gets to walk around knowin’ that everybody who looks their way wants to screw them. Ah… I remember back when I was young enough to get those sorts of looks. Those were the good old days. All I had to do was step outside and I knew the first person I saw would be down for it. Didn’t matter if they were sick, married, or anythin’ else. They saw me and they wanted to stick it in me. Either that, or they wanted me to strap somethin’ on and stick it in them instead.”

IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU SPENT YOUR ENTIRE YOUTH DOING NOTHING BUT HAVING SEX AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.

“Well, of course I did. What else was I goin’ to do with it? Trust me, I’d still be spendin’ my whole life doin’ that if it were up to me. I’d leave everythin’ here to you and Lada and go find somebody willin’ to push me down and fill me all day. That’s the only kind of retirement I’d ever consider. Too bad there ain’t a man on this island who would make that retirement worth it. Unless every single one of them plans on teamin’ up and takin’ turns, I don’t see me bein’ satisfied.”

GRANNY… YOU’RE INCREDIBLE.

“I know.” She placed the last sandwich and jar of tea into the third basket and placed her hands on her hips, looking down at me ready to give me her orders. “Now, they’re probably already on their way out to the edge. Take these and meet them out there.”

WHICH EDGE? THE WHOLE ISLAND IS SURROUNDED BY EDGES, SO I’M NOT SURE WHICH ONE.

“Ah. Right. Listen, when you hear one of us refer to ‘the edge,’ chances are we’re talkin’ about where the harbor is. Any other and we’ll be more specific.”

I STILL DON’T KNOW WHERE THAT IS. I HAVEN’T REALLY SEEN MUCH OTHER THAN THE VILLAGE AND FOREST.

Granny sighed and shook her head. “You’ve been here for this long already and don’t have the place all mapped out? You young’uns take a lot longer to learn things, don’t ya? Look, all ya have to do is follow the road goin’ west out of the town. That road’s only purpose is to go to and from the harbor.”

OH. I WAS WONDERING WHERE THAT ROAD WENT.

“Now ya know.”

Lada walked into the kitchen the next moment. I only knew that because she wrapped her hands around my body to lift me up without warning and place a kiss against the back of my body.

I was surprised she could be that quiet. I would have thought the weight of her breasts alone would make the floors squeak. Though, maybe it took Korova-tier breasts to cause that.

“I heard you’re leaving,” Lada said. “You’re not allowed to leave without kisses.”

“Heh,” Granny chuckled. “Look at that. She’s already tamin’ you with some rules, eh?”

IF LADA MAKES THEM, I WOULDN’T MIND FOLLOWING THEM.

“That’s a good man right there,” Granny told Lada. “You’re lucky. You got a man who can use all those tentacles on ya, and he’ll be good and follow your rules. Ya better make sure to keep him happy or else he’s going to leave you for all the other women around.”

I WOULDN’T LEAVE LADA.

Lada hugged me against her breasts and said, “He won’t leave me for other women if I let him do anything he wants to them.”

Granny sighed and tilted her head. “Well, I guess that’s true. One way of makin’ it so your man will never cheat on ya is if ya give him permission. I guess it ain’t cheatin’ if he’s got that.”

Lada nodded. “Exactly. But he has to let me watch. At least sometimes. And then he has to do whatever he does to them to me.”

That was when I probably would have gone, “But I would never do anything else with anybody in the first place, so don’t even worry about it.” But seeing as how I was already sleeping with Korova, too… well, I would be a liar if I said I wasn’t going to sleep with anybody else.

But I only ever planned on sleeping with Korova in addition to Lada, and that was because they were friends! Even if me and Lada were the official couple, Korova was basically an unofficial member of our relationship! I wouldn’t sleep with anybody outside of them!

Probably.

Well.

If the opportunity popped up… seeing as how Lada had already given me permission to do anything I want with whoever I want as long as I did the same to her later and let her watch sometimes…

Maybe I would end up doing lewd things with others.

Maybe.

