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"Don't. Please…" Even as I spoke the words, I knew it was worthless. I knew him well enough, by now, to recognize the deviant behind those eyes. He didn't lower the gun. His eyes crinkled and he pulled the trigger.
I tried to dash away, but I didn't have nearly enough time to react. His hit landed on the back of my head. My body immediately reacted.
It was unpleasantly cold. And it spread from the top of my head all down my body.
I turned back to confront him.
"Have you lost your mind?!" I shouted, my cheeks flushed red with anger. By now, Slime was dripping off of me all over the floor. Satisfied, King Slime lowered his gun. "I just got out of the bath!"
With his impish laugh, he hopped over me, through the trapdoor to my room. Uh oh…
"Steve!" I called. Maybe he wasn't in my room?
I followed through the trapdoor and saw Forid running into the dining room. Grodax, Steve, and Timmy were in there, unarmed, defenseless.
"Forid, don't! That's not fair!" I reached out to grab him, but he was a few too many steps ahead of me. He shot all three while the males yelled in protest. Once hit, they looked as sopping wet as I did. Timmy screeched and ran from the room.
"Ugh," Steve shook out his hands, but the Slime stuck to him stubbornly, "I hope you got that out of your system, King Slime."
"Yeah, me too," I said, grabbing Forid's shoulder to force him to face me. "Why don't you put that back in your room?"
But he turned the Slime Gun on me and shot me again, this time in the face. I made a move to take the gun from him, but he ran away before I could snatch it.
"That is IT!" I shouted after his fleeing form. Sure, he had a Slime Gun. But, I had defeated him many times when we were enemies. I had many more Slime Guns that he didn't know about. I had enough to supply the people he had slimed with revenge.
"Grodax?" Sophia called from the room Forid entered. Grodax checked himself – saw how slimy he looked, and leaped under a table. I thought that was weird, but, before I could ask, I heard Sophia scream.
Crap. I was now one gun short, if I wanted to give one to every one of Forid's victims.
"Forid!" I bellowed, "You're going to get it!"
"What's gotten into him?" Steve asked. I shrugged and summoned my Water Trough. Inside, four Slime Guns waited for me. I loved having non-lethal weapons. It made me think that, some day, we could have a peaceful, friendly water fight.
I pulled out the Slime guns and showed them to Steve and Grodax, who grinned maliciously. Unfortunately for a certain king of Slimes, this water fight wasn't looking very friendly.
Hearing my threat, Forid came back into the room. His eyes became saucers when he saw that we were armed.
"Get him!" Steve and I shouted and we all fired at once. Forid fired at me – the nerve! – but missed when a face full of Slime threw off his aim. He retreated a few steps and then hopped down the stairs.
"Leave the Demolitionist alone!" I commanded when I realized he was probably headed for the kitchen.
"Sophia! She's downstairs!" Grodax was the first to chase the king. Steve and I glanced at each other before following.
When we reached the kitchen, a confounded Jarut stood, already Slimed.
"Sorry!" I said to him, but King Slime wasn't there, and my team of three left the kitchen to find him.
"Stay back!" Sophia warned from the storage room. Forid kept his gun raised, anyway. I thought he might shoot her, again, but was surprised when he fell backwards, a snowball exploding against his head.
"You got him!" I laughed. I stepped over Forid, who was groaning on the floor. "That looked like it hurt." In moments, Grodax and Steve were at my side. We held our weapons to his head.
"Alright, you've had your fun," Steve said as if he were talking to a child, "Time to put the gun away."
Forid shut his eyes tightly, squirming. He pulled something out of his pocket and the three of us instinctively stepped back.
"It's his mirror," I said. Grodax cursed and shot at Forid, but the king disappeared before the Slime hit him.
"Maybe he is putting it away?" I suggested.
"I wouldn't get my hopes up," Steve warned.
"I say we go up there and make sure," Grodax said. He pumped his gun. "Maybe ensure a little deterrence, what do you think?"
Steve chuckled.
"I'm going to check on Timmy," I said and left through the back door.
The Angler was sulking in his room, slouching in front of his Mudfish. Well, at least he did keep them as pets, if I had to go through the trouble of getting them.
"Timmy?" I tried, kneeling next to him. He bent his eyes sideways to look at me.
"Your boyfriend sucks," he spat.
