The door of the house opened, and a slightly wizened man came out. He looked like an older version of the fourth guy, Marteen. He was a relation, most likely father. So Marteen just wanted to see daddy? However, instead of Marteen stepping forward, Haemish had dismounted and picked up Aarav in his bag and walked over to this man. Huh? I guess I was wrong.

“Greetings, Karlin! Sharing a drink last night gave us a chance to take a step back and understand the situation, it seems! Luck was also on our side!” Haemish held up the bag to Karlin that contained a sentient glob of slime in it. “Meet Resh! You have both met before, I believe!?” The wizened man just stared gobsmacked as Aarav waved a tentacle at him. The slime hadn’t bothered with manifesting claws and paws—no point in freaking them out more than they are already.

“Uhhh…what did you catch? Is it waving at me?” Karlin was near spluttering, trying to get the words out. The rest of the group has had a few minutes to get used to the odd creature grinned, Rion a little more darkly than the rest. It’ll be a while before I can trick that one into trusting me. I’m going to have to dust off the charm and make it work! “It looks a little different from the other time…are you sure it is the same one? I am sure it was a lot smaller than what I saw there in only a few months….” Karlin seemed to be speaking internally, his words fading into silent movements of his mouth.

“Yes! Indeed, it’s grown, hasn’t it?” If you only knew what kind of growth I have gone through over the past months, old codger. “It can talk as well! Go ahead, Resh, say hi!” Haemish had an annoyingly smug smirk on his face, all his teeth showing and looking at Aarav expectantly. It isn’t a party trick, and I am not your pet! Aarav stayed stubbornly silent. “Oh well, I suppose it was too much to hope for. I might have been able to gain some leniency for him on account of being a sentient creature.”

“Slime ball, sir.”

“Huh? What’s that, Rion?”

“It’s a slime ball, sir. Not a creature, perhaps, blob or sludge or other would be a more appropriate name, sir.”

“Yes, yes, whatever you say. I hardly think that is the most important thing we are talking about right now….” Haemish was looking exasperated, like when talking to a particularly petulant child. Rion's nostrils flared in embarrassment. He may have reddened a little as well though that was harder to see with his dark complexion. Yeah, tell him, old man! I am a distinguished individual. No slime balls here! Other than in the literal sense. If Rion hadn’t still been staring a hole through him, he might have believed the man meant what he said in a literal sense.

Aarav sighed and made his mouth move. If he wanted a potion to heal, he might need to play to this guy tune a little. I’ll only do enough to get him to give me one of those concoctions. Aarav opened his mouth and pointed into it. Haemish cocked his head, confusion all over his face. “Potion…healing…” Aarav wheezed out like he had been smoking twenty a day for the last year. That’s the best you’re getting. If you want more: Give. Me. Healing! Haemish stared at the slime in his hand, incredulous. Here was a captive, and he wouldn’t do as asked unless given what he wanted. Audacious didn’t even begin to cover it.

“What was that? Did that thing speak? I was expecting a growl or yip or something. Words? Not clear, but it can mimic human speech?” Oh yeah, I could have made an animal noise instead. You're giving the game away before you’ve even played Aarav. It’s one of my more face-palm moments.

Aarav shrugged the still staring Haemish. Even he couldn’t understand the numbers he had seen; Health, Stamina and Mana had both numerical values and a gauge. I have bottomed out on all of them so give me potions! “Very well, here you go. From his saddlebag, one previously housing a Slime, Haemish withdrew a red vial. It was small and thin. It was a little like a test tube from the old world. The liquid was a very vibrant red, though. The way the colour shimmered as Haemish shook the vial, Aarav couldn’t take his eyes off of it. As Haemish moved the vial back and forth, Aarav’s eyes followed. He couldn’t stop being enthralled by the beauty of the liquid within. He reached out, trying to touch it, to hold it, to consume it. It needed him as much as he needed it.

That stuff, Aarav blinked. Where did it go? Somehow he had gotten distracted by the colour of a healing potion. What was that about? He laughed at himself a little. Ridiculous, he couldn’t get distracted. It was as if the world’s colours we somehow diminished beside the vibrancy of this potion’s. It was beautiful and captivating, and somehow the rest of these idiots didn’t get how amazing it looked.

“If I didn’t know that you were at almost zero with Health, then that reaction would have told me. I should have known to check earlier. Not to worry though, you can drink this down, and you will feel much better. Then there is this one for Stamina. He held up a green vial similar to the first redone to a similar reaction from Aarav. And then a blue Mana vial.” Wow, these colours, Red, Green and Blue, with a capital letter. I have never seen colours this mesmerising. I have to have it! As soon as the liquid was no longer visible, hidden in the palm of Haemish’s hand, Aarav regained coherent thought. The all-consuming need to drink the potion down was overwhelming and then gone.

Haemish played with it a little, opening and closing his hand over the three vials to gauge the reaction, purely for science, Aarav was sure. It didn’t make it any more humiliating to go from a dignified ball of slime to drooling pet over the contents of three vials.

“Stop it! Would you STOP!” Aarav yelled out after several cycles of open and closed hands. “Are you trying to taunt me or something!?” irritation permeated his voice. And of being unable to look away from the hand that held life-saving tonics.

“Oh my…gods! It actually can talk! And not just words and repetition, real-life talking! What in the world. Is it the thing that bit me all those months ago? It seems hard to believe that it’s the same thing. Maybe a more advanced version of the same species? I-I don’t know what to think if I’m honest.” Karlin was flustered, something that hadn’t happened to him since he had started courting Martha. “…” The man has completely lost it. They must see weird things all the time. They live on the fringe of that forest, for god’s sake!

“Umm…no…that was me, or rather a previous version of me. Hard to explain, glad you’re doing well, though. Sorry about that, baser instincts and all. You know how it goes, right?” it all tumbled out of Aarav in a rush, not wanting to risk an interruption halfway through. He had felt bad about biting the man, but he had had an overwhelming need to taste the man’s foot. It was clean. There’s no point in vomiting now. It was a month ago, and you absorbed manure when you were first born in this world. It is hardly the worst thing you’ve tasted. Get it together, Aarav!

Aarav turned back to Haemish. He would not be distracted from his goal this time. “Haemish, is there is a reason you seems to be unable to give me those potions?”

“Just testing a theory is all,” Haemish said, and for a brief instant, his expression was hard to read. It was gone so quickly. Aarav thought he had imagined it. Looking around, the rest of the group also seemed interested in what had just happened. Karlin was clueless, but something was going on here that was going over his head. He intended to find out why these four had looked at him like they had seen a ghost. What in the world?

“Well, are you done with inane testing now?” Aarav asked, and Haemish nodded, pouring the three potions into Aarav’s mouth, which he had tilted up to align with the entrance of the bag. Red, green and blue blended and swirled together as they poured from the vials. By the time they got to Aarav’s mouth, they were a beautiful brown, vibrant and then the most incredible colour he could imagine.

Aarav thought that was all there was to it, he had no idea how wrong he was.