Welcome to the Slime Cottage

I haven’t been happy with myself for a long time. Whenever I pull off something that I think’d be cool if someone else did it; I treat myself as if it was barely above the minimum. So yeah, something is clearly wrong with me, but I don’t have the money to go to the doctor and find out what.

At this point, going on a walk in the forest near my house was probably the best choice that I made for myself today. Looking at the autumn leaves helps lighten the weight I seem to feel in my chest most of the time.

"Oofgh!"

I tripped over a rock. Picking myself back up, I reorient myself to my surroundings. There's trees with cloud leaves rather than the familiar autumn ones. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize I am not on the same walking path as before.

“Did I die tripping on a rock? .. . that wouldn’t surprise me honestly,”

I begin walking back to my house, at least where it would be. But before I get anywhere near the area, I find myself on the edge of a cliff. Looking down off the edge shows surrounding water below, and as I look in the horizon I see islands floating in the sky. Basic deduction says I'm also probably on a floating island. So if I am dead, it seems like I'm in a typical heaven-like setting.

But why am I here?

Before I can question myself more I turn around and notice a purplish blob bounding towards me. It’s honestly pretty cute looking, so I naturally pick it up. I probably shouldn't pick up random wildlife, but it seems happy with being held. At least that’s what I think it glowing a soft purple means. Maybe it’s about to explode.

. . . well it didn’t do that, so I think it is happy. That’s good. Walking back away from the cliff and into the cloudy forest, I notice that a cottage seems to have manifested in a clearing that definitely wasn’t there before.

If I really did go to heaven, would this be for me? Probably not but maybe? Hmmmmmmmm. . . 

Before I can think about it any more, the blob hops out of my arms and starts heading for the cottage quickly. It bounces in front of the door, and it swings open. The blob heads inside, turns around, and starts bouncing up and down almost as if it’s beckoning me in.

Well, if the door opens for the blob that seems to want me inside, I must be welcome. So naturally, I walk into the cottage. It’s cozy inside, with a nice large bed and a desk. There’s an end table with a fish bowl that has a bluish fish in it, and a note next to it. I decide to pick it up and read it.

‘Hello Rain! Welcome to the slime house, a free home to anyone who is trusted by slimes. You are free to rest, eat, and live here as long as you like, no strings attached. We give every new resident of these houses a small fish to take care of to make sure they have something to do. For now you just need to make sure to feed it one cloudberry a day, but as it grows the amount of food it needs will increase. You’ll be able to tell it’s hungry by it being blue, and when it turns black, that’s how you can tell it’s full. I hope you enjoy your time in the slime house! -S’

This note makes it abundantly clear that I am in fact welcome, and I don’t think I even have to pay rent! I find a grin growing on my face, and start bounding around in joy.

“No rent! NO rent!!!! YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH,” I look towards the fish that is clearly blue with hunger.

“Alright lil fella, let's go see if I can find you some of those cloudberries!” Running out the door, what I now know to be a slime bounces onto my shoulder.

“Yeah tiny dude, you come along to find the mystical cloudberries!” I say, patting the slime affectionately. When we run outside, the door slowly closes back up, and a sort of slime seal appears on it? Never mind, let's go find us some cloudberries.

Running back into the clouded forest, I begin looking at the cloud trees for any of these cloudberries, but to no avail. I guess they want me to work for it, but the thought of living in such a nice cottage rent free keeps me motivated to find these berries. I gotta keep that fish okay!

Continuing on in the berry adventure, I realize nightfall has hit and I still haven’t found anything. But I mustn’t turn back! That fish is probably super blue by now!

Climbing one of these trees seems to be the only option now, I just hope I don’t fall. I grab a branch and start making my way up the cloudy tree. That’s when I notice, inside the clouds there’s something glowing. Maybe those are the berries? For better or worse, I grab the glowing cluster and pull it away from the clouds. What’s in my hand bears some resemblance to a blueberry, so I decide that this must be what the fish needs.

Making my way down the tree I notice a growling sound from below. I look down and see that a pack of hungry looking wolves is awaiting me.

“Okay maybe this isn’t heaven and my fantasy from when I was twelve of being sent to another world came true. Or something,” I mutter to myself.

“But if that did happen I’d probably have some sort of magic or something? Uhmmmm MAGIC GO!” Putting my hand forth, I feel something materializing out of seemingly nowhere. It flies down into the wolves and when I look down, It looks to be a simple storm cloud. It’s just sprinkling rain down onto the wolves.

“Well that’s not great- oh HOLY CRAP” Shock runs through me as lightning comes out of the cloud and electrifies the wolf.

“So is it emotional or something?” Sarcasm laces my words. Lightning shoots out at the rest of the wolves, frying them.

“Maybe kinda?” As I say this, a big hulking wolf comes out of the shadows. That is almost definitely the leader of the pack.

“Oh no,” I grimace, “That’s the final boss and I don’t know what I’m doing uhhmmm THUNDER CLOUD GO!” I put my hand forth again, summoning another cloud into existence.

