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lizard-shifter-noms · 2 years

Text

Still Subject To Change Chapter 2

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Chapter 2! woo!

i hope this is a good time to post so that people actually see it.

if anyone wants to be tagged just ask

and you all are free to send in asks! ( anon is on )

also, i would greatly Apreciate feedback! this is still the first thing ive ever written.

thank you for your time!

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Waking up it took me a few seconds to remember what had transpired yesterday until I felt a slight movement within my Storage Organ.

I decided to just call it a Pouch from now on as I had linked it to a coin pouch the previous night to make it better understandable for the small Rusthead.

I still felt bad about what I had done yesterday, and lying on the cold hard ground all night didn't help that.

At least the snow had mostly melted and it was warm again now that the sun was up.

Getting up very slowly and carefully to not disturb the sleeping form in my Pouch, I debated if i should wake him up or let him sleep.

On one hand waking him up meant he could get out like I had promised yesterday.

On the other hand if I woke him up he might get another panic attack should he take too long to actually remember what happened.

In the end I decided to try and wake him as gently as possible by softly poking at him through the flesh of my Pouch.

I felt him roll over and mumbled something along the lines of.

“Ten more minutes it's comfy”

He resumed back to a curled up position seemingly not disturbed much.

While I was touched that he wanted to stay, I knew he was not really awake enough to actually know where he was at the moment.

That and no being that was by their right senses would willingly stay inside of another bigger creature.

So I attempted again to wake him only to get the same result, and a third time had him cover his ears with his arms while sleeping.

So I decided to let him be for now and continued along the river towards Wyrmhurst mountain after picking up the items I had chucked aside yesterday.

Walking in silence suddenly felt weird now that I had apparently become used to Robin's blabbering in the short time he was stuck with me.

But after some time I felt Robin move again and I stopped dead in my tracks waiting if he would flip out again.

I prayed he wouldn't.

“nrmm wha- oh OH uh Donovan?”

Not sure if he was about to panic, I rushed to reassure him.

“Hey good morning! Are you okay? Do you remember what happened yesterday?”

“I'm fine, what time is it? Is it morning? Is it still cold?”

Looking around and watching if my breaths still made little clouds, I saw that only some snow was left in the more shadowy areas and my breath did not make any clouds anymore.

“it's warmer now so if you want out you can, we are right next to the river so you can wash too”

I waited for his response, and a small part of me secretly hoped that he wanted to stay, as his little movements sent a thrill through my nervous system but I shoved those thoughts away again.

If he wanted out I would let him out.

“uh okay i'd like to come out, but like how? I mean how do you plan to get me out?”

I was glad he did not freak out so spitting him up should be easy.

“i'm gonna spit you up, just stay still, take a breath and relax you'll be out in a minute”

Preparing to chuck him up I tensed my muscles and started pushing up from the bottom of the pouch to shove him up as I had one countless times with various valuables.

Just this time it was a living thinking being.

I decided not to think about it too hard.

I was thankful that he had heeded my advice on staying still, as I would have probably choked on the large form travelling up my eosophagus.

Feeling him at the back of my throat I reached in with two fingers to pluck his slightly slimy form out.

Dangling in front of me by the back of his tunic was the bedraggled looking Robin, he was shielding his eyes tucking his legs up again and for a moment i thought he was afraid again until he murmured

“Why's it so bright? I don't like it”

Ah so he was just avoiding the sunlight and not cowering in fear, that was a relief.

“That's the sun, just like everyday, you wanna wash up now?”

“I'm starting to hate everything yellow but yeah i'd like to get-”

He gestured at the thin layer of slime coating him

“-this of off me”

Setting him next to the river I let him slowly climb in clothes and all while keeping an eye on him, as I was not sure how well he could swim and I'd rather not have him drown.

Crouching next to the river bank I kept on the lookout for anything that could be dangerous.

Putting his items on the ground and hearing him complain how freezing cold the water was, I unbound my Handkerchief from my wrist and held it in my hands to warm it up a bit.

Looking at Robin who had just climbed out of the river dripping with water and shivering from the cold, I offered the cloth I had kept warm in my hands.

He gratefully took it and wrapped himself into it like a caterpillar.

“T-thanks this i-is re-really c-cold”

He was chattering with his teeth and looking like a miserable kitten.

“You uh you want your items?”

I gestured awkwardly to his stuff lying on the floor.

The smaller male looked at them for a moment then back at me.

“I think if I took them now they'd just get wet. Can you carry them?”

I gently pocketed his armour and boots at his request and offered my hand for him to climb on.

He just looked at me blankly for a few seconds before he got it and awkwardly scrambled into my palm, the Blanket hindering his movement a bit.

Standing up again with the cold form of Robin carefully cupped in my Hand i picked up walking along the river but something was nagging me still.

“Robin?”

I spoke softly, making him look up at me.

“About yesterday…”

“no negative feelings, but i really didn't mean to bite you i spaced out again it was an accident”

While I was glad there were no hard feelings, I still had a question.

“How do you bite someone on accident?”

He moved awkwardly under the blanket and seemed to think for a few seconds while trying to disappear into the cloth completely.

“Well i was asleep and i dunno what i was dreaming but the others said i sometimes start chewing stuff, i used to chew on everything as a bad habit but i stopped when i joined the Guards school”

“I have actually bitten Arthur before, i think he still has the teeth marks on his elbow i'm just glad he didn’t rat me out about my age to the headmasters”

So biting just about everything was a bad habit of his and he’d even bitten some of his friends.

But the added bit of not getting snitched on about his age made me wonder.

I knew you had to be eighteen like I was to join the trainings so it made me wonder how old he actually was.

“Wait a second, how old are you? You have to be eighteen to join the guards”

He suddenly went very still.

“Well uhm well im -im sixteen”

Knowing this it made sense as to why he was smaller than most of the guards I had ever seen.

He wasn't even an adult, now it made sense why he was so scrawny.

“You mean you're younger than me? And how did you manage to convince the headmasters?”

He seemed to debate with himself for a moment before filling his lungs and spewing out something barely comprehensible.

“Well i when i was thrown out by my alcoholic Dad i ended up running into Arthur, and we both somehow ended up stopping a thief so the headmasters let us join but only if we both were old enough so i lied”

He looked at me like i was going to judge him for it,

Which frankly I couldn't really as i knew the streets were not a friendly place to be, so taking that over sleeping in an alley really was the better option.

“I'll make you a deal you don't tell anyone about my doubled organs and I won't rat you out about your age, seems fair?”

He grinned at me and nodded, suddenly a lot happier.

“Sure! No idea who i could tell anyway besides the boys in my group and i don't think anyone would believe me”

Boys? Plural? So not just the blonde guy? I decided to not bring it up.

Instead I worried what would happen if someone found out about what had happened yesterday.

