The door let out a thud behind them as Alex saw it shut.

“Finally, I thought he’d never stop talking.” Slime sighed with relief.

“Derelict sure is nice though and he has a lot of really cool stuff in there!” Alex reminded excitedly.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was pretty all right. It was nice of him to do all that…WEIRD. But nice.” Slime said appreciatively in a blunt tone.

Their discussion was interrupted as a cool breeze that kicked through the air past them. It was then that the pair soon realized what it meant to be in a city like Castle Town. The air had a slight cold nip to it as it was still early in the day. The sound of walking and people could be heard far off in the distance. While nearby the pair heard the sound of metal feet clanking against the ground and then a pair of guards turned the corner and walked towards them.

“Good morning.” Said one guard to Alex.

The other gave a wave to him and then paused briefly when he saw Slime.

“Ah, you don’t see that every day, do you? Good morning.” The guard said to Slime.

“Good morning to you as well sir.” Slime said back as he made a sort of bow with his body. His eyes snapped to the side to glare at Alex who hadn’t said anything.

Noticing this Alex snapped to attention and shot his hand high above his head.

‘GOOD MORNING HONORED KNIGHTS!” He exclaimed.

The two guards recoiled slightly with their eyes left wide at his zealous good morning. They gave him a smile, returned to normal, and continued walking past them. When the guards were out of sight Slime whipped Alex’s shin with the top of his head.

“You bone head! You have got to stop shouting at everything!” His voice said gruffly.

“But they’re knights. I didn’t want to seem rude.” Alex pleaded as he rubbed the part of his leg that Slime just smacked.

“I didn’t want them to think of me as rude.” He repeated.

“Oi, start following my lead a little more. Otherwise we’re gonna have start telling your life story to every single flippin’ person we meet.”

“Sorry Slime.”

“It’s fine, just cool it a little bit.” Slime said as he returned to a more calming mood.

It was a beautiful day out today. The sun was shining, birds were singing, and the warmth of the sun could be felt upon their bodies. To two just stood there for a moment taking it all in.

“This is a great day for shopping kid. Where do you want to go first?” Slime asked Alex as he remembered their tasks for today.

He thought for a moment when another breeze came through the street. The smell of fruit and bread filled his nose and his course was swiftly decided.

“Let’s go check out that bakery Derelict mentioned to us! He said it was just down this way.” Alex said eagerly as he started following the directions he was given by Derelict. He proceeded down the dirt path as instructed. Along his way he noticed homes and buildings. Most homes seemed to have wooden fences that surrounded their property and yards. Boxes stood on top of wooden poles at the mouth of every gate. While businesses had cool blue and grey stones stacked upon one another to form stone walls that stood about 4 to 5 feet tall. Soon they arrived at their destination. A wooden pole stretched out from the building over its walkway and on it was carved an image of a loaf of bread. The sign gave a tiny of sway when the wind blew by. On the stone wall in front of the building a wood sign was hung that read – Saffron’s Bakery.

“Here it is!” Alex announced.

He stood at the mouth of the fence and looked the building over. There was a small yard with a wooden table available for sitting right in the back of the yard. Which took shelter underneath a small leafy green tree. On the opposite side was a small pond with tiny fish in it. Small colored flowers lined the dirt walkway leading up to the bakery. In the dirt path were grey steppingstones that lead people to the door. Below the windows hung flower boxes filled to the brim with different colored flowers. Some stood tall in hues of blue and purple, while some of the smaller ones bloomed beautiful petals of yellow and orange. Smoke escaped the two stone chimneys on the roof and the air around him was filled with the scent of fresh baking bread and melting butter. His mouth began to water and his stomach, though he had just eaten, let out a growl.

As he was standing in awe of the bakery taking in its many sights and smells the door opened and bell was struck. Out walked a lady holding a bag of goods and she strode up to Alex.

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“Excuse me young man, could you please let me by?” Her gentle voice beckoned Alex back to reality.

“Oh, uh, please excuse me.” He said as he moved out her way.

“It’s quite all right, thank you. Such a good lad. Have a fine day.” She said with a smile as she took her leave of him.

Not waiting any longer Alex walked up to the door and let himself and Slime in. As he opened the door the bell rang out loudly and proudly. The place was filled with tables and chairs. Tankards and small wooden mugs and cups were flipped upside down on the counter resting on a drying cloth. On the counter buns, muffins, and small pies took up the space. On the back wall were baskets of different sized breads from entire square loafs to long baguettes. He also saw pastries and full pies. Alex made his way to the counter and began examining all the pastries and breads.

“How do lad. What can I get ye?” Said a woman wiping her hands on her apron as she approached the counter.

She was average height wearing a green checkered scarf over her head. As she reached the counter greeted him with a smile, and though she had wiped her hands clean her hands still had bits of flour littered upon them. She wore a dark red apron over her blue shirt and pants.

“Good morning! I’m new here and not sure what to buy.” Alex spit out quickly. Her greeting caught him off guard a bit as he was lost in amazement at the bakery.

