I floated there till she swam and tackled my midsection. I moved back a little from the impact. But she probably hurt her forehead from head b.u.t.ting me. "Don't leave uncle!" She cried as I lightly patted her head. "I'll be back... Might take a while little one. But I'll be back." She looked up at me with her eyes obviously crying but the sea water wicked away her tears. My heart softened a bit as I patted her small head. "It'll be alright small one. Noone will hurt you while I'm away. Maybe when you are grown you will see the world above. Once you've grown that strong come and find me." I said as I lightly stroked her hair back.

"Now... Your mother will be worried if you aren't home. Go. I'll see you soon." I said turning her around and patting her back giving her a push toward the gates again. She swam crying back to the city. As she swam I saw a shadow dart toward her. A sliver of one of my bracelets shot out and nailed it to the ocean floor. Scylla entered the city safely without noticing a thing. Once she was gone I swam down and hauled whoever it was away from the floor. I didn't find some horrible monster. I found Orville staring me in the face with his abdomen pierced by a nail shaped piece of metal. I swam dragging his unconscious bleeding form up to the gates and knocked. The guards quickly opened the door. I requested a set of cuffs and recommended they send a request for an audience with the queen. I then turned around and left. I didn't need to know what kind of horrors she would do to him. I already knew you dont screw with a bear cub when the mother's close by.

After that sad parting I went ahead and swam to the surface. It didnt take long at all to breach the waters surface. I burst out with as much force as I could muster. forced open my wings and caught the air as much as I could. The cold breeze felt nice going through the feathers, fur, and along the scales of my wings. It had been long enough for me to miss it. I breathed deeply and ended up vomiting out water. I barely managed to stay flying despite my upchucking. My ribs hurt a little afterwards to say the least. After that fiasco I took another deep breath and shot toward the closest indicated land. I found a small island instead of the dwarven continent which made me turn red with embarra.s.sment as I realized I had no idea where I was actually going. I pulled a compa.s.s out of my sack and found which way was north and then headed west. It took me a few days to reach it. I ended up swimming a good chunk of the way as well.

When I finally reached a beach it had been 3 days of travelling and it felt really good to be on land. It was sunny and I could almost swear it was around noon when I pulled myself onto the beach. I sighed as I sank my toes into the hot sand and felt a strong earthen pulse rush through me. ( Yes h.e.l.lo ground. I missed you too.) I smiled at my ridiculousness. I then took measure of where I was and took flight. I flew high enough into the sky to see where I was. I was quite a ways from the capital by the looks of things. I took a look at my map and found I was right close to The City of Crystal. That was if I was reading it right. I turned right a bit. " Should reach it this way." I hummed as I flew in the direction North West of where I was. It only took me a day to reach it. Though things didnt look right. Smoke poured from behind the walls and my rail gun looked like it had melted and turned into the wrong kind of candy cane.

"What happened here?!" I said as my heart began to race. I shot toward the castle and suddenly heard someone shout. " Fire at the demon!" I saw a tall human standing with a bunch of archer in front of the castle. The arrows that were shot bounced harmlessly off of me and they began to panic. "It must be a high demon! Go get the bishop!" The captain said. I looked at him and with a whisk of the tail he was thrown off the wall to crash to his death. "Why are you humans here in my friends castle?!" I bellowed. They began to quiver as one of them ran toward the church. I paid that one no heed.

"B-By command of King Belrad we were stationed here!" One of the skinny archers shouted. His voice was high and shaky. I looked over the remains of the town. "Where are the people?" I rumbled out. A different archer answered. He was older and seemed to care far less about things. "We was told to chase them off the land. But all of them somehow managed to fit into that castle there see?" He pointed behind him. The doors were heavily barricaded and with all manner of stones and crates. I nodded at them. Very well then. Tell the commander here that if he wishes to leave this place alive that he is to vacate before Aed's champion goes berserk." Said as I lightly patted the old mans shoulder and moved past. The skinny one turned around. "Good luck moving all those! Took us days to move them all!" He said and instantly regretted it. A wave of my hand made the stones slide away from the double doors.

The archers b.u.g.g.e.red off faster than roadrunner on loonie toons. I knocked on the door loudly. "If the dwarves don't open the d.a.m.n door for one of their own how are they supposed to get good news!?" I bellowed close to the door. I heard a crowd of thumping as suddenly the door was pushed slightly open and a gold hand reached out. "By Aeds beard. It is you! He's Back!" A rumbling voice called out which was quickly followed by cheering and a cacophony of mixed crying, laughing, and merry making. I suddenly heard a hurrumph come from behind me. I looked through the crack. "You all stay inside. seems I have business to take care of." Hargo nodded quickly before shuttling people away from the door as I closed it.

