A shake woke Tsugi from his slumber and the beaming sunlight filled the room when Ellie threw open the curtains.

“Mmmm.” Tsugi groaned, pinching his eyes shut and pulling the duvet over his head. Footsteps quickly approached from across the room and pulled the covers off of him, causing him to let out another groaning retort and turn to his side. He finally blinked his eyes open when he felt the light taps and shaking of his shoulders.

A pair of dark blue eyes stared at him. {Good-morning.} Ellie signed. {Wake up sleepy head.} She smiled, causing the edges of her eyes to wrinkle slightly. {Come on, wake up, breakfast should be ready soon.}

{Ugh. I feel like I’m going to be sick. I’m so bloated and uncomfortable.} Tsugi groaned. {You go ahead and eat. I think I’m going to go do some exercises to work off this feeling.} He stretched and sat up in bed, hanging his head and feeling dreadful from his late, midnight snack.

Ellie tapped him on the shoulder. {You okay? I’ll instruct the maids to bring you something for your stomach. You’ll feel better afterwards, then you can go train.}

{Okay, thanks Ellie.}

Tsugi was too exhausted to get up to close the curtains. Instead he just slumped back down, rolled over, and covered his head with his pillow.

It felt like he just closed his eyes, when a knock on his door woke him.

“Come in.” His voice was muffled under the pillow, and he waited, but no one entered. There wasn’t even the sound of a turn of the knob. Instead the knock continued. He pulled the pillow off his head, “come in!” He called out louder.

“Master Tsugi.” Serbin entered, balancing a tray on the tips of his fingers. “Master Ellie had instructed me to bring you a tonic for indigestion.” He said gruffly and approached Tsugi’s bedside, holding out the tray which held a single tea cup.

“Thank you Serbin.” Tsugi sat up in bed and downed the bitter tonic which had a hint of ginger root.

“Breakfast is ready, Master Tsugi.” Serbin bowed gently and left the room, closing the door behind him.

“Maybe I should just stay in bed today.” Tsugi mumbled to no one in particular, rubbing his stomach, not wanting to even move. As if Ruzo knew Tsugi wasn’t going to get up, he let out a whiney howl and nudged Tsugi’s arm. “Ugh…fine. Stupid sleepwalking.” Tsugi groaned, running his hand through his hair before getting out of bed to get ready.

Master Lumes and Ellie were already seated at the table, enjoying their breakfast. Ruzo quickly darted to the corner, where his giant bowl of food was and munched away, happily wagging his tail.

{Finally!} Ellie chuckled. {I thought you were never going to get up.}

{Funny…I was just contemplating on staying in bed today.}

{Seriously?}

{Of course not.} Tsugi sighed and sat down at the table. {I promised to take Ruzo out after I’m done with my morning routine.}

“Aren’t you going to eat?” Master Lumes took a sip of her morning tea.

“No, I’m not hungry. I’m feeling a little bloated. Maybe later. I’m just waiting for Ruzo to eat and then I’m going to put him back in my room, before I go about my day.”

“If you’re going to take him out, don’t be late for curfew.” Master Lumes wiped her mouth with her napkin. “Thank you Cath.” She said as the maid cleared her dishes.

“Yes, Master.” Tsugi nodded. “We’ll be back before dusk.”

She stood up and left the room.

{What are you going to do today?} Tsugi asked Ellie.

She pressed her lips into a thin line. {I don’t know. I was thinking I might just stay in and do some reading today.}

{If you want, you can join Ruzo and I later. We’re just going to the field right outside of town and run around a bit.}

{No. I’m fine, I just want to relax later. I want to finish my book, it’s getting really good.}

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Tsugi chuckled and shook his head. {You and your romance books.}

{It’s not for the romance, it’s for the story line. The story line is really good. You’d know, if you just give them a try.}

{Nah. I prefer adventure.}

Ellie chuckles, seeing as Ruzo had long since finished his food and was now sitting very patiently by the door. She places a good portion of butter onto the bread and takes a bite. {Looks like he’s ready for you. I’ll see you later then.}

Tsugi gave a slight nod before returning to his room with Ruzo.

***

Tsugi jogged around the outskirts of the town. His chest was really sore, causing him to wince with every step. He knew he should’ve made the bindings tighter, but they were just too sore and so he didn’t. Although he’s regretting the decision now. He decided to take the jogging slow and stopped every now and then to do squats, but with every squat, his bloating seemed to be getting worse, which he figured he could do handstands since air travels up. He shrugged his shoulders at his thought, which seemed pretty logical. After a few laps, he decided he would give it a try and made a few more laps walking on his hands, doing handstands. It helped a little as he let out little puffs of flatulence every now and then, which slightly relieved him from the bloating.

After a long grueling exercise, he finally returned to get Ruzo before heading to the field for some play.

“Alright. You ready bud?” Ruzo wagged his tail excitedly. Tsugi grinned and held the ball in his hand. Winding it back, he launched his hand forward and the ball flew across the field, dragging a gust of wind behind it. “Ow!” He hissed, grabbing at his sore chest as Ruzo took off in a flash. “Damn it. I probably threw it too hard.” he crouched over and groaned, lightly wrapping his arms across his front. Has he done that much chest exercises? Why had his chest been extra tender the last few days?

