The party now were trekking across the land of Zoll and were heading towards Illumia to investigate the whereabouts of Zogg's destination, "the kingdom among the stars" walking along the grassy plains they took the time to survey the scenery and found it to be quite lovely as the plains stretched far across the horizon, as far as they could see there was only grass and patches of trees here and there, Papaya especially was pleased, it was a stark contrast to her steaming jungle home and she remembers the wet humid climate well, it was all new to her ever since the matriarch had sent her to find and destroy the orb, and now she was tagging along to make sure to dispose of it, for she did not dare break it lest a terrible curse would befall her, true it was not the task she was instructed to do but she had to improvise and she was also curious of the outside world. so she travels along the barbarian, the paladin, and their robot, which was turned into a means of travel as they climbed on top of YX and rode the robot across the plains, Papaya turned over her cloak and looked across the horizon, her figure was certainly attractive as most amazons are, Githiom then started conversation to the warrior woman as Zogg was occupied reading a spellbook he brought along the trip,

"Is this all new to you amazon? the travelling I mean....I noticed you are always looking around and taking in the sights"

Papaya turned around and flipped her trollskin cloak,

"This the first time Papaya had seen so much empty space of grass, in my home, there are always trees all around and plants that choke the view, very hot and steaming also."

Githiom then spoke once more

"I've never been to a jungle myself though but it would seem interesting to see, your homeland is quite far away from here and there are no places here comparable to yours, perhaps someday I will visit." Papaya then smirked and said

"you will not find much, only a lot of jaguars and wild boars and darkness, the entire jungle would seem to want to swallow you whole."

Githiom then curious then asked Zogg

what about you barbarian? what is your land like?

Zogg then stopped sharpening his axe and smiled

"Zogg's land is like me, rough and covered with mountains, only the strong can live on it and it suits us well!"

Papaya then asked Githiom, "how about you paladin, tell us stories about your kingdom" Githiom then straightened himself and obliged

" Illumia ah yes the kingdom of light, it is a bastion of righteousness, all of our citizens are knights yes even the women and children and the elderly know how to wield a weapon, and our mages are unmatched in all of the land, save perhaps for Zogg I must confess, I've never seen a barbarian cast magic before, so it is quite a surprise for me to see him fling a fireball. is there anything of note you did to possess such a skill Zogg?"

Zogg then raised his axe to the sky and said,

"

Zogg likes reading books and found dead magic man's books, so Zogg reads and the rest

is magic."

Papaya then smirked quietly and Githiom merely looked on with Zogg's gesture.

Githiom was about to speak when as YX was walking forward they see an old man with a wagon and a broken wheel, the old man had never seen a mech was quite in shock and was in the state of running away when Githiom stopped him crawling out of YX's huge body he assured the old man it was safe and asked "old man!, do you know of any town or village inn we could stay?

                                                                           ******************************

The old man was in shock in seeing three people on top of a walking metal hunk and reluctantly answered

"Y-Yes, of course, sir! there's a village up ahead some distance from here that had an inn for weary travelers such as yourselves, if I may ask sir may you help an old man out and fix this broken wheel of mine?"

Githiom obliged and after an hour of repair the wheel was connected, Zogg with his great strength lifted and got the wheel fixed to the gratitude of the old man, who insisted now to guide them to their destination, as he was also going there to but supplies as well, Zogg and company then climbed on top of YX and continued to travel, until they reached Barna Village, the entire village then was abuzz at seeing YX having never seen such a thing before and seeing a Barbarian, an Amazon and a Paladin on top further made things even more out of proportion, one of the villagers then spoke and asked Githiom,

"Say now good sir....are you thee here for the reward for the capture of largefoot?"

Githom then wondered and asked

"What is this largefoot you speak of?"

the man then explained himself and told him

"Recently we have this mysterious monster that is damaging our crops and carrying away our livestock leaving behind large footprints all over the ground, we are in need of strong warriors to find and slay this monster."

