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For as long as he could remember, he was alone.
There wasn’t really much he could say about himself, other than the few hundred dozen memories he could pluck from whatever sludge his mind consisted of.
Memories of travelling, memories of family, of love and camaraderie and war and fighting—
Memories of terror moments before being engulfed in green, the sensation of skin being torn to shreds at contact, the last seconds of seeing flesh dissolve all the way down to bone before eyesight turns to dust too.
It still clung onto all those memories, as a sort of apology to those humans he had taken from this world. Despite the fact that he struggled to keep it all in with the sheer number of memories it had amounted to over the years, he still held on. He could count the number of rocks he could touch in the hole he lived in (one hundred and fifty two, to be exact). He could count the times an adventurer had slipped on the edge of the pit, to either fall in or to narrowly skirt around certain death.
The tell-tale sound of the dungeon’s doors clicked open. He forced himself into somewhat of a human form, and sat at the bottom of the pit, tucking his legs to his chest. One glance up to the top in hopes someone might fall in.
Or not. He didn’t want to kill anyone.
But he hadn’t eaten in so long as well.
He was still conflicted over it.
He didn’t know if he would ever stop being conflicted over this matter.
He probably never would.
The burning feeling inside just kept growing the more he waited.
How much longer could he stand this before his insides tore him up from inside?
Before he could fully fall down that familiar rabbit hole, something else caught his scattered attention.
Warm oranges and yellows shone on the walls, the sound of boots shuffling across cobblestone. It echoed closer, and he held his breath.
He looked up to see bright red plumage peeking over the edge, the shine of a singular gold helmet following straight after. A torch held high, its flame emanating an ethereal glow. But the main attraction was the single piercing yellow eye, shining brighter than anything he had ever seen before in his miserable life. It scrutinised every move, sloshing against the pit’s walls.
It was then the most smoothest voice it had ever heard from a human, shoot straight through it’s transparent body, settling deep into his gut.
“Huh. Didn’t know slimes could turn into people like that.”
Such a deep, soothing voice. Just for a casual “huh”. That certainly was weird. Humans were weird like that.
Maybe it hadn’t seen one in so long that they’d changed since the last time it had gotten it’s slime on them.
But how could it say that when this was it whole existence?
“…Hm. How strange.” The person hummed, crouching down to the edge. “Seems like it was worth coming down to this dinky little dungeon after all.”
Now that they were closer, he could properly take a look at whoever was peering down at him. The golden helmet wasn’t the only eye-catching thing about this human, its jaw would’ve dropped if it had one.
A golden plate sat snugly on their chest, piercing black void almost glistening under the armour. It could feel itself being pulled into the darkness (how strange, but maybe that was normal for humans?), and had to shake its head to snap out of the trance. There was nothing it could make out behind the helmet, another instance of pure black he couldn’t tell— other than the single eyed stare shooting straight through his thoughts and making his body quiver with the effort of holding it all together.
Below the belt— and no, he was not staring— was a simple grey tracksuit pants. On top of all that was a ruby red cape, embroidered gold lining the stitched mending. However, despite the extravagance, there was still a soft edge to the human that it couldn’t quite shake off. Gentle yet magnetic, this human was unlike any it had ever seen before.
Well, most humans were screaming and melting by the time they got close enough to him to tell, he didn’t get to judge their appearances before all their clothes burned a bland taste in his slime. But even still, he knew he wouldn’t have appreciated those humans more than the one looking down upon him.
“Seems like the townsfolk were right. There is a monster pretending to be human down here.”
“W-Wait, huh…?”
It’s not like it could refute the claim. It had no right calling itself a human, just a pathetic little glob of slime masquerading as one— and which adventurer’s memories had it gotten the word ‘masquerading’ from?
“Aha. You can talk as well?” The human clicked his fingers, voice lifting with curiosity burning bright, “This dungeon really is full of surprises. How long have you been down here? How can you hold your form like that? Why are you down here? Can’t you jump out? Wait, would you assuming a human form limit how far you can ju—“
“—Too much, too much!” He blubbered, covering the human from sight with his hands. “S-Slow down! Can’t keep up…”
The human stilled, frozen in what it could only assume was shock. It could only hope it was guilt, but who would feel guilt for a slime?
“…I apologise. I’m often told that I tunnel vision on things I find fascinating, and it gets overwhelming quickly.”
…He’s apologising?!
“Can we start over, slime? First— what’s your name?”
A name. Humans have names… what was its name?
It quickly flicked through the memories of whatever human it had tasted last, and gulped.
Archibald… No, too posh.
Martyn. Maybe? No. Something in his mind said would overlap too much with another human. Wasn’t this name common among those in the forests?
Marvin? No, same reason as Archibald wasn’t it. Such a fancy title just wasn’t meant for a little slime like it.
Haybale? What kind of name was that?
