SLIME

Not only was Peony not from this world, they were from an entirely different world from Chinatsu and Miyabi. How and why were they all brought to this place?

Peony began walking down the path away from the dead end where they camped. They gestured for Chinatsu and Miyabi to come. The two looked at each other, nodded in agreement, and followed.

“Um…You seem to know a lot about this place,” Miyabi started. “So, how long have you been here?”

Peony began looking around, counting on their fingers, mumbling something inaudible–clearly trying to parse out an answer to that question. It couldn’t have been that long for them to need to think about it that hard, right?

“50…” Peony trailed off.

“Days?” Chinatsu asked.

…

“Years…” Peony responded.

“50 YEARS?!” The two teens were beside themselves. They could understand days, even weeks or maybe months. But 50 years?

“Um, something like that, I think,” Peony added. “It gets easy to lose count after that much time. For a long-lived race like me, time passes like an instant.”

They had been excited to meet their new companion, but now this revelation dealt unbelievable psychic damage to the teenagers. Peony didn’t even look older than them! Hell, the enigmatic Elf looked younger!

“Um, so let me get this straight,” Miyabi pinched the bridge of her nose. “You’ve been here for 50 years already, but how old were you when you were brought here?”

“Ah…Let’s see…Umm…30? I think?” Peony said with a bashful grin.

Miyabi choked.

“You’re 80!? You’re older than my Grandmother!” she said, aghast.

“Hey! I’m still practically a baby among my kind,” Peony said, hiding their face in their hands.

It was true that elves were extremely long-lived in all fantasy media–Chinatsu could accept that. However, confronting the reality of such a thing in the flesh no less was a different experience entirely.

“How long do elves in your world live for, Peony?” Chinatsu meekly asked.

“I think if I told you that now, you two might die of shock,” Peony laughed.

Chinatsu had the burning urge to ask Peony more questions. Not only to learn about the maze, but he also wanted to know more about Peony. On the other hand, he suddenly felt too embarrassed to ask the questions he wanted.

They continued in silence for a bit as the Elf confidently led them through each turn and fork.

“So, Peony…If you’ve been stuck in this world for 50 years, I assume you’ve also been stuck inside this maze for the entire time as well, right?” Miyabi asked Peony, eying them suspiciously.

“That’s right,” Peony responded.

“Then why haven’t you found the exit yet?” Miyabi asked.

Peony stopped walking.

SO BLUNT! Chinatsu tugged on Miyabi’s shirt sleeve to try to signal his second-hand embarrassment for asking such a rude question.

“Who says I haven’t?” Peony cast a sly glance over their shoulder and smirked.

“So it exists…But you’re still here after 50 years. Why?” Miyabi pressed further.

Chinatsu ground his teeth together. Why is she suddenly picking a fight with the person who saved their lives?

Peony turned around to face them. They held themself with a confidence that contradicted the Elf’s small stature and frame. It almost felt like Peony was sizing up the two humans.

“You haven’t experienced it yet, so there are three things you should know about this labyrinth. One–others exist here besides you. I assume that much is evident by the fact that you encountered one such as myself," Peony began.

Chinatsu nodded in agreement. He looked toward Miyabi to see her staring down the Elf, hand on the hilt of her sword.

Peony continued, “The second thing is…when someone makes it to the exit, the world resets. No matter where you are, you get sent back to the beginning. Any slain monsters return to the labyrinth.”

“And the third thing?” Miyabi asked.

“Only one can return to their world at a time,” Peony stated.

The Elf turned around and continued walking. Chinatsu followed, but he and the Elf stopped when they realized Miyabi wasn’t moving.

“Then why are you helping us?”

“Come on, Miyabi!” Chinatsu had had enough of this posturing. It was going to get them nowhere. Why couldn’t she just save all of this for later?

“It’s okay, little Chinatsu. I don’t mind answering,” Peony said, patting Chinatsu’s head.

Chinatsu felt like he could cut the air with a knife. The tension between those two was so thick, but he didn’t know how to diffuse the situation. All he could do was look between the two of them.

“Of course, I understand if you’re suspicious of me. When I was abandoned in this place, I became suspicious of others as well. However, let me pose a question to you. How do you think the flow of time works in this place compared to your world?”

“I don’t think that’s something either of us could possibly answer without being able to travel between worlds,” Miyabi replied.

That was true. Just how exactly did the passage of time work here? He hoped that there was some kind of time dilation happening where milliseconds in his world were minutes or hours in this world. He was fine missing school, but he didn’t want to miss his summer break after all!

