Stand Short and Proud

by Billy Wong

  "So what, they still look good."

  "You mean they'd make you look tall... or almost as tall as me, which still isn't really tall."

  She scoffed. "Not tall for a boy maybe, but it'd be a more than respectable height for a girl."

  "That's all you care about, isn't it." He exhaled. "Go ahead if you're sure, but don't complain to me when you realize you can't stand them anymore."

  #

  Later that week, Taryn took Meg aside before lunchtime for a talk. "Your performance has declined dramatically," the captain said. "Must you insist on wearing those things all the time?"

  "What do you mean declined dramatically? It's not like I've lost any sparring match or anything, so I don't see what basis you have for saying that."

  "You might be able to compensate enough with your skill and physicality to retain an advantage over those less talented, but you look ridiculous tottering around like that and it severely hampers your execution of techniques. How do you expect anyone to learn from your example like that?"

  She scratched her head. "Uh, well... my techniques can't be that off, if I'm still keeping up and winning. I think you're just envious because you're so tall, you can't wear such elegant heels without looking like even more of an awkward giant."

  "I wouldn't like such impractical footwear even if I was your height." Taryn grinned as if a funny thought came to mind. "Although, at my size there is an added consideration that they would probably break if I tried to make just about any brisk movements."

  "I think you underestimate the sturdiness of well-made shoes."

  "And I think you overestimate those glorified stilts made for no purpose aside from vanity. Why, I bet even tiny you could easily break them if you didn't work so hard to keep them intact."

  Meg snorted. "That's not true! I don't have to 'work' to preserve them at all." Thinking to prove it, she did a backflip. As she came down on her heels, she heard a heart-wrenching snap. She fell and landed on her butt, moisture in her eyes as she realized Taryn had just been proven right and herself wrong.

  "I guess that settles that," the giantess said, and strode away.

  She picked her broken heels off the ground, cradling them to her chest. "I'll just glue them back on, you'll see... I swear I will..."

  Chapter 5

  Over the next couple weeks, Meg wondered what was going to be done about that sword-like object found under the cyclops' lair. She asked Taryn and Baxter, but they only answered that they didn't know themselves. Eventually she learned the cyclops had calmed down and been helped out of the hole by the villagers. Good, so the effect wasn't permanent and it survived... though it'd departed the area after, perhaps spooked by its encounter with the sword's power. She could hardly blame it.

  One day, instead of resuming training after lunch Taryn had them gather for an announcement. She told them there were reports of strange creatures being spotted near Bergin, and the town requested help again. "What do you think?" Meg asked Patrick while Taryn predictably confirmed the fort would be sending a team to investigate. "You want to go?"

  "I don't see why not. Especially if these creatures might be monsters, that's our specialty after all."

  Thus Meg raised her hand and said, "If you don't have everyone who's to be on the squad already in mind, Pat and I would like a spot."

  Taryn regarded them ambivalently. "I had thought to give other recruits a chance instead of letting the same ones go out again and again... but on the other hand, your experience with monsters could prove valuable here. Hmm, there is a possible solution. I'd planned to send an equal number of recruits and veterans as before, but with your level of savvy, perhaps you could take the places of two veterans instead." She looked to the older soldiers. "Does anybody object?"

  "We're all in the same boat,"said Terrence, a grizzled man with thinning blond hair. "If you trust their skills enough that you would have them stand beside us, we shouldn't be offended just because they're young." If any of his peers disagreed, they didn't voice it.

  "Then it's decided. This time it will be eight recruits backed up by four veterans... with two of the former being veterans among recruits, in Meg and Patrick."

  "Yes!" Meg said, bumping fists with Patrick.

  Saul spoke up. "Let me come too. I wouldn't mind seeing this sword-shaped object myself—and yes, I'm aware of the dangers."

