After a little while, everything seemed to go back to normal, at least a normal that was within our current predicament. Dragan, Kuro, and Neso had taken a real kinship to each other, they would drink like mad men during the night, share heartfelt stories, and complain about trivial things.
I on the other hand was placed with making decisions about the Grimalkin's day-to-day life, you could say they adopted me into their politics, however, that resulted in incredible boring to me, and I would just swoop from sadness in my slime form. After a while I would melt so much into the floor I would become nothing but a puddle. At that time I would just meld into the background s just another NPC character. And could do things like scurry my way out of those horrible winded meetings.
There were so many things to see, so many things to do, worlds to see, caves to explore, strange and weird animals to meet and befriend. Sybil had mentioned something about how Dragan had some kind of skill that allowed him to communicate with animals. Not verbally, but more like he would project his heart or something. She had chimed in during one of those meetings and told me all about it. And because we share transference. I shared in his skills as well. It's a pretty useless skill, that makes animals immediately trust you, but the skill has a special denominated. A sort of TOA.
Whoever bestows it, whether by transference, contact, or will can only be given if the person who receives it is pure and brave of heart. Whatever the hell that means.
But because I wasn't human, I was able to use it at will, sort of borrow its powers if I wished to do so. It looked like a passive skill to me at best.
After I made my way out of those horrid meetings, I would stand in the sun, the birds would sing, the crickets would chirp, and Grimalkin children would pass by gleefully cheering and laughing. And I would remember that Dragan and I had given this village the liberty it so desperately sought.
My bad thoughts would eventually be away by the shining sun, and I would be able to regain my slime body once more. From there I could easily make myself of more skin and bones. I would place my feet on the mud, and splash around, the mud would slide off my robes, they were part of my body after all.
I couldn't exactly feel it, but the splish splash would revitalize my inner child and make me happy once more. The depression quickly stored in a little box inside my brain. There was no time to be sad when there were things to be done around the village. I could look for a side quest or just take my time lounging around. Anything could happen.
Most of the days I've been here, nothing has.
I've helped a Grimalkin child from a tree, helped out at the local bakery, and visited Dragan
Kuro and Neso to see what they are up to. Sometimes I find them lounging around the fields, other times I find them playing cards.
A funny game that I still didn't quite get, the cards were tiny and they didn't have any numbers, just images. It was easy for them to play.
They tried to explain it to me, but I didn't get it.
They would sometimes shout koi if they wanted out of the bet.
Or koi-koi if they wanted to continue.
I didn't get it…
After a couple of nights sleeping outside in the nice spring breeze, with the window open, surrounded by his arms, I knew something was up. This calm and peace that we've created for ourselves was going to end, it was going to be over sooner rather than later. But for now,
I had to enjoy every second that I had.
It had been fun, it had been fun to pretend to be a child, or more like, to be able to feed my inner child like I had in this village. The Grimalkins had allowed me to be myself with no worries or turmoils, with no judgment or repercussion for being myself, and just that nothing but.
Later that night, we walked towards the night market, there were many stalls, and it felt lively, Grimalkin danced and flickered around with great glee, surrounded by family, friends, and great food, booze was of course also on the table. Dragan and I took the opportunity to walk around like some sort of date. No one saw us weirdly or with judgment as we held hands and walked down the boulevard.
Suddenly it started to rain, heavy rain started to pour down on us, but that didn't stop the party, everyone took cover of course, some locales closed their front door, Dragan and I found a hidden place under the cover of night, far away from the rain, we were inches apart to fit into this tiny crawl space.
We didn't exchange any words, I knew he wanted to kiss me, so I went for it instead. He blushed tomato red, and then pecked his lips against mine, pushing me against the wall, I against his shoulders. We released from each other, it had just been a romantic kiss.
The rain stopped just like that, and everyone gathered and placed up their lanterns once more, and the party continued, instruments played again, it was jolly once more. We were intertwined with each other, he smiled and let me, as we went back down to the streets, and continued our delightful night.
Everything was in its right place.
The next day, I was watching Kuro Neso and Dragan plow the fields.
Suddenly gloom washed over me, the night was about to come. The night Emi would send us back to our time, however, she belonged here, in this time, she had already specified the details. Dragan and I had to go back, back to our time. So that now together, we could do what we set out to do.
What was that exactly?
Had there been any real purpose to all of this?
Before our fight, Dragan was planning everything, it was all made up, at least that's what I understood.
Because of all of the prejudices that he was projecting onto me. If he had just talked to me, honestly and openly, I would have probably agreed to do whatever it was he wanted. The mana thing or something else.
Stealing is bad at the end of the day.
I'm glad we got that over with.