“What the fuck have you done to my cousin!” A silver-furred wolf stepped out of the forest, red eyes set on the fox woman.
“This bottom feeder is your cousin?” Madame Illusia prodded the fish, rolled onto its side, drowning in air. “Perhaps you should join him. Hold Person!”
A green flash emanated from the wolf. As if sensing Illusia’s confusion, the wolf held up a finger, showing off a small gold ring with a large, glowing emerald in the center of it.
“Cast your magic as much as want witch!” the wolf sneered as he drew a sword, “this anti-magic ring has protected my family from the likes of you for hundreds of years. You can cast whatever you want, it won’t have any effect.”
Madame Illusia bared her fangs. “I see.”
“M-madame?” Veles gasped, still at the dead jaguar’s side.
“Run, Veles,” The hag who only appeared to be a beautiful older fox said, “I could never let a soul magic user who showed such promise die here.”
Cress and Shiloh took the hint and ran for the woods on the other side of the road. Veles couldn’t move, his body trembling. He wanted to, but… he was afraid. Really afraid, now. He had no backup and he had no spells left for the day.
Amicus tugged at Veles’ arm, “Come on, Veles, she’s buying us time, run!”
That was enough to prod Veles back to life. Amicus tugged again. With a snarl, Veles ran towards a section of the woods that he’s cleared out with one of his earlier fireballs. As much as he hated leaving their stuff behind, they’d have to come back for the carriage later. If it were still here.
.
Branches and leaves slapped the fat fox’s face as he ran headlong through the forest. There was a slope and he and Amicus lost their footing and fell, rolling down the slope, before smacking into a log at the bottom.
Veles got to his paws shakily and helped Amicus up.
Cress and Shiloh were far ahead, crashing through the undergrowth. The wizard followed them, huffing and puffing, his gut swaying with every step he took. He regretted the penalties obesity had given him now. Wizards weren’t meant to get in this kind of situation, though!
“Stop panicking!” Amicus said as they ran. “You’re a wizard! Use your brain! What do we do now?”
“We need to find somewhere to rest for an hour so I can recover my Soul Magic!” Veles puffed. “If I do… are you going to be angry if I make Shiloh and Cress more useful?”
“Useful?” Amicus stared at Veles aghast. “is that how you think of my friends? Useless?”
“No!” Veles gasped. “But none of us are going to win any running competitions! Look at us!”
“...True,” Amicus frowned as they ran, “If we can make it to a river, I can craft a boat. Then we can go downriver and get help. You won’t have to Trim my friends.”
“Look, Amicus,” Veles said, as remorse creeped into his voice, “There’s… something I need to tell you-”
Before Veles could finish his sentence, something slammed into him from his side.
The fox went down, rolling, and saw the otter struggling on the ground himself. Veles gasped and tried to get to his feet when a heavy hoof came down square in the middle of his back. Up ahead, he saw Shiloh and Cress getting bushwhacked as well.
“Going somewhere, boys?” A deep voice growled.
Veles rolled over and stared up at a huge, ruggedly handsome stag clad in green and brown leathers with a longbow in hand.
Veles half expected the stag to kill him where he laid, but instead the stag just sat there, calmly looking down at Veles. The stag brought out a match, struck it against his antlers, and lit a cigarette, before taking a puff and blowing it in Veles’ face.
“Hello, soul magic user,” The stag grinned, then turned to the forest, “Bind them, boys!”
Half a dozen figures wearing camouflage popped up, crossbows aimed at the fat guards.
Veles sighed. What a terrible day.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Veles and the North Forest Band marched out to the middle of the woods, their overweight bodies exhausted from the trek.
It felt like their abductors might have been walking them around for hours, specifically to tire them out. The brutish deer looms over their every move, the crossbow bolts of his entourage aimed at their heads. Normally such a creature would be elegant and graceful, much as Glitz was. But tough living has hardened this man, and his musclebound frame shows scars from various scuffles over the years. Powerful arms and a thick musclegut showed a man who worked all his life with his body, it’s clear every pound of strength he has was earned.
“That’s Oswin,” Amicus had leaned over to whisper in Veles’s ear when they were early into the hike. “He’s the head of a faction of bandits up here, and he’s really bad news. Whatever you do, don’t listen to-!”
“Quiet!” Oswin jabbed Amicus in the gut.
That little whisper earned the two of them a gag in each of their mouths. Cress and Shiloh apparently were wise enough to not say a word to each other the rest of the hike.
“Almost there, boys. We’ll get your orientation done, and then you can get to work with the rest of the men,” The stag takes a drag from his cigarette, and pokes the obese fox in the back with the hilt of his shortsword when he slows down.
Veles wanted to tell the stag off. Or, better yet, cast a fireball at him and watch his smug confidence burn away. Unfortunately, both his hands and mouth were bound with what Veles could only imagine to be the stag’s used loincloth – or at least whatever was in his mouth tasted like one.
Which wasn’t to say that Veles was necessarily upset about being forced to choke on the stag’s rank musk. Glancing to his side, Veles saw a dull look in his otter boyfriend’s eyes. While it might come off as exhaustion, the occasional shimmer of light told Veles that something in the stag’s cigarette smoke was having an effect on the otter
But Veles was still concerned, while the musk covered up the cigarette smell, he was still breathing something in – and being forced to breath “something” in a magic world that turned people into figments of their fetishized fantasies couldn’t be a good thing.
Heavy steps drew heavier breathes from the fox.
