Quality Time

A somber feeling fills the room. Chamomile has gotten sick under my care, and I can’t seem to find out why. I fed her as instructed, that’s all the note says she needs. So why has she turned this sickly looking grey?

“Poco do you know why she’s grey?” I ask the small slime.

Poco makes themselves look bigger when I ask this.

“Is she getting bigger then? But she never turned grey before when she grew. Something has to be different this time, maybe she’s getting old?”

I turn myself to face Chamomile, and sigh.

“If only you could talk to me so I could know what you need,”

She flops around in response, I suppose that’s a good sign.

“Maybe you’ll get better, I’ll collect berries in the meantime. Poco, do you think you could keep an eye on her and come get me if anything changes?”

Poco bounces once, so I turn around and head for the door.

“Thanks Poco, see you soon,” I smile warmly back at them, and head out for a berry hunt.

Berry and I actually devised a sort of system around the cloudberries; which involves him making them grow in the night, and me plucking them down during the day. It’s been a lot easier that way, I’m not some sleepless berry mill after all.

With this thought in mind, I throw some berries down for the wolves to feast on come nightfall. Berries now littering the ground, I begin to turn back towards the house.

As I make it back I see an odd glow from the window. I run in to see that Chamomile has been replaced by a black glowing orb.

Poco is nowhere to be seen, and it’s at this point I realize they probably went looking for me. Dashing back out, I start calling Poco's name.

“Poco! Where are you?!”

Wait, why was I allowed back in the house without Poco? Is it some kind of emergency thing? Whatever, I should find them.

“Poco!” Within my few calls, I recognize the familiar sound of Poco bouncing towards me.

“There you are! Let’s get back to Chamomile now,”

I begin dashing towards the cottage with Poco in my arms, seeing that Chamomile is still a black glowing orb.

“I just don’t know what’s wrong with her. Do you?” I question.

Poco bounces towards my bag and opens it.

“Berries maybe? I guess we might as well try,”

Walking towards the bag I grab a few berries and drop them into her tank. The orb absorbs them and the whole tank disappears.

“What- I- no,” I guess I’m mourning a fish now. It is fair with how much effort I put in to-

“Renny? What’s wrong?” A small voice behind me says.

No. There’s no way the universe did this. I turn around. A small half fish, half human looking child is standing in front of me.

“Chamomile?” I ask.

“Yes Renny?” She says.

Oh lord I am not ready to be a parent. I can barely take care of myself let alone a child. What if I give her horrible irrevocable traumas-

“Renny, I'm hungry,” She says.

Right, this isn’t the time for panic. Calm down. I take a deep breath.

“Yeah that makes sense, I bet transforming from a fish to a little girl took a lot out of you huh? There’s still berries in my bag, take as many as you need hun,”

“Oka Renny!” She runs towards my bag, taking all the berries she can get her hands on.

She drops one in her mouth after the other, bearing much resemblance to pacman. Chamomile’s hue slowly but surely changes from blue to black, signifying that she’s full.

I expect her to stop, but she doesn’t. Continuing to drop the berries in her pacman-like mouth.

“Wait Chamomile stop,”

She pauses right before she would’ve dropped another cloudberry in her mouth, and puts it back into the bag.

“But why?”

“Well, if you eat more than you’re hungry for you’ll wind up with a hurting stomach later. Why don’t we go play outside instead?”

She appears deep in thought for a moment, then nods her head.

“Okay Renny! I’m okay if my stomach hurts later if I can eat these now,”

What should I do now? Just let her learn the hard way I guess. After eating only two more cloudberries, she’s huddled down clutching her stomach.

“Ren my tummy hurts,” The regret in her voice is obvious.

I think for a moment, I don’t want to be like ‘well that’s what happens’ when it objectively sucks as an answer.

“I’m sorry hun, that really sucks. But I know a way to alleviate the pain,”

“Whaaaaaaaaaaatttttttttttttt,”

“Let’s take you to bed and let your stomach rest for a bit, if you don’t touch your stomach it’ll hurt less,”

“Okay Ren, I’m sorry,”

I lift her up and put her on my now bigger bed.

“Don’t worry hun, I experiment like this too sometimes. Like one time, someone told me I shouldn’t hit someone for saying mean things to me. You wanna know what I did?”

“What?”

“I smacked that jerk right in his face, and I got in trouble,”

“So you shouldn’t have done it?”

“Some might say that, but he also stopped talking crap about me after I smacked him. So while I didn’t completely win, I didn’t lose out either,”

“And it’s the same with me eating too many berries?”

“Not quite, but it is definitely similar. You got to enjoy the taste of more berries, but now your stomach hurts. It’s cause and effect,”

“Cause and effect. . .” Chamomile thinks for a moment. “I think I feel better now Ren! Let’s go play!”

The child jumps out of bed and runs outside. I get up and call Poco.

“Hey Poco, you should play too,” I say.

Poco bounces outside, I follow behind them and close the door. Chamomile looks at Poco with curiosity.

“Poco! I couldn’t see you before when you were on the floor,” She states.

Chamomile pokes them, Poco fluctuating in response. They almost look like rippling water.

The young girl giggles in a way that I hadn’t heard since I was little. It’s filled with childlike glee, I can really hear the joy in her voice, and I feel myself smile.

“Alright, what do you two wanna do?” I ask.

“Oh! What if we see who can get to the edge of the island first?” Chamomile pipes up.

Poco bounces around after hearing this idea.

“Are you sure? One of us might fall off,” I say.

“I’ll be careful Ren,” Chamomile says.

The image of her and Poco falling off the edge enters my mind. Definitely not doing that.

“What if we just explore the island instead? You might be able to find some kind of cool stick or some bugs. We could also gather more cloudberries while we’re at it.

