#barmea

Hiding in an alley between two buildings I could look over the Market pretty well, and considering the clear spring weather it was possible to see all the way up to the Castle.

Fuck that place, I hoped it would burn to the ground and take the Racist King down with it!

Ohh how I hated being a hybrid of a human and one of the Fae beings that were definitely NOT human as was clearly seen in my way too blue eyes, very pointy ears, sharper teeth and the fact that some of my organs were doubled even if I didn’t need them.

Like, who even needed four kidneys? or two hearts? The second one wasn’t even beating

At least the second stomach was useful for holding my coins as for whatever reason it did not work like my normal one, probably also the result of my Bastard Status.

Back to the situation at hand, I needed food as I could not find anyone who would take in a bastard like me or even give me a job as per the King’s orders all Fae and even Woodfolk were to be banished.

I didn’t know how to survive in the woods since I was raised as the Human Donovan Verney and not as some wild magic creature like most Fae were so my only option to survive in this place was to steal.

I was not proud of it but I never took more than I needed and if possible left some of the coins that I had painstakingly collected from the ground as people lost them quite frequently.

Looking around I saw that one of the stands selling Pastries was currently not being tended to and decided to try and get some bread to at least last this week.

Dashing out between the buildings I aimed to just run past and grab whatever I could reach first and just book it out of here. 

but as I got close enough to grab a still steaming fresh Bun a Lady stood up from under the table the Pastries laid.

well too late to change course now, she’d be able to excuse one bread i was sure, running by i grabbed the Bun and Darted through the crowd just as the lady began screaming.

“THIEF!!! THIEF!!! SOMEONE GET HIM! ARREST HIM! THERE’S A STEALING FAE HERE I SAW HIS EARS!!!! SOMEONE HELP”

Man, this lady could scream loud! She acted like I had stolen her entire heritage instead of one measly bun, and even worse was that she had noticed my bastard status…

So it wouldn’t be long until the guards showed up.

As a matter of fact i could hear the telltale rattling of armor clanking against itself as the owners ran after me seemingly coming out of nowhere, fuck! 

They must have been patrolling nearby, today really wasn’t my lucky day.

Hearing them get closer I decided to Run towards the Silvervale forest as nobody in their right mind would go in there of their own free will seeing as it was infested with various Monsters.

Sprinting between some houses I arrived at a small field that led to the woods and decided to just run straight across it, hoping that as soon as I got to the edge of the woods they would stop following me.

Nobody in their right mind would follow me into there as the place was known to be teeming with monsters. 

Just last week a man that wandered too close got snatched and mauled by a Manticore and was never seen again.

I knew it was also dangerous for myself because I could very well be killed by one of the forest inhabitants as well.

But so far I’ve gotten lucky as my pursuers usually turned tail as soon as they saw that I went into the woods deeming them too dangerous and everyone that entered it immediately dead.

Reaching the Treeline and starting to run a bit slower i looked back and saw that the Guards that were after me weren’t even full guards, Just some apprentices wearing the standard kingdom issued training armor Consisting of a belly free breastplate and some Chainmail over Leather as well as sturdy boots and a standard shortsword.

That in itself would not have been so bad if it wasn’t for the fact that neither of them slowed down and instead just continued sprinting after me into the woods causing me to bolt away from them even faster to make up for the distance i had already lost while looking back.

I tried to get them off my trail by weaving between trees hoping they would lose sight of me but the Blonde one, who I assumed was the leader of the two as he was sort of dragging the rusthead behind him sometimes, was on my track like a Bloodhound.

I started to wonder if maybe they had a death wish following me in here seeing as I didn’t even know where I was anymore and I doubted they knew either, but this was a race for Survival MY Survival and I was not about to lose it.

I dared to look behind me one more time and saw that I had gained a bit of distance between us and I hoped that would only grow from here on out.

But as it turns out, looking behind yourself while running is not a good idea as I learned the hard way after a misstep led to me falling into a sinkhole that I didn’t see and tumbling down only served to scrape my knees and elbows.

The disorienting slide came to a stop at the bottom of a small cave where I face planted into the ground landing on some branches and dirt.

As I tried to stand up I noticed that my ragged shirt had caught onto something, and looking down I saw a Skeleton! 

Biting back a scream at this sudden development I tried to get off of it in a panic only to realize that the skeleton’s arm was sticking to my own as it appeared that a bracelet it had worn slipped over my own wrist as I fell on top of it.

Yanking the bones away and intending to just throw the Trinket next to it as it suddenly shrunk around my arm fitting perfectly like a second skin with inlaid gems I had never seen before, and now impossible to take off.

oh great some magic shit on top of this already bad day i mused in grimm irony as i tried to strip the thing off with no results.

Deciding to deal with this later and focus on escaping my entourage for now i climbed some roots that led me out of the hole i had initially fallen in.

Looking around for a second I saw that the men hunting me like Wildshot were way closer than before, so turning around I just booked it into the opposite direction towards a clearing I could see in the distance.

While stumbling exhaustedly over branches and stones I did not notice that I had started to grow until I stumbled once again and fell down.

getting up and looking back to the two that had followed me suddenly noticed that i was about five times their size now and they both stared at me, the Rusthead in unabashed Horror and the blonde in a sort of grimm shock.

I was stunned by this development. 

How did I grow? 

Then my mind and eyes snapped back to the Bracelet with the inlaid gems and I figured that the thing had to be actually cursed to do this to me.

Looking at the two guards in training, the blonde one who was ready to just stab me with his shortsword, now a mere toy to me, simply kept staring for a moment frozen in place.

I acted without thinking and grabbed the Rusthead next to him in a fist and plucked his weapon away from him as he squirmed in my grip.

“HEY!! LET HIM GO YOU BEAST!” 

commanded the blonde as he yelled at me.

“or what?” 

I growled at him in the deepest voice I could muster which, considering my newfound size was a lot deeper than I anticipated and ended up shaking the rusthead in my grip to the core as he tried to wiggle free from my grasp or at least get one of his arms free.

“I- i don’t know but please don’t hurt him! he’s only here because i told him to” 

the Blonde seemed a lot more jittery all of a sudden without his sword as he stared at my hand that had trapped his friend? brother? 

Whatever the Rusthead might be to him it was apparently rather important for him that he stayed alive and unhurt.

I realized I could use this to my advantage and began thinking up a plan on the spot.

“i’ll make you a deal”

I offered him.

“I know you’ll get as many guards as soon as possible the moment i let the little guy go so i will take him with me”

As he began to protest I cut him off saying.

“not forever of course, just for a week and then i send him on his way to skitter back to you”.

The guy in question apparently didn’t like that as he began shouting at me but I ignored it and instead put one of my fingers over his mouth to silence him.

The Blonde looked distrustingly at me and seemed to consider the pros and cons of this. 

He was probably fully aware that at this size I could very easily kill him and the Rusthead.

his eyes kept darting between my face and my hand which still held the other boy in an inescapable grip and finally sighed regretfully.

“if you PROMISE that you wont hurt him then i’ll agree to this just please don’t hurt him it’s my fault that he’s here”

He pleaded and started to take of his bag that he previously carried on his back

“I know that you’ll be far away by the time you’ll let him go. 

Can you take this with you? 

it contains some supplies so he can find his way back home”

I used my unoccupied hand to inspect the bag and saw that it contained a rope, a waterskin, a knife and some other useful tools.

While I inspected the bag the Blonde and the rusthead kept looking at each other desperately trying to figure a way out of this.

Stashing the bag in the front pocket of my pants I took my finger off of the Rustheads mouth so he could talk again which he immediately did.

“ARTHUR!” He wailed and tried once again to fruitlessly squirm free.

oh so the Blonde guy was named Arthur? 

“well say bye, you’ll see each other again in about a week” 

I held the wiggling Rusthead closer to the guy that apparently was named Arthur and let them say a few words to each other before standing up for the first time since I’ve grown into a giant and immediately getting a bit dizzy from the height I was looking down at Arthur.

Calculating a bit and using the Rusthead in my fist as a reference point I concluded that I was at least thirty feet tall now, if not bigger.

That was a lot larger than anything else I’ve ever seen and I was surprised that I didn’t just straight up put dents in the ground where I was standing.

Collecting myself and Holding the Rusthead, who at this point had given up trying to get free, closer to my chest i began walking in a random direction, now that i was a giant i could absolutely not go back to a city ever again i realized dejectedly, as i would immediately be killed on sight.

Fuck the King and his stupid policies that no Nonhuman is allowed within the Kingdom walls.

Deciding to shove my bitterness towards a man who I had never met away from me for some other time and trying to be at least a little friendly, I decided to try and reassure the little guy in my hand…

Oh Fuck i was holding an entire Person in my hand, that was insane!

Why did my brain only catch up with the fact that I was a giant now?

Making decisions on a whim when your life is in danger was apparently not my strong suit as I was now stuck with a person barely a fifth of my size for a week.

Shifting my grip on the guard in my hand I ripped his armor plate off and put it in my pocket to the rest of the stuff so I could hold him better.

He still had the chainmail and leather on him, And I had currently no Intention in taking that from him, as I promised that he wouldn’t be hurt, I deemed it best to leave him a majority of his armor.

Besides without a weapon there was no feasible way that he could hurt me.

But it still was extremely weird that I could fit an entire Person in my hand.

The guard in my Hands was still visibly shaken from the whole ordeal and fidgeting nervously with his Arms.

“Calm down Rusthead you’re fine i’m not going to hurt you" 

I tried to reassure him.

He however just mumbled

"don’t call me Rusthead”

and was honestly pouting about it.

“What do you want me to call you then?”

I asked him which seemed to catch him off guard a little as he looked at me surprised.

“ Oh uh…i… well my Name is Robin so call me that?" 

He jumbled out awkwardly.

"Alright I’ll do that, just cause we’re Stuck together for a week doesn’t mean we have to be mean to each other”

I replied while ducking under some branches making him flinch from the sudden shift in gravity and cling to my Fingers.

"So uh what’s your Name?”

Robin tried awkwardly to make smalltalk.

“Im Donovan and, well i’m not usually this tall”

I told him while trying to find another clearing.

“Yeah i can believe that you seemed just as surprised and confused as we did” 

he confessed.

“Also, can I ask where we are going?” 

he added meekly.

“Well frankly i have no idea so i think i’m going to go towards the Wyrmhurst Mountain and See if i can climb it"  

A Look of Horror crossed Robin’s Face at the mention of the highest peak in the direct vicinity of Kamerasca.

“Are you insane??? That’s like the most dangerous place here!! why would you even WANT to go there?!?”

“well im Giant now so i don’t know what would want to mess with me, besides i only want to go up there because i think i could see really far away”

Looking around I saw that the sun stood way lower than before and decided to start seeking for a shelter before the night fell.

“Besides i can just let you run back to Tunstead when i’m at the base of the mountain i’m not going to Climb that thing with you in my hands”

“So I don’t have to go up there? at least that’s a positive for now”

I nodded at him and continued striding through the forest even if my legs needed a rest soon. 

I had been up and about since yesterday morning after all.

Coming into a small clearing and deciding to just use the spot as a temporary camp for tonight, I asked the guy that currently just hung limply in my hand.

“Hey, are you tired? i think this place will do okay as a campsite for tonight”

“im fine with anything really” 

he conceded.

“as long as you don’t snore i guess” 

he added a lot more quiet.

“i’m pretty sure i don’t snore otherwise the actual guards in Tunstead would have found me sleeping in the alleys”

I reached my hand out and grabbed at the leaves of a nearby tree to try and to make it into a nest for Robin to sleep in.

the leaves felt flakey and almost fake in my now giant hands.

I realized halfway through my foraging that if I left Robin to sleep by himself without something to keep him from running away he would do exactly that.

Remembering the bag the other one gave me, I fished it out of my pocket and took the rope out that it contained.

“What are you…? uh what are you gonna do with that?”

the smaller asked nervously, staring at the rope in my hand.

“Well I know if i go to sleep you will just run away so i have to tie you up so you don’t escape”

I explained to him trying to figure out the best way to do this.

“WAIT wait can we talk about this? I’m not keen on sleeping on the ground while tied up like a wild horse!” 

He had started squirming again to get free, but like the last time it did not do anything other than tire himself out even more.

“You’ll be fine, it’s just rope not the end of the world” 

I rolled my eyes at him and started binding his legs together.

“ah what about ummm rope burn?! I don’t want rope burns that’s nasty and could get infected?”

He had started rambling at me to get me to reconsider tying him up, but he did have a point with the rope burns so, reaching into the bag once again, I took out what appeared to be a spare undershirt and started wrapping it around his bare arms.

“There, that should solve the rope burn problem” 

I told him as I tied his arms to his front.

“But what if one of the monsters of this forest shows up? or worse!”

He tried once more to get out of this by talking.

“if something does show up just scream and i’ll kick it as far as i can”

I told him while setting him onto the leaves I had prepared earlier and lying down next to it myself, sticking close in case he decided to somehow rob away while bound.

“At least i get a bed” 

he grumbled and fell over onto his side facing away from me.

“Whatever Goodnight, And if somethings wrong just yell for me” 

I said in his general direction, the entire day of walking had made me tired and now that the sun was gone I could barely keep my eyes open.

shuffling around a bit to get comfortable I closed my eyes and drifted into a dreamless sleep.

I was awoken later by someone saying my name, which in itself was unusual, as I rarely had any reason to tell it to anyone.

It took me a few seconds to recognize who was talking to me and at first I tried just going back to sleep before my name was said again.

Opening my eyes to look at Robin I saw that it was still night judging by the darkness around us.

“What’s the Problem?” I asked him sleepily and wished that it was nothing so I could go back to bed. 

I felt heavier than ever before and really just wanted to keep sleeping.

“It’s very cold. Can you make a fire?” he asked with chattering teeth.

Opening my eyes completely I saw my breath come out in little clouds and looking over to Robin I could just about make out frost on the leaf bed I had made and him lying pitifully shaking inside of it.

It was weird that the cold did not seem to bother me at all but i shoved that away for the next morning

“It’s too dark to make a fire and I don’t have firewood” 

I Informed him.

“Do you have any other ideas to warm me up?” 

His teeth chattering worse with each word he said.

Not knowing what else to do I rolled completely on my side, facing him and taking him into my hands once again, while also fishing out a handkerchief that I had in my other pocket intending to let the tiny Guard use it as a Blanket. 

I was glad that I had washed it before this madness happened.

Curling around Robin and laying the cloth over him like a blanket. 

I hoped that this was enough so I could go back to sleep already.

“thank you” 

I heard the softly spoken words that just barely reached my ears shortly before I fell back asleep.

The next time I awoke it was thankfully morning and i was not tired anymore, opening my eyes and looking around without moving beyond that as i remembered what had transpired last night and not wanting to roll over the small Guard i simply continued lying there.

glancing down to see if he was also awake I found him staring intently at a dandelion where a Bee currently tried to get nectar, not caring at all that it was stared at.

Shifting around a bit, I decided to at least wish him a good morning after he had to sleep in the cold for a few hours.

“Good morning” 

I politely greeted him.

He however, Flinched like a Wyvern had snuck up on him and whipped his head around to stare at me with wide pupils, Brown eyes wide before blinking and going back to normal.

“Hey you good?” 

I inquired about his weird reaction.

“ah i’m sorry i just had my mind somewhere else” 

He explained and then added sheepishly.

“i’m afraid it happens a lot that i just zone out”

“So I noticed” 

I replied dryly and started to get intending to stretch my muscles.

“So uh Donovan right?” 

I heard him ask from the Ground where he looked up at me.

“Yeah what is it?” 

I responded and bent down again to scoop his still rope bound form up from the ground while also pocketing my Handkerchief again.

“Can you unbind me now? Night is over and i want to be able to move again”

He seemed nervous asking me for anything at all which, considering the happenings of the past twenty four hours, I could not blame him.

Still I had not eaten since yesterday Morning as I was rudely interrupted by the entire madness that led to my current Situation and would have to get something today.

And having a small Person in my Hands while trying to find something would not be helpful.

“Not yet, i need to find something to eat first and dragging you around with me is not gonna do me any favors in that regard”

“Wait, you’re not gonna leave me tied up on the ground are you???”

He blurted out worriedly.

He HAD a fair point in that actually, i could not leave him in case one of the less friendly residents of this Forest showed up.

Having him sit on the floor would only be dangerous so thinking about it for a second I got another idea.

“I’m not gonna leave you on the floor don’t worry i’ll just put you in a tree most things can’t climb anyways so you should be safe” 

I explained to him and started looking for some suitable Greenery.

“That’s not any better?!?” 

He exclaimed bewildered and tried to chew on the part of the rope that went over his shoulder but couldn’t quite reach it.

“it’ll be fine i’ll just hunt some wildgame or something and i’ll share so you get something too”

I tried to placate him but he still looked grumpy about it as I put him in a tree somewhere above my head and left him dangling from a piece of rope.

“I’ll be right back with something to eat, okay? you’ll be fine in the meantime”

he did not respond and instead just pouted at me as I slowly went to look for anything edible.

