#sstc

He swallowed more quickly to get Robin safely in his pouch as he heard his other two friends try to tell the stranger to stop… Donovan just managed to look down in time to see this stranger grab onto his green fur without hesitation and scramble up to slash some sort of weapon at his neck… Damn the scrawny fella was fast! A huge chunk of green fur fell to the ground. Thank goodness his short mane was so thick, but it would only slow the stranger down for so long. He swiped a paw at the stranger as they moved to slash, and despite his own speed this fighter grabbed onto fur and swung out of the paw’s arc before he could make contact. What a dodge! 

He snarled and turned to snap as the guy moved further back on the mane and started climbing… again they avoided his move expertly. He swiped his paws again… how can the fighter keep dodging so well? This was bad. He was too tall for his friends to help, and this attacker could scramble over him like an angry alley rat… That gave him an idea. Living on the streets he had been attacked by rats in the past. They weren’t the hardest to deal with: if you have hands that can reach them. As flexible as the green furry feline form was, this guy could see his paws coming too far ahead of time as he stretched to keep swiping as the fighter swung and climbed about as he slashed… Yee-ouch! He had gotten past the thick fur! Hopefully a change would catch the attacker off guard.

He pawed to turn the gems on the magic bracelet, activating the change to his form away from the giant green feline and to a humanoid giant. Yes he now lacked the protection of thick fur, but the stranger was getting past that anyway. And he had experience with a humanoid form fighting small agile things. Hopefully knocking off rats was comparable enough. 

He grabbed with his hand and just as he did the person dropped below his reach and grabbed his clothes to scramble back up again. Donovan hissed in pain as the bladed weapon cut past his clothes and sliced a gash across his abdomen. Okay, smarter than rats so still a problem, but how had the stranger seen him move to grab? He had been trying to hide his moves specifically to avoid that! He heard shouting again from the angry fighter as his hand slapped his own chest just as the fighter dodged again. What was said was rather… unexpected. The fighter had proclaimed, “I will carve you open to rescue who you ate! This won’t be my first time saving someone that way, and you won’t be the last giant I carve up to save someone from digestion!”

While this degree of skill could only have come from having faced similar foes, it still didn’t make sense to Donovan. Where could this stranger have found that? Donovan knew his bracelet was extremely rare… so what else could this stranger have fought to know how to climb and fight like this? How had she not fallen to the ground when his fur vanished from her grip? She had barely dropped at all before grasping his clothing and climbing back up… to adapt so easily she must have previously killed shape changing creatures. 

Donovan gave another hiss of pain, and was starting to get more worried. He knew his friends were near his feet with swords drawn, waiting for any opportunity to reach this stranger, but Donovan wasn’t sure how they could help. He heard what sounded like a weapon being sheathed as the fighter was now trying to get to Donovan’s throat from his shoulder! Donovan managed to slap at his shoulder to force the fighter to let go and grab onto his shirt on his back to avoid the hit.

He heard Rikaad shout, “Donovan! Fall flat on your back now!” Donovan knew Rikaad was extremely smart, and could make plans really well. There was no hesitation, Rikaad had to have a plan to keep the fighter from slicing his throat the moment he was on the ground. So he let himself drop and fall back as fast as he could. He felt the fighter release the back of his shirt to dodge… and by the time he turned his head he could see Arthur and Rikaad had managed to use the forced dodge to allow them to pin down the fighter. 

Donovan sighed in relief. He could see Arthur was angry about the situation but Rikaad seemed more calculated. Rikaad looked at Donovan, “Get Robin out. This woman’s actions seemed to be driven by wanting to save someone she saw you eat, I think she will stop struggling and fighting us when she sees Robin was not harmed.” Donovan was briefly puzzled. Woman? But then he realized the fighter was a woman. It has become obvious only when her shirt got a bit torn while his two friends restrained her. She had bindings on her chest to hide that she had breasts, but the stranger was a woman.

Still, she was struggling and fighting against them so best to prioritize what Rikaad said if it might help. He brought Robin back up as he sat on the ground, setting him where the woman could see the red head was unharmed. She seemed to lose all fight immediately, which made it much easier for Rikaad and Arthur to restrain her. Tying her wrists for now as they started to check for further weapons. 

Donovan’s attention snapped to Robin as Robin saw the injuries, “She hurt you! That looks bad!" Robin was already checking to see however many injuries Donovan got, and was not happy. Rikaad was already trying to question the woman. Donovan scooped up Robin in his hand, “It’s okay. It’s not that bad. Besides, she just wanted to save you.”

Robin hugged his hand, “She hurt you! She could have killed you!” Donovan rubbed the little red head's hair, “I know… but I am fine now. She calmed down the moment she saw you were unharmed. You know my biology is weird. She had no reason to know about my pouch, to her it would have looked like you would end up in my stomach. She was even shouting about carving people out of monsters to save them. I don’t know where she’s from, but it sounds like she’s seen giant monsters actually eat people. Oakley can patch me up and maybe he can figure out what’s up with her. But I’m asking you not to try to fight her. Remember, Rikaad reacted the same way.”

Robin and Donovan decided to just watch as Rikaad and Arthur made sure she had no other weapons. They identified the bladed weapon she used as a machete, but didn’t recognize what it was made of. The backpack she wore had little in it… it had two other large bags, bottles that contained water, and a couple small sealed packages that when opened had some kind of prepared meal inside. There was also what seemed to be jewelry in there. Nice stuff, would get a good price if sold. So it seemed like she was prepared to get some things but didn’t bring much with her. She had a strange bracelet too, not like his though, and Rikaad couldn’t find how to remove it. It had a rectangular part, images and writing on it. Probably some sort of magic because some of the writing and images changed at times. 

Once Rikaad and Arthur seemed certain there were no further weapons on her, they discussed how to get her back to the castle. Still felt strange sometimes that Rikaad had turned out to be the heir and it was now his castle, but it sure was useful at times. Solved a lot of problems when your friend was in charge. They had concerns about transporting the woman back to question further. She was an extremely capable fighter and could be dangerous even unarmed. 