“Renny that’s boring,”

“What if you spin around, and wherever you’re facing we head that way?”

“I like spinning!”

“Alright let’s do it,”

She smiles and begins spinning around with her arms out, giggling throughout the spinning. It’s now that I take in her features.

Chamomile is black as coal, with a long tail behind her. She has sharp teeth, which is kind of odd considering her diet contains only cloudberries. She also has what I assume to be barbels that look like hair, sort of in a pixie cut. Her eyes are white too, and that’s about it.

It’s like her old fish form got pasted over a human skin in a video game or something. After thinking about this, I realize she’s stopped spinning and is now swaying around all dizzy like.

Looking in the direction she’s facing, I realize it’s directly towards the house. That won’t do.

“Well it looks like we’re traveling behind the house then! Are you two alright with that?” I ask Poco and Chamomile.

“Yesgh,”

“You can ride on my shoulders while you’re dizzy if you want,”

She walks over, her world still clearly spinning, and grabs onto my shirt.

“Shoulder ples," she says.

I oblige, lifting her onto my shoulders with strength I definitely didn’t have before coming here. Poco joins the Rain-bus, taking the seat on my head they’ve grown accustomed to.

With the two resting themselves on me, I begin my journey behind the house. Actually now that I think about it, I never went this way for some reason.

Maybe there was some kind of magical mental block on going behind the house. But never mind, I should probably engage with Chamomile.

“Hey Chamomile, what do you think we’ll find on our magical trip behind the house?”

“Hyummmm a big fluffy thing to give lots of pets to,” She says.

“Oh yeah that’d be amazing huh? I hope we find that,”

“I hope we find a rock,”

Poco jiggles upon a rock being mentioned.

“I think Poco wants a rock too,” I say.

They jiggle more, I think as a yes maybe? It’s hard to read without looking at them.

“Bridge ahead captain!” Chamomile suddenly shouts. I flinch.

“Renny?”

“Oh you’re alright hun, sometimes loudness hurts me a little,”

“I’m sorry Ren,”

“It’s okay, you didn’t know. Thanks for telling me there’s a bridge though,”

I think for a moment. Wait, why would there be a bridge? How would I have not seen it yet? I’ve been here for nearly a month.

But as I walk further, I realize there is in fact a bridge. It appears to be perfectly stable too, like it was only recently made.

Looking across reveals a field of wild flowers to me. Dandelions are the only ones I could name, but overall the area looks gorgeous.

Further in the distance, I see lights from. . . houses? No that can’t be right can it? Other humans? Here? How would they have evolved into existence in a whole other universe?

I realize I’ve turned around naturally, and have begun to walk away.

“Renny why are we turning around? I wanna play in the flowers with you and Poco!” Chamomile says.

This makes me stop. It could be a wonderful moment if I took the risk. Well, it can’t hurt to try. I turn around and begin walking towards the bridge.

“Sorry, I must’ve zoned out there for a moment. We can play there for a bit but nightfall is soon. We’ll have to turn back then okay?”

“Okay,”

As we finish crossing the bridge, Poco hops off of my head and I put Chamomile down. The two run off into the flower field and start what I assume is a game of tag. They seem happy.

I decide to start working on some flower crowns for the two. I always enjoyed making these once I actually learned how, and I’m sure they’ll enjoy being flower royalty.

After a few minutes, I finish up the crowns and call them over.

“Poco! Chamomile! I have something for you two!”

The children run over to me happily, immediately noticing the crowns on my lap.

“Flower halos! They’re so pretty Renny! Which one do you want Poco?” Chamomile asks.

Poco takes the opportunity to take the left one, leaving Chamomile with the right. She happily places it on her head, running back to play with Poco more.

Laying down on my back, I decide to take the opportunity to cloud gaze. Wow! The first one I saw looks like a dodecahedron!

Before I can search for any more, I hear small footsteps approaching. I sit back up and see Chamomile with Poco on her head. She’s holding something in her hands.

“Whatcha got there Chamomile?” I ask.

“Me and Poco made a flower halo for you!” She says, revealing a small flower crown to me. The flowers are crinkled and the knots look amateur, and I’m weeping because these children are so freaking amazing.

“Renny do you not like it?” Chamomile asks sadly.

“Noooo I love it so much it’s making me cry,” A sniffle escapes me. “You see you don’t only cry when you’re upset, it can happen when any emotion gets really big. You just made me really really happy,” I say.

“Thank you for the flower halo you two, I love it,” I take the flower halo from Chamomile’s hands and place it on my head.

“But it’s getting dark, so we should go home,”

We all get up, Poco bouncing onto my head and Chamomile holding my hand. Only then I realize a head of green hair almost blended in with the grass.

“Hello? Who are you?” The stranger asks.

Oh no not a stranger who’s also a human. I pick up Chamomile carefully and run the heck away.

“Renny who was that?” Chamomile asks.

“That wasn’t someone I know hun, I can’t say,”

“Oh, okay,”

We make it back to the cottage and head inside for the night. Chamomile comes into the bathroom with me to brush her teeth, and when we finish that I leave so she can clean up in the shower.

A few minutes later I realize: my mom was always there with me when I was bathing at a young age. Will Chamomile be okay on her own?

I knock on the bathroom door and her voice pipes up.

“Renny?”

“Yeah hun, I just wanted to know if you were alright in there by yourself? You know what to do with the body wash and such?”

“Yes Renny! I washed up good!” She says.

“Okay good,”

She soon walks out in a new pair of pajamas, looking as though she’s on cloud nine. I walk back to the bathroom and do my own showering, then head to bed.

“Goodnight you two,” I say.

“Goodnight Renny,”

As I drift off, I realize that we never foraged any cloudberries. Meh, that’s a problem for tomorrow. Goodnight world.