Trying to navigate through the underbrush quietly proved to be difficult with my new size, as I kept stepping on branches and twigs and even entire logs as well as hitting my head on the overgrowth, sometimes alerting a few Birds.

I shifted a bit so he could see it and pointed to the pale mark on the back of my shoulder blades illuminated by the red fire, giving it a strange orange glow.

“How did you get that one??? What happened?”

He was back to his blubbery old self, damaged tooth forgotten for now at the sight of the pale line on my back.

“Well one time a guard almost got me, but i was a bit faster than him, and as i turned a corner i was suddenly bleeding from my back, Then I looked over my shoulder and apparently that guy just fucking threw his sword at me”

“Wait what? that's so dumb though, why would anyone throw their weapon like this?”

I shook my head at him as i didn't know why someone would do that either, it was a bad idea really, Why risk losing an expensive weapon?

But that was in the past and didn't matter now, I was just glad that I had no other lasting damage other than the scar.

“Whatever, it's late we should sleep like Rikaad said”

I shifted a bit over to flatter ground and flicked some rocks away so I could lay there without having sharp things poke me all the time.

Shifting to lay on my side and facing the fire I settled down for sleep.

Feeling something move at my chest area I looked down to see Robin curling up next to my thorax, probably trying to steal some warmth.

He looked like a kitten next to me and curling up like this didn't help to get rid of the mental image, so I just left him lying there and put my arm as a barrier between the forest and him.

Having him die while he was lying next to me would be rather traumatizing, not to mention if something were to get this close it would probably try to kill me too.

Settling down completely on the ground I closed my eyes and fell asleep basically trying to get as much sleep as I could before I had to take my watch shift.

Having expected to be woken up in the middle of the night by Rikaad to watch the camp i was surprised to find that when i awoke it was already morning.

I looked around confusedly and the first thing i saw was Robin still curled up next to me and fast asleep, The second thing I saw was Rikaad sitting next to my shirt and fiddling with the fabric, what was he doing?

“Rikaad? Why are you messing with my shirt? I only have one you better not destroy it”

I was still a bit sleepy and with Robin half leaning half lying on me I didn't want to move.

“I am not messing with it, i'm just repairing small holes so they don't tear”

He spoke quietly and focused back on his task.

It was weird, this was one of the nicest things anyone had ever done for me, so I better never tell him that I stole it from a clothesline a few months ago.

I was still a bit befuddled at the fact that i hadn't been woken up for a watch shift but looking closer at Rikaad he had bags under his eyes but somehow still moved like a man wide awake.

“Have you slept? Nobody woke me up for my shift watching, don't tell me you were awake the entire night”

He shook his head and continued patching up my shirt.

“I couldn't, not with Arthur still back there, so i started doing this instead, but i do hope that we can come up with a plan to get Arthur back today”

Now I felt a bit guilty, I knew Arthur wasn't captive anymore and actually fine if probably quite disgusted at what had happened.

I was glad that today we would backtrack a tiny bit and meet him somewhere in the woods.

I really hoped he would never tell anyone that i ate him but i couldn't realistically expect that it would stay a secret forever.

So bringing them back to Kamerasca and then leaving would be the best option as much as being alone again pained me.

“Done, try seeing if the stitches hold when you put it on”

He held a corner of the cloth in my direction and I tried to take it without waking Robin who was still snuggled up to me.

Sadly I was unsuccessful and he woke up, blinking owlishly against the morning light and flopping onto his back.

“Ugh, morning”

While Robin complained about the sun I put my newly fixed shirt back on and was happy to find that all the tears were expertly fixed, even the ones I had tried fixing had been redone.

He really was surprisingly good at this, Robin hadn't been kidding.

Standing up I just put some dirt over the still smoldering remains of the fire, I didn't want to cause a forest fire after all.

“So what is the plan? Just backtrack and see what we can do?”

Rikaad stood up and put his sewing supplies away.

“Ideally we will know what to do before we get there, but yes for now we backtrack and try to figure it out on the way”

Robin immediately came up to me, looking at me with wide eyes, holding his arms up as a signal that he wanted to be picked up again.

Obliging, I cupped him to my chest and started to walk after Rikaad the way we came from yesterday, all the while on the lookout for Arthur.

I could hear Rikaad quietly mumbling to himself, likely trying to come up with a plan even if I knew it was unnecessary.

He didn't know that Arthur was fine after all, and I couldn't tell him, but he'd see soon enough that Arthur was fine.

I hoped.

There was the possibility that he had gotten lost in the dark or been attacked by another manticore.

Shaking such thoughts out of my head I continued to trail after the dark haired human in front of me.

It was funny, his almost black hair and well toned skin let him blend in near perfectly into his surroundings.

I was really glad that he chose not to kill me when we first met, which is also another reason why I couldn't tell him about the pouch.

I was worried he'd change his mind on letting me live, I somehow didn't doubt he'd actually find a way to end me.

Lazily walking through the underbrush after him I kept my eyes open for any sign of Arthur, or worse.

I wasn't sure that the Maringand Guard had given up yet on following us and I hoped I didn't have to find out.

Hearing something snap up ahead my muscles tensed, ready to defend myself before hearing a loud shout.

“FUCK”

That was Arthur's voice!

He was right up ahead and yelling at something.

I hoped he wasn't in trouble but before I could react Rikaad had already pelted over the ground in the direction of Arthur, hands on his sword.

“Rikaad wait! Donovan let's go!”

Robin tugged at my shirt and pointed after Rikaad and I followed a bit more cautiously, what if some of the Guards did follow us this deep into the forest?

But actually seeing Arthur was a relief, even if he had somehow managed to get seriously stuck in a thornbush and was hitting it loudly swearing with a stick.

Rikaad had already begun helping him untangle and I set Robin down who immediately tried to help too.

“ARTHUR! Are you okay? How did you get away? How did you end up in a bunch of thorns?”

Robin was babbling excitedly again while worrying for his friend.

While they tried to get him out of the thorns by shoving all of them aside I decided to pick him up, lifting him out of the thorns, and he was clinging to my fingers as he dangled over the prickly bushes.

“FUCKING- i hate plants im going to set this green hell on fire one day!”

Setting him down in front of the other two he was immediately tackled into a hug by Robin.

He looked a bit miserable, like he hadn't slept at all and being stuck in a bush didn't do him any favors whatsoever if the countless bleeding scratches were any indication.

“Im fine, im fine stop fretting about me! I just want to get as far away as possible from THAT place so can we move along now?”

He really didn't seem pleased at all and very tired, more so than Rikaad.

“How did you escape? Or did they let you go? What happened?”

Now Rikaad was the one asking questions and I nervously glanced at Arthur.

Robin however did look at me with a puzzled expression and then back at Arthur.

I twitched nervously, I hadn't taken into account that Robin could also tell about it, but when he looked back at me he winked and put a finger over his mouth.

Looking back at Arthur he was fishing some leaves out of his hair and then looked back at Rikaad.

“I escaped through sewers and no i'm not going to elaborate, it was horrible enough already lets just go”

He walked past Rikaad with his shoulders hunched over and a miserably tired expression.

Baffled Rikaad went after him and I followed, scooping Robin back into my palms and holding him against my torso.

“Arthur? You look tired, maybe you should rest? I could carry you if you want?”

At my offer he looked up at me with tired eyes seemingly taking some time to comprehend what I had said before he shook his head.

“I'm fine, I can walk by myself, let's just go as far away as possible, okay?”

He continued stubbornly walking away from Maringand and was heading towards the mountains.

Weird, I had thought we had given up on going there, well the others at least.

It was still my plan to go there after I had dropped the small humans off at Kamerasca.

The thought of being alone again hurt more and more with each passing day but I continued to ignore it, there wasn't anything I could do about it anyway.

Following him and Rikaad I made sure to not hit my head on any of the tree branches that were getting denser the closer we got to the mountains.

“Donovan? Do you think he's okay?”

Robin whispered from my hands trying to get as close to my ears as possible without falling over.

“I think so? he said he was at least, i'm sure hes just tired and grumpy, you said yourself he's a grumpy man so i think he's okay”

He didn't look entirely convinced but sat back down into my palms, lounging lazily against my fingers and watching the ground beneath him.

“So wait a second, Where do we go now exactly? I thought we would be going back home and not to the mountains?”

Robin did have a point in that, I wasn't sure what route exactly the others wanted to go but I was pretty sure that Kamerasca wasn't in that direction.

“Well since we don't really know where we are and which direction to go to it might actually be a good idea going somewhere higher up to plan a new route, lest we end up in a different part of Maringand instead of Kamerasca”

Rikaad admitting that we were kind of lost wasn't what I expected to hear, but at least he was honest about it.

“So we are going to go higher up and see if we can find the way home like that? Are you sure about that? I thought the mountains were dangerous?”

Robin was now clinging to my fingers again, he was probably a bit scared of the mountains from all the rumors there were in Kamerasca about them.

“It'll be fine if something does show up i'll just kick it as hard as i can”

I tried to reassure him while still trailing after Arthur and Rikaad.

Rikaad was trying to get Arthur to stop for a second so he could assess his wounds, which consisted of multiple scratches and a possibly broken nose.

Arthur ignored it and just kept stomping forward and I sort of expected him to collapse at any moment now.

It was weird, for him to be this tired he really must have been awake the entire night and who knew how long he had been stuck in those thorns.

Rikaad suddenly turned to me motioning for me to lean down.

“Can you help me for a second? I want to make sure all those scratches are clean, we can't risk an infection out here and he is being stubborn, so could you pick him up for a bit?”

Nodding and setting Robin next to him on the ground I went over to Arthur and Picked him up.

Immediately he began weakly cursing and tried to kick my fingers, sitting down next to Rikaad I held the angrily twitching form of Arthur in front of him.

“Calm down, I just want to make sure those cuts don't get infected, you said yourself you escaped through sewers right? I don't think a river bath is going to get rid of all of the nastiness from that so keep still and let us help”

Arthur went still at this, seemingly only now realizing that the story he had told would mean that he had crawled through some Nasty stuff.

“Ugh fine but i still want to put as many miles between myself and Maringand, at least i didn't have to swim in that stuff so just get it over with”

He went limp and I carefully set him on the ground where we apparently now made an impromptu camp in the middle of the day.

Robin somehow had found a lot of dry branches and was putting them together in a heap to make a fire while Rikaad pulled a metal cup from somewhere and instructed Robin to go fill it with water at the river.

While Robin did that Rikaad inspected Arthur's broken nose and dabbed the dirt away with a small Piece of cloth, much to the protest of Arthur who flinched every time it touched his nose.

I feel kind of useless right now. 

I was too big to properly help while Robin could go get water and Rikaad was able to take care of Arthur's wounds, and I was just sitting here next to them completely unable to do anything helpful.

It sucked, it was really dumb that I had been struck by this stupid curse, and it felt more and more tempting to just try and yank it off even if I destroyed my hand in the process.

But there was no guarantee that just ripping it off my wrist with force would actually break the curse.

I might just stay a giant, but then with only one working hand which Honestly was even worse.

Since I couldn't help the smaller men I instead went to be on the lookout for anything that would come near us.

At least i could help by making sure no uninvited beings showed up, The last we needed right now was another Manticore thinking it could snatch up a human.

Luckily the only thing that came from the forest was Robin with the water which he put on the fire Rikaad had made in the meantime.

Seeing them move as a unit like this to help Arthur I felt kind of…jealous? No that wasn't it, it wasn't jealousy more like..envy.

I envied them for the fact that they had someone to rely on when they needed it, and I envied them for not having to be alone all the time.

I envied them for being human with human friends, something I could never have as a Bastard.

I hated myself for being the son of an Elven man and Human woman.

I sort of wished that my mother had never met the pointy eared man that promised her the world, and then ditched her as soon as he could when he found out that she was pregnant.

Well, lamenting about a past I couldn't change wasn't going to help anything, and at least my mother stuck around as long as she could before dying of typhoid.

Watching the small men patch up Arthur was even a bit endearing, they did their best with whatever supplies they had while Arthur looked close to nodding off after probably spending the entire night awake.

After some time they had patched him up as god as they could and put all of their stuff away.

Leaning down again after they were finally done I put my hand down on the ground as I was sure Robin would want to be carried again.

But instead of Robin climbing on Rikaad dragged a tired looking Arthur over to me.

“Does the offer of carrying him still stand? I think he might fall asleep standing up at this point”

I nodded and very carefully let Rikaad drag the at this point half asleep Arthur into my hands.

He really must have not slept at all since i had sent him off downstream, Rikaad hadn't either but he seemed to be fine aside from some darker circles under his eyes, he really was the scariest out of the three.

Cupping the tired form of the small human closer to my chest I started walking after the other two small men again.

The mountains did look a lot closer now than before our Capture and I hoped once there we could see which way to take to get them back to Kamerasca.

Until then though I would do my best to be helpful, and for now that meant carrying a sleepy and bruised Arthur while the other two led the way.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was now two days after we escaped from Maringand and Arthur had almost completely healed aside from a slightly crooked nose and the obvious bruising.

He also had kept his word about not telling Rikaad about how he actually escaped, which I was glad about.

We had gotten a lot closer to the mountain in the time we had walked even if i still thought that if i carried all of them it would have been faster but so far the only one that had never actually willingly climbed into my hands was Rikaad, and he made no sign of ever wanting to do that.

It was fine that he didn’t, I just wish walking after them didn't feel so awfully slow.

It did make sense that i was able to walk a lot faster than they were seeing as my legs were taller than them, none of the humans even reached up to my knees.

At the very least we were now very close to the mountains and I could see Wyrmhurst mountain in front of me, only a few minutes walk away and I realized for the first time how steep it actually was.

I marveled at the fact that something Steeper than a barn roof didn't just collapse in itself, which also presented the question how the fuck anyone was supposed to climb this thing.

The narrow woods surrounding us weren't any help either as I got stuck more and more often in the branches as the trees got bigger the farther we traveled and Rikaad had to patch my shirt twice now.

In short, this sucked, a lot.

We probably would have to go around it a bit to see if there were any less dangerous places to climb.

But maybe we got lucky and the first place we found was at least somewhat climbable.

Expecting either more Forest or just a wall of stone, I was surprised that we suddenly emerged in a little clearing that had a big Oak Tree stump that went up to be over my head, and surprisingly an askew hut that had been directly embedded into the cliffside of the mountain.

Judging by the smoke coming out of one of the three chimneys it was even inhabited.

“Who the fuck would live out here of all things?”

Arthur had apparently seen the smoke too, and I did have to give him right on this, This was out in a Forest that was widely regarded as dangerous and deadly as proven by the fact that I had to fight off at least three more manticores in the two days we had traveled.

At least most of the Wildlife left us alone due to my size but it was still annoying, and mosquitoes did not care how big I was so they were the major annoyance anyway.

But it was still strange why someone would live out here of all places.

“No idea maybe they got banished or something, i think we should just leave it alone”

I really didn't want to mess with someone that had survived out here, human sized no less as indicated by the hut.

If someone could survive out here they probably had a lot of skill and I wanted to keep my hide intact a bit longer.

I didn't want to walk backwards in case one of the humans was right behind me so instead I turned my head around to scout the area, Rikaad doing the same, trying to figure out where to go to not intrude in this place.

Suddenly I heard an unknown voice from somewhere above me and I looked around to locate it.

“What do we have here? Humans? This far out and traveling with an Ardua no less, how strange”

I could not find where the voice was coming from, it sounded like it was above me somewhere between two big trees and I hoped that I was still the only giant here.

I didn't know if I could fend off an actual one and I'd rather not test that.

And what the hell was the voice even talking about? The human comment made sense but the rest not so much.

Feeling Robin hide behind my leg I decided to respond to the voice and see if it was hostile or not.

“Who are you? What do you mean by that? And where are you? I don't like talking to disembodied voices”

The other two humans had also shifted to stand closer to me, likely not wanting to suddenly find themselves face to face with a possibly hostile being.

“You can call me Oakley, and I'm right here, you have to look up to the tree young Ardua, i'm right in front of you on one of the branches”

Hearing the voice who introduced itself as Oakley say that they were in the tree in front of me, I tried my best to actually find them, but I couldn't make out anything.

It seemed even the others couldn't see anything either judging by Robin's reaction.

“I can't see anything? Are you sure that you are there? Or are you messing with us?”

“Look again”

This time I could actually make something out, but only because it was moving, having blended in perfectly before due to standing absolutely still.

The figure that showed itself was wearing a dark green patterned cloak that hid most of their other features.

But I could make out the Pointiest ears I had ever seen poking out from between hair that had the color of oak bark, and strangely bent legs with weird birdlike feet that had two of their toes bent backwards to grip the branch the figure was sitting on better.

After a second I could also make out a sort of tail swaying behind them that was split into two at the last part showing that their skin was the color of Stripped oak wood.

If they had not moved I would never have been able to tell that they were there.

Silently stalking closer i planned to just grab it and get back to where i left Robin i was startled by a Loud shout of. 

“HELP HELP I’M KIDNAPPED SOMEONE HELP THEY TIED TO A TREE”

The deer of course ran away as soon as the wailing started and I was left once again without anything to eat.

