Azure Wyrm

[Evil sethoss]

((What can I use carbonation for?))

 

 

The slime didn't care that it felt cold out side, it was hungry. As it crawled out of the old organic some of the grainy stuff hit the slime. The slime didn't do that, so what did? Then something started making the slime hurt! The slime felt like the pain was small pain, one that didn't hurt as much. This thing was an organic. The slime rubbed itself against the organic. It's out sides were smooth little shapes with ruts in between them. This thing both made grainy stuff hit the slime and made small pains to the slime, so it deserved to be absorbed. So the slime move to better absorb it.

[Dragonhatchling]

((Avisk is nearly the size of Unsure/Runner/....Aster. (i keep forgetting the actual name- I'm terribly sorry). So given that, I'm not so sure Kind/Zeditha would want to carry Small/Avisk.....

 

And I'd actually post but since I already posted I'll wait lol. Plus I gotta go someplace again *hates being busy*))

[Avialae]

OOC: If Aster's name is giving everyone so many problems, I can change it when she officially gives herself one. I don't mind since I learned that I accidentally gave her the same one as a genus of flower

[Dragonhatchling]

((Only reason I'm given "problems" Avialae, is because I've taken to associating Aster with Unsure for so long now, that I literally go right to Unsure instead of Aster even though I know Aster is Aster/Unsure/Runner respectively.

 

*blames being terrible with putting names to faces, or faces to names, but not nicknames* *never forgets a face no matter what, but will probably not remember your actual name but nicknames also never get forgotten by her*

 

*disappears before she rambles*

 

I'll think of something to post....))

 

Avisk looked at the outstretched front legs and looked at itself a bit, twisting to get a better view. It looked back at Kind and shook its head from side to side as it had once seen one of them do before. For some reason that felt like a "no" to Avisk. Couldn't Kind see that Avisk was nearly as big as Unsure now and certainly not able to really be carried? Maybe not. Maybe Avisk was stuck being small to them both forever.

 

Avisk turned back to where Unsure had gone and looked down at itself for a second. It had stronger legs now, with the new size increase and better ability to run. It could try that. Running. It could try and run to keep up with the other two up-ers. A happy mash of hiss, slight shake and an odd squeak-like sound erupted from Avisk. That partially scared the poor creature, but it looked back to Kind and mimicked the chirrup noise of "Follow" as best it could. It would find some way to thank Kind later. Maybe give Kind a piece of the amusing bendy hovering above its back.

 

The slime turned fully around, thinking briefly on how different running could be from walking. It'd done this before, but with the shorter stride. It couldn't nearly be that different could it? Give it a shot. It would have to. The slime took a step forward, glancing back to make sure Kind would definitely follow, before taking another quicker step. It forgot to look back forward for a second and as the third step came it nearly stumbled forward. But looking forward helped for now, and steadied itself as it took more quicker steps in succession. Avisk was running!!!

 

Now to find Unsure. The amusing bendy thing occasionally hit the sides of Avisk as it bounded off. Not a very loud sound came from that, but the slime was starting to get annoyed slightly by that feeling. Maybe holding on to this wouldn't be the best idea. Eating it would technically be holding on to it. Once Unsure was found, and they were all reunited, Avisk would definitely take a crack at eating the bendy. A higher pitched noise escaped Avisk as a call. It wasn't necessarily packrat, but wasn't necessarily cobra hiss either. The slime wasn't sure what it was, but it called again with the same noise. Hopefully Unsure would hear that Avisk was searching and hopefully Kind would be able to follow them.

 

((No I am not making Avisk a Lapras... even though I can make really good Lapras noises.... ....ok maybe I did kind of... I don't know how to explain the sound better ))

[Avialae]

As Aster continued to fly, the dull ache it had felt in its wings when it had started gradually grew stronger and stronger until finally it was overpowering, and the slime was forced to fold its new appendages and make a clumsy landing, tripping and falling over for a short minute as it did so. When Aster righted itself and returned to a standing position, the slime realized it was alone, with Big and Small nowhere in sight. Aster had been so caught up in experiencing the sensation of flight that it hadn't noticed it had left the other two slimes behind. And . . . they didn't necessarily know where they were going, so Aster couldn't just wait for them. The slime would have to go back for them. The realization that the slime would have to waste time doing this was irritating, as was the knowledge that Aster only had itself to blame for this.

