"I never fought a dragon before! You think they taste good?" Blue asked excitedly for probably the hundredth time as they watched the scenery go by from aboard the wagon. It wasn't much scenery, being pretty much all rocks and sand, but it was still fun to watch it go by.

Blue and Cirice were on their way to fight some dragons that were attacking the researchers that had come to Arid Mesa after the whole Sol Stone incident. Apparently some temples and stuff had been discovered or something, but that didn't really interest the ooze all that much. Their real interest was in getting a taste of dragon! Dragons weren't very common, or at least ones that weren't tamed for use as rides or for carrying mail or stuff that Blue would have gotten in a lot of trouble for eating, so they'd never had the opportunity to fight one before, and so had never had the chance to devour one.

Blue was happy that Cirice was coming along with them. She was already aware of the ooze's true identity, so they didn't have to worry about hiding it from her anymore. She'd discovered it by accident, but everything had turned out alright in the end. It was actually nice that she had. Not many people knew what Blue really was, most people thinking they were a just some humanoid of indistinct race. Maybe some kind of Elf or Werebeast? Not human, at least, judging from their fangs and pointy ears, and their vivid blue hair and beard.

"They said these dragons were digging in the dirt. You think they'll taste like dirt? I like the taste of dirt, but I hope they don't taste the same." Blue chatted idly, the ooze's mind still stuck on food, as was usually the case.

SPOILER: Click to show

Quest Name: Burrow These
Participants: Two or more
Location: Arid Mesa
Post Requirements: 8 post per person, 250 words per post
Reward: +1 Mystical Archive Ticket, +1 Earth Dragon Scale

Description: Something dangerous is truly stirring in the east, with Mount Drakolt getting more active with each passing day. However the west is experiencing its own issues, specifically in the Arid Mesa. With the recent rumors of the Sol Stone being destroyed and temples to the gods discovered in the sands, many groups have flocked to the desolate waste land to set up research camps and excavations. However a deep power beneath the sands has been disturbed, ancient earthen burrowing dragons have been woken up. These massive dragons with both the ability to fly and burrow beneath the earth are attacking these researchers, destroying their camps and killing everyone there. If we are to understand what is happening in the east, we need to protect these scientist and researchers at all cost!

Special Requirements: At least one member of the group (PC only, no NPC's) must be knocked unconscious during this fight.)

“Hmm, I’m not sure Blue, I’ve never fought or eaten a dragon either…” Cirice mused as they made their way down what passed for a road in Arid Mesa. “I suppose it would depend on if you cooked them or not? I don’t think they’re made of rocks and stuff so they should taste like some sort of meat I guess.”

Knowing that Blue was an ooze had cleared up a lot of the misunderstandings between them, but Cirice still had tons of questions about their fascinating existence. Any chance she got to spend with the big goofy knight was interesting, especially when most things disappear down their gullet. Gullet? Do oozes even have gullets? She ponders on it for a bit, trying to imagine the internal structure of an ooze. The wagon roughly shakes as it overcomes a large rock, shaking her out of her reverie.

“Do you prefer things cooked or uncooked? Or does it really matter to you?” Food was the easiest topic of conversation between the pair as Cirice was taking notes on the peculiarities of Blue Raspberry that she hoped she might one day pass on to the Mage’s Guild, with their permission of course. “Back home we eat a lot of raw food, but that seems less common on the mainland.”

The wagon crests a sandy hill and before them stretches a large barren plain dotted with tents, carts, and boxes. Its a pitiful excuse for a research station, but the best that can be expected out here. To the left of the makeshift camp, a large spire jutted out of the earth, its marble contrasting heavily with its surroundings. That must be the structure the researchers came here to unearth.

“Doesn’t look like they’ve been attacked here yet, but it also looks like they really just got started. Let’s try to be alert so no one gets hurt.”

"Cooked it... Hm..." Blue muttered as they thought to themself. They hadn't thought of that. The idea of cooking the dragon hadn't even occurred to them in the slightest. The ooze had a tendency to eat things raw, and even still alive in some cases. Honestly, they liked the food that was still alive the most. Maybe it was just something in an ooze's instinct to try to eat things that were still alive. Of course, that didn't mean they couldn't eat cooked food. Cantio insisted on cooking their meals whenever they were home instead of letting them eat things raw, and they tried to not eat things alive since Astrid taught them that it was a bad thing to do.

"Hmmm. I like cooked food. It tastes different, but not bad. I think I like raw stuff better though." Blue replied thoughtfully. They held back on saying they enjoyed still living food the most, for Cirice's sake. "You eat raw food too? Which do you like better?"

As they grew near to their destination, Blue looked excited. Dragons! They were almost at the dragons! But, their excitement immediately diminished as it became obvious there were none here. Their face was hidden beneath their helmet, but their disappointment was obvious from their body language, the knight slumping over.

