Chapter 527:
A Sense of Realness
SORA STARED UP AT ME as I petted its head. Sensing my slime was asking for something, I gently held it in my arms. What could it be?
“Sora, is something wrong?”
“Pu! Pu, puuu.”
Sora sounded upset. What could be the trouble?
“Did you not get enough playtime?”
“Pu! Pu, puuu.”
“Te! Ryu, ryuuu.”
Flame, too? Well, that’s fair. All we did in that village was look at houses and snoop around the church. There weren’t any places for the creatures to have a good play session.
“That’s right, Sora, you guys love exploring, don’t you? And we didn’t give you enough time to do that. I’m sorry.”
As I petted their heads, they both wailed in disappointment. A sheepish grin filled my face.
“By the way, what happened to the serpents?” Zinal asked.
I quickly looked around.
“Over there,” my father said.
I looked where he was pointing to see the serpents gathered in the distance. Noticing that we’d seen them, they started to slither toward us.
“Sorry we took so long,” Zinal said.
One of the serpents nuzzled its face against Zinal’s belly, but it used so much force that Zinal floated into the air a little.
“Agh! Know your own strength, buddy!”
Zinal frantically grabbed onto the serpent. I giggled at the sight, and I heard Fische and my father laughing with me. The serpent seemed to get a real kick out of that, because Zinal now sat on its face, which was waving back and forth.
“Pu! Puuu!”
“Sora, wait! Not a game!”
Sora tried to jump onto Zinal, but it biffed the landing.
“Bu!”
Sora epically splatted onto Zinal’s face.
“That looks like fun.”
“Druid, I don’t need your weird commentary! Stop them!”
My father shrugged his shoulders and walked up to the serpent, stopping the reckless playing.
“How come they listen to you, Druid?”
“I dunno.” With a curious tilt of his head, my father lifted Sora off Zinal’s cranium.
“Ugh, that was exhausting.”
The serpent who’d played with Zinal was staring at him questioningly.
“I think your friend wants to play some more,” Fische said.
Zinal looked perplexed. When Fische pointed to the serpent next to him, Zinal sighed.
“Well, I’m not playing with you—I don’t even consider that playing.”
I guessed Zinal was being a plaything rather than a playmate.
“I think that serpent really likes you, Zinal,” my father said. Fische nodded. (And I secretly agreed.)
“I don’t think we’ve seen this Snakey before,” I said.
“Whoa, you can tell them apart?” Fische looked at me in surprise.
“Oh, um, no… I can’t exactly tell them apart by sight. I just get a sense which Snakeys I’ve met before and which ones I haven’t. Some of them I can tell we’ve met many times before, but not all of them.”
“That’s already an incredible thing to do,” Fische said, looking at me in awe. I felt a little self-conscious.
“Whoa!”
Hearing Zinal yelp, I turned my head just in time to see that the serpent that had been playing with him earlier had now tumbled him onto the ground. This Snakey was probably young and didn’t understand restraint very well.
“Wow, strong, capable Zinal is really in peril. Best entertainment ever.” Fische eagerly watched Zinal tumble. With a perplexed look on his face, he got up and petted the face of his Snakey friend, who looked very pleased about that.
“So, what’s our next order of business?” Zinal asked my father and Fische while he petted Snakey. It was just about time to look for a place to camp for the night.
“Right, why don’t we find a camping spot around here?” my father suggested.
The serpents started moving.
“Guess they know a place. Let’s follow them,” Fische said.
Everyone nodded and followed the caravan of serpents. After slithering for quite a while, the serpents glanced behind and stopped.
“Yeah, this looks like a good place to pitch some tents,” my father said.
Zinal looked around. “Sure does. And with the serpents and Ciel here, we could probably sleep safely even without one.”
“You’ve gotten used to Ivy’s ways,” Fische teased.
Zinal smiled sheepishly. At first, he’d been adamant about pitching tents while traveling in groups.
“Well, I had no choice but to get used to it,” Zinal chuckled, pulling a tent out of his magic bag.
“I know, why don’t we whip out the big tent tonight? It should fit here.”
“What do you think, Ivy?” my father asked me.
I nodded. Big tents generally weren’t used during long treks because it was hard to find big flat spaces to pitch them in the middle of a forest. But the little clearing the serpents took us to was big and flat enough to pitch a large tent.
“Works for me,” I said.
So Zinal produced a different tent from his magic bag and handed it to Fische. I decided to take care of everything else while the men pitched the tent.
“I’ll go get some kindling,” I called out to the men.
My creatures bounded over to me.
Mrrrow.
“Huh? Oh, you’re gonna tag along?”
Mrrrow.
I followed Ciel’s lead into the trees, and any sticks I could comfortably wrap my hands around went into my magic bag as I walked. We would need a fire for cooking dinner as well as sleeping, so we would probably require a lot. I needed to steer clear of the wet sticks.
Mrrrow.
“Pu! Pu, puuu.”
I looked up at the sound of their cries to see a tree in the distance bearing big blue fruit. Ciel was sitting next to it.
“This what you wanted to show me?”
Mrrrow.
Blue fruit?
“Do these taste good?”
Mrrrow.
They must taste good, then. I decided to take some back for the group. The tree trunk had places to stick my feet, so I could climb up to where the fruit was.
“Pu! Pu, puuu.”
I looked over to Sora and saw that the slime had jumped toward the blue fruit tree.
“Ooh! That’s my Sora!”
Then Flame followed suit and jumped at the tree. Sol sat under it, looking up. It didn’t seem like the little slime could climb the tree like Sora and Flame could. I gave Sol’s head a pat and set my magic bag of kindling down next to it.
“I know I had another one…”
I pulled a smaller magic bag out of the bigger one’s pouch and stuck it in my pocket.
Okay. It’s climbing time.
I grabbed the branches and lifted my body upward. Looking at my feet, I searched for footholds. When I’d planted my feet, I looked up for fruit I could reach.
“You know, I don’t find myself climbing trees much anymore…”
Treetops had been a way of life when I traveled alone, but now I only climbed them when I was picking fruit or nuts. It had been so long that I was starting to enjoy myself. I planted my feet on the branches, reached up, and kept on doing it until I’d climbed all the way up to the blue fruit.
“Phew…I think I’m a better climber than I used to be.”
I looked at my hands. Then I remembered I’d grown a lot now that I had plenty to eat. My hands had also gotten much bigger. The only difference was that I needed more strength to pull up my own body weight now.
“Puuu?” Sora gave me a curious look.
“Sora, I’m growing, aren’t I?”
“Pu! Pu, puuu.”
It suddenly all felt so real to me. I reached up, picked the blue fruit, and stashed it in my little magic bag.
“Good thing there’s enough for everybody.”
And what a vibrant blue fruit it was. Since Ciel brought me here, it would have to be delicious. But it didn’t smell sweet to me, so I wasn’t sure.