"Okay, first of all, he's not my boyfriend. Second of all, I thought, maybe, you'd want revenge?" I offered him my Slime Gun. He sat up. "Would that make you feel better?" I hardly got the words out when he was out the door.
Before re-entering the house, I pulled my last Slime Gun out of my Piggy Bank. The sounds of yelling and scuffling came from upstairs. Jarut was still in the kitchen.
"Mensa," he said, "you got one of those for me?"
"Sorry, this is my last one." I wasn't too sorry. I rushed upstairs.
In the dining room, Forid had started an all-out war. Apparently, on his way back down from his room, not only did he not return his Slime Gun to his chest, he also managed to upset Leonardo and Hiram, for the Painter and Dye Trader were now each set up with Paintball Guns. Sophia warned Scarlett of Forid's roguery and the two girls – plus Grodax – were set up on the other end of the room in a makeshift snow fort. Steve and Timmy had turned a table on its side for cover.
In the middle of the room stood Forid. He hopped from chair to table to platform, shooting others while avoiding being Slimed, himself.
"Ah – hey! That table's made of glass!" I warned Steve and Timmy. Steve shrugged at me, unconcerned, but Timmy completely betrayed me and sprayed me with the very Slime Gun I had given him. I let out something of a war cry that probably sounded distantly related to a banshee and shot back.
"Mensa!" Forid called. His Slime Hook hit the wall behind me and he soared over everyone to me. He took care to splatter the Angler and took my hand to pull me out of the room. It seemed only he was allowed to shoot me with a Slime Gun. Anyone else was just a traitor.
I thought the others would chase us, now, since Forid had made himself public enemy number one, but I could hear Timmy yell "Hey! Watch who you're shooting!" and could only assume they were turning on each other, now.
What was going on? My villagers had gone crazy. I could hardly even blame Forid for this – they equally chose to retaliate instead of dry off and calm down. Were they bored? Restless?
Forid pulled me past the Tinkerer's workshop, far enough away from the chaos that we felt safe.
"You okay?" he asked. His eyebrows were scrunched together and I momentarily appreciated his genuine distress over my well-being.
"Yeah, thanks…" I shook my head. "Wait, you're the one who started all of this! What do you mean 'Am I okay?' This is all-"
Forid covered my mouth. I didn't appreciate that, but he looked like he was listening to something. All I could hear was the fighting from the other room. He pointed up, and we climbed the stairs leading out of the workshop.
In the next room, sitting on some steps facing away from us, Jamal and Jenna stared out the same window overlooking the ocean that Forid and I did when he first arrived. Jamal gently tilted Jenna's chin to face him. I realized with horror that they were about to kiss and we were spying on them!
Rather, I was. Forid had other plans.
Just as the couple's lips were about to touch, Forid aimed at them and fired. I saw a stream of Slime fly at them in vivid detail as if it were in slow motion, but was ultimately powerless to stop it.
Jenna gasped and jumped from her seat but, to her credit, didn't scream. She turned around to look at Forid and me, and then ran for the garden. Her outfit and her hair were ruined by Forid's attack.
Jamal watched her go, then slowly rose from his seat. His movements were deliberate and intimidating. When he faced us, his expression was livid.
"You're going to regret that," he told Forid, who didn't even have the sense to lower his weapon or pretend that it was an accident.
"Jamal…"
"And you. How could you side with him?"
How could I side with King Slime? It's true that he was the cause of this mess. But, until Jenna, it seemed like harmless fun. Heck, I never thought to have fun in this house. I didn't like that he just interrupted Jamal and Jenna's date, but I appreciated that he gave the village something to do – and rescued me from that very activity.
I heard the garden door slam open a second time. Alalia sprinted into the room.
"Now you will learn what happens to people who mess with Jenna!" she roared. She threw something in Forid's direction, but I didn't get to see what. I grabbed his hand and dragged him back downstairs. For whatever reason, Forid decided to team up with me, and Jamal decided that I was his enemy because of that. So, the way I saw it, we were in this, together, whether I liked it or not.
"Whaa!" Forid exclaimed. He was facing backwards as I dragged him. He righted himself and we ran into the dining room, where the fight was still going on. I figured we could lose Alalia and Jamal if we were in the thick of battle. Their intensity was scaring me, to be honest.
"Alalia!" I heard Jamal call, "Keep him still!"
I shoved Forid into the room and reached for the handle to close the door. Whatever Alalia was throwing, it was headed straight for me. Forid spun me around so that he was hit, instead. When it hit, it sounded like breaking glass.
