The dense, thick canopy of the Dungrove Jungle was similar to the stomach of a beast. It’s natural mazes of lush green habitats, and the beasts that lived within them had claimed more lives than any disaster or war that had ravaged the lands. It would come to no surprise should a few persons were reported missing in action, or their cadavers found somewhere, mutilated, or piece by piece.

Over the years, Cassiopeia had learned to use the laws of the natural world for her own purposes. Cassie peered at the group of mercenaries and mages, who had trekked miles and miles of mud and canopy to stop at the ruins of Dunhold. A few of the mercenaries stood not too far from the clearing, standing guard around the parameter. Cassie rolled her eyes, crouching in the shadows of the thick wall of flora, safely hidden by the same natural barrier that housed most of the inhabitants. Not even the muscle-for-hire could detect her presence, in spite of being so close to their campsite.

The mission required the acquisition of a certain valuable stone, and clean up afterwards. It was a simple enough request, with quite a generous reward in store. But Cassie wasn’t as excited as her partner, Mordred, the Leader in charge of the Byzel area. Without so much as a glance or nod, he accepted on their behalf and Cassie’s hands were tied from that moment on. Finesse wasn’t Mordred’s strong suite and in order to protect the integrity of the group, Cassie would always take up cleaning duty. Blue was more than happy to oblige.

Once the group had settled down nicely, it would be time to open the curtains to the opening scene, starring herself as the lead. Mordred would have to be patient with a supporting role, for now. The midday sun stood atop the sky, relentlessly breathing heat into everyone at the camp. After the fire was lit and lunch was about to finish, they would discuss the preceding steps.

The mercenaries’ eyebrows drew closer. Far beyond the clearing, a disturbance was causing birdlife to flee towards the direction where they had come from. The trees swayed back and forth, and whatever was coming, it was in hurry. Tremors reverberated through the ground, and the mercenaries buckled in both fear and the flight response.

“Help!” It was a girl’s voice, much younger and tired. “ Please…!”

Cassie burst through the foliage, tripping and crawling desperately out of the grove. She didn’t even register the men that had attempted to stop her. Some of the men looked back at her figure trespassing into the jungle. Others couldn’t take their eyes off from the direction she had come from.

It was here already.

“Run!” Her voice resounded in panic. “It’s…!”

With a mighty, disgruntled cry the black Kavus burst through the clearing. The mercenaries dropped to a crawl, and though a few managed to start a sprint, a massive swoop of it’s arm ripped through the air, tossing them up and down it’s oversized mouth.

The entire scrambled to fall back and regroup but the black beast would not have that. It had orders to cause as much chaos as it could, and snatch a meal or two, if possible. Blue hated leaving any survivors, but Cassie said they still needed a few of them alive, and at best desperate. It had no idea what she wanted to do, but orders were orders.

Later on, he’d have to play dead anyway.

Cassie tripped and skidded a few inches in front of a camp. She needed to presume the helpless, ditzy type until she was sure the ruby that wasn’t a ruby was insight. “Help… me.” She gasped, before becoming limp and fainted.

lemme know if I need to change stuffs.

Blue was having fun. His new form allowed a wide berth of chaos to roam free. Each strike he made, body were torn apart and disgruntled screams echoed in the forest air. They were snacks at most but Blue wasn’t one to complain about eating. Food was food no matter form, shape or size it took. It gobbled everything it could, dead, alive or dismembered. It didn’t chase after those smart enough to run away. Its master only needed to shave numbers down to a manageable size.

It was still enjoying a meal as a black Kavus when he sensed Mordred approach. This person was always almost near its master but Blue didn’t mind. It liked Mordred. He had a smell that the slime liked very, very much. Blue bit down on a corpse by its head, launched it in the air, and devoured it whole as it came down.

There were still some leftovers scrambling on the ground paralyzed by fear. But Blue ignored them and brought down its head closer to Mordred. There was that smell again. A flash of light and one of the nearby mercenaries had his eyes slashed, blood slithering down his cheeks. At this, Blue transformed back to his slime form. It bounced up and down around Mordred.

Moments later, other men were seen flying from the tent and out into the open. They scrambled about as they landed, their brains trying to figure out whether they should fight in vain, or run away and extend the horrors.

Cassie sighed. It seemed that in light of destruction, even men as hardened as these were capable of such cowardice. They deserved things worse than death, they did. She appeared from out of the tent, unscathed and grumpy.

“Mordred!” She called out with a slight irritation in her voice. “They don’t have it. It’s not in the tent. What should we do with these bags of meat?”

bump.