Chapter 2 Caramel: Bubbles And Sweet Treats [Chapter Two]

How colorful, how sweet, how absolutely fantastic!

Everything smelled so nice, wonderful sweets, cakes, and cookies, oh I couldn't possibly decide.

I looked to the cashier, his fluffy rainbow colored hair covered a majority of his face. "Hey, how much for the cupcakes?" I picked up a box of the mini chocolate cupcakes from the shelf and bounded over. He looked a little confused a moment before quickly jumping, like he just realized where he was. "O-Oh, sorry, I'll ring them up for you."

He took the box and I couldn't help a smile. I could just barely see his horns peeking out of his hair, he was so cute.

The machine rang when he put the box under and after a moment to look, he handed the box back. "That's seven coins." He smiled in return.

I opened my wallet, which I always carried with me, and dumped it on the counter. "That's one, two, three, uhh... Darn, I only have six!" I frowned, biting my lip.

My friend would really love these, but I guess I had to find something else! As I was getting ready to pick my money back up, the cashier, suddenly grabbed my wrist. "Wait! I c-can do six. It's no problem." He pulled the money to him and put it in the register before wiping his hand on his shirt.

"All yours." He gave one final smile and tilt his head like a cute little puppy.

"Wow, really!?" My eyes probably sparkled just then and I jumped forward to give him a hug. I felt him tense up then quickly backed away. "Oh, i'm so sorry!" I looked up and down his clothes, now covered in my slime.

He looked down as well, looking a little uncomfortable but quietly laughed. "It's okay. At least now I can say I was hugged by a slime." The boy joked, and I giggled back before picking up the box. "Thanks again!" I made sure to call back as I exit the store. Everything was so vibrant and colorful today, just like every day!

The streets were busy with monsters of all kinds. I love how we can all live together, even though we're all super different.

My kind was called a slime, or oozekin to the doctors and stuff.

All slimes were born in the water so a lot of slimes live in the sea, but I like walking on land and seeing all the different types of monsters. Since I was only made of sea slime though, it's pretty hard to touch someone, my slime gets everywhere!

Well, my friend doesn't really mind, his name is Mint, and he's an octo, or polypuskin. Most octo are kinda mean but not Mint!

I started hurrying into a quick jog to get to our meeting spot even quicker. I passed a few cool looking monsters along the way. The fuzzy, the scaly, the scariest were the hornkin though. Hornkin sort of look like demons in stories, they appear like humans, but with huge, pointed horns. Sometimes they have tails but not very often.

Usually, when I see hornkin, I cross the street. They're usually pretty nice, they only look intimidating and just imagine what those horns can do in a fight!

That was the case when I saw a group of them walking toward me on the sidewalk. They didn't seem to notice me so I quickly crossed the street while they were talking to each other.

The park was just up this road so I started looking out for Mint.

It was a good day to play, so a lot of monsters were at the park with their kids. It made it kind of hard to look for him among everyone else but who could forget his appendages? I spotted his waving above everyone, seeing as his arms were super long and ran over. Before he could even speak, I thrust the box towards him.

"What's this?" He questioned, slowly accepting the box.

"A gift. Have you ever seen one?" I chuckled and held my hands behind his back. Today he looked... No different than usual. The regular curly brown hair, the vanilla colored turtle neck, and simple jeans, yup, Mint is still Mint.

He could almost look like a human if it wasn't for his super long tentacles for arms, purple skin, weird octopus feet, and that third eye on his forehead of course.

"Of course I've seen one!" He pout like a little kid. "I mean why?"

"Well, why not? Getting your friends gifts for no reason feels nice."

He paused for a second before chuckling playfully. "You slimes are all super cute, you know?"

"Where would you get your desserts without me?" Setting my hand on his arm, I decided to lead Mint to come with me.

There were always so many events in town, and so many we haven't seen yet, and a whole day to see them all.

The sun was warm, the town was full of life, what else could we do?

"Caramel, wa-wait!" Mint quickly stopped and I released his arm to look back. "What is it?" I tilt my head, but he frowned, looking down to the box.

"The day is nice, let's just enjoy it. We don't always have to run around, it's just as fun to sit in the grass with your best friend and eat some cupcakes." He held up the box for me to see, but I could only exhale a sigh. How could he not want to go have fun?

"Come on Mint, I can't sit still. We just graduated! We should celebrate, and laugh, and run, and-"

I was interrupted by the boy shaking his head. "But that's all childish. We're adults now, so we should do something adults do."

