The world around them was completely silent. Nothing made a sound. Alex started to shift, his body laid flat against the cold stone floor. The sound of his legs sliding against the fabric of his clothes, bag, and movement he used to stand again were deafening. Truly, it was as if Alex had stepped into a chamber of pure silence. There was little to no light where he was albeit a small beam of light that shown on the floor from dozens of feet above his head. His body and his hair were all covered in dirt and he began to brush himself clean. Looking up again at the small hole of light he realized he must’ve fell and was he ever lucky. To fall such a great distance and be without a single scratch or injury was what many would call a miracle. The light was fading fast though. Alex wasn’t sure of the time but when he was at the apple tree it was already late afternoon. Sunlight still made it down here though, but it was starting to slip away. He suddenly remembered Slime. Where was he, was he okay?

“Slime?” Alex gently called. But there wasn’t a reply.

“Slime?” He called once again but no reply came. Though he had just met Slime recently he was his first friend in the world, beside his father, and the thought of his friend being lost or hurt caused a lot of emotion to stir up inside of the young boy.

“Slime where are yo~u!” He yelled into the room.

“Hey, stop yelling I’m right here!” Slime replied finally. He rolled up beside him but was a little off balance as his body wobbled side to side. Unlike Alex, he was at least left in a daze with slight dizziness.

“Slime you’re okay!” Alex screeched excitedly. He fell to his knees and embraced the slime in his arms as he gave him a hug.

“Put me down kid! We are not that close!” Slime scolded as he wiggled his body hard trying to get Alex to let him go. Alex did and the slime fell to the stone floor but landed softly and as he did his body give a hard wobble as he did. He turned and looked back up at Alex.

“Listen kid I know you mean well but don’t go going up to Slimes, or anyone for that matter, and picking them up.”

“Why not?” Alex asked.

“Because it’s flippin’ weird! You don’t see me climbing on you and using you as a mode of transportation, do you? No! Because it’s weird!” Slime lectured, though secretly Slime had hoped one day ride on the shoulder of a human. But the likeliness of him every getting a human to be that comfortable with him and vice versa seemed impossible.

“Do you want me to carry you? You’re welcome to ride on my back or shoulder if you want.” Alex asked warmly.

Once again, Slime was taken completely off guard by the kindness and forwardness of Alex. He didn’t treat him like a monster, nor did he try to coddle him like a small creature who needed caring. Alex simply treated him like an equal. Slime was very used to be treating harshly by humans and he couldn’t help but feel a bit emotional by this kind gesture. His greatest goal in life was to make a human friend. A real friend that saw him just like this, as an equal. He was so overjoyed with emotion that it just overwhelmed him. Of course, Slime wasn’t very good at showing appreciation.

“Do you think I’m incapable of moving around on my own?” Slime called back. “I’ll have you know I can walk just fine thank you very much!”

Alex bent down and looked at Slime’s body.

“Walk? But you don’t have any feet?” Alex stated plainly.

Slime’s eyes opened wide, his mouth frozen in an almost smirk like state as his eye began to twitch slightly.

This kid. I know he doesn’t mean anything hurtful by what he says. Kids really say do say the craziest things. Slime thought to himself.

“Hop, roll, jump, pivot, bounce, WHATEVER!” Slime yelled back.

“Fine human. You want to carry me, here we go!” He said it angrily, but deep down he felt so lucky and honored to be offered to ride on the shoulder of a human. He didn’t really see it as “riding” them but as forming a close bond with a friend.

Slime jumped and suctioned his body onto Alex’s face.

“Here does this work for you kid?” Slime mocked. His eyes rolled to the other side of his body. His eyes now in the place where Alex’s would be and same with his mouth. He lout of a smile and a laugh.

“Look Im a huuuuumaaaaaan. Har har har! Look at my might feet and hands. Give me foooooooooooooooood” Slime laughed as he mocked Alex.

In the very over dramatic fashion of Alex he began stomping and flailing his arms about. Slime let out a small sigh and flopped off his face and landed on his shoulder.

“Here how about this?” The slime asked.

“Oh, thank the moons I can breathe again.” Alex dramatized. “Yes, that should work great!” He was happy to be of help to his new friend and he thought it was kind of cool that he was able to do that.

The two’s minor reunion was cut short as the small amount of light that was in the room began to fade as night approached. The room they stood in began to get darker and darker.

