After learning of an opportunity to get in the guild master's good graces, Russo and his close friend Jem team up for as mission. Along the way however, the mage and warrior come across a rather alarming pest that seeks to impede their progress.

So I lied and decided to continue on writing about the little world and characters I had established in my last short story. Couldn't stay away from it I suppose. Enjoy.

Note: Icon is © to Radku

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Chapter 2

There was hardly a cloud in the brilliant blue sky as Russo walked alongside Jem and a badger down a quaint dirt path winding through the countryside. Tall grasses and all kinds of wildflowers that dazzled the eyes with shades of orange, purple, and red, were set against a green backdrop along both sides of the road. In years past this had all been used as farmland, but due to years of heavy cultivation local farmers had been forced to let the fields fallow for a couple seasons to replenish the nutrients in the soil. The trio was making their way towards the town of Neyv, which was only a day’s walk away from Russo and Jem’s hometown of Tedrah. Though it was a beautiful sight to look at, the tall grass provided ideal hiding spots for thieves and highwaymen to lay in ambush, the mere thought of which kept both Russo and Jem on constant alert.

They had already been walking for a few hours and now seemed like a good time to stop to rest.

“Hey Jem, want to take a quick break and grab something to eat and stretch out our legs for a bit?”

“Sounds good to me. What about you Honeycind? Are you alright with that?” Jem turned back to ask the badger.

“I wouldn’t mind at all. I could use a breather.” The badger replied.

Russo and Jem nodded to each other and got to work as Jem unsheathed his sword and started hacking away at the grass to their left and Russo froze a large patch to their right. The grass and wild flowers collapsed under the weight of the ice and flattened against the ground. With the tall grass to their left and right removed, the possibility for a potential thief to ambush them was greatly reduced. Jem placed his sword back in its sheath on his back, and along with Russo and Honeycind, sat in the middle of the road to rest. Jem pulled out some jerky from one of his pockets and started devouring it. Russo quietly nibbled away at some sunflower seeds he had brought along in a pouch and drank some juice he had packed away in a canteen. Honeycind absentmindedly munched on some dried fruits he had brought along for the trip. They ate in a pleasant silence, Jem and Russo scanning the area all the while for any unseen threats.

While this escort mission Russo and Jem were taking on didn’t pay very well, they scrambled to take it the moment it was announced. Russo, being the talented mage that he was, and Jem being quite the accomplished swordsman, were immediately given the mission after applying for it. To be frank Honeycind was just a simple travelling merchant, going from town to town to sell what all he could carry on his back. He didn’t sell anything extravagant or high quality, but he was a nice enough old fellow and the people he did business with were rather fond of him. What was important though was that he was a member of the Neyv merchant guild, which did a great deal of business with Tedrah’s guild. Getting in the Neyv merchant guild’s good graces meant gaining the favor of the higher ups in Tedrah’s guild, which meant Jem and Russo could expect to be offered better paying missions and would even be given the opportunity to apply for certain missions before they were posted on the guild boards for all to see.

Typically, Russo abhorred escort missions and group missions in general due to the amount of packing and preparations that had be taken as well as the fact that they usually happened at a much slower pace than he was comfortable with. Then there was always the possibility of working with someone you couldn’t stand. Fortunately though none of those concerns would be a problem since the mission would take less than a day to complete, their escort was quite kind and cooperative, and best of all, Russo’s sole teammate for this mission was his best friend.

As Russo finished his snack, he pulled out and glanced over some notes he had taken on some new tomes he had begun to read and research back at Tedrah’s library while Jem began polishing and cleaning his sword and Honeycind sat and took in the warmth of the sun. After a good half hour to an hour had passed the trio decided it was time to get moving again and resumed their journey. The three of them continued walking for another few hours as the sun climbed high up into the sky and a gentle breeze began to blow. Wooden fences began to be seen lining both sides of the road, which meant they were nearing their destination.

“Won’t be too much longer now…” Russo contentedly thought to himself.

As if reading his mind Jem chimed in. “Just because we’re getting close to Neyv doesn’t mean we can let our guard down. We’re more likely to be ambushed or jumped the closer we get to the city, since that’s when travelers ease up on keeping watch, thinking they’re in the clear. Stay sharp.”

