The shine of the emblem was attractive, as it played off the thin rays of light entering from the window. It was solid, weighty, and fit perfectly in Bloo's grasp. He playfully tossed the emblem from one hand to the other, disregarding how dropping it could damage it. The only thing on the slime's mind was the riches.

Glimmers of red and white highlighted the small picture of the fictitious Overseer inscribed in the ruby, along with text which wrote, The Overseekers. What a phony, Bloo thought, Erugo even went through the effort to ruin and deface precious gemstones for his cult. Bloo caught the ruby in his palm one last time before he stuffed it into his bag, placing it by the five other identical rubies that were already in there.

"So..." Bloo closed his bag up and turned to the dining table, which Wilt, Ed, and Coco were eating pancakes at. "Anyone have any ideas?"

The clanks of plates and forks became less amplified when Ed stopped eating, "Ni idea, Azul. How bout' we finish our food before we think. You haven't eaten anything since you came here either. Come and eat, we have more pancakes, amigo."

Ed was right, Bloo was starving. Considering how he rushed over to their home as soon as he woke up, Bloo completely forgot about making breakfast for himself. Bloo clutched his grumbling stomach, "Pancakes do sound good right about now," he said just before he grabbed a chair and claimed a spot on the dining table.

"Syrup?" Wilt offered as he slid Bloo a plate of pancakes.

"You already know, man."

The red leader grabbed a pitcher and poured it on Bloo's pancakes, changing the plain breakfast to a more interesting dish. The syrup spread all over the stack, overflowing down to the plate. Bloo began to dig in, stuffing his face full.

Ed grimaced at Bloo's rudeness, "Could you show some table manners, please?"

Bloo wiped away syrup from his mouth, burped, and replied, "Don't get on me, you don't want to see me go from hungry to hangry."

"Hangry? What does that mean?" Ed asked.

"Cocococococo, coco coco coco," Coco explained what the slang meant, giggling at the childish nature of it.

The gentle monster snickered, "That's a funny word."

Wilt chuckled, "That's new. Never heard of that one before," he took his final bite, "Sounds like something Cheese would say."

"Don't bring up that idiot, let me enjoy my breakfast without getting flashbacks of his antics," Bloo said as he rolled his eyes.

"Speaking of cheese," Wilt placed his silverware on to the now empty plate, "Before we plan on how to sell the rubies, we oughta head to the shops. We're running low on beans, we're out of cheese, the candles are spent, and my longsword needs repairs."

Bloo groaned, "Aww… Errands?! C'mon any second we waste now could lead to missed chances of selling the gems."

"You're exaggerating. Regardless, we need to do our chores before we get to the good stuff, my man. We can split it four ways, one person does one thing, another does something else, and so on. We can get this done before noon, easy," Wilt said as he wiped his dirty dishes clean before placing them back in the cabinet.

"But the rubi-"

"Ah ah ah, we gotta get our responsibilities done first. Besides, who wants to be counting coins in the dark anyway?" Wilt silenced the slime, "I'm fixing up my sword, Coco gets the beans, Ed gets the cheese, you have to get the candles Bloo."

Bloo groaned and sank in his chair, the last thing he wants to do right now is a boring errand. "Ugh, screw it. Fine, I'll do it."

"Great! Just make sure to get a good deal, some of those shops sell some with crappy wax for like five gold."

"I'll go to that stand with that one old lady, she always gives me a low price if I ask her nicely, and they're fairly serviceable..." Bloo's indolence was apparent as he slowly made his way to the front door while hanging his head back unenthusiastically, moaning and groaning at each step. "I'll get this done in a flash, I bet I'll be the first to return in fact," he said as he put his pack on.

"Did you just say bet?" Ed asked before he took his last sip of tea from his mug.

"You bet I did"

"Chico, we can make this a bet."

"I'm listening."

"How about this, whoever is the first person to return home, the others have to give them 15 silver each," Ed challenged.

Bloo's grin grew and his eyes narrowed, "I'm in."

Ed turned his head towards Coco and Wilt, "How about you two? You guys wanna join in?"

A thick silence in the air was present briefly before a response was made.

"Yea, sure-"

"COCO CO!" The bird sharply interrupted Wilt with her confirmation before blotting out of the front door, getting a head start on her errand immediately.

