Growing Up. 3

The street was blocked off by a flashing barricade of cars, arranged nose to bumper as if that would impede the targets progress. Perhaps the purpose of it was more to provide cover for the swarm of bristling defenders, but if so, they were doing a poor job of using it. Dark plastic helmets rendered them faceless, while armour of Kevlar and an overabundance of pouches protected their bodies. It was what they held that drew the gaze though- Mikael had never seen a real gun before, and now several dozen of the long black weapons were clutched tightly or braced on the roofs of vehicles, every lethal barrel facing his way.

He gulped and slunk closer to his massive sister, though even crawling on all four webbed limbs did little to hide his monstrously changed form- not the slimy blue hide, eelish body, or his fifteen feet of twitching twisting tail. His skull was finned, mouth was a blunt snout that continuously produced drool to fall from his fanged maw in great rivulets and his long tongue swept it back so he could whisper without spitting, “Helen, they’ve got guns, are they gonna shoot us? Sis?”

“Relax and stay behind me squirt. I reckon I’m pretty tough now” Helena rumbled quietly, and jammed a huge rocky fist into the road experimentally to create a small crater of smashed tarmac. The rest of her looked no less vulnerable, a towering horned colossus of stone, earth and obsidian with no obvious weak points; he could almost imagine her surviving a round or two.

“Don’t be stupid, they can’t, we’ve done nothing wrong.” Susan said stonily, though she wasn’t made of stone. If anything, she was made of wood, bark for skin and branches for fingers on her four arms, roots for feet and crimson vines hanging all over her as locks of hair. “They’re the police, they’re just; they’re can’t just shoot people who are innocent.”

“HALT THERE UNKNOWN BEINGS!” A megaphone squeaked into life as a man marched forwards from the blocked, a heavy set and rather portly figure in an ill-fitting black vest. Middle aged, Mikael guessed, pale skinned and sweaty with fleshy features, and a bald pate shining on his scalp. “YOU ARE CAUSING WIDESPREAD DISTRESS AND DAMAGE TO PUBLIC AND PRIVATE PROPERTY! PLEASE HALT AND GIVE A SIGN THAT YOU UNDERSTAND AND ARE WILLING TO COOPERAT-“

“We understand! We’ll cooperate- we-don’t-want-to-hurt-anyone, we’re-trying-to-get-clear!” Their eldest and smallest sister said hurriedly. Liza remained the most human looking out of them, if a fifteen foot albino giantess covered in strange icy patterns counted as human looking.  

Judging from the wave of hisses, whispers, mutters and a sole wolf-whistle, most people didn’t count that as human. The guns shifted in shaking hands to take aim at her, and Mikael caught glimpses of people gasping and backing away from the windows on either side of them, an entire street of spectators who considered them monsters.

“GOOD!” The word buzzed through the megaphone as the Spokesman began to walk forward from the cars, the device practically glued to his lips, “WE DO NOT WANT ANY HOSTILITIES, BUT YOU MUST UNDERSTAND THAT YOU ARE A MAJOR THREAT TO THE PUBLIC, AND IF NEED ARISES WE MUST AND WILL SUBDUE YOU!”

“Subdue?” Mikael repeated in a quiet hiss, tail swaying fearfully as he peered out from behind Helena right at the hedge of guns, “They’ll shoot us?”

“They had to bring the guns along for something squirt.” Helena grunted. “Stick to me, if it goes down, I’ll-“

“Shut-up-Hel.” Liza whispered over her shoulder, then, to the Spokesman, “We understand and we don’t want to put anyone in danger. That’s why we’re trying to get clear.”

“WE CANNOT ALLOW UNKNOWN MYSTICS TO ROAM UNSUPERVISED. IF YOU REMAIN WITHIN THIS STREET NOONE WILL BE HARMED, AND AN EXPERT MAGE IS ON THE WAY TO HELP RESOLVE THIS SITUATION!”

“No you- uh hang on.” Liza griped and knelt down slowly. It looked slightly comedic to Mikael; compared to his sister the big man was smaller than a toddler, “There we go, face to face. I just don’t think we can safely stay here, we need to get out of town. Just to make sure no-one’s too near us, to protect them. Please.”

“REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” The megaphone squealed abruptly and the man cursed and whacked it with a heavy fist, silencing the contraption and lowered it, “Damn thing. Well, you can hear me still, erm, miss? Well then, we’re blockading the street, no one will come dangerously close to you. As long as you stay here, there’s no chance of anyone being injured by your movements.”

“No, we can’t control it!” Liza gasped, keeping her voice so low that only the man before her and her siblings could hear, “We’ve been… urgh, we’ve been growing and we can’t… we can’t stop the spurts. We might accidentally destroy stuff if it happens again.”

“You’ve been… growing? That could help explain how they said you appeared out of nowhere, Reys was saying it could be another Rift or something...” the man mumbled to himself, scowling deep in thought as he looked over them, “What size were you beforehand? And what kind of mystic.”

“We’re not mystics, we’re humans. Or… or we were-when-we-woke-up-this-morning!” Her voice cracked and she trembled slightly, a few cracks spreading over her frosty skin, “We can’t control it, we destroyed our own flat… I don’t want to hurt anyone, none of us do. Please, we need to get clear.”

“Human? I thought… erm…” He folded his arms, stroking his chins thoughtfully, “It’s not really my call, I’ve just got instructions to try and stop you and wait for specialists who know what the hell you really are. But… it adds a little up with my picture and even if you are lying you can’t do as much harm on the outskirts. I’ll see if I can arrange for you to move clear, but I can’t guarantee anything. Now, please stay here, understand?”

“Okay… thankyou.” Liza said quietly and sat back as he walked back to the barricade.

“That’s the kind of order I like.” Helena chuckled and adjusted her seat, the road crumbling even further under her sheet weight. The gunmen past the cars kept their guns trained on them, but a ragged cheer went up as the Spokesman climbed back over the vehicles and Mikael took that as a chance to dart around closer to Liza and Susan.

“You okay sis?” He asked quietly, keeping a wary distance from the slight ring of frost that covered the road beneath her.

She sniffed and stilled, clenching her fists and let out a deep breath, just as she had whenever she needed to calm down. That hadn’t changed, even though the rest of her looked like a skin tight suit of white and blue, “Yeah Mickey, looks like Susan had a point about going to the authoriti-“

“Thankyou!” Their middle sister interrupted, “Now imagine if we had just waited for them?”

“Then we’d be further in town, and more likely to-break-things if we grow again!” Liza snapped back, “Anyway, you definitely alright Mickey?”

“Yeah, I’m a big slimey monster with loads of guns pointed at me, things are just peachy.” He licked a glob of saliva back with his long tongue.

“When did you start being sarcastic?”

“Since he turned thirteen, he’s a proper teenager now, he’s taking lie ins and naps and everything.” Susan cracked a small smile.

“No fair, the nap was only after she froze me! I’m not even lazy!” He objected and demonstrated by spinning athletically on the spot, tail sweeping out to-

Ow! The tip met something hard with a deafening smash and he hissed in surprise, dropping to the ground again and whirled around to glare at the offending structure. A family that had been near the second floor window yelped and dashed out of their living room, though the cracked and half smashed wall didn’t actually react aside from a few broken bricks clattering to the ground with a cloud of dust.

A hand grabbed him, surprisingly human feeling as it pushed him to the ground and he hissed and began to push back against it, drops of slime spilling from his jaw to fizzle on the ground with a foul scent rising from them. He squirmed and whirled around ready to face this mysterious attacker, only for a wave of icy cold energy to wash over him. Instantly the coat of oily sweat froze solid and his muscles gave out under the sheer weight and biting icy touch on his fibres. His brain swam with fury and bewilderment, slowed by the bitter cold power in his skull, then Liza was there, holding his head gently and glaring at him with cold grey-green eyes, “Seriously, Mikael, behave yourself. You can’t just smash people’s houses like that!”

“I didn’t mean to…” He grumbled, tail lashing as the awful cold faded to an ordinary February chill, “It was an accident, I couldn’t tell it was there”

“Well, be more careful then.” She whispered back fiercely, “This isn’t a game; we’re already this close to being-shot-by-the-police! Sit still and wait.”

