In response to what Vikram had just said, the dagger at Ulrich's side floats from it's scabbard. It stands itself on top of the table close to Ulrich as he ate.

"You should listen to the man, Wolfe. What he said is quite true."

Ulrich chewed and swallowed the food currently in his mouth. "Oh right, gentlemen, this is one of my traveling companions," He says gesturing to the standing dagger. "Alvis Worthington, former great pirate hunter, and now, spirit trapped inside of a dagger."

"Pleased to meet you as well, Gentlemen!"

Ulrich continued to eat and pondered upon the coming challenge of finding the aforementioned Cuail. Would they have a difficult time finding it, would it be a problem when it sensed the four of them on it's trail?

"I must ask, would we have to fight for our lives with this bird?"

Blue Raspberry tossed an entire bone-in chicken wing into their mouth and looked at the floating, talking dagger with a smile. Oddly, the knight was far less surprised by an object speaking than one might have expected. Blue Raspberry had already met a talking shield in their travel, and their sense of logic was a bit skewed. Some objects can talk was just a fact they had learned and never questioned.

"I'll be fine. I could even swallow you and be fine!" Wolfe replied jokingly, pointing their fork at the floating dagger with a toothy grin, showing their enlarged canines. Unknown to the others, they weren't actually joking at all. They had in fact swallowed that talking shield when they'd found it, along with an entire chest of treasure that was in the same place.

"Pleased to meet you too." They added as they continued to finish off the plate of chicken wings and legs.

The knight had no idea why kale would provide a life-threatening fight, but they also looked at Vikram for an answer to Ulrich's question anyways.

    Vikram leaned back into his chair, chuckling briefly. To think they would have trouble with such a quarry was humorous indeed. Though he did wonder if this sentient knife would also want an appropriate portion...That would take the split now to...one to four? Worrying.

"I do not think us three should have much trouble apprehending this prey. From my understanding, the Cinnamini Cuail is quite the diminutive creature. The challenge I suppose would be not damaging its delicate sweet meats. Its flavour unmatched, it would be remiss of us to waste it." He states, quietly fantasizing about its consumption.

    The trio finished what was left of the meal, Vikram personally quite full. No, there was always room for Cuail. He looked about to the table of fine gentlemen gathered around, men bound now by a pact of flavour and texture unheard of in mortal realms. Truly, this quest would be the defining moment for the palate of the desert dweller.

"Well then, I suppose that about does it. Shall we be off, Gentlemen?"

"I see. So it's not at all dangerous then? Well then I hope that we are successful in bringing it back, meat intact, so that we can enjoy the delicacy!"

Ah, so the Cuail was not some kind of giant, dangerous bird like Ulrich had been imagining! He could've sworn that some of the people made it sound like it was dangerous as hell though. Maybe it was local superstition or stories that they would tell the children to keep them from venturing off?

"I quite agree! Let us be off!" Alvis quickly floats back into the scabbard at Ulrich's hip.

Ulrich stands up from his chair excitedly. "Yes, I cannot wait to get a look of this creature for myself! If it is that tiny of a creature, then this should go smoothly!"

Blue Raspberry was really disappointed to hear the cuail was tiny. The ooze preferred their meals to be on the large side, as might be indicated by the enormous feast they would have scarfed down entirely alone had they not invited the two men to join them. Also, what did they mean by creature? Wasn't it a plant? Well, maybe they'd misunderstood something. They did that a lot. Hopefully this cuail was as delicious as Vikram was making it out to be, because the portion size already sounded disappointing.

With all of the plates decimated by the ooze's appetite, Blue Raspberry wiped their face with a cloth napkin, ate the napkin as discreetly as possible (which wasn't very discreetly at all), and stood up from the table along with Vikram and Ulrich.

"Alright, let's go get this cuail!" they announced cheerfully, picking up their helmet off of a chair next to the one they'd been sitting on, and placing it on their head. They turned and marched out the door, eager to get a taste of cinnamini cuail. Soon, they realized one important thing. They had no idea which direction to go. They waited for Vikram to take the lead and followed behind, still just as cheerful as before.

    Vikram left a sack of Solars on the table, no telling if it would be enough to actually settle the tab, but hopefully they would just be thankful the table was leaving. Making their way out of the Bird's Perch, he let out a sharp whistle with two fingers, calling into the sky. A minute of awkward silence followed before the Carpet wafted down from the mid distance, pulling to a stop at Vikrams feet.

