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They may find, though, that the corruption of the forest is more than they bargained for.", "count": "2", "submission_left_submission_id": "2615579", "submission_left_file_name": "3863828_Phantasmagore_forest_expedition_1.rtf", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_huge": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/huge/3863/3863828_Phantasmagore_forest_expedition_1.jpg", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/3863/3863828_Phantasmagore_forest_expedition_1.jpg", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/3863/3863828_Phantasmagore_forest_expedition_1.jpg", "submission_left_thumb_huge_x": "300", "submission_left_thumb_huge_y": "300", "submission_left_thumb_large_x": "200", "submission_left_thumb_large_y": "200", "submission_left_thumb_medium_x": "120", "submission_left_thumb_medium_y": "120" } ], "description": "Chapter 2 of Into the Umberwood is here (finally)! Our band of hapless adventurers is in a tricky spot after losing Hork to the forest, but they press on. As the Umberwood continues its efforts to thwart them, though, one of them may find himself lost...", "description_bbcode_parsed": "Chapter 2 of Into the Umberwood is here (finally)! Our band of hapless adventurers is in a tricky spot after losing Hork to the forest, but they press on. As the Umberwood continues its efforts to thwart them, though, one of them may find himself lost...", "writing": "[b][center]Into the Umberwood\nBy Phantasmagore\n\nPart 2: A Rookie Mistake[/center][/b]\n\nKimo wasn’t sure what to do. The party’s morale had taken a heavy hit after losing Hork. He was able to get the others to keep pressing on, but the confidence that they once had, the unspoken assurance that they were all going to triumph and get out of this together, was gone. Even worse, on top of losing a party member, they were now missing most of the supplies that they brought into the forest. If things didn’t turn around for them fast, the group’s spirits were sure to keep plummeting. He worried that that could be just as dangerous as anything in this forest.\n\nAnd Baron certainly wasn’t helping.\n\n“This is what you get for making someone else carry your burden,” the lion said as they walked. “I hope you all learn a valuable lesson from this.”\n\n“Enough, Baron,” Kimo said. “You’ve made your point.”\n\nBaron snorted. “You can’t possibly be defending them. Their carelessness cost us most of our rations. If I were in charge, I’d—\"\n\nKimo interrupted, “Well, you aren’t. Besides, I could say the same about your carelessness, as well. You were supposed to stay with Hork, but you lost track of him.”\n\n“I- I—,” Baron spluttered indignantly, “He was the one who fell behind. If I moved at his pace, we would have gotten nowhere.”\n\n“And because you didn’t, now we’ve gotten somewhere, but we lost Hork in the process.”\n\nBaron shut his mouth, apparently realizing that he wasn’t going to win this argument. With a snort, he shoved past Kimo, hacking away at some of the thick brush ahead. To be honest, they probably could have gotten through it just fine, but Kimo figured he was just trying to vent his frustration, so he left the lion to his task.\n\nWhen Kimo turned back to the rest of the group, he almost let out a startled yelp at the sight of Mori standing right next to him. The crow’s approach was completely silent, even to Kimo’s sensitive ears.\n\n“Regardless of the reason, we do need to decide what to do about our supplies predicament,” Mori said. “Even with careful rationing, what we have left won’t last long. Maybe a few days at best.”\n\n“Do you have any suggestions?” Kimo asked.\n\nThe crow looked up to the trees. “I’ve been keeping an eye out for anything I recognize as edible, but I haven’t had any luck yet. Everything is just… different in here. Different enough that anything we try eating from the forest itself is a gamble. Even if it looks like something I know is safe, it’s possible that it has been affected by whatever corruption created this place.”\n\nThat was troubling. Like Mori said, their remaining supplies would only last them so long. If they couldn’t figure out how to supplement what they had left with the forest’s resources, then they were in an even trickier situation than Kimo feared.\n\n“Well, keep looking, and let me know if you spot anything promising,” he said. Mori gave him a nod and turned his eyes up toward the canopy above them, hunting for any signs of food or danger.\n\nThe group pressed on. None of them said it out loud, but they each couldn’t help but feel that they were able to navigate much faster without Hork’s bulky frame getting blocked by roots at every turn.\n\nThey weren’t content with the loss by any means. The Seston brothers were even more irritable than before, Baron was refusing to look Kimo in the eye, and Mori, despite remaining more composed than the rest, moved with a certain stiffness that told Kimo he was remaining on high alert through the day.\n\nThe one who was most affected, though, was Samuel. His tail dragged along the ground behind him, and his shoulders slouched. His gaze was locked on something invisible in the distance, almost ignoring the woods around him. Kimo knew that he and Hork were starting to get close, so it was no surprise that the lizard was taking it hard, but it looked like he was already giving up. Maybe it was because of his inexperience. He hadn’t lost people before.\n\n[i]‘He’ll learn,’[/i] Kimo thought. The wolf had hoped that they would all make it out of this forest, but he knew from the start that there were no guarantees. Loss was a part of this life; there was no getting around that. Kimo had lost companions before. Too many to count.\n\nIn fact, too many to remember. The memories seemed to blur as he reached out for them. He could see faces, but their names faded away. It felt almost wrong. He could remember having companions in the past. He could remember losing them. But he couldn’t remember who they were or what happened to them. He wasn’t that callous, was he?\n\n“Um, Kimo?” Samuel’s voice cut through his thoughts. “Are you okay?”\n\nKimo hadn’t even realized he had stopped walking. “I’m fine,” he said.\n\n“Is it… what happened to Hork?” Samuel asked, his eyes glued to the ground.\n\nKimo sighed. “No, it wasn’t. Do you want to talk about it?” He silently prayed that the blue lizard would say no. He was never all that good at consoling people.\n\n“I just…,” Samuel started, “…I don’t know what to do. We lost him, Kimo. He was one of us, and now we’re just supposed to move on? We don’t even know what happened. He could be dead, but if he isn’t, then we just left him behind. What if—\"\n\n“There’s no point worrying about ‘what ifs,’” Kimo said. “If he didn’t make it, then we couldn’t afford to lose more time than we already spent looking. If he’s still out there, then the best we can do for him is destroy whatever is at the heart of the Umberwood and hope that that will help him find his way home. He can take care of himself and, to be honest, he’s better stocked than the rest of us are, now. If he’s alive, he’s got the best chances out of anyone.”\n\nHe wished he believed what he was saying. He was sure that this forest was far too dangerous for a lone wanderer to survive, even one as strong as Hork. The boar was as good as gone, either way. He needed Samuel to hold onto some sort of hope, though. If it took a false promise to make that happen, then Kimo was going to say whatever it took.\n\nFortunately, it looked like the idea had rekindled some of Samuel’s determination. A bit of the light had returned to his eye, and there was some energy in his step as he followed the trail that Baron was carving up ahead.\n\nAs the group kept moving forward, the day crawled on at a snail’s pace. The forest around them never seemed to change, and by the middle of the afternoon, some of the group complained that they had to be going in circles. Kimo’s gut told him they were still making progress, but just in case, he had Mori mark the trees as they walked. Sure enough, it looked like they were still moving forward, even if the forest tried to convince them otherwise.\n\nThat was turning out to be the least of their worries, though. As the light above turned into evening’s orange glow, an unsettling feeling was beginning to worm its way into each of them. Kimo couldn’t find any clear sign of why, but it felt like they were being watched. It was like some dark presence was looming over them, just out of sight. From the nervous glances that everyone else gave the growing shadows around them, he guessed that they could feel it, too.\n\nThe discomfort hung over them even as they set up camp and tried to settle for the night. They all fidgeted and squirmed under the mysterious pressure. The silence was palpable, weighing down on them like a ton of bricks. It felt like no one dared to break it, until Ferris stood up.\n\n“Gotta take a piss,” he muttered.\n\nCastor reached out and grabbed him by the leg as he turned to walk away. “Wait, bro,” he said. Ferris gave him a questioning look. “I’m coming, too.”\n\n“Why—”\n\n“Because I’m not letting you go alone.”\n\nIt was an unusually genuine show of concern from the hyena. There was sense in it, though. Without even knowing what happened to Hork, it was too risky for them to go off on their own.\n\nKimo laid back, trying to get some rest despite the constant gloom bearing down on them. Things were off to a troubling start, to say the least. Samuel’s injury wasn’t severe, but the blue lizard wasn’t at his full strength, which frankly wasn’t that much to begin with. Their supplies were limited and dwindling with every meal. They had to pull it together if they were going to make it through this. \n\nThere was still hope, though. Even down a member, they were a capable group. Kimo picked them all because something deep in his gut saw their potential. That instinct had never led him astray before, and he had no reason to think it would now.