Thinking about it, I almost definitely have a limit with some kind of resource like mana or something. But that doesn’t matter right now, I need to get this berry back to my fish; and the wolf is standing in my way.

The slime suddenly jumps down into my cloud.

“No tiny slime you’ll get electrocuted!! Um uncast!” It doesn’t work, so I jump out of the tree and try running towards my cloud to pull the slime out. But before I can get it, a now yellow slime hops out onto the wolf, giving it a small shock.

“Tiny slime you changed?” But the time to question wasn’t now. The wolf was only stunned, and pounced towards me. Reflexes I didn’t know I had kicked in, and I swiftly dodged the wolf's lunge. Woah, I’m fast.

Suddenly I taste blood in my mouth. Okay that’s not good. Wait oh, I’m biting the heck out of this giant wolf. That’s a weird thing for autopilot to do. I should probably run to get the berry to the fish. Also a wolf desperately flailing to get me off of it probably isn’t doing great things for either of us.

I unlatch my jaw from the wolf, and next thing I know I’m back up in a tree. Wow, impressive that it threw me all the way back up here. Even more impressive that I’m only a bit sore.

“Okay I think a giant wolf is a problem for another day. . ."

TINY SLIME CAN YOU GET BACK UP HERE?” I yell down to the slime. It squishes itself down into the ground, then springs up towards me and lands in my arms.

“Wow that’s really cool lil guy! Now lets get my berry back to the tiny fish,” Almost naturally, I begin hopping through the tree branches back to where I believe the cabin was. I really hope I’m going the right way, my sense of direction has always been terrible.

“Lil slime we’re like ninjas, hopping through these trees,” I look towards the now electrified slime on my shoulder, smiling.

“But I guess Lil slime isn’t really a name, do you want me to think of something else for you?” The slime shakes itself up and down, almost as if nodding.

“Hummmm I don’t want to be indecisive here,”

“Maybe Tiny, or Ellie, or. . . hey what about Poco? That’s a cute name for a cute slime,” The slime wiggles up and down again, signifying a sort of approval.

“Okay then from this day forth, I shall refer to thee as Poco,” I say. A symbol or crest of some kind appears for a moment over Poco. I guess that means Poco is tamed now, cool.

Not long after this, we arrive back at the cabin I was given by the mystical S person. I’m gonna say it’s short for Super Cool Landlord because of the no rent that I'm praying is apart of the 'no strings attached'. Heading inside, I see that the fish is very much blue and place the cloudberry inside the tank.

It quickly starts nibbling away at the berry, so I sit myself down at the desk and watch as it slowly becomes less blue and more black.

“Jeez lil guy, how can you eat a berry that’s probably heavier than you?” I theorize a few things in my head, there could be a black hole in its stomach, or it just has the highest metabolism in history, but eventually I settle on an explanation as old as time. Magic! Because when you don’t understand how something works, it’s easier to claim it’s magic than to actually research what is causing said thing.

It was used horribly throughout history, but I’d be the last person to burn a fish at the stake for fishcraft.

“Haha lol,” I chuckle at my own joke, and look back over to the fish. It’s black as night and the berry is gone, so my responsibility is complete!

“Glad you’re feeling better, fishy,” Seeing the fish taken care of fills me with a sense of emptiness. I’ve taken care of it, but now I have nothing left that I can do.

I guess I can only sit here, I’m too tired to go back out and adventure. A new door appears before my very eyes, I guess I should go in? I will myself up and open the door, seeing a simple bathroom inside. There’s a purple toothbrush sitting in a cup with a tube of toothpaste, a toilet, laundry basket, and a shower bath. It’s a pretty basic bathroom. I suppose this is the house telling me to clean up myself, which is pretty fair.

I start with brushing my teeth, twenty seconds on my top row and twenty seconds on my bottom, then I brush the roof and tongue of my mouth for ten seconds each. It’s a simple way to keep my mouth clean I think.

Stepping towards the shower, I turn the water to be warm, but not scalding. I step in and sigh. Why do I go from overflowing with joy to feeling empty in split moments like this? I mean, something is obviously wrong with me but I have no tools to find out what it actually is.

I guess I shouldn’t really dwell on it if I can’t fix it, but that’s just so difficult when it affects me like this. At least the warm water feels nice, even if I can’t really appreciate it right now. I lather up and wash away all the dirt and grime that comes with adventuring, washing my hair along with it.

This house almost feels as if it has a kind will. It gave me a place to clean myself and provided me with a responsibility to keep me from going crazy. I’m lucky to be here I think.

Finishing my wash up routine, I exit the shower and find a warm towel and pair of pajamas waiting for me. I really never thought I’d witness a house being kind, but the evidence is right there in front of me.

I dry myself off with the fluffy towel, and change into the clothes. They fit perfectly, I don’t think I’ve ever worn anything this comfortable.

A yawn escapes me, and I realize it’s probably time to test that bed. Opening the door I walk out and tear the blanket away for me to crash onto the bed. It’s like I’m resting on a cloud. I find myself drifting off faster than I ever had in the past.

I think I’m gonna like it here.