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Gifts and Dangers

By Cimmaron Spirit

Commission for F3L4N

WARNING: this story contains: wolf, feral macro growth, shrinking, destruction, post-apocalyptic, rampage, violence and no yiff. If you like any of these things, I hope you enjoy!

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The sun was finally starting to peek over the horizon when Felan began to wake up. He yawned before standing up to stretch his four legs, shaking off the last little bit of tiredness.

The black wolf just had what may have been the best sleep of his life. Felan didn't have to wake up in the middle of the night due to the noises of another wolf, or a prey animal that stumbled too close, or a human out on a hunt, or a mutated creature seeking a quick snack and not caring who or what it was.

Felan turned around to see the giant mountain of white fur, slowly breathing in and out. That was the reason for his new found safety and security, his friend and protector, Sara.

A few days before, she was just a little bit taller and bigger than Felan, stronger and more agile as well. While Felan had the ability to read the old human language, he was nowhere near as physically suited for the hellscape that the world was like now. Without Sara to help protect him, Felan had no idea where or what he would have been doing. And most likely not good at all.

Now, though, she was several stories tall, one of her paws big enough to totally cover Felan without a hint that he was there. The thought that she could have simply rolled over in her sleep, or stepped on him, and he would have been crushed in an instant made him shiver.

It had only been a day since Sara and Felan found themselves inside that old human bunker, and then soon after Sara had been doused in a strange chemical and turned into a giant, able to easily outgrow and destroy it in the process.

Now, she was perhaps the biggest, strongest creature in the wasteland.

Felan shook his head. So many things had happened recently, each one more surreal than the last.

But so long as they stuck together: Felan's ability to avoid danger and find food, and Sara capable of taking on any danger or threat, they should be able to survive for a long time to come.

Felan trotted over to the nearby stream and took a long drink of the clean water, a rarity in the world, before happily returning back to where Sara still lay sleeping.

But he was startled to see a figure in a black and brown cloak standing next to Sara, looking over the giant wolf, while clutching something in his hand.

"Hey!" Felan barked, growling as he rushed up to the figure, fangs bared. "Get away!"

The figure stood up straighter, then turned around to see the small black wolf rushing him, ready to pounce. But with a quick sliding maneuver, he ducked out of the way, and Felan crashed right into the side of Sara's leg.

The white wolf stirred, raising her head as she looked down to see Felan sprawled next to her, confused at what the little wolf was up to.

"Mmm... what are you doing?" Sara asked in a deep, rumbling voice, before yawning.

Felan quickly jumped back on his feet, facing off against the figure in the cloak. "There is someone here, trying to hurt you!" the black wolf growled.

The figure began to laugh, which confused Felan.

"Oh, I have no interest in harming either you or your large friend," the cloaked man said, in a soft and gentle voice. "I'm here to help you."

Felan was very suspicious and growled at the man.

"Wait, how can you talk to us?" Sara asked, her large size giving her a confidence and casual nature that the tiny Felan could never hope to match. She was always a bit more laid back and relaxed, but seemed to be even more so now.

"I was given a gift long ago, to be able to speak to all the creatures of the world," the cloaked man said, before bending down to grab a bag on the ground. "Much like how your friend here is the size of a building, and you can read the human language."

"Wait, how did..."

The mysterious figure gave a chuckle, before digging through the leather bag. "Yesterday I followed you two to the bunker, and watched as your friend here burst out of it. I had been in the bunker a long time ago, soon after it was abandoned, so I figured out what must have happened.

"I was able to modify the formula of the chemical in the bunker to create an antidote, one that can allow you to return to a more manageable size," the figure said.

Sara tilted her head. "But I like being this big! It's amazing!"

"But being so large will cause problems for you in the future," the man hidden in the cloak said. "At such a large size, you will be an easy target for everyone, and people may be scared of you and try to kill you. It will be hard to feed yourself at that size as well. The larger one is, the more food that will be required to keep you healthy and strong."

As if to accentuate the point, Sara's stomach began to rumble, a loud gurgle of hunger heard by both Felan and the stranger.

"Yeah, it will take more than some old packaged food to keep me fed now," Sara admitted, glancing down the Felan. "No matter how much you can find."

The mysterious stranger reached into his bag and pulled out something from it, before holding it out in a dark, brown furred hand, with little black hooves on the fingertip.

