The untold story of the CREEPING OOZE
Chapter 1: Introduction
The story of the creeping Ooze is one of heartache and sorrow, one that I will regale you with on this evening. However, before we get to this, I must tell the story of young Giuseppe.
Giuseppe worked as an ash farmer at the base of Mount Bern-Ha. Once a month he and his father would ride a small trading vessel across the ocean, land on the shores next to Bren-Ha, then spend three weeks gathering ash to make their prized black ink, and on occasion collect precious gems that have been spewed out of the mountaintop.
They would take their many heavy loads of the black soot home, process it, and make the most exquisite, the most elegant black ink for all the scholars to use their magic scrolls.
Chapter 2: Young love
Young Giuseppe was loved by his peers back home and had a beautiful fiancé whose name was Tulip. Her singing voice only surpassed Tulips' beauty. It said that she could sing so fair that she could quiet a thundering storm, or put an upset T Rex sleep.
Giuseppe and Tulip were madly in love and happy.
One month before Giuseppe and Tulip were to bewed, Giuseppe's father became very ill and could not make the monthly voyage to the base of Bern-Ha. The cost of the medicine needed to make Giuseppe's father well again was well beyond the means that Giuseppe currently had.
Giuseppe told Tulip of his plight, and together they agreed to venture to mount Bern-Ha and gather as many precious gems as they could to pay for the medicine.
Chapter 3: Quite the ranging storm
When the duo reached the mountain, they began the arduous task of collecting gems. It was on this first night that a horrible eruption happened on the mountain, lava and fire spewed like never before. Terrified, the two lovers took shelter in a small cave as lava rained down outside.
You quite Giuseppe's nerves, Tulip began to sing a lovely song. It was as if the fiery hailstorm outside vanished when she began to sing. echoing through the caves and across the mountain stillness began to fall.
Deep within Mount Bern-Ha a fire elemental that was causing the eruption heard the song of young Tulip. So moved by the magnificence it grew captive to the sweet sound and ceased to erupt.
Giuseppe and Tulip rejoice that the fire ceased and continued their hunt gems.
Chapter 4: The Rising Sun
The next day Giuseppe and Tulip decided to each venture up a different side of the mountain in hopes of finding more gems. They parted with a kiss and went off their separate ways. That day Giuseppe did not have any luck; however, Tulip found one Gem after another.
It was as if the gems were popping out of rocks for her. As soon as she picked one gem, up she would notice another one up the mountain a little further. Until eventually, she met another man on the hill, a strange-looking man with wavy red hair that looked like fire.
The man introduced himself as a fire elemental and told the story of how her singing southed his raging soul, and if she stayed with him, she could have anything she wanted. All she wanted in this world was for Giuseppe to be happy, and she knew how upset he was that his father lay ill at home.
Tulip hatched a plant. She would lie to this elemental. She would agree to stay if he made Giuseppe's father well again, but she had to go home first to make sure the elemental was not lying.
Tulip thought that this elemental was a fool and that she would be many miles away by the time he realized what happened.
The elemental taking people at their word agreed to Tulip's request. And told Tulip when she went home she'd have to come right back before the next full moon, so she could see Giuseppe's father was well again. She smiled and waved and ran down the hill with a basket full of gems smiling and thinking about how clever she was.
Giuseppe was thrilled to see the basketful of gems. That night Tulip and Giuseppe left for home again on a ship, across the sea.
Chapter 5: Fortunes Windfall
**
True to the word of the elemental when they got home, Giuseppe's father was miraculously better. He looked ten years younger even! With all the gems that they got, Giuseppe and Tulip got married the very next day in a wedding fit for a king.
In all the excitement Tulip forgot to tell Giuseppe about the deal with the Fire elemental.
Reader take warning
Dear friends this is where our story takes a turn, and it gets sad. Feel free to stop reading here if you wish to remain mirthful. Should you continue on you, have been warned.
On the next full moon, Giuseppe and Tulip's home was consumed in a bizarre fire. Giuseppe was working at the shop in town; however, Tulip was home. By the time Giuseppe made it back home, all that was left was ashes and Tulip was nowhere to be found.