His grouchy retort was cut short when she stood and he saw the barricade again, or more specifically the dozens of weapons pointed straight at him in shaking hands. A weird stink wafted off them, and he could see fingers twitching over their triggers, ready to end him at the slightest provocation.

“Don’t panic, he didn’t mean any harm, he just hit it accidentally. Sorry, really, he’s not used to all this!” Liza was saying loudly, though whether to the police or the terrified people inside the building, he couldn’t tell.

As for the damage itself, it seemed even worse at a second glance, a torn ragged hole splitting the very stone of the bricks and tearing the wall apart. Had his tail actually done that? It had barely been more than a wave though- what would happen if the appendage met a person? He shuddered as a brutal, bloody image entered his head, a man’s chest and torso being split apart like something from Helen’s favourite bloodiest movies.

The screech of the megaphone roused him a couple of minutes later, and he looked around to see most of the gunmen climbing into their vehicles, the Spokesman still at the lead with his trusty amplifier.

“ATTENTION! TO PREVENT FURTHER PROPERTY DAMAGE AND DISTRESS, THE POLICE HAVE DECIDED TO REMOVE YOU FROM THIS TOWN TOWARDS A SUITABLE RENDEZVOUS POINT!” He thundered though the squealing machine as a handful of cars separated from the barricade, driving onto a side street with the guns clearly visible within, “YOU WILL FOLLOW THIS ESCORT AND REMAIN IN SINGLE FILE, WITH A SECOND ESCORT BEHIND YOU! DO NOT ATTEMPT TO LEAVE THE ROAD OR CAUSE HARM OR WE WILL SUBDUE YOU! DO YOU UNDERSTAND!?”

“Yes! Yeah, we understand!” Liza said breathlessly and turned to the others, “Come on guys, that’s our cue.”

“Finally, man they took their time didn’t they? Hup we go!” Helena grumbled, tearing up the road as she rose, and Susan began to move just after her. Mikael got up slowly too, though he glanced at the window where the humans had been, ready to say sorry, make them believe he wasn’t a monster. They weren’t there though, the room was abandoned, the inhabitants no doubt hidden or ran off somewhere away from the freaks.

The huge sinuous beast turned to follow his sisters with a heavy heart. Behind him the other police cars fell into a thick wedge shape, and he stilled his sinuous tail lest the rogue appendage cause even more trouble. Unfortunately such effort threw his balance off, and he toppled to all fours with a grunt and a loud slap once his webbed digits hit tarmac.

“Mikael, are you alright down there?” Susan glanced back, concern in her green eyes, “Are you feeling ill? I can’t believe she froze you agai-“

“Nothing’s wrong Sue, I just fell. No big deal.”

“So you’re just going to walk like that? Like an animal?” She queried as he scampered close to the roads surface, past the steadily shrinking houses.

“It’s just easier sis, I won’t hit anything again now.”

“You don’t need to hide it if you’re feeling sick from that little Tyrant freezing you! It’s completely unacceptable, we’re supposed to be her family and she treats us li-“

“It’s fine. It stopped me doing anything worse.” He grunted and turned his gaze to the white dashes along the road, mind fighting to hold his unruly tail in check. It was so hard, as if moving the hours old muscles was a normal part of life, just as much as blinking or breathing. He focussed on the wall though, the wrecked stones and the terrified family fleeing inside. The burst of rage and indignation that had made him spin around at Liza’s touch- what had he been doing? What would he have done if she hadn’t stopped him? The cracked and broken road brought no answers.

Shortly, the houses and gasps of their inhabitants faded, replaced by thorny hedgerows and wiry fences. Their envoy turned into a field off the road, and crossed even further than that into another empty pasture before they finally halted and the Spokesman climbed back out of the first police van.

“ATTENTION! YOU WILL REMAIN HERE WHILE WE WAIT FOR AN EXPERT MAGE TO COME AND HELP RESOLVE THIS SITUATION! THIS FIELD WILL BE MARKED OFF BY OUR CARS, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO LEAVE OR WE WILL BE FORCED TO ACT!” He yelled through his megaphone while the cars drove off to one end of the field and more armoured gunmen climbed out to surround them.

“Why’s he talking like it was his idea? You told him.” Mikael snorted, finally getting the chance to stretch out freely and bend his tail.

