Fufi greeted Merumeru with a warm welcome home. Merumeru returned the greeting with a hug, which Fufi reciprocated with her wings. Fufi then inspected Merumeru's new outfit, which she found to be quite strange. The red hat, overalls, and fake mustache made Merumeru look a little silly.

"My, what strange clothes you got from that dungeon," Fufi remarked.

Merumeru smiled brightly and touched the brim of her cap. "Meeru, meeeru, meru merumeeru."

Fufi pecked the cap on Merumeru's head with her beak. "Oh! It makes you look really grown up.  Merumeru is a big girl now!"

Merumeru, a young slime, wobbled slightly trying to act older than her age. Also, without the appropriate mushroom to consume Merumeru was not, in fact, showing her big girl form.

Fufi, tried to hide her laughter at the sight of Merumeru playing dress-up in a silly hat. Merumeru giggled and then ran off to play in the basement. 

Fufi followed her and found her trying out all sorts of things in the room. 

Merumeru kept trying to talk to Fufi, but Fufi just laughed and played along, pretending to guess what Merumeru was trying to say. Finally, Merumeru decided to take a more direct approach. She melted a hole in the basement with her slime powers, and then formed the dissolved stone and earth into a large pipe shaped like the green ones in the dungeon. She pointed to the pipe and said, "Merumeru." She wasn't sure how to spell it out more clearly than that.

Fufi clapped her wings. "You sure are excited right now!" 

Merumeru nodded in contentment, having finally made herself understood. The two friends played, with Fufi pretending to understand Merumeru's chatter. They ran around the room, making up their own rules. When they were tired, they climbed onto the bed and cuddled up. They talked for a while before drifting off to sleep.

A few hours later, a clunking sound woke the pair. Alex returned, dragging a bundle of iron pipes tied together with a bit of rope in one hand and a book in the other. "I need a break," he complained. "That dungeon is really tough."

"I'm glad you're alright.  Look who's back, Merumeru completed her dungeon.," Fufi responded. She got up from her bed and put her head under his arm. 

They walked up the stairs and out of the trap door. Fufi encouraged him and patted his cheek with her wing.
"Yeah, that dungeon is going to take me forever to complete. Someone would need a four-year university degree in clockwork mechanics to even get started," Alex lamented.

Fufi tried to cheer Alex up. "You did better this time than in the last dungeon. I didn't have to summon you back, so even though it wasn't perfect, you're making progress. Try not to get overwhelmed, and take things one step at a time. Not everyone can become a magical girl in a day."

 

Alex sighed. "You're right, you and Merumeru are safe. I should be grateful for that. I guess I'm just a little tired from running around trying to find this missing slime girl who wasn't where I thought she was, and then trying to read textbooks and fumble with the workstations to make clockwork dolls in there." He gestured to the still-open rift gate then gave the plumber-dressed slime girl a look.

 

Fufi took a deep breath and said, "Remember, you're not a hero, so you don't have to act like one. Heroes charge headlong into danger, expecting to succeed without thinking things through. The kingdoms have summoned a few of those types over the years, but hot-headed teenage boys are no match for the demon queen's generals. The last hero had one of the demon queen's minions in his party the whole time. She pretended to be a meek and obedient healer, but when the time came for the final battle, she turned on him and said she was too scared to fight. She told him that he had done enough for the world, and that they should just live out the rest of their lives in peace. The two of them retired to a sleepy island village that was suspiciously spared from the demon queen's armies. It was a place that had been isolated from the rest of the world.  Anyway, the moral of the story is don’t be like the hero."

 

Alex was shocked. "That's what happened to the hero? I would have thought he would be immune to charm at least."

Fufu explained, "He was immune to charm. He had a skill called [mental attack immunity], which prevented him from being charmed, feared, or stunned. I suspect the reason you get such unusual dungeons is because that's what you need. Even the strongest hero in the world can be tricked by a clever plot. Women don't fight fair." Fufi wiggled her wing feathers as she made air quotes.

Alex asked, "What happened after that? I'm surprised no one figured out she was a succubus."

Fufu replied, "The thing is, the healer wasn’t a succubus. She was a normal human girl. They didn't even put a geas on her because that could be detected. The demon queen's army does sneaky stuff like that. She was groomed for the role. She and the hero lived on that island village the rest of their days in seclusion. Some of my sisters tried to form contracts with the hero's descendants but that place is closely watched from the shadows. It is a pity, some of his children could have made great magical girls."

Alex thought it would be fitting for the hero's descendants to become magical girls. "Too bad none of the other flamingos could find them. Is the hero still alive?”

Fufi shook her head. “No, he’s been gone for years now.  It is good because with him gone hopefully things upstairs can calm down.  Having a living lapsed hero caused a lot of tension.”

Alex quickly changed the subject, not wanting to know about conflicts involving divinity.  Having a quest to defeat a demon queen was bad enough. “Want to get something to eat? It's been a long day and the sun is going down. Leftovers are probably our only option."

"None of the food is older than a day. Time to eat some berries, fish and water," Fufi said.

The three friends used a block on the second floor as a  stone table. They climbed to the ruined second floor of the adventurer's guild and watched the sunset with their legs dangling over the edge of the stone wall. 

After everyone finished eating, Alex said, "This building is made of such thick stone blocks. It reminds me a bit of the Alamo. I guess maybe if the Alamo had lost the roof and a good chunk of the walls." He tried to sound cheerful, but his gloomy tone didn't quite work.

