Micki and Madella were friends since the beginning of their childhood. No one really knew how they met or how they got together so easily, but wherever they went, they were always a pair. They were never separated and they were never alone. If they were, someone would certainly start asking questions.
Rumour has it that Madella was a child born out of wedlock and was left at the doorsteps of Micki's home, so although Micki and Madella were not blood siblings, Madella actually lived with Micki under one roof and one family.
Micki's mother never told anyone how did Madella come about when she said that Madella wasn't her daugther, and you sure can't get anything out of Micki's dad either, so everything was just speculations and gossips. But they decided to let it drop anyway; Madella had never been a threat to anyone or anything.
Whatever the reason was, Micki and Madella were like two peas in a pod. They have never missed a single great event together. They went to school and studied together, sat under their umbrellas together and enjoyed the pouring spring rain, ran around the fields happily in the months of summer, stood under trees and collected their autumn leaves, wallowed on the snow in winter playing with their toy farm, and they were there when Micki's little brother was born. To make everything clear to everyone, there is nothing in the world that could keep them apart.
Until one day, they were celebrating Poloka when their parents have secretly made a decision to tell the kids what they have been planning to do for quite a long time now. So after the hanging of decorations, the food blessing and the dinner and all, Micki's parents called them forward to the living room to listen out what they had to say. Micki and Madella came eagerly, looking forward to hear what their great surprise was, as Micki’s parents said that their present would be one and would be sure to like it.
“We have a surprise for you, children,” Micki’s mother said to the eager children. “Now I know that you two are inseparable and you just love each other’s company, we’ve decided that…”
“We’re going to let you get engaged right tomorrow morning! How does that sound?”
“Err…Dad, what do you mean by… ‘engaged’?” Micki asked.
“I mean that since you kids are at a right age and you’ve been together for so long and all, we’re thinking of getting you kids married by the next Poloka! You two are going to be married! Don’t you like it?” Micki’s dad exclaimed happily.
Unfortunately, instead of being happy, they had horror and terror on their faces. That was something Micki's parents didn't really expect. They looked as if they have announced that tomorrow was the end of the world.
"What is it, kids? Aren't you happy?" Micki's dad looked surprised.
"No, we're not happy! We're totally not happy about it!" Micki exclaimed, horrified.
"Why aren't you happy, sweetheart?" Micki's mother asked. "Isn't this a great thing? Once you get engaged and married, you'll be able to be together always. Besides, you're not blood siblings..."
"That's just it!" Micki cried. "We cannot be married! This is what best friends are most afraid of! Marriage is a terrible thing to happen to best friends!"
"What are you talking about, kids?" Micki's mother asked.
"Marriage is the worst nightmare for best friends!" Madella exclaimed. "This is every best friend's nightmare! Haven't you heard about the best friends' tradition? If best friends get married, they'll never be best friends anymore! Nothing would feel the same as before! We won't be able to enjoy things like we used to!"
"Now who told you that kind of thing?" Micki's dad chuckled.
"It's in every best friend's code and tradition of honour," Micki groaned. "If you make us get married, you'll break tradition and nothing will be the same again, and that would be horrible!"
"Yeah," Madella agreed. "You cannot break the best friend tradition. It's tradition and a life-long code. You break it, you ruin the friendship!"
"Now, kids," Micki's dad tried to comfort the two frantic pre-teens. "It can't be that bad. Being married doesn't mean you won't be best friends..."
"No, no, no!" Micki and Madella protested simultaneously. "We will not be married and we will not be engaged either! We won't go for that engagement! No way, no how!"
With that, the two best friends ran upstairs to their room and hide their faces in their pillows, trying to hide the embarrassment and the painful thought of unable to be friends again when they start slipping in wedding rings and making their vows. What a horrible thing to be!
"We cannot let them tear us apart, Micki," Madella whined. "It's just not fair! How could your parents marry us?"
"Yeah, I can't bear to think what our friendship would turn into if we ever become husband and wife!" Micki shuddered a little. "I don't want anything bad to happen! I don't want our friendship to end!"
"What shall we do, Micki? They're going to engage us tomorrow morning, and I bet we'll be meeting with that scary Priestess who would go around us and blessing us and all that crud. I've seen that happen when your cousin was getting engaged."
"Yup, I've seen that too," Micki remembered the day his cousin was engaged with a rat from the Bronze Continent. Suddenly he took Madella's hands and said solemnly, "Let's run away together."
"Run...Run away? But to where?" Madella was taken aback for a moment there.
"Anywhere. As long as they don't find us. We'll be able to live alone and do things like we used to do. They will never find us as long as we run away as far and as fast as we can, and they will never marry us and we won't have to worry about breaking the code."
Finally after much consideration, Madella finally agreed to her best friend's plan. They both gathered a few of their belongings (and most importantly, their toy farm) and checked to see if the parents were asleep before they tiptoed down the stairs, down the hallway and right out of the front door. Before they left, they took one last look at their home.
"Are you sure this is the right thing to do, Micki?" Madella asked worriedly.
"If we don't do this, we'll never be best friends ever again," Micki said as he took her hand. "Come, let's go before anyone sees us."
Before they knew it, they were out of their front yard and out into the big world they never thought they knew. They weren't sure this was the best solution to get away from being married and life-altered, but it was better than no solution at all.
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