  Taryn gazed doubtfully at him. After a moment, she replied, "Fine, I suppose you haven't been on a mission yet anyway." She chose the rest of the recruits to send out, who wound up including Rich along with four others. Two were curly-haired brothers named Ken and Caleb, the duo who had abandoned the bunk bed Meg and Patrick used now. Then there was Neil, a squinty-eyed youth known for struggling whenever they practiced with ranged weapons, and willowy Dana whose name, build and flowing straight locks drew teasing from the other boys. Although he wasn't really a girl as they joked, Meg identified with him for being underestimated for his physical attributes, and hoped she could help him win the respect of his fellows.

  Baxter again joined the veterans accompanying them as they set out for Bergin, probably because only he could communicate with monsters if that was indeed what troubled the town. Terrence came along too. "I'm guessing you wanted to come so badly because just training and hanging around gets boring for the likes of you, correct?" the lieutenant asked Meg and Patrick while they trudged over the muddy road during a light rain.

  Patrick laughed. "You got us, but not entirely. We're used to fighting monsters, so we figured our presence might help everyone's chances of making it through safely. Didn't expect to replace two veterans instead of our own peers, though. Sorry if we stepped on any toes."

  "Don't worry about it. Like Terrence said, you have plenty of proven ability, so it would be immature of us to hold your youth and being new around here against you. The captain must've felt the same way to propose what she did."

  One of the older soldiers behind them said, "The captain is young herself. I wouldn't put it past her to be showing favoritism towards these whelps." Baxter didn't respond. So not all the veterans accepted her and Patrick to the same degree. It was expected, anyway.

  "Do you think these creatures appearing has anything to do with that sword?" Saul asked.

  Meg shrugged. "I don't know, could be. Definitely something to keep in mind as far as possible causes go."

  When they got to Bergin and spoke again with the chief, he informed them that shadowy beings walking on two legs had been spotted going in the direction of the cyclops' former hideout. One man claimed to have been attacked, but escaped with a fairly mild gash on the arm. However a couple other people were missing, so some feared the mysterious creatures had already claimed casualties. Baxter asked for clarification on what the chief meant by "shadowy beings," but was told the witnesses had been unable to get a good look at them in the night and could only describe them as such. Traveling towards the hills, most of the recruits looked quite anxious at the prospect of facing unknown peril, even Rich whose fighting experience was limited to human foes. Dana kept up a calm exterior better than the rest, though Meg didn't know how much of that was him forcing it in an attempt not to confirm others' low expectations.

  Arriving before the familiar cave, Rich asked with a slight tremor in his voice, "Do you think those creatures actually went in there, or was it just a coincidence they passed by this way?"

  Meg herself felt uneasy not knowing exactly what they might be up against. The description they'd gotten didn't quite fit any monsters known to her, though that could be attributable to the panic of the villagers or environmental conditions distorting what they saw. "Only one way to find out."

  They approached the cave mouth and listened in, trying to hear anything they could. At first they heard nothing, but as they slowly advanced, Meg began to pick up faint hissing and scratching noises from ahead. "You hear that?" Patrick whispered. "Sounds like it's coming from under the hole."

  "Yeah. Everybody get ready to defend y
ourselves."

  Because this was still meant to be live training for the recruits with the veterans only to aid them if required, the youths took the lead while their allies fell back except for Baxter, who needed to be ready to talk to monsters. Meg and Patrick weren't sure which group they should stick with, given their unique position, but decided to accompany the youngsters while keeping in mind they should intervene only as much as necessary. They neared the hole—then a black form flew up out of it, landing before it to loom over them. It looked like a mass of shadow over ten feet tall in the rough shape of a man though its boundaries shifted nebulously, with twin points of light like miniature stars for eyes. Had it just jumped from the floor of the lower chamber, over fifty feet below, straight up here? Incredible...

  "What the hell is that thing?" Dana asked in a shrill tone suiting his girlish appearance, all traces of his courageous demeanor evaporating. Not that Meg could fault him, when she herself gawked in bewilderment. "Do you two know?"