Zogg then went in and said

"is this beast strong? Zogg need to fight something strong!"

"Papaya too!"

added the Amazon. Githiom looked at them for a moment and then asked the villager.

"When was the last sighting?"

one of the villagers a spritely woman then said

"just last week! one of my cows was attacked and carried off! can you even imagine how a lossof one of my cows means? that beast is making my herd jittery"

Zogg then howled and shouted a warcry which shook the crowd into silence and awe

"Zogg will beat this monster!!"

"Papaya too!!! added the amazon

Githiom then calmed the two down and then said to the crowd

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

"we'll see what we can do then shook his head and continued"

"where can we find this beast you speak of?"

the villagers looked amongst themselves and then one of them said to them

"In the forest west of here, it makes its lair there, we dare not send anyone for fear of them being lost"

the owner of the local inn then went forward and said

"Thank you, good sirs!, as a reward for doing this task I shall offer my establishment to you free of charge!"

Zogg then raised his arms into the air and howled once more to the delight of the crowd

              **************************************

"Zogg will fight and win!" the barbarian screamed and to the approval of the crowd, Githiom then

took the directions the villagers had told them, Zogg ordering YX to stand down and stay behind in the village as they

take care of the beast themselves, Papaya took her spear and Githiom his sword and Zogg his axe and went into the forest in search of the fabled largefoot, it took them some trekking across some meadows before they could find the borders of the forest where the sighting was seen, Githiom then spoke to Zogg, where do you think this so called largefoot is?

Zogg then proclaimed

"don't know but ..when I see this beast it better prepare for a thrashing!"

Papaya slung her spear to her back and prepared herself by drawing her bow and arrow all the ready for when trouble came they then went around the forest looking for the monster, but having no idea where it actually was it seemed their search was going in circles, Githiom then flustered spoke

"this is getting us nowhere, it's like finding a needle in a haystack with this largefoot"

Zogg then found something and pointed it out to his collegues

"Zogg found something!"

the marks where as clear as day, large impressions in the muck indicating a large two-legged creature had just passed by,recently by the looks of the tracks,

Papaya who was a skilled tracker then went down and inspected the tracks

"These are still fresh! the largefoot passed by here recently!"

Githiom and Zogg then got excited and then pressed forward towards where the trail went, perhaps it will lead them to what they are looking for, sure enough after walking some distance following the footprints they finally found it, sitting by a river eating a freshly caught fish it must have scooped out of the river with it's large hands.

Githiom the stopped the party and then gave instructions.

"on the count of three we charge.... one ...."

immediately Zogg and Papaya then charged forth screaming at the top of their lungs and lunged towards the creature,

Githiom then cried out saying

"Whatever happened to two and three you oafs!!" then bound forward himself to catch up to the two the beast was caught by surprise then stood upwards and then its true form was revealed, sporting large feet and height two times taller than even the tall and large barbarian Zogg, it then gave out a howl of surprise and stretched out

it's arms in reaction to the attacking group

**************************************

The creature arose from it's seated position and grabbed a nearby log to pummel them as Zogg and Papaya rushed forth howling with a resonating battlecry, swinging their weapons wildly. driven by battlefury and brandished their weapons towards the creature known as largefoot, Githiom stood behind them as they hammered their weapons on largefoot's thick fur but found it to be too thick as it had now acted as an armor of sorts against their attacks, the creature then swung

its makeshift log weapon to hit Zogg but Zogg ducked and Papaya darted out of range, Zogg then threw his axe towards the beast the axe bouncing harmlessly against its fur, Zogg then chanted a spell and concentrated for a while as Papaya continued her assault against the beast, but as Papaya attacked more often she noticed something about her opponent, Zogg in the meanwhile finished his

chanting and released a wind spell, wind cyclone buffeting largefoot with cutting wind as the small cyclones swirled around and engulfed largefoot, seeing the creature bellow in pain Zogg then called to his axe to return to him and saw his chance and attacked largefoot, but was timely stopped by Papaya who stood in front of the creature and stood in between the charging barbarian,

Githiom then noticed it too as he stayed behind and chose to be a bystander in the fight.

