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The Golem of Highrock by Kwandry (critique requested)

The Golem of Highrock

THE GOLEM OF HIGHROCK

by Kwandry Baasher

as requested by Skydon

Boar groaned, having to duck yet again to avoid hitting his head on another low-hanging tree branch. Over the course of his time serving as Mouse’s bodyguard, he had grown rather fond of the wizard, and he usually didn’t mind traveling with him most any place Mouse went.

But today was different. The meadow Mouse had chosen to go to today was a long hike away through a fairly dark forest with no cleared path through it. Not only was it a strenuous hike, causing Boar’s shirt and pants to be drenched with sweat, but their vision was extremely limited due to the thick overgrowth of this particular forest, which made Boar’s primary job of keeping watch for any potential assailants or signs of danger much more difficult.

“Again, what reason do we travel to forest?” he panted, not even trying to hide the disdain in his voice.

“As I’ve explained to you four times now,” Mouse replied, “we’re heading through the forest to a meadow that has an abundant supply of Priscinious Valeceas.”

Boar scoffed. “How do you even know tbe Pr—“ He stopped himself, knowing better than to try and repeat whatever Mouse just said. “How do you know we’ll find those there?”

Mouse tapped the side of his nose with his finger. “A good wizard can smell where the ingredients they require are to be found.”

“Can we not just get some at store instead?” Boar sighed.

This caused Mouse to laugh and shake his head. “If you could find some of these at any shop in town, I would triple your wages and give you the rest of the year off. As it is, I just hope we arrive before any others do.”

“Others?” Boar scratched his head. “But you’re only wizard in whole Crimson Valley! Doesn’t that give you rights over magic materials?”

“You’re correct,” Mouse nodded, “but the meadow we’re headed towards is not far from the border of the Highrock Territories. I know the wizard from that region. He’s… not too fond of me or of Crimsoners, and he’ll go to great lengths to obtain something that might give him an advantage.”

Rolling his eyes, Boar made a low chuffing sound. “Silly regional rivalries. Where Boar come from,” he said, raising his voice and pointing at his chest, “we don’t care about what land belongs to who. What nature provides is meant for all.”

Mouse turned his head, smirking at his bodyguard as he did so. “Yes, but you also don’t have things like taverns or bathtubs.”

Boar shrugged. “Hey, Boar didn’t say it was all good.”

Ahead, the overgrowth of the trees began to thin out, and the two could see the green open grass of a meadow spreading out ahead. Mouse’s eyes lit up as he pointed to their destination in front of them. “We’re here.”

“Finally,” Boar exclaimed in relief. “But we have to go through forest again to get back home, don’t we?”

Ignoring Boar’s question for the moment, Mouse stopped at the edge of the forest, his eyes scanning ahead for signs of the Valeceas. The meadow was rather large and lush, appearing as if no person before them had ever disturbed these grounds. He tilted his nose up and sniffed, his whiskers twitching in the gentle breeze.

Behind him, Boar watched, his hands on his hips. He was a little unsure as to what Mouse was doing, but he had come to accept his boss’s ways as part of being a wizard, and he stayed silent. After watching for over a minute, though, he started to grow impatient, eventually deciding to stick out his nose as well, sniffing in imitation, though he had no clue what he was trying to find.

Not seeing Boar’s mimicry, Mouse tilted his head back down and folded his arms across his chest. “Something’s not right here. I can’t pinpoint the origination of the Valeceas’s smell, and I don’t see any signs of their orange flower petals, do you?”

Boar shook his head. “No. Plenty greens, browns, and blues, but no oranges.”

“That’s so strange,” Mouse muttered. “Their scent is definitely here, but it’s diffused all over the meadow, not centered in one location. That wouldn’t make any sense unless someone intentionally coated the area with their smell. Almost as if—“

Before he could finish his sentence, a bolt of blue energy suddenly came flying at them, startling Boar and causing him to yelp. Instinctively, Mouse put up a protective ward, and the bolt reflected off of it and land at the base of a small tree, severing the trunk and causing it to collapse and crash to the ground.

“—they were setting up a trap.” Mouse furrowed his brow as he saw the source of the blue energy standing on a small boulder in the middle of the meadow: his rival, Jack, the wizard from the Highrock Territories. Although also a mouse, Jack was taller and thinner, his fur much darker and matted. Like all Highrock citizens, he had a scar in each cheek under his eyes, giving his face a menacing appearance despite the wide smile on his lips.

“Why, hello, my friends,” Jack called out, bowing in an over-exaggerated fashion as he did so. “So good of you two to join me here.”

Mouse clenched his fists, doing his best to conceal any emotion as he approached the boulder, while Boar followed close behind, slightly confused. “I knew you didn’t like me, Jack, but that’s no reason to try and blast me into pieces.”

Chuckling, Jack shook his head. “My dear, dear, Mouse, you misunderstand me. That bolt wasn’t meant to hurt you. I knew a wizard as skilled with wards as you could block it, which you did, of course. I was merely trying to get your attention.”

“Is that why you coated this meadow with the scent of Priscinious Valeceas? Was that the bait for your trap?”

Jack beamed, leering down from his perch atop the boulder. “Well, you wouldn’t exactly respond if I sent you a message by courier, now would you?”

“What do you want, Jack?”

The question seemed to amuse the other mouse. “What do I want? What do I want?” Suddenly, his smile vanished. “Since when have you ever been concerned with what I want? You and your kind have always lorded over the good people of Highrock, treated me and the rest of my brethren like we were scum.”

Mouse shook his head in disbelief. “What? Since when have I ever—“

“Oh, I suppose you don’t remember the last Great Conference, do you?” Jack snorted. “It’s only been seven years, Mouse. Wizards from every region on the continent invited to the great land of Crimson Valley for harmony and an exchange of ideas… except for, curiously enough, the Highrock Territories.”

“What?” Mouse furrowed his brow. “I didn’t have anything to do with the invitations for that.”