Devastated by this loss, Giuseppe spent the rest of the gems on drinking and gambling until he was broke and poverty-stricken. Having nothing else, he decided to venture back to Mount Bern-Ha where he chose to spend the rest of his days.
Giuseppe reached the shores of Mount Bern-Ha, and started to walk up the side of the volcano clips. Sitting next to a lava flow, he debated throwing himself in, to end this torment. Then almost emanating from the ground he heard a familiar sound, that voice, the notes it was unmistakably Tulips singing.
Chapter 6: Into the Earth
He followed the melody to a small tunnel opening and climbed deep into the earth. With each passing foot of soil, he slithered around; the singing got louder. Eventually, he emerged into a large chamber with lava waterfalls. In the center of the lava flow was Tulip. She was sitting on a rock singing, around her danced many fire elements.
Enraged and angered, excited and confused Giuseppe shouted for Tulip.
"My Love, Tulip, I am here!"
The singing stopped, and all the fire elements ceased dancing. They all turned towards Giuseppe. With rage in him, he cursed at them and demanded that they let her go instantly.
One fire element floated over to Giuseppe, and took the form of a man with fiery hair. He told Giuseppe about the deal that Tulip made with him and about the Gems he gave to Tulip that day on the mountain.
Giuseppe would not hear any of this and ran straight for Tulip, be dam his life, he lept at her, to swim through the lava.
Chapter 7: The Deal
At this point in the story, I should tell you that fire elements, are at times, very naughty and like to see people get fired up. They get a rise out of seeing humans in pain and sorrow. This fire elemental was no exception, but rather cruel and mean as well. Ok, back to the story.
The fiery red-haired man grabbed Giuseppe right as he was about to leap into the lava and through him to the ground. The burning man said he had a deal for young Giuseppe, and if he came through with the agreement, the fire element would release Tulip so that Giuseppe and her could be happy again.
The fire element said that he wants his gems back. That if Giuseppe retrieved the treasures that were given as a gift to Tulip, he would let Tulip go.
Giuseppe not even letting the element finish blindly agreed to whatever the fire element would want. And with that, the deal was done the fire element said to bring back his gems. Giuseppe shouted his love to Tulip and vowed to return. He turned to the small hole in which he slithered through to get there, then start climbing back to the surface.
Chapter 8: Venturing back
On Giuseppe's way back to the surface, the ground kept growing hotter, he felt himself sweating, his mind became delirious, and it looked as though parts of his body were melting away.
He reached the surface and emerged once again on the outside of the rock of Mount Bern-Ha, but something was not right. For some reason, it was as though he couldn't move fast. He looked behind himself and saw that he was still inside of the rock. But then he was also on the side of the mountain, and even moving towards the ships. How could he be in all these places at once? How can he be doing all these things at the same time?
His body had become gelatinous, almost like Ooze. At one point he remembers a man with a sword-swinging at a part of him, but then the man was gone, but Giuseppe had his sword; he had his sword in him?
As Giuseppe continued to expand out of the crack and down the mountain, his thinking became slower. All that Giuseppe could remember was that he wanted to collect gems, crystals. Giuseppe was filled with the fiery rage over something, that was just out of his reach to remember... But if Giuseppe thought hard enough back, back along himself... He saw a cave that he was still in, a cave with lava waterfalls and in the center, surrounded by a pool of lava a Tulip blooming on a rock.
It was from this day forward that the Creeping Ooze was born. Little bits of a man once called Giuseppe searching the world for the Gems that were once the property of the fire elements. No longer a "man" in any sense of the word, but still driven to compleat a mission that will take a million years to accomplish none the less. A mission to be achieved by slowly creeping pieces of Ooze that are forgetting what it once was.
That is the sad story of the Creeping Ooze.
This story was written as an entry into the: https://steemit.com/steemmonsters/@steemmonsters/splinterlands-fantasy-story-and-music-contest-week-19-15-booster-pack-prize
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