“Well what brings ya by?” She replied.

“Well I need some supplies for the road, but the smell of your bakery caught my attention and I just had to come see it for myself.” He said happily and honestly.

“Aye, a fan of baking, are we? We’ll why not give this a try.” She said as she handed him a small bun from the counter.

He smiled and took a bite of the bun. It was still warm, and the bun melted into his mouth. The subtle taste sweet mixed with the taste of gently buttering from the outer crust. His eyes closed as his taste buds went on a journey they’d never took before. The lady was quite pleased with his reaction as he let out a sigh. She knew this to be a sign of happiness.

“Oh, my goddess, I’ve never tasted anything like this!” Alex exclaimed as he took another bite.

“Hey, let me try some!” Slime called jumping up onto the counter.

The woman’s eyes frozen for a moment on Slime. She let out a few blinks before returning her gaze to Alex’s.

“Oh, I dinnae see you down there, er…welcome to you as well?” She stumbled through the sentence surprised by the appearance of the Slime. Meaning to say it as a greeting and less as a question.

Slime noticed this right away, but he knew this would how his time would be. For a little while at least.

“Wow, this is great. Why didn’t Derelict bring these back?” Slime said his eyes closed, but smiling, as he continued through the rest of the bun.

“Aye, did ye say Derelict lads?” She asked in surprise.

“Oh, yeah that’s who recommended us to this bakery actually. He said his good friend Saffron owned this bakery and that the pastries we had the other day came from here.” Alex informed her.

“I dinnae realize old Derelict ‘ad a grandson and a…uh…a othuh companion staying with ’im.”

“Well we just got to town and are new here.” Said Alex looking at the woman.

“He was kind enough to let us stay when we wondered into his shop.”

“Aye, that doues sound like thee old mahn.” She chuckled. “Well ‘ow about I give ye my thoughts and recommend ye stuff for the road?” She asked.

“Yes please!” He smiled cheerfully at the offer. “Oh, my name is Alex by the way.” He extended his hand to the lady.

“Well if that ain’t propuh mannuhs. How do Alex, I’m Saffron. Welcome to my bakery.” She smiled as she shook the boys hard.

Slime reached his human formed hand up to shake her hand as well.

“How do, I am Slime, nice to meet you Saffron.” He said warmly waiting for her to grab his “hand”.

Saffron paused for a moment as she starred at the slime hand before her. She awkwardly reached her hand out and gave him a clammy shake wiping her palm on her apron afterwards.

“Well let’s get you lot sorted aye?” She said happily as she took the pair through what she had to offer.

After some time, Alex and Slime had found themselves with a good stock of buns, a loaf of bread, and two small fruit pies.

“ol’right laddies, that’ll be 15 coppuh coins if ye please.” She said as she bagged it up for them.

Alex reached into his pocket and pulled out the pouch Derelict had given them and began to dig through it.

“Oi ‘old on a second.” She called out as she looked closer at his coin couch.

“That cheeky old mahn.” Saffron let out.

Alex and Slime looked at each other and shrugged before looking to Saffron again.

“Something wrong with my pouch?” Alex said puzzled by her outburst.

“That ol codguhr gave you a limited run of me own coin pouches. Bah!” She said in distress.

“What’s that mean?” Slime asked.

“It means yer entitled to free bread from me so long as ye ‘ave one oh these.” She sighed.

“Wow! Lucky us!” Alex celebrated smiling at Slime.

Slime reached into the pouch after making a new hand and put down 10 copper coins.

“What are you playin’ at?” Saffron looked leerily at Slime.

“We didn’t know we even had something like this and had every intention of paying.” He said plainly.

“Yeh but I ‘onor me word on these ‘ere pouches and that means ye donnae pay.” She said pushing the coins back to them.

“Well I recognize paying for goods, especially of this caliber so take these 10 coins as a tip.” Slime insisted as he pushed coins back towards her.

Alex watched as the two went back and forth for repeating this action with compliments and arrogance and refusals.

“Seems we’re at a stahndstill slime.” She said. “I’m knackered from all this ‘ere back and forth.”

“Well, let’s just leave it as is.” Slime stated sternly.

“Fine, we’ll go ‘alf!” She said gruffly. She tossed 2 coins back into Alex’s pouch that he had left on the counter, closed it up and tossed it back to him. “There I gave you ‘alf off since ye insisted on paying. But donnae think I wanted this, aye.”

Slime let a smile escape to his face and nodded his body towards her in agreeance.

“Thank you kindly Saffron we look forward to eating these on our journey.” He finished politely.

“’ave a safe one. Ye might be the politest slime I ever met. Great to meetchya!” She smiled as the two began to head out of the shop. With a ring of the bell the two left the bakery happy with their encounter.

As the door shut Saffron rest one hand on the counter the other scratched her neck.

“A mohnstuh slime…and a wee lad? These are strange times tuh be sure.” She said to herself.