At this point it was a wonder that i did not feel any Hunger Pains but i sure WAS feeling Angry now as this was the second time i got interrupted while getting something to eat.

All but Dashing through the surrounding greenery not caring if the branches cut my skin I waltzed into the clearing I had left Robin in, who was still shouting but stopped when he saw me.

Yanking him from the tree and holding him in front of my face i hissed angrily 

“What’s the big idea? you WANT some Monster to come get you? Because of your screaming I lost the Deer i was hunting so I didn’t get anything to eat yet again! do that one more time and you’re the one to replace the meat, got it?!”

He was looking at me thoroughly horrified and with tears beginning to form in his eyes while he shook in my hand struggling to breathe from me holding him a bit too tight

“I’m sorry! I'm Sorry! I saw a Road and thought if someone was there they would get me free! I’m sorry! i didn’t know you already had seen something I'm sorry! please don’t kill me”

He cried out, starting to weep softly to himself.

Looking at the weeping boy in my grasp I started to feel a bit guilty for scaring him like this. 

I changed how I held him so he could breathe easier and instead cupped him to my chest next to my heart, sighing. 

“I’m not gonna kill you, just don’t scream like that again okay?”

I tried to calm him down while not looking at him.

The entirety of this nonsense was Harder than I thought, I never had to take care of another living being and I did not know what to do.

“Look i apologize for shouting at you but i got angry and i really haven’t had anything of sustenance in three days I'm surprised my stomach didn’t just eat itself yet”

He was still curled up but he stopped weeping into my shirt but he kept refusing to look at me.

“Also, you mentioned a road? I don’t think there’s supposed to be anything this far out? Can you point me to it?”

He looked up and pointed towards a place a bit down the slight slope we were on and I could actually see a sort of path there.

“Can you stay quiet this time when I check that out?”

I asked him softly and started walking to where he pointed at me trying to be as quiet as I could once again.

Robin still didn’t really look at me but he did keep quiet until we reached what did look like a small road in the middle of a forest but it was far more muddy than any human made path and had no footprints that could belong to any sort of human.

It did however have lots of animal prints like Deer and what i assumed to be wolves

“this is an animal trail! oh that’s actually lucky!”

Robin finally looked at me, suddenly seeming a bit more eager to do something.

“So you mean we can set a trap here?”

“i guess but i have no idea how to make one though”

I admitted to him and tried to think of other ways to catch something, Maybe I should try to just ambush it?

“I know how to make one! i can tell you how, but uhh you need the rope for that”

I looked back at him and considered what he told me,

On one hand he could use this to try to escape again.

On the other hand, the trap I’d be making had a chance to actually work and I could still just hold him to prevent him from running away.

“Alright fine if you know how to do it tell me”

I started unraveling the rope around him as I spoke and made sure to hold onto him as the last of it fell down.

“oh.. well you need two tree trunks and some sticks also a rock”

he started to explain while he clung to one of my fingers that were holding him and just generally tried to move his arms that had been bound since yesterday.

Picking up everything he asked me one handed and putting it in a heap next to the trail, I still had no idea what type of trap this would make.

“soo now explain to me what to do and i will build it as you tell me but no funny business got it?”

He nodded and started instructing me on how to build the Trap. 

As I went along with his instruction I realized that the Trap consisted of the principle of just smashing whatever walked through between the two trunks I had to get.

Well that would definitely be effective albeit a bit Grim.

“I think it looks good! you’re not a bad builder!”

Robin’s praise at my building skills caught me a bit off guard but I regained my composure just as fast.

“Now we wait somewhere and for the love of all the rivers of Hell be quiet this time!”

He nodded and put his hands over his mouth to show that he would be as silent as possible.

looking around and deciding to just walk around a fair bit away from the trap to wait if it catched anything, as well as try to find some edible plants in the meantime.

Walking through between the stocky old trees while Robin just hung limply in my grasp, apparently rather bored I eventually found a patch of dandelions not too far from the trap.

“Hey look, those are edible, do you want some?”

Robin looked at when i was pointing and the asked confusedly

“they’re edible? i thought they were just some weeds”

“no they’re perfectly edible i think some of the poorer people in Tunstead used them to make salads and i’ve had my fair share of them too”

I told him and proceeded to sit down next to the Flowers, ripping a few of their stems.

Gods the Blossom looked absolutely miniscule in my Hand, a single one didn’t even cover my fingertip anymore when they used to fit perfectly in the middle of my palm.

Sitting Cross Legged on the grass I set Robin in front of me.

“don’t run i WILL catch you”

“i don’t think i could outrun you, your legs are longer than i’m tall”

He also sat on the ground and started ripping flowers out of the dirt and started fiddling with them.

“Donovan? What did you do that the Lady at the market flipped out like that? the way she screamed made it sound like you stabbed someone to death or something”

Ah yeah that question had to come up sometime as neither of the Guards could have actually seen what had happened

“i stole a piece of Bread and the Lady saw my pointy ears so i guess that's enough to make someone scream bloody murder”

I decided to answer honestly as there really was no point in lying and I’ve never been one to outright deceive people.

“thats…Thats it? with how the Lady was screaming it sounded like you murdered her Husband or something”

he was still fiddling with the Dandelions in his hands but seemed a lot more at ease upon finding out that i had not killed anyone

I continued picking up the flowers and stuffing them into my mouth even if it was such a small amount compared to my new size.

Glancing down now and again to make sure Robin stayed put, I saw him having that 100 yard stare again while he just messed with the flowers in his hands.

I was not sure if i should say something or nudge him but he did say that this happened rather frequently so i left it be.

At least until a Booming sound echoed through the forest making me flinch and he let out a rather adorable high pitched squeak.

I decided not to comment on it and instead tried to think of something that could make such a sound while scooping him into my Hands once again while standing up.

“uhh i think that was the trap? should we look?”

Robin pointed out nervously and shakily held the flowers he was fiddling with a few seconds ago which I now saw had been made into a Flower Crown, which fell to the ground as I stood up.

“sure, i hope it got something in it though”

I did really hope the trap got something as I’ve been running on basically nothing for three days now, even if strangely enough I still did not feel any hunger whatsoever, pushing it off as stress from being a Giant I went back to where the trap was with Robin in my hand.

This was getting inconvenient but my shirt had no pockets so I would just have to deal with it.

Getting to the Trap it did indeed work as there was something that Resembled a Boar even if it had its skull smashed in by the Tree Trunks that were used to build this thing.

The only recognizable feature in its face were the Tusks.

The overall size of this thing was also impressive as it was longer than Robin was tall, about seven feet in length.

“Jackpot, that thing got a lot of meat on it don’t you think?”

I grinned down at Robin who was staring at the Animal with an unreadable expression.

“i didn’t think this would have enough strength to just pulverize a skull”

He admitted and looked in sort of horrified realization at it while I tried to pry our catch free one handed.

I succeeded in pulling the Boar out between the Logs but the motion caused blood to spill from its smashed skull running over my fingers and making the Scarlet liquid stick to my hand.

Gross, I hoped I could find a way to clean that.

Walking away with both hands occupied, I went back to the little clearing the Dandelions were in and nabbed a few branches with the hand that held the boar so we could make a fire.

However, upon setting things up I realized that I was way too big to properly prepare the meat.

Robin was staying unusually quiet and just kept staring at the Boar before he asked

“Can you carve it at your size? Do you even have a knife?”

“No to both of those but if i give you a knife and you promise not to use it to attack me would you prepare it? i would probably just mess it up with my too big Hands”

I knew giving him anything sharp at all would be a risk but at this point it had been three and a half days since i had anything to eat and i knew that a body couldn’t just function on nothing.

Reaching into my pocket and Giving him his Dagger back for the time being I set him in front of the Boar so he could get to work while i tried to make a fire, 

but I never took my eye off of him for long to ensure he would not suddenly run up and stab me.

It took quite a few tries but eventually i managed to get a fire going just as Robin told me he was done

“What am I supposed to do with the guts? i don’t want to leave them next to the Campsite, who knows what monster might get Lured by the smell”

He did have a point in that so I started to dig a hole to bury the bloody entrails.

As Robin stood up I noticed that his front was soaked in Boarblood so I took my Handkerchief out once again.

“you’re also kinda bloody wash up with this while i cook”

I tossed the cloth at him and he started trying to get all of the blood off himself with the oversized fabric while we waited for the meat to cook.

When the meat was finally done and I took it off the fire the Sky had started to take on a magenta hue which only intensified as I extinguished the flames with some of the dirt I had dug up earlier.

Not really knowing how to share this thing I simply ripped off a leg and gave it to Robin who took it rather awkwardly from me and tried to just bite chunks out of it while I tried to think of a way to eat my portion as I could not possibly pull the meat off the bones.

In the end I just shoved it into my mouth, biting the Boar in half, crunching on it firmly, easily destroying bones that would have been too large to even be put in my mouth before. 

Robin just looked at me with a rather horrified expression as I stuffed the second half of the Boar in my mouth.

He only managed to eat about half of the leg, maybe a bit less and just held the leftovers out to me.

“im done, you can have this also”

I carefully took the half eaten leg from him with two fingers and devoured it in a single bite.

“so uh i think we should camp here for the night cause i don’t want to walk through these woods when it’s dark”

I went to take the rope out again so we could repeat yesterday’s spiel.

“Can we not tie me up this time? i hate trying to sleep while bound its uncomfy and i get that pins and needles sensation in my arms”

He tried to persuade me so I wouldn’t tie him up overnight again but I knew he would bolt the second I closed my eyes even if he had been strangely placid this whole time.

“sorry but no i want to be able to sleep without you running away and getting an entire army to murder me”

I told him as I tied him up, once again using the spare shirt to cover his arms.

He was trying to look Grumpy but it just ended with him making a pouting face again.

“I hope this Night is gonna be warmer, the last one made me freeze my ass off and now the Blanket is all bloody”

“Well you can use me as a giant space heater i guess”

Lying down on my back, I simply put him on my chest and laid a hand over him like a tent so he wouldn’t roll off.

“here this should work, also if we find a river i’ll wash the ‘Blanket’”

“Thank you? though i do hope this night is warmer”

He curled up under my Hand and for a second I got the Mental image of a little mouse but shoved it away.

“i can hear your heart from here”

The quiet admission had me perk my pointy ears as I glanced down at him.

“yeah i guess, i have two of them”

“you what? but I only hear one?”

He looked at me incredulously as I told him about it.

“well yeah only one works, some of my organs are doubled i also have four kidneys, well three now since some fucker drugged me to sell it to an Alchemist, I’m glad i managed to break that guys nose before he gutted me completely”

I chuckled grimly at the memory of lying on a cold table and someone cutting into my side before just punching the guy.

“So you just… have more organs than you need???”

He seemed extremely confused over this.

“I suppose that’s one way of putting it but I still would like to keep my insides… well inside”

I did not know why I was telling him this stuff. 

After all, when the week was over I’d let him run back to Tunstead and would never see him again.

Though it had been a long time since i could talk to something that was capable of responding so i guess i was just bored with the silence.

I closed my eyes and laid there for a bit knowing that Robin would not be able to get down with me literally as his mattress.

Shortly before i conked out i could feel him lying his head over my heart, glancing down i saw him having that distant stare again, and after about a minute he closed his eyes as his breathing fell into a calmer rhythm indicating that he had fallen asleep.

That was fast, I thought before falling asleep myself.

The next morning I was awoken by sunlight hitting my face and I tried to get up before remembering that Robin was still on my chest.

Looking down i saw that he was still sleeping so i nudged him with finger to get him to wake up

“mmm nrmm ten more minutes”

he just rolled over and gripped my shirt as if trying to use it as a blanket.

“Wake up, sun is out and i want to get going”

I nudged him again and this time he groggily lifted his head blinking owlishly at me

“Wwha? oh… OH! uh good morning?”

He tried to awkwardly Greet me as he tried to get up but fell over as he was still bound with the rope.

I nabbed him off my chest before he could tumble down from it.

“good morning to you as well i thought Guards were supposed to get up at dawn?”

“Uh usually Arthur wakes me up im not a morning person”

He yawned and tried to stretch as much as he could before the rope stopped him.

“Well let’s get going then i want to see if we can find water today, the Waterskin you have is almost empty and i want to wash the Blanket you used”

I really hoped we would find a river or at least a pond today so I could also wash my Handkerchief / Robins Blanket as it had started to just flake off bits of dried blood.

Standing up and making sure Robin didn’t fall off I stretched my muscles and tried to figure out in which direction to go to find some water, in the end I decided to just continue the path I took yesterday.

Picking up everything including the ragged Boarskin as it could be useful later I started to Marching troughs between the trees.

At some point i heard a distant noise like something falling down, At first I thought that it was just a random animal until it happened again and after a few seconds again.

“Do you hear that? any idea what that could be?” 

I asked Robin who shook his head and stared into the direction the noise was coming from.

“What if it’s one of the monsters that live here? i don’t wanna go there”

He all but whispered to me.

“I’m going to check it out but you can wait here if you want”

I was Really curious but I also wanted to make sure that IF there was something this close to us we wouldn’t be ambushed out of nowhere by a being we had never seen before and wouldn’t know how to defend against.

“you’re insane! What if you die? what if it nabs ME and runs away to kill me???” 

Robin tried to get me to not check out a potentially deadly creature but I really didn’t want to end up surprised in the middle of the night by whatever that was.

“its fine, and i said you could stay here while i look what that is im just gonna put you in a tree again”

I picked a random tree and tied Robin between two branches before stepping back and turning to face the noise.

“I’ll be right back don’t worry it’s probably just another Boar or another big animal”

I tried to reassure him before leaving in the direction the Sound was coming from quietly prowling through the Forest.

Hitting my toe on a protruding boulder I cursed under my breath as I got closer to the source of the Thumping noise only to see something that at first glance looked like a fox with deer antlers on its head. 

On a second look it was the size of a horse, had hooves, a cow tail and something that looked to be mushrooms growing out of its back.

I’d never seen something like this before and it was currently headbutting an old tree that was wider than I was tall resulting in the thumping noise I had heard.

As it assaulted the tree branches fell off to the ground, and I could see that they were almost spilling over with maggots.

Eww.

The Maggots didn’t stay there for long as a flock of magpies immediately descended upon it picking it clean in just a minute if not less.

I had no idea what I was watching but decided it best to just leave, backing up I stepped on a branch, the snapping noise alerting the fox/deer creature who whipped its head around in my direction.

I didn’t dare breathe as it looked at me with a head that at first resembled that of a Wolf but with four eyes and a pair of tusks, it blinked and then ran away in the opposite direction, the Magpies following swiftly.

I had no idea what I just witnessed but I did not have time to think about it either as a wordless, blood curdling scream echoed through the woods coming from the place I had left Robin in.

Immediately assuming that there were more monsters that might not be as shy as the one i just saw i sprinted in an adrenaline fueled dash back to where i left him not caring that my face got cut by branches and only shielding my eyes when necessary.

Arriving within seconds where the screaming was coming from, I could at first not make out any sort of danger just Robin still dangling from the tree but screaming like he was murdered.

Coming to a halt next to him and trying to figure out what was happening I saw that a big Spider was climbing down a thread in front of his face and him trying as best as he could to stay as far away as possible.

Not recognizing the species but assuming that it must be extremely venomous for Robin to scream like this, I snatched him away from the spider, not daring to touch the Arachnid in case it had enough venom to kill me.

Stepping a fair distance away and putting him on the ground while trying to see if Robin had been bit by it, but he tried to curl up and had started to hyperventilate

“hey! HEY did it bite you?!”

Nudging him I tried to at least get him to tell me if he was bit but he continued to Hyperventilate with tears in his eyes.

“Okay calm down the thing is gone you can calm down now!”

He didn’t seem to hear me or anything at all really and I worried that he would lose consciousness if he kept breathing like this.

“Okay, try to copy me? it’ll help i promise”

I just hoped it would work as he started to wheeze between his Breaths i tried to show him a breathing pattern that would help calm him down.

Breath in four seconds.

Hold for seven.

Then out for eight.

I repeated this until he started to mimic it and eventually his breathing normalized.

He was still wheezing a bit but he was getting enough air now and slowly going back to normal.

Robin sat next to me and Rikaad, absentmindedly stuffing flowers into his mouth and making even more flower crowns out of those he didn't eat.

Rikaad stood up and looked towards the mountain.

“We should continue our journey after eating we still have some ways to go especially now that we had to flee from the Arachnids”

That much was true.

I had run a good distance away from those things and not in the direction we were headed but rather perpendicular to the mountain.

“Aw fuck but at least we know now how to avoid those critters at least”

Standing up slowly I picked up the flowers that weren't eaten and went over to Arthur, pouring the plants over him to which he reacted by sitting up abruptly and glaring at me.

“That's for stabbing me”

I went back over to the other two without a word.

Robin was laughing but Rikaad was looking rather displeased.

Fuck, i hoped i would not get murdered in my sleep for this.

He did not do anything else and instead turned away from the mountains and started walking back into the woods.

Arthur finally got up and went over to walk next to Rikaad, still glaring at me and tearing into some of the flowers I had tossed over him like an angry dog.

