Alex started gasping for air. Water launched itself from his mouth on to the ground as he curled up trying to catch his breath. His eyes were murky and not coming into focus. He could feel that he was on dry land again and he started wiping away at his eyes hoping to see again.

“Are you okay?” He heard someone say.

Alex coughed a couple more times. His entire body was wet and the dirt and grass below him were sticking to his hands and clothes.

“Yeah.” He coughed as a reply. “I’m okay.”

Finally, his vision was returning, and his breathing was starting to steady again. He looked up from the ground and realized that he was in field. The grass blew in the gentle wind and the air was warm. The skies were clear and he could feel the warmth of the sun on his back. He sat up on his knees and took in the surroundings again. Alex, being new to the world outside his home, was captivated, yet again, by the world around him.

He listened for a minute or so just taking in the warmth of the sun and gentle sound of the wind blowing by. Snapping back into reality he realized he had no idea where he was.

“How did I get here?” Alex called out to the voice.

“You escaped the woods, fell into a river, and I fished you out here.” The voice replied.

“Oh. I wonder how far I drifted.” Alex said.

“Well, seeing that the Sacred Wood is a few days trip by cart, I’d say quite a way.” The voice replied.

“A cart?” Alex thought. He had never heard of a cart before.

“What’s a cart?” He asked.

“Sheesh. What human doesn’t know what a cart is?” The voice replied.

“Human?” Alex said to himself softly.

He turned around to see who he had been speaking to and that’s when he saw a small, round, green translucent Slime starring back at him.

Alex let out a scream as he rushed to his feet.

“Y-y-y-you’re a-a-a …” Alex started to say.

“Yes, yes I’m a…” The Slime began.

“MONSTER!” Alex yelled as he started fumbling with this wooden sword. Thankfully the sword was still attached to his hip and after a little tugging it came free.

“Hey! That’s rather rude!” The Slime replied angrily. The top of his head began to boil slowly like a pot of water.

“Don’t eat me!” Alex cried, sword now readied shakily in his hands.

“Grrr!” The Slime bubbled much more harshly now. “I’ll have you know that while I may be what you HUMANS call a monster. I’m not a flippin’ monster about it!” The Slime was very frustrated at what Alex was saying.

“Humans?” Alex said again. “I thought you slimes called us “goomans”.” He said plainly with little thought for the words he chose.

“In all my time as a Slime I have never been so…Do you live to be offensive!?” The Slime Barked.

“Here I go out of my way to follow you out of the Sacred Wood, jumped off a cliff, chase you down a river, jumping into said river...and by the way do you have any idea how difficult it is for a slime to maintain a physical form IN WATER!?” The Slime shouted.

“Uh no?” Alex replied.

“OF COURSE, YOU DON’T! Here I go out of my way to help you, saving you from death by DROWNING and this is the thanks I get! Offensive, stereotypical, and hurtful comments! Shame on you human, SHAME!” If the Slime could change colors, he’d probably have turned red with fury right about now.

“You saved me? How? You’re a Slime you don’t have any…” Alex made it about this far when the Slime’s eyes widened in rage and Alex realized he just made a mistake.

“THAT’S IT!” The Slime yelled. “IM PUTTING YOU BACK IN THE RIVER!”

The Slime leapt from the ground and attached himself onto Alex’s head, much like a helmet refusing to let go, the Slime had engulfed Alex’s head.

Alex tried to let out a yell, but the Slime had over taken the space around his head, he wasn’t even able to breath let alone talk. Alex tried to pull the slime off him, but his hands just slipped through him like he was reaching in and out of water. Alex tried grabbing at his neck and lifting the slime off him, but again, he couldn’t get a hold of the creature

“What’s the matter “gooman” I’m just a little itty-bitty slime WITH NO ARMS! Surely a GREAT ARM HAVING HUMAN LIKE YOURSELF shouldn’t have any probably fighting me!” The Slime said sarcastically. The Slime was aggressively moving Alex left and right with Alex’s own head. After a struggle Alex was forced near the river once more and with a mighty force his body hurled itself forward in a summersault, back into the river. The Slime freed himself right as Alex began his forward roll. The Slime gave a little spin in the air before landing back on the ground. As he did his body gave a gentle little giggle.

“Enjoy drowning human.” The Slime said coldly as he started to hop away.

Alex stood up in the stream, once again drenched head to toe, he started making his way out of the water.

“Wait a minute.” He called to the Slime. But the Slime wasn’t interested in what Alex had to say. He responded with more frustration instead for the human having the nerf to rise up and pursue him.

“Haven’t had enough eh!? Then take this!” The Slime turned back around and start spitting high speed slime balls at Alex. One hit him in the head, the other his body, and knees, and finally the last one pelted him square in the face causing Alex to fall backwards. His arms flailed into the sky as he fell backwards back into the river. The cold water once again blanketing Alex.

