She begins to stir...

Some time passed, not enough for anyone to begin wondering where Mona had gone, but enough for the astrologist to begin rousing from her impromptu slumber. A low moan escaped as she flipped over onto her side, her eyes fluttering open and revealing a pair of sapphire blue irises in place of her usual sea green.

"H-Huh? Nya- buh- wha-" She babbled incoherently to herself as her body rocked back and forth, her limbs flailing about randomly as though she didn't know how to control herself. Which, to be fair, 'she' didn't- for it wasn't Mona's mind staring out through the world, but that of the slime that had invaded her.

'She' didn't know what was going on. 'She' didn't know what "she" was- the actual word itself, let alone her own self. But it was natural for her to think of 'herself' that way, which only begged the question of what were thoughts? Slimes weren't supposed to have brains, and yet this slime had hijacked one belonging to the most renowned astrologist in all of Teyvat, and the veritable ocean of information she offered was overwhelming her body's new pilot.

A killer pain split her skull, and her hands instinctively- for instinct was something the slime had always relied on- flew to either side of her head. "Nyooooo, shtoooooop!" She pleaded to nobody in particular, not that she even knew what the words pouring from her mouth meant or what pleading even was. She didn't even know what 'words' were or what it meant that she was able to form them.

'Mona' continued to lie there, writhing on the ground, for some time, until the pain wracking her form finally began to fade away. With deep, panting breaths, she was finally able to take stock of her situation, at least, take stock as best she could as a slime suddenly subjected to all the wonderful horrors of sentience.

Her hands trembled as she raised them to her face. Hands. She knew what these were. She had seen hilichurls using them for countless things, grabbing and picking up and throwing and all sorts of stuff. And not just hilichurls, but those things that looked like hilichurls but weren't, too. A word suddenly came to her, 'humans'. She didn't like that- not the word, but the way she suddenly knew it. She decided to focus more on the hands, because slimes weren't supposed to have hands. And yet these hands, they were hers, weren't they? She thought about seeing them move, and as if in response, those tiny digits began wiggling and clenching in exactly the way she had imagined. So either they were hers, or... she... couldn't think of an alternative...

What even was thinking...

Slowly, Mona began to acclimate (now THERE was a fancy word [what did 'fancy' mean?]) to her new body. From her hands to turned to her arms, slowly but surely getting the hang of controlling the long, noodly limbs. From her arms, she turned to her torso. She didn't seem to have much control over that part, so she quickly moved down to her 'legs'. These parts were even longer and noodlier than her arms, and she could faintly feel that they ended in something kinda like hands, but kinda not too. She remember seeing hilichurls and humans moving around on them- why didn't they just bounce everywhere?

So, new body, check? With her physical form accounted for, 'Mona' turned her attention inwards- namely, the fact she very distinctly remembered being a slime and now very much so was not a slime. A light growl escaped her as she wracked her new brain, a process that was entirely foreign to her, as she tried to figure out what had happened. She was sitting in the lake, she felt some of that wondrous elemental energy coming off of a human, and she just kept getting closer to it. And then...

Wait a minute. Mona looked down at herself. She could still feel that elemental energy, but now it was... inside her? Not inside her in the way slimes took it inside themselves to eat it, but it was like... Actually, speaking of eating, she... couldn't? She... didn't want to. She could feel an immense level of elemental energy right inside her, and yet for the first time in her (admittedly, not very long) life, she felt no desire for it. That eternal, ravenous hunger that always plagued every slime to come into existence... it was just gone.

Slowly, painfully slowly, the slime in Mona's body began to connect the dots, thanks in no small part to Mona's own natural intelligence. Somehow, when it had entered Mona's body in pursuit of her elemental energy, it had managed to take control of her. Or, in other words... "Me... no slime," she spoke, her voice stuttering and cracky, since it was the first time 'she' had ever truly spoke. "Me am... Mona?" She scowled; even though it was her first time speaking, something told her that was wrong. She would have to work on that.

But speaking of things she had to do, she had to try and think of what to do with herself now! Becoming human had never been one of her wishes, but then again, she never really had any wishes to begin with. Her only desire, as was every slime's desire, had been to seek out more and more elemental energy, but now that she was in this body, that desire was completely nonexistent. For the first time in her life, she had to actually think, and not just think, but think about what she wanted.

Well, one thing she DIDN'T want was to lose this body. She didn't really care about the body itself so much as what it did for her- namely, making her smarter and not hungry. It would be fun if she could give some other slimes a chance like this, but not if it meant giving up her own. So step one was to get somewhere where she didn't have to worry about her fellow slimes coming after her and maybe potentially stealing this body for themselves.

She dimly remembered seeing some sort of... place... where lots of humans came out of and went into, maybe heading there would be a good start? No sooner had the thought occurred to her than something else entered her mind, something called... 'directions'? She... knew how to get to... 'Mondstadt'? This was... all way too complicated for her...

With a grunt, Mona pushed herself off the ground and up into the air, and immediately flopped back into the dirt. She tried again, and was met with the same result. Now she understood why humans didn't bounce everywhere, they were no good at it! With a groan of frustration, Mona began trying to stand herself up on her 'legs'. At first, her efforts were met with much the same results as when she was trying to bounce, but slowly, she managed to find her balance. Getting her legs underneath her, then taking her first slow, shaky steps, and soon the astrologist was on her way, heading back for Mondstadt, where nobody would ever suspect the beautiful Mona had been taken over by a lowly slime...