\n\nA gentle nudge pulled him out of his thoughts. Samuel was standing by his side.\n\n“Um, Kimo?” the lizard whispered. “I need to take a leak, too. Do you mind coming with me? I’d have gone with Ferris and Castor, but I just… I didn’t really want to be alone with them.”\n\nKimo sighed. “Sure. Best not to split up too much.”\n\nThey carefully made their way into the trees, just out of the campfire’s light. Samuel turned his back to Kimo, letting out a relieved sigh as he started urinating on a nearby tree. The sound made Kimo suddenly aware of the pressure in his own bladder, but as he reached for his belt, he hesitated.\n\nHe couldn’t say why, but something about the thought of uncovering himself in front of Samuel just felt wrong. Letting go of his buckle, Kimo just stood there silently until Samuel was finished.\n\n“Go ahead and return to the group,” he said.\n\nSamuel gave him a confused look. “But I thought you said we should stick together.”\n\n“I know. I’ll be fine. Everyone else is right there,” Kimo answered. “Just go.”\n\nSamuel complied, and soon the wolf was alone. Now, he finally felt comfortable enough to pull down his trousers and release his bladder. It might not have made much sense, but that same silent voice that had guided him through his life insisted that letting his companions see him exposed like this was unacceptable.\n\n[i]‘It would look vulnerable,’[/i] he told himself. He needed to maintain the image of unyielding strength for the group’s sake, and allowing others to witness him in such a private moment could jeopardize that.\n\nSatisfied by the explanation for his misgivings, as well as his newly emptied bladder, he pulled his pants back up and fastened his belt. With one more wary glance at the dark forest surrounding him, he returned to the fire. By the time he got back, the Sestons had also returned, and most of the others had fallen asleep. Kimo laid down and shut his eyes, setting his worries aside as he drifted off to sleep. \n\n[center]……..[/center]\n\nThey all had that same unsettling feeling of being watched the next day, but the group pressed on regardless. Much like the day before, they faced little resistance as they traveled, and yet, it still felt like they were getting nowhere fast. As midday came and went, Kimo was beginning to relax, the paranoia subsiding thanks to the relatively easy travel. \n\nOf course, that was the moment that things turned. Without warning, a blaring noise pierced the air. It was a horrific sound, like a cross between a bloodcurdling scream and the grinding of metal on metal. The adventurers clutched their heads, desperate to block out the screeching.\n\n“What in the name of the gods is that?!” Baron shouted.\n\nNo one had a chance to respond. It was as if the entire forest was coming alive. The twisted branches around them began to wriggle and writhe like thick worms. Nearby bushes seemed to twist and reach out toward the group. The rustling of the canopy overhead became almost deafening as the trees rocked into each other.\n\nThe noise kept getting louder, the motion of the forest growing more frantic. It was building to something.\n\n“RUN!” Kimo yelled over the cacophony. He took a quick glance backward to make sure that his companions were following him, then he chose a direction and took off at full speed.\n\nThe sight of the entire forest squirming around them was even more unnerving when running through it. It was like the whole world was unraveling before their eyes. And through it all, that unnatural roar from above continued without pause. \n\nPure, piercing fear struck each of the adventurers. This was beyond what any of them thought they were in for when they agreed to this mission. Most of them were experienced, though, and they knew how to dig deep and use that fear in times of peril. They allowed the fear to fuel them as they kept up the rapid pace, keeping close together as they charged through the cursed forest.\n\nThere was one, however, who didn’t have that same experience. While his teammates were able to keep up despite their panic, Samuel was slowly but surely lagging behind. With all the noise around them, no one was able to hear as his desperate panting grew quieter and quieter. After losing sight of Castor, he only had the noises of loud grunts and snapping twigs to keep track of where he was supposed to be going. It wasn’t long before that faded away, too. \n\nHe tried to keep going, but his muscles were begging for mercy. With a dismayed cry, Samuel dropped to the ground, gasping for breath. He hated himself for stopping. He hated himself for falling behind in the first place. But none of that could overcome the limits of his slim frame. No matter how much he willed it, he just couldn’t keep up.\n\nThe forest continued to roar around him, but as he fought the urge to cough up his own lungs, the noise gradually started to die down. Maybe it was only a temporary thing designed to scare trespassers, or maybe the chaos followed the larger group as they got further and further away. Either way, by the time Samuel was able to get back to his feet, the woods around him had grown quiet.\n\n[i]‘Wait… which way did they go again?’[/i]\n\nHis limbs began to tremble as the realization set in. He was alone in the Umberwood. He only had the vaguest idea of which way the rest of his party ran. The best he could hope for was that he would go in that direction and maybe hear them. With how fast they were going, though, that was a big maybe, and Samuel’s heart sank as he thought about how pitiful his odds were in this situation.\n\nHe slapped himself. [i]‘No! I can’t give up. I’ll make it out of this. I just have to push forward and catch up with the group.’\n\n‘Even though they’re faster than me.’\n\n‘But they’ll have to stop at some point, and I can catch up then.’\n\n‘Assuming they never change course or veer from the direction I think they went.’\n\n‘They’ll be there. I have to believe it.’[/i]\n\nSamuel shook his head to quiet his conflicting thoughts. This was getting him nowhere, and the group was probably just getting farther away while he stood there arguing with himself. He needed to get moving. He steeled his resolve and set off in the direction he thought, or hoped, that the group went.\n\nThat resolve lasted for a solid five seconds, until Samuel saw what was blocking his path. Just beyond a few bushes, there was a large black quadruped, crouched and ready to pounce. The light shined dully on its dark hide. Drool dripped from its hungry maw. And as Samuel averted his gaze from its angry, milky eyes, he saw a half-healed arrow wound in its shoulder. The cuts in Samuel’s arm throbbed as he recognized the same creature that attacked them before. This time, though, there was no one else there to save him.\n\nHe did the only thing he could. He ran.\n\nA guttural roar rang out from behind him, followed by the sound of vegetation getting crushed beneath the monster’s weight as it gave chase.\n\nFortunately, it was hindered by its still-healing wounds. It wasn’t moving quite as fast as it was the first time it attacked him. It was still gaining ground on the frightened lizard, though, and it was only a matter of time before it got its claws on him.\n\nWith the beasts’ growls growing louder by the second, Samuel searched frantically for something to save him. As if some benevolent god were watching over him, he spotted a nearby tree with an opening in its roots, just big enough for him to squeeze through. He dug deep and put everything he had left into a final dash, sliding into the hole just before the creature could catch up to him. It was too close to stop itself, so its snout slammed into the tree with a loud crack. It let out a pained roar and tried to reach in with its claws, but the opening was too small. As long as Samuel stayed back in this hollow, the monster couldn’t touch him.\n\nAfter a few minutes, it gave up and backed away. Samuel let out a sigh of relief, but as he started to crawl back toward the entrance, he picked up on its low, rumbling growl and the sounds of footsteps. A quick peek confirmed that the beast was now pacing nearby, apparently waiting for him to poke his head out of the gap in the tree’s roots.\n\n[i]‘Shit.’[/i]\n\nHe was trapped. The second he went out there, he was as good as dead. Samuel huddled deeper in the hollow, hoping that the creature would just forget about him or give up and leave. He leaned back into the dirt behind him and prepared himself for what might be a long wait.\n\nThe moment he put his weight on the dirt, it gave way, sending him tumbling down into the dark with a startled yelp. What he thought was a shallow space beneath the tree turned out to be the beginning of a long, steep tunnel. Steep enough that Samuel was helpless to stop himself as he rolled downwards.\n\nThe winded lizard finally came to a rough stop at the bottom of the tunnel. He slowly pulled himself up and waited for the world to stop spinning around him. Once he was able to tell up from down again, he glanced around. The tunnel had flattened out, leading to a small, brightly lit opening several yards ahead.\n\n[i]‘An exit!’[/i]\n\nSamuel allowed himself a bit of hope as he crawled forward and poked his head out. He was now peeking from between the roots of a completely different tree in a new clearing. There was no sign of the monster or any other creatures nearby.\n\nHe crawled forward, squeezing through the roots and getting to his feet. The adrenaline and relief at escaping from the monster were wearing off, now, and the dread was setting in. Not only was he alone, but after fleeing in a panic and tumbling through an underground tunnel, whatever little sense of direction he had before was long gone now.\n\n[i]‘Oh no.’[/i]\n\nHe looked around, praying that there would be some sign. The twisted roots of the Umberwood offered him no hints, though. The sunlight from above was diffused by the canopy, making it impossible to tell what direction he was facing. Even if he could, he wasn’t sure which way the group had been going, especially in the mad panic caused by the forest coming alive around them. If he had a slim chance of rejoining the group before, there was no chance now. He was on his own.