A War of Blood Soaked Golden Wings (Kala;Blu)

[BlueSlime]

Re: Giotto, The Great Dwarf Queen (Kala)

Kala smiled benevolently at the two dwarves as they finally managed to come to an agreement about the gold.

"Sounds good enough for me. Don't let me catch you two squabbling any more about this on the way up. Okay?" So saying, she let her slime tendrils unfurl and slip away, leaving the two dwarves only slightly goo'd.

Then a short while later she was at the bottom of the hole, looking about for shiny metals. Was there anything down here that the dwarves had spotted from above?

She didn't have much time to search, as suddenly arrows flew out at her from the darkness. The ones that came into contact with her didn't get through her outer slime, but they did bother her a little as she had to spit them out of her peripheral mass.

"Lizardfolk? So far down here? Are you and the dwarves having a fight?" Kala asked, while on the inside she was starting to feel a bit suspect of the dwarves above, sending her down here on false pretenses.

"I'm not here to create any problems, but if you don't mind me asking, what's with the arrows? Have the dwarves done you wrong?"

 

[Mamono Assault Force]

Re: Giotto, The Great Dwarf Queen (Kala)

"Those damned dwarves are blithely digging onto sacred ground!" the lizard replied. "There's no point in talking with the stubborn creatures. We're going to slaughter the few digging this way and let that be a warning to the rest! Damned dwarves think they own everything under the ground though, so I imagine we'll have a nice battle."

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Giotto, The Great Dwarf Queen (Kala)

"I think their answer was to send me down here," Kala said out loud, though not in a particularly antagonistic way. "Maybe to see if I might solve their issues with you. I don't suppose you could tell me exactly where they've managed to infringe upon your land? Mm? Then maybe I can convince them to back off without the need for a battle?"

Kala put her slime hands on her her hips.

"I sorta need the dwarves intact for the foreseeable future, so if I can convince you not to fight them, it'd be a bonus for me."

 

[Mamono Assault Force]

Re: Giotto, The Great Dwarf Queen (Kala)

"Where!?" the lizard exclaimed, before lifting her sword into the air, and charged magic into it, causing it to roar alight with blue flames and illuminate the room. There, Kala would see that from where she climbed down, an apparent construction was going underway for a temple or perhaps a tomb. "Right there!" the lizard declared, pointing at the hole above. "Opened a hole in ground we rightfully know belongs to us! These were the lands conquered by the great elder lizard Nesferro, and this temple being built is to honor her glorious skill in battle before she lost to her husband in a duel. The dwarves dig with only greed in their ugly little hearts. They will... No, they 'must' pay for their ignorance!" the lizard insisted.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Giotto, The Great Dwarf Queen (Kala)

"And maybe they will pay for their ignorance, but there are better ways to do so than by spilling blood. The dwarves, for all their faults, are excellent craftswomen. They could help you build a great temple to your elder lizard, as recompense for breaching into your territory. They won't do anything for free, granted, but if you let them collect the bits of ore that you weren't going to be using in these tunnels, and you promise not to bring war upon them, maybe they could see the brighter side to cooperation with the lizardfolk?"

Kala had to think quick on her self-formed feet here. The lizards were a warlike folk and the dwarves were stubborn merchants. She didn't need a fight to break out between these two peoples when now more than ever, uniting the mamono was foremost in her mind. Also, the dwarves would have trouble building and maintaining the power generator for Isabell if they had lizards trying to jump all over them. She hoped she could convince the two races to cooperate rather than fight.

 

[Mamono Assault Force]

Re: Giotto, The Great Dwarf Queen (Kala)

"A dwarf building a lizardkin's honored ground? Not even if they were slaves, of which we take none." the lizard replied. "Not to mention, they wouldn't know anything about the finer craft and design of our structures. Each carving in the stone is history that they could never understand."

"Hold yer tongue!" announced a dwarf from above. "Ya got the idea in yer head that yer more sophisticated builders than us!? Them's fightin' words!" the dwarf declared.

"Silence, you wobbling, bearded abomination!" the lead lizard shouted.

"Put that sword where yer mouth is! I challenge ye!" the dwarf announced. "I'll make ye a wall design better than any crooked carving you cold bloods could make! Ya won't even be able to deny it!" she boasted.