"There is room for all of us, if you are of course comfortable in close quarters. Just hold onto the edge, it will be fun!" He exclaimed joyfully. He sat cross-legged at the front of it, and took off once everyone had either decided on their own way or had hopped on. The ascent into the cool mountain air was refreshing after such a delightful meal, it's breeze allowing all things to settle in their own time.

"You know, a society such as the Bird's Perch cannot be easy. I can only speak of mine own experiences, but it is no secret that the life of servicemen and women is arduous and exhausting. If we return there to have our quarry cooked, It would do us well to thank them in kind"

The wind blowing through his beard was gentle enough to be heard, even at this altitude. The wonders of flight could not be overstated for their comfort and convenience. Their destination was not much further, so he would have to enjoy it while he could. Hopefully the package that he had left under the table in the restaurant for Mr. Oswald would be found by the waiter they had. He could only imagine what the secret ingredient would taste like, and his mouth watered when he thought of it.

Ulrich's eyes lit up as a carpet floated down, Vikram indicating that this was their ride if they should choose to get on. Fascinating! He'd seen some flying carpets in action on his travels, but this would mark the first that he would ever get to ride on one for himself!

Of course, Ulrich was fully capable of flight himself, but where was the fun in that? Vikram had, after all, offered for them to ride on the carpet as well.

"Don't mind if I do!" He says excitedly, gently stepping onto the carpet.

He sits cross legged on one of the sides looking down at the scenery below them. This was an experience he would not soon forget! It was nice to be in the air while not using up any magic. It was very relaxing feeling the gentle breeze of the day was refreshing, indeed.

"Agreed. I'm sure we'll be able to think of something to thank everyone when we return! Ah, but it would be quite lucky to find more than one Cuail, wouldn't it?" Ulrich puts a hand on his chin as he ponders. "Or maybe if it was larger we could serve a feast of it! Alas, as it was mentioned before, it is unfortunately, a tiny creature."

The knight hopped right onto the carpet excitedly without a second thought. They'd never rode a flying carpet before, so they very literally jumped at the opportunity, with no reservations about being in close quarters with the other two. Their view ahead wasn't very good sitting down behind Vikram and holding the sides of the carpet, but that was fine. They just stood up, their feet glued firmly in place by a thin coating of sticky blue slime, and rode the carpet like a very oversized skateboard, standing right at the center.

"I've never flown on a carpet before! Just as a bird and stuff, but this is fun! I didn't know carpets could fly!" They said cheerfully as they flew through the air.

Though their feet were firmly in place, their balance wasn't quite so immovable and they occasionally placed a hand on top of Vikram's turban to steady themself.

"Ooh, a feast would be great! I love feasts. Maybe we can find a whole lot of cuail? Or maybe we can go find something bigger and bring that back too. I'm already hungry again just thinking about it!"

Technically, it was true. They were already hungry, but not because they were thinking of a feast. The ooze was just never not hungry no matter how much they ate.

---

Slimy Hands

    Vikram laughed heartily at the enthusiasm the others had offered for their ride through the sky. He always loved being useful, and offering to fly them to their destination was the least he could do for them. Even through the skies, he gave them quite the flight. Dips and dives through the treetops of the mountains were thrilling enough to be monetized. After about half an hour, he spotted it.

"Look, down there!" He pointed, and a small clearing in the trees revealed a pasture of sparkling red-black flowers. "Cinnamini!"

    He reigned the carpet downwards to land in the midst of the crop, seemingly in full bloom by the sharp, spicy cinnamini scent lingering in the air. He let them down, and a moment of realization shown he was not disembarking himself.

"My apologies my newfound friends. I have simply forgotten that I have some scrolls I must return to the Library. I wish you the best in your flavourful hunt! If you have any left-over, bring it by the Fighter's Guild! Be safe!"

    Offering a wave, and a swish of the carpet took him off into the mountains, to return some scrolls.

They both stand there in the pasture as Vikram floats back up in to the skies, to return some scrolls apparently.

Now they stand here, previously a group of three now reduced to two. Ulrich looks around the pasture at the Cuail in front of them. Capturing one of them should be easy, right? There's quite a few more than he'd thought there would be.

Hang on a second... Vikram said "be safe" as he departed just now. What did he mean by that? Was there actual danger that came with hunting these creatures? Ulrich doesn't know that much about them other than what the locals had told him.

He clears his throat, "Wolfe, did you happen to catch what he said just now before he left? 'Be Safe.' You wouldn't happen to know anything else about these creatures, would you?"

Maybe Ulrich was reading too much into Vikram's comment? Perhaps the hunt would go smoothly and nothing crazy would happen to them? He just didn't know.

