We descended in a line.
There were five of us. Five youths like me, with damp skin from the dew and ears still soft. The chiefs walked ahead, their steps making no sound. It was as if they were floating. They didn’t speak. They almost never did. They only moved their heads or raised a hand when they wanted something.
The great shining thing barely touched the sky. Everything was blue, dark, as if it wasn’t yet time to move. The moons were still there, watching us, like soft eyes.
We walked to the river. The water fell from above, from a cracked rock in the sky. The waterfall roared, but it wasn’t a roar of fury… it was the sound of something that had always been there. The sky was beginning to lighten.
The slimes were waiting for us.
They couldn’t be seen.
Only when one entered the water, amidst the swirling currents, could you notice they were there.
Blue like the river itself.
Almost invisible.
The slimes were not ours. They weren’t things.
They were part of the soul of the world. And if one chose you… you were never the same again.
One by one, the youths entered the water. The current surrounded them. And then… something would attach to their chest, their arm, their shoulder. Barely a glow, barely a shape. But they felt it. And so… the ritual was completed.
The first came out with a round slime that moved a lot.
The second, with one that stayed still.
The third… with a heavier one that made bubbles.
And then… it was my turn.
I stepped into the water.
It was cold. Not like fear, but like stone at dawn.
I submerged.
I opened my eyes.
I waited.
Nothing.
I swam. Some shadows moved near… but they drifted away.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
The chief raised his hand. It was the signal to give up.
—No —I said. And I submerged again.
This time, I went deeper. Where the water was heavier. And then I felt it.
A little thing.
Small.
Almost nothing.
A transparent ball. So much like the water that I almost missed it.
“No,” I thought. “Not that one…”
I swam away. I rose. The slime followed me.
When I came out of the water… it was already on my shoulder. Stuck. Still.
The other youths looked at me.
And they laughed.
—Look at that! —said one—. It’s smaller than a frog stone!
My ears burned.
But the slime… vibrated.
It didn’t have a voice. But I felt something.
Not mockery. Not shame.
Something like... wanting to be with me.
I didn’t remove it.
I didn’t reject it.
—If you chose me… then I choose you too —I told it.
The chief looked at me. He nodded.
And the ritual was complete.