  "We never encountered anything similar before," Patrick said in a small voice while Baxter spoke hastily in the monstrous tongue. "In fact, we've never even heard of a monster that looked like this."

  It didn't seem the creature understood what Baxter tried to say to it either, unless it just ignored him. It shambled forward menacingly in spite of his words, emitting a kakakaka sound from the indistinct darkness where its mouth should be while the soldiers backed up. Two other shadowy giants leapt up from the hole, followed by two more which followed behind them. For all her experience and combat skills, Meg's heart pounded. She and Patrick never faced this many large monsters at once before, plus they had no idea what these were even capable of. She really hoped they could avoid fighting right now, but the chances of that seemed increasingly slim...

  The first creature sprang, swinging an arm down at Baxter so fast it appeared a blur. He jumped back while Ken and Caleb dashed around him, swords poised to strike. "No, wait!" Baxter cried while Meg stared. No way would she have predicted the brothers hurrying to attack those things, but then fear could have wildly different effects on people. Its arm swept down again, splitting both their shields and going right on to strike them across the chests. Blood sprayed out as if they'd been cut open. They fell to the ground with bodies torn and eyes fixed in death. Meg's breath caught in her throat. Claws? Or did the whole arm have an edge like a blade, whether it always did or had been transformed? The way the creature's whole outline remained vague, there were many things she couldn't tell.

  "Ken, Caleb!" Rich shouted furiously. He rushed forward as they had, tears escaping his eyes but stubbornly looking to avenge them or at least die well trying. Not wanting to lose another comrade, Meg and Patrick charged alongside him. The monster brought its arm down at Rich. She jumped in front of him and blocked it in midair while he ran under her. It threw her back, but she was relieved to see him drive his sword into its center mass, followed by Patrick cleaving through its side with his poleaxe as he passed. It crumpled, presumably dead. So they were mortal, thank the gods... though it wouldn't bring their friends back, those of them who lived might yet make it through the day. Meg faced the four beings still standing as Patrick and Rich did, waiting to see what they might attempt.

  "What should we do?" Neil asked behind her. "I thought we weren't supposed to kill."

  "Never mind that! They slaughtered our comrades, our first priority is to get out of here alive and everything else is secondary. Besides, these might not even be among the monsters Saint General Julianna doesn't want killed, considering they're like nothing we've seen."

  "Yes," Baxter agreed, "survival must be our chief concern." He and the veterans stepped forward to stand alongside Meg, Patrick and Rich, Saul accompanying them too. "Perhaps you and Dana should stay back though, and allow us to handle this." She was about to protest when she realized he was talking to Neil and not her.

  Instead of moving towards them, the four monsters simply stuck their arms forward. Meg's heart skipped a beat as the limbs inexplicably extended, shooting at her and the others. So they could transform at least parts of themselves, to what extent was unknown. She parried the arm streaking at her face, and found its tip seemed hard as it made contact with her blade. She tried a chop at the segment of arm behind it, found that her sword glanced off that as well. At least their torsos were vulnerable... or could they harden those too? Meg thought to test the extent of their shapeshifting, only to pause when she heard a gurgling to her left and looked.

  Saul lay kicking his legs weakly on his back, blood spurting between fingers as he clutched his throat. Her heart sank as she recognized it to be a fatal wound. The young artist would never get to see the giant sword let alone draw it, and all his dreams would fade into oblivion... Past his dying form, she spotted one of the veterans get speared through the chest by an arm and then dashed bloodily against the floor. They were losing people so fast, could they not handle these fiends? Leaning aside from another strike of a long arm, she sprinted at its owner. More thrusts came at her which she dodged or deflected, one ripping her shoulder when she ducked a split second too late. She drew close, rolled forward under a swipe of its second arm which it finally brought into play and slashed at its legs. It hopped back with surprising speed—or perhaps not so surprising given the way it came out of the hole. She would have to work around its swift reflexes, then. She feinted another slash, making it start to dodge, but burst forward instead so she remained in close range at the end of its movement. Leaping skyward, she whipped her sword up between its legs. Her blade continued upward as she did, slitting it open from groin to neck.

