Tay stared at the man whom he had only seen a few times. The sword he had pulled on him was still in Tay’s face. “Do you mind?” He asked. Kimber Franks looked at his weapon, and then at Tay. He nodded slowly and put it away, hidden in his flowing layers.

“Have you been following me?” He asked. Tay shrugged. “Perhaps.” Kimber looked around and saw Orby slowly rising from a pile of trash. His jaw hung open for a moment, before annoyance ran along his face. He had been following him. For a while, actually. Ever since he and Orby had left the beach that morning.

“I am busy, Mr. Mallor.” He said impatiently. He started down the alleyway he had attempted to covertly traverse. “I’m sure. But honestly, Mr. Franks, you aren’t doing a very good job at…” He looked around. “This.” Kimber turned his head as he picked up his pace, eyeing the young adventurer.

“And how would you know that?” He asked. “I’m not new to this, you know. You’re obviously trying to keep hidden, and by the way you're looking around alleyways, I’m fairly certain you’re trying to find somebody.” Kimber rolled his head, but didn’t answer.

“So…who are you looking for?” He asked curiously. “Perhaps if you’re so good at this, you’ll simply be able to figure it out?” Kimber suggested. Tay chuckled. “Can’t know something when I don’t have any clues.” He said. They were now on one of the side streets that connected the main three.

“Giant!” He blurted. He instantly reprimanded himself. He shouldn’t let someone get on his nerves, he knew. “Like that?” Tay asked. Kimber wheeled around, looking at where Tay was pointing. Quickly grabbing the level 2 adventurer, Kimber bolted back into the alley they had come from.

He slowly peaked around the corner, looking at the tall, bulbes figure one might call a giant. Tay watched with raised eyebrows as the man practically stalked the being. “I need you to stay here.” Kimber said. He didn’t give Tay time to reply as he vanished from sight, seemingly without having moved at all.

Tay went to the corner and observed. He saw the massive figure moving amongst the crowds, the bumps and sharp edges that showed from beneath its coverings drawing more than a few odd looks. Tay soon saw Kimber. He was crouched behind a fruit stand, oddly hugging its shadow. He glanced at the giant whenever he moved as he followed it.

Suddenly, it turned into another, smaller street that helped connect city blocks. Kimber followed.

Getting a bad feeling, and acting on his curiosity, Tay followed. They were led down many alleys and small passages that challenged the giant's size.

Eventually they stopped in front of an old two-story building. It was from the first generations of constructions ever built in the city, and unlike some others, it hadn’t been taken care of. A large, almost barn-like door was opened from the inside revealing the dark interior. Kimber once again vanished. Tay didn’t have such useful abilities, so he opted for simply climbing the building to an old balcony on the second floor.

The ascent was rather treacherous as many of the old wood panels threatened to come loose under his weight, though only one had done so, and he managed to catch it before it made too much noise. Grunting, he pulled himself the final way up to the rickety perch.

There was still no sign of Kimber, but Tay suspected he wasn’t far away. There was a door which Tay carefully pulled open, again making a not entirely unnoticeable amount of noise in doing so.

He only breathed after several seconds, and once he was certain no one had heard. As he entered, he could hear voices.

“You need to stay hidden, you idiot.” A squeaky voice said. There was no reply. The second floor had been rotted away by years of exposure to the rain from the patch-job roof above it, so the few floors that used to be there were gone.

“You’ll only need to do this for a few more weeks.” The voice said. Tay carefully made his way onto the rafters, far above where the conversation was happening. As he made his way along the old beams, he was slowly able to see the figure.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

It had taken its top coverings off.

Tay’s eyes widened. He could see dozens of tubes that ran along its arms, chest and stomach. They pulsed with light—as did his skin. A complicated mask was covering its face, steam emanating from a hole around where its mouth should have been. It looked to have been grafted onto the creature's face. Its black hair came down to its middle back, white strands mixing in.

Tay knew what this creature was. A little-known fact about the Giant races was that they abhorred putting unnatural things into or onto their flesh. The only armor you’d see one wear was leather or some sort of beast’s hide. But there was one exemption to that. Tay had read in a few books that there was a race that had made augmenting their bodies a part of their culture, and because of it, they had been driven mad and were nearly brought to extinction after they tried to wage war against nearly all intelligent life.