Arthur actually said maybe because she was unarmed, unlike Rikaad had been in the similar situation, putting her in the pouch could prevent her from fleeing or lashing out. It sounded like a petty way to give her a scare for what she did, but Donovan did not want to put someone in there who moments ago was ready to kill him. Rikaad was suggesting she had some sort of magic because he had observed her moving to dodge Donovan’s hits before he even moved, as if she could somehow predict when she might take damage and move to avoid it. It was why he had sheathed his sword and had Arthur do the same before attempting to restrain her. Magic meant she was way more dangerous, and how dangerous and what she could do was a complete unknown. That made the suggestion of putting her in the pouch an even worse idea. Hopefully Oakley could help them figure stuff out. 

Donovan placed Robin on his shoulder, “I’ll just hold her securely with my hands while we walk. It should keep her restrained until we get additional help.” Rikaad nodded, agreeing that was the safest way to keep the woman secure. Donovan picked her up carefully and she offered no resistance. He even heard her mutter that she was sorry for the misunderstanding, then added, “While I feel bad about the mistake and hurting you, I also want to warn you that if you do try to make a meal of me, I will carve my way out with my own bones if I must,” and then she then went silent again. So yeah, putting her in the pouch was definitely a terrible idea. Arthur carried her bag and weapons and Rikaad stayed ready to fight, as he was the most skilled with a sword. And they started the walk back.

——-

The whole experience since jumping to this world had been wild to Sam. Seeing that big green short-mane lion thing swallowing a human down reminded her far too much of the troubles at home. Of seeing her own brother barely breathing from being swallowed down by a similar monster. She had drawn her carbon-fiber machete and rushed forward. She knew from experience with similar sized monsters she had limited time to carve the beast’s belly open before the one eaten had irreversible damage. 

Well, at least in the vast majority of cases. Her friend Jacob had been the sole exception. That weird healing factor of his… When she pulled his bloody form from that giant she felt sure it was far too late and all she could do was give him painkillers to ease his end. He had already lost a leg and she could literally see his lung through his chest! Would be another stranger she was too late to save. But she was wrong. She pulled him to shelter and gave him painkillers. She didn’t know how the currently skinless man could still be breathing, but she put him on a clean sheet on the ground and stayed up all night to keep feeding him painkillers. She was astonished when after the first hour, his chest was sealed closed again… and she realized that he had an ability. Hers was to sense danger, his was to heal. And heal he did.

She couldn’t help but briefly smirk as she thought about how she had made such a loyal friend. But her thoughts soon went back to the fight with the giant currently carrying her as they all went… somewhere. The green cat monster had seemed like a mildly challenging kill. Thick fur made it hard to do damage, but slicing it away solved that. The giant had apparently thought changing form would dislodge her as the fur suddenly vanished… 

But she had seen, and killed, form changing monsters back home. The giant invaders back home had come in all sorts of variety. The many different types making it hard for mankind to know how to kill each type is part of how they had eliminated so many people. Based on radio reports they had gotten, even the largest cities that once housed millions had at best a couple thousand survivors hiding out. But apparently things were very different here.

When she had briefly glanced people near the feet of the giant, she had naturally assumed they were trying to take him down as well to save the other human. She hadn’t been able to focus on their actual actions, just be aware of their location. She had been sure she nearly had him when she got on his back where it was harder for him to smack or grab at her. Before long she would have had an opening to either slit the throat or drive her machete in his spine… Then she heard a shout and he dropped back. Now that she could think about the sequence of events, she realized the stern looking fella had actually ordered the giant to drop down on his back and the giant had obeyed without question. It was wild to think about. Seeing them interact since then. Seeing him get the human out of his belly. Seeing how the one he had swallowed was so clingy… They were friends. With a giant. It may not be in her world, but it gave her that glimpse of hope… Hope that maybe not all of the big people were monsters. She desperately wanted to find a way to stop the destruction back home. If she could find a non-hostile one back home, maybe they could find a compromise or negotiation. 

But that was a slim hope. For now she had to wait and see what these people planned to do. She still had her teleporter on her wrist… it was locked in place and couldn’t be removed, so she always had an option to escape if it got desperate. But she had let herself be taken captive in the past when she jumped to worlds. Heck some decent trades had even happened after such things, where she offered the jewelry she brought to get supplies for her people. Other times she had just broken out when they weren’t watching and stole what she needed. These people… didn’t seem unreasonable. Not entirely at least. Sure they weren’t happy she attacked the giant, but other than that the one seeming to want to scare her by feeding her to the thing, they had been very reasonable since she stood down. No physical retaliation for the injuries she caused. Just took precautions to assure she couldn’t do it again. 

She glanced up as a shadow passed briefly overhead. A flying monster of some sort? Some of the monsters that accompanied the invading giants had been small… but this wasn’t the place those giants came from, so no telling. Could just be a condor, those were some rather big birds… or who knows what. But the shadow caused the group to pause on their trip and the giant to say something about oak tree? Weird. But she could now see something human-sized come down through the air to land near the two humans. She’d need to listen to figure out what was going on.

—--

Seeing the shadow pass overhead, Donovan knew who it had to be immediately. “Oakley! We were just coming to see you!” Oakley flew down to land by Rikaad and Arthur. “Funny seeing you here! I was just about to go investigate some strange energy out this way, but you four already found the source and were even bringing it back! How thoughtful!” Rikaad started to tell Oakley about their initial encounter, and how he figured out she somehow sensed anything dangerous so they had to put swords away to be able to catch and restrain her before any further harm came to Donovan.

Oakley glanced up at the woman in Donovan’s hand, “She seems rather passive now. Of course she had no way to know about Donovan’s pouch, I doubt there’s anything like that where she’s from. Things are probably very different, considering if I’m right, she’s from an entirely different world.” The others were quiet briefly as they processed what Oakley just said. While they were making sense of it, Oakley flew up to land on Donovan’s arm to take a closer look at the woman. “Hmm… I think she may need medical attention even if she wasn’t hit during the confrontation. Even at a glance I can see signs of malnutrition and severe exhaustion. And a lot more could be learned from her with a proper examination. We should head to my tower.”

