“What do you mean?” Marian asked, staring into the ooze. She, unlike Marasa, couldn’t believe it was something living and not just a waste to be thrown out. “The amount of slop in the bucket, you mean? Maybe it evaporated?” It was a reasonable explanation and more likely than Marasa’s instincts being off.

“Umm, yes, I do suppose you’re right. Though I am not sure if Aarav does evaporate. We all perspire, but I have never seen droplets on Aarav. Not sweat or water anyway, maybe Slime, but that simply merges with his body and….” Marasa lapsed into quiet self-reflection, reviewing the facts she knew about the slime. What can this mean?

“Marasa, why don’t we put a mark on the inside of the bucket to indicate the current level? That way, if it does go down further, you will be able to keep track? It won’t tell you why it is happening. We will still need to work it out if you don’t think it is evaporation, but at least it will confirm your reduction theory?” Marian suggested while she might have her own reservations about what this was, she was there primarily to assist Marasa, and she would do just that.

“Of course! Why didn’t I think of that? Thank you, Marian! Do we have….” Marian produced a piece of charcoal from somewhere and promptly handed it to Marasa. The younger Head Nurse smiled and took it with a thankful nod, marking the inside of the bucket with a short line signalling the starting point. Then she passed it back. We will check again in a few minutes, just before we close up.

And so it was an hour later once everything was put away and they came back, Marasa resisting the urge to keep constantly checking while she finished up. It would be better to view it after a reasonable time frame to show the contrast. Still, it felt like the slowest hour of her life. “Well, shall we?” She sceptically looked at Marian, who was already making her way over.

“Oh my god! You were right, Marasa! It is reducing slowly, but it is definitely getting less. It seems a little too fast for evaporation, in my opinion.” Marian said in a whisper.

Marasa was staring into the bucket now as well. Her worry redoubled. If they couldn’t find a solution, what would happen when he disappeared completely. She had seen the look on Boren’s face as they left, and her heart ached for the boy that had just found a friend and might lose him. It was even more vital for her to find a solution.

She had tried everything she could think of, it was time to bring in the expert, and though he had been the one to bring Aarav in the first place, all conventional healing methods had failed. She was not keen on just using healing spells without understanding the problem, and they could go very wrong.

“Okay, I will get Haemish. Perhaps there is an alchemical solution to this problem.” Marasa then sighed at Marian’s look. “Medical ones are too complex to try without understanding his anatomy. What little there is of it at the moment.” Marasa said, undeterred from this next course.

Then she rushed out of the room.

Barely ten minutes later, Marasa and Haemish were back. He with a handful of glass dishes in hand. They all had various materials: grass, more of the Slime, some ant, termite, and fly parts. It was a very odd mix, but Marasa was too concerned with getting back to the clinic to pay it any mind.  She had always known Haemish was strange in a way that interested her greatly. Hopefully, it will prove helpful now.

As they approached the bucket once more, there was a soft sucking noise, and the volume of the bucket suddenly shrank again, much faster than before.

It was so quick, in fact, that both humans could visibly see the volume change. “What is happening! It wasn’t reducing this fast before, I promise!” Marasa began to panic, thinking there was nothing she could do to save his life. Then she heard Boren’s feet as he ran as fast as he could behind them. They had left him behind in a bid to get to Aarav as quickly as possible, and Boren had told them to go on ahead.

“Marasa, don’t worry just yet. The shrinking is why I brought this.” Haemish indicated the dishes in his hands. How could that mix of odds and ends make any difference? Just then, Haemish tipped the contents of all of them into the bucket. Marasa gasped, expecting things to go from bad to worse. However, instead of settling on the Slime, all the insect bits, grass and other materials transformed before her eyes! They gradually became more and more like the rest of the Slime until it was impossible to tell the difference. The seamless transition had taken no more than five seconds. Still, it increased the volume of the Slime a little, much less than she would have expected, but it was very encouraging.

“What did you do? You know what, I don’t care what you did; it worked. Should we just start dumping more things into the bucket? It might help keep him going.” Saying this, she grabbed some solvent. They were minor strength health potions and dumped those in before Haemish could utter a word. Nothing happened this time. The liquid simply swirled at the top and did not combine with the Slime in any way that she could see, his volume did not increase, but at least the shrinking had slowed to slightly faster than before. “We should monitor the speed of progress at the very least.“ Marasa said as she grabbed a charcoal stick from a nearby desk and chalked out a line at the current height. “Hopefully, we can monitor it and take a guess as to how much time we have until he’s all gone.

Just then, Boren came sprinting in and almost collided with the wall in his haste. He managed to slow just in time to stop himself from clashing with the wall but then, as luck would have it, the floor there had a little moisture on it from the recent cleaning. He slipped, ploughing headfirst into the wall he thought he had so narrowly avoided. “Oompf!” was all Haemish and Marasa heard before they turned and watched the Prince stand from his fall, rubbing at his now red forehead. “That hurt!”

Haemish and Marasa couldn’t help but smile. With a wave of her hand, Marasa healed the bruise the boy had developed as if it had never been if only she could do the same to Aarav. But she couldn’t find anything to heal in him.

“What do we do now?” Marasa asked, “If the liquids and healing potions are not working, is there anything else we can try?”

Haemish shrugged his shoulders. “The truth is, the items I added, in the beginning, merged with Aarav’s body because they were initially a part of him. The potions and other liquids were not, so maybe they could not work because of the difference in materials.

“You know how Aarav can camouflage in any environment?” Haemish asked Marasa and Boren at the same time. Boren looked like he had another question, but Haemish stopped him for now. His audience then nodded, and he continued the explanation. “Boren, I promise I will get to your question after this but allow me to finish. I actually believe that his camouflage is more than simply changing his skin colour. I believe it goes even to the texture and shape so that it is almost a true replica of the thing that he is camouflaging with.”

Both Marasa and Boren seemed to have follow-up questions, but Boren beat Marasa to the punch. “Wait, you said the dishes with insect parts and grass and clear fluid were all part of Aarav, but that was where I got my active ingredient from. Does that mean that my experiments have been using bits of Aarav’s Slime?”