“Shoot kid, we’re running out of sunlight! Do you have any torches or anything in that bag of yours?” Slime asked worriedly.

“No, I don’t have anything to make any kind of fire. You’re a monster can’t you see in the dark?” Alex asked.

In a normal situation Slime would be ready to knock Alex out for calling him the dreaded M world. However, they were in real trouble here and so he let it slide.

“Yes, I technically can see in the dark. But that doesn’t help you! Besides, seeing in the dark is kind of awful. It hurts my eyes and is really just annoying. I prefer sunlight BELIEVE IT OR NOT.” Slime snapped.

“Do you know any magic maybe? Something that can make light?” He asked Alex.

“Magic? What’s that?” He replied.

Slime started to go into another mini lecture on how surprised he was about at how little Alex knew about anything. While Slime was willing to let go the monster thing, he just couldn’t help himself when it came to a lack of, what he deemed, common sense. About two words in and Alex leaned against a stone wall and when he did his eyes opened wide and began to illuminate gold again.

His vision blurred and went dark for a moment. Suddenly his sight was focused on a man in leather armour. The man looked around the room with his torch in hand. Just then a rat ran by and spooked the man in the armour causing him to drop his torch which promptly put out the flame. The man sighed but then put his hands together. Alex could see streams of light come into the man’s hands and suddenly a small ball of light appeared and lit the entire room he was in. Everything in this room looked like it was in good health. Much like a home being lived in does. His vision cut out and the ringing in his ears stopped as he snapped back to where he was. It doesn’t seem like Slime noticed he had zonked out for a little bit. How long did that vision take, a few seconds? It couldn’t have been long as Alex didn’t feel like he had missed that much of the lecture on his brain.

“Hold on a second.” Alex interrupted. He reached his hand up and motioned for Slime to jump into it and he placed the slime on a rock next to where he was leaning. Alex took a few steps forward and thought about what he had just seen. So far, these “visions” had been all over the place. In one instance he was sure it showed him something that had happened long before he was there. In another, he remembered how his visions showed him what the attacks of the Lignum Viventem would be before they actually happened which allowed him to avoid them. Maybe what he just saw was another vision of the past. Someone before him was here and used “magic” to create light?

He looked up to see the small amount of light was nearly gone. He then thought back to the vision that he had just seen and decided to try and replicate what he saw. He placed his hand one over the other, almost as if pretending to hold an orb. He concentrated his mind on his hands. He remembered that light had appeared and rolled down the man’s arms into his palms making the light. Alex imagined the same thing was happening to him. After a few seconds of nothing happening he could feel a slight ringing in his ears and a small pulse throughout his body. Then he looked down and realized that he had done it, he had summoned light into his hands.

“Woah, I did it!” Alex exclaimed.

“I thought you didn’t know any magic?” Slime called out.

“I don’t.” Alex reassured his friend.

“Then how in the world did you cast this?” Slime questioned.

Was this magic? Did I use magic? Alex thought to himself.

“Slime, is this magic?” Alex asked softly.

“Yes, that is absolutely magic. Not only is it magic, but it’s Light magic. It is exceedingly rare to find a human who can cast light magic in this day and age. Or so I’ve overheard from humans anyway.” The slime educated.

The small ball of light illuminated the entire room they were standing in. It as if the small orb was daylight bathing the entire room in sunlight. The room was extremely small, akin to a closet really. In the corners of the room were broken crates and barrels. Old bags were ripped opened and now laid empty, but their bulky shapes stayed locked in place for the original contents had distorted the bags fabrics. The walls and floor were all made of stone blocks and everything had a dampness to it similar to the old ruins he had explored in the Forbidden Woods. Behind him was a doorway that no longer had a door attached to it. He took the few steps to the open-door way, the sound of his soft shoes plopping against the stone echoed loudly in the room. Alex peered his head through the door less doorway with the light and saw he could go left, or he could right. The light shined in both directions to what Alex would guess to be about 20 feet. As he turned back to face Slime again he saw the final ray of light vanish from above and a moment later he heard a howl from outside. As the howl faded, he started to faintly hear the sounds of laughter, dragging metal, scuttling and shifting echoing in the hall. It began to grow louder and louder.

They were no longer alone and as Alex soon realized this Slime had jumped back onto his shoulder. He knew what those sounds meant and whispered into Alex’s ear.

“Goblins!”