Oakley continued to examine the young woman as they walked. Poking at her, asking questions, seeing how much she would open up. But she remained quiet, only occasionally speaking. When asked if she had killed giants before, her answer was ‘Far too much’. When asked if she still wanted to harm Donovan, she shook her head. When asked if the jewelry in the bag was stolen she answered no, she brought it with her to use for trade. When asked what she wanted to trade for, she said her people were desperate for food more than anything else. Questions about her ability to fight and magic she remained silent on. Questions on who her people were and where they were made her tense. Easy to guess that she was protective of them.

It was a bit amusing to see how the young woman’s eyes went wide as it became clear they were going to the castle. Donovan glanced at his friends, deciding to surprise the girl a bit more, “So Rikaad, seeing as you are king I guess it makes it your decision if she goes to a cell or just to Oakley’s.” As he suspected, her quickly looking from him down to Rikaad again with wide eyes was a bit amusing. Probably made her more worried that she had attacked a friend of the king. But Rikaad was smart and sensible, so his reply was no surprise. “She is being cooperative, and Oakley seems concerned about her well being. Medical wing for rest. She stood down as soon as she knew Robin wasn’t hurt… Her reaction to what you do was no different than my own. Even if she had an advantage against you that I did not, she should be treated no worse than I was after the same mistake… Although under close supervision as she has not earned the same level of trust.”

The girl relaxed a little at what was said, perhaps finding it reassuring that even friends had misunderstood that kind of behavior in the past, and that the mistake would not put her in the dungeon. Granted, they also had no idea if the dungeon would even hold her, so slight shows of trust on both sides would be required. A bit of hospitality and help recovering wouldn’t be hard, and may get her cooperation for Oakley’s tests and maybe more answers to their questions. 

Once they were outside the medical wing, Donovan set the young woman down and she stood still. Rikaad approached, “The guards will have orders not to let you off castle grounds, at least for a while you won’t be allowed to wander without escort. If you agree not to flee, I will cut the rope from your wrists.” She considered a moment, “As long as nobody hurts me, I will not leave without informing someone. The only way I will leave urgently is if I am harmed or if I receive a message from my people that they desperately need my help with defense or rescue. If I do have to leave because of such a message, I will make a good faith effort to return here. Is that sufficient?” Rikaad considered for a moment, “An exception to save those you care about is more than understandable, as long as you inform whoever is your escort.” Once the young woman nodded to agree to inform her escort, Rikaad cut the rope away so she could move freely. She rubbed her wrists a moment. “I would like my belongings in sight, even if I’m not allowed to access my weapon. It was hard to get and if I need to depart to save others, I’ll need my weapon.” Rikaad nodded, “If you are willing to cooperate with Oakley’s tests, your belongings can stay within sight of you.” She arched a brow, “If the tests remain non-harmful, I will cooperate.” Rikaad glanced at Arthur, “Make sure they go in the medical wing with her.” He turned back to the woman, “Do you have a name we can call you?” “Sam.”

As Sam was led into the medical wing, Donovan noticed the plants of the gardens had almost seemed to perk up. They hadn’t looked that nice in a while… not since the gardener had died. Perhaps she was part dryad like he had been? It was certainly interesting to see. Now that things had settled down, he placed Robin on the ground and used his bracelet to get small again and enter the medical wing as well. He had a lot of cuts to get treated after all. Once Sam was seated on the bed, Oakley came over to start applying medicine and bandages. Donovan could see Sam staring. He also noticed Robin was glaring a bit. Not happy Sam had hurt him. Sam then spoke,  “I… am sorry I got so caught up on things I didn’t hear the others yelling at me. It was just… a very familiar situation. Not just the thousands I witnessed getting eaten when the invaders arrived, when I saw from the safety of a rooftop too tall for them to reach… but…” She seemed hesitant, “It was so much worse when even though we had survived the invaders for months… but local gangsters nailed him with an explosive on his way back from a supply run… He was too injured to move… I was going to drag him inside, but by the time I reached the door that damn purple feline thing already had his limp form in its mouth… I watched it swallow my brother… my twin. I first started keeping my hair short and styled like this because that way every time I look in the mirror I feel like he’s looking back at me.”

Donovan was shocked… it was no wonder she was too emotional to hear the others shouting at her… and the tears running down her cheeks as she told the story made it clear this was not some lie. It wasn’t just about saving people. She was fighting her own memory. Reliving a trauma… and it probably made matters worse that his form was also feline at the time. It must have felt like it was happening all over again. Donovan forced a smile, “Just don’t swing a weapon at me again, and all is forgiven.”

Donovan had decided to stop in to see the strange woman again around dinner time, once people had time to cool their heads more to see if she was adjusting at all, or if she had caused any trouble. Oakley was gone running tests on samples at the moment, so there was just the usual medical area staff and it looked like Nea was assigned to keep an eye on Sam. Smart choice. If anyone could handle such a potentially dangerous foe, it was Nea. Nea was a heck of a guard and warrior woman. Even crutches hadn’t slowed her down in the slightest… It was interesting to hear her laughing. Sam apparently was telling her about some of her own fights, “Yeah, it’s happened more than once. Carving into the belly of a monster to pull out an acid soaked victim is… gruesome. Unfortunately some of the people I saved turned out to be local gangsters who wanted to repay my kindness by trying to gut me to steal my supplies. Their mistake. But most of the time I don’t target giants eating gangsters. There’s a couple in the city who seemed to figure out if they leave the area my people use alone they are safe.” Nea nods, “Sounds like it would be a hell of a foe to fight. Maybe there’s a way I can visit some time to practice against the unique enemies you have there.”

Sam and Nea both paused in their conversation when Donovan approached. Sam seemed much less on edge now. Perhaps medical care and lunch had been what was needed for her to give trust a chance. Sam immediately asked Donovan how his wounds were doing. “Nearly gone. Oakley has some great treatments, so even the deepest gashes will be fine in no time. Dinner is going to be ready soon. Are they having you stay here, or come to the main dining hall? I hope you at least get to try the cinnamon bread. It’s really good.” 