“Exactly. After so many moons in this place, it’s easy to give up. I found myself asking if there would even be anything to return to if I were able. So I took it upon myself to provide aid and guide travelers like yourselves to the end.”

Miyabi relaxed, removing her hand from the hilt of the sword. Chinatsu felt like he could finally unclench.

“You came here with someone else, didn’t you?” she asked.

“It’s a long story. Perhaps we should save it for the campfire,” Peony smiled, turned around, and began leading them down the path again.

“You’re right,” Miyabi sighed. “Let’s keep going.”

The trio continued on, but this time the silence made Chinatsu’s skin crawl. He didn’t want to blame Miyabi, but it really was her fault for suddenly picking a fight with the person who saved them.

As they approached a corner, Peony held out their arm to stop the group, then peered around the corner. They had been doing this the whole time to ensure that the path was cleared, but usually waved them through after a quick check. This time, though, Peony didn’t.

Chinatsu strained his ears, trying to listen for something. But there was only a faint rustling and hissing sound. He leaned in closer to Peony, who was still focused intently on what was around the corner. Now, he could smell something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. It was actually so familiar, but what was it?

Chinatsu was just too curious. He really, really wanted to know what it was. Maybe just a little peek wouldn’t hurt.

Chinatsu crouched down on the ground below Peony. He slowly looked around the corner, afraid to make any sudden movements that might attract the creature’s attention.

The thing took up the entire span of the path ahead of them. Inside the maze, the corridors were somewhere close to 3 meters wide, but the slime looked squished within the walls, giving it an appearance that it was almost taller than it was wide. It seemed to pulsate and squish as it moved. It was colorless, but slightly opaque. Smooth and shiny. It reminded Chinatsu of raindrop mochi.

“What is that?” Miyabi whispered. She had also snuck a peek around the corner above Peony.

“It’s a slime,” Chinatsu answered, also whispering.

Peony pushed the two humans back out of view of the slime.

“It’s moving away from us. If we follow it quietly at a distance, then we should be able to move without attracting its attention,” Peony said in a hushed voice.

“Can we go back? Find another way?” Chinatsu asked.

Peony shook their head. “Unfortunately, this is the only path forward.”

“Tch…What are we doing right now? Aren’t slimes supposed to be low-level enemies in games?” Miyabi unsheathed her sword.

She went around the corner before Peony and Chinatsu could stop her. Miyabi stalked after the slime while Chinatsu dragged on the ground behind her, making a futile effort to hold her back by the ankles.

“Miyabi, you can’t!” he pleaded.

“Let go!!” she barked.

“Shh! You two!” Peony urged.

Miyabi managed to shake Chinatsu off of her and closed the distance between her and the slime.

“I can just hack this thing to bits!” she shouted, raising the longsword over her head.

Miyabi swung down the longsword into the slime. It slashed through with no resistance but…

“Huh!? It won’t come out!?” Miyabi tried to free the sword, but the more she pulled on it, the deeper it was sucked into the slime.

The hilt was nearly at the point of being consumed by the slime when Chinatsu pulled Miyabi from behind with all of his body weight. She let go of the sword, and the two fell over backwards as the hilt was finally consumed by the slime.

“My sword!” Miyabi reached forward and grasped at the air.

The sword now sat suspended in the slime.

“This is what I was trying to warn you about,” Chinatsu said as he dragged Miyabi away from the slime.

The slime pulsated violently at the attack. Tendrils protruded from it as if the slime was grasping for its attacker.

“Look,” Peony said, pointing towards the slime. “Do you see how it dissolves everything in its path?”

The walls and path had been stripped of any plant growth up to the point at which the slime reached. There was a hard border where the slime had stopped before returning in the opposite direction. What would have brought it here in the first place? Chinatsu looked closer.

Bones!!

It had human bones inside it! Tiny bubbles collected around them as the slime dissolved them within its form.

“If your friend hadn’t stopped you, that could have been you.” Peony helped Miyabi back up to her feet.

The slime was now creeping towards them.

“What do we do now!?” Miyabi clenched her fists.

“My magic can’t do anything for something like this,” Peony sighed. “That’s why I was hoping to sneak around it.”

Chinatsu racked his brain on his knowledge of slimes. Miyabi was right that in video games, they were easy enemies you could just kill on the level 1 grind. But in a TTRPG, they require more strategy.

They wouldn’t be able to climb around it or jump over it. If only they had more than healing magic! If only someone could cast fireball–

“We’ll kill it with fire!” Chinatsu exclaimed.