I turned after the door closed with a thud to find a thickly muscled man standing before me. He stood 6'4 and must have weighed over 200 from the muscles he was packing. He wore no armor. Instead he was s.h.i.+rtless and had on green and red striped trousers. He looked me dead in the eyes without a shred of fear before he spoke. "I am Commander Abernathy of the 7th Great infantry unit of Weremare. I have heard you gave my men orders to give me. I take order from n.o.body but the king. So..." He stepped toward me as one of his little officers handed him what looked to be a large halberd. "Who are you to command me?!" He roared as he swung his blade at my chest. Surprisingly it left a nice long scratch across my scaled pecs. I looked down and saw the smallest line of blood leak out of me before the wound quickly closed.

He went to take another swing while I was looking at my chest. One of my arms reached over and caught the halberd just below the blade. "You know... It's been too long since I've seen my own blood." The pain was refres.h.i.+ng. Reminding me of when I had once been small.

The men's faces turned pale as Aeds mark began to s.h.i.+ne bright orange against my skin.

"I am Ignatious Soulsmith the Champion of Aed. And you Mr Abernathy... Have just p.i.s.sed off your worst nightmare." The commanders eyes widened as I lifted him off his feet just by holding his halberd. I then proceeded to chuck him into the church. He smashed through the oak doors which probably broke his back. But I didnt care. Humans really dont matter to me with exception to one. And anybody else besides her is going to die if I can help it. I strode over to the church and found the commander standing in front of Aeds alter. His pants were rags and he didnt look amused. "Back's not broken Eh?" I asked without really caring. He spat out a little blood. "I do this for sport." He said as his eyes turned black. "Hmmm? That's odd that is with your eyes. Is that supposed to do something besides look pretty?" He growled and charged at me. He was much faster than most people. Still not faster than me though. He swung a fist at my face which I caught easily and threw him into the wood pews. He smashed through them and still stood upright. Though this time was different. His arm was crooked in the wrong way. He looked down and before my eyes his bones s.h.i.+fted to correct themselves. His torso began to sprout fur as his face elongated. ( I see where this is going.) I thought. I was less shocked than I was impressed. figures that the king would send an a.s.sault team led by a werewolf of all things. Soon the man who had stood 6'4 now stood close to 9 feet tall and bore a tank of a body on him. He lunged at me. "Down boy!" I shouted as I slammed a tail onto his shoulders and sent him toppling. "Can you still talk pooch or are you more inclined to bark?" He spun and charged at me " You b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" He shouted. "Talking it is!" I smiled as I let myself expand. I grabbed him in one of my hands and charged out of the church so I didnt destroy it. I expanded to my full height of 60 feet. The poor pooch was the perfect size of a ball in my hand. "Have a nice flight. Maybe tell the King I'll be evening the score when I see him?" I got a disgruntled and offensive f×€£ off sign for my answer. "Whatever suits you best." I pulled my arm back and hauled off like a pitcher. His black furred hide flew off into the distance before anything else could be said.

I slowly shrank back down to my normal size to find most of his military force had gathered before me with their weapons drawn. "What? Not going to check on him? Might be best if all of you went. I can't really remember how far he went or what direction I threw him so it'll take a while to find him." I said pointing over my shoulder at the still flying black speck. They all dispersed quickly and ran to get out of the city. I knocked again on the door and it quickly opened. "Everything alright Ignis? We heard a ruckus?" Hargo and Kyle said in unison and then they saw the dust clouds and the destroyed church doors.

" Yep. Everything's ok. Just had to clean up a dog who didn't know what he was biting." I said as I patted my hands together to get all the dust off them. "Now." I said looking at them both. My face showed both concern and a look of demanding an explanation. "Where is Samantha?" I asked. Hargo and Kyle looked at each other sadly before Hargo spoke up.

"They took her mate. Didn't even have a chance at keeping her safe or nothin. They just hit and ran before the major attack happened." I felt my blood temperature rising. Steam began to pour off my body as I stomped over to the open area and paced between the church and castle. More and more steam came off of me as my anger took hold. "I was supposed to protect her! I WAS SUPPOSED TO PROTECT HER!" I roared at the sky as a jet of multi elemental breath shot into the clouds. The clouds turned dark and lightning began to crackle in them. Thunder rumbled as I felt my temper level and I looked at the dwarves. "Get me my tools. I have a weapon to build." I growled