\n\n[i]‘No no no…’[/i]\n\nHis hope dwindled, his legs beginning to tremble as he realized just how bad this was.\n\n[i]‘I’ve gotta get it together. What would Kimo do? He wouldn’t give up. He’d find a way.’[/i]\n\nSamuel knew that he couldn’t risk standing still. If he couldn’t find the group, then he would need to survive long enough for them to complete their mission and retrieve him, just like Kimo said about Hork. One way or another, he needed to pick a direction and start moving. He took the first few hesitant steps, and then almost fell over as his foot suddenly failed to lift.\n\nHe looked down to find a small puddle of sticky green goo clinging to the underside of his boot. It didn’t seem to want to let go, and it took a real effort to pull his foot free. The stuff remained stuck to the boot, so he found a patch of grass to scrape it off. He was surprised by how hard it was to remove it; whatever this substance was, it was very clingy. Regardless, after a few minutes, he was able to get his boot mostly clean, and he continued, now being careful to watch out for more gooey puddles in his path.\n\nAs he walked, Samuel avoided stepping into several more clumps of the slime. Keeping an eye out for them helped to keep himself distracted from his dire situation. After walking for a while, he was even beginning to feel a little optimistic. Sure, he was on his own, but he had escaped certain death, and he was finding it much easier to navigate now that he has had time to clear his head. For the first time since leaving Darry’s Crossing, Samuel’s confidence was starting to return.\n\nSuddenly, something impacted his shoulder with a wet splat. He yelped, tripping over his own feet and landing in the dirt with a pained gasp. He pulled himself up and checked his shoulder to find that a small blob of the green goop had fallen on him from the trees above. He flicked it off with an annoyed huff.\n\n[i]‘Calm down, Samuel,’[/i] he thought. [i]‘You’re letting a glob of jelly scare you.’[/i]\n\nHe watched it splatter against the ground with a pitiful squelch. It was barely the size of a coin. Samuel almost couldn’t believe that it caught him so off guard, but with how on edge he was, he supposed it wasn’t really a surprise.\n\nHe had just started dusting himself off when he heard a loud thud behind him. He turned and saw a huge ball of slime. This one was massive, bigger than Samuel’s entire body. Even worse, though, it was moving of its own accord. It wobbled and pulsed as it began making its way toward him.\n\nSamuel made to run, but his foot was stuck. Another puddle of slime, which he could have sworn wasn’t there a few seconds ago, was clinging to his boot. Its hold was much firmer than they had been before; it was like the goo was actively grabbing him rather than just sticking to him now.\n\nThe large slime kept approaching him as he struggled. Its gelatinous body rippled and twitched oddly as it moved, making it seem even more bizarre and otherworldly. Samuel grabbed a knife from his belt and threw it. He could only pray that this thing could be harmed by conventional weapons.\n\nDespite the pressure of his current situation, Samuel’s aim was true, and his knife buried itself right in the center of the slime. If the creature felt any pain from the strike, though, it didn’t show it. Its surface just jiggled with the blow. The knife remained stuck inside it for a few seconds before, to Samuel’s horror, it started to dissolve. Soon, there was nothing left inside the slime. It had completely digested the blade. \n\nSamuel focused his all his efforts on freeing his trapped leg again. If he couldn’t hurt it, then his only chance was to get away. If this thing could eat through metal so easily, he shuddered to imagine what it would do to flesh.\n\nIt took his full strength, but he felt the sticky residue begin to give way, until finally, his boot managed to slip free. He couldn’t catch himself, though, when the sudden lack of resistance sent him tumbling. That was his downfall. By the time he recovered, sprawled out in the dirt, the slime was only a foot away.\n\nWith shocking speed considering its otherwise sluggish movement, it reached out and grabbed his leg, sucking his foot in.\n\n“No!” the lizard screamed, but it was too late. It had pulled him in to his knee by this point, reaching out at the same time to grab his other foot and trap it too.\n\n“Let go of me! Please!” If the slime could hear, it didn’t take pity on him. Samuel was now enveloped in its warm, gelatinous mass up to his waist. Out of desperation, he swung a fist at it, but it simply absorbed the blow and caught his hand inside it. With a third point of contact to pull on, it was only a matter of seconds before Samuel’s whole body was engulfed.\n\nThe lizard tried to struggle, but inside the slime, he could barely move. At best, he could feebly wiggle in place in the center of the ball of goo. It pressed against him on all sides, trapping him, suffocating him.\n\n[i]‘This is it,’[/i] he thought, remembering the sight of his dagger dissolving. [i]‘This is how I die… I don’t want to die…”[/i]\n\nBut he knew it was hopeless. Resigned to his brief and horrifying fate, Samuel closed his eyes and braced himself for the pain.\n\nSure enough, he felt a tingling all over, anywhere his hide made direct contact with the slime. Surely this was the beginning as this creature started eating through his scales. After almost half a minute, though, the agony he was expecting hadn’t come. His scales weren’t melting away. What was this?\n\nAgainst his better judgement, Samuel opened his eyes. He couldn’t move his head to look around, but his hunched posture within the slime allowed him to get a pretty good look at his own body. He checked his arms and found that, surprisingly, they were completely unharmed. He would’ve expected them to be skinned by now, so seeing them normal was a welcome surprise. As he glanced down toward the rest of his body, though, his optimism faltered.\n\nThe slime might have been leaving his flesh undamaged, but before his very eyes, Samuel’s armor, clothing, and weapons were all dissolving into nothing. He tried to struggle again, but it was hopeless. He could barely move. All he could do was hang there, suspended inside a monster, as it melted away the last of his defenses.\n\nSoon, it was all gone. Samuel was trapped in the slime with nothing but his scales. He could feel the odd tingling sensation everywhere now that his hide was fully exposed.\n\nThe pressure on him grew as the slime started to squeeze, and Samuel felt what little air he had left getting forced out. He tried to hold his breath as long as he could, but as his lungs screamed and his vision started to grow dark, instinct took over. Desperately, he opened his mouth and tried to take a breath.\n\nThere was good news and bad news. The good news was that, somehow, he was able to breathe just fine. It was as if the slime had filled itself with oxygen to prevent him from suffocating. The bad news was that it seemed to have been waiting for just this moment. As soon as his mouth opened, the slime’s gelatin flesh forced its way inside. His cheeks ballooned out as it filled his maw.\n\nHe felt the slime tugging on his lips in different directions, as if trying to coax them to play along with whatever its twisted game was, but Samuel resisted. He couldn’t force them fully closed, but he was able to at least prevent the slime from doing whatever it wanted with his mouth. It wasn’t much, but it was the best he could do.\n\nThat was only a minor setback for the slime, though, as it quickly found another target. Samuel was so occupied focusing on what was happening around his muzzle that he didn’t pick up on the increasing pressure against his tailhole until it was too late to resist. He let out a muffled squeal as his pucker was spread open around the slime’s gooey probe.\n\nAt the same time, he gagged as the filling in his mouth pushed down into his throat. It was a bizarre feeling, having sentient slime ooze through his insides. He was lucky that the creature seemed to have some sense of restraint. It wormed its way deep into him, but it kept to a manageable volume, filling his esophagus without causing any damage.\n\nNow it was poking and prodding around his head. By this point, Samuel didn’t even bother trying to shake it away as it found its mark and began burrowing into his ear holes. It was already impossible to hear anything outside the slime, so as weird as it was to have it oozing around in there, it didn’t seem to make a difference.\n\nIt kept going deeper and deeper, though. Deeper than should have been possible. Once it finally stopped, Samuel was left with the weird and unnatural feeling of having his head stuffed with slime.\n\nThen, something happened. For the briefest of moments, Samuel saw glowing runes flicker in the gel around him, and then they were gone. There was a pause, and he was left floating there, trying to work out a way to get out of this.\n\nA shudder rippled through the slime, and Samuel could feel it heating up around him. The goo inside his body jellified, growing firmer and expanding. Everywhere it touched him, inside and out, it began to thicken and get stuck in place. The pressure grew more intense as the slime contracted and squeezed all around him. It grew opaque, and the outside world quickly vanished. Unable to see or hear anything, he was left with nothing to distract him from the sensations in his body.\n\nThe slime was binding itself to him, conforming to his body until it formed a sort of second skin. The tingling all over his scales grew stronger as they melded with his new outer layer. Blind and deaf, Samuel was able to feel it all even more intensely. Somehow, he was able to feel through the tight layer of slime surrounding him. He could feel it making him smooth and rubbery on the outside. It felt… nice.