Worldfall: Feast of Slime

Eric opened his eyes. Sunlight filtered in through the windows on either side of his room. He’d slept in. Bloody nightmares… He supposed that the twins had the farm under control if they hadn’t woken him up… Either that or they didn’t and were desperately trying to clean everything up before he woke up and told them off. Perhaps it was best to get up.

Then he realized what sound had woken him up. The squawking of chickens and fearful mooing of their single, extremely skittish cow. Bloody moons. Slimes had gotten into the farmyard again. This was just what he needed to happen while their father was away. Two nights into his trip to town and they were already having problems with slimes.

He groaned and sat up. He walked over to the window, opened the sill and leaned out, looking over at the pasture. Sure enough, there were the twins, running around in circles with the slime spears, popping a… well, a pretty large crowd of slimes, but they still shouldn’t have been able to break down the fence. Oh well, it was well past time to get up anyways.

He stretched quickly and grabbed his training sword. It wasn’t built for slimes, but it would work just as well as it did on the undead. Maybe even better, slimes weren’t that hard to deal with. He walked out and around the front, yawned, and went to the gate.

Hm, odd, there didn’t seem to be any broken fence segments. Eric looked around as he set to work squashing slimes. How had they gotten in? He turned to look at the twins, popping slimes with a vengeance while the sheep bleated in terror, cowering in the corner of the pen. “Alright you two, do you know how the slimes got in here?”

Timmy shook his head, and Tommy made a look, like he wasn’t certain he wanted to say anything. Eric raised an eyebrow. “Well, uh… I saw them fall from the sky. They just sorta… fell out of nowhere and bounced off of a few of the trees and into the pen.”

Timmy snorted. “Come on, slimes don’t just fall from the sky!”

Tommy popped another slime. “Well, I don’t know how else they would have gotten in here. It’s what I saw, so it’s the story I’m sticking to.”

Eric took a step forward, then looked down and groaned as he realized he’d stepped in one of the slimes. He’d need new boots now.

Once the slimes had been properly dealt with and their remains collected, he moved on to other familiar chores. It was hard work being a farmer, there were plants to grow, animals to feed, and there was always the threat of slimes breaking into pastures or fields and eating everything. It wasn’t that hard to get rid of slimes if you knew what you were doing, but they were EVERYWHERE, and if you weren’t careful the little blue freaks of nature could give you some nasty bruises and rashes. Also, they would smother the chickens if they got into the hen house. Their remains burned well though. In fact, the gel they left upon being popped burnt longer and cleaner than any kind of coal, so he supposed there was some bright side.

Finally, it was lunchtime. The twins hadn’t come back from finding where the slimes had gotten into the pasture yet, but they all needed something to eat. It had been a busy day, and they’d had a lot to do. Slimes had been getting into all sorts of strange places throughout the day, one had even gotten into the tool shed and gotten halfway through eating a rake before they’d found it.

As he worked on putting together some sandwiches and soup for their lunch he heard the first thumpings. It sounded… almost like hail. Then he heard the shouts from outside. The twins must be back, he looked out… wait, where had all these slimes come from? The gooey blue remains of slimes were all over the place, and there were plenty of living ones hopping around, scaring the sheep and generally making a mess of everything they could get ahold of.

Timmy and Tommy stood in the middle of it, slime popping utensils in hand, popping slimes as quickly as they could, but where were they all coming from? Eric leaned his head out of the window to try and get a good glimpse only to have something crash down on the back of his neck, pulling him out of the window.

Eric hit the ground with a thud, He quickly grasped at the thing on his head and flung it away. The slime splattered against the wall. “What in the name of the Great Sages is going on?” One of the twins stopped stabbing another blob of evil irritant to point upwards.

Eric, sleep deprived and dizzy from the unexpected affection from the ground, stopped and stared, almost for too long as another slime fell straight straight above where he was. He moved just in time, and the blob left a small puddle of gel as it smashed against the hard packed dirt.

He looked up, shading his eyes more in disbelief than for protection from the sun. It was raining slimes. Parts of the sky… wobbled, like when they poured gel into a lantern. It was… incredibly disconcerting and kind of made him want to throw up, so he looked away.

“Eric!” yelled one of the twins, Timmy. Right, he needed to hurry. He ran back inside the house, narrowly avoiding another slime, and dashed over to the table where he’d left his sword. There were only two slime spears and the twins had both. As much as he hated to ruin a good sword, it seemed to be his only option.

He didn’t bother with the door this time. He grabbed his sword and jumped out the open window, charging into the sheep pen with the twins, carving his way through a small lake of slimes that were trying to eat everything in the pasture. Wooden sword or not, it didn’t take much to kill slimes. Soon enough, the enclosure had been cleared out enough for the twins to get to the gate. Eric jumped the fence and smashed his sword through any slimes that came out of the forest as the twins moved to get the livestock into the barn.

It was a long, arduous, slimey hour of stomping, swinging and smashing, interspersed with occasional bouts of sprinting to try and catch spooked animals before they ran off into the woods. That wouldn’t be good. The farm didn’t have any landings soft enough for the slimes to survive, except for a handful that managed to roll off the slanted roof of the barn, but the forest on the other hand… The trees were still coated in gel, but not nearly as thickly as the surfaces of the farm.

