FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Act II

Lethias remained cautious. While Fidget did come across as being sincere and trustworthy, something didn't feel right. The circumstances surrounding her arrival and the convenience in which she was able to cater to his very specific needs made him wonder just what else she knew or was keeping from him. He was amiable to her offer and willing to, at the very least, go with her to give Empress Yelena and Emperor Sanfrit the benefit of the doubt.

But that didn't mean he entirely trusted them. He held a positive mindset that encouraged him to not lead with distrust, but to keep a shield at the ready. It was similar to the old adage, to speak softly but carry a big stick. It's important to be prepared either way, even if he wasn't going to just believe anything that was told to him. That was a mentality that made him a lot of allies but not many enemies.

Once he'd packed up his stuff in a rucksack, the pair of them were off. Fidget led the way, showing the path she took through the underbrush of the forest that surrounded Lethias's home. It was very similar to the path Lethias took, which made him think that maybe he needed to mix things up a bit. If she was following his path, it meant he'd left a trail in his wake.

The trek took them from his home all the way to a camp just outside of Caiden. A two day walk at Lethias's pace. Fidget liked to joke that she could move much faster, since she was more nimble and didn't carry as much weight as Lethias.

"I could take much longer strides if my legs were longer." Lethias joked, eyeing up her satchel and the potions within. "If you've got any more growth potion we could cut the walk time in half."

She held the satchel up close to her hip. "Oh, I see how it is." She cut back, sticking her tongue out at him and blowing a raspberry. She stepped right up to him and playfully poked him between his pecs. "You just want to come to enjoy more of that lovely, lovely potion. To grow, to swell, and to show how big and strong you are. Oh, look at me, damsel in distress. Save me!" She feigned a faint.

"No, I-" Lethias tried to interject, only to be cut off.

"It's fine, I get it." She smacked him on his hip, very close to a booty thwack. "Just get goin'. I only have so many of these potions and they're a little on the volatile side. I wouldn't trust them to do exactly what you want in any given time. It's a weird, strange brew. We got lucky once."

This did surprise Lethias a bit. "What do you mean, lucky? Could we have been hurt?" He did keep pace with her even as she bounded away down the pathway.

She kept ahead of him, skipping while remaining a few paces away. "No, of course not. No bad effects, but the actual effects are mercurial." She then turned around so that she was jogging backwards, sure to keep her gaze on him as she explained. "This brew in particular is less about any one particular effect and more like a catch-all wishing potion. It makes your dreams come true, but only if you have the power and strength to make it happen. If someone lacks the dedication, the magic, or the innate ability to live out their wildest fantasies, the potion doesn't just do it. It's kind of a testing potion. Diagnostics. If I gave you the potion and nothing happened it meant you either didn't have the drive to make it happen, or you weren't the kaiju dragon reborn."

"So does this mean that I am definitely him?" He swelled up a bit, his heart aflutter and a lump in his throat. He did have to stop himself from getting too excited. Not only did she neither confirm nor deny immediately, but she could have been lying.

Fidget kept jogging backwards, maintaining some distance between herself and Lethias. She did trip on a rock and stumble a bit, but she was very well-balanced and was able to stay up. "It's hard to tell. I'm sure you know better than most that growin' like that ain't common at all. Few folks can do it, but even with the help of a potion the effects are negligible. You, however, took a diagnostic potion and that's what came out of you. I told you it was a growth serum, but it wasn't. And that's what happened. Not only did it work exactly as you wanted, but the results were quite magnificent."

He flexed his bicep and pectoral muscle when she said he was magnificent. He liked that word.

"So there's something there. Definitely. What it is, is hard to tell. We can't be sure until we reach the camp and try out our new diagnostic method. As for now, I'm pretty confident in saying that there's definitely something here worth looking out for. Even if you're not the one we're looking for, you might still be the one that can help us out."

"I do feel the need to reiterate I have no intention of harming anyone. Regardless of how things shake up. Whether I am or am not who you say I am - and who I want to be - I won't be some war beast." He was firm but gentle at the same time. Kind but strict.

She turned around so that she was jogging forward again. "I know. We all kinda know that. If things go well, at least according to what I was able to gather from the meetings prior to them sendin' me out here to see you, you'll be saving a lot of people one way or another. The warring tribes, well, they all worship the gods and the titans. Everyone has reverence for-" she stopped herself, realizing she was rambling. "We'll see. I don't want to get your hopes up."

