I was worried I would have a hard time finding a farm amongst the trees, but the directions and trails were easy enough. There was a somewhat large farmhouse peeking out between the trees you could see about 20 minutes away. Getting closer, a small barn emerges with an attached fenced area facing the farmhouse. All the buildings look to have been dropped onto the forest floor. They were arranged a bit haphazardly. The barn itself looks to be squeezed in between two fairly large trees, where the walls were arched inwards on both sides. The fence awkwardly juts in and around trees, trying it’s best to be a square, but terribly lopsided due to a bundle of trees in the far corner

A young girl in a straw hat, who was playing in one of the sunbeams which had broken through the treetop’s canopy, suddenly looked up. She looked a little startled but waved to me. I wave back, as I am still about a minute or two away. Her toothy smile was immediate and even I could see it from where I was.

“MOOOOOM!” she shouts excitedly and travels across the forest, “WE HAVE AN ADVENTURER!”

The mother came out with a tea towel drying her hands. She was a bit quieter than the little girl, but her voice broke through the forest just as well. “Honey, you don’t know if it’s an adventurer. It’s just a person walking.”

“BUT MOOOOOOM, LOOK!” She points at me, who is much closer now. “They looks all rough like, and theys walking with a limp, and no hand to boot.”

Her mother looks horrified, but I can’t help chuckle.

“It’s alright, I am in pretty rough shape, and your daughter is right.” I shoot a smile at the daughter, and she gleams back at me. “I am here for the lost slimes request you passed along to the guild.”

The small girl chants, “I told you so!” and performs a small dance around her mother.

The mother nods, “It’s good you are here, but I am so sorry about my daughter.” She kneels down and catches her daughter in mid hop. “You were right, but you insulted this fine person. Apologies to them and check up on our remaining slimes, Ok?”

The small girl nods to her mother and turns to me. The daughter takes off her hat, and a large mess of red curls pops up in it’s place. She dips her head a bit down and says, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make fun of your...make fun of you. I am sure you are a good adventurer, but I gotta go check on the slimies.”

She darts off as soon as she says the last word.

“She’ll be the death of me and this ranch, I just know it.” The mother shakes her head.“Anyways, we don’t have much time to spare. The request has been up for a little over a week, and I am afraid that most of our slimes have already been killed. Slimes are not the strongest, but the domesticated type barely has a chance. Domesticated slimes, if you don’t know, have a lot less fear and are more curious. A fatal combination out in the wild…” She looks me up and down, “As you probably well know.”

I try and give a bit of a nod, but getting a little tired of them focusing on my appearance. “I understand, tell me a bit about the missing slimes, and do you know roughly which direction they went?”

“Yes, the last couple weeks the slimes have been acting strangely, restless… We haven’t had issues before, but we had 6 of them escape, and they look to have gone North of here. It’s been a bit of time, so my husband was able to capture 1 of them shortly after the request was sent out, and we unfortunately found our tag and a broken nucleus about 3 days ago.” Her head drops a bit.

After hanging her head for a bit, she looks back up to me, “I should tell you, the forest has been… turbulent this last month. Normally we don’t see any strong beasts or monsters in this neck of the woods, but it seems like goblins have claimed territory about an hour north of here. I hear there's an encampment of about 40-50 goblins setup all throughout the North-Eastern Forest. We have been preparing to abandon our lifestead.”

At the bottom right of my peripheral a small window silently pops up and fades away

Quest Status Updated

“I appreciate the honesty, I really do. There was a quest for 5 goblin ears posted from the North-Eastern Forest that I have claimed as well. I will definitely be cautious while I look for your missing 4 slimes. Mind if I check out your current slimes? I have never encountered a slime before, nor tracked such creatures specifically, so I would really like to get familiar with it.”

“Oh? Never even seen a slime before?” She starts eyeing me nervously, “Isn’t this a bit too dangerous for you then? You must not leave the city much to never have seen a slime, and with the goblins… I can cancel the request you know.”

I really start losing my patience and snipe back, “Just show me the slimes, and I will get the job done.”

Still looking uneasy, she shouts, “MAIREN, SHOW…”, turns back to me with her normal speaking voice, “I am sorry, I didn’t get your name. Mines Gouyney.”

“Miyu”

She turns away from me again, “MAIREN, SHOW MIYU THE SLIMES”.

