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Terexia's Unwanted Growth Rough Draft 2
🕑 Added 2021-06-02 05:51:27 +0000 UTCFinished the story but won't move on to alternate versions/editing till later.
Terexia’s Unwanted Growth
The pale light of the moon shone over the small town of Cresthaven. The residents had all turned in for the night, the cobblestone streets now deserted and only a few lanterns burning. A few stray animals were still wandering the streets, looking for what scrapes they could.
A lone wooden door creaked open on the edge of town as a young elven woman stuck her head out, checking the street. Terexia checked from one end to the street to the other looking for any guards. Satisfied that she didn’t see anyone she stepped out into the alleyway and closed the door behind her. She then pulled the gold bracelet out of her pocket that she had just swiped from the household. “Last thing I need is someone seeing that I had swiped this and calling a guard.”
She shoved the bracelet back into her leather pocket and walked down the street humming to herself. Terexia ran her hands through her blue hair, letting it fall onto her left shoulder and behind her long ear. She had been contracted to acquire a few items from Cresthaven for a man named Ulex. He was paying her five hundred gold coins for the job, a job that she didn’t exactly want to do. It was true, she was a mercenary known for her talents at liberating things that didn’t belong to people. This though felt more like robbery of a petty crook.
Still it wasn’t like she had much choice. Ulex was one of the Cresthaven guards and he was going to have her thrown into jail if she didn’t get him what he wanted. She was robbing a few places in town all because this enforcement officer didn’t want to dirty his fingers.
Terexia pulled out her list. “I only have one more item to get and I can be done with this distasteful business.” She sighed. “One bottle of scale alteration.” She scratched at her head. “I know Ulex has scaly skin but is this really the answer?” She flipped the paper around to look at the map. “Well luckily I don’t have to run all of town for this.” She turned around and looked at an unremarkable stone building with a stone door. “It should be right in here.”
She walked up to the door and took out her lock picking kit and then carefully picked the lock. Moments later Terexia was able to open the door and creep inside. She looked around the room as she closed the door behind her. The only light came from the moon shining through a dingy glass window. There were multiple crates sitting on the floor and what appeared to be shelves along the walls with multiple small bottles sitting on them.
This appears to be some kind of store house. She tip toed her way over to the door at the far end of the room and opened it. On the other side was another room with even more small bottles and boxes but nothing more. “Good I am alone in here.” She turned towards the window. “I should cover that so I can light a lantern and search the place.”
Terexia pulled a cloth off of one of the boxes and used it to cover the window. She then pulled a match out of her pocket and lit it off the same box, illuminating the room. “There that is much better. I wouldn’t want to accidently knock one of these bottles over. No telling which one of these might have alchemical properties.”
Terexia was weary with dealing with these types of elixirs and potions. Most were harmless and used in medical purposes but some were considered magical. One time she had been liberating some coin from an unsavory man and found herself accidently knocking over a bottle that she had thought was just whisky. Next thing she knew she had to escape as her body slowly froze. She spend the next few hours sitting next to a furnace as her body shivered in its new icy form.
She held up the match to a lantern on the wall, letting the light flood the device. She then took a few steps back and began to peruse the room. “Ok scale alteration. Where are you?” With the amount of vials in the store house it felt like she was searching for a needle in a hay stack. “Who organized all of this? Someone could at least put some kind of method to this madness.” She picked up a vial. “Why is Herbal Soothing Mist next to Yen’s Gold Dust?” She shook her head. “I don’t have time to be here all night looking for some stupid bottle.”
She sighed. “Might as well start searching the next room.” Terexia made her way over to the door when she saw a vial she had missed before by the door. It had blue liquid in it and a gold cap. She gently picked it up and twisted the bottle around to see its label. “Scale Alteration. Bingo. Ugh why is the side of this wet? Opps.”
The bottle slipped out of her fingers and she fought to grab it. The vial bounced out of one hand and into another. “Come on, you slippery little devil.” The vial slipped out of her hand again and began to spin rapidly in the air. “Oh no.”
Terixia watched the bottle as it spun in the air before reaching out and snatching it out of the air. “Got you.” Only after she had the bottle in her hand did she notice that the cork was missing and she had blue liquid all over her hands. “Great. I better get something to wipe this off.”
Before she could move the liquid sank into her skin. She held up the bottle and read the fine print on the label. “No need to drink this formula, the contents will absorb into the skin.”
“Wait what?”
Terrexia set the bottle down as her body began to throb. “Ugh.” She held her arms around her waist. “I feel so weird.” Her boot heels hit the crate behind her. “Huh?”