He looked back at his two brothers as they brought the last, skittish cow through its doors. He turned around, jumped back away from another slime as it lunged at him, and cut it clean in half, reducing it to two congealing puddles of gel. “Is that all of them, guys?”

Tommy shouted back, “I think so, Tim, what’s the headcount?”

Timmy came back out, kicked another slime out of the way, and closed the barn doors with a huff. “We’re a few short, but if they broke loose and ran off at some point, there’s no way we’re getting any of them back.”

Tommy looked back at his twin with concern, but Timmy just shook his head. As much as Timmy hated losing animals, there really wasn’t any way to sugarcoat it. Eric ran back around, carving a slime out of the air. “Okay you two, go back inside. I’ll finish clearing out the farm-”

Tommy looked up with pleading eyes, “But it’s just slimes Eric! We ca-” Eric held up a finger “While you two find some buckets to grab all this gel. We’ve got a year’s supply or more just on the pathway alone, we ship all that stuff into town…” Both the twins had realized what this meant, and were grinning.

They scrambled for the door with calls of “Got it Eric!” and Eric turned around to continue the dirty work of removing the living slimes from anything they might be on. He looked up. The “clouds” had almost completely cleared up. It seemed like the last, dwindling portion was almost right over their house. He sighed, and looked out towards the fields stretching into the distance where slimes continued to hop around, trampling and consuming the harvest they’d spent three months working to grow. At least the gel they’d be collecting from this would likely be enough to purchase food until next year’s crop could be planted…

The massive shadow sped across the ground, and Eric turned around right as the massive… red? slime landed in the woods just outside of the farm with a resounding crash.

The first thought that ran through Eric’s mind was; “That’s an odd color for a slime, is it sick or something?” After about half a second the thing he was looking at finally registered, and the next few things that followed the first thought were a variety of curse words and a hasty prayer for this to just be another nightmare.

Timmy and Tommy ran outside and looked at the massive slime as it jumped, shaking the ground and knocking over the trees it didn’t crush outright. This thing was the size of the barn, even the strongest oaks didn’t stand a chance against this monster.

Tommy gawked at the massive beast. “What IS that thing?” Timmy was already running inside for a weapon. The beast took another massive leap into the air, and landed right in the middle of the courtyard, shaking the ground, the sound of fearful bleating and mooing came from the barn as the loud sound sent all of the animals into a panic. Tim came out, a bow and arrow in his hands.

The massive slime jumped again, Timmy fired a shot, the arrow lodging in the massive slime’s body instead of popping it. Eric charged forward as the massive thing leaped again. And then Eric realized where it was jumping for. Timmy ran out of the way, and Eric charged back, barely grabbing Tommy and getting out of the way before the massive slime’s final jump brought it down directly into the front room of the house, shattering wood and sending pieces of the wall in every direction.

The twins brushed themselves off.

“Are you okay Tommy?” called Eric

His brother nodded nervously, “Yeah I am but”- Tommy pointed and the three brothers looked up, then bolted in different directions as the Slime came crashing down again. in the middle of where they had been.

Tim looked over at Eric as he dashed back across the yard, trying to avoid the great slime and the handful of smaller slimes still scattered about. “We can’t outrun that thing forever. We have to kill it!” Eric nodded, this thing seemed to be focusing on him and the twins specifically. That wasn’t right, slimes didn’t choose targets like this normally. Then again, this wasn’t a normal slime. The massive thing lept again. Timmy changed direction and the massive slime missed him once more. Eric got in close, brought his sword up, and before it could jump again, carved a large gash out of the side of the behemoth.

And then he took several steps back when the slime jumped away from its attacker. Rather than pooling on the ground, the entire portion he’d just cut out had instead coalesced into three different smaller slimes, all of them red, which were now intent on killing him.

He jumped back, knocked one to the ground, then smashed another as it jumped at him. He turned and bolted just in time to avoid getting crushed underneath the bigger slime. He looked back, several arrows were stuck in the thing, doing absolutely nothing. Normally slimes were small enough that an arrow could punch all the way through, but this thing… He watched as another arrow skidded along the edge, sloughing off another slime from the top, which tumbled down the side, and began hopping towards the twins, who had regrouped further away and were trying to punch holes in the great slime with whatever vaguely sharp ammunition they could get their hands on.

Eric dashed out of the way of the slime again, and barely avoided getting tackled by another one of the small slimes. Even though they hadn’t been doing much damage to the big one, there was already a swarm of smaller ones all over the place. “Eric!” Eric turned around after running to the side to dodge again. Tommy was waving at him, the twins were surrounded by a crowd of disgruntled smaller slimes, forcing them to stop their storm of arrows to smash them.

“What? What is it?” Tommy pointed at the slime. Eric looked at it, then almost toppled over backwards as it almost landed on top of him. Then he saw it. A glint in the sunlight. At the top of the massive mound of slime was some kind of black gemstone. Eric almost stopped and stared at it, but another small slime trying to eat him got him alert quickly enough to move out of the way of the bigger one.

