The aurora borealis Dragan and I had cast over the village had not dispersed, It was there during the day, but it was barely visible, like looking at the moon during a hazy morning and noticing it's still in the sky, but soon you kinda forget about it, because it's unnatural to look at the moon during the day. Kinda like that but with the dancing lights.
But at night, the soft veil would lower itself like a blanket wrapping the whole village, and those same blue orbs would trickle down. As far as blessings go, the villagers had nothing to worry about - it seems.
We had showed up the next day at our training grounds, but Kamika showed up quite late, with an excuse no less. She couldn't test us that day and would have us be on standby for a couple more days.
She was discussing letting us go hunting in the wasteland by ourselves, with the rest of the elders. I guess they needed a show of power or something. I felt a little demotivated, it seemed like my protagonist's life was un-moving, I was seeing some kind of hope in the distance, but now all of that was gone.
Dragan on the other hand felt more motivated than ever, and he pushed his routines to the maximum level. He kept the same routine as before, morning runs, then a calisthenics routine for around 40 minutes until he could no longer move, a much-needed rest after that, and recovery, then during the day we would do weight training, or he would use me as his weights. Then after that, we had the rest of the day to fool around and spend quality time together.
Even though we were always together, Dragan went into another world when he was training, his focus increased and I felt like I couldn't have a conversation with him. A true simpleton meathead. But still being together was better than nothing.
At night he would give me his full attention. And our conversations would be long and heartfelt.
Over the next few days, he became even more affectionate. When we were alone it was like nothing could stop us, I felt invincible with him around. He would sometimes chase me around the house, playing tackle, My body was squishy even in my human form so falls didn't hurt, and he could put his whole weight on me and I wouldn't even feel it. It's not like I needed to breathe or anything like that.
But still, I was getting restless, doing the same thing day in and day out, it was sort of becoming intoxicating. I felt like I was suffocating in routine. I needed something to break out of it.
One night, while we were drinking hot chocolate coffee, the night spring aired refreshed us, a recipe I showed him by the way. I managed to get the village to grow some cocoa, and because of the aurora blessing, it had grown in record time. In fact, all plants were growing in record time, they were growing so fast, that the people working in the field could barely harvest them.
This was of course because the blessing of aurora. Which the people had come to affectionatley name 'The Blessing of the Seven Colors'. I liked that name.
The villagers were so surprised, whenever we walked through the market, they would offer us free stuff. Dragan was way too humble to accept it, on the other hand, I gladly took it, not without his report of course.
As we sat on his porch, it was mild enough for Dragan to be without a shirt and only his harem pants. We looked out into the stars, reflected by the aurora, almost like it was mirroring a sea of thousands of stars. I could take my human form around him, but as of now, I had only showed it to him, and that made it all the more special.
I leaned my head rested it on his shoulder, and sighed, the restlessness was getting to me.
"What's up?" he said.
"Nothing really - I'm just getting a little bored of routine that's all," I said with melancholy.
"That right," he started playing with my hair, softly and caring.
"How about a trip?"
He got my attention, I jolted up to meet him at eye level.
"Where would we be going?"
"Well I don't have a lot of money, so staying at a fancy Inn in Edorough or Veldoran is sort of out of the question, how about maybe a camping trip?" he said.
He thought for a minute.
"How about a camping trip in nature, the Yarquet Mountain has some nice hot springs. Or we could visit the Causaronto Domain, the Cassi are very friendly merfolk,"
"Mermaids?!" I exclaimed.
"They don't like that term," he said with worry. He continued.
"Or how about the Mussomin Cay, a closed of beach with an extensive coral reef," he said with a smile.
"Have you been to any of these places?" I asked.
"Not really, I've only ever read about in books," he said scratching the back of his head. I wasn't sure what was more surprising, the fact he knew about all of these places or the fact he read books in the past. Let alone history and geography books. I always took him for the shonen jump type of guy.
"Would we have to travel the wasteland to get there?" I asked. He looked at me confused.
"Sorry - Sorry, I forgot to mention, we would go via lay line, or if you'd prefer via airship,"
"What's a lay line?" I asked.
"It's sort of like a magical teleport, there are several across the big cities, and tourist places also have one, Tarragon doesn't have one by the way, Traversing the wasteland is far too dangerous as you've already experienced, we would only go to the wasteland to fight monsters and collect bounty, everyone avoids it as much as possible,"
"Traveling by airship does sound nice," I said reminiscing towards the sky. But before we could set a date for any of our plans, Kamika showed up with gusts of wind around her. It took me by surprise, and I changed back to my slime form rather quickly, before she could lay eyes on me. Dragan didn't pay mind to it.
"Kami, what's up, it's so late, is everything okay?" said Dragan, a little worried, standing up.
"Sit boy, everything fine, I need you both tomorrow in front of the Elders, you'll be showing off your power, so be ready,"
Just as I thought, the elders needed confirmation.
"Everyone in the village is grateful for the seven colors, but that doesn't mean we trust you, If all goes well, you'll be off on your first hunt by the next fortnight, that okay with you?!" she said.
"Finally!" I jumped out of happiness. Dragan pushed my whole body against his cheek, he was happy too.
"Don't get too excited, the elders could still decide you're not ready," she barked.
"Of course, we're ready, right Dragan!" I said.
"Absolutely!" he shouted.
"I like the enthusiasm," said elder Kamika.
"But it's up to the elders to decide, I hold no council, it's up to them," said Kamika.
And with that, her staff pinged a soft glow and the winds teleported her out of there.
Finally, the day had come! We were more than ready. And it was about dam time!