“Eh, he’s a policeman, he can’t look like we’re telling him what to do. This way just makes all his men trust him more.” Liza waved it off and sat down calmly before turning her gaze back to the bald pudgy man. “Do you know who the expert is? Or when he’ll come?”

“NO- Erm, don’t really need that now do I?” He flushed and brought his gaze up to her face, “No, just know his name is Reys, and that he’s on his way with some assistants and to listen up. If you were being honest and you really were human, I reckon we’ll find someone to sort you out. This look spacey enough for you lot?”

“Yeah, thankyou. And… uh, our dad’s still out there somewhere, Hector Esket. He said he’d find us, he’s a man a bit taller than you, red haired-“

“He’s bald.” Helena grunted and sat down.

“Thinning red hair and a beard.” Liza repeated with a glare, “If you see him…”

“Aye, if someone’s asking with that name I’ll see what I can do. Just stay put and this can all sail by nice and smoothly.” He said with a firm nod, and then waddled back towards the other policemen, barking orders as he went.

“He is bald though.” Mikael felt a need to point out, “What if they get the wrong man?”

“Not completely though. Unlike you Mickey.” She smirked and he felt his finned ears twitch on his slimy hairless scalp.

“Hahehe! Relax squirt, all guys go bald eventually. It’s more the big lizard monster that’s weird.” Helena chuckled and clapped her hands together, “Look’s pretty cool though, didja see what you did to that house?”

“It was an accident! I didn’t even mean to hit it!”

“Still did some damage with that thing, what’s it like? Having a tail I mean?”

“I dunno, normal?” He suggested, turning his attention to playing around, whipping the length across the grass in a second and coiling it up, “It’s… I can move it and it’s really strong, like an arm but… but there’s no shoulder or elbow, I can bend it aaaaall the way down like this, see? It’s dead flexible; I bet I could pick stuff up in it if I wanted, if I clenched the end in a loop around whatever it was, swing it around and everythin-“

“Don’t get too attached to it Mikael. We’ll be back to normal soon enough.” Susan cut in.

“Attached?” He repeated with a reptilian smirk, “I see what you did there…”

“Yeah, nice one sis. How’s having extra arms? Is it like you’re still right handed and right handed, or just one good hand?” Helena taunted, her dark rocky teeth forming a jagged smile.

“What do you think Helen? It’s a complete pain and these feet are even worse.” She grumbled, raising a leg to display the twisting and writhing roots, “They keep trying to get under the ground like I’m some kind of freaky tree needing planted.”

“Maybe you need to eat more sis? Get some plant food?”

“Oh, haha Hel, so funny for a giant rockhead!”

“Compared to you, yeah. You’ve always been a stick in the mud sis, we just need some mud and…” Her hand tore up a patch of the field nonchalantly and sent the dirt and grass flying with barely a flick of her wrist. Mikael was quick enough to spring out of the area but Susan was hit dead on, her wooden skin covered in a crust of earth and filth. “There we go, all done!”

“WHAT THE HEL YOU UTTER PIG!” Susan screeched, hands splayed in outrage as thorns half a foot long burst out of her body, “What was that even for!? Look at me!”

“No reason. And by the way, you already looked like a giant tree monster.”

“So you just cover me for no reason? You little selfish disgusting careless irresponsible waste of breath! Gargh, why did I even expect anything more, of course you do this, you can’t do anything more can you?! It’s just too much to stop being a complete pain in the ass, isn’t it? Just eat and sleep and annoy, and that’s it!”

“Susan, calm down a bi-“ Liza started, raising a white hand.

“ME!? I get covered in mud and dirt and insulted and I’m the one to chill out?! How utterly unfair can you get Elizabeth!? You know how big a stupid wasteful moron she is, she’s the one who should be calming down!”

“Well, quit shouting then. In case you hadn’t noticed you’re twenty foot tall, there’s forty guns still pointed at us; screaming your lungs out isn’t going to reassure them much.” She hissed icily, gesturing towards the waiting policemen with their weapons still loose. “Hel, you just shut up and behave yourself, seriously, I’ve had enough of a bad day without your aggravating.”