Sam frowned, “They wanted me to remain here and I’m trying not to cause too much trouble…” Nea however was already putting Sam’s machete in the backpack and putting it on, “Nonsense! As long as you are with your assigned guard there should be no issues!” Even with Nea holding her belongings that she wanted to keep in sight, both Donovan and Nea could see she remained hesitant. What happened next surprised nobody who knew Nea. Nea just grabbed Sam’s arm and jerked her up to be standing, starting to half drag the stumbling woman to the door. When one of the staff tried to intervene, a cushion from a nearby bed hit their face before they could react. Donovan couldn’t help but smirk, it was amusing to see how Nea must have dealt with the medical staff when she was told to stay to recover.

So Donovan joined them as Nea half dragged Sam to the dining hall. It made it easier to find it anyway, the castle still felt like a maze to him. He could see Sam studying the way they went. He wondered if she would have an easier time navigating than he did. Entering the busy feast hall could be a tad overwhelming at times when you weren’t used to so many people, and at a glance he could see it gave Sam pause. Not that Sam had much opportunity to pause, Nea was already dragging her to get a plate while talking about some of her own battles again. It was clear Sam was excited by so much food. Not surprising seeing how skinny she was. How could she be such an effective fighter while on the edge of starvation? It was kind of incredible.

It was once they were all seated and Sam had a huge plate of food she started to open up a bit again. Talking about how she hadn’t seen so much food since she was a child. Since before her father killed her mother and left her to live on the streets with her brother. The streets are a hard place to live, so in that way he could relate. Apparently there had been options of places for them to go run by the government, but they had a bad reputation of breaking up siblings and they wouldn’t risk that. They also couldn’t risk people learning about any abilities or risk being locked up and used for their own purposes. 

Well it was more and more obvious the way to win Sam over was food. Should have been obvious with how skinny she was. She was more than willing to explain why she came to this world now that she had a big meal in front of her. Food. Food was the whole reason. Because it was unsafe to try to travel to farm areas and too exposed,  her people needed food sources so she teleported to other worlds because she was the most durable and traded for or stole food for them. She could only do so when there was a lul in the attacks and threats. Apparently they had been hunting rats and pigeons in the city for meat. Stray dogs when they were available. Some of the city gangs they fought with resorted to cannibalism. Sam just used the bodies of those she killed to bait other animals to eat. It was fascinating to hear the different ways they managed to survive. Donovan couldn’t help but smile a bit, “Rikaad is a good man, and a good king. I’m sure he’ll send plenty of food back for your people. He won’t judge you for having weird abilities, nor will he try to use you. You gave us a scare, but if food is really your only goal I doubt there will be any other issues.”

It took little to get her to talk some more, especially since she had hopes of getting food for her people. She talked about them, about the pros and cons of their unusual group. Apparently most of the group thought she was male, specifically because two members had strong beliefs against female leaders so it simplified things to have them just be cooperative. It was hard to find people who can do hard work, so having those two helped compensate for the weaker members, like an old lady and a child. Sounded like things were rough and desperate where she was from, and probably everyone there was traumatized after seeing such mass deaths. Donovan offered her some cinnamon bread, which led to her talking about how when they do get things like flour, the older lady could bake some really interesting sweets using dried seasonings they had. She even offered to share other recipes that use cinnamon! She really didn’t seem like a bad person once she was relaxed. 

After dinner, Donovan decided to visit Rikaad and fill him in on what he learned. Rikaad was reviewing what Oakley had learned when Donovan walked in. Donovan started to discuss what he saw, about Nea dragging Sam to the feast hall, and he suspected she was going to have them share a regular room instead of going back to the medical wing. Rikaad nodded, confirming he expected Nea would act that way, but he was hopeful letting the two warrior women hang out together would go well. Donovan talked about how they had been talking when he showed up about their different combat experiences, but Sam really opened up about her situation once they were eating. Donovan sighed, “Her whole reason for being here is desperation. They have a hard time getting food because of how dangerous the area they live in is.” Rikaad nods, “She did seem extremely skinny, and Oakley said she has both extremely severe exhaustion and malnutrition. He suspects that the same ability that lets her dodge attacks might make it difficult to sleep in her world because it’s such a high risk area. He actually wants to talk to you about a solution to help her with that. I was going to suggest she stay to recover from the malnutrition for a while, but if her people are that desperate we may need to send her back with supplies sooner and simply request she comes back. If what you explained about her situation is accurate, I think the gift of food will encourage her to return.”

Rikaad paused briefly before continuing, “Oakley wants to study her more, and when Nea learned about how Sam moves to fight large targets, Nea wants to spar with her and see if they can share techniques for combat. Having new techniques that enemies can’t predict could give us a huge advantage in any future conflicts, so it would be more than worth sending food or even temporarily housing her and any others needing additional care. Such techniques could be vital if any enemy ever has multiple giant beasts.” Donovan hadn’t considered the potential danger from that kind of risk, but then again, he wasn’t nearly as tactically-minded as Rikaad. Rikaad always planned ahead, always weighed potential outcomes. So Donovan had no doubt that Rikaad’s decisions were the best course of action. Donovan nodded, “Guess I’m talking to Oakley next. Are you having Nea take Sam there too?” “Actually I sent word for Nea to take Sam to wash up and get fresh clothing before talking to Oakley.”

Rikaad paused again briefly, thinking before continuing, “One thing I have noticed… Even when she is more open and talkative, she is careful to avoid mentioning how she traveled between worlds to get here. It’s smart. She’s making sure she is the only one at risk by not letting anyone know how to reach her people. Don’t push her for that information. I suspect she would be a lot less friendly if she had any reason to think we might try to get to her people. It may not seem like a big deal to you, but I can almost guarantee it is to her. She has every reason not to trust anyone. She comes from an extremely hostile place and needs time to see we are genuine. When you go to talk to Oakley, remind him not to ask about that topic. This is a woman who does not care about her own safety, only the safety of those she protects.” Donovan nodded. It made sense… it took him time to trust his friends, so of course it would take her time too, even if she was being more friendly. It wasn’t all that different from how he made sure very few people knew about his pouch and how he could keep people in it safely. His secret was because it wasn’t an easy concept for people to understand and accept, basically to protect himself and potentially others if he used it to fake someone’s death. Her secret was because the knowledge could be used against her people, basically to protect those she cared most about. A secret for safety in both cases.