"I've been able to take some samples of the chemical and reverse engineer it to create something that will shrink your size to something much more manageable," the figure said. "And I even turned them into something easy to eat."

"So I'll be small again, forever?" Sara asked, a pang of sadness in my voice."

"In my experiments I've found out that even after something shrinks down to normal, the chemical is still in their system. So it will be just as easy for you to grow large again when you need to, if you have enough water handy."

"So I can grow and shrink whenever I want?" Sara asked, much more excited again.

"Within reason, of course," the mysterious stranger said. "I have only made a few of these bars, maybe five or so. After that... well, I don't know if I will ever see you two again, so you will be on your own after that."

"How can we trust you?" Felan asked, voicing a suspicion that Sara was also wondering about. "How can we trust that these bars won't make us sick, or worse?"

The cloaked figure gave a shrug. "To be perfectly honest, you can't. I know it all seems strange, a random person showing up in the wasteland that can talk to animals, with the solution to a problem you are facing. But I swear, on my life and honor, that I am only here to help you."

Sara looked between the two tiny blips near her massive front paws: the black wolf that had been with her for so long now that they seemed more like brother and sister, or perhaps even closer? And a man offering a few chances to return to normal, but also the promise that she could grow giant again if need be?

It seemed so strange.

But stranger things happened in the wasteland.

Like a wolf turning into a towering colossus in the first place.

Sara leaned down. "Thank you Felan, but I think we can trust him."

"How..."

"Thank you!" the mysterious figure said with relief in his voice.

"Because if he is going to poison me, I'm sure I'll have enough time to step on him. And if not, I'm sure you could take him on."

"Not so thank you," the mysterious figure replied.

But he pulled out the small little bar, and Sara opened her cavernous mouth, rolling out a long red tongue as wide as a car. The stranger set the bar down in the middle of her tongue, though it looked like a pebble in the middle of a pond. Sara pulled her tongue back into her mouth and quickly swallowed it up.

"That tasted surprisingly okay," Sara said, licking at her lips.

"Do you feel any different?" Felan asked, his voice filled with concern.

"No, not really," Sara replied, looking around. "I don't seem to be shrinking either."

"It will take some time," the mysterious stranger said. "By tomorrow you should notice a major difference, but it will take a few days before you return to a more normal height.

"Oh!" the stranger said, before reaching into his bag again, and pulling something else out of his bag. "So, if I'm going to give you the rest of these bars, I guess I should give you a way to carry them," he said, holding up a strange device, with two smaller bags attached to each other with some sturdy straps.

He turned to Felan, holding the saddle bag up to the black wolf. "If you wear this on your back, you can carry these bars, and anything else you might find and want to keep. If you just drape it over your back, it should be easy enough to slide on and off when you want to."

Felan was still very suspicious. He glanced up, to see the giant white wolf giving a nod of support and approval. The black wolf sighed, cautiously approaching the mysterious stranger, and allowing him to place the bag on his back. It wasn't super heavy, and seemed to fit fairly comfortably on his back, as if it had been designed just for this job.

"There we go!" the mysterious stranger said. "I guess that's about all I can do for you two."

"Thank you," Sara said. "It's not often we find such kindness in the wasteland."

"Still don't trust you," Felan said with a growl.

"Hey!" Sara snapped, making Felan wince and look up to the disproving glare of the giantess. "That's no way to treat someone just helping out!"

"Well, sorry that I'm paranoid!" Felan replied, rolling his eyes. "Like, how does someone just appear out of nowhere, give you stuff and then..."

The black wolf turned to where the mysterious figure had been, only to see that he vanished. "...disappears?"

"Wait. Where did he go?" Sara asked, looking around, turning in circles, and making the black wolf dodge her footsteps.

Felan went up to the spot where the stranger had been standing, to see some hoofprints on the ground. But he also noticed that there was no trail leading to or from the spot.

It was like he just... teleported away.

"Okay, this was weird," Felan said, glancing back to see that the saddle bag was still on his back.

"Well, should go find something to eat, I guess," Sara said, before licking her lips again. "I'm starving!"

Felan swallowed deeply, knowing that he better find something for the both of them before she decided that maybe the black wolf was more worth a snack than a partner.