Bloo was shocked by her quick exit, the wind from the door getting forcibly opened grazed Bloo's face. He stood for a second, surprised, and then snapped back to the objective. "Well we're not gonna let her win, right? Let's go!" He said before running out himself.

"¡Àndale, Wilt!" Ed hurriedly followed after the slime, leaving Wilt alone in the hut.

Wilt smirked as he saw the others leave so quickly, "We'll never grow out of this, huh?" He said to himself before calmly exiting last.

It was still early for the village, most merchants were just beginning to open up their shops, and many children were still taking advantage of not having to wake early for school over the weekend, sleeping in. The rhythm of wind chimes enhanced the morning ambiance, along with the shuffling of the distant trees. Mystic Mana was still getting the crud of its eyes when Bloo suddenly came speeding through. The sheer speed he was moving at knocked hanging clothes off their lines, the dust cloud that emitted from his sprint made the villagers reel back and cough. The slime was determined to reach his goal, nothing could seemingly slow him down. Until a claymore flew in front of him and pierced the dirt, creating an obstacle. Bloo didn't notice the giant sword that landed in front of him before he slammed face first into it, knocking him down.

Bloo laid on his back as he held his face in pain, cursing under his breath.

"You sure weren't moving that fast when I asked you to come sit by me during lunch last week," A young feminine voice behind him complained.

The slime stood up and turned around to see who placed the sword, "Ugh, whoever did that is gonna get the front seat to a major ass whoo-" He stopped talking once his view was fully focused on the owner of the voice. There stood a short girl with a complexion of pink ruby. Little tufts of hair stuck out of the top of her head, which were reminiscent of short pigtails. Bloo stared at the girl, not saying a word.

"Front seat to what? You couldn't stop for a sec to come say hi to me, you ran right past me! What do you have to say for yourself Bloo?" The girl said with a scowl.

"Um, I, uh, I…"

"What now?"

Bloo looked to the left, avoiding eye contact with the girl. He had a hard time connecting a name to the face, and the face was only slightly familiar. He didn't want to ask what the girl's name was, to avoid ticking her off further. "Uh, I guess I didn't see ya, my bad, err…" Bloo squinted, he was still drawing blanks on who this person was. "If you'd excuse me, I'm a little busy right now-"

"What's my name?" The girl quizzed, still training her hard scowl on the slime.

"Huh?"

"WHAT. IS. MY. NAME!" The aggression increased tenfold, her scowl was now accompanied by a toothy frown, showcasing her fangs.

Bloo flinched at her sudden volume, scared, he went with the first guess he could think of.

"Heather?"

The girl was silent, shocked by how horrible his guess was, this silence didn't stay for long however. "MY NAME IS NOT HEATHER, IT'S BERRY. BERRY, BERRY, BERRY! YOU'RE TALKING TO BERRY!" She was stomping the ground violently as she ranted.

Bloo swore she grew horns for a moment. "Oh, Berry! I'm sorry, I have a memory of a goldfish, y'know. Sorry for the mistake!" He said while backing away slowly, trying to find the first opportunity to escape the situation.

Berry stepped closer, "We planned to go stargazing last Friday, I went to your hut. YOU WEREN'T THERE!"

"Oh, we did?" Bloo couldn't bring to memory any past plans with her at all.

"Remember when I passed you a note during Magic History class on Thursday? Remember what I asked, remember what you answered? Not only answered, but PROMISED?!"

"I recall no such thing-"

Berry pushed a crumpled parchment in Bloo's face, which fell on the ground. He looked down, "The hell is that?"

"READ IT."

Bloo kneeled down and picked up the note, he uncrumpled it and flatten it out. Inside, the note had fancy cursive near the top that read,

"Would you like to go stargazing with me on Friday, Bloo?"

Just below that line, in crude handwriting, laid a reply,

"okay"

"Do you promise?"

"yes"

"Great! I'll come to your hut that evening, is that fine with you?"

"yes"

"I ain't write that," Bloo said.

"I know your handwriting down to the pen strokes. You failed to keep your promise!" Small cracks in the earth began to form around her.