“Even before that,” Jack continued, “do you remember your last year at the College of West Peak, when we had to demonstrate our most impressive spell in front of the graduation committee?”

“Barely.”

Jack scoffed, waving his arms in an overly-dramatic fashion. “I had been working my tail off mastering the ability to summon the Titan of the Peak, at his full size, nonetheless! The most difficult conjuration spell known at the time. I stayed up for four days straight, making sure I had every detail covered, even as far down as how long I should hold my breath between reciting each word of the spell.

“But you had the advantage of going directly before me, didn’t you? And you decided to use your silly size-changing spells to shrink the entire audience, myself included! Of course, the committee was impressed, but in your haste to show off, your spell upset the energies of the rest of the students in the room. Needless to say, when I was called on to perform my spell, I only had enough power to summon the Titan at one tenth his size— no bigger than a common dog! My score was lowered, which allowed you to graduate top of the class while I was stuck at number 2!”

Mouse rolled his eyes and shrugged. “So? You’ve still ended up at the exact same level as I have! Why are you letting something from so long ago bother you so much?”

Jack’s eyes narrowed as he glared down at Mouse. “You’ve overshadowed me my entire life, Mouse. Well, now I have something that will overshadow you!” He reached into his sleeve and pulled out a small rod, no bigger than the length of his forearm, looking like a tree branch with its bark removed and its surface smoothed over.

Barely able to keep himself quiet during Jack’s theatrics, Boar had finally seen enough, and let out a loud guffaw. “That tiny thing?” he chortled. “Boar step over ten of those on the walk to meadow. Come, Mouse, let’s go back to forest and find you one like that.”

Grinning, Mouse nodded. “I think going back is a good idea, Boar. We’ll leave Jack here to wave his stick around and head home. It’s pretty obvious that we’re not going to find the Valeceas anywhere close by.”

The two turned around and started heading back to the forest. Scowling, Jack shouted out after them. “No! Don’t leave yet!” Seeing the pair not responding, he let out an exasperated sigh and held the stick up high. “Shilak ca Golloth!” He waved the stick back and forth, repeating the phrase several times, each time his voice becoming more and more exasperated.

“What a strange man,” Boar said as he and Mouse reached the forest edge.

Mouse nodded. “Strange, but harmless. Blue bolts of energy notwithstanding.”


“That trip was certainly big waste,” Boar grumbled as they reached the other end of the forest, where Mouse’s home sat on a small cliff overlooking the town below. The two-story stone house with its attached workshop looked more like a small castle, plenty of room for the two of them to live in comfortably. Each step towards the house made the idea of taking a nice, warm bath grow stronger and stronger in Boar’s head. With bubbles, he decided. Bubbles would be just right.

“Perhaps,” Mouse finally replied, slowing his step and lagging a bit behind. “But remember this: every second in life teaches us something important, even if we don’t realize the lesson until much later.”

“Here’s lesson from today,” Boar said, turning around and grinning as he stopped at the large cast-iron gate in the tall stone wall running around the edge of Mouse’s property. “Crazy Highrock wizards are best to stay far, far away from wherever Boar is.“

Mouse returned the smile, and Boar started opening the gate, grunting as he did so. The gate weighed more than four times his weight, heavy enough to keep out any potential intruders, and (like the wall it was a part of) it stood nearly three times as tall as he did. Since the Crimson Valley had very little crime and had never been attacked in any war, the heavy fortifications seemed very pointless to Boar, only serving to make him exert more effort and make his job that much harder.

He waited for Mouse to walk through the gate, and then stepped through himself, dragging the door shut behind him. It slammed loudly, making a nearly-deafening clang that echoed down into the valley below.

As he turned to face the house, Boar nearly ran into the back of Mouse, who had stopped in his tracks. The wizard’s ears were perked up, and his whiskers twitched nervously.

“Did you hear that?” Mouse asked.

Boar raised his eyebrows. “The gate? Of course Boar hear! It made big clanging noise, after all.”

“No, not that.” Mouse held up a finger as if asking for a moment’s silence, tilting his head slightly to the right. “There it is again!”

“There what again?” Boar closed his eyes and shook his head. “Boar has had enough for one day. Time for nice warm bubble bath. See you inside.”

He started to walk towards the door, but Mouse reached out and grabbed his shoulder, pulling him back. Boar sighed, beginning to say something, but he was stopped by a low, but audible and resonating THOOM, coming from the forest behind them.

Turning around, Boar made eye contact with Mouse. Neither of them said anything, but they both knew that they were now hearing the same thing; the sounds were real. And, as they kept repeating, it became obvious that whatever was making them was coming this way.

A few seconds later, some of the taller trees that rose above the rest of the forest startled rustling, and several birds flew up out of them into the sky, fleeing something in a hurry. Something big.

That something soon revealed itself, as a towering figure emerged from the forest, pushing aside trees that didn’t stand much higher than it did. Nearly as wide as it was tall, the creature appeared to be made of stone, and it’s dark-brown exterior was coated in mud. The only part of it that wasn’t thick and large was it’s head, which appeared very out of place, sticking out from the top of its wide shoulders like a single candle in a birthday cake, its eyes forming the red flame.

“What is that?” Boar cried out, his eyes bulging. He had heard stories of large monsters back in his homeland, but never anything resembling the size or form of this creature.

Mouse tried to maintain his composure, but even he began to tremble a little at the sheer scale of this creature before them. “I-I’m not sure,” he stammered, “but I think it might be a golem.”

“Golem?”

“Huge mystical creatures made of stone,” Mouse quickly explained. “According to legend, shamans from the tribes that would later form the Highrock Territories created them and used them to wage war on the rest of—”

He didn’t have time to finish before the golem lifted its foot and stomped the ground, causing the ground to quake and knocking both Boar and Mouse off their feet. As they scrambled to stand back up, the golem began climbing over the stone wall into Mouse’s yard. The wall barely reached its knees, and the creature easily cleared it with a single step.

