Leaving the farmer far behind with Notch on my shoulder we strolled down the main road, avoiding the rare cart or traveler, in comfortable silence. Reaching down into my new stash of fruit and vegetables I grab a berry, but just as I was about to eat it, Notch slaps it out of my hand and back into the stash of food.

“What the hell?!” I yell at Notch, mostly in shock.

Notch shakes his whole body back and forth.

“No? No, what?” I ask confused as I reach for the berry again.

Notch slaps it out of my hand again and shakes with even more force this time.

“What’s wrong with you Notch? Why don’t you want me to eat the berry? …Is it poisonous? No, that can’t be right I already ate a few of them when we traveled through the fields.”

While I’m rambling I notice Notch wiggle in exasperation then point at the food in my makeshift pouch, then at himself and me, then shakes no.

“Okay… you don’t want us to eat?”

Notch nods points at the sun then at a different portion of the sky.

“Sun? Sky? What does that have to do with food?”

Noch seems to sigh, points at the sun, the other part of the sky, the food, then us and nods.

“You want us to wait until the sun reaches there to eat?” I ask while trying to put together everything Notch is miming.

Notch nods in a way that makes me feel like he is saying finally. I don’t notice this because I finally understand what he was trying to tell me.

“That’s a great idea! I have no idea how to find food in the wild, and if the guard is right about the town is 75 miles away, it will take a few days to get there. So we should ration our food, or we will run out of things to eat.” I yell out in understanding when I hear what I can only describe as clapping. Looking over my shoulder, sure enough, there’s Notch clapping sarcastically at my pronouncement.

Glaring at the now wiggling, laughing slime, I pick him up and drop him on the ground which causes him to do an angry wiggle at me. This causes me to laugh at him, as I continue down the road looking out for the crossroad with Notch now following behind me.

I don’t know if I should say luckily but… luckily working in the sewers all day, every day for the past few months has made my body used to walking all day with little food. So I was able to walk almost nonstop until sundown with Notch once again riding on my shoulder, finally reaching the crossroad we have been looking for.

Sitting down on a log next to the road I notice a worn sign with two arrows one pointing East, down the main road, that says Shadowvale, and the other arrow that pointed North, down an overgrown path, was impossible to read from where I was sitting so I get closer. When I get right next to the sign, I can now see it was heavily graffitied. With the town’s name Dondton crossed out, and Weakling’s End carved above it. I also notice other smaller carvings saying things like, “Home of the almost Zeros” and such. Shaking my head, I head back and sit back down on the log.

“Well it’s getting dark Notch, should we camp out off the road here then head towards Dondton in the morning?” I ask Notch who nods at the idea.

“Alright let’s look for somewhere to camp? Any idea how to find a good camp?” I ask Notch remembering I’ve never done this before.

Notch sigh wiggles then slides off me and onto the ground and heads off the road. Not too far from the road, we find a small clearing with a cart and an older man with his back to me building a fire. So as not to startle him I make a coughing noise to make my presence known.

Turning around the man says, “Evening, looking for a place to camp for the night? If so, you’re more than welcome to join mine. Was just about to get a fire going and roast some Horned rabbits I bought off a hunter.”

“That sounds great, and I have some vegetables to share if you share some of your meat. Also, I’m Nox, and the Slime there is Notch.” I say almost drooling at the thought of having something more than cold potatoes and berries to eat.

“Sounds great, name’s Nic. By the way, why are you holding your shirt like that?” asks Nic, while gazing at my shirt.

“Ah, that’s where I’m holding the vegetables,” I explain, kind of embarrassed but walking closer so I can watch him start the fire and hopefully understand the trick of it.

“Where’s your bag? You aren't traveling without a bag of some sort are you?” Nic asks confused.

Thinking about it, it would be weird to go traveling without a bag… so I lie, “No, I had one, but I got into a fight with a Horned Rabbit, and it was torn to pieces.”

“Ah… it happens,” says Nic as he gets up and walks over to his cart and looks inside. As this is happening, I see a considerable shape lumbering out of the forest towards us.

“Nic, watch out something is heading towards us!” I yell while jumping to my feet and getting ready to either fight or run for it.

Not even bothering to look up from searching through his cart, Nic shouts, “Nothing to worry about that’s just Tug, my Stone Horn, he was just out grazing and making sure there wasn’t anything too dangerous nearby.”

With my heart still racing I watch as a three meter tall, hairy, brown ox with stone horns and hooves. Other than the sheer size of the beast and its’ horns Tug was anything but scary. Seeing him up close calmed me enough to set back down and watch Nic go through his cart.

“Ah, here it is I knew there was an extra one in here,” Nic says taking out a worn, brown sack out and walking back over to me. “Here you go Nox, it’s old and probably won’t last long, but it’s better than nothing.” Continues Nic while handing me the brown sack that I now see has a pull tie.

“Thanks, Nic, this is great… but I don’t have any talons to pay for it will you trade?” I say dejectedly while nodding towards my small stash of food and the horn.

“Tell you what, we will call it even for helping me set up camp the rest of the way and tearing it down in the morning, sound good?”

“Yes, thank you!” I say already loading everything into the sack. After a minute I think of a problem with the deal, “One thing though I uh… don’t know how to set up or uh… tear down camp. I don’t even know how to set a fire… But I’m more than willing to learn if you’ll teach me.”

“Ha, Nox why in the hell would you leave the city without knowing how to even start a fire?”

“Me?” is all I can think to say without lying.

“Ha, okay we can leave it at that if you want but sure I’ll show you some simple things as for setting a fire that’s easy I was about to light one before you showed up. The key to making a fire is to dig a small impression or make one with a circle of rocks then make a dry stack of sticks with some kindling, strips of bark and wood chips, underneath them. Then using a flint and steel to make sparks onto the kindling when you start to see smoke blow on it.” As Nic explains all this, he is actively showing me each step.

“I don’t have a flint and steel… is there another way?”

“I once saw someone start a fire with some string and a stick but honestly no idea how to do it. This is also my only flint and steel, so you're out of luck there.”

The next few hours were spent with him explaining the simple things on how to cook and set up camp with little other conversation. When the rabbits were done roasting over the fire, we sat down to eat.

“So, Nox I never asked where are you traveling to so unprepared?” asked Nic once we were done eating.

“Dondton, and the dungeon there. What about you?” I asked.

“I just left Dondton heading towards Ignus.”

“Too bad you’re not heading back to Dondton. I could have begged a ride from you the rest of the way.”

“Well if I see you on my way back I’ll pick you up. Now I’m gonna get some sleep why don’t you take first watch after two hours wake me.”

I nod and wave goodnight to Nic.

“Notch you get some rest too, I’ll see you in the morning.”