Dwarf
99. Explanation of Tuo

"What if I'm Parakang?"

Tuo's two eyes that had been closed were immediately rounded. Both of his eyes looked strangely at the figure of his wife who looked silent.

"What are you saying, Saoda?"

Saoda breathed a long breath. She deflected her sleeping position and then quietly looked at the face of her husband who was still waiting for an answer from her.

"What if I'm Parakang?"

"Don't talk about Saoda! There will be villagers who hear it and think it is serious."

"I don't want anything bad to happen to you. You know what happened to your parents."

"They were burned because of a misunderstanding. They all just misunderstood and acted recklessly like that."

Saoda moved her fingers to touch her husband's cheek with a smile.

"Have you ever seen Parakang?"

Tuo was silent for a moment.

"Never."

"Then do you not believe in the presence of the figure of Parakang?"

"I believe the evidence the citizens saw it earlier."

"But it wasn't you who saw it in person, was it?"

"Yes you're right, but something that the villagers have believed to exist must also be trusted."

"The villagers have proven the existence of the figure of Parakang, so it is clear that the creature exists."

Tuo now chose to be silent while Saoda looked dreamy.

"Tuo!"

"What's up! Want to talk about Parakang again? You better get some sleep!"

Saoda smiled faintly.

"What if I'm a parakang? Are you gonna hate me or just keep accepting me?"

Hearing that made both of Tuo's eyebrows frown in confusion. He immediately got up from his bed and looked at Saoda who was still lying on the bed.

"Why are you? Do you want to be a Paradakang until you keep asking questions like that? Hem?"

"I'm just asking. You just need to answer it. That's it."

"But it's not good. That bad. I really don't like it when you talk about it. What do you want to be Parakang?"

"I didn't say that I wanted to be Parakang" said Saoda.

"But you've been talking about Parakang."

Saoda who lost his smile immediately got up from the bed. He sat beside Tuo and leaned his chin over Tuo's shoulder.

"I'm just asking. Who wants to be a parakang? But I'm just asking if I said that I was a Para-"

"Soda!" reprimanding Tuo who was so very dislikeful of making Saoda speech stop.

"It's just the same. Now how will you be angry or continue to accept my presence by your side even though I am Parakang?"

Tuo was suddenly silent. Saoda could see her dislike and uneasy face on Tuo's face.

Tuo turned to look at Saoda who now looks silent while smiling as if waiting for a response from Tuo.

"The parade is a creature that is hated by the people in this village. No one wants to have a Parakang figure in this village"

"Particularly you?"

"Do you hate Parakang even though Parakang is me?"

Tuo did not answer. He seemed to be silent as if he was thinking something.

"You know, Indo I'm dead and you want to know what made him die?"

Saoda. He also never asked Tuo this question. He had lived in this house for a long time but he did not know what caused Indo Tuo to die.

"Emm, was he also accused of being Parakang and the villagers also set him on fire?" guess Saoda.

The downcast Tuo immediately shook his head slowly.

"Indokku actually died from being eaten by Parakang while sick. You know I hate that thing called Parakang so much, I hate it so much."

"Even if God brings me to the figure of Parakang then-then I will ask why he ate my Indo."

"I want to ask, what is my Indo mistake so he could do it."

"He, the figure of Parakang who has forced me to become an adult at my young age."

"He who has taken away my happiness in this world."

"Because of him, I can no longer feel the figure of my Indo presence that I so dearly care for."

"I don't have to ask you what it's like because you also know what it's like to live without an Indo figure."

"I know you're suffering more because you've lost both of your parents. You have lost your Father and Indo at the same time and in such a tragic way."

"Soda!" call Tuo while deflecting his sitting position looking at the wife who looks silent as if thinking of something.

Both eyes now meet.

"You understand please! Don't make anything weird. I already love you so much, Saoda and please don't make that sense change."

"Changed? Does that mean you'd be mad if I was Parakang?"

"Of course I'll be angry. You know, the negative aura that the villagers felt about the figure of Parakang was ingrained in all of them."

"For them there is no positive side in the so-called Parakang creature, nothing."

"Soda!" Tuo touching Saoda's cheek made the two pairs of their gazes so very deep.

"Please don't do anything weird. Now answer my question honestly. All you said was just kidding, right? You don't really want to be Parakang, do you?"

Saoda gulped his saliva after hearing the question from Tuo. You have to answer what it is now.

"Soda!" call Tuo makes Saoda stop his daydream.

"You're just kidding, right?"

Saoda smiled immediately. He stroked Tuo's cheek gently.

"I told you I was just asking. I'm not really serious."

"I-I just want to know how you would respond and say if that happened. I'm not serious about asking you that, Tuo."

Hearing that made Tuo exhale a sigh of relief. He clasped Saoda's fingers, which touched his cheek gently.

"You promise, won't do anything weird and ask me that again?"

Saoda smiled and nodded.

Tuo laid her body on the bed making Saoda lay her head on her husband's chest, which stroked Saoda's hair.

Saoda was silent with his gaze staring at the darkened surface of the walls of the room without any illumination from the small flames that he lit every night.

What's he supposed to be now?

Saoda really doesn't know. On the one hand he wanted to be the Parakang to avenge this to all of them, the bad guys who had snatched away his happiness, but on the one hand Tuo hated Parakang very much, so what should Saoda be now?