"Darn it," I thought to myself as I couldn't see a thing, although I was aware of those around me thanks to their kernel presence, mainly the overweight goblin female whose large buttcheeks my corn body was currently wedged in like a hotdog in a bun.
I desperately searched for a new host, but the flying bats overhead were gobbling up any bug nearby. I'd have to go blind for the time being, but I didn't plan on wasting even a second. Clearing my mind, I began to greedily leech the kernel energy of those around me, drawing in the strong signatures coming from the large group of sentient lifeforms. Feeling like I'd rapidly-drunk an entire pot of coffee, I felt my yellowy body surge with life energy, my instincts sniffing out ways for me to use the kernels that I was absorbing.
In my immobile vegetable state, I needed a vessel to connect to in order to see or hear. With nothing in the immediate vicinity that I was confident enough to latch onto, as I doubted that I could control a bat, I focused on creating something. My kernels answered and generated my request, where I wasn't able to see it in action, but I was able to use my energy to generate "something".
Blinking in the dim light of a crackling fire, sight returned as I evidently was in control of a new body. The group of goblins came back into view, laughing and babbling in their high-pitched cackles where nearby, I could see Lyka and Darotha, with their wrists and ankles bound together with twine while Krissy and Dirx appeared to be interrogating them. We were now apparently in some kind of woodland.
"Just tell us how much your daddy will pay for you, princess, and then we can send one of our men here to Carverstead to negotiate," the portly goblin explained, clearly intending on using the auburn-haired beauty as a hostage. "You should have mentioned that your dad was the mayor, you could have saved us a lot of trouble wasting time trying to get you to fork over your belongings."
"Yeah stop wasting your time, or else I might accidentally sit down," Krissy teased, shaking her big butt where my corn self was still imprisoned.
"If you harm a kernel on that cob, I will have my father instigate a crusade against all goblin-kind!" Lyka growled in response. "You'll get your stupid money, just don't mess with that corn. I still don't know why myself, but I have to protect it."
"Lyka…" Doratha sighed.
I wasn't sure what had happened in the minutes/hours that had transpired since the encounter on the road, but the goblins had clearly learned that Lyka was the daughter of the mayor of this "Carverstead" place, which sounded like a city. Either way, I couldn't let those two innocent women suffer for my sake, especially with how sweetly Lyka was defending me. I had to take action, where I coerced my new vessel forward. Whatever it was couldn't fly, however, and was actually very slow. It was around the size of a cat, however, though I didn't see any limbs…
"Whoa, what the heck is that doing here?" one of the goblins chuckled, pointing at whatever I was controlling.
"Is that a…tundra slug?" Dirx scoffed while scratching his head as he and the others turned to look. "This far south? Doesn't make any sense. Oh well. Someone go kill it, it'll fetch a good price at market."
Shrugging, one of the goblin grunts strode towards me with his needle-like sword drawn. My instincts screaming at me, I reacted defensively according to this "slug" that I was apparently piloting, and almost as unconsciously as a person swats at a fly, I fired a blue, steaming blast of energy from where this creature's mouth was.
As the blue bolt hit the dark-green goblin, the creature groaned as his body began to turn a pale blue and his movement slowed into complete stillness. Standing there with a static expression, his blade in mid-stab, I realized that I'd frozen the goblin solid, his body now steaming as the warm evening began to work on thawing him out.
"Ah shoot, that thing is fully-grown, watch out!" Dirx exclaimed as he and the other goblins backed away, before snatching a torch away from one of them. "These creatures are dangerous when they get big, they can use basic ice-magic. Someone go kill it already!"
I wasn't sure what a "tundra slug" was, but I was already loving being in control of one. Watching as two more armed goblins ran towards me, I again focused on defense, thinking deeply on self-preservation while they stabbed their blades into my apparently-dark blue slug-like body. Several pale spikes suddenly ejected from my slimy form, causing both my assailants to wail in pain as they were impaled by the icy-blue thorns and sent retreating back to the group.
"You babies are scared of a little slug?" Krissy berated the others as she stepped forward with her hands on her hips. "Pathetic, I'll just go stomp on it."
Deciding to now act from my actual corn body, I focused next on expulsion. I wanted to expel everything from around me, where from the eyes of the peculiar slug, I could see my yellowy-kernelled body aflame in energy. A second later, a massive shockwave erupted from my corncob self, blasting Krissy forward and causing her to shriek as her clothes were ripped from her green body and she was sent flying into a nearby bush. Most of the other goblins were caught in the shockwave too, being sent tumbling forward.
"What the crap is going on!?" Dirx demanded to the two girls as most of his troops groaned in confusion, left scattered around on the ground. "Did you ladies do this?"
My body innocently laying on the forest floor, freed from Krissy's enormous behind, Dirx didn't seem to suspect a thing as he assumed that Lyka and Darotha had something to do with the shockwave. Holding his lit torch over their heads, he threatened to burn their pretty hair off if they didn't call off their "spells". He must have assumed them to be mages, but I'd be the one taking advantage of this confusion.