"HELP MEE!!! MAMAAAAAA!!!"
It was a beautiful morning in Miren Woods. Fogs and dew had saturated the forrest leaves, but for this man who was running around for his life in the dense sea trees and shrubbery, something else had saturated his trousers.
"NO! GET AWAY. FROM. ME!!!" Larry said in an angry tone carrying a hint of denial.
.
It had been a three days since he was given the assignment of providing a ride for the Lord's special guest. That ride, a carriage pulled by four stallions, fell as a sacrifice in exchange for his escape from the jaws of the woods.
Two of the horses fell off a cliff. Despite such an unfortunate event and unforgiving winter, Larry Haux decided to continue the task he was given.
Whilst braving a wide frozen river, one of the horses slipped through and was carried away by the current down into a mighty waterfall. Larry could merely watch and listen to the final cries of the poor thing. Larry decided to offer a prayer.
And even when faced with this dilemma, he thought to himself that he would probably just abandon the carriage, escort the guest and get fired when he returns home. By this time he was starting to wonder what kind of guest would live in such a far off and devastating neighborhood.
But Larry decided not to judge. Everybody has their own taste, or so his grandfather said.
As Larry neared his destination, something big had lunged at the horse.
It was a cat. A big cat. Like about twice the horse's size. With dagger-like fangs. So Larry named it Stabby Cat.
But Stabby Cat wasn't at all friendly. After it made dinner out of the last horse, the Gaspian Liger eyed the fleeing Larry.
Luckily for Larry, predators such as this weren't built for chase. They were focused more on sudden strikes and ambush rather than stamina and speed. So long as Larry maintains their distance, this beast should give up soon enough.
But soon enough, he will run out of stamina and suffer from fatigue. The feeling of inevitable doom was starting to chill the back of his neck. He was wheezing, but he couldn't stop the vulgarities he was spewing out of rage and denial.
"Dammit. Dammit. Dammit! Anyone!? ANYTHING?! HELP ME PLEASE! I DON'T WANNA DIE! I DON'T WANNA DIE! I DON'T WANNA DIE!" he wailed pathetically, his voice sounding through the columns of massive trees.
"WAHH!"
As he frantically struggled through the gigantic thickets, Larry stumbled down on a clearing.
"Argh! Fuck! Just my luck!" he complained, grasping at the leg he landed with which was clearly dislocated at the ankle. But he had bigger worries than pain at the moment as he remembered the peril that he was running from.
<'Shit! I need to go. That monster could be here at any moment—'>
His thoughts were interrupted by a loud thud, followed by a guttural bellow. The Liger had caught up and with one look, it instinctively knew the prey could move no longer.
Larry went paler than a ghost.
"D-D-Don't you dare! Y-You see this?! This is a stick! A-And uh...I-I-I'll poke your eye out—!"
ROAR!
"GYAH!" he squealed like a little girl as he fell on the ground, covering his face and cowering away till his back was on a tree.
"PLEASE DON'T EAT MEEE-HEHEHEEE! I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIIIEEE!!! I HAVE NOT SO MUCH HAVE TOUCHED A WOMAN IN THIS LIFE! I DON'T WANNA DIE A HERMI-HEHEHEEIIIITT!!" snot and tears streamed down his face as he grasped at his bag. He only stopped when he took a glance and was baffled by what he was seeing.
*sniffles* "...eh?"
The Gaspian Liger, a nearly sixteen foot beast hailing as among those at the top of the food chain, a known predator for its ferocity, was whimpering scared.
It fur stood on end as it lowered in the ground hissing, fangs and claws bared. It bellowed in sharp and short succession, a sign of fear and a warning to stay away.
"Eh? Is it...scared? " He couldn't believe his eyes. Larry stood up limping and leaning on the tree for support. The sudden change in the Liger's behaviour was something he could never have accounted for.
Then he noticed something strange, this tree trunk was strangely...hairy.