“Dwarf…” He whispered.

Suddenly, he heard a soft curse, and then a thud. looking slowly in front of him, he saw the dark outline of a cloaked figure holding onto the rafters, one leg dangling in the air. He was some 30 feet away from Tay, and so when the Dwarf heard the sounds and looked up, it luckily didn’t see Tay.

An unearthly mechanical sound came from the Dwarf and it jumped. Kimber twirled himself over the beam, jumping to another. The Dwarf crushed the wood as if it had been sand. So much power had been put into the movement that it had propelled itself into the building's roof. The Dwarf grunted, ripping bolts from wood, flinging giant beams that crashed into the other supports.

Tay scrambled to get out of the way of the debris, clambering back onto the balcony. The giant spotted the rapidly moving form of Kimber; he was leaping from rafter to rafter, sword in hand.

Then suddenly he lept towards the roof. He swung and Tay felt magic surging from the spotter. He was trying to create his own exit!

But soon, that magic was wholly overshadowed. As if a storm had suddenly formed, creating a great vortex, the very air in the room seemed to be ripped from Tay’s lungs. He saw the Dwarf, it had landed back on the ground. Its hands were raised to its sides, and magic was seeping into the ground around him.

Kimber noticed it too, but only too late. With a great quake, the floor was upheaved. It was destroyed, crumbled into boulders and rocks, and with a struggling motion as if he was pulling chains, the giant pushed his hands forward.

Kimber would have died. He would have been shredded into a thousand pieces just like the roof had. He would have become unrecognizable. But he didn’t. As soon as the Dwarf had finished its spell, for a reason even Tay couldn't reasonably justify, he had Orby send its drones to attack the giant.

In truth, it barely did anything to it, the drones acting like annoying flies rather than bees, but they had distracted it just enough. The floory of earth that had been aimed at the guild member had been off just enough that Tay was able to shove Kimber out of the way.

Without having to explain his plan to his familiar, Orby charged full speed at one of the walls of the building. The spirit crashed into the old rotting wood and made a hole just big enough for two people to fit through. Kimber quickly understood what he needed to do and followed.

They landed on their feet in some unrecognizable alley, and they ran. They ran until their legs began to shake and their lungs began to burn. Eventually, believing, or rather praying that they were far enough away, they fell to the ground, heaving for breath.

“Th—thank you.” Wheezed Kimber. The spotter was lying on his back, a hand on his forehead and one to his stomach. “Uh-huh.” Tay acknowledged. He too was wheezing hard—more from the sheer intensity of what had happened rather than exhaustion.

“What…in Gholroc’s name are you doing spying on a Dwarf?” Tay asked in utter confusion.

“It’s a long story.” Kimber waved. He slowly picked himself up, using a conveniently placed jagged plumbing tube as support. “I have time.” He said plainly. He had almost died, he at least deserved to know why.

Kimber sighed. “I think the Dwarf is part of a scheme that might be dangerous to the city.” Kimber said measuredly. Tay wanted to say how that seemed perfectly normal for Finicks Bay in an overly snarky manner, but held himself from it. Getting the impression that all he would get from the spotter were careful avoidances of the truth, he filed it into the “research later” part of his brain.

“I would have died…” Kimber said. He didn’t say it as if it had shocked him, but rather as a simple fact. Tay was quickly learning that if one wanted to be an adventurer, they needed to be able to shrug off near-death experiences.

The spotter looked at Tay with an oddly sincere expression. He seemed to be hesitating with something, but then his expression cleared as if certainty had triumphed.

“Thank you, Tay Mallor.” The words were quick and without pervado, but Tay felt an odd satisfaction that he wasn’t entirely sure he should have felt. Nonetheless, he bowed his head slightly. “You’re welcome, Kimber Franks.” He smirked. “Next time though, I’m going to ask for a fee.” They both chuckled.

“Yeah, I owe you one.” He said, stretching his limbs which were certainly starting to tighten. Then, as if an annoying little voice had spoken it into his ear, Tay got an idea.

“Would you be interested in paying me back sooner rather than later?”