Quest Report - Okarin
Several days later, Okarin was sitting outside of the city, huddling underneath the shade of a large misshapen rock. It was pouring outside; and the ground was drenched with mud and puddles of water.
It was also cold.
The rain made everything seem much colder.
Okarin hadn't gone back to the city in nearly a week.
It took a lot of time to regenerate mass, and until they reached a certain size, Okarin wasn't able to take a human form. The slime situation in the city hadn't gotten that much better, and if anything people were paying more attention to slimes than ever before. Among the general public, it was a mixture of apprehension, confusion, hatred, fear, ambivalence, conspiracy theories, and everything in between. There were whispers about the slime hoard, mutant slimes underneath the city, and evil alchemists experimenting on slimes.
Humans were scary when they were scared.
Okarin spotted some children running around beating slimes with sticks.
The neighborhood cheered when they killed some.
+ + +
Someone was selling slimes at the market, so Okarin had purchased one.
They actually had extremely conflicted feelings about this.
Was it... really okay to do this...?
The torrential downpour was almost deafening, and currently Okarin was huddled next to the pillow-sized dark green slime that Okarin had "bought" for a meager 20G — the entirety of all their savings.
Only yesterday, Okarin had finally collected enough mass to transform into a "chibi" human form. Currently, they were no larger than a small child, and the green slime was nearly half of Okarin's size. With the two of them sitting next to each other, the green slime looked far bigger than it was in reality — like an
extremely oversized dango plushie.
At the present moment, the green slime was happily munching on grass, not giving a single fuck that it was getting rained on.
Okarin stared at the slime, silently watching it eat.
They wished they could ask how it felt.
Was it wrong for slimes to be bought and sold?
They wanted to ask... what should Okarin do?
However, Green Slime seemed to only care about munching on food. That was pretty much all it ever thought about. It was really quite a glutton, even for a slime. Perhaps that was why it was so big. Okarin had never seen a Herb Slime that was so oversized.
Okarin trembled slightly and sneezed from the ambient cold.
It was really damp here.
+ + +
Eventually, Okarin felt as if their toes were going to freeze off — especially in this human transformation.
They stood up and finally decided to go back to the city... even if that was the scary place where Okarin didn't exactly want to be.
It took a good half hour of difficult coaxing, but eventually Okarin managed to get Green Slime to move from its grazing spot. They started walking back to the city — although half of it was it was Okarin struggling to tug the uncooperative Green Slime along and wobbling under the enormous weight from carrying it.
They must have been an implausible and ridiculous sight to behold.
A drenched muddy six-year-old girl hauling a large dark green slime nearly as big as her into the city.
The guard at the gate almost stopped Okarin.
"What? I'm not allowed to bring my pet slime back into the city?" Okarin complained with their chibi voice. "I'm cold. It's raining outside."
"..." The guard struggled to find something to say.
The guard ended up letting them go, and Okarin ignored the stares as they made their way through the city streets.
Okarin made straight for the city temple.
They almost made it all the way through the front entrance before one of the priestesses stopped them.
"Oh my goodness, little girl, where do you think you are going? With that...
thing...?"
The priestess looked disgusted. Okarin was covered with mud and grime from sleeping outside of the city for a whole week. Green Slime was drooping into a sagging half-puddle, clearly unmotivated and dissatisfied from being dragged away from its tasty grass meal outside of the city.
"I'm here for the temple," Okarin replied.
"Where is your mother?! By the holy light, are you out of your mind?! Put that...
thing... down! It's dangerous! Slimes are absolutely not something a young girl should be playing with!"
"It's not going to hurt me. It's not going to hurt anyone."
"They are unclean! Unholy! Get rid of it immediately!"
"...Unholy...?"
"Go away! I don't have time for dirty street kids! We're busy healing patients here!"
The priestess raised her voice angrily and almost slammed the door to the temple entrance.
However, another robed individual appeared from behind the threshold and suddenly intervened in the scene.
"Sister Maya, is there a problem?" The voice was deep and masculine.
"Brother Jaune, it is nothing of concern. Just another homeless child."
"Does the child want food? Perhaps there are still some leftover scraps from the kitchen?"
"If you feed them one time, you know they'll keep coming back. And there will be more of them next time. Our first priority to heal our patients. It is a genuine pity, but we cannot help everyone. Sometimes if you try to aid everyone, you ironically save no one."
"...I see... that's how you feel."
"If you'll excuse me, Brother Jaune, I have patients waiting for me."
"May the holy light bless you, Sister Maya."
"And you too, Brother Jaune."
The priestess disappeared into the corridors. Meanwhile, the monk poked his head out of the front door and finally got a good look at Okarin. There was a soft expression to his wrinkly face.
"Why, hello there, little one." His voice was kind, and the monk crouched down to the same height as Okarin. "Are you hungry?"
Okarin blinked a few times, and then peered back into the dark corridor where the priestess had vanished into.
"No, I'm not." Okarin responded factually and truthfully. "However, I am a little cold. And wet. And muddy."
The male priest chuckled in response. "I see. So you're not hungry. I suppose I was mistaken."
"That lady did not like me very much."
"Sister Maya and I... have our disagreements. Please do not mind it."
"The lady said that slimes are unholy... so... are slimes unholy?"
The monk reached out a hand and gently patted little Okarin on the head. The man did not seem bothered by the fact that Okarin was covered with mud, twigs, and other filth.
"There are many faiths in the universe. While this is one of the largest Temples in the city, we are not the House for any one single religion. Many faiths share these walls. We may have different beliefs, and we may have our many disagreements, but we are united in our purpose seeking the good of humanity. Together, we rise with the collective power of our many faiths."
"Many faiths?"
"Yes, many faiths. Sister Maya worships a different religion than myself, and she also comes from a different world than my own. However, I assure you that her intentions are good, even if she might sound harsh today."
"What does your god say about slimes?"
The male priest laughed again.
"You really like slimes, don't you? Child, in my faith, we say that it is never wrong to love. It doesn't matter who it is. You are never wrong to love them. Sometimes, loving another can even be the hardest thing."
"Mister Priest, I want to help at the temple. I saw a quest at the Adventurer's Guild that said the temple is looking for more healers."
The man raised an eyebrow.
"This slime—" Okarin gestured at Green Slime, "—is really good at healing. It's really friendly. And nice. We can help."
The monk furrowed their brow upon hearing this.
They seemed to be thinking about something.
"Little Miss, I understand that you wish to help, and I bless you dearly for your kind heart."
The man paused. "However, I cannot allow your slime to assist us. It would scare the patients, as many of clients are traumatized by monsters. I do not think it would help the patients to terrify them witless, even if what you say is true. Do you understand what I am saying?"
Okarin was silent at that point.
"I'm sorry. I truly am." The priest was apologetic.
"It's okay. I understand."
"May the holy light bless you. I wish you a good evening."
With a wry smile, he shut the door.
It was still raining outside.
--------------
OOC:




I wrote another sob story.



I do too much of this kind of thing! Sorry for failing another quest again!

For some reason, I feel like I start a quest in my head and it fails more often than it succeeds. I did, however, try to add some lore that the temple is multi-faith.