But for a Slime

Chapter Twenty Five

Joe woke in the morning, a certain excitement that he hadn’t felt in a long time permeating through him. As always, Garnedell seemed to know exactly when he woke and responded quickly. Joe took quite a bit more time preparing for today since he had to pack everything for the trip. Most of what he had fit well in the pack. Whoever had created it had designed it very well for all that he was carrying. Since he had been living in the inn for this whole time, he’d left his bag unpacked. Now, it all had to go back in with the addition of his spoon spear, wash cloths, towel, and all the gems he’d collected from the slime slaughter. The packing was tight, but Joe was able to get everything in the backpack by sliding most of the gems in around the edge of everything else he was packing, placing the most of the gems inside his coin pouch, and just plain cramming the rest in the bottom. The pack was actually bulging when he finished the packing, and he realized that he’d lost the waterproofing as the cover of the pack didn’t tie correctly over the top of the pack. He dumped it all out to begin repacking again when he noticed Garnedell watching with some curiosity. Joe glanced at him then twitched his head, beckoning the kid to join in the repacking. Joe carefully began repacking, but this time showing Garnedell where everything went. He also put the bulky towels and wash cloths in the sleeping bag, rolling it up inside all together with the rolled bag so that their bulk wouldn’t over stuff the bag. It ended up just slightly bigger but was still able to fit in its waterproof bag before being tied underneath the backpack to its bottom. Joe was now able to pack the bag with ease, each part settling in well but very tightly as designed.

The two went down to the dining area for their last meal. As always, the inn keep outdid herself and the breakfast was delicious. They enjoyed their meal before saying goodbye and thanks, which seemed to translate into a much longer phrase involving a lot of hugging and tears. Joe smiled indulgently, allowing the goodbye to occur but felt a bitter sardonic flavor tinge his heart as he watched the inn keeper saying goodbye. Sure, you seem to really be sad to see him leave now, but why was he living under the bridge rejected from all these rooms you have in here? Joe felt his skeptical thoughts twist the smile on his lips and he quickly wiped the mockery off his face, not wishing to offend the inn keep.

When Joe left the inn, ready to head out, Joe quickly found out that saying goodbye was a much more serious affair than he expected as the boy took him to each of the major figures of the village and the ones that Joe had interacted with significantly and offered their goodbyes. Joe was even surprised when Garnedell hinted strongly that he should offer a gift before leaving, and Joe had no other option but to bring out the slime gems. Each of them received one, and all of them were profusely thankful and simultaneously sad to see them go, tears flowing from their face readily. Joe was quite surprised at how easily they could show their hurt as tears and despite his cynicism curling around his heart, he soon was touched by everyone’s apparent heartfelt sadness at his leaving. Joe smiled and simply accepted their sentiments.

Several seemed to ask why he was leaving, and Joe had to simply resort to simply stating he was trying to grow stronger. He was actually surprised to see that they easily accepted this and even seemed genuinely excited for him, eagerly encouraging his pursuit. Kargallen himself was ecstatic and called for the elders to come, all crowding around him in excited surprise. Kargellen quieted the crowd of elders and they all looked towards one another, a moment of silent assessment in which they all evaluated who would be the spokesperson. Joe always found the ability to do such so silently and quickly fascinating. Definitely a high context society! Going to have to watch and learn carefully. Finally, all seemed to acknowledge their chosen representative and Kargallen stepped forward following some unseen signal and all of them seemed to accept Kargallen’s apparent election. Kargallen spoke with some pomposity, a greater weight to his words and a stance that seemed to betray an effort towards greatness. When he began speaking, Garnedell seemed to straighten. Is there something official going on? Garnedell listened carefully and then turned to Joe, translating Kargallen’s speech.

“Joe go! Joe job go.”

“Thanks. I will grow myself well.”

Garnedell took a few moments to figure it out and turned to translate to the group of elders. They listened and Kargallen replied with as great gravity as before. Garnedell once again translated for Joe.

“Joe go. Village safe,” Garnedell seemed to get stuck, pausing a moment before suddenly continuing, sudden epiphany lighting his eyes and he pointed to each of the elders as he spoke, “He. He. He. He. He stay. All village… OK.”

“Uh… OK… that seems great,” Joe’s uncertainty regarding Garnedell’s translation left him a bit in the dark so he decided to go with a general positivity and offered two big thumbs up and an oversized smile. It seemed to do the trick and Kargallen and the elders accepted his statement with satisfaction, a general murmur spreading around the group as each turned to one another and then nodded. The conversation continued between Kargallen and Garnedell one last time and came to a close with what appeared to be a general blessing from the group of elders which Joe graciously accepted and it seemed the two could finally be on their way.