“Golloth il Yillsch!” The shouted command could barely be heard above the noise that the golem made. It seemed to serve its purpose, however, as the golem ceased moving, looming above the two smaller creatures at its feet (or, more accurately, the flat base of the pillars that served as its legs). At hearing the voice that shouted it, Mouse’s ears flattened. He couldn’t quite tell where the voice was coming from, but he had no doubt who it belonged to.

Sure enough, Jack suddenly appeared over the golem’s shoulder, waving his hand at them, which still held the stick from before, now glowing with the same red light as the golem’s eyes. “Hello again, Mouse. I hope you don’t mind us stopping by. May I present The Golem of Highrock!”

Mouse didn’t reply, instead clenching his fists and gritting his teeth. Behind him, Boar stared up at the stone creature with a stunned fascination on his face.

“Golloth ra Lovahk,” Jack ordered, and the golem slowly began to kneel down. Even the simple act of its knee hitting the ground sent out shockwaves and rattled the windows of the house behind them. Once the golem had lowered itself as far as it could, it brought its left arm down to the grass. This formed a makeshift ramp, which Jack then descended, half-running, half-sliding down to the ground.

“He’s quite something, isn’t he?” Jack said, standing before Mouse and gesturing up at the large automaton. It remained stationary, and the red glow had disappeared from its eyes. In this pose, it could almost be mistaken for a large sculpture, if one hadn’t seen it moving just a few seconds before. “He’s been stored under Highrock Palace for the last seven hundred years. No one thought he’d ever work again.” Turning back to Mouse, he used his free hand to pat the now-dark stick he held with the other. “Took me half a decade to figure out how to repair its control rod here, but once I did that, the rest was easy enough. At least, easy enough for the greatest wizard in the world.”

Mouse tried his best to appear indifferent to the display of power before him, but he knew his unease was visible. “Why did you reanimate him, Jack? What are you doing with him here?”

Chuckling, Jack shook his head. “Why did I reanimate him? Because I can, Mouse! I’m a much more talented wizard than you ever gave me credit for, and I have access to magic beyond what you can ever know. As for what I’m doing with him here…” His grin widened as his eyes narrowed. “I’m going to have him destroy your little workshop and home.”

Both Mouse and Boar let out an audible gasp. “You can’t do that!” Boar exclaimed.

Jack snorted. “Oh no? Try and stop me.” Holding the control rod up, he turned back to face the golem. “Disheth ek Golloth,” he said, his voice calm but loud.

The control rod started to glow red once again. A second later, the red light also returned to the golem’s eyes, and it slowly rose to its full height. The house before it didn’t even reach its chest, and as it took another booming step towards it, a few loose bricks fell from the walls to the ground. Mouse and Boar scampered away from the house as the golem moved in front of it, looking down as if studying it for a moment.

Mouse racked his brain for what he could do to stop the golem’s attack. He had a plan, but the plan required much more complicated spells than he could perform unarmed. He needed his wand. The wand that was currently in the second floor of the house, the same floor that was about to be crushed by several tons of stone. He had to buy some time…

After staying still a few seconds, the golem suddenly rose its right arm high into the air, forming a fist with its hand. The hand then quickly began rushing towards the house, about to smash the roof in.

Just before it did so, however, Mouse lifted his hands up and summoned forth a large protective ward, extending it forth and encircling the entire house with it. The ward appeared just in time for the golem’s fists to bounce off of it, causing it to stumble backwards.

A frown appeared on Jack’s face as he rolled his eyes and sighed. “You and your wards. Still, you can’t sustain a ward of that magnitude for very long. You’re only delaying the inevitable.”

Furrowing his brow, Mouse turned to Boar, struggling to keep the ward up as he did so. “He’s right. I can’t keep this up for much longer.”

“What about destructive spells?” Boar asked.

Mouse shook his head. “From what I recall, the only spells that are known to harm golems are water-based, which is my one area of weakness. I’m guessing Jack probably knew this.”

“Then,” Boar said, scratching the back of his neck, “what can you do?”

“I have an idea,” Mouse said, leaning in and speaking in a hushed tone. “Once the ward falls, rush inside and grab my wand. It’s in the drawer of the table next to my bed.”

“What?” Boar put up both of his hands in protest. “No no no. With ward gone, golem will smash entire house with Boar inside. This silly feud isn’t worth Boar getting killed for. You run in and grab it.”

Scowling, Mouse wanted to argue, but the ward was already flickering, and a couple of seconds later, it disappeared. Seeing this, the golem once again slowly started to move closer to the house.

There wasn’t time to try and convince Boar that entering the house was worth the danger. There weren’t any alternatives; Mouse only had one chance to grab his wand before it was too late. “Fine then,” he huffed as he took off running towards the front door of the house.

“You’re actually doing it?” Boar called out after him, a little surprised. “Why?”

Mouse didn’t bother to turn around, replying, “Because I won’t let him win.”


Dashing through the foyer, Mouse tried to figure out how quickly he could get to the wand. Even at top speed, it would take him at least fifteen seconds to run up the stairs, reach the master bedroom and grab his wand from the drawer in the bedside table, and then another fifteen to escape back outside again. Glancing out the window, he saw that the golem was standing next to the house once more. There’d be no way Mouse would be able to stop it before it got in at least one good attack on the house. He just hoped he could dodge any debris and make it out alive.

The stairs were near the kitchen towards the back of the main hall, and Mouse reached them just as a loud impact rocked the house. With an ear-splitting bang, the golem’s hands smashed through the far side of the ceiling, causing a cloud of dust, stone, and wood to rain down from above, covering the hall floor and crushing several pieces of furniture below.

Mouse stopped only for a moment, knowing that he didn’t have time to gawk in amazement at the sheer destructive force of this creature. Taking the stairs two at a time, he reached the top, rushing around the balcony overlooking the hall towards his bedroom on the opposite side. From here, he could see out through the hole in the roof, and the golem could see him, its fiery red eyes now fixed firmly on the wizard.