“…Hello?”
Ah. It had left the human hanging.
“S-Sorry! I… I very…” It trailed off, bumbling on its words. Come on, what kind of human are you if can’t speak Common? Humans always said first impressions were important. This impression is going horrible.
He should’ve been practicing Common in between adventuring parties. Messing up like this was devastating, how could he ever hope to come back from this?
“…Ai …very? Did you say Avery?” The human asked, head tilting to the side in a way that made Avery’s heart skip a beat.
Wait, how had he taken to ‘Avery’ so quickly he had started calling himself that in his head? It did sound nice, but that shouldn’t warrant such quick acceptance. He might be made of slime, but he shouldn’t fold for any name just given to him—
“I-I’m Avery!” It exclaimed, standing up with a newfound vigor.
“Oh.” The human stated.
Avery shrunk back. Did the human not like the name? He was the one who brought it up first. Don’t say it messed up even more…!
Back to the human, who was currently holding back a snicker behind a gloved fist.
“Sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean to put you on the spot. Is your name Avery, or did you just say yes because I mentioned it?”
“N-No. I… like Avery. It…” He struggled with the sounds, turning to sludge in his mouth.
“It good. It good!”
His outburst earned him yet more laughs snuffed under that glove.
Avery was starting to resent that piece of leather for holding back what could be a beautiful melody.
“No need to rush, take your time. I assume it’s your first time trying to speak Common with a humanoid, right?” The human sighs fondly, pulling out a pickaxe from where it’s strapped on his backpack. Huh. Avery didn’t notice that amidst his panic.
“Don’t worry about trying to sound correct. Common is stupid anyway. Too many rules that don’t make sense. But then again, Abyssal is horrendous too…”
Avery felt his form melt at the thought. It had caught a glimpse of various languages through the humans it had fall into its pit, but Common was— well, the most common. But that didn’t mean he had experience with speaking it at all. He was just throwing words together like he had seen over the few hundred lifetimes of memories he had amassed over his existence here.
It only took the rush of blocks breaking to snap Avery out of his spiral.
The human was carving out a stair case down to it.
The human was what?!
“You’ll have plenty of time to practice Common once you’re out of this dungeon. I’ve pretty much cleared out this whole place before I ran into you, apart from one other room.” He said, dusting off bits of gravel stuck into the crevices of his pants as he hooked his pickaxe back into it’s place in his backpack.
“It’s locked behind two more golden doors like the ones at the entrance. Do you know what’s behind them?”
“N-No. No, I don’t.” Avery stared up at him almost reverently. But it stopped the moment the human started getting restless under his watch. Was it making the human uncomfortable? Of course it was. Standing so close to a living pool of acid would do that to anyone. Just how careless could you be?
“But… See humans go in. Never out.”
The human only shrugged, turning their back towards the direction it knew the golden gates were. “Oh. Well, that just makes me even more curious, if nothing else. I wonder what’s behind it.”
Hold on a second, this was the first human who had ever come down to Avery’s home voluntarily! There’s no way it’ll let go of them now— what else would Avery do with a name given to it by a dead human? A human Avery thought would stay forever?
“No! No, no, no! Bad. Very bad human!” He cried, holding back the urge to cling onto something— anything to hold him back. “Please…! Do no go! Please!”
An inhale hissed through the air as the human winced.
He must look pathetic right now, even for a slime.
But if it was for this human, it would beg and plead in whatever broken language they spoke if it meant there was even a slight chance for them to stay.
Avery’s form faltered, oozing out from the sides as the stones around him sizzled and cracked. There was suddenly not enough room, walls closing in as his heart boomed out of the cavity in his chest. If this human went going behind those doors, he would die.
Avery would die if this human died.
Danger. Every nerve in his body was screaming danger. Not safe.
Stop stop stop stopstopstop
NOT AGAIN.
I CAN’T LOSE YOU AGAIN.
DERE—
—Wait. Hold on. Has he ever met this human before? Where did that come from?
The outlandish thought completely shook him out of it.
Despite every single rash thing his mind was blasting at him, this out of all things was the one so abnormal it knocked him back into reality.
Was it memories from a previous human it had eaten? When was that?
No— better yet, what was that?!
The desperation felt so real, as if it was his own.
It scared him.
“—alm down! A-Are you okay? Ah, fuck— my boots…” The human bit back a whine, looking down at where acid nibbled at the soles of his shoes.
Avery blinked once. Then twice. And suddenly he realised he was on the floor, hands halfway through clawing at what was left of his left eye. And almost tentatively, pulled it out with a relatively simple ‘pop’. It was almost laughable, with how drastic the situation was just seconds prior.
The human stared at the slime’s hand, his single visible eye staring down at the visceral mess on the floor.
He was worried.
For me?
Why me?
Aren’t I just a stupid little slime?