“But big sis, she called me bad names.” The massive rocky being somehow managed a decent falsetto voice, so high and childish that Mikael snorted in mirth. “Ah, see, glad someone’s got a sense of humour.”

“Typical, completely unfair.” Susan’s harsh green eyes glared at Helen a final time before turning on her rooted heels and stomping across to the far end of the field where she slumped down on the bare grass.

Mikael almost chuckled again- normal her arguments would carry her out of the flat and all the way to the park, but clearly she couldn’t go that far in the field. It was enough space to end their argument though, letting him relax and flick his tail around playfully. The sheer novelty of it still amused him to no end, swinging it up to poke his spine, back around like a whip till it rubbed off his stomach, and then all the way around again.  Now, with the space to play it was a lot more than just a danger, his entire body was far more flexible than he had even imagined beforehand; he could touch his snout to just about anywhere below his neck with little difficulty, from his shoulders to webbed toes to the very tip of his powerful tail. It was even so strong that Helena played a little tug of war with him, ending only when his slimy skin freed itself and she sat back and began to doze.

The struggles and problems of the day all seemed forgotten for sheer playfulness as he rolled up into coil and then sprang back out. The slimy covering, even walking on all fours felt perfectly natural with no humans close by to be compared to, and then there was the wonder of having such clear eyes. As a human he’d been in glasses, a four-eyes since he was four years old, he’d had to rely on the little metal frames to make out anything of the world. That was all gone now, his green eyes needed no such aid, whether he looked at his long tongue just past his snout, or all the way into the distance where the sunset began to dye the grey sky red. It was all so clear he couldn’t resist smiling in joy, and Liza even smiled a little where she sat, causing him to stop and glance at her again.

“You okay Mickey?” She asked after a moment, crossing her arms self-consciously.

“Uh, yeah. Just… you look weird.”

A white eyebrow rose and an inelegant snort came, “Oh really? Seriously, it took you a while to notice.”

“No, not the white, something else…”He furrowed his snout, trying to figure it out.

“Size maybe? Lack of toes? Or proportions, this body is seriously skinny, I’ve never had a waist this small, it’s like an anorexic models belly…” She suggested, glancing over herself sceptically, “For the record you do look fairly weird to-“

“You’re not doing anything!” He barked as it finally clicked.

“Huh?”

“You’re sitting doing nothing!” Mikael grinned as puzzlement turned to understanding.

“Oh… yeah, I guess I am usually pretty industrious…”

“Industrious?” He snorted, “You make bee’s look lazy sis, I can’t remember ever seeing you take a break… ever!”

She blinked and raised an eyebrow, “Well, thanks for that, feel like I should be doing something now…”

“Nah, relax, it’s nice to see you chilling.”

“No, no, I’d better make sure Little-miss-perfect’s not still in a huff.” She murmured and stood up fluidly.

Mikael scampered after her over to their sister who, though clean of the dirt, still looked in a foul mood. She had settled with her knees up to her chin, her back arms supporting her, front arms folded as she sullenly ignored them in favour of a small tree.

“Susan, you okay?”

The giantess pursed her lips and stayed silent.

“You were being too loud is all. I know Hel was being a horrible jerk like always, but she was being a quiet horrible jerk.”

“So what? Being a quiet jerk’s better than talking honestly? She’s a pig and you did nothing!”

“What am I supposed to do? Cancel her allowance? Send her to her room?”

“Freeze her instead of me and Mikael?” Susan suggested, “She deserves it, it’d shut her up.”

Liza balled her fists tight, voice turning icy, “That again? I told you I’m sorry, and it was an accident, I couldn’t control it.”

“Oh, and what about with Mikael back with the police watching? That seemed pretty deliberate sister.”

“Leave it, it was just reflex like your little tree here!” She snapped, gesturing at the small sapling.

“That… that wasn’t me.” Susan murmured, blinking as though she hadn’t seen the young plant until now.

“So it just grew in the last half hour on its own then? Nothing to do with the giant plant thing sitting with it?”

“What are you on about?! The… the tree was definitely there!” She retorted, “Get your eyes checked if you think it’s just suddenly appearing.”

“It wasn’t there.” Mikael murmured, “The field was just grass.”

