Serepto Fields, Humanoid Territory

Hex arrived atop a small hill with Professor Blackbeard. The other slimes had gathered here around the wagon and campsite prepared by King Slime's children.

"Well hello, everyone," Professor Blackbeard said to the group.

"Most of the slimes gaped at the dwarf, either in disbelief of his bulk, his ensemble, or his companion—perhaps all three.

Not Talara though. She floated over, a few of her siblings trailing tentatively behind, and landed like a feather before them. She was the same size as Hex, aside from the wings that folded neatly on her back, but infinitely more beautiful. Her pink goo sparkled even more brilliantly close up, as if she caught a million tiny stars and was holding them for safekeeping.

"Good to see you again, Professor," she said. Then she gave Hex a warm smile that just about melted his soft center. "Hello there."

It hit him then. This is the first interaction I've ever had with another slime besides my dad. It needs to be special, right? How do I make it memorable or—

Professor Blackbeard slapped his back. "Well, why don't ya introduce yourself, Zoopy," he suggested.

Crap. How long was I just sitting there in dumbstruck silence?! He frowned at the professor. And please don't let Skel hear that nickname... It will not stick.

"Um... I'm Hex."

"Welcome, Hex," Talara said, extending a sparkling appendage.

He touched her hand. Warmth travelled through his arm, straight to his cheeks. I'm touching her hand.

They shook, his appendage behaving like a limp noodle in her grasp. Then she released it quickly.

That was the normal length of a handshake, right? Or was I too gooey? Was I excreting from anxiety? Was—

"Talara is one of my top students," Professor Blackbeard said, beaming. "Headin’ inta her third and final year, sadly for me."

Talara blushed, bright pink ovals forming on her cheeks. "I'm here to help my siblings get ready for the entrance exam."

Hex's gooey center turned cold and sunk like a ball of lead. She was older. Which probably meant she looked at him like a child. Or worse... one of her siblings.

"How did you meet Professor Blackbeard already, Hex?"

He fumbled for words.

"Let me tell ya," the professor said. "I found this one and his friends plannin’ ta assault some orc kids with zoop. Took a throw at me instead. Ya wouldn't believe the arm on this little fella."

"So we've got a troublemaker, huh? I'll be sure to keep him in line," she said, winking at Hex.

He squished himself to the ground, horrified. "I... It wasn't..." He sighed in defeat.

"You'll live," Florimell said in his mind.

Hex glared at her. No sympathy from the raven.

"Well, we're glad to have you here with us," Talara said, then gestured a hand toward the other slimes behind her. "Feel free to introduce yourself to the others. The three goofy-looking ones are my siblings."

Hex turned to Professor Blackbeard, but he'd already forgotten about him and was gazing out over the field at the groupings of other Monsters. Talara went to join him, so Hex followed her siblings back to their fire. Florimell nodded approvingly from her friend's shoulder, so he sat down on a log and made himself comfortable.

A few other slimes across the fire were chatting amongst themselves.

"I was hoping we'd get Professor Ursaclaw as our guide," one said.

"I thought you'd have wanted Professor Yvette," another said, batting her eyelashes. "You haven't stopped swooning over how beautiful she is."

"Am not!"

"These slimes already knew so much about the Academy and the professors. Meanwhile, I know nothing. Maybe I can get Skel to teach me a few things so I don't seem completely clueless.

Someone tapped his shoulder and scooted onto the log beside him. It was a yellow slime that had been among the trio Talara noted as her siblings.

"I'm Yolo," he said.

"Hex."

Yolo continued to stare at him awkwardly. Hex inched away.

"Were you really gonna attack a bunch of orcs?" he finally asked, his eyes sparkling with awe.

"I guess... It wasn't even my idea. It was Skel's. I was just kind of there."

Talara's other siblings hopped over to join.

"The Skel? As in, son of Skeletor?" the blue slime asked, her appendages on her hips. "So you're the one who was hanging out with the skeletons and zombies."

Yolo's eyes grew even wider. "And you weren't afraid?"

"I was at first. But then—"

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"Wow! You're so brave," Yolo said, smooshing his hands under his cheeks. "Can you be my hero? No, why am I asking? You have no choice. You are my hero!"

The red slime poked Hex in the side. "You're not contagious, are you? Not gonna turn into a zombie and eat our brains while we sleep or something?"

Hex laughed. "No, that's a myth actually."

Yolo slapped his brother's appendage away from him with a scowl. "The bitter red one is Rey and the jealous blue one is my sister Bleu."

"And what does that make you?" Rey asked with a grin.

"Don't mind them," Bleu said, shaking Hex's hand. "We've only really lived around other slimes, so this is all a bit overwhelming."

"Really?" He glanced at the other slimes across the fire who'd been talking about the professors. "You all just seem to know so much about this place."

"Slimes from our home in RottenLog Village have been coming to the Academy for generations. We get to hear all the stories before we even attend ourselves."

RottenLog. All these slimes are from there? I wonder if that's where Dad was originally from.

"Where are you from, Hex?" Yolo asked.

Hex paused, looking into the embers of the fire. "I'm from BrokenTree Village. Or... I was." The screams of Monsters he'd known all his life echoed through his head, and images of them trapped in cages flashed before his eyes.

They didn't pressure him for clarity on the sullen response. Either they sensed the pain associated with it, and wanted to be respectful, or didn't care. Probably the latter.

"Well, we're happy you're here with us now," Rey said as he punched Hex's shoulder.

"Thanks," he mumbled. "I've never actually known any other slimes besides my dad."