Donovan had barely gotten to Oakley’s tower then he flew down to talk to him. Oakley seemed rather excited by his test results and was rambling about the girl’s unique biology. It was kind of interesting. Things like immunity to most poisons and even a number of medications and apparently she could sweat capsaicin and other plant based insect deterrents. He talked about how most of the magic woven into her being was inherited, and the combination made it seem like she was custom bred to be some sort of warrior or slayer. Bred to be a monster slayer would explain how even in a malnourished and exhausted state she could fight so well. “I actually need your help for my next experiment! I think that magical detection of danger is why she can’t sleep and I may know how to get around it. I’ll need you to be big for this experiment, but I am quite confident the results will be positive! Her immunity to so many drugs and such mean that most sleep medicine would fail on her, and I even tried a bit of chloroform in the medical labs before I got to run my tests, so it’s not restricted to plant based things. That would have been my theory originally because of how she can produce certain plant based chemicals, so it was good I tried that to know the immunities extend beyond that.” 

Donovan watched Oakley flip through notes he had apparently made on Sam, clearly having been enjoying learning about a human from another world. As old as he was, unique learning opportunities probably aren’t so common anymore. So Donovan would just enjoy seeing Oakley excited. “It’s quite fascinating. When I asked her about sleep, she apparently only rarely had problems when she was young, especially if she had her brother with her. And more recently she has managed to get just enough sleep to stay alive by having her closest ally in the room with her. So being safe is apparently key, and it isn’t dependent on trust. The ally tactic worked even before she knew him well, and even though she is close with other group members, it doesn’t work with them. So the conclusion I reached was that it has nothing to do with trust but instead relies on a combination of being capable and willing to assure her safety. The guy it works with was military, so capable, and she saved his life so even before she knew him enough to trust him, he wanted her safe.” Donovan considered what was said, “So me being big would count as capable is what you are thinking, right?”

“Not entirely.” Oakley says, “But close. Arthur should be bringing her down here before long. Nea will have been told you are handling keeping an eye on her at night.” Oakley flipped to a different page, “See my theory is a proper barrier to any threats along with assured protection will create a perfect environment for her to sleep. Thus in your pouch would lead to instant sleep. And if it doesn’t work, you can always just get her back out.” Donovan stares for a moment, “You want me to put someone who attempted to kill me in my pouch?” Oakley grinned, “Well yes, not so different than with Rikaad. And this will be better discussed to assure you don’t get stabbed. Besides, she’s had so little sleep it’s a surprise she isn’t dead from it yet.”

Donovan was very unsure of this idea… Oakley was insane… but also had yet to be wrong. Once Sam knew Robin was unharmed she backed off immediately, but Donovan was still wary. She had threatened to carve her way out with her own bones if she felt it necessary. But it was also very obvious she was in desperate need of sleep. Oakley made it very clear it was basically a matter of life and death. If he was to consider this plan it would have to be as a giant, as what Sam said earlier made it clear her worst trauma was with a giant feline monster. 

Donovan was deep in thought and barely noticed when Arthur arrived with Sam, and he even missed part of the conversation with Oakley. But once he realized they were talking about the plan he started paying attention again. Sam was surprisingly calm as she spoke, “So what you are getting to is you want me to agree to let the big guy swallow me to see if it causes my magic to let me sleep?” Oakley seemed cheerful about how she was taking it, “Exactly! Perfectly harmless, and if you have a problem while in there, Donovan can get you right back out!” Sam frowned, “It feels like a rather… threatening action. If I start to take damage I will retaliate to protect myself. But… if it truly is harmless I suppose I could give it a chance, especially if it means the guy in charge may be more likely to give me food to take home for my people.” 

It was kinda sad to process how little she valued her own life over just the chance of helping her people get food to survive, but considering who she lost, it made sense. But it was also reassuring to Donovan, she was less likely to overreact to him because she had something to gain from cooperating with whatever crazy ideas Oakley had. Donovan sighed. Oakley was sure, and she would die if a solution wasn’t found. 

He didn’t like this idea, but at the moment she didn’t want to stab him so it was worth giving it a try. So he turned the gem on the bracelet to make himself big again, watching Sam’s reaction closely for signs of hostility. Sam was just looking at him. Seemed uncertain, but not hostile. Instead of picking her up, he held his hand out by her, “I’m pretty worried about you stabbing me, Sam. So please, if you get upset, at least give me an opportunity to get you out after you let me know.” Sam thought for a moment and nodded, “If I am unharmed, I will not harm you. I am very uncertain of this, but I will cooperate with this… test.” Donovan gave a slight smile, relieved she was willing to agree to that. 

Donovan decided to still take it slow to watch for a reaction, waiting until she chose to sit in his hand to pick her up. But she remained calm, tense but little reaction. She also didn’t react, at least not in a way he noticed, when he opened his mouth and brought her close to it. He glanced frequently at her to look for signs of lashing out, but she seemed to really be willing to try this. Before long he was starting to swallow her, trying to make it go quicker so she wouldn’t be in his throat long. She was definitely much scrawnier than anyone else he had done this to, and it actually made it easier. It didn’t take long before he felt her slide into his pouch. He was kinda glad he started using that word instead of trying to explain it as a non-functioning stomach. 

He could feel her adjusting her position in him, and he rested a hand over the spot where her form was, “You okay in there? Not feeling stabby?” That actually got a slight chuckle from the woman, “You know… I’ve never liked fighting and killing. It’s just been a necessity. And while I might be a tad slimy, there’s nothing… harmful… so I don’t…” Her words were interrupted by her yawning, “…see a reason to use…” A second yawn and she continued, “…the emergency bone… blades I can… pop out.” While it was nice she was saying she didn’t want to stab him, Donovan still found the information a bit horrifying, “You can actually pop out your bones into weapons?” He heard her yawn again. Seemed like Oakley was right again and it was affecting her fast. But even tired, Sam managed to get out a partial response, “Sorta... It’s complicated.” Her words seemed to come out slowly. He thought he heard her starting to mutter something else, but she just went limp. As best he could tell, she was already asleep.

