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Shifting focus back to a certain knight who hasn't been heard from in ages, we get to see what a typical day of work running an underground and shadowy organization that I've spent hardly any time describing is like. Cajoling, implied threats of murder, beat downs, inquiring into whether or not it's possible to use magic to grow to gigantic sizes, etc. Ho hum stuff for any respectable big bad.
Icon is © to
DemonRoni
FIRST, PREVIOUS, NEXT
Chapter 30
Scratching at the top of his head, flakes of skin and dandruff catching beneath his claws, the graying bobcat let his mind wander as his eyes glazed over the worn piece of paper sitting before him at his cluttered oaken desk. Brushing aside the dull black crystals and useless journals that littered his desk, he breathed shallowly as he rubbed his eyes and dragged his hands down his speckled furred face. Crisp morning sunlight poured through the windows of the cabin, bathing the bobcat’s study in a healthy yellow glow. Frigid winter air seeped in through the corners of the windows, giving the bobcat reason to shiver in his robes whilst bathed in the bright sunlight. The reviving energy of the sun’s rays only served to make the fur restless as he struggled to cope with the indecision and uncertainty plaguing him. “Bahhhh, I don’t even know where to begin with this,” he mumbled as he tapped at the blank parchment displayed prominently before him. He griped as he leaned back in his chair and cast a glance at the bound journals that littered the stone floor. None of them had provided even a snippet of useful information for him to jump off from. Twisting his body to the left and to the right, he growled as he felt a satisfying pop in his spine. A knocking at his cabin’s front door gave him cause to grate his teeth in annoyance and frustration.
“Now is not the time for distractions,” he grumbled under his breath as he hunched over his desk and wracked his mind for ideas. His lack of action did nothing to stop the knocking on his door, the bobcat’s pointed ears pressing down against his head as he stifled a hiss rising from his throat. His best efforts to ignore whoever it was at his front door were failing spectacularly as he found himself growing furiously pissed off. Violently jerking back his chair, the bobcat thundered over to the front door as the intensity of the knocking grew. “WHAT IS IT?!” He angrily screamed as he slammed open the door. Before he could let loose with a volley of insults his teeth clamped down on his tongue as his eyes drifted up towards what a familiar figure’s face.
“You know damn well what,” the black knight stated, his unnerving yellow eyes piercing through cracks in the visor of his helmet. The bobcat swallowed hard as his superior pushed him aside as he entered. Wincing at the grime and muck the knight tracked in along with him, the bobcat fumbled about for a way to prevent a certain topic from being broached.
“I-is that a new set of armor you’re sporting? I noticed that you lost the orange stripes and…”
“It’s the same armor that I’ve always worn. I simply had it cleaned before the blood and clay became ingrained into the metal.” The bobcat’s lips pulled back as he became aware as to the ingredients in the once colorful markings that adorned the knight’s armor. Glancing at the mud that was plastered to the armored one’s boots and forearms, he quickly averted his gaze as beams of sunlight illuminated a red glaze dancing across his armored fingertips.
“B-busy night?”
Rubbing his fingers together, the knight hrmmed as ribbons of crimson sank into the muck coating his hands. “From your stalling I wager you have nothing of value to report?” The older bobcat remained silent as his eyes became transfixed on the floor, bright rays of light reflecting off its polished surface. “I’ll take your silence as an implicit confirmation,” the armored one replied as he approached a window, his leggings clanking softly with every step he took. Resting his dirtied hands on the windowsill as he looked out at the surrounding forest, the room darkened as his imposing form soaked up the sunlight. “Should I bother asking you to explain yourself or would it be more efficient to simply make you and your abode disappear?”
“Y-you ask too much of me!” The elder bobcat stuttered out as he appealed his case. “I’ve pored over my entire library and found absolutely nothing of use with regards to what you want me to research. And as it stands your request is far too vague to fulfill in a satisfactory manner! What in the hell do you expect me to even report in a study of the magical properties of giants?!”
With his back to the wizard, the knight began drumming his fingers against the windowsill, the muddied metal coverings plopping softly against the stone. “If you recall, I asked you to investigate whether or not giants were capable of changing size. That is a suitably specific mandate for your purposes.” Stifling a worried sigh, the fur made a conscious effort to remain locked firmly in place, frantically trying to give off the impression that he was not about to bolt.
