by Ian Rodgers
(And hunky Oozes to meet!) Rosa said cheerfully, and Tara snickered.
~I think there’s only one handsome Ooze Katherine is interested in.~
I chuckled in agreement as well, and took off, standing at the head of the party. While keeping the Odorless Wall up, I also cast Mud to Stone as we walked, turning the slaggy bog in front of us into mostly solid and dry land. It made the trip easier without having our boots fill up with gunk every other step.
As we moved through the swamp, I gleefully took in the sights. The flora was interesting to observe, being more sleek and carnivorous than I was used to, and the few animals I could see that weren’t muck-dwelling insects were also intriguing. I’d never been in a swamp, and I was having a grand old time. Tara was too, her love of discovering new things just as fiery as my own.
Rosa and Katherine? Not so much. Sure, it was drier and did not smell as bad as it had, but their shorter stature made it harder to maneuver through the area. Rosa couldn’t fly around thanks to the low hanging vines and branches, and sulkily hovered close to my hat. Katherine had it worse as she had to walk along with me through the sludge, and the mud that wasn’t hardened by my spell sometimes oozed up to her ankles.
Perhaps the only positive side of the march through the marsh was the lack of predators. The area we were currently passing through was placid. The spring thaw had flooded some parts, and much of the wildlife was busy making new territory and nests. The animals could not be bothered to deal with us. I pushed aside a curtain of vines so we could pass, careful not to damage them too much. Cut or broken plant life could alert a tracker to the existence of this passage through the marsh.
“Urgh, this is disgusting!” Katherine suddenly cried, and I turned around, curious as to why she’d shouted.
I couldn’t hold it in. I laughed. And, after a few seconds of trying to contain her own mirth from spilling out, Rosa burst out laughing as well.
A blob of gooey green moss had dropped off one of the branches I had moved out of the way and splattered all over Katherine’s head, running like drippy emerald egg yolk down her hair. She whimpered as some of it trickled past her nose and mouth, not even my Odorless Wall able to counter the stink when it was so close to her.
“Come here, let’s get you cleaned up,” I snickered, getting some control over my laughter at last. I removed my glove and ran my ‘hand’ over her head, cleaning her off by absorbing all the goop in her hair. For her face I lent her a handkerchief.
“Thanks,” she mumbled, embarrassed. Rosa fluttered over and patted her head comfortingly.
(There, there! It’ll all be better soon! We’re almost out of the swamp!)
Katherine smiled weakly in thanks. She couldn’t hear a word the Carbuncle had said, but the gesture of kindness said it all.
I, however, had heard her, and the latter part of her statement caught my attention.
“We’re nearing the end of the swamp?” I asked, surprised.
She nodded eagerly. (Yup, I can feel it! The mud is becoming less and less watery and sticky, and is being replaced by decent amounts of loam and humus, which is giving way to more solid dirt and soil. That means we’re nearing the edge of this nasty place!)
“I sometimes forget about how impressive your attunement to the earth is,” I said, impressed. I glanced at Katherine, who wore a bemused expression, and I explained what Rosa had said. She grinned, radiant in her joy, and her cheerful mood returned.
“Yes! Finally!” she cried, throwing her hands into the air in glee.
We picked up the pace, and true to Rosa’s claims, we emerged from the marsh into fresh air. I lowered the Odorless Wall, and was greeted with the scent of grass and dirt. A lingering stench of swamp still tickled our senses, but it was greatly lessened as we practically skipped onto firmer ground.
Interestingly, the area we now stood in had a number of small hillocks and tiny ridges, creating an earthen wall of sorts that kept the swamp waters contained. Walking up to the top of one of the larger hills revealed a much flatter plain below, with copses of trees scattered about.
And down below, nestled next to the ridgeline was a wooden palisade wall. And beyond that, lay a village filled with a few dozen wooden structures.
I could spot about a dozen figures scurrying around, carrying things and swarming over the buildings, carrying out repairs. It was entrancing to watch, like observing ants at work. But what was truly unusual was the appearance of the creatures. They seemed oddly dark colored with a faint red hue lurking within.