Lethias had slowly perfected his posture so that he was standing upright, his chest bulging out and his form a perfect triangle as he walked. The more he heard her boast about what he could do and who he might be and how things might pan out, the more excited he became. The sound of protecting people was exactly what he wanted out of this sort of ideal. The only thing holding him back was that he didn't trust any ruler to have the same restraint he had. He did want to probe her for more details, to continue with her line of thought, but then he heard something nearby. "Stop." He commanded, reaching out to grab her and pull her in close. "I hear someone. Could be bandits."

Robberies were common on this trail. It was one of the reasons Lethias chose to build his home as far away as he could. Unfortunately, it was the clearest and most straight path to their destination.

"Not likely. And even if there were bandits, I'm not worried." She assured him while slipping out from under his relatively large hand. "Not only have you got this, but I know a thing or two about self defence and I run faster than pretty much anyone I know. Oh, and I have some enchanted daggers somewhere in here so I'm not worried." She patted the satchel and kept ahead, leading Lethias.

He followed, but he remained cautious. He could still hear something odd in the distance, the sound of impacts and rustling and whining. The more he trained his ears on the source of the sound, the less it sounded like the rustling of nimble bandits and more like the desperation of someone in trouble; someone that needed aid. However, given his mentality of keeping his guard up while still wanting to help, he knew he would need to be cautious. One of the most reliable ways to trick good people into lowering their guard was to feign distress and then ambush.

"Give me a moment, I'm going to investigate either way." He stepped off the beaten path and ducked under some branches, delicately pushing all leaves away so that he didn't damage them. After a few moments, Fidget followed him.

"What are you doing, weren't you the one saying we could go faster if we-"

"Shh." He put a finger up to her lips. "I'm listening."

Instead of hushing, she bit his finger, then immediately suckled it a bit to show she meant no harm. "Don't shush me. I'm trying to keep us on track. And besides, if my ears are telling me what I think they are, it's just a trap to entice good folk into an ambush. Best to move along." She tried to grab his tail to pull him back, but he was much stronger than her and just hoisted it up, lifting her off her hooves in the process. When she landed, she had to be careful to not spill the potions in her satchel.

Lethias crouched down as he eased towards the source of the sound, his mind focused on the surrounding area. He was prepared for an ambush. Fidget crouch-walked next to him.

When they arrived into a clearing, they saw a squirrel gentleman trapped under a log, not fully pinned but unable to squirm out. The trunk of the mostly-decayed tree was right on the small of his back, his large hips and upper body trapped on either side. A rudimentary glance showed that the log must have slipped and landed between a nearby mossy rock and the trunk of a still-standing tree, as there were wooden smears all over the tree bark and moss rubbed off the stone.

"He needs our help." Lethias said. Fidget tried to stop him but just ended up missing his hand and nearly stumbling onto her face in the leaf litter. Lethias stepped up to the squirrel and crouched down next to him, his eyes scanning the surrounding treeline, just in case. "What happened here?"

The squirrel, seemingly exhausted, tried his best to turn and look up at Lethias. He was pinned belly-down under the log. "I was trying to dig up some goodies I had stashed at the base of this rock, when the log slipped! Been here all afternoon but nobody's come to help!"

"Really? You stash your goods like a feral?" Fidget countered. "Come on, nobody does that anymore. This is a trick. Lethias, come on, let's go before his buddies show up."

Something about this really upset Lethias. The prejudice she spoke of didn't sit well in the back of his mind. IT also upset him a bit that she'd be so callous and unhelpful. "That's not fair, you don't know this fellow." He then turned to the squirrel and wrapped his arms around the side of the fallen log. "I won't be able to lift it much, so on the count of three, I need you to slip out from under, okay?"

The squirrel nodded. Fidget glared at both Lethias and the poor trapped gentleman, her arms crossed over her chest as her little stubby tail waggled with an agitated vigour.

Lethias positioned himself, stabilized his posture, and made sure to lift with his knees, not his back. "Alright. In three, two, one!" He dug his claws into the soul and hoisted up the log with stunning ease, rearing it up so high it went over the other side of the rock and rolled down harmlessly away from the squirrel, who scrambled out from where he was and collapsed into Fidget's arms. He was no bigger than her, and the log was much lighter than Lethias expected. Could have been because it was decomposing and mostly hollow. Not too much for Lethias, but still probably too much for a tiny squirrel to lift. He felt quite proud of himself.

He expected to look over to Fidget and get chastised or otherwise scolded for helping the lad, but she was just smiling at him with the rodent in her arms. "Nice." Was all she said. The squirrel pushed himself off her and rubbed the leaves and sticks from his fur, suddenly chipper as could be.

Lethias was a little confused. "Okay, what's going on." He said, eyes still scanning the trees.

Fidget laid a hand on the squirrel's shoulder and leaned against him. She addressed him, not Lethias. "Think he passed?"