The sound of Ruzo’s paws hitting the dirt slowly faded away as he ran further into the distance. Then he leaped into the lake and swam across it, returning only when he found the ball.

Tsugi whistled through his teeth. “I actually got it pretty far that time huh?” He chuckled and rubbed his chest gently. Perhaps next time, he can tighten the bonds so they don't hurt so much.

Ruzo ran back to him and dropped the ball at his feet before shaking the water from his fur.

“Ah!” Tsugi clenched his eyes shut and closed his mouth from the splashing water. In one shake, Tsugi was completely drenched. “Jeez, it looks like I just jumped into the lake.” He chuckled, picking the ball off the ground. He wound his arm back, but froze when he heard a low grumble coming from the bottom of Ruzo’s throat. His eyes peered far beyond the lake, and leaned in as if to get a better listen.

Tsugi could hear a scream, and in that split second, both he and Ruzo took off into the water. When they finally appeared on the other side, they stopped again to listen. The scream came from just over the hill and they both kicked off the ground, running as fast as they could.

At the base of the steep hill was a boy not much younger than Tsugi. Lying on his leg was a dead delgum, a fierce creature that a small nearby village had trained as a warrior mount. And next to the boy is a maltus, a giant rat-like creature with oozing yellow welts on its body. It had an arrow through its back pinning it to the ground, but its long claw-like arms were still twitching as if it was still trying to reach the boy. Its long tentacle-like tongue stuck out and was still attached to the delgums neck.

“Ruzo fetch Master Lumes!” And in that instant, Ruzo takes off back the way they came as Tsugi slid down the hill.

“Mach lo! Mach lo!” The boy screams, clutching at his leg that is pinned under the delgum.

The creature looked terrifying with its gaping mouth that consisted of three jaws and large tusks, but the boy seemed to be so sad as he reached a hand over to stroke the creature with gentleness as if wishing it well. With much effort, Tsugi finally manages to get the creature off the boy, but not without a price. The boy's leg had been crushed and one of the spikes from the delgums back had pierced right through his leg, which was now left with a gaping hole as blood seeped into the ground underneath it.

“It’s alright, I’ve got you.” Tsugi says, heading over to place his hands over the boy's wound.

“Wakim!” He screams pointing behind Tsugi.

Tsugi whips around with his daggers and cuts off a long slimy tongue that had come for them. Standing to his feet, his eyes widened and his jaw practically dropped to the ground. Heading right toward them was a very big maltus that made this maltus look like an ant. The yellow welts popped on the branches and Tsugi could hear a hiss as the ooze melted the leaves like they were sugar in water. Its eyes were shifting around, but it seemed to have so much crust in its wart covered lids, Tsugi wasn’t sure if it could actually see.

He threw his dagger right into the creature's eye, earning an ear splitting screech from the monstrous creature as he turned on his heels, lifting the boy over his shoulder. The hill was too steep to climb with the boy slung over him, so he would have to go around. Damn this bloatedness didn’t help at all, it just made him more angry than anything. Jumping over rocks and fallen trees made him wince with pain at his sore chest like a constant nagging poke.

The boy continued to shoot arrows at the creature that was now trudging after them with such haste, some of the smaller trees were getting uprooted.

A long slimy tongue wraps around Tsugi’s ankle and promptly pulls him off his feet, dropping the boy onto the ground. Tsugi had gone face first, slamming his chest into the ground, angering him even more as he groaned in pain.

“Ah!” The boy screamed, having landed on his broken leg as he continued to try and shoot arrows at the creature.

Tsugi cuts the tongue and falls back to the ground with a thud, briefly knocking the air out of him as he runs toward the boy, only to be grabbed by the creature again. This time, his arms were pinned and he couldn’t move.

He gazed down as he saw the creature's disgusting mouth getting closer and closer, and then he suddenly went flying. The creature had thrown him and he ended up landing on the ground, on his ‘chest’ of all things. “Damn it!” He groans, coughing and rubbing his chest. He looked up and saw Master Lumes sitting on the back of Ruzo. Ellie had already slid down the hill and was now rushing toward the boy.

Master Lumes had a flurry of vines wrapping around the queen, attempting to subdue it. Attempting being the key word, seeing as it seemed like the welts were popping as if on command to melt away the vines that continued to shoot out of the ground. How were they going to subdue it, if it kept breaking free?

As if to test a theory, he threw one of his daggers right into the oozing welt, sending it into an explosion of gushing fury, but his dagger stayed embedded into the creature with not a single sign of it melting.

Tsugi grins, charging toward it, swinging his daggers into a wide arch.

“Tsugi!” Master Lumes yells as he passes her. “Get away from her!”

“Your vines won’t work! But mine will!” He screams, not even turning back. With one powerful swing, the chained daggers swung around the creature, tightening and squeezing tighter and tighter. It lets out a deafening roar, spraying its foul saliva toward them, nearly making them gag.

The queen began to fall as the chains continued to strangle it like a snake, squeezing tighter and tighter after every exhale. It falls to the ground with a thundering shake, sending up a cloud of dust into the air. Tsugi grins proudly back toward his master, but…the shaking earth didn’t stop. Instead it actually seemed to be intensifying.

Coming from all around them looked like a rushing swarm of rabid maltus, angry and screeching, running so fast, they were climbing over each other as if enraged like fire ants.