Safe Leaf 4

Apexus was sitting in the grass in front of the house. Its wings had been grown back to a size where their green feathers could carry the slime’s whole weight into the sky. Its proverbial belly was filled to a satisfying degree, not that it would have a problem scavenging for food. Being able to eat and digest just about everything was a great trait to have, the slime realized after having observed Gizmo’s limited diet.

“I wish you a safe journey,” the old man said, waving with one hand. The other was gripping onto the head of his cane, quivering as more of his weight travelled through the arm than nature ever intended.

Apexus felt a bit unsure all of a sudden. Leaving his teacher in such a state was a risk. What if he came back to find a house inhabited only by a corpse? With no idea how else to put it, the slime ate a couple of words into the grass. “Be here,” Gizmo read out loud, for some reason these two words alone caused the old man’s eyes to turn wet. “I will, I promise,” he stated with a smile. “Now go, the sooner you come back, the sooner we can return to teaching you.”

Gizmo backed away and gave Apexus all the space it needed to flap its wings. On the broad space between them, on the slime’s back, Aclysia was doing her best to hold onto the smooth surface. To make things easier, Apexus pulled her lower body inside itself. Then it took off.

Gaining altitude took a couple of moments, as gravity desperately tried to keep its gluing claws in the mass of Apexus. With the strength of its pale green wings, the slime managed to escape, rising from the ground, over the house and finally over the trees surrounding them.

In search of a helpful breeze, Apexus flew a little circle, taking one last glance at the house. It felt a strange attachment to this place, from the wooden box to the pond and the metal fence. Perhaps, that attachment only existed because of the friendly old man inside that box, though.

A flicker, like lightning crackling in the space around it, flashed around Apexus as it broke out of the illusionary barrier that separated Gizmo’s house from the rest of the forest. Now the space behind them was simple tree-tops. It was a place impossible to find unless one was seeking to find it. Apexus had been in the lucky position of searching for something that Gizmo had, thus allowing it to find that place without realizing it.

Aclysia tried to get her awakener’s attention by patting the part of its back in front of her. Words failed now, as the earless Apexus had not the concentration to spare to allow it to hear with its tremor sense alone. Acquisition of ears was something, the slime decided, that should get done as soon as possible.

Not stupid whatsoever, the metal fairy had already realized that and was pointing Apexus at the right direction via drawing lines with her finger upon its back. Despite what its math skills may make one believe, the slime wasn’t dumb either, and so it adjusted its course until Aclysia stopped and they simply sailed onwards.

Apexus had a look around, moving a frontal blob of its shape as a make-shift head. Moving its eyes alone would have worked as well, but changing their position in the slime too much or too quickly usually lead to some nucleus-ache. Its body really didn’t like it when Growths were used in too abrupt a fashion.

The landscape was pretty boring, just green, green and more green, an assembly of trees one could barely see for all the forest. Only a few cliffs and the trenches of Forester Dragons on their feeding path broke up this total monotony.

Under the protection of the leaves tumbled, undoubtedly, hundreds of lifeforms that Apexus could have devoured for a set of ears. As it was, even as Apexus spied the occasional squirrel, there was no chance for a successful dive in the broad daylight. Not even worth the try.

They went on in silence. Apexus wasn’t all that bothered by that, the feeling of Aclysia inside him was kind of nice. More specifically, the pulsating of the magic inside her which he faintly sensed gave him a feeling of companionship. That was in addition to the simple glee that was being close to one’s crush, although the slime still failed to realize what exactly that meant.

To give the metal fairy something she could enjoy in the meantime, Apexus put his pheromone glands on the height of production. The last time it had used them in such active a fashion had been before the run-in with the two adventurers. In such a remote corner of the world, the slime felt like there was no real danger of running into someone with such a fine nose.

Their journey took them four days. The first two days they needed to escape the greenery, then they spent a day flying over an ocean and finally arrived on the continent in the north. Ctania may not have been the biggest of worlds, but traversing it still took more time than taking a casual stroll down into the nearest pub. Especially as they were heading for a remote corner in the north-east of the leaf.

Granted, they lost a lot of time because Apexus had insisted on doing a couple of things during their travel. First, the slime did not want to fly over the ocean. It knew it had to and trusted Aclysia enough to eventually do it, but flying over a massive body of water of which it couldn’t see the end, only to turn around and see the land shrink in the distance, was an incredibly scary experience the first time around.

Apexus flew in circles to get used to that foreign experience and eventually they did make it. Aclysia’s internal knowledge of where to find the next piece of her formed their compass. Once they had reached the other side, the slime made the mistake of drinking saltwater.

