Chapter 17: Exile 3

Under the watchful eyes of Gizmo, Apexus crossed under the lowest joist of the fence. “Remember, if you want to return you just need to seek something,” the old man shouted after the slime. “The runes on this place will guide your steps towards it!”

So THAT was why the slime had found it. Personally, it had just thought it had lucked out for once. Didn’t seem to be the case. As to why it was crawling into the forest rather than flying, that was because it was to find a list of things commonly found on the forest floor. Also, because it wanted to explore these parts.

The list of things it had to get was incredibly simple, which made it odd in its own way. A smooth pebble, a deep green-leaved plant, a piece of white bark and the antler of an animal. Gizmo had instructed Apexus to bring all of these things back fresh.

“It doesn’t really matter what kind of pebble or plant, it’s more of a symbolic thing,” he had said, “but make sure to bring them back of natural origin. I don’t think Hashahin will mind his sacrifices grown from you, but I don’t want to risk it.” Apparently, it was really fortunate that they already known under whose authority Aclysia had been created, that way they could skip a ritual that was going to take a whole lot more time.

Gizmo had tried explaining the details of the ritual to the slime, how each of the parts was a stand-in for another aspect of the 33rd deity, but that went over the still savage creature’s head, at least for the most part. As far as it was concerned, a smooth pebble was a polished piece of rock, not a physical metaphor for the shining beacon of steadfast hope that was the stone-skinned angel at the side of the summer’s patron.

That last part was the only thing that really stuck with the slime. Apparently, there were seasons, but this leaf, whatever that was supposed to be again, was eternally stuck in the warmest of them. Apexus wouldn’t complain about that, the few experiences it had with colder times were entirely unpleasant.

One day it would learn more about this whole omni-verse, but today the slime embarked on a small and pretty easy journey. The only condition there was that It had to bring all of these things back at the same time. Which was another thing it didn’t understand, but as long as it worked, it didn’t care.

With more than a few days to spare, the repair process of Aclysia would take its time, the slime forced itself not to rush things. Taking unnecessary risks to get back to a body still being repaired would mean it would have to spend the time waiting in excruciating boredom and tenseness, with only Gizmo’s communication lectures to spend it.

Those were okay, but the slime was more of a ‘do’ kind of personality. The only plans it liked to hatch were the kind used in hunting.

It slugged its way forwards and a few metres after the gateless fence was left behind, it hit the edge of the illusionary barrier. A warning flicker of bright sparks indicated that it was out and looking back the slime only saw the same woods as they were all around it.

The trees stood at an incredible density, blocking sight in every direction more reliably than but the densest of mists could. Shallow running roots covered the floor in an unsteady weave of gnarled wood, difficult to stand and step on. This was actually good for Apexus, who could traverse that kind of terrain as well as any other (or as bad as any other, in its own opinion).

It would have willingly starved itself for a couple of days for a way to shrink and use its wings to get through the forest that way instead. Sadly, that wasn’t an option, so it remained earthbound, the wings downsized so they acted like a mediocre shield protecting Apexus’ top half. With the chimeric head still attach to the front of it, the slime currently looked like a swan-slug-horror as it crept onwards.

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In the distance, it felt the massive steps of the beast that had previously convinced it to stay away from these parts. Curiosity made it wish to go over there and finally lay eyes on the creature. All it knew about the thing was that it had to be massive. If push came to shove, the slime could just fly away using the path of broken trees made by the creature itself.

With that resolution made, and thirsty for some sort of new surprise to break up the monotony of the past month, Apexus made its way over. Greeted by an onslaught of small rodents fleeing away from where it was going, the slime was pretty sure it was heading the wrong way. Not that it was even possible to miss these sorts of vibrations.

By now the slime’s original sense encompassed a metre around it in absolute detail. Everything that touched the ground around those parts carelessly was immediately detected. It still had to be wary of predators that could soften their movement or didn’t touch the ground at all, such as snakes and birds. As the sense didn’t suddenly stop at the metre mark, what the slime felt beyond that were immense tremors.

Such as the foot-steps of an eight-legged reptile that was fifteen metres long, covered in scales of red and had one eye in the centre of its elongated head filled with the tranquillity of a herbivore as it mowed down entire trees with its jaw, easily large enough to swallow the whole and then some.

The slime was seriously awe-inspired by that thing. Its scales looked too thick to be destroyed by anything. Thousands of small little antlers stuck out like chimney’s and exuded a thin smoke in the air that filled it with an ashen smell. Half of the monstrosities entire length was dominated by an immense, muscular tail that it swung around with the kind of laziness that could shatter every single bone in an attacker’s body.

It moved its feet, round and flat like tree stumps, and took a step forward. Its mass casually tore down a couple more trees, which it then began devouring leaving only splintered wood and scattered leaves. Behind it, the creature left a path of fresh, brown earth. The slime wondered how far it had to travel down that way to find saplings and eventually trees again.

Much more did it wonder if it had just stumbled into an eco-system whose highest-ranking member was an herbivore. That just felt wrong, but from the way absolutely nothing was even attempting to move on this extremely slow creature, there was no other explanation.

Apexus guess was indeed correct. This was the Ctanian Forag Drak or Forester Dragon as they were commonly called. While not actually related to any dragons in any other way that its creator god had also created some dragons in its time, this oversized, herbivore lizard bore several striking resemblances namely size, shape and the existence of a fire bag. The massive difference being that, for the Forester Dragon, it was used as part of their digestion process rather than as a weapon to spew fire.

Due to its massive size, intimidating smoke effect and organic armour, the Forester Dragon had no natural predators. In the first place, the Ctanian central forest was a pretty forgiving biome, with only big felines and snakes being the hunters around this area.

It was too bad for the Forester Dragon that it and its antler-like chimneys had entered the attention of a certain slime. Searching for a nice pebble amongst the upheaved ground, Apexus was crafting its plans.

Sapient hunters were unfairly good at killing big game.

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