Robin ran up to me and motioned for me to pick him up again, so I once again offered him my hand to climb on.

Arthur did not look happy about it, he probably expected Robin to be scared of me now, honestly I was too so I was glad that it wasn't the case.

Cupping the ginger boy closer to my chest I tried to not walk too fast for the other two.

“You're lazy, ginger boy”

I quipped to the small human in my hands.

“I know”

He just grinned and lounged back against my chest.

The two that were walking by themselves kept looking at my hands, or more specifically the Rusthead that occupied them.

They were probably worried that I would do something.

I tried my best to not be offended and attributed it to what happened earlier instead.

It was a walk in silence for a few minutes until Arthur piped up.

“How long do you think we have to walk? Till we get home i mean”

It took a few moments before Rikaad responded.

“I would guess a few more days but i'm not familiar with the landscape here”

I was sure that as long as we went opposite of the mountain we couldn't go too wrong.

After all, the only thing we could run into would be the ocean if we somehow missed the Kingdom entirely so we would just have to walk along the shore to find civilization.

The redhead in my hands abruptly stood up and I tried my best to not let him fall over on the uneven surface.

“Maybe if Donovan held me over the trees I could see something?”

All of us looked at him a bit alarmed at his suggestion.

While not out of character for him to come up with such a dumb idea it might actually work.

I just wasn't sure how to go about something like that, What if I didn't hold him correctly and dropped him?

The smaller men apparently had similar thoughts as Arthur immediately bristled.

“That a dumb idea! And Dangerous too! What if you fall? You'll break your legs!”

Rikaad however seemed to mull it over.

“It might give insight as to where we currently are but i'm not sure if its a good idea, it might be dangerous if we don't find a way to do secure you this high up”

I looked down at the rusthead, trying to think of a way to hold him that would not result in him falling to the ground should he continue moving like a hyperactive mouse.

“I mean I could? I just would have to hold you i guess”

The Ginger boy nodded enthusiastically and sat down again, his legs straight out forward waiting for me to lift him over the trees.

Taking a few seconds to think of how to do it, I ended up grabbing his lower half in a gentle fist, leaving his arms and torso free.

I really hoped having his legs secure up to his waist would be good enough as he was a rather fidgety little guy.

Since it seemed alright like this I began to slowly lift him over my head, ignoring the death glare Arthur sent me and Rikaad’s icy gaze that lingered on me.

Having Robin so far over my head with my arm completely outstretched I felt like it was rather dumb looking but ignored it at his excited shout.

“I can see a tower! It's a good bit away still but i think we can make it today if we're fast!!”

He was pointing to a spot a tiny bit to our right and away from the mountain still.

That was weird, if anything I would have guessed that I'd be more to our left and farther away too.

How fast had I run away from those spiders?

Attributing it to adrenaline I slowly put Robin down to the ground again making sure not to go too fast to avoid making him dizzy.

He hopped off my hand as soon as he could and went over to the other two.

“I think we can make it today! If we go fast now!”

He grabbed both of their arms and began Dragging them along.

I slowly shuffled behind.

I felt weird over this piece of information.

I didn't know if I was sad or not about the fact that they all would be out of my life soon.

On one hand Robin was extremely nice to me and Rikaad seemed to at least tolerate me, but Arthur seemed to just plain dislike me completely.

Well I wouldn't have to worry about that soon as I couldn't go back to the City anyway, and Humans did not belong in the forest at all.

Slowly dragging my feet over the ground after them I was glad that at least one with Robin dragging them along it was a bit faster and I did not have to stop as much anymore.

It took a few hours to get anywhere close enough that everyone else could see the mentioned tower too, but something was off about it.

The tower looked well kept and clean, even the flags swaying in the light breeze that had warmed up the air since we ran from the spiders looked recently washed.

Wait a second the flags were wrong.

Instead of the yellow star on pale blue ground with the red ring around it it depicted two weird dark blue sickle moons on gray ground.

This was not Kamerasca.

We had walked all the way to the neighboring Kingdom Maringand instead of back to our own Kingdom.

Well this still wasn't so bad, civilisation was civilisation after all.

And the small humans could probably just hitch a ride on a traders cart or something.

Looking down I saw them looking rather confused, and Arthur looked downright frightened for whatever reason.

He probably thought he'd be home by now and realized that he had to walk even more through dangerous territory now.

Robin turned to look between me and Rikaad with puppy eyes.

“How do we go back to Kamerasca now? Donovan can't go through Maringand with us”

I kneeled down to be more at level with them, ignoring whatever Arthur was doing a bit further back.

“I'm Not going with you from this point anymore, i'm going back into the woods, i can't go anywhere near a city anymore as a Giant”

I stood back up as Robin tried to come up with something to say.

“But- but we-uh we are not in Kamerasca yet! You said you'd stay till we got there!”

That was not technically true.

“I said i'd stay with you until we got to a city not that it HAD to be Tunstead, besides only half of this group seems to not hate me so it's better if i just go”

I turned away from the small humans and slowly went away from them into the forest once again, but this time completely alone.

I was not sure what I would do now seeing as I only went Giant rather recently but would make due, I always did.

Having my back turned to them I suddenly heard the telltale CLACK of a bolt being shot from a crossbow.

Feeling it embed itself in my shoulder blade I turned around as fast as I could while ripping it out, thinking I had been betrayed by Rikaad as he was the only one with a crossbow.

As soon as I had turned completely a second bolt was shot straight into my collarbone and another was shot too quickly to have been reloaded into my upper leg.

Already starting to feel the effects of what had to be even more Sedative than last time I tried to figure out where it was coming from while falling to my knees once again.

Looking at a point behind the smaller men I saw an entire group of actual Guards, Guards from Maringand not Kamerasca, had surrounded us on half a side and with the Tranquilliser running through my bloodstream I could not do anything as I fell to the ground completely.

With my Vision Darkening from the edges the last thing I saw was Arthur shoving Robin in Rikaad’s direction before being tackled by at least five Guards into the ground as he tried to run away, now writhing like a man possessed under the heavier humans.

The last thing I heard was Robin shouting something but the words would not register in my brain.

Then everything went completely dark and I was left alone in Nothingness.

Some time passed, and then slowly there was something more than blackness… there was a slight sound… a very very distant thudding.

I frowned in my semi-consciousness… confused by the sound’s presence when just a moment ago there had been soft, fuzzy silence and comfort.

I knew I was lying on the floor, and the ground was a lot harder than the dirt in the forest.

My eyes flickered open to gray dimness, pupils immediately dilating and constricting to adjust to the scarce light, okay… so what was going on?

My thoughts were confused, and I didn't seem to have the capability to move just yet… So… That noise?

A little voice of reason in the back of my head spoke out, ‘That's your heartbeat genius’.

Okay… so i was alive then… or at least… I felt like I was…

Another couple of minutes passed before i regained the ability to move, and i sat up very slowly, putting a hand to the back of my head and rubbing my scalp, trying to recall what had landed me wherever I was now.

Then in a flash I remembered what had happened.

Oh Fuck.

Well one thing after the other, so where the hell was i?

Firstly I seemed to be in a circular room , the tower we had seen maybe?

Looking a bit more it seemed that the only light came from a window way up overhead.

I couldn't reach it even if I wanted to, but at least I had some light to work with.

A ray of dusty light came down all the way to one of the walls and I moved to sit in the sunbeam, there that was better.

Scanning the walls a bit there were small doors laid into the solid Brickwork, about three small ones and one larger one where I had to be brought inside through.

Looking a bit more up I saw the ceiling way way over me, This tower must be huge!

And on what I assumed was an upper floor there were balconies built, still out of reach for me even if I jumped as high up as I could.

So i was taken captive, fuck.

I wasn't sure what would happen to me now, would they keep me as a sort of twisted monster pet? Or would they toss me into an arena to be defeated by a gladiator?

None of the options running through my head were very appealing.

I wondered what had happened to the trio of small humans that I had tagged along with and hoped they were alright.

I knew at least Arthur had a problem when I got shot as the last thing I saw was him tackled into the ground by five soldiers.

Before I could dwell further about the whereabouts of the smaller men though, The smallest door opened for about five seconds and an unconscious person was thrown in.

The person was facing away from me lying in a heap and looking closer was wearing the Kamerasca tunic, all other Armour had been stripped away.

Getting slowly closer I recognized the Blonde hair and Identified him as Arthur.

Of all the people to be thrown into my cell it had to be the one that had an inherent dislike for me, of course.

Still I wanted to make sure he was alive as sharing a cell with a corpse wasn't something I was looking forward to.

And I didn't really believe he deserved to die even if he was an asshole to me.

Not to mention Robin would be sad.

So I gently shook the limp form of the Guard apprentice hoping to get a reaction.

The thing I got was a pained groan and his arms twitching a bit.

“Arthur? Wake up, are you okay? You're not dying on me here right? I don't want a rotting corpse in my cell”

My voice seemed to draw him a bit further out of his sorry state and he started moving to sit up.

I went a bit away from him to the opposite wall of the pit we were trapped in.

“Wha- whas goin onnn?”

He seemed to have trouble identifying where he was and I surmised he got whacked on the head or something.

“We got caught by Maringand dipshit”

He looked thoroughly alarmed by that for reasons that probably went beyond me, I hadn't really taken my time to keep an ear out for stupid politics when on the streets.

“Oh no oh no oh fuck I need to get out of here”

He was panicking and patting at the walls and trying to get the solid iron doors to open by rattling at each of them as hard as he could.

Did he have claustrophobia or something?

Well that wasn't really my problem and i didn't know what to do about it anyway.

He panicked for at least half an hour while I was watching in silence until he collapsed at the wall furthest from me to the ground, drawing his knees up to his chest, crossing his arms over them and burying his head into the hollow it made.

“What are you panicking about? If anything i should be the one to do that seeing as i'm a Bastard and you're not”

He looked over his crossed arms at me with a sour expression.

“You don't understand, they WILL kill me i know it”

Well that wasn't vague at all, i rolled my eyes at him.

“Yeah sure, i bet i'll die before you though seeing as i'm a ‘Monster’ “

He looked at me strangely.

“That's NOT what I mean, they're probably going to put on a show for your death, but mine….well it's gonna get painful i guess”

What the fuck was he talking about? Had he been in Maringand before? Before I could think to ask him about it he had a Question himself though.

“How are you so calm? You know you are going to die and yet you just sit there?”

At least it was a coherent Inquiry for once.

“Well i guess i always expected to be caught one day, after all i was a Bastard living in the streets and i'm actually really surprised i made it this far”

He slunk back against the wall even further hiding his face once again.

It was true though, I always knew I wouldn't die of old age and likely be killed or die of some treatable disease.

Despite sitting in the only available sunbeam I still felt like it was way too dark here and something kept nagging at me.

“Arthur? Do you know what happened to the others?”

I almost didn't dare ask, as I was honestly afraid of the answer, I sincerely hoped they were okay.

“I think they're alright, Maringand doesn't really have any negative relations to the Kamerasca Citizens”

The way he said Kamerasca Citizens was a bit weird, almost as if he didn’t count himself.

“So why are you guys locked up? I mean i understand that they put me in this ugly pit, but you guys aren't even actual guards”

He shifted uncomfortably against the wall trying to hide his face even more.

“I'm Not from Kamerasca”

The quiet admission did surprise me, I had thought with how he acted absolutely loyal to Kamerasca that he was born there.

“What the fuck do you mean by that? Are you a Criminal here? Did you flee to Kamerasca or something?

He still looked incredibly uncomfortable and slid down even further on the wall, this guy was flexible as hell i noted.

“Or something is close enough i guess, i'm the son of a high ranking nobleman that was killed in a coup to take over the entire nobility of Maringand”

Of all the things I had expected it certainly was not this.

“What? You mean to tell me that you're a nobleman?? And that's why these fucks put us in this stupid prison?”

He actually seemed guilty for what had happened and looked like he tried to melt into the floor, wincing.

“I know how this sounds, but believe me i'm telling the truth, though I expected to be dead by now”

He did not have any reason to lie about Such a thing, and why would he?

That’d be absolutely idiotic if what he said about the coup was true then that just meant he’d put himself in danger by telling such a thing.

“I don’t think you are lying, it would be stupid to make that up and just put yourself in danger”

He finally looked back up from his arms.

“Yeah it would be, besides i'm an absolutely terrible actor anyways, basically everyone can attest to that, i wouldn't be able to act to save my life”

I realized that this was only the second time I had talked to Arthur that didn’t end in the use of insults or screaming.

Though looking at the dejected form of the human slouched against the wall I doubted that he had the energy to do so, and neither did I if I was honest, the sedative still made me a bit sleepy.

Before either of us could say anything more a loud Bang came from overhead, like big doors being flung open.

Looking up I realized that the noise must have come from one of the balconies, was someone there?

“WHY HASN'T THE BEAST DONE ANYTHING YET? I DEMAND AN EXPLANATION!”

A loud nasally voice called from the platform, I couldn't see who the speaker was but I did hear other people speaking too albeit at a normal volume and I couldn't make out the words.

Glancing at Arthur I could see that he was looking up unconcealed dread, did he know the owner of the voice?

As I looked up again I could see a face leaning over the railing of one of the balconies. 

The most prominent feature I could make out even from all the way down here was a pair of thick bushy eyebrows that had grown together in the middle.

To the side I heard Arthur start to breathe heavily, he likely did know the owner of the voice then.

The eyebrow guy's gaze seemed to bore into me and I tried my best to remain calm. 

Just because I knew I would get killed here didn't mean I was going to accelerate my death by being an idiot.

“BEAST! TELL ME WHY THE MAN THROWN INTO YOUR CELL IS STILL ALIVE?”

What the fuck did this guy even want? Did he expect me to mindlessly kill whatever was thrown at me like a rabid dog?

Deciding to respond the best I could I also tried to remain as calm as possible.

I truly did not want to be seen as just another monster that they could put in shackles to do their bidding.

“I don't kill people, also where am I kept? I would like to leave”

I glared at him with a sour face making my disdain for the situation very clear.

The eyebrow guy did not seem to like that.

“WELL WE WILL SEE IF YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND ON THAT! YOU'LL NOT BE FED TILL YOU HAVE KILLED HIM BEAST!”

Before I could do anything else the loud man had already turned away out of sight and a few seconds later heard the door close.

“What the fuck dude, what do they expect? That I do what they want just cuz they don't give me food? Fat chance”

I huffed out and looked back to Arthur who had gone pale as a corpse, He was shaking and looking at me with fear in his eyes.

“You- you're not going to kill me? Why? You hate me”

I was a bit taken aback by this, had he really expected me to kill them the entire time? I tried to not let that hurt me but it still stung.

“No? Why should i? Just cuz i don't like someone doesn't mean i want them dead”

He curled up against the wall again, a sigh escaping his mouth.

“This is all my fault, i shouldn't have followed you into the forest i shouldn't have-”

“Shut up, its not your fault why the fuck would you have known what would happen?”

I interrupted him before he started swimming in self-pity.

He just groaned and put his hands over his face.

“I’m just glad that the others are fine for now, the Guards won't do anything to them seeing as killing Kamerasca Guards wouldn't look good for them”

I was relieved to hear that, but it still left the problem of being held captive.

“Do you have any idea how to get out of here?”

He looked back at me with a sad look on his face.

“No, these things were built to imprison dragons, so we don't really have a chance to get out unless someone gets us out”

This was built for dragons? Well it would make sense, seeing as the only window was way up in a gradually thinning cylinder that was likely underground.

“So we're stuck? Unless they actually let us out, which i doubt they would do”

He nodded, still slouched sadly against the curved wall.

“Maybe i can make a deal, ask them to let the others go and only kill me”

I looked at him a bit surprised, he'd actually offer his own life in exchange for letting the others free?

And would that include me too? I doubted it because he didn't like me, and even if he did try it was very unlikely that those aristocrats would agree to let a ‘dangerous Beast’ roam free.

“Are you sure about that? You are aware that dying is permanent right?”

“Of course I do! I just- I'm- This is just so dumb! I've been Terrified for like two years for exactly this!

And now I dragged my friends into it! I NEVER meant to do that!

I've been always on the lookout for anything that could kill me, and then later for anything that could kill my friends! And I failed! Twice!

I hate this! All of this!”

Oh… a few things suddenly made a bit more sense now, he wasn't really angry all this time, he was afraid, afraid to die or that i would kill him and his friends.

And as is Human Nature they don't want to be afraid, so they get angry instead, lashing out at whatever they could whether it was at fault or not.

I had completely misunderstood him the entire time, he hadn't been angry at me, he had been afraid of me!

And I didn't really do anything to help with that fear.

No wonder he was such a Grumpy dude.

Before either of us could say anything more a loud scraping sound came from one of the Balconies and a wooden construction held up with rope came into view.

A construction crane? Why would they have that here?

Arthur had gone pale again, looking up with dread as a dozen or so Guards appeared on the edges of the balconies, all holding mean looking Crossbows that were aimed at me.

Would they just shoot us both to death? They didn't move until a wooden platform was panned over the balcony hanging from the crane.

Nea stared for a few seconds, waiting for anyone to make a move.