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It took several days, but eventually Sara did indeed return to a normal size. Well, somewhat normal: after a week of steady shrinking, she finally reached a new normal, which was a bit bigger than before. She was now almost twice as tall as Felan was at the shoulder, and stronger as well.

The part that annoyed Felan the most though was that due to her increased size, her stride had also gotten longer. A simple walk for Sara was now a constant jog for Felan to keep up with her, or else being left too far behind his erstwhile protector. The backpack he was wearing, while not super heavy or cumbersome was also starting to bother him, the sides gently slapping against his stomach getting increasingly annoying and painful after a while.

"Gaah!" Felan groaned as they walked into the husk of an old house, before falling heavily on the creaking floorboards, having spent yet another day struggling to keep up to Sara as they continued on their never-ending hunt for safe food and clean water to survive another day. "I'm exhausted."

Sara looked down at Felan, panting heavily as he flexed his sore paws. "Well, I still feel fine. So why don't I go look for something to eat and bring it back for you. Just take a rest."

Felan was about to say something about how he was needed to read the labels on the food so they could make sure it was safe, but a yawn prevented him from doing so. When he looked back, Sara was gone.

"Well... I guess if she doesn't know she'll just bring it back," Felan said, before standing up to walk over to an old couch in the house, jumping onto the old cushions. The padding had broken down after decades of neglect, but with the aid of the fabric backpack he was carrying, it was still comfortable enough to catch a few minutes of sleep on.

Felan was so tired, he didn't even hear when some humans came into the house. It was only after their crashing and banging, searching for something, that the black wolf finally sat up.

Two humans, wearing little more than rags and armor, with leather straps and bones and many assorted materials that could be scrounged from the ruins of society covering their hairless bodies. They were clearly dangerous though, as they were both carrying guns and knives, and had a mean, desperate and angry air about them They were talking loudly between themselves as they searched the house, which made Felan nervous. While he had the inexplicable ability to read the human language, he didn't know their spoken words, so it was impossible to tell what exactly they were saying.

The wolf carefully, quietly stood up, hoping to maybe slip out of the house before the humans would notice him. The couch creaked and groaned as he stood up, but the humans were so focused on looking for stuff that they didn't notice. Felan, heart racing, carefully tip-toed his way out of the house before the humans would notice.

Then he stepped on a rusty tin can, the aged metal cracking and shattering, the sound like a crash of lightning.

The two humans suddenly turned around to see the wolf, with a canvas bag on his back. Felan let out a yelp of surprise, and ran out just as the humans started to chase him.

Gunshots began to echo out, bullets hitting the ground around him, ricocheting off of the broken pavement or digging into the dry, dusty dirt. Felan zig-zagged away, trying to throw off the humans, and began to run through the ruined suburb, and toward the hollowed-out husk of the city beyond.

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Sara had found herself several blocks away, picking through the ruins of an old store, when she suddenly heard some gunfire, followed by shouts, then more gunfire, then the revving of an old engine. She tensed up at the loud cracks of human machines. It was close, but not really close.

"Felan!" she gasped, afraid that some human had found him and was trying to kill him.

The white wolf dashed out of the store, heading back toward where the house Felan was in. But before she got there, she caught a glimpse of a small black figure running down a cross street, followed by a rusty, beat up truck following the black dot, with a couple humans in it. The truck was missing most of its body but somehow was still functional, and was quickly catching up to what must have been Felan.

Sara growled, and put her powerful legs into motion, quickly catching up with the truck. The humans on the loud, snorting, smoke belching machine were so focused on the small, zig-zagging Felan that they didn't notice the much larger white wolf chasing after them.

Not until Sara jumped into the back of the truck, and pounced on the human riding in the back, clamping her sharp teeth onto the human's leg.

The two-legged man let out a howl of pain. Then the truck hit a bump, and the man lost his footing, falling off the edge and crashing to the ground, as the truck continued to speed along.

With one human dealt with, Sara then jumped through the broken back window, landing on the second human driving the vehicle. The human's head smashed against the steering wheel, and he immediately lost control of the truck.

Before Sara realized it, the truck was swerving, and then rolling along, throwing her around the inside of the vehicle before she was suddenly launched out through one of the holes where a truck door had once been, flying through the air before landing on the ground, a few feet away from Felan. The truck then crashed into a building and exploded, sending up thick, black smoke into the sky.

