The small creature bounced forward, its sights set firmly on the item glinting in the sunlight in front of it. It was a fairly long object, but it was shiny. Its semisolid body quivered in excitement, and it scooted forward. It paused, and then leapt forward.

Before it could make it to the shiny, a large foot caught its face in midair, and then propelled it against a tree.

"Oh no you don't, you nasty little slime ball! That's my sword!!"

The Poporing squealed in annoyance. It wanted the SHINY!!

It bounced angrily toward the tall person, who had plucked the shiny from the ground. It paused and sucked in its breath, and the scooted forward with such determination that it seemed that the poporing had transformed. It leapt, and discovered that, not only was the shiny pretty, it was also SHARP! The poporing once more flew backwards, only to spring forth again.

And so it continued, the poporing would rush forward, leap high, impale itself, fly back, and repeat. Its adversary, a teenager with thick dark-chocolate hair, sighed, and planted the hilt of his weapon, a cheap rapier, in the marsh ground, and sat behind it, watching the Poporing impale itself again and again, until it finally went splat for the final time.

Wiping the green sludge from his face, the teenaged swordsman stood up, and cleaned his rapier with the grass. He brushed his knees off, turned around, and walked away.

The green sludge quivered, and then slowly stretched, assimilating all the other pieces of scattered slime. Soon, the Poporing was back to its jiggly old self. It turned around in a whole circle. Aw… the shiny was gone… Hey, wait!

ROUND! That thing was ROUND!! And shiny! It scurried off toward the odd crystallization that glinted in the filtered forest light.

The swordsman watched it go, and the chuckled to himself. Annoying little things, but harmless. He grinned happily, and began to walk in the general direction of the Mountain Village, Payon. He entered the desert, pausing once to draw a ring with a skull encrusted upon it. He read the small inscription on the inner circle, laughed, and placed it back in its pouch.

He shook his head, and continued on.