By trade, Morgan is a White Mage. Doling out boons and buffs to keep her friends and allies fighting at their best! Through thick and thin the raccoon has resolved to keep herself ingratiated amongst her comrades even in the most ferocious of fights. She leads by doing and is loathe to dole out spells and supportive well wishes from the sidelines.

...Unfortunately, that's where she now finds herself. Provided she doesn't spill outside of them. An illusory spell gone awry has rendered Morgan utterly massive in size! Left with little recourse other than to trust in her friends and mentor to find a fix for her now sizeable stature she waits. And waits. Annnnnnnnd waits.

So this is but a single pic among many of my normally petite raccoon gal, Morgan, suddenly finding herself looming large. There's a story in progress for it, that I'm about halfway done with, and figured I may as well post not only some art to accompany the story but the scene that goes with it! Read on below!

Amazing art comes courtesy of kernelDecoy!

LINK TO FULL STORY

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“Do you really think this will work, Master?” Morgan asked. Her amber eyes rolled about their sockets at every ahhhhh, eeeeeek, and ooooooh directed her way.

Leading the raccoon, Nadie doled out half-hearted waves and knowing nods to every anxious passerby. “At ease. She’s with me,” she purred out ad nauseam. The panther’s commanding presence and confident composure snuffed out any semblance of an outright panic from settling upon the streets. Even so, a palpable unease lingered in the humid air.

“To answer your question, no,” Nadie tersely stated in between reassurances. “However, it’s worth a shot all the same. Suppressing spells is a straightforward affair. Smothering finely crafted ether, regardless of what form it takes, is a trivial matter thanks to the swarms of shadow that blanket the land. Problem is… the thunder of your footfalls and the breeze upon your breath are no spells. That is the swing of your step; the unthinking act of inhaling and exhaling. Now I won’t deny that their scale and scope derive from a spell, yes, but to put it plainly… that’s all you. I’m not sure what there is of you that can be suppressed.”

Folds of the raccoon’s black furred mask pressed against the underside of her eyes. “…The honesty is appreciated,” she sighed. The fresh trail of paw-shaped craters left in her wake did little to lift her mood.

“Maybe if I squint hard enough, I’ll see where I trampled over whatever hopes I had for this working itself out,” Morgan ruefully thought. Her shoulders bunched together at the sound of shingles rattling free from the roofs of the homes that they passed. They continued to do so at the sound of said shingles shattering against the crater pocked cobblestone below.

“This is going to get worse before it gets better, isn’t it?” she commented aloud. Cheeks flushed, the raccoon shyly wriggled and flexed her toes to knock free the mix of stone and mortar caught between them.

The panther’s rounded ears fwipped at Morgan’s palpable disappointment. “As I said, it’s still worth making an attempt. Lesser illusions can be broken by suffocating the magic that fuels them. It’s not unreasonable to think the same would apply to greater ones. No matter how convincing they may be. Uncertainty remains, and I intend to extinguish it.”

Tyridia’s legs trembled at the unseen shockwaves accompanying Morgan’s meteoric footfalls. Pointed teeth poking against his lips, he quietly forced out one sigh after another. No matter how hard he heaved or huffed the knotted weight in his chest refused to loosen.

“Soooo that’s why we’re making this detour?” Tyr feebly asked. His gaze drifted towards a lonely workshop, situated some blocks away from them, atop an otherwise barren lot of land. “Master?” he called out once more.

Arcs of magic roiled out from the plumes of smoke chugging from the soot stained chimney. Arrhythmic snaps sounded out repeatedly in a telltale sign of ether contracting and expanding violently.

Both the fox and raccoon audibly expressed their concern through clenched teeth upon approach. “Ahhh!” they both shrieked in unison at the explosive pop that radiated out from the heavy smoke lingering in the air. A faint whistling accompanied the mixture of hail and embers that promptly rained down upon them. Unsurprisingly, given the intensely localized inclement weather, only the hardiest of weeds and mosses dotted the equal parts damp and scorched earth around the shop.

Nadie’s continued lack of a reply left Tyridia understandably uneasy; he wasted no time pressing on with his inquiries. “So the more powerful the spell the more magic -- d-dark magic specifically -- needed to break it? That… that’s what you’re getting at, right?”

The panther flashed the fox a toothy smile. “Precisely. Darkness tainted mana crystals, dusk shards, lucid gems… I could go on and on. Do take note though, Tyridia. I’ll require your assistance keeping stock of what we will and won’t require. And carrying them to the counter.”

“Yes, Master,” Tyr dutifully answered. Lips pulled flat, the vulpine could already imagine his arms trying to tug themselves out of their sockets. Gods, he’d be lucky to survive the physical and emotional toll this day would surely wring from him. Yet… his brows furrowed angrily at the thought. I-it was for a good cause though. The best cause! Chin tucked against his neck, he peered back at his best friend and forced a smile for her. The lead tendrils, or at least what felt like such, coiling their way through his ribcage relaxed their grip when she returned the gesture.

Morgan’s smile didn’t last. Not when she couldn’t help but recoil at the damage she wrought by the simply walking.

“Sorry!” she apologized. Wincing, her lips pulled back at the sight of people stumbling into the craterous divots left by her tremendous toes. That or knocking their shins against the slabs of stone crumbling down from the wrinkles in her soles.

“Hmmph. I can do more than moan and groan at the very least…” Morgan reminded herself. Nostrils flared, she clenched her toes. The streams of rock came to a halt. Uncomfortable as it was, with jagged masses of mortar caught between the pinched tight folds of leathery flesh that lined the bottoms of her feet, she endured. Scrapes and sore pads were laughable inconveniences compared to the broken feet and twisted ankles everyone treading in her wake had to potentially contend with.

