Chapter 6 - Gustav's pickle

"That's more like it!" Gustav celebrated.

Towering at eight-foot tall again, his confidence met with a spike, as raw strength alone aided against the current dilemma. The good man hadn't felt this powerful for a long while, and it was utterly relieving to flex his hairy arms upwards now, without suffering a sharp pain across the gut in exchange!

With the sudden adrenaline at hand, he couldn't help embracing his heritage's urge. "I shouldn't deal with any tribes at all! A couple of punches and they'll beg for my mercy, and my iron!"

Now that was a bit exaggerated, and he aimed to tread with caution regardless to this outburst of energy. These lands were unknown to him, so it would be stupid to label himself as an enemy to practically anything that breathed.

It still was important to survive, and explore. In response to that perspective, he latched on the escape-pod's front side, and dragged the same contraption across the grass with just one arm to his aid.

"Gotta find some people, any people. Or a forge too, hmm... this new thought is telling me how to build the beacon's outer layer." Gustav babbled, as his footsteps lightly pierced the ground.

It sounded absurd to seek life in this vast, flat-land but it wasn't so ideal to be pessimistic either. Although this place seemed huge, it didn't have so many trees around so it was easy to observe the surrounding area.

A fairly wide hill he climbed on, which only towered over ten meters above sea-level, extensively helped him navigate throughout this green layer of life!

In the far distance, perhaps just three-kilometers away, he spotted what solely looked like a settlement, a village!

"Aha! Bet there are a bunch of people down there!" He celebrated.

Now the overall motive was refreshed for sure, he bubbled with joy. There was a task at hand, but yet another issue slowly developed in the midst of this adrenaline rush; The sun's unapologetic heat became overwhelming to handle!

It continued to radiate a bunch of ray's against him, which were just softly warm but could still pack a punch against any mammoth. Since he had shape-shifted, the fur above Gustav's skin didn't fail to spike his body-temperature all the way up!

The good man wasn't used to such warmth whatsoever, as he was designed to endure even the coldest sea-waters. Temperatures near zero were tiring enough, but any degree that leaned towards the positive side, was suicidal to deal with!

"Papa?" One of the demons squealed, and climbed upwards to touch his father's paw.

"I know, a fat and sweaty mess ain't so attractive." Gustav joked.

Afterwards, he sat near the escape-pod he had dragged along, and decided to transform. Sure he had managed to pull this heap of metal effortlessly, but at this point the odds weighed against his favour!

Even after he put all that fur away, it wasn't so easy to cool down, especially within a few short minutes! For now it felt good enough to escape the solid punch of his own stench, optimism felt mandatory at this point. 

Anyway, it was factual that his six-foot tall, smooth-skinned form was more tolerant towards heat! So in the long run, he should end up okay.

"Huh!" He had to grunt, right after.

It appears that his forced shape-shift had been poorly timed, as he met with a problem which strength alone could have fixed!

"What are you!" A feminine tone pierced the air, as a spear neared Gustav's face.

Since he didn't really have a need to lie, he simply answered. "I'm a mammoth, you tiny woman! Never saw one of my kind before, ha? We're pretty big so it would be hard to miss us!"

It sounded like he was sassy, but at this point Gustav was just nervous. A sense of fear made him act up, as the recent trauma-encouraging past gestured, that this spear would somehow end up against his guts, where another episode of drastic pain would follow!

Six other ladies had surrounded him as well, and each of them were armed. It was pointless to fight them now, as even though they only seemed about five-foot tall each, battling them while butt-naked would only end in vain.

"I think his story checks out, Valiza." Another one of these ladies suddenly said, in a fairly soft manner.

"What, why?!" The high tempered lady bit back, and rattled her spear.

"I mean... it sounds like mammoths are big, we saw him transform and all. So he hasn't lied to us to begin with, doesn't that count for something?" That one lady clumsily debated, as her smooth, white skin slowly developed a shade of red.

Valiza wasn't a fan towards stuttering however, so she slightly shouted. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Unwilling to speak all that much, that one anxious comrade simply walked near her leader, and urged the same spicy woman to peek downwards.

Their embarrassment inflated faster than the universe, as the shy one explained. "Everything about him is big, this man did not lie."

What they referred to, was a cucumber shaped body-part, which could have been mistaken for a limb undoubtedly! It stretched two feet long, and surely was appropriate for a mammoth.

Anyway, while Valiza quickly bounced back, a bright red layer across her cheeks forced her to sharply whisper. "Why the fuck did you let me step on your penis!"

"I thought you were trying to prove a point..." Gustav answered honestly.

While he gently treated the bruised tool, it felt important to argue. "I mean common, couldn't you feel it slide below your foot? You've got my blood pumping for nothing!"

Sure enough, this embarrassing situation had baffled everyone around! A few of the ladies giggled, and the rest simply broke out into a hearty laughter, even slapping their own body-armour in response. In other words, all of them had been forced to put their guard down.

The good man didn't bother to take that advantage, but the rest of these two-legged ladies were surely caught by surprise! Their balance was forced towards the worse, as some sudden holes beneath their feet forced them to topple over!

A familiar, high-pitched tone pierced the atmosphere after, as some creatures hollered. "Papa!"

Apparently those little demons had been stealthy enough, to slide their way out of the escape-pod, and even dug below the ground to provide their birth-giver, a proper solution. The constant arguing had likely muffled their digging, but they proved crafty regardless!

Gustav stood up confidently after that point, and tried to tuck his wiener out of the way in the meantime. 

Through a few words, he taunted. "Well well well... I never liked you humans, but it's nice to see that a bunch of little moles can pin you all down."

"We're not humans," One of the ladies said, but her tone was soft to the point where it was ignored.

These warriors tried to muscle their way out, but it was really difficult to escape the same claws who could break through hard iron ores! Any flinch equaled a sharp cut, so it just wasn't worth the fight.

"I don't want you folks as prisoners and all, so can we make a deal?" Gustav asked.

One of the ladies peeked at the long-john he tried to conceal, and said. "I don't think you're fit for us, big man."

"Not that!" He had to shout.

To avoid all confusions, he was quick to add. "I need a forge, there's something I want to smelt..."