Blue stood next to Ulrich, watching Vikram fly away on the carpet. Huh. Those must have been some really important books he had to return. Or that library was just really strict. Maybe they'd get really mad if he didn't return those books right now. That's too bad, he's going to miss out on all the cuail! The knight just shrugged and put their hands on their hips.

"Hmm? Nope! Don't know anything about them." They replied energetically, looking around the field of cinnamini flowers around them. They reached down and picked one of them and shoved it straight up into the bottom of their helmet. It was pretty good! Kind of spicy, but with a tiny bit a sweetness and earthiness. They picked and ate a few more before standing back up straight again an looking at Ulrich.

"Welp, this doesn't look hard at all! They're so small! We're probably going to need like, a bunch of them if we wanna have a feast. I could eat all these ones myself!" They pointed at the tiny birds sifting through the flowers around them. They were barely any taller than the flowers, their heads just visible among the sea of red and black. Their feathered heads sparkled with the same colors as the flowers, the little birds covered in cinnamini.

Ulrich stood there pondering as Wolfe exclaimed that their current objective shouldn't be too hard. Why would it be? These birds were quite small as a matter of fact. He couldn't shake the feeling in his gut. He knew that there had to be a catch to this whole situation, right? If there wasn't, Vikram wouldn't have said 'Be safe.'

A sea sparkling of red and black lay before them; Ulrich watched attentively as the Cuail sifted through the flowers. The flowers were quite peculiar weren't they? He'd never seen anything like them; sparkling red and black... And Wolfe just shoved one of them into his helmet earlier, didn't they? Should he be surprised? He witnessed them scarf down so much food earlier!

"Uuhhh, Wolfe. Did you just eat one of those flowers? Do you feel anything happening? Do you feel different?" He asked pulling out his sketchbook, preparing to take anything of note.

Alvis floats out from the scabbard at Ulrich's hip; slowly floating downward towards the flowers.

"Hmmm," he uttered, taking a closer look at the flowers. "There seems to be a powder coming off of them, which would explain the sparkling we've been noticing."

"Yeah...?" Blue replied. They had just eaten a flower, but they didn't feel anything odd. They put their hands on the front of their cuirass as if they were feeling their stomach. "Hmmmm. No, I don't feel any different. Should I? You want me to eat some more of them?"

Without waiting for an answer, Blue reached down and started plucking more flowers and sticking them up into their helmet, swallowing them. As they sifted through the flowers, the powder started to get all over their arms, drifting into the air and slowly coating the rest of the knight. The powder in the air spread, also making its way toward Ulrich and Alvis.

The flowers they ate didn't seem to have any effect on the ooze at all, but as they were coated in the powder they slowly began to shrink. When they stood back up again after consuming a chunk of the field of flowers, they were almost half their previous height! They looked up at Ulrich in confusion.

"Hey, did you get bigger?" Blue asked in a voice that was a bit higher pitched than before as they pointed up at the now comparatively towering man beside them.

Ulrich was observing the powder coming flowing from the flowers into the air. He'd pulled out his sketchbook; taking notes of the flowers and the peculiar powder they produced.

Alvis was watching Wolfe consume the Cinnamini without any worry. Except there was something to be worried about. Wolfe was shrinking as they were slowly covered in the powder.

"Uuuhhhh..."

Ulrich is snapped out of his observations by Wolfe's question. He turns back only to find them having shrunk and their voice now higher pitched! A look of puzzlement invades Ulrich's face as he observes Wolfe's form slowly, but surely shrink.

"No you're shrinking! Wha—" Ulrich then notices that he and Alvis are being covered with the same powder.

He attempts to brush the powder off, but it's too late. He'd been covered in it already. Wolfe's slowly began to look like their normal height, but the flowers and grass around them began to look larger.

"Oh no..."

The grass started to rise higher around Blue and Ulrich. In actuality, they were both growing smaller, until they were both miniscule. Almost the same size as an ant crawling across the ground. As they shrank, the space between them seemed farther and farther. The few feet of grass between them suddenly seemed like miles of forest. They couldn't see each other at all.

"Hey! Ulrich? Alvis? ULRICH!?" Blue shouted with their hands cupped around their mouth and started walking in the direction that the man had been standing just a moment ago before they'd both shrunk down and disappeared into the grass. What the heck was going on? Why had they both suddenly gotten so small? Was it the flowers? But they didn't feel anything weird from them, and Ulrich shrank too. He hadn't eaten any of the flowers at all. That couldn't be it.

They didn't realize they were coated in the red and black powder.