Mystery Slime Licker
Stories similar to this that you might like too.
It had been a while since I’d eaten breakfast. It wasn’t that my stomach hadn’t been hungry, it was simply that there hadn’t seemed to be much point in doing anything until now. There wasn’t going to be another chance before we met up with the rest of the team and went after the dragon.
The whole plan hinged on getting as many people in our group as possible, so it made sense that I wait until everyone else showed up before I started eating again.
I took a deep breath and looked around at my surroundings once more. There had been nothing unusual about our camp, or any of the camps that had been built all over the island since the beginning of summer vacation. There was a fire pit for cooking with logs piled all around it; there were even some tents here and there, although only a few were left.
They’d already been picked up by people who needed somewhere to sleep during the day—a few teachers and a handful of kids from the city. Most of those staying at camp would leave once they got word about the dragon.
It’s not like there aren’t any kids at school who can use a tent. And anyway, the adults can stay in one room instead of three…
My mind was still mired in thoughts of the logistics when I felt myself being pulled along.
“What are you doing? We’re in a hurry.” It was a familiar voice—Karin. But how did she get behind me so quickly?
She was right: the others were gathering nearby now, and if I didn’t do something quick I might have trouble convincing them all that I hadn’t been playing around the whole time they’d been waiting.
I turned my attention to her and started walking toward where the rest of the team waited. It was an easy enough task since there were only seven or eight other people besides Karin. One of them, however, had apparently seen through my attempt to pretend otherwise. She looked from me to Karin, then back again. “So he didn’t lie.”
“He just forgot,” I replied casually, though I knew my answer wouldn’t satisfy this person.
As soon as we reached the rest of the team, the questions started. I told them what I had told the police and everyone else in our little group. Then I added in what I’d figured out about the creature based on my observations. I was careful not to say anything that would reveal the dragon’s location.
That, of course, wasn’t difficult to avoid, since none of us yet knew where the dragon was. I simply told them it was in the northeast quadrant of the island.
Everyone agreed to my plan, and within half an hour we were heading northwest along a dirt road that ran parallel to the shoreline.
It was a bright day—too bright to be late July when all this should have been happening. There was no sign of the sun’s usual orange glow, no trace of light in the water below. All around us, it was blue and purple and black, as though the sea was some sort of living creature with the ability to take whatever color it pleased.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d think something was wrong. The sky looked strange and the waves looked stranger, too—they had no shape, just a dark grey-black haze covering everything.
A few minutes after I saw the first ripple, one of the members of our group called out excitedly. They pointed at the ocean, their voices echoing loudly across the empty space.
“I’m sorry, did you hear something?” asked another member. He had his phone out and was listening to a radio app that he’d opened on his screen. “No? Oh well,” he said before clicking the off switch and putting the phone away.
There weren’t even any other people for me to talk to on this stretch of beach; it was as though there’d never been anyone here at all. It took some convincing to get Karin to let me borrow her phone, but once I got access to the map she gave me I quickly found the source of the ripples.
I tapped the point, and a small line appeared on the screen. Then I turned the phone to face me. It had no camera function, so it could only show what it was being pointed at—and right now I was standing in the middle of nowhere.
There wasn’t a house or anything else for miles in any direction, not even a road.
But it seemed that the ripple hadn’t been coming from the water at all, as I expected. Instead, it came from directly ahead. I moved closer until I reached the sand. A little beyond my feet, where the water was a little deeper, there were more ripples moving toward me. One of them had a darker hue than the rest.
That’s weird. Why would a wave look different…? I thought to myself, and then it hit me. There are other living creatures in the water, right? That means there should be waves, right?
