woo slime monsters! <3

"Saurian" is the title, and also the name of the world in which it takes place.
The main characters Nomminus and Khaz are an unlikely duo, she's an adventurer, always on the move and prefers a solitary life. He is a bright-eyed and excitable kid who ends up tagging along with her on her adventures due to unfortunate circumstances.
They will learn to work together as they deal with whatever dangers or challenges they might face while wandering the world.

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Comments appreciated, thanks in advance for faves
characters and story © myself, please be respectful and do not copy, alter, or repost without permission. Thanks!

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It had been two days since they made shore on this strange new land, Nomminus and Khaz remained in the village, now with their own tents set up, so as not to trouble the leader with extra company.
Nomminus emerges from her tent with a yawn before taking a deep breath of the morning sea breeze that floated from the coastline, she makes her way towards a bath house that these creatures had built, she wanted to treat herself to a well deserved wash
However, on her way there she noticed the leader speaking with others, a worried look upon her face. The conversation ended, the two she was speaking to departed, and so did she, her worry turned to grief.
“I know that look, have you lost someone Mela?” Nomminus asks as she approaches the midnight blue mammal.
Mela stopped and looked up from the ground as the carnotaurus approached. Her eyes wet and on the verge of flowing with tears. “Yes. My other daughter, she went with a hunting party to bring back food, but the others just returned and informed me she went missing near the mountains, and they failed in locating her again. There are many tunnels and pits with mouths that have been overgrown with vegetation, I fear she may have fallen into one, she could be lost or hurt, or could be dead, or worse!”
She said the last grabbing on to her big blue friend’s shoulders, “Nomminus, please, could I ask of you a favour, please help me find her.” Barely holding back sobs of sadness and desperation.
Nomminus nodded, she could bathe later, someone needed her help. “I will get Khaz, could you get the others from her party to draw us a map to where they last saw her? What is her name?”
“Her name is Alem, though we’ve taken to calling her Toasty, a nickname of sorts, she loved to stoke and sit next to warm fires, it didn’t matter the time of year, she loved to be all toasty warm.” Mela began to reminisce, a light in her eyes flickered “I will do you one better than a map, we will take one of her party with us.” She said and went to fetch one of the two who returned without her daughter.
“We…us?” Nomminus said surprised, she shouldn’t abandon her people, but before she could speak up in protest, she was gone, she gave a huff and shook her head with a smile, she’d do the same in her position, so she couldn’t argue against it. She made her way towards Khaz’s tent.
Khaz was sleeping soundly on his front, his blankets and pillows a messy nest around him, one held tight in a hug under his head. Snoring softly, his trousers cast aside by his belts and weapons, and his shirt just covering his rump. He wasn’t a graceful sleeper in the slightest.
Nomminus peered into his tent, rolled her eyes with a chuckle. Then in splashed a small bucket’s worth of water.
Khaz awoke abruptly and soaked, inhaling sharply and accidentally swallowing an insect that was unfortunate enough to zoom by at the wrong time. He sat up quickly, coughing to expel the insect from his throat. After that he put his head in his hands, rubbing tired eyes with his palms. “hmmm, good morning” He groaned. His head pounding with a headache. He rearranged pillows and flopped back down on them, grabbing a blanket and pulling it over his head. “Give me a while longer to sleep.”
Nomminus laughed. “After drinking so much last night, I imagine you’d like that. But Mela has tasked us to find her missing daughter, get up, and get dressed.” She explained, then left the tent.
Khaz groaned once more, but about 20 minutes later he emerged from his tent, fully clothed, his hood up to help shield his eyes from the brightness of the day that was rather irritating at the moment. He found the others gathered nearby, all ready to embark on this quest. “Ready and accounted for”
They soon ventured off beyond the settlement, Mela had left Shimmering in charge in her absence, she only hoped it’d be the right decision, and all would be well when they returned.
It was a few days of travelling, but they eventually came to the spot where one of Toasty’s party had last seen her.
As they search the immediate area, Khaz takes a cautious step onto a patch of ground covered in vines and branches, quickly discovering there was no ground, he takes a step back on firm rock and kneels down. Examining the hole, he’d just found, noticing some of the vines broken or misplaced like something had fallen through them. “I think I may have found where she went.” He calls out, clearing out the vegetation to reveal a dark deep hole “The branches are broken in some spots, misplaced recently, there’s breaks in the skin of the vines too that have yet to heal over.” He brushes the last away, and looks down into the darkness. Sticking his head down to try and adjust his eyes to the little bit of light within the cavern below, in attempt to see more. However, he lost his balance and fell down into it, he yelled out and then a thud from his landing echoed out.
“Ohhhhh owwwwww!” he moaned, nothing broken, but he could feel the bruises forming.
Nomminus tread carefully over where she heard Khaz fall. “Khaz!” she called down, “are you alright?”
“I’ve been bett-“ Khaz began calling out, looking around the cavern as he did. “Uhhhh….there’s something down here…”
A gurgled roar erupted from the cave. “NOMMINUS HELP!” Khaz shouted, he ran and hid for cover, a big glob of off-white yellow ooze shot towards him and splatted on to a far wall.
Nomminus noticed the hole was rather small and wouldn’t allow someone of her frame through. She used her strength to try and make the hole bigger, but to no avail. Mela and the other Eohippus came over,
“I won’t fit, and something is down there attacking Khaz.” Nomminus explained to them
the hunting party member began tying a rope to a nearby tree and to himself, then threw the rope down the hole, and climbed down into it. Holding a dagger with his teeth by it’s blade to free his hands.
As he was scaling down however, a scream came from him that was soon sounded muffled, with the slurping sounds accompanied, it was clear whatever was down there just ate him, the rope flung back, no longer tied to the eohippus, the end of it covered in goo.
“It’s a slime beast, they used to plague our lands, they mysteriously vanished a few years ago, they must have all gone under ground.” Mela explained, she grabbed on to the rope and was about to drop down into the hole herself, but Nomminus grabbed her by the shoulder. “I won’t allow you to go down there on your own, your people need you to return.”
Mela pushed her hand away. “I didn’t ask you to allow it, I’ll be fine, we’ve dealt with these beasts before and know how to kill them.”
She leapt through the hole and made her decent on the rope, the large creature was distracted with the other it had just eaten, so it gave her a window of opportunity to reach Khaz. She let go of the rope once she was at a safe height to fall from, she landed gracefully and ran over to Khaz quickly, joining him in hiding behind a boulder.
They both watched as the slime beast finished with its meal.
“Please tell me you have a plan.” Khaz said, being cautiously hopeful that she would.
Mela Vasa nodded, and took a deep breath, she pulled back her right arm, as heat started emanating from her hand, soon a fireball appeared floating above her palm. Khaz ducked out of the way so as not to get burned and she drew back her arm a bit further and then launched the flames towards the creature, but it dodged the projectile.
“You know magic?” Khaz asked surprised. “I thought the shadow wizard was the only one who knew ways to cast magic.”
“In your lands, perhaps.” Mela responded as she threw another, this time hitting her mark. They watched the beast before them roar out in pain, though something seemed off about this roar. It soon transitioned into a cry, a woman crying out for help. Mela’s heart dropped when she heard the cries, she recognized the voice. “Alem….” She gasped, feeling somewhat weak as she realized this beast was actually her daughter.
“That’s your daughter?” Khaz questioned, kneeling down on the ground, so as to keep away from fireballs, but he also held a dagger at the ready in case of attack.