I looked over at Katherine, and was taken aback. Her expression was happy, yet filled with apprehension.
“Are you doing alright?” I asked, patting her on the shoulder. “I mean, you’re about to meet up with your boyfriend after all this time.”
“Valen’s not…!” she started to say indignantly, but caught the look of amusement Rosa was wearing, and the teasing grin I had given my ‘face.’ Aware she had been tricked, she huffed and pouted for a moment before shaking her head and patting her cheeks to psych herself up.
“I’m better now,” she declared, wearing her usual confident grin.
“Then let’s go,” I said, and took off down the hill towards the entrance of the village.
~Strange,~ Tara mused as we descended the mound.
‘What is?’ I asked back.
~There’s a strange energy in the village. It’s not magic, nor is it ambient mana. It’s something thicker, and more potent. Almost like a raw, unbound soul.~
‘So?’
~I’m just surprised, is all. We knew that Baloron made these Soul Oozes by stuffing the essence of mortals into modified Oozes, but from what I’m sensing via your magical senses, these creatures are closer to being spirits and ghosts than actual living creatures.~
That made me curious as well, and more than a little concerned. Souls were not supposed to exist in the physical realm. They were spiritual concepts inhabiting a given form. They were intangible unless carefully accessed through magic. Shielded within flesh so that they did not erode under the force of reality trying to correct itself, souls were life itself, given form. If they did exist naked and bare on the mortal plane for too long, souls mutated.
Such was the origin of ghosts and other spiritual Undead beings. They were raw, unfettered souls who got trapped in a realm they could not normally dwell in, and fed upon stray magical energy to sustain themselves, eventually becoming bloated, unholy messes that required a swift exorcism, lest they rupture the fabric of reality and cause even more problems by attracting demons, devils, and an assortment of ravenous entities!
My worries were pushed to the back of my head, though, as I felt a sudden pressure pushing against my mind. I froze in mid step, causing Rosa and Katherine to stop as well and look at me in surprise and concern.
“Is everything alright, Jellik?” Katherine asked, worry dancing in her eyes.
“I-I can feel them,” I uttered, trembling before the sheer number of beings clamoring for my attention. “Every single one of them down there, I can feel them calling out to me!”
Down below in the village, every entity had paused in what they were doing, before turning to look up at us. No, not us. Me. All of their attention was zeroed in on me, and my royal presence.
In the past, when I had been around other Oozes, they all instinctively submitted to me. I was a Royal Ooze, the pinnacle of the species. So rare, only a handful had ever been spotted. And of them all, I was the only one to possess both a soul, and a sapient mind.
The other Oozes I’d encountered did not have either. They knew I was their alpha, so to speak, based on my purple and gold body, but couldn’t communicate with me. And the reverse was true. I was too far above them to consider regular Oozes my equals.
Here, though, something different happened. Warm. Comforting. Peaceful. And eager to discover who I was. These feelings bombarded me, as well as a sense of self that lesser Oozes lacked. In the village, every single Soul Ooze stopped what th
ey were doing and came rushing out to meet me.
I continued walking forward as well, feeling a strange desire to take off my clothes. I did so, throwing off my coat, hat, gloves, and boots, leaving me naked. I stripped away my illusions and collapsed my bipedal form, reverting to my squishy orb-like state. I kept my size, though, and I was now a large purple boulder, rolling down the hill, and being chased by a dwarf and a Carbuncle who were shouting at me to put my clothes back on.
Eventually, the two groups met. I stood a mere dozen feet from the gates of the nascent village, and the Soul Oozes all crowded around the entrance and spilled out of it, staring at me with unfathomable expressions.
“What are you?” one of them demanded.
For a long time, I just stood there, thinking and pondering my answer. Eventually, I spoke.
“I am Jellik, a Royal Ooze,” I said, introducing myself. “And I am finally home.”
.
After my introduction to the Soul Oozes, Katherine, Rosa, and I were brought into the village. We were escorted into the largest and sturdiest looking building, which appeared to double as both a warehouse for storing an assortment of materials, but also as their town hall.