That caused us both to fall quiet. What does an adult do for fun? I'm pretty sure Mint didn't even know.

Like a lightbulb popped up above my head, I clapped my hands. "Hey!"

He jumped in shock at my yelling, I almost wanted to laugh. He was such a timid guy.

"I have an idea." I began. "You still have that job at the arcade, right?"

The polupuskin replied with a nod. I could tell he was a bit confused on what he was asked by the way his eyebrows furrowed.

I cleared my throat like my idea was absolutely perfect. "Soooooo~"

Broadening my shoulders and standing up straight, I puffed out my chest. "You should supply the money for a shopping spree. I need some new clothes."

He was quiet for a long minute before choking back. "W-What!? Why do I have to pay for you? You don't even wear clothes!"

"That's mean, I can wear clothes if I want." I was teasing, but it was a little cute that he couldn't tell. Might as well keep it going. "Besides, any clothes I wear would be totally better than your turtleneck."

He wrapped his left tentacle around the box and held it under his arm as he turned away with a groan. "Caramel, if you wore clothes, your body would absorb them, then they'd get all... Slimy."

"I'm a slime." I puffed my cheeks as a child would and turned my back to him. "If you don't wanna play, I can go on my own. I can't believe you'd let your best friend play in the dangerous city all by herself!"

Not wasting a second, there was a tentacle on my head and Mint stepped up next to me. "Please, the most dangerous thing in this city is getting poked by a goliath dog crossing the street. But you got me. Let's go."

He wore an innocent smile and when I returned it, the appendage left my head where he shook off some of my slime and walked beside me.

"Anyway, I heard there was going to be a town meeting later. You planning to go?"

"No way," I answered quickly. As rare as they were, I never wanted to go to one of those mean things! "They're always so serious and boring!"

I turned to Mint but he seemed to be thinking about something before a small frown pricked his lips. "There was a darkness sweep earlier. Maybe they're calling the meeting to banish any... Turned."

Turned?

That wasn't a term I heard in a little while.

Darkness is some sort of hidden evil. I don't totally know what it is, I don't think anyone really does, but if someone catches it, they start to get evil, like the monsters in human stories. Our city definitely wasn't that, so sometimes the police do a thing called a darkness sweep and take away monsters that start turning evil and banish them to the dark world.

It's scary to think about, but I have seen it a few times. I don't like to think about it though.

Mint likes to watch the news, so I sometimes see the stories when I'm at his house.

I almost started to cry the last time I saw a turned on TV. It's like they didn't have any humanity left!

They tried to attack the officers detaining them, like some kind of raging bull.

No way, if there were going to be any turned at the town meeting, I'll be avoiding it with my very life.

"Do you really think anyone in our city caught the darkness? That would be so sad!"

Mint didn't answer me and after a couple seconds, he opened the cupcake box and offered one out. "Here." He softly smiled. "Sweets always make you happy, right?"

He knew me so well. I accepted the cupcake and bit into it, letting the sugar fill my mouth.

"Anyway, how's your family?" He inquired again after I swallowed. "Didn't you go to visit them recently?"

Oh wow, I totally forgot about that.

"Yup!" I took another bite. "Everyone is doing alright, mom just remarried to a cacikin. He's pretty nice, but all pokey and stuff."

"That is what a cacikin does." My friend answered in a matter of factual voice, like the know-it-all he was.

He picked up a cupcake of his own and bit into it before licking his lips of some chocolate frosting.

Suddenly, something caught my eye and I couldn't help but stop and quickly run up to a cute little store on the side of the road. "Mint, look at all the cute dolls!" I could see my own eyes sparkle in the display window for a moment.

"They look just like little humans!"

Mint set his tentacle on the glass before sighing. "So expensive too. They must be a new model. Let's look somewhere else." He quickly tapped my shoulder, just to lead me away. I didn't want to go but he was right, not even a year's worth of monthly allowance could afford those.

What a shame, and they're so absolutely cute too!

At that moment, someone pushed past us. I was nearly knocked down if Mint hadn't grabbed my arm and helped me back up.

What was that about? Only moments after, a group of officers ran past as well, though they were nice enough not to hit us. Right in front of my eyes, a monster was tackled to the ground. He bared his teeth directly at me and snapped his jaws. How scary...

A hornkin... But not?

An officer held him by his long and pointed red horns, keeping his head pressed to the ground.

"Step back!" One of the officers shouted towards us.

Didn't have to tell me twice. I took two steps back, just in case.

I tried to look into the hornkin's eyes but they didn't have any color at all.

