[Who: Nebula]
[Where: A Conundrum]
[When: Unknown]
Vague shapes swirl around me. Where am I? Wasn’t I just with that nice voice? Doing… something with a rock? I can’t remember.
Empty black void and bright white light are all I can see, shifting about in bizarre configurations that defy logic. Slowly they resolve into something that resembles a monochromatic reality, albeit blurry and inconsistent.
One of the shapes, resembling a person, turns to me and speaks. “Aren’t you excited, [BLANK]?”
Another voice responds, coming from what feels like my mouth. My mouth? I have a mouth again! Again? But I’ve always had a mouth? Haven’t I? “I suppose so. It’s only a school trip, after all.” I have no control over my words, and my body moves on its own.
My movement feels all floaty and distant, almost like I’m in a dream.
”Aw, come on, all this nerd stuff is right up your alley!” Interjects another person-shaped shadow.
“It is, but we all know it’s going to be dry as hell. You know how [TEACHER] gets. It’s fascinating material, for sure, but in the end, we all know it’s just an excuse for [TEACHER] to get off college campus so he doesn’t actually have to work.” My voice says, unrecognizable in this strange and distorted dream world.
My viewpoint moves from side to side, and I gather that I’m on a bus or mass transit vehicle of some sort.
”Portal research and cryptozoology, though! How are you not excited?”
”It’s all a bunch of bogus hokey!” ‘I’ angrily reply back. The ire is there in my voice, but I, the actual me, feels none of it. “What’s real science is nature, biology, chemistry, ACTUAL physics! You know, bugs and plants and rocks and math that makes SENSE!”
The shadow-shaped person laughs. “Then why are you even in this class? C’mon, live a little! Sure it’s all garbage, but it’s FUN garbage!”
Under my breath, I grumble. “I just need the credits and this class looked easy and interesting, that’s all.” Turning towards the window, I watch as the black-and-white scenery flashes past.
“Hey! There it is! It’s coming up on this side!” Shadow people rush to the windows on the same side as I am, and I squint to see better. My hand moves to adjust something on my face, and I lean towards the window. In it, my reflection is blurry and faint.
I look past it and at the approaching building. From here I cannot make out any details other than “building-shaped”. The vehicle shudders, sending exclamations through the air as shadows stumble in their attempts to remain seated.
At the same time, I see the building vanish. A beam of black and white lights has replaced it, piercing the heavens and the earth with its might. The world shakes again, much more violently this time.
A shockwave of shimmering whites and blacks spreads from the beam, approaching at a rapid pace. They morph in abstract geometries, reality itself quivering and hiding away behind the mind-boggling sight.
I have just enough time to open my mouth in awe when it hits, sending the vehicle tumbling into the air.
Solid white and inky void intermingle around me, and I feel my body falling apart under the onslaught. I scream in agony, experiencing every painful moment of it. Bit by bit, I disappear, senses eroding away until only my mind is left. Even that begins to crumble, albeit much slower than my body had.
For an endless forever, I remain there, immobilized and senseless. Eventually, I become aware of a pulling sensation, calling me away from this hellish limbo.
It is a call I eagerly accept. I feel myself begin to move. Yet blind as I am, I cannot determine anything more than that.
My awareness begins to fade into blackness, true unconsciousness at last. Alas, this was not to be, for a feminine voice interrupts my upcoming slumber.
[[WAKEY WAKEY! EGGS AND BAKEY!]]
×+×+×+×
[Who: The Narrator]
[Where: Big Forest Wilds]
[When: Now]
The flight-mouse sniffs at the air. Something about the quality had changed recently, more rich. More sweet, less sickly. Flapping useless wings, it scurries along the forest floor in search of the source of the scent.
It promises fresh fruit, and the colony is always hungry. Food is always scarce in this enclosed space, and competition fiercer.
Yet it had to remain careful, for many of its brethren had been lost recently. A new danger had entered the sealed-off portion of the forest in which the colony lived, picking off flight-mice one by one. The colony, in stasis with its surroundings for so many generations, constantly requires food to replace the lost members.
Such is life in what is essentially an Olympic stadium-sized terrarium. Not that the mutated rodents know nor care about their circumstances.
Stealth and wariness are on the menu, lest the rodent finds itself on something else’s menu.
This fails abysmally, as the poor thing is immediately snapped up by a passing deinonychus.
Astonishingly anachronistic in the post-Holocene era, it is a direct descendent of dinosaurs who had found themselves transported through time and space via the interventions of various wizards and mad scientists. It and its pack had lived in the forest for generations, so long ago that they’d integrated into the ecosystem and became practically native to the region.