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.

Arthur then made a gesture for us to stop.

“Arthur? Something wrong?”

He pointed at the window we just passed and both me and Robin looked out of the small thing.

We were on ground level right behind the shed, technically we didn’t have to walk to the door now since the window should just be large enough to climb out.

Which Robin promptly did, almost headbutting my chin in the process.

“I'm first outside!”

Oh well, The window wasn’t big but I had to be extra stupid to get stuck in it so I heaved myself onto it and jumped down the meter or so to the ground.

Arthur followed swiftly and managed to snag his foot in the windowsill and barely avoided falling onto his Numb face by bracing himself with his arms.

Heaving him up again i looked around to try and spot Oakley, the fucker was fast i gave him that.

Arthur gave me once again a thumbs up what probably was meant to substitute a ‘thank you’.

Robin had already run ahead and I noticed that Oakley was indeed walking right into the shrubbery of the less maintained part of the castle grounds.

So dragging Arthur behind I followed the ginger into the trees that stood between the castle and the protective wall.

Arthur mumbled something incomprehensible again but I guessed it was something along the lines of ‘I can walk myself’ so I let go of his tunic.

Considering the direction Oakley was going he was heading right for the tower, well it was his now and I assumed he’d have to do a lot of cleaning to make it livable.

Who knew how long that half broken tower had been abandoned, not to mention there was an Oak tree growing out of it which probably broke the wall in some places.

We caught up to Robin rather quickly but then stopped as we heard someone call for us.

Turning around I saw Rikaad, now free of mud, walking at a brisk pace towards us.

Robin immediately waved excitedly at him as he came up to us.

“Where are you going? And what’s with Arthur’s face?”

He sounded rather concerned at the last part, but since Arthur couldn’t talk I’d explain it instead.

“He got punched in the jaw and Oakley put something to numb his face and now we wanted to ask how long that works for”

He nodded in acknowledgment before looking at the bruise a bit closer.

“Why were you punched? What happened?”

Well this was about to turn really awkward in a few seconds.

I was in Luck as Robin started explaining what happened before I could open my mouth.

Spared me awkwardly trying to coherently tell him that people in the castle tried to kill me.

Hell, that could have gone so wrong if Arthur had been just a second slower.

Better not dwell on that grimm outlook.

Besides, Judging by Rikaad's face they were going to be fired very soon anyway so it was unlikely that I would ever have to see them again.

“I will deal with that as soon as i can, for now we can go to Oakley, i wanted to ask him what he plans to do with the tower anyway”

True, he said he’d wanted the tower but not what exactly he was going to do with it, and aside from that i also wanted to finally ask him if he had anything to make that absolutely irritating itching go away

Resuming to walk where Oakley had gone, I noticed that this part only looked less well maintained.

There were no bigger branches on the ground and none of the other signs that it was abandoned.

It looked to be expertly well kept even if these plants weren’t cut into fancy shapes.

Also most of the trees were apple or Pear and I guessed that they were planted for when the castle was under lockdown.

Between two trees the tower came into view and it was just as rundown as I thought it would be.

There were holes in the walls and the top half was missing completely so that it had only three stories at most.

It was also slightly askew as the Oak Tree next to it had pushed it aside a bit, getting shelves installed would be a nightmare for sure.

There was rustling from above and it seemed Oakley was sorting trash on whatever remained intact on the upper floor.

I didn’t dare stand anywhere near the tower itself as there could be a risk of falling bricks, especially with Oakley messing about up there.

So shouting up it was and hoping he’d come down without triggering a downpour of stone bricks.

“OAKLEY! HEY! DOWN HERE! WE WANT TO TALK TO YOU!”

A head popped up over the ledge of the tower, it seemed I had been loud enough, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Robin hold his hands over his ears, maybe too loud then.

Whatever the case it worked as Oakley just jumped down and used his wings to glide to the ground.

Yeah, the Air element was a very good guess.

He landed gracefully in front of us and then tucked his wingarms closer to his body.

“Something the matter? Anyone else gotten punched?”

Of course that would be the first thing he had to point out.

I shook my head.

“No, we wanted to ask how long Arthur’s Jaw is going to be numb for”

“And also how you like the tower!”

Robin butted in, pointing at said tower.

Oakley smiled and I could clearly see his fangs again, they were almost off puttingly white.

“Well it should be numb for about one hour total, but! It’s going to remove the bruise entirely and no it does not work on anything worse than that.

As for the tower, well it’s dusty for one thing but I’m working on fixing that.”

Ah, so as soon as the stuff wears off Arthur’s bruise should be gone, That was nice.

And I could plainly see that it was dusty as hell in the run down building.

Maybe i’d offer to help later, first i had to ask if he had anything to make the fucking itching stop.

I debated waiting until the others left but they knew about it already anyway so it didn’t really matter.

Well Rikaad might feel guilty again about stabbing me but right now I just wanted this uncomfortable feeling to stop already.

Maybe he’d give me whatever he gave Arthur to simply numb it.

“Hey Oakley?

Do you have anything that helps in dealing with a painful itch?”

Okay I definitely could have worded that better.

“Did you touch poison ivy? Or what did you do?”

Maybe I should have waited after all, because this was about to be extremely awkward.

Like how the hell was I supposed to explain the fuckery that had happened? And it was my fault too.

But before I could say anything else Robin had already started talking.

“Oh no, its for the stitches in his pouch that Rikaad made after he stabbed Donovan in a snowstorm”

Oh, that was probably too much information at once blurted out in a short sentence, I could almost see Oakley’s brain working to process this strange heap of information.

Then he turned to Rikaad strangely enough.

“Aside from the fact that you STABBED him, what kind of thread did you use?”

Oakley suddenly seemed a bit bigger than before if only due to being puffed up like an angry bird.

I was a bit confused however, why would he need to know what type of thread it was?

Did that influence what type of treatment he was going to use?

Rikaad himself looked rather uncomfortable.