"Well, you're stuck with us now."

Hex sat and observed as the siblings picked on one another. He smiled as Rey took a particularly fierce jab between the eyes from Yolo. All around, the familiar glimmer of sunlight on goo reflected in rainbows. Yellows and reds and blues. Greens, oranges, purples, pinks.

His body relaxed, tension shedding from his appendages for the first time since he and Dracala entered that cave.

Florimell is right.

I'm not alone.

Hex spent the next several hours listening in on the conversations of the other slimes. He was happy to be with others of his kind, but that didn't mean he had to be the center of attention—or garner any attention at all, for that matter.

Professor Blackbeard now sat across the fire, the log beneath him bending under the weight. "Now, ya know I can't tell ya anythin’ about the entrance exam, Rey," he said.

"Oh, come on. Just a little hint?" Rey begged.

"Don't worry. Ya'll get yar chance at The Sarc soon enough."

"The Sarc?" Rey questioned.

"Whoops," Professor Blackbeard said. He held a hand to his mouth as if he'd accidentally revealed something he wasn't supposed to, though it was clear from the look in his eye that he'd done it intentionally to tease them. "Sorry, that's the shorthand. 'The Sarcophagus' is its full name."

Talara slapped her forehead. "Professor..."

Professor Blackbeard smiled ruefully. "What? Just a little treat ta get their imaginations flowin’!"

"Sarcophagus?" Bleu asked. "As in tombs and mummies?"

The professor shrugged. "Wish I knew more."

"You're so cruel," Talara grunted, folding her appendages in front of her.

The other slimes mused over what The Sarc might be, but Hex tried to avoid thinking about it. The more he considered the endless possibilities surrounding the entrance exam, the more anxious he became. Everyone is supposed to pass—more of a rite of passage than a true test, according to Skel—but that doesn't mean it's going to be easy.

Instead of pondering with the others whether the theoretical mummies were going to be wrapped in grey or white linen and what the embalming fluid might smell like, Hex watched the changes in the field. The groups of Humanoid students had already been led away into the forest, one by one. Eventually, the skeletons and wolves had disappeared, too. He tried to catch a glimpse of Skel, but it was hard to pick him out in the sea of bones that departed the field.

"What do you think The Sarc is, Hex?" Yolo asked.

He shrugged.

"It's probably just a name to scare us," Bleu said. "And has nothing to do with a real sarcophagus or mummies."

Rey slumped against the log to his left. "It's annoying they won't tell us anything. I bet the Humanoids all cheat and tell each other."

"It's probably not even the same test for Humanoids and Monsters anyways," Bleu said.

"I heard it's different for every species," Yolo added.

His siblings looked at him.

Rey squinted at his brother. "You been holding out on us?"

"I hear things," Yolo said with a grin.

"Oh, yeah?" Rey balled his appendage into a fist. "What else did you 'hear?'"

"That's it, I swear!"

"How’d you even hear things we haven't heard?" Bleu asked. "We've been together this entire time."

"I heard some spiders talking in the woods."

"What were you doing in the woods?"

Yolo blushed. "I had to pee!"

"Eww, you peed in the woods?" Bleu giggled.

"Trees need water too," Yolo said.

"Dude... There's a defecation hut right there." Rey pointed to a small stick stall nearby.

"It smells in there."

"Gee, I wonder why," Rey said.

"Probably all the zombie zoop," Hex muttered.

The three slimes stared at him, then burst into laughter.

"What? That's literally what it's called!"

Rey put an appendage around his shoulders. "You're too funny, Hex."

He sighed and allowed them to think he was actually funny. It was too much effort to explain.

Then he met Talara's eyes through the fire. Is she watching... me? No. Us. Her siblings. Obviously.

He looked away quickly, only to catch Florimell's gaze instead.

"I see you're getting along well," Florimell thought to him.

"They think I'm something I'm not."

"And what might that be?"

"I dunno! Brave? Funny? Name it!"

"So you've been lying about the things you've done?"

"No. Of course not. They're just interpreting it all wrong."

Florimell cocked her head to the side. "Is it they who are interpreting it wrong?"

Hex huffed and sagged into his seat as the other slimes chatted around him.

"You remind me of my friend Ruben." Gosh, I wish he could be here now.

"Ruben sounds like a wise Monster."

"He's not a Monster. He's a dwarf."

Florimell blinked twice, then smiled with her eyes. "You continue to find ways to amaze me, young Hex."

"You should be amazed with Ruben then, not me. He's the one who dedicated his life to healing Monsters."

"And I'm supposed to just be a non-sentient bird, as you so astutely thought during our first meeting."

He cringed. "I—"

Florimell chuckled. "It's all about perspective."

Hex raised an eyebrow.

"Ah, never mind. Ignore the mutterings of this old bird. For now, focus on your new friends. You'll need them in the journeys to come."

Florimell leapt from Professor Blackbeard's shoulder, startling him, then flew off into the dimming sky.

The fire snapped, bringing Hex's gaze back down. He caught eyes with Talara again, the orange glow illuminating her face in the coming twilight. She looked quizzically from him, to the spot on Professor Blackbeard's shoulder, then back.

He blushed for probably the hundredth time and turned to Yolo and the others. They had shifted their conversation from Yolo's bathroom habits to his height—which was surprisingly a lot shorter than his siblings. Hex laughed along with them as Yolo took the jests in good spirits.

He didn't know about perspectives or journeys... But Florimell was right about one thing. With Dracala and Skel and Brains all off on their own—and after everything I've been through—I could use some friends.

And I just might have found some.