“It’s so cute!” exclaims Fresh, leaning forward to look at the little, green creature that is wiggling itself out of the hollow tree trunk. Feeling her presence looming over itself, the small, gelatinous body puffs itself out wide, stretching itself thin, but much wider, as it tries to enlarge its appearance.

The tiny slime jiggles menacingly. Fresh isn’t sure how to process it exactly in her waking mind, but the wet, slapping sounds come together to form a few noises in her head. Not exactly words, but more the sensation of words being said, as she reads the slime’s body language. “Bad! Bad!” says the little slime. She supposes slimes are forest monsters.

“Get away from the slime, goo-brain,” barks Jubilee, grabbing her hand and pulling her back a few steps as the slime jiggles, flapping its goo around in an effort to look like an imposing threat. “I know you have a lot in common, but this isn’t the time.”

“Hey!” says Fresh, pulling her hand away and crossing her arms. “Rude.”

Jubilee snaps their fingers. “You, meat-head. Aren’t you supposed to kill monsters? Go for it.”

“No!” yells Fresh, looking down at Jubilee and then lifting a finger to stop the man from the sect who was already pulling out his sword. “Don’t kill it! It’s cute!” A heavy breath escapes his body and he lets the sword fall back into the straps holding the weapon on his back.

“It’s worth at least two experience-points,” says Jubilee with a shrug. “Plus it came to us. I’d say its a freebie from the universe.”

“It’s not!” argues Fresh. “Look at it! It’s great!”

The slime, agitated at being ignored, stretches itself out even thinner in an effort to grow taller as it continues dancing around in agitation. Its body, barely reaching the size of a glass-chicken, quivers as it seems to struggle to hold itself upright like this. The leaves nearby rustle as a soft wind pushes through the forest. The stretched out slime catches some of it and loses its balance. Fresh yelps as the little slime falls off of the top of the hollow log, splatting down to the grass below. “Oh no!”

“It’s fine, dumb-ass. It’s just a slime. Come on, let’s just go. We’re burning daylight.” Jubilee looks down at the little slime. “Fucking slimes. Fucking goo. I hate forest monsters.”

“Awww, but Jubileee~” protests Fresh, watching the slime pull itself together. The small creature collects itself back into a tight ball of shiny, translucent goo. Apparently not fazed by its crushing defeat, the creature begins puffing itself up again, trying to scare the intruders away with a wiggly dance that is perhaps meant to be terrifying, but doesn’t quite succeed.

“I suppose it does have its charm,” says Basil, standing a few feet to the side and Fresh nods back to her excitedly.

“Right?” Tilting her head, she looks back at its body, watching as it seems to pull some air into itself to create a hollow bubble inside of itself that pushes its goo outwards like an expanding balloon. The girl leans forward, moving closer to the slime.

“Will you just leave the damned thing alone? Come on, we gotta go!” yells Jubilee from the tree-line.

Fresh stares at the slime and the slime stares at her, puffing itself up further and further in its fearless effort to intimidate the giant before it. She gets an idea and takes a deep breath, puffing out her cheeks as far as she can.

The slime stops, releasing the air out of itself immediately as it drops down into a tiny, flat, quivering puddle. “Scary-bad! Scary-bad!” cries the slime, apparently distraught as it quickly crawls away, vanishing back inside of the tree-trunk.

Fresh lets the air out of her cheeks. “Ah! No! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it!” she calls in to the hole. But the slime has already vanished, quickly fleeing the scene. “Oh nooo~” says Fresh, feeling terrible now. “Jubileeeee~” calls the girl over to her friend.

“Don’t ‘Jubileeeeee~’ me, you slime-brain. It’s great that you’re having fun, but we need to get as far as we can while it’s still light outside and before we get murdered!” Jubilee points at Basil. “Some of us for the second time!” Jubilee’s finger moves to point at the man from the sect. “You two! Stop encouraging her or we’re all going to die out here, because she wants to talk to monsters!”

The man from the sect lets out a heavy breath. Basil lets out a relenting sigh and walks on ahead as well, grabbing Fresh’s sleeve as she passes. “Come on, let’s get going. Jubilee is right.”

