- Shari -

 

I should try to find something to keep myself occupied.
My rest was like always far too short.
How am I supposed to get into a normal day-night rhythm when I can only rest for three hours max?

The slime on the other side of the room didn’t help in the slightest on that matter.
I could somehow force myself to disconnect for a bit longer, but even this had its limits.
Seriously, it was a hell of a night.

For some reason, Liqu did not complain a bit.
And she doesn’t seem to be as troubled as I am.
There was just this staring at me, which I always noticed when I looked at her.
She stops for a while when I mention it, but eventually starts again.
Is this what keeps her occupied?
This would be so concerning that I don’t want to touch this topic any further.

When the sun finally showed itself, I started to prepare a bit for the day.
Nothing excessive.

I applied powder just on the front of Liqu’s face, as we desperately need to conserve what is left.
So she has to wear the hood to cover the rest.
And I let her refresh mine, which I tried to keep applied as well as possible during the night.
It’s needless to say how Liqu reacted to this event.
Nonetheless, now almost half of the box’s content is spent.

After that, I took a bit of the flesh we had stored in the bag to eat and gave  Liqu her share.
The last thing I need now is that she's getting hungry.
Yet, now I sense that she has a troubled look.

 

"Is something wrong?" (Shari)

"Ehm, I need to release matter! And you said you don’t want that too much remains in here." (Liqu)

"Oh!" (Shari)

 

I haven’t thought about this.
At some point, I will as well need to let go of the dead weight.
But how?

For nightly needs, this place has provided us with a bucket.
But it should be obvious why we cannot use that one.
The questions it would raise when someone comes to empty it.

Urgh, unpleasant.

It's not like this place has no toilets, but they end up in one big container.
If there would be something like a working sewer system there would be no problem.
Yet, the only place I know where something like this exists would be the capital.
This town at the border had simply more pressing matters than such a high-effort project.
For now, it should be fine if we just use the toilet.
I just hope that no one is going to take a closer look.
Things I never wanted to rack my brain about.
And yes, I'm aware of the state of my "brain"!

But for now, I lead Liqu to the toilet.
Something she obviously has never seen before.
For once, I will refrain from describing the talk we had, in which I had to introduce her to the concept, that she inquired about with the greatest interest.
Shivers.

Then I can finally change my clothes.
I decide on a white shirt and brown pants.
While I make this sound like a decision, the truth is that my choices were limited to two white shirts and one brown sweater, while the pants are the only other pair I have.

I, or in fact everyone in my village, never gave much thought to fashion so I had just the very basics in my wardrobe.
The other half of the clothes are in Liqu’s stash and I want her to keep them.
I for sure have no intention to stop making a distinction between my clothes and hers.
I mean, I cannot really use underwear anymore, so those clothes are kinda substituting for them.
Sharing them would feel plain wrong.

This ultimately leads to the point that I force her as well to change her attire.
A black shirt and black pants.
She looks a bit intimidating in those since I believe that white and brown are more sociable colors, but that might be for the better.
Yet it’s not like anyone will see much of them since I intend that we always cover ourselves with our cloaks.

Our completely soaked laundry we should eventually wash in the river, to get rid of the slime.
Also, my bandages as they are not so cheap that I want to buy replacements.

By the way, yes, there's a river running Ekoras.
To be precise most towns are built along one.
They are required as a source of drinking water, to water the fields, and also for waste disposal.
The latter is a reason why we shouldn’t wash our clothes too far down the stream.
Yet in fact, we are dumping as well waste by doing so.

After we are done with the morning procedures, I settle us in front of the door with the bag.
We’ve got some glances with our luggage from the innkeeper, but fortunately, this is the kind of business that isn't inquiring about the private matters of their clients.

Now we wait for Jacob and maybe the rest of his crew.
Well, at least I know that Jacob will not just abandon the money we are practically carrying with us here.
I mean abandoning the haul you already made?
That would be completely irrational.

I don’t know if Chris prefers to keep an eye on us or would rather have as much distance as possible.
With Myra, there could be even more problems.
The poor girl is terrified of how casually Liqu draws close to her.
But if everyone else comes, I doubt she will stay alone.
The most important for me right now would be to make acquaintance with the customers of our wares.

Regarding making a living I have three goals in mind.