 

Its wings still ached too much to use right then, so it seemed that Aster was going to have to use its legs to look for Big and Small. The slime turned around and ran back off in the direction it had just came in, hoping that it would find the other two slimes before too long. Fortunately, the animal Angry had grown wings from wasn't all that fast a flyer, which, coupled with the fact that Aster lacked experience with flying in the first place and that it was fairly fast when on the ground, meant that it wasn't very long before the slime could see the form of Small heading towards it in the distance, apparently also running. Aster lifted its neck and head high up in the air and let out a brassy, throaty noise (sound a male cassowary would make to chicks) trying to let Small know that it had spotted it. Before now, Aster had had no trouble with the thought of being on its own, so in a way it was odd for it so feel such relief at finding one of the other slimes again, and yet the slime did, and for the most part did not question it. Where Big might be, Aster had no idea.

 

 

[Zeditha]

((Basically the same problem here. I associated the character with a name, which in itself took a while, but the names I associated them with were Runner and Small. 'Avisk' and 'Aster' are just noises to me... Kinda like they are to Zeditha at the moment ))

 

Zeditha was slightly amused by the head-shake. That obviously meant 'no'; Small didn't think carrying was a good idea this time. Probably because Small wasn't really that Small any more.

 

Shrugging, Zeditha righted herself and took off again, following just behind Small. It wasn't long before they came upon Runner again, running this time rather than flying. Zeditha decided it would be polite to land; perhaps there was communicating that needed doing. She purred quietly, not really minding the wait. She'd have to eat fairly soon, but she wasn't all that hungry yet and what Runner had found was probably food.

 

She stopped purring briefly and made a kind of trill that went up at the end; that was a curious noise. It asked a question, and in this case, the question was 'why are we stopped?' and 'where's the thing you wanted to show us?'

 

((I want Zeditha to eat lots; it's been a long while since she changed anything, and I was thinking of a few improvements I might make. Hopefully I can see her picture beforehand, so I know exactly what to do with the unlocks she has, but she still needs to eat before I can grow anything.))

[Booksv2]

Wiggling back and forth and getting on his side Crell sticks two of his legs out and grabs at the colored thing. The spines on his legs grab at it and try to pull it closer several times before he stops and stands. The darkness under whatever had fallen over them was not as dark as it could have been with light coming in from the edges. Forcing himself to his feet and moving over to the colorful thing Crell stands over it and lowers his mouth down to start biting at it hard.

Edited July 21, 2015 by Booksv2

[Viirin]

OOC @ Everyone: Hold up, I'm writing updates. Have to go to the hospital in the morning, but I have update summaries written; just have to extend everything. So... don't do more updates, anyone (unless you didn't update yet, like Serket)

[Viirin]

OOC @ Soulking: I like lemon wood. It's a light colored wood with yellow grain, in case you wanted to know what it looked like.

 

@Evil Sethoss: Seafaring slimes have used it for buoyancy, but I figure land-based slimes can do something totally different with it. Plus, I gave it to you wondering what you'd do with it. Maybe nothing yet, or at all.

 

@Dragonhatchling: I've been wondering this. What ability are you using to make rattling noises or other certain sounds? I just looked at your sheet I know something you need to have; I'll get it to you once I can.

 

@Zeditha: Avisk is too big for you to carry now

You're about the size of a Springer Spaniel, she's around the size of a cat. Aster is in between those two, but not far from a Spaniel.

