Winner II

"Guys, it says winner here. Does that mean something?"

"Holy cow, you got a winner? Can I see it?" Kelle finished her stick and checked both sides for a possible "winner!" sign but didn't find any. He held the stick out for them to see.

"That means you get another one for free."

Norman stared at his cone, angrily surprised. "WHAT!? How did you get a 'winner'? I once went through 500 cones within a year and didn't get a single one. This is bull."

"I told you not to do that, they only have a one in a thousand chance. This was their plan, to make you buy more than you need for just one more, you're an idiot."

"Shut up! I'm already sad enough as it is. 500 styrs down the drain!"

"You weren't even gonna gain that much in the first place!"

"I was going to take a picture with it like I caught a big fish and tell my children that I got that on my first ever cone to show them how cool and lucky I was! Now only Zeeth gets to say that!" he angrily gobbled up the rest of his cone and stomped away.

"You were going to lie to your kids about such a small thing? Why don't you just take a picture with Zeeths then?"

Norman stopped and turned around. "Oh. you're right. Zeeth, can I please borrow that for a moment?"

"Sure, you can tell your kids that you got it on the first try too."

"Norm, if you do that I will tell them that you're a liar. Even if I don't Will will eventually slip up while talking and reveal it."

"Don't you dare! Don't any of you tell them! I will be the coolest dad ever!"

"Did someone say my name?! Did you know the name Will is the 59th most popular name in Jarlon? And Kelle is the-"

"Shut up, you're ugly."

Will bent down again, gloomily chewing on his own heart-shaped Cycone, with his lips trembling like he was holding back tears.

"Haha, you guys are the same as ever. I still feel a little worse every time I see him like this though."

"Yeah, but what else can we do? Nothing else will ever make him shut up, you just have to be direct."

"Yeah, we once gagged him with an apple and he thought it was a trend. He chewed up and swallowed the apple in three seconds flat and did it to us for the next two weeks whenever he could."

"I think I met you guys when he was still doing that."

"Yeah, that's when we started yelling these things at him."

"Whatever let's go to the tentacon. I just bought it. Where is it, Zeeth?"

"The map says it should be just two blocks from here after taking a left."

"Cool. Were all done with our cones, lets run."

A few seconds later, they appeared at the massive, open front doors of a 50 story building. The front doors alone could easily fit two or three houses and the roof was open to allow massive drones and helicopters to drop off creatures too large for the doors to fit. They walked through the entrance, avoiding bustling and hustling men running around trying to calm animals and get them in and out.

They walked up to a woman behind a table and showed her the paper. She scanned the barcode on it and gave them a tag that said Floor 17, Room 8. They got to the customer chutes. They had to step into large cylinders, which were shot up into the air using hydraulics and they eased to a stop at the entrance labeled 17. The door slid open and the cylinder fell back down, which was cushioned and stopped by air when they stepped out. The left side was labeled 1-50 and the right with 51-100. They went the left route and ran to reach the eighth room, far down the hall.

They scanned the tag through the door and the door popped open with a click.

There, they saw a really sedated baby tentacon with a team of stun men making sure it didn't run rampant. When they entered a floating robot popped up and asked Zeeth what he would like to do with it. All costs would be covered by the Vasaleus.

There was a choice to transfer ownership so he transferred it to Kelle, she paid him the 450 styrs with a pained face.

"All that money… I could buy so much stuff with that…" but she soon forgot about it as she felt the tentacles of the creature. They were still malleable since it was a baby. As they age about half of the tentacles of these creatures tend to get firmer and in a certain shape that they use a lot. Water-based tentacons tend to have them in a fin or some aerodynamic shape. Those that tend to fight often have them as spikes and shields.

She wanted to shape this one to be the perfect defender with many large shields, where it could protect her out in the wild and hold all her items for her.

"Alright, let's go! Unlock the cage and supply me with about a month's worth of relaxing pills. I'll take care of the rest."

Page looked a little worried, "a month? Are you sure you're able to tame it within a month? It might be a baby but it's still lived most of its life in the wild."

"Don't worry, I can do this. I've done it so many times before."

"Yeah but those were with simple dogs. This ain't no dog."

"I know, I know. I've just got a good feeling about this." Zeeth noticed her lovingly looking at it, determined to tame it. "Alright, let's go!"

She clicked a few par buttons and when she clicked "ready to take now" the entire wall slid open and a massive ramp leading down onto the streets opened up. A massive crane was ready to take the cage out along with all the people with it.

"Norm, help me." Kelle and Norm stood on either side of the cage and hoisted it up off the ground with telekinesis. They floated the cage with the tentacon onto the platform that the crane was holding and jumped on themselves right after. Will, Page, and Zeeth all jumped on, careful not to stand too close to the edge in case the weight made it teeter.

Of course, it wasn't that weak but one couldn't be too careful with this. The crane slowly lowered them to the ground. It was definitely slower than the elevator, which shot them up instantly but it wasn't bad either.

Zeeth looked over the edge and the floor was a lot closer than he expected and was coming fast. Right as it seemed they would smash into it, the crane slowed to a halt and gently hovered down. Norman and Kelle once again lifted the cage and carried it all the way home. The entire time Kelle was just staring at it, patting its head and trying to soothe it.

They brought it all the way back to the restaurant but noticed something. The cage wouldn't fit through the door.

"Oh, damn. I forgot. We're gonna have to go to the beginner's entrance and ask Emma to let us through."

"Whaaaat? We have to walk all the way to the walls?" Norman slumped his shoulders, putting his edge of the cage down on the ground.

"We do, they don't. You guys can go back to the Vasaleus if you want. You can rent the room with us, we'll send you there when we meet."

Will finally spoke up, "I'll walk with you guys."

"Nah, you should show Page and Zeeth to our room. They don't know where it is yet."

"Alright. Come on, guys."

Kelle and Norm went to the wall and the other three went back into the restaurant, which was now quietly bustling with the air of the night, walked down to its bathroom, and teleported back to the Vasaleus.

The midnight quickly came around, Kelle and Norman brought the tentacon back and Kelle spent the entire night awake trying to soothe it until the tentacon wouldn't try to destroy everything. Of course, manually taming a creature was nowhere near as good as Zeeths taming. For one, they couldn't share nutrients and mana, they didn't have a complete understanding and you were never sure what they were thinking or doing, especially if it was a wild monster like this one. Zeeth would have a far harder time trying to keep his slimes still if they weren't being controlled by a skill.

She only had to use 5 tranquilizer darts, far less than expected on the first night. By morning, the tentacon seemed to be fairly comfortable. It was still hostile with Zeeth, who tried to bite and eat it earlier, but the good news was because of it's hostility to Zeeth, it tended to use Kelle as protection, drawing the two of them closer together. She figured out a name for it while walking to the wall, Kanna, and it was already somewhat responding to the name.

It crawled behind Kelle, one tentacle holding her hand like a child. It was kind of cute, if not for the pink skin and strange sounds.