"So you noticed too eh Papaya? said Githiom and went forward

"That was brave considering you chose to stand in front of a barbarian in full battlefury"

Papaya then said "this largefoot is harmless! it was only trying to protect itself from us!"

Zogg then lowered his axe and even though he was still on guard he also came to that conclusion also considering how the creature acted,

Zogg then asked "we found the largefoot but now what? it is stealing villagers food"

papaya then said

"the villagers were encroaching upon it's home it was only trying to protect it's territory"

Zogg then took one good look at largefoot who now sitting down and scratching its armpits,

Githiom then spoke "she may be right Zogg, this creature appears to be harmless, we merely prompted it to attack us

since it saw that we had weapons. Zogg sheathed his axe to his back and

**********************************

then examined the creature from head to toe, seeing closely as it went to the back of Papaya and sheepishly avoided Zogg's scrutinous gaze, Zogg then went back to Githiom who was now watching him as well,

Zogg then said "there's no point fighting an opponent who wishes to not fight"

Githiom then agreed to him "that was my sentiments exactly" while Papaya was holding Largefoot's arm and smiling at them

"But what we do now? village want the hairy thing to be away from this land"

Githiom then put his hand on his chin and tried thinking of a way to convince the people of the village to see the largefoot in another light,

"I think I may have something in mind...."

Papaya piqued with curiosity then asked them "what do you have in mind? Githiom smiled and explained his plan"

a few hours later the villagers caught sight of the three adventurers walking towards them and the town's mayor asked them

"well, how did it go? did you slay the beast?"

Papaya shook her head and explained to them that they were not successful

"The creature was not to be found we did not find anything"

the mayor then looked disappointed and then said to them

"oh well..that's too bad,"

then just as they were about to go about their usual business a scream could be heard from the rooftops of one of the town of the village it was a child from one of the village's denizen's he was hanging from the rooftops unable to get down, the villagers then became frantic as the child was about to fall, but just as he was about to go, a figure then jumped into the walls of the houses

it was the creature that the villagers knew as largefoot, as the child was about to fall largefoot then picked him up and then went down unharmed on to the ground, the villagers caused quite a stir as they saw the beast save one of them, then one of them cried out

"look it's the creature! he has saved that child!"

"Githiom could only smirk as his plan had worked"

earlier before they could enter the village they had instructed one of the village boys, to hang on to the rooftop in exchange for a silver coin, a pretty price indeed. Zogg though was a little disappointed as to not have found a good battle"

hmph! he uttered, "maybe next time!"

Papaya then went in front of the villagers and then cried out,

"look the creature is harmless!"

the villagers looked among themselves until one of them said

"but what about my livestock? that thing took one of my cows away!"

Papaya then revealed the same cow by pointing away to the horizon, revealing the said bovine"

"it only was a feet hundred spans away from your home!, prompting embarrassment from the villagers, the mayor then came forward and then said to them, but it might be dangerous to us..."

Githiom then assured the mayor

"Largefoot is harmless unless provoked it was only trying to scare you away from it's home, in

which your people were encroaching on"

largefoot then went forward and still clutching the child placed him gently on the ground"

to the astonished villagers,

Papaya also explained to them

"look it is smart enough to place the child there!"

************************************

one of the villagers then pointed it out and then said

"the woman is right! large-foot saved that child!"

the villagers then broke into a fervor and then slowly went towards the creature who just saved the child. the Mayor then went forward and then recognized that largefoot did indeed was harmless,

largefoot then patted the child and then started walking towards the forest and leaving the crowd to ponder what they have done. Githiom then went forward while Zogg called back YX the mech and Papaya continuing their journey towards Illumia,

Zogg Githiom and Papaya then climbed on top of YX and then let the mech walk forward while they

were resting on top of the robot, Zogg then went and asked.