“Also maybe don't tell anyone what i did yesterday, you know what i mean, they would kill me immediately”

I hoped he wouldn't ever tell anyone that I literally…ate…him as i really didn't want to deal with a manhunt for me,

The other humans probably wouldn't listen past ‘ate him’ and just set out to kill me with whatever weapons they had to get rid of the ‘Monster’.

“You mean the part where you ate me? I guess that would sound bad”

At least Robin agreed on this with me even if speaking it out loud was still pretty awkward,

And probably always would be.

Robin was still wrapped in the Handkerchief that he turned into a blanket and slowly drying while fiddling with the cloth.

“Hey Donovan? What other plants are like, not gonna kill me when I bite them?”

I was a bit surprised at the question but figured I could indulge him a bit.

I kinda did owe him after what had happened.

“Oh, well that depends on season but there are quite a lot of edible ones like the dandelions and daisies we had but there are a lot more, you want me to tell you about them?”

At his enthusiastic nodding I ended up telling him all I knew over the course of the day,

and we tested everything we could find too,

like wild rhubarb and some fiddlehead ferns which Robin laughed at for their weird name but ended up liking it best next to the rhubarb.

At some point it had started to get dark again and we looked for a suitable place for a camp which ended up being under a dead tree that had grown on a boulder that was easily three times my height.

I thought that despite all it was kinda cool looking rock formation.

I curled up beneath the slight overhang and this time i did not tie Robin up, instead i left the rope in my pocket and took out the slightly crumpled Boar Pelt for him to use as a mattress as he was sort of trapped in the divot the boulder made anyway i did not see any reason to tie him up tonight.

Wrapping himself in the blanket he snuggled down into the pelt and started fiddling with whatever was in his hands now and just staring at the stone overhead with a blank expression.

I was pretty sure that he had spaced out again so I just left him for now as I did not see any reason to do something about this.

But I did get slightly worried when I saw that he had not blinked in a while so I carefully nudged him with a finger.

He just rolled over and put the blanket over his head.

He'd fallen asleep with his eyes open huh…

Well that was not something i've seen before but i'd definitely heard about it.

I debated if I should try to close his eyes for him but my fingers were too big and I did not want to damage someone's face.

Leaving it be I simply took it as my clue to fall asleep myself, so after making sure there were no threats I allowed myself to be taken by slumber.

I awoke in the middle of the night to Robin basically trying to burrow under me and even attempting to crawl under my neck.

Confused, I looked around and saw that it was Snowing again which was weird considering it was supposed to be spring but apparently not.

Wait a second if it's snowing then that means it's cold again so Robin must be freezing!

While I still had no idea why the temperature didnt affect me it sure did to the smaller boy, so shifting a bit i put my arms up to where he was trying to bury himself under me.

“I thought i said to tell me when you're cold”

I mumbled sleepily and moved to a better position while grabbing the boar pelt that was left on the floor and dragged it closer to me.

Shifting to lay on my side again I put robin next to my neck and basically threw the pelt onto him while also cupping my hands around him to create a sort of warm ‘bubble’ for him.

“Thank you”

I heard a sleepy murmur as he cozied up against my neck and went back to dreaming about whatever.

Having him so close to my neck made my mind snap back to when he literally was inside of it, sliding down towards what he thought was his doom.

It made me feel bad all over again but I was glad he really didn't seem to have any negative feelings about it anymore.

He was a weird little guy for sure.

It did baffle me however that he had managed to brush it off so quickly,

I did terrify him thoroughly after all but he acted rather normal?

Robin was a weird Human, but i didn't think he was a bad one, he reminded me of a lost dog at times and i hoped that never something bad would happen to him.

It was weird, caring about something other than myself for the first time in years and I didn't know what to make of it.

I also realised that as soon as the week was up in a few days I would be all alone again.

While being on my own was not something new, this time I actually dreaded the part where I would try to get by, but now in silence and just nobody to talk back to me.

I decided to shove the thought away and just go back to sleep, I would not deal with this while tired.

Making sure that Robin would stay warm I joined him in slumber.

Only to be woken up what felt like seconds after the next morning by something shoving at my cheek.

Turning my head and trying to avoid getting up I put my face into the ground even if it squished my nose a bit.

“Donovan? Get up, you're trapping the entrance!”

Hearing Robin call out to me and try to shove at my face again i finally sat up

“Is it day already?”

Peering out from under the overhang I saw that some snow was still lying on the ground and a slight breeze was blowing.

Looking down at Robin I saw that he had used the boar pelt as a sort of cape to keep warm.

“Yes its day! and luckily warmer now but i have no idea how you can stand the cold”

He seemed to be in better spirits than yesterday which i was relieved to find, but he did have a point in the cold thing

“I dunno i guess i'm just used to sleeping outside in the streets might be that”

I yawned and slowly stood up fully from my sitting position and offered my hand for him to climb on while plucking my handkerchief from the ground.

Cupping Robin to my chest again I walked over the thin layer of crunchy snow, away from the boulder with a dead tree on top, once again aiming for the mountains.

“How far away do you think it is now?”

I had the same question as it seemed that despite walking a lot everyday it still seemed far away and today was day six of Robin tagging along.

So I had to send him off to go back tomorrow, I realised with a pang that I would be all alone again and, weirdly enough, the thought hurt.

Tomorrow I had to send the only person that had ever been nice to me away forever and I would be a complete loner again.

But this time it was a lot worse as I now knew what it was like to be able to actually talk to someone.

I once again shoved such thoughts down to where I did not have to think about them.

I instead answered Robin's question to distract myself a bit.

“I have no idea, i don't know how big the mountain is supposed to be either”

“Really weird, maybe it's some magic fuckery?”

He did have a point as the mountain was said to be hexed so maybe i should choose a different place to go to.

“Well that might be true but i can tell you i have had enough magic fuckery for a lifetime”

I waved the cursed bracelet in front of him.

We ended up talking about where to go instead for a few hours and watched the snow melt as I walked over it until midday.

In the end I still had no idea if any other places existed that I could go to so I decided to backtrack a bit away from the river closer to Kamerasca again.

I knew tomorrow Robin would leave to go home and I thought getting him a bit closer would shorten the journey for him at least a little.

After another hour we came to an area with less trees and I took the opportunity to reorient myself.

As I was looking around I suddenly got stabbed by something sharp at the back of my neck, like someone had thrown a knife at me.

Plucking it out I saw that it was a wide Bolt with a metal tip that seemed to be coated in something aside from my own blood.

Through a slowly fogging up mind I recognized it as the tranquilliser bolts the Kamerasca Guards used for the manticores.

So using what was left of my coherence I put Robin in the tree next to me to avoid falling on top of him.

Just as i toppled over i saw two other human figures run to my position

Both of which carried swords and one also had the crossbow I was shot with.