"Sara!" Felan panted, coming up to the white wolf, who slowly, gingerly got to her feet. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah," Sara groaned as she stood up. Her whole body ached, but it didn't feel like anything was broken. "How about you?"

"Scared for my life now," Felan said, before telling her about what happened.

"I can't leave you by yourself for a minute, can I?" Sara said with a laugh.

Felan growled, but before he could come up with a comeback, a couple more engines could be heard in the distance, but they were starting to get louder and louder.

"More of them?" Sara asked.

"I've never seen a functioning human vehicle before today, much less this many!" Felan remarked.

"Then we gotta get out of here," Sara said, looking around. "If those humans are friends with the humans that we just attacked, they will hunt us down if we stay here. Now, how do we do we get out of here?"

Felan looked around, before noticing an old metal sign. "Lake Avenue," he read. "That must mean that a lake is nearby. If there is a lake, then there must be a river, then we can follow it out of the city."

The engines were really loud now, meaning they were nearly there.

"Best idea we got. Let's go!"

Felan and Sara broke into a sprint, dashing up the old street, filled with the rubble of fallen buildings and the husks of vehicles that, unlike the first truck, were not going anywhere fast.

But another truck, just as beat up and rundown as the first one, suddenly pulled into the intersection ahead of them, and came down toward where the smoke was before coming to a halt, unable to get past the crowded, rubble filled streets. A few humans got out of the vehicle, most likely to go investigate the smoke and crash, only to see the two wolves.

"Crap!" Sara exclaimed, as a human in the truck then pointed out the two running wolves coming toward them.

Another human with a big gun stood up and fired a shot. A bullet slammed into the ground a few inches behind Sara, who managed to duck and weave away, and run past the truck before the human could get another shot off.

Felan dashed in the other direction to go the other way around the truck, only to find a second vehicle, an old van with the side doors off to allow more people to ride in it and shoot guns following behind.

The black wolf let out a yelp, and began to run away from the van, which now began to chase him. It was slower than the truck he was first chased by, but it was still faster than his fastest running speed.

Felan turned down another street in his blind panic, then down another alleyway, then turned again. He glanced back to see that the van wasn't able to follow him. He let out a sigh of relief, before he heard the footsteps of humans, running, trying to hunt down the black wolf.

"Why can't you just leave me alone?" Felan whimpered, before ducking into an old building, hoping to find a place to hide.

As for Sara, she was still running down the street that Felan had said should lead to the river, the truck still chasing after her, and more bullets flying through the air, all of them missing the mark: a combination of Sara's agility to run around the destroyed buildings and vehicles that filled the street, and the poorly maintained guns and the rough road making it hard for the humans to actually hit her.

That didn't mean that she would be lucky forever though. Some of them cracked past her ears, a mini sonic boom telling her that they were getting too close for comfort.

Sara ran harder and faster, barely having the time to avoid a deep pothole or the hulk of an old car before avoiding it, and still able to keep just a bit ahead of the truck following her.

In her desperate, second by second struggle to survive, she didn't see the rapidly approaching end of the street marked by an old and rusty iron fence that overlooked the dark, brown waters of the lake that the thoroughfare had once been named after.

The lake in this city was actually man made, created many years before the end of the world by building a large earth and concrete dam downstream to hold back millions of gallons of water which would be used to provide a reservoir of freshwater and a place for boating, swimming and tourism.

Sara didn't know the story of the lake, and most likely the humans that were now trying to kill her didn't know either, nor did anyone care.

But as Sara finally noticed that the street was ending, and she could see the large body of water, the memories of what happened to her in the underground bunker a few days before came flooding back: how that green goo had covered her body and allowed her to absorb water like a sponge, growing so large, so quickly, that she was able to break through steel reinforced concrete and several hundred feet of earth and stone.

A grin crossed her lips as she ran through a hole in the old iron fence that the truck couldn't fit through. The vehicle came to a sudden halt by the few still standing balustrades, causing the front of the vehicle to crumble, and throwing the human with the big powerful gun off the back and onto the ground.

And Sara ran down an old wooden dock that was still intact, and with a giant leap, landed in the water.