\n\nSamuel’s weak struggling halted for a moment. He didn’t know where the thought came from, but he couldn’t deny it. Something about this felt good. It felt right, even. A shiver ran up his whole body as that idea sank in, and to Samuel’s shame, he felt an undeniable twinge of excitement in his groin.\n\nThe heat and pressure around him didn’t spare his genitals, and so while the slime continued to compress itself around him, he could feel blood rushing to his penis. As his humanoid member began to grow and stiffen, more surface area was exposed for the slime to stimulate, rapidly sending him deeper into a state of arousal.\n\nHis balls weren’t spared the embarrassing treatment, either. They were squeezed and tugged by the undulating slime, almost enough to be painful a few times. For the young virgin lizard, it was a level of attention to his most private area that he had never experienced before.\n\nA moan instinctively tried to force its way out of him, but the slime filling his throat kept any sound from escaping. As it bound itself to his esophagus, his vocal cords were gummed up, rendering him completely mute.\n\nHis insides were receiving a similar slime lining from the other end. The warm goo in his rear was coating every inch of his back tunnel, oozing deeper and deeper with every second. It wound through his intestines, meeting with the slime from his mouth inside his stomach. He was truly covered, outside and in. \n\nAs it bound itself to his innards, the slime stimulated him in ways he had never explored before. It squirmed and writhed, pushing and prodding at his insides as it adjusted to its new home. It seemed particularly interested in spreading his tailhole as wide as possible, testing his limits and loosening him to push past them. In the process of opening him up, it pressed against a spot that sent electric tingles straight to his groin. Samuel had no idea what it was, but the pleasure it sent rocketing through his system was beyond anything he had ever felt before.\n\nBy this point, he was fully hard. His ass was stuffed. His erect shaft was held firmly in the slime’s grip, and his balls were being teased in ways he never knew were even possible. With all of that stimulation at once, Samuel was rushing toward a powerful climax.\n\nThe slime had different plans, though. Some of it seeped into his urethra and hardened, forming a tight plug just as the first shot of semen tried to escape. It was sealed in, and as the rest of his ruined orgasm played out, the pressure in his shaft grew rapidly. The mix of pain and pleasure was maddening.\n\n[i]‘Please! Let it out! Let it out!’[/i]\n\nThe slime was unrelenting, just squeezing all over him and playing with his insides even more as he wallowed in the agonizing, unbearable feeling of his failed orgasm.\n\nIn that moment of distress, his captor had the final opportunity it needed. The slimy tendrils in his ear canals stiffened and grew almost painfully hot, and a sudden wave of calmness washed over the lizard. His head buzzed as a hole seemed to open in his brain, letting his thoughts just tumble out. If he tried to hold something in his mind for more than a few seconds, the thought became slippery, and it just slid away as he tried to grasp at it.\n\nThe slime around him began to settle into its final shape. It covered every inch of his body like a skin-tight suit, only about an inch or so of compressed slime separating the scales underneath from the outside world. There was no hint of his identity left in the smooth, featureless face. Even if he were able to tell any of that, the trapped lizard wouldn’t have been able to care. Blind, deaf, and numbed in the mind, he offered no more resistance as the slime finished its work.\n\nHis hands and feet were sealed inside thicker globs of slime, the lack of fingers or toes making them useless for anything but basic movement. His tailhole was also coated in a particularly thick layer, making it look puffy and inviting as his colon became ribbed and stretchy. His mouth and throat got a similar treatment. Finally, his lips were molded into an O shape, the goo staying especially soft and squishy around them.\n\nSamuel had been reshaped into a squishy, defenseless slime doll. Around his joints, his new skin restrained him in ways that made standing impossible. He dropped to his hands and knees and crawled around aimlessly. Reaching down to his groin, he found that his plugged and aching cock had been sealed inside a tight round bulge, making it impossible to stimulate. His tail moved of its own accord, raising itself and sealing its tip at the back of his neck. His rump and puffy anus were now fully on display to whatever might stumble upon him.\n\nSpeaking of which…\n\nWith most of his senses nullified by the slime, Samuel had no idea something was approaching until he felt a cold, wet snout press against his rear and sniff him. There was no way to know what kind of creature it was, but his tailhole didn’t care. As puffs of air blew across it, his swollen ring winked back, inviting whatever it was to give him a try.\n\nIt suddenly occurred to Samuel just how empty he felt. With his insides reshaped by their new lining, it was like something was missing. His sluggish mind couldn’t quite work it out, until a wet tongue pressed against his hole.\n\nIt may have been a struggle to put together a full thought, but he had no trouble processing the pure pleasure radiating from his rear. If he had any voice left, he would have been moaning, begging the creature lapping at his rim to go further. But the newly crafted slime drone didn’t utter a sound, instead simply pushing its backside out and dilating its puffy anus to provide easy access.\n\nThe excitement intensified as that slick, dexterous appendage slipped inside him. Unable to stimulate his sealed genitals, the pleasure turned into an all-encompassing buzz in his brain. It was everywhere.\n\nThe invading tongue continued to probe his depths. It felt like an eternity had passed with it wriggling in his tailhole, and yet, when it finally began to withdraw from him, it still felt too soon. The slime lizard’s hole tried to cling to it as its tip slipped past the rim, but he couldn’t stop its escape. All he could do was wait.\n\nA heavy weight pressed down on his back, and something hot and large started poking his tailhole. The goo in his head reassured him as the beast’s cock slid into his velvety insides, telling him that he had nothing to fear. This was what he wanted. This was what he was made for. He was hungry, it told him, and the thick cock forcing its way into his body would feed him.\n\nSamuel began to clench as it hilted itself inside him. New instincts were taking over, teaching him to work his enhanced innards around the girthy flesh. He couldn’t help it. It just felt so [i]good[/i].\n\nThat feeling of being split open by a fat, beastly cock was his entire world, now. It was the only thing he could feel. The only thing he could care about. It was working up a rhythm, sliding in and out of his eager tailpipe with increasing fervor. Every fat pulse and bulging vein pressed against his inner walls, sending shockwaves of pure ecstasy shooting through his body and mind. It was like the slime had turned his insides into one giant G-spot.\n\nThrough it all, he had no way to express the pleasure. His mouth was now useless for vocalizing, molded into another fuckhole that he could only hope would be used soon. His genitals were permanently sealed, unable to serve any purpose. All he could do was rock his hips in time with the creature’s thrusts and squeeze.\n\nHis tongue dangled from his mouth, unnaturally long and dripping. His saliva had been replaced by a thicker, slick gel, meant to help shafts of every size cram themselves inside his hungry maw. It dribbled down the elongated muscle and collected at the tip until the glob became heavy enough to drop to the ground with a wet splat.\n\nA similar substance was oozing from his rear, thick ropes of the stuff connecting him to the beast’s pistoning hips. It both helped the creature fuck him with even greater force and discouraged it from pulling out of him before it finished, as if it had any intention of doing that.\n\nThe beast hissed and squealed in delight as it rutted its new toy. Samuel’s ass was a perfectly molded fleshlight, designed to take everything it had to give. Heavy balls, churning with a full load, slapped against the lizard’s squishy rump with every thrust, filling the air with the sounds of rough, feral sex. The inviting scent of arousal flooded the surrounding forest, and there was no doubt that once this creature was finished, another would be along shortly to relieve itself.\n\nWith a roar, the beast rammed its full length into the slime lizard’s ass, a wave of fresh cum blasting into him. The shattered remains of his mind were swept up in the tide. Nothing could match the sheer bliss that the slime fed to him as he milked that cock for every drop of semen that hefty sack had to offer. The slime absorbed it all, converting the monstrous seed into nutrition for itself and its new host. The leftovers were stored within the cum deposit that used to be Samuel’s stomach.\n\nThe beast snorted and pulled its slick length out of him with a wet squish. Its urges satisfied, it leapt into the trees and abandoned the green toy. His senses of taste and smell were all he had left to experience the outside world, so the only thing that caught Samuel’s attention was the odor of stray droplets of cum that had been flung from the creature’s softening member as it left. He hunted down each one, sniffing them out and lapping them up off the dirt and vegetation with his altered tongue. Once he had collected it all, the rookie’s mind emptied as he waited there on all fours, his permanently open mouth and tailhole ready for whatever would be next to make use of him.\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "
Into the Umberwood
By Phantasmagore

