The first sun was setting over the horizon as the second sun had yet to break over the opposite horizon.  Surrounded by a plain of crystal blue grass stood a lone tree.

 The tree itself had a light golden hew to it with white leaves rustling in the wind.  

 Typically the forest surrounding the plain would be alive with the song of birds, but not today.  Every animal had gathered quietly around the edge of the forest looking onward at the couple underneath the great tree.

 

“Freia…” grunted a young man.

 

“I’m here Woden.” replied the woman as she held the man closer.

 

“Did…we win?” Woden asked as he tried to look up at Freia.

 

“Yes.” croaked Freia as she moved a lock of hair out of the man’s eyes.

 

The breath of the young god grew shallower as he tried to hold on for a little longer.  Looking past Freia up at the tree Woden gave her a strained smile.

 

“You’ve always loved this place.” said Woden as the pain started to subside.  For the first time in his existence he felt cold.  The world that he had created for her was slowly growing darker around him as he felt Freia tighten her grip around him.  

  He could feel warm tears fall onto his face as Freia tried to heal his wounds yet again.  After a millennium of fighting the war between the gods was over.  The leader of the old gods had been struck down and his armies scattered but it was at a great cost.

 

“Woden!” cried Freia.

 

“Its okay Freia…Its finally over…” grunted Woden as he felt himself starting to drift away.

 

“Please don’t go, just stay with me.” Replied Freia as she wiped away the tears streaming down her face.

 

“Don’t…cry Freia.” Woden said as he placed his palm against her face.

Freia continued to watch on as Woden slowly slipped away in front of her eyes.  As his body passed away towards oblivion the god’s soul shattered, sending pieces away across the different realms.  Freia remained under the great tree crying over her lost.  It was at this point that the king of the gods took pity upon his child.  He would break the most ancient of laws twice.

 

    The first time by allowing the binding of the fragments of Woden’s soul with the souls of several mortals.  The fragments would then reside inside of the mortal host until they were strong enough to become one again.  When the souls were reunited the god Woden would be reborn.  In order to ease Freia’s suffering the god allowed his daughter to bind parts of her own soul with that of several mortals so that she could always be close to Woden in one form or the other.

 

It would then be up to fate to decide where and when the fragments of the god and goddess’ soul would be bounded together.  The only thing that Freia had to do in the meantime was waiting for her love’s return.

 

*Millenniums later*

*Randall’s World*

“I can’t believe that we missed the bus.” grumbled Randall as he kicked a can along the road.

 

“It’ll be okay.” replied Ashley as she tried to comfort her boyfriend.

 

“How unlucky can we get though?” asked Randall as he looked upwards towards Ashley.

 

They were now walking back home from watching a movie at the mall, which Ashley thoroughly enjoyed, after having missed their bus.  It was no big deal in Ashley’s opinion because it meant that they would be together for another hour and a half.  

 Ashley did have to agree with Randall though about their entire luck issue.  She had wanted to see the after credit scene which caused them to be late at the bus stop.   

It was also Sunday which meant that the bus was now making its final trip around the town.  Both of their cell phones had died out earlier from watching videos or playing games together while they waited for the movie.  All of the money had been spent on two movie tickets, a kid ticket for Randall, and some concessions.  When you are a girl that stands at an even 9’4” tall, the amount of candy that you get is staggering.

 

“You seem happy about this.” Replied Randall as he tugged on the finger he was holding onto.  Ashley had stopped humming to answer Randall.

 

“Look on the bright side, this just means that we get to walk home together.”

 

“For seven miles.” grunted Randall.

 

“I could always carry you.” said Ashley while giving Randall a smile.

 

“Hmm, let me think about it.” replied Randall as he scratched his chin.

 

Randall was never able to give Ashley a proper answer as a flash of purple light appeared in front of them revealing a large swirling purple oval suspended off the ground in front of them.  Randall was jerked backwards as Ashley jumped in surprise.  They were only able to marvel at the thing in front of them for a second before they both felt something like a rope tied around their waist pulling them quickly into the portal.  Ashley felt Randall’s hand slip away as she was soon falling into darkness.

*Terra’s World*

“Terra-nyaa, can we have lunch now?” whined Nyarl for about the fiftieth time.

