Trade: Slime Sister Saga (Part 6)

Summary: Following the events of A Giga-Sized Glow-Up, Celes wakes up with powers she has difficulties controlling,  coinciding with terrible, otherworldly visions. She meets more strange slime girls like Feza, but are they friends or foes?

A trade with MRGIllusion45, who provided the illustrations; story is written by me; characters belong to their respective creators.

[Story Listing]

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"UWAAAAAAAAAAH!!"

Celes' throat was growing hoarse from her frantic wailing as her body, smushed into a ball and flung through the jungle at high speeds, collided with tree after tree, the world spinning in a blur all around her. 

SPLAT!

...and then, all of a sudden, the world stopped spinning. Like a water balloon exploding mid-impact, Celes' form liquified around the base of a large palm; she let out a shuddering groan as she formlessly oozed down the trunk of the tree and collected towards the ground. As she stirred in a puzzle, the disparate piece of purple slime flung in all directions. Celes groaned weakly as she pulled herself together, rather literally, popping back into a humanoid shape as she leaned back against the base of a palm tree.

"Oogh..." Celes massaged her temples. "Too much excitement... s'dizzy... just... gotta catch my breath."

Celes paused, a curious thought occurring to her. 

"Do I need to catch my breath?" Celes muttered, slowly lowering her hands. "...I suppose Astra would say something like, grrr thinking like a human again... heh..."

She straightened herself out, rising to her feet... in the figurative sense, as her lower body had fused into a single pillar of slime. A tropical breeze blew through the palm tree canopies, causing her semi-body to ripple. She reflexively covered her chest, her expression darkening as she felt her bare skin. 

Celes spaced out for a spell, absent-mindlessly pressing a finger against her skin; she drew her hand back, watching strands of ooze cling to her fingers. Like it or not, this was her natural state. She always loved accessorizing, coming up with outfit ensembles, modelling new dresses, but since she had been transformed against her will, she leaned in on her fashion hobbies and her skills as a seamstress more and more. It was familiar, nostalgic...

It made her feel more human. Moreover, she felt less than human, standing around in the nude like this. Maybe Astra or Feza would be fine. But they were never human to begin with, they didn't have any reservations on how they presented their bodies. 

One of Celes' arms fluidly extended on its own, looping around her torso, compressing her chest under coils of her noodly appendage. Her body trembled, she felt exposed. She was told to live as a slime, but her human sensibilities and sense of modesty still lingered. 

Spotting a frond-shaped shadow cast across her glistening skin, Celes extended her other arm upwards, her fingers plucking some palm fronds; she reckoned that she could fashion all these together into a hula skirt... 

"CELEEEEEES!~"

She overheard her name, being screeched in the distance; the abruptness interrupted her moment of zen. Stifling a gasp, the memory of Marin's menacing grin flashed in her mind. Celes looked around frantically for a place to hide; she felt around the tree, then over to a fallen log. She peered inside, recoiling at the level of decay inside, whining to herself. 

...But at the end of the log, there was an impressive boulder. She almost disregarded it as an option, but then she recalled her training with Astra. If she was going to steer clear of a slime, she'd have to think like a slime, and consider all of her options...

Celes's form curved through the air in a gentle arc, splattering along the side of the rock. She melted down in moments and collected at the base in a puddle. Her shuddering form pressed against the lower lip of the rock before she forced herself under with a muffled grunt, her liquid form disappearing under the boulder. 

Obviously, it was pretty dark under the boulder, so Celes could only freeze up and listen for Marin's approach. She overheard the fluttering of wings touching down in the canopy above, and the uneasy snapping of twigs in the area. The careful footsteps of a predator tracking its prey made her uneasy.

"Celes??" "Celes?" "Celeeeeeeees, BRAK!~"

She heard the discordant cries of various parrots, all from different directions. Celes recoiled; was Marin tracking her down? There was an anxious pause. If she stayed put a little longer, maybe Marin would get distracted and move onto searching someplace else...

"Ooh! Purple!" Marin blurted. Celes did her damndest to stifle a gasp. Did some part of her splatter somewhere? Stupid, stupid-

Crrrrrrrrrr...

Celes blinked as light shone into her eyes. A weight had been lifted, quite literally, as Marin peered underneath the boulder with a wide grin.