Part 2: A Rookie Mistake


Kimo wasn’t sure what to do. The party’s morale had taken a heavy hit after losing Hork. He was able to get the others to keep pressing on, but the confidence that they once had, the unspoken assurance that they were all going to triumph and get out of this together, was gone. Even worse, on top of losing a party member, they were now missing most of the supplies that they brought into the forest. If things didn’t turn around for them fast, the group’s spirits were sure to keep plummeting. He worried that that could be just as dangerous as anything in this forest.

And Baron certainly wasn’t helping.

“This is what you get for making someone else carry your burden,” the lion said as they walked. “I hope you all learn a valuable lesson from this.”

“Enough, Baron,” Kimo said. “You’ve made your point.”

Baron snorted. “You can’t possibly be defending them. Their carelessness cost us most of our rations. If I were in charge, I’d—"

Kimo interrupted, “Well, you aren’t. Besides, I could say the same about your carelessness, as well. You were supposed to stay with Hork, but you lost track of him.”

“I- I—,” Baron spluttered indignantly, “He was the one who fell behind. If I moved at his pace, we would have gotten nowhere.”

“And because you didn’t, now we’ve gotten somewhere, but we lost Hork in the process.”

Baron shut his mouth, apparently realizing that he wasn’t going to win this argument. With a snort, he shoved past Kimo, hacking away at some of the thick brush ahead. To be honest, they probably could have gotten through it just fine, but Kimo figured he was just trying to vent his frustration, so he left the lion to his task.

When Kimo turned back to the rest of the group, he almost let out a startled yelp at the sight of Mori standing right next to him. The crow’s approach was completely silent, even to Kimo’s sensitive ears.

“Regardless of the reason, we do need to decide what to do about our supplies predicament,” Mori said. “Even with careful rationing, what we have left won’t last long. Maybe a few days at best.”

“Do you have any suggestions?” Kimo asked.

The crow looked up to the trees. “I’ve been keeping an eye out for anything I recognize as edible, but I haven’t had any luck yet. Everything is just… different in here. Different enough that anything we try eating from the forest itself is a gamble. Even if it looks like something I know is safe, it’s possible that it has been affected by whatever corruption created this place.”

That was troubling. Like Mori said, their remaining supplies would only last them so long. If they couldn’t figure out how to supplement what they had left with the forest’s resources, then they were in an even trickier situation than Kimo feared.

“Well, keep looking, and let me know if you spot anything promising,” he said. Mori gave him a nod and turned his eyes up toward the canopy above them, hunting for any signs of food or danger.

The group pressed on. None of them said it out loud, but they each couldn’t help but feel that they were able to navigate much faster without Hork’s bulky frame getting blocked by roots at every turn.

They weren’t content with the loss by any means. The Seston brothers were even more irritable than before, Baron was refusing to look Kimo in the eye, and Mori, despite remaining more composed than the rest, moved with a certain stiffness that told Kimo he was remaining on high alert through the day.

The one who was most affected, though, was Samuel. His tail dragged along the ground behind him, and his shoulders slouched. His gaze was locked on something invisible in the distance, almost ignoring the woods around him. Kimo knew that he and Hork were starting to get close, so it was no surprise that the lizard was taking it hard, but it looked like he was already giving up. Maybe it was because of his inexperience. He hadn’t lost people before.

‘He’ll learn,’ Kimo thought. The wolf had hoped that they would all make it out of this forest, but he knew from the start that there were no guarantees. Loss was a part of this life; there was no getting around that. Kimo had lost companions before. Too many to count.

In fact, too many to remember. The memories seemed to blur as he reached out for them. He could see faces, but their names faded away. It felt almost wrong. He could remember having companions in the past. He could remember losing them. But he couldn’t remember who they were or what happened to them. He wasn’t that callous, was he?

“Um, Kimo?” Samuel’s voice cut through his thoughts. “Are you okay?”

Kimo hadn’t even realized he had stopped walking. “I’m fine,” he said.

“Is it… what happened to Hork?” Samuel asked, his eyes glued to the ground.

Kimo sighed. “No, it wasn’t. Do you want to talk about it?” He silently prayed that the blue lizard would say no. He was never all that good at consoling people.

“I just…,” Samuel started, “…I don’t know what to do. We lost him, Kimo. He was one of us, and now we’re just supposed to move on? We don’t even know what happened. He could be dead, but if he isn’t, then we just left him behind. What if—"

“There’s no point worrying about ‘what ifs,’” Kimo said. “If he didn’t make it, then we couldn’t afford to lose more time than we already spent looking. If he’s still out there, then the best we can do for him is destroy whatever is at the heart of the Umberwood and hope that that will help him find his way home. He can take care of himself and, to be honest, he’s better stocked than the rest of us are, now. If he’s alive, he’s got the best chances out of anyone.”

He wished he believed what he was saying. He was sure that this forest was far too dangerous for a lone wanderer to survive, even one as strong as Hork. The boar was as good as gone, either way. He needed Samuel to hold onto some sort of hope, though. If it took a false promise to make that happen, then Kimo was going to say whatever it took.

Fortunately, it looked like the idea had rekindled some of Samuel’s determination. A bit of the light had returned to his eye, and there was some energy in his step as he followed the trail that Baron was carving up ahead.

As the group kept moving forward, the day crawled on at a snail’s pace. The forest around them never seemed to change, and by the middle of the afternoon, some of the group complained that they had to be going in circles. Kimo’s gut told him they were still making progress, but just in case, he had Mori mark the trees as they walked. Sure enough, it looked like they were still moving forward, even if the forest tried to convince them otherwise.

That was turning out to be the least of their worries, though. As the light above turned into evening’s orange glow, an unsettling feeling was beginning to worm its way into each of them. Kimo couldn’t find any clear sign of why, but it felt like they were being watched. It was like some dark presence was looming over them, just out of sight. From the nervous glances that everyone else gave the growing shadows around them, he guessed that they could feel it, too.

The discomfort hung over them even as they set up camp and tried to settle for the night. They all fidgeted and squirmed under the mysterious pressure. The silence was palpable, weighing down on them like a ton of bricks. It felt like no one dared to break it, until Ferris stood up.

“Gotta take a piss,” he muttered.

Castor reached out and grabbed him by the leg as he turned to walk away. “Wait, bro,” he said. Ferris gave him a questioning look. “I’m coming, too.”

“Why—”

“Because I’m not letting you go alone.”

It was an unusually genuine show of concern from the hyena. There was sense in it, though. Without even knowing what happened to Hork, it was too risky for them to go off on their own.

Kimo laid back, trying to get some rest despite the constant gloom bearing down on them. Things were off to a troubling start, to say the least. Samuel’s injury wasn’t severe, but the blue lizard wasn’t at his full strength, which frankly wasn’t that much to begin with. Their supplies were limited and dwindling with every meal. They had to pull it together if they were going to make it through this.