"Oh yes, indubitably." He answered, voice suddenly dapper. "With aplomb, I must say!"

"I agree. Here." She handed a small silver tab to the squirrel, who nibbled the corner and put it in his own satchel. She turned to Lethias, still leaning on the squirrel. "I guess you proved yourself."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "I don't appreciate what's happening here."

She motioned for the squirrel to hop along, so he disappeared into the woods. "That's alright, I kinda had to. There's more to the kaiju dragon than just his size. His kindness, compassion, and personality are all important, too. I wanted to see how you reacted, especially with me being so terrible by bein' all judgy." she stuck out her tongue like she was gagging. "Squirrels burrow. Ugh, what a terrible stereotype. I hope me pretending to feel that way didn't paint your opinions of me in a negative way. That was just an act, you see. I don't believe all squirrels like to bury their stuff. That was actually his idea, you know."

"And what exactly was the purpose of this, aside from just seeing if I was a good person?" He was actually a little angry, but was doing all he could to maintain an aura of dignity and calmness.

"Oh, I just wanted to see if you'd help even if most factors made it seem like maybe you really shouldn't. You knew there was a chance you could be walkin' into an ambush, I tried to play off any prejudices you had by making you question his validity, and you still helped. Yeah, I say you passed. But you weren't an idiot about it. I saw you being cautious, scanning the trees, not letting your guard down, but still tackling the problem head-on. I'd say you fit the personality profile." She reached into her satchel and grabbed another potion. This one's vial was half the size, maybe smaller. "I think you've earned this!"

Once again he narrowed his gaze, reluctantly taking the vial. "Yeah, I did. Could you please not put me to tests I don't know I'm in? It's quite rude and disrespectful."

"I agree! Won't happen again. It was a one-time thing, the last test prior to your arrival at the military base camp." She started counting on her fingers. "I met you in person and you fit the visual profile; same colours and all that. I talked with you and you spoke with similar cadence and tone. I interacted with you and got you aroused, and your personality and kinks lined up. Then you drank the potion and exactly the right effect came of it. And now, during a time of potential crisis, your heroics - no matter how insignificant - aligned. Yeah, I don't think I have any more tests for you. So if you wanted to maybe have a potion and get those longer legs, then maybe we really could shorten the walk back! Cut the trek time in half." She turned and headed back towards the pathway, cute little tail waggling as she went to skip away.

But Lethias reached out to take her by the hand, stopping her from leaving the clearing. "You said I earned this. I don't suppose that comes with any added benefits?" He downed the potion and then slipped the empty vial in her satchel, never breaking eye contact. While he was still mildly miffed at being so callously jerked around, he was not planning on maintaining a grudge over it. And, having succeeded in a way that seemed to impress her emboldened him. He was confident, but still needed to test the waters a bit, to see if she was as eager as him.

She paused for a moment to stare him up and down. "Thank the skies, I was wondering if you'd ask. I'm sure we can find a bit of time but then we have to get moving. I wasn't joking about you walking slowly. I wanna get there by nightfall tomorrow." Fidget stepped up close and pressed against him, making Lethias fall into a sitting position atop the mossy rock that had trapped the log. "So, tell me stud, what sort of reward would you be looking for? We don't have a whole lot of time but I'm sure we could work something out."

He was not expecting this. He asked for it, but didn't actually expect anything to come of it. "Well, it depends. That was a pretty small vial compared to the first one, what can we expect?" He was touching fingertips, hunched over a bit.

"Who knows? I guess we'll have to wait and find out." she hopped up onto his lap, her knees on his thighs with her legs spread. Her skirt did not cover her groin, so this gave both of them clear and unfettered access to her loins. While kneeling on his lap, she reached down and started gently caressing his balls through his pants, tickling the bulges before aggressively undoing his waist band. "You know, this would go a whole lot faster if you helped me out, here."

"My apologies." He slipped out of his pants, careful to let her step back and forth so he could slide the garment out from under her. This left her fur pressed against his scales, the warmth of her loins billowing out from under her skirt to tickle his scales. This felt so nice to him despite not making contact that he slipped form his depths quickly, his tapered pink cock emerging to smear against her inner thigh and tease her loins.

She grinned at him, her one long fang exposed fully. "See? Nothing wrong with that. Here, lemme help ya out a bit." she shifted in place, delicately moving around so that her back was to his chest and belly, her hooves kneading his thighs in a way he didn't much appreciate but didn't protest.

He preferred paws and claws to hooves, but he was too much of a gentleman to say anything.