“You too!?” Susan snapped and sprang upright, “Don’t call me a liar, it wasn’t th- I mean, I mean it was there!”

“Come on, it’s pretty obvious Susan- if I can freeze things- somehow- then you must have something to do with plants like growing them, right?” Liza proposed calmly.

“NO, because it’s absolutely impossible! I can’t magically make plants appear, that’s not how life works- you need like sunlight, food stores, the right triggers, oxygen, carbon dioxide, water, and actual seeds! It’s slow, it takes years, and they definitely don’t just appear!”

“Sis, as a giant tree woman you really need to stop saying things are impossible.” Mikael shook his head with amusement and raised a webbed hand to point, “See look, it’s getting bigger.”

“Don’t joke about it Mika- “ Her voice cut out as her green eyes beheld the tree again, and the plant stretched up another centimetre. The growth of it was subtle; a slight lengthening here, the progression of little spring-green buds stretching out into what might one day become branches, its leaves widening and turning a deeper fresher green, its grey trunk thickened a tiny bit. “That’s impossible.”

“Tell that to your tree.” Liza looked just as surprised, knuckles kneading her white forehead in confusion.

“Tree you’re impossible.” She said firmly, then threw her arms up in frustration, “Argh, it’s not listening! Stop it, stop it, stop growing! Why won’t it stop, why can’t I control it!?”

“Don’t worry, it’s not doing any harm- I had a much harder time with the freezing thing, I still don’t how to do anything with it.”

“That’s dead cool though, what happens if you tell it to grow?” Mikael asked eagerly, “Maybe you make a mega tree, like a giant giant giant one!? That’d be awesome!”

“No, I don’t want a mega tree, this doesn’t make sense, how’s it getting the energy to grow? Or the mass? It’s meant to be conserve- STOP GROWING!” She screamed as the tree continued its ascent, now looking over seven foot tall and less and less spindly by the second, as if it was several years old rather than sprouted that very hour.

“Susan, calm down, you’re fine. At least you’ve not frozen anyone.” Liza said gently, “There’s nothing to worry about, remember? They said that the expert’ll come soon and help us out so you just need to be patient and stay chille-“

“Don’t freeze me!”

“I’m not going to, it was just an expression- Tch, if I froze someone every time I said “chill” I think I’d have a lot more control!”

“But I can’t control this- this just doesn’t…. why, why, why won’t it stop growing?!” Susan groaned, and reached forward to place her hand on it’s trunk, a hard focussed frown on her features. “Stop. Growing.”

In front of her the tree continued to mature steadily, spreading out new branches faster than ever, the leaves developing jagged edges and a few small crimson flowers beginning to bloom in sheer disregard to nature’s schedule and its creators instructions. Susan threw an branching arm up in exasperation and made to remove her hand, only to stop wide eyed. “It’s got my hand. It’s growing onto…. No no NO! GET OFF, GET AWAY!”

A final tug tore her hand of living sticks free, as well as a layer of the trees bark, then she turned and raced away, her tuber toes tearing up the earth and grass under immense strides, and scarlet locks trailing behind like a comet. Mikael chased after her on all fours, and Liza lurched upwards, “Seriously? SUSAN, CALM DOWN! It’s just a tree!”

“No, I’m getting out of range! Then it’ll stop and leave me alo-” She snapped back, hurtling a hedge as she went, and landed with a heavy impact before a noise like thunder tore through the air. Mikael winced at the volume, skidding to a halt and tumbling head over tail before he managed to stop and see his sister topple like a felled tree.

“HALT! STAY WITHIN THE FIELD, STAY WHERE YOU ARE OR YOU TOO WILL BE SUBDUED!” The megaphone thundered and the police raised their guns as they hurried behind the hedge. He’d forgotten about them, but still they were there; a swarm of armoured faceless men, aiming their big dark guns at him, fingers on the triggers. Behind them a  few hurried towards his fallen sister, weapons at the ready, as well as ropes and chains and everything needed to tie her down. Or kill her.

“Susan… Sue…” Liza gasped numbly, taking step after step forwards as frost spread from her in a wave, “She wasn’t going to hurt you, she was panicking, she was just scared and running and you shot her….”

