A millisecond expanse of time.
That was the whole of the interval afforded to Cas.
The flame blast felt alive, heating the room as it breathed. It flowed like a dancing snake as it coiled and sparked itself forward, moving with jerky, quick feints before suddenly exploding forward.
It was an entire epoch passed in a brief moment, and every detail of it seemed vital to Cas. The woman’s frantically wrathful eyes, the brilliant light which dazzled the room and refracted through the hospital couch.
The couch was the centerpiece of the entire scene, in a way. The helpless clone stood rooted in the path of fire, blindly waving its syringe in the air like a mourning banner, casting strange shadows on the polished floor as the light bent and twisted through its prismatic form.
Cas’s thoughts raced by at rocket speeds, but her body moved faster than her thoughts, and Cas dove forward, sliding under the hospital couch before the second, feinting spark of the flame engulfed them both.
The couch took the brunt of the attack, diverting flame trails around Cas. It dissolved in a moment, however, and soon enough Cas was in intimate contact with a river of fire.
Again, the flame blast wasn't normal. It felt alive, complex, and every subtle part of it seemed to have been created with human intention.
It was a horrendously designed thing.
Back when she still lived at the village, as a curiosity, Cas had walked into a bonfire. She discovered that, as a slime, she was quite resistant to the flames. The moment she stepped into the fire, and the flames licked her skin, steam puffed up from her body, creating a surface barrier of water vapor which shielded her from the flames and even suppressed them whenever they got too close.
This fire wore the mask of a living creature, however. It breathed like a person, and feinted like a hound, and struck like a snake. And it dug flame-like fingers into the barrier of steam that rose up around Cas, sundering it apart and blowing it away.
Cas was stripped naked of her steam armor, exposed to a hurling river of flame that charred over the surface of her skin.
[HP Reduced: -34 HP][HP Reduced: -46 HP]
[HP Reduced: -74 HP][HP Reduced: -12 HP]
[HP Reduced: -54 HP][HP Reduced: -53 HP]
[HP Reduced: -76 HP][HP Reduced: -23 HP]
The immediate feeling was… chilly.
It was like the temperature of fear, the cool feeling when October winds blew over your neck and raised your hackles. It was the shivering, harsh chill you experienced when you yawned and felt your soul slipping through your throat.
It was the feeling of having all the warmest parts of you burned away.
Mind racing, Cas felt the instinct to draw herself into a hardened sphere, but the brief flame had already disappeared by that point.
The sudden absence of flame and peril left Cas feeling empty. A bright stream of moonlight caused Cas to look behind her, where she saw the trail of charred flooring leading to a fresh new hole in the wall.
Cas was smaller now, a little creature hunkered down and hugging the floor for some sense of stability. All around her burning hot air miraged through the moonlight, a suddenly cool wind came through the hole in the wall.
Ahead of Cas stood a rocky, cracked burnt thing. It looked like a giant piece of discarded bubble gum. A hot crack in the middle caused it to leak some hissing fluid. It took a second glance for her to recognize it as the remnants of the hospital couch. It had taken the worst of the flames, thankfully leaving Cas in relatively good condition. Enough of it remained to block her vision, however.
Cas was dreadfully curious to see what was happening on the other side of it: that half of the room had been a source of interesting events lately.
Tentatively, she peeked an eyestalk over the rim of the corpse.
The entire room was filled with a shimmering heat-haze. Several shelves worth of books had spontaneously combusted in the oven-like atmosphere, and a thin film of gray smoke had risen up like a curtain as a result.
Another stream of fresh air came through the wall, and it disturbed that curtain enough for Cas to see to the other side.
“Hahhh, hahhh, hahh!” The woman crouched on the other side of the smoke cloud. Cas could see her face had turned an almost ghostly pale from the exertion. She attempted to stand, but shaky legs turned that into a stumble that forced her to lean against the top of a nearby bookshelf, resting her elbows on it and looking as if she were about to wretch.