Bloo eyes widened, "I'm sorry, my friends decided to go adventuring that night. Y'know I can't pass up a chance to get some cool loot-"

Berry pulled the claymore out of the ground with ease, even though the sword should practically outweigh her. She pointed the sword towards the slime, and growled.

Bloo became even more nervous, "Look I'm sorry! Please don't-"

Suddenly, Berry's fury vanished, and she made a large smile while closing her eyes, tilting her head to the side. "It's okay, I forgive you!" She unequipped the giant sword, placing it on her back. The sword was half a foot taller than her, so it looked very unusual when she had it stowed away. "Just don't do it again, kay?"

The sudden change in tone surprised Bloo, "...You're not angry anymore?"

"Nope! When was I angry?"

"Huh? Wait, err… Never mind. I'm running some errands right now, guess I'll get back to that-"

"Can I tag along?"

"NO!" Bloo said sharply, before realizing the tone behind it could set her off again, "I mean, you probably shouldn't, I'm just doing some super boring stuff-"

"You were rushing through town because you had to do super boring stuff? That sounds berry suspicious…" Berry said.

Bloo was messing up his lay it on easy approach, "I just wanted to get it done quickly, that's all."

"Hmm…" Berry put a finger on her chin, staring hard at the slime, Bloo gulped. "...Okay, the story checks out. See you tomorrow, Bloo!" Berry waved goodbye before walking away. She turned around when she was about a few feet away from the slime and blew a kiss, causing him to grimace hard.

"She's gonna be the death of me..." Bloo said to himself before returning to his objective. He lost a lot of time from the encounter, and became very frustrated, clenching his fist. The old lady's stand is too far to reach quickly now, he has to buy candles from a closer shop, Bloo thought. He quickly scanned the area, seeing mostly homes and few stands. Finally he noticed a small stand with an elf behind it, who appeared to be selling tinderboxes and lighter fluid. It'll suffice, Bloo thought to himself.

The elf appeared to be taking inventory in a small book as Bloo approached, at first, the elf didn't notice him at first, with his back facing the slime.

"Hey, do you sell candles?" Bloo asked, capturing the merchant's attention.

The elf's long ears moved when Bloo first spoke, he turned around and closed his book, "Yes we do! Would you like to purchase some, young wizard?"

Bloo's cloak gave away his specialty. "Possibly, how much for a medium batch of one ounce candles?"

"That'd be about five silver."

"Five silver?!" Bloo was shocked, "For a medium batch? Those only have like eight candles in it, why is it five silver?"

"Well…" The elf merchant scratched his balding head and looked down, "That's the market price now, since there's a shortage going on. We have little stock."

Bloo raised an eyebrow, "A candle wax shortage? What the hell?"

"I heard rumors that there could be a thief stealing wax straight from the locked boxes in unsupervised stands, which may explain it, as a good portion of my stock just disappeared without a trace a few nights ago."

Bloo narrowed his eyes and stared hard at the merchant, "I'm sensing some deception here."

A bead of sweat formed on the merchant's forehead, he gazed past the slime, "What?! How could you think that, I'm no liar."

"Then why won't you look at me in the eye?" Bloo leaned closer, closing the gap between him and the elf, "I haven't heard a lick of info about a wax thief all day, let alone all week."

"Well, mayb-"

"I'm done with your crap. Fifteen copper for the candles, take it or leave it."

The merchant frowned and was silent for a moment. He then led out a deep sigh, "Sure, I'll bring it up to you…"

"That's what I thought. You're a terrible liar, so quit trying that dishonest salesman crap around me, or next time the candle wax thief will be far from a lie," Bloo threatened as he readied his copper, taking a handful out of his belt pouch.

"Here," The merchant dropped the sack of candles on the counter, "I see you're no fool, a rarity for folks of your age."

Bloo rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah, I'm not shopping here again," he threw the copper down on the counter, grabbed the sack, and paced away. The copper didn't even finish spinning on the counter before Bloo was completely out of sight.

The streets were becoming more lively as Bloo made way back to his friends' home. Profanity was hidden under his breath as he walked around passing crowds of villagers. Thoughts of the loss he was gonna take once he returned clouded his mind. Coco has likely been home for a while now, he thought as his frown became more prominent.