“Even so, I have no prior research to jump off from or even a giant to study! You’re asking me to tread new grounds here and that’s something that isn’t easily done!” The graying feline unconsciously shifted his weight back and forth between his legs as he stared at his superior’s backside.
“So your excuse then is that you don’t have a subject to study?” Turning his head back towards his host, the knight continued; “If you were to suddenly find yourself in possession of a giant, how would you proceed?” Eyes darting up towards the thick wooden rafters that comprised the ceiling, the bobcat carefully considered the hypothetical.
“To begin… I would,” the wizard licked his lips as he gently began to shake his hand, “have to take into account your requests and form an experiment around it. You want me to determine if giants can shift sizes… and what magical capabilities they possess, if any, and I’m assuming you believe there is a link between the two. So first… I would focus on whether or not giants wield any magic to begin with. An easy way to test for that is to attempt a magical drain.” The implied threat of certain death motivating his every thought, the fur’s mind slowly began to formulate the crucial first steps for his hypothetical study. Snapping his fingers, the bobcat smiled as his mind feverishly cobbled together a lucid train of thought. “If nothing results from the magical drain, that would suggest that giants are not in possession of any magic whatsoever, ruling out the possibility that a change in size could be caused by magical means. From that point I would have to recommend you pass this topic on to someone else, preferably a doctor or surgeon who wouldn’t mind getting his hands dirty. They would have a much easier time determining if there were physical or biological basis behind the suspected ability of giants to change in size.” Though his heart pounded against his chest, the graying fur felt confident in the answer he had provided.
“And what if your magical drain showed that giants did house magic within their bodies?” The knight’s yellow eyes narrowed as his pumpkin colored pupils focused intently on the crumpling feline.
Caught off guard by the follow up, the bobcat choked on his words as he felt himself falling apart under the knight’s stare. Grasping at straws, he began to blurt out half formed thoughts. “I-if if the magical drain did yield results I would… I-I would… see if the magics giants house internally is… is… is different from the magic that can be found in any given mortal. Draining their magic into crystals I could see whether or not the magic taken from a giant is stronger or unique in some way. And then… I don’t know where I’d go from there.”
Narrowing his gaze further, the armored one pushed off from the windowsill and plodded towards the trembling wizard. “Do you have everything you’d need to perform such tasks?” Nodding silently in response, the bobcat cowered before his superior. “... Good enough. I’ll scrounge up something for you to test on and in return I expect a detailed report as to your successes or failures within two weeks time. So long as you provide something worthwhile we can learn from, I’ll consider keeping you around.”
Eyes wide, the bobcat looked on dumbly at the knight as he walked past. Somehow he’d managed to bullshit him into letting him live to see a couple more sunsets. Oh thank fuck.
Strolling out the heavy wooden front door, the armored one paused just as he cleared the doorway. “Ah, before I head out, I’d suggest packing up on the proper crystals, tools, or magical aides you’d require to carry out your tests.”
“Whuh? Why?” The wizard panicked as he held his breath.
“You seriously didn’t think I’d be dragging a giant back here, did you? Pack your belongings and be prepared to travel. I’ll return with a location to dispatch you to shortly.” With that, the knight silently departed into the thick forest surrounding the cabin. Loudly crunching pine needles accompanied the rhythmic jostling of his armor, giving rise to some peculiar yet melodic noises as he traversed the lush and frostbitten evergreen woodland.
Waiting to exhale until he had nearly gone blue in the face, the feline trudged back to his chair and nearly fell back into it. Plopping a hand against his forehead, he sighed as he began making a mental checklist of everything he would need to pack.
“Lazy fool,” the knight muttered as he delved deeper into the forest, ignoring the crisp pine needles that rained down on him every so often. That decrepit Ignavus was hardly worth the trouble. Old bastard always had to be cajoled to get anything done… granted when he finally did get to work he had a tendency to get lost in it. With a disgusted grunt, he had to admit Ignavus did produce very detailed and high quality results. Every step in a given study he conducted was meticulously recorded and allowed for easy replication, which made it all the easier to disseminate and make sense of his research. Having to constantly venture out to ass end of nowhere in order to force him to get anything done was growing very old however. Turning his head to and fro he scanned his surroundings, the tall and slender pines rising high above him, most of their branches bare save only for those that extended out from near the crowns. The ground was hard, stiff, and bare, save for the piles of frost covered pine needles clustered around the tree trunks.