Russo shook his head and forced himself to focus back on the task at hand of keeping sentry. It would be a pain in the ass to be jumped or have the old badger robbed this close to the city. The trio continued traveling though now with a marked tension in the air. Jem’s hand always hovered near the sheath of his sword, Russo kept a stream of magic loosely flowing around his fingertips and Honeycind kept looking back periodically behind them.

After what seemed like a brief eternity the town came into view as they came to the top of a hill. Neyv could’ve only been about 2 or 3 miles away and just short of an hour’s walk. Before them though at the bottom of the hill was a stone bridge that ran over a dried up riverbed that had had its flow diverted some time ago for irrigation purposes. As the trio neared the bridge the grass to their left behind a wooden fence began to rustle much more than it should have in the wind. Jem unsheathed his sword and Russo readied a spell, energy concentrated in his fingertips. A moment later a grey wolf leaped over the fence right at them, claws at the ready. Initially the wolf wore an expression of snarky confidence that quickly turned to horror and dread when he saw the warrior and mage already prepared to strike. Jem swung hard at their airborne foe who contorted his body just out of the reach of Jem’s swing, narrowly avoiding getting a limb lopped off in the process. As the wolf landed he took a quick look at the badger and contemplated gunning for him for the briefest of seconds before a streak of scalding hot light whizzed by his head. Realizing that his chances of surviving this encounter were rapidly approaching zero the wolf jumped over the fence on the opposite side of the road and beat a hasty retreat towards the riverbed. The entire confrontation lasted less than 30 seconds.

Looking back at the badger Russo saw he was shaking and quite spooked by the whole ordeal. “Calm down fella, Jem and I have got your back. We aren’t going to let you get robbed and we sure as hell aren’t going to let anybody lay so much as a finger on you.” Jem gave Honeycind a reassuring smile and the badger nodded in understanding and calmed down.

Russo turned towards Jem and asked, “You think he’s got a trap of sorts or another ambushed prepared for us at the bridge? Thieves can be stubborn and a persistent bunch.”

“…I’m not sure. He didn’t seem very competent or threatening but you never know. *Sigh* Dammit, this wouldn’t even be a problem if my first strike had landed.”

“I feel the same way. I can’t believe I missed him at point blank! …But we can’t just linger around here in the open either, we need to keep moving.” Both Jem and the badger nodded in agreement.

Russo stroked his chin and thought up a plan. “Hmmm… Hey Jem I’ve got an idea. You escort our guest across the bridge while I’ll head down into the riverbed and run interference. You two book it towards the city and I’ll take care of that nuisance.”

“What and have you travel alone the rest of the way? Like hell!?”

“Relax, relax. No need to get so worked up about it, I can take care of myself. If it makes you feel better though take this.” Russo handed Jem an orange crystal with a strange symbol carved in it. “That thing’s a waypoint for teleportation spells. Just keep that on your person and I’ll be able to teleport to your location, no matter where you are. As soon as that thief is taken care of I’ll teleport right back to you.”

Jem thought it over for a moment before he tightly curled his fingers around the crystal. “You damn well better be quick about this.” He said worriedly.

“I’ll be fine.” Russo said as he climbed over the fence to their right and made his way to the riverbed. Jem and the badger looked at each other and began briskly walking towards the bridge ahead of them. As Russo slid down the dry and dusty embankment he looked to his left and saw the wolf trying to hide under the shade of the bridge. The instant the wolf saw him he began to run, though he didn’t get very far as Russo cast a barrier that prevented him from running out from under the other side of the bridge. Russo slowly walked into the shade under the bridge and towards the wolf who now had his back against the barrier. As Russo advanced closer he was able to get a decent look at the failed thief. He was covered in tan rags that seemed to be falling apart and could barely cover him, hell he wasn’t even wearing any shoes, though that wasn’t uncommon for furs. The wolf was a wiry thing who looked to be a couple years younger than either he or Jem, he was probably only 13 or 14.

“Kid you picked the wrong people to try and rob today,” he said as his hands began glowing with energy.

The wolf stared him down and weakly growled back, “I don’t pick fights I can’t win.” As the wolf said that the reverberations of Jem and Honeycind crossing the bridge could be heard.

“Funny. Seems to me you haven’t the faintest idea on how to pick a fight and the only thing you’re good at is running. Unfortunately for you I’m not going to give you the chance.” Russo said coldly as he slowly walked towards the wolf.