My eyes darted from side to side in search of something I might use as a weapon. But there was nothing nearby I could swing. And it wasn’t like I wanted to try swinging one of my hands. I couldn’t believe I had almost forgotten about the fact that my left hand still had an alien parasite attached to it. If the creature managed to bite through my skin again…
I glanced down at my hand. There were a few spots where it was beginning to heal, but the wound wasn’t completely closed, and the edges were still a little swollen. Even though I knew the chances of another attack were very slim, it was impossible to shake the fear that my hand might slip through my control and bite into me when I least expected it to.
And now, of course, it felt as though the creature inside was trying to remind me. The fingers of my left hand twitched slightly and it was hard for me to keep my focus on my surroundings. When I did manage to calm myself enough to stop thinking about the possibility of my hand slipping away, the dragon in the water reminded me that I needed to be on high alert. It was time for my next lesson.
It began just as soon as we were within two or three hundred meters of the dragon. It happened without warning—as though my dragon friend was simply waiting for me to get within range. At first, I thought something was wrong, but then it struck me that perhaps the creature didn’t want me to notice this time.
And since I had no idea how it planned to do this, I could only guess at what was about to happen. I watched as the water near me suddenly became a little darker. I turned back in surprise to look at the ripples. They had taken on a different color like they were turning into a shadow—not just a normal shadow, but an unnatural shade that looked exactly the same as the waves around me.
The darkness took the form of a long snake-like body and grew larger and fiercer the farther forward it advanced. And when its head came into view, I gasped out loud. The creature that was now emerging from the water looked almost like a living cobra with a long neck and large triangular eyes, but instead of being black, its scales were red.
Its mouth opened wide in a silent snarl. Then its head reared up in my direction, as though it had spotted me.
I stood there, stunned by what was unfolding before my eyes, trying to decide whether it was worth my time to try and find an escape route. And then, just as the beast was about to lunge at me, I heard footsteps behind me. Someone had come here with me.
That’s a little odd…
When I spun around, Karin was standing in the same spot as me. She hadn’t even been paying attention to what she’d stumbled upon and had arrived without warning. And as the beast reared up again, she was staring straight into the face of a monster.
It wasn’t the size or speed that shocked her into action. It was the color of the scales. Red.
Karin was staring right at my alien parasite, which was slowly slithering through the sand and heading toward her.
But Karin didn’t need to look to know what would happen next. She knew what happened whenever she got anywhere close to it. So, as the creature reared back to strike, she dived down on top of me, knocking us both to the ground. I tried to scramble away from my alien friend, but she held me tight.
“…No.” I cried out, “Get off me…”
“Don’t move,” she said calmly. As soon as she finished saying it, she raised her arms. The alien slithered closer until it had reached her left arm and was reaching for her throat.
And just as the reptile was about to bite into Karin, she thrust her arm forward. A small, bright blue light appeared near her fingertips and then flashed into a ball of flame. The snake fell apart. Its head burst open like a water balloon. And the body of the cobra was no longer moving, although a few scales remained as burnt cinders drifting around in the water.
As quickly as the snake appeared, it disappeared—like it was never really there. Even though my alien friend hadn’t been trying to attack me, Karin had done exactly what she said not to do. The creature didn’t want me to see this, and it used its power to try and stop me.
It worked too…
“That’s not fair!” I yelled at Karin after she climbed to her feet. “It was supposed to be my dragon friend who protected me, not you.”
She didn’t say anything; instead, she turned to look over her shoulder. When she did, she seemed confused and glanced back down at me. Then she asked, “What are you talking about?”
I shrugged, still staring out over the waves. It was hard for me to concentrate because I could feel another wave approaching from behind and that it was getting larger. And then a second later, I realized why.
“Karin! Look out—”
A huge wave came up to meet us. There wasn’t enough time to get to safety and my dragon friend was going to be sucked into the water. I scrambled toward where she’d been standing and grabbed her arm, yanking her backward with all the strength in my right hand.
But she didn’t even seem to notice as the water closed over both of our heads. For a moment, we were submerged together and then everything went black.
