Monster Girl Quest - After: Erubetie
The woods around Plansect Village were always quiet. Especially when she wandered through. Not even the likes of the Canaan Sisters were willing to make much of a nuisance of themselves whilst she was around.
All were terrified of her. Rightly so, but she had no need to exert an intimidating aura. She just did so just by existing, by people knowing who and what she was.
But the humans and the weaker monsters were softening up to her. She meant them no harm, especially not now. And she could not really fault the humans, who had come to her aid when the war came to an end, trying to restore the damage done to her real home.
Plansect village was a peaceful enough place, especially now... but for Erubetie, it was not her place. It was a home of plant and insect monsters, and a number of humans now.
She belonged in Undine's Spring. Alas, there wasn't much point going there until the poison that traitor Bess - may she suffer for eternity - sickened the spring with was cleaned.
It would've been nice to have claimed Luka a week ago, but he seemed to know what she was planning. There was always the chance she'd get to at least enjoy him in the future... if Alice permitted it... but to have made him hers... that would've been nice.
She sighed at the thought, a rare occurrence for her as she 'walked'.
Unlike many slimes, she preferred to form legs and make sensual gliding steps, though her mass trailed and slid across the grass behind her wherever she went, not unlike most slimes. Scintillating glimmers danced across the forest floor wherever sunlight past through her semi-translucent liquid body, constantly shifting and flowing with the mass of countless years of existence and absorbed consciousnesses.
It was... something she found herself regretting, now and then, but she also accepted it. Perhaps regret wasn't the right word. Lamenting? Perhaps not all of those people deserved to die, but anyone who threatened her home or challenged her should have known the consequences. Still, maybe others were scared of what she might've done...
She paused for a moment. Never once before she met Luka did she ever think about such things. Now, she had found herself more... sympathetic, than previously. It seemed he had more of an impact on her than she was ready to admit.
One of the long, droopy 'lengths' of hair tugged upwards slightly next to her head, curling a little against her cheek, rubbing against the purple, heart-like mark that stayed visible on her slimy body, like the others across her form, always shifting, always reappearing.
Now she was even more disappointed in having missed her chance to claim Luka. That boy... barely a man, and he had this effect on her.
She wondered if any other human would be enough for her.
She continued onward, her blue eyes glancing at what few animals dared linger as she passed through. Perhaps, in time, they would not see her as a threat.
She didn't want to be a terror
all
the time. Was that not a key part of coexistence?
As she contemplated this, she sensed something new. Her long, gooey tapered ears lifted, as did the dark blue, triangular 'horns' on the side of her head, more akin to goopy fins, reacting to this detection; the presence of a human nearby.
That was curious. Humans generally did not come this way that frequently. Those who went to Undine's Spring took a more direct route from Grand Noah, and others took the roads out of Plansect Village when moving or making trade.
There were no paths through these woods near the Spring save what animals made.
She moved to investigate, finding herself moving along a small stream, the water slightly foggy.
Eventually, she came to a break in the trees, around a small clearing. The stream formed a pond that dominated the left side of the clearing, continuing on to the right, though the current bore the water in her direction.
There, she saw a man crouched by the edge of the river. He couldn't have been more than twenty-five, quite youthful in appearance with the barest of stubble clinging to his face from a recent shave, but she wasn't sure facial hair would go a ways to making him seem that much older.
He clearly spent a lot of time in the sun, despite the fact he wore a simple beige-coloured brimmed hat, his skin possessing a soft, healthy tan.
The rest of his garb was clearly meant for these sorts of forays into the wilderness; his dark brown boots were made of a thick leather, and his long pants were a heavy cotton, light brown in colour.
His pale off-white shirt was thinner, likely so he didn't cook in the heat, but it was reinforced and covered in a thin layer of hardier material to avoid tearing.
A leather backpack was leaning up against a fallen tree trunk nearby, the bark covered in moss from how long it'd been there.
She couldn't see his eyes from the brim of his hat, but his lower face seemed tensed in concentration.
He then reached down next to him, and pulled a small flask into view.
The top was unstoppered... and he poured the dark pink contents into the water, dispersing into the clouded pond.
Her eyes narrowed and a heat built inside her slimy mass. An old rage given refreshed vigour.
Humans may have been helping revive Undine's Spring, were learning to coexist, she surely understood that during the nights at Plansect village... but it seemed some humans were still willing to show their selfishness, their disregard for the world around them, for their own petty goals.
She would at least make his death a pleasant one... though he might not see it that way at first. But she did not care about his thoughts, making the execution one of pleasure was the only mercy she was willing to extend.
And so close to Undine's Spring... he deserved her wrath.
She dissolved into a formless mass of blue slime, surging forth and catching the man by surprise. His head tipped up and she saw his brown eyes, surprisingly gentle for a craven polluter, though now they were filled with fear.
Such a fetching figure, wasted on such vile acts. Once she dissolved him, maybe she'd figure out what his no doubt foolish plan was. And make an example out of him to others.
He was swept up in her mass, a panicked shriek escaping his mouth as he tried to struggle, but her blue slime rose up around him, squeezing about his body and holding it in place with burbling squelches, his hat sliding off his head as a sheet of slime rolled over his scalp and the sides of his head, holding it in place, leaving it the only part of him currently not enveloped in cool blue slime.
A spire of slime rose out of the mass roiling around him, and slowly coalesced into the form of Erubetie, the Heavenly Knight staring down at him with cold, uncaring eyes.
He stared back with terror.
"I had thought there was decency in humanity, and yet here I find a man poisoning the water for whatever selfish aims he must have. Perhaps I cannot hope for humans to turn over a new leaf... not without culling the wicked from their number. Take solace that I will not make your death painful, human."