She seemed tuckered out.
Cas decided that now would be a good time to start a talk, and she’d even formed vocal chords to do just that when better judgment stopped her.
It… was probably better to stand by the exit for this conversation.
Flattening herself down into a moving puddle, Cas moved with stealth towards the fresh exit that had been blasted out of the back wall, keeping a low profile which kept her hidden behind the burnt couch until most of her hung outside of the hole in the wall.
“Hello?” Cas tentatively called, priming herself to jump away at the first sign of chanting or glyphs.
The woman actually did jump, letting out a short scream as she hopped up onto the bookshelf. There, a broomstick with burning bristles leaned against the wall like a reverse torch.
The woman seemed to have an instinct for improvised weapons as she picked it up and pointed the flame-end threateningly in Cas’s direction.
The woman stumbled after the exertion and nearly collapsed.
“Are you ok?” The worried exclamation broke from Cas. It felt strange to be speaking English to another person, almost joyful in a way.
“Stay back, monster,” the woman threatened, waving the broom with a fiery sound. “I’ll kill you if you come any closer! A lady does not stand for encroachment!”
That response had been less than joyful. In fact, it was downright insulting, and Cas was quick to forget her fear in the face of it as she rose a bit higher over the edge of the breach. “I’ll have you know, I saved your life!” she replied, annoyed.
The wind died from the woman’s wrathful heading. She cocked a confused eye-brow at the sakkari. “You…” she pointed at the diminutive sakkari, “saved me?”
Cas elaborated. “Remember those four monsters that were trying to eat you? Do you think your unconscious body fought them off and made it here by itself?”
The woman’s confused look quickly turned defiant. “A lie! A lady does not stand for lies either, you know. It was an angel that saved me! It led me away on glowing wings, and it even cared for me in the form of a little girl.”
“That was me!” Cas said, growing a bit heated at the lack of credit. To prove her point, she transformed into [killer of omens], stretching her wings a bit longer than necessary as she activated the glow potion, casting a soft halo into the room.
Cas held back her desire to hum angelic choir noises as she did this.
A look of recognition was quashed by yet more suspicion on the woman’s part. “A trick,” she decided. “Who knows, you may have led me to that trap so that the monsters would get me in the first place.”
Considering Cas had led her into that trap. She couldn’t find too many arguments to be made there, so she pivoted. “Are you just going to be suspicious? I literally saved your life!”
“A lady can never be suspicious, only questioning. It’s her right of dignity,” the woman replied as if quoting a handbook. “Besides. I know you didn’t save me, that girl-
“That girl!” the woman interrupted herself with a start, looking all around. “What have you done to her!?” she accused, looking over at Cas. “I swear, monster, if you’ve hurt her!”
“I was that girl!” Cas said, feeling embarrassed. Her claims were beginning to sound ridiculous even to herself, at this point. “I even went out of my way to take care of you. Would a monster do that?”
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The woman outright laughed. “You? You were that angelic girl that saved me?” All her confusion seemed to disappear at once with that notion, replaced with a stolid determination as she refixed her grip on the broom handle. “As if I’d believe that!”
Cas, still of a twelve year old mind, was quite a proud little creature, and she relished the act of proving someone wrong about a basic fact. “Well, you’d better believe it, because that was me. Don’t you recognize my voice?”
The woman’s expression became less combative, if only for an instant.
“Hmph!” she harrumphed. “The worst two-penny jester knows how to throw a voice around. I’m sure monsters can do the same. And, for your sake, I hope the girl you stole that voice from is still alive. Otherwise, I assure you – you will be joining her in a very painful manner.”
The threat in her voice was hard as steel, though the effect was ruined by her generally weak posture.
“I’m telling you, that was me!” Cas insisted. “I can transform!”
“Is that so?” The woman laughed insultingly. “Fine then!” She stood up straight, as if finding energy from her indignation. “Transform right now and prove it. I’m waiting.” She waved a hand in a ‘go ahead’ posture.