The deer’s scent wasn’t… unpleasant, per se. In some respects, it was rather good even. Step, breathe in, step, breathe out. The fox found himself tolerating it more and more, the scent at least. The walking, not so much. His knees were weak, and his legs practically shook like jelly. Veles was worried that if he didn’t find a way to escape soon, his body would simply give out on him. The obesity tag may have increased his constitution score, but it gave penalties to rolling for exhaustion. And if that became too much that he passed out, he really wasn’t going to be able to help anyone.
Plus, who knows who or what he would wake up as.
Looking over to Amicus, the otter wasn’t faring much better. Sweating like he was in a sauna, the fat otter’s clothes were soaked, clinging tight to his body. His tunic practically became translucent, making him look like he was shoved into a sausage tube. Veles was happy he didn’t have to smell that.
His boyfriend smelled good to him, sure, but this rag smelled so much better than anything he’d ever experienced. Step, breathe in deeply, step, hold that breath. The fox’s eyes fluttered, the scent of a hardworking man throttling down his thoughts. The walk wasn’t so bad if he got to enjoy this musk the whole time. It was easy for him to just relax - panicking wasn’t going to help them escape after all.
“These woods still maintain a rhythm,” the deer spoke, his gruff, pocked voice echoing in the fox’s head.
He might be speaking to his men, but Veles can tell he’s speaking to him too.
Step, breathe, step, exhale. “The spirits may be dead, but these trees still respond to a heart that’s long stopped beating,” the stag holds his hand up, halting the march. Taking another drag of his cigar, the stag exhaled a plume of smoke over some of his men.
“It is our responsibility as the men of this land to be that heart now. To beat as it did, so that these trees and this land will respond and be bountiful for us once again, as it was back when things were good for this community.” Veles felt his head nodding as the good smelling man spoke. The deer’s words danced in his ears, pleased by the sound alone.
Breathe in, breathe out.
The deer’s gaze passed over his gang, before turning to their captives. “Today, these boys will become men, and will join us in our cause. They will work these lands as we do, and they will become a part of our great heartbeat. To work, to provide, to thrive. With the efforts of the fine men these two shall become, we shall become one step closer to bringing this community back to its glory once more. We shall work as the spirits once did for this land, and it shall reward us in kind!”
Veles could barely listen. The buck was lifting his muscular arms, his deep hairy armpits exposed for the world – and for Veles. Slightly damp from the exertion of the hike, they practically glistened in Veles' eyes.
Veles took a deep breath, inhaling the bucks scent, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head. The fox imagined himself burying his muzzle into there, taking in some of the deer’s musk from the source. Veles told himself to stop for just a moment, reminding himself that this was the bad guy, this guy was going to force him to integrate into this weird town, and make the party fail their quest.
But he could indulge a little, couldn’t he? That was the whole point of this game, wasn’t it? To embrace these fantasies they’d all buried inside themselves, either from fear or from insecurity, or any other reason.
It was okay to imagine himself licking this man’s pits, rubbing and worshiping his musclegut. To let his eyes linger on the buck’s tight behind in his slacks that seemed to contour around his shapely ass. The way those same slacks gave the stud’s cock no room for imagination, the oversized doe-breaker practically ripping through the fabric when it throbbed. His mind was lost in the wonder and fantasy of pleasing such a dick. How good it would feel to stroke it, to taste it, to suck on it. How good it would feel to serve such a big strong man.
A snap of hooved fingers drew his attention back to the present, as some of the buck’s men approached him with an axe. The ensuing surge of fear pierced through the haze of lust as he stumbled back on his blubbery ass. For a moment, he wondered if Finn had simply abandoned the idea of the fetish game, and these guys had in fact, walked him out into the woods to murder him where no one would hear his screams.
He closed his eyes tight, expecting his imminent execution, before he felt a weight on his palms, and his fingers grasped around a handle. When he opened his eyes, he saw they had merely placed the axe in his hands, and he let out a relieved chuckle into his gag.
“The best way to become a good worker, is to work,” The buck proclaimed, as Veles stared at the axe in his hands. He thought briefly about using it to try to escape, but for one, he’d be shot dead before he could reach anyone. And second, in racking his brain, he wasn’t even sure when the last time he even swung an axe was, in this world or the last. And with that option pushed aside, he breathed in that wonderful musky scent again, and relaxed. He didn’t give the axe a second thought, and in doing so failed to notice the runes along its handle that began to glow underneath his hands.
“So let’s begin out initiation ceremony!” The deer continued his speech as the Veles began to focus on him again. “It’s simple, boys. You’re each gonna chop down one tree, all by yourselves, and in doing so prove that you are the kind of men this forest is looking for. Once you do that, we’ll get you back to the inn where you can have your first night out drinking with the men you’ll be working with for the rest of your lives. Doesn’t that sound good?”
Veles and Amicus both found themselves nodding unconsciously, unsure how good that really was, but otherwise too dazed to really think critically about it.
“Y'all have ‘til sundown to finish chopping. If you fail, well, you’ll find out what we do around here with weak men.”
The two of them were each placed in front of a tree as wide as themselves.
Veles worried he wouldn’t even be able to get through a few swings before passing out, but he also really didn’t want to know what would happen if he passed out. Looking around one last time, it was clear his options were running out. He could only hope Charlie and the others were okay, since it was looking like they would be his only hope out of this mess. And so, with a trembling worry shaking through his arms, he began to swing.