Seeing black spots on the edge of my vision and losing the ability to move my last coherent thoughts were that this was how I was going to die.

Alone, with literal poison running through my veins and some Guards slashing open my throat for crimes I never committed just because I was a fae Bastard.

My vision going completely black the last thing i heard were shrill shrieks coming from above me,

something along the lines of 'wait' and 'stop' but i did not hear the rest as i finally lost all of my consciousness and everything went dark.

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Having gone to a drug induced sleep fully expecting to die, it was quite a surprise to wake up again even if it was slowly and I still couldn't move very well.

Opening my eyes and trying to figure out what the fuck happened i saw Robin arguing with two other people, one i recoginzed as the Blonde that had also followed me into the woods and one with even darker hair that stood a bit taller than tho other two.

Lying there I tried to figure out what they were saying but it couldn't quite hear it from this distance and the after effect of the tranquiliser in my veins made a rushing noise in my ears.

However it seems my shuffling around was heard by at least one of them as the darker haired guy swivelled his head around to look at me with icy grey eyes.

Those eyes were kinda unnerving, but i really couldn't do anything at the moment except try to move an arm or a leg,

The dark haired one tapped Robin's arm who had been speaking animatedly to him till now and pointed to me while going in my direction, motioning for the blonde to stay behind.

If i remembered correctly the Blondes name was Arthur.

But I had no idea who the dark haired one was, as Robin had never Mentioned anyone else besides Arthur.

Oh wait he did say that there were Boys in his group, plural so i could guess why there was one more of them.

Stopping a short distance away from my face I glared at the dark hired individual as I saw that he was the one with the crossbow and consequently must have been the one that shot me.

He turned to face Robin.

“And you're absolutely sure of what you told me?”

Robin made a sour face and responded loudly like he'd been saying the same thing over and over again.

“YES for the last time he's an okay guy I promise!”

Oh… so the reason I wasn't dead yet was because Robin put in a good word for me, I stopped glaring and instead just looked at both of them, occasionally glancing at Arthur.

The taller of them turned again to face me with his eerie grey eyes.

“Robin has told me that you are not a Monster despite what Arthur had said to me”

I felt like there was a but coming and for a second i worried that Robin did tell them about me eating him.

“But i like to make sure of things myself so for now i'd like to just talk as civilised beings if you are willing to cooperate?”

I was relieved that Robin had kept his word about not telling anyone and even more so that the new guy just wanted to talk for now even if my jaw was still a bit numb and had that awful pins and needles sensation.

“You have a weird way of talking but sure”

I mumbled out as best as I could as I got the anthill sensation in my lower jaw making me want to scratch my face on the ground as I still had problems moving my arms.

An excited shout of .

“Told you!”

Coming from Robin who poked the taller guy in the side loosened some of the tension in the air and I mused that the tall guy must be talking like this a lot.

The tall guy in question grinned slightly and patted Robin's head then turned back to me, introducing himself.

“My name is Rikaad, you already know Robin and the Blonde one making grimaces over there is Arthur”

Deciding to return the favour and at least try to be polite even if I did not know all the rules to that sort of stuff.

“My names Donovan Verney, or more commonly called Bastard”

I replied to him still trying to lighten the mood, and judging by the face Robin made it at least succeeded in making someone laugh.

“I can see that”

Rikaad replied and motioned for my pointy ears.

“But i believe that you'd prefer to be called Donovan”

I nodded at him jerkily as the numbing effect of the dart slowly wore off and decided to complain about it.

“Also what the fuck was in that dart my entire body is having those pins and needles sensation and i hate it”

Rikaad seemed to think for a second before responding.

“Well its made for manticore and the like, not for….uh”

“Not for Bastards isn't exactly a new phrase to me”

I griped and tried to at least sit up as talking with my face pressed into the dirt was just stupid.

I pretended not to notice Rikaad going a bit paler as I finally managed to sit up.

As soon as I was in a stable sitting position Robin tried to climb on my leg only to be stopped by Rikaad who had grabbed his scruff.

“Don't randomly climb people, that's rude!”

Rikaad seemed to be an alright guy even if i did not know what to make of him, On one hand he seemed not afraid to call just about anyone off should they do something wrong.

On the other hand, I couldn't really make sense of him.

I now knew that Robin liked me enough to not want me dead, and I realised that that was the first time in forever that someone had actually stood up for me which never happened before and felt weirdly fuzzy inside at that .

Arthur however definitely wanted me dead judging by the look in his eyes.

But I could not for the life of me figure out what Rikaad was thinking of me and it made me kind of nervous.

But before I could further dwell on it Arthur had walked over and went to face Rikaad whispering something to him I could barely hear.

“What are you doing? We are supposed to get rid of this thing! Have you forgotten? He kidnapped Robin for fucks sake! And now you just let him free? We are supposed to get rid of the fae folk as per the king's orders!”

Wow i never thought someone could be this hateful to someone they didn't even know but apparently i was wrong, i just hoped that the others did not listen to him.

“Arthur i can understand that you are angry about this entire situation but i have to inform you that we are not in Kamerasca right now, so technically the laws don't apply here, and we can't do anything without provocation”

He stepped closer to Arthur gripping his lower arm gently.

“Just behave? it's going to be okay we can just ignore the Fae and go home, i'm certain he's not gonna go to Kamerasca ever again seeing as he'd be killed on sight if he got too close”

Arthur squirmed a bit in his grip and finally conceded.

“fine but only because he did not laugh at Robin's spider thing and helped instead”

Speaking of Robin now that Rikaad’s attention was on Arthur he had resumed climbing my leg and was sitting on my knee now.

Looking at me he just pointed at them and said

“Arthur is still pissed about the whole thing but i promise he's not evil just very grumpy and unfriendly”

His attempt at reassuring me wasn't really working as Arthur kept looking at me like he wanted to jab my eyes out.

“Sure”

I really wasn't convinced but so far at least none of them actually hurt me more than a few scratches, not counting the Sedative bolt of course.

As both of the other young men came back over, Robin attempted to slide down my leg but ended up falling down from my knee and I moved on reflex catching him before he hit the ground.

Well this certainly gave me enough adrenaline to stave off the rest of the tranquiliser.

Slowly lowering him the rest of the way to the ground I saw that Arthur had run closer and upon seeing him in my hand had put his fingers onto the hilt of his sword staring at me with wide eyes.

Rikaad however was eerily calm and strolled over to Robin who was climbing off of my Palm and offered his hand to him to help him down

“Arthur do not be rude and put that sword away”

Arthur did so immediately.

It seemed that this Rikaad guy was the leader of the group, or at least Arthur did as he said.

“So now we all can go our separate ways and forget that this week ever happened right?”

Arthur seemed eager to leave which, honestly, I couldn't blame him for.