There was still hope, though. Even down a member, they were a capable group. Kimo picked them all because something deep in his gut saw their potential. That instinct had never led him astray before, and he had no reason to think it would now.

A gentle nudge pulled him out of his thoughts. Samuel was standing by his side.

“Um, Kimo?” the lizard whispered. “I need to take a leak, too. Do you mind coming with me? I’d have gone with Ferris and Castor, but I just… I didn’t really want to be alone with them.”

Kimo sighed. “Sure. Best not to split up too much.”

They carefully made their way into the trees, just out of the campfire’s light. Samuel turned his back to Kimo, letting out a relieved sigh as he started urinating on a nearby tree. The sound made Kimo suddenly aware of the pressure in his own bladder, but as he reached for his belt, he hesitated.

He couldn’t say why, but something about the thought of uncovering himself in front of Samuel just felt wrong. Letting go of his buckle, Kimo just stood there silently until Samuel was finished.

“Go ahead and return to the group,” he said.

Samuel gave him a confused look. “But I thought you said we should stick together.”

“I know. I’ll be fine. Everyone else is right there,” Kimo answered. “Just go.”

Samuel complied, and soon the wolf was alone. Now, he finally felt comfortable enough to pull down his trousers and release his bladder. It might not have made much sense, but that same silent voice that had guided him through his life insisted that letting his companions see him exposed like this was unacceptable.

‘It would look vulnerable,’ he told himself. He needed to maintain the image of unyielding strength for the group’s sake, and allowing others to witness him in such a private moment could jeopardize that.

Satisfied by the explanation for his misgivings, as well as his newly emptied bladder, he pulled his pants back up and fastened his belt. With one more wary glance at the dark forest surrounding him, he returned to the fire. By the time he got back, the Sestons had also returned, and most of the others had fallen asleep. Kimo laid down and shut his eyes, setting his worries aside as he drifted off to sleep.

……..


They all had that same unsettling feeling of being watched the next day, but the group pressed on regardless. Much like the day before, they faced little resistance as they traveled, and yet, it still felt like they were getting nowhere fast.  As midday came and went, Kimo was beginning to relax, the paranoia subsiding thanks to the relatively easy travel.

Of course, that was the moment that things turned. Without warning, a blaring noise pierced the air. It was a horrific sound, like a cross between a bloodcurdling scream and the grinding of metal on metal. The adventurers clutched their heads, desperate to block out the screeching.

“What in the name of the gods is that?!” Baron shouted.

No one had a chance to respond. It was as if the entire forest was coming alive. The twisted branches around them began to wriggle and writhe like thick worms. Nearby bushes seemed to twist and reach out toward the group. The rustling of the canopy overhead became almost deafening as the trees rocked into each other.

The noise kept getting louder, the motion of the forest growing more frantic. It was building to something.

“RUN!” Kimo yelled over the cacophony. He took a quick glance backward to make sure that his companions were following him, then he chose a direction and took off at full speed.

The sight of the entire forest squirming around them was even more unnerving when running through it. It was like the whole world was unraveling before their eyes. And through it all, that unnatural roar from above continued without pause.

Pure, piercing fear struck each of the adventurers. This was beyond what any of them thought they were in for when they agreed to this mission. Most of them were experienced, though, and they knew how to dig deep and use that fear in times of peril. They allowed the fear to fuel them as they kept up the rapid pace, keeping close together as they charged through the cursed forest.

There was one, however, who didn’t have that same experience. While his teammates were able to keep up despite their panic, Samuel was slowly but surely lagging behind. With all the noise around them, no one was able to hear as his desperate panting grew quieter and quieter. After losing sight of Castor, he only had the noises of loud grunts and snapping twigs to keep track of where he was supposed to be going. It wasn’t long before that faded away, too.

He tried to keep going, but his muscles were begging for mercy. With a dismayed cry, Samuel dropped to the ground, gasping for breath. He hated himself for stopping. He hated himself for falling behind in the first place. But none of that could overcome the limits of his slim frame. No matter how much he willed it, he just couldn’t keep up.

The forest continued to roar around him, but as he fought the urge to cough up his own lungs, the noise gradually started to die down. Maybe it was only a temporary thing designed to scare trespassers, or maybe the chaos followed the larger group as they got further and further away. Either way, by the time Samuel was able to get back to his feet, the woods around him had grown quiet.

‘Wait… which way did they go again?’

His limbs began to tremble as the realization set in. He was alone in the Umberwood. He only had the vaguest idea of which way the rest of his party ran. The best he could hope for was that he would go in that direction and maybe hear them. With how fast they were going, though, that was a big maybe, and Samuel’s heart sank as he thought about how pitiful his odds were in this situation.

He slapped himself. ‘No! I can’t give up. I’ll make it out of this. I just have to push forward and catch up with the group.’

‘Even though they’re faster than me.’

‘But they’ll have to stop at some point, and I can catch up then.’

‘Assuming they never change course or veer from the direction I think they went.’

‘They’ll be there. I have to believe it.’

Samuel shook his head to quiet his conflicting thoughts. This was getting him nowhere, and the group was probably just getting farther away while he stood there arguing with himself. He needed to get moving. He steeled his resolve and set off in the direction he thought, or hoped, that the group went.

That resolve lasted for a solid five seconds, until Samuel saw what was blocking his path. Just beyond a few bushes, there was a large black quadruped, crouched and ready to pounce. The light shined dully on its dark hide. Drool dripped from its hungry maw. And as Samuel averted his gaze from its angry, milky eyes, he saw a half-healed arrow wound in its shoulder. The cuts in Samuel’s arm throbbed as he recognized the same creature that attacked them before. This time, though, there was no one else there to save him.

He did the only thing he could. He ran.

A guttural roar rang out from behind him, followed by the sound of vegetation getting crushed beneath the monster’s weight as it gave chase.

Fortunately, it was hindered by its still-healing wounds. It wasn’t moving quite as fast as it was the first time it attacked him. It was still gaining ground on the frightened lizard, though, and it was only a matter of time before it got its claws on him.

With the beasts’ growls growing louder by the second, Samuel searched frantically for something to save him. As if some benevolent god were watching over him, he spotted a nearby tree with an opening in its roots, just big enough for him to squeeze through. He dug deep and put everything he had left into a final dash, sliding into the hole just before the creature could catch up to him. It was too close to stop itself, so its snout slammed into the tree with a loud crack. It let out a pained roar and tried to reach in with its claws, but the opening was too small. As long as Samuel stayed back in this hollow, the monster couldn’t touch him.

After a few minutes, it gave up and backed away. Samuel let out a sigh of relief, but as he started to crawl back toward the entrance, he picked up on its low, rumbling growl and the sounds of footsteps. A quick peek confirmed that the beast was now pacing nearby, apparently waiting for him to poke his head out of the gap in the tree’s roots.

‘Shit.’

He was trapped. The second he went out there, he was as good as dead. Samuel huddled deeper in the hollow, hoping that the creature would just forget about him or give up and leave. He leaned back into the dirt behind him and prepared himself for what might be a long wait.

The moment he put his weight on the dirt, it gave way, sending him tumbling down into the dark with a startled yelp. What he thought was a shallow space beneath the tree turned out to be the beginning of a long, steep tunnel. Steep enough that Samuel was helpless to stop himself as he rolled downwards.

The winded lizard finally came to a rough stop at the bottom of the tunnel. He slowly pulled himself up and waited for the world to stop spinning around him. Once he was able to tell up from down again, he glanced around. The tunnel had flattened out, leading to a small, brightly lit opening several yards ahead.

‘An exit!’

Samuel allowed himself a bit of hope as he crawled forward and poked his head out. He was now peeking from between the roots of a completely different tree in a new clearing. There was no sign of the monster or any other creatures nearby.

He crawled forward, squeezing through the roots and getting to his feet. The adrenaline and relief at escaping from the monster were wearing off, now, and the dread was setting in. Not only was he alone, but after fleeing in a panic and tumbling through an underground tunnel, whatever little sense of direction he had before was long gone now.

‘Oh no.’

