Bear in a Beanie

With a sudden rustle of leaves, the slime bolted away, so fast that the orc only saw a green blur before the space where it once stood was empty. Bull furrowed his brow, staring dumbfounded at the empty space for a moment, then shrugged it off, figuring he would return to hunting, but before he could leave, the slime bolted in front of him, this time alongside a red slime that was identical in shape. He couldn’t help but smile at the way they looked up at him with curiosity, and how adorable their big eyes looked. He crouched down to get a better look at them. From the way their translucent gooey forms glistened in the evening sun, and from how vibrant their colors were, they were very beautiful creatures. 

“What are your names?” he asked.

The red one waved its hands, letting out an indecipherable high pitched noise. Bull chuckled and shook his head. 

“Didn’t quite catch that… Anyway, I’m pretty busy; I gotta go hunting. Wanna come along?”

The Red slime made that same noise again, and the green slime joined in. They both jumped up and down, repeating various high pitched blubbers, their feet making splatting sounds every time they hit the ground again. Bull raised an eyebrow, unsure if this behavior was joyful or fearful, as if they were warning him of something. 

“Okay okay!” he said, in a hushed tone, raising both his hands. “Quiet down. You’re gonna scare off the big game.” 

Neither of the slimes quieted down, and in fact, many more began to emerge from the brush, taking on different shapes and sizes, in every color of the rainbow. Some slimes took on spherical or spheroidal forms, others took on vaguely humanoid forms, and others took on the forms of various animals, like foxes and cats. All of them were jumping for joy, extending their arms or paws toward him, and making joyful blubbering sounds. Bull looked around at all of them, his eyes wide, not sure what to make of the situation. There was no way he was going to find any game now with all the noise, and he wasn’t sure what all the fuss was about. 

That is, he wasn’t sure until one of them cupped both of its blobby hands near its face, and a small ball of slime shot at the orc’s bare chest. It darkened to a pitch black and began spreading across his chest. 

“H-hey!” he shouted. His expression went from alarmed, to a vicious snarl. Roaring, the orc raised his axe again, and swung it downward, sweeping through the crowd, cutting them into smaller gelatinous blobs. Some of the slimes disintegrated into this black goo, splotches of it getting all over Bull’s boots and pants.  Once he hacked through the crowd, he sprinted down the forest path. He was hoping he scared the slimes off, or even thought he might anger them, but they still sounded just as joyful, and just as lively. Unbeknownst to him, the ones he hacked away began to reform within a matter of seconds. 

Bull felt large warm droplets hit him from above. It could have been mistaken for a light drizzle, but each droplet hit him with impact. He looked down at himself, and saw tiny goo balls had stuck to his green muscly arms, each one the size of a berry, then it began growing to the size of an egg, then the size of an apple. His eyes widened, and his stomach dropped, but he maintained a look of anger, and a strong powerful posture, as no orc should ever show their fear to an enemy. 

Glancing up, he found many of the humanoid slimes standing on thick branches in the trees, shooting these tiny black goo balls from their faces like blow darts. He picked up the pace with his sprint, attempting to grab one of the goo balls off of his arm, but it stuck to his hand and engulfed it, beginning to swallow up his wrist as well.  More goo poured down his shoulders and arms, covering his muscles, making them go from green and matte to pitch black and shiny. 

Most of his skin was now covered in this black goo, where some skin had splotches of it trickling down his muscles and becoming flush with his skin, and the rest of him had these gooey spheres inflating, becoming bigger and bigger by the second. So many goo balls covered his arms that it began to get hard to move them freely, and so many more began to cover his legs that his sprint turned into a stumble. Instinctively he tried to grab a goo ball off his legs, making the same mistake he made before, his whole hand becoming covered in black goo. 

Bull shouted as he tripped and fell forward, the whole world flipping around him, before he landed on his stomach. He tried to push himself back up on his feet, but the goo became so sticky and viscous that he was glued to the ground. He felt as the spheres kept inflating all around him, puffing up his form, and felt as the rest of the goo flowed past the surface of his skin. It was all warm… and he didn’t want to admit it, but it was pleasant.  The goo crept over the remaining parts of his body, obscuring his vision, hiding his hair, and covering his ears. Before it fully flattened each of his ears against his skull, however, two gooey tendrils flowed into his green pointed ears, worming their way deep inside, coating his brain, warming his head and nullifying his thoughts. Right before the orc’s face was fully covered, his look of fear turned blank and dazed.

Bull couldn’t feel anything. He couldn’t feel the ground below him, or the pull of gravity, or even much of his own body. He only felt the goo enveloping his whole body, and relished how warm it was. This warmth made him feel more and more calm, and eased him more and more into a deeper and deeper state of relaxation. He began to forget why he was running, or what was wrong in the first place, or exactly how he became covered in this black and shiny goo… but did it matter if he was comfortable? 

The goo surrounding his body all deflated and compressed, becoming a thick rubbery sheet covering his entire body. His arms, legs, and fingers, neck, and torso all could move freely once again, but before he could push himself up to a standing position, he found his body began to move for him. When he stood up straight, he lowered his head slightly, as if to look at a slime, or multiple slimes, but he couldn’t see or hear anything… Even so, he knew that all the slimes crowded around him. He innately knew they were there, and somehow could identify his surroundings even without his senses. 

A slime stepped toward him; tingles from the goop on his lower body told him it was there. It raised an arm and began speaking in a blubbering manner. Tingles all over his face told him the slime was speaking, trying to tell him something, even without him having to hear. It began to make sense to him; this gooey coating all over his body was a bunch of smaller slimes, all conveying and relaying information to him. And with this three-hundred-sixty degree awareness, it felt like an improvement to his actual senses. 

Something within his mind, not in words, told him he needed to tell the slime what to do… to command it.

I don’t want that, he thought. I want to be free. I want them to go away! 

This force pushed back, making that thought seem frivolous, telling him he needed to. 

I said no! I’m not gonna-

His mind warmed up, more goo poured into his brain, making his thoughts move like molasses.

I… 

Some of the goo cleared away on the orc’s face, still covering his eyes, scalp, ears, and cheeks, but now revealing his nose and mouth. 

This force spoke in his mind even louder. 

We need commands. We need purpose. You must give us that purpose. 

“I… must give you that purpose,” he muttered.

Your one and only purpose is to give us commands… 

“My one and only purpose… is to give you commands…” 

It felt good to repeat, to cede control, as it was nice to never need to make decisions. 

You are the slime king.

“I am… the slime king.”

Always have been, always will be. 

“Always have been, always will be.” 

“Good king!” The slime closest to him said. He couldn’t hear it, and couldn’t understand it directly, but understood that’s what it said. He also knew this slime was blue, without seeing it. 

“Now, king, tell us what to do, please!” 

“Slimes,” the goo-covered-orc said, “All of you kneel for me!” 

The slime king felt as dozens upon dozens of slimes all either fell to their knees, crouched down, or compressed themselves downward to imitate a kneel. A smile slowly overtook his face. 

This… this is nice.

“Here is what we must do: Some of you must prepare a feast. Some of you must prepare my bath. Some of you will speak praise of me… the rest will find ways to spread this gooeyness across the forest!” 

All of the slimes cheered, jumping up and down. In celebration some of them rapidly changed forms, from humanoid, to feline, to vulpine, to a pure slime. Others changed colors, rainbow patterns rippling past the surface. 

“… and once we’re done, we’ll celebrate a new era of slimehood!”