Once she was in position there, with her calves nestled within his hip grooves, she leaned up against his chest with her head between his pecs, her little tail wiggling against his belly scales. She reached down between her legs to help guide him, grinning and chirping cutely. A sound that he didn't expect to hear out of her. With her fingers cradling the underside of his member, she tickled him a bit, pushing his tip right up between her plump lips. The instant she felt his flesh part hers, she also felt his pecs swell against her cheeks; she nuzzled back, nibbling and rubbing into him.

This was when Lethias noticed that his body was shifting. He wasn't growing taller and his limbs weren't elongating, but his muscles were ever so subtly expanding, muscles inflating and stretching his scales taut. So much so that he began to lose some of his mobility. As he tried to wrap his arms around her, he found his biceps and pecs were too big, so that even with her being much smaller than him he couldn't grab his own hands for a hug.

Fortunately for him he had no problems leaning back, allowing her to nuzzle and fixate on his growing bulges, while he growled contentedly. At the same time, his legs were doing something similar, his thighs swelling to actually pin her calves in his hip grooves while his feet expanded and pushed out the dirt and dander at the base of the rock and the tree trunk.

In addition to all that, his balls were both inflating with a speed that was greater than anywhere else on his body. Within only a few seconds his orbs had expanded to the size of a pair of blitzballs, then kept swelling more until they were nearly on the ground between his ankles! The tickle of the moss on the rock brushing against his orbs made him tense up a bit, his lower body flexing to force his length into her, whether she was ready for it or not.

Fidget was always prepared. She not only happily accepted his length, but gasped at his girth. Much like the rest of him, his cock had expanded in width but not in length, doubling and tripling in diameter, his shaft pressing tightly against the barriers of his hip bones. There was no way he'd be able to fit if he got any larger.

But Fidget was a bit more adventurous and less reserved than him. She not only slammed herself down on his swelling shaft, but she rotated from side to side to best smear their combined fluids against one another, sure to not leave a single patch of flesh dry. All the while, she nuzzled into his growing pecs, pressed her hips back against his well-defined abs, and even reached out to get some stability by grabbing his arms and shoulders. With some prolonged pressure and stunning flexibility, she was able to force her lips to lurch past his knot, allowing him to pop into her fully.

Normally this would have been the beginning of the endgame; not only was his member so thick he felt there was no room to move within her, but a good tie usually locked them together until climax was achieved. But she wasn't done. The instance his unswelled knot lobes slipped into her, she pulled off him and popped it right back out, her loins just stretchy and loose to allow it. Again, she slammed down, taking it all back inside her, whimpering a bit as she felt his growing girth grinding against her walls. Then she did it again, popping it on and off repeatedly, grinding and bouncing on him with all her might and will, each subsequent penetration a bit harder given his steadily swelling knot.

Eventually, when she slammed herself down, his knot was just the right size to squeeze into her but grew while inside her so that she couldn't pull off. She hit her limits, and when she went to pull off again she only tugged his knot, his flesh yanking on hers in return. Her lips distended, but did not give way to his girth, resulting in a pressure that quickly brought him a his full, knotted tie. Not only did his knot tie them together, his cock tip pressed out against her lower belly, forming a clear bulge.

A sudden and sharp sensation of pleasure burst from his loins, coursing up his spine and down his tail as her flesh swallowed him up. The pressure, the intensity of the friction, and the subtle throbs of her heartbeat pulsing around his shaft and knot lobes worked together to draw his essence out of him within seconds. He felt his toes curl in the leaf litter and his every muscle tense up as his balls tugged upwards and his cock started to twitch and pulsate. He was about ready to burst.

He growled and snarled into her ear as he managed to wrap his bulging arms around her side, holding her in place and keeping her from moving too much while he bucked his hips into her. The pressure around his knot and the subtle friction of her passage caressing his length was enough to make his loins twitch and his massive twin orbs tug upward and squeeze, pumping a series of thick, gooey shots into her depths. His tapered tip had formed a clearly defined and large bulge in her lower belly, but the definition on it quickly subsided as his essence flooded into her, inflating her womb in a way that made her look pregnant.

Her rounded belly lacked the cock definition once offered by his cock tip, but the more his loins twitched and pulsated, the bigger she got. Her pregnant look continued to expand, like she was having twins or more. Eventually, her entire abdominal wall from just below her breasts to the crest of her mound was inflated and perfectly round, his essence sloshing about inside her.

Once his climax died down enough for him to think clearly once more, he unwrapped his arms from around her torso and began gently petting her belly, caressing her bulge to make it churn and slosh some more. He could actually feel his cock inside her if he pressed in the right spot.

This made her giggle. She pressed herself up against his chest again, happily nuzzling his swollen muscles and taut scales, even going so far as to tease and nibble the blue stripes that came down over his shoulders. She seemed oddly comfortable despite her body being swollen and inflated with a hyper-sized dragon's voluminous load.