"Are you okay?" I asked, grabbing his shoulders and pulling him in the room. I reached behind him and shut the door. Finally. I checked the back of him, but couldn't tell what she hit him with. I leaned back to look at his face. I saw something in his eyes I had never seen before. Was he afraid?
"What's wrong?" I asked, trying to shake him out of his stupor. He stood very stiffly. What had Alalia thrown at him? "Forid?"
His eyes crinkled, and I was relieved to see him looking happy, again. But, there was colour added to his face. His face was heating up. Did she make him sick?
"Ooh!" Timmy taunted from the cover of his table, behind me, "King Slime is in love!"
"What!" I glared at the boy. What an immature deduction. But, what more could I expect from Timmy? Amused, Steve turned to look.
"Woah," the Guide said, "he is!"
"What? Are you nuts?"
Steve ducked by his table and pointed at King Slime. "See for yourself."
But, when I looked, the door behind Forid opened and Jamal was on the other side. He had recruited Wilbur, and they were both armed with Water Guns.
"Why don't you take a cold shower?" the Gun Dealer said. He sprayed Forid with water. Alalia appeared from behind the men and threw another item at Forid.
"Okay, Forid," I said, tugging on my friend, "Time to stop standing around, taking hits."
I set us up in the middle of the room, where I could tip over the two undisturbed tables for cover. I figured that, if they were going to break, they'd have done so, already. Forid and I crouched in our fort. I hated to think of two tables as a fort, considering I could construct far better if I only had the materials, but it would have to do.
"Mensa," Forid murmured without a trace of urgency. How could he be so relaxed? I ignored him to peer through the tables and try to come up with an escape plan. But, he refused to be ignored, and pushed my face to look at his. We were only centimeters apart.
That's when the smell hit me. Forid reeked badly. I recoiled.
"You smell like a-" I was about to say Stinkfish, but his eyebrows arched upwards to form a pained expression. Had I hurt his feelings?
Wait. He hadn't smelled this strongly five seconds ago. And now, he smelled distinctly like a Stinkfish? Alalia had been hitting Forid with potions. That last one must have been a Stink Potion. And the first one was likely a Love Potion, which would explain why Forid was standing around like a total moron instead of dodging incoming attacks or fighting back.
"Okay, don't worry. The potion will wear off within a minute," I assured him. He pouted. I tried not to breath in his general direction, for fear of retching at the smell. I hoped it wouldn't seep into my clothes.
I spied around the room. Everyone was still stationed where I had last seen them, except Alalia, Jamal, and Wilbur now joined the room.
A bullet hit the side of my head. Two more shots followed, but they flew above me.
"Ouch!" I touched the spot gingerly and checked my hand. It was a paintball. "Hey guys, those can actually do damage!" I warned Hiram and Leonardo, unsure of which one had hit me.
"She can take it!" Timmy yelled. Thanks a lot.
Seeing me hit, Forid jumped from his guarded position to take out the Painter and Dye Trader.
"Forid! Don't be an idiot!" I called after him. I rose, too, feeling water and Slime hit me from all directions. A well-aimed snowball smacked Forid in the face and I heard Scarlett let out a victorious howl. I grabbed a fistful of his clothes to try and pull him back into cover, but he was adamant.
A potion hit me in the back. Uh-oh. Was I going to stink or fall in love? I think I would have preferred the smell. As the potion took effect, an overwhelming feeling crept over me. It was exhilarating, but terrifying, and all too instantaneous. Suddenly, I couldn't imagine life without the man in front of me. My grip on Forid's clothes weakened when I became nervous to touch him.
He turned around and made eye contact with me. My heart soared. He was under the spell of a Love Potion, too, wasn't he? Maybe, if only for a moment, he would feel the same way about me as I did about him.
But he furrowed his brows and shook his head, and I realized that, for him, the effect had probably worn off.
Projectiles from all sides hit us, but none of that mattered. I couldn't hold back such strong sentiments. I would tell him exactly what I was feeling. My heart beat against my chest and I took his hand.
"Forid…"
Before I got another word out, my vision was blocked. The room filled with smoke.
"Is it a fire?" Steve asked. But it wasn't like smoke from a fire. No one was coughing or suffocating, and it started from the middle of the room, where Forid and I were, and spread to the rest of the room. I think I'd have noticed if a fire started right next to me, regardless of my impairing infatuation.