“We’ll see.” The wolf coolly said. As soon as he said that his wiry form began to bulge with muscle that seemingly came out of nowhere. Russo took a step back, startled by the sudden change in appearance. Russo sure as shit had never read about or heard about any kind of spell that could do that. The wolf smiled menacingly at him and yelled out “Well what hope do you have against a giant, human?!” He began to rapidly swell in size and shot up in height becoming more and more muscular and imposing with his growth. The whole growth process threw Russo for a loop and had him genuinely worried… until the wolf grew too tall too fast and cracked his head against the stone bridge. His growth suddenly cut off at about 10 feet he promptly fell back on his ass and started rubbing his head.

“Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow…” the wolf said as tears began forming in his eyes. “H-hey can we move out from under this bridge? I want a do-over.”

Russo blankly stared at the wolf, raised his right arm and blasted him right in the face with a spell. The wolf’s head snapped back and cracked against the barrier and the now oversized wuss began clutching his head in pain. The gray wolf backed up as much as he could against the barrier and placed his arms in front of his face in a shielding position and began shaking. “P-please don’t kill me!” he wailed out as tears began streaming down his face.

“Oh for fuck’s sake…” Russo grumbled to himself. “You tried robbing my escort and then threatened to kill me. I have every reason to kill you right here and now!” Russo yelled as his hands began glowing with energy again. The wolf wailed louder and continued shaking, sobbing and shrinking back away from Russo as much as he could.

“*Sigh* This is just pathetic… FINE you big baby I won’t kill you. You’re just lucky I’m in a hurry to catch up with my friend.” Russo said in an exasperated tone as the magic dissipated from around his fingers.

Slowly the wolf stopped shaking and hesitatingly removed his arms from in front of his face, half expecting Russo to kill him anyway. When he found that he wasn’t immediately hit with another spell and that Russo had in fact meant what he said he looked down curiously at the human. His facial fur was still wet and matted down with tears and his eyes were still watering. Russo released the barrier the wolf was leaning up against and he fell back against the ground. The wolf pulled himself up to a sitting position under the bridge and continued looking at the human. Russo walked out from under the bridge and into the sunlit riverbed as he prepared to teleport, keeping an eye on the oversized wolf all the while. Before he could teleport away the wolf spoke up.

“H-hey human…”

“What?” Russo asked rather annoyed.

“…thank you for sparing me.”

“Yeah, yeah… Just stay out of trouble, alright? If somebody else catches you trying to steal from them again, and is given the opportunity, they will kill you. That or just chop both of your hands off.”

The wolf worriedly looked at his hands as Russo informed him of the standard punishment for thieves.

“Welp… see you.” Russo calmly stated as he gave a quick wave to the wolf before disappearing in a flash of orange light. The wolf shyly waved back and after Russo had left he shrank back down to his original size. He sat down in the riverbed for a moment thoughtfully pondering what to do next, before deciding on a course of action. He slowly climbed up and out of the riverbed, and started making his way towards Neyv.

An instant later Russo appeared in a flash right next to Jem and Honeycind, and also noticeably closer to their final destination.

“That didn’t take too long.” Jem stated with a relieved look on his face.

“Did he give you much trouble?” The badger innocently inquired.

“Nah, he was just a kid, and a total pushover at that. I smacked him around a little, he begs for his life and I let him go. A pretty standard affair.” Russo chuckled to himself as he continued, “The kid talked tough… but he had nothing to back it up with. That and I didn’t really sense much of a killing intent behind his words so there was really no reason to kill him.”

“Aren’t you concerned though that he might try and attack us again?” The badger asked worriedly.

“I doubt it.” Jem interrupted. “Russo ran interference long enough for us to get quite a ways ahead of him so it’s not like he’ll even have the chance to catch up. That and after what Russo did to him I doubt he’ll try taking us on again.” Taking on a serious tone again, “We still need to keep an eye out trouble though. We haven’t made it to Neyv yet and we wouldn’t want to get ambushed again, especially now that we’re so close.”

Jem, Russo and Honeycind kept a close eye out for any trouble that might have reared its head as they finished the last leg of their journey, but thankfully it never showed itself. Having successfully escorted Honeycind back to his own guild without injury or misfortune befalling him, the badger graciously thanked them for a job well done and promised to put in a good word for them as he left to report in to his guild. The sun was starting to dip low into the sky and the human and collie were pretty hungry so the two friends found a pub and had some dinner. As per their earlier agreement Russo paid for everything and the duo spent a few hours just talking, eating, drinking and relaxing. By the time they left the pub the moon had already risen and the duo figured that surely the badger had put in a good word for them by now. Russo and Jem made their way towards the Neyv merchant guild, hoping that they could get some assistance with finding lodging for the evening.