At the moment, our group was in what could pass for a sitting room, if one could forgive the rough, rustic look everything had.
It was all made of wood. The walls, the floor, the ceiling, and the furniture. Everything. There were few luxuries or comforts to be found in the settlement.
To be honest, I was surprised at how nice the village looked, and how well put together it all was. According to Katherine, they’d only been settled in Drakon for about four years. That they already had a fully functional settlement was impressive.
“Tea?” a polite, older and somewhat feminine voice inquired, and I nodded.
“Please,” I said. I was back in my bipedal form, and had donned my discarded clothes, much to my companion’s prudish relief. However, I had not put on my illusions, and my purple gelatinous body was freely observable beneath my outfit.
I sat, somewhat awkwardly, next to Katherine on a wooden bench, who kept shooting glances towards one of the Soul Oozes in a manner I’m sure she thought was discreet. Said Soul Ooze was returning the glances in kind, also assuming he was being sneaky about it.
Rosa had wandered off to investigate a collection of odds and ends that filled a shelf in the room. To some, it might have been junk. And to be honest, it was. Interestingly shaped rock formations, a lump of quartz that looked like a skull, some knotted wood that looked like it had been petrified, a startlingly beautiful rainbow-colored feather… the list went on. But some of the items were more than just naturally formed curios.
A stone tablet with chicken-scratch writing all over it that Tara identified as being the written language of the lizardfolk sat next to a serpent-shaped anklet made of solid gold. A war club made of obsidian, accompanied with a knife of intricately carved bone. A charcoal sketch of a sleeping dragon.
It was a very eclectic yet intriguing collection. And Rosa thankfully had enough sense not to go around touching anything while the mood was so tense.
As I kept an ‘eye’ on my jewel-studded companion, a simple tin cup filled with steaming hot liquid was placed in front of me.
“It’s lemongrass tea, grown here at the village,” the more mature voice explained as the drink was set down, with another cup placed in front of Katherine. “It’s not much, but it warms you up nicely.”
“Thank you,” I said gratefully, lifting the cup with one of my ‘hands.’ I brought the cup closer, and poured the tea onto my ‘face.’ Without an illusory mouth to coordinate where I put the stuff I consumed, I just drank it however I wanted. It was liberating, not having to worry about which facial orifice I was supposed to use for food, and which ones I wasn’t.
As I drank, I took a close look at the three people across from me.
When I had heard Katherine describing the Soul Oozes, I had expected them to be somewhat like me. Simply Oozes who possessed a soul, and had reshaped their body to better accommodate their needs.
Instead, the Soul Oozes were literally people made of slime. At least, appearance wise. They had faces, even if they lacked proper eyes. They had five fingers on each hand, and treated them as such. Unlike me, who had to manually focus on moving my pseudopods as if they were hands.
The only indication they weren’t actually people, aside from the color of their bodies and possessing cores, was that they lacked legs. Instead, the slime that comprised their bodies molded together below the waist into a single foot-like appendage. It reminded me of a slug, to be honest. Or a very hideous merfolk.
The second part that threw me off was their coloration. Their slime was a dark, inky substance, like tar. And nestled in the center of their chests was a spherical crimson core.
To my great surprise, their cores were like mine, covered in whorls and rune-like designs. Now that I saw the Soul Oozes with their own intricately etched cores, I had a feeling that this change I had gone through was in fact due to my own soul imposing changes on my body. Why it hadn’t happened sooner, I had no idea.
The trio I was with were the three heads of the Soul Ooze settlement. Two were male, and the third female. How could I tell? Besides the facial features, the female Soul Ooze had two bumps on her chest that vaguely resembled breasts, and the slime that made up her head formed curly locks of ‘hair.’ Honestly, it looked like she had a bunch of tentacles growing out of her head. The male Soul Oozes had smooth, bald heads in addition to a lack of breasts.
“This is good tea,” I praised sincerely, and the woman of the group smiled.