The researchers noticed the approaching wagon, a few of them coming up to greet them. One researcher seemed to be a bit of a higher rank than the others, standing ahead of them and with a little more embroidery on their robes than on the others'. He waved a hand at them with a smile on his bushy-bearded face. He was a bit on the tall side, standing the same height as Blue at six feet, but with a far less physically fit physique than the knight. He had a round face and a rounder stomach that made the front of his robes stick out in front of him. His bald head glinted brightly, reflecting the harsh Mesa sun like a polished mirror.

"Hello there! You must be the adventurers we called for!" He called out to them cheerily, his voice surprisingly high pitched, almost squeaky.

“Well when I can get it I prefer raw fish, but its not as easy to get it good quality and fresh outside of home, so when I travel I usually eat cooked foods. My chi-chi is a fisherman so we have always had the freshest fish possible. If you’d like you should come over for a mean sometime.” Cirice responds honestly, stopping the wagon as people approached.

“That’s us! I’m Cirice and this is Bl-Wolfe, Wolfe sorry, something in my throat.” She fakes a cough to cover up her blunder, patting Blue’s shoulder to comfort the sudden sadness in the knight’s posture. “We heard there was an issue with dragons around here? It doesn’t look like you’ve been too affected.”

“We’ve been fortunate so far,” The squeaky official said with a nervous smile. “But there are reports of camps to the west and north getting attacked, so it seems to be just a matter of time. The most recent attacks have been just north of here about two days ago. I would like you two to go north and see if you can prevent these monsters from getting close and disturbing us. We have sensitive instruments and discoveries here and a lot of very important scholars. If we lose this camp it would be a terrible blow to the academic community!”

Cirice looks at Blue with a smile, eyes sparkling with excitement. “Sounds like we can find them north of here. Let’s not get too far just in case the camp is attacked from a different direction. Ready for a hunt?”

Blue's mood picked up fast as they nodded along excitedly.

There would be dragons! Just not here. They needed to travel just a bit farther, but Blue could put up with that. They'd waited this long, they could wait a little more to get a taste of Dragon. And, this was actually better for them. If they weren't fighting at the camp, with all the researchers and scholars around, they could really go all out without having to worry about anyone seeing some of their more oozey abilities in action. This was great!

"We'll handle them before they get anywhere near here!" Blue announced confidently, giving the group a thumbs up.

The head researcher clapped his hands in front of him with a smile. "Wonderful! We're glad to have such dependable adventurers willing to come all the way out here for us. Before you go, allow us to give you just a little something to show out appreciation. Fighting the dragons will be dangerous, take these."

A few others came forward that looked less like researchers and more like some hired laborers judging from their clothing and physiques. Probably the ones doing the digging and heavy lifting while the researchers did the studying and delicate work. In their arms, they carried forth a small crate of few glass bottles.

"Just a few healing potions that should help you in your effort. We have less use for them here that you might. We only get any use out of them when there's an accident, but we just need to remind everyone to just wear their helmets." The head researcher chuckled.

---

3 Minor Health Potions

“Oh thank you,” Cirice says with a smile, fully knowing she and Blue probably won’t need the potions. “We’ll return any we don’t use to you once the dragons are cleared out. Do you mind if I leave my wagon here? I don’t want it to get damaged in battle.”

“Oh um sure,” The head researcher agreed, looking at the demonic reindeer a little dubiously. “We’ll make sure it isn’t tampered with so long as the camp is safe.”

“Perfect, thank you!” She hops off the wagon and pats Hitia’s neck. “Ars, Kevin, Crepes, you’re coming along. Gwyilly you too. Paris and Arestar, you’re in charge. Guard the library well.”

The birds tweet in harmony their approval. Having ordered her pets around sufficiently and gotten ready to go, Cirice turns to Blue. “Alright let’s get to work!”

She shakes her left arm and one of her bracelets that looks like a snake’s skeleton becomes animate and drops to the ground. It burrows beneath the arid soil and leaves a little mound in its wake. With the bone naga searching underground for the traces of the dragons, she and Blue set off at a brisk pace towards where they’d last been seen.

The Arid Mesa is exactly that, arid and dry with hills of sand collecting around them and dried up plants tumbling by. But there don’t seem to be many animals. No birds calling from the sky, no foxes hiding from sight nor snakes slithering by. It was strangely quiet here and the quiet seemed to stretch on and grow louder as they walked, the sound of their footsteps the only thing breaking the deafening silence.

"I'll carry them." Blue said as they jumped down from the wagon and went over to the crate of healing potions. They probably wouldn't need them, but they'd take them anyways. It would be rude to say no. It was also a free snack, and they never refused free snacks.