Cas, for her part, lost all her enthusiasm for proving the woman wrong. She had been dreading this part of the process. “Well… the thing is-”
“Aha!” the woman accused, hopping back and pointing a straight finger at Cas. “I knew you were a liar. You-”
“I can transform,” Cas interrupted with a note of frustration. “It’s just that… you burned my clothes away.”
The woman blinked rapidly. “...What?”
“My clothes,” Cas explained again, “you burned them away with that attack. I’d be naked if I transformed now.”
The woman seemed to forget her earlier emotions in favor of perplexity. “Modesty? From a slime?” She almost laughed.
“I repeat again, I am human!” Cas insisted. “And If you’re wrong, do you want to be responsible for forcing a lady to stand unclothed in the open ? Weren’t you the one saying something about a lady’s dignity a few moments ago?”
The perplexity of the situation, as well as the sudden turn of argument, seemed to freeze the woman’s face in a buffering state. “Very well,” she acquiesced, at last, carrying the face of someone who’d just been checkmated on their own chess set.
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“Fine! This looks like your size.”
A gray and white mass of pleated skirts were thrown over Cas’s figure, draping her in a hamperful of linen.
The woman had become exceedingly accommodating after that last appeal. Although, considering how exhausted she looked, perhaps she was just buying time until her magic returned. Cas decided to keep an eye on the woman’s fingers as she crawled in through the bottom of the dress and transformed.
In the back of her mind, Cas had been worried about what would happen to the dress if she transformed while inside of it, but her body seemed aware of the conundrum and modified her transformation accordingly. All the necessary parts of her fitted themselves to the inside of the dress. Crystal eyes flowed past the choke point of the neck. Growing arms shot through the sleeves and, like a kitchen timer going off, a short ding baked the form into reality, turning the roiling mass of proteins and biological gunk into a full fleshed human being.
The dress, as it turned out, was not her size. It was much too large. Long sleeves hung past the ends of her hands, and the dress bunched up to her knees. It left her feeling… toddlerish, which was technically what she was, now.
Apparently, she’d lost more than a year’s worth of mass in the fireblast.
Looking down at herself, Cas was also left feeling juvenile by the fact that she’d grown into the dress… backwards. The high back of the dress pressed up against her throat like a brace. ‘First time dressing in front of someone and you put your shirt on backwards. Amazing, just amazing.’ Cas thought, trying not to show her embarrassment as she looked up at the woman.
Her embarrassment quickly disappeared as she saw the woman’s expression, however.
The broom in her hand trembled.
Cas expected her to drop it and run, or maybe to hit her with it while screaming ‘monster!’ again. She hadn’t been expecting the woman to drop the handle, and to fall to her knees along with it.
“I… I almost just killed a child!” she said, voice hollow. “I… just tried to kill the child that saved me!”
Cas hastened to correct her. “Well, ‘almost killed’ is juicing the stats there, a bit. I mean, I was fine.” Cas’s first instinct had been to protect her ego, though she quickly shifted tracks when she noticed tears and panic filling the woman’s eyes. “I mean, I’m fine!” she added, suddenly turning her face into a smile and hopping forward to hug her arms around the woman. “See!” Stepping back, she brushed her dress down as if to prove the fact, turning in place to present herself. “And, it was kind of my fault, too. I did scare you after all.”
Surprisingly enough, the woman immediately started laughing through her sobs, her face lighting up the moment Cas had deigned to show her a smile.
Was this what it was like to be a child? Cas thought. Were all adults programmed to try and keep a brave face around you? Cas didn’t remember, though she was glad to use the moment to distract the woman from her own thoughts. “Look,” she said, pulling back from the hug and looking the woman in the face, “it’s been a long day. Why don’t we go into the study and I can get us something to eat.”
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The woman agreed to the request, although with a few caveats.