Then, the lizard looked back to Kala. "You support these creatures, slime?" she asked, before pointing her sword at Kala. "Fine. We'll accept the dwarf's challenge. If they're as good as they say, then we'll forgive them and allow them all that useless ore. If they fail to impress, and I'm feeling very critical right now, then we slaughter them." she gave her terms.

"Kay! Catch me, slime!" the dwarf announced. Once Kala would give the go-ahead, the little dwarf would leap down the hole, followed by her comrade.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Giotto, The Great Dwarf Queen (Kala)

Kala put on a rueful expression as she heard the dwarf suddenly interrupt from above. So, they'd been eaves dropping this whole time, knowingly sending her down into this dark hole with angry lizardfolk, but not mentioning the danger they'd put her in. She had half a mind, once the two speakers had finished establishing their challenge, to step aside and let the arrogant dwarf splatter herself. But she was not truly that cruel, and besides, a dwarf once challenged is a stubborn creature, perhaps the challenger would live up to her boast?

"I'm a visitor to the dwarves," she explained once the sword was leveled at her. "They told me to go down here and look around as a favor to them. They neglected to mention that you were down here. Hold on a second..."

She looked up at the dwarves and shouted. "Okay! Jump down and I'll catch you!"

She then molded herself into a cushion shaped blob of blue goo, losing all of her human shape entirely. She could still look about and sense around her, as her optical gel still worked. In this form, she could actually see 360 degrees, but the details were not nearly as sharp, and it was difficult, nay impossible, to focus on any one thing too closely. This was probably why formless slimes moves so slowly and chose to simply attack by engulfing an opponent: without properly formed eyes, they wouldn't be able to make any sort of aimed attack.

When the dwarf fell down, Kala let her mass slide under the falling mamono, catching it entirely in her slime. The dwarf would hover floating within her transparent goo for a second, before being ejected out the side of her in an unceremonious and messy fashion. Kala would follow in like fashion for any other dwarf that wanted to hop down, and once she was certain there weren't any more to follow, the diamond slime reformed into her human shape.

"Okay. Let' settle this then. Can a dwarf impress a lizard kin with her craftsmanship?"

 

[Mamono Assault Force]

Re: Giotto, The Great Dwarf Queen (Kala)

"On that account, they can go without blame," the lizard replied to Kala when she mentioned having gone without knowledge of the lizard presence. "We just arrived here now after a digger came and told us of the offense. It's highly likely that the Dwarves did not see her as they were digging." she declared.

"If'n we did, we'd have asked ya to scare the lizards off!" the dwarf replied, as she was ejected from Kala's slime, though she popped out holding the Cleska doll. "What's this?" The Dwarf commented, looking at the Cleska doll. "Looks ugly," she said, throwing Cleska back into Kala's body.

Then the second dwarf landed, and was deposited out of Kala's body while clapping her hands, finding the experience to be rather fun. But then their adapted serious faces. Grinning ones, as they stared back at the lizard folk. The stare lasted for a moment, tension building... "Are ya gonna tell us what you want or what?" a dwarf asked.

"What we want...? Show us your skills!" the lizard demanded. "Build upon this wall in honor of Nesferro!"

"Who's that? And what we honorin'?" the dwarf asked. The lizards answered. They asked some more, the lizards answered. The ordeal lasted for about an hour and the dwarves didn't even begin construction yet.

"I grow tired of waiting! Stop stalling for time and build!" the lizard insisted.

"We ain't stallin', scale brain." the dwarf replied. "In fact, we're done with the first phase." she announced.

The lizard blinked. "First phase?"

The dwarf nodded. "Now that we know Nosferro is a war hero, the enemies she fought, and her general appearance on top of our current knowledge of the lay of the land, we can combine that with yer art style to make a nice piece." the dwarf announced. In reply, the lizard didn't seem to have much to offer but an open mouth stare. Not that the dwarves needed anything more than that as they got to work, chiseling into the rock, breaking off bits with a small hammer and pick, pounding bits off carefully yet quickly, working at a great pace while it quickly became apparent that a great work of art was unfolding.