Reaching the bedroom door, Mouse swung it open and ran inside. As he lunged at the bedside table and yanked open the drawer, the air was filled once more by an overwhelming boom, even louder than the previous one, and the roof of the bedroom buckled inward. Mouse shielded his head with his arms as debris fell around him, and a sudden push of air knocked him to his knees and caused the table to fall on its side. The wand fell out of the drawer, sliding across the floor towards the back corner of the room.

Mouse cursed silently under his breath, turning his head to see that the ceiling at the front of the room was now entirely gone. The golem had crushed it with a large, uprooted tree trunk, which now blocked the door back out into to the hall. “So much for my exit strategy,” Mouse muttered. “I guess I’ll have to improvise.”

Jumping to his feet again, he stumbled forward and grabbed the fallen wand from the corner, instantly feeling its energies flowing through him and amplifying his own inner power. He turned back around, trying to see where the golem currently stood, but the creature was nowhere in sight. Hearing loud thumping footsteps outside, Mouse guessed that it was circling the house, preparing for its next attack. Now wasn’t the time for a carefully planned strategy, Mouse realized. Now was the time for improvisation.

He took a deep breath, then ran to the tree trunk and jumped on top of it, starting to scamper up along its length towards the outside. Reaching the trunk’s intersection with the roof, he frantically scanned the area, searching for a place he could safely move to. A balcony towards the front of the house appeared to be his only option. He leapt from the trunk to the still-intact portion of the roof, climbing across its surface.

From here, he could see that the golem had indeed moved to the other side of the house, and as it saw the wizard, it raised its arms for another assault. Just before it brought them crashing down, Mouse took another desperate leap, barely avoiding being squashed under the creature’s stone hands. He crash-landed on the balcony below, alive if a little bruised.

“Bet you didn’t learn that at College!” Lifting his head, Mouse saw Boar standing in the yard below, leaning against the stone wall with his arms folded across his chest and a bemused smile on his face.

“Some bodyguard you are!” Mouse huffed. “How about you try earning your pay for a change?” He lifted the wand in his hand and aimed it directly at Boar, quickly summoning up as much inner spirit as he could. The wand started to warm up, and its tip began to glow a bright green color, indicating it was fully charged. “Biggus Suscrofus!” Mouse shouted at the top of his lungs, and a green-tinted bolt of energy shot out of the wand, hitting Boar directly in the chest.

“Wha—?” Boar’s eyes lit up, and his mouth fell open in surprise as he started to grow. His head rose up higher against the stone wall he was leaning against, causing him to have to step away from it to avoid falling over. His muscles also began to bulge outward, combining with his already hefty bulk to push against the seams of his clothing. Looking down at his enlarging body, Boar’s shock quickly melted away and was replaced by a pleased grin. “This is good spell, Mouse! Very good spell!”

Within ten seconds or so, Boar stood nearly as tall as the wall itself, having more than doubled in height. Hearing a loud rip, he turned his head, seeing that his shirt had split down his back, forced open by his ever-expanding mass. Boar laughed at this, then leaned back and brought his arms up in a flexing pose, causing the front of his shirt to rip down the middle as well.

From the balcony, Mouse watched nervously, his eyes shifting back and forth between his attacker and his bodyguard. Boar’s growth was certainly fast, but it wasn’t as fast as he needed it to be. He still wasn’t even half as tall as the golem, which had moved back around to his side of the house, nearly close enough to attack again.

Mouse weighed his options. He had enough energy left to cast the spell once more, but he had never done that before with this spell; indeed, he had no clue if it would help the process or even possibly make things worse. Nevertheless, it seemed like the only option that gave him a chance at winning.

Gritting his teeth, Mouse summoned up all the power he had remaining and repeated the spell, flooding Boar with another wave of growth energy. As he did so, he saw the golem began to lift up its arm, its hands about to come down directly on top of him. Instincts took over, and Mouse yelled at the top of his lungs and leapt forward from the balcony, knowing that any injuries he would take in the fall would be better than the certain death that waited for him beneath the golem’s stoney fists.

As he started falling to the ground, though, he suddenly crashed into a firm-but-cushioning surface that was pushing upwards against him. Catching his breath, Mouse looked up and saw that he had landed on Boar’s rapidly-widening chest, his face in the crevice that had formed between the boulder-sized pecs. Boar’s shirt by now was a distant memory; the only clothing that remained was the shreds of his pants.

Boar glanced downward, amused at seeing his tiny friend lying on his body. “You see? Boar told you it was better for you to go into house. You get wand first, Boar grow huge, everything works out.”

Still gasping for air, Mouse chose not to reply. The giant was right, of course. Though stronger and more durable, Boar was considerably slower; he would’ve had little chance of reaching the wand in enough time. But Mouse saw no point in admitting that.

He started to crawl up along Boar’s chest, trying to use strands of fur as hand-holds. Before he got very far, however, he felt his sides being gently pressed in by two large, firm pillars. He quickly realized that Boar had picked him up between two fingers, lifting him up and placing him on the top of his head. “That better place for you to watch,” Boar said. “Boar prefer not to step on you. Now we crush golem and beat other wizard mouse.”

From this vantage point, Mouse could tell that Boar’s height had far surpassed the roofline of the house, nearly twice as tall as it was now. His growth had seemed to have stopped by now, but the sheer sense of power that he commanded was still intimidating; Mouse was certainly glad that they were on the same team.

Looking around, he spotted the golem standing to their left, standing motionless and staring up slightly at the being that was suddenly standing a head taller than it. Though its face remained stoney and emotionless, Mouse could sense a small bit of fright inside the creature. For a brief moment, he almost felt sorry for it, remembering that it was acting on orders and not under its own will.

At the foot of the golem, he noticed Jack, whose panic was far more noticeable. He tried to step back from Boar, but stumbled and fell on his backside. His arm shook as he held up the control rod, and his voice cracked a little as he shouted, “Disholoth ek Golloth! Disholoth ek Golloth!”

