Sausage Privilege

The juices of meat and fat, seasoned with a rich blend of spices exploded inside the kid's mouth in a burst of flavor like water in hot oil. His body craved more. before he knew it, he was already munching on the sausage without the bear helping his jaw move.

When half the sausage was gone, and only the tip wa sticking out of the kid's mouth, he realized that the bear wasn't holding onto him anymore. Nick was several steps away, seated on the porch and resting his head on his palm.

There was an opportunity, and the kid took it. He quickly got up and sprinted away into the forest.

Kai reached after him with a furry paw.

"Let him go," Nick said, stopping him.

"He looked pretty malnourished, so I understand why you wanted to feed him, but kidnapping people is bad, okay?"

Kai lowered his head with a sad whine.

"That's not going to work. This time, things seem to have worked out, but if you want to make friends, you can't force anyone."

Kai exhaled loudly. Nick was pretty sure he also rolled his eyes. He was surprised. He didn't think Kai was this rebellious. But at the same time, he had slipped away from his parents multiple times and tried to break into the fridge.

He wasn't going to take Nick's words too seriously. Nick was just some guy with good food in the middle of the forest, after all. And Nick knew he wasn't Kai's parent, so he didn't insist on Kai taking his words of wisdom to heart.

As he looked at some of the branches still waving after the kid brushed against them on his way away, a thought struck Nick.

'Is he my nightly visitor?'

It wasn't impossible. But Nick felt it was unlikely. The nightly visitor didn't seem to know what fire was, and it had eaten a bunch of raw meat and sausages.

If it had been the kid, the kid would have either had a swollen belly, been sick, or not reacted as he did to the sausage.

Nick narrowed his eyes and turned to the bear cub sniffing around the campsite.

"Hey, have you come here at night?" Nick asked straightforwardly.

Kai looked up and tilted his head.

"I'm not blaming you if you did. I'm just curious," he clarified in case Kai was scared of being punished for sneaking away.

Kai's head tilted further before he shook it.

Nick knew Kai could lie. He was smart enough for it. But his instincts were telling him it wasn't Kai.

Kai wouldn't step into the fire pit like that, nor would he gorge himself on the scraps and whatever else remained other than sausages. His tastebuds were too refined by now.

Nick scratched the back of his head. If it wasn't the kid or Kai, it was almost definitely a wild animal.

Kai…

Nick had a feeling that Kai could probably handle himself, but this was still the center of the forest, which was home to scary monster kings, according to Sosora. But the cat-like kid probably shouldn't be playing around in the vicinity too much, even if he wanted to keep track of the dastardly human.

"If you catch that kid again, haul him away from here, alright? I have a feeling that this place isn't safe enough for kids to play," he asked Kai. Kai looked up at him.

It looked like he nodded, but it could have been Nick imagining it as he soon went back to walking around the lawn, making grunting and snuffing noises like a pig searching for truffles.

"Wait, can you smell my nightly visitor?!" Nick asked hopefully.

That wasn't it. Kai ignored him until he found what he was looking for. It was a tiny piece of a sausage that had been accidentally left behind by Nick's nightly visitor. It looked like it had fallen off when the wild animal chewed the sausage.

'Of course…' Nick sighed. Did this bear cub have anything other than sausage on his mind? Nick felt apologetic toward Lora and Kavam. He had corrupted their son. 

Nick grabbed a glass of water and sat down on the porch again as he watched Kai wander around, looking for any more scraps to claim as his own.

"Do your parents know you're here?"

Kai froze.

"I think you might need to head home, then. I don't mind you visiting, but at least let your parents know, alright? If they know where you are, even if you are in the center of the forest, they might not revoke your sausage-eating privileges."

Kai looked at Nick with eyes asking him if he was being truthful.

It was not because Nick had said he didn't mind him visiting.

Could he really lose his rights to sausage after his parents had finally learned how to make them just because he took a little trip?

Nick nodded.

Kai turned around and ambled away through the forest. Now that Nick was no longer the only source of sausage in the forest, Kai didn't have to just butter up to him. Besides, if his parents asked, who was Nick to stop giving him sausage.

A sudden feeling of urgency propelled Kai through the forest.

A little while after that, Sosora stepped into the clearing and nodded at Nick sitting on his porch still.

"I saw the bear kid, Kai, was it? I saw him running like his tail was on fire. Is everything alright?" She asked.

"Yeah. He was just worried about missing dinner."

"I see. I thought you scared him off or something."

"Why would I do that…?"

Sosora narrowed her eyes and gave Nick a close look.

"This time, I can't tell if you're not scared or if you're unaware."

"I can confidently say that I'm unaware. I'm pretty scared of most things, actually."

"Hmm." Sosora continued looking for a few moments before answering Nick's unasked question.

"It seems like the monster kings have finally started moving."