Your power was unmatched,

Mountains fell before you.

To where has your strength fled?

It is gone, and nothing remains.

-Anonymous

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Miro sat behind Olivai, watching her curiously.

In front of her sat a child and another woman, both watching Olivai with some amount of awe reflected in their eyes. Olivai had her staff gently and carefully moving in precise movements around the child’s knee, which had been skinned. Small spores of green light floated from her staff, sinking into the young boy’s knee and gradually mending it.

Miro was actually learning quite a lot from the experience. For one, this was apparently one of the earlier stages of human. Based off of this one, Miro could tell that smaller humans were very loud and moved all over the place, and didn’t stop unless something stopped them.

Moreover, humans were not anywhere near as indestructible as it’d thought they were, and they needed help to get fixed faster. Olivai’s job was to provide that help, and in return she got… food?

If Miro was in her place, it’d definitely ask for food.

Returning its attention to Olivai, it patiently waited for her to finish fixing the small human. When she was done and the knee looked all better, the boy stood up, testing it, and then gave her a wide grin. “It’s all better!”

The woman behind the boy prodded him, and he quickly added, “Thanks, priestess! I don’t have any money but I have this cool snail shell. Do you want it?”

Olivai chuckled quietly. “Of course. What kind of snail is it?”

He looked stumped by the question as he handed the whorled shell over, a confused slime-like creature poking its head out from inside. “Uhhh… one with blue. A blue snail?”

Olivai nodded seriously. “It definitely is. Thank you for being so cooperative! Be sure to obey your mother, alright? It should keep you from getting hurt again.”

He nodded rapidly, then awkwardly gave Olivai a hug. Standing back, he stared at her for a moment and then blurted, “I’m going now!”

With that, he sprinted off, and his ‘mother’ sighed. “He’s a handful.”

Olivai gave her a warm smile. “He does have a lot of energy at that age, but children always do. Give him a year or two and he’ll mellow out some.”

His mother nodded wistfully. “I know, but he’s going to be hard to handle. I don’t suppose there’s any chance you’d be willing to help out every now and then?”

Olivai patted her shoulder. “Of course, but I do have other duties in Caro Lias that I need to attend to, along with Miro.”

The older woman’s expression turned a mixture of guarded and confused when she looked at Miro. “I was going to ask about the slime, but I suppose you’ve already answered my question before I asked it. You named it Miro?”

Olivai nodded. “Indeed. It’s proving quite pleasant, in fact. Would you perhaps like to pet it?”

Miro rolled forward, more than a little curious about the concept. It’d heard Olivai say the word before, but she hadn’t explained it at the time.

The mother looked wary for a moment, crouching with a slight grunt of effort and examining Miro with a skeptical eye. “Will it bite?”

Olivai shook her head. “It hasn’t yet.”

Miro thought about its encounter with Daveen that morning and wondered if sitting in someone’s head counted as biting, and came to the conclusion that if Olivai didn’t think so, it was probably fine.

It was startled out of its thoughts as the mother put her hand on its surface, but stilled immediately. Touch was an important thing, almost as important as taste, and Miro could get a lot of information through it. Even so, it opened its mouth slightly to examine the lady.

Her touch was gentle and almost a little afraid with a good amount of stress mixed in, but her taste smelled a lot like the tarts Miro had been eating the previous day. Fluffy, warm, and cozy, with a light texture to it. It was a very homey flavor, and Miro quite liked it.

It gave her a happy chirp, and she flinched, glancing at Olivai. “Is that a good noise or a bad one?”

Olivai reassured her, “I’m nearly certain that’s a good thing. Miro likes it when I pet it, at least.”

Miro burbled loudly, pushing up into the woman’s hand. It did feel nice, after all. After a moment, she applied more pressure, kneading Miro’s gel. A slow smile spread over her face. “It’s remarkably gentle, for being a slime.”

Olivai nodded. “Miro’s proven itself docile several times over by now. It still has quite the appetite for treats, though.”