Dust filled the air, and bits of rock scattered on the ground. The group of lizards stared in awe of it. The design of a reptilian woman, with fine detail crafted into every scale on her body, right down to the pupils of her eyes. There was no lack of detail, nothing more one could ask for while using stone as sculpting material. Each lizard warrior looked as if they were in another place, imagining themselves standing before the warrior herself, who looked mighty indeed. The presence was so powerful that they made a bow to one knee, standing their swords up on the tip and holding onto their hilts with their claws, a show of knightly respect to the greater warrior.

"We win!" the dwarves celebrated, high fiving one another.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Giotto, The Great Dwarf Queen (Kala)

Kala nodded at the dwarves' questions. It was only reasonable that they ask these specific questions of the lizardfolk. Afterall, without knowing for what or whom the stonework would be made, the dwarves would have no way of properly attributing the shrine to the former war hero of the lizard women. Where Kala's expectations differed from reality was the time in which she expected all of this to be completed. To render a work of art matching the descriptions that the lizardfolk had given, she reasonably expected that a pair of human workers would take months, if not over half a year to make the piece. She knew that dwarves would work much faster than this, but the pace at which they shaped the stone flabbergasted even the bright slime.

"Truly, this is a form of magic," she said under her breath. And it was probably true. To have the knowledge, the touch, the internal vision, and the ability to work in harmony with another stone mason without so much as uttering a sentence of conferral to one another suggested that the dwarves were capable of weaving magic into their hammers and chisels in the same fashion that a dragon would breath flame or a slime would change shape.

She could only smile with admiration as the dwarves high fived and claimed their well earned victory.

"Well done you two. Judging by their reaction, I think you've won your wager. I hope the two of your races will get along after this, after all, you have their permission to mine ore, and they have a fitting tribute to their war heroine."

 

[Mamono Assault Force]

Re: Giotto, The Great Dwarf Queen (Kala)

The two dwarves looked to Kala as the slime congratulated them. The two smiled at each other, and raised their tools for easy inspection. They were indeed imbued with magic. "Have ya a good eye or was it a lucky guess?" one dwarf asked with a grin. "Aye, imbued to be finer than any normal tool any human could make. Requires little physical effort, allowing absolute precision! Coupled with my sixty years of experience, there's nothin' I can't make!" she declared, announcing herself to be an elder to Kala. If she asked, the other dwarf would reveal that she was the little sister, fifty-four years old. If she asked further, she'd find that the average lifespan of a dwarf is an impressive two-hundred and fifty years. Given their slightly pointy ears, they might share some ancestry with elves. Though Kala would remember enough to realize associating a dwarf with an elf is an obvious offense to both parties.

The lizards meanwhile still looked angry, but the dwarves winning their challenge made them a bit humble. "They may have redeemed themselves... But a friendship may be pushing it. We will see." the lizard resigned to that, before her and her guard turned and went back through the darkness.

"We wasn't wise to the lizard presence, Miss Slime!" the dwarf announced. "But we gots our gold! So a deal is a deal!" she nodded together with her sister, both stroking their hair drawn down their cheeks and tied at their chin to form makeshift beards, stroking said beards happily, as if such was a mannerism of respect to the slime. "A slime made of shiny metal, like liquid mercury! We saw it within our own mines, near the Queen's Forge. Some say it was born from the leftover materials the Queen left behind, and the magic of the forge gave it life!" the dwarf theorized. "Only we know about it! My sis can show ya while I collect the gold!" she declared gleefully, eyes filled with happy greed.

The sister dwarf looked ready to help Kala find her way, though needed a bit of lift back up through the hole, before she'd fashion a rope for her other sister. She was ready to lead after that, back through the confusing maze of bridges and caves, seemingly going back to the same place three times, before it became much more clear where they were going. The bridges looked to be of a finer craft, and more beautiful and overwhelmingly impressive weapons were hanging and placed near dwarven smithies. There was little question they were heading into Giotto's territory within the mines.

They passed through a long cave, seemingly going in a single direction, before they reached a large expanse of space. Huge pyramid shaped buildings with many stories and archways leading out onto balconies that allowed one to walk all around the construction, were built throughout this giant hole in the planet. The huge expanse was easily large enough to fit an entire kingdom inside, and such was easily what it was. A giant kingdom, filled with no two buildings that looked the same. Differing architecture abound, but the layout was confusing if one were looking for a specific house. There was no organization, but thankfully, what they were looking for was the most massive construction of all. Towering over all else, a massive forge was at the very back of this large cave. Overwhelming amounts of smoke rose from this forge, going through a hole in the cave leading outside, where the sunlight could barely punch through the thick smoke. "That's Queen Giotto's forge!" the little dwarf announced. "But we're not going there. Come on!" The dwarf announced, leading Kala through the complex underground city of dwarves. "They say Giotto's brilliant craft is only second to that of the legendary cyclops. Though no one has any proof such a creature exists that is better than she, as no one has seen a single tool that rivals Giotto's work!" she announced.