Turning to face his adversary, Boar crossed his arms and grinned. The golem seemed to hesitate, but then lifted its arm back and clenched its hand into a fist. Holding that pose for a moment, it then started bringing the arm forward in a punching motion, aimed squarely at Boar’s chest.

Boar waited until the last second to react. In the blink of an eye, he lifted his hand and caught the golem’s fist with it, causing it to stop altogether. For a moment, the force of the two giants struggled against each other, but the golem’s arm eventually was pushed back, and the creature fell backwards.

The golem regained its footing and stepped forward again, trying to hit a little lower on Boar’s body this time. Its motion was much quicker and a little wild, and instead of trying to fight back, Boar simply side-stepped the punch. The golem stumbled and fell to its hands and knees, scrambling to push itself back up as quick as it could.

Seeing his opportunity, Boar turned towards the golem and lunged forward, grunting as he did so, while Mouse wrapped his hands around two fistfuls of Boar’s hair and clung on as tightly as possible. As the golem turned around and tried to regain its balance, Boar landed a powerful punch against its chest, sending it spinning in the air and slamming face-first to the ground. The entire valley shook with a reverberating boom, and some of the roof of the house that hadn’t yet been destroyed started to wobble and then teeter over behind them.

As he took a thunderous step towards his fallen adversary, Boar sighed. “It’s a shame Boar have to destroy such an interesting creature because of stupid argument.” Shaking his head, he lifted his foot over the golem’s chest, bringing it down with as much force as he could muster. As the bottom of his paw slammed into the golem’s back, the rocks that formed its body began to crumble and crack. From atop Boar’s head, Mouse could swear that he could hear a barely-audible cry escape from the golem’s lips, one that caused a shiver to travel down his spine.

Boar lifted his paw and stepped back, then bent down and grabbed each of the golem’s legs with his hands. Grunting, he lifted the massive creature up into the air above his head, then started slamming it back down against the ground. The force sent Mouse high into the air as his grip around Boar’s hair loosened and he flew off of Boar’s head to the ground below. He yelped, but before he reached the ground, he summoned up a protective ward to slow down and cushion his fall, landing without even so much as a bruise.

The ground quaked as the body of the golem hit it and broke into several pieces. The boulders flew off in all directions, smashing holes in the perimeter wall, sailing into the forest, and smashing into the ruins of the house, causing more of it to collapse. Mouse began to second-guess his decision to grow his bodyguard this big, wondering just what it was he was actually saving.

Looking to his right, he saw Jack standing and staring up at Boar, his face frozen in disbelief. The control rod he still held in his hand had lost its glow once again, permanently this time, Mouse guessed. Finally realizing what had happened, Jack’s ears flattened, and he bowed his head in defeat.

Boar stood back up to his full height and looked down at the remains of the golem. “It is done,” he said with a slight tone of sadness in his voice. He took a few steps towards the closest piece of rock that had fallen, then bent down and picked it up. “Boar will now honor your defeat by taking trophy.” He lifted the rock up and smashed it against his shoulder, grinding it until it resembled a piece of makeshift armor. He walked over to another piece of rock and did the same with the other shoulder. The last, largest boulder he crushed against his chest, forming a chest-plate of sorts.

Turning back around towards the two wizards, Boar leaned in slightly, flexing his arms and roaring in victory. As he did so, he began to grow once again, both Mouse and Jack watching in stunned horror. His form stretched higher and higher above, taller than any of the trees in the nearby forest and then some. In less than ten seconds, he had grown twice as tall as he had been just a few moments earlier, before his growth finally stopped.

Jack looked over at Mouse, his whiskers quivering as he spoke. “You’ve finally done it this time, Mouse, haven’t you?”

Mouse shook his head, standing back up. “Don’t worry, I can fix this.” He took a few steps towards the towering giant in front of them, lifting up his wand. “Excanilus Suscrofus!” A bolt flew out, hitting Boar in the knees. He seemed to not even feel the blast. He did start to shrink, though, but not nearly as quick as he had been growing.

Boar didn’t even notice that he was becoming smaller until he had lost about half of the height he had gained in the previous spurt. Once he realized what was going on, he began to scowl. Turning his head down to Mouse, he shook his head. “Why give Boar such a great gift and then take it away so fast? This won’t do at all.”

Closing his eyes, he let out a loud growl, bending his knees slightly as he did so. Doing this caused his body to stop shrinking, and a few seconds later it began shooting up in height once again. His paws pushed forward, getting closer to where Mouse and Jack were standing. The two wizards scampered backwards, both tilting their heads up at the growing figure before them. They were now no bigger than an insect compared to Boar, and Mouse started to dread what would happen if this sudden rush of power went to his head.

“Now do you see what I was saying?!” Jack exclaimed, gesturing even more dramatically than usual. “Whatever you did to this beast has given him control over his own size!”

“T-that’s impossible,” Mouse stammered. He brought his wand up again, pouring every bit of energy he had left into the spell this time, hitting Boar in the legs. Mouse held his breath, waiting to see the results and hoping that the double-blast of shrinking spells would be as effective as it had been with the growth ones.

Ten seconds passed, then fifteen, and Boar didn’t seem to lose even an inch. “Silly Mouse,” Boar said, grinning. “It’s time for Boar to teach you people a lesson.”

Once again, his body started rising towards the clouds. Every little movement he made now caused the ground to tremble, and his booming laugh echoed throughout the valley. His feet began sinking into the grass, while the toes of his paws had reached the walls of Mouse’s workshop. They pushed forward, knocking down the walls that had remained standing with barely any resistance and continuing to plow through the rest of the house, completely destroying anything that was left. By the time this growth spurt stopped, his toes were poking over the edge of the cliff, looming over the city below.

Jack swore under his breath and shook his head. “I’m out of here,” he said, turning and starting to run towards the forest.

“What?!” Mouse called out, following after him and trying to catch up.

