Cherry & Lime

After the disappointment of finding out she was stuck as a slime, the four of us decided to just spend the rest of the day relaxing.

Jade had been feeling down after leaving the MAO, but by dinnertime, she was happy and smiling again.

Strange.

“Jade,” I said.

“Yeah?” she responded.

“You’re smiling.”

She tilted her head cutely. “Okay? Well, I guess today was kind of a bad surprise, but considering that I got a free sex change out of the whole ordeal, I’m quickly getting used to the idea of also being a slime.”

“No, I mean, you hardly ever smiled before, and when you did, it always looked kind of strained.”

She slumped. “Oh… So I smile weird?”

I shook my head. “No. Now your smile looks like an actual smile without any sadness in it.”

“So that’s what it is!” Sanor interrupted. “I noticed that too, but couldn’t put my finger on what was different. I’m starting to get what you mean when you said your life depended on getting that elixir.”

Jade nodded shyly, cheeks glowing. “Yeah. That goal was the only thing that kept me going. I felt like I was trapped underwater, but I’ve finally surfaced and can actually breathe for the first time”

I pulled her into a side hug that she leaned into, which made me happy. I’m beginning to have feelings for her, it seems. I don’t know if she’d reciprocate, as she’s never shown any interest in romance before, but at they very least, I don’t think she’d be disgusted by another woman’s interest. Yeah… If this continues, I think I’ll ask her out once she’s sorted out her life a bit more.

We picked a place to eat that was mostly outdoors and sat down at a small, round table. We were in the early stages of autumn, but it was still warm enough that eating outside was comfortable, though I had to wear a sweater, as the cold was already beginning to affect me.

I looked at Jade sitting next to me to see if she was feeling cold with her shorter sleeves. She didn’t seem to be, and while I was looking, I couldn’t help but be enamored with the way the sunlight was passing through her. It was like looking at a sculpture made of green glass. Even her shadow was green, or at least the parts of it not obstructed by clothing.

“What is it?” Jade asked, having caught me staring.

Something like being caught looking at a cute girl by the cute girl herself wouldn’t fluster me, and I could even answer her question honestly. “Just looking at the way the light passes through you. It’s really pretty, like looking at a gem.”

That made her flustered and I smirked. Because of the sunlight, I unfortunately wasn’t able to see her glowing cheeks. Gods below, she’s so adorable I’m going to die.

When we began eating, I once again looked at Jade. We had found that she could just push food into her body if she wanted to, but she still much preferred to eat normally. It was strange to watch it enter her mouth, then sink down into her abdomen.

I wasn’t even sure how she had a throat or could talk. None of what happened to her made any sense. Another thing we found was that she didn’t actually need to breathe anymore but still did so, probably just because of being a former human.

We couldn't see a set of lungs, or anything else other than the slime core in her abdomen. We speculated that she was digesting the air, but she has to actually be using it somehow, otherwise she wouldn't be able to talk.

We also tested whether or not she could breathe a gas other than air. She briefly stood with her head over a fire and breathed normally, but didn’t start coughing the way anyone else would have. Whether or not toxic fumes could still damage or affect her, we didn’t know yet. That was one of the things we would be testing for.

Tonight’s dinner was a celebration of a lot of things. The successful completion of another quest. Not only did Jade survive the attack, but she even came out of it much happier. Regardless of whether or not she could continue questing, this was still a good thing. And also that the four of us shared our secrets with each other and became much closer for it.

As the night went on, we were all getting a bit drunk, except for Jade. Guess that answers the question of whether or not some things still affect her.

The night ended when Sanor began performing, and Mallok and I were decently drunk. Jade seemed to be a bit annoyed about not being even a little bit tipsy, but she still looked much happier than she ever had before, drunk or sober.

I feel like I made a new friend. But she also still feels like the same person, but not stifled or suppressed anymore. Aaah, she’s trying to dance and she’s so bad at it! Good thing drunk people aren’t that judgmental about sloppy dancing.

Shit, some guy is trying to dance with her despite her moving away from him. Piece of shit. I’ll fix this.

I got between her and the pushy man. He got the message and began harassing someone else. I wrapped my tail around his ankle and made him faceplant. He was now drunk and injured enough to leave people the hell alone.

“Thank you,” Jade said. “I’ve always wanted to try dancing, but… never as I was.”