“I may have been a bit too optimistic regarding how quickly I’d get this taken care of,” he mumbled to himself as he took in the silent tranquility of the forest. Yes, he knew that giants had been spotted roaming these woodlands and… that was about it. Smacking a muddied hand against the top of his helmet, he stopped to think about how poorly thought out this trip was. “What, did I honestly think I could just wander out and suddenly be beset upon by a giant? Aughhh, only an idiot would place his luck in something as stupid as…” before that subtle callback to the beginning of the story could be further elaborated upon, a distant rumbling caught the knight’s attention. “…If it’s too good to be true, it probably is,” he thought out loud as he warily approached the perceived source of the noise.
“That could’ve gone better,” the gigantic German shepherd said with a scowl as she gazed upon the pool of blood spreading out from beneath an uprooted tree. Lifting it off the ground revealed the mangled and hardly recognizable body of a deer, the poor creature standing no chance as it had gone dumb with fear as a freaking tree was hurtled towards it. More of the deer’s innards and vitals were spread out on the ground now then there were contained inside it, which meant there was that much less to nip her teeth on. She sure as shit wasn’t going to comb through the dirt just to toss a liver or some entrails between her teeth she grumbled as she knelt down towards it. Plucking the limp corpse off the ground in between her furred fingertips, Kendra tilted her head back and tossed the broken meat sack into her gullet. The acidic soil and pine needles that had matted against the deer’s bloodied form added a surprisingly bittersweet aftertaste to her morning snack.
“Somethin’s better than nothin’ I suppose,” she moped as she scratched at her furry chin, her pitch black fur drinking in the warm rays of the sun. Pulling at the strand of fabric loosely slung underneath an armpit, Kendra did her best to keep what amounted to a hodge-podge amalgamation of furs and pelts glued together wrapped around her breasts. She merfed as she fiddled with it a second time, not exactly thrilled with what had become a seasonal routine. The winter months were always lean in terms of grub, and this year was no exception, as her slimming form and the constant hunger pangs attested to. She pulled up on what barely passed for a skirt, the mashed together and well-worn deer, bear, and feral wolf skins barely holding together. Shrugging once her rudimentary clothes had been pulled back into place, she began sniffing at the air, trying to ferret out her next meal. Her ears swiveled as the faint sound of pine needles cracking registered in her ears. A devilish grin spread wide across her face as she lapped at the saliva spilling from between her lips. Gently setting one paw down in front of the other, Kendra made as little noise as physically possible as she attempted to get the drop on her prey.
Treading softly, thoughts churned in the knight’s head as to just what could have caused the disturbance. “A felled tree, perhaps? If that was the case it would have had to be utterly massive in size to have caused such tremors. And it’s… remotely possible a giant could have been the cause… as could any number of viable alternatives,” he hesitantly theorized as he continued walking. “Tch, I’d rather have no hope than false hope,” he reasoned as he shook his head and settled upon investigating whatever the cause was when he found it. Regardless, it was worth checking out given the relative proximity to Ignavus’ cabin. After traversing a couple hundred yards the knight came to a halt. A palpable killing intent hung in the air, it practically wrapped around the knight’s spiked shoulders as it washed over his body. Lightly clenching and unclenching his fists, a weak sepia glow surrounded his hands and boots. A hundred or so feet off in the distance, a huge jet black figure weaved through the trees. “So it would appear fortune does yet smile down upon me,” he stated in pleasant surprise as he widened his stance and stood his ground. Kendra’s gait slowed as she approached the knight, a manic smirk spread wide across her muzzle.
“It’s always nice to see when my food knows better than to run,” she smiled as her lips curled up and her tail wagged slowly.
“If that’s how you want to interpret the situation, then by all means, continue doing so,” the armored one calmly stated as he tilted his head up to meet her gaze.
“Cocky little bastard aint’cha?” She replied as she lifted one of her paws a good twenty feet off the ground and proceeded to stomp down upon the knight. Scrunching her leathery padded toes together, Kendra growled as she felt the armor slowly bend beneath her weight. An instant later she shrieked in pain as she reared her paw back, the appendage bleeding liberally from a half dozen puncture points. Kendra winced as she stepped away from the knight, doing her best to keep her weight off her right paw. A multitude of earthen spires had burst forth from the ground surrounding the knight, their spiked tips more than up to the task of piercing deep into the giant’s flesh. Slowly the knight rose from his shallow paw shaped crater, leaning against one of the roughly three foot high spires as he steadied himself back on his feet.