“This is your problem, Mouse.” Jack stopped, turning around and glaring. “I just hope you find a way to fix it before he outgrows the planet.”

“My problem?!” Mouse exclaimed. Having had enough, he lunged forward and grabbed the collar of Jack’s robe. “Listen, Jack! I don’t care what problems we’ve had in the past, or who started what. I don’t even care about the damn Titan of the Peak! We’ve both screwed up here, and you know it. So that means it’s both of our responsibilities to fix it!”

Gulping, Jack seemed a little shocked by Mouse’s sudden ultimatum. “But… I don’t know where to begin, and—“

“Neither do I,” Mouse interrupted, “but we both better work together to figure it out, and fast.”

As if to drive the point home, they both were knocked off their feet by the ground suddenly starting to quake once again. They quickly jumped back up and turned around, seeing that Boar had hopped off of the cliff, as if it was little more than a single stair. Exchanging looks with each other, both Jack and Mouth gulped, realizing that Boar was heading towards the town.


The sun had set behind the cliffs by the time Mouse and Jack reached the town on horseback, and half of the buildings were in ruins. Most of them were smaller and of poorer construction than Mouses’s home had been, belonging to the working class who couldn’t afford anything nearly as expensive as the town’s wizard could. These buildings didn’t stand much of a chance, some even collapsing from the reverberations coming from the giant’s footsteps alone.

“Such pathetic little buildings,” Boar said, shaking his head disapprovingly. “Boar not even trying to knock them down and yet they crumble. See what your squabbles between regions get you? After Boar destroy buildings, you should try working together to make them even stronger.”

Turning his head, his eyes lit up as he saw the two largest buildings the town had to offer, both which were right next to each other: the castle of the lord who ruled over the town, and the bell tower of the cathedral. A grin spread across his face, and he started walking towards these buildings.

The two wizards hurried to the center of town, trying to get as near as possible to where Boar was. The streets became more difficult to navigate as they got closer to the giant, and the horses started to resist, refusing to move forward. Seeing little other choice, they both abandoned their rides, jumping off and proceeding the rest of the way on foot.

“I keep telling you,” Jack said as they climbed across some debris, “as long as he’s conscious, no shrinking spell will work, no matter the magnitude. He’ll just counter it and grow even larger!”

Mouse furrowed his brow. “But what if he’s not conscious?”

“Well, then you might be able to shrink him down for a little bit,” Jack said, stepping over a large wooden rafter that had fallen from the roof of a nearby building and lay across the street. “Possibly even back to his normal size with enough time and energy. But you’d have to have him unconscious for an incredibly long time. And what are you gonna do, just wait until he gets tired?”

“What if we could make him fall asleep?”

“How do we do that? Get him drunk?” Jack laughed, just before another earth-shaking noise filled the air. His smile vanished, and he began to pick up the pace. “Mouse, at his size, I highly doubt there’s enough alcohol in both of our cities combined to be able to do that.”

“No,” Mouse said, running to catch up, “but what if we could control him? Give him a command?”

It took a moment for Jack to realize what Mouse was referring to. “You mean like with the golem?”

“Exactly!” Mouse’s eyes lit up. “He’s wearing parts of the golem right now, isn’t he? And they’ve seemed to grow with him while his clothes didn’t, almost as if they were a part of his body. What if we just take that a step further?”

Jack stopped, turning around to face Mouse with a confused look on his face. “What are you saying, Mouse?”

“I’m saying,” Mouse explained, “that I can cast a spell to fuse the rocks with his body. That would, in effect, make him part golem. It might be enough that you can use the control rod and give him a command to sleep.”

“Hmmm.” Jack considered this for a moment. “You’d have to get close enough and high enough for your spells to be able to reach the rocks on his shoulders. It’s a longshot, but—”

Another loud boom interrupted him, and they both began running towards the direction it came from. As they rounded the corner, they saw Boar looming over the castle, having easily stepped over (and having partially knocked down) its walls, which at his current height, were only a little higher than his ankles. Several of the lord’s knights stood near his paws, attacking him in vain with their swords, maces, bows and arrows. All the while, Boar just stood there, watching their feeble efforts and laughing.

“I hope we’re not too late,” Mouse muttered.

“Look,” Jack said, pointing at the cathedral tower, which stood approximately the same height as the titan and had so far been untouched by him. “If you can reach the top of that building, you should be close enough to fuse the pieces of the golem into his body.”

Mouse nodded. “Yes, but he’ll almost surely notice that as soon as I do so. I mean, I can’t imagine that rocks fusing with his skin and muscles would feel very pleasant. You’ll need to be close enough for him to be able to hear when you command him to sleep, even before I start.”

“Okay,” Jack agreed, “but since he’ll already be moving, I don’t think I’ll be able to do that until the control rod lights up and his eyes turn red. Still, I’ll get inside the castle so I can get as close as possible. Somehow, I imagine that the guards have other things to worry about right now than a blasted Highrock spy sneaking in. I just hope they can keep him entertained long enough for you to reach the top of the tower.”

“If not, I know you’ll be able to create some sort of distraction,” Mouse said, slapping Jack on the back. “Maybe you can even summon the Titan of the Peak for him!”

Before Jack could reply, Mouse took off running towards the tower. Scowling, Jack rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Smug Crimsoner Bastard,” he muttered under his breath.


For the second time in less than an hour, Mouse found himself dashing up a staircase, this time a much bigger one that wrapped around the edges of the square tower. At least this building wasn’t being attacked by a giant, he thought as he ran as fast as he could. Not yet, anyway.

Even in the reasonably good shape he was in, Mouse still was gasping for air by the time he reached the second-to-last flight of steps. Pausing there for a moment, he leaned against the wall, catching his breath. He was rocked back to attention by another resounding boom coming from below, shortly followed a loud, low-pitched ringing that filled the entire tower. Covering his ears, Mouse winced, waiting for the noise to die down.

