Mary-Ann screamed in frustration, or at least tried to. Right after the spell went haywire she was left disoriented with a blinding headache. At first she just sat there rocking back and forth before she noticed something strange; she could see all the way around herself. It wasn’t that she could see behind her back but that she could see in a sphere; up, down, left, right, behind… everywhere. It was completely disorientating but she could somehow process it though she couldn’t see far, maybe five or six feet in any direction. She tried holding her hand in front of her face to see what would happen but couldn’t.

She started to try again before she realized she couldn’t feel her hands. In fact she couldn’t feel anything other than a sense of just being there, though it didn’t feel like her arms was gone, just different, almost like there were still there but that she couldn’t use them right now. At this point she was ready to freak out but then Phyron, whom she now refused to call master, came into view. Relieved she had gone still thinking that he would help her figure out what was going on. Instead he just looked around then started taking notes as if her plight meant nothing to him. She tried calling out to him but he didn’t seem to hear her, so she started trying to wave. She managed to move herself back and forth at which point he not only noticed her but became obviously excited.

She was relieved to see that he was working on the spell formation thinking that he was working to help her until the containment circle became a holding sphere with her trapped within. She felt slightly nauseous as the sphere lifted off the floor and held her there as Phyron pulled out a magic sealing box of some kind and snapped it around her.

She was confused: why would he trap her in a box? How did she fit in such a small container? What exactly was going on here?? Looking at the sides of the box she finally saw a faint reflection in the glass. Where she expected to see her own face all she could see was an oddly colored slime. It seemed like an eternity passed as the implications slowly congealed in her mind.

She had been turned into a slime. If she would have been in her old body she would have been hyperventilating by this point. After a few seconds she realized that not did Phyron not care that she was gone, he was excited to have a new toy to play with, and after the last couple of weeks watching him “experiment” with different slimes, she was well and truly frightened.

Unfortunately this fear was proven to be justified in the coming days as Phyron proceeded to torture her in the name of magical research. Thankfully most of the sensations were muted by her new form but a few were so strong she suspected that the pain was actually enhanced. The worst was when he ripped pieces of her off, it was like having her fingers ripped off, or in the case of one larger piece an arm. Thankfully the missing pieces regenerated after she discovered she could absorb plants as food. That took a while to figure out as Phyron kept dropping random crap into her container, sometimes literally. Thankfully she could sense that she couldn’t absorb any of those things until Al the goblin dropped in some grass, along with some random other things. He seemed to delight in dropping things in with the slimes to see what they would ‘eat’. The grass was probably some clippings left over from working in the garden but at least it was fresh. She soon discovered that the longer a plant was dead, the less benefit she received from it, and the worse it taste, so she started ignoring and plants that were old and long dead. Strangely, wood was still edible after it had been processed though she managed to only eat a small sliver and ignored all the other wood. She figured that the less Phyron knew, the better her chance of escape.

She especially hid the fact that she could still feel her mana, though she hadn’t figured out how to use it. At first she had tried desperately to communicate with him but he either didn’t understand or didn’t care, probably a bit of both.

Something about her current form seemed to have excited the old wizard, so much so that he didn’t notice how odd the goblin she had named Al Chew was acting.

After Al returned from whatever errand he had been sent on he was assigned to help in the lab. Apparently even Phyron had eventually picked up on the fact that he was smart enough to actually assist in mundane tasks somewhat safely.

What Phyron didn’t notice and what caught Mary-Ann by surprise was that as Al followed Phyron around the lab he would try to copy him anytime he cast a spell. In fact Mary-Ann’s frustrated yell wasn’t just from her current situation but from the fact that the little goblin had just successfully cast spark, an incredibly simple spell for starting fires which Phyron had been using to light magical candles under some of his experiments, and was now jumping up and down from burning his finger.

As she yelled Al stopped and stared blankly at the glass cage containing Mary-Ann. Phyron had turned around by this point and was looking at Al questioningly.

“What are you yelling about?” he asked.

Al pointed at Mary-Ann’s box and said “Slime scream” in the usual broken common spoken by goblins.

Phyron looked at the box then back at the goblin before noticing the burnt tip of his finger.

“Don’t make excuses for burning your finger on one of my experiments!” Phyron smacked the back of the goblin’s head while admonishing him. “Now go cut some grass to feed the slime.” He ordered.

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Al quickly left the room but snuck a peak back at the slime as he slid out the door.

“Did he just here me?” Mary-Ann asked aloud. “Hey Phyron!” she yelled out hoping something had changed but he didn’t respond. “Your robe is on fire.” She stated, and it was, or at least it was smoldering. Despite the heavy atmosphere she giggled as she watched the small spark the goblin had accidentally shot onto Phyron’s rear start to smoke more and more before suddenly flaring to life in a small jet of flame. Mary-Ann laughed so hard she rolled around her enclosure. “Teach you to fart in front of a lady.” She said to herself as she continued to laugh out loud.

Phyron was looking at her rolling around when he stopped and sniffed. He got a strange questioning look on his face as he turned around and sniffed again. He shrugged his shoulders and started back to work on an experiment when he yelped and grabbed his rear only to yell again as he burned his fingers. In just a few seconds he had pulled off his burning robe and smoldering underclothes and tossed them into a corner where they flared into a small blaze.