She looked down to see the floor slowly moving futher away. “Why is everything shrinking?” Terexia took a few steps to try and steady herself, almost knocking over an entire shelf of potions onto the ground. “I need to get out of here.” She narrowed her eyes and pushed the nerby crate into the wall. “If I keep growing like this who knows what else will happen.”
She made sure to put the cork onto the bottle first and slip it into her bag. She still had a job to do after all and this mishap wasn’t going to have her thrown into the Cresthaven prison. With the vial secure the made her way over to the door. Her growing body made things difficult; she had less room with each step. Her head hit the ceiling as she reached the door, forcing her to bend over. “At least I will be able to escpae.”
Terrexia suddenly realized that she had left the lantern burning at the other end of the room. She turned around as she was forced to bend over more and more. “Crap I can’t leave that on, or have the sheet over the window. Someone will know I was here.” She looked at the door. “But if I don’t leave now I may not be to leave at all. I have no idea how big I am going to get.” She clenched her fist as she tried to think, her back pressing into the roof.
“Ugh.” She fell onto her hands and knees and made her way over to the window. She knew that Ulex would point the finger at her if she left any trace that she had been here. She had to take the risk of growing so big that she couldn’t fit through the door to cover her tracks. She pushed boxes to the side with her massive hands to make room for her body. “Ok I need to remember where those crates went when I move back through this room.” She felt her heels press against the door and her back against the roof. Terexia lowered her body so she was no longer touching the ceiling. “I think I made a mistake.”
She looked around at the walls which were closing in on her fast. Her clumsy limbs now pushed crates around. Terexia reached out and pulled the cloth from the window with her fingers. “There.” She then tried to grab the lantern but couldn’t open the protective glass. “Damn tiny thing.” Her elbows pressed against walls, knocking over vials as she struggled with the lantern. “Come on. I just need to put you out so I can escape.”
“Ugh.” She took a deep breath in and blew. The lantern wobbled and the light inside went out. “I guess being this big has its perks.” She then tried to turn around but couldn’t move more than a few feet in any direction. “This is absurd.” Her shoulders pressed against her ears. “Oww.” Her right knee crushed a box of vials, sending muti colored liquid all over the floor.
The walls began to creak as she continued to grow. “No.” Terexia pulled her limbs in as close as she could to her body. “Why do I keep growing? There is just no more room.” The cold touch of the glass made her shiver as her face pressed against the window. “I feel like I am being squished.”
Her right arm suddenly shot through the wall of the store house and into the adjacent room, crushing multiple crates in the process. Her feet then pushed through the door of the building, slowly pushing out as she continued to grow. Next her head caused the window to shatter followed by her head pushing through the entire wall. She now looked out at the street, taking in deep breaths as she felt the building continue to groan in agony. “This is absurd.” She trashed her head about. “Just let me out.”
Her left arm shot out of the wall, hitting the nearby building. She shook her hand as her back began to separate the roof from the foundation. Terexia extended out her legs, hearing a crashing sound as she did so. “What was that?” She tried to retract her left leg but her boot heel was stuck. “Great did I kick out and get my foot stuck in yet another house?”
Taking a deep breath in, Terexia put her hands and free foot down and pushed against the earth. The roof of the building groaned before splitting in two, freeing Terexia from her prison. She pushed herself up to a kneeling position with a triumphant smile on her face. “Finally.”
She adjusted her hair before examining her left leg. Her boot had pushed its way into the stone confines of another building. She twisted around and tried to pull herself out but once again she was stuck. “Oh come on.” She could feel her foot knocking over furniture as her body continued to expand. “I am ruining yet another house. This is a disaster.”
Terexia grabbed on the sides of the building and pulled. The building shuttered before crumbling into a mass of stone bricks. She then stood up and dusted herself off. “Time to get out of here. Whoh.” She looked out over Cresthaven, able to see from one end of the town to the other. She was taken back by her new height, taking a few steps to steady herself. Not looking where she was stepping her boot heel crashed down hard on yet another house.
Terexia looked down at the chimney she had just ruined. “I better get out of here before I destroy any more buildings.” She took her foot off the house. “At this rate even handing over this items isn’t going to get me out of being turned over to the guards by Ulex.” She tapped her finger on her chin. “Wait, why do I have to be afraid of him anymore? I am big enough that I can renegotiate the deal.” She smiled. “Yes I think that will work.”
Without thinking she jumped up into the air in glee and destroyed the rest of the home that she had stepped on previously. Terexia’s eyes widened as she looked down. “Oh crap. If only I could stop growing as I am clumsy at this size.” She raised her foot to dust off the derbies.
“Well I guess I should make my way to meet with Ulex. Hand off these good and finish this unsavory business.” Terexia looked out over the shrinking Cresthaven. “I just hope I stop growing sometime soon.”