As he waited, he examined the stone of the building around him. The tower he was in was fairly new, having been built as an addition to the much older cathedral about five years earlier. It definitely seemed much sturdier than any of the other buildings in the town. But as its walls shook from whatever it was Boar was doing outside, Mouse realized that even a modern building like this could only hold up against these constant rumblings for so long. He had no time to waste at this point; every second counted.

A second wind kicked in, and Mouse rushed up the last flight of stairs, reaching the open area at the top of the tower. The large church bell hung suspended from a rod between two columns, still swaying back and forth slightly from the last reverberations. Inside, its tongue gently struck the metal sides, making several soft chimes before eventually quietening. Grateful for the silence, Mouse hoped that there wouldn’t be another rumble loud enough to cause the bell to start ringing again while he was up here.

As he turned his attention from the bell back to the castle, his jaw dropped open. His vision was filled with a wide, furry surface, which he quickly realized was the lower part of Boar’s back. While he was climbing the stairs, Boar must have once again doubled in height, and as Mouse looked down towards the ground, he saw that the back of the titan’s heels had smashed through the castle walls and were perilously close to colliding with the church tower. One more growth spurt, Mouse realized, and not only would Boar be too tall for the fusion spells to reach their targets, but he would most likely take the tower out without even realizing it. Mouse shuttered, knowing that any room for error that he may have had before was now gone.

With Boar at this height and facing away from him, the only rocks he could currently aim for were the ones on the giant’s shoulders. Even those were a bit of a stretch, just barely visible from where Mouse stood. He quickly went over his plan of attack in his head: left shoulder first, then right shoulder, then, as Boar turned around, he’d have enough time to summon enough energy for one last shot at the chest-plate.

“Alright, Mouse,” he said aloud, trying to calm his nerves. “You gotta be perfect here; no do-overs. It’s time to either fix your mistake or die trying.”

He gulped, closing his eyes and beginning to channel his energy into the wand. Aiming it at the rock on Boar’s left shoulder, he waited until the tip lit up, this time a bright white color. He then shouted out, “Viscivos Allfusko!”

The white energy that flew out of the wand seemed even brighter in the dark of the night. As it struck its target, Boar immediately jerked his shoulder, yelling out in pain as he raised a hand to his shoulder, clutching it. He continued to moan for several seconds, and Mouse felt a wave of relief wash over him. “It’s working! The stone must be fusing with his skin!” Feeling energized at the success, he started preparing to repeat the spell with the other shoulder.

But just before he cast it, Boar started to turn around, and Mouse realized he had made a miscalculation. Instead of turning around to his right like he had planned on, the giant was moving the opposite direction, turning so that his right shoulder, which Mouse was aiming for, was blocked. Mouse didn’t realize this until after the words of the spell left his lips, and the white bolt flew out and hit Boar’s left shoulder a second time. Since the stone already had fused with the rock, this only served to anger the titan even further.

“WHO DID THAT?!” Boar roared in fury, his eyes wildly looking around the entire town. For the moment, anyways, he seemed to not see Mouse standing at the top of the tower, but the wizard knew that wouldn’t last long.

“Curses!” Mouse exclaimed. “I don’t know if I have enough energy to cast the spell two more times, at least not as quick as I would need to. I might have to improvise again.” Gritting his teeth, he tried to wait as long as he could before making his next move, building up as much energy as he could muster.

He didn’t have long to do so, however, before Boar started moving, slowly lifting up his leg. “If you ants attack Boar, then Boar will make you pay!” He then quickly brought his paw down to the ground, slamming it as hard as he could, right at the base of the tower. The earthquake he generated could be felt over two regions away, and his paw formed a crater deep enough to fit a two story house in. Almost all of the buildings still left standing in the town collapsed, and the cliffs above began to crumble, rocks tumbling down and forming a sudden avalanche.

Mouse tried to steady himself against one of the corners of the tower, wincing as the church bell started to clang loudly. Thankfully, though, the reverberations caused one of the columns that held the bell up to start crumbling, tilting the rod and causing the bell to slide off of it and tumble down through the tower below. Before he could fully regain his footing, though, Mouse felt the entire tower began to sway, and it soon began to collapse, tilting towards Boar.

“AHHHHHH!” Mouse yelled, leaping as high and as far as he could towards Boar’s waist, grabbing onto some stomach fur as the rest of the tower smashed against the giant’s thigh. Breathing rapidly, he stayed still for nearly a minute, wondering how in the world he could still be alive. As he looked up at the massive form of his former bodyguard stretching high above him, his odds of succeeding seemed less and less likely, and the desire to give up was nearly overwhelming.

Finally, though, he shook his head, a new sense of determination filling up inside of him. “No,” he said, “now’s not the time to think the odds, or to even consider giving up. I made a commitment to Jack. I have a job to do, and I’ll keep trying to do it until I succeed.” Sticking his wand in his mouth to free up his hands, he started climbing up the body of the colossus, summoning up every last drop of energy that he could, both physical as well as magical. He could see the chest-plate above, but he decided to hold off on firing the spell as long as possible, not wanting to reveal his presence until he had to.

As he did so, Boar turned his attention back to the castle grounds. By now, the guards had almost all fled, only a few stragglers still around. “Either you have death wish,” Boar commented towards them, “or your silly patriotism has destroyed your minds.” Looking around, he saw that the guard shacks, stables, and most of the outer wall had collapsed, probably because of his last huge stomp. The main keep of the castle still stood mostly intact, however. Boar smiled. It wouldn’t take long to change that, he thought, starting to take a step in that direction.

By this time, Mouse had climbed about halfway up Boar’s torso, shifting around to the giant’s right side. He was beginning to feel week, knowing that he was over-exerting himself. But he pressed on, repeating “I can’t give up” over and over again, like a mantra.

