Chapter Text
Everything happened suddenly. He was just trying to relax in his little den area, maybe take a nap as he just recently went out to look around and see if there is any danger in the area, when the clinking of armor snaps him awake. Quietly chirping to the young gelatinous cube that was curled up next to him to stay hidden, he proceeds to merge into the wall and follow the vibrations of the intruders to locate them.
When he finds them, he quietly watches. Humanoids of many races have entered the cave. Some wield light magics to see clearer, some with their hands on the hilts of their swords or a bow in hand. One seems to be leading the charge. Their sword is completely out, and Slime watches as they command the others to split up to search every nook and cranny.
Slime himself knows their den is very well hidden, he after all has planned for such. He has watched many humanoids traverse this cave before claiming it and selected the place they seemed to find the least. But still worried for the safety of his slimeling, he moved fast to keep track of the humanoids who went down the correct path towards his den.
He watches as they trek down the narrow path of the cave, some splitting off more and more as it gets more narrow, leaving Slime to follow one. A half elf who looks nervous to be alone. They pulled their sword out completely as they continued forward, coming across one more fork. “Fuck this…I’m just gonna take one and if there is nothing, I’m booking it out of here…” They murmur.
Little did they know this one decision would correlate if they come out alive or dead from this, as if they took the wrong path it would lead directly into his den. Directly to Koda.
He can’t let them reach. People kill their kind after all, and that sword is not out just for intimidation.
And as if the gods grimaced upon seeing him, his wishes did not align with them, and the half elf took the wrong path.
Slime moved fast as he followed, moving ahead of the poor soul, and entering the path, his large goopy form blocking anything that can be viewed past. The soldier pauses, eyes widening in fear, and raises their weapon.
“Great, the path I took ended up being the correct one and I'm alone.” their voice wavers as they adjust their footing to get in an optimal position if needing to attack.
Slime reels up a little, gathering any ounce of energy he can use to try and use Common, his voice warbling a little in doing such as he has not needed to use his Common knowledge in a long while. “I’m sorry.”
And he lunges.
He feels the meat of the creature dissolving in his slime as he encases the prey in his form. He can feel a slight pain from the sword slicing at some of his inner goo, hissing a little from the pain as he makes the effort to pry the weapon from their hands. He has to hold back his acidity, however, as he focuses more on a suffocation method.
The humanoid screams in his slime, writhing and clawing trying to get a breath of air, but Slime holds himself tight, keeping them inside until he feels their struggling form go limp. He uses his slime to sense any heart beat, but can sense only a faint remnant of one.
With that he lets go, letting the corpse and watches as it collapses to the ground. Eyeing the body a little, glancing back to where they came from, and then back to his den, he takes the armor from the body, dropping it aside somewhere for now, and then carries it back into his den.
A growing slime needs her sustenance after all. A quiet chirp thanks him.
After doing such, he goes back to the armor. He knows there are still others here. And if he can get any sort of chance to understand motives and help in the effort to get them out, he will do exactly that. So donning the armor, and using his slime to mimic the form of the intruder to the best of his ability and memory, he grabs the sword and walks out.
There is nobody waiting at any of the forks where the others split off, so he continues forward, the armored boots clinking against the stone floor rather loudly for his sensitive ears.
He pauses when he gets back to the spot where the whole group split off, everyone being there.
“Charlie, what took you so long? It’s been an hour!” the leader asks, coming forward to confront him.
“Well uh…sorry, I uh… got… lost?” He sputters out. Trying his best to mimic what he heard of the now dead humanoid’s voice.
The leader sighs, putting a hand to their forehead, “Knew we shouldn’t have let you split off from everyone so early, this was your first mission.” He turns around to face the rest of the group, “Alright. Now that everyone is here, we did find some signs of slime occupation; however, since none of us found more than just some old shed slime, we can mark this down as an abandoned slime den. We should head back now and report our findings.”
Everyone starts to move forward, Slime trying his best to trail behind, hoping he can maybe just trail behind enough that nobody would notice him stay behind, but to his horror, the leader puts a hand on his shoulder, and starts to guide him along. “You will be fine with joining me in the report, right, Charlie? You were the one to have spotted the old slime after all.”
Slime’s eyes widen, not liking this situation one bit, but he nods, “Uh. Of course, sir.”
The leader smiles and nods, “Well, let’s get going then.” and moves ahead of him, taking charge once again of the group.
As they travel, and the land transitions between forest and population, Charlie finds himself nervous as he follows. He can feel the eyes of farmers watching as they pass by, some children waving at the convoy as they move past. Some of the humanoids wave back happily to the children, but Charlie keeps to himself, not wanting to draw any attention. If there is even a small thing off about him, he will end up dead, after all.
When they move directly into the town, Charlie finds himself looking up at this massive castle at the center of the town. The streets bustling with life, but they all move aside to allow them to pass through.
And then when they reach the gates, the doors open as they are let in. As soon as they are in the courtyard everyone moves to stand in position again, Charlie struggling to join in, as the leader moves to the front again to speak. “Everyone is dismissed now, rest up and enjoy the rest of your day, tomorrow you will return to your normal duties.”