 

------------------------------------

 

@Teethy: (unlocked: lemon peel, lemon wood) Grainy inorganic ground. Nothing... wet came and pushed the slime, and it was now on... wet, grainy ground again. Still? But the slime was able to feel something organic near itself, feeling more wet than things that weren't wet, but not as wet as the wet itself. The slime still had a vast majority of the sour thing it found stuck within itself, though it was dissolving. The new one though... had lots of little bumps all over it.

 

@Aster: (unlocked: king cobra fangs) The other slimes got closer, and the slime got closer to them, too. As they approached one another, the big slime came into view- it was just visually blocked by a thick and black destroyed thing that used to be a tall organic. The slime noticed now, after making the first realization, that there was a lot less black and gray puffy all around at the ground level, though there was still a lot around. Even more in the far up. But at least the others were here now, and the slime could show them what it found. An ear-piercing cry came from some sort of animal that the slime never heard before! It was so loud and so high pitched!!!

 

@Crell: The slime bit down hard, and the thing it bit was so soft it was nearly massless. The slime's bite was so overcompensating that it almost felt pain from clashing its mouth closed! Though the colorful thing was indeed colorful, which often meant edible, this thing... was edible. But it was really, really wide. It was kind of high, too. Shadows of big things upwards moved down, the slime could see while somewhat trapped under the colorful thing. The big things were right there now! They moved in strange ways of what little the slime could tell from light difference through the colorful thing, but then the slime felt itself going up quickly. It felt the colorful thing it was kind of within move abruptly again, and the slime couldn't hold on. It flew backwards and hit something hard, and fell down. When it did, it felt wet. Full wet. The slime was back in the wet, and was below and out of the other thing.

 

@Avisk: A loud sound came from no where, but seemed to disappear after a couple moments. The creature that made the noise was no where to be seen... but for some reason, the two other slimes seemed to writhe in pain or something from... what was happening to them? This must be a strange communication or something. That noise wasn't that bad! It was annoying, but it wasn't that bad. Was it because the light from the up was still just as dark and orange as it had been for awhile and it was now getting annoying? Then again, the noisy thing was gone after a short time after appearing... in the slime's hearing parts. Not its seeing parts. Maybe the slime just didn't look the right direction.

 

@Zeditha: A loud sound, so loud that the slime felt like its head was going to explode, happened out of no where. What was making it? Oh... that was! It was the only thing big enough to make such a loud sound. It had a bunch of weird round black legs and a thick colored body, and moved really really fast. But it was pretty far away... it was gone. The sound was a lot quieter, almost unable to be heard. No, now it was gone. What awful thing was that? While the sound happened, Runner had looked like it was in just as much pain; though Small didn't look like it was. Oh, hey! Runner was there!

 

@Selim: The creature's movement hurt a lot! The stupid inorganic being flung all over the slime was annoying. This... wasn't working. What could the slime do? It had to do something about this! The wet... or lack of wet? It didn't matter. What mattered is there was a thing, the slime couldn't even tell how big it was- but it had to be quite large to have that much of it touch the slime at once and have that much strength behind it.

[Zeditha]

((Zeditha had already noticed Runner. She landed to greet him.))

 

Once the noise was gone, the pain lingered, but soon faded. Zeditha decided that this was cause to give her ears a wash. She licked her paws again, and drew them thoroughly over the pained parts. It made her feel better, washing away the traces of the pain.

 

She continued to paw at her ears while she repeated her questioning-noise.

[Evil sethoss]

The slime was so frustrated it started giving off the bubbles in side. That Gage the slime an idea. The hard, small things, may be they could help? The slime tried to move as to point the hard things into the organic. The organic didn't notice. The elementary to get this thing away. It pushed as hard as it could. It managed to push the organic away a little bit and the slime backed up.Putting its head down and the small things in case the thing came back at it.

[nlechoppa]

Teethy tried to absorb this then continued trying to go deeper, obviously with what just happened means deeper is better.

[Dragonhatchling]

What was the annoying screeching thing? Why had it not bothered itself but bothered Kind and Unsure? And where was it!? Was it Angry??