The Slime started to roll away muttering to itself. He was quite frustrated with his encounter with Alex especially after all the trouble he went to help him out.

Alex sat up in the river and shouted to the Slime.

“Come back! I am sorry, please come back!”

The Slime paused for a moment. While he had never been so insulted by a human before he had also never been apologized to by one before either. He turned to look behind him to see Alex focused on him. Alex wasn’t washing away the slime, or trying to leave the river, he didn’t even look angry. He was just sitting there keeping eye contact with the Slime. Which caused the Slime to feel seen and understood, not something a Slime often gets from other monsters let alone a human. The Slime slowly started his way back down to the shore line to see what Alex had to say.

“I’m sorry.” Alex stated again. “I’m not used to seeing other creatures. And after meeting those Slimes at that statue place, I was a little freaked out.”

The Slime empathized with Alex. While he didn’t participate in the chase of the boy, he was atop the roof and saw the whole thing happen. It was because of that and the danger of the Lignum creaturae that he had followed Alex in the first place.

“It’s okay. Sorry for throwing you in the river…and for spitting slime balls at you.” The Slime said sympathetically. “I can get a bit heated. Especially when it comes to monster stereotypes.”

Alex stepped out of the river.

“Okay, let’s start over.” He said with a smile.

“Hi, my name is Alex. What’s your name?” He extended a hand to the Slime.

“Oh, this is one of those human greeting things, right?” The Slime morphed its body into a pillar with a hand protruding from it and took Alex’s hand.

Most people would be grossed out and weirded out by the idea of shaking a cold, clammy, slime hand, but Alex was no ordinary boy. He happily shook the Slime’s “hand”.

As the shake ended the Slime’s body mushed itself back together and returned to its original spherical ball like shape.

“My name is Slime.” He said happily.

Alex starred at him perplexed for a minute.

“So…you’re Slime…” Alex started.

“Don’t say it.” The Slime warned.

“…the slime?” Alex finished.

“THAT’S IT!” Slime roared as he started rapid firing slime balls at Alex again.

In a matter of seconds Alex was covered head to toe in slime. If someone were to walk by, they would’ve probably been freaked out to see a human size “slime monster” before them. At least, that’s how it would’ve looked to someone. With a loud splash Alex returned to his watery bed.

Alex emerged from the water again climbing back onto dry land.

“Any other offensive comments you’d like to make Alex?” Slime asked. Of course, this was a hypothetical question. But Alex not ever meeting a Slime before began asking all sorts of questions that only irritated Slime.

“Why is your body green? Are you poisonous? What kind of food do you eat? Do you really eat people? What’s it like being so small? What happens if I step on you? How did you attach to me head? How does your body transform like that? Where are you from? Do you have any family? How do you talk, do you even have a tongue?”

After what seemed like hundreds of questions Alex found himself, yet again, in the river propelled by green slime.

He emerged once more and without missing a beat he replied “Do you run out of Slime? How are you able to shoot this much of it and maintain your body? Where does all your slime come from?”

Slime was stunned by the resiliency of Alex. Never in his entire life had he met someone so offensive. He was starting to wonder if the kid was trying to be rude or just really knew nothing about his kind.

“Listen, Alex was it? Do you really not know anything about slimes or monsters?”

Alex returned to the shore once more and sat on the ground. He began removing his shoes and pouring the water from them.

“Well, I only really know what I read in books.” He replied. And so, Alex began telling Slime about his life. Where he lived, his time on the other side of the Sacred Wood, about him and his father Darcy. He just spoke as things came to mind.

“Wow. That is quite the tale kid.” Slime said at the end of it all. “I am sorry for attacking you as such. I really didn’t realize you knew nothing about monsters, heck I didn’t realize you knew nothing about our own world.” Slime sat there for a moment in thought. While he was surprised by all of this, he also saw it as an opportunity. Aside from the one run in at the old ruins Alex had no experience with monster folk at all. This could be the opportunity he and all monster kind needed to finally not be seen solely as monsters.

“Okay kid. You said your dad was headed off to a great library?” Slime asked.

“Yeah.” Alex replied.

“Well, I’ve never heard of a place like that. But Castle Town – Title Pending, has this guy who knows all sorts of stuff. I bet if we go ask him, he can tell us where this great library is located.”

“Then we can go look for my dad!” Alex exclaimed.

“That’s right!” Slime smiled.

“Will you come with me Slime?” Alex asked, hoping that he’d say yes.

“Of course! The road to Castle Town – Title Pending can be filled with danger and after seeing how you handle yourself in a fight. You’re going to need all the help you can get.” Slime laughed.

“That’s true.” Alex admitted. “My father taught me how to fight, but I never had a lot of practical training aside from fighting with him. And he was never scary about it!” Alex said.

Slime thought for a minute.

