The ooze is a bit hurt at her hesitance to drink it. They sat in front of her with their legs crossed and their head drooped a little. They resembled a sad puppy sitting on the ground surrounded by bones.

"Yes, it will give you energy. It's... an energy drink..." Blue Raspberry replied, trying not to say that the drink was actually a little bit of their own body. They technically weren't lying by saying it was an energy drink since the ooze themself was indeed made from an energy drink, right? They'd also made sure the beverage wasn't acidic at all, or at least not any more acidic than the energy drink was supposed to be. It was perfectly safe to drink.

"Um, that elf guy is still unconscious, so... I don't want want him to find out about me, but, I want to..." Blue Raspberry started saying, a bit embarrassed. "I want to eat all these bones!" they finally got out before standing up and taking their completely unarmored form.

Their limbs looked the same as they had before, but now their torso and head were also exposed. Their torso had no defining features and their head looked like it was just placed on top with no neck. Two tiny horns poked out of the top of their faceless, round head, very much resembling the two on Astrid's head.

They began walking around the clearing picking up and consuming all of the bones on the ground as they went.

Astrid finds this situation very strange. It's in fact more strange than she would have imagined it could be. The knight she befriended and looked up to was actually very likely the wolf she befriended and missed. No, they are definitely the same creature. Watching Blue Raspberry walk around and just start cleaning up the clearing of any and all bones like some sort of walking dumpster held her attention until she winces from the pain of being slightly crushed and looks at the blue drink. Her friend wouldn't give her anything that would hurt her. So she gives it a little sniff, decides that the tart smell doesn't bother her, and downs the drink. It doesn't take long for her to feel much better, suddenly full of energy, not hungry, and not nearly so ouchy as before. 

This has been a strange day. She keeps watching the ooze consume with morbid curiosity. "Um... The cats back by the caravan, I want one of the ones that isn't all burned up. They'd make a cool cloak, probably." She wonders if someone could pull any of the cats' inherent magic from the cloak. In the meantime, she gets up, does a little stretch, and takes stock of herself. She's going to need to get her armor repaired or replaced, but she's grateful she has it. She goes to find the elf and make sure he's generally unhurt and finds he's got a few scratches and bruises, but nothing that won't heal itself over time. He's lucky he didn't get eaten. She sets him up against a tree and then starts looking for her hammer. Finally, she sees it amongst a very meaty splatter in the tree. Astrid scratches her head wondering how she's going to get it down from there. It's embedded deep into the tree, and it's quite yucky. "Hey, Blue, can you maybe help me reach me hammer?"

While Astrid retrieved the unconscious man from the tree, Blue Raspberry cleared the area of all the discarded bones along with the remaining corpse of the partially melted displacer beast he'd hit earlier. Among all of the bones on the ground, there were also various trinkets that must have belonged to whoever these bones used to be. Well, they probably wouldn't miss them. The ooze swallowed them, storing them away with all the others treasures and wealth they'd be amassing over their travels. Some of the trinkets included pieces of jewelry, a glass eye, and a few golden teeth that were still attached to skulls. They were easily removed once the skulls were dissolved. There was also, somehow, a skeleton fully made of some kind of metal. They wondered who that might have belonged to as they ate it, storing it away with the treasure inside them.

As Blue Raspberry slurped up the last of the bones, Astrid called to him for some assistance retrieving her hammer that was still embedded in the trunk of the tree. They walked over and grabbed hold, pulling. It took a moment before it was finally dislodged, but it eventually came loose from the bark and was in the ooze's hand. It was covered in gore from the displacer beast king. Blue Raspberry inserted the hammer into their mouth (or into their face, really) and pulled it out again, sparkling clean, before handing it to Astrid. They redonned their armor, not wanting the elf to wake up and seem them as an ooze.

Astrid watches with slowly blinking eyes as Blue Raspberry cleans her hammer and hands it back to her. She takes it, stores it at her side, and looks at the ooze knight. "That... must be really convenient fer keepin' yer armor clean..." Looking around at the clearing, she finds Blue Raspberry has completely cleaned it up. Then she looks up at the knight. She has so many more questions than before, especially now that she's pretty much figured out that the ooze was her wolf friend. It makes a lot of sense, and she's internally kicking herself for not seeing it before. Of course, Blue Raspberry doesn't want people to find out. Most people would think they're a monster that needs to be slain, even if they've done good things. She understands what it's like to be disliked for what you look like. She's a kid with horns, after all. Things haven't always been easy, but she hasn't let it get her down. 