As confident as Granny was about everybody looking at me with lust, I doubted that was the case. There were probably plenty of women, and men, who didn’t look at me and immediately jump to perverse thoughts.

Though, I kind of hoped they did actually all look at me that way. Well, at least the women.

Then again, even if I wasn’t into men, it would still be flattering if they looked at me that way, too. They could look, but not touch.

Unless it was a friendly and non-sexual touch. In that case, I had no problem with men touching me.

“Let him down so he can go,” Granny ordered Lada.

“But… I haven’t had enough of him yet,” Lada replied.

“Did I stutter?”

Lada shook her head and set me down. “Be safe, Tenta. Don’t forget to do anything you do to others to me once you come back.”

I DOUBT I WLLL BE DOING ANYTHING OTHER THAN DROPPING THESE BASKETS OFF.

Lada dramatically pointed a finger down at me and said, with a voice as monotone as ever, “You haven’t met Anya yet. She’s really pretty. No men can resist her.”

THEN SHE’S PROBABLY TAKEN ALREADY.

“No, she’s single.”

I THOUGHT MEN COULDN’T RESIST HER?

“Oh. You have a point.” Lada turned to look at Granny. “Do you know why she’s still single?”

Granny shrugged. “Beats me. I hear about it every time some guy tries takin’ her on a date, but then they never talk about what happened durin’ their dates. All I know is that no man has ever lasted more than a single date with her. Almost makes me want to ask her out myself just to see what the deal is. Though… I’ve got a theory. Heh.”

WHAT’S THE THEORY?

I loved theories.

“The theory is that you’ve got these baskets to deliver!” Granny shouted, her tone instantly changing from casual to pissed. Not wanting to wait on me any longer, she picked up each basket and threw them at me, forcing me to catch them with my tentacles. “Now get goin’! It’s almost lunch! They’re goin’ to be houndin’ her for snacks any time now!”

I saluted Granny with my remaining, free tentacle and then pressed that tentacle against my body, where I figured my mouth would be if I had a normal mouth, before pressing that same tentacle up against Lada’s lips as a kiss.

With that, I rushed out of the tavern to head over to the harbor.

I didn’t even know the island had a harbor!

I did as Granny said and followed the path heading west out of the town’s center. At first, all it did was lead me into an area with grassy fields on both sides before going into a small forest. The path looked pretty well maintained, so somebody must have been taking care of it. Then again, that could be said of all the paths going in and out of the town. I never saw anybody taking care of them, but they were always in good shape. It even looked like the bushes and trees surrounding the path were taken care of seeing as how they were trimmed to prevent any branches from reaching out into the path.

Before too long, I realized I must have been getting close since I could hear the shouts and laughs of children in the distance.

Reaching the end of the forest, the path led to the edge of the island where I could see more islands floating in the distance… and also what looked like an old, wooden harbor for ships. It didn’t look anywhere near as maintained as the path leading to it, and I would be worried about docking any sort of ship there. Then again, only one dock was available, and it was a pretty small one at that. Nothing larger than a personal airship would be able to fit in it. Well, a small transport might be able to slide into it, but it would be cutting it close on space.

More importantly, one of the guards who went with them came over to me and asked, “You need any help with those?”

Honestly, that would be appreciated, so I nodded my body. He took one of the baskets which freed up enough tentacles for me to write again.

THANKS. THESE ARE FROM GRANNY. SHE SAID YOU WOULD ALL PROBABLY GET HUNGRY AND THIRSTY, SO SHE PACKED THESE WITH SANDWICHES AND TEA FOR ALL THE KIDS AND YOU GUARDS.

“Leave it to Granny,” the guard said. “She’ll verbally beat you to a pulp one minute, then give you an entire, healthy meal and make you eat all of it the next. Then again… maybe she’s keeping us all healthy so that she can keep shouting at us. Can’t tell if she loves or hates us now.”

I THINK SHE LOVES US. PROBABLY.