Toes curled, Morgan awkwardly lumbered forward. “Should we really be out and about on the town like this? Or…” the raccoon puffed up at strands of hair brushing against her forehead before correcting herself. “Better yet, should ‘I’? All I’m doing is making a mess.”

To her much needed relief, bumpy and uneven cobblestones finally gave way to flattened dirt. They had reached their destination. Sighing, Morgan splayed apart her toes. It was easy enough to ruin a road. Not so much a plot of dirt.

Nadie purred as she pondered. “That remains to be seen. Morgan, there’s no point in answering that until after an attempt is made at breaking the illusion. Know that regardless of the outcome I will not abandon you. And do recall… this town has recovered from worse,” the feline answered with a smirk.

Morgan advanced. With one footfall, fissures spread out beneath her feet. The parched earth, layered with ashen embers, coughed up clouds of dust and shriveled up grass roots. Another step forward yielded cool and pliant mud that molded around her sole. Damp clumps of moss tickled against her toes and tugged free the chunks of street caught between them.

“Knowing that I’m not the worst thing to ever wind my way through Yash isn’t exactly encouraging,” Morgan rumbled as she approached the workshop with whatever grace she could manage.

A series of loud knocks sounded out as the panther’s knuckles rapped against the entrance.

Shifting in place, Morgan idly crossed her arms and twiddled her fingers against her elbows, mindful not to scrape her shins against the shop’s slanted roof. “The help we’re looking for is here, right? I don’t know what will be left, if anything, of the streets if I have to make a return trip.” A sense of unease settled on her shoulders at the sight of her shadow swallowing up her friends.

Nadie’s answer was to ante up her rapping to forceful plank splitting pounding.

“Enough!” A cracking voice called out through the poorly fitting windows. Much to Morgan’s relief, the crackling plumes of smoke pouring from the chimney, shooting off spells roughly at her eye level, tapered off to smoky wisps. The battered, and now concave, door swung inward to reveal a shrew. She wrinkled her long whiskered nose in disgust at the hulking feline before her. “Ech. You. What do you want?”

“Your audience,” Nadie curtly replied. “And your wares, while we’re at it.” Tyridia peeked out from behind the panther’s broad form to timidly wave at their uncooperative acquaintance. “Your questionable curios and activities are allowed within Yash’s limits by yours truly, need I remind. Do not mistake my pragmatism for generosity, Blanca.”

The diminutive shopkeep dragged her bony fingers back and forth along her gnarled knuckles and grunted. Blanca’s long nails scratched at the various stains and burns that coated their fur-less surface. “Elaborate.”

Brows arched, the Yash guild master stepped to the side. Clawed toes, curled shyly and more than capable of smothering the most imposing of warriors beneath their padded undersides, loomed large behind her. “Umm. Hello,” the owner of said digits meekly answered.

Blanca’s beady little eyes narrowed at Nadie’s smirk. “Hmmph. Get in and get out.” Back turned to the panther, she slunk through the clutter that consumed her keep. A veritable labyrinth of wooden cabinets caked with a mixture of dust and ash stretched on up from the scratched floor to the bowed ceiling. A mixture of runes and chicken scratch carved into the individual drawers, one stacked atop the other, were the only hints offered as to the contents nestled within them.

“You heard her,” Nadie rumbled. Once inside, both the feline and fox batted aside the motes of dust that hovered within the rare rays of sunshine that managed to infiltrate the interior.

“I’ll uhh…” Morgan idly mused. “I’ll. Just. Stay here, I guess.”

“Make yourself as comfortable as you are able, Morgan. This will take a while.” Nadie’s rumbling purrs wafted up from the gaps in the shingled roof.

Bony elbows upon her countertop, Blanca flashed her tiny pointed teeth as she cupped a sunken cheek against her palm. Lingering puffs of smoke trailed up into the cracked open chimney turned ramshackle fume hood.

“Good to know,” the white mage glumly replied with eyes half lidded. Her spirit lifted, however briefly, with her curiosity. The massive raccoon couldn’t help but peer out at the expanse of rooftops that stretched out in every direction. It was… strange. Like looking out over a stone ocean. Chimneys piercing the slanted and static waves as if they were stoic and weathered lighthouses. Unsettling but… not altogether unpleasant seeing her home from such a vantage point.

“Ahhhh! A giant!”

Morgan reflexively rolled her eyes. Well, the lull in shrieks and screaming was nice while it lasted. “I can at least make it a little harder to stand out,” she mumbled as she slowly slumped down to a sitting position.

“Eep!” Mortified, the raccoon felt her clothing struggling to cover less and less of her. “Why do I keep crouching?” she chided herself under her breath. Lips pulled flat, Morgan swung her puffy tail up between her legs the instant those shredded cotton weaves came up above her waistline. Cheeks ablaze with embarrassment, she nervously circled around the shop and mouthed a profane prayer at the realization that not a single window graced the building’s backside. With a thoom, Morgan settled her exposed rump onto the mossy ground.

“You… you alright out there, Morgan?” Tyridia worriedly wondered as the shop shook.

Morgan cautiously considered her options as she weighed the balance between comfort and basic decency. “I will be when we fix this. If we fix this.”

Pensive growls emanated from within the shop. “Blanca, you know very well my sojourns here would be all the shorter if you would put any effort into organizing the place,” Nadie observed.

“And all the more frequent,” the shrew bitterly answered. “Why… it’s almost as if I’m trying to discourage you from doing so in the first place. If not outright stop you.”

Nadie’s thick black tail flit behind her contentedly. “You would not survive the attempt,” she casually commented.

The white mage slouched forward, the structure groaning when her thighs and bountiful behind pressed against it. Cheeks puffed out, Morgan dug her heels into the ground and pivoted her legs back and forth upon them. “Sometime today, please,” she mumbled under her breath.

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