Fufi nodded and asked, "This place does look like it survived a battle.  What is the Alamo?"

 

"It's a battle from our history," Alex explained. "We have plenty of battles where people died bravely defending a cause or country but we also used to go into battle against other countries back when we were more active in warring with each other. A very famous one was at the Alamo in Texas."

 

Fufi was confused. "So what happened at the Alamo? Did they win or lose?"

Alex thought for a minute, trying to recall details he read about before he answered, "The Alamo out for a while then fell to a bigger force and all of the defenders there died fighting until the end. Maybe a few women and children survived but I don't remember. They were holding off the Mexican army, some guy named Santa Ana if I recall correctly." He paused and tried to jog his memory. It wasn't coming easy to him so he gave up. Then after thinking about it Alex remembered why he hadn't liked reading about that part of American history in school.

 

"That's awful," Fufu says quietly as Alex looks down at her.

 

Alex said, "I only remember that because 'Remember the Alamo' is a popular saying. It's not a big deal now, though. There's no need to be upset; it happened a long time ago." He looked down. "Let's go inside and get ready for bed. I need to do some more reading tomorrow. Maybe we can take Merumeru to the dam to play. She loves pipes, so I thought I might show her how they can be used in the dam. If we can repair it, it could be used to take a cart across the river."

Fufi looked wistfully towards the sky and said, "I would love to see that."

 

The three of them went to bed in the basement after locking up. The next day was clear with just enough cloud cover to protect from the sun. The girls had a restful night's sleep and woke up late in the morning. Alex grabbed his book and pipes and headed to the dam with Merumeru for company. They found no trace of demons, hostile or otherwise.

Alex held Merumeru's hand and took her to the ruined dam. He let go of her and pulled out a piece of charcoal to draw with. As he drew, he explained, "Merumeru, this is what the dam should look like. Flat across the top and wide enough for a cart to get over it." He drew a straight line to show and under it some circles. He continued, "The pipes could go near the top so that the water goes through them instead of over the top of the dam." He drew some lines that hopefully looked like water coming out of a pipe. He looked at the slime girl, who had a serious look on her face, "Do you understand? Want to use your special powers to repair the dam?"

Meru nodded vigorously and walked away from Alex to get ready for work. She picked up one end of a pipe and walked back to Alex, holding it close as if she were hugging it. Then she ran and placed the pipe against the side of the dam wall, staring at it and tapping it with both hands. After a few minutes, she turned and walked back and forth several times, moving off in an almost random pattern. She walked away from the pipe and looked at it critically from a distance.

When Merumeru was satisfied with pipe placement, Alex grabbed some large rocks from the shore and set them on the pipe to hold it in place. He stepped back and waited to see what the slime girl would do.

Merumeru splashed into the water and dissolved some sand and clay into her body. She took off her gloves and placed her squishy hands around the pipe, which changed shape to wrap around it. After a few minutes, she was able to use her slime powers to cement the pipe into place. 

Alex helped bring some rocks and rubble, but he got tired after a while. He sat on a rock, pulled out a book and studied clockwork mechanics. 

Merumeru was a ball of energy the whole day. She could have been awarded dam-repair MVP if anyone was giving out awards.

The three of them finished up around dusk. About a quarter of the dam was restored. After they ate dinner at the beach, Merumeru stripped down and handed her clothes to Alex.

Alex gaped at her shamelessness.  He knew that the slime girl didn’t have any clothing until just recently but it still was a bit much.

Merumeru jumped into the water and swam into the inlet of the pipe that led back to town.  She swirled around in circles and got sucked down into the drain.

 

"I should have guessed," Alex rolled his eyes. They met back up at the fountain that had a slime girl splashing and playing around it.  The next three days went by in a similar fashion.  Merumeru built, Alex studied, and Fufi gathered food. When it was time for sleep they slept in the basement as always. On the third night Merumeru was exhausted from working so hard all day long. She curled up with them and fell asleep instantly. After watching her breathing gently as she rested on them Alex pulled out his book once more. He thought about how this life was harsh but rewarding in its own way.  The slime girl slowly shifted and squished against him while he read under the light of his cell phone.

 

When morning came Alex awoke to find that he didn't remember going to bed. It seemed like he must have been dozing while reading until the first rays of sunlight found their way into the basement.  With another day's work the dam should be finished.  Alex guessed that the first thing Merumeru would want to do when the water level rose up to the pipes was to ride through them all like a waterslide.  However the slime girl showed no signs of waking.  She was able to run circles around Alex, much more in his diminished form. Even this little ball of energy could get tired as well.Alex woke up in the morning and realized that he did not remember going to bed. He must have dozed off while reading until the first rays of sunlight shone into the basement. The dam should be finished after another day's work. Alex guessed that the first thing Merumeru would want to do when the water level rose to the pipes would be to ride through them like a waterslide. However, the slime girl showed no signs of waking up. She was able to run circles around Alex, even more so in his diminished form. Even this little ball of energy could get tired.

 

Fufi helped Alex clean up the fish they had caught, then they started preparing meals. Once they were ready Alex noticed Merumeru was still sleeping.  "It looks like our little girl needs a break.  I think I'll head back into the dungeon and see if I can build a clockwork doll for that trial." he said. " Would you mind keeping an eye on her?"

 

"Of course," Fufu replied and hugged Alex before letting him walk towards the rift. She looked over at Merumeru who was sprawled out on the stone bed and tried to make sure she was comfortable.