Last time, it took several minutes for her body to start growing: the drizzle from the sprinklers when she was first coated in the chemical was like a small flame: a tiny spark that would eventually take off.

This time it was like a blowtorch being set to a gasoline-soaked rag, which was then thrown onto a pile of paper and cardboard. The growth was immediate, and intense.

Sara had started doggy-paddling toward the center of the lake after her jump, but in moments her feet were already touching the bottom of the artificial lake, her paws squelching into the mud and rocks below. Even as Sara grew taller and bigger, the water level began to drop just as quickly: her body was absorbing the water after all to fuel her growth, much like how the green chemical had been designed to absorb water to make plants grow.

In seconds, she had eclipsed the size of the truck that had chased her. In a minute, she would have been tall enough to look over the first house that they had been in when they arrived on the outskirts of the city. In five minutes she was tall as the largest building in the city, an old husk of a steel skyscraper some twenty stories tall.

The rapid growth quickly overwhelmed Sara's body and senses: she shivered as the delightful feeling of power and growth washed over her body.

"Man, this feels amazing!" Sara exclaimed, her voice like a thunderclap echoing over the city. "I wish I could be this big forever!"

She turned around back to the streets of the city, to see a few more trucks, and a lot more humans gathering around where the edge of the lake had been as Sara continued to grow taller and taller and taller.

The white wolf braced herself, and let out a howl that shattered the few panes of glass that survived the apocalypse and decades of decay. The whole city shook from the sound of her voice alone, knocking humans to the ground as they clutched their ears from the loud sound. A few tried to fire their guns at her, but now Sara was so large and powerful that she barely even felt the tiny pieces of lead bouncing off her thick white fur and skin.

Sara, with a smirk on her muzzle, took her first step out of the nearly empty lake, casting a large shadow with her city-block sized paw. The humans that had attacked her now turned around and ran away, as he paw came down on a couple of the functioning vehicles, and a dozen more that hadn't worked since the end of the world. The steel and aluminum bodies cracked and folded, the steel screeching and whining as it was flattened. She let the full weight of her paw down, making the concrete and asphalt street compress and crunch, leaving a giant paw print that a human could stand in and not be able to see out of.

"Looks like you picked the wrong wolf to hunt down, eh?" Sara bellowed, as she took another step out of the lake, this paw landing in the middle of a cluster of buildings, smashing through concrete, wood and brick as if it was tissue paper.

The humans, facing an unfathomable force of nature, gave up on their resistance and began to flee. There was no chance, no hope to stop the giant white wolf with their home made or ancient relics that could be used to intimidate fearful humans, hunt down food, and protect themselves from all but the most dangerous of mutants. But Sara was many, many leagues above monsters created by radiation and time.

She was a goddess come back to earth.

And she had a single mission.

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Felan was still playing a deadly game of cat and mouse with the squad of humans that were trying to hunt him down in the city block. However, he was pretty good at hiding: using his black fur to hide in the dark shadows, trying his best to keep quiet as the humans stomped around, shooting into dark corners, and otherwise frying his nerves. But he still kept the canvas bag on his back, not wanting to lose the valuable items inside of it.

I just want to get out of here, Felan thought to himself as he watched another human walk by, not looking under the desk that the wolf was currently cowering under. When he was sure that the human was far enough away, Felan carefully picked his way out of his hiding spot, and tried to sneak back the way he came.

And then the whole building shook. Glass shattered from the few places it was still intact. Dust rained down from the ceiling.

And Felan could hear Sara's voice: deep and powerful, and from quite a ways away.

She must have grown again, Felan thought, as he heard the humans start shouting at each other, scared and distressed.

It was just annoying that Felan didn't actually understand what they were saying though.

But if they were distracted, then this was his chance to make a run for it.

Felan scampered away from his hiding place, heading for the downstairs and the exit. Every few moments there was another earthquake that made the building shake and crumble even more. Holes were starting to appear in the walls and floors that weren't there before, the old building unable to withstand the constant rumbles and shaking that must have been coming from Sara.

The black wolf tried to retrace the path he had first taken in the heat of the struggle to escape the pursuit of the humans, but it was hard to remember what path he had taken as he tried to escape his pursuers.

Another shake made the building rock, more powerful than before. And the weakened floor beneath Felan's feet gave way. With a yelp, he fell through the opening in the floor down a floor.