Fresh frowns, but supposes that her friends do have a point. They are in a kind of a rush. “Okay, let’s go!” She looks back to the man from the sect. “Come on, we still have a long ways to go.” She scratches her cheek, adjusting the bag on her back with her other hand. “I think?”

“We do,” says Jubilee as they continue walking through the woods. “We’re just heading south for now -”

“Huh?!” asks Basil. Jubilee lifts a hand, going on.

“Don’t be a baby. It’s just for a little, then we’ll break off and head west or east. But we have to get away from the city first.” Jubilee lowers their hand. “If you think there aren’t witch-hunting parties out for us this very second, then boy do I have news for you.” Fresh watches as Basil looks over to her and then back forward, fidgeting with her sleeves the entire time, the bracelet jangling on her wrist.

“What about…” Basil carries an uneasy tone in her voice. “What about the other witches?”

“The coven is silent,” says a heavy voice from behind them. “Only Gauden and Spillaholle remain.” Basil shudders, the man from the sect’s eyes shine through his helmet with great excitement. “Perchta has returned. The prophecy begins anew.” Fresh looks back at the man in surprise, remembering the word from the anqa.

“Prophecy schmophecy,” says Jubilee, waving the man off as they walk.

“Hey, what’s a ‘perchta’?” asks Fresh, looking at the giant walking behind them. “Can you tell me about witch-stuff?” Basil covers her ears and walks on ahead at a quicker pace, starting to hum as she passes by Jubilee.

The man lets out an excited breath, his breastplate heaving as he looks at her. “When it is dark.”

“Huh?”

“When it is dark,” repeats the man and Fresh scratches her cheek, shrugging. Basil seems to hear this rejection and slows down, coming back to Fresh’s side a moment later, looking a little relieved.

“Okay!” she says, agreeing to his terms. It sounds a little odd, but at least someone is around who can finally tell her about her class. She looks back at the man from the sect, the giant towering in his dark-cobalt armor like a monstrous shadow of the specter of death. He seems oddly out of place in the lush, vibrant forest that they find themselves in. Then again, looking down at her own frayed black robe, she supposes she isn’t much better off. Fresh sighs. She wishes she had bought more clothes after all while she had had the chance.

“Hey, what’s your name?” asks Fresh curiously.

“Unimportant,” responds the man from the sect.

“But I wanna know!” argues the girl. The man says nothing. “Please?” begs Fresh, walking backwards as she looks at him. She reaches out, grabbing his giant hand. The man’s breastplate lurches. “I guess we’ve known each other for a while, but I’m Fresh!” She lifts her other hand, raising a finger and wagging it as she enunciates. “It’s - nice - to - meet - you!”

The man lets out a long exhalation. Fresh isn’t sure if it’s a sigh or a groan or if the man is just breathing as hard as he always does. She pulls on his hand, trying to lift it up from his side to shake it, but the heavy thing doesn’t budge an inch from her meager attempt to move it. Her perspective suddenly shifts as something in the world around her changes. “IAH!” yelps the girl, stumbling backwards, having tripped over a root. A hand reaches out, grabbing her other shoulder and catching her before she falls. Pulling her back upright, the giant spins her around and then gently pushes against her back to get her to keep walking on forward, perhaps in the hopes that she’ll drop the subject.

“Thank you!” laughs Fresh. “So?” she asks, apparently not getting the hint. The man doesn’t answer. Fresh narrows her eyes, not willing to accept this. Taking in a deep breath, she pulls in a large amount of air and puffs out her cheeks as she turns back to face the man, who is very much unlike the small slime from before, attempting to win him over with a display of dominance.

“Will you just tell her your stupid name?!” yells Jubilee from the front. “You people are going to drive me crazy! I swear…”

Basil doesn’t say anything, but nods quietly in agreement.

The man from the sect looks back up and away from her, focusing on the forest ahead of them. The haunting glint of his eyes, hidden under his heavy helmet, shines in a different manner than usual. “Shamrock.”

Fresh gasps. “That’s a really cute name!” she says, clearly delighted. The man seems less thrilled.

“Damn plant-fuckers,” sighs Jubilee. “They got you too, huh?”

Basil looks back at the man, apparently surprised. “You were in the church? Why did you… you know?”

“I kill monsters,” says the man, not making eye-contact with any of them.