Chapter Text
The wind coming through the window was calm, leaving Slim refreshed as he breathed it in.
There wasn’t anything that needed to be done today. Enough food and potions to wait a little longer, last night had been peaceful for the most part, and no explosions or blazing spells to make noise. It was just Slim, Shade, Firefly, and the wind.
Until the sound of a branch snapping echoed nearby.
Slim immediately shot up in caution. Shade and Firefly emerged and looked at him, everyone’s faces holding the same tension. Footsteps echoed closer, pushing the boy to grab his cloak from the wall and jump out to the trees. Jumping from branch to branch made Slim go faster, but he could hardly see anything.
Thankfully, he moved his vision up, or the giant vine would’ve smacked him in the face.
“What the Titan is this?” Shade asked.
Firefly emerged as the trio tracked the vine to its source, seeing two girls face each other, one casting the vine spell while the other was on the ground.
“If this keeps going, it’ll come to us.” The light noted.
Slim nodded as he put a hand to his stomach, feeling the energy course through his body and up his throat. With a deep breath, the boy let the energy out, creating a line of flames behind the girl who cast the vines.
“Hey!”
The fire brought both girls out of their confrontation as they looked up. Slim jumped down behind the darker-skinned girl, unsheathing his claws and bearing some of his fangs.
“Stop what you’re doing, or the whole forest will go down.”
“Whoa.”
“W-we didn’t want any trouble, sir!”
Slim sighed and relaxed as the spellcaster recalled the vines, checking over a pot of purple liquid that had spilt on the ground. With a focused mind, he could now take in the visitors’ features. One girl had glasses and turquoise-blue hair, seeming familiar somehow. The other had a round face with wonder in her eyes and round ears.
“Wait…round ears…Are you a human?”
The girl gasped as her pupils shrunk. “W-what, what human?”
“Oh relax, we’re not gonna report you to the cops.” Shade poked out, making the girl gasp as her eyes widened again.
“What’s your name?” Firefly followed.
“I’m Luz Noceda,” The girl smiled, “Who are you?”
“The name’s Shade.” The ghost smirked.
“Mine is Firefly.” The light beamed.
“Just call me Slim,” the host nodded before looking over to the other girl, “Do we know you from somewhere?”
“Um, no? You’re not a Hexside student, are you?” The spellcaster tilted her head.
“Never have been, never will be.” Slim rolled his eyes before thinking, “though I feel like I heard about you before.”
“Well, I’m Willow. I’m sorry, but we gotta go if we wanna be there on time. C’mon Luz.”
“It was nice to meet you, Slim.” Luz waved as she got into the now upright pot.
Slim awkwardly waved as Willow carted the pot away, taking another calming breath before starting the trek home.
‘Well,’ Shade started, ‘That was something.’
‘At least they were nice.’
‘Yeah, and neither one would report us, I believe, so that’s one less thing on our back.’
The rest of the return home was internally silent, the wind and leaves being the only sound around. Keeping busy with housework and scavenging in the forest made the rest of the day go by smoothly. The forest’s peaceful atmosphere was always appreciated by Slim and his parts, and today wasn’t an exception.
At least until a monstrous roar broke the air.
Wherever the source was, they were close. Slim raced through the trees, following the sound that became accompanied by a subtly squeaky voice. Just as things calmed down again, Slim reached the voice’s source: a minuscule slug, with a spilled barrel of salt next to a particular witch and the human from before. Willow and another student followed behind the human, who was covered in pink and purple goop, sharing some kind of odd parallel arm ritual as Slim jumped down to the ground.
“Eda the Owl Lady.” Slim groaned, “Why am I not surprised that you’re in the middle of yet more chaos and,” he pointed at the trio, “whatever’s going on here.”
“Slim,” The gray-haired woman in question glared, “What do you want now?”
“Some peace and quiet, for one thing.” Shade emerged.
“You!” Eda’s pet-looking companion jumped down and stomped over, “When are you gonna recognize your leader and join my army?”
“We’ve done this same song and dance, King, we ain’t joining your Fluffy Boot Camp.”
“Hey! I’ll let you know that Francois and my plushy army will conquer the Boiling Isles soon!”
“Wait, you guys know each other?” Luz looked between the parties.
“Unfortunately.” Shade groaned.
“Slim here is a Wild Witch like me. Bit of an ‘odd neighbor’, I should say.”
“Says the one with a screeching owl for a house.”
“You’re my friend too, Slim!”
Slim and both of his parts looked ready to murder by the piercing gaze and growl they sent to the extending house demon.
“Friends don’t eat each other, Hooty.”
“Aw, but you looked like such a delicious bug!”
Slim pointed a clawed finger at the happy-go-lucky demon, “Say that again and we’ll rip you out of this shack you call a house.”
“Not on my watch, kiddo.” Eda held her staff in a battle-ready position as the air briefly went still.
“Alright, alright!” Firefly snapped, “Enough! Eda, please tell me you have this under control?”
“Yeah, yeah. We’re all good.” The woman rolled her eyes.
“Good. Just,” Slim sighed, “Keep us out of your trouble, will you?”
“No promises kiddo, as long as you stay out of mine.”
Slim couldn’t help but smirk and shrug, “No promises.”
“See you around, Slim and co!”
The boy stopped as though he’d been stabbed, looking back to see Luz wear a bright smile. Her eyes were honest and without malice, something that threw the young witch out of balance for a moment before calming. Dot wouldn’t want him to be so defensive at a time like this, so he took her advice and offered a wave.
“See you around, human.”
Slim summoned vines of his own and leaped into the trees, Luz letting out a gasp of awe as he ran. The witch had to admit, the human wasn’t all that bad. She seemed nice enough.
‘Dot would like her.’ Shade remarked.
‘She wasn’t terribly scared by us,’ Firefly added, ‘More fascinated than anything, it seems.’
‘We’ll see. Still, it was nice to see someone with such open kindness like that.’
Slim was strangely lighter as he made his way back to the house. Sure, having Eda interrupt the calm was annoying, and Hooty was…Hooty, but everything else was surprisingly nice. At least there weren’t any fights this time, and for that Slim was grateful. With an easy breath, the witch returned to his home, igniting the nearby pot on the ground and preparing ingredients for a potion.