***
Karin pulled herself onto her hands and knees, but it took her a few seconds to catch her breath. Then she finally looked around. It took a while longer for me to do the same, but once I realized what happened, I also felt like something was missing.
We’d been washed out to sea. That wasn’t a place you could stand on your own two feet or even crawl if you were in trouble. You had to rely on someone else. Or at least, you always used to until Karin and I showed up.
When she saw the direction I was looking in, Karin smiled. “I guess the first thing I’m going to need to teach you is how to swim.” She said quietly, then she looked back at the beach where I was sitting. I hadn’t moved yet; I’d just kept my eyes trained on the waves and rocks in front of me.
My dragon friend sat up slowly. She seemed confused like she was trying to remember where I was. Then she shook her head and said, “It’s all right… He’ll be here soon.”
She was talking about me, so I looked away from the shore, back down at the sea. If anyone could survive in a wave pool, it would be her. She had to know that I couldn’t.
Karin was waiting for me to get up. It had taken a long time for the water to recede. And as it did, my hair started floating on top of me, so I pushed some strands out of the way and stood up. My feet weren’t touching the ground, though, and I felt completely helpless like I was going to be swallowed whole by the ocean.
Karin helped me up, pulling me onto my feet. She was still holding on to me, but the grip was different now—almost protective. “Don’t worry, he’ll be here soon,” she said again. And although I wasn’t really worried anymore, it felt good to hear someone say that.
The next wave approached us, but this one seemed different than the others. I thought maybe it was because there was no wind, or at least not much. So it must’ve been coming straight at us and it seemed bigger too. But as it broke into pieces near us, I realized it had nothing to do with wind or distance.
Instead, it came from deep inside the ocean, which gave me the impression it was an attack from something that could control the water itself.
“I’m going to teach you how to swim because if it’s just me, we won’t last very long out here.” Karin smiled. It wasn’t the smile she’d used to make me feel better before, but the one that showed me how brave she was. I was sure she could handle this new wave just fine. And when I finally got the courage to look away from her, the wave was already getting larger behind us.
I turned to face it and my stomach went cold. If she’d known what was coming, she would have let me go. But I couldn’t turn around again, because she didn’t want to scare me, so I focused instead on the rocks in front of me. They were a lot closer than they’d been, which meant that the waves had to be getting faster. I could sense Karin moving closer to the shoreline.
Then she grabbed me again and pulled herself up beside me, then held me close to her chest. The water rose all around us until our noses were underwater and we were forced to cling to each other. It was a strange sensation, knowing that my dragon friend was also holding on to me, yet not touching me.
She whispered to me: “He’s coming…”
Then it happened—the wave crashed toward us. We had to jump into its wake to survive. As it hit the rocks where we’d stood, we were swept onto the shore, splashing against the sandy bottom. Then everything went dark again.
Karin pulled me closer. It felt like she was trying to give me some shelter from the darkness that threatened to consume our minds. “It’s okay, I’ll protect you…” she said softly. There was no time for words anymore; if we didn’t get out of there soon, we’d drown. So I nodded, and then I looked around at the shore again.
All I could see were rocks, some big, some small, with a few sand dunes too. The sand stuck to my legs like glue and I started feeling nauseated. My mouth filled with water and I spat some of it out. Karin must’ve heard the rattle in my throat.
She reached down and cupped her hand under my chin and pulled my head toward her shoulder, then wrapped an arm around my back. When I closed my eyes, the darkness lifted and I could see her, which helped tremendously.
I thought about telling her to hold on tightly so I could use my magic to push us through the waves. But as much as I wanted to help her, she’d already said that would only slow her down because she couldn’t fly through the water. And she’d also told me she was a good swimmer, though she hadn’t mentioned how good she was with the sea, since it was usually flat where she lived.
I’d seen the scars on her leg from an accident that had put her into a coma for months. It wasn’t fair of me to ask her to do this when she clearly hated swimming. I didn’t want to hurt her any more than she already was.
The End