He looked around, praying that there would be some sign. The twisted roots of the Umberwood offered him no hints, though. The sunlight from above was diffused by the canopy, making it impossible to tell what direction he was facing.  Even if he could, he wasn’t sure which way the group had been going, especially in the mad panic caused by the forest coming alive around them. If he had a slim chance of rejoining the group before, there was no chance now. He was on his own.

‘No no no…’

His hope dwindled, his legs beginning to tremble as he realized just how bad this was.

‘I’ve gotta get it together. What would Kimo do? He wouldn’t give up. He’d find a way.’

Samuel knew that he couldn’t risk standing still. If he couldn’t find the group, then he would need to survive long enough for them to complete their mission and retrieve him, just like Kimo said about Hork. One way or another, he needed to pick a direction and start moving. He took the first few hesitant steps, and then almost fell over as his foot suddenly failed to lift.

He looked down to find a small puddle of sticky green goo clinging to the underside of his boot. It didn’t seem to want to let go, and it took a real effort to pull his foot free. The stuff remained stuck to the boot, so he found a patch of grass to scrape it off. He was surprised by how hard it was to remove it; whatever this substance was, it was very clingy. Regardless, after a few minutes, he was able to get his boot mostly clean, and he continued, now being careful to watch out for more gooey puddles in his path.

As he walked, Samuel avoided stepping into several more clumps of the slime. Keeping an eye out for them helped to keep himself distracted from his dire situation. After walking for a while, he was even beginning to feel a little optimistic. Sure, he was on his own, but he had escaped certain death, and he was finding it much easier to navigate now that he has had time to clear his head. For the first time since leaving Darry’s Crossing, Samuel’s confidence was starting to return.

Suddenly, something impacted his shoulder with a wet splat. He yelped, tripping over his own feet and landing in the dirt with a pained gasp. He pulled himself up and checked his shoulder to find that a small blob of the green goop had fallen on him from the trees above. He flicked it off with an annoyed huff.

‘Calm down, Samuel,’ he thought. ‘You’re letting a glob of jelly scare you.’

He watched it splatter against the ground with a pitiful squelch. It was barely the size of a coin. Samuel almost couldn’t believe that it caught him so off guard, but with how on edge he was, he supposed it wasn’t really a surprise.

He had just started dusting himself off when he heard a loud thud behind him. He turned and saw a huge ball of slime. This one was massive, bigger than Samuel’s entire body. Even worse, though, it was moving of its own accord. It wobbled and pulsed as it began making its way toward him.

Samuel made to run, but his foot was stuck. Another puddle of slime, which he could have sworn wasn’t there a few seconds ago, was clinging to his boot. Its hold was much firmer than they had been before; it was like the goo was actively grabbing him rather than just sticking to him now.

The large slime kept approaching him as he struggled. Its gelatinous body rippled and twitched oddly as it moved, making it seem even more bizarre and otherworldly. Samuel grabbed a knife from his belt and threw it. He could only pray that this thing could be harmed by conventional weapons.

Despite the pressure of his current situation, Samuel’s aim was true, and his knife buried itself right in the center of the slime. If the creature felt any pain from the strike, though, it didn’t show it. Its surface just jiggled with the blow. The knife remained stuck inside it for a few seconds before, to Samuel’s horror, it started to dissolve. Soon, there was nothing left inside the slime. It had completely digested the blade.

Samuel focused his all his efforts on freeing his trapped leg again. If he couldn’t hurt it, then his only chance was to get away. If this thing could eat through metal so easily, he shuddered to imagine what it would do to flesh.

It took his full strength, but he felt the sticky residue begin to give way, until finally, his boot managed to slip free. He couldn’t catch himself, though, when the sudden lack of resistance sent him tumbling. That was his downfall. By the time he recovered, sprawled out in the dirt, the slime was only a foot away.

With shocking speed considering its otherwise sluggish movement, it reached out and grabbed his leg, sucking his foot in.

“No!” the lizard screamed, but it was too late. It had pulled him in to his knee by this point, reaching out at the same time to grab his other foot and trap it too.

“Let go of me! Please!” If the slime could hear, it didn’t take pity on him. Samuel was now enveloped in its warm, gelatinous mass up to his waist. Out of desperation, he swung a fist at it, but it simply absorbed the blow and caught his hand inside it. With a third point of contact to pull on, it was only a matter of seconds before Samuel’s whole body was engulfed.

The lizard tried to struggle, but inside the slime, he could barely move. At best, he could feebly wiggle in place in the center of the ball of goo. It pressed against him on all sides, trapping him, suffocating him.

‘This is it,’ he thought, remembering the sight of his dagger dissolving. ‘This is how I die… I don’t want to die…”

But he knew it was hopeless. Resigned to his brief and horrifying fate, Samuel closed his eyes and braced himself for the pain.

Sure enough, he felt a tingling all over, anywhere his hide made direct contact with the slime. Surely this was the beginning as this creature started eating through his scales. After almost half a minute, though, the agony he was expecting hadn’t come. His scales weren’t melting away. What was this?

Against his better judgement, Samuel opened his eyes. He couldn’t move his head to look around, but his hunched posture within the slime allowed him to get a pretty good look at his own body. He checked his arms and found that, surprisingly, they were completely unharmed. He would’ve expected them to be skinned by now, so seeing them normal was a welcome surprise. As he glanced down toward the rest of his body, though, his optimism faltered.

The slime might have been leaving his flesh undamaged, but before his very eyes, Samuel’s armor, clothing, and weapons were all dissolving into nothing. He tried to struggle again, but it was hopeless. He could barely move. All he could do was hang there, suspended inside a monster, as it melted away the last of his defenses.

Soon, it was all gone. Samuel was trapped in the slime with nothing but his scales. He could feel the odd tingling sensation everywhere now that his hide was fully exposed.

The pressure on him grew as the slime started to squeeze, and Samuel felt what little air he had left getting forced out. He tried to hold his breath as long as he could, but as his lungs screamed and his vision started to grow dark, instinct took over. Desperately, he opened his mouth and tried to take a breath.

There was good news and bad news. The good news was that, somehow, he was able to breathe just fine. It was as if the slime had filled itself with oxygen to prevent him from suffocating. The bad news was that it seemed to have been waiting for just this moment. As soon as his mouth opened, the slime’s gelatin flesh forced its way inside. His cheeks ballooned out as it filled his maw.

He felt the slime tugging on his lips in different directions, as if trying to coax them to play along with whatever its twisted game was, but Samuel resisted. He couldn’t force them fully closed, but he was able to at least prevent the slime from doing whatever it wanted with his mouth. It wasn’t much, but it was the best he could do.

That was only a minor setback for the slime, though, as it quickly found another target. Samuel was so occupied focusing on what was happening around his muzzle that he didn’t pick up on the increasing pressure against his tailhole until it was too late to resist. He let out a muffled squeal as his pucker was spread open around the slime’s gooey probe.

At the same time, he gagged as the filling in his mouth pushed down into his throat. It was a bizarre feeling, having sentient slime ooze through his insides. He was lucky that the creature seemed to have some sense of restraint. It wormed its way deep into him, but it kept to a manageable volume, filling his esophagus without causing any damage.

Now it was poking and prodding around his head. By this point, Samuel didn’t even bother trying to shake it away as it found its mark and began burrowing into his ear holes. It was already impossible to hear anything outside the slime, so as weird as it was to have it oozing around in there, it didn’t seem to make a difference.

It kept going deeper and deeper, though. Deeper than should have been possible. Once it finally stopped, Samuel was left with the weird and unnatural feeling of having his head stuffed with slime.

Then, something happened. For the briefest of moments, Samuel saw glowing runes flicker in the gel around him, and then they were gone. There was a pause, and he was left floating there, trying to work out a way to get out of this.

A shudder rippled through the slime, and Samuel could feel it heating up around him. The goo inside his body jellified, growing firmer and expanding. Everywhere it touched him, inside and out, it began to thicken and get stuck in place. The pressure grew more intense as the slime contracted and squeezed all around him. It grew opaque, and the outside world quickly vanished. Unable to see or hear anything, he was left with nothing to distract him from the sensations in his body.