“It has to be a proper tea,” were the words she’d used. “It’s been so long since I’ve had a proper table to sit at, and frankly I’ve grown sick of stuffing my face with field rations. Besides, It’ll give us time to talk.”
The lady had a casually imperious way of making demands, lacking any self consciousness as she presented her own requirements.
“Of course,” Cas agreed despite the fact that she had no idea what a ‘proper tea’ entailed. “I’ll get the food, and you can set up the tea. There’s a table in the dining room, and I saw some tea sets in the kitchen. You can set it up how you like.”
“That’s acceptable,” the woman answered simply. “I… will need to wash first, though.” She looked down at herself, touching the bloodstains in her dress which had by now scabbed it over into a grotesque corset. “You can’t imagine how disgusting I feel.”
Cas guided her to the bath.
Surprisingly, the plumbing was still intact, and the wooden bathtub had filled with a turn of a knob.
“Ugh! The water’s cold!” The woman shivered, pulling back her toe from the tub.
“Really?” Cas sent a disbelieving look at the woman. “Couldn’t you just – “ Cas held up her fingers in a firing posture “ – fwoom, bam bam, until it’s warm? You certainly know your way around a fire,” she said, with not too little bitterness in her voice.
The woman retorted frustratedly, “I’ll have you know, nearly dying takes a toll on your magic. You should be thankful I’m still recovering, otherwise you wouldn’t be alive to snark at me for having standards.” The woman dipped more of her toe into the tub, shivering with some discomfort.
“Couldn’t you use your aura to stay warm?” Cas suggested helpfully.
The woman looked at Cas with a disappointed expression: the kind all of Cas’s friends wore when they tried to vent and got unsolicited advice instead.
Taking that as her hint to leave, Cas – after warning to the lady not to touch the pressure bandage, and several assurances from the woman that she was capable of taking care of herself – toddled out of the house and went to collect her part of the tea.
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A quick flight up confirmed that the surrounding fields were barren, black mud and weeds spreading out for acres to every side.
Shooting down Cas dove back into the mass of slime she’d abandoned on the ground and transformed.
Not all transformations were created equal. Some, like [Killer of Omens] require meticulous attention from the most discerning corner’s of Cas’s mind. Others, were quite forgettable, and Cas generally designed them anew everytime she had need ot them.
Cas felt her ‘front’ distinguish itself from the sphere of her body, growing out a spade like lower jaw that stabbed into the mud with an earthy crunch. The jaw then swung slowly upward, accompanied by the cracking sounds of a thousand snapping grass roots as the ball of dirt and grass and worms smashed between two flat crushing jaws..
Cas barely even bothered to chew. Thee black mass of dirt dissipated inside her body, dissolving everything and leaving behind a trail of white sand and dry silt behind her as she tore a path through the village green, changing course whenever a particularly large bush or flower garden made the mistake of existing in her line of sight.
After trawling through eighty pounds of dirt – filtering away everything that could harm a human – Cas finally scraped together enough usable material to make food for tea, as well as a human body.
image [https://i.imgur.com/AW4S3LI.png]
image [https://i.imgur.com/TLkgoFZ.png]
Cas took a moment to appreciate the new milestone age.
She was twenty two! Finally, she could drink again!
Of course, Cas’s new maximum weight was over two hundred pounds, more than enough to get her back to her original age. But, Cas held off on aging up, for now.
It would be such a waste of time to collect the extra five pounds, after all…besides, who didn’t want to be young again?
Cas was quite glad to have made such a vain decision, when she turned back into a human and realized that the child-sized dress she’d been given now barely reached her mid-thigh. Any more weight gain and that the dress would have gone from shameless to 'cougar', and Cas was -- however much she respected her -- had made a conviction of her desire to never end up like granny.
Looking down at herself, she shifted uncomfortably, bare feet squelching in the mud and bare thighs rubbing together as she tried to pull the hem of the dress down to cover more of herself.
She… was going to need some new clothes.