She wipes her hands on her pants, kind of wondering how to awkwardly broach the subject of the wolf thing. "Um... ya wouldn't happen ta have any extra armor pieces floatin' around in there, would ya?" She playfully knocks on the knight's armor. "I had this cool wolf friend who found me these gauntlets last time I was on an adventure with them."

Blue Raspberry thought about it for a moment. Did they have any extra pieces of armor in them? They put their hand on the bottom edge of their helmet, thumb and index finger out, and their other hand on their waist. They looked up into space for a moment, trying to mentally take spot of all the junk and treasure they'd eaten and stored up.

They definitely had some leather armor from eating the bandits with Astrid, but none of that seemed right. She probably wanted something made of metal to match her gauntlets. None of this leather armor would work. Oh, there was a metal skeletal leg. No, that's not armor... Boots... nope, just hard leather.... No, these wouldn't fit her at all... Wait, these could work.

The knight removed their helmet and bent forward as what looked like a waterfall of tiny bits of metal flowed out of the front of their faceless head and into Astrid's arms. Once the tiny pieces of metal were finished falling, a couple of slime-covered boots fell out one at a time, landing on top of the pile of metal bits.

The boots were mostly a hardened leather, but they had metal plates covering the toe area, heel, and the front of the leg. The tiny pieces of metal were actually a pair of chainmail greaves. They might be a little too long for Astrid, but they could be tucked into the boot or rolled up, maybe, probably. Blue Raspberry really wasn't an expert on armor.

"Are these good?" they asked as they put their helmet back on.

Astrid suggesting her knight friend vomit up some pieces of armor was entirely a joke. She did not expect that to actually work, so when the ooze does exactly that, she stands there blinking. Suddenly, she starts laughing. "I didn't actually think ya had anythin' in there!" she says, holding her stomach from the outburst. "Incredible! Yer one fantastical ooze, ya know that?" Since they're offering, she takes the greaves, still laughing, and shakes some of the goop off of them. Even once she's cleaned most of the slime clinging to the metal off, they seem to have a thin residual layer and electrical branches burned into the metal. That seems pretty cool to her, and she knocks on one of the boots. "Maybe they're all staticy like you." 

She looks at the greaves in her arms for a long moment then at Blue Raspberry again. "Why didn't ya just tell me you were the weird wolf?" she asks. There's no accusation or anger in her tone, just curiosity. "Didja think I wouldn't like ya? I liked ya a lot when you were a wolf. I like ya a lot exactly as ya are, however ya want that ta be. I s'pose... maybe my feelin's are a little hurt. But hurt goes away."

"Ah, well..." Blue Raspberry is a bit caught off guard by Astrid being so accepting, especially of them having been the wolf that basically robbed them and then left. They're touched. They're not really sure how to respond.

"I thought you'd be mad at me for leaving. I didn't mean to run into anyone while I was a wolf. I just wanted to run around without my armor on for a bit. But then you saw me and we fought bandits and I ate a bunch of stuff and you started treating me like your pet and I didn't want to be a pet since I'm trying to be disguised as a human, so I ran away. But I left you a necklace shaped like a wolf. I thought you would like it." they rambled a bit, trying to explain themself.

Once they finished speaking, they could both hear a bit of groaning coming from the Elf slumped against the tree. Blue Raspberry quickly checked to make sure none of their ooze was showing before the man's head slowly rose to see the two standing in front of him in the middle of a small clearing with a large tree to his back. He seemed confused for a moment, raising a hand up to hold his head that was aching from being bumped hard against something he didn't remember and knocking him out. Suddenly his eyes opened wide and he looked around.

"Where are the displacer beasts!? Where are we? Where are the carts? What happened?" he stuttered out, a bit panicked. He seemed to have no memory of anything that happened after being attacked at the caravan. He barely even remembered that.

