It was the morning of the next day. Bellow me, the creature that I began eating yesterday was gone, and just as I suspected, I had grown to be around the size of it. In fact, what awoke me was the sudden gasp of surprise, and the commotion that one of them made.

A minute later they had all gathered around me. They looked so tiny, if I could giggle I would, but I could just silently make the motion. The hunter didn’t look as surprised as the rest, but no one could match the expression on the orange haired dude. His mouth was wide open, just like his eyes, and it was amusing how, as he was trying to articulate words, his face slowly went from surprise to uncertainty. After the group exchanged a few words the mage came to talk to me.

-Ehm, how did you… grow so big?

Oh, easy, with a balanced diet of meat and greens.

-Could you answer seriously once in a while?

I did! Look, it’s simple, I eat a lot and I grow a lot.

-Oh, did you really ate the whole thing?!

Yeah, do you see it anywhere?

-I guess that’s true. I didn’t know slimes could grow so big if they ate so much, it’s kinda scary.

I didn’t know either, which is probably why is a rare sight. Anyway, when are we leaving?

-We’re almost ready, we got interrupted by… this. But, can you even move like that?

Well, I…didn’t thought about it, ehm… let me try.

The first thing I did was attempt to jump like I normally did. And when it didn’t work was when I started panicking. My head started racing, trying to find a solution to this mess I got myself into.

-Is that a no?

Em…Uh, give me… give me a moment, I’ll think of something.

-Alright…

She left, talking with everybody. I heard the big guy laugh heartedly, and the dark hair girl looked back for a second. But I ignored all that because I was focused on finding solving this. Jumping didn’t work, but rolling did. That gave me a little bit of relief, but it wasn’t fast enough. I stopped for a second to calm down, breath in, breath out, then I remembered I have no lungs and stopped doing that. Ehm, whatever I do with air, in and out?

After goofing for a moment, I managed to calm down, and started thinking again. By the time the mage had come back I had come with something, basically, instead of jumping, I raise my body and let it fall forwards. The only problem, is loud, however stealth wasn’t an option anymore. As I was practicing that the mage came back, and the first thing she told me was shocking.

-You’re not cute anymore.

It wasn’t so much what she said, just that we never had a conversation like that.

-Sorry, I just couldn’t help but think that as I saw you, eh… moving like that.

That’s alright, I’ll get smaller over time. Are we ready to go?

-Yes, we are counting on you to guide us there, are you ready?

Yeah, no problem.

Five minutes later we were on our way through the forest. When I was thinking up solutions, I didn’t account for all the trees. I kinda forgot of the forest at that moment. But I solved it by slithering between them when there was little space.

After an hour of traveling the number of animals that started attacking us reached the level that I remember. We managed to knock out some of them but every time we brought one down two more appeared. So, we decided that out running them was the best way. I pointed the way to them and stayed in the back, since even if they did something my body was so massive that I didn’t felt a thing, thought I could see little pieces of me on the ground every so often.

We kept running through the forest for about an hour. All the animals that came my way were squashed, while the others dealt with the rest their own way, the fighters would fend them off, the archer would stay behind them, and the mage casted healing and protective spell, and every so often she would trap them in the ground or make pools of mud that would harden once they’d fall into them.

Eventually, we reached the outside of the mansion. The transition we very brisk, suddenly all the monsters stopped paying us any attention and left, they kept fighting among themselves as they ran away from here, though. With all the animals gone, I heard the collective sigh of relief coming from everybody. I was happy, too, that we managed to get through them so fast, and all thanks to my size. Which, by the way, had gone down in almost half.

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While we walked towards the mansion I approached the mage once again. Without the threat of the animals I could ask her for everyone’s name, finally. I totally didn’t forgot before, just that the time wasn’t right.

-What is it? Is there something ahead?

No, is just that, I’ve been meaning to ask for your names.

-Our names? Eh, sure. I’m Gabriel, but people just call me Bri.

She seemed to be confused about something but I’m not sure what.

Ok, who’s the big guy? I asked her while looking for him, but I couldn’t see him, he was probably behind me.

-His name’s Stern. He can look intimidating, but is very kind actually, and a great cook.

Yeah, I noticed that he’s the one always cooking, and the dark haired girl? I looked at my right and there she was, her expression was very rigid. It seemed that even though we were out of danger her guard was still up.

-She’s Razel, our leader. She actually joined us just a few months ago, with Aaron, so I don’t know much about her, but I can tell you that, even though she is quite strict, she likes enjoying things.

And who’s Aaron? The archer?

-Yeah, that’s him. I think I heard them say that they were brothers or cousins, or something like that.