 

“No.” replied Terra as she looked back at the little red headed kid behind her.  He was holding a stick with his tail that he was using to have a little sword fight with Icarus.  Terra had to duck under a low hanging branch before rising back up to her height of 10”6”.

 

“But I’m hungry Terra-nyaa.” whined Nyarl again.

 

[I’m a little hungry too.] replied Icarus as he successfully disarmed Nyarl’s tail.

 

“Fine,” said Terra as she tossed her pack onto a clearing beside the road, “but we’re going to make it quick.  I’d like to cover a few more miles before evening.”

 

“Nyarl, you can go collect the firewood to cook with.  Icarus will start on making a fire with what we have close to here, and I’ll set everything up.”

 

“Alright then, I’ll be back.” replied Nyarl as he made his way into the woods to look for some dry firewood.

 

“I’m going to turn on your magic for a little while Icarus so that I can scout out the area.” said Terra as she pulled out Visleam.

 

[Okay] thought Icarus as he dropped a particularly heavy stone on the ground.

 

“Are you sure you don’t know what treasure the dwarves have?” asked Terra as she finally found the helmet.

 

[Not really,] thought Icarus, [I’m guessing that it can’t be Harpianula so that leaves either the sword or the shield.]

 

Terra was about to take her guess before they were blinded by a sudden flash of purple light.  A swirling purple gateway had appeared before them, and the couple were soon sent flying forward into it.  Icarus tried to reach outwards for Terra as his vision started to dim.

*John’s World*

“Ouch!” exclaimed John as his wife Ashley pressed a rag into his knee.

 

“Sorry.” replied Ashley as she mentally kicked herself.  Ashley had forgotten to get a refill on the men’s disinfectant so she was now using the more potent women’s version to clean up John’s knee.  She knew that while it stung a little bit for a woman, to a man it must have hurt a lot more.

 

“It’s okay,” grunted John as Ashley continued to try and bandage up his knee, “it was my fault for not asking you to grab the remote off the top shelf.”

 

“It was my fault for putting our spare up in such a high place.” said Ashley as she placed a bandage on John’s leg.  Standing back up to her height of 12’7”, Ashley lifted her husband John off of the table and placed him gently back onto the floor.  She had her hands close to his sides just in case his hurt knee couldn’t withstand his weight.  Ashley would have to make a mental note to take him to the doctor office later that day.  John would hate it of course, but it was a wife’s job to make sure her husband stayed healthy.

 

“That’s a lot better.” replied John as he tested his weight on his knee.  Ashley was about to lift him back up, because she wanted to, when a sudden flash made her yelp in surprise.

 

A swirling purple oval had appeared inside of her kitchen out of thin air.  Ashley was suddenly pulled off her feet along with John as they were thrown into the vortex.  Everything suddenly went black for Ashley as she fell asleep.

*Lily’s World*

“Lily no!” hissed Jack as he tried to hold back his girlfriend’s arms.

 

“Just a little snack.” moaned Lily as she continued to try and get ahold of Jack.

 

Jack was praying the no one in the mall could hear the racket that Lily was making.  They were nearly done with their shopping trip when Lily had jerked him into a nearby closet to have a ‘little snack’.  Now Jack was trying to calm Lily down enough to get home before someone could find them.

 

“Let me go.” whined Lily as she planted several kisses across Jack’s neck.

 

“Once you’ve calmed down.” replied Jack with a stern voice.  Seeing that Jack was completely serious Lily decided to turn the odds in her favor.

 

“Crap.” said Jack as Lily started to expand upwards.

 

Jack felt huge hands lift him off the ground and gently pin him to the wall.  By his estimates Lily must have grown from her usual 5’2” tall self to just over 11’ tall.  Jack tried to push one of Lily’s hands away but to no avail.

 

“This is cheating.” said Jack as he looked up into Lily’s hungry eyes.

 

“And being bigger than me all the time isn’t cheating?” asked Lily.

 

“That’s because my regular height is 6’3”.” replied Jack.

 

“Then this will be my new height.” said Lily as she started to snake her hand into Jack’s shirt.

 

Jack was about to say something back until a flash of light blinded him.  Jack was about to ask Lily what she had done when he found himself falling with her down a purple hole in the floor.  He tried to call out to Lily as she continued to drift away, but he was soon hit by a heavy doziness that quickly knocked him out.