“No problem. Your first time dancing should be a fun memory. Well, every time should, but sometimes people can be annoying.”

“Yeah… but I’m terrible at it and this is embarrassing,” she said, looking depressed.

“First, not many people can dance well while drunk, and pretty much everyone here is at least tipsy. Second, even if they were sober, most still wouldn’t care. Third, I can teach you.”

“You can?” she asked nervously, eyeing her surroundings.

“Of course. Do you want me to? If anyone bothers us, I’ll just tell them to fuck off.”

“Um, okay. Sure. What do I do?”

I grabbed her and began showing her how to move. I wasn’t doing anything complex, so she caught on quickly. Sanor must’ve caught on to the situation as he had begun playing a song that was a little slower, and the odd change in tempo came off as abrupt. I’ll have to thank him later.

Jade smiled. “This is fun!”

I smiled back. “Yep! Easy. It’s mostly about moving confidently.”

“I… I think I can do that. I definitely couldn’t have done this only a week ago.”

This poor girl. We’re going to have to teach her how to have fun. “So, do you think you’ve got it down?”

“Yeah.”

“So are you ready to try it on your own?”

“Mhmm,” she replied, nodding.

“Not that I mind, but I didn’t really show you how to dance while holding onto another person,” I said, lifting my hand that was still being held by hers. I actually don’t know how to dance with another person either. Stupid noble dances don’t count, and there’s never been anyone I’ve genuinely wanted to dance with until now.

“O-Oh!” she exclaimed, letting go. “I-I um… Sorry. I’ll um, start now.” She tried to dance, but was so flustered that she forgot everything she had just learned and was doing even worse than before.

I can’t. My heart. She’s too much.

I didn’t want to turn her into a puddle—Wait, can she turn into an actual puddle now?—so I didn’t tease her and let her get into it and find the rhythm. Every once in a while she would glance at me and our eyes would meet, then she would hurriedly look away with a familiar glow in her cheeks.

———

The next morning, two hungover men, one woman with a slight headache and another who was perfectly fine all met in the dining area of one of the inns that catered to Guild members.

Mallok looked at Jade who had gotten breakfast for herself already and was happily eating. “I don’t know whether to feel bad that you can’t get drunk or envious that you can’t get drunk.”

She shrugged. “Bit of both, I suppose. I never particularly liked or disliked drinking, so I don’t care all that much.”

“Did last night affect your sleep at all?” I asked curiously.

“No. I still just fell into the same sort of resting state where I have only a vague awareness of my surroundings. All that moving around and drinking didn’t affect that.”

“Uuuuugh,” Sanor interrupted, setting down a plate of food for himself and his lover. Instead of eating it, he just sat there with his head low and eyes closed.

“Thanks for playing some slower songs last night,” I said.

He just nodded slightly in response.

“What’s this about?” Jade asked.

“He saw you learning how to dance, so he made it a little easier for you,” Mallok responded for him. He wasn’t doing much better than Sanor, though.

“Oh,” she said bashfully. “Thanks.”

After breakfast, we went to the library to learn anything we could about slimes. It turned out that we all already knew the general information, just not in as much detail as the books described.

There was one exception to that, however, that was that slimes could seemingly live indefinitely, provided they had sustenance. But no long-term studies had been conducted on the topic, and slimes die so easily that it wasn’t commonly known.

Jade was a little worried about how easily slimes die, but Mallok pointed out that they usually die because they have no sense of self-preservation whatsoever. Since she had that and seemed about as durable as before, she would probably be fine.

She wasn’t really sure how to feel about her new ambiguously long lifespan, but I reminded her that there are some races that do live for long periods of time, much longer than a human ever could.

Starchildren live for about 150 years and tieflings can live for several centuries. Only Mallok in our party had a similar lifespan to a human.

That’s when Sanor made the surprising announcement that he was actually in his fifties. Mallok was in his thirties, though, and he looked to be about that age. Both myself and Jade were in our twenties, though I had a few years on her.

She still found it odd to think about, but discussing our ages seemed to help and she decided to just put it out of her mind since there wasn’t anything she could do with that information.

With that done, we then headed out of the city and into a clearing far away from prying eyes. Mostly just because people would stare and want to ask questions if they saw us practicing and figuring things out.

First, we confirmed that, in her chest, Jade had a clear, round core, protected by a sort of shell made of condensed slime.