The feathered reptile stops, tilting its head in curiosity at the hole in the rocky hill in the clearing ahead of it. It had never been to this part of the forest before, for a mysterious force had previously shielded it and its kin from all such attempts to investigate.
For generations, the raptor’s pack had tested the barrier, in vain hopes of accessing the prey clearly contained within. But now, it was gone, as the dinosaur had recently discovered, almost entirely by accident.
Bright for an animal, the deinonychus congratulated itself for having found such an untouched hunting ground first. It even found an unclaimed cave, all for itself! Such unspoiled territory, free for the taking!
Sniff sniff, snorf.
Wide nostrils tested the air, finding the sweet scent to be, if not unbearable, at least tolerable. It could soon fix that smell with the odor of a pack of its own, in any case.
Flexing its curved claws eagerly, it prepares to stake its claim. Striding into the rectangular entrance, it gets a fair way in before noticing something is off. The ground below is wet and sticky, and the humidity is strange.
The deinonychus knows something is wrong, but it cannot pinpoint it. Hopefully, it would just be new prey.
Splap. Splap. Gloop.
Three glowing white orbs fall from the shifting darkness above, surrounding the trespasser. Lit up from within by the orbs, each one illuminating a different color through their bodies. One blue. One yellow, and one green. The trio of round gelatinous balls stare up at it. Ominously, they slowly draw nearer.
The dinosaur knew of these creatures, or at least of their ilk. Though it didn’t have the human vocabulary for what they were, it knew they were usually easy prey.
The humans of the current day knew these creatures by varying names: Slime. Jelly. Gelatin. Ooze. Goo. Blob. Pudding. The dinosaur, merely having the intellect of a particularly bright cat, did not know these words. Instead, the closest concept it had was “sticky snack.” In practice, it was more like a “chirr-AWK” when spoken to its packmates.
Anticipating an easy meal, the raptor would have grinned through its serrated teeth had it had the capability. Sticky snacks are a little spicy, but manageable. The trick is breaking the little stone inside with tooth or claw before slurping them down. Sometimes they try to fight back, burning the hunters along the way with their acidic [GROSS] attacks.
It still sported scars from early encounters with the common creatures, before it had been taught how to safely consume the things. Acidic by their very nature, yet easily disarmed by destroying their cores quickly enough. It was worth it for the boost in power alone from the kill, their deliciousness a close second.
The slimes circle the deinonychus, and it watches them warily. It can tell that something is different about these ones. Using its [PARTY] affinity, it flashes forward in a surge of super speed.
Incredibly, the slime it targets somehow neatly sidesteps the oncoming dinosaur, avoiding the snapping jaws. It tried stopping, only to continue sliding at high speed, finally crashing into the far cave wall.
The stone of the cave floor, slick as it is with slimy residue, is as slippery as the backside of a greased walrus. Not that the deinonychus knew what either was, of course.
Squawking in anger, it takes a step forward, attempting to use its super speed again. Fire at its feet alerts it to the slimes at its feet, dissolving away. Roaring in pain, the dinosaur fell to its knees. Scrabbling at the stone floor, it activates its super speed again.
By some miracle, it succeeds, flashing out of the slime’s burning grip, and traversing deeper into the cave. Here, the tunnel walls are oddly regular. Turning around, it sees the illuminated bodies of the slimes watching it from behind. They aren’t pursuing, but they are blocking the egress.
Sticky snacks? Employing pack tactics? Unheard of! Were it not for the danger they were posing, it would show those upstarts a thing or two. With egregious violence, of course.
With no other recourse but to go deeper into the passageway, the deinonychus hesitantly continues onward. This was no longer about new territory. In an unnerving and unfamiliar state of affairs, it was beginning to feel like the hunted, rather than the hunter.
Slowly, it padded along the concrete and tile flooring. At some point, it had transitioned seamlessly from solid stone and brick.
Clack.
A tile depressed down ever-so-slightly, barely audible amongst the sound of thunks, drips, and hisses of steam filling the corridor. The scent of sweetness was strong here, overpowering the dinosaur’s sensitive sinuses.
It shook its head, trying to clear the smell from its head, stumbling around as it did so.
More and more tiles are stepped on, each quietly clicking in turn. Clawing at its nose, the deinonychus, unable to see where it was putting its feet, steps onto what had been a solid floor moments prior.
Claws scrabbling and failing to find a purchase in the suddenly empty air, the dinosaur found itself falling. Moments later, it was struggling to stay afloat in a searingly hot brown liquid. Screeching in agony, the thick bitter liquid flooded its throat and nostrils, choking it.
Finally, its movement ceases, and the corpse floats to the top.