“You cut right to the point, I can respect that,” he chuckled as he slunk around the spires and advanced towards the giant. With every step he took the ground around him became jagged and uneven, fissures spreading out as far to the trunks of the pine trees. Kendra maintained her distance, slowly retreating as the jagged earth spreads towards her. She growled once more as she bumped against a slender pine, her eyes shifting back and forth between the flora and the mortal fearlessly approaching her.
“What’s your game, little one?” Kendra growled as she pressed her left paw against the base of the pine.
“Nothing personal, it’s just that by virtue of your large size you’re a prime candidate to serve as a mean to my ends,” he bluntly replied with a shrug of his shoulders.
Squinting her eyes, the black German Shepherd wrapped a hand around tightly around the pine. “And what if I don’t feel like entertaining your bullshit?” The bark of the tree cracked and splintered away against her rough palm as her grip intensified.
“You don’t have a choice in the matter. You’ll do as I say, be it willingly or otherwise.”
“Like hell,” she coldly stated as she pressed all of her weight down against the base of the pine and snapped apart the entire tree like it was a twig. Snarling, she lobbed it at the knight, the massive hunk of wood spiraling in the air as it flew towards its target. Dropping to his knees, the knight’s hands glowed bright sepia in color as he placed them against the ground. Pillars of earth shot up before him, only to be demolished as the tree blew through them and slammed into him. The armored one was sent tumbling backwards violently, the metal plating on his person creaking and bending loudly as the pine rolled over him and came to rest against the base of another tree. “Uppity little bastard,” she snorted as she surveyed the damage done. Sitting down with a tremendous thud, she winced as she pulled her left paw up to her chest and assessed her injuries. “Dammit that little fucker got me good…” she griped as she squeezed her paw, blood flowing down her leathery sole and matting on her fur.
“Resourceful too, I’ll give you that much,” she heard a familiar voice calmly quip as she whipped her head towards its source. Battered, dirtied, and splayed out on the forest floor, the knight’s hands glowed brightly as he pressed his palms against the ground.
“How are you still alive…” she inquired aloud before she was interrupted by a rumbling beneath her legs. Half a second later another slew of earthen spires burst forth, skewering the calves on both her legs and clamping down on her ankles. She roared in pain as she tried pulling herself off the ground, the interlocking crags of earth pressing down on her paws making the feat unduly difficult. Rising to his feet once more, the armored individual glared at the giantess as she writhed about, bleeding all over the place.
“That’s enough of that. At this rate you’ll bleed out before you can be of any use,” he irritably stated as slammed an armored boot against the ground. A single pillar slowly rose up before him, dragging up a fair amount of tree roots with it as it came up to his chest. “…It’ll have to do,” he grumbled as he slammed his fist into the top of the pillar and sent a chunk of earth flying at the giant fur. Too busy tearing apart the crags binding her feet to notice the incoming projectile, Kendra hacked and wheezed painfully as it slammed into her stomach. “Hmm, a little low,” he murmured as he bashed what remained of the pillar with a wicked uppercut. Nailing her between the eyes, the diminutive clay missile sent Kendra’s head whipping back. A trail of red began flowing down her muzzle as the upper part of her body careened backwards and her torso slammed into the ground. With her exactly where he wanted her, the knight summoned one last slew of spires to pierce into her arms and lock about her wrists and neck. “Now that I think about it…” pointing a hand towards the fur and twitching his middle and index finger upward, two jagged outcroppings of clay pressed into her neck, trickles of crimson dripping out from where they scraped against her flesh. That ought to be a decent deterrent from escaping, lest she get any stupid ideas.
“LET ME GO!” Kendra screamed as she wracked her body violently, thick crimson puddles pooling alongside her arms and legs as her clay shackles dug further and further into her flesh the more she struggled.
“Or not,” he wryly observed as he turned his back on her and headed back towards Ignavus’. Roaring furiously, Kendra continued to writhe about like a caged animal, spiting and cursing the knight with every breath she took. Hell, maybe all that blood loss would calm her down by the time he finally got back. “Ignavus better be ready…” he stated in annoyance as he began the trek back towards the bobcat’s cabin.
“RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! GET BACK HERE GOD DAMN YOU!”
“Heh, at least the giantess’ screaming will make it all the easier to find her again,” he mused to himself as he ignored Kendra’s gnashing and cursing. “That and the knowledge gained from fighting her was rather enlightening,” he admitted to himself as he quietly trudged along. All he could do for now was hope that Ignavus’s work yielded even more fascinating and much more applicable information than what he had already gathered today.