After that, the rest of the group disperses, leaving Charlie alone with the leader once again.
“Are you ready?” they ask.
Charlie nods.
“Come on then.” and they head towards the castle.
The whole place is extravagant as they walk through, many humanoids positioned outside of rooms that Charlie can only assume are important. Servants rush through the halls, a couple more important looking people walking along slower, only offering simple nods as they pass by.
“You’re tense. First time meeting the royal family?” The leader snaps Charlie out of his thoughts.
“...Yeah?” Charlie responds, not seeing any reason to deny.
“You’ll be fine.” The leader smiles, “The King and Queen are intimidating, but we will likely just be talking with the crown prince and a scribe, as they are in the middle of a planning meeting.”
Charlie just nods simply.
“Prince Mariana won’t hold us for too long I assume, and you will be dismissed as well.”
When they stop at a door, one guarded by two guards standing at command, they open the door and alert of their arrival.
——————————————————————
Mariana watches as two from the mission step in, Captain Quackity standing still and at respect of him as he steps in, bowing at his presence, while the soldier that was brought along, seeming almost like a fish out of water in this situation with his wide eyes and awkward stance follows in suit of the captain.
An honestly common sight for new guards of course, so it really wasn’t all that offputting, but he still catches his eye.
A half elf with messy brown hair, and the greenest eyes she’s ever seen. His armor seems well fitted though, almost as if crafted for him specifically.
The aasimar prince motions for them to speak.
“We have come back from our mission about the report of a slime den. We bear good news as there was no sign of slimes, however we did spot a spot of old dried slime near the entrance.” Quackity informs, then motioning to the soldier to elaborate.
“It was near the entrance, very dry and seemingly very old. Can only assume the den had been a den at some point but not anymore.” The soldier adds.
Mariana nods, glancing at the scribe who is writing everything down. “Is that all?”
Quackity nods, “Are we free to go, your highness?”
Mariana glances between the two, before simply nodding, “Yes. We will get the information to my parents and we will have Etoiles contact you for any further proceedings.”
As he watches as the two leave, Mariana takes the paper from the scribe and motions for them to be dismissed too.
Once alone, she glances back to Roier, the attendant having stood in the back the whole time watching. Roier raises an eyebrow at her staring. “Si?”
“Do you know who that soldier was?” he asks curiously.
“I’m assuming you meant not Quackity.” Roier elaborates, which gets a glare in response from Mariana.
“Yes. Not Quackity.”
Roier glances down at the itinerary paper. “Nope.”
Mariana sighs, “Can you find out?”
“Why? Did you feel something is off?” Roier queries, “He is a new hire so if you think he might have bad intentions we can investigate.”
“No..just. I’m curious about him.” Mariana half avoids the question, “I like to get to know our new soldiers.”
Roier just stares for a moment, before sighing, “I can request a report for you.”
“Thank you.” Mariana smiles, “What’s next for the day then?”
“Nothing until dinner.” Roier responds.
Mariana stands, “I’m going to my room, then.” then walks off, leaving Roier wondering what the fuck is going on.
——————————————————————
After all that, Charlie himself is left alone for once in a while. Left to process his thoughts by himself, no humanoids in sight.
Perhaps…there is some place he can temporarily hide up until he can get the chance to escape again? His slime is feeling tired from having to hold his disguise after all. He doesn’t think he will make it outside the town before melting in front of someone.
He wanders, trying to find any sort of map or something he can use.
Finally he finds a sign outside the castle in the courtyard pointing towards the barracks. He quickly moves forward, entering the building and sees two halls. The cafeteria, and then the sleeping hall.
He doesn’t even want to think about what kind of shit humanoids eat right now, so he turns towards the door to the dormitory.
It is a strange door, one that seems to have a weird…gem spot? Does he have a gem?
He searches the armor, finding a small sack attached to the armor, and digging into it he finds a gem, a bag of money, and an identifier of sorts?
He stares at the gem, before putting it into this slot, and the door seems to glow and unlock, Charlie opening the door to see it open up to a room.
Shocked by the magic of this place, he removes the gem and steps in shutting the door.
Dropping off the armor he immediately melts, letting out a tired warble as he goops his way under the bed, finding comfort more in darker spaces rather than the actual intended sleep place.
This whole day has been a lot. Having to kill a humanoid, literally disguise himself as said humanoid, then also having to literally go into the lion’s den immediately when brought into their territory. He has never been in a humanoid populated area. He had been warned since a young ooze that he would die if he was ever caught there.
But he needed to protect Koda. Needed to protect the young ooze in his care. All worth the danger in the end.
For now? He just needs to blend in.
Grabbing out the identification card, he looks through the information on it to learn more about his new identity.
Charles Flippo, 27, Half-Elf, from the coastal province of Quesadilla.
No clue if he has family, and has no clue of personality, but hopefully this is a very temporary situation.
He just wants to get home to his slimeling.
But for now, he can just sleep. Deal with this tomorrow.
Hopefully escape too.