Mela’s breathing was fast and shallow and her heart racing. “I…I need to try talking to her.” She was about to step out when Khaz grabbed her arm. “Are you nuts?! That’s not your daughter anymore, it’s some monster now. We should do her the grace of killing her instead of letting her writhe in this form.”
Mela pulled her arm away, looking somewhat angered. “I’ll forgive that statement, and prove to you death is not the answer to this problem.” She stepped out from around the boulder. The beast noticing her right away, letting out a roar mixed with the screams.
“Alem!” Mela called out. “Alem its me!”
The beast’s roar was silenced, lowering and relaxing flailing arms, it sludged closer to her from its pit. Khaz quickly shifted through his pockets trying to find a match or something he could ignite.
“It’s me, your mother.” Mela called out once more, the beast’s head drew close to her. Breathing in her scent. It made a sobbing sound, as the pit emptied and the beast condensed into the shape of a young eohippus. “Mother. Help me.” She plead.
The both of them embraced for a long time. Khaz eventually stood up and wandered over, “Well, then I guess I was wrong…sorry.” He spoke up. He did keep his blade in his hand however, just in case.
Mela released her embrace, and tried to wipe off goo that was stuck to her, Alem was able to remove the goo from her mother.
“I fell through that same hole, I must have knocked myself unconscious with the landing, but as soon as I awoke I noticed a pool of water, I was thirsty and didn’t think to inspect its properties. I drank from it and then blacked out once again, only to wake up once more and found myself in this form.” Alem explained. She went on to divulge further to her mother, and Khaz wandered towards the pit she had sprung from, seeing it as the pool she spoke about now. He squatted down by the edge of the pool and peered into its waters. He saw something stirring in the depths, eyelids to some giant eye beginning to open. He slowly got up and back away, seeing a huge blue and gold eye with a slit pupil. The eye closed up once again thankfully. Once out of sight Khaz turned and broke into a light footed sprint towards Mela and Alem. “Mela, that beast from the prophecy you mentioned the other day, do you perhaps know the colour of it’s eyes?”
Mela thought for a moment. “Yes…blue and gold, why?”
Khaz steadied his breath so as not to panic. “Then we need to leave, now, he slumbers beneath our feet, I saw his eye under that water, it only opened briefly, but I’d rather not risk disturbing his sleep much more then we may already have.”
Without another word, Alem grabbed hold of both of them, and took usefulness of her form, extending upwards and lifting them out of the hole, then climbing out herself. They found Nomminus pacing back and fourth nervously, she stopped once she noticed them standing there. “Oh thank goodness! Once I heard the silence I wasn’t sure what had happened, are you all okay? Is that Toasty? Forgive me, I was expecting someone with ah…with fur.”
Alem giggled. “Good to know my other name is still spoken. I only wish I could have fur once again, perhaps in time. But for now, we should warn the village, the red one has discovered the beast from the prophecy is stirring.” She says and begins to make way to the settlement.
“Name’s Khaz.” He speaks up. He pulls up his hood once again and follows Alem.
Nomminus stays back and walks with Mela.
Mela struggles to speak up at first, but decides it would be wiser to say something rather than keep quiet. “Nomminus…Khaz said something very strange down there, he suggested the only action would be to kill Alem, while I can see why he might say something like that. It does still have me concerned, I have heard many speak similar words, and nothing good came of the path those words took them. Perhaps a close eye should be kept on him?”
Nomminus sighed. “My eyes can’t get much closer to him unless they were to be attached to his sleeve. I’ve noticed as of late, he’s perhaps a little too good and eager to slay creatures and foes. I will be sure to speak with him on the matter once time allows.”