I had scared him the first time we met and basically kidnapped his friend so it was no wonder he had a disdain for me.

He came up to us and took Robin's arm, dragging him away from me a little.

An emotion I couldn't quite identify bloomed in my chest and I did my best to shove it down.

I would not be sad about Robin leaving! I barely knew him anyway so what would it matter if I was alone again? I was a loner before so I can be a loner again if I have to!

However as they went to leave they seemed to encounter a problem.

“Do any of you know the direction we have to go to get home?”

They all looked at each other confused at Robin's Question, seemingly not having thought about that beforehand.

“So you guys followed me without any plan??”

I couldn't really believe that anyone would be so stupid to follow a Giant of all things into the Silvervale forest which was known for its monsters.

“Well this is your fault! If you hadn't grabbed Robin we wouldn't even be here!

An angry looking Arthur yelled at me.

“My fault?? You're the one that dragged him into a Forest that was already known for being a deathtrap! You didn't have to go after me but you still did!”

I defended myself.

“This is definitely not my fault! You're the one that stole something! And it is my duty as guard to correct anything unjust!”

This guy made me angry, as if Guards ever did anything helpful to people they deem ‘lesser’.

“The only thing I took was a piece of bread because I did not want to starve! And save me the Guard duty stuff.

I know those guys just love beating up the poor people! I saw them kill an old fisherman and then throw his body into a crab container just cuz he told them to fuck off! Your precious Guards can rot in hell for all i care”

Arthur's face went red and warped into a Furious grimace.

“You know what? Fuck you! and Fuck all this! Im going to fuck your mom and give her a child she’ll actually love!”

At these words I felt my anger that already had been simmering a bit boil over again, I had never been insulted like this.

But before I could even move to do anything Rikaad crossed the short distance between them with a few steps and had slapped him across the face, startling me out of my anger.

“You do not take such words into your mouth ever again!

If you have to resort to such foul language to win a battle you are absolutely no better than your opponent!”

“But-”

Arthur held his face where he had been slapped with one hand.

“No excuses! such language will not be tolerated, understood?”

“Understood”

Robin had hid behind me while all this transpired and only now dared to peek out again.

“So do we know where to go? Or not?”

He asked meekly, seemingly wanting this interaction to be over already.

Rikaad turned back to him while Arthur took some snow out of a shadowed area under a tree and cooled his face with it while walking a distance away out of sight.

“I'm afraid we don't but i'm sure we'll find a way back, don't worry this time we are three people so that should make it easier”

Seeing him stand next to Robin this close I noticed that he was almost an entire head taller than the Ginger boy.

“Only three? Not four?”

He glanced up at me but I waved him off.

It would be better if he went home, and i could not follow him, i was not allowed anywhere near Kamerasca at all so i'd be better if i just left.

“The patrols would kill me on sight its better i don't come with you”

“But-”

Whatever Robin had wanted to say was interrupted by a scream coming from somewhere behind the trees.

Before I could react Rikaad had already darted past me and Robin to the source of the sound, fingers ready at the hilt of the sword at his side.

“ARTHUR!”

Running after Rikaad and coming to a stop on another clearing i saw Arthur pinned beneath a Manticore, the weird mismatched lion body with scorpion tail and legs was as big as a horse and its feline face was turned into a weird grimace that showed mandibles protruding from its gums, dripping with sickly grey saliva.

Rikaad tried to shoot it with the crossbow not daring to get closer, but the thick chitinous segments of its heinous form made the bolts ricochet off of it.

Not really knowing what to do I tried to remember everything I knew about Manticore but the only thing that came to mind by staring at its shiny carapace was a memory of a cat swiping at a normal scorpion.

I decided that since my brain would not supply anything better, to do just that and hope not to get stung.

So getting closer and avoiding making it sting or maul the trapped form of Arthur underneath it I crouched down, trying to aim for its side to smack it away from Arthur, who had started bleeding out of a wound inflicted by the thing's legs.

Hitting it square in the side as hard as I could and sending it flying against a tree I heard a sick thud and it stopped moving.

Leaving Rikaad to deal with Arthur i went over to the manticore planning on making sure it was dead.

Inspecting the twisted form of the monster I saw it still shallowly breathing.

Not knowing what else to do as weapons were too small for me I broke off a tree branch and Stabbed it through the abdomen between two of the chitinous segments, watching sickly bluish blood lazily flow out of the wound.

I tried my best not to throw up at the awful sight and sick smell.

Tossing the branch aside and turning back to the other two.

Arthur was half lying half sitting on the ground and holding his side which at least had stopped bleeding.

I might not like the guy very much but I still did not wish anyone death.

I was not sure if going over to them would be appreciated so I decided to head back to Robin who we had left behind some trees.

“Robin?”

He popped up from a bush scanning the area as if expecting more monsters.

“Donovan! Is everything okay? What happened? Is Arthur alright?”

Bending down and plucking him out of the bush I told him about what had happened.

“There was a Manticore but its dead now so don't worry, as for Arthur im not sure but Rikaad is with him”

Clinging to my fingers he tried to look between the trees to see where the other two were.

“Can you bring me to them?”

He asked and even if he could walk the short distance himself I brought him over.

Rikaad was bandaging a gash in Arthurs side where the Monster had slashed at him with its legs, Arthur's armour set neatly aside from the two.

Arthur himself seemed to be okay and was complaining about getting bandages, insisting he was fine.

Seeing me come closer with Robin in my hands he paled a little but did not say anything.

“Arthur! Are you okay?”

Robin shouted, trying to climb down on me before I could set him on the ground, so lowering my hand he jumped off, stumbling for a second then running straight for Arthur.

But before he could tackle him in a hug he was stopped by Rikaad who put a hand on the smaller boy.

“Careful! I don't want this to start bleeding again so make sure you’re mindful about that okay?”

Robin nodded enthusiastically and went to sit at Arthurs side.

I debated if I should leave for good now that nobody's attention was on me before Rikaad winked me down to talk.

So, sitting on the ground once more a bit away from the Injured Arthur that was currently being fussed over by a very energetic Robin, I faced Rikaad not really knowing why he had wanted to speak to me again.

“I want to apologise for shooting you with the tranquiliser crossbow and also thank you for saving Arthur, even if he insulted you you still stepped up to help when i could not get close to the manticore so thank you for saving my friend”

Well this was not what i had expected but i guess it was appreciated.

“Uh well dying to one of those beasts would suck wouldn't it?”

I stammered out a bit dumbfounded, he had apologised for shooting me AND thanked me for helping Arthur, who was now trying to shove Robin off of himself.

But I still couldn't really place the guy, he was a bit unnerving regardless.

“I do have to ask though if you know the way back to Kamerasca as it seems none of us can remember the way”

I really wished I could answer that but as I had been intending on leaving the place so I didn't memorise the way I had taken.