“STAY BACK, STAY WITHIN THE FIELD OR WE WILL BE FORCED TO SHOOT YOU!” The Spokesman yelled, climbing up on top of a car with his pale sweaty face, “PLEASE, DON’T COME ANY CLOSER, JUST WAIT!”

“I’m not going to-hurt-anyone! I-just-want-to-see-my-sister.” Liza hissed coldly, fists clenched as she raised her hands, before taking a sudden quick step forward in outrage, “What are you doing… GET-OFF-OF-HE-“

A barrage of thunderous cracks cut her sentence short. Her white skin was broken suddenly by perfect round holes and shards of ice and snow flew clear of her. A tiny step backwards was her only sign of pain, as steam began to rise from the wounds and then she took another more forceful step as a wave of artic cold flooded out from her.

The gunmen flinched at the sheer drop in temperature and hefted their weapons again, an entire wall of black barrels, pointed at Liza and himself. Mikael hissed and started to fling himself forwards in fury, feeling something boil along his length and then the earth seemed to give way under his paws and drool, hissing and sputtering. It didn’t matter, they had shot his sisters- they had to go.

BANG!

A rock was in his way out of nowhere, a huge cliff wrapping around him as a surge of pain came from his exposed tail. He hissed and coiled it up, feeling Helen’s huge arms hold him tight, their bullets pinging off her immense stony back like nothing more than foam darts. “Stay still squirt, stay there and you’re safe, is your tail okay?!”

“No, no it hurts…” He hissed, feeling the ground, the air, even her stony arms and chest sizzle with his rage, “What about Liza, is she okay!?”

Helena stayed silent and barely shifted, just enough for him to peek under her arm and see the fallen white giantess. A thick frost covered her steaming body and the land around it in fuzzy ice, and pieces of snow and ice glittered above her with a horrible serenity as the guns continued to thunder. A sudden flash and pinging sound off of her granite elbow forced him back, curled up and writhing in her steadfast grip, “Go get her! Hel, get her, help her! They can’t just shoot her!”

“Stay down squirt… and stop the bloody burning…” She managed to grunt through black teeth, “You’re… urgh, hurting me…”

“What?” He yelped in surprise as another wave of… coldness rolled over him and the sizzling hissing sound and tingling sensation suddenly faded. As did the gunshots. “Did they stop shooting?”

“Yeah, I don’t know why, maybe realize they can’t shoot rock…” Helen groaned in pain, and twisted a tiny bit to look around. “Or… that…?”

“PUT HIM DOWN!” The megaphone screamed, and Mikael slunk around his sister curiously though still wary of the police. Luckily something else was taking most of their attention, even if a few still held their guns at the ready, their poses were shaking, and it was easy to see why.

Four wooden fists curled around the limbs of a writhing man, holding the officer up just in front of Susan’s heaving chest. Her eyes burned green and her creeper hairs writhed like thorny snakes as she shuddered, holding her little shield of flesh and Kevlar tight.

“N-no. No, I’ll put him down whe- when you go away!” She gasped and shook, huge spindly fingers tightening on the captive, drawing out blood and cries of agony.

“DO NOT HARM HIM! PLACE HIM DOWN AND RETURN TO THE FIELD!” The spokesman thundered through his microphone, “WE CANNOT ALLOW YOU TO ROAM FREE- WE CANNOT ALLOW THAT!”

“Th- then I’ll rip him in half for… for shooting Liza… and move onto the next one, and the next until, until all of you little murderers are gone…” One of her wrists twitched and drew another howl from the man, “Unle- unless you just go away and leave us ALONE! We didn’t want to hurt you, you shot us…”

“THEN STOP! IF YOU STOP THEN WE WILL BELIEVE THAT YOU DON’T HAVE ILL INTENT! YOU DON’T LOOK LIKE YOU’VE HURT SOMEONE BEFORE, YOU DON’T NEED TO START NOW!”

“You shot my sister! If… if I put him down you’ll shoot my br-brother and my sister and me! No, NO! You… all… leave! That’s when he’ll be completely safe, when you go so far that I can’t see you, now leave!” She nearly doubled over with gasps of pain and Mikael dug his legs into the ground.

“Let me go Hel! Get off, we got to help her!”