 

Waking up slowly, Randall found himself laying down in the middle of some sort of forest. The only problem being that everything seemed to be off color. The grass was blue, the trees where all sorts of different colors, and for some reason the sky above was purple. This would have led Randall to one of three conclusions. Either he had hit his head hard enough to mess up his entire definition of color, he was asleep, or he was on another world.

“Alien abduction it is.” grunted Randall as he rose up to his feet. His cloths were still the same color that they had been when he was with Ashley, and a quick pinch proved that he wasn’t asleep.

“Ashley.” Randall yelled as he started to search around for his girlfriend. Ashley probably wasn’t taking this too well so he had to find her as soon as possible.

“Where is she?” asked Randall as he kept walking through the forest. He had been searching for the past half an hour with no luck what so ever. He was beginning to get annoyed though. Not because of his lack of progress from trying to find Ashley. It was because he had somehow amassed a small following of animals that followed him wherever he went.

“Shoo shoo.” said Randall as he tried to get rid of the creatures following him. “I feel like freaking snow white.”

Randall was sure that he only needed to sing a little song and his life would officially become a Disney movie. He was brought out of his train of thought by a series of heavy footsteps that kept getting louder. The sound of the animals around him made it impossible to tell where the footsteps were coming from, but he knew that they belonged to something big.

“Ashley.” said Randall as he looked around.

“JACK!”

Randall would have normally moved out of the way as the girl came through the brush straight at him, but he was distracted by two facts. The first one was that this girl was stunningly beautiful. Randall could feel himself starting to blush involuntarily. The second fact was that this girl was easily taller than Ashley. Randall was soon pinned to the ground by this giant girl.

“I missed you so much!” exclaimed Lily as she started to shower Randall with kisses.

“Let me go!” yelled Randall as he finally regained his bearings. He tried to push the giant girl off of him, but his right arm was being pinned to the ground by Lily’s hand while his left tried in vain to push her upwards.

“I was so scared Jack.” replied Lily as she started to pull Randall’s shirt off.

“I’m not Ja”

Randall was about to complete his sentence until a giant tongue invaded his mouth. He tried to fight back, but he soon found himself thrown into a world of bliss. His body went limp as wave after wave of pleasure were sent through him. Randall couldn’t tell whether it was minutes or if it was seconds but the kiss was finally broken.

“You’re…not Jack are you.” said Lily as she looked down at the little guy beneath her.

Randall’s remained on the ground with a blank stare on his face. Seeing this, Lily quickly severed the magic that was influencing the guy as she waited for the effects of her magic to wear off. It took a few seconds, but Randall slowly came to the sight of the beautiful girl looming over him.

“You’re not Jack are you?” asked Lily. To Randall it seemed that the girl wasn’t sure on whether he was this Jack guy or not.

“My name’s Randall.” Randall froze slightly as the girl leaned over and sniffed his neck.

“You smell like Jack, but you taste different.” said Lily as she tried to get her head over the difference. Randall actually felt a little sorry for the girl who had just attacked him a minute ago.

After a quick discussion Randall learned that the girl’s name was Lily. That and she was a succubus. He wouldn’t have believed it at first if it wasn’t for the fact that he was stuck on some alien planet. According to Lily, succubae don’t tell people apart by anything physical such as looks or how they sound. They differentiate people by their smell. Lily didn’t mean smell as in body odor; she meant the essence that a person gives off. The only problem was that while Randall smelled exactly like her Jack, he tasted slightly different.

Randall didn’t know whether to be happy or afraid, but Lily did comment on the fact that he did taste good. Lily went on to explain that she had been swallowed up by some sort of portal along with Jack and that she was now trying to find him. Randall explained that he was in the same boat because he was looking for his girlfriend Ashley.

“How about we travel together?” asked Randall as he looked up at the huge girl above him.

“As long as we find my Jack.” said Lily as her eyes glowed purple. Randall watched in awe as Lily began to shrink down till she stood at her regular 5’2”. Randall was about to comment on the change until Lily grabbed ahold of his hand and started to lead him through the woods.



*Somewhere far away*

“Get off of me!” exclaimed Jack for the twelfth time as he thrashed about.