Eventually, Kala and the dwarf would find themselves at the back of the cave, and finding yet more holes dug through the earth. "She's somewhere in this cave tunnel..." the dwarf hummed, walking slowly inside. But then there was suddenly yelling from behind. "Stop that slime!" someone shouted, at first it sounded like they were yelling at Kala, before a metallic colored slime jumped overhead, landing in front of Kala and the dwarf, before reshaping itself in front of them, looking rather pleased.

"The bloody thing ate my metal! Catch it!" a angry dwarf came running from the city, causing the metal slime to be alerted, and turn to flee into the cave.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Giotto, The Great Dwarf Queen (Kala)

"Neither. It was just logical. I know what human limitations are without the use of magic. After all, I used to be one. So what you just did was clearly not possible without some form of magic, either internal or external."

Kala felt she'd explained herself well enough to the two dwarf sisters, of which she had no intent to refer to as brethren to the elves. She knew that dwarves were their own folk, despite any theoretical common ancestry, and she was just happy that she had managed to avoid an all out fight between the lizard folk and the dwarves at a time when mamono unity was a crucial necessity.

She did not object to the younger sister showing her back to the realm of the dwarves and their Queen Giotto, and to the amazing dwarven city beneath the mountain, with its many quaint and unique examples of expert architecture, all of which was 'dwarfed' by the imposing Queen's Forge, to which Kala rose a slimey eye as it came in sight.

"That's quite the breath-taking structure," she said. "Appropriate enough to give birth to a slime, if the magic of the dwarves lives in its fires."

Soon enough, Kala and her guide had reached the tunnels in question, where this metal slime was apparently known to reside. Kala kept her head on a swivel, keeping an eye out for her potential cousin. Fate it seemed was bent on bringing the slime to them however, as the apparently mischievous metal goo girl was making good her escape from another dwarf. What she had taken exactly was unclear. Perhaps the metal slime dined on precious metals?

"Hi there! I'm --" Kala began to introduce herself, but before she was halfway finished uttering her first sentence, the metal slime bolted, sliding away like quicksilver from her dwarven pursuers. Kala, not wanting it to escape, dashed after it in human form, using tendrils as hookshots to pull or swing herself through the tunnels at speed after the metal slime, wanting to catch it, but not for the same reasons as the dwarves.

"Hey! Come back! I just wanna talk to you! Slime to slime!"

 

[Mamono Assault Force]

Re: Giotto, The Great Dwarf Queen (Kala)

Giving chase to the slime, Kala would find it much slower than first impressions gave. She looked heavy. Very heavy. To such an extent that Kala might as well be a professional sprinter compared to her. Fleeing from the quickly approaching Kala, the slime looked back and frowned at Kala. She suddenly began to reshape herself, albeit slowly. Whatever it was going to do, Kala had more than enough time to intervene if she chose to do so.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Giotto, The Great Dwarf Queen (Kala)

Deciding that it might be best to communicate her own innocent intentions by merging with her fellow slime, Kala reached out and tried to plunk her hand into the metal blob of the other slime, and once inside, let her liquid essence diffuse and bind to the metal one.

"Don't worry, I won't let them catch you, or us!" Kala began to say as she tried to bring the rest of her body into contact with the slime girl.

 

[Mamono Assault Force]

Re: Giotto, The Great Dwarf Queen (Kala)

"Huh!?" the metal slime gestured in confusion, before the binding process ensued. Their matter began to wrap together, the metal slime swirling with Kala, their female frames initially pressing together as the metal slime let out a moan from her side of the shared experience. Though it was clear it was her first time combining with another slime. The metal slime seemed to be fighting it at first, but she was now simply having too much fun in the whole process.

