Having made an odd friend and acquired a new ingredient, Girry was on his way back home when he saw something that made him frown and slow down to get a better look.

  To his right, drifting about as gracefully as a drowning Royaker, was a creature the shape and consistency of a jelly dessert. All six of its colors sparkled like glass in the light of the nearby sun.

  As any chef would be, Girry was very curious about only one thing: “How does that jelly creature taste?” Curiosity got the better of him, and he soon found himself drifting closer to the creature. As he got closer, he could almost hear the creature. So, he got even closer, and, to his surprise, he clearly heard a voice.

  It seemed to be having a panic attack while screaming at the top of its, uh, lungs. “Help, please. It won’t let go of my shoes.”

  Tilting his head, Girry looked around for a moment. Then he saw it; the shoes, or more accurately, the laces, had gotten snagged on a very grumpy snail that was mumbling under its breath.

  Girry climbed out of his ship and floated closer to the screaming jelly. “Calm down—”

  “Don’t tell me to calm down; my life is in danger,” it screeched.

  Glancing at the snail, “In danger, eh. From a snail?”

  “A snail,” spat the jelly. “What snail?”

  Girry simply pointed at the asteroid. Following his finger, the jelly stopped thrashing around long enough to look down, and in a matter of seconds, every one of its colors shifted to a bright red.

  “Just lift your, uh, feet, and ya can move on,” said Girry, fighting the urge to take a bite.

  “Yes, please. Then the both of you can bugger off from my house.” Bellowed a deep voice.

  Caught off guard, both Girry and the jelly looked down at the snail, who was glaring at them.

  Shifting to an even deeper red, “I can’t,” muttered the jelly.

  “You can’t?” screamed the snail.

  Girry put a hand up. “Whoa, relax. Why can’t ya lift ya foot?”

  Muttering softly, “I tired myself out while I was panicking.”

  “Oh, for the love of—”

  “Easy there,” said Girry, motioning with hands this time. “It’s a simple fix.”

  Without another word, he drifted towards the shoes and the snail, then carefully untied the laces. And just like that, its color shifted from red as the jelly slowly drifted away from the snail, who, to the surprise of no one, turned around in a huff and went back into its hole. Girry smirked at him, then promptly looked away when the snail looked back at him.

  Jiggling gently now, “Th-thank you.”

  Moving away from the asteroid, Girry shook his head, “No worries.”

  “I don’t have anything to pay you with—”

  “Nah, I don’t need payment—” He paused for a second. “What’s your planet like?”

  “My planet?”

  “Yeah, your planet. I’m always lookin' for ingredients.” He grinned.

  The jiggling shifted to a slow wave. “Um, my planet is like me. Everything is gelatinous.”

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  “Really?” blurted Girry. “The whole planet?”

  The waving motion jerked in surprise, “Yeah, wanna see it?”

  “Yeah.” He nodded. “Mind if I take some ingredients?”

  Freezing for a moment, she slowly began to wave. “I don’t mind. But since we don’t eat, I’m not sure any of it is edible.”

  “Ya don’t eat?” frowned Girry.

  “No, we get everything we need from dew.”

  “Hmmm, still, I wanna go see for myself.” He winked.

  The colors of the jelly brightened. “Okay! I’ve never had a visit from a friend; let’s go.”

  “Before that,” said Girry, “what do I call ya?”

  “Oh, right. I’m Beth.”

  “Beth, eh. Good to meetcha, I’m Girry.”

  Beth wobbled energetically, “Girry. I like that name.”

  “Thanks, I got it from my doctor.” He said, climbing into his ship.

  Starting his ship, who sighed at him, Girry followed close behind Beth as she led him to a distant, white star and its sparkling planets while chatting with Girry. He learned a lot about the planet and about how everything, including the ground, fauna, and flora, is all jelly. She even mentioned how buildings are constructed. They use the hard skin that forms on gelatin.