The slime was binding itself to him, conforming to his body until it formed a sort of second skin. The tingling all over his scales grew stronger as they melded with his new outer layer. Blind and deaf, Samuel was able to feel it all even more intensely. Somehow, he was able to feel through the tight layer of slime surrounding him. He could feel it making him smooth and rubbery on the outside. It felt… nice.

Samuel’s weak struggling halted for a moment. He didn’t know where the thought came from, but he couldn’t deny it. Something about this felt good. It felt right, even. A shiver ran up his whole body as that idea sank in, and to Samuel’s shame, he felt an undeniable twinge of excitement in his groin.

The heat and pressure around him didn’t spare his genitals, and so while the slime continued to compress itself around him, he could feel blood rushing to his penis. As his humanoid member began to grow and stiffen, more surface area was exposed for the slime to stimulate, rapidly sending him deeper into a state of arousal.

His balls weren’t spared the embarrassing treatment, either. They were squeezed and tugged by the undulating slime, almost enough to be painful a few times. For the young virgin lizard, it was a level of attention to his most private area that he had never experienced before.

A moan instinctively tried to force its way out of him, but the slime filling his throat kept any sound from escaping. As it bound itself to his esophagus, his vocal cords were gummed up, rendering him completely mute.

His insides were receiving a similar slime lining from the other end. The warm goo in his rear was coating every inch of his back tunnel, oozing deeper and deeper with every second. It wound through his intestines, meeting with the slime from his mouth inside his stomach. He was truly covered, outside and in.

As it bound itself to his innards, the slime stimulated him in ways he had never explored before. It squirmed and writhed, pushing and prodding at his insides as it adjusted to its new home. It seemed particularly interested in spreading his tailhole as wide as possible, testing his limits and loosening him to push past them. In the process of opening him up, it pressed against a spot that sent electric tingles straight to his groin. Samuel had no idea what it was, but the pleasure it sent rocketing through his system was beyond anything he had ever felt before.

By this point, he was fully hard. His ass was stuffed. His erect shaft was held firmly in the slime’s grip, and his balls were being teased in ways he never knew were even possible. With all of that stimulation at once, Samuel was rushing toward a powerful climax.

The slime had different plans, though. Some of it seeped into his urethra and hardened, forming a tight plug just as the first shot of semen tried to escape. It was sealed in, and as the rest of his ruined orgasm played out, the pressure in his shaft grew rapidly. The mix of pain and pleasure was maddening.

‘Please! Let it out! Let it out!’

The slime was unrelenting, just squeezing all over him and playing with his insides even more as he wallowed in the agonizing, unbearable feeling of his failed orgasm.

In that moment of distress, his captor had the final opportunity it needed. The slimy tendrils in his ear canals stiffened and grew almost painfully hot, and a sudden wave of calmness washed over the lizard. His head buzzed as a hole seemed to open in his brain, letting his thoughts just tumble out. If he tried to hold something in his mind for more than a few seconds, the thought became slippery, and it just slid away as he tried to grasp at it.

The slime around him began to settle into its final shape. It covered every inch of his body like a skin-tight suit, only about an inch or so of compressed slime separating the scales underneath from the outside world. There was no hint of his identity left in the smooth, featureless face. Even if he were able to tell any of that, the trapped lizard wouldn’t have been able to care. Blind, deaf, and numbed in the mind, he offered no more resistance as the slime finished its work.

His hands and feet were sealed inside thicker globs of slime, the lack of fingers or toes making them useless for anything but basic movement. His tailhole was also coated in a particularly thick layer, making it look puffy and inviting as his colon became ribbed and stretchy. His mouth and throat got a similar treatment. Finally, his lips were molded into an O shape, the goo staying especially soft and squishy around them.

Samuel had been reshaped into a squishy, defenseless slime doll. Around his joints, his new skin restrained him in ways that made standing impossible. He dropped to his hands and knees and crawled around aimlessly. Reaching down to his groin, he found that his plugged and aching cock had been sealed inside a tight round bulge, making it impossible to stimulate. His tail moved of its own accord, raising itself and sealing its tip at the back of his neck. His rump and puffy anus were now fully on display to whatever might stumble upon him.

Speaking of which…

With most of his senses nullified by the slime, Samuel had no idea something was approaching until he felt a cold, wet snout press against his rear and sniff him. There was no way to know what kind of creature it was, but his tailhole didn’t care. As puffs of air blew across it, his swollen ring winked back, inviting whatever it was to give him a try.

It suddenly occurred to Samuel just how empty he felt. With his insides reshaped by their new lining, it was like something was missing. His sluggish mind couldn’t quite work it out, until a wet tongue pressed against his hole.

It may have been a struggle to put together a full thought, but he had no trouble processing the pure pleasure radiating from his rear. If he had any voice left, he would have been moaning, begging the creature lapping at his rim to go further. But the newly crafted slime drone didn’t utter a sound, instead simply pushing its backside out and dilating its puffy anus to provide easy access.

The excitement intensified as that slick, dexterous appendage slipped inside him. Unable to stimulate his sealed genitals, the pleasure turned into an all-encompassing buzz in his brain. It was everywhere.

The invading tongue continued to probe his depths. It felt like an eternity had passed with it wriggling in his tailhole, and yet, when it finally began to withdraw from him, it still felt too soon. The slime lizard’s hole tried to cling to it as its tip slipped past the rim, but he couldn’t stop its escape. All he could do was wait.

A heavy weight pressed down on his back, and something hot and large started poking his tailhole. The goo in his head reassured him as the beast’s cock slid into his velvety insides, telling him that he had nothing to fear. This was what he wanted. This was what he was made for. He was hungry, it told him, and the thick cock forcing its way into his body would feed him.

Samuel began to clench as it hilted itself inside him. New instincts were taking over, teaching him to work his enhanced innards around the girthy flesh. He couldn’t help it. It just felt so good.

That feeling of being split open by a fat, beastly cock was his entire world, now. It was the only thing he could feel. The only thing he could care about. It was working up a rhythm, sliding in and out of his eager tailpipe with increasing fervor. Every fat pulse and bulging vein pressed against his inner walls, sending shockwaves of pure ecstasy shooting through his body and mind. It was like the slime had turned his insides into one giant G-spot.

Through it all, he had no way to express the pleasure. His mouth was now useless for vocalizing, molded into another fuckhole that he could only hope would be used soon. His genitals were permanently sealed, unable to serve any purpose. All he could do was rock his hips in time with the creature’s thrusts and squeeze.

His tongue dangled from his mouth, unnaturally long and dripping. His saliva had been replaced by a thicker, slick gel, meant to help shafts of every size cram themselves inside his hungry maw. It dribbled down the elongated muscle and collected at the tip until the glob became heavy enough to drop to the ground with a wet splat.

A similar substance was oozing from his rear, thick ropes of the stuff connecting him to the beast’s pistoning hips. It both helped the creature fuck him with even greater force and discouraged it from pulling out of him before it finished, as if it had any intention of doing that.

The beast hissed and squealed in delight as it rutted its new toy. Samuel’s ass was a perfectly molded fleshlight, designed to take everything it had to give. Heavy balls, churning with a full load, slapped against the lizard’s squishy rump with every thrust, filling the air with the sounds of rough, feral sex. The inviting scent of arousal flooded the surrounding forest, and there was no doubt that once this creature was finished, another would be along shortly to relieve itself.

With a roar, the beast rammed its full length into the slime lizard’s ass, a wave of fresh cum blasting into him. The shattered remains of his mind were swept up in the tide. Nothing could match the sheer bliss that the slime fed to him as he milked that cock for every drop of semen that hefty sack had to offer. The slime absorbed it all, converting the monstrous seed into nutrition for itself and its new host. The leftovers were stored within the cum deposit that used to be Samuel’s stomach.

The beast snorted and pulled its slick length out of him with a wet squish. Its urges satisfied, it leapt into the trees and abandoned the green toy. His senses of taste and smell were all he had left to experience the outside world, so the only thing that caught Samuel’s attention was the odor of stray droplets of cum that had been flung from the creature’s softening member as it left. He hunted down each one, sniffing them out and lapping them up off the dirt and vegetation with his altered tongue. Once he had collected it all, the rookie’s mind emptied as he waited there on all fours, his permanently open mouth and tailhole ready for whatever would be next to make use of him.
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