Astrid starts to open her mouth when the elf gets up and starts shouting. She quickly thinks of an explanation. She's certainly speckled with bits of blood and still looks roughed up from their fight. "Oh, yer awake! One of the beasts nabbed ya, and we found ya and took 'em out! But um... we fought them a good ways back, and we were just takin' a break on our way back ta the caravan. Don't worry, we took care of all of 'em. We beat their king and everythin'!" That's all mostly true. 

The snobby elf dusts dirt and leaves from his clothes only to find some minor rips and tears in the fabric. He consequently pitches a fit. "This is ridiculous. You were supposed to protect us from any monsters! Now my clothes are ruined. This is terrible! Absolutely awful!" 

Astrid's expression drops, and she looks truly annoyed. "I s'pose we coulda just let them eat ya! Then we wouldn't hafta hear ya complainin'. We trudged all the way out here ta find ya, I nearly got eaten, and a whole lotta other stuff happened. We protected the carts and everyone's safe and alive. Yer welcome, by the way. Don't be a big jerk about it." She huffs and starts walking through the forest towards the road. It's going to be a long walk with this guy in tow, so she wants to get as far ahead as possible so she can talk to Blue Raspberry some more.

When the ooze in armor catches up, she looks back to make sure the elf if far enough away, then looks at the knight. "I did like the necklace. I showed it to ya when we first met." She lifts the pendant from its place around her neck to show them then looks ahead. "I didn't mean ta treat ya like a pet. I wasn't tryna do that, I was just happy ta have a friend. So yeah, I was pretty sad to see you were gone, but the necklace at least made me feel like you had a good time with me and maybe... thought I was a friend too." She's a bit sheepish towards the end. "And then ya footed me with the bill fer all that furniture at the restaurant!" The last part comes through an exasperated laugh. She pats her padded armor. "I was gonna get me a nice chest piece, but this was all I could afford with what I had left." Then she looks up at the knight with a playful, gap-toothed grin. "I s'pose I'll let it slide since ya coughed up some greaves fer me." 

Blue Raspberry gets a little excited when they hear the phrase "big jerk", but then realized that they hadn't actually said the elf guy was a big jerk. She told him not to be a big jerk. So, he wasn't one yet? Oh well. It would probably be a bad idea to eat him anyways since the other merchants were expecting them to come back with him and they'd gone through all this just to save him in the first place.

Far enough ahead of the Elf that he can't listen in on their conversation, Blue Raspberry listens to Astrid talking. They'd a bit embarrassed when she mentions he left her with the bill for all the furniture, turning their helmet away and avoiding looking at her. They press their index fingers together repeatedly with little tinking noises in front of them as they walk.

"Sorry..." they say quietly, their voice not directed at anyone in particular.

Eventually the two emerge back onto the road where the caravan is still waiting. Some of the merchants have even gathered around the corpses of the slain displacer beasts they'd left there. One of them seemed to have some experience in skinning animals and has started removing the pelt from the last of the four beast left there. There was a little confusion since they thought they'd been attacked by six beasts. One had run away with the Elf, but where was the last one? Well, they just accept that it must have not been dead and teleported away at some point.

Blue Raspberry just holds their hands behind their back and tries not to look conspicuous.

The nicer merchant spots them emerging from the brush and perks up. "You're back! You're alive! What happened?" he asks rapidly. When he sees the elf, he looks relieved. If the boss doesn't make it to their destination, no one gets paid. "Oh, thank Solaria." 

The snooty elf seems especially glad to be back. All that walking hurt his feet. "Finally. How is the cargo?" He immediately goes about checking on the carts, not asking a single one of the others how they're doing. The cargo is the only thing that matters to him. 

Astrid gets a little impatient with the elf and goes to see what the merchant skinning the beasts is doing. "Whoa, you did that really well," she says. 

"Special pelts like these sell really well," he says in response. When he looks at her over his shoulder, he sees her eyes shining with excitement. It's obvious she wants one. "I... suppose it's only fair if I offer one to you if you want one."

"Yes, definitely, please. I want a cool cape!"

The skinner merchant chuckles. "I know a good tanner. I'll take you to meet them."

"YESSSSS."

Astrid leave the merchant alone, and they get anything worthwhile from the beasts then quickly pack up and get on the road again. She walks alongside Blue Raspberry again, hoping they don't run into any more issues in Shadewood Forest. "Where are ya gonna go after this?" she asks.

