Slime Slime Slime

The Great Cleave laid before them, a massive chasm in the earth running as far as the eyes could see in both directions. It was a scar from the Second God War that had been left there as a reminder of the gods' folly. The other side was distant enough that not much besides mountains and the tiny shapes of buildings could be seen. Gods's Mistake, a major city, laid across it. Originally it was a bridge, but the settlement that had arisen to build the bridge had swelled to engulf the whole bridge and even now was growing wider. Some people had even built into the chasm's walls. The result was a chaotic, poorly planned tangle of endless architectural styles and colors clinging to and across the chasm like overgrown lichen.

"Every time I see it, I can't get over how this city's a real mess," Tamu commented as he stood taking in the scene.

"I grew up in a city looking like this." Sardu crossed her arms. "But it was just set into a mountain."

"The Pure Kingdom was... extremely regular." Aono frowned. "It was pretty boring that way, really. Lots of white cubes with roofs on top. One of the holy shapes. Only reason they didn't build spheres was practicality. I think I like this more."

Tamu blinked. "Yikes, yeah, this is better than that."

"Okay, cuties," Sardu said, "Let's find a place to stay the night then we can grab a chasm-skipper to the south."

Aono put a finger on her chin. "South... the western Outlands are closer, but I'm not risking going against Ghaan's predictions."

Tamu marched toward the closest of the city's gates. "South it is. We'll just grab what levels we can on the way."

South would also take them out of the Empire's lands, into the Hundred Lands Alliance, Aono mused. The alliance held enough power to resist the Empire's attempts to expand, so it would be a decent place to show their evidence of the Azure conditioning device. They would just have to get the leaders' ears somehow. The Council likely had many petitioners.

She paused in her thoughts as they passed through the gates and she could smell the scents of multiple street food stalls. She stretched her arm a little to grab a few kebabs that one of the vendors were offering, and her friends took that cue to pick up some food for themselves. Aono munched away on her kebabs. Mmm, drake meat and redbulb root and mini-squash, just the thing after a day on the road.

..oOo..

Chamu was having a terrible time as she laid in the second bed of the hostel room she had ended up staying in with Aono and Sardu. It had been a sensible decision to share a room. The problem was that she was sharing a somewhat small room with two people she had a crush on. There was barely enough room for the two beds to rest side to side! She couldn't imagine many more awkward positions than this! Oh, wait, she just imagined one, yeah, let's not think about that.

But what to do, what to do, she didn't want to hurt her friendship with them. What's a squirrel supposed to do when in close company with two mega cuties with great personalities and senses of humor? Even Sardu's weird hair had its own charm! Shit, shit, shit, she wasn't going to sleep well, was she?

Let's look at the roof! Yeah, sure! Wait, no, the wall on the other side from the bed her crushes were resting in! Let's stare at that. Maybe then she'll sleep instead of all those thoughts racing through her head. Wait, no, that thought slipped in just there! No! No! Naughty thought, don't -- oh that just made it worse!

Shiiiiit. She covered her head with her pillow. Okay, you can do this, Chamu. You can live with traveling in close company with your great, cool, sexy best friends... No! Arrrgh, thoughts like that didn't help! Okay, let's not think of Sardu's rippling muscles or Aono's pleasantly curvy build... Oh. Time to invent a thought-deleting device.

..oOo..

Sardu was having a great time. How could she not? After all, she was traveling with two superb cuties that she happened to have a crush on. After all, how could you not love Aono's kindness and playfulness, or Chamu's energy and creativity? Yeah, this was the best. She couldn't think of many situations she'd rather be in.

Though, she did wish the two would be less dense about it and just get together with each other and her. Honestly while she was a good judge of what people wanted, she wasn't exactly an expert on getting them to reach for what they wanted. She was a simple, direct person and she wasn't sure that was the right approach here. Chaos, even constantly calling them cute and princess and duke/duchess and such hadn't caused them to clue in. Neither had giving them assorted gifts over the past year.

But that minor aggravation aside, she relished their company. A slimy cutie and a furry cutie. She wanted to snuggle that big tail of Chamu's so bad. And Chamu's athletic, slender form in whatever form she used, masculine or feminine or neither.... yeah, that was the stuff. And Aono's adorable bit of chub, too. Plus they were great people, too.