“No idea sorry, but i've been just walking towards the mountains so maybe if you walk away from them you'll end up back in Kamerasca?”

He shook his head slowly.

“That's going to be dangerous if we don't know where we are going and i'm not sure if just walking away from the mountains won't lead us into even more dangerous areas”

“So what do you plan to do then?”

I asked him and he seemed to try and think of something.

“Would you help us? I know you have no reason to go back to a place that doesn't like you but i fear that these woods are not made for some small humans”

I knew doing this would be risky as it meant that I had to get close to Kamerasca again, but at the same time this was kind of my fault and i didnt think I could leave them to the forest’s whim at this point.

“I'll bring you close to it, but if i see any buildings im out”

This seemed like a reasonable solution so I would not have to be anywhere near Tunstead ever again.

Rikaad nodded at me curtly.

“Thank you, now let's get the other two”

He turned on the spot and walked back to Robin and Arthur.

What a weird guy I thought but brushed it off for now maybe he just had a strict parent or something.

Walking over to where the other two still sat on the ground I looked back at the mountain.

Well i could still go there at a later point if i wanted.

Robin perked up when he saw us come back, Arthur however looked mildly annoyed at the fact that he now had at least two flower crowns on his head made from dandelions.

“The weird plant juice is making my hair sticky”

He complained at Robin who just laughed and stuck his tongue out at him.

Arthur then turned to face Rikaad

“So what do we do now? Which way do we need to take to go home?”

Rikaad pointed at me.

“He said we had to go away from the mountain to get back but i'm not sure if we won't end up in even more danger this way, so i asked him to tag a long for a bit”

A huge smile appeared on Robin's face while Arthur clenched his jaw but didn't objekt to it even if he still looked at me with a death glare.

“As long as we get home i guess”

He slowly stood up mindful about his injury.

Robin walked up to him offering a hand.

“I'm fine just a small cut”

That did not look like a ‘small cut’ i thought, but it didn't look all that bad either.

“So what direction do we need to go now?”

Arthur seemed still a bit uneasy about the entire manticore thing, eyes occasionally glancing at the corpse.

“Away from the mountains, we have been walking towards them the entire time,

so if we walk with them at our backs we should find home in no time”

Motioning for all of us to follow he started walking Arthur stumbled after him and Robin jumped up to go after them.

Lagging behind a few seconds I also started walking with them.

I soon realised that this was Slow, maybe not for a human but I was a Giant now which meant i had way longer legs than them.

Having to stop all the time to not just step over them was rather annoying.

Robin seemed to notice and motioned to talk to all of us.

“We are not as fast as you, Maybe it would be faster if you pick us up?”

At this proposal Arthur paled once again and even Rikaad seemed a bit uneasy.

“I don't think i want to do that, honestly i’d rather not aggrevate the cut on my side by being grabbed so let's not?”

He seemed nervous and I could understand that, after all our first encounter did not go well.

Robin however immediately walked up to me and put his arms over his head in what I could only linken to a child asking to be picked up.

I decided that grabbing was off the table as I was pretty sure if I did that Arthur would stab me, so instead I put my hand on the Ground for Robin to climb on.

He did so with no hesitation sitting down in my palm while Arthur glared at me and Rikaad just watched with those unnerving eyes of his.

I could just not tell what he was thinking, which at the moment was scarier than any monsters to me.

Standing up again we resumed walking, still at a stupidly slow pace to me but forward none the less.

Carefully cupping my hands to my chest and slowly dragging my feet over the floor I went after the two that had decided to walk themselves.

It was really boring to slowly drag myself after them, and also awkwardly silent.

It took a good hour until someone said something again.

“I think we should look for a camping spot before it gets dark”

Rikaad was the one to break the silence, and looking up I did indeed see that the sun was way lower than before.

I wondered how long I was out cold from the tranquiliser as it was not even midday when I got shot with it.

“How long was I out for? That Tranquiliser must be one hell of a drug to put me out for hours”

Rikaad was once again the one to talk

“About four hours but i do not own a pocket watch so i might be off”

Four hours huh, well that was a good chunk of the day wasted just lying on the forest floor.

Speaking of the forest floor, it seemed we had to make some room between trees as we could not find any more open areas.

Setting Robin down and shoving an uprooted tree away,

I sat down while the smaller Humans gathered firewood.

Looking up at the sky and watching it change colour till they managed to get a fire going.

I flinched when I heard the crossbow go off again but I wasn't the one that got shot, I realised quickly as a dead bird fell on top of me.

“What the fuck”

Plucking the carcass from my shoulder and holding it into the fading sunlight I saw that it was a white bird with greyish mottled wings.

Looking down I saw Robin trying not to laugh and Rikkad looking still as stone faced as ever, Arthur looked at me with shock probably expecting me to do something bad.

Chucking the dead Bird at Rikaad who expertly catched it, I leaned against a tree which creaked a bit under my weight.

I'd be insulted by this if I wasn't a giant now.

“You're a good shot but please dont drop dead birds on me”

Something that I thought was the smallest hint of a smile appeared on his lips but as soon as I saw it it was gone again.

“I will try my best”

He handed the carcass over to Robin who set about preparing the bird by plucking out all feathers and carving the guts out.

All three of them looked tired but I was still wide awake, probably because I spent four hours unconscious in the middle of the day.

I wondered if i could sleep tonight at all or if my sleep schedule was fucked now.

Deciding not to worry about it now I instead watched what the smaller men were up to.

Robin was cooking the bird Rikaad had shot, Rikaad himself was fiddling with the crossbow, apparently fine tuning it.

Arthur was using a whetstone to sharpen his blade, the rhythmic shrrrap shrrrap providing a constant background noise.

He occasionally glanced up at me but when he saw that I was looking at him he turned his head down again very fast.

The smell of the cooking Bird was delicious but I still did not feel hungry.

I decided that since the bird was too small to be of any use to me that I would not ask for a piece of it.

Instead I looked at the cursed Bracelet a bit more.

It was a greyish pale metal but not iron as iron would sometimes give me a rash when I was exposed to it too long.

Silver maybe? But silver did not conduct magic as far as I was aware.

So whatever the pale metal part was it could not be either of those.

The other parts however seemed to be made of Bronze and gold with the Bronze forming a sort of swirling pattern.

It had various green gems inlaid, none of which I recognized.

“What are you looking at?”

The Question put me out of my trance and I looked down to see who had asked me that.

Robin was staring up at me holding what appeared to be a cooked bird leg and a piece of its wing.

“I'm just inspecting this Cursed thing, dont worry im not gonna mess with it”

I tapped the Bracelet to show what I meant before putting my arm down again.

“Aha”

He looked at the meat in his hands and then back at me.