"Found you! Found you!" Marin exclaimed excitedly, before slamming the boulder back down. Celes could barely utter a mutterance of an objection, her voice stifled by the heavy boulder, before Marin raised her arm ahead of her. They rippled not only with liquid form, but with... defined muscles? Ripped muscles!

SMASH! Marin slammed the side of her palm against the rock, the raw kinetic force splitting the boulder right down the middle, a precise fissure splitting the boulder in half. 

As the boulder came apart, however, Marin was surprised and flanked by the purple ooze underneath; it quickly split into two pools, travelled around Marin from both sides, and reformed behind her. Celes stumbled forward, her body messily reforming a human shape as she made a mad dash through the woods. 

Marin paused to gawk at the sneaky maneuver Celes pulled off, splitting into two and then back together again... but as the two halves of the boulders thudded in front of her, Marin turned forward, reaching for a boulder with an excited grin.

"How strong is that woman!?" Celes huffed, struggling to find her legs. She found herself tripping over herself constantly, only for her shape to collapse, tumble forward, and then rapidly reform—anything to get away from Marin's deadly game of tag. "Is she still chasing- UWAH!?"

Celes collapsed onto her hands and knees, ducking just in time to see the boulder—well, half of the boulder—careening over her head, spinning wildly through the air as it slammed into tree after tree. Celes gawked with terror; she wondered if she wet herself out of terror, but that was just her lower body collapsing again.

"YES! YES SHE'S STILL CHASING ME!" Celes cried out, scrambling to her feet, looking over her shoulder to spot Marin skipping behind her, the other half of the boulder raised above her head. She cackled giddily, spinning the five-hundred pound piece of rock to herself like it was a basketball! 

Celes had to think quickly! She didn't want to get utterly plastered by that thing! If only she were a smaller target...

Possessed by instinct to flee, Celes hobbled away, clawing at the ground. In the heat of the moment, she didn't notice that she had gotten down on all fours, focusing solely on the path in front of her. Her clenched fists quickly morphed into fat little paws, her lower body splitting into two powerful hind legs, her bangs of slime hair twisting upwards into long, rounded bunny ears. Fright certainly played tricks on her as it seemed the trees all around her were swelling to more towering heights. 

Even as a small elongated muzzle protruded in the center of her vision, Celes hadn't realized that she had morphed to take on the appearance of a harmless bunny. She was actually taken back by a sense of exhilaration, effortlessly bounding and hopping over logs and stumps to disappear into the shrubbery...

AWOOOOOOO! Celes squeaked as she overheard a wolf call behind her, with light blue shapes catching up to flank her on both sides. She scurried into a capsized log, squeezing to fit inside, pulling her bunny rump through to avoid the gnashing fangs of a wolf coming up on her rear. 

The bunny-form Celes poked her head out of the other end, only to come face to face with another wolf from the pack, its fur a glossy light blue sheen! It swatted at the ground in front of the log. Celes poked her neck out a few times, pulling back to avoid the wolf's paw each time. The wolf waited patiently, the sight of it like a puppy waiting for their owner. Celes squeaked again, pondering how to get out of this situation. She sensed another wolf waiting for her at the back end as well...

"RAWR!" 

Celes didn't have the luxury of time to think about it before the log collapsed entirely under the weight of another, larger Marin-formed animal! Celes squeaked repeatedly as the bunny was captured and raised to face Marin's latest form, that of an enormous lioness! Celes tried to wriggle free, but the lioness had gripped her by her little bunny tail, holding her in place. 

Celes squeaked as she felt her body rise, lifted rump first from the ground in Marin's fangs. Celes expected Marin to bite down at any moment...

But curiously, the lioness flipped Celes up into the air, the small bunny flailing. Celes squeaked obstinately as Marin caught Celes in her fangs once again, then tossed Celes again. Marin let out some cackling mewls, as if she were laughing.

Celes still felt decidedly vulnerable (and perhaps a little queasy from all the spinning about), so upon the fourth such toss, Celes kicked in the air to realign herself, then kicked again at Marin's muzzle to propel herself away from the lioness and to the ground.

