[b][u][center]From Foes to Minions
For ArrowQuivershaft
By Draconicon[/center][/u][/b]

The mountain home of the fire giant Immalten seared the air like the fiery gates of Hell, and only the experience and teachings of their masters allowed Kawheek and his student, Thenyr, to stand against the flames. They both leaned on their spears at the cave mouth, looking in at the great pillars of smoke and fire that leaped from the walls and soared all the way to a ceiling so choked in smoke that it might as well have been invisible. The avian warriors looked at each other, their wings flicking slightly against their backs as they braced themselves for the battle ahead.
“Are you prepared for death, Thenyr?” Kawheek asked.
“Since our first fight, yes…though I hope to avoid it again.”
“Be ready. Immalten is not like the other giants. He is smarter than he looks.”
His wings twitched along his back as he stepped into the flames, passing through them without harm. The fires at the cave mouth were an illusion, for the most part, and the heat wasn’t strong enough to harm either winged man through their apparel.
As soon as he stepped inside, however, the flames along the walls leaped higher, and the air burned with the heat of true power. Sweat began to pour between his feathers, and Kawheek shook his head, resisting the urge to rub it away with his arm and risk blinding himself.
Thenyr followed, and there they stood. Kawheek with brown and red feathers and a green cloth around his neck and waist. Thenyr with gold-brown feathers of the eagle, and blue plate armor. Both reached up to their necks, thinking off a prayer to Faenya, and then braced themselves for what was to come.
The first thump echoed through the cavern, sending dust falling only to be turned to sparkles by the sheer heat rising up and down along the walls. Several grains of sand fell as glass, shimmering in the light that rose and fell along the sides of the room.
Another thump, then a third, a fourth. They didn’t speed up, but they did come louder and louder. The two avians gripped their spears tighter, waiting for the first sight of Immalten. If they did not strike first, they might not get the chance to strike again, such was the power of the fire giant.
Finally, a hint of something besides flame and shadow could be seen, the beginning of a head coming around a great boulder at the far end of the cavern. Kawheek was off, and Thenyr followed behind. He ran for the boulder, while his student darted across the cavern floor, using his wings for boosts and to keep moving fast, faster, fastest.
Kawheek took to the air, beating his wings once to take himself from the ground. Clawed feet struck the boulder, anchoring him for the second beat of his wings. Higher, further, over the top.
Immalten had just managed to clear the side of the boulder when they struck together. Thenyr leaped forward, jabbing his blessed spear right into the giant’s ankle. It did little, of course, considering the hardened hide and the flames that burned protectively. A lesser weapon would have been melted on the spot, but Thenyr’s blessed spear stood up to it, managing to at least catch the giant’s attention.
That was all that Kawheek needed.
The green-garbed warrior leaped from the top of the boulder, channeling his [i]ki[/i] into his spear. The shaft glowed with a golden light, burning brighter until it was almost blinding. It parted the hellish flames between him and the giant, and the satisfying squelch of the sharp end piercing flesh filled his ears.
Immalten screamed beneath him, and Kawheek shook his head. This was not the end. It was only the start.
He wrenched his spear to the side, and so deep had it gone that it managed to pull on the giant’s nerves, on his spine. He was twisted sideways, yanked backwards, and Thenyr took advantage to run up the giant’s legs. Hard metal beat against the giant’s flames and flesh, but the bird’s passage was swift, moving through the flames too quickly for them to devour him.
“The knee!” Kawheek called. “Strike the knee!”
His blue-armored student nodded, spinning around the joint and swinging his spear about. He was on the verge of cutting the weaker flesh of the joint when the giant’s arm came down.
Smack-CLANG! Thenyr went flying across the cavern, slamming into another boulder with another loud clang. Kawheek hissed, gripping his spear tighter. He’d thought that the giant was paralyzed, but he hadn’t struck far enough. He had to try again.
He gripped his spear, twisting it left, right, left, throwing Immalten from side to side. Each time he saw one of those massive arms curling around, reaching for him so that it could pull him away and throw him off to the side, he twisted himself to a different angle, a different direction. He forced them back again and again as he tried to maneuver his spear to a proper angle, something that would allow him to drive it deep enough for full paralysis.
Unfortunately, in his desperate attempts to keep the giant under control, he forgot about the layout of the cavern itself.
With one final wrench, he shoved both the giant and himself back against the fiery walls. Flames leaped from the giant’s flesh and the walls itself, and Kawheek screamed as it rushed up his spine. His feathers glowed with instinctive [i]ki[/i] protection, but he could not maintain it forever. In desperation, he left the spear behind, leaping up and over the giant’s head.
His wings allowed him to glide safely to the ground as Thenyr stood again. His student caught him as he descended, and they both looked back at the giant.
This was not going as planned.
“Do we run?” Thenyr asked.
“No. We’ll not get a better chance,” he said, shaking his head. “And we were prepared to lose, if we had to. We are prepared to die.”