“Id share with you if you want”

While it was nice of him to offer i knew that it was not enough for me even if he had offered me the entire bird, so i winked him off.

“Keep it, that's not enough for me anyway so no need for me to take yours”

“If you're sure”

He sat down on the Ground where he was and started biting chunks of flesh out of the leg.

I noticed that both Rikaad and Arthur were also staring at me.

Did they expect me to do something?

I knew that Robin hadn't told them about me being able to eat people,

but it still seemed like they were waiting for me to attempt to do so.

Well given the amount of horror stories about Giants and all sorts of big creatures it was no surprise.

It still stung a little but I guessed that there was no way for me to prove that I wasn't a monster.

I just hoped that we found back to Kamerasca so i could leave and deal with this stupid curse somehow.

I just hoped I did not have to cut off my own arm to do so.

I heard someone shuffling around near me and looking down I saw that Rikaad had stood up.

“We should sleep, Who is volunteering for the first shift of the night watch?”

Rikaad looked at all of us equally as he asked and I decided that since I had a good four hours of tranquiliser induced sleep already that I would volunteer for the first one.

I doubted I could sleep at all yet anyway.

“I could? I mean i was lying on the floor for a few hours over midday so i'm not tired at all right now”

At my input Arthur stared at me with a sour face, he probably expected me to murder all of them in their sleep or something.

Rikaad however seemed to mull it over, looking at Arthur as well.

“How about you and Arthur take the first shift? In case one of you nods off without noticing there's still another person on the lookout”

This did seem like a good solution but the problem was that Arthur did not like me at all, so I didn't know how being the only two awake would go.

Rikaad winked Robin over to him and the two settled down in a sort of two person pile to sleep.

“Goodnight!”

Came the enthusiastic but still tired shout from Robin who settled Down after Rikaad put an arm over his face to shut him up.

It sort of backfired as Robin grabbed the offending appendage and pulled it to himself to use as a pillow.

Not wanting to seem creepy I stared into the woods, eyes and ears alert for whatever would dare come near the smaller men.

I realised that previous to this i had not watched my back at all while sleeping and considered myself lucky that nothing had happened.

But there was nothing I could do about it now.

Looking at Arthur for a second who seemed to avoid looking into my eyes, I decided to just sit in silence again.

“... So how did you end up this big? I overheard you saying a curse?”

Turning around I faced Arthur again, he seemed nervous

I had not expected him to speak to me for the entire duration of this trip.

“Yeah i somehow got this stupid thing stuck on me”

I tapped the bracelet to show what I meant.

“But i'm not going to mess with it, i'm not keen on dying to some haywire magic”

He chewed his lip, seemingly debating with himself for a bit.

“Robin said you just stole Bread? Not…. anything of more value?”

Well considering how that lady screamed when she saw me it would be Assumed that I had stolen gold or something.

“Well No, i'm not big on thievery i just take what i actually need and not more”

He still had trouble looking at my face so he stared into the dark abyss that the nightly forest provided absent from our campfire.

“So this entire stupid thing is over a loaf of bread? Im such an idiot”

He put his hands over his face and fell over backwards from his sitting position.

Not knowing what to do as I had sparse people skills at best I decided to ask him why he followed me into the forest.

“Why'd you run after me into the woods anyway? Usually nobody goes there on account of it being too dangerous”

There was silence on his end for a few seconds and he shifted to gently grip the wound on his side with a slightly pained expression.

“...I… there are some expectations for prospective Guards, for me and Robin even more so we got into the school on a lucky whim, so we had some stupid standards to uphold and letting anyone get away would mean that we'd be thrown onto the streets once more if not worse”

So he ran after me because the alternative could be worse.

I was no stranger to how Guards treated someone they deemed a failure, i had seen it many times when an apprentice was ‘punished’ for something completely stupid.

“At least you have more guts than the actual guards, none of them EVER followed me into the forest”

He whipped his head around and looked at me surprised.

“What? But they are Guards! They should have? Why didn't they? As a Guard it's expected to sometimes do things you don't want to!”

I think i gave him a crisis or something, Fuck.

Better not tell him about the other corrupt stuff i had witnessed over time Until later then, if the confused and upset mutterings were anything to go by.

Staring off into the woods again my view panned over the various plants.

I occasionally glanced back to either Arthur who was still muttering about Guard duties or to Rikaad and Robin who were sleeping peacefully curled over each other.

Sometimes I shifted my view up to the moon, watching it rise on the star speckled sky.

I continued to sit in silence just watching my surroundings and carefully listening to whatever sounds the Forest made.

Arthur apparently did not want to talk anymore, but he was probably preoccupied with the fact that I told him that some of the Guards were cowards.

I was fine with that as it left more room to focus on everything else.

Arthur’s head snapped to every noise that came from the dark and imposing trees.

I could tell he was on edge judging by the way he flinched at sudden noises and he still held a hand over the wound he received today.

“Are you okay? Does the wound hurt?”

I did not want him dying or anything while on my shift, the other two would kill me.

“Im fine its just stinging a bit from the cold”

He threw some more wood onto the fire and shifted closer to it.

I couldn't really tell how cold it was.

Since I became a giant I did not seem to feel as much temperature anymore, but if the small puffs of breath coming from my mouth meant anything it was really cold.

“Yeah what is up with that anyway? Its spring so why the fuck is it snowing?”

It was truly bizarre that the weather had gotten this frigid, but maybe it was just the higher altitude.

Arthur was still throwing even more wood into the fire until it was twice the size it was before.

“No idea, but i hope it gets warmer soon, i dont have the right clothing for this shit”

I could see that much was true, he was sort of hugging himself while small clouds escaped from between his lips.

Since he did not want me anywhere near him I instead took my handkerchief out and offered it to him so he could use it as a blanket.

At first he flinched when he saw my hand coming closer and put his fingers on his sword, but when he saw that I only offered some fabric he cautiously and slowly took it.

Instead of wrapping it around himself like I thought he would, he went over to Robin and Rikaad instead and draped the fabric over them as a blanket.

He sat back down in his spot next to the fire holding his hands out to the flames.

We sat in silence until the moon was at its highest point and Rikaad suddenly got up.

I would forever deny that I flinched as he got up.

“I believe it is our turn now, you can go to sleep if you'd like”

He shook Robin gently, who in turn complained about having to get up.

The Rusthead even went as far as to bury himself in the blanket.

Rikaad seemed to only now notice the piece of fabric and swivelled his head to look at me.

Neither of us said anything and he went back to waking up Robin, who finally but reluctantly got up.

“I'd rather keep sleeping”

He complained but went over to sit next to Rikaad regardless.

I debated if I even could sleep, I knew at least one of them didn't like me, and I still didn't know what to think about Rikaad.

The dark haired boy continued to puzzle me but I guessed that it was the strict Guard training that made him weird.