“KAY MOM” a voice echoes back, the mess of red hair pops out from behind the barn doors. “OVER HERE ADVENTURER!” She continues to shout, waving me over.

“Well, I best start heading out. Last time I ignored a lady’s command… it didn't work out well for me.” I lift my right arm up and use my left hand to point at it meekly. I tried to crack a half smile, but the joke didn’t land and the mother continued looking worried. Making my way up the barn ramp to the daughter, I secretly hope this quest is a lot more successful than my last.

----

“I can’t believe you have never ever seen a slime before.”

“Trust me, I have always wanted to play with a slime before.” I reach out my left hand tentatively to the slowly expanding and contracting gelatinous orb.

“You can touch ‘em, they won’t bite, cause they got no teeth!” she shrieks the last bit as if it was a punchline to a hilarious joke.

I place my hand on the slime. It’s only slightly damp, a lot less… slimy than I expected. I gave it a little squeeze and felt like… living jello? It feels like having jello in your hand, but when you squeeze, there’s a resistance back to you that doesn’t let your hand pass through.

*Ding*

Spirit Awoken:

Monster Tamer Hounty Jast

Mairen gives me a side eye look, “Be careful though, you can hurt them a bit if you're too strong.”

“Ok, I will”

What a calm creature. Beautiful. A good slime can be your best friend.

Hello Hounty, do you have much experience with slimes?

What? Can you hear me?

I can. We will be heading out soon to look to find four of these guys that escaped into the forest.

“Are you listening to me?” Mairen places her hands on her hips and pouts a bit.

“I am.” I smile back. “What do the slimes like to eat? What do they drink? What do you think is the best way to track them?”

“It’s a good thing you asked a pro like me. They like to eat dead bugs, tops of flowers, and they really like something called bone meal. They go wild for that stuff.”

Maybe they are really made up of some kind of gelatin.

Not sure what gelatin is, but slimes really like bones. It takes them weeks to months to digest, but they will take as much as they can.

“They drink a lot of water too. I don’t think they can live away from water too long. Mom and Dad said we first had to find water well before they even thought about making a slime ranch. I have to draw water almost 5 times a day just to keep the slimies happy.” She pats the slime closest to her.

Mairen takes her damp hand and rubs it on my still outstretched arm, “And the best way to follow them is with that.” she points to the streak of… goo left on my arm. “That stuff, if you leave it out in the air, it dries up. It’s like SNOT! HAAHAHA.” She doubles over laughing.

I like her. She will grow up to be a fine tamer of slimes.

Think we can believe everything she’s told us.

It matches up with my understanding of slimes in general. I haven’t seen such a wide variation of colours though. Also, what’s with the little insignia floating around the nucleus?

“Thank you so much for teaching me Mairen. Can I ask you two more questions?”

She straightens up immediately. “YUP!”

“What's that floating little thing by the nucleus?”

“That's our symbol! It tells everyone it’s our slime. You can’t remove it without a magician, so no one can steal our slimies.”

“Does that mean one of your parents is a magician?”

“Nope, a magician comes by when we have a few slimies split and put our symbol on them too. Dad says it’s important and keeps them docile and out of trouble!”

“Thank you so much! You are so helpful!”

She smiles back at me with her toothy smile.

“Last Question! You have six very nice slimies, but why are two of them green, one of them red, and the rest blue?”

“OHH I know why. You can get a different colour from a blue slime when they split into two. My dad says sometimes the spirits will favour a slime. Green is blessed by the forest and luck, and red… OH RED IS BLESSED BY THE FIRE NYMPHS.”

“Do they do anything different?”

“NOOOOOOPE”

“Ok, do you know what colour slimies went missing?”

“Yup.” She nods

“What colours were they?”

“Blue, Green, Green, Yellow, Blue, and… Blue!”

I sigh.

HAHA, She’s answering your questions just as you asked them.

“Didn’t your daddy find some that went missing?”

“He found the blue one there!” She points to an undulating blue slime in the corner. It seemed to make a happy movement on being pointed out.

“And what about the slime that died? Do you know which colour that was?”

“A SLIME DIED! WAS IT KILLED! WHAAAAAT!” She starts screaming. “DAAAAAAAAD! YOU DIDN’T TELL ME ONE OF MY SLIMES DIED!”

I think it’s wise to make our leave now.

Agreed.

I stand back up and start looking around the North end of the property to see if I can make out any tracks.