Fighting a Blob

I gripped my foraging knife tightly and ran away from the cage just before a stream of stinking tar consumed where I once was. The lady cried out as the cage’s chain was broken and the handing prison was pulled close to the monster. It hung by the beast’s slimy arm like a lantern.

I shouted a string of curses as I ran from my new spot. Balls of tar exploded at my heels every second. Fortunately, the array of chains caused me to weave unpredictably. Still, I knew every second was another one closer to dying if I didn’t do something. I grabbed a chain and pulled it with all my might while bashing it with my knife’s nonexistent pommel. The links were weak enough and shattered just as a splash of tar hit me.

Screaming from a burning sensation across my back, the tar formed into a hand that clenched me in a firey grip. A cage fell from the sky just behind me before I was pulled back, and a steady hand caught my shoulder.

A strong, masculine voice came from behind, “Well done!”

The figure was a well-built man with a chiseled face covered in radiant gold-plated armor. He drew a long sword and spun it in the air. “I am the Knight of Evermore; what shall I call you?”

“Look out!”

The knight in literal shiny armor took a blast of tar to the face. I felt him shove me to the side and only managed to look back to see him being dragged to the roaring beast. The knight dug his feet into the ground so deep he stayed in place, but the beast kept pulling that it seemed like my aid might get torn in two.

“Lad, my blade!” He had dropped the blade somewhere halfway between myself and him. “While it is distracted, take it and charge!”

I managed to point the weapon at the beast but froze afterward. My skin still felt deformed from the last time it got a hold of me, and shaky knees made walking forward difficult. The shining knight grunted as he broke free from the ground. Before he could be pulled into the tar, he caught a chain and held on for dear life. “Lad… the bl… ade,” he cried in a shaky voice, “strike at the beast’s core!”

“What core! It’s a blob!” I managed to blurt out.

Some tar tendrils grew out of the beast, forming the ends into points. They began to rapidly smash and slash at the knight in an effort to break him from the chain. I knew what would come if that happened. Once he was gone, I was next. I aimed the point at the creature’s ugly mouth. Trying my best to ignore how wet my eyes had gotten, I told myself it would be okay to die. I screamed and charged forward.

Perhaps I had not been considered much of a threat, but now that I had acted, attention turned to me. Tendrils shot from the front of the creature and covered my sides and limbs with wounds, but they were only skin deep. I kept running, feeling burning wherever the tar touched me. Probably weeping as my vision blurred and pierced inside the creature’s mouth.

It roared. I might have smirked, but it was short-lived as the tendrils wrapped around me, and I was pulled inside. I gasped for a breath as quickly as I could before everything went into a burning darkness.

Words seemed to come from nowhere. You’re going on a trip? Now, of all times?

Moving my arms was slowed like I was trying to swim in a pool of molasses, and had I not had my eyes open going in, I would have squeezed them shut. As it stood, I was about to die any moment.

The next second, I was in air, gasping for breath. I looked around and saw that the knight’s sword glowed. Once I calmed down enough to think, I pieced it together. The sword had created a spherical barrier to prevent me from drowning. So I could suffocate instead, I guess.

I looked around the bleak darkness until a small glow caught my eyes. It grew larger and brighter, though I couldn’t tell if it moved or I did until a small jack-o-lantern with a creepy face bounced up to the barrier.

The eyes and face twisted on it like it was surprised, and I wasn’t about to wait another second to see what it might do. I drove the sword into the pumpkin. After that, I think I learned what it was like to be inside a balloon when it popped. I landed hard on the ground while the world rang and spun around me.

When things finally seemed back to normal, or what counts as normal in this strange world, I found I had my eyes closed. A bright sky awaited above me. It might have been just due to me hitting my head, but I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d been shot across the sky?

The knight’s voice suggested otherwise, “Wonderful, young hero!”

Turning his way, I was taken in awe at the new sight. Gone were the tar pits and spiderweb land paths; in their place was a shining blue lake surrounding this little island on all sides. The mermaid lady jumped from the water, doing several flips, and plunged below. I tried to make sense of the sudden change. I suppose the water could have risen, but to suddenly turn so clean? And where did all the cages go, and the people within them?

The mermaid burst from the water by the island’s edge and leaned her human torso on the ground.

“Well done, hero! You have saved me from my imprisonment.”

“Yeah….”

She smiled in a sweet way, maybe a familiar way, but I’m sure I was just delirious after getting swallowed by a tar monster. Come to think of it, the burning sensation remained, and thinking about it made it intensify. I fell to my knees at the sudden increase in pain. Finally, a little back in focus, I could see my arms deformed and morphed like I had melted.

The knight put a gentle hand on my shoulder, which didn’t help with the pain.

The mermaid nodded.

“Come, hero, take as much time as you need to rest in my lake.”

I didn’t really see how that could help, but cold water seemed like a good enough idea with all the pain coursing through me. The knight draped one of my ugly arms over his shoulders and helped me walk the steps required, and then I sunk to my neck in the clear waters. At once, I could see the excess disgust break free of my body like a powder. I dove under to ensure my head was covered and emerged feeling right as rain.

I sat so that only my head was exposed, and I felt the gentle sway of the water bob me around. The lady appeared at my side and snuggled close to my arm. “I would love to spend more time with my hero.”

Her voice sounded soft and flowery. I smiled and wrapped my own arm around her. Simply here in peaceful water, hearing the gentle blowing of the leaves, and without a care in the world was wonderful. I wasn’t sure I had ever experienced such bliss back home.

A sensation of a shove to my stomach—breaking me away from the mermaid—broke my peace. I looked around the water, but no one was there besides me and the lady. In feeling around, I found the useless sword still fastened to my side. I sighed, maybe groaned was a better word, and stood up. The mermaid looked at me with shock.

“I need to get to a tower at the end of the woods; some people in the cage said you knew which way to go?”

She looked sad, maybe defeated, but released those emotions and smiled.

“Of course, the hero is on a quest. If you follow that trail on the edge, it will take you the way you need to go.” In accompaniment with her directions, the woods on the far side of the lake opened up, and a path from the center island rose from underneath the water. “However, I do not wish to leave you unrewarded. Wait a moment.” She splashed under the water, and the shining knight helped me from the lake as we waited for her head to pop back up. With it came a sturdy piece of chest armor that made a thud when dropped on the island. “Take it and know strength.”

I had the knight help me strap on the armor. Then, after awkwardly saying goodbye to the mermaid, I headed out to the path ahead. The knight followed closely behind and waited until the trees moved to seal off the path before speaking.

“It was well and good you said your goodbyes; folks come to that lake often for healing but end up staying in the water for the rest of their lives if they are not careful.”

“What?”

“It is good to get to know you, and I hope you don’t mind my travel with you for the time being. Now that I have completed my quest, I must return home. We should be headed in the same direction.”

“Are you saying you know the way to the tower?”

“Nay, I do not know which tower you speak of, but the path the Daughter of the Lake pointed out is the same one of my own, so I expect our journey is linked for the time being.

“Well, I don’t mind, especially if you think you could do any fighting.”

The knight laughed, “If I do all the fighting, what good is that sword on your side.”

I wondered the same thing myself, but I kept that to myself.