FIRST, PREVIOUS, NEXT
Icon is © to
DemonRoniFIRST, PREVIOUS, NEXT
Chapter 30
Scratching at the top of his head, flakes of skin and dandruff catching beneath his claws, the graying bobcat let his mind wander as his eyes glazed over the worn piece of paper sitting before him at his cluttered oaken desk. Brushing aside the dull black crystals and useless journals that littered his desk, he breathed shallowly as he rubbed his eyes and dragged his hands down his speckled furred face. Crisp morning sunlight poured through the windows of the cabin, bathing the bobcat’s study in a healthy yellow glow. Frigid winter air seeped in through the corners of the windows, giving the bobcat reason to shiver in his robes whilst bathed in the bright sunlight. The reviving energy of the sun’s rays only served to make the fur restless as he struggled to cope with the indecision and uncertainty plaguing him. “Bahhhh, I don’t even know where to begin with this,” he mumbled as he tapped at the blank parchment displayed prominently before him. He griped as he leaned back in his chair and cast a glance at the bound journals that littered the stone floor. None of them had provided even a snippet of useful information for him to jump off from. Twisting his body to the left and to the right, he growled as he felt a satisfying pop in his spine. A knocking at his cabin’s front door gave him cause to grate his teeth in annoyance and frustration.
“Now is not the time for distractions,” he grumbled under his breath as he hunched over his desk and wracked his mind for ideas. His lack of action did nothing to stop the knocking on his door, the bobcat’s pointed ears pressing down against his head as he stifled a hiss rising from his throat. His best efforts to ignore whoever it was at his front door were failing spectacularly as he found himself growing furiously pissed off. Violently jerking back his chair, the bobcat thundered over to the front door as the intensity of the knocking grew. “WHAT IS IT?!” He angrily screamed as he slammed open the door. Before he could let loose with a volley of insults his teeth clamped down on his tongue as his eyes drifted up towards what a familiar figure’s face.
“You know damn well what,” the black knight stated, his unnerving yellow eyes piercing through cracks in the visor of his helmet. The bobcat swallowed hard as his superior pushed him aside as he entered. Wincing at the grime and muck the knight tracked in along with him, the bobcat fumbled about for a way to prevent a certain topic from being broached.
“I-is that a new set of armor you’re sporting? I noticed that you lost the orange stripes and…”
“It’s the same armor that I’ve always worn. I simply had it cleaned before the blood and clay became ingrained into the metal.” The bobcat’s lips pulled back as he became aware as to the ingredients in the once colorful markings that adorned the knight’s armor. Glancing at the mud that was plastered to the armored one’s boots and forearms, he quickly averted his gaze as beams of sunlight illuminated a red glaze dancing across his armored fingertips.
“B-busy night?”
Rubbing his fingers together, the knight hrmmed as ribbons of crimson sank into the muck coating his hands. “From your stalling I wager you have nothing of value to report?” The older bobcat remained silent as his eyes became transfixed on the floor, bright rays of light reflecting off its polished surface. “I’ll take your silence as an implicit confirmation,” the armored one replied as he approached a window, his leggings clanking softly with every step he took. Resting his dirtied hands on the windowsill as he looked out at the surrounding forest, the room darkened as his imposing form soaked up the sunlight. “Should I bother asking you to explain yourself or would it be more efficient to simply make you and your abode disappear?”
“Y-you ask too much of me!” The elder bobcat stuttered out as he appealed his case. “I’ve pored over my entire library and found absolutely nothing of use with regards to what you want me to research. And as it stands your request is far too vague to fulfill in a satisfactory manner! What in the hell do you expect me to even report in a study of the magical properties of giants?!”
With his back to the wizard, the knight began drumming his fingers against the windowsill, the muddied metal coverings plopping softly against the stone. “If you recall, I asked you to investigate whether or not giants were capable of changing size. That is a suitably specific mandate for your purposes.” Stifling a worried sigh, the fur made a conscious effort to remain locked firmly in place, frantically trying to give off the impression that he was not about to bolt.
“Even so, I have no prior research to jump off from or even a giant to study! You’re asking me to tread new grounds here and that’s something that isn’t easily done!” The graying feline unconsciously shifted his weight back and forth between his legs as he stared at his superior’s backside.