Everyone stopped firing and the room became quiet.
As the literal smoke cleared and we could see faint outlines of each other, Forid led me to the edge of the room to sit me down next to Steve. I watched as Forid knelt next to the Guide and pointed at me.
Jarut walked in, laughing, followed by a pink-haired girl I had never met, before. In his hands, he held a bomb that I assumed was responsible for the smoke.
"Wow, when you guys party, you party hard," the girl said.
"I'm sorry, I hadn't realized there we had any guests," Steve stepped forward to shake her hand. When he left my side, I looked at Forid, who caught my gaze and quickly looked away.
"My name's Steve. And, I see, you've met Jarut."
"Hey. My name's Bambi, but people call me party pooper."
"Party…?" Steve frowned.
"Yeah, I don't know. It sounds cool, though," the girl – Bambi – shrugged. She looked around the room. "Well, don't stop on my account!" She reached into her pocket and threw confetti in the air.
"If a Party Girl is here, that must mean that another villager has already arrived," Steve deduced. "Mensa?" He looked to me for input, but I wasn't paying attention. "What's gotten into her?"
Forid, still refusing to look at me, pointed to Alalia. What did he need Alalia for? She was over five hundred years old.
Wait, was I jealous? That wouldn't do.
"Oh no…" Steve lectured about Love Potions and the risk of messing with other people's heads, but I tried to ignore him.
These people trusted me to look after them. I couldn't feel jealous of them – I had a job to do. I was responsible for them.
"I don't care what Forid did. You don't have the right…"
Wait, Love Potions?
"Relax, boss, that was the last one. We don't know how to make more," was Jamal's snarky reply.
My heart stopped pounding so strongly. The potion was wearing off. Meanwhile, Jamal and Steve were in a spat.
"Okay, while you guys work that out, I'm going to fix this party," Bambi welcomed herself into the room.
"And what were you thinking hitting Mensa with one of those things? She needs to be alert at all times. It's getting dark out. What if something happened?"
"What would happen? She's already destroyed the Eye of Cuthulhu. There's nothing in this world we can't handle."
"Jamal, if you only knew."
I stood up and placed myself between the two men.
"I'm sorry, Mensa," Alalia said.
"It's okay," I replied.
"She wasn't aiming for you, anyway," Jamal muttered.
"Jamal!" Steve hissed.
"It's okay," I insisted, "The effects have worn off. Nobody got hurt, right? Forid?" I checked on him.
His eyes widened when he realized I was asking him and he nodded.
"Good. There aren't any more, and we know not to do it again."
Alalia and Jamal nodded, though the Gun Dealer did so rather begrudgingly.
"You're okay?" Steve asked.
"Yeah. It was just a bit scary, that's all."
"Yeah?" Jamal snarled. "So's a first kiss."
"First kiss?" Steve's expression softened.
"Even to a lady-killer like you?" I asked. Jamal scoffed and stomped away. "Wait, Jamal!" I chased after him, and it seemed like everyone else thought it better to stay behind.
Jamal went up a flight of stairs.
"Wait, Jamal, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be…" What? Insensitive? I didn't want to imply that Jamal was being too sensitive. "Look, I'm just sorry, okay? King Slime didn't mean any harm. I'll take responsibility for this. I'll make it up to you."
Jamal stopped, at last and turned back to me. He looked skeptical.
"How do you plan to do that?" he smirked. "You gonna kiss me?"
I scowled.
"I'm kidding. That wouldn't fix things between me and Jenna, anyway."
"Tell you what," I said, crossing my arms, "I'll make a room where you two could have some privacy, next time. Somewhere Forid or someone couldn't interrupt. How's that?"
His smirk widened, and I wondered what I said wrong.
"Forid?" he asked. "I don't think I've heard that name, before."
"What, did you really think his name was King Slime?" I said, ignoring the fact that I, in fact, did think so not so long ago.
"You've become pretty cozy with the guy, haven't you?" the Gun Dealer raised a teasing finger at me.
"I thought we were talking about you and Jenna?"
"This private room is sounding a little self-serving."
"I hate you."
"Because I'm right?"
"I'm starting to think that you can just deal with your problems on your own. In fact, maybe I should've been the one to pull the trigger."
"Okay, okay, don't get mad at me," Jamal chuckled. "I would appreciate it if you built a place where we wouldn't be interrupted."
I sighed. "That's better."