"Here, let me help put those in your bag." One of the researchers offered, but then noticed the knight had no bag and looked confused.

"It's fine, I got it!" Blue gave a thumbs up and just stuck a hand in the crate. After a few moments, they pulled their hand back out and just walked away. The researcher peaked into the crate and was even more confused to see all the potions that had been inside it were gone. He just shrugged. It wasn't that unusual for adventurers to have tricks up their sleeves and they didn't want to hold them up from doing their job by questioning where the potions had gone.

Blue set off next to Cirice, the potions all stored safely away inside them and feeling good about how incredibly discreet they'd been about eating them.

Blue had never seen all of Cirice's pets until they'd travelled together in her wagon on the way here. They all looked interesting. Also tasty, but they were sure Cirice would get really mad at them if they ate any of her pets, so they restrained themself. The pets also all seemed nice. Blue actually struck up something of a friendship with the mimic moth, Crepes. Or maybe rivalry would be a better term. The two competing in the wagon to see who could be hidden better. Crepes by changing color to be practically invisible while Blue turned into a piece of furniture or some small object or animal. Ars at one point tried to add Blue to their body when they'd disguised themself as a book.

Once the group had gotten out of sight of the camp, there was still no sign of dragons.

"Want me to give us a ride? I think I could carry Ars on my back as a giant wolf." Blue asked, feeling confident they were strong enough to carry Cirice and the large book golem without a problem. It'd be faster to travel by running as a giant wolf, and travelling faster meant getting to eat some dragons faster. Kevin could also probably keep up with them.

“Oh that’s a good idea Blue, but I’ll put Ars in his little pocket and Crepes can fly alongside you while Kevin is tracking!” Cirice gives the ooze a big smile and opens a little hole in the air which Ars disappears into¹. She turns back to Blue, ready to hop on their back when a tremor shakes the ground beneath them slightly. “Wait…. Did you feel that? It was slight but…”

Another tremor shakes the ground, closer now. Kevin wriggles out of the sand and points further into the horizon from them. “Shit. They’re coming! We need to keep them as far from the research camp as possible!”

She runs forward towards where Kevin indicated and sees two mounds of disturbed earth coming towards them at an alarming rate. They need to head them off. At least they’re far enough away that the camp shouldn’t be in danger of being caught in the crossfire. She starts twisting her hands in preparation for casting a spell, the runes on her arms glowing bright and malevolent under her gloves².

“Wolfie, can you buy me some time? I’ll catch them as soon as they come above ground. Hopefully there’s only two!”

Kevin slinks back over to Cirice and begins circling her, ready to warn when they get within reach. The tremors get stronger and stronger as the creatures approach, making it very hard for Cirice to keep her concentration. This is going to be quite the meal for Blue if their size correlates to their strength. Maybe they can make it a picnic, her a feast and the ooze a feast of dragons. If they survive.

---

1 Pet pocket
2 Scern's god killer, beginning cast (dual casting)

Blue was just about to transform when they suddenly felt the same thing as Cirice. The ground trembled slightly. The dragons were here! Finally! Blue would have been shaking with excitement if they weren't already being shaken by the ground, their armor clattering louder as the dragons grew closer.

"You got it!" Blue replied as if they already knew exactly what to do in this situation despite having no clue what to do in this situation. How were they supposed to buy time? They usually did that by fighting things, but they couldn't fight the dragons while they were still underground, and they didn't know how to bring them to the surface. Welp, whatever, they'd just figure something out! Improvising was what Blue did best if you didn't count eating, or electrocuting, or anything else Blue was actually good at.

Blue ran forward, toward the approaching mounds of cracking stone and sand. With the research camp far enough away and Cirice being the only one around, Blue didn't have to worry about anyone seeing them and finding out they were an ooze out here in the middle of the Arid Mesa. They wasted no time going all out with their slimy abilities.

The armor separated as Blue grew a bit larger, to eight feet tall, the gaps revealing blue ooze. A tail grew from their lower back and a second pair of arms sprouted from the sides of their torso while their hands and feet grew sharp, acid-laced claws and a pair of thin pseudopods of slime grew from their shoulders.

With all four arms, Blue punched down onto the ground just in front of one of the moving mounds and the earth cracked in a spiderweb pattern around them from the massive impact.

A muffled roar came from beneath the ground and the mound exploded as one of the two dragons came out to see who dared try to smash its head in. The dragon was huge, but not as huge as Blue had expected for a dragon. Its scales looked like they were made of the same rock they were burrowing through. It had a stubby tail and its snout was short and pointy with whisker-like protrusions on the tip. Its legs were thick and short with the front pair having long claws that looked like they were made for digging. It had no horns on its head, probably to prevent them from getting caught on anything as it burrowed through the ground. Its eyes were so small they were barely visible when open and practically disappeared when they were closed. Altogether, it was like a strange mixture of a dragon and a mole.