“So your excuse then is that you don’t have a subject to study?” Turning his head back towards his host, the knight continued; “If you were to suddenly find yourself in possession of a giant, how would you proceed?” Eyes darting up towards the thick wooden rafters that comprised the ceiling, the bobcat carefully considered the hypothetical.
“To begin… I would,” the wizard licked his lips as he gently began to shake his hand, “have to take into account your requests and form an experiment around it. You want me to determine if giants can shift sizes… and what magical capabilities they possess, if any, and I’m assuming you believe there is a link between the two. So first… I would focus on whether or not giants wield any magic to begin with. An easy way to test for that is to attempt a magical drain.” The implied threat of certain death motivating his every thought, the fur’s mind slowly began to formulate the crucial first steps for his hypothetical study. Snapping his fingers, the bobcat smiled as his mind feverishly cobbled together a lucid train of thought. “If nothing results from the magical drain, that would suggest that giants are not in possession of any magic whatsoever, ruling out the possibility that a change in size could be caused by magical means. From that point I would have to recommend you pass this topic on to someone else, preferably a doctor or surgeon who wouldn’t mind getting his hands dirty. They would have a much easier time determining if there were physical or biological basis behind the suspected ability of giants to change in size.” Though his heart pounded against his chest, the graying fur felt confident in the answer he had provided.
“And what if your magical drain showed that giants did house magic within their bodies?” The knight’s yellow eyes narrowed as his pumpkin colored pupils focused intently on the crumpling feline.
Caught off guard by the follow up, the bobcat choked on his words as he felt himself falling apart under the knight’s stare. Grasping at straws, he began to blurt out half formed thoughts. “I-if if the magical drain did yield results I would… I-I would… see if the magics giants house internally is… is… is different from the magic that can be found in any given mortal. Draining their magic into crystals I could see whether or not the magic taken from a giant is stronger or unique in some way. And then… I don’t know where I’d go from there.”
Narrowing his gaze further, the armored one pushed off from the windowsill and plodded towards the trembling wizard. “Do you have everything you’d need to perform such tasks?” Nodding silently in response, the bobcat cowered before his superior. “... Good enough. I’ll scrounge up something for you to test on and in return I expect a detailed report as to your successes or failures within two weeks time. So long as you provide something worthwhile we can learn from, I’ll consider keeping you around.”
Eyes wide, the bobcat looked on dumbly at the knight as he walked past. Somehow he’d managed to bullshit him into letting him live to see a couple more sunsets. Oh thank fuck.
Strolling out the heavy wooden front door, the armored one paused just as he cleared the doorway. “Ah, before I head out, I’d suggest packing up on the proper crystals, tools, or magical aides you’d require to carry out your tests.”
“Whuh? Why?” The wizard panicked as he held his breath.
“You seriously didn’t think I’d be dragging a giant back here, did you? Pack your belongings and be prepared to travel. I’ll return with a location to dispatch you to shortly.” With that, the knight silently departed into the thick forest surrounding the cabin. Loudly crunching pine needles accompanied the rhythmic jostling of his armor, giving rise to some peculiar yet melodic noises as he traversed the lush and frostbitten evergreen woodland.
Waiting to exhale until he had nearly gone blue in the face, the feline trudged back to his chair and nearly fell back into it. Plopping a hand against his forehead, he sighed as he began making a mental checklist of everything he would need to pack.
“Lazy fool,” the knight muttered as he delved deeper into the forest, ignoring the crisp pine needles that rained down on him every so often. That decrepit Ignavus was hardly worth the trouble. Old bastard always had to be cajoled to get anything done… granted when he finally did get to work he had a tendency to get lost in it. With a disgusted grunt, he had to admit Ignavus did produce very detailed and high quality results. Every step in a given study he conducted was meticulously recorded and allowed for easy replication, which made it all the easier to disseminate and make sense of his research. Having to constantly venture out to ass end of nowhere in order to force him to get anything done was growing very old however. Turning his head to and fro he scanned his surroundings, the tall and slender pines rising high above him, most of their branches bare save only for those that extended out from near the crowns. The ground was hard, stiff, and bare, save for the piles of frost covered pine needles clustered around the tree trunks.