The human inched forward cautiously, hand outstretched like he was handling a wild monster prime to strike out.
He was handling a wild monster.
“Uh— is that normal for slimes? Are you okay?”
I’m okay.
He wanted to say.
You don’t have to worry about me.
But the shake in his legs were all too much. What struggles he was having with speaking Common was all but tripled in the aftershocks.
It was only halfway through another gurgle before the human waved it away.
“…No need to rush. Take your time. You’re okay.” He cooed, and Avery closed its eyes at the feeling washing over it.
Soothing its ruffled frame, smoothing over all previous worries and inhibitions, the slime felt itself drifting. Carried up, up, and away in a strong— yet gentle hold.
It truely felt like a dream.
One his small, insignificant brain had hallucinated after a very long nap.
Maybe this had been a dream.
There was no possible way for someone— anyone in this world to want to take care of a single slime that was not only a danger to others, but also to itself.
Who would want to, without something in return?
It’s not like the slime had anything to give anyway, other than itself.
And if it had to be torn to pieces to give itself away, to be bottled up and used as a weapon…
It wouldn’t be opposed to the thought, as long as it gave it purpose.
Time drifted by without much trouble.
Until the taste of grass burned into his body. Certainly a brand new sensation, Avery couldn’t help but hum in satisfaction— munching away without a care. As long as it wasn’t flesh, he was happy.
“Hey, weird slime boy. You awake?”
He blinked wearily, adjusting to the new surroundings. He only vaguely realised his form had reverted to his natural composition, just a little cube again.
The only light in the vicinity was a small campfire, making up the lack in size for the intensity of the blaze.
As he glanced around— the golden doors of the dungeon stared back at him a few paces away through a clearing. They’d barely travelled a minute out the dungeon. An unfamiliar chill brushed past his body, and he shivered. Much unlike the stagnant air of the dungeon.
Patches of dirt had formed under his body from his acid, disintegrating the cold dew and incorporating it seamlessly into his body. He wondered whether the human had gotten burned absentmindedly.
“Ah… Am wake.” Avery nodded as enthusiastically has he could.
Speaking of the human… he chuckled, shuffling in place. The adventurer had sat in front of the campfire only three steps away from where Avery had turned a patch of green grass into mud. One elbow sat squarely on a knee the same side, completely open to the slime. The other unoccupied arm held a stick, halfway through poking at the campfire.
The golden helmet shone brighter than Avery had first seen with the firelight. The lone eye shone with curiosity even brighter than that.
Mesmerising.
Humans were truely mesmerising.
Now why couldn’t he say that aloud?
“You seemed quite panicked back there, so I took you out here. You unclenched as soon as the night air hit. It was quite hard to keep you from slipping out my arms.” The human stated, and before Avery could ask further he raised a strange creature speared on a stick from behind his back.
“Here, want something to eat? This is salmon. Have you had fish before?”
Avery hadn’t had fish before.
But a few adventurers he had eaten had eaten it before. He still shook his body ‘no’ though.
“…Should’ve expected that, considering you were stuck in that dungeon for who knows how long.” He sighed with an unknown pink tint to his voice, setting the skewer in front of Avery.
“Try it. You might like it.”
Avery slowly inched toward and extended a part of him to take the meat and it slipped into his body without much struggle.
Woah.
Woah, woah, woah.
Humans ate this good food? How had it never had this before?!
He let out a squeak as it faded into his system.
“Did… Did the fish start disappearing faster?” The human chuckled, looking down at Avery furiously munching away at the skewer.
“N-Name…?” Avery managed in between gulps.
The human blinked his singular eye as he stuck a finger back at himself.
“Name? Oh- Oh. My name?”
“Mhm!”
“Huh. I’m not sure why I never thought of that. I’m Derek. But I also go by Derlord in town.”
Derek… that same name his mind had screamed back then.
He shook the thought off. Best not to mess with questions that rattled him too much.
“De- De… Derric.” Avery tried. “Derik.”
“You’ll get there eventually.” The huma— Derek smiled under his helmet, warmth crackling and audible in his voice.
“I’ll be leaving this dungeon in the morning. Would you come with me, if you’d like? I would want some company on the road.”
The slime perked up at that.
Come? With the wonderful human? With Derek? Adventuring or whatever else humans do?
“Yes! Yes yes yes yes! “ It cried, jumping with excitement. “Derik! Derik! Yay!”
Derek laughed, hearty and full of mirth. Its little slime heart ached in turn. “You sure are eager. We’re leaving first thing at dawn. Think you can keep up with me?”
Oh, how new and exciting this will be.
“Yes!”
“Is ‘yes’ the only thing you can say in Common confidently?”
“Yes!”
“Guess that answers that question…” Derek sighed, staring down the future of a sleepless night with a bouncing slime too excited to rest.
“I have a feeling we’ll have an interesting time together, that’s for sure.”