Deciding to head to Castle Town – Title Pending was the pairs first move. However, deciding to go somewhere and actually getting there are two very different things. Being on the road comes with a whole host of new challenges that Alex wasn’t prepared for. The first, and probably most important for him, is food.

“AHHH!” Alex shouted as he threw his head back fists soaring above him. “I’m so hungry I can’t take it anymore!”

In his entire life Alex had never gone more than a few hours in between meals. Back home they always made bread, grew food in their garden, or caught fish. He had never wanted for food, until today.

Slime began to glare at Alex as he stopped hopping in front of.

“We only ate a few hours ago kid. Tough it out.” Slime said unsympathetically.

“I can’t!” Alex replied.

He dropped his pack and fell onto his stomach now laying on the ground.

“I’m going to die here.” He stated plainly.

“Oh my goddess. You are the most mellow dramatic human I have ever met.” The Slime scolded. He began bumping his body against Alex’s head in an effort to rise him back to his feet. “Get up you lazy child! We still have 3 whole days ahead of us! If you do this the whole way it’ll take us a week to get there!”

“But you ate all my jerky and I’m starving!” Alex said.

Slime stopped and scoffed at the boy. “I did no such thing! You gave me 1 piece and then downed the remaining 6 on your own gordito!”

“…ma~ybe…” Alex rose his head to look at Slime.

“I was hungry though!” He insisted.

“Is food all that’s in that head of yours?” Slime couldn’t believe the supposed appetite of what he deemed to be such a lazy boy.

“Come on Slime! I explored an old ruin, escaped in the dark, and then ran through the woods in the middle of the night only to fall off a cliff and be swept away by the ocean.” Alex whined.

“River.” Slime corrected. “And in case you forgot I followed you the entire way here. Unlike you I had to walk here. I didn’t get a free ride on the river.” He reminded the boy.

“You could’ve just jumped in and swam here.” Alex said.

Slime gave Alex a long and hard stare as if he was the dumbest creature he had ever met on this planet.

“What?” Alex asked.

“Did you notice I don’t have any FLIPPIN’ ARMS OR LEGS! HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO SWIM!?” Slime had lost his patience with Alex all over again. “Not to mention slimes and water don’t exactly mix. How would you expect me to keep my form in liquid?” He asked.

Alex thought for a minute. “Wait a minute. A bunch of slimes jumped out of that small moat around that that statue in the temple. If they can do it, why can’t you?”

This was a fair question and Slime did not realize Alex had seen other slimes do that. But he also didn’t feel like explaining Slime anatomy to Alex either.

“Because.” Was the only answer he could come up in this frustrated state.

“Because…?” Alex asked hoping to get an answer.

“Don’t worry about it!” Slime said back. For as lazy as he thought Alex was, the boy was at the very least perceptive and he had to give him credit there.

“Come on, I’m sure we can find something to eat if we just keep going. Maybe we can bump into a traveling merchant or something.” He assured Alex.

Slime knew people didn’t travel this road often. The direction they were coming from didn’t exactly lead to any towns or villages that he knew of. So, unless someone magically happened to be out gathering supplies or materials, they were not going to encounter anyone, but Alex didn’t know that.

Alex let out a heavy sigh. “Fine. Let’s keep going.” He said. He picked back up his bag and slung over his shoulders again. While we agreed to keep walking, he was dragging his feet the entire way.

The two shared casual conversation as they continued down the road. They spoke about daily life for Alex back at his home. What vegetables his father and he grew. The vastness of the fields his home was on and of the Forbidden Woods. The sun went from morning to late afternoon. As you might have guessed they didn’t encounter a single soul along the way.

“Sli~me.” Alex said annoyed, dragging out his name in a low voice.

Slime knew what he was going to say. He was running out of distractions for Alex. He had successfully kept his mind off food for a few hours but now he was out of talking points and ideas.

“Look over there Alex!” Slime shouted as he looked around them hoping to see something.

“Where!?” Alex called back. He was looking everywhere too.

“Over…there!” Slime spotted a tree with something it and gestured toward it with body.

“Wow! What are those red things?” Alex asked.

Slime had got lucky spotting a tree with what was probably apples in it. Not only could he get the boy something to eat, but hopefully get him back on track.

“I don’t know! Let’s go have a look!” He said with excitement.

Alex took off in a sprint running from the dirt road, through the grass and in between two hills that had created a natural passageway to where the tree was. Slime hopped after him.

“Wow!” Alex cried out. “This is an apple tree! Oh boy!” Alex didn’t get to eat apples to often back home. But he sure did love the taste of a sweet crisp apple. Pink apples were his favorite, but he wasn’t going to give up an opportunity to eat them just because they were red.

Slime hopped up beside him just as Alex began reaching up and trying to grab one of the branches. But something was weird to Slime. He looked around the small area they were in. He had been down this road a few times before, but he never remembered seeing any trees on this road. It was always just hills, hills, and more hills. He examined the tree and the ground around them when something caught his eye. Just near the tree he could see some noticeably loose rocks and dirt. As if these were recently moved. After a moment he realized this loose part wasn’t just a part by the tree, it was the entire area the two were standing on. This entire area had been dug recently.

“Alex, I think we should get away from here.” Slime said still looking at the ground.

“Hold on.” Alex called back.

“I’m pretty sure this is some kind of…wait where did you go?” Slime had looked up to realize Alex was missing. As he looked around the area for him, he finally caught site of the boy up in the branches and before he could warn him about the ground Alex had jumped down towards Slime.

“Ack! No Alex this is a…” Slime began, but it was too late. Alex landed on the ground hard and as he did the ground gave out below them. The ground swallowed to the two as the entire they were at opened.

“Trap!” Slime's voiced echoed as the pair plummeted down into the dark deepness of the unburied hole.