When I went back downstairs, Steve and I searched the house for another villager, since Steve said that Bambi would have only shown up once thirteen of us moved in.
We found a Witch Doctor named Kogi-ghi hanging around our storage room.
"I thought I'd wait until you guys settled down," he said.
Since he worked with imbuing, I decided to set him up in the pumpkin room, where I set up the pool to make bottled water.
"This Alchemy Station is nice," Kogi-ghi commented, "but a sink would suffice. I have my own Imbuing Station."
"A sink?" I didn't know you could make bottled water from a sink. I had a few of those sitting around the house! And, here I was, running to the pumpkin room every time I needed to make a potion! I looked accusingly at Steve.
"What?" he shrugged. "You never asked – I assumed you knew."
We went back down and found Leonardo, Hiram, and Jarut bringing drinks up from the kitchen.
"Hey, you coming?" Jarut asked.
"Bambi's starting up a party," Hiram explained.
"Yeah, we cleaned up the dining room," Leonardo added. The three left to join the excitedly chatting people.
"A party?" I asked. How out of style was I to never think of hosting parties, water fights, or even having a room to host a nice, quiet dinner?
"Could be fun," Steve smiled at me.
"I can't. I think I've had enough fun. I've gotta build a new room for Jamal and make sure Bambi settles in…"
"Just once, I think it can wait," Steve interrupted. What? But, Steve was the one who first suggested that I focus on what was important for the world. "It's dark out, anyway. It's harder to build when you can't see."
"You sure it's okay?"
"Just for tonight."
It wasn't like Steve to put off important tasks. It must have equally been important to him that we spend time with the other villagers. Perhaps he thought I needed a break? Perhaps he wanted to talk to me about something? Or talk to someone else? Whatever it was, I didn't think it would last long.
"Well, okay."
We entered the dining room. It was cleaner, now. I was happy to see Forid getting along with everyone else. No one seemed to be holding any grudges. Even Jenna was back grabbing a drink with everyone else. They were gathered around Wilbur, who was telling a story about how he once swindled a guy from overseas into buying dirt from him at a high price.
This must have been the first time everyone was all in one room. I counted heads.
"Wait, Steve?"
"Yeah?"
"You said that Bambi would move in when there were thirteen people here, already, right?"
"Yes."
"Not including me?"
"No, not including you… or Forid. You two are different."
"There are only thirteen villagers, here, then."
He counted, too. We figured out that Rupert was missing. We found him downstairs, in his room. Living a little farther than everyone else, he had been oblivious to the whole water fight. We invited him upstairs. Everyone roared in greeting when we returned.
"This room is great," Bambi exclaimed. "They say you built it, Mensa?"
"Yes, thank you," I said, beaming.
"We could add some Blinkroot for party lights!"
"Blinkroot?" Sophia joined the conversation, "I'll just set the lights up to blink – you don't need Blinkroot."
"That sounds like a great idea, Sophia," I noticed Grodax hovering around Sophia. When he complimented her, she suddenly lost her air of confidence.
"O-oh! You think so?" she looked nervous – and so did Grodax – but they both seemed happy.
As the night progressed, I realized that everyone had a group of friends they defaulted to. Steve and Wilbur had known each other the longest out of everyone else, and chatted amicably. Forid, despite what he had done, must have been forgiven by Jamal, because the Gun Dealer was excitedly talking to the king about a theoretical gun that would use Slime as ammunition. Jarut was trying to get Timmy to pay attention to the basics of chemistry. Grodax and Sophia were lost in their own world.
Even the newcomers found a way to fit in. Apparently, Bambi left a very good impression on Scarlett and was trying to convince her to move downstairs, where some empty rooms were available. Rupert, Leonardo, and Hiram were discussing fabrics and colour. Koghi-ghi, Jenna, and Alalia were engaged in a conversation about potions and flasks.
Out of everyone in the room, I was the odd one out. I spent so much time away from home, that I was barely a part of the community. Did I even know how to socialize, properly?
I didn't mind. If it meant keeping the community safe, I didn't mind not quite fitting in.
Besides, Skeletron was defeated. I didn't know of any other bosses to fight. I'd have to check with Steve, but it seemed like we were free. All I had left to do was rid the world of the Corruption. Purple grass didn't scare me. Eater of Souls were no match for me. And I was willing to bet that Forid would be happy to help me.
From here on out, life was going to get easier.