“I may have been a bit too optimistic regarding how quickly I’d get this taken care of,” he mumbled to himself as he took in the silent tranquility of the forest. Yes, he knew that giants had been spotted roaming these woodlands and… that was about it. Smacking a muddied hand against the top of his helmet, he stopped to think about how poorly thought out this trip was. “What, did I honestly think I could just wander out and suddenly be beset upon by a giant? Aughhh, only an idiot would place his luck in something as stupid as…” before that subtle callback to the beginning of the story could be further elaborated upon, a distant rumbling caught the knight’s attention. “…If it’s too good to be true, it probably is,” he thought out loud as he warily approached the perceived source of the noise.
“That could’ve gone better,” the gigantic German shepherd said with a scowl as she gazed upon the pool of blood spreading out from beneath an uprooted tree. Lifting it off the ground revealed the mangled and hardly recognizable body of a deer, the poor creature standing no chance as it had gone dumb with fear as a freaking tree was hurtled towards it. More of the deer’s innards and vitals were spread out on the ground now then there were contained inside it, which meant there was that much less to nip her teeth on. She sure as shit wasn’t going to comb through the dirt just to toss a liver or some entrails between her teeth she grumbled as she knelt down towards it. Plucking the limp corpse off the ground in between her furred fingertips, Kendra tilted her head back and tossed the broken meat sack into her gullet. The acidic soil and pine needles that had matted against the deer’s bloodied form added a surprisingly bittersweet aftertaste to her morning snack.
“Somethin’s better than nothin’ I suppose,” she moped as she scratched at her furry chin, her pitch black fur drinking in the warm rays of the sun. Pulling at the strand of fabric loosely slung underneath an armpit, Kendra did her best to keep what amounted to a hodge-podge amalgamation of furs and pelts glued together wrapped around her breasts. She merfed as she fiddled with it a second time, not exactly thrilled with what had become a seasonal routine. The winter months were always lean in terms of grub, and this year was no exception, as her slimming form and the constant hunger pangs attested to. She pulled up on what barely passed for a skirt, the mashed together and well-worn deer, bear, and feral wolf skins barely holding together. Shrugging once her rudimentary clothes had been pulled back into place, she began sniffing at the air, trying to ferret out her next meal. Her ears swiveled as the faint sound of pine needles cracking registered in her ears. A devilish grin spread wide across her face as she lapped at the saliva spilling from between her lips. Gently setting one paw down in front of the other, Kendra made as little noise as physically possible as she attempted to get the drop on her prey.
Treading softly, thoughts churned in the knight’s head as to just what could have caused the disturbance. “A felled tree, perhaps? If that was the case it would have had to be utterly massive in size to have caused such tremors. And it’s… remotely possible a giant could have been the cause… as could any number of viable alternatives,” he hesitantly theorized as he continued walking. “Tch, I’d rather have no hope than false hope,” he reasoned as he shook his head and settled upon investigating whatever the cause was when he found it. Regardless, it was worth checking out given the relative proximity to Ignavus’ cabin. After traversing a couple hundred yards the knight came to a halt. A palpable killing intent hung in the air, it practically wrapped around the knight’s spiked shoulders as it washed over his body. Lightly clenching and unclenching his fists, a weak sepia glow surrounded his hands and boots. A hundred or so feet off in the distance, a huge jet black figure weaved through the trees. “So it would appear fortune does yet smile down upon me,” he stated in pleasant surprise as he widened his stance and stood his ground. Kendra’s gait slowed as she approached the knight, a manic smirk spread wide across her muzzle.
“It’s always nice to see when my food knows better than to run,” she smiled as her lips curled up and her tail wagged slowly.
“If that’s how you want to interpret the situation, then by all means, continue doing so,” the armored one calmly stated as he tilted his head up to meet her gaze.
“Cocky little bastard aint’cha?” She replied as she lifted one of her paws a good twenty feet off the ground and proceeded to stomp down upon the knight. Scrunching her leathery padded toes together, Kendra growled as she felt the armor slowly bend beneath her weight. An instant later she shrieked in pain as she reared her paw back, the appendage bleeding liberally from a half dozen puncture points. Kendra winced as she stepped away from the knight, doing her best to keep her weight off her right paw. A multitude of earthen spires had burst forth from the ground surrounding the knight, their spiked tips more than up to the task of piercing deep into the giant’s flesh. Slowly the knight rose from his shallow paw shaped crater, leaning against one of the roughly three foot high spires as he steadied himself back on his feet.
