Trees take in all sorts of nutrients from the world, but other bodies are horribly inefficient. And eating has some undesirable side effects as well! My middle was swollen by the lump of mouse carcass and I felt my mind slow as my flesh devoted almost all my resources to breaking down the carcass to manageable bits.

As a tree I never needed to worry about such things. I took what I could from what was left on my soil. If another creature came and stole the prey I wasn’t concerned. There was still more than enough nutrients in the soil for me to grow.

The snake body was different though, and it was hours before I could move again without difficulty. I almost got caught by another sleep debuff during that time, but managed to keep some sense of myself despite the urge.

Once I was no longer restricted by digestion, I set about exploring the world around me again. If I wanted to evolve then I needed to grow. Growing required fighting other creatures. The safest place to do that? The human hunting grounds. Even as a tree I’d heard rumors of that place. It wasn’t a place a tree dared to enter because the number of slimes made growing there risky. Only grasses, which had short lifespans anyways, were satisfied growing there. Fighting in those grasses was known to give a larger number of god’s messages, and those were the key to growing, so to the human hunting grounds I would go.

Early stage humans fight creatures with low risk of damage. If I found one of those creatures I could watch the battle and learn how to take down small enemies myself. Once humans reached a certain point in their growing they would start traveling in groups and looking for high-level targets. Taking down bigger creatures meant larger growth.

I wanted to grow, but snakes weren’t welcomed by most humans. Just entering their hunting grounds meant there was a chance I would become a target.

But at this time my scales blended in with the night sky. I also had the skills and knowledge of a tree so I felt confident I wouldn’t die. “Roots”, my small sapling size, and movement would keep me safe.

The human hunting grounds were actually quite far away. I crawled on the ground for three days and nights looking for suitable prey.

Okay, not really, stop looking at me like that. But it was a really long way and took a really long time. Ages. Felt like a week.

The hunting ground opened up before me around dusk, and my tongue flicked out to taste the wind.

Slimes. Humans were hunting slimes.

Slimes are detestable creatures. Some of the absolute worst! Even worse than these cats. Their gelatinous bodies wrap around roots and trunks and limbs and could start a rot like a slow poison. The one time a slime sat on my branch I had to drop the whole limb before the rot reached my trunk.

It was awful. Like losing an arm. It was a broad, sturdy branch too. One that stretched into three feet of air, a solid foot and a half from the ground!

I miss that branch. It was one of my first growths. It even survived against sixty cold winters full of snow before that slime came.

Since the human hunting grounds were full of slimes I felt no guilt or shame targeting the creatures who caused trees so much pain. I even felt a little bit of camaraderie with the humans since they were pursuing the same goal.

Still, by the time I arrived it was late. Most of the humans were taking care of some final tasks and leaving. This made the field rather lonely. Most of the slimes even vanished, as if not having human predators around meant they were no longer needed. The slimes left in the field were different from the ones that vanished with the humans. These night slimes were dark, and blended in with the sky the way I did.

I feared I would need to find a place hide and wait for the humans to return, until I saw one human still remained. I didn’t know it at the time, and wouldn’t know it for many days yet, but this human would later become mine.

He took his time fighting these odd slimes. He, too, was dressed like the night sky. Did night creatures only fight other night creatures? I hadn’t considered that there might be some sort of protocol or ritual to growing like this. A tree spent many years growing by taking in nutrients; this type of growth - the growth needed to evolve - was very confusing.

My belly was empty again, my middle clenching on nothing. At some point the waste had slipped from my body and I found that odd. The creature body automatically gave back what it didn’t need? I couldn’t choose which trees to offer nutrients to?

Well, I still had “roots”. I could still take in nutrients from the ground.

The human killed the slimes in a very odd way. It was a two legger killing a no legger, so I was cautious and only watched from a distance. I wasn’t sure if the human would consider me a no legger target just like the slimes. It looked like he was taking a needle or a thorn that was as long as my snake body and jabbing it at the mass. This action pierced through the outer bark of the slime’s body and the human followed that through with another jab at the slime’s core.

Slimes weren’t smart. Even trees felt slimes were incredibly dull creatures. A tree responds to an attack with self-healing, and will drop damaged limbs, leaves, and seedlings. We will toughen our outer bark when challenged, and merge with trees we have affinities with.

A slime doesn’t do any of this. It doesn’t run the way a snake does when another of its kind is murdered, and it doesn’t try to heal damage done to itself. Slimes just stay put and let themselves be completely killed. They don’t even fight back. All their energy goes to eating grass and destroying plants, turning our amazing bodies into an acidic gel. After a time the human had hunted all the slimes in the field. He collected something from his kills and then left.

Right. I could do this. I pumped myself up and went slithering through the tall grass to find a slime the human missed. My target was a newly formed slime. I approached from behind just like the human did. Though… it was a slime. I wasn’t quite sure what part of it was the front and what part was the back. I was right though, because the instincts of a tree told me so.

The snake body didn’t have any thorns or needles on the outside, and my tail wasn’t capable of holding one the way the human did. I did have needles in my mouth I could use. They were significantly smaller than the one the human carried, which was itself significantly smaller than the ones other humans carried. Later I would learn that other humans used swords and my human used a dagger.

Yes, yes, Father. My human was Father.

I decided to use the needles in my mouth since they were the best I had. I raced forward with my mouth open, prepared to sink these needles into that bark and dart quickly away.

My nose hurt as I crashed face-first, my needles barely brushing against that gel-like body. It threatened to wrap around my face and I reared back, hissing, greatly offended.

How dare that lowly slime?! Not only did it dare to move when I attacked, but it also tried to rot my face off! I was a great tree (snake), and that thing was just a slime!

I moved again, determined to destroy my chosen enemy.

The slime bulged and my mouth stretched too wide, to the point where my jaw actually hurt. Once again it threatened to suck me in.

I slithered back, shaking my head to clear my nose. I had to open and close my mouth several times to make sure I hadn’t damaged myself. I used “roots” just in case, because I hadn’t expected a slime to be this difficult to face. Humans made it look so easy!

The grass around me cheered me on through the “roots” skill, eager for the slime to be defeated. Winning against the slime meant this grass would live for another day or two, until the next slime came along and destroyed what was above ground. It was my challenge - my duty - to win!

Once more I opened my mouth and turned to the slime. I detested the thought, but perhaps my thorns worked like eating? Slime bodies would melt my middles if I swallowed it, but so long as I didn’t swallow it should be safe.

I slithered around, circling the slime until I found the best angle. Then I pounced on the jiggling side. This time my needles successfully pinched around the slime’s bark. I used all my strength to close my mouth, intending to rip off a piece the way that creature ripped off sections of dead snake earlier.

The slime skin was too tough to rip. It was elastic, stretching and reshaping with each movement. My needles were too small and too dull to break through the tough outer shell of gel. When I let go, the slime bounced and returned to its original shape as if I’d never touched it.

There was a trick to this I hadn’t mastered yet! The humans left too quickly for me to observe it. My human was too efficient at the tactic for a beginner to follow. My thorns needed enhancing before I could manage.

I scolded the slime for being too difficult to defeat and warned it that I would be back to kill it. I also apologized to the grasslings for being unable to grant them a night of peace, but assured them that if their roots remained intact then growing again was possible. It just took dedication, time, and perseverance. And, of course, their roots. Then I retreated for the night.

More observation was needed.