First, to find someone I can sell stuff to, so I can make money for my subsistence.

Second, gain information about valuable things one can find in the local wilderness.
The best would be if I could copy some pages from a book.
By the way: Yes I can read.
Mum forced me to learn it.
Mentioning reasons like the importance to be able to keep track of an inventory or that it is necessary to read about the herbs you are looking for.
I believe it was simply that she wanted me to be educated regardless of utility.
Not that I blame her for it. It wasn’t too pleasant, but she had just the best intentions for me in mind.

The third goal is simple.
I want to become friendly enough with the guards, that leaving and entering the town becomes a casual matter.
At one point they might even be friendly enough with us to ignore our condition.
Or look the other way under the aspect that otherwise they need to admit that they let us enter and leave as we pleased before.
Might be a little farfetched, but I'm allowed to dream, right?

My pondering occupies me long enough for Jacob to finally arrive.
Surprisingly Myra accompanies him.
Jacob looks already far more relaxed around us, as he is a very logical person and like this able to acknowledge that we haven’t harmed them despite all the chances we had.
Also on my side, it builds much trust that we weren’t ambushed in the night by the guard, as he knew where we stayed.

Myra, on the other side, takes cover behind Jacob, while looking as if one wrong move from our side could send her running.
It doesn’t help that Liqu started waving in her usual exaggerative manner as soon she noticed them.
Although it might be the first time that someone voluntarily came back to her.
When they are close enough I greet them too.

 

"Good morning! Glad you made it." (Shari)

"You still have our bag. Those are quite expensive." (Jacob)

"Myra! You came back to me! How nice!" (Liqu)

 

At the first chance, Liqu rushes to them and Myra looks as if she's close to her tears while Jacob seems more annoyed than anything else.
Probably because of his communication training with her.

 

"Liqu stay put! You're scaring her!" (Shari)

"But we are friends!" (Liqu)

 

When did she come to this conclusion?

 

"Just keep your distance!" (Shari)

"Are you perhaps jealous?" (Liqu)

 

Breathe in, Breathe out!
It doesn't matter if you can do so, just make the movement and calm down!

 

"Just stay put!" (Shari)

"Pffh! Okay!" (Liqu)

"Sorry! She is troublesome." (Shari)

"No problem! It’s not as if anything happened." (Jacob)

"Thank you. And to soothe you, at most, she was just going to embrace her. But as it seems Myra might pass out from this alone." (Shari)

"Can you hold it against her?" (Jacob)

"Not really. I totally agree with her. By the way, where is Chris?" (Shari)

 

I hope not with the guards because of a monster problem.

 

"He has still to recover from his injury, so I ordered him to stay in his bed." (Jacob)

 

Good to know.
Then this venture will become much more pleasant.

 

"So, how are we going to sell our spoils?" (Shari)

"For certain parts, there is an alchemist I would like to visit and sell the remains to directly. Especially as we have done nothing to preserve them so that their value decreases by the minute." (Jacob)

 

Should have been aware of this myself.
One and a half days might not be too long but eventually, everything will rot.

 

"And the rest?" (Shari)

"I would like to go with that to Cid if that’s okay for you." (Jacob)

"Cid?" (Shari)

"He is something like the unofficial broker for the adventurers. For a rather extensive provision, he takes nearly everything we bring to him, to sell it to those who have a demand. For us, it's simply not possible to keep track of everything like him, with all the connections he has." (Jacob)

"Why should I be against this when I don’t know anyone to sell to myself?" (Shari)

"Because if we do it like this we will only get a small part of the value. If we earn more than half of the actual value we can consider ourselves lucky. The one good point is that he's not going to rip us off with the parts of the rager since he is already taking advantage of us in general." (Jacob)

"Sounds like a lovely person." (Shari)

"We don’t have much of a choice if we don’t want to throw most of the parts away." (Jacob)

"It’s fine! I agree with your approach." (Shari)

 

In the end, someone like this person was exactly who I was looking for, but to willingly jump at the chance to get swindled isn't sitting well with me.

 

"Then I would suggest we get moving with our perishable wares." (Jacob)

"Sure! Please take the bag. We both lack the ability to carry it for long. We are just not robust enough to do this." (Shari)

"Fine, then let’s get moving!" (Jacob)

And so we start our business trip.

As two slimes, what a joke!