“Just a normal sewing thread with a normal needle, why?”

He suddenly got a face full of wing as Oakley just opened the appendage in his direction.

“A NORMAL thread?!? Are you insane?

That’s way too frayed to be used for wounds!

That just amps up the risk of an infection!

And then a normal sewing needle! That is not sanitary!

Why would you even use that?”

Rikaad had shrank back a bit at Oakleys rant but I could clearly see that where the wing had struck him it was slightly red.

It didn’t look damaged in any way however, apparently it had just been a light smack and not intended to cause damage at all.

Rikaad himself looked stunned for a second before composing himself red face and all.

“I am sorry, i was not aware of this, i only wanted to help”

Well that was nice and all but apparently I had been running the risk of infection for a few days now, which was not good.

Oh no, what if the itching was a sign that I had already gotten one?

Somewhere to my left I could make out that Robin was hiding behind Arthur who also tried to stay out of the way as much as he could without outright leaving.

Oakley was still not very happy but he turned to face me anyway.

“Aside from how the hell you ended up stabbed There of all places, How bad is it? Does it hurt a lot?

And do you have any estimation on how big the wounds are?”

“Well it’s an annoying uncomfortable itch, i’m not sure how big it is but there’s like two places i got stabbed soo uhh”

Oakley just put his three fingered hand on his forehead in exasperation.

“Alright, you are aware that someone has to go get the stitches out right?

An infection risk like that needs to be removed”

Oh fuck, that meant Oakley would-

aww dammit my luck really had run out for today hadn’t it?

He grabbed at my shirt with the end of his two pronged tail and dragged me to the other side of the tower where there was more space as the trees grew further apart from each other here.

“You stay next to the tower and shift bigger, i need to get some supplies, you shouldn’t have shifted with stitches literally lining an organ but there’s nothing to do about it now, just wait here i’ll be right back”

Without saying anything else he spread his wings and then flew up into the sky to get whatever he needed.

Well, best to heed his advice and shift bigger for now.

I chose the Ardua form as people had seen that before and the sudden appearance of a Giant might scare someone into attacking.

Soon enough I was back to being a fuzzy green Beast.

Just as I had shifted the other three rounded the tower and I could see clear concern on all of their faces.

And there was the obvious guilt in Rikaad’s still slightly red face.

I hoped he’d not be too upset by it as it was an accident, I was also pretty sure the only one that knew anything about first aid in this group was Arthur.

Well at least Robin didn’t seem too down by it as instead he came over to my sitting form and hugged my leg.

Now I had to wait for Oakley to come back from wherever he went, which was probably his old shed, and who knew how long that would take.

Sure, he could fly but I had no idea how fast so I was stuck just sitting here worrying if I had an infection or not.

Rikaad came up to me and looked me earnestly in the face.

“I want to apologize again, not only for stabbing you but about the whole issue it turned out to be now due to me using the wrong equipment”

“It’s okay i guess, you didn’t know after all, also since when is there a special thread just to sew up wounds?

But really i should have explained better back then, maybe we wouldn’t have this problem then”

He still didn’t look happy, if anyone could even tell when he was, but he seemed to let it go, at least for now.

Well, now it was waiting for that winged fucker to return.

At least there was grass to sit on instead of just dirt.

I lighty shoved Robin, who was still clinging to my leg, out of the way so I could sort of lay down on the ground, even if I ended up looking like a tired dog.

That gave me an idea, Robin had compared me to a cat so just maybe i could-

Tucking my legs under me like I had seen some of the stray cats do, I ended up doing exactly what I hoped I could.

While Robin had been confused by being shoved away his usual spark returned when he saw why.

“Ohhh Loaf”

He immediately flopped onto the part of my arm that was not hidden underneath me and tried burying himself in fluff.

At least one person was sort of happy right now.

“Dude, you look like a big cat!”

Apparently Robin was not the only one that got joy out of seeing me Loaf, at least judging by Arthur’s amused, if slightly muffled, voice. Oakley's stuff was already slowly wearing off huh? well he did say it would be DONE being numb in an hour, not that he couldn't talk before that.

“So? I can kinda understand now why they do that, this is actually comfy somehow”

That much was true, my limbs actually cushioned the softer underside of my body from the ground and also kept it warmer than the cool grass itself.

Yeah, no wonder cats did this, and with the way my arms were positioned it didn’t put any pressure on my pouch either.

Now i just had to wait for Oakley to come back and do- Well, whatever would help me.

“You really are like a big cat, not that i mind as long as you don’t start pushing things of tables”

I glanced over to Rikaad and saw that he had spoken without looking at me and was staring past the tower towards the castle again.

That reminded me-

“Hey Rikaad, i had expected that now there would be guards around you at all times, did you tell them to fuck off for a bit?”

That gained the attention of Arthur who joined in on the conversation.

“Yeah, what did you tell them you were gonna do?”

Robin didn’t seem to hear anything as he still had his head buried in the floof on my upper arm.

Rikaad looked back at us then.

“I know that, and i didn’t tell anyone that i was going out, i just went out the door when no one was looking”

I just stared at him as he said this, Thus far he had not seemed the type to just do something like that.

And I wasn’t the only one that shared this sentiment as Arthur was also a bit confused by this.

“Don’t you think that’s gonna give someone a heart attack if you just vanish like that?

Also you said that there had been assassins in the past, Should you be walking around with barely any protection?”

That was a good point actually, while the assassin MIGHT have been that Vampire guy we didn’t know for certain, and I was pretty sure the one Arthur meant would get a heart attack was Norrin.

But yeah, if there was an assassin around somewhere being out in the open like this was a bad idea.

But by now i had learned that Rikaad valued his independency a LOT, And not being in control of his own actions was probably really uncomfortable for him.

Still it didn’t seem like us just telling him to go back would make him do it.

Then Robin piped up.

“Hey how far did you get with the paper stuff? Did you find the one that bans Fae folk? Oh and did you find anything cool? How much paper is it anyway?”

Oh right, I had forgotten about that, well at least i would get an answer now.