Then we tested her durability, and found that the membrane acting as her skin was actually harder to break than that of a human or a slime. We tested that by making a just few tiny, shallow cuts on the back of her arm.

They also completely healed over quite quickly. A human would still have a little blood trickling out, and a slime would be the same but with, well, slime. Jade was incredibly relieved about that, because it meant that she wouldn’t die from being cut or pierced the way an ordinary slime would.

Some people have the misconception that because slimes are called slimes and have a shiny surface, they are therefore actually coated in slime. While that might be true on a technical level, as the membrane that acts as her skin is made of a similar substance, her “skin” is clean and doesn’t leave residue on anything.

The actual slime is all internal. When someone kills a slime, it’s basically a goopy mess that gets everywhere. It’s also acidic enough that you have to wash the slime off of whatever it got on, or else it will start to eat through. It’s not an instant thing, though.

We tried figuring out how she had the shape of a person without a skeleton to support her, but the best we could figure out was that it was done with magic somehow, which basically meant that we had no idea how it worked.

We had been testing her diet over the past week, and found that she didn’t need any more food or water than normal. We had thought she might need more water, but that was just because we knew that slimes are usually found in damp places.

When we made those cuts, she described her sense of pain as still being fully there, so she couldn’t easily take hits. She also wondered if she still had a brain inside her somewhere. The only way we thought of to test it was to have her spin around until she got dizzy, but that didn’t happen. Regardless, she wasn’t going to act as if a hit to her head or anywhere else could be easily shrugged off.

Next, we tested her speed, strength, and combat abilities. She ran slightly slower than before, but was now slightly stronger. She was concerned about whether or not she’d still be able to properly use her bow, and she could, much to her relief.

For someone without any bones, her body sure acted like it still had them. She actually found using her bow to be easier now because of her increased strength, as well as how the stress on her hands healed immediately vanished.

This was good news, as she didn’t want to leave the party and stop questing. Despite essentially being forced into the life by her circumstances, she still rather enjoyed it. She also quietly admitted to enjoying all of our company, and I may have been imagining it, but I think her gaze lingered on me a bit longer than on the others.

Finally, slime attacks. Slimes only had two attacks: They could form tendrils with a surprising amount of strength, and fire off small pellets. Those pellets could cause some nasty bruises, and even broke the skin on occasion. In the right place, such as an eye, it could be devastating.

As for whether or not Jade was also capable of these things, not even she knew. She just couldn’t get them to happen at first. It wasn’t until she was sparring and got into the mindset of being attacked that she was able to fire off a pellet.

She described it as an instinctual feeling, but still something she had to will to happen. After doing it once, though, she began to get the hang of it.

She found that it was easier to fire off a pellet from her hand or turn her arm into a tendril she could control rather than just making them appear from any random place on her body. It was still possible, but it took a lot more concentration.

In comparison to her bow, the pellets didn’t have as much range or power, but any additional method of attack was always a good thing.

One oddity we found was that the slime from her pellets wasn’t acidic at all. It didn’t eat through the trees she had used as target practice, and when Mallok put a little bit on the back of his arm to test it, nothing happened.

The last possible slime-related skill we tested was the ability to stick to walls and climb things. Slimes do this by pushing mana into the surface they are clinging to, rather than using any kind of substance.

It’s not something any of the rest of us are capable of, so when she couldn’t figure out how to do it, there wasn’t any advice we could offer, and that’s assuming she’s even capable of it in the first place.

The final thing we tested was what mana, stamina, and healing potions did for her. The answer for each of them was that one potion of any type recovered the same amount of everything by putting only a third of its power into each of the three categories.

We theorized that it was because slimes basically eat anything and it all digests the same for them. Drinking a potion was still much more effective for her than just eating something was, however.

Her health, stamina, and mana were all still separate things, though. What this meant for her was that she didn’t need the right potion to recover; she could use whichever one was available. That was both an advantage and a disadvantage.

With all the testing done and having confirmed that Jade could still go questing with us, we returned to the city to begin buying armor and other supplies. Thankfully, she had a ton of money to spare. It was still in our Guild accounts, but we transferred it to her after she registered.

The person behind the desk thought it was strange, but we just said she was important to the person the money previously belonged to, but that they hadn’t thought to change their next of kin in their account information before dying. He tsked and muttered to himself about questers ignoring the less flashy details of their lifestyle.