[i][/i][h2][center][b][color=ed1c24]Novak[/color][/b][/center][/h2]
[color=ed1c24][i]I suppose that answers my question of where the skull came from.  I didn't think the answer would be this repugnant, though,[/i][/color] Novak mused as he beheld the sickening sight of the human skeletons, trapped within what looked like animal cages.  What sort of twisted, depraved experiments were these people running?  And just where did they get their victims?  And what about the hunters?  Were any of them involved here?  Could they possibly be involved in something similar?

Novak had no memory of every killing another human, but if he ever needed to start, what he was seeing would make for a good motivation.  Not that he'd necessarily get such a chance- even without poison or bows, Novak didn't think he'd be able to defeat even one hunter, not in his current, empty-headed state.

At the back of the room was what appeared to be a black slime, and it almost appeared to be stuck to something.  On the ground in front of the slime, sat the skull from earlier, tendrils extending out, offering a piece of meat to the large slime.  It looked like it might be a smaller slime under the skull.  Most curious was how it reacted when the trio drew nearer- it made a sound like a frightened scream and fled into one of the cages.

[color=ed1c24]"Did you two see that?  The way it was feeding the larger blob, the way it screamed and fled, it almost seems...intelligent,"[/color] Novak observed, surprised at what he had just seen.  The sparse knowledge within his mind that survived his rebirth told him that this was an oddity, that something like this sort of creature ought to be mindless, its capacity for intelligence closer to that of a plant than an animal.  On the other hand, this was a strange new world, and whatever vestiges of knowledge that survived within him might not apply here.

Novak recalled what Narkissa had said, that the slimes could be killed by tearing out or perhaps damaging its core.  He wasn't entirely sure how to do that, and in the dim lighting he wasn't sure where its core was in its body.  It was a lot smaller than the big one that Narkissa had killed, so she probably knew how to deal with this one.  On the other hand, if it was intelligent, perhaps there was another way...

[color=ed1c24]"I wonder just how smart it is,"[/color] he said as he looked down at the piece of meat that the skull had failed to feed to the slime.  Novak drew his sword and inched closer, careful as to stay out of range of the slime's tendrils.  Noticing how slow the slime's attacks were, he waited until it lashed its tendril and then moved forward just far enough to skewer the meat on the tip of his sword, then withdrew just as quickly.

[color=ed1c24]"Here..."[/color] he spoke softly, offering the meat on the end of his sword to the black blob.  He felt even sillier than he did when offering the armadillo viscera to the fox, but he figured it was worth a shot.  Even if the slime was unable to comprehend gratitude, it might at least understand satiation, and be less hesitant to attack if it wasn't hungry.

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