 

Those questions kept cropping up as the slime watched the other two slimes for signs of further pain once the noise was gone. Kind was busy cleaning herself again while Unsure was kind of just there. Unsure had run to great them, but maybe it also had sent a warning. Maybe Avisk's calling had caught the attention of another creature?? The slime shook itself, creating a slight jingle with the spikes as it tried to shake out the questions. Those were getting annoying.

 

The bump of the bendy thing hovering above the slime's back reminded the slime to try and eat that. They were stopped now. It shouldn't take terribly long to eat this, right? Moving it over its own head, the slime dropped the amusing bendy thing in front of its face and picked it up with its mouth. A few tries later, part of it had snapped in half to allow easier eating as the other half was swallowed whole. Avisk debated for a second on sharing, but decided against it. They had had a lot of Angry already, while it'd gotten the shorter end of things and hardly had any of Angry to begin with. So keeping this was fair. Soon that piece was down too, and Avisk was free.

 

That was when the slime realized Kind was done cleaning and back to making an odd questionable sound. It probably wanted to know where Unsure was trying to take them, and it did too. Avisk added a questioning call of its own, wondering where to go next.

[Booksv2]

Shaking himself and almost groaning Crell falls through the wet almost in the massless thing. Biting at it lighter this time he draws as much of it as he can holding it inside as he absorbs it slowly inside him. His legs coming together under him and helping him drop through the wet below where those big things had been. Back in the wet his electrosense flairs again and he starts tracking the huge thing from before as he also feels for anything else close by. Having dropped several bit down he opens his legs and they search out looking for things close by, the reminates of what had gone back in the wet with. As he falls tiny sparks of something not the huge thing above him starting to move below him. Unable to see there because of his body Crell wiggles and turns to see what is below him but all he can see is dark.

[Avialae]

Aster gave a small chirp of relief as it noticed that Big was there after all, only to forget about that when the extremely loud, painful noise flooded its eardrums. The slime had never heard something that was so loud that it actually hurt before, and it took a good few seconds before it could regain its composure. Once Aster had done so, however, it realized something else, something that made it hesitate. As far as the slime could tell, the loud noise had come from the same direction that the second pile was in. There weren't any loud noises like that in Angry's memories of the pile, but maybe whatever had made it just hadn't found it yet. Would the slimes have to deal with the loud painful sound while they were trying to eat? And whatever had made it sounded big. It might be dangerous. But as several long minutes went by and whatever had made the loud noise didn't do it again, Aster decided that it was worth the risk to keep heading to the pile. There was nothing else to eat, after all, except for the remains of Angry and Small was almost finished with that.

 

The ache that Aster had felt in its wings earlier had faded, so it spread them again, made the "follow" sound, and soared through the air again at a low altitude. This time, however, before Small faded from sight, Aster descended to the ground again a little less roughly than before, came to a stop, and looked back at where it had left the other two slimes, not wanting to lose them again. After the slime had confirmed that they were both still there, it turned its gaze ahead of it once again, trying to determine what the shortest route to the second pile would be.

[Zeditha]

((From tomorrow, I will be on an RAF cadet camp. I will get back on August 1. It's possible that there will be internet there and I will update if I can, but I'm assuming that I'll be gone for a week.

Feel free to assume that Zeditha continues following from the air until you reach the pile; once they reach the pile, she'll happily dig in to any food there is.))

 

As soon as Runner spread their wings, Zeditha did so too. She glanced back almost apologetically at Small - she felt bad leaving him behind on the ground - but took off to follow Runner. She flew above him, looking down. It sort of made her want to tuck in her wings and attack him, for some reason, but she overruled the instinct and stayed above. When he stopped, she decided to stay in the air this time. Runner seemed to be waiting for Small. Zeditha barked once just to let Runner know she was there, and then waited patiently for Small.

[Lumikkja]

@Serket: (unlocked: ant pheremones, black chitin) The small moving things weren't attracted to the something. They were making the something! But the wet rolling off of the slime, and... there was too much of it, so it must be falling on things that weren't the slime, too - seemed to make the something disappear. Knowing what it was now, no wonder the small fast organics were less organized. But the wet didn't stay on the ground, or anywhere. It seemed to sink into the ground and disappear just as quickly.