“You cut right to the point, I can respect that,” he chuckled as he slunk around the spires and advanced towards the giant. With every step he took the ground around him became jagged and uneven, fissures spreading out as far to the trunks of the pine trees. Kendra maintained her distance, slowly retreating as the jagged earth spreads towards her. She growled once more as she bumped against a slender pine, her eyes shifting back and forth between the flora and the mortal fearlessly approaching her.
“What’s your game, little one?” Kendra growled as she pressed her left paw against the base of the pine.
“Nothing personal, it’s just that by virtue of your large size you’re a prime candidate to serve as a mean to my ends,” he bluntly replied with a shrug of his shoulders.
Squinting her eyes, the black German Shepherd wrapped a hand around tightly around the pine. “And what if I don’t feel like entertaining your bullshit?” The bark of the tree cracked and splintered away against her rough palm as her grip intensified.
“You don’t have a choice in the matter. You’ll do as I say, be it willingly or otherwise.”
“Like hell,” she coldly stated as she pressed all of her weight down against the base of the pine and snapped apart the entire tree like it was a twig. Snarling, she lobbed it at the knight, the massive hunk of wood spiraling in the air as it flew towards its target. Dropping to his knees, the knight’s hands glowed bright sepia in color as he placed them against the ground. Pillars of earth shot up before him, only to be demolished as the tree blew through them and slammed into him. The armored one was sent tumbling backwards violently, the metal plating on his person creaking and bending loudly as the pine rolled over him and came to rest against the base of another tree. “Uppity little bastard,” she snorted as she surveyed the damage done. Sitting down with a tremendous thud, she winced as she pulled her left paw up to her chest and assessed her injuries. “Dammit that little fucker got me good…” she griped as she squeezed her paw, blood flowing down her leathery sole and matting on her fur.
“Resourceful too, I’ll give you that much,” she heard a familiar voice calmly quip as she whipped her head towards its source. Battered, dirtied, and splayed out on the forest floor, the knight’s hands glowed brightly as he pressed his palms against the ground.
“How are you still alive…” she inquired aloud before she was interrupted by a rumbling beneath her legs. Half a second later another slew of earthen spires burst forth, skewering the calves on both her legs and clamping down on her ankles. She roared in pain as she tried pulling herself off the ground, the interlocking crags of earth pressing down on her paws making the feat unduly difficult. Rising to his feet once more, the armored individual glared at the giantess as she writhed about, bleeding all over the place.
“That’s enough of that. At this rate you’ll bleed out before you can be of any use,” he irritably stated as slammed an armored boot against the ground. A single pillar slowly rose up before him, dragging up a fair amount of tree roots with it as it came up to his chest. “…It’ll have to do,” he grumbled as he slammed his fist into the top of the pillar and sent a chunk of earth flying at the giant fur. Too busy tearing apart the crags binding her feet to notice the incoming projectile, Kendra hacked and wheezed painfully as it slammed into her stomach. “Hmm, a little low,” he murmured as he bashed what remained of the pillar with a wicked uppercut. Nailing her between the eyes, the diminutive clay missile sent Kendra’s head whipping back. A trail of red began flowing down her muzzle as the upper part of her body careened backwards and her torso slammed into the ground. With her exactly where he wanted her, the knight summoned one last slew of spires to pierce into her arms and lock about her wrists and neck. “Now that I think about it…” pointing a hand towards the fur and twitching his middle and index finger upward, two jagged outcroppings of clay pressed into her neck, trickles of crimson dripping out from where they scraped against her flesh. That ought to be a decent deterrent from escaping, lest she get any stupid ideas.
“LET ME GO!” Kendra screamed as she wracked her body violently, thick crimson puddles pooling alongside her arms and legs as her clay shackles dug further and further into her flesh the more she struggled.
“Or not,” he wryly observed as he turned his back on her and headed back towards Ignavus’. Roaring furiously, Kendra continued to writhe about like a caged animal, spiting and cursing the knight with every breath she took. Hell, maybe all that blood loss would calm her down by the time he finally got back. “Ignavus better be ready…” he stated in annoyance as he began the trek back towards the bobcat’s cabin.
“RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! GET BACK HERE GOD DAMN YOU!”
“Heh, at least the giantess’ screaming will make it all the easier to find her again,” he mused to himself as he ignored Kendra’s gnashing and cursing. “That and the knowledge gained from fighting her was rather enlightening,” he admitted to himself as he quietly trudged along. All he could do for now was hope that Ignavus’s work yielded even more fascinating and much more applicable information than what he had already gathered today.
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