Joe then left heading east out of the village on the same road the two took each morning to kill slimes. It almost felt like any other day. The two even encountered a slime at the place where the slimes crossed the road north. They killed it as they continued on and soon Joe was in a new part of the forest, their simple and easy travel slowing slightly as Joe’s cautioned outweighed their speed.

After another hour or so of travel, the road turned south and another several hours saw them arriving at a rather large river just around noon. Huh… I bet it’s the river I landed next to… where I sunk my drop pod. Is that … up or down river? There was no bridge and they needed to cross using a ferry. Since the ferryman lived on the other side of the river, they ended up having to contact him and ask for a ride. It took the ferryman almost twenty to thirty minutes to get the boat going. This offered them a moment of rest as they waited for the ferry to cross from the other side before continuing on so they used it as their lunch break and enjoyed a moment of rest until they were picked up.

The ride over the river proved forgettable and they were soon continuing on their trip south. After they had crossed the river, another road that had followed the south bank of the river joined theirs and they actually saw a horse and cart coming down that road. It appeared to be an old farmer with his produce for sale in the city. Over the next several hours, they saw another couple of roads merge with theirs and traffic both ways began to increase significantly. They also saw increasing monster activity, which Joe found quite surprising. What noble wouldn’t have their roads properly patrolled? It’ll kill the economy!

About an hour after crossing the river, they found an adventurer under attack from a strange creature that resembled a largish rat. When Joe and Garnedell saw this, Joe ran forward to help. As Joe got closer, he saw that while its body and rear resembled a rat, the skull and head looked more like a fox. Really weird looking creature! Joe came up and slid in beside the adventurer, spear at the ready. His thrust came in hard and he’d already stabbed deeply into the ratfox’s body, pinning the beast to the ground. With the spear buried through the beast’s body into the ground, Joe pressed firmly down and stepped to the side to allow the adventurer to finish the kill. The adventurer sliced his sword down and took the head off the beast.

When Joe turned to greet the adventurer and offered a smile of great friendliness, the expected gratefulness wasn’t forthcoming. Joe was shocked to find the woman was incredibly angry and incredibly not human. She had a twinge of alienness to her face that almost seemed catlike as a hint of fur graced her face with stripes that made her cheekbones seem much sharper than they were. The expected ears to the sides of her skull were absent, adding to the alien feel of her look, and it was only now that Joe noticed the tail lashing behind her. The proof of alien life before him surprised him so significantly that he didn’t even really notice her angered berating. Is she… beautiful? Is this… what… how? Joe almost couldn’t process or evaluate her, the alien human mixture leaving him discombobulated and unable to easily understand. It was a strange feeling of disconnect, traditional definitions of beauty struggling to merge with the utter strangeness of her looks.

The woman, however, had continued screaming at him, waving her arms and thrusting her sword into his face. Her screaming went on for another few moments but was interrupted by Garnedell who began speaking rapidly. He began apologizing profusely and offering curious little shoulder shrugs and wide armed spiral movements that were a bit strange. I wonder if this is some kind of apology ritual. It took a bit of time and some back and forth for the woman to calm down but she was never really appeased. She walked away in a huff of anger and left the two alone. Joe watched her walk away then turned to Garnedell in some confusion.

“What was that abou… What girl …?”

“Girl bad. No fight!”

“But… she was …”

“No fight girl… Girl fight only… Only girl fight. Me. You. No fight!”

“Got it… no more helping strangers.”

But even as he said this, he watched her saunter away and realized the strange gait was because of the odd sway to her hips. Her bones don’t match normal human ones! The realization slapped him with some shock, explaining her slightly odd double-swished sauntering, as each sway of her hips to one side had two distinct movements: the first a short slip to one side before slowing drastically then suddenly completing the full motion to one side, almost as if her bones slid across a small bump. The first slide would come upon the bump and slow before slipping over it to accelerate madly to the full extent of the sway before returning to do so in the opposite direction for the other leg. This… is NOT human! The shock of seeing a non-human left him staring for a quite a bit longer than he should have, and she seemed to have felt his eyes since she turned and saw him watching. A smirk of disdain and a shake of her head broke him from his reverie and he turned away. When he looked at Garnedell, he noticed the boy staring at him with a decidedly neutral look on his face with a hint of humor. Joe schooled his face but then sighed and turned away with some frustration to their journey. Really? I was only trying to help! Why did she have to get so pissed! It’s like I stole her… Shoot! Experience! Well… that explains it!