"A bit different this time." She cooed at him, her words ending with a grunt as Lethias's cock twitched and his balls pumped a bit more of his essence inside her. "Lateral growth instead of vertical growth. Very interesting. Very curious." She struggled to yank her calves out from his hip grooves, a true task given the bulge of his thighs trapping them. Once she was there, she did her best to spin around and face him, his knot getting twisted inside her before lurching around in one quick motion, his knot lobe grinding against her walls and letting loose just a bit of cum before finding comfort.

With her knees in his hip grooves, her pussy drooling combined fluids onto his lap, and her hands on his chest. She grinned at him. "Yeah, I think you're going to have some real fun once we get to camp. For now, let's just enjoy this." She laid herself against his chest, her belly pressed to his and her abdomen fitting in with the grooves of his abs while she rested her chin between his pecs.

In response he patted her on the head and stroked her down the back, occasionally doing what he could to ease and caress her belly again. He had many questions, but rightly assumed he'd not be able to think straight while in a prolonged state of orgasmic bliss, so he waited for his cock to deflate and the effects of the potion to wear off, thus returning him to his normal girth and his groin to return to normal size. Of course this let all the seed he'd deposited into her to cascade out and soak into the ground at the base of the boulder and the tree, a mess that they couldn't really clean.

Once the pair of them parted ways, untying his member from her loins, she happily guided him down the trail once more, explaining to him that such a reaction was yet another show that she was confident he was, in fact, who she claimed.

Lethias continued to have many questions but figured he wouldn't get them out of Fidget. And he was right. She had shared all she could, she had no more information for him regardless. All she could offer was speculation and hope. All that was left was to take Lethias to the camp and have the others there do further diagnostics.

The trek did in fact last a full day beyond that point. But once the pair arrived they were met with a level of excitement he wasn't expecting. The camp itself was quite rudimentary, a series of tents erected deep in the woods in the valley of a hilly region. There was a clearing in the middle with a huge bonfire, and nestled in the crook between two cliffs was the biggest tent, one lined by the banners of Empress Yelena and Emperor Sanfrit, its fabric a combination of black, white, and brown with hints and accents of green and blue.

The other members of the camp were almost entirely canine, but there were other dragons and equines as well. Lethias didn't feel the most comfortable here, but he understood the need. Yelfrit was primarily a canine and equine nation, with the five warring tribes bringing in more diversity.

"We're here!" Fidget declared while slapping him on the butt. "I guess this is where we part ways. Once I take you into their tent, they'll take you from here." She almost sounded disappointed.

"Would it not be better to have you come in with me? Tell them what you saw?" Lethias asked, similarly concerned. He felt he really needed her as a witness to the things she assured him were significant. The last thing he needed or wanted was to make claims without her support.

She laughed a bit. "Oh, I'm going in with you. I gotta give my report before I head out or take my next job. Don't worry, big boy, I'm not gonna abandon you. Come on." She grabbed his hand and guided him beyond the bonfire to the draped entrance of the main tent. Other members of the camp, all warriors dressed in armour and weapon holsters, had to get a look and offer a casual salute to him. She had to stop before they entered the tent to give her satchel to an ash stallion who slipped it into a weapon cache next to him. It seemed they were not allowed to take potions inside.

Inside the circular tent, Lethias was greeted with the image of two canines sitting on ebonstone thrones with ivory detail work. The fabric of the thrones was an earthy brown and there was a similarly coloured walkway leading up to them. There were rows of seats on either side of the walkway, with a series of shelves and racks lining the outer walls, each one stuffed with equipment, clothing, weapons, and tonnes of other amenities. Between the strip of seats and the shelves, there were tables covered in steaming, hot food. Roasts, veggies, sauces, and everything else expected for a feast. A meal fit for, well, a king or an emperor.

Empress Yelena and Emperor Sanfrit sat upon the thrones until Lethias entered. Then, they got to their feet and clapped. Empress Yelena was a stark black and white canine with piercing blue eyes, while Sanfrit was a bit more earthy, mottled with grays and browns; he had equally piercing green eyes. The pair of them clapped when they saw Lethias enter, his towering form nearly breaching the low-hanging fabric of the tent's roof.

Yelena came forward first, bounding up the walkway to meet Lethias and Fidget. She wore robes of gold and brown with blue buttons to match her eyes, and she was a bit taller than Fidget, making her still a full head and shoulders shorter than Lethias. "Aha!" She yipped at him while excitedly reaching out to try to take his hand. "We didn't think you'd actually come! Fidget, darling, you've done a fantastic job!"