Once the still-unaffected rock on the right shoulder was in sight, he stopped, looking back and forth between it and the rock on Boar’s chest. “With a little luck,” he said to himself, “I’ll be able to aim and hit both rocks from here.” He glanced down, seeing that Boar was now targeting the castle keep itself. Bracing himself, he aimed for the rock on the shoulder. “Alright, here goes!”

Channeling his energy into the wand, he cast the spell the instant the tip began to glow. The shot hit dead-on, and Boar let out another ear-splitting yell of pain. Mouse clung on for his life as the colossus’s body shook and convulsed, trying to ready the final spell as fast as he possibly could before Boar noticed the tiny wizard.

But Boar had already done so. Glaring down at the tiny bug on his chest, he snarled, revealing his teeth, each one bigger than a slab of marble. “You shouldn’t do that, Mouse! Boar thought you were friend, but now your just another bug to squash!”

Mouse ignored Boar’s words, holding the wand out towards the chest-plate and focusing as much as he could on the last spell. He had little energy left, and he started to feel light-headed, his grip on the fur strands beginning to loosen. For a moment, his vision blurred, but when he looked up, he saw that the tip of his wand had finally, thankfully, started to glow.

“Viscivos Allfusko.” His voice was barely strong enough to whisper it by this point, but as the words left his lips, the wand sent forth one last bolt of energy. It barely struck the edge of the rock on Boar’s chest, but it was enough. Boar closed his eyes and let out another yell of pain, while his fingers let go of the last few strands of fur, no longer having the strength to maintain his grip.

He started to fall to the ground, but as he looked up once more, he saw the glaring eyes of Boar suddenly start to glow red; the same glow that was in the golem’s eyes. “I did it!” Mouse weakly exclaimed. A smile spread across his face as he closed his own eyes. It didn’t matter that he was tumbling towards his death now. He had saved the world. He had fixed his mistake.

Bracing himself for the impact against the streets below, he instead was surprised to feel his acceleration towards the ground suddenly slow down. He opened his eyes, seeing the world no longer rushing by him. Confused, he looked downward, realizing that he was floating in mid-air, a few feet above the ground. “Wha—?” he mumbled, trying to figure out what was going on.

“You know I couldn’t let you die, Mouse,” he heard a familiar voice say behind him. Lifting his head and turning around, he was stunned to see Jack standing there, his hand held up as if casting… casting a ward spell.

“Jack?”

Slowly, Jack lowered his hand, and Mouse gently fell to the ground with it. “Don’t think too much of this,” Jack said as Mouse slowly rose to his feet. “After all, I need someone to take the blame. I’m not going to be the one to explain to everyone just what happened here to cause this entire town to be destroyed.”

A grin crossed Mouse’s face as he shook his head. Same old Jack.

“Now,” Jack said, holding the glowing control rod up, “it’s time for me to fix your mistake and save the world.”

Mouse knew better than to respond to that. The two turned to face Boar, who had lifted his paw up above the castle, about to destroy it. Speaking at the top of his voice, Jack yelled out, “Golloth il Seshith!”

Instantly, Boar froze in place, the pads on his paw grazing the castle keep’s roof. After a moment, Boar removed his foot from above the castle and rested it back next to the other one, close enough to the two wizards for them to feel the gust of wind it created as it met the ground. Looking up, Mouse noticed that Boar’s eyes had closed, and the giant started teetering backwards, eventually falling away from the castle. Behind Boar lay the remains of several dozen buildings, which were pulverized by the giant’s body as it collided with the ground, causing the most deafening boom yet.

Both Mouse and Jack waited nearly two minutes for the roaring echo to die down, though it was soon replaced by loud snoring coming from Boar’s muzzle. Still a little wobbly, Mouse reached out, resting his hand against Jack’s shoulder.

“Really, Mouse?” Jack said, rolling his eyes. “I thought you were supposed to be strong.”

“Heheh, well, I guess I’m not as strong as you are,” Mouse chuckled. He knew it wasn’t true, but after all that had happened today, maybe it was best to let Jack believe what he wanted to believe.

Relenting, Jack allowed Mouse to continue holding onto his shoulder. “So I guess we need to figure out how to shrink him back down now,” he said, placing his hands on his hips. “Permanently.”

“Yes,” Mouse agreed. “I’m sure we can figure something out. He’s a good bodyguard; the growth spell just affected his reasoning somehow. Maybe we can use it responsibly, though, when we help rebuild the town.”

“What?” Jack scoffed. “You really expect someone from Highrock to help rebuild Crimson Valley?”

Mouse shrugged. “If you do,” he said, drawing his words out slowly, “I’ll make sure that you’re the guest of honor at the next Great Conference. It’s only about a year and a half away, you know.”

Jack turned his head, glaring at Mouse. “I thought you said you didn’t have anything to do with the invitations for that.”

“Maybe not,” Mouse said, “but I think I might be able to pull some strings. After all, you’re the hero who saved Crimson Valley and all the world from the Golem of Highrock!”

Jack’s eyes narrowed. “But that’s not—“

“And,” Mouse continued, patting him on the back, “maybe you can finally get that chance to show off the Titan of the Peak!”

Sighing, Jack rolled his eyes, though Mouse could also see the hint of a smile forming on his lips. He turned back to look over the town that lay in ruins before him, decimated by mistakes— not only his and Jack’s mistakes, but ones that had been made by those that came before them, mistakes that stretched back centuries and led to rivalries between neighbors. Perhaps after all this, the town would finally be able to learn from these mistakes, put aside those rivalries, and end up rebuilding a little bit stronger because of it.

And if it didn’t, well… there would probably be another golem out there to help teach them the lesson again.

The Golem of Highrock (critique requested)

Kwandry

This story is part of a story-for-art trade with ga576611 and is about two of his characters, Mouse the wizard and Boar his bodyguard (seen here), who encounter Mouse's rival, Jack, and the golem that he controls. Mouse uses his magic (and Boar) to battle Jack, but it soon becomes apparent they may have a much... BIGGER... problem on their hands.

Mouse, Boar, and Jack © ga576611
Story and setting © me

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