The dragon glared angrily and attempted to bite down on them, but Blue couldn't deal with this one yet, they needed to get both dragons above ground! They jumped to the side, avoiding the bite, and charged toward the other mound that was still moving toward Cirice. With another heavy punch to the ground, the second mound let out a roar before exploding into a second burrowing dragon.

With a dragon in front of them and another one behind, Blue hoped Cirice was going to do something to help them out now.

---

One With the Cosmos
Extra Arms
Prehensile Tail
Eldritch Claws
Bare Hands
Gauntlets of Ginma

No matter how many times Cirice sees them she still marvels at Blue’s ooze-y abilities. These days with more wonder than horror, but still. Watching her friend grow massive and sprout extra appendages is quite the sight to behold. She’s glad they’re her friend.

As the ooze pounds the ground and the dragons emerge in their hideousness, Cirice finishes her spell and thick black chains of pure shadow erupt from beneath each of them, wrapping them tightly and causing them to cry out in pain and surprise¹.

“Thanks Blue! I think I got em!” Cirice shouts excitedly, “These are dragons? I’ve never seen dragons like this before. They’re weird. Senpai Kamille’s dragon is the only one I’ve really seen and these are totally different.”

The dragons thrash against the bindings, trying to escape to no avail. One of the dragons opened their mouth and lets loose an ear-splitting roar, shaking the ground. Gouts of fire and gas come from the mouths of the dragons are entwined with further chains.

“Well that was easier than I expected.” Cirice says with a smile and a thumbs up to Blue. She seemingly spoke too soon, as a third dragon burrows up underneath her, enveloping her in its gaping maw as she screams. In the blink of an eye its seemingly swallowed her whole.

The third mole-dragon burrows itself back into the earth as quickly as it can with its snack in tow, seemingly heading to try to help its brethren.

---

1 Scern's God Killer (doubled) 

"Cirice!" Blue shouted in surprise as their friend was suddenly swallowed up by the dragon as easily as the ooze swallowed... just about anything, really. They didn't care about the other two dragons, forgetting them entirely as they ran over to the hole the third dragon was now trying to escape down with a stomach full of Cirice. But Blue wouldn't let them get away so easily!

The already larger than usual form grew even more, to twelve feet tall, as they charged over, not holding back while they saved Cirice. They grabbed onto the dragon's tail, sinking their acidic claws in to make sure it wouldn't escape while they dragged it back up and out of the hole. The dragon let out a roar of pain and struggled, its large front claws scraping at the ground to try and dig down into the ground and get away.

"No one eats my friends but me!" Blue shouted angrily. "Wait. No. I mean, no one eats my friends, not even me!"

Blue dragged the dragon out of the hole and lifted it by its tail into the air where they shook it upside down, trying to get it to cough up Cirice.

"Spit her out! Spit her out or I'll spit her out for you!" Blue threatened, completely serious in their ridiculous sounding threat. They'd done the same with Zarius when he'd been eaten by the Origin Matter, swallowing the whole thing with Zarius inside and then spitting the Fellblood out when the sphere had finished being dissolved. It would work here too, probably, if they couldn't get the dragon to spit Cirice out on its own.

---

Red Rogue's Coat

The belly of the beast was wet and slimy, or at least it’s mouth was. It had all happened so fast, too fast for Cirice to even realize what happened at first. Snatched like a snack from the sand. A jutting tooth cut her forehead as the beast started to try to swallow her and it was all she could do to try to wriggle and kick her way from being digested.

Suddenly, she feels all the blood rush to her head as the dragon is hoisted up into the air by its tail. Jostling up and down her head knocks against the vise-like jaws. She can feel a warmth gathering by her feet, no doubt a breath of fire ready to cook her into an elf-croquet. She needs to get out and soon!

The dragon struggles against Blue’s grasp, trying its best not to lose its lunch. With a particularly hard shake though, the jaws spread wide, dumping Cirice to the ground in a sopping pile. She’s alive and not toasted! A few moments later the gout of flame leaves the dragon’s mouth as it squirms, trying to roast anything or anyone it can.

“Ack!” Cirice cries as she tries to roll away from the flames and her sodden clothes pick up all the dirt and debris. “T-Thanks Blue, I thought I was a goner.”

Standing up shakily and trying in vain to brush the dirt and saliva from her clothes she gives him a smile. The other two dragons are still wrapped tightly in her shadowy chains and Blue has the third well in hand, she shouldn’t have boasted about things being easy, that was a rooky mistake that nearly cost her her life.

"I wasn't expecting to get eaten....  Will you return the favor for me, please?"