When the collie and human entered the merchant guild they found it mostly deserted. Fortunately though one of the guild’s senior members was still around tending to busywork.

“Excuse me miss.” Jem stated as he walked up to the blonde human woman.

“Yes? Can I help you?”

“I certainly hope so. My friend and I here helped escort a travelling merchant back here from Tedrah earlier today, a badger by the name of Honeycind. It’s a little late out to be trying to make our way back to Tedrah and we were wondering if you had any place where we could lodge for the night.”

“Ah… you must be Jem and Russo! Honeycind was talking wonders about you two earlier about how you two fought off and roughed up a thief. It’s nothing fancy but we do have some guest rooms you’re both more than welcome to stay in as well as some public baths for you to make use of should you need to.”

“Thank you for your hospitality and gracious offer miss.” Jem politely said as he and Russo were guided to their rooms and shown the baths.

After the girl had left them on their own Russo ribbed his friend.
“Look at you all punctual and professional.”

“That’s how you’re supposed to interact with members of other guilds when you’re their guest.” Jem said plainly.

“Pfftt… Tedrah and Neyv’s guilds are chummy enough that we don’t need to worry about stuff like that.”

“A little punctuality and courtesy can go a long way.” Jem chidingly stated as he undressed and got ready for a bath. “Are you going to clean up for the night Russo? You really should, seeing as how you humans can start to smelling pretty rank if you don’t bathe regularly,” he said teasingly.

“Yeah, yeah… I’ll join you shortly,” Russo complained as he fumbled with his cloak. After Jem had left and Russo had finished undressing, he found a towel to cover himself with as he made his way to the baths and joined Jem. The bath Jem was in was a good sized square more or less that was filled with water that was kept quite hot through the use of magic crystals and fire motes. The sides of the bath were lined with benches for those bathing to sit on and rest their feet as they let themselves soak in the water. Russo sat opposite of Jem as he stepped into the bath, towel and all.

Jem chuckled at his friend as he saw him get into the water still wearing his towel. “You humans are all so body shy. You’ve seen me naked plenty of times before and you’ve never complained.”

“Shut up, that’s because you don’t need to hide anything. Everything on you is covered with fur or hidden up in a sheath or something. It’s different for humans.”

“It could be that… or… you just like what you see.” Jem said with a smile as he ran his hands down his body.

Russo frowned and shook his head as Jem started laughing.

Jem smiled and shrugged off his friend’s complaints as he slid down up to his neck in the water. “*Sigh* Anyway… another job well done. Once the higher ups get word of what a good job we did we can start expecting some nice missions to come our way. Usually you bitch and complain about taking on a group mission but this one wasn’t so bad was it?”

“No…” Russo said with some resignation as he slid further down into the water and closed both of his eyes to relax. “Oh… Jem.”

“Hmm?”

“There is one thing I neglected to mention about the thief earlier since I didn’t want to give that old man a heart attack or something.”

“…What is it?” Jem asked as he pulled himself up slightly out of the water and gave Russo his full attention.

“I think that kid was a giant. Or at least he could change his size and become a giant, which is something I’ve never heard or read about before.”
Jem remained quiet as Russo continued, but had Russo opened his eyes to look at his friend he would’ve noticed his friend had an incredibly worried look on his face.

With his eyes still closed, “I mean the idea that that kid could just walk into a town unnoticed and turn into a giant, and do God knows what, is something that flashed across my mind as I finished up the fight with him. It really made me wonder whether or not I should’ve killed him but… he was just some dumb kid and it didn’t seem like he really meant us any harm.”
Russo sighed as he dunked his head underwater briefly and soaked his hair.

“You… you contemplated killing him just because he could change his size?” Jem asked with disbelief in his voice when Russo came back up for air.

“Yes… I mean… I was thinking of the threat he could pose. But then I got to thinking about what you told me back in Tedrah when I… you know… blew up the pub. You told me something along the lines of that not all giants are murderous monsters and so on and so forth. I thought about that after I finished up my fight with the kid and regardless of whether he towered over me or was just a little shorter than me, I still would’ve kicked his ass, he still would’ve been a pushover, he still would’ve begged for his life and I’m sure I still would’ve ended up sparing him. Either way, I didn’t think that wolf was that bad. Stupid and misguided... but I wouldn't call him bad. I guess this is a way of me beating around the bush trying to say that if I kill someone it’ll be because of the things they have done or are trying to do, and not because of something they could do… regardless of their size er… potential size. …Does that make any sense to you or I am just rambling?”

