Whether it led to salvation or the start of a prison, the slime kept following the direction the white thread pointed to.
The sense of purpose felt refreshing, mostly because it pulled its mind away from its hunger.
The stone beneath him started to shift into something softer and damper. Dirt. It hesitated for a heartbeat at losing the familiar rocky texture, but past experience kept him from risking the disappearance of its only guide.
More sensations flowed into its body. The most important thing was heat. That set off alarm bells in its mind. Rising temperature mattered a lot to a creature made almost entirely of cold water, but it didn't want to stop, so it slowed down and tried to steady itself.
The light was also growing. It didn't have eyes, but its body could still sense brightness when it hit him.
The ceiling dipped lower and lower as the cave shrank. After hopping for a while, it found the thread bending upward. It jumped forward and landed in front of a pile of stones, climbed over them, and reached the ceiling, which was now barely a meter and a half high after once being twenty.
It followed the thread until it bumped into a wall. No, there was an opening, just too small for him. The thread kept urging him ahead, and since it had never been wrong, it tried again with more force.
After a few pushes, it squeezed out through a gap beneath the trunk of a thick tree.
And then everything hit him at once.
The enclosed cave had been soothing, with almost no sensory input beyond stone and vibration. The outside was deafening.
Sound, wind, light, and so many tiny sensations crashed over him. It paused, slowly adjusting, though it couldn't regain the comfort it had in the cave. In that daze, it even considered going back to its safe, quiet shelter.
While it was debating its situation, it remembered the white thread. It searched for it in its mind. A pale, fading strand appeared. Fading... and drifting away.
It leapt after it, but it was pointless. It dissolved into the air, leaving him staring at its last traces.
The thread... It stayed still for a long, sombre minute, as if mourning its first guide in this world. Then it moved again, feeling that familiar emptiness creep back in. It couldn't give it room to bother him.
Foggy and lost, the slime hopped around looking for a new distraction, leaving the memory of the guiding thread behind.
It grew used to the feel of grass, twigs, and fallen leaves. There were insects here and there, but so small they barely registered when it dissolved them.
It needed bigger prey.
It bounded between trees, its membrane reflecting the damp trunks of the rainy forest. Winter was close.
It hated falling into that mud. It dulled its senses, the very senses it relied on to shape its understanding of the world. It spun quickly to fling off as much mud as possible, leaving itself coated in muck and stuck-on leaves.
Hmm... It settled on the easy solution: rubbing himself against the trees. He'd make sure to avoid that awful mud more carefully next time.
Jumping from one root to another turned out to be a good way to avoid it. It was also fun to see how far it could leap without losing balance.
Eventually, it reached two trees spaced a bit farther apart. It wasn't sure it could make it, but the challenge drew him in.
Push and... jump! It launched itself forward, and before it covered half the distance, it slammed into something solid and unfamiliar. It bounced off and dropped into the mud again.
Damn. Even if it didn't grasp its full meaning, it was the only word that echoed in its mind for the frustration caused by this strange obstacle. It focused on the shape in front of him. It was large, unfamiliar, with sharp protrusions at the front.
Fangs.
A tiger growled and pushed him back a little. That alone was strange. Plants didn't make sounds like that. And also—
*Chomp*
They didn't bite him. This thing was aggressive.
The fangs slid into him easily. The tiger lifted its head with the slime in its jaws. Unfortunately for the tiger, the slime got an idea: dissolve the area around him.
It started melting the fangs and gums. The tiger shrieked, a raw, panicked sound, and smashed its muzzle against the ground, trying to dislodge the searing pain that was now in its jaw, but it didn't help. The slime let instinct take over and spread through the tiger's body. The beast fought hard, hitting, roaring, threatening, but the worst part for the slime was having to mix with all that filthy mud.
As if accepting its fate, the tiger went still and let out a final groan before the last bone dissolved. What was slow torture for the tiger was the best thing the slime had felt in a long time. Since waking up, really. A rush of satisfaction and fullness. Who would've thought such a feeling existed?
The slime, or rather, what looked like a blue tiger striped in black, bounded around in delight. Not only was it full, but it could see the world in a totally new way. Colors. So many colours, and scents too. Everything felt alien. The slime senses suddenly seemed tiny in comparison. Maybe it hadn't paid much attention to the change in its body. Or maybe some part of him had always known it could do this.
More. It wanted another experience like that, something that gave it that same thrill. It tried walking. It wasn't easy. Even its original body had taken time to master.
Moving one limb while considering the other three was confusing. It stumbled once, twice, three times, but didn't get discouraged. All it cared about was getting the hang of this new form. When it gained enough control, it resumed its search for a new target. Night was settling in, clouds covering the sky, letting only a faint trace of moonlight through. Its vision didn't help much.
It smelled something then. Something mouthwatering.
Its nose twitched as it traced the scent cutting through the still darkness. It was at least glad that mud and other annoyances didn't matter much in this form, even if it wasn't nearly as flexible.
It didn't even think of returning to its original body. It felt random and pointless now.
The smell grew stronger. It kept its slow pace. Rushing never paid off.
Strange lights flickered in the distance, just a few dozen steps away. Fire. Whatever it was, it seemed worth checking out.
It moved closer until it heard things shifting around it, but it ignored them and kept going, until—
*Flick*
Knives flew from between the branches in every direction, hitting the slime-tiger. It simply pulled them into its body and dissolved them.
Hmm...? It turned, looking for the source of that metallic snack. There was some wood mixed in, too, but neither tasted interesting.
It heard a rustle behind the tree to its right. Before it could turn, a veiled figure lunged out with a spear and drove it into its body. The figure froze the moment it felt no resistance at all. The spear slid through like nothing.
Before it could make sense of it, the blue, striped tiger melted into liquid, wrapped around the spear, and devoured it.
"Ah!" The man dropped the spear, watching it vanish into the small blue oval mass on the ground.
Again, the mix of wood and metal wasn't impressive. Maybe it should've eaten it while still in tiger form.
More two-legged creatures emerged from the trees, holding long spears and single-edged blades.
"What in the world is this?"
"Did you see what it just did?"
"Is that its real shape or some trick to make us drop our guard?"
Whispers spread among the warriors, one-horned and two-horned alike, as they stared at the strange creature. They weren't the only ones seeing something new, but that didn't matter to him. The strange fire was more important. Who knew what it tasted like?
"Hey, stab it."
"You idiot, didn't you just see it? It'll melt anything you throw at it."
"Then kick it!"
"It'll melt our feet, genius!"
"Hey, it's running away!"
The slime darted off toward its chosen target without letting anything distract it. Distractions were far too dangerous.