“No, they can use you if you expose yourself, stay here.” She grumbled, “You’ve got to stay safe and wait for the best chance to get clear!”

“Susan… put him down…” A pained voice cut through the noise and argument as Liza’s huge frosty body moved, beginning to push herself upright. Mikael gasped and felt Helena flinch in surprise- how was that possible? Liza’s entire front was covered in dwindling circular holes, even her forehead showed a bullet had entered there, but still… “I’m not dead, I’m not dead Sue, you can stop and put him down…”

“N-no, they’ll shoot us! They’ll kill us, they’ll kill Mickey!” The wooden giantess groaned, her hair writhing, as her eyes glared out, wide and panicked “They need to go.”

“WE CANNOT LEAVE YOU ALONE! WE WERE GETTING ALONG WELL, IF YOU PUT THE OFFICER DOWN AND STEP BACK INTO THE FIELD!”

“You can go now.” A new voice carried over the others as a man strolled forward as it from nowhere. He looked fairly old, black hair fading the white with a short close cropped beard on his jaw and a large black coat over his broad frame. “You’re not needed anymore.”

The Spokesman and police looked like they almost got whiplash turning to the newcomer, and a sea of mutters rose up.

“And who are you old man?”

“No, it has a hostage!”

“It’s a freak, it tried to kill us!”

“This is a restricted area!”

“The four of them nearly escaped!”

The dark coated man tutted and shook his head, “He’ll be fine but you and your men are aggravating the situation, far too many guns. Run off and form a larger perimeter, nine fields square. Your role in this is done. Hear me? Move it!”

“DO AS HE SAYS MEN!” The Spokesman blustered through the megaphone, “FORM A NEW PERIMETER, A SQUAD TO EACH CORNER!”

To Mikael’s surprise they obeyed. The guns were lowered with mutters and fearful glances at the four giant siblings but within a minute they were walking or driving off in their cars, clearing the area of humans except for Susan’s hostage and the old man.

“Now, sis, put him down… okay?” Liza offered soothingly as she winced and climbed upright, revealing an array of dark shrinking holes. The wooden giantess creaked and nodded as she fell to her knees and set the man loose. Surprising he was able to walk, and better, run from her in utter terror despite the deep gashes over his arms and legs, off after the other men at a terrified sprint.

“Good sis, well done, you did it, you’re fine.” Liza began to murmur as she strode up and wrapped her arms around Susan, patting her back reassuringly. The giant wooden being could only rock mutely in her grip and gasp for breath; Mikael wasn’t even sure she was capable of tears like this and he squirmed out of Helens grip to scurry over and reassure her with whispers and murmurs. It barely worked, the teenager seemed a shattered bundle of nerves, but dug her roots deeper into the earth and eventually stilled a little bit, hands clinging to her siblings tighter than her hostage.

“Yes, good, now please don’t do that again.” A low growl brought their attention to the man again, a leathery grim faced elder in his big heavy coat.

“Are you… are you the expert guy they said would come?” Mikael asked quietly.

“Close enough, name’s Marcus Reys, Master Mage in the Royal Order of Weavers. Not quite an expert in what I think is going on here, but we can find out I think. Preferably without threats of ripping my assistants in two, mind you.”

A stony fist pummelled the ground and sent dirt flying in all directions as Helen came closer, her stony features a mask of rage, “THAT WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU’D COME SOONER! THOSE BLOODY LITTLE PRICKS SHOT HER, SHOT ALL OF US COS YOU WERE LATE!”

“And not because of your magnetic personality?” He grunted with a grizzled eyebrow raised, “I got ya out of it too, and I’ll be the one expected to help ya out so nearly smashing me into the ground isn’t gonna do your situation any favours, son.”

“She’s a girl.” Mikael informed him quietly.

“Ah.” Marcus shrugged, “Anyways, me and my assistants will be setting up nearby and then getting to figuring ya lot out. Keep within this square of nine fields and don’t squish anyone important. I suppose ya’re not in too good a mood just now?”

Liza nodded firmly as she hugged her sister gently, “I think we need a while.”

“Take as long as ya need, gives me time for tea.” The old man turned promptly on his heel and marched through the muddy field.