At least I hoped so, I did not want to end up dead because of this.

Lying down a short ways away I turned my back to the fire and tried to sleep.

Nodding off was not easy as I always felt like someone was watching my back but after some time I finally managed to sleep.

I woke up the next morning to something tickling my nose.

Pulling my arm over my face and opening my eyes I saw that it was Robin who had taken a long leaf of grass and was tickling me with it.

I sat up slowly and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes.

“There are normal ways to wake someone up, you know?”

The Rusthead just grinned at me.

“I know, but this is funnier”

Arthur popped his head up from behind the fallen log he had sat on yesterday.

“It won't be as funny if he ends up sneezing on you, well for you anyway”

Rikaad seemed to appear out of nowhere to interject with his own opinion.

“Arthur you literally his behind that Log to avoid any consequences and then told Robin to go ahead”

While it was rather funny in retrospect I was sure we had to get moving sometime so I stood up all the way, stretching my arms over my head.

“Well I guess you woke me up to get going? Or did the plan suddenly change?”

I was only half joking, I knew they could turn on me when I least expected it, but this was kinda my fault so I felt obligated to help them.

“We are still heading away from the mountain so get your stuff and then we'll leave”

Rikaad turned towards the other two and I went to pick up my Handkerchief that had been used as a blanket yesterday.

I noted that someone had neatly folded it but said nothing about it and just pocketed it instead.

Walking after the three Humans proved to be just as slow as yesterday, which was still rather annoying.

Taking slow shuffling steps after them meant I had to be careful to not step on them.

Aside from the damage that would cause it would be really awkward, hell even thinking about it was awkward as it technically shouldn't be possible.

Ignoring what they talked about amongst themselves, I instead paid attention to the surroundings, especially the floor.

At some point Robin motioned for me to bend down.

“I don't wanna walk anymore. Can you carry me?”

I sort of expected this from him already, so I held my hand on the ground for him to climb on trying to ignore the death glare Arthur sent me.

Cupping the little rusthead closer to my chest I continued slowly walking after the other two.

Arthur seemed to not like me, even after I tried my best to be friendly yesterday, and I still did not know what to think of Rikaad.

He was quite the unusual character, his movements were sharp even when walking, but not in a choppy sort of way, more like a precise knife, he walked with purpose.

Rikaad was by far the one I most feared out of the group, I somehow had no doubt he would manage to cut my throat or something.

I decided to do my best to ignore it and instead focus on my environment.

The trees here looked a bit weird, but then again the entire forest was supposed to be sorta fucked up.

I did not recognize any of the trees either, they had pretty normal looking stems but the leaves were an off white greenish colour and seemed to be covered in something, a fungus maybe?

“What is this stuff? It looks disgusting”

Arthur piped up from somewhere in front of us and pointed to the ground that was also starting to be covered in that white stuff like a fine layer of cloth.

I was so preoccupied with examining the weird stuff that I did not notice how utterly still Robin had become in my hand.

From somewhere left of us I heard weird clicking and hissing noises.

Turning to face whatever made such sounds I saw a massive spider, and when I say massive I mean it.

The thing was a bit bigger than a horse so even with my new height this thing was larger than usual.

That was definitely not good.

If I recalled correctly, spiders ate about anything they could catch in their nets.

Oh so that's what the white stuff was, Fuck.

Well I could deal with one of those, maybe I could just stomp on it or kick it away as far as possible.

Those plans however went out the window as more of these Spiders approached just as Arthur and Rikaad ran to seek shelter next to me.

I counted about twelve of these Arachnid monsters, too many to fight.

Arthur was panicking and clinging to my leg begging Rikaad to come up with something.

“Fuck fuck fuck how do we get out of this?? Rikaad please tell me you have a plan”

Rikaad however seemed to have no idea what to do, and i also tried to think of something.

Run away? While a good option the others would never be able to keep up with me and Robin had passed out the moment he saw a spider.

Could I carry them all? I only had two hands and there were three people so there was no way to hold onto any of them securely enough to sprint away.

As the spiders drew closer making those wretched clicking noises instinct took over, and the next thing I knew was that Robin was in my mouth and I gripped both of the other young men, one in each hand running as far away as possible from those creatures.

I heard shouting from the hand that held Arthur and he tried to bite me.

Luckily he only managed to get to my calloused thumb.

“SPIT HIM OUT! SPIT HIM OUT! I KNEW IT I KNEW IT WAS A DUMB IDEA TO TRUST A GIANT! SPIT! HIM! OUT!”

Well right now with spiders chasing us that sadly wasn't possible and I couldn't even respond to anything with my mouth currently occupied by the rusthead.

Rikaad was strangely silent but a glance over to my other hand told me that this was because only his legs dangled free of my grip, his entire upper half covered by my fingers.

Adrenaline carried me a good distance away from the spider nets but I kept running until I saw no webs at all anymore, not even from a distance.

Falling to my knees in a grassy field as the adrenaline left, I put my hands on the ground in front of me, letting go of the two young men.

Arthur scrambled upright, fumbling for his sword as Rikaad slowly got up.

I did not pay attention to them and instead fished a bedraggled looking Robin out of my mouth.

He was moving, which meant he had been back to consciousness for a while now.

I hoped I had not scared him, but judging by the fact that he just tried to wipe the saliva off instead of screaming he was probably fine.

Just as I set him on the ground someone screamed his name.

“ROBIN!”

Arthur bolted over to Robin, encasing him in a hug, not caring that he got a bit slimy as well.

Rikaad also moved over to where the two sat and stared at me, his eyes even icier than before but I still could not tell what he was thinking.

Was he angry? Did he regret asking me to tag along? In the end he said nothing and instead moved to kneel next to Robin.

I was still panting and sweating a bit from the adrenaline rush and the sprint I had just done to get away from the oversized arachnids, so I was not expecting to get stabbed in my outer thigh while kneeling on the ground.

“YEOWCH! What was that for?”

Arthur had snuck up on me and embedded his knife in my upper leg.

“YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT FOR! YOU TRIED TO EAT ROBIN YOU HEDGE-BORN BASTARD!”

Hedge-born??? Hedge-born?? Was that what he thought of me? That I was just one level above a slave??

And he didn't even grasp that I only did it to save all of our asses! Idiot!

“I DIDN'T! BUT I ONLY HAVE TWO HANDS BUT IF IT BOTHERS YOU SO MUCH I WOULD HAVE LEFT YOU THERE!”

“AS IF I WOULD BELIEVE THAT! I KNEW IT I FUCKING KNEW NOT TO TRUST A GIANT BASTARD–”

He did not get to finish his sentence as we were interrupted by an even louder voice.

“CAN YOU TWO SHUT THE FUCK UP??”

I was a bit taken aback by Rikaad’s loud shout, I did not expect him to have such strong vocal cords.