Lethias was slightly unsettled by her enthusiasm and need to touch him, so he simply stepped back and bowed gracefully. "Empress." Was all he said.

Emperor Sanfrit stepped up behind her, arms behind his back. He wore a similarly colored robe, only his buttons were green; also to match his eyes. While he was trying to be more reserved than Yelena, Lethias could see his tail wagging under his robes. "It's a pleasure to meet you in person." Sanfrit declared. He was a bit more respectful, offering his paw for a shake rather than reaching out to grab the dragon. Yelena backed off as well.

A bit more comfortable, Lethias shook both his paw and Yelena's. "I wish I knew more about why I was here, but I suppose it's my pleasure as well." Now that he was face to face with the ones who took him from his home he was mildly upset and wanted to be aggressive with his words but chose, as he often did, to be diplomatic. "So, if you don't mind, I'd love to have a bit of a chat about what inspired you to summon my husband and I."

"Right, right." Yelena said, her tone apologetic. She and Sanfrit headed back to their thrones, where they hopped up and sat, Yelena being cross-legged while Sanfrit remained in a more traditional, regal pose with his arms on the rests. She snapped her fingers and a pair of appropriately sized chairs slid onto the carpet in front of the thrones - one big enough for Lethias and the other for fidget - followed by the smallest table of food from the feast hovering over to land right next to the chair. "Sit, sit, we have plenty to discuss. Fidget, you too."

Lethias was mildly hesitant but did take a seat. He'd been walking for almost two full days at this point and was ready for a rest. The food helped, too, even though he had no intention of eating during a meeting. That was rude, even if it was offered. The food table was between the two chairs set out for him and Fidget as well as the thrones that Yelena and Sanfrit sat atop.

Once he was comfortable, Yelena turned to Fidget with a broad grin. "Okay, so it seems whatever you did convinced him to come. So you'll be rewarded handsomely for that. Please, do give your report on how you managed to do that. Lethias, my friend, feel free to pitch in whenever you feel the need to do so. I want all the details. Yes, even the juicy ones."

There was a moment of uncertainty as Lethias wasn't entirely comfortable sharing the more intimate details, but once Fidget began giving her report it became clear that it was all important.

Fidget started at the beginning, recalling the initial contact when Lethias was splitting wood, right up to the application of the potion and the rather impressive growth Lethias showed when he got aroused. Lethias did look away when that part was discussed but he didn't ask her to stop; she was being quite flattering and he liked hearing her give such details in an official report. Her debrief continued with the conversations she had with Lethias's husband, the events just off the pathway with the squirrel, and Lethias's lateral growth.

She was very thorough, and very flattering. Not only did she share every detail, her recollection of the events made Lethias swell, figuratively, as he remembered the situations and had to stop himself from getting aroused in front of royalty. While it seems his arousal was a key factor in the growth, he still felt wrong showing that to people he'd just met.

Upon completion of her report, Fidget turned to him and grinned. "I think I got everything?"

He nodded. "Seems so. Very thorough report. Very kind, too."

"Honest." she said simply.

Yelena yipped in happiness. "And I couldn't be more pleased with the results. Fidget, you're free to get your payment from the arbiter if you wish, or you could stick around. Up to you."

"I'll stay for now. I've come to love this derg. He's kind of a sweetheart and I wanna see how things go, if that's okay with you."

"It is, yes." Yelena then turned to Lethias with that broad grin, her piercing blue eyes trained on him. "Well, we have a lot to discuss, if you've got the time. Oh, who are we kidding, of course you have time. Feel free to have some food, you must be starving after a long trek."

To show they were serious, Sanfrit got up and made himself a plate from the feast set out on the table. He bit into a big leg of the roast and happily sat by while Yelena continued. Clearly she was the more dominant or vocal of the two.

Yelena grabbed a strip of meat from Sanfrit's plate and dipped it in the potatoes and gravy, chomping it down before continuing with Lethias. "So, it seems Fidget explained everything to you. The basics. A good friend of ours has been scouring the globe looking for potential titans reborn, and was particularly excited when they found you. I don't mean to alarm you, but they've been watching over you for a while now. Not interfering, but observing."

It did bother Lethias quite a bit hearing that he'd been surveilled so thoroughly prior to this, but he kept that thought to himself and allowed Yelena to keep talking.

"This friend of ours was an old friend of yours, too. If you are who we think you are. And together with our mages we were able to not confirm your identity, but to give us enough information to know with a fair degree of assurance that you are, in fact the Kaiju Dragon, reborn." She paused to see if Lethias reacted to that. He didn't, at least not outwardly, so she continued. "That potion you took was a bit more than just a potion. As Fidget explained, it was somewhat diagnostic. We've been experimenting with essence extractors, and we were able to make that potion. A potion that doesn't do any one thing, but simply, well, extracts your essence. Makes it real."