  It crashed down, and she gazed around to see how her allies fared. Patrick was wearing down one creature with help from Rich, and Baxter and another veteran held their own against another. The last beast sent an arm out at Meg, apparently having killed or incapacitated everybody who opposed it. She blocked, but the force of it sent her tumbling painfully over the hard earth. She stumbled to her feet wincing from her damaged shoulder, looked up to see the monster towering over her. Its arm came down and she jumped back in the nick of time, the tip still grazing a fiery red line down her front. She caught its other arm on her sword, straining to hold herself up under its weight. The arm that had knocked her down took aim again.

  She spun out from below the limb pressing down on her, batted the one flying at her aside but staggered from the impact. This wasn't as easy as before with her wound increasingly affecting her, but she had to stay strong. She heard an agonized scream from behind and looked. Baxter had fallen after being driven back past her, the veteran aiding him lying still nearby, and crawled painstakingly away from the shadowy thing that stalked him. Meg would've expected him to fare better based on his bouts with her and Patrick, but they were more used to fighting and adapting against varied types of creatures. She didn't know what to do. She wanted to save him, yet if she turned her back on her foe...

  Patrick's poleaxe buried itself into the thigh of the one facing her, making it hobble sideways. He and Rich must have defeated their adversary. "We got this!" Rich yelled, pounding his sword into the beast's ankle. It fell, and both boys rained down blows relentlessly. "Help the lieutenant!" Meg sucked in a deep breath and darted towards the monster raising its arms over Baxter. Just before it would have finished him, her blade sliced across the back of its knees. It fell to all fours. She jumped on its back, ran up it and plunged her sword down through its neck. It collapsed, and quite exhausted she too collapsed atop it.

  "We did it," she said as Baxter rolled over to gaze up at her, hearing that Patrick and Rich's attacks had stopped and they panted to catch their breath. "We won."

  "Yes," he replied weakly, "but at what cost?" The fact four or more of their squad were dead fully dawned on Meg, and tears flowed down her cheeks. She didn't know the brothers well, nor the veterans who had fallen injured or dead, but Saul... The plump good-natured boy she'd sat with during many meals had gotten his life cut short, and she would never
laugh at his crude drawings or slap his hand away when he tried to steal her food again. She wept lying there draped over the monster's corpse, a tad surprised how much this affected her. She was a seasoned warrior who'd seen death many times before and thought herself inured, yet it seemed she had already come to regard some of those at the fort as valued friends in her heart.

  Nonetheless, she couldn't do anything for the dead, so she'd better concentrate on taking care of the living as best she could. She dragged herself off the carcass and straightened, then noticed something. "Where are Neil and Dana?"

  Patrick and Rich walked over, both beaten and bruised. "They must have run off seeing us to be in danger of losing," Rich said while Patrick went to Baxter's side. "If we don't see them outside, we'll probably find them in town."

  "No faith in us, I guess," Patrick replied, shaky voice not conveying the humor he probably thought he did. "Understandable though, given what a close call it was."

  Meg bowed her head. "Let's check if anyone else is alive. Saul and the brothers aren't, but a couple of the fallen veterans might be."

  The man impaled through the chest had passed, along with the one who fought with Baxter. But Terrence, who'd battled alongside Saul before being overwhelmed, still lived albeit with a dangerous head injury, blood oozing from an ear. She was glad to save one more life at least, with any luck.

  They left the cavern, Patrick and Rich carrying an unconscious Terrence while Meg supported Baxter who couldn't walk on his own with a possibly broken leg. With her and the boys being hurt and weary as well, this wasn't an ideal arrangement, but it was all they could do. "We managed to eliminate the immediate threat to the town, if that was all of them," Baxter said as they struggled along, "but there's no way we can continue investigating with half our squad dead."