Owen reflected on the ridiculousness of his situation. He had woken up in another world, in a body that required head to toe shampooing in the shower, and was now working on cross training a creature by jogging with it, and it had no legs. Or limbs at all, really, except when she exuded some. At least, he thought Jewel was a she. I mean, there wasn’t really a way to check the sex of a ball of goo and she was pink, so…

“Keep going!” he encouraged. He was thankful for the canine stamina of this body, which resembled a bipedal husky, with bright blue eyes and soft white fur. He could run almost forever, and useful for training like this. He wondered if there someone somewhere trying to get used to his old fleshy form? He ejected the thought and returned concentration to his Beast. Jewel rolled forward like a ball; he could see the streaking of the sun as she rotated, though her happy eyes and mouth stayed fixed and level. Kinda disquieting, if you thought about it.

He was a Beast Trainer, rank 9 now. He still wasn’t sure about raising creatures for, well, cockfighting, but he had woken up with the papers of a rookie, Level 10 Beast Trainer, the Blue Cross Ranch, (a run down hut and barn) and enough for his first monster, but no idea how the world worked. He had thought about quitting anyway, but Maya, the sole assistant and vet on the ranch, had yelled at him, saying that they’d both starve before winter without the Beast Trainer Association stipend. Maya was mostly a cute, sweet white arctic fox with a red cross nurses’ hat, but when she yelled, it was terrifying.

The great hill rose ahead, with the crossroads on the top and the tree that marked the end of the course. Jewel had problems with this last leg. She was fine on flat ground rolling along, but had issues with getting all parts of her oozy body climbing at once. “Lead the way, Jewel!” he said, settling behind.

Jewel bubbled, aware of what was coming. She sped up, building momentum, Owen settling in behind, matching the goo’s pace. The hill began, getting steadily steeper, and Jewel began to slow. This time, he tried using his hands to give her a little more momentum. If she could make it once, even with help, that might help her confidence.

It almost worked. Jewel made it farther up the slope than normal, getting to the last, steepest part before beginning to slide back. Eighty pounds of goo rolled back into Owen, knocking him down, then going over and… around him. It was an odd sensation to pass completely through another being.

Owen sighed, rolling over on his chest with a splort. He looked down to the bottom of the hill where Jewel seemed almost a puddle, ready to go home a failure. “Hey, why can’t we just try again?” he asked.