Marin paused, staring as Celes flopped to the ground, righting herself. Marin scratched her ear, stretched out her rear end, wiggled her butt, and prepared to pounce again. The whole motion was rather exaggerated, as if to say, "hey, I'm gonna getcha, better get a running start!" 

The odd expression on Marin's face eased Celes' nerves, as the whole encounter took on a different tone. Was Marin simply playing with her the whole time? Celes felt a little silly for overreacting and letting her nerves get the best of her. Adrenaline does strange things to a person...

It wasn't the best time for Celes to introspect; Marin's yowling broke her train of thought as she went for a pounce! Celes darted to the side with a deft hop as instinct took over once again, barely dodging Marin's massive paws. But then she pounced again! And again! 

It wasn't long until Marin outmaneuvered Celes, pinning her under her two front paws. The bunny wriggled and squeaked under her clawed grip, shaking and shifting. Celes felt smothered under Marin's grip, and needed to create space for herself. She needed to be smaller...

Marin halted as Celes shapeshifted again underneath her grip, then for a moment seemed to disappear into thin air. Marin momentarily loosened her grip, as if to take a look, unwittingly granting Celes a moment to escape... now in the form of a scurrying little mouse, she wriggled through Marin's claws and bolted for the jungle, squeaking all the way! 

Adrenaline and instinct took Celes once again. The thrill of the chase was a lot more fun without the imminent threat of death! Soon Marin would be on her tail once again, and they'd be at it all over again! She glanced over her shoulder, expecting to see Marin approach from behind any second now...

Unfortunately, Celes didn't realize that the ground had quickly disappeared out from under her, and she had sprinted off of a cliff face and into the ocean below. She squeaked with terror as she fumbled...

Splash! Celes hit the water, flailing about as she tried to swim. Mice weren't terrible swimmers, but she still felt. As she regained her balance, she paused to admire the underwater vista, the corals forests that grew beneath her, the schools of fish, the seashells that lined the soft sand below...

The fish seemed to be swimming away from her. She had a hunch as to what that meant...

FWOOOOOSH!! Marin had hit the water not long after, transforming mid-plunge from a lioness to a tiger shark; she gnashed her fangs, kicking with her powerful tail fin to charge at Celes. 

One more time, instinct took hold of her as she rapidly shapeshifted into a different, more aquatic animal. She had pulled herself into a ball, then elongated into the form of a mackerel, kicking her fin to narrowly dodge Marin's charging.... only for Marin to circle around and charge again. 

And with each attempt, Marin's margin of error grew slimmer. Celes wasn't particularly graceful in the water, relying on the natural evasive instincts of her current form, but she could sense that Marin's sweeps and charges were inching ever closer to her. 

Celes braced for impact, seeing Marin charging directly at her. But then something curious happened. She felt her body explode into a hundred pieces... though she expected to feel Marin's fangs burrowing into her, tearing her apart, nothing of the sort happened. Her perception shimmered, fragmenting into a myriad of viewpoints. 

Marin had never struck her at all, so why did Celes feel like she had been blasted apart? She paused to get her bearings, but her vision was overwhelmed with the almost kaleidoscopic images she was seeing, seemingly blurred with purple speckles. She still felt rather fishlike, bobbing in the water, but she was struggling with getting her bearings. It seemed to her like Marin was coming at her from all angles...

...But then Celes's vision began to clear up, and focused. The purple speckles she saw were smaller fish, made from the same purple ooze that comprised her. Hundreds of their little eyes looked about, information flooding her mind as she observed not only Marin from multiple angles and perspectives, but also herself. 

What's happening...?

Before she could figure out what was going on, Marin charged again, and Celes' attention focused on the perspectives where Marin drew closer. The perspectives of the fish twisted out of the way, the world warping, yet never letting Marin out of her sight. She appraised what had become of her, swirling currents of purple fish sticking close together. 

Did I... turn into a whole SCHOOL of fish??

It was the most curious sensation, her consciousness split between so many fish, yet all connected by one common will. As Marin looped around to charge again, the school twirled upwards, their glossy purple scales glimmering like neon as they reflected sunlight. The school weaved together, bending to and fro to avoid Marin. 

