The room was neither very luxurious nor shabby. It was furnished just enough for proper hospitality, and this guest did not need any special placating, in any case.
A low table sat on the floor atop a thick bear-skin rug. She sat quietly on the floor, watching an empty teacup being set down gently on the table. Her father had apparently just finished his breakfast.
"I guess I came too early," the princess said softly as she looked at her father, the chieftain, who was wiping his mouth slowly.
"No, no problem," he replied in a deep, low voice. His throat did not sound its best today. The princess lifted her head and waited for whatever sermon or scolding he had in store. His once-crimson hair was streaked with grey and white; his face was sharp and severe with many wrinkles, especially under his eyes. Despite features that suggested a sickly old man, his body was still comparatively vigorous for his age.
"Our new companion seems more energetic than you can handle," the chieftain said, glancing to the side. This prompted the princess to jump up and start frantically searching around. She found him scratching at stray hairs sticking out of the bearskin rug beside her father. He had grown bored and found amusement in the strange fibres clinging to his claws.
Not again! the princess thought, dragging the little tiger back to her and returning to sit before her father with a shy smile.
"He likes to play, heh…" the princess said nervously as she watched her father narrow his eyes at the small tiger, which did not seem interested in anything else. The creature was already forming a simple mental plan to get to the odd horned skull hanging behind the chieftain: jump onto the table, then leap forward toward the skull. Simple, but the best plan it had come up with so far.
"You know, handling creatures from outside without the Lady's permission is forbidden, don't you?" the chieftain said as he watched the tiger clearly trying to wriggle free of the princess's arms. He did not hate it or love it; they had just met. Still, it was his duty to remove anything that might threaten the village's safety, and the unknown was certainly one of those dangers.
"I assure you he's obedient, not—" Unfortunately for her, her declaration sounded unconvincing as the tiger continued to try to slip from her grasp. "He—hey!" The tiger grew impatient, melted between her hands for a heartbeat, then reformed and jumped onto the table toward the skull hanging in front of it. And just as it sprang off the table in a powerful leap toward the skull—
The chieftain caught the tiger by the scruff with a swift wrist motion. "Alright then, he seems hard to manage, I will keep—" He stopped, turning slowly to look at the tiger in his hand. The animal, held by the scruff, was unnervingly calm for a wild thing. For a few stretched seconds, the tiger's deep golden eyes met the chieftain's faded ones.
Wait— is he absorbing—?! Unfortunately, the chieftain was too late.
"Fa—ther!?" the princess cried as her father's head dropped onto the table and he released the tiger. While she went to check on the cause of his sudden collapse, the slime-tiger had leapt toward the horned skull and knocked it to the floor.
"Wake up! Father!" the princess shouted, shaking his body hard. He was breathing, but his skin had suddenly become very hot. He was breathing faster now. He had been starting to recover, she thought in terror as she watched him gasp.
She pulled herself together and ran to another part of the house, returning with a small basin of water and a towel. She lifted his head from the table and laid him on the floor, soaked the towel in the water and placed it on his forehead. She sat there for a moment, watching her father until the first bout of agitation passed and his breathing slowed a little, though the heat in his head and body remained.
Her hands trembled as she wrung out the towel again. This wasn't like his usual episodes. Those came with a warning, with gradual weakening over days. This was instant, violent, as if something had been ripped from him all at once.
What happened? she wondered, glancing at the slime-tiger as it tried to chip at the skull's horn with its teeth and failed miserably. Was it because of him? But he hadn't done anything... The slime-tiger hadn't bitten or scratched her father before he fainted, and even if it had, it was strange that the effect would be so immediate.
It must be a coincidence, she began to convince herself, and the slime-tiger had given up trying to bite and had moved on to dissolving the skull when the princess accepted that conclusion.
…
"He's back to himself, then, is he?" the sage said calmly as he watched the village chieftain lie ill on his bed.
"I couldn't find anything besides some pain herbs to give him. I don't think I have anything that will cure him," the princess said sadly, standing near the elder. She had called for help to carry her father to his bed, and in the end, everyone had noticed the severity of the chieftain's condition. At that moment, a rustling sound came from behind them.
"Well, at least there's someone with a permanent positive attitude nearby," the sage said quietly, watching the slime-tiger play with some clay pots. His eyes lingered on it for a moment longer than necessary, that same searching look from the night before, before he turned back to the princess. The princess scooped it up lightly and began to tease it.
"I suppose it's best to leave the chieftain now. What did he say about that… creature, anyway?" he asked as he walked the princess to the doorway of the chieftain's house.
"Eh? Well… he didn't have time to say anything," the princess answered with unease.
"Ha, have a good day, then," the sage said, heading off. The princess stood for a moment at the door, then sighed deeply. It was not her fault that her father had fallen ill, but she could not find any comfort in having no cure.