As that didn’t happen she shrugged and turned to the other two Knights that had stayed behind.

“Get some blankets and bedding material, i don’t think they are going to move”

The knights hesitated and she snapped at them.

“I said ta get Blankets! Are ya deaf?”

She raised her helmet a little which sent the two under her order running through the door in order to fulfill her command.

Now we were alone with her.

She turned back to us and rummaged through the barely reachable pocket in her tunic under the armor and pulled out a keyring with various keys in different sizes after a few seconds.

“Gotta open tha door of course”

She walked past us right towards the over to the big wooden door that was tall enough that even i wouldn’t have to duck much.

What the fuck was that even built for?

I heard the telltale click of a lock opening after Nea fumbled a few seconds with it and then shoved the door open as much as she could with her shoulder.

The oversized wooden gate was just a bit too big for her to do that alone.

I decided that since I was apparently staying there anyway I might as well help and pushed the door the rest of the way open with my head.

One thing was still weird to me though, She was the least freaked out person about my big and fuzzy stature I had met and she freely sent away the other Guards, meaning she was alone with us now with no backup should anything go wrong.

Asking couldn’t hurt right?

“Hey, Nea right? How come you are so…chill with a big green beast right next to you?”

She looked at me with something akin to amusement in her eyes.

“Same story as ta how i got to be such a high ranking guard, i’ll tell ya when ya are all somewhere warm”

Well now I was intrigued, and I wasn’t the only one as Arthur and Robin slowly walked through the entrance after me.

The inside was spacious enough, with a hayloft and some straw strewn about.

Aside from that and a few torches here and there it was empty and rather dimly lit.

Hey, maybe Robin and Arthur could sleep on the elevated platform, might be fun for them.

Looking back I could see Nea doing her best to close the door and actually manage, a job I was sure usually needed at least two men judging by how I had to push against it.

Maybe closing it was easier than opening it, who knew.

The door closed with a clack and the cold air that had seeped in disappeared.

She turned back to us and made a shooing motion.

“Pick a spot and get Comfy, no idea how long those guys are going ta chatter each other ears off”

Her weird nonchalant demeanor was kinda funny, I had a feeling a manticore could charge in and she wouldn’t bat an eye.

And I kinda liked her accent, it was not something I had heard before.

Since it looked like I was supposed to wait here until whatever Rikaad did with those guys I might as well get comfy, I didn’t want to make an entire army angry at me after all.

In the end I just laid down on the floor with some hay so the ground was a bit more insulated. 

The wood was still warmer than blank stone though.

I wasn’t even in place for one second and Robin had already claimed a spot right next to me, shuffling into the fur of my arm and using me as a pillow.

Arthur had a bit more hesitance and slowly went over to us while not breaking his line of sight with Nea.

He ended up settling next to Robin on the floor, hand near where his sword should be.

Nea herself dragged a three legged stool from somewhere over and set it a fair bit away in front of us.

“So, i’m sure ya want answers, can’t give much of them as my knowledge is limited but i can tell other stories too if ya’d like?”

She was really trying to be friendly, but I didn’t think anyone else in the room was in a good mood.

We just stared at her in silence, until.

“When can we see Rikaad?”

Robin had piped up and immediately buried into my fur again.

Nea looked not too surprised by this question.

“I guess after they are done talking, However i don’t know for how long they decide to talk, so might be in an hour or tomorrow who knows”

Well that was not very useful, but at least we could see him at some point.

Before I could think of something to ask Arthur had stood up.

“Say, what the fuck is going on? And if Rikaad is heir to the throne why wasn’t he ever in the castle? Why was he living downtown?

And why did nobody tell him? Just WHAT THE FUCK in general!”

I had pinned my ears back at his sudden outburst, and even Nea seemed taken aback by it.

She composed herself quickly enough though.

“Well i don’t know the details, tha only ones that do are the highest ranking schmucks, but as far as i was told it was for his own protection, personally i suspect that a previous Heir was murdered but that’s just a rumor”

Finally some useful information, even if it wasn’t much.

Maybe I should just ask her to tell us what even happened one thing after the other.

“Nea? Maybe it’d be easier if you just tell the story of what even happened, like how did you know which person to look for? And where were we?”

“Oh yeah, good idea! Shoulda have done that from tha start i guess”

She made herself a bit more comfortable on the wooden stool and then turned to us again.

“About i dunno, three days ago? We got the order ta go and get some guy from the School dorms as the king had died about six hours prior.

When we got there the headmaster informed us that the man we were looking for wasn’t there, hadn’t been for some time even cuz he ran into the woods with some other student to retrieve someone else and just didn’t come back.

So tha head Guard decided ta send us out into the snow and search for him, that sucked by the way it was cold as fuck.

But yeah, after we didn’t find him in the city Norrin had us go out into the woods, at night, i really wanted ta strangle him for that.

And the rest, well ya were there, though i have to say i wasn’t informed that we were looking for tha Heir, i really wish i had known that sooner and not just last minute”

Huh, so that’s what was going on, and I guessed that it was technically my fault too.

If I hadn’t taken Robin that day they would have found all of them where they were supposed to be.

Nothing I could do about it now.

It was kind of funny though that even the people that were supposed to search for him didn’t know what was going on.

“Well, that’s all, any more questions before I go look for tha idiots that were supposed ta get blankets?”

Oh right, she sent the other two knights to get that.

She also did say she would tell the story of how she became a Guard.

To be honest she was kinda sympathetic, and she didn’t really hesitate to call her coworkers schmucks, which was funny.

Better ask before she left, she had already stood up.

“You said you’d tell the story of how you managed to become guard, And i have to say i’m curious, i didn’t think the old king allowed Women in his ranks”

She turned back to us and I could feel Robin shrink even more into my fur.

“Yeah right, I did do that. Well, I used ta be a farmhand, I lived right next to tha forest and one day a patrol was there n’ said they were looking for a Drake.

I found it, it got into my shed, and I ended up beating the thing to Death with my grampas Helmet.

I also might have kicked some of tha soldiers and I guess they were impressed? Whatever, it did land me a pretty good job at least.

Well see you later if those idiots don’t come back soon”

Before anyone could do anything she had already vanished out the door.

What a kickass lady, I wasn’t sure if I believed the Drake story though, those things were dangerous enough if you were with a group.

Taking one on alone? With nothing but a Helmet? Surely not.

I wasn’t the only one that thought so either, judging by Robin’s nervous Question.

“You think she really killed Drake? Those things are like, twice the size of a horse!”

“No idea, but she is a high ranking Guard so maybe?”

Arthur meanwhile had left his spot next to us and climbed the elevated platform in the other half of the room.

I couldn’t make out what he was doing very well but it looked like he was staring out a window.

“Arthur? What are you doing?”

He turned to face us.

“I’m trying if I can see anything, like maybe I can see Rikaad in one of the windows?”

Sure, I didn’t think it would help any, especially since the castle was on the right side of us and the platform faced forward so he wouldn’t be able to see much.

Whatever gave him peace of mind, I was far too tired to think at this point and needed sleep.

I had taken the first watch today and the last watch yesterday so I had been awake for way longer than I should have, and then we had to walk even more through the snow after the Guards found us.

My legs definitely wouldn’t cooperate for the next six hours, not that my brain would either.

I Lifted my arm and put it down on the other side of Robin before dragging both closer to me and laying my head down.

Robin was now smooshed against the side of my head and leaning against my arm, sort of forming a narrow furry space he could squeeze between and use as a source of warmth.

Those fucks still weren’t back with any Blankets after all.

Arthur had meanwhile climbed down again and it took him a few seconds to find Robin nestled against me.

“You know what sleep sounds like a good idea”

He walked over and just fell face forward into my side, not caring that he was still exposed to the cold air.

For once the tail was useful, I curled it around me so the fluffy tip of it would cover Arthur and shield him from the cool air in the oversized room.

We could worry about what would happen when we weren’t so tired anymore, and for now Rikaad was okay,

if he really was King they wouldn’t hurt him.

I laid my head down and sorta trapped Robin by doing that, but I knew he wouldn’t wake up before I did so it was fine.

I was asleep within seconds, safely curled around both Arthur and Robin.

I woke up some time later to the sound of the door creaking and opened one eye to look.

Nea had come back and she was carrying something that looked like fabric, the blankets she said she’d get.

I couldn’t have been asleep for long then.

She looked around confused for a second before her eyes settled on my side.

Arthur’s arm was sticking out from under the fluff and decently visible.

She then placed the blankets on top of the stool she had sat on earlier and left again.

Since there was no danger or even any sort of problem I felt like I could go back to sleep.

If anything wanted to hurt the two little men right beside me they would have to go through me first.

I closed my eyes again and the dreamland welcomed me back.

The next time I woke up was because someone kept shoving at the underside of my jaw.

“Donovaannnn Move, i wanna get up and you are trapping me!”

My head jolted up and Robin let out a rather adorable squeak.

“Sorry, I thought I would wake up before you, you okay?”

He was now half draped over my arm but nodded enthusiastically.

“Yes, I’m good, now let’s go look for Rikaad!”

Ah, right, so all of this wasn’t a dream then.

I slowly stood up and saw that Arthur was also awake.

“Alright, where should we look first?”

“I suggest the door”

All of us whipped our heads towards the voice at the same time.

And we weren’t mistaken, Rikaad was standing in the doorway, no idea how he had managed to pull the squeaking hinge open without us noticing though.

It wasn’t even a second and I could already see a ginger blurr zip past me,  immediately latching onto the taller human with a big smile and squeal of delight.

Arthur also walked over as fast as he could, not full on sprinting though.

I didn’t know if I should go over just yet as well, they knew each other for way longer than i did so i just stood awkwardly there staring at them.

I could see that Rikaad had been given new garments, a dark blue vest with purple trim and red undershirt as well as dusty brown pants and a pair of shoes.

There also was some sort of gold insignia on his chest and he was wearing a light blue sash.

I didn’t have to think about whether i was wanted in that awkward group hug or not as Robin winked me over and i realized that all of us did not fit into the doorway at once, I would shove them away if I tried.

Robin stopped clinging so tightly to Rikaad but still refused to let go and instead dragged him inside.

No doubt that if Rikaad had just stood there he wouldn’t have budged a millimeter, but he just went with it anyway.

I kinda didn’t know what to say, one one hand he was still the weirdly stoic Rikaad i knew and on the other he was the Heir, So what the hell was I supposed to do?

Also i ate the guy not even a few days ago.

As it turned out I didn’t have to do anything as the nagging question we all had was voiced aloud by Arthur.

“Soooo uh what the hell? Can you PLEASE explain? The best we got was some lady telling us that they walked through snow to go find you”

Rikaad nodded curtly.

“Of course, it might take a while so we best sit down somewhere”

Since there wasn’t really anything in here aside from the hay and the stool with the blankets on it I just sat down where I was.

Realizing that I was still a lot taller than everyone else I laid down on the floor again and Robin immediately jumped to use one of my crossed arms as a backrest.

Arthur just sat on the floor where he was and Rikaad did the same, crossing his legs and making a straight back.

Yeah, I could kinda see his bloodline with him sitting like this.

“So tell, what is going on?”

I was really curious, like why did they put him in a civilian household?

That didn’t make sense.

At least he was willing to explain, and that he did, luckily a lot more coherent than Nea too.

“Well, I was informed that the reason i was placed into a foster family was that every other heir was killed pretty soon after being born, rather violently too.

So there was a murderer that specifically targeted the Royal bloodline and I was sent away and declared dead to the public.

I was supposed to leave with them the moment the old king had died and take his place.

But they couldn’t find me at the dorms, you all know why, so they sent a search party to find us and bring us back to Kamerasca.

Any questions?”

That… did answer a lot of things really,

like why he was not in the castle in the first place and of course why the knights were willing to go into the forest at night.

But to be put into a foster family and not even know it?

What about his adoptive parents? It was impressive that they never told anyone but now that Rikaad knew what would they do?

Those were far too personal Questions though, so I wasn’t gonna ask.

Arthur also didn’t really look like he had questions , just horrified at the prospect of assassins in the castle, which, fair enough.

Robin however-

“So I’m the only normal one here? Whyyyy, thats dumb”

Ah yes, Problems and priorities.

Though I would not call him ‘normal’ of all things, He was a chaotic little ginger that spaced out sometimes and made nice flower crowns.

His comment however seemed to have confused Rikaad a bit.

“What do you mean by that? Arthur is pretty normal too”

He didn’t know! Oh that was going to be awkward, if Arthur even told him.

On that thought, why did Robin know of Arthur’s heritage?

He only told me as far as i knew.

Maybe he told it during the time I was unconscious?

Whatever it might have been, that wasn’t going to save him from Rikaads intense gaze that clearly wanted an answer.

Arthur had stayed tight-lipped for a few seconds before he finally came out with the truth.

“You’re not the only one with royal blood, so it’s kinda my fault that the Maringand Guards stuck us in the tower? I’m really sorry about that though, my uncle’s a dick like that”

As I had thought it was awkward as hell, At least for Arthur’s sake I decided to stay out of it.

I even put a paw in front of Robin and hugged him closer to me so he would keep his chattery mouth shut.

Rikaad took it in stride though, and he didn’t ask specifics, probably to not bother Arthur about it even more who was visibly uncomfortable.

“So I take it you can’t go to Maringand anymore?”

Arthur sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck.

“Yeah pretty much, also they think i’m dead and they better keep it that way”

I had a feeling this conversation was going in an even worse direction,

at least for me.

“Why do they think that?

I thought you said you escaped through a sewer?”

Arthur was silent for a few seconds, likely realizing what he had given away just now.

“Nevermind! Say what’s the plan for now?”

He rushed out an octave to high.

Rikaad still looked at him a bit suspiciously but thankfully let it drop.

Gods i didn’t want to explain that fuckery, especially not after getting stabbed by him.

I could feel Robin trying to break free from my hold and gave him a bit more space so he wouldn’t have my paw in his face anymore.

“Yeah what do we do now? Do me and Arthur have to go back to school? What about Donovan?

Where is he gonna stay? And what about the no Fae rule your old man made? Is that still in place?”

It looked like he wanted to say even more but I nudged him in the side to make him shut up for a second.

“Breathe, you look like you’re going to fall over, we can look at all this later, yeah?”

He very predictably pouted and made puppy eyes.

It was sadly very effective, so I had to look away.

I looked at Rikaad instead, Robin had brought up a few very good questions, what about me? What was I going to do now?

I wouldn’t really mind living in this weird shed if it got a bit spruced up.

There was of course the possibility that i would have to leave, I didn’t entertain that thought for long.

“You can of course all stay at the castle, you are my friends, I’m not going to send you away!

As for the rules the old man made i will look them all over individually”

It was a relief to know that we could all stay here, even if it was weird to think that it was literally the castle.

Another thought came to mind, the closer we had gotten to Kamerasca the colder it got, did he know anything about that?

Because this was way past freaky weather.

“Did you find out why the weather is so fucked?

This extreme cold can’t be normal”

He shook his head.

“Sadly not, but i do agree with you that this is not normal, i will look into it”

That was probably a good idea, if this went on all the crops would die and the people of Kamerasca would starve.

Not a pretty fate.

“Maybe Oakley knows what to do? He knew about the Ardua thing too!”

All eyes in the room went to Robin, he, Well he wasn’t wrong but it took multiple days to get to Oakley’s place.

And Arthur was the one to point that out.

“It takes ages to get to his shack, and there’s no guarantee that he does know, or even wants to help at all, i mean Kamerasca has not been nice to the pointy eared folk”

It was kinda funny that he said pointy eared folk instead of Fae, but we didn’t actually know if Oakley WAS Fae, he might just be weird.

Also it took a Human a few days to get there, about a week at the shortest.

I wasn’t human, and my legs were way longer so i probably could make the journey in about three days minimum.

“I could go? If i go alone i’m way faster, and Oakley kinda expects me back anyway so it’d be rude to just not tell him that i live here now”

Yeah it would be an asshole move to not say anything, so just because of that i had to go there.

The others seemed a bit apprehensive about letting me go into the woods alone.

“Are you sure?”

I looked at Arthur who was the only one to voice his concern out loud and nodded at him.

“Yes, and that way i can give him back the compass too, so i’m going”

Judging by the light filtering through the dusty window I had plenty of time to prepare myself before going out.

I didn’t really need anything though, not as Ardua.

I looked to Rikaad, he was now king so he probably had to give the okay.

I Wasn’t really sure how this worked.

He nodded and stood up.

“I think that is the best we can come up with, at least for now, and the sooner we find out what is causing this the better.

We could also renovate this place a bit till you come back”

A smile sneaked its way onto my face, I didn’t dare show teeth though.

“That would be nice, well then i better go there as soon as i can right?”

Before anyone could answer there was a knock on the door and a somewhat familiar face entered, it was that Guard guy, Norrin.

“I deeply apologize for disturbing you, but we arrested someone that said he knew you? He looks rather weird though”

Someone weird looking? I was admittedly the weirdest thing in Kamerasca, even before all of this, so who could that be?

“How weird are we talking about? And what’s his name?”

Even Rikaad seemed a tad confused, I doubted that he knew many weird people anyway.

