Bloodlines of the Ancient Pantheons 123 CXXIII. The Slime

"Help me! Do something! I can't move!" screamed Dag in a panic: the monster was too big to be tackled with his bare hands, his legs out of order.

Reidar returned to the bank of the pond and took his bow. He loaded an arrow and shot it at the toad, hitting it on the head.

The animal made no verse, it remained motionless as if nothing had happened.

He fired a second arrow and then a third, which struck the monster in one eye, partially blinding it.

The toad continued to advance towards Dag, despite the three arrows lodged in its soggy flesh.

"The hammer! Karl, give me my hammer!" shouted Dag, as the toad opened its mouth wide, so big it could swallow an entire elephant.

Dag couldn't move, he was doomed.

"Captain!" shouted Reidar, who continued to shoot arrows at the toad, hitting it in the mouth, without stopping its advance.

Karl threw the hammer at Dag, who immediately after grabbing it, turned to the toad, who closed its mouth.

In one bite, the amphibian lifted Dag and swallowed his body in its entirety. Dag's feet slowly disappeared into the toad's body, which devoured him.

"Daaaaag! Noooo!" yelled Karl, who went down with his feet in the pond.

Reidar pulled him back: "Where the fuck do you think to go?! Do you want that huge beast to eat you too?!"

The toad swallowed, emitting lousy verses.

Then it began to walk again, this time towards Karl and Reidar, who walked backwards.

After coming out of the pond it slowly opened its mouth.

Before the two comrades could move, the animal pulled out its tongue, which at great speed stuck to Karl's chest.

"Aaaaagh! Fuck! Fuck!" he yelled, as the slimy tongue dragged him towards the amphibian's mouth, which looked like a large black hole.

With the tomahawk, Karl hit its tongue, cutting it in half.

The toad immediately withdrew it in its mouth, sore.

Karl unseated the piece of the tongue that was glued like a sucker from his chest and threw it away.

Thick blood began to pour from the toad's mouth.

"Karl! Look!" said Reidar, pointing to the animal's body.

His slimy tummy moved strangely, writhing.

The toad turned to the other side, intending to return to the pond when the two companions heard a noise coming from inside: it seemed that something was tearing the internal tissues, opening them like plastic bags.

Just before the amphibian could touch the water of the pond, a hand sprang out of its back, piercing its flesh.

Another hand was added to the first, to widen the opening.

Dag crept out of the animal's body as it writhed in pain and its blood ended up in the water, dyed red.

"Captain! You did it!" said Reidar, running towards him.

Karl followed him.

Dag was completely covered in a slimy, sticky substance, which enveloped the limbs of the giant toad's internal organs.

He knelt down, tired of the effort and spat out the slime liquid that had ended up in his mouth.

"Bleah! It was the worst experience of my fucking life..." he said, as he tried to clean his face and body.

Behind him, the huge carcass of the toad lay on the ground, quartered into a pool of rosy blood.

"The important thing is that you're alive, Dag! I feared the worst!" said Karl, breathing heavily.

He and Reidar helped Dag take that sticky substance off his back.

"I saw Freydis, Karl" Dag said, recovering from the shock.

"What? Have you seen my sister? And where?" asked Karl.

"It was a hallucination. She came to me and told me to follow her while she held my hand. She seemed real, I swear. Then I found myself in that pond with my legs stuck, while you were screaming my name from behind" Dag said.

"I was the first to wake up. As soon as I opened my eyes, I saw you with your legs submerged in water, while you kept walking forward, stretching your arms towards something. So I rushed up to get you out of there, but you couldn't hear me!" said Reidar.

"Not only that… I also noticed another detail. Around you, the plants surrounding the pond had released spores, which glittered in the air, illuminated by the light of our torches. I think they were the ones who hypnotized you" Karl said, trying to explain what had happened.

"Spores? Did spores show me the person I miss the most?" asked Dag.

"Yes, they could. Probably, the 'Typha Latifolia' has undergone a mutation in this area and can release spores with psychotic effects. You saw Freydis because she's your biggest weakness, the point where you're most vulnerable" Karl said.

"But... why are all the animals and plants in this forest trying to kill us? We're not doing anything wrong!" interrupted Reidar.

"Plants are not equipped with wills and sometimes animals neither. I think it's a mechanism of self-preservation, this forest's strategy of defense. During the night, something happens in the bodies of its inhabitants... a mutation that can change not only their size but also their instincts. In my opinion, by order of the forest itself, they identify us as strangers, therefore enemies" Dag said, reflecting on the events he had experienced in the last few hours.

"Yes, I think so. Luckily we're still alive. Now that we've also found the plant we were looking for, risking our lives, I think it's time to vanish from this place!" said Karl, who approached the body of the huge amphibian.

Dag looked at him.

Karl pulled out his small knife and scraped the sticky substance that covered the toad's skin, pouring it into a bottle.

"What are you doing now?" asked Reidar.

This sticky substance... well, I think it has healing properties. I had a cut on my hand, and after touching that huge lousy tongue, it healed completely. It looks like the same liquid. I will study its characteristic" continued Karl, who returned to his companions, moving away from the huge stinker corpse.

Chapter end