At first he looked at the door which Al had just left through with a strange look on his face. The robe, like all of his clothing, was warded against normal fire. He could have been covered in flame but not felt a thing yet somehow his robe caught fire. Only magical flame could burn through his wards but there was no magical flame in the room. It was very strange but he thought that maybe he had sat on an unstable spell crystal or something so he just shrugged it off and went to get some new clothing.

Mary-Ann was still laughing when Al returned with an arm load of freshly cut grass.

“Funny?” he asked as he dumped the grass through the one-way spell barrier covering the top of her container. Her laughter stopped as she jumped up in excitement.

“You can hear me?” she half asked, half stated.

“Yes.” He said sticking his finger up his nose. “Itches.” He stated as his finger dug around.

“You have to stop that.” Despite being excited that he could hear her, she was just too grossed out by his nasal exploration.

“Eh, Why?” he asked as he continued to scratch the inside of his nose.

“Because it’s disgusting.” She stated before quickly going on. “Nevermind. I need you to tell Phyron that it’s me.”

“Me who?” he asked with a confused look on his face.

“Mary-Ann.” She stated as she thought that she had to do something about his broken common, both the language and his sense.

“Hello Mary-Ann.” He said waving with one hand while other dug relentlessly up his nose. “You sound like other Mary-Ann.” He said smiling.

“For the love of… I am the other Mary-Ann!” she yelled.

“Huh?” Al looked confused. “But you small and squishy and other Mary-Ann short but not so small and less squishy.”

Mary-Ann felt insulted at the description. Sure as a growing teen she was still a bit short and her chest was still flat but it would grow bless it!

“I was changed by a spell.” She tried to explain simply.

“Why you want do that?” He asked looking at her strangely.

She almost screamed again but held it in. “It was an accident. I wasn’t supposed to be in the spell circle.”

“Then why you stand in circle?” He asked innocently.

This time she did scream in frustration. “Just tell Phyron that I was turned into a slime.”

“Why you no tell?”

“He can’t hear me.”

“Why..”

“Just tell him!” She cut him off before he could ask more silly questions. Thankfully Phyron walked back into the room in a new robe before the goblin could recover from her outburst.

“Is Mary-Ann.” Al stated pointing at the slime.

“What?” Phyron asked looking at where the goblin was pointing. “Did you name my slime? That’s in pretty poor taste considering.” He stated slightly angry.

“No. Is Mary-Ann.” He replied still pointing at the slime. Phyron just shook his head before ignoring the crazy goblin.

“Tell him my last name is Blowhard.” Mary-Ann stated.

“She Blowhard.” Al helpfully supplied.

“She what?” Phyron stated looking strangely at the pointing goblin. Mary-Ann wanted to do her master’s infamous facepalm but lacked both a face and a palm. Surprisingly Phyron seemed to get it after a second and looked closely at the slime. Mary-Ann pushed herself up against the glass and screamed at him that she was there. Phyron didn’t react to her screams but after a few seconds he turned to the goblin and asked “This is Mary-Ann Blowhard my apprentice?”

When Al nodded he turned back to the glass “And you can hear her?” he asked.

“She loud.” Al stated as Mary-Ann continued to shout.

“If you are Mary-Ann then tell me: who was your last master?” Phyron asked as he looked at the slime with a strange sparkle in his eye.

Calming down Mary-Ann stated “My last master was Rubin Longstaff.” She winced at the name.

“Well?” Phyron asked as he turned around to find that Al was ignoring them both as he was busy scratching up his nostril. “Slave!” Phyron yelled to get Al’s attention neither knowing nor caring that he had a name in common.

“Huh?” Al jumped at the yell and pulled his finger out of his nose.

“Who did she say was her last master?” Phyron asked to clearify. Al just looked stupidly at the slime.

“Rubin Longstaff.” Mary-Ann simply said wincing again at the name.

“Rubbing Longstaff.” Al stated.

“Close enough.” Phyron said figuring the goblin had either misheard or misstated, after all he was intimately familiar with the stupidity of goblins.

“Finally.” Mary-Ann sighed in relief. “Please ask him how long it will take to change me back.” Mary-Ann asked.

“How long change back?” Al Asked.

“Change her back?” Phyron asked. “Why would I want to do that?”

Mary-Ann had a bad feeling about this.

“Tell him I have rights!” she told Al.

“She have rights.” He repeated.

“Ah, the Apprentice Care Act.” Phyron nodded. “That bit of legislation has cost me a small fortune.”

“People will come looking for me.” She stated hoping to push him into helping.

“She say people come look.” Al repeated.

Phyron Laughed. “Who would look for a dead girl?” he asked. “Besides, if you showed up alive your family would have to repay the death benefit I paid out and I doubt they would want to do that. I hear they took a nice vacation to the coast to morn.”

Mary-Ann nearly whimpered as she realized that he must have reported her killed in a freak spell accident and it was unlikely anyone would come looking for her for a long time, if ever. Given her parents greedy nature they might even kill her themselves rather than pay back the death benefit. Come to think of it, they were the ones who pushed her to accept the apprenticeship under Phyron despite his less than stellar record with them.

“Such a perfect experimental specimen.” Phyron noted as he pulled out his notebook to write down additional information.

Now Mary-Ann really did whimper.