And right next to a human.

The two-legged man quickly tackled the black wolf, who tried to struggle and wiggle his way out of the human's grip, but more humans quickly came up. But instead of ending him right then and there, they pulled out ropes and tied him up, before they each helped lift up the black wolf and headed out of the building. One of them casually took off the canvas bag, looking inside excitedly to see if there was anything inside, but was clearly disappointed to see some weird bars inside, which he put back in, and then followed his compatriots.

Felan struggled and wiggled, trying to get free, to break the ropes, anything... but it was all too strong.

How he was going to get out of this, Felan had no idea.

The humans emerged from the building, and headed for the van that had first used to chase Felan through the streets.

But then there was a loud BOOM and CRASH. The humans were thrown from their feet, dropping Felan and the canvas bag, a massive wind full of dust and dirt flying through the air.

When the air cleared, Felan looked up to see a giant white furred paw where the vehicle, and most of the street and a couple buildings had been. The humans, now also climbing back to their feet, were stunned and terrified to see the giant wolf standing there. One of them tried to run the other way, only for another paw to come crashing down on the other side of the street, and knocking that human over and sending another wave of dust and dirt through the air.

Now they were in the shadow of the giant Sara, blocking both of the escape routes on the street, loudly growling down at the humans below.

"Felan, you alright?" Sara asked, her voice still threatening in order to keep the humans scared.

"Sore and tied up... but not dead yet. So I guess I'm doing okay?"

"You better not have hurt my friend there," Sara snarled. "Or else I'm going to have to do something much, much worse to you."

The humans, cowering in fear and not able to speak with the lupines, either the giant one or the much smaller, normal sized one, must have picked up on the tone of their conversation.

After a long moment, one of the humans slowly stood up, and then carefully and slowly walked over to Felan. There was a growl from Sara as the human got close to her tiny friend.

"The human is scared, Sara," Felan said, closer to the action and realizing the human was terrified out of its mind. "I think it wants to help me."

The giant wolfess let out a low warning growl, but the human got up to Felan and began to untie the ropes.

Sara let out a satisfied growl, and the rest of the humans, realizing that the small wolf and the large one was connected in some way, and that their only way of survival was to make sure the little wolf survived, quickly did their best to help untie the black wolf. Felan was freed just as fast as he had been captured.

Felan rolled over onto his four legs, standing up and stretching, before walking to the human that had taken his canvas bag, and casually taking it from the fearful human's hands.

"Alright, I think they should leave us alone now," Felan said, as he got the bag back on his back.

Sara pondered for a moment, before she finally removed one of her feet blocking the path out of the alley way, and the humans, realizing that they were free, quickly bolted for the escape.

Felan followed behind, and Sara moved to a wider street that she still just barely fit in, and lowered herself on top of the cars and rubble to see Felan more clearly.

"Well, that was a day," Felan said, as he sat down, licking at his sore paws.

"Tell me about it," Sara remarked, before letting out a chuckle. "At least we both made it through okay."

"So, uh... would you like to shrink back down with one of those bars that the stranger gave us?" Felan asked.

Sara pondered for a moment. "Well, I should eventually, yeah," she said. "It's a shame that I had to grow so soon after we got those bars, but what can you do?"

Felan reached back for the canvas bag.

"But, does it have to be right now?"

The black wolf paused.

"Well, I guess one day with a giant, city destroying, human scaring wolf wouldn't be such a bad thing," Felan admitted.

Sara grinned. "And this time, you can ride on me so we can actually get somewhere. Hopefully somewhere far, far away from where the humans are.

Felan nodded, running up onto Sara's giant paw, then up her sloping leg until he reached the top of her muzzle, and then jumped on, then climbed up onto the top of her head.

It still felt weird that he could actually do something like that though.

"Settled in?" Sara asked.

"Yep! Let's go!" Felan said.

Sara stood up, the rapid vertigo making Felan dizzy.

But from his vantage point, the black speck in the sea of white fur could see the whole city, and the trail of destruction from the now virtually empty lake all the way where they were now.

But Felan quickly turned away from the ruined city behind them, and toward the sprawling suburbs just a bit away, and the large, dusty wasteland beyond, and the many adventures the giant growing white wolf and her tiny companion would have to come.