“He did not say his name but instead of arms he has wings, he also got a tail-”

He did not get to finish his sentence as we had all stood up and ran past him out the door.

There was no one else we knew with that features besides Oakley, So it had to be him.

The uncomfortable silence was broken when Arthur spoke again.

“Hey, want to see the scar I got from the Manticore? It looks like someone attempted to saw me in half”

I swiveled my head around to look at him, He was perched on one of the bigger rocks looking right at me.

He must be really bored, or maybe he thought the scar was a weird sort of awesome and wanted to show off, who knew.

“Sure why not this is boring as hell, i’ll even show you where i got my kidney cut out if you want”

He nodded and lifted his tunic just enough to show off the pinkish jagged line with some scabs going across the side of his waist.

It was bigger than I had thought, I expected it to maybe be an inch or two long, not eight.

“It does look sick, but i honestly had thought it would be smaller, whatever i’m glad it didn’t kill you”

I had crouched down while talking to see the scar better but got back up to normal after Arthur put his tunic back down.

“My turn I guess? If you still want to see where i’m missing the kidney”

He nodded and I hiked up the tunic enough so that he could see the clean cut that had been made to remove the organ.

“I’m not going into details but it sucked, at least i still have three others that work”

Putting the cloth back over myself I thought about what else I could talk to Arthur about. 

The only thing that came to mind was the other scar I possessed.

The one where a guard threw his sword at me and just barely missed anything important.

I wasn’t sure how he would take that information seeing as he was training to become a guard but maybe telling him wouldn’t be so bad.

“I do have another scar, on my upper back, some Idiot threw his sword at me while on patrol and slashed the area between my shoulderblades open a bit”

“You… do? What does it look like?”

He seemed to take a few seconds to register what the story meant but if he wanted to know what it looked like I could just show him.

I hadn’t really managed to get a good look at it myself as I didn’t own a mirror, and the rare times I managed to stare at my reflection were usually short lived.

“I can just show you, i can’t usually see it so maybe you can tell me what it looks like”

I turned my back to him, not something I would have done two weeks prior, and once again pulled my own tunic up enough that he should be able to see it.

There were a few seconds of silence before.

“I can’t see it, it’s covered in green fur i think you have to shift back”

Aww Fuck.

I couldn’t shift! The gems were stuck! What the hell was I supposed to tell him? I couldn’t lie.

Literally, as Faefolk, I was incapable of lying.

Damnit, maybe if I asked nicely he wouldn’t tell the other two.

“Well, you see, I kinda got the gems jammed? Like I have to turn them to shift but now they don’t work anymore?”

He just stared at me with an incredulous look.

“How did you even manage that? and why?”

I could at least answer those, maybe he’d even have an idea on what to do.

“I wanted to see if I could add thumbs to the green beast thing and turned both of the gems to a halfway point and now they wont turn back or forth.

Do you have an idea what to do?”

I didn’t expect him to have any clue on how to fix this but asking couldn’t hurt right?

“Uh, can I see the thing? Like up close, i might get an idea”

“Sure”

I held the arm with the trinket next to him and he began inspecting it.

“What exactly did you do again? And how does this even work?”

“Well to shift to the green beast i have to turn the lower gem of the vertical row clockwise, and to turn giant i have to do the same with the upper gem”

He let out a small hmm and continued examining the trinket.

“I have an idea, have you tried to turn both at the same time in different directions?”

I had not, the thought to do that hadn’t crossed my mind, besides doing that one handed wouldn’t be easy.

“No, i can only use one hand on this so i don’t think i could do that anyway, but if you think it will work we can try”

He nodded and stepped a few paces away, right randomly shifting while leaning against the wall might not be the best idea.

So getting up I went to the tallest part in the middle of the cave and lied down on my front with the bracelet arm stretched out.

I did NOT want to accidentally hurt Arthur, especially now that we were on good terms.

“Alright i guess you can try, just stay clear of me in case i get even weirder”

He nodded and went to work, slowly turning both gems in opposite directions at the same time.

He didn’t seem to be struggling to turn them now and after a few seconds I could literally feel the gems locking into their right places.

And not even a second later I was back to being a fuzzy green beast.

Well at least it was fixed now, and the fur would be practical out in the snow.

“Hoo, i forgot you could look like that, but hey i fixed it! And for once I wasn’t the one that broke it!”

Yeah, a well deserved victory, and it was Fixed! Now i wouldn’t have to tell Oakley that i fucked up!

Standing back up, now on all fours though, I shook myself like a dog not caring that Arthur was there.

God it was nice to not have mismatched bones anymore! This was way better!

Arthur has already gone back over to his spot so I went back to mine.

Having four legs was still weird as hell though even if I could move perfectly well with them.

Whatever, now we just had to wait till the next day so we could continue the journey and get them home.

I continued chatting a bit to Arthur and answered his questions on what being Quadrupedal felt like before finally Rikaad stood up, giving both of us a scare and me the mental image of a Vampire rising from its coffin at exactly dusk.

“Good morning, I see you are back to being covered in fur, did you finally get cold too?”

I shook my head.

“Nah, but you all will be so i can just act as a space heater like this”

He nodded and went to get out stuff from where they had put it next to the spring last night.

I looked around one last time, seeing Robin still asleep in his corner and then came face to face with Arthur again.

“Why need a clock if you have Rikaad”

He pointed over his shoulder to the man who was hoisting up all of our luggage onto his back and walking to the exit with it like it weighed absolutely nothing.

While he was busy with that and Arthur went to help him I decided to go wake up Robin.

He was splayed out across some moss and still snoring peacefully.

He didn’t yet know that I was back to being fuzzy, so he would be in for a surprise.

If he reacted as well as he did the first time he saw it he would be delighted.

I nudged him carefully with a paw but didn’t get much of a response besides some sleepy murmurs.

So I tried again, this time I nudged him until he turned over onto his front and whispered in his ear.

“Morning! Time to get up, we need to move”

He blearily opened his eyes and looked around confusedly.

When he saw me his face lit up and he scrambled into a sitting position.

“You’re Fuzzy again!”

He exclaimed and flopped face first onto the nearest part of me that he could reach, the top of my paw, and buried his face in it.

The sensation was kinda ticklish but we could have time for this later.

“I am yes, now come on we should move already”

I withdrew my arm from him much to his displeasure and walked to the exit where the other two were already waiting.

Robin trailed after me and together we went out back into the snow.

At least this time it wasn’t storming anymore, but I did wonder how much time we had lost while out here.

I had spent about a week with Robin alone and then we went on for a few days more before the tower thing.

That alone was about like two weeks, and then we went up to Oakley's place, another week or so.

And now we were walking back to Kamerasca through icy cold terrain, Almost another full week depending on how long I had actually stayed unconscious.

By the time we reached Kamerasca we would have been gone for about a month.

Huh, that was not what i had expected.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by Robin tugging at the fur on my foreleg.

“Hey, can I hitch a ride? Please?

You’re big enough that I could sit on your back”

That was true, and I wondered why I hadn’t come up with that beforehand.

Maybe I could transport all three of them like that? I knew the other two didn’t really like being held but this was just hitching a ride.

No hands involved, which of course meant that they would have to hold on themselves, maybe Someone SHOULD sit next to Robin just in case.

“Sure, let’s ask the others if they want to hitch a ride too, I’m pretty sure it would be a lot faster, that was a really smart idea!”

A huge grin plastered onto his face at the praise and he turned around to tell both of them only to run face first into Rikaads chest.

“Ow”

He rubbed his nose and looked up at the man that had stopped and turned to face us while we had talked.

“Sorry Robin, but i do have to say the idea isn’t dumb, given that we manage to hold on of course”

Robin’s grin returned at the praise and he went to stand next to my foreleg.

“So we don’t have to trek through he stupid snow anymore?”

Rikaad nodded and Arthur gave a thumbs up.

“Hell yeah! We should have had that idea way sooner!”

The blonde cheered and then asked

“Wait, won’t that be awkward for you? Just having three people sit on your back? You’re not a horse”

Well i never had anyone hitching a ride like that so i wouldn’t know, besides.

“It can’t be much more awkward than… well… you all know, let’s just test it?”

At the mention that all three had been eaten at least once by me they went awkwardly silent pretty fast.

At least until Rikaad cleared his throat.

“So we simply climb on your back and then hold on, So how do you propose we actually get on?”

At least that was easy, just lying on the ground should let them step up.

“I’m going to lie on the ground so you can climb over my shoulder? I think that will work”

And I did just that, the snow made a crunching sound underneath me.

Both Rikaad and Arthur stared for a second, likely figuring out how to best climb on.

Robin pushed past both of them and clumsily leaped on my arm so he could reach my shoulder and get up top.

“I’m sitting in front! I wanna see everything!”

Despite all the things that went wrong he still had a very positive outlook on things, it was kinda adorable.

That and I would do the same if I could.

The other two followed his example, albeit a lot more gracefully and settled behind the ginger, bags secured on their laps.

“Hey, why do I have to sit in last place?

You’re taller than me, I can’t see!”

Arthur complained and tried to shift a bit so he could look past Rikaad who was sitting directly in front of him.

He WAS right though, having three humans sitting on my back was weird, their shifting weight made me want to balance it all the time.

Hopefully that feeling would dissipate with time.

“Alright im standing up so hold on i don’t want anyone falling off”

After the warning I gave them a few seconds to steady themselves and then slowly stood up.

Walking on all fours was weird enough even if this body was made for it, walking on all fours while having three people holding onto my back as I tried to stride as steady as I could was another level of weird.

It did work though, and since I didn’t have to slowly drag my feet after them we covered way more ground this way.

We really should have come up with this way sooner, it was faster and since the humans didn’t have to walk through the cold snow they weren’t at risk of hypothermia anymore.

Especially since my back was covered in thick insulating fur.

Robin had face planted into the scruff of my neck long ago and was just leeching of the warmth.

The entire walk was really uneventful, apparently nothing dared come close to a big green beast and the humans sat on its back.

While Robin decided to try and braid some of my mane I chatted a bit with Rikaad and Arthur, the latter of which complained of nausea after some time and demanded Rikaad switch places with him.

I was pretty sure he just didn’t want to sit last and tried any excuse to get a better spot.

In the end they did switch and I had to stop for a few minutes so they could trade places.

After that the journey continued and I kept walking over the crunchy snow that by now covered everything.

That certainly wasn’t normal for this time of year.

It had started to get dark after quite some time and they started to be on the lookout for any suitable campsite.

In the end we settled on the flat part of a slight slope, making a small fire to keep warm.

I stayed in the Ardua form, somehow it was more comfortable to lay on the ground in this form.

I was on my front with my forelegs crossed before me, acting as a sort of pillow for my head.

I wasn’t alone on the floor for long though, Robin came over and climbed over my arm to settle in the fluffy crook between my neck and shoulder.

I didn’t think he would be as cold as before while he was there, and he just loved fluffy things so it was not surprising that he cozied up to the fluffiest part he could reach.

If I were to put my head down it would even hide him completely from the world.

At a noise to my left I looked up again and saw Arthur standing there.

He looked a bit uncertain and glanced at Robin, who by now was blissfully sleeping what was left of the evening away.

“Wanna join? I don’t mind, at least like this nobody is going to freeze”

He nodded and i moved my arms so he could climb over them, doing my best not to disturb the ginger who was already there.

“Thanks, you know i’m really going to miss you when all this is over”

Yeah right, I had almost forgotten about this.

When all this was over I’d never see them again, but it was nice to know that they would miss me too.

“Yeah, i’m going to miss you guys too, you were the first actual friends i ever made but i do wish you luck with the guard stuff”

“Thank you, for everything, and who knows in the future i might turn a blind eye when i see a pointy eared thief”

He tried to be at least somewhat reassuring, and it worked.

Knowing that there would be a guard that wouldn’t go after Fae folk for fun was nice.

He curled up on the opposite side from Robin, so he had my entire left side for himself and left the Ginger boy some space.

He fell asleep not soon after, leaving me and Rikaad as the only ones awake.

He had somehow procured a short but thick log of wood and was whittling away at it with his…dagger…right, he still had that thing.

I chose to ignore how absolutely skilled he was carving the wood and slowly shaved the unwieldy piece into something smaller.

“What are you carving? Like what’s it going to be?”

He paused for a moment and looked at me.

“It going to be Quadrupedal, not sure about the other details yet, depends on how the wood grew”

I had no expertise on carving wood, but something four legged? I had an idea what he could carve out of that log.

“Maybe make a dragon? They look cool and a wooden one cant murder you”

A rare smile appeared for a brief second on his lips.

“I’m not going to make a dragon, if i did i would have to carve wings and i'm not doing that”

That was not unreasonable, the wings would be thin and probably break pretty soon.

“How far do you think it is to Kamerasca?”

He pulled out the compass Oakley gave us and checked it once more.

“I’m not sure, but i think we should see it soon”

“So then we go our separate ways soon?”

He threw some more wood onto the fire, making sure not to accidentally drop his carving into it.

“Apparently, and you are going back to Oakley so tell him my gratitude for the compass and his help in general”

“I will tell him that, he does seem a bit.. Uh.. unhinged though”

“I got that feeling too, but i do not think he is dangerous, it's more like… he revels in being a mysterious being”

I totally agreed with that, Oakley seemed like the type of guy that wanted you to know that he was very knowledgeable but wouldn’t tell you about what.

“Yeah, weird fucker-”

Before I could think to add anything to that sentence I saw what appeared to be a light moving in the distance, a lantern?

Lifting my head up as much as i could without waking the two that were curled up against me i tried to see what it was.

“What the hell is that? Rikaad do you see that?”

The man in question had stood up and was looking out into the darkness.

The light slowly got closer and I could now make out that it wasn’t just one single light but at least twelve, all moving.

Lanterns, but why would anybody else be out here?

“Wake the others, if this is a threat we have to be prepared”

He had begun stuffing everything that was scattered around into the bags so I went to do as I was told.

Gently nudging at both of them and telling them to wake up.

“I think we got company so get up and get ready”

I ignored their confused demands and stood up, the lights had gotten closer and were still continuing on their path towards us.

While the two sleepyheads scrambled to get their things Rikaad turned to me again.

“Put out the fire, they won’t see us very well if we do”

I looked at the fire for a few seconds trying to come up with a plan to extinguish it in seconds.

In the end I scraped as much dirt as I could over it and then stomped out the rest leaving us in darkness.

The lights got closer still, had they seen us? Probably as they were headed right for our position.

Nobody said a word and both Rikaad and Arthur had their swords out while Robin hid behind my arm, not very knightly of him.

I also stood in a battle ready stance, as much as I could with this form at least.

I’m pretty sure I ended up looking more like an angry dog than anything, but I did tense and flex my muscles.

The Ardua form had those in abundance under the fur anyway so I hoped it looked scary enough combined with bared teeth.

The lights came closer and closer and we could finally make out some human shapes behind them, all of which were wearing the colors and armor of Kamerasca.

There were about twelve men, all clad in the same armor except for the one on the front who had a slightly different and tiny bit fancier set of armor on.

He also wasn’t wearing a helmet, showing the face of a man I would put in his late twenties with well tanned skin and shoulder length brown hair that was tied into a knot at the back of his head.

He seemed to be the leader of this… expedition?

Whatever it was it was clear he was the one in charge.

I flexed my muscles a bit and moved my arm to hide Robin completely from their view.

What did they want? Why were they out here?

They abruptly stopped a few paces away, seemingly only noticing me now standing against the darkness and drew their swords out.

No one was moving, I barely even dared to breathe, but I did bare my teeth.

I knew what they did to Bastards, and I wasn’t keen on knowing what they would do to a beast like the Ardua.

The person in the front gave a hand sign, which I didn’t know what it meant but nobody shot me with a crossbow so I took it as a plus.

In the glow of his lantern I could see that he looked confused, gaze switching between me and the two humans standing in front of me that had gone into a defensive stance.

The leader of the group then decided to call out to us.

“I am Norrin Vaughan, head guard of Kamerasca,-”

Oh fuck, why was THE Headguard here? I was going to die, wasn't it? There was no way he’d just randomly pardon a beast, like the one that I was at the moment.

“-I am here to search for and Rescue Rikaad Drayton, Can you tell me if one of you is him? I can not make out any faces in this darkness”

What?

Why would they send out the headguard and his underlings just to search for one person? And why Rikaad?

The man in question however walked in front of all of us to stand before the guards.

“I am Rikaad Drayton, why am i being sought after?”

His icy gaze had returned fully and he stared at the knights, scrutinizing them.

I saw that at least two of the helmeted men were a little uncomfortable under his stare.

The leader, Norrin, was the one that answered him.

“I am here to Inform you that the king has died due to the cold and you are to take his place”

A chorus of surprised shouts echoed through the cold night.

I could almost feel the confusion that lingered in the air, either from what had just been told or the guards being a bit off put at hearing a big green beast speak.

Making my mind up I turned back to Oakley and twisted the gem to turn back into the smallest form which was a bit difficult given that I now had an extremely short thumb like thing that was half covered in fur.