The mother laughed quietly. “It’s… adorable, in its own way.” Standing, she brushed her apron off and smiled. “Well, thank you for allowing me to pet your slime. I should get back to Piton now - I’m sure he’s already worked himself into trouble of some kind or another.”

Olivai waved as she left, looking oddly pleased. Gazing down at Miro, she excitedly told it, “Did you notice? She barely questioned you! I do believe we’re making progress!”

Miro was more concerned with the woman walking away from them. Stress was a bad flavor in anybody, and that lady had a lot of it. Miro kind of wanted to go over and make sure she was alright before doing anything else, but Olivai seemed to have other ideas.

Turning around, she headed away from the stone fixture they’d been sitting near. It was a strange thing right in the middle of Caro Lias, with spurts of water shooting out of little openings near the top and collecting in a basin at the bottom. Miro couldn’t figure out where the water was coming from, and why the basin hadn’t filled up yet. Another mystery to add to the sizable pile.

A clawed hand plopped down on Miro’s back, and it nearly popped from shock. Swiveling around faster than it’d previously thought possible, it found Avynne crouching behind it, a fascinated expression on her beak.

“Hello, slime. You’re a lot smarter than other slimes, aren’t you?”

Miro stared at her for a long moment, trying to think. Out of all the people it’d met thus far, the Madarai was arguably one of the best. She’d been nice to Miro even when Olivai hadn’t been nice to her, which automatically raised her up a few levels.

With that in mind, Miro gave her a cautious burble, and she patted it. “I don’t know very many slimes. We get along with them really well back home. We drop some food down and they eat a lot of bad things on the ground. Do you want some food?”

Avynne shot up Miro’s list of favorite people several spaces over the span of the few seconds she’d been speaking, and it bobbed up and down in affirmation. She hadn’t even implied Miro might be a failure, or dumb, or even hungry! Yes, she’d offered it food, but there was a difference between being hungry for food and just wanting food in general.

Avynne’s beak split wide in what Miro assumed was a smile. “Okay. I don’t have very much food right now, but…” Reaching into the front pocket of her soot-stained shirt, she removed a small piece of bread. Miro could taste it - it was cold and hard, but it was still food, and Avynne was being nice.

So, when she held it out, Miro bounced into the air and snapped it out of her sharp claws. She made a startled squeak, then laughed quietly. “I’m sorry it doesn’t taste very good. I don’t earn very much.”

Miro happily rubbed against her hard leg, careful to avoid the razor talons poking up at its base. She gave it another pet, doing a much better job than the mother from a few minutes before. “You are a lot nicer than most of the people here. I am not good at… talking.”

Miro couldn’t disagree more. It couldn’t talk at all, which meant she was infinitely better by default. With a precise bounce, it hurled itself into her stomach, and she caught it with a grunt of effort. “You,” she gasped, “Are very heavy. But also very soft.”

Rolling around in her arms for a moment, Miro bounced out and onto the ground, giving her a rising burble of happiness. It was official - Avynne was one of Miro’s top favorite people now. Even more than Otto, probably. It wasn’t because she’d given it food. It was more because of why she’d given it food.

Still getting her breath back, Avynne fluffed her feathers out, and a few small pieces of down drifted onto Miro’s surface. They didn’t taste anywhere near as nice as the piece of bread, and that was a low bar to start with.

“Miro!”

They both turned around to find Olivai hurriedly walking towards them, looking worried. “Oh, hello, Avynne. Is everything alright?”

Avynne bobbed her head in a similar way to Miro. “Yes, I’m fine. I was talking to your slime friend. It is very nice.”

Miro was almost getting suspicious about how amazing Avynne was. She didn’t mention Miro’s appetite, she didn’t make a point of how it was a slime and ‘wow, it wasn’t biting anyone’. She only said how nice it was!