“Oh! In Castle Town – Title Pending it surrounds a great big castle! There are a lot of soldiers and guards there. I’m sure we could ask one of them to give you a couple pointers! You and I could also go a couple rounds here and there to help you get over your jitters you get every time you encounter someone.” Slime said thoughtfully.

“Hey, that’s a great idea!” Alex said gleefully.

The two of them started up the road and eventually came to a tall hill. From here Alex could see the vastness of the area around him. Far to the east he could see a grand castle with great big walls surrounding it. That must be where Castle Town – Title Pending is located he thought. He turned to the west to see the winding river and tried following it south to see if he could find the Sacred Wood, but alas, he could not. Eventually the river wound into the hills and he couldn’t make out anything beyond them.

“Trying to see where you came from?” Slime asked as he looked up at Alex.

“Yeah I was trying to see if I could see the Sacred Wood from here.” He said.

“That’s gonna be tough from here. This here is the Rolling Hills.” Slime said as he began to roll around Alex’s feet. “Hills here vary in size making it difficult to see where you’ve been and where you’re going.” Slime stopped rolling and looked in the direction of the castle.

“Thankfully, the Queen had some scholars come out here and put guide posts to help people find their way. They also built this dirt road, as weird as that sounds.” Slime lectured.

“Wow, you sure know a lot about the human world Slime!” Alex said happily. He was happy to have found a friend and someone who could teach him about the world.

“Hah, well, I want to join a human society one day. To do that you need to be rather educated. I often end up knowing more about human history and culture than humans themselves do.” He said.

“Where did you learn all this stuff anyway?” Alex questioned.

“A lot of it comes from listening and watching. A lot of monsters can speak human English. Most of them don’t learn to speak it as well as I have it. So, it often comes out with some kind of monster accent or a fusion of words.” Slime continued.

“Like goomans?” Alex asked.

“Yes, like goomans for example. Other species have their own stuff too. The Lima species adds extra s’ to everything because of their thin tongues. The platyply species quacks in the middle of talking, for some reason. Honestly, there’s something for everything out there and it would take me too much time to tell you about them all.” Slime said. He realized he better put an end this soon before Alex came out with his one hundred million questions, he knew the boy to be capable of.

As he turned to look back at Alex, he could already see the shine in eyes. The thirst for knowledge.

“Don’t even think about it!” Slime warned. “Don’t ask me all those questions from your kid brain! We’d be here for months and I don’t know about you, but I am starving.”

In all the excitement Alex had actually forgot about his favorite time of day; meal time.

“Ack! You’re right!” Alex exclaimed. “In all of this new stuff happening I completely forgot!”

He threw his bag off his shoulders and on to the ground.

“I hope it wasn’t all ruined from the river.” Alex said as he began unloading items from his pack. He pulled out the change of clothes, the, now soggy, bread, and the jerky he had packed.

“Well…at least the jerky is okay. I should probably change into these as well.” He thought aloud. Alex began to remove his clothing.

“Hey! Don’t you have any manners human!” Slime exclaimed in shock as he turned to look the other way.

“What do you mean?” Alex asked.

“Did you grow up on some back-water island or something!?” Slime shouted.

“…yes.” Alex replied.

Slime had forgot. Alex did in fact grow up in a remote location of the world away from all walks of life. Naturally he would have no idea about the etiquette of changing clothes.

“Oh right. Sorry about that. Forgot for a moment! You can’t go changing your clothes anywhere you like.” Slime said.

“Why not?” Alex asked, his pants in his hand and the remainder of his clothes on the ground.

“BECAUSE IT MAKES PEOPLE UNCOMFORTABLE!” Slime shouted after realizing Alex only had his underwear on. “FLIPPING GO OVER THERE AND PUT YOUR CLOTHES ON IN PRIVATE!”

Alex didn’t really understand, but he also didn’t want to bother his new friend. He quickly gathered his dry clothes and ran behind a small hill. There he put on his clothes and returned to Slime.

“Okay is that better?” Alex hopped.

“Yes, thank you!” Slime responded. “In the future, if you need to change your clothes when others are present kindly remove yourself to somewhere more private. Like a bathroom, restroom, bedroom, something with walls!”

“But…we’re in an open field Slime?” Alex pointed out.

“THEN FIND A FLIPPINGTREE OF A ROCK SOMETHING!” Slime was a bit embarrassed. He wasn’t expecting to ever need to teach someone about the human’s etiquette regarding dressing.

“Okay, I’ll remember that next time.” Alex started packing away his wet clothes, threw away the soggy bread, and sat down to eat the jerky he had.

“Here you go Slime.” Alex extended a hand to Slime offering him some of his jerky.

“Thank you, Alex!” Slime, once again, had not been treated as such an equal before. While Alex might be ignorant to the ways of the world his heart was gentle and kind. He began realizing that Alex was a simple boy with a lot of curiosity. While Slime wouldn’t admit it, he was happy to have made a human friend and he couldn’t have been any luckier to have met Alex. This would be the start of a long and wonderful friendship.