Celes felt the instinctual terror of each of the fish she had split into, their sensations and minds returning to her as feedback. They felt like extensions of her will, felt them yield to her command. She thought of herself as a queen with a billowing gown of fish moving about, but the more she moved so effortlessly, the more she reckoned herself a different sort of queen, a hive mind whose will stretched to the smallest creatures. 

Her body tingled excitedly with each wild swerve of her distended form. If she had a voice, she would be whooping excitedly. She had realized that she had absorbed Marin's essence, and made her power her own, but she hadn't anticipated the freedom of form it would bring. Not only to shapeshift into animals, but to split into all sorts, and to feel so many experiences simultaneously, all connected to her. So many possibilities...

Celes had moved beyond simply dodging Marin, the school of fish swirling and twisting into whatever shapes she could think of, her body manifesting a modern art piece all of its own. If she was capable of this, what other possibilities did this unlocked power hold? How far could her mind stretch? Could she be on two sides of the ocean at once? 

Unbeknownst to Celes, Marin wasn't done playing with her, spitting into a school of piranhas to chase the purple school of fish closer and closer, gnashing their fangs to push them together. The frenzy kicked up shells, coral and seaweed close by, blurring the spectacle in a cloud of ocean debris. 

Even if they were made in the appearance of animals, they were still slime; soon the school's fish pushed against one another, fusing with one another, over and over, until Celes' multiple perspectives fused into one.

Celes took a deep breath, looking over herself. She looked more like herself, humanoid once again... save for her lower body, which resembled the tail of a mermaid. And seemingly in the spectacle, a pair of clamshells settled on her chest. She wagged the tip of her tail curiously.

"Oh my gosh..." Celes uttered with a quiet gasp. She raised her head, watching the swarm of light blue piranhas coalesce into a swordfish, thrusting towards Celes like... well, a sword!

Celes gasped as the point struck through, running through her upper body and through her back. Celes winced out of surprise, but paused as she didn't feel a bit of pain... maybe a slight discomfort from being shish-kebabed, but...

The swordfish's eyes glanced up at her expectantly. Celes blinked, nodded, and then raised the back of her hand to her forehead.

"Oh... oh no.... I am defeated." Celes murmured, twisting her upper body in a dramatic fashion; her eyelids fluttered as her voice reached an operatic falsetto. "I die, vanquished at the hands of the beast... BLEH!"

Celes lolled her tongue as she twisted her neck back. Moments later, Marin shapeshifted, her body twisting into a mermaid form like Celes, her hands clapping excitedly together... even as her head was buried within Celes' stomach.

"Thank you, thank you... oop, let me just-" Celes helped Marin out of her body, pulling her out by the tail, then hoisting her upright by her arms; Celes felt around her stomach, feeling it reform with a bloop. She patted her stomach.

"Phew. That was a pretty wild game of tag, hehe. I think I'm getting used to moving like a slime, even if right now, I'm more... fishy." Celes wagged her mermaid tail. "Always wanted to be a mermaid... ehehe~"

Celes got lost in the hypnotic swaying of her tail.... as it swayed back and forth, droplets of ooze floated away from it, swirling into small fish. Celes winced, feeling her vision shift between various new perspectives, each through the new fish that had split from her, before she remembered herself, and turned to Marin. Marin beamed, in turn surrounded by a small school of sea creatures, as she swam closer to Celes. 

Celes let out a yelp of surprise as Marin took her hands, the two of them spinning in an underwater dance. Their hair bobbed in the ocean current as Marin pulled in Celes for an embrace; the purple slime woman's body tingled upon contact, her body absorbing more of Marin's slime essence...

Marin's grip was oddly possessive. Celes wondered if it came from a place of loneliness. Celes wondered if Astra simply didn't have enough time to play with her...

...Celes' hands rose to pull Marin closer, squeezed tightly, compassionately, before releasing. 

"I always wanted to explore the ocean." Celes smiled. "Would you... show me around a bit?"

Marin nodded enthusiastically and, taking Celes by the hand, pulled her along the ocean floor. Celes stifled her laughter.

"M-Marin, you have some grip!" Celes giggled. "Relax, I'm not going anywhere!"

But with every kick of Marin's tail, the two surged further, picking up speed, moving with the swiftness of a motorboat! Marin's excitement was contagious, and Celes could only wonder what Marin had in mind to show her...