Wanted to menace Indi with slimes, and thought having him filled with ones that make him lighter-than-air would be a delight :3

Indi discovers some cloud slimes, and soon learns that being filled is the least of his worries...

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Indi and the Cloud Slime
By: Indi

Click-clack went the blue jay’s talons as he made his way down yet another long corridor of the ruins. Indi had lost track of how long he’d been there, or how deep he’d wandered. Neither mattered too much to him, though. Be it day or night he knew his way back to the surface. His real worry was whether he’d actually find anything of interest.

The alchemist had acquired an old book describing the local flora and fauna around the ruins—though they weren’t ruins back then. The entries included a few rare berries and slimes that could prove valuable for experiments. Thus far Indi had only managed to find a few mildly interesting plants. They’d be useful for sure, but they weren’t enough to justify the long journey.

With the corridor fairly desolate aside from some carvings, Indi pulled out the book in search of inspiration. “Hmm, this thing mentioned so many slimes, but I haven’t seen a single one yet. No residue, either. They’re not easy to wipe out completely, so there should be something here.”

Flipping past entries on blueberry slimes and something that looked like a block of marble, Indi stopped on cloud slimes. He’d never heard of them before, and most of the pages related to them had been lost. All he had to go on was their name and a couple sketches. They were white and puffy looking, likely the source of their name. A fragment of text seemed to imply a connection to air elementals—maybe. Indi could very well have been reading it wrong.

His beak buried in the book, Indi didn’t notice when the corridor exited into a tall, pillar-shaped room. It reached all the way back to the surface, lit by the sun above. There were also a few patches of clouds that were far lower than they should’ve been.

“I’ve gotta be close. How hard could it be to find a few silly slimes!” Indi shut the book in frustration and put it away. When he looked up again, he found himself staring straight at a miniature cloud. He knew right away what it was, and smiled wide.

The excited blue jay circled the cloud slime, getting a good look at every angle. He showed no fear and little caution. Unable to resist, Indi poked the slime with a talon, and discovered it was wonderfully puffy. The slime was almost like a balloon.

Suddenly the cloud slime wobbled in place, before launching itself into Indi’s open beak. The blue jay’s eyes widened in surprise as their cheeks puffed up. He was too stunned to properly react, and before Indi knew it the slime had wiggled its way down his throat and into his stomach. His normally chubby middle swelled until he was sporting a small, wobbly pot belly.

The slime had been incredibly light, and the contents of Indi’s belly didn’t weigh him down at all. If anything he swore he felt lighter somehow.

“Of course it’s the kind of slime that likes to fill people,” Indi frowned. “Can’t be anything easy that just wobbles at you and hopes you’ll flee.” In truth his frustrations were mainly due to how much harder it would be to secure a sample of something so eager to get eaten. He’d just have to hope he found another one.

Movement caught the blue jay’s eye, and he realized his wish had been granted a little too well. Dozens of cloud slimes were floating around the room, and when he glanced upwards he spotted even more, all the way up the shaft.

Being filled with a single slime was an inconvenience. Being filled with a whole room of them could be disastrous. Indi slowly took a step back, planning to make his escape. Unfortunately the cloud slimes were faster. A second dived and stuffed him before he could even turn around, his gut bouncing. Within seconds he was surrounded by a swirling cloud of them.

Trying to hold his beak shut proved pointless, the slimes more than capable of forcing their way in with little effort. The bird’s belly was ballooning outward swiftly, swaying from side-to-side but not sagging at all. Expanding hadn’t ripped his clothing, as it was enchanted to stretch in just such situations. It was an investment he’d never regretted.

Despite Indi’s best efforts, he was nowhere near the exit when he felt his talons lift right off the ground. The blimping bird flailed about, desperate to find something to hold onto. He found nothing but air. Slowly Indi began to float, turning until he was belly-up. Rather than continue struggling futilely, Indi instead grabbed a notebook from his bag and began to frantically write down every detail he could while he was still able to do so.

“Cloud slime are either naturally or magically lighter-than-air. Considerable lifting power—can cause a grown adult to float when they team up. They can clearly adjust their own height and can move through the air.” He wrote in a frenzy, the words messy and barely legible. He was frequently interrupted by more cloud slimes forcing their way past his beak. His emotions were rapidly switching between concern for how helpless he was and excitement for how much he was learning about the slimes just by eating them.

Higher and higher Indi rose, and rounder and rounder the blue jay grew. The more he was filled the faster he gained altitude. He kept writing until it was physically impossible, his arms puffing up to the point of being unable to bend. Eventually he lost his grip as well, and the notebook tumbled out of his talon and down to the floor far below. His body had taken on a ball shape, with his limbs rapidly bloating and sinking in. Faint creaks echoed from the blue jay’s stretched hide. Concerning, but nothing Indi hadn’t heard before often. Being an alchemist had turned out to involve a lot of inflating.

Once Indi was as wide around as he was tall he began eyeing the eager slimes above with increasing worry. Though he wasn’t feeling nearly as much pressure as expected, he knew he wasn’t invincible. Blimp a bird enough and they’d go boom, that was just natural. He’d just have to hope he flew out of their range before he ended up as a downpour of slime and feathers.

Slowly he felt himself expand even further, his talons sinking deeper, barely able to wiggle. His head was being forced upwards, in danger of being enveloped, too. From experience he should’ve been springing a leak or two already. Perhaps the slimes were making him more durable somehow, just another odd trait of the rare species. If so they would have even more uses than previously thought!

His excitement returned, just long enough to temporarily distract him from his predicament.

Though Indi couldn’t see it, his body was dangerously close to outgrowing the room. Open sky loomed above as the gaps between wall and borb narrowed inch-by-inch. He let out a distressed caw when he felt the very tip of his talons brush up against stone, then hide.

A loud creak rang out, and Indi abruptly stopped rising. The massive blue jay was wedged in the opening to the room, half out in the open and half within. He let out a sigh of relief and exasperation. Being stuck wasn’t ideal, but it was certainly better than floating off into the sky. Indi was in a precarious position, but at least he had time to think and plan. Or so he thought.

The slimes within him were wobbling, and so was he. Little-by-little he was coming free, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Before long he felt a rough wobble, and the blue jay was airborne once more.

Indi had ballooned to a massive size. He was a near-perfect sphere, his clothes stretched to the extreme but still holding together somehow. His talons and tail feathers had vanished, and only his beak poked up and out of his round body. He felt like a blimp. Or a moon. The only saving grace was that he’d run out of slimes to eat.

Floating into the clouds, Indi wondered just how long he was going to be stuck. Suddenly popping didn’t seem like such a bad thing after all.