“Thank you. We don’t have many visitors, so I’m glad our hospitality is not lacking.” Her voice was musical and sounded as if it was coming from far away and under water somewhat.
“I suppose we should introduce ourselves,” the older of the two men decided, having finished his own cup of lemongrass tea. He nodded his head in my direction, and was seated in between the other two. “I am Pallo, the elected mayor of Haven. I make sure the village is taken care of, and that repairs are done on time, and any disputes are settled peacefully.”
“And I am Sistia. I am in charge of medical duties, as well as magical tasks,” the woman said with a polite bow of her head from her spot at Pallo’s right side. “I also act as a teacher for the younger ones.”
“As for the blob who keeps making moony eyes at our mutual acquaintance, he is Valen, head of village security and trade,” Pallo said, gesturing to the man on his left. The man coughed, somewhat awkwardly, as he snapped out of his little glancing contest with Katherine.
“A pleasure to meet you.” His tone was frosty, and he gave me a suspicious look. I ignored it with ease, and bobbed my head towards the trio.
“The pleasure is all mine. Since we all know Katherine here, I’ll simply introduce myself, my companion, and explain why we’re all here.”
“As I mentioned at the entrance, my name is Jellik. And what I am is a Royal Ooze.” I glanced over at my Familiar as she examined a geode with nine different colored crystals growing inside it and waved her over. She obliged and flitted over, settling onto the brim of my hat. “This lovely Carbuncle is my dear companion, Rosa. She’s a bit of a trouble maker, but I couldn’t ask for a better friend.”
Rosa blushed and rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, earning an ‘aww, how cute!’ from Sistia.
“And what exactly is a Royal Ooze?” Valen asked, folding his arms over his chest. “We’ve encountered a lot of different Oozes in our time, and even raised a few of them, but I cannot say that your type is one we’ve heard of.”
“As far as I know, I’m the only Royal Ooze around,” I said softly. “There might be one hiding in Val’Narash, according to one of my contacts, but it was last spotted over fifty years ago. As for what I am, well, it’s hard to explain, and a touch unbelievable…”
I quickly summarized how I’d come to be, as well as my relatio
nship with the Roan Family of Varia. I could tell that all three of them were rather put off by my casual reveal that I’d spent a good chunk of my life as a pet, and were flabbergasted by the fact I didn’t mind that treatment, even now.
As I spoke, I skipped the majority of my situation involving the prophecy. I hadn’t told Katherine, and I was not interested in spreading it around.
“And then, after hearing about talking Oozes, I became intrigued and headed into Brune, where I eventually met up with Katherine. She thought I was one of Baloron’s minions, sent to find you all, but I managed to convince her otherwise.”
“Let me guess, she straddled you in your sleep and held a dagger to your throat?” Valen asked. Katherine sputtered at that, spewing some of her tea, while I laughed.
“You too, huh?” I inquired in disbelief.
“When I first infiltrated the Dark Guild to obtain resources for the rest of the group, she thought I was a plant for the city guard because of how often I snuck away,” Valen said. “So, she snuck into the room I was borrowing from the Dark Guild and tried to threaten me. The commotion we made as we tried to fight each other off spread several rumors around the group. Guess what they thought we were doing?”
“The same thing happened with me,” I said with a shake of my head. “Only it was in a tent, rather than a room.”
Next to me, Katherine’s face looked like a boiled lobster, and I swear I could see steam pouring off of her as Valen and I found common ground in having the same woman try to stab us in our sleep. She pressed herself into the bench, utterly embarrassed and wishing she could spontaneously combust to escape the humiliation. Or wishing everyone else in the room would explode. Whichever option ended her suffering faster.
After we were done teasing Katherine and leaving her a blushing mess, we returned to the business at hand. Pallo nodded in solemn understanding as he regarded me with a weary, yet sympathetic, gaze.
“I can understand the desire to find a family. To be with people who are the same as you. While we do not come from the same origins, we welcome you to Haven, Jellik. I do not know if we are the family you thought us to be, or the one you hoped for, but please, stay as long as you like.”