 

The ground... it ate the wet points. Ate them, absorbed them like how the slime absorbed other organics. That disoriented the slime. For a moment it feared, if the ground could eat the wet, could it eat the slime, too? But the idea passed soon enough. The wet was different. It was small enough, light enough to be eaten. The slime was not. So the slime went back to ignoring the wet and returned its attention to the now-disorganized small-fast organics.

 

The something the slime had perched itself upon was rapidly vanishing, being eaten... by the wet? As the wet fell down upon the something, the something became less. It made the small-fasts move in ways that were chaotic. Whatever the something was, the small-fasts did not want to lose it. As they scurried around the vanishing something, the slime continued to absorb the ones that came too close to it. They were small, but numerous. They filled much of the hunger the slime felt inside. And yet the wet points still kept coming. As the slime found itself satisfied with the small-fasts - and as they started to scatter in all directions - the slime began to pay more attention to the wet.

 

It came down harder, faster, more. It still did not stay. Instead it was eaten. But so much of it came down now that it almost didn't matter. Now the slime was getting disorganized. Flicking its soft extensions from side to side, it tried to sense far-tastes, only to find that the wet made it difficult to sense anything. Choosing a direction, the slime fled the small swarm and the now-gone something, hoping that there would be more organics there, and less wet.

[Dragonhatchling]

Avisk followed briskly along, keeping sight of both Kind and Unsure as both of them could fly. It half-mindedly wondered what it would be like to actually fly itself, but, then again, it was doing rather fine on the ground at the moment. But the thought kept nagging. Angry could fly. Kind could fly. Now Unsure could fly. Its inability to fly was holding them up. Badly, from what Avisk could tell.

 

Sure, not exactly at that moment were the two alive flying slimes being held up. Avisk was keeping pace well enough to see them and not be lost itself. It they ever had to fly further away though, not being able to fly itself would hold them up. But the slime knew, by then, they probably wouldn't want to bother with a grounded slime. Constantly keeping watch. Constantly making sure they weren't going to loose Avisk. It was one thing after another that Avisk could not complete with. First it's small size being a hinderance, and now the lack of flight.

 

Though, as it ran along, the memories of saving the two other slimes kept coming back. Being small had saved it a few times, and came in handy when searching for foods or warnings. If it hadn't been small, the slime doubted that odd container of liquid would have been found. And that had turned out useful. Its fire too, despite having set the pile on fire and nearly killing everyone, had also been a tremendous help. Avisk was useful. Sometimes.

 

Unsure stopped, looking around after a rough landing. Kind hovered in the air, wondering where they were headed next. Avisk chirruped kindly with a mix of rat and snake noise. It would follow, no need to really keep checking at the speed they were going. It was fast enough to run now and keep up relatively well.

[Avialae]

Aster squeaked in response to the noise that Small made to it, its own sound very similar to the one that the other slime had made (packrat noise). The slime hadn't even really meant to make it, it was more a response to the sound that the other slime had made more than anything else. Aster hadn't expected Small to catch up to it so quickly, as it hadn't gotten used to the other slime's increased size and speed yet, especially when it had gotten so far ahead of Small the last time it had flown. A quick glance above it told it that Big was still there as well. Aster spread its wings and took off again, and, seeing that Small was managing to keep up now, decided that it didn't have to wait for the smallest slime anymore, and could keep going.

