From chuckles to choices: Rimuru's early death

A new friend

The pup is bowing in front of me, wagging its tail happily and thanking me for helping it.

"No worries!" I try really hard not to slur my words or stutter. 'You were right, Gigi. I'm kinda getting better.'

"Umm, can we... be friends?" Asks the pup, it's uncertainty clear in both its demeanor and voice.

"Sure, puwp. Wha's your name?" I ask internally raging over the fact I sound like a UwU girl. 'Please help me project my thoughts properly.'

{Alright, but you have to practice on your own later so you learn how to do it properly.}

Ranga freezes up mid tail wag. "I.. don't have a name?" The little pup says uncertainty with his ears drooping down and his tail between his legs.

"Then I'll just continue calling you pup since I don't know any other puppies." I say, noticing how much easier it is to talk with Gigi's help.

The pup starts wagging its tail happily again.

"How'd you end up like that anyway?" I ask curiously.

"Well..."

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"First Veldora disappeared and now the cave is losing magicules, what is this shit!?!" Father shouts angrily as he looks at a pair of giant doors in the mountainside.

I had secretly followed them as they went to investigate the strange things that had been happening there a while ago now that it seemed safer. I am thus now hiding under a big uprooted tree, while listening in on what's happening.

"Should we go in?" Asks one father's friends.

"... No.. there is something in there, something powerful. Don't you feel it's aura? We can't afford to take the risk, especially not with how uncertain things are now." Father says and I try to focus on the aura in the cave. I can feel that it's really close.
It's big and powerful, not like Veldora, but still ridiculously strong.

"It might not mean us harm, you know." Another one of father's friends says timidly.

Dad sighs "... It would be great if we could scout them out and see if they are friends of foes, but we don't have that privilege."

"What should we do then, boss?" Asks one of the others.

"There's not a lot we can do. It's good that we could get this close, but it's better to be as far away as we can when it comes out." Father states and turns to go back, followed closely by his friends.

I stay there until I can't see them anymore and when I finally get out I stretch a bit.
Then I hear a loud thump behind me along with the sound of snapping sticks.

I quickly turn my head and see a fire ant. I manage to avoid it's attacks for quite a while before it gets a good hit, but when it does, it was over for me, I couldn't run and there was no way I could fight.
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"Right as it was going to kill me, you came and saved me!" It finishes.

"I haven't seen any crazy strong things in the cave other than Veldora, though?" I state curiously.

"I, umm.. it's you, I think they were talking about you." The pup is starting to seem uncertain. "We can feel your aura.. You're very strong." It continues, getting back a bit of his confidence.

"Really, me?!" I ask, very shocked.

"Yes, I can feel your aura, so I know you're really strong!" Praises the puppy.

I look down, embarrassed and try to change the subject. "Uhhm... don't you have to go home...?"

"Right! ...Could you come with me?" The pup asks sheepishly.

"Sure?" I answer since I don't have anything else to do and I wanna hangout more with my new friend.

"Great!" The pup jumps in joy and then lays down. "Hop on", it says ecstatically. 

"Oh, umm okay?" I get on the pups back. I'm actually pretty small in comparison to it so I fit quite nicely.

"Hold on tight." It says and I can see its tail wagging happily, I can also feel the from wind from it as I grab onto it as best I can with this body of mine.

Then it starts running as fast as it can and I feel as if I'm gonna get blown away by the strong wind.