In a place at the edge of the world, far away from any sort of meddling from the wills and wants of men, a slime was undergoing a transformation never before seen. It was a sudden strike of luck or fate, having just the right conditions, being at the right place at the right time.
The slime shuddered as its core, a rough and uneven dim crystal pearl, started becoming bigger and smoother, its inner light shining brightly for the first time. The corrosive gel enveloping it began crystallising, turning solid and changing its shape to allow for a newer, sturdier form. The metamorphosis took only a few minutes, and at its end the slime had become something different, something greater.
It now floated half a meter of the ground, hovering in the air by merit of some mystical energy, with its body standing a meter and a half tall and half as wide, a solid chunk of lightly glowing crystal with no arms or legs, only two glowing orbs for eyes upon it.
It looked around taking in all the differences that its new form held. It had never felt so clearheaded, as if it had awoken from an endless slumber. It gazed for the first time, taking in the world in its new beauty and splendour.
It stood inside a hollow in a dead tree, its surroundings lush with plant life, and the myriad sounds of animals not far. It was all so new, so overwhelming that it just sat there, stunned for reasons it couldn’t comprehend.
The next day it jolted to attention by a sensation of painful hunger, and quickly got outside to see what it could scrounge up. The dense forest seemed easier to take in, tough it was still a very daunting experience. So much open space, such high trees and an even higher sky. It averted its eyes from up high, it would take in that vision in another moment, for now it had more pressing matters to pursue, such as the growing hunger.
At first it tried doing what it did when it was a slime, absorbing grass and other detritus of the forest floor into itself as sustenance. It was interesting to watch, as instead of being broken down by its slime like before, he utilized some kind of new force to extract the essence directly in a much faster manner, the grass becoming brittle and turning to dust in the wind.
This new force he could exert with his mind was incredible, it allowed it to do things it never thought possible, like grab things and throw things. Amazing!
But there was a problem. What before had been a satisfying meal now barely dampened its pain. It kept trying to eat grass and sticks, but still it made no difference. As it trekked through the forest trying to eat different things it came across a brook, and in there it saw things that had the greatest concentration of essence it had ever seen. It moved quickly and caught a fish just as it jumped through the air.
It tried to absorb the essence directly from the fish at first, but quickly noticed that it couldn’t. The essence appeared bound to the fish and ignored all his attempts at manipulation, so it tried its next best idea, and smashed it against a nearby rock. The fish splattered all over it, chunks flying into the water to be devoured by the other creatures of the brook.
As soon as it splattered it saw the essence rapidly dissipate into the air and earth, and it wasn’t quick enough to gather more than a smidgen, though even that much was a feast compared to the crumbs from before.
It grabbed another fish, and this time controlling the strength of the force, smashed it into the rock. It took a couple of times to get the right amount of strength, but eventually the fish died, the essence dissipating much slower when it wasn’t splattered. It drank deep from that well, never before having had such a feast, and when the final bit of fish turned to dust, it felt the hunger from before diminish drastically.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
It ate a couple more fish, then returned to his nest under the hollow tree. It could feel his core, the centre of his being, filled to the brim with essence, it was slowly being drained, but it should keep it sated for a while. However, there was an even more important discovery, as the essence settled within itself, it felt it condense and strengthen its core. It was a small amount, but considering that it was small itself, it could clearly feel the difference. The feeling was very nice, even better than staring at all the new things around it, and it looked forward to doing it again.
For now, it just lazed about in its nest, grabbing and throwing stuff at random, crushing leaves and small bugs, and generally being easily distracted by all the new things it could do and see.
Three days passed, with it going every day to eat the fish, and every day that passed it felt more in control of what it could do. All the wonder of vision was still there, but it could ignore the stimulus better, and it discovered a different kind of vision, one that allowed it to see the essence in all things.
At first it was nauseating, but it quickly got it under control, and was again astonished to find that all things held essence within them, from a rock, to the river water, to the wind and sky, all held it, Lived through it, and died when it was spent, dissipating to other forms of essence or going below the earth. It tried to follow the essence below the ground with its senses, but it wasn’t strong enough, his range much shorter than what was needed, and so for now where that essence went remained a mystery.
Two days later
After its morning routine of going to the river and eating fish, as it was exploring the woods around its hollow, it encountered its first foe.
It didn’t need to sleep, and the cycles of light and dark meant little to it aside from its beauty of sight and sound, and so in the deep darkness of midnight it heard long howls in somewhere in front of it, and many responding howls from all around it. It was curious, as this had never happened before, so it stood in place appreciating the sounds, and before it noticed it was surrounded on all sides by vulpine predators. They stood at its height, with grey fur and red eyes that shined in the darkness, teeth bared and growling as they circled the prey.
This was very new. And very frightening. It was the first time it felt such emotions as it recognised in an instinctual level the meaning behind those actions. It was encircled by ten of the creatures as they growled in an effort to intimidate it, each searching for an opening to take advantage of. It was at this moment that it realized a very important thing.
All creatures need essence to survive, and just as it was wantonly taking its fill from the brook fish, so too would other creatures crave for itself.
In this moment of realization one of the wolves perceived an opening and jumped for the kill, just to be violently smashed to the side as an unseen force pummelled into it. The force hit it in its upper body, shattering its spine and breaking its neck with the force of the blow.
Just as it was about to feel relief at its victory two jolts of searing pain made it lose balance and roll on the ground with one of its assailers. Two more wolves had attacked it from the back, one slashing with its paws while the other bit strongly into its crystal shell, shattering its outer layer and piercing deep into its more fragile interior. It again launched its force against the wolf, splattering its skull open just as three more jumped on it. It would not be able to evade, and with its only form of protection being the force, it did something that it didn’t think possible and tried to split the force in two.
It felt something tearing inside its mind, as if a great weight suddenly divided into two but kept wanting to be one again. Its force hit two wolves head on, making their necks snap as they fell limply on the forest floor, with the last wolf scoring a quick bite before having its head smashed in.
With suddenly half the pack getting killed before them, the rest of the wolves fled into the deep forest, and it now stood alone before its kills. Alone and victorious. And hurt. And tired.
The joy of victory rapidly vanished as the pain from its wounds took place at the forefront of its mind. It rapidly ate the essence of its fallen foes and crawled back to its tree hollow, where for the first time since it became aware, sleep overtook it.