It could swim inside the ocean perfectly fine, its membrane was strong enough to prevent the two liquids from mixing. Unless it actually invited that saltwater in. Which it did and regretted. It tasted awful, cold and gave it the slime equivalent of cramps. It was way thirstier after the fact than it had been before, meaning they had to divert some time on finding water.

Luckily, that was an easy task. The northern continent had no official name, people just couldn’t agree to one, but it was commonly referred to by two names: the watery continent or the coral continent. The two names came from the two defining characteristics, one inland and one for the shores.

The northern continent was incredibly shallow around the rim. Much of it disappeared under the water during high tide. When the ebb came, however, a rather unique ecosystem stayed behind in the form of corals. Pink and blue, these stone-like trees survived the temporary waterlessness by shutting all holes and staying moist on the inside for the few hours they had to. Then the tide turned and the cycle in their favour. There was doubtlessly more about it that Apexus could learn, and he was interested to find who was the boss in that particular environment (and if it could eat it) but he didn’t have the time.

Watery, then, the continent was called for its incredible amount of inland seas. It wouldn’t be inaccurate to say that there was more water than not, the stone paths between them often narrow or partially submerged. Apexus had no problem in finding a freshwater source in that environment and so it was that, at the end of the fourth day, plunged into one of those lakes.

As if somebody had dropped a rather large rock suddenly into it, water flew everywhere. Apexus vanished under the surface just as a metal fairy gracefully fluttered over to a nearby rock, having had no desire to submerge herself like her creator. “What an energetic being I watch over,” she giggled to herself as she sat down.

Slinging her arms around her legs, just below the kneecaps, she waited for Apexus to rise up again. She could see it’s wings even under the wavering surface, understandably disturbed by the sudden invader and its movements.

Their destination was a few more kilometres to the east, but the temporary stop didn’t bother her. Especially when her awakener burst out with what she understood to be glee. The slime passed under a moonlit sky perfectly, the god that was having a race with his brother around this leaf shining through Apexus.

The silver light of the moon was transformed by the translucent blue and the wide spread wings carried the entire elliptical shape upwards. Aclysia bated her breathe for the single second that somehow majestic picture lasted, a slime that looked like an angel was an impossibility in her mind. WAS an impossibility.

Then her awakener landed on the stone next to her. Without legs, it was a bit of a difficult process to land, but with its bounciness simply dropping the last few centimetres at a moderate speed was no problem.

Aclysia found that her cheeks were burning for some reason. Something inside her was stirring and she couldn’t put her finger on it. Her life as a creation of her divine father had few experiences in the emotional sense.

And so it was that two unknowing beings of unlikely overlap shared a full-moon with each other in silence.

They were supposed to keep moving. Instead, they kept sitting there for a long time. Something about the world of still lakes evoked a feeling of perfect tranquillity. Like a landscape of mirrors, their smooth surfaces reflected the stars and moon above. A second sky, with veins of rock running through it.

Surely, part of the want to remain still came from the cold Apexus experienced. A being without internal heat, the slime felt sluggish following its dive into the lake. Only when the sun rose would it be able to shake that feeling off.

The much bigger reason was Aclysia, however, as the metal fairy had crept closer and was now leaning with head and shoulder against Apexus. The tenderness of that limited contact made the slime shiver, a visible tremor travelling down between its wings. It was a perfectly fine feeling, great in fact. For her part, Aclysia had no idea why she had the sudden urge to rest her body in that position, much less why she was obeying it.

Apexus put a wing around her and they continued to sit there. A faint vibration, Apexus felt against its side. It took him a moment to realize that the metal fairy was speaking. Focusing its tremor sense, the slime listened.

Sweet tones of an unknown language kissed its mind in their harmonious structure. This wasn’t speech but something different. Consistent notes travelled over the water and reverberated down to Apexus’ core. Melodious and more beautiful than the light of the moon. Singing, that was what this act was called, the slime soon realized. A word whose meaning it had only learned, but whose only example had been a coughing old man trying his best.

It was barely even comparable to the voice of Aclysia, who weaved together from her voice alone things artisans couldn’t with strings of gold. Whatever the song described, Apexus felt like it was a happy one and when it finally did come to an end, it left a void.

Aclysia opened her eyes. They had been closed during the entire performance. The colourless cat eyes of Apexus were looking back, only a thin black ring separating iris from sclera. “I hope you liked my performance,” the metal fairy spoke, the moonlight barely illuminating her lightly reddened features. Eagerly, Apexus nodded, stubbing her in a wanting fashion. “You wish to hear me sing more?” she asked with a happy undertone. Again, eager nods were had. “Awakener, I will act on your wishes then,” the metal fairy smiled. The night was filled with melody, a steady comment to the moon’s travel over the horizon.