That's when he turned to look and saw that he was leaning on a monstrosity of a dog that was taller than him by at least two heads despite being on all fours. It sniffed his face and then snorted at him.
That was the final straw. Seeing this abomination caused his brain to short-circuit.
"Heh." Larry's eyes rolled to the back of his head. He was sprawled out on the ground with a thud. He'd fainted from the shock and his mouth foaming.
Unbeknownst to him, his most hellish week had barely begun.
.
"Why do we live so far from the Empire, papà?" Seffa asked as she snacked on a piece of smoked boar meat.
They had just finished cleaning camp, right after eating breakfast of course. It has been two day since they left for the capital, but they had yet to exit the Merin woods despite traveling on Nikolai's customized carriage.
It was way bigger that normal carriages, had 3 really thick, rubber wheels with two on the side and one in the front, and most distinctively, it looked like a mobile shrine with a chimney. Three land dragons, Mant Lizards to be exact, pulled the carriage throughout the forest.
They were bipedal creatures that stood at 2 meters tall with thick, brown scales covering their bodies. Their heads are similarly elongated like those of crocodiles but had feathers adorning the spine and the tip of the tail.
"Avoid...needless...trouble...like this." He responded pointing at the blonde man that Matros brought back from the forest early in the morning.
"Come now...break done." he said, helping Seffa up who was followed by Matros inside.
The inside was even more magnificent. The floor was lined with fur carpet and there were three couches placed side by side. On the other end, where a secondary entrance was supposed to be, was a fireplace.
"Papà...isn't the inside of this carriage bigger that how it looks outside? It's weird." she said, narrowing her eyes in observation, still chewing the roast.
"It's Space...Enchant-...-ment...learned from...your Ma."
Nikolai had gone to sit in the driver's seat along with the blonde man, alerting the lizards to move along. Their trip had resumed.
.
"Zzz...!?...huh?" The chilly winter air had woken Larry up from his slumber.
He immediately noticed three things.
One, both his arms and legs were tied with strangely thick ropes, they looked more like bent branches to him. Two, that he was now riding a large carriage that was being pulled by what looked like scaly ostriches through the snowy forest.
And three, he was sitting beside a giant.
He was again on the verge of panic. There was nothing in this situation that was the slightest bit comprehensible.
"U-Um...Excuse me?" Larry wasn't positive that he should have called out to his possible abductor.
However thinking back as he tried to make sense out of all this, <' I should be on my way to becoming cat dung right now. But here I am...he must have saved me...?'>
"I-I'm Larry Haux and I'm not tasty, I assure you. Might I ask where we're heading at least, gorilla—I mean, good sir?" he was sweating bullets.
The giant's arm was bigger than his head as he observed, but when it loomed its head over to look at him, Larry almost pissed himself again.
Yes, again.
"Return...Empire...Are you...escort?" Nikolai asked, he couldn't take his eyes off the road for long.
It took a moment for Larry to process before realizing.
"Wait. You're the—? Are you Nikolai Elliot?! But the reports described a big...a big person...about three meters...tall...haha." reality hit him like a truck.
<'They never mentioned how...well, how ridiculously humongous he is.'> the poor man was on the verge of insanity, he'd had enough for one mission.
"I am."
"Uh, right...is there a reason I'm tied up?" he said raising his arms.
Seffa was soundly asleep in the couch with Matros keeping constant watch over her. Nikolai took a quick glance to check up on her and sighed.
"How are...things in...Oro-...-phrus?" He asked, ignoring the previous plea.
"Huh?" <'I was ignored?'>
Nikolai merely grunted, but it seemed more like a threatening growl from Larry's perspective.
"Ah! Y-Yes! The capital of course! I was informed that you've been away for about 15 years, yes? Well, w-where should I start?" he said in a fashion that you would hear from a salesclerk.
Nikolai sighed again as he felt a headache coming his way. It was gonna be one long trip.
.