I also did not expect him to actually use a curse word.

But it sure worked as he intended as both of us were stunned into silence as he walked over to us.

Looking at him it was like someone had set his usually icy grey eyes on fire as he stared at both of us.

Then his gaze froze over again, surprising me and apparently Arthur who had shrunk back when Rikaad came over.

“Please dont argue, i know we are all stressed from wandering around this forest especially after what just happened”

Arthur tried to interrupt him but was waved off by Rikaad

“I'm not done speaking, also Arthur if you think logically if he had truly planned to eat Robin do you think he would have spat him out?”

Arthur just looked away and mumbled something I could not make out, he seemed to feel bad all of a sudden after being rebuked by the taller male.

Rikaad then turned to face me.

I reflexibly straightened my back as he looked at me.

I don't know why I did that as I had no guard training but something compelled me to do it anyway.

“And Donovan? Please never do such a thing again”

I could only nod, I really hadn't wanted to in the first place but it was the only thing I could come up with at the time.

“Don't plan to, it's not something i wanted to do but my brain did not have any other ideas, also sorry for grabbing you”

He just nodded curtly at me and went back to Robin who was still trying to get all the slime out.

I looked at Arthur who stared back at me with quite a weird expression I could not place.

I decided to ignore him and my still bleeding cut for now and check on Robin, though while standing up i couldn't help a spiteful

“Stick your dick in an anthill bitch”

He did not respond anything and just sat there instead.

Going over to Robin I took out my Handkerchief again and offered it to him so he could wipe the rest of the saliva off.

He gladly took it and started trying to get the slime out of his hair.

“Thank you”

He reminded me a bit of a wet kitten with his short ginger hair sticking up in all directions.

Rikaad stood next to him seemingly as if nothing was wrong.

He was staring at Arthur and looking over I could see that he had just flopped onto his back, lying in a patch of grass limbs spread out like a star.

I went the opposite direction to a decently sized patch of wildflowers and started plucking the edible ones out of the ground, some were angrily stuffed into my mouth right away, others were put in a small heap near my knees.

I would bring those over to the small humans when I had calmed down a bit.

I just hoped Arthur would not accuse me of trying to poison them, or witchcraft, who knows with this guy.

At some point while I was still ripping plants out of the dirt Robin came over and held my handkerchief up to me as best as he could.

I carefully took it from him and stuffed it back into my pocket.

He sat next to me and started to also pluck flowers but instead of eating them he started to make flower crowns once again.

I did not know what to say so i kept quiet, i was still feeling a bit awkward from what happened earlier and hoped he wasn't mad at me.

Robin however seemed to not be able to sit silent for long.

“You should brush your teeth”

He did not say more and just continued with his flower crown.

I huffed out an amused snort.

“With what? I cant use the little rags that are usually used”

He grinned up at me.

“Not my problem that you are taller than a House”

I couldn't help but smile, surely I wasn't that big was i? I had no reference for this after all.

“Maybe you're just tiny, but seriously are you good? Did I hurt when I put you in my mouth? Are you okay?”

He seemed confused for a second before answering.

“I'm fine, why do you ask? You're the one that's bleeding”

He pointed to the shallow cut Arthur had made, and that was starting to slowly scab over.

“Ehh just a scratch i'm more upset about my pants having a hole now”

It did indeed suck as these were my only pair and now as a giant I couldn't even get new ones.

“I'm sure Rikaad could repair them he's pretty okay at sewing”

I was admittedly a bit surprised by this, I had not expected the man that used cold logic for everything to be good at such a mundane thing.

“Maybe, i don't think it's necessary it's just a small tear”

“Mhm you want a flower crown?”

He held one up to me that was longer than all the others he had made albeit still small to me.

“You're fast at that, but sure if it fits”

I cautiously took the offered flowers making sure to not squish any of them and put the too small crown on my head.

It only fit over half my head making me look like I had a flower halo sitting on my scalp.

Robin who had started another crown already burst into laughter.

“You look funny! I used way more flowers than normal and it's still so small on you!”

I carefully fished the colourful Blossoms from my head and tossed the entirety over Robin who tried to catch it but failed.

He instead took the flowers and wrapped them around his neck multiple times.

“You think the others will like eating flowers?”

“You know them better than i do, so you tell me”

I put the heap of pre-plucked flowers in my hand and stood slowly up.

Looking over the clearing I saw the other two men sitting near a tree with Arthur still lying on his back and Rikaad watching the environment.

I slowly walked over to them still keeping away from Arthur and sitting a good ways away from him so Rikaad was between the two of us.

“I found some edible plants if anyone wants”

Sitting down I put the flowers on the ground next to Rikaad so he could take some if he wanted.

Should Arthur want some as well he'd have to move over to us.

Robin walked over to Rikaad and put a flower crown on his head then tossed another on top of Arthur who did not react to having a bunch of flowers thrown at him.

Rikaad gingerly took the flower crown into his hand and looked at it.

“You know, that's how we found you, Robin makes a lot of these and we just had to follow the trail of ripped out flowers to find you”

I was surprised at this and looked at Robin who, strangely enough, looked just as confused.

“You did? That wasn't even the plan with them i just like making those”

It wasn't even a plan to get his friends to come find him? It was just pure luck that they found the petal trail? Robin truly was a strange human, albeit one of the good ones as far as i could tell.

Rikaad did not seem surprised by the admission of this being done by accident however.

“I suspected as much but it was still helpful even if there was a day where we found no flowers, i'm just glad you're okay”

He put the flower crown back on his head and reached over to pick one of the edible plants I had brought over and inspected a clover blossom.

Thinking about his comment on how they had not found any petals for a day it made me realise that it must have been the morning where Robin had been in my Pouch.

I sincerely hoped they would never find that out.

Theyd probably lynch me, Especially Arthur who seemed to have an inherent dislike for me.

As for Rikaad, well i wasn't sure if he'd kill me seeing as Robin was fine but i would not risk it, his icy grey eyes still unnerved me greatly, but so far he'd been polite to me.

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

Rikaad stood up and looked towards the mountain.

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

That much was true.

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

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

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

“That's for stabbing me”

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

Robin was laughing but Rikaad was looking rather displeased.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“You're lazy, ginger boy”

I quipped to the small human in my hands.

“I know”

He just grinned and lounged back against my chest.

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

They were probably worried that I would do something.

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

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

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

It took a few moments before Rikaad responded.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rikaad however seemed to mull it over.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How fast had I run away from those spiders?

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

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

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

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

I slowly shuffled behind.

I felt weird over this piece of information.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wait a second the flags were wrong.

Instead of the yellow star on pale blue ground with the red ring around it it depicted weird dark blue half moons on grey ground.

This was not Kamerasca.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That was not technically true.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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