Seeing a turned up close like this... How terrible!

One officer tied a cloth around his mouth while the other cuffed his wrists. When they finished, one of them shocked him with some kind of pen that put the monster to sleep.

They seemed to handle it like it was a common thing and pulled him up to drag him.

I couldn't move until they were out of sight, even with Mint tapping my shoulder.

He was so close, he could have attacked me right then!

I don't know why, but I was just... Really, really scared.

I didn't think about it before turning and hugging Mint as tight as I could.

He made a kinda bothered noise but I couldn't care at the moment. I just needed a hug after seeing that and Mint was here.

He let me hug him a minute before slowly pushing me off. It was only then I realized all the yummy cupcakes were lying on the ground.

I wiped my face quickly and gave him a frown. "Was it that mean turned? Did he knock them down?"

The octo paused before chuckling and rubbing the back of his head.

"Uh, yeah. Of course. They just flew right out of my hand."

I could tell he was lying but I was glad. I didn't mean to make him drop the cupcakes, but Mint is the best friend ever to try to make me happy.

A silence fell between us before he sighed. "Anyway, how about going back to my house? I can make you lunch if you want. That probably ruined your mood to go out and play, right?"

Of course, I had to agree, and so we turned back to go back to Mint's house. It wasn't really a big house, more like a tiny apartment, but it was that cozy kind of small, like a blanket in the winter!

I plopped down on the ground in front of the TV while Mint split to go to the kitchen. As usual, he had the news on so I decided to just boredly watch.

Unlike all the cartoons, the news was the only show that wasn't animated, but it still looked a little cartoonish.

The words at the bottom were drawn with peppermint colors and looked enlarged.

The newscaster today was an aquakin. They looked like a human fish sort of.

He had scales and fins and gills, but all with a human body shape.

"Mayor Coughdrop called for an emergency meeting later this afternoon to call for a banishing of all turned monsters and to reinstate new policies and rules for the upcoming year. It is advised everyone to attend. In other news, five new books have been banned from-"

Mint suddenly sat down next to me and handed out a turkey sandwich. "Here. I know how much you hate eating jelly."

I could only force a smile as I accepted it.

Mint took a bite of his own sandwich before heaving a heavy sigh and flopping onto his back. "This is so messed up, right? Don't you see it?"

I took a bite and turned to him, a little confused. What was he talking about? The boy set his sandwich on his shirt, still a little slime-stained from my hug.

"The way they run things." He began. "The city bars everyone from knowledge and keeps them away from sad things like we're kids. Hiding everything in candy and cartoons, but you see, right? People are still going evil and they're just banishing them."

It wasn't something I thought about too much but I knew Mint felt strongly about it.

"Well...." I thought for a second and took another bite. "What do you swugesst whe gwo?" I said between bites and swallowed.

Mint chuckled and pulled himself back up to a sit, grabbing his sandwich before it fell. "I'd want to study the turned, if I can, and find a way to help them. These aren't just bad monsters, you know. They have families and lives but are being taken to the dark zone. What if it was you, or me?"

"If it was you-" I began carefully. "I'd save you of course! Then we'd come back here and you could buy me that doll."

It looked like he tried to smile before it fell into a frown. "You're not the easiest person to talk to about this. Can I ask something?"

I nodded and bit into my food again.

"Why are you so happy? Doesn't anything bother you?"

Hmm... That was something I had to think about. I tapped my chin as I decided on an answer before looking at him.

"If I spent all my time being mopey and only seeing everything bad, I would never be happy, and being happy feels really good. So how come you're not so happy?"

"Easy." He set his sandwich on his lap, looking like he didn't want it anymore. Mint's voice suddenly became more firm as he responded in a somewhat serious answer. "There's so much wrong in our world, and too much to ignore. I can't just act like it's not going on and go along singing a happy little song while others suffer."

I didn't have a chance to respond when a loud ringing directed out attention outside. I set my food on the window seal and looked to see a crowd of people heading down the sidewalk. I looked to Mint, who narrowed his eyes.

"I guess it's time for the meeting. I have to go. You can stay here if you want." He turned away from me and began away but I reached out to grab his arm, stopping him quickly.

"Caramel?" He looked back, and I matched his eyes. I wasn't super good at acting serious but this time, I definitely wanted to!

"I'm coming with you. I want to help them like you said! We should stop the monsters from being banished to the dark zone."

The boy looked taken aback as his eyes widened at my words. A small pink crossed his cheeks before he beamed a happy grin. Now that's the Mint I love seeing.

"Alright, let's go then!"