“…I suppose we are.”
“Then let us fight.”
The birds turned, one armed with a spear, the other only with their hands and feet. And as they set themselves for battle, Immalten stood.
The great fire giant loomed more than forty feet over them, a true giant of the primal times. He was wreathed in flame, only his glowing eyes and his smiling mouth showing through the inferno that covered him from head to toe. The edge of the spear had already been consumed at the back of his neck, and a few seconds later, the spearhead fell to the stone floor with a clang and a clatter.
Immalten cracked his neck, chuckling.
“[b]A welcome distraction, little birds. You have proven yourselves…interesting.[/b]”
“We will prove ourselves more than that!” Thenyr shouted. “Surrender, lest you perish!”
“[b]I believe that I will not,[/b]” the giant said with a surprising amount of gentility. “[b]But in return, I offer you the same opportunity.[/b]”
“Never!” his student said.
Kawheek shook his head, his refusal silent, but no less heartfelt. The great giant chuckled to himself, shaking his head.
“[b]The offer was made. You cannot fault me for what comes next. Fire must consume.[/b]”
He did not know what that meant, but he didn’t particularly care. He darted forward, drawing on what power he had left to speed his steps across the cavern. Thenyr took to the air, flapping hard to fight against his armor and clenching his fingers around his amulet. He was calling to his goddess, while Kawheek…well, Kawheek called on his training.
The giant didn’t move as he ran forward, did not even shift his footing. Instead, Immalten watched them, his eyes glowing as they turned to follow him. He ignored the flying threat that Thenyr posed, instead choosing to keep watching Kawheek.
The green-garbed bird hesitated for a split second, feeling as though he was walking into a trap. What he didn’t know was that he had already sprung it.
Even as he jumped, flames burst from the body of the giant, reaching out and scorching the air and the ground alike. He held up his arms protectively, knowing that there was little chance of breaking through the inferno, but he did not expect what it did to him. The flames hit, licked across his arms…but they did not carry pain.
They carried something worse.
Forced back by the impact, Kawheek barely managed to flip and land on his feet. Even as he did, he could feel something running through his body, something sliding beneath his feathers and flesh and tingling in his blood. It was a heat, not of the bestial sort, but of the demons and devils of the underworld. The heat of corruption, of transformation…of darkness.
Thenyr hit the ground beside him, managing to fall on his side and avoiding crushing his wings. Kawheek pulled his student to his feet, shaking his head as he clenched his jaw, his beak clicking in discomfort.
“What was that?” Thenyr muttered.
“His power. And it…is feeding.”
“What?”
“[b]Your master is correct, little bird,[/b]” the giant said, crossing his arms. “[b]Fire will consume. And today, it will consume your strengths and bodies. The penalty for not surrendering when you had the chance.[/b]”
Before he had a chance to try and fight it, the fire burned all the hotter beneath his flesh. Kawheek stumbled backwards, only barely holding himself upright with all the willpower that he had gained over the course of his adventuring days. He still panted for breath, but he managed to stay standing, to keep himself on his own two feet. Thenyr stumbled backwards, falling against one of the rocks as he gasped for breath.
He didn’t have time to pay attention to his student at that moment. The changes were already rushing through him, and even as he marshalled his [i]ki[/i] against it, the fire in his blood started to consume the spiritual energy. He gasped as it caught flame, feeding the corruptive fires of the giant inside. Bit by bit, his [i]ki[/i] was taken from him, stripped from him like stolen goods from a thief.
He stumbled forward, feeling his balance shift. He clicked his beak, clenching his fists, but the strange feeling didn’t go away. He felt…he felt like he couldn’t keep his balance, like the world was changing, growing, stretching away from him. Kawheek took a stumbling step back, almost losing his balance, and the green wrap around his neck slid off. Not fell off, but slid off, as if he was too small for it any longer.
The sheer power of the violent flames was greater than anything that he had experienced in a monster before. He knew that Immalten was going to be their strongest opponent, but he had not thought that they were this outmatched. As he looked down at his hands, he watched as the yellow-brown scales of his taloned fingers began to fade, turning something like a dull green in place of the majestic bird colors that he had. They turned stumpy, small, less powerful and dangerous, and the claws at the tips filed down until they were little more than black lumps at the ends of his digits.
Desperately clinging to the wrap around his waist for some sense of modesty, he glanced over at his student. Thenyr was having a similar problem with his armor, everything that had been on his arms and legs falling off with clinks and clanks. One piece after another hit the ground, leaving his arms bare, and making it obvious that the feathers were falling out. Magnificent eagle fathers dropped, consumed by fire before they hit the floor, exposing flesh that had been pink, but was now turning green.
“[b]You will no longer need your strength. You will be minions, and minions must be small, weak…servile…[/b]”
In other words, they needed to be the monsters treated most like vermin. Kawheek looked down at his arms again, saw that his feathers were falling out, too, but his were being replaced by scales rather than a different color of skin. The same sort that had covered his hands, bumpy and ugly compared to his fine feathers.