Jack had awoken a little over an hour ago suspended in the air by a mess of vines. He’d have to have a talk with Lily about this entire situation. You’d think that having the ability to transport people to another world would be something that you’d tell the guy that you were dating. He had tried to chew through the purple vines earlier, but gave up. Another thing that annoyed him was the fact that he had a gathering of weird animals just watching him struggle helplessly.

“LILY!!!” yelled Jack as the continued to thrash about.

“Hello?” came a female voice full with concern.

Jack gave out a yelp as he tried to find the source of the voice. Twisting around he came face to face with a beautiful red head just a few feet away.

“Do…you need help?” asked Ashley as she examined the tangled mess that the boy was in.

“That would be great.” Jack said after he regained his senses.

Using one hand to support Jack’s weight, Ashley began to undo the series of knots that the boy had gotten himself into. Jack would glance occasionally at the face of the beautiful woman that was helping him out, but would quickly look away after they made eye contact. If Jack was a good guesser then he would have put the woman’s age somewhere in her early twenties. Within minutes Jack had become free of the tangle of vines, but the woman that he had just met was holding him in front of her as she scanned along his body.

“Can you put me down?” asked Jack.

“Oh sorry, I was just checking that you weren’t hurt.” Replied Ashley as she set him on the ground. She stayed down as in order to stay on the same level as the boy. Even crouching the woman was a full head taller than Jack.

“I’m going to have a talk with Lily about shrinking Me.” mumbled Jack as he rearranged his clothing.

“You don’t look shrunken to Me.” said Ashley. Jack froze momentarily as he realized that Ashley was able to hear him talking about his girlfriend’s magic. Usually when Jack was shrunken people would just look over his head when they talked to him. They would also ignore anything he said when it came to him being shrunken, but not this girl in front of him.

“You can see this?” asked Jack as he gestured to his body.

“Yeah.” Replied Ashley confused as to what this guy was talking about.

“Then you can see that I must be around 3’ tall then?”

“Are you feeling okay?” asked Ashley as she felt his forehead for a fever. “To me you seem close to six feet tall.”

“But that’s impossible,” exclaimed Jack, “if I’m 6’ tall then that would make you over 12’ tall easily.”

“12’7” actually, but that’s because I’m a girl.” replied Ashley.

After a few minutes of talking, Jack came to find out that the woman’s name was Ashley. Apparently where she came from, which was another world, women were a little more than twice the size of men on average. It surprised Ashley as well to find out that in Jack’s world it was the men that we’re taller by a few inches. This thought excited Ashley momentarily as she pictured having to look up to John as he held her in his arms. She was brought out of it as Jack went on to explain that his girlfriend Lily, who was a succubus with magical powers, was separated from him because of some purple portal.

“Well, since it looks like we are both looking for someone would you like to join me then?” asked Ashley as she stood up to her full height.

“Um, sure.” replied Jack as he thought about his options. It would be a lot easier to find someone when you have a giantess at your side.

“Then hop on.” said Ashley as she turned around and knelt down.

“Why?” asked Jack.

“Cause this way we can search more ground.” replied Ashley as she looked at the man behind her. She didn’t tell him this, but it was also to make sure that she would be able to protect him if some other wild animal were to come at them. It was just second nature, like it was for all women, to protect a man as best as they can.

Jack slipped his arms around Ashley’s neck as he tried to wrap his legs around her torso. He gave a yelp as he felt Ashley’s forearms push his butt upwards as she set off walking into the forest. He asked her if he was holding on too tightly, but Ashley told him not to worry. Jack then told her that if she were to get tired then he could always walk for a while to which Ashley just giggled. Hopefully they would be able to find Lily before nightfall in order to correct this big mess that they were in.

Ashley had been traveling alone for a while now and was beyond worried. Heck she had even broken down in tears a few times. Waking up in a strange world and being lost was bad enough, but the worst part was that she was alone. Randall had been sucked into the portal as well, but Ashley cursed herself for not grabbing ahold of him sooner. She knew that Randall would have kept a level head right now, but she was nowhere near as brave as he was.

“RANDALL!” shouted Ashley at the top of her lungs. The feeling of loneliness was just too much for her to bear any longer. If she couldn’t find Randall and a way home soon then what would happen to her. Ashley soon fell to the ground and began crying again.

