Pieced Together 8

Getting ready to leave took a while. While they didn’t have a whole lot of things that needed packing, nothing to be perfectly realistic, they still aimed to obscure the fact that they had been here by obfuscating the more obvious signs that it hadn’t been a normal adventurer party that had been here recently. Mostly, that included the depressions Apexus’ resting body caused in the ground, alongside the small footprints from Aclysia, alongside the little marks she left in the soft dirt when her wings started beating at their blurring speed.

The remains of the bunny were left behind, since the fresh ash of the campfire already gave away the somebody had rested there, putting remainders of food should cause at least some confusion. Slimes, even if they didn’t have sapience, weren’t known to leave any food wasted. Unless somebody had the mystical gift for accurately guessing how much ash should have been left behind by the fire and that it didn’t line up with the average of sticks that should have laid around the area, eaten by Apexus, they had their bases covered in that regard.

Granted, a masterful tracker may still have been able to gather enough from even their obscured footprints, but doing much more would have made it clear that they were obscuring things and that raised red flags with everyone.

Next on the list of making tracking as hard as possible was for Reysha to move on by herself while Apexus and Aclysia took to the sky. The possibility of being seen from the distance was worth avoiding the massive drag-marks that Apexus normal slugging around caused. The alternative was to use the pointy legs of the Archwood Walker and that was only slightly more subtle. Compared to that, flying was really stealthy. No tracks and even if he was spotted, catching up to him and finding where exactly they had landed was pretty hard. Reysha had her own Rogue tricks to avoid leaving too many footprints.

Ultimately, the only hard thing would be to get together again by the end of the day. Apexus wanted to avoid leaving pheromone trails, since that was just a giant ‘COME FIND ME!’ request pasted all over the landscape. They would manage though, Aclysia could make some signal lights or something if they missed each other in the darkness.

Their next goal was just a couple of days away. According to Aclysia’s senses, there were two more parts of her. Given how much she had grown the last time, this sounded about accurate to Apexus. Although that didn’t have to mean anything, since her god could dictate that she should just be twenty metres tall whenever he so desired, for all the slime knew.

Aside from covering their tracks, the journey ran smoothly. So far, no hunters to be seen, although Apexus was under no illusions how quickly that could change. Once they had been located, it would be very hard to shake off whoever was searching them. If humans were even half as adept at circling strategies as ants were, they would be as trapped as an animal once encapsulated in his slime.

That image aside, they did arrive at their destination with utter confusion. It was a completely smooth hole in the forest, no trees, just grass and flowers with black and white petals. The typical triumvirate of colours when engaging with things relating to Hashahin. Following their sway in the soft, warm breezes of a beautiful summer day was quite nice. Indeed, it invited them to lay down and just enjoy the eternal summer.

If this location hadn’t been so far from anything else important, it would probably have been quite the renowned relaxation spot. Apexus liked soaking in the heat, it got his slime properly warmed up and kept his reflexes quick. Generally, he felt more awake like this.

All of that was nice. Not what the trio was there for, however.

Logically, one would expect the new source of Aclysia’s metal to be found in the middle of this area. However, all there was was a patch of grass. Not even a remarkable patch of grass. There were flowers there like everywhere else.

“I am highly confused, my creator,” Aclysia uttered after half an hour spend traversing this, admittedly large, hole in the forest. They had paced the rim, looked for secret messages in how the flowers were arranged from the sky and looked at a whole bunch of greenery. She landed on the floor, Apexus feeling her tiny feet cause the smallest impact through his tremor sense. “What are we to do here?”

“Maybe we are at the wrong place?” Reysha suggested, walking her way over. It was a desperate suggestion, one with the expected answer.

“No, I definitely feel it nearby… if we were to leave, I would just feel the urge to turn around again,” Aclysia stated and fell on her back. “I don’t get this. What kind of riddle did my creator want to present us? He is normally quite forward with his challenges.”

Apexus hummed, brooding over this himself. “Maybe we have to unlock them in the right order?”

“I would expect to have knowledge of that,” the metal fairy rolled onto her side and, unaware of her own movements, hugged tightly onto her awakener’s side. For the first time, she was feeling frustration towards her divine father. It made her pout quite a bit, closeness to her loved one helped soothe that feeling. “I can not dismiss the possibility, however.”

As their thinking continued, Reysha eventually changed the topic. “By the way, where did you two meet?” the tiger girl was curious. “You were always that legend that everyone was looking for, so I really have to wonder how Apexus was the person who unlocked you after all that time.”

“I found an odd thing near the peak of the mountain,” Apexus explained, pointing at the incredibly small peak in the far-off distance. “It sucked mana from me, I gave it, Aclysia was formed… then I tried to eat her.”

“I always thought it was a handshake… but that makes more sense in hindsight,” the metal fairy mumbled, quickly drowned out by Reysha falling to the floor laughing.

“SERIOUSLY?! You were just existing out in the open and everybody missed you?!”

“I suspect nobody wanted to take the gamble with the mana absorbing metal,” Aclysia presented her theory. “My location wouldn’t have helped either. Although it was a depression, it was still easily overlooked from a distance. Although I admit that it is odd that it took people 64 years to find it. Sometimes, luck just works out that way… and I am happy for it.”

“Do that again,” Apexus suddenly stated.

Aclysia smiled and hugged him a little tighter, “I can tell you I that I am happy to have met you as often as you want to hear it , Apexus.”

“I…” the slime felt like he could really easily say the wrong thing here. “I would be happy to hear it numerous more times… but I meant Reysha falling to the ground.”

“What, why?” the tiger girl found that odd.

“Want to confirm… I want to confirm something,” the slime urged the redhead. “Could you please?”

Reysha jumped back to her feet and smirked, “Shit, I am down, might blow away the greyness.” As her mood indicated, it wasn’t as they hoped and her state had not reached the same low as before. Although she still had much duller senses then usual and periods where she just looked through the landscape with glassy, unmotivated eyes. “Here I GO!”

With way too much motivation and a hysteric cry, the tiger girl body-slammed the ground. All of the usual senses ignored, Apexus only concentrated on the one he was born with. The tremors of her movement travelled through the ground, normally they would simply be lost, but something about the way the ground underneath them shook felt… wrong.

“We need to dig,” the slime told his girls, “there is a cave underneath us.”