Damn it, damn it, damn it! Aarav thought, why did this damn thing have to come after it, couldn’t have been a nice squirrel or a beaver or something, wait, this is an odd place, here they have weird mixed-up names…annoying and yet nostalgic. Come on Aarav! Focus up, damn it! You are literally about to die...

The Panther continued to stalk forward toward the shiny piece of wood that lay on the ground. The Earth Slime trembled which caught the cat’s attention further. The Panther was curious; nothing this shiny had crossed its path before. Without warning the shiny object of the Panther’s attention disappeared, instead nothing but the grass was blowing in the wind and the smell that had been there before was gone.

Aarav, having done some quick thinking switched from the beautiful Polished Wood to Fresh Grass camouflaging perfectly with the space he was hiding in. So now as a part of the grass, Aarav was hidden from view. Now he had two alternatives, one was to fly, he was very small right now and so nothing was stopping the unfurling of wings and flying. Except, that move didn’t feel right. The other alternative was to burrow into the ground and hide out there.

Aarav’s mind flashed back to a time inside a wooden coffin. Soil was being shovelled on top. He had to work hard not to shudder at the thought of being buried underground again of his own volition. That was going to take a lot of therapy. I am not ready for that… but it was looking more and more like he would have to choose one of the options.

The Panther continued to move closer.

Aarav was starting to get frantic; as soon as the Panther stepped on him it would know something was not right. Looking like grass did not make his texture the same as grass. He was still very much Slime.

He did the unthinkable.

Slowly burrowing down and allowing his body to slide down the thin hole, he left his eyes and ears above ground. It was a lot for him to do this. The feeling of the dirt clinging to his slimy body made his skin crawl and filled him with revulsion. It was almost enough to stop the process right there but the Panther was an extreme and present danger. There was no point in cowering in fear from the soil just to die at the hands of a Panther, paws I suppose is more accurate.

It was too much to handle and Aarav had a crippling fear of the soil from when he was buried alive, loan sharks did not mess around when they were showing you how far they were willing to go to make sure they got the money back that you owed. Trying to skip town probably had not helped. But they didn’t go for the knuckles or limbs, straight to burying alive!? Even while it was happening the whole situation had seemed too surreal. It had also scared the living daylights out of him. Mission accomplished, at least for the loan sharks it was. He had still had to pay back the money but circumstances had gotten in the way, namely him dying… Oh well, escaped those debts now didn’t I? I got the last laugh!

Then Aarav remembered that he was a disgusting slime monster camouflaged as grass and being stared down by a Panther about to make him dead for the second time in a year…hmm maybe I shouldn’t celebrate just yet…

If I don’t want to dig then flying is the only other option. It might unnerve me but it’s better to be a little unnerved than paralysed by fear. Going underground is going to do that for sure. The thought brought some comfort, while his mind played tug-of-war with the idea of going underground Arav’s phobia’s prevented it. Now was not the time to confront those fears. Now was the time to run like crazy and not look back. Aarav fought his Earth Slime instincts like a beast possessed, one saying that the ground was where safety was, underground was even better. The other said that the sky was too scary and anything could happen in the air. He could fall, and looming above it all like a clock counting down the seconds to the apocalypse was the timer that showed how much time he had left before death from exposure claimed him. That doom clock showed how much time Aarav had to get okay with underground living otherwise he was going to dissolve into obscurity. And right now that timer was saying he had another forty-five minutes. Not a lot of time but at least he could get away and then compose himself before he had to dive back into the…dreaded earth.

Aarav pulled up the small part of his body that had seeped into the ground, the small amount he had been able to stomach. Even that had been scary, also he was going to have to get used to this oozy slimy body, not that he was actually slimy. With the increased density his body was a lot less “flowy”

The Panther paced closer. It was now no more than five metres from him by Aarav’s estimation. Just a leap away, slowly unfurling unused wings Aarav made no sudden moves; that would trigger it. He estimated that if he were to blast off from the ground at the fastest speed then there would be just enough space for him to escape. With a speed of seventy-three and Level 18 Strong Insectoid Wings he could have easily moved fast enough to get away but with the seventy per cent movement penalty above ground that was significantly hampered so it was going to be a close call. Aarav’s deliberations were taking too much time and the window for escape was closing, he would have no choice but to wait it out if he took any longer with no chance to escape.

Bracing himself Aarav leapt and flapped his wings as fast as possible. Disorienting dizziness threatened to send him plummeting straight into the ground but somehow he managed to keep flying up and out. As expected though he couldn’t see it clearly, the Panther also leapt, claws outstretched and reaching. Like any cat chasing a butterfly, grasping for this elusive prey.

Time for some expert aerial manoeuvres! With the confidence of a child that had never fallen on his face, Aarav flew up and away, twisting and turning as he rose to try to evade the pursuer. Claws missed him by millimetres and just as Aarav was thinking he was home free, the other claw came in and raked his left side while he twisted once more going in a barrel roll to avoid any further damage. With only a small amount of health recovered it was a lucky thing too, maybe luck is finally working for me! The pitiful amount of health that he had recovered bled out and settled at a measly five points. If there was ever a time to run and hide this was it. That scratch from the Panther had done more damage than any of the underground creatures could have done with his hardened skin his memories as Resh surfacing.

The Panther dropped back having already lost interest and moved away, out of the clearing. Its curiosity satisfied for the moment. Leaving Aarav breathing hard and wishing he were anywhere else. The dull ache from already sealing cuts reminding him of the danger he was still in constantly. Many things could hunt him down and, god forbid, kill him.

It would not do to relax, just like in his previous life, danger was everywhere waiting to take him into the darkness and leave him there. Only in this world, it was a lot more prevalent. He continued flying just a little bit further until the lowest branches of a nearby tree because a dizzy spell had hit him while trying all those aerial movements. Coupled with the height above the ground and it was more than any Earth Slime could reasonably handle. It was not in his nature or instinct to be off the ground or indeed above it.

Now that he was relatively safe above the ground a part of him was not keen on going back to the ground where the Panther would inevitably be waiting to pounce on its new toy again. So despite nausea that kept building, he found a larger branch away from the view of the ground and waited to allow his system to settle a little and grow accustomed to being in a tree. It took a few minutes but finally, he was able to think again without getting dizzy…as long as the Earth Slime didn’t look down. It was a tricky balancing act as the moment he thought of it he was tempted to look down. Damn it!