 

Aster did wonder why Small hadn't grown wings yet though. It had only had wings for a short time now, but the slime already loved using them. Had the small slime not eaten anything with wings yet? Well, it had eaten some of Angry, but Aster hadn't learned how to grow each and every part of everything Angry had eaten from consuming the aggressive slime. Maybe Small had just been unlucky, and hadn't learned how to make wings yet. Aster allowed itself to climb a bit higher in the sky as it continued on and became more confident in its flight. The slime still hadn't gotten as high up as Big, but at least it was a good ways off the ground now. It didn't seem like it took too much longer before Aster spotted the flat black thing with yellow lines that was the halfway point to the pile. From Aster's current high vantage point, it could see that the flat black thing was extremely long, disappearing to the sides in both directions in a long curved path that reminded the slime a little of Angry's body. Aster tried to see if it could spot the second pile, but apparently the slime either wasn't high up enough or the pile wasn't close enough for Aster to see it. However, seeing the flat black thing like this was different enough from Angry's memories that Aster wasn't sure where the best place to cross it was to get to the pile, so the medium sized slime descended to the ground once again (it wasn't yet confident in its ability to come to a safe landing from very high up) and tried to get its bearings.

 

Once Aster was on the ground, things did seem to look a little more familiar. Curious about the flat black thing, the slime stepped on it experimentally, only to hop back again when it realized that the black strip was considerably warmer than the rest of the ground, enough to be uncomfortable. Aster hadn't seen that coming.

 

((OOC: Just trying to move things along.))

[Dragonhatchling]

Avisk noticed the squeak and felt it familiar, but wasn't entirely sure why. Regardless, all three slimes seemed to be heading out again to wherever Unsure was trying to take them. The slime ran along, noticing Unsure climb even higher in the air. What Avisk would give for being able to fly. Although it did admittedly like the ground too. The ground wasn't that bad.

 

Having to skirt and jump around obstacles in the way on the ground, however, to keep a line of sight on Unsure and Kind was kind of annoying. Lots of it was blackened and fallen over. The cause of the fire it had started. All of this was its fault. If it hadn't gotten into those mushroom things a while ago now this would not have happened. But then again, maybe Unsure and Kind would not have become such good allies so far.

 

After all the running everyone seemed to stop. Unsure landed somewhat clumsily a little and Kind seemed to land slightly too. The big black stip with a yellow stripe was intriguing. Unsure was testing it out, and hopped back. Avisk wandered up to it, stepping on it slightly before lifting the foot. That was warm. The slime cocked its head, looking at it. It lowered its head, looking at it closer. Heat radiated off of it, that the slime could feel. What was this? Putting the foot back down, still slight pain. Well if Unsure and Kind flew over this, how was it going to get over this heating thing? Staying on it long enough to run would burn its feet. Avisk didnt want that. Yet, where did this head? There was no ending in sight in both directions.

 

"Now what?" Avisk questioned, looking back to Unsure and Kind for an idea. They could fly. They'd be fine. That was easy.

[Viirin]

OOC @ Evil Sethoss: You're still blind, right?

 

--------------------------------------

 

@Zeditha: Runner looked confused, or something. It was slowing down? Well, it was the only one that knew where they were going, if the slime felt like continuing to follow it. It had proven useful so far... but what was going on now? Something small moved in front of the slime and down, but it wasn't something alive. Just some black parts falling off of what was left of a tall organic. Some of the light from up started coming out more now, at least.

 

@Aster: The pile of stuff... was not... the slime hadn't followed the exact memorized pathway that Angry had known, and the landscape looked different from how it looked in Angry's memories. This... was probably the shortest way to the pile... a straight line... but... it... the slime felt lost. This was not the way. Though, the slime did remember that the pile was near a wide and twisting flat black thing with a colored double line in the middle. That the slime could see from where it was. But... which direction was it?

 

@Avisk: (unlocked: clamshell, cobra hood) The hard bendy amusing thing was stuck inside the slime. It was thicker than it anticipated! But luckily the slime wasn't yet forced to actually require air, so it didn't really matter. The organic... no. Was this even organic? It was part of a slime. That was obvious. But it didn't taste or feel anywhere near organic at all. But, somehow the slime was very very slowly absorbing and dissolving it, so it had to be.

 

@Serket: (unlocked: ant taste buds, ant jaw strength) There was something organic but really dry that the slime bumped into after awhile. Though, the slime felt kinda sharp inorganic things in a pile... and the pile was going up? In order to get to the organic thing, the slime had gone that way. There wasn't really any wet anymore; it seemed to be gone rather easily.