Olivai gave Avynne a rushed smile. “Yes, well we’ve got to get going now. There’s a lot to do today.” She reached down to pick Miro up, and the slime reluctantly rolled into her hands. It made sure to chirp at Avynne as loud as it could.

Avynne’s eyes screwed up behind feathers as she smiled, and Miro felt better. “Goodbye, slime. I will try to bring better food for you next time.”

Miro wished it could tell her she didn’t need to.

Standing, Olivai started walking away with Miro in her arms, Avynne watching them as they left. She almost seemed to shrink as they went away.

With a sudden thought, Miro deflated, slipping through Olivai’s hands. Before she could do anything about it, the slime zoomed over behind Avynne and forcefully bounced into her back. The startled Madarai stumbled forward, and Olivai awkwardly caught her. “Miro, what are you doing?”

Miro intently pushed at Avynne’s heels, hoping they would get what it was trying to communicate. Olivai tried to pick it up again, apologizing. “I’m so sorry, I don’t know what it’s doing. Normally it’s so well-behaved.”

Liquifying itself, Miro easily passed through Olivai’s fingers and insistently sank into Avynne’s feet. The Madarai was at a total loss, frozen from trying not to pop the slime. “Slime, why are you doing that?”

Partially solidifying, Miro whistled loudly and rolled away from the two of them. Olivai stared at it, confusion written all over her face. Shaking her head, she muttered, “What I wouldn’t give for someone who could translate,” and pulled out her staff.

Before she could purify or make a golden box or whatever it was she was about to do, Miro barreled forward and launched itself into Avynne. She shrieked shrilly as she fell down, the slime delivering more than enough force to knock her over. Olivai nearly dropped her staff as she tried to catch them, but ended up going down as well.

They crashed to the ground in a collective group of slime, feathers and clothing, and it was a short moment before anyone said anything.

Miro extricated itself from the mess, ensuring that everything was alright. Several small sparkles from Olivai’s robes and more than a few of Avynne’s feathers were stuck inside it, and no amount of shaking itself would get the irritation out.

Olivai sat up and blew a stray bit of down out of her mouth. “Avynne? Are you alright?”

Avynne shook a small cloud of fluff out of her feathers, getting to her feet and dusting herself off. “I… think so? I have fallen from higher places.”

Brushing her clothes off, Olivai looked up, interested. “Really? I thought you could fly.”

Avynne’s head feathers ruffled. Miro wasn’t entirely sure what that meant. Embarrassment, maybe? “I was not good at flying as a chick.”

Olivai awkwardly looked at the ground. “Oh. I’m sorry to hear that. But… I thought Madarai lived in cliffs. Wasn’t that dangerous?”

Avynne’s shoulders slumped. “Very.”

Miro gave her a sympathetic burble, pressing itself against her legs. Her feathers poofed out all around her head as she jumped away, letting out a startled chirp. Olivai groaned loudly, leaning down to pick Miro up. It promptly liquified.

Olivai tilted her head back and sighed. “Miro, can you just… what is it!?”

Miro blew a loud, trailing burble as it began rolling back to Olivai’s chapel, keeping an eye on Avynne. Was it so hard for them to figure out what it wanted? It was hardly a difficult idea.

It could tell Avynne was trying to figure out what it wanted. Miro could see the concentration on her beak as she thought about it. She just needed one last push.

Rolling around to behind her, Miro insistently tried pushing her. Of course it wasn’t doing anything, but at least it was trying.

Finally, she glanced up at the distant chapel, and a flash of understanding flew to her face. “Oh! It wants me to come with it. To… to the church?”

Miro bobbed furiously, and Olivai began shaking her head. “No, no, that won’t work. Miro, we’ve got… things to do.”

Miro couldn’t think of anything Olivai was doing, and it knew it wasn’t doing anything. Burbling even louder, Miro tried to push. Its mind worked to find a way around the problem, a way to overcome the weight it was burdened with moving.

Something fell into place.

Avynne lifted into the air.