“Can I come back later? I do want to take your offer, i really do, but i promised to bring them back to Kamerasca and i still plan on doing that”

He nodded and tilted his head back into a normal position shuffling his wings a bit closer to his body.

“Keeping promises is important so of course you can come back later! This isn't a one time offer i'm not an asshole so take your time, i'll still be here even in a week or two, no need to rush”

I was relieved to hear that, but we still didn't really know what direction we had to go in to get to Kamerasca.

“Say, do you know the way? To Kamerasca i mean, we got kinda lost”

He nodded and rummaged for a second in his green patterned cloak before taking out a round metal object.

“Here this will help, you just have to go south south east then you should find it and to get back to me just go north north west”

He Handed me the metal thing and I could see that it was an extremely well made compass in an expensive looking hull that seemed to be made out of actual steel.

“I- Thats- Thank you! That's really useful! But it looks very expensive. 

Are you sure you want to give that to me? You already gave me the bracelet”

He nodded and fished out at least three more of the compass out of his cloak, all held together by a thin but sturdy rope.

“I have lots of em, giving one out isn't gonna do anything to me, now you should probably get on the move i'm sure you can cover some ground until it's dark, it's only midday after all”

He was right, we had spent the majority of the morning here and still had plenty of time to cover some distance.

Walking back to the Humans I saw that Robin had once again made about a dozen flower crowns and planted some on the head of Arthur and was About to put one on Rikaad’s head.

Rikaad bowed his head in front of the smaller boy who then slowly put the flowers on his head.

It kind of looked like a coronation and had to smile, It was kinda funny that Rikaad just let Robin do whatever.

Suddenly Robin's head whipped around and a huge smile plastered onto his face as he saw me.

“Donovan! Do you want a flower crown too?”

He held one up that was made of lots of daisies and I nodded.

“Sure! You're good at making them”

He carefully put it on my head and it fit perfectly.

“Oh also! Oakely showed me how to use the bracelet and gave me a compass so we could find Kamerasca”

I held up the metal object for them to see and I could see Arthur face light up at the prospect of getting home soon, while Rikaad was as professional as ever even with the flowers on his head.

“That is very good news, i say we pack our belongings and start moving”

Rikaad had already put his small bag over his shoulder and tossed Arthur his as i was now unable to put it in my pockets as a human sized being.

Oh wait, I could fix that, but I probably should ask first to avoid scaring them half to death by suddenly shifting.

“I could go Giant again and carry those? Oakley let me have the Bracelet so i can shift whenever”

At the mention that I was now able to switch forms whenever I wanted Robin's eyes lit up and he bounced a bit on his feet.

“Can you turn back into the green kitty? It looked so cool!”

All of us gave him a weird look and he pouted before grabbing some more of his flower crowns.

“Maybe later, i don't have pockets in that form”

Going a few steps back I turned the gem and grew back to about thirty feet tall give or take as I had nothing to actually measure myself with.

“Ayo what the hell, this is really weird”

“Arthur you literally have seen this before if anyone should freak out about this it would more likely be me”

Rikaad was right, he'd never actually seen me shift before whereas Arthur and Robin have as they were there when I first grew into a giant.

Robin seemed completely unbothered by it, just smiling and holding his multitude of flower crowns.

Speaking of flower crowns, the one he gave me had stayed on my head till now but was still normal sized so when I moved my head a bit it slid down my front where I managed to catch it.

It was way too small now to properly wear but I probably could put it on a finger.

The only finger it fit on was my pinky finger but I put it there nonetheless even if it would probably fall off soon.

Picking up the bags and stuffing them in my pockets, I took out the compass again only to realize that it was too small to properly read now.

One of the smaller men would have to direct us then, but I pondered who I should give it to.

Probably Rikaad, he seemed the most responsible of the three and I was sure he wouldn't end up accidentally destroying it.

So bending down again I held my hand out to him, presenting the comically small looking item to him.

“I can't read it, it's too small right now can you lead with it? Oakley said we had to go south south east to get to Kamerasca”

He carefully took it and held it up to his face, determining which way to go.

“I will try my best as a navigator, for now we have to go back into the woods across the clearing”

He started walking in the direction he had pointed at a few seconds ago and all of us followed him.

As we went past the stump Oakley was still standing there waving.

“Safe journey! I know the woods can be a pain in the ass sometimes!”

He was grinning hugely and suddenly Robin went up to him with his dozens of flower crowns in hand and put one on his head, This one contained some daisies and violets but also some nice yellow buttercups before he ran up to me.

Oakley looked confused for a second and touched the crown, going a bit cross eyed from trying to look at his own head but went back to smiling immediately, showing off his fangs.

“Thank you! What pretty blossoms! I wish you well, little human!”

I could swear that his tail was subtly wagging behind his cloak but chose not to comment on it, and everyone else just said their version of bye and waved.

We crossed the threshold of the trees and I turned around one last time waving at the weird nonhuman.

“See you Donovan! I will try to find the scriptures about Ardua so when you come back I can tell you more!”

He spread his wings and flew up into the air and out of sight towards his little hut where he disappeared inside.

“What did he mean by that? Do you have to come back to return the compass?”

Robin looked up at me confusedly, right, I hadn't told them that I was going back here once I brought them to Kamerasca.

“Oh right, since going back to… any Kingdom really, is a bad idea as i’ll just be killed im going to come back here after i bring you guys to Kamerasca”

He suddenly had a downcast expression and looked at me with sad, pleading eyes and i felt a pang as i realized yes this is my friend, and i was going to have to leave him for my own safety.

I knew it was for the best but I couldn't help it, the feeling of loneliness would be back even when living with Oakley i knew something would be missing.

“Do you have to? Maybe we can convince the guards that a giant would be great for the troops? Or just have you protect something? Like a field or-”

“Robin you know that's not going to work, the King would lynch us all”

I looked to Rikaad who had spoken, his face stoic and focused on the path forward.

“I don't know what exactly the kings problem is with Fae folk that he hates them that much, but i do know that just because some Guard apprentices want to convince them that what they believed to be dangerous for their entire lives won’t make them change their minds”

He was of course right, but I did wonder what could lead to someone hating on an entire species this badly.

I would never know, and I would also never have to see him, which I was glad for as I didn't want to be scrutinized by such a hateful mind.

“Soooo we just go home after all this and then what? Go back to normal? I don't really think i can do that after this weird misadventure”

Arthur had a point, what WOULD i do once this was over? Live with Oakley sure, but what would I do? Just sleep? 

“I don't know, but for now getting you back to Kamerasca is the best option, the woods are no place for humans”

The slowly healing and scarring over wounds from the manticore on Arthur's side proved that on its own already, but combined with the fact that they didn't even know what plants were safe to eat and which ones would kill them it was a recipe for disaster.

I was very aware that only my presence as a Giant kept some of the smaller creatures away so I would make sure to stay big to protect the smaller humans.

The short conversation had left us all in a slightly bitter mood as we all realized our collective time together was coming to an end soon.

After about half an hour someone did break the silence.

“I think we should look for a place to camp overnight”

It was once again Rikaad breaking the silence with the suggestion of doing something completely reasonable, so we did just that and ended up setting the camp under some trees.

Putting some logs into a heap for a fire after I scared off some other weird creature that looked like someone had crossed a badger with a squirrel I made sure to stay close to the others in case there were more.

As the sky grew darker and no more creatures appeared I laid on my side, as close to the humans- no, my friends as I dared.

It was weird, actually considering someone as a friend after being so long alone but i couldn't say that i hated it.

Still, feeling Robin sleepily snuggle up to me as the night grew a bit colder I knew that I'd miss being with people.

I still was going to go to Oakley after this was over but he was a weird hermit and i only would because he was looking for more information on Ardua and i didn't want to be completely alone in the wilderness, Any company was better than none.

Falling asleep next to the smaller body of Robin i was sure Rikaad and Arthur could handle the first shift watching, switching between sizes had made me more exhausted than I had initially realized and walking hadn't helped that at all.

I knew if something was the matter they'd wake me up or just shout loudly, besides both of them could hold their own pretty well, especially Rikaad.

I slept until about midnight, a deep dreamless sleep that was interrupted by Rikaad poking at my elbow, it was now my turn to take watch.

The silence of the night was weird, nobody spoke and was even trying to be extra quiet as the other two went to sleep, leaving me and a Quietly complaining Robin in the pale moonlight.

It was colder now, not as cold as those first few nights but still a bit chilly and I guessed it was because of the missing sunlight that would have warmed the earth at day.

Just sitting there in the silence of the night was weirdly calm, and even a bit relaxing.

Feeling something slump against my leg I looked down to see that Robin had fallen back asleep and was using me as an oversized pillow.

I debated whether or not to wake him up but ultimately decided against it.

If he was this tired i would let him sleep, Besides, I could keep watch over the camp myself.

After about two hours it was starting to get really boring, So to keep me from falling asleep I decided to mess with the Bracelet.

Gently moving Robin to lie on the Floor i went a few steps away to avoid waking anyone or accidentally destroying parts of the camp.

I wondered that since turning the gems once around themselves was what let me shift what would happen if I only turned them halfway.

Would I just shift anyway? Or stay as I was? Only one way to find out.

Hesitantly and slowly I turned the bottom gem about halfway before I stopped.

For about a second nothing happened, then I felt my muscles and bones shifting again.

But not as much as they would have to turn fully into the Ardua.

Inspecting myself I saw that the only things that had changed were that my nails had grown into claws and I had the lion esque tail swaying behind me.

A twitching motion out of the corner of my eye also told me that my ears had grown longer and were covered in greenish fuzz, and I wondered what my face looked like now.

Sadly I did not have a mirror but I could feel that my fangs had grown a tiny bit and were poking over my bottom lip.

It was kinda funny and I wondered what else I could do.

So I went to turn it again only to find that I couldn't turn it further than it was.

Oh fuck.

I really hoped I hadn't just somehow managed to break the thing.

Frantically trying to turn either of the gems fully did not work and I had to accept that I was now stuck in this weird half form of beast and man.

Of course leave it to me to break it on the day I learned how to use it.

At least I still had opposable thumbs even if I was sure that the entirety of my hair had a greenish tint now.

Panicking was not gonna help me, and I was sure I had at least another two hours to figure out how to fix this.

Trying again and again to turn either of the gems in the direction they were supposed to just proved that they were stuck very thoroughly.

I even tried turning the other gems that did not really have anything to do with the two main gems, hell I ended up pressing them like buttons too hoping that would somehow fix it.

In the end it was all futile and I was still stuck being a fuzzy half man half beast.

Since fixing it didn't work even if i had tried for over an hour to revert back to normal realized it would be day soon and the others would see that i had fucked up.

For a brief moment I wondered if I could keep it a secret but the fact that my ears were now even longer and fuzzy as well as the tail would give it away immediately so that was not an option.

I wondered how exactly I should tell them that I was now stuck as a giant, again.

I bet Arthur would either laugh or hate it, maybe both, and Robin would love the fuzzy tail.

I couldn't predict how Rikaad would react though and I kinda dreaded telling him, he was still the one i knew the least about, and he was the scariest too.

At the end just telling the truth was probably the best option but I would put it off until someone asked, maybe I got lucky and no one would question it more than to point out that I had a tail now.

And after that I could go back to Oakley and ask him for help.

I just hoped he wouldn't get angry about it but from the short amount of time i had known him it was more likely that he would cackle at me and then fix it.

Glancing over the sleeping forms of the humans I felt myself grow a bit sad again but shoved the feeling away.

I could be sad when I was alone again and on my way to Oakley’s home.

Well my home also in the near future, which was weird to think about so i didn't.

Tossing some more logs into the fire and sitting back down next to it I stared at the moon.

It was strangely peaceful, aside from that weird creature from before nothing else had tried to come close, probably afraid of the giant that guarded the smaller humans.

It would now only be one or two hours until sunrise and I could see that my breath came out as small puffs again, indicating that it had once again gotten colder over the course of the night.

I tossed a few more pieces of wood into the gently crackling fire to make sure the others wouldn't be cold.

Then I went back to just staring at the surroundings, keeping an eye out for everything that might dare come close and tossing wood on the fire when I saw it got smaller.

As the sun finally began to rise and I felt the first sunbeams hit our camp Rikaad got up, startling me with how he could just awaken at this exact time while everyone else would have continued sleeping.

Seemingly not a trace of tiredness on his face he looked at me and did a double take seemingly confused at my new appearance.

Apparently deciding that whatever I did with the bracelet was my problem he left to go wake up Arthur.

Following his lead I went over to Robin and gently nudged him with a finger.

“Robin? Wake up, it's morning time to move”

He rolled over and mumbled something I couldn't understand, if it even was words at all and not just displeased sounds at having to get up.

Trying again to wake him up I rolled him over onto his back telling him again to get up.

“Sun is out, get up we have to go”

He finally blinked owlishly at me before noticing my ears and clumsily getting up.

“Why are your ears like that? Wait, are they fluffy? Can I touch them? Ohh you got the cat tail too!”

As expected he was overjoyed at my new traits and I bent down to let him touch one of my fuzzy ears.

“Fine, just don't yank it or you can carry your stuff yourself”

He nodded and carefully went to touch the fuzz on my half shifted ears with gleaming eyes.

“So soft! It's like the coat of a lamb!”

I had to admit that seeing him so happy about something so mundane made me smile, and having tiny hands gently massage my ears felt weirdly nice, not that I'd ever tell anyone that.

Though we still had to continue traveling, I cautiously stood back up much to the dismay of Robin who then opted to try and get my tail in his grip.

Ignoring his attempts for now and holding the appendage just out of his reach, I went to put all of their stuff that they didn't really need for now in my pockets.

Looking over to where the other two humans were standing I saw them checking the compass to make sure we were still headed in the right direction.

At our approach they both turned to us and I could see Arthur's brain stopping to work for a few seconds as he noticed my new features before his expression turned into an amused smile as he saw Robin attempting to grab my tail.

Speaking of that, I stopped holding the appendage out of his reach so he could finally grasp at it which sent a weird sensation across my nervous system.

My brain told me that it was a ghost sensation of something not actually there even though it was.

Yeah this would take some getting used to.

Ignoring Robin as he climbed onto the topside of my tail holding onto it like a baby opossum as I let it rest on the forest floor.

Looking at Rikaad who had stopped staring at the compass, I offered my hand palms up to take their bags if they wanted.

Both of the smaller men handed me their luggage with a small thanks and I stashed it in my pockets to keep my hands free.

“We should keep going, just standing around won't get us any closer to home”

So, following Rikaad we went towards South south east, past places i hadn't seen before.

We traveled for about two more days but something just felt…off.

The closer we got the colder it seemed to get, so much so that it had started snowing overnight again.

And it seemed that I wasn't the only one that had started to worry about it.

“You are SURE that we are going in the right direction? Because i don't think it should fucking snow during Spring!”

Yep, the colder environment had made Arthur a bit more Snarky, or at least exaggerated his use of curse words.

“Well yeah, we are going in the direction Oakley told me I don't know why the weather is so weird, maybe it wasn't really the start of spring and instead just a few weirdly warm weeks?”

Nobody looked really convinced at my words and i kinda wished that those Fucks from Maringand hadn't taken the Boarpelt Robin had used to keep warm those first few nights.

At least I still had my handkerchief, even if the roughly woven fabric wasn't exactly thick it was insulating enough to trap at least some warmth.

That and two people fit under it so sharing warmth was also an option even if most of the time Robin was the only one using it.

For Arthur it was Probably pride that kept him from taking the offer to share, as for Rikaad… well I didn't know but it did not seem like he needed it.

Aside from myself the cold affected him the least so he was probably fine, even if it still got colder and colder the closer we got to our destination.

It had gotten to the point where the snow didn't melt anymore even during the day and I let Robin use my Handkerchief as a sort of warm cape wrapped around him.

At least the fuzzy tail had an actual use now as a windshield and source of warmth even if I didn't dare bring it too close to the campfires we made.

Randomly going up in flames was not how I wanted to die.

And so far i had been lucky that no one asked why i was in this weird half form as i still hadn't managed to turn either of the gems fully and remained stuck in this weird form.

On the plus side at least having fuzzy ears prevented them from freezing off my head as icicles.

“How far do you think it is now? Oh maybe you could hold me above the trees again and then I'll see it?”

While Robin's idea wasn't bad I was worried that the now harsher winds would blow him out of my hands.

“I'm not sure, what if you fall? The winds have gotten stronger those last few days and i'd rather not have you break your neck from falling”

He nodded and curled back under the cloth while trying to snuggle closer to my chest for warmth, seemingly not disappointed much.

“Hey, can any of you try to find dry firewood? Most of it what i found was soaked through from snow”

Looking over I saw that Rikaad was right, the clearing we had stopped had sparse vegetation, with only some sad looking leafless shrubs between the widely spaced tree trunks.

So I went to try and find some Wood to feed the meager flickering embers that Arthur was desperately trying to keep lit.

My brain decided to toss away any possible answer I could have given away at the sight of this…man? But luckily Rikaad had an idea how to respond.