  Which, even though flexible, is still strong enough to hold a basic shape with a few extra hidden procedures. However, it’s still not strong enough for massive buildings. Due to that, every building is dome-shaped and only one story. Even the office buildings. That means that every business is a cul-de-sac rather than one big structure.

  Upon hearing that, Girry smiled. Which probably meant he was thinking of a jelly dessert. Who could blame him, though? Most of his adventures had him camping in the wild next to his ship. And, more often than not, next to some rather suspicious-looking mud.

  Excited and unable to stop fidgeting, he got up and checked on Billy, who was lying on his head, then checked on his two lizard-like creatures that he decided to call Lizirds. As I said, Girry isn’t very artistic or creative. Except with food.

  Grabbing some of the stockpiled algae, he fed the lizirds and decided to take a nap. There was just one problem, though. He couldn’t stop thinking about the planet. So, unable to fall asleep, he gave up.

  As it turned out, being unable to sleep was a good thing since he and Beth started talking. “What’s your planet like?”

  “Mine?” frowned Girry.

  “Yeah, is it green like you?” she said, wobbling.

  “Geen like me, eh? Dunno. Never saw my planet.”

  Beth stopped wobbling immediately. “Oh, I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry? What for?” he said, with a raised brow. “It ain’t your fault. Sides, my cooking skill and love for food is cause I was raised in a food truck.”

  Beth’s body waved gently. “Then, you aren’t sad?”

  “Sad?” he scoffed. “Nah, I get to eat all kinds of things.” He grinned.

  Beth’s colors flickered. “Girry? What’s a food truck?”

  Thinking for a second. “Well, it’s like a space truck—” He interrupted himself when he saw that Beth was frozen. “A truck is what we call a rusted ship, like this one.” Beth nodded. “I was raised in a bigger version that cooked and transported food. With me so far?”

  Her colors pulsed gently. “I think so.”

  “In that food truck I learned to cook. Ah, and a food stall, like mine,” he grinned widely, “is just a food truck that can’t move.” He leaned back and folded his arms. “Never mind that; I wanna hear more about your home.”

  Beth froze for a sec, then her body waved faster than normal. “What else do you wanna know?”

  Thinking for a moment, “How bout the wildlife?”

  “Hmmm, there isn’t much anymore, especially after the Jelly King, from four generations ago, went mad and tried to kill everything.” She sighed. “It really was a noisy year.”

  Girry’s mouth dropped. “Uh, noisy, eh. I see.”

  Beth continued, “But the most common one is the jelly slime, I think. It’s the one we use for construction. Then we have the jelly flyers.” She paused. “And, uh, I can’t remember the other ones.”

  “The jelly flyers, what do they look like?”

  Her green color shifted slightly. “Well, they kinda look like the jelly slimes, just with different colors and the ability to fly.”

  Looking at his spice rack. “I wonder what they taste like,” he mumbled.

  A long silence was broken by Beth, “We should be there in a few more hours. I can’t wait to get home,” she sighed.

  Out of topics and filled with excitement, one of them thought of all the possible new food, while the other was excited to just get home. They carried on in silence, and before either of them had noticed, they entered the solar system and were greeted by the sparkling, jelly planets.

  Each of which was a different color. Beth’s world was an orange and green color, while the other three were red, blue, and a milky white. However, it was the sun that had caught Girry’s attention. From a distance it appeared white, but up close it had a subtle pinkish hue and emitted almost no heat. Instead of a burning mass, it had an obvious pink gelatinous surface with a very bright light as its core.

  When he asked about it, Beth simply said, “Dunno. Aren’t all suns like that?”

  Girry wondered if it had a flavor. But he wasn’t about to go anywhere near a star. Even if it wasn’t a normal one—

  Moments later, the pair had entered Beth’s home planet, and as Girry’s ship touched down on the surface, it sank a little and then slowly rose and leveled out.

  Turning his ship off, he got up, sprinted to the door, and slammed the open button. A cool, sweet gust of wind entered the ship. Breathing deeply through his nose, he stepped out and onto the orange and very opaque surface of Beth’s home planet.