“Sadly i did not find the paper i wanted, there is so much of it and none of it is organized in any way, it looks like someone toppled the cabinet over and then just stuffed the documents back in, they aren’t even in stacks they are just shoved in and partially crumpled”

Wow, the old git really did not care about anything other than himself huh.

Well, at least Rikaad was trying to fix things now, even if it would be slow going.

“Well, since I doubt Oakley is going to need my help I will go back to try and sort that nightmare of a paper avalanche waiting to happen, and prevent Norrin from a panic attack as he surely has noticed me missing by now”

“Alright, don’t get buried under paper, and I mean that both physically and metaphorically!”

Arthur called to him, earning a rare smile.

“Don’t worry, i’m careful, and taller than the cabinet, see you later then”

And with those words he left to get back to the probably very boring task of sorting paper.

Arthur then turned to me, or more specifically Robin who had buried himself in the floof of my neck again.

“Good call! Bringing attention to the fact he’s got to do stuff in the castle was a fine idea!

If there is an assassin he won’t be in harm’s way out here anymore!”

Robin just blinked at him.

“I did want to know if he found the paper tho, i don’t want people to get stabbed in the city just cuz they have pointy ears”

That was, strangely sweet of him, and that Rikaad was back in the safety of the castle was a nice bonus too on top of that.

I turned my head so that he got a makeshift hug by squishing him into the crook of my neck.

“That’s nice of you, and i agree, nobody should get stabbed for their heritage”

He shoved at the side of my head and stuck his tongue out.

“You’re squishing me!”

He was laughing as he said it so i wasn’t hurting him by doing this, good to know.

Then I decided to be a little gremlin and moved my head away in one swift motion so Robin ended up sliding to the ground.

Before he could get up, I put my head over him and effectively trapped him under my jaw.

I made sure not to use any pressure though, I wanted to annoy him a bit and not hurt him.

A muffled

“Hey!”

Sounded from under me but then he started laughing again.

“I’m not a pillow!”

While shoving at the underside of my jaw lightly.

Arthur had heard that too and was now grinning from ear to ear.

He went next to me and got close enough that Robin would be able to hear him.

“Well now you are!-”

Then he looked at me.

“- just make sure he doesn’t suffocate, yeah?”

I gave an affirmative hum as I didn’t want to move my jaw at all.

Deciding that Arthur just grinning at Robin’s predicament wasn’t exactly fair, I unfurled one of my arms, front legs?, and sneaked it up next to him.

Just as he turned to look at what I was doing I lifted the appendage and softly ‘dropped’ it on him, trapping him beneath my lower arm.

“HEY! Get off you big cat!”

He was trying to crawl out using his arms that he had managed to stick free from under my arm.

Honestly seeing him flail like this was kinda funny, but I still made sure to be very careful so as not to squish him.

“You really are just a big cat! Now get off! This is stupid!”

He was grinning with clear amusement in his voice so I knew I didn’t overstep any boundaries.

I hummed again before slowly easing up on Arthur and lifting my head again.

“Fffffff man you could just fucking obliterate someone like that!

How heavy are you as Ardua anyway?”

Arthur got up and brushed off the dust he got on his tunic.

“No idea, and i don’t think that can be accurately measured”

Without looking I knew Robin hadn’t moved from where he was so I glanced down to what he was doing.

He was still just sitting there, and I knew he was conscious by the fact that he had his eyes open and was sitting upright.

“And what are you doing?”

He stuck his tongue out and then sprung into action.

Standing up abruptly he headbutted the underside of my jaw saying loudly with lots of amusement in his voice.

“BONK!”

The action surprised me and he managed to hit the soft part between my jaw bones.

“Ack!”

I jerked my head up and shook it like a dog which earned even more laughter from the redhead.

Well, i did just trap him under my head so-

“Yeah, i guess that’s fair for trapping you under me”

He was still laughing and had now draped himself over one of my arms like a sack of wheat.

I immediately put my head over him again, which made him laugh even more.

“While you have fun i’m going to poke around the tower before Oakley comes back, don’t worry ill be careful”

Arthur waved before he went around the tower after I gave a confirmative hum, likely to locate the entrance.

Well, there probably wouldn’t be much since Oakley had barely anything moved yet.

Maybe stuff from his backpack that he already put away.

The feeling of tiny hands brushing through my fur made my gaze swivel to the little redhead.

He had that distant stare again and was repeating the one motion over and over.

Spaced about again huh.

I let him, he was just brushing the fur so I saw no reason to stop him.

Besides, it actually felt nice, as weird as it was to admit.

I decided to blame the Ardua form for that, Entire new nervous system and all that.

So for a while I just kept still and let Robin pull his fingers through my fur.

I hummed again when the sun came out from behind some clouds which were probably a leftover from the snow madness and shone on my fur.

There was a small laugh again and it seemed Robin was done spacing out.

“Can you do that again? That humm i mean”

I wasn’t sure why he wanted me to do that again but I could see no harm in it so I did.

The moment I did Robin hugged my jawbone much to my confusion.

“That sound rattles all of my bones! It’s funny!”

Ah, so that’s why he wanted me to do it again.

Well, he could have that.

I trapped him again under my jaw and hummed louder than before which got me a laughing fit from Robin.

Somewhere near the tower I heard cursing and lifted my head again to see what was going on much to the ginger’s disappointment.

I could just about make out Arthur near the tower, He was holding his foot and insulting something I couldn’t see.

Peering closer I could see a stone brick sticking out of the ground and surmised that Arthur hit his toe.

I wasn’t the only one that had run out of luck today it seemed.

Looking up as a shadow passed over me I saw Oakley again, he was a really silent flier if he wanted to be.

I’d better remember that to avoid getting jumpscared in the future.

He landed and I could see a new backpack filled to the brim with stuff I had no way of recognizing all of it as some of it seemed like more magic fuckery.

“Oakley hey! You’re back already?”

He shook the backpack off before answering.

“Of course! Flying is way faster than walking, and I don’t have to maneuver over changing terrain or follow roads!”

He opened the bag and started pulling things out that should not have fit in it.

For example a really long and sturdy but smooth looking rope as well as a box that made a clattering sound.

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.