"Yes, Fidget kind of explained that. How does it confirm anything?"

Yelena got up from her throne, urging Lethias to stand before her. "Okay, so here's how it works. We have growth potions. It's incredibly hard to make, because transformation magic is some of the most complicated and nuanced of all the spells out there. Changing your body is just not something that can be done most of the time. We have healing or restorative potions that revert you back to your default state, and there are plenty of potions that will temporarily give you buffs like making you faster or stronger or more resilient to impact, but those are short lived. Couple hours duration at most and they don't transform you, they temporarily alter you."

Lethias nodded. "I've had some in the past. It's quite expensive and hard to come by."

"Exactly!" She snapped her fingers and then pulled over another seat so she could stand on it. Only then was she standing at eye level with him. "And how tall did you get? How big did you grow with that extremely expensive concoction? About here?" She added a half meter or so to his height with her hand, having to stand on her paw tips to get that high.

"About that, yes. Bulked up a bit, too." Lethias flexed to show off a bit, but Yelena didn't react.

She then got back down off the chair and paced in front of him, motioning for him to lay down. "We had the same results. We tried using it on some of our soldiers, to give them a bit more heft for a battle, but it didn't do much. A fifty percent increase in mass is great for berserkers - you know, folks we don't expect to see alive at the end of a battle - but not great for soldiers we want to keep alive. A blade still penetrates their flesh all the same. There's some weakness to blunt force as well, but most weapons are blades, so it doesn't do much. And we like keeping our people alive. Makes for a better long-term strategy if our soldiers live to fight another day. Great for morale, too."

True. Lethias did agree with that, so he nodded once more. He tried to not interrupt.

"And that's the most a growth serum will add to proceedings. Mass is mass. One cannot conjure mass from nothing. You can expand what you already have, but then it makes your body less dense and can actually weaken you. Unless you're something more than an average soldier. The only way you can summon the mass needed to grow to remarkable size is if you already have it in you or through another method we're still working on. It's not a potion, though. Potions just use concentrated magic to amplify or trigger certain spells. Can't conjure something from nothing."

This mention of another method to grow piqued Lethias's interest. He rubbed his chin but otherwise kept to himself, happy to let Yelena continue. He did glance over to Fidget, who was sitting cross-legged on the seat and listening intently, eyes wide and ears up high.

Yelena continued. "And with all that said, I can say with certainty that you are, in fact, the kaiju dragon. Reborn. Or, if you're not him, you're a viable substitute. You clearly have the essence in you. Maybe you're an ancestor, maybe you're him. I don't know. All I know with certainty is that you're special. No other soldier, regardless of innate strength or skill grew to your size. What was it, Fidget?"

"About four meters, I'd guess. Easily twice his height and therefore quadruple his mass."

"Four meters. That's insanely large. I bet it felt good." She stared intensely at him, grinning and nodding. She didn't let him answer. "Of course it felt good. And it felt right, didn't it? Like that was what you wanted or believed all along. A lifetime of wishing for that only to find, with the right application of a diagnostic potion, that it is exactly who you are. There's a reason you felt this way. But, there is also a reason you didn't grow any larger. Your self-doubt."

Lethias narrowed his gaze. "I don't doubt myself, I know my abilities."

Yelena hopped back up onto her throne, glancing sidelong over at Sanfrit. "No, of course not. Why would you. You've accomplished everything you set out to do, haven't you? You have no reason to question your own abilities, but you also have no reason to believe yourself to be more than what you grew up to expect. You worshipped the titans, you had no reason to believe that you might be one of them, or that they were even anything more than mythology, for that matter."

"I'm still not convinced." Lethias countered. His resolve was wavering but he was also a very analytical person who wasn't yet convinced. "Potions are getting stronger and more effective all the time. And I know your influence on the region - that's why the five tribes are fighting over your spot in Caiden - so I know there's a good chance you have access to enchantments far greater than anyone else. I have no reason to believe there's anything special or out of the ordinary, here." He hated saying it, but it felt right. He wanted to believe what was said but also knew the value of healthy skepticism.

"I thought you might say so." Yelena interjected. "And I know that nothing I say or do will convince you until we have a more powerful and accurate diagnostic test for you, but I can say this. When we were researching the titans and with our ally, the one who suggested you were the one, we discovered something very important."

Lethias was intrigued. "What's that?"