Blue Raspberry keeps looking back over their shoulder at the skinned corpses of the displacer beats. If they had a mouth, they'd be drooling. Ah, what a waste. They would have happily eaten those if it wouldn't give away their true identity to all these merchants. It was a shame, but they had to leave them behind.

They're snapped out of their staring by Astrid suddenly speaking to them as they walk along behind the carts.

"Huh!? Oh. Uh, I'm not sure. I just travel around. What are you going to do? That merchant said something about getting tanner? Are you going to the beach? I've been to the sea before. Did I tell you I was born on a boat?" they replied, trying to forget about the food getting farther and farther away behind them.

The merchant nearest to them stifled a laugh. They weren't sure if the knight was joking or not from how casually they had been speaking about the tanner and the beach, but they found it funny anyways. He turned around to look at the two with a friendly smile.

"That's a good joke! Hey, you're also welcome to one of the beast's hides since you also fought them. I'll take the other two as payment for skinning them. Say, can you just explain one thing to me? Why are some of them pelts a bit burnt? I didn't get to watch your fight much, since we were all hiding from that last beast that took our leader away. Must have been quite the fight!" the man said cheerily. He seemed genuinely interested in how their battle had played out.

"Oh, they were burnt by my lightning magic." Blue Raspberry replied simply, not really understanding what joke the man was talking about, but they could at least explain the burn marks easily.

"Lightning magic? I thought you were just a knight. Well, that does explain the burns."

Astrid laughs at the misunderstanding. She's had a few of those in her short time here on Charon. "No, not gettin' tanner, like sunburnt, gettin' a tanner, someone who does some cool science ta preserve pelts. They make leather!" 

She looks ahead at the merchant. "Ya don't hafta have a sword and shield ta be a knight. Most people don't know how ta learn magic. But I wanna one day. I think it'd be really cool if I could."

They walk a bit longer then she looks at the knight. "No, ya didn't tell me you were born on a boat. Ya haven't told me much about yerself at all, honestly, but if ya wanna go to the beach, I'd like ta go too. If that's okay. I haven't gotten ta go to the beach before. Maybe people have more work fer us near the ocean." Astrid turns her attention to the road ahead, and her hands come up in front of her to fidget with the wolf pendant around her neck. Her voice drops in volume as she continues sheepishly, "We could go on lotsa adventures together. Ya know... like friends? Would that be okay? I've had a lot of fun, even if sometimes it's scary. Adventuring ain't fer the faint of heart, after all. And we could do lotsa good things together. What... What do you think about that?" She looks up at the knight. "A-And maybe we could get the pelts made into awesome capes and we could match!"

Then she realizes maybe she's being too pushy, so she swallows the excitement, ready for disappointment and ready to be left to find her own way again.   

"That sounds fun! I've never worn matching capes before. Will they have the tentacles?" Blue Raspberry replied excitedly. "We can be friends and fight more monsters together and go to the ocean and take more jobs. I like going on these jobs, there's always lots of food and stuff. My heart is definitely not faint! I don't even have one! So there's no way it can be faint, right? It's all okay with me." they said, giving a thumbs up as they finished.

The merchant listened along, laughing. They were happy to hear such enthusiastic conversation about being friends. It was kind of touching. They didn't understand that whole part about not having a heart though, but they just ignored that for now, even if it was mildly concerning. It was probably just another joke. This knight had a strange sense of humor to go along with their weird abilities.

"Hey, there's actually a port town south from where we're all heading. The tanner I mentioned is also in that port town. They tan hides from people hunting in the forest and then turn those hides into nice clothes that sell well across the ocean, in Frost Gale. They do good business. Just let them know Hershal sent you, they'll give you a good discount on getting those displacer beast capes of yours done." the merchant said over his shoulder to the pair.

The caravan soon exited the Shadewood, making steady progress toward the town that was their destination. The two would receive their pay for protecting the caravan along with a bit of a bonus (despite the Elf's protests) for going to save their leader and returning with him safe and sound. With their business done, Hershal gave them a warm goodbye as they set off for the nearby port town, excited to see what may come next.

With the town far enough behind them and no one else on the road, Blue Raspberry even changed into the giant wolf again and gave Astrid a ride on their back. The travel was quick with Blue Raspberry running along, their tongue hanging out of the side of their mouth, the two beast pelts stored safely inside them.