 

@Teethy: Whatever this organic moist thing was, it was at least somewhat similar to the other things the slime had absorbed so far. The sour flavor of the previous organic it had found still filling its sense of taste, since it wasn't dissolved yet. But this new organic thing was.. a new shape entirely. More a mass of shapes. The same shapes. Long and thin.

 

@Selim: The large organic appeared and disappeared on the slime's surface again, the inorganic spraying across the slime's mostly smooth (except for two increasingly long, hard points) surface. Its bubbles... well, the slime wasn't sure. It didn't know how to use them yet, apparently. Maybe it would figure it out. But that touching of the big, strong organic thing was enough to send it backwards, rolling over itself until it hit something sharp and hard, but tasted like something organic was on it. Something wet touched the top of the slime.

 

@Crell: The darkness the slime saw moved. It wasn't entirely dark... and the electrical sense was... off. It wasn't actually electric... it was... just... similar? But more importantly, the darkness MOVED. It was moving away slowly, gracefully. It was so wide! A stranger shape the slime hadn't seen yet, and it had seen a lot of strange shapes lately. Something else, another color a little bit away and down, was getting smaller.

[Booksv2]

Wiggling and pulling his legs together Crell drops through the wet towards the dropping thing feeling the wet move around him. Keeping his teeth closed tightly he keeps checking his sense as his eyes look around in the darkness. His feet tips coming together and piercing the water as his weight pulls him down.

[Evil sethoss]

The slime panicked when it was thrown and landed on something. The organic made the slime remember it's primal purpose. It shrunk away from the wet thing. The wet thing had poked the slime and now the slime was going to absorb its organic.

[nlechoppa]

Teethy decided to move along and also absorb this new thing. He then continued trying to get deeper.

[Avialae]

As Aster tried to get its bearings, it noticed that Small didn't appear to like walking on the surface of the black strip, either. It let out a soft, low growl, irritated. It hadn't realized before that it would have to start out at a specific point to reach the pile it had seen in Angry's memory, and the slime didn't even know for certain where that point was. There was no guarantee that it was where the three of them had killed Angry, after all. And Aster didn't want to waste more time backtracking, even if it was lost. Outside the haze of its impatience, Aster noticed Small looking expectantly at itself, apparently waiting for instructions of some kind. Aster had been leading the other two slimes until now . . . but Small couldn't walk on the strip, which meant it couldn't progress further since it couldn't fly. Did that mean that Aster and Big would have to leave it behind?

 

The ground under Aster suddenly shifted slightly and the slime stumbled. It was able to regain its footing without much trouble and looked down to see what the problem was. Apparently some of the charred things that had formed when the hot light had eaten all the organics had shifted under Aster. Odd, they were the same color as the long winding strip, but they weren't nearly as hot for whatever reason. And . . . they were small . . . and they could move . . . slowly, an idea became to come to the slime. Aster picked up a small piece of char in its mouth and laid it on the strip. It repeated the process until six pieces were on the strip, in such an arrangement so that Small could hopefully stand on them. Aster stepped on the two pieces of char that were closest to the edge of the strip - they were small, but big enough so that Aster could balance on them without difficulty - and then the next two, and then the next two, and then jumped back onto the normal ground. Hopefully Small would understand that if it kept the pieces of char on top of its feet, it could move across the strip without incurring discomfort.

 

After finishing with that, Aster leapt into the air again. It remembered before when it had risen higher in the sky that it had been able to see farther into the distance, and, even though the slime was still a little nervous about going very high up, it seemed the quickest way to see if the pile it had seen in Angry's memories was anywhere close by. Aster ascended into the air, only stopping when the objects on the ground began to grow blurry. It didn't want to lose track of where it was, or the other slimes. It then began to glide around using the black strip as a landmark, examining the ground beneath it for the pile of organics it had seen in Angry's memories, or any large group of organics that all three slime could feed on, for that matter