Though Russo still wasn’t looking Jem had a relieved look on his face after hearing his friend’s thoughts on the matter. “No… no you’re not rambling… what you said made sense.”

“Good to hear.” Russo said as a small smile formed on his face. “Still though…” he carried on as he became more serious, “Is this something we should tell the guild leaders or anybody else for that matter? I mean it’s not like there’s any way we can tell if someone can change size whenever they feel like it. The only reason I know that wolf can is because he did it right in front of me… and kind of screwed up in the process making it easier for me to take him down. I’m sure if we were to tell people it would just make them paranoid and panicked.”

Jem remained quiet for a time before speaking. “Wow… look at you thinking hard on an issue for once and actually having something like foresight and consideration for the consequences of your actions. I’m proud of you Russo.”

“Shush.”

“You know I’m only teasing. *sigh* But… I agree with you. If we were to tell people about this we would just end up creating unnecessary chaos and panic. We’d just be bringing a problem to light that we wouldn’t know how to fix. Want to just keep it hush hush between us for now?”

“Sounds like a plan to me.” Russo said as he tried to scrub himself down the best he could. After he had cleaned himself off to the best of his abilities he stepped out of the bath, still wearing the towel, and got ready to head back to the guest rooms. “Are you still not done yet Jem?”

“I think I’ll stick around and soak for a little while longer.”

“Alright.” Russo said as he shrugged his shoulders. “I’ll probably be asleep by the time you’re done so… good night.” With that Russo left and Jem was left with little more than the splashing of the water and his own thoughts to keep him company.

After a couple of minutes had passed he stretched out his legs and watched as they grew, along with the rest of his body, and extended to the other side of the bath where Russo had just sat. Jem now took up most of the bath while lying down with his back resting against one end and his feet against the other. Were he to get out of the tub and stand upright he would probably register as 20 feet tall. His paws stuck out of the water on the other side of the bath and he wiggled his toes in the cool air. He let out a sigh and wore a sad smile on his face as he dwelled upon everything his best friend had said. Everything that Russo had said about the paranoia and the panic that would arise were it to be made known some giants could shift sizes was dead on. It was something he had turned over in his head countless times and found out through second hand experience years before he had ever made his way to Tedrah.

He couldn’t really blame the people in the cities though for the way they felt towards giants. The ones that visited them almost always meant harm and ill will, oftentimes for no reason other than to cause chaos and suffering. He sighed to himself again though because the vast majority of giants were nothing like that, most in fact lived rather secluded and peaceful lives. It infuriated him to no end that the only giants that humans and the smaller furs had experience with were the violent fringe that by no means were representative of giants as a whole, so of course they would think all giants were murderous assholes.

Members of his own village actually expressed envy for the diminutive people, for by virtue of their small size they needed a lot less resources, food, magic and clothing to keep them happy. Hell that was the main reason why Jem snuck his way into and ingratiated himself amongst the little ones, with his community’s blessings, when he figured out how to shift sizes. Life was frankly easier the smaller Jem became. Every now and then he would travel back to his home village and tell his parents and community about the friends he had made and what life was like in those tiny towns, the good and the bad. Jem woefully thought about how pleasant… but unlikely it would be if giants and the smaller humans and furs actually lived in peaceful coexistence.

Shaking those negative thoughts and memories from his mind Jem began thinking about how happy he was to hear Russo’s thoughts and judgments on those giants who could change their size at will. Russo… his oftentimes brash, inconsiderate, manipulative, rude, short-sighted and sometimes callous friend. Who was somehow at the same time loyal, kind, easy going, merciful and considerate. Jem laughed to himself as he thought about all of Russo’s seemingly contradictory qualities. He smiled to himself, happy and content knowing that should his secret ever come to light he would still have one friend, one whom he was rather fond of, that would stick by his side. He would probably bitch and complain the entire way, but Jem knew Russo would stick by his side.

After one last good stretch in the bath Jem shrank back down to size, got out and shook the water out of his fur. Jem sighed again as he thought to himself, “I’ll tell him one of these days…” and slowly made his way back to the guest rooms to get a good night’s sleep.

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