Ah, I see. It’s hard to say, because he’s always wearing a hood, apparently. And the orange haired dude?

-That’s Lance. He’s the one that got us all together.

Really? That’s interesting. So, is he the leader, then?

-He was, kind of, before Razel joined us. We don’t really have an official leader, we used to discuss our plans before deciding on anything, no one had more power than the rest.

I see, but why did you change that system?

-It’s not like we changed it, it’s just that She’s very skilled when it comes to planning and strategizing that no one usually has any complaints.

Except Lance.

-Except Lance, he can be quite impatient some times, and doesn’t think things through.

While we were talking, I could hear the conversation that the rest were having, thought strangely enough, sometimes it would go back to being a completely foreign language. I think it had something to do with the mage… eh, Gabriel, paying attention. The most talkative was the orange… Lance.

-So, there’s supposed to be a mansion up ahead, right?

I have to say that he was very calm after being chased around by an insane amount of insane creatures.

-Yes, according to the little guy.

The one to answer was… Stern. His voice had an accent, which I find weird, since it’s not like I have a reference for that, so I guess it was once again, thanks to how the spell worked. For Gabriel, he must have an accent. I suppose I’m the little guy.

-You think there’s something valuable?

-Well, since no map ever showed anything in this part of the forest, it must be very old.

-He’s right.

This time it was Razel who spoke.

-This part of the forest has been empty for centuries. People have settled all around, but curiously, never close to here. And I think it has something to do with this predicament. We’ll find out.

Her voice had a sense of class in it, though it came and went from time to time. This is when Gabriel started telling about Lance and how Razel became the leader, so their conversation turned incomprehensible for me.

Also, I wanted to ask something…

-Well, what is it?

Mm, Could you… Teach me your language? When I ask her this she clearly reacted in surprise. And I think the others reacted a little bit about it.

-Ehm, you want me to… teach you?

I know it’s too much to ask, but at least the basics would be enough.

-I don’t have a problem teaching you but, I’m not sure if I’m the best to do that.

How hard could it be? And it’s not like there’s anybody else I could ask this from.

-Ehm, alright… I’ll try my best. It’s the least I could do for guiding us to the source of this disease. If we were on our own, who know how much it would’ve taken us to find it.

Just as she said that, I could see the mansion between the trees. We were almost there. Five minutes after, we left the forest area that surrounded it. I heard the sigh of relief from the whole group as they picked up the pace, almost running towards it.

I could understand how they feel. They’ve been looking for this place for a week or so, I’d be running like that too. I quickly followed behind them once I realized I was completely alone. I found them just before the entrance. Razel was in front of everyone, carefully inspecting the mansion. By the way she looked at it, and how the rest looked at her, I assumed she though that the building was unsafe. Something I could agree with, and looking back, I’m glad nothing happened then. Apparently, the mage, eh, Gabriel, was still maintaining the spell.

-Alright, we’ll take a break for now.  But the mansion is off limits!

Razel said, as she turned around. Her gaze was very strict, her eyes almost said, “If you enter, the roof falling on your head will be the least of your worries”. However, there was someone who didn’t seem to mind it very much.

-What!? Why can’t we stay inside, we’ve been out in the woods for a whole week now!

 -Can’t you see that it could collapse without a warning?

-It’s been here for who knows how long, why would it give way now?

They kept arguing for a moment, while the rest of the group didn’t seem to mind very much. Ehm, Gabriel, is this something common between those two?

-Huh?... Ah the spell’s still going, you startled me. Yeah, it tends to happen. Those two tend to fight sometimes, Lance lives too much in the moment, while Razel likes to have things follow an order.

Wait, you didn't know the spell was still active? How does that work?

-Um, well, after practicing magic for a long time, some things become easy, to the point that you don’t notice them.

Ah, like muscle memory.

-Yeah, I wasn’t sure if I should use that term, giving that you have no muscles.

Are you calling me fat?! For your information, my body is all slime, no fat.

Suddenly she smirked as she covered her mouth, attracting the attention of the two fighting, they were actually the only two here, the other two were already preparing a late lunch.

-What are you laughing at?

Razel put her hands on her hips as she asked that, her expression quickly changing from strict to one of curiosity. The sudden question towards her, seemed to have startled her, since the spell suddenly broke, and their words went back to being that unknown language. She hastily answered something and after some weird looks, they went back to arguing. The call of the big guy, Stern, I think it was, gave her, and in turn me, a good excuse to leave. After Gabriel lighted the campfire, she proposed to give me the first lesson, so we spent the time before food was ready with that. Or at least I wish it went like that…