The only bad thing about this whole situation was the circumstances they were traveling under. That stupid Empire, deciding what everyone could think. She'd really like to be doing this when they weren't thinking about doing wild, dangerous things just to get a chance to resist the Empire. Really, if it wasn't for that shadow over the whole thing, this would be a dream trip.

Sigh. Well, she would have fun when she could, and she would make sure her best friends did, too. And maybe someday they'd actually get to all hook up.

..oOo..

Aono found herself quickly becoming drowsy. The room might have been small, but the beds were quite decent and really nice after a few days of travel. She'd also gotten to the point where she no longer had to worry about accidentally releasing acidic digestive slime in her sleep, so that was one less worry to bother her. Plus she had nice company she felt safe around.

Her best friends. Liking both of them as more than that was a little awkward, but nothing she couldn't deal with. For the sake of her friendships, she was fine with staying quiet about those feelings. She didn't want things to become awkward and weird between them, given that she wasn't really sure if they saw her that way. Sardu maybe, but the human gave her and Chamu the same treatment. Unless Sardu actually liked both, that was probably just her being her.

It'd be nice if they did both like Aono, though.

Aono found herself stirring awake from some pleasant dreams as a pillow hit her head repeatedly. "Uh?" she said, pushing herself up.

"You're the last to wake," Sardu said with a grin. "I got Tamu to do a food run, so it's time for you to get ready to eat before he gets back here."

"Alright," Aono said, not even bothering to point out that Sardu could've used a little more gentle method of waking her up. She knew the ninja had done it on purpose.

The door opened right as Aono seated herself at the balcony table. With a saunter, Tamu came in and set a tray of breakfast foods on the table. Dream lizard eggs, flatbread, and spiceplum. "Tada!" he said, "Breakfast for the lovely ones! Including me, of course."

Aono smiled. "And so the council of beautiful ones takes a break to eat."

Curiously enough, Sardu was burying her face in her hands.

"What's wrong?" Aono asked.

Sardu was laughing. A rather strange laughter.

Tamu perked an ear. "Oh, is something funny?"

Sardu's laughter just got more hysterical.

"Care to let us in on the joke?" Aono grinned.

The ninja struggled to collect herself. "Just... just shut up and kiss each other and me too!"

"Huh?" was the only thing Aono could say.

"Eeeeeh?" Tamu's ears quirked puzzledly.

Sardu began banging the table lightly as she laughed. "Gods! Oh gods! Can't you see? We all like each other in a romantic way!"

"Um. I do like you two, but... I'm fine just being friends if any of you don't feel that way." Aono said.

Tamu just pointed at Aono and stared. Then at Sardu. "Wait, wait, wait... what? You seriously like me?"

"Chaos, yes, I like you, both of you!" Sardu yelled with minor frustration.

Tamu's ears shot up. "...Wait a minute, have I been trying to stay mum about my feelings for nothing?"

"Oh gods," Aono said as she rested her forehead onto her palm. "We're so useless."

"We're just a bunch of idiots," Sardu said, "Including me for figuring it out way before you two but not saying it."

"That would've saved me a whole lot of fretting," Tamu rubbed his head. "I didn't want to threaten my friendship with you two."

"Same for me," Aono said as she began laughing. "We really are idiots, aren't we?"

"Yeah, and I'd had enough of you both idioting it up!" But even as Sardu said that, she was smiling.

"The idiot trio!" Tamu joined in on the laughing.

Aono leaned her chin onto her arm. "So I'd ask what it means for us three, but really we can just figure that out going forward."

"Hopefully it means I can get to touch that nice tail of yours, Duke," Sardu said in a low voice.

Tamu's ears flicked. "I suppose... That's alright."

Instantly, both of the girls pounced on Tamu's tail and began hugging and petting it.

Tamu's ears lifted in alarm. "Wait, right now?"

"Unless you mind," Sardu said.

"Yeah, I wouldn't want to make you uncomfortable," Aono said.

Tamu shook his head. "I guess... I'm okay with it."

The tail cuddling lasted for a while before they realized the food was getting cold.