Yelena reached under her throne to pull out a small chest. She opened it up and revealed a small scroll. When she unfurled it and showed it to Lethias, it showed three figures. A dragon, a gryphon, and an insect hybrid. The insect was gray and blue, flying over top of the dragon and the gryphon, who looked like they were protecting the hybrid. The gryphon was black and white with a yellow beak and pronounced neck plumage, but it was the dragon's colours that stood out. A red-scaled dragon with a yellow belly and two blue stripes over his shoulders. All of them were towering over a pyramid-like temple with two huge thrones of goldstone.

The dragon's colours were the same as Lethias's. He was shocked, but still tried his best to keep up an aura of skepticism. "There's no proof that's real. It's easy to use dyes and paint. You said you had an old friend watch over me. I have no way of knowing this wasn't coloured after you sought me."

"This is true, it could be fake, but it's not. This was discovered a few years ago by a black and white pegasus mare and her teal kobold friend. This mare had apparently gone from being a devout worshipper of the gods in Port Aralyptian to suddenly getting visions of these kaiju. So she spent years building up the funds for an expedition, and buried deep beneath a temple in the Arrenthen Basin she found this chest, and in it this scroll. The visions stopped the moment she found it, and she donated it to us. This was the first time any of the titans were depicted with colour, a monumental discovery."

He was growing increasingly convinced but unwilling to accept this without proof. "Okay, that's quite compelling evidence. How do I know you're telling the truth?"

She rolled up the scroll and slipped it back into the chest. "You don't! You can't! Of course we could be lying. But what is more likely, that we just randomly decided that you - a reserved dragon who was minding his own business far away from civilization - were special and specifically conjured a conspiracy and put together the pieces and developed new magic just to convince you to fight in a war and die for us, or that we're telling the truth and spent valuable resources to investigate before making the wrong choice? I'm not going to pretend a conspiracy isn't possible or that we lack the ability to do so, but what would it benefit vs the cost? We get one dragon who lasts marginally longer in a fight but does nothing to sway the tides of war, all after spending mountains of gold coins on research and development of new potions? Yeah, I think you know that's not likely."

His breathing was growing. A huge part of him just wouldn't let him believe it, he still didn't have enough compelling evidence to buy into their claims. Yet, despite all that he also had few counter arguments that weren't grasping at threads. He had questions, but knew he couldn't possibly ask them without expecting some sort of run-around or testimony he would just question anyway.

After a moment of heavy breaths, he raised a hand. "Can I have a few moments? I really need some time to think."

Sanfrit stood up and bowed to him. "Indeed. We do politely request you stay at camp and give us some time to prove to you what we are certain to be true. If we can convince you to stay, that you are the Kaiju Dragon Reborn, then we seek your help. If we cannot convince you, or it turns out you absolutely are not who we think you are, you are free to leave. No ill will, no catch, no cost to you."

Lethias simply nodded before getting up, bowing to both Yelena and Sanfrit, and heading out of the tent with Fidget in tow. He walked past the clearing and right down the trail that he used to enter the camp, only to be stopped before reaching the guarded barricade by Fidget.

"You know they're right." She declared without hesitation. "It sounds absurd, but they aren't lying. They wouldn't waste all this time with reconnaissance and hiring me to come get you and allowing me to use a dozen of those extremely valuable diagnostic potions. If they're wrong, they're wrong. They're not lying, and that's important."

"I know." He said in between ragged breaths. His vision was slightly blurred, the air felt thin, and his chest was tingling in a way that made things very uncomfortable. His heart beat rapidly and his fingers tingled; he was having a slight anxiety attack as he struggled to make sense of everything and reconcile his own personal uncertainties. "I know, but it's a lot to take in, and-"

"It's fine, calm down." She said as she sidled up to him and guided him back towards the tents, her arm around his hip. "There's no need to panic and no need to commit. Just relax, maybe meet some of the other soldiers here, maybe have some food and drink and potions for fun, then we can reconvene tomorrow. I heard rumours and whispers that they have more to show you but didn't want to until you'd agreed to at least let them check you out a bit."

He paused and looked down at her. "You still know more you're not saying."

"Yep. Can't just dump everything on you at once. I can't say much more, but trust me on this."

"I only just met you, but I'll give it a chance." He gulped and walked back to camp with her. "I just need some time. I'm sure you understand where my mind's at."

She nodded and leaned into him. "More than you know. Come on. I'll go see if I can get some of my potions back from Arbiter Vvilfred and we can have some fun tonight. Meet the crew. Who knows, maybe you'll make some friends and form some bonds. Either way, lots of food and music."

Lethias remained cautious but excited in equal measure. He had a hard time believing what was happening but he'd managed to take a few days on the trip up to at least temper his expectations in a way that allowed him to buy into it all. If only a little bit. Of course, he had so much more to see and to learn, so much more growth to experience.

This dragon was in for one interesting night.