Crack, crack.
He almost fell to his knees as his wings suddenly disconnected from their anchors, no longer linked, no longer able to flap. Thenyr had suffered something similar, the molting bird screaming at the top of his lungs.
“Nnngh…”
Kawheek stumbled forward, panting as he felt the changes burning through him. With every feather that fell, he felt weaker. He could feel the heat consuming what strength he had left, his [i]ki[/i] gone, and now it was going through his arms and legs, through his chest and core, and it was consuming his muscles. The tight cords of strength that he had trained throughout his life were slowly being taken from him, leaving him with less and less strength. He stumbled as he took another step, then another, but he refused to fall.
Behind him, he could hear Thenyr groaning. He looked over his shoulder, seeing his student’s beak twisting, parting, shifting. He had a green nose, now, and a big one, and the green flesh had covered his face. Yet, for all that, Thenyr held onto his spear. He stabbed it into the ground, dragging himself forward, using it to keep pulling himself towards his enemy.
[i]I trained you well,[/i] Kawheek thought, smiling slightly –
Crick, crack.
He winced as he felt the consuming power hit his beak, pulling at the little nostrils near the top. They were dragged forward, his beak shifting and re-shaping into something that was more like a snout. His feathers had been completely consumed now, the flesh slowly pebbling over with scales as it turned into a true snout rather than his noble beak.
[i]Kobold,[/i] he realized as he saw the shape of his own face. [i]I’m being turned into a kobold.[/i]
And that meant that Thenyr was becoming a goblin, what with the green skin and the twisted nose, and everything else. They were both becoming monsters that they had slain by the hundreds, and there was nothing that they could do about it.
But he refused to go down without at least [i]trying[/i] to fight back.
Even as his feet cracked, going from yellow scales to green and throwing off his balance even further, he kept forcing himself to take step after step towards the burning giant. He groaned as he felt the discomfort, his bones shifting after the rest of his body, always playing catch-up, always struggling to keep himself from feeling like he was going to split through his own skin.
One step. A second. A third. He stared up at the burning giant, feeling the fire burning through everything that gave him strength. His [i]ki.[/i] His muscles. His body.
And now, his determination.
The corruptive fire of Immalten seized hold of what was left of him, feeding on that core that told him that he had to try, that he had to at least do something to show that he would not bow. Even as his arms shortened, his spine condensed, his body shrunk, he took another step. The fire questioned him, burned him, reminded him that he didn’t have to. He could give in. He could stop thinking about it. The fires would burn out those old thoughts, those old loyalties, those reminders of why he should fight. He could give in, and all that self-loathing, all that hate for his new body would stop.
And that was why he kept fighting back.
Another step, and another after that. Thenyr caught up with him, using the spear like a walking stick as he kept moving. Mostly goblin now, with a short, big-nosed body that was nothing like the well-trained warrior that he had been, his student offered him the chance to lean. Kawheek took it, and they limped together towards the fire giant.
He watched them approach, chuckling as they did.
“[b]You cannot harm me, but yet you persist. If nothing else, you have fed the fires well.[/b]”
They ignored the looming giant, continuing their slow walk. Kawheek could feel his will to keep moving fading, the urge to disobey being taken from him. He gritted his teeth, a brand new feeling, and glanced at his student. Thenyr was just walking forward, his eyes almost consumed and hazed over, his armor gone and only his under-garments covering him. The new goblin could barely push himself along, forced to follow Kawheek’s determination.
And that was fading.
He grimaced, his body finally transformed to a short, meager kobold. The green wrap around his waist had been pulled and tightened twice, but it was still barely enough to keep from exposing himself. Panting for breath, they reached the giant’s ankle. The urge to fall and obey, to submit, was almost overwhelming.
[i]Pointless. It is pointless to fight…[/i]
Yet, Kawheek still forced himself to pick up the spear. It was among the hardest thing that he had ever done in his life, even with Thenyr helping in a near-mindless way. They stood there together, holding the spear aloft over the giant’s ankle. He didn’t even bother moving it. This would do nothing, and they all knew it.
They stumbled, the fire eating through their minds and their hearts, scouring them for anything that would give them the will to resist. They would be minions, he knew, but weak ones, unable to hurt those that would come later.
In that, Immalten would eventually fall. He could only see himself as the source of strength in the world, and anyone else must be weaker.
[i]One day…you will fall…[/i]
And with that scant comfort, he and Thenyr fell forward, stabbing at the giant’s leg and bowing in submission in the same motion.

[b][u][center]The End[/center][/u][/b]

Summary: Two warriors attempt to take on a fire giant. It goes very, very wrong for them.

Tags: No sex, avians, birds, fight, fighting, fantasy, corruption, transformation, goblin, kobold, giant, submission,