"I wonder why he fainted like that without warning," she said to no one in particular as she walked back toward her cottage. She usually spent her time sewing old covers or clothes, mixing random herbal blends, or checking the integrity of the barrier. "Want me to knit you something?" she asked the slime-tiger, and she toyed with its fluffed ears. But it looked bored of being carried and tried to wriggle free. The princess could tell it would dissolve if she held on, so she let it go.
"All right then, how about we go back and play at home?" she said, kneeling toward the slime-tiger. It did not seem particularly interested; something familiar pulled its attention, that taste, the one from last night, concentrated and close. It stared off in one direction for a few seconds and then shot off that way.
Not again! the princess cried as she chased the slime-tiger once more. It seemed to enjoy putting her through a game of cat and mouse each time, which was wearing on her nerves and her strength.
Villagers exchanged bewildered looks as they watched the princess running about, chasing a blue creature too fast to follow with the eye. The slime-tiger ended up at a building on the edge of the village near a tree, entwined with its roots as if the roots were wrestling the wooden structure and trying to wrap around it.
The slime-tiger darted through the open doorway toward its goal without hesitation. The interior was empty except for various tools and pieces of equipment: a forge, an anvil, hammers, a water tank, and so on. The slime-tiger stopped in the centre of the smithy for a few seconds, inspecting everything around it. 'Strange'. Nothing here was familiar to it; it would make sure to examine every 'strange' thing before it fulfilled its purpose.
"Hmph, hmph, finally caught you— no, not that!" she shouted when she saw the slime-tiger had turned dozens of mana crystals into empty metal. Only a few crystals were left in the burlap sack.
She rushed to snatch the last two crystals from the pile, then grabbed at her hair amid the mess the slime-tiger had made as it spun and leapt around, having satisfied its appetite for a bit.
Needless to say, consuming the village's entire stock of mana crystals in two minutes was not one of its finer achievements.
The princess stared at the two remaining crystals in her right palm in disbelief, thoughts and options colliding in her head. What do I do? Can it put them back? Of course it can't! How do I explain this?
"Princess? What are you doing here?" a familiar, gruff voice asked from behind. She turned at once on hearing the voice. Standing in the doorway was the village blacksmith, middle-age looking man, tall and broad, his skin weathered and grey and his build muscular.
"I came to take some crystals? You could have sent someone to fetch them—" the blacksmith began, but stopped when his eyes caught sight of the little tiger leaping on his anvil. His gaze then swung to the large burlap sack sitting nearby, which was now empty.
"…the crystals," the blacksmith muttered, approaching and shaking the sack as if to confirm it was empty. Nothing remained.
"Did you take them…?" he asked the princess in amazement. She usually collected crystals for the barrier with his knowledge and permission, of course, and she rarely needed more than three.
"N—no! I... um... it ate them," she was a bad liar. Nothing occurred to her that might fix the situation; lying did not feel like a suitable solution either. The blacksmith, as the party harmed, deserved at least the truth.
"I... I don't think I quite grasp the joke," he said, tilting his head as he tossed the sack aside. He followed the slime-tiger's movements with his eyes. It looked like nothing more than a tiger, if not for the strange fur and its eyes.
"W—well, you see... it seems to like eating mana crystals and... it tracks their scent or something to find them. I really don't know how it knew any of them were here," the princess explained as succinctly as she could. With each word she spoke, she became more aware of how little she actually knew about this small 'pet'.
"With all due respect, Princess, that's impossible. Look," the blacksmith chuckled lightly and took a crystal from her hand, stepping closer to the slime-tiger, which was sitting on a rack of hammers. "See? It doesn't—" He fell silent the moment the little tiger bared its teeth and bit the crystal, absorbing every ounce of mana from it.
Saying the stars shone in his eyes and his jaw dropped would barely do justice to his expression in that very instant. He had never expected to doubt his own eyes so completely, the same eyes that had taught him to gauge the heat of metal now betraying him?
"Are you all right? Did it bite you?" The princess shook him vigorously until he came to, which brought his wits back and set his mind turning, and an idea formed.
"Princess… you said the tiger found the crystals from a distance, right?" he asked calmly, flipping the now ordinary metal crystal in his hand.
"Eh?… yes, I think so," the princess answered nervously, wondering where this line of questioning was going.
"Where exactly were you? From what distance did it smell the crystal?" he resumed his questions immediately, ignoring the princess's puzzled tone.
"We were near my father's house—Sorry, but what exactly do you want?" the princess finally asked, watching the blacksmith turn and face her with a smile that mixed excitement and apprehension.
"Princess, I think I've found a way not only to replace what was lost today, but to get even more!"