The city of white wood, Haralry, laid on the western fringe of the leaf Ctania. The absolute fringe in this case. Behind a city fashioned mostly from winding, supersized birches rose a funnel of lights diagonally into the sky. Woven from hundreds, if not thousands, of small strings, the display of solid energy combined into a single path.

This was the stem of the leaf, the place where people could enter or exit this world. Apexus spied on the blueish white roads in the sky, tiny dots moving about like ants. But the distance between them clearly didn’t make it possible that they were ants, the slime was currently far above the ground and flapping his wings. Nothing that small could remain visible at that distance, even with his eyes.

They had to be people. That idea boggled Apexus’ mind, but it was the only explanation. Once that sank in, it only became more absurd. Those dots were everywhere. Sure, only a couple were frequenting the stem, but the cobblestone streets winding between the organic tree houses were a different matter entirely.

Much of the city was hidden under the canopies, the birches making this city of eternal summer one of pleasant shade. Parts of it were unhidden, however, be it by the infrequency of nature’s designs or a gardener doing his work. Where Apexus looked, he spied more people than road. There must have been several hundred of them, given the size of those spots in relation to their surroundings. Adding to that the many still burrowed in their houses...

Around the city was a large plain, the first one Apexus ever saw, of nothing but grasslands. Fences were around everywhere and confined cattle and crops to their individual areas. ‘Boring hunts,’ Apexus thought simplistically. What thrill or accomplishment was there in successfully felling prey outside its natural habitat. Although those cows and pigs did look rather delicious with how fat they were.

A single farmer, close enough to be made out in more detail, turned towards the slime. Quickly, before somebody realized that he wasn’t a bird, Apexus turned around to go to where they had set-up camp. Not wanting to attract unwanted attention, the amount of time he had spent in the air had already been risky enough.

After closing in on the ground, the slime flapped his wings a few times in an effort to reduce his momentum to a minimum. While flying, any of the legs he had would have been in the way. Few things ruined aerodynamics as badly as deer hooves dangling around underneath him.

Normally, when he had the time and was trying to land, he grew the legs out now and gracefully put them down. It was a lengthy landing process and, in a desperate situation, wouldn’t have been an option. Being far more comfortable than dropping on his proverbial ass the last metre or so, Apexus still preferred to go about it this way. Even if growing new legs made him somewhat hungry from the energy consumption.

The problem with that was that their current hideout was located at the side of a cliff. Facing away from the city and with an entrance several metres off the ground, it was perfect for a monster that didn’t want to be found. Apexus dropped in the daylight covered entrance area and looked behind him one time to make sure there wasn’t anything new that had happened in the surroundings. That confirmed, he moved deeper in.

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Dank air grew heavy inside, tiny pools of water forming from condensate on the ceiling that was dropping into them. The stone walls were impersonal and the cave didn’t go particularly deep into the tiny mountain it was part of. Despite all of that, Apexus greatly preferred this place to the house he had spent so much time inside in his recent life.

Not only because of the bad end to that particular chapter, but also because that place always seemed so cramped with purpose. Everything in there had to be something and be there for something. Compared to that, the arbitrary simplicity of nature seemed more closely aligned with Apexus’ nature.

Didn’t prevent him from being immensely bored, however. “Awakener, you are back!” Aclysia enthusiastically fluttered her way over. She had been killing time by gathering pebbles throughout the cave and neatly stacking them in one corner. Not the only bored person around here, the slime was quickly used as a cushion as the metal fairy threw herself atop him.

Blushing slightly at her own, overly attached actions, Aclysia happily hugged the slime as best she could. Not being around him just felt wrong and every time he came back was a reason for her heart (or rather the bundle of magical veins inside her body that served as the effective counterpart) to jump in her chest.

Apexus folded his wings and arched his back into the embrace, basking in the electrifying cuteness of the smaller female as well as her magical aura. This helped to stave off the monotony for a bit, as they moved to cuddle around in varying positions of slimy and hugging embraces, for about ten minutes.

There just wasn’t a whole lot to do for these two. Apexus didn’t stand a snowball’s chances in a lava world to not get discovered when trying to infiltrate the city. Best he could do was eat some animal and assume most of its body shape. That plan was ruined by the fact that Apexus was not a blank slate. Back when he had no permanent Growths, he could have been a perfect copy of an animal that he copied all Growth off (at least on the outside, growing a hide didn’t change the slime underneath). With the wings, the eyes and the ears already present, that plan was in massive jeopardy.

Even then, they may have been able to sell him as a very exotic creature found on another leaf if they had a team member that could have stood-in as a Hunter, a Tamer or something else along those lines. Aclysia couldn’t do, doubtlessly Hemle had left descriptions of her with the bounty, and Reysha was a known Rogue.

The best course of action, as unhappy as it made the slime, had therefore been to leave the tiger girl on her own in going into the city. The only alternatives were running the immense risk of going with her or leaving her to deal with her condition out here in the wilderness. Neither of which felt particularly viable.

Reysha had departed just a few hours ago, but the waiting was already boring everything out of both of them. Even Gizmo’s lectures had been better than just sitting around for hours and waiting for somebody to make their way back.

Apexus was playing with the thought of going hunting, something wisdom indicated he should only do at night when the risk of being seen was at a minimum, when Aclysia made a much more sensible suggestion. “If you would desire me, awakener, I would currently be open to having sex.”

That very much was something to do while Reysha was gone.