“Tim!” Timmy looked down at him from his nocked arrow. “Timmy! Hit the gem!” Timmy nodded and moved his aim upwards. He almost made the shot, which was impressive considering he was tackled from behind by a blue slime right as he fired. Tommy knocked the slime off of his brother, but then the great slime was in the way, and Eric again became more preoccupied with not getting smashed by the giant monster trying to eat him.

After a few more jumps, something was beginning to bother Eric. Was the slime… bigger than it had been before? Then Eric noticed something. The gel from the ground was gone in large, circular patches. The stupid thing was absorbing all the spilled gel! He looked around, there! The twins had gotten separated again by the sea of blue slimes. Tommy was currently on top of the chicken coop, knocking down slimes. “Tommy! Where’s Tim?” Eric cut through another slime and hopped the pasture fence, again narrowly avoiding being crushed.

Tommy looked up, kicking off a slime that had managed to land next to him. “He went to get more arrows to try and hit that thing on the top.”

“Tommy,” jump. “try to” slash, “start a fire!” roll. slam. Timmy cocked his head, before turning around to beat another slime into mush. “The big slime” sidestep. “keeps eating” squish “the others.” twist. “We” slam. “can’t do any” step. “damage until” dash. “we get rid of the” stop. slam. “gel on the ground!” Timmy nodded, and jumped off the coop, causing the slime he landed on to implode, and he took off at a run, reaching into his pockets.

Then Timmy climbed out up on top of the barn, lugging an old quiver and his bow. He nocked an arrow and fired. Miss. Eric dodged again, scrambling out of the way, skidding on the gel that coated the ground. Timmy nocked another arrow and fired again. Miss. Eric scrambled out of the way, the great slime close on his heels. Another arrow, another miss. Eric turned suddenly, moving out of the way of the great slime’s next jump and attempting to lead it closer to his brother. Another arrow, another miss. Out of the corner of his eye he could see a glow, and Tommy scrambling away from a fire that was spreading across the ground at an unfortunately slow rate. He looked up as the great slime bounced for another jump… an arrow hit the gem.

The arrow clinked harmlessly off of the thing, bouncing off back to the ground, but Eric could almost feel the giant slime turning to look at the puny human that had dared to offend it in such a way. Timmy froze. Eric scrambled to get up, but was knocked down again by another slime. “Tim! Move!” Timmy immediately scrambled backwards, slipping and almost falling off the roof as the great slime began to surge forwards.

Eric swung his sword around, frantically trying to remove slimes from his path as he struggled to climb to his feet against the slimes that had, lacking other prey, gone for him. He watched as the great slime made its first, massive jump towards the barn. Two more jumps before it crushed his brother. He wasn’t going to make it in time. Thankfully, Timmy regained his footing and began running towards the edge of the roof. Flames were spreading out around the farm. The fire was growing fast. But not fast enough.

The slime jumped again. One jump left. Eric was on his feet, he charged forwards, he had to make it, he couldn’t let his brother die. The fire wasn’t spreading fast enough. Timmy scrambled to the ladder down the back of the barn as the slime rumbled for another jump. He grabbed the ladder and started

The slime landed, caving in the entire front of the barn causing the entire thing to shake, Timmy dropped out of sight and Eric heard a scream of pain. And suddenly, light. The massive red slime burst into flames. Eric stopped and shaded his eyes as fire climbed up the entire side of the slime. That was right, he’d left the lantern burning.

And then he covered his ears, an unearthly sound was resounding around the entire farmyard. It wasn’t a scream, he wasn’t certain what it was. The massive slime was roiling and shaking, and the air bellowed with it, a massive rumble like distant thunder only louder. The massive slime hopped again, tearing another wall out of the side of the barn and unleashing the few animals that hadn’t been crushed to panic wildly and run off into the forest where the rest of the slimes would undoubtedly devour them.

Eric watched as the massive slime hopped again, and then again. Off into the distance, trailing flares of fire everywhere it landed. He heard yelling and remembered that there were better things to do than hunt… whatever it is that was, and ran off around the back of the barn.

Tommy knelt down next to his brother, who was clutching his leg. It was broken. Very broken. Eric knew some first aid, but Timmy would need professional help. Tim clutched his leg, trying very hard not to cry out, Eric looked at Tommy, “Go into the barn, and grab a tarp.” Tommy nodded, tears streaming down his face, and stood up, pulling the doors open and running inside the ruined barn.

Eric looked down. He had no idea how to deal with this, but he needed to move Tommy away from where there would be fire. He took his sword, and swung at a slime that encroached on their resting place, groaning as the blade, worn by a day of constant usage, cracked and splintered. He looked at the blade, and swung it once more. The top flew off into the bushes. He sighed. The slime spears would have to do for now.

He had a plan laid out in his head. It wasn’t a clear one, but making a makeshift stretcher and getting Timmy into town as quickly as possible, ahead of the fire, was the best he had. It would have to do.

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