“Yeah, probably. Also,” the guard paused, crouching down before looking around and whispering to me, “listen… from man to… man, I think, I’m going to warn you now. No matter how pretty she looks, and no matter how sweet she acts… don’t fall for Anya. Every man who has visited this place and met her has tried… and we… we… I—I can’t. I’m sorry. Just, trust me on this. Don’t fall for her.”

The guard was visibly shaken while talking about her. Between what Lada and Granny said about her, and now what the guard said, I had a pretty ominous feeling about her.

But she was just a teacher, right? What could have been so bad about her? And if she was actually bad, I doubted that she would still be welcome on the island.

Then, when a feminine voice called out to us, the guard jumped up and started sweating.

“Hey!” was all the voice shouted.

Even so, the guard straightened up, took all three baskets from me—stacking them on top of each other—and speed walked away to where some of the other guards were with the kids.

“Oh… he left,” the voice said, sounding closer than it was before.

It was impossible not to remember what Lada told me about doing whatever I want with whoever I want as soon as I saw her. Standing there was a tall, sweet-looking woman with brown hair tied up into an incredibly long ponytail, with glasses on her face, and it looked like all she had on was one of the softest sweaters I’d ever seen and leggings that clung to her legs. While her baggy sweater didn’t show off much of anything, her leggings were tight enough that they left nothing to the imagination as far as her legs went.

Then she bent over, with her hands on her knees, to look at me and said, “Oh! You’re the hero I heard the kids talk about! Tenta, right?” Even her voice was incredible. It was womanly, but also soft and just… if I had to think of the most stereotypically “good” person possible, I would imagine that they had her voice. It was soft, kind, sweet, innocent, motherly—it was everything a man would ever want to hear in a woman’s voice.

And all of those descriptions applied to every other part of her, too. Especially her face and smile.

YES. HELLO. ARE YOU ANYA?

“Ah, you’ve heard of me! I’m honored,” Anya said, followed by a giggle and even bigger smile. “I’ve heard so much about you, but haven’t seen you around!” She held out a hand to me for a shake. “Would you like to stick around for a little? I’m sure the kids would love to see you!”

It was impossible for me to say no. I was too drawn in her by kind nature—by her innocent smile, her kind voice, her loving demeanor… also, Lada gave me permission, so it was alright to get tempted by other women.

SURE.

“Great! Oh, and I apologize ahead of time, but there’s something I am just so incredibly curious about!” Anya said.

WHAT IS IT?

“Your tentacles! Do they… well, ah, how should I phrase this… they don’t have bones, right? And I’m assuming that they are more durable than human skin? They look a lot softer, but also more… elastic?”

RIGHT. NO BONES. MORE MALLEABLE THAN HUMAN SKIN, SO MORE ELASTIC AND DURABLE. BUT I ALSO HEAL SIGNIFICANTLY FASTER THAN HUMANS, SO THAT MIGHT HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THEIR DURABILITY, TOO.

“You… you heal faster? And you’re so… durable… resilient.”

I noticed her eyes locked onto my tentacles.

Could she be…

A fellow thinker who loves to learn and research? She reminded me of the doctor in town. All three of us loved to ask questions and to learn!

“Do they… do they bleed?” Anya asked. “Is their blood a different color?”

MY BLOOD IS LIKE A DARK PURPLE.

Anya’s body twitched as her voice became increasingly breathy. “That… sounds like a beautiful color. I—”

“Miss Anya!” one of the children shouted from the distance. “They brought sandwiches!”

Anya turned to shout back, “Alright! I’ll be over in just a moment!” Her voice was back to normal, and so was the way she looked at me. Kind and sweet. “Let’s go join the children for lunch! We can continue our discussion later, alright?”

SURE. I’LL TEACH YOU WHATEVER ELSE YOU WANT TO LEARN ABOUT ME. BUT I WILL NEED TO GO BACK TO THE INN SOON.

“Oh, that’s alright! We can always plan a date to talk more some other time, after lunch, that is!”

THAT SOUNDS NICE.

“Yes, it does! Oh yes, it does…”

I was never going to turn down an opportunity to talk more with people, especially when they had inquisitive minds of their own!