“Alright that’s very impressive, are you the one that lives here? If so we are sorry to intrude we do not mean to and will leave as soon as we figure out the direction we need to go in”

Oakley cocked his head to the side and I noticed his eyes were a piercing shade of yellow, like those of a hawk and I couldn’t help but feel uneasy looking into them.

“Where are you going? I might know the way, and you are welcome to stay for a bit especially since it’s been forever that i have talked to someone who didn’t throw stuff at me”

He was right, he lived here after all and knew the area better than us so just asking might be the easiest way and the invitation didn’t sound too bad either.

But we did not know this guy, he could be dangerous and thus far we hadn’t even seen what the entirety of him looked like.

I noticed that his gaze had suddenly fallen onto the cursed bracelet on my arm and was watching it intensely with his striking yellow eyes.

“Ohh you found it! I’ve been looking everywhere for this trinket after someone stole it a few years ago!”

He suddenly pushed the cloak behind him and swooped out of the tree and I could see that he did not have arms, instead there was a pair of leathery wings in the same color as his skin flapping to keep him in the air.

Having something akin to a giant bat suddenly swan diving to my face I instinctively put my arms up to shield myself.

For a moment nothing happened but suddenly I could feel the bracelet being stripped away, but no pain, it seemed that he had managed to get it off somehow without hurting me.

“HEY! WHAT THE HELL”

He had flown to sit on the tall stump, the bracelet was held in his tail by wrapping it around the trinket and he perched there like a content Magpie.

It took a few more seconds for his words to register in my brain but before I could say anything the others had already responded, with Arthur shouting loudly.

“YOU MEAN THAT’S YOURS?”

And Robin making a worried face while Rikaad seemed to calculate the best way to not fuck things up.

But Arthur had a point, if it was his he could probably fix the curse! I had expected to shrink as soon as the bracelet was off but that wasn’t the case apparently.

I Wasn’t sure if he actually knew how to lift the curse, But asking if he could help wouldn’t hurt.

“If that is yours” I pointed at the trinket “can you fix this curse then?”

He seemed confused at my question so I decided to elaborate.

“This thing turned me into a giant and i would like to be normal again”

For a moment he seemed to actually listen before I heard a strange chattering sound and it took me a few seconds to realize that it was him laughing.

“HEKHEKHEKHEK, that’s not a curse! It works as intended! It’s not my fault you don’t know how to use it! Which is weird, seeing as you are Ardua you should know.”

I understood exactly nothing of what he had just said, what did he mean this wasn’t a curse?

He had called me an Ardua twice now, whatever that meant, and why should I know how to use it? I’ve never seen such a thing before this month.

Apparently Robin agreed with my thinking as he asked.

“What’s an Ardua? And what do you mean it’s not a curse?”

I had no idea what that word meant, but if it was just another word for Bastard I would punch something, preferably Oakley.

Oakley however just stared at me with an incredulous expression, like he couldn’t believe that I had absolutely zero idea what he was talking about.

“You ARE Ardua how do you not know? If you weren’t the bracelet would have killed you the moment you put it on your arm”

Well that was not reassuring at all, and I still had no idea what he was talking about aside from apparently being a specific race of elf? Well half elf.

The others looked at me weirdly and I grimaced at them, as if I Had any idea what was going on! I didn’t understand jackshit either.

The birdlike man once again cocked his head to the side and then walked over the top of the stump where he stood sidewards like gravity didn’t really affect him.

Weird fucker but i wanted answers so i was at least going to listen for now.

“Since apparently I know nothing about this, could you maybe explain it? I’m sick of not knowing what the fuck is going on with me right now”

He turned his head weirdly and winked me closer.

I very reluctantly got slowly closer glancing back at my fellow travelers who also looked a bit mistrusting, a tiny bit curious but still wary.

“Hold out your hand i’m going to put the bracelet back and show you”

I wasn’t sure whether i trusted him or not but so far he hadn’t hurt any of us and he seemed to know something about it so it might be my chance to go back to normal.

“Wait just one second”

Ignoring his confused gaze I scratched all over the area where the Trinket had been as I wasn’t able to do that for some time now and it had started to get annoying.

Slowly holding my arm out he put the Bracelet back over my wrist where it once again shrank until it fit perfectly against my skin.

For a few seconds nothing happened then Oakley swiped his tail over the gems and I suddenly had the feeling of falling forward.

Trying to catch myself I put my hands out in front of me just as I landed on the grass, but something was wrong.

Somehow I did not feel bipedal anymore, and looking back to my human companions I could see various stages of shock and disbelief on their faces.

There was silence for a few seconds before Robin shouted with gleaming eyes.

“KITTY!”

What.

Looking down on myself I could see paws where my hands should be, and even worse was that they were covered in green fur and looking at my back showed that there was even more fur on my new now quadrupedal form with a tail swishing behind it.

What. The. Fuck.

There even were some plants growing on my fur covered back which made even less sense.

“Oakley what did you do??? Turn me back! This isn’t normal”

The man in question just stared at me with a huge grin on his face and started flapping around me like an oversized bat.

“Come on, just because you didn’t know anything about it doesn’t mean it’s not normal, but i’m not really surprised you know nothing about it i had believed the Ardua to be extinct”

I could see out of the corner of my eye that Rikaad had sent Arthur and Robin to get a bit away and was now aiming his crossbow at the flying form of Oakley.

However with the way he was flying it was impossible to get a clear shot, at least not without also hitting me.

“I don’t care! I just want things to go back to normal! Give me my human form back!”

Though, did I REALLY want things to go back to normal?

After all, the time I had been a giant I had been the least lonely since basically forever.

But i still preferred having hands as the lack of them made it difficult to catch the flying fucker and swiping with paws just wasn’t working well.

So not being able to use my hands I instead snapped at him with my teeth missing him barely and causing him to cackle again.

“HEKHEKHEKHEK see? You already fit your new form! Let’s see if you can catch me!”

He was now flying even faster around me and acting like an annoying bat so I snapped at him again, making my teeth clack against each other.

“rrrRRRRRrrrrr get down here you fucker!”

He was flying higher so I tried to jump but missed again, temporarily forgetting about the humans I had come with as I tried to get Oakley out of the sky.

Surprisingly the four legged form wasn’t that hard to control and I could move just as well as when I had been a half human half elf.

At some point Oakley landed on the tree stump and stood sideways on the wood like gravity did not bother him at all, two of his toes bent back to grip the bark.

He kept out of reach from Rikaads crossbow too, smart fucker.

“Look, you are the only one that thinks this is funny but I hate it! Can you please turn me back? This sucks and i miss having thumbs”

Oakley stopped grinning and walked down sidewards the length of the stump reminding me of how crabs moved.

This guy just got weirder and weirder but at least he seemed done with his bullshit for now as he moved near the bracelet again.

For the first time I could really see him up close and noticed that his wings had three fingers on top with only two being long and having a membrane for flying as well as that his knees were bent with what seemed to be an elongated ankle.

He Swiped his tail over the bracelet and I had once again the feeling of falling, but only this time I really did fall, on my face.

Due to being a four legged creature before I fell face first into the dirt, but now I was human sized again.

Finally! I was back to normal! And looking up at Oakley he had cocked his head again, probably wondering why I was still lying on the floor.

“I gotta teach you how to use that thing, this is just stupid how come you don’t know anything about it?”

Oakleys weird energetic behavior was gone for a moment but before I could respond anything I was yanked off the ground into a hug, startling me badly as I wasn’t used to interacting with something my size anymore.

My brain froze up for a moment before I registered a red mop of messy hair next to my face burying into my shoulder.

The one that had yanked me into a hug was Robin and I hugged back after a few seconds, still a bit out of the loop.

I was touching someone my own size! This was awesome!

And Robin interacting with me like this meant that we were friends, right?

I hadn’t really allowed myself to consider the three humans as friends before, I had been a Giant after all and as such couldn’t go near any city ever again.

Being back at human size i noticed that Everything looked weird now, like it was too big as i had gotten used to everything being smaller than me but i couldn’t complain.

I was back to normal after what felt like the longest week and a half or so of my life and I was able to actually do mundane stuff again!

Someone patted my back and tried to yank both me and Robin into a standing position and I had to let go to avoid falling over again.

Looking directly and face to face into Arthur’s eyes was weird, and awkward considering what had happened three days before so I turned around to talk to Robin only to see Rikaad.

He was taller than me now.

And I had definitely been right in being scared of him.

He was rather buff, not overtly so that it would restrict his range of motion but I was sure he could throw me pretty far.

Also looking up at someone was strange and seeing those icy gray eyes up close did not make it better as they seemed even more intimidating now.

“Are you alright? That was… weird, especially that green creature you turned into for a bit”

At least Rikaad was friendly even now but I agreed that it was weird.

“I’m fine, really it’s just weird being small again everything seems… bigger”

It was a lame answer, I knew that but my mind was still reeling with the fact that I was back to normal so I didn’t care if my answers made sense.

“How did you turn into that green thing? I’ve never seen such a thing before”

Arthur had a point, apparently this weird bracelet could do more than turn me into a giant and Oakley knew how, I probably should ask him how and besides, it was his anyway and I should give it back.

“Can you turn into the green kitty again? It looked soft”

I looked at Robin confusedly, why would he call that green beast i had temporarily become a kitty?.

“What on that green thing looked like a cat to you???”

“It had paws and a fuzzy tail, also your ears flicked funnily”

That wasn’t really enough reason to call it a ‘kitty’ though, but as long as he wasn’t scared of it I wouldn’t correct him.

And it was probably time to give the trinket back to Oakley, he’d be glad to have it back, After all, it had been stolen for long enough that the corpse of the thief had rotted to the bones.

“I should probably give this back to Oakley now, it’s his after all”

I tapped the metal accessory to show what I meant.

Rikaad leaned over, ending up sort of looming over us and I tried not to be bothered by the fact that I wasn’t the tallest anymore.

“He did mention that it belongs to him, so i Believe returning it to its rightful owner is the best thing to do”

I nodded at them and turned to walk over to Oakley who was once again standing Sidewards on the stump.

This man did not care for Gravity huh.

Ignoring that he seemed to take offense to the existence of gravity, I went over to him again to return the trinket to its owner.

Glancing back for a second the few meters I had already walked, I saw Arthur ruffling Robin’s ginger locks and Rikaad smiling at them.

I wondered if I could have such things too?

I was back to normal now, but my normal still contained the fact that I was a Bastard and not wanted in any of the Kingdoms.

Ignoring those thoughts for now I held the arm with the Bracelet out to Oakley, I still didn’t know how to get it off myself after all and needed his help to get it off my wrist.

He reached for it but then seemed to have a different idea.

“Keep it”

I was baffled, he’d just give me an enchanted…whatever…Bracelet? But he said that it was his.

Why would he give it to me now? A Bastard of all things.

Apparently my stare showed my confusion as he smiled at me.

“I cant use it, if i where to put it on i would die from incompatible magics, also it doesn’t fit over my wings, and i really don’t know how i would even wear it so giving it to the only one i’ve ever seen that actually CAN use it is the best decision here”

I stared numbly at the weird… fae? Whatever he was he seemed to be an alright guy if a bit of an annoyance at times.

But I did need to know how to use it, even if it was an awesome gift it would be useless if I didn’t know how it worked.

“Thank you! But uhh, how do I use it? You moved too fast to see what you did so can you show me?”

He stood up straighter adding at least an inch to his height and tilted his head to the left before nodding.

“Ah yes it would be smart if you actually knew how to use it, after all it won’t be of much help if you don't”

He walked a few steps away from the stump, probably to avoid damaging it should I grow and I followed suit, glancing behind me for a second.

The Humans were talking among themselves but repeatedly looking over at me, probably out of concern and I gave them a thumbs up to signify that all was well before turning back to Oakley.

“So, first off that’s not a curse but rather a genetically tied Enchantment for Beings that are called Ardua, and you can only use it if you are a descendant from one of the original otherwise you just die”

“So I could have died back then??? Why would anyone design it like this???”

He shrugged.

“Defense mechanism is my best guess but i’m not all knowing, so let’s continue”

I nodded numbly, A defense mechanism did make sense so he was probably right.

“I have never seen an Ardua in person before, only drawings in various scriptures some of which were as detailed as having entire biological sketches but that’s not important, well unless you need a doctor because your organs are kinda nonsense to humans”

Well I was very aware of that.

“I get what you mean i know my anatomy is kinda fucked, besides i cant go to any human doctor anyway they’d kill me”

He looked a bit concerned but continued anyway.

“That’s horrible but moving on to the matter at hand, to change between form you should take a good look at the embedded gems”

Holding my arm up to my face to inspect the gems closer, The only thing I could see for now were the five inlaid green gems.

I didn’t even know what type of gemstone they were let alone how they would help me shift into a giant or that green thing Oakley had called an Ardua.

The five gems were spaced rather evenly with three forming a single line down between the ornaments from top to bottom and two more stuck between even more of the big ornament to the sides.

I didn’t really see what I was supposed to do, press them like buttons?

Trying that didn’t work so I looked back at Oakley for help.

“You have to turn the gems, like a gear and the direction decides what form you are going to take”

He put his hands on the magic trinket and slowly turned the darkest green gem at the top of the three row counterclockwise.

Before I could react I had grown back into a Giant at about the same speed he had turned the Gem.

“YO WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?”

Looking behind me I could see my human companions looking confused and Arthur had apparently been the one that shouted as his hands were still half raised to form a speaker over his mouth.

“I’m fine! Oakley is showing me how this thing works, don’t worry!”

I waved the arm with the bracelet to show what I meant.

They seemed to calm down a bit at that and went back to listen to whatever Robin was Rambling about, frequently turning to check on me.

Turning my attention back to Oakley i Bent down so he could reach the Bracelet again.

“Try turning it in the opposite direction as long as it’s the same gem you are fine”

Taking his advice I slowly turned the dark green gem in a clockwise rotation until I couldn’t turn it any further, and after about a second shrank again to my normal height.

“Oh this is actually pretty awesome! How do I turn into the green thing?”

A huge smile had plastered onto Oakleys face and I could see two sharp fangs poking out, even longer and sharper than mine.

“You turn the other one, the one at the bottom, it works just like the top one”

That made sense, but what function did the other gems have?

“What do the other gems do? Don’t tell me this thing has MORE forms to turn into”

“No it doesn’t have more forms than that, the two gems on the sides are for stabilization if i read correctly and the Rhombus shaped one should be the one that draws in power from the environment so it is usable”

Man, this guy knew a lot about this even if he had said that he’d never seen one in person.

Deciding not to question it for my own sanity I tested the Ardua form out again by turning the lighter green gem on the bottom.

After a second I was back in the Four legged form of the Green beast that Robin had called a Kitty.

The form itself wasn’t so bad actually, i felt like i suddenly had more muscles, probably to support the Quadrupedal form.

Now that I had a bit more time to inspect this form, I gave myself a lookover.

I had sturdy legs that were like everything else covered in thick green fur, paws that had sharp looking white claws and i knew i had to be careful with those as well as a fuzzy tail with a tuft of lighter green fur at the end and for whatever reason there were literal plants growing on my back.

The plants were mainly Daisies and Dandelions but had a few violets and lots of other plants strewn in, most of which I recognized as edible or at least not poisonous.

“Why do i have-”

“ it’s earth element magic so i’m not surprised about the plants, It’s even funnier when you realize that it lets you photosynthesize like one too”

“Photo-what?“

The word seemed familiar, Like Id heard it before, Then it clicked.

"Wait, you mean because I’m like a plant I don’t need to eat? That would explain why i never felt hungry”

He nodded, affirming my thoughts and I had to admit never having to eat was absolutely great! I wouldn’t have to steal food ever again!

“Just remember to drink enough, don’t want you drying out do we?”

I nodded as things made a lot more sense now where before that was only confusion.

And now I know how to use it! That was awesome! It meant that I could switch between forms whenever I wanted! I could-

I still couldn’t go back to Kamerasca.

It was only logical really, I was still a bastard and being able to turn into a green monster wouldn’t help to show that I was as much of a person as everyone else there.

I doubted that the three humans I had befriended could do anything about it as they weren’t even full Guards yet.

“Oi what’s got you down so suddenly?”

Oakley had apparently sensed that something was wrong as he tilted his head again reminding me of a bird.

“I just remembered that I can’t really go back to…. any Kingdom really, I’m still an unwanted bastard and they would probably kill me on sight if not worse, but i don’t want to roam the woods like some mindless beast either”

Oakley wasn’t human either so he would probably understand, After all, he lived all the way out here on the mountain.

“Ah I see, yeah humans do that, they don’t understand something and immediately stamp it as a bad thing that has to get rid off, i’ve seen it countless times so if that’s the problem you could live here? Some company would be nice”

I looked around the clearing that he lived in, it was a nice place and he had an actual house so I wouldn’t have to sleep in a cave or something and it was protected by the woods and mountainside.

a good place really.

But I couldn’t leave the humans to go back on their own, what if more beasts appeared? So far the manticores hadn’t been that hard to get rid off, I had just kicked them across the map but they were smaller than most monsters so defending themselves was going to be a challenge.

Oakleys offer was good, very good even but I had promised to get them back so I would do that.

I could still come back here later after I had brought them to Kamerasca.