Their slime combined together, and it left Kala with the metal slime's core orbiting around her own. A spherical ball of shiny metal, while her outer form became encased in seemingly impenetrable metal, tougher than even Cleska's armor. She maintained this armor for all of five seconds, before the metal slime began to melt, and all her material became a puddle attached to Kala's feet. Her core was together with Kala's, so they didn't separate, but she was clearly tuckered out.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Giotto, The Great Dwarf Queen (Kala)

"You must be tired. What have you been getting up to that you're so tuckered out? If I may ask. Ah, and I'm called Kala, by the way. I'm a diamond slime."

Kala let her inner goo swirl about the puddle of liquid metal at her bottom mass and tried to lift it up within her, as if cradling an exhausted companion in her arms or whatever the equivalent was in slime terms.

"Hey, you okay? Can you speak?" Kala asked, letting a touch of concern shiver through her.

 

[Mamono Assault Force]

Re: Giotto, The Great Dwarf Queen (Kala)

The metal slime sighed, though was easily taken up. Her human appearance reshaped, using Kala's sturdy frame as support. "... I've got no good food. All the mixed magic I've been eating has left me feeling really tired." the slime finally answered. "Kala... I don't have a name myself. Everyone in this place just shouts at me, and calls me Metal."

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Giotto, The Great Dwarf Queen (Kala)

"Metal, huh? Not very imaginative, but I suppose it's reasonably apt. You do appear to be partially made of the stuff. So... you need some sort of good food hmm?"

Kala's mind whirred, and she did recall a certain admiring male who had expressed an interest in slimes on the ride over to this dwarf hold. As quickly as she had thought of it, she regretted thinking of it so fixedly, because due to their merged nature, the surface thought might well be detected by her merged counterpart. She didn't want to force Biggs into something he wouldn't want to do. Nor indeed to subject his sister Wedge to having to know about it. Still - it was the surest way to nourish this slimegirl.

"Well Metal, maybe if you stick with me, I can arrange for a decent meal for you. But aside from that, why are the dwarves after you? Did you eat their metals? What happens when they catch you?"

 

[Mamono Assault Force]

Re: Giotto, The Great Dwarf Queen (Kala)

Metal frowned a bit when Kala mentioned her lackluster name. "It's not what I call myself. Though I don't call myself anything." she replied. Though, Kala's attitude towards her caused some confusion. "Why are you wanting to help me, and even feed me? You want something from me, don't you?" she accused Kala, suspicions high.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Giotto, The Great Dwarf Queen (Kala)

The slime's suspicion was understandable, but even so, it took Kala off guard. She'd been pleased to find another unique slimegirl and hadn't fully considered that it would be wary of her.

"Huh? Why should I let you starve? You're a fellow slime! We've got to stick together, right? Heh heh, get it? Stick toge-- nevermind. Seriously though, I'm not the sort that lets someone starve, not unless I know that they're a war criminal or something, and given how you're feeling and what I can sense of you from these first few moments merged with you, you don't seem like a bad sort."

Kala tried to handle Metal's essence with care and took measures not to seem at any time as if she were tugging or jerking at the slime's own mass within her.

"You've never merged with another slime before, I can tell. But there's no need to be frightened. I've done it just so that I can learn more about you. About your abilities. There's probably no other slime quite like you, and that makes you special. I'm the same way. I didn't form from some other slime that had eaten enough to split herself. And I'm trying to unite the world of mamono together, but in doing so, it helps if I understand myself, and my own kind. So when the dwarves told me that you were down here, I wanted to find you, to talk to you. Now that I have, and I see you're hungry, I though I could talk to you on a full stomach. In my experience, conversations go better after a meal."

 

[Mamono Assault Force]

Re: Giotto, The Great Dwarf Queen (Kala)

Metal seemed genuinely humbled and confused about Kala's disposition. "Well, not only that, but why you came to me to start with..." Metal twisted her lips. "... I guess there's no helping it. But you better not be trying to use me." she announced, still suspicious of Kala's seemingly benevolent attitude. Though she didn't protest to being led around to possible dinner, though Biggs seemed more interested in Kala, the slime, rather than just a slime. Should Kala go straight back to Biggs with Metal, she'd be greeted with as much in a responsive expression should she suggest him hooking up with Metal. Meanwhile, the dwarf, her objective to reward Kala accomplished, would happily depart with a small goodbye in order to return to her sister.