[H-h-help m-me…] came a thought that ran through Ashley’s mind. She was sure that her mind was playing tricks on her until the voice in her head came out again.

[T-t-terra…] The voice in her head seemed strained and fading fast. Ashley quickly got to her feet and ran forward. She didn’t know how, but she knew exactly where to go.

As Ashley ran she passed by several strange looking animals that she had never seen before. Some were slightly familiar, except the colors were completely off. Ashley didn’t get enough time to think about this as a very weird sight was before her.

“RANDALL!”

Ashley quickly found out that the boy in front of her wasn’t her boyfriend but someone else entirely. The resemblance was striking except for the blonde hair and pointed ears. The kid was standing in the center of some old ruins trembling slightly. Carven on the stone below him was a weird purple rune that continuously changed form. Arcs of purple lighting were coming off of the kid’s body causing him to thrash about. Ashley wanted to help, but wasn’t sure if touching him was a good idea.

“This one is older than he looks.”

Ashley jumped as a cloaked figure appeared beside her. Something was oddly familiar about this woman, but for some reason Ashley couldn’t see her face.

“What’s happening?” asked Ashley as she finally regained her senses. The cloaked figure didn’t even bother to turn her way as it continued to look at the kid before her.

“It’s a trap called an Age Rune. Basically the older the individual the stronger the trap becomes. It was meant for the older deities, but this one is nearly out of power.”

“How do we save him?” asked Ashley as the kid cried out in pain once more.

“Just pull him out. As long as you’re under two hundred the trap should have no effect.”

Ashley couldn’t believe her eyes as the figure faded away right before her eyes. This then left her with only one choice. She prayed that the woman was correct as she reached outwards. Ashley felt the tiniest of static shocks hit her as she grabbed ahold of the kid and brought him out of the circle. As soon as the kid was freed he became limp like a rag doll. The boy seemed okay but was breathing extremely hard.


Icarus had just been freed from the trap by a giant set of hands. His body wanted to refuse even the simplest of commands meaning that the figure above him was out of focus. Icarus was thankful that whoever was holding him was taking the upmost care as to not cause him discomfort.

[I’ve got to find Terra once my body works again,] thought Icarus to no one in particular. He was finally regaining slight control in his extremities.

“Who’s Terra?” came a voice above him?

Icarus froze up as he tried not to let his emotions get the best of him. Only two people that he knew of could hear his thoughts when he didn’t have access to his magic. The first one was his best friend/lover Terra while the second person had been Raphael. Icarus doubted that this person had meant him any harm.

After another minute of waiting, Icarus was finally able to see the person above him come into focus. He found himself in the arms of a huge red headed girl. Though she wasn’t as tall as Terra, this girl was still bigger than any human that he had ever met. The girl waited patiently for Icarus to both explain everything he knew and to recover.

[I think that it might be a good idea to search for our friends together,] thought Icarus as Ashley placed him on the ground. The numbness in his body had finally gone away and he wanted to get away from that circle as soon as possible. Ashley was more than happy to accompany Icarus in their search. Neither one of them knew why but they began feeling at ease with each other. The feeling was like that of meeting a long lost friend.

What the couple didn’t know was that another cloaked figure was watching every move that they made. He had waited for millennia for these brats to arrive. His goal was simple, regain the power that he once held but in order to do this he needed just one fragment of Woden’s soul. If he was able to reclaim it then he could start the God Wars anew. Even this individual couldn’t break the most sacred of divine laws and directly confront these humans, but that wasn’t a problem. There was always a loophole if one knew where to look. The cloaked figure vanished from sight as he entered his realm to start the ritual.


*Far to the north*


John was panting hard as he looked down at the creature below him. How he had gotten himself into this mess was beyond him, but he knew that a person could only have so much bad luck. He had been searching the forest for his wife before this all started. A small following of animals stayed with him wherever he went. One would have thought that these weird animals would be afraid of humans, but these seemed to want something from him.

John had just crossed a small stream when his luck ran out. The group of animals around him scattered as a loud roar ripped through the forest. Off to John’s far right he found what looked like a mixture of a bear and a gorilla crashing through the forest charging right at him. His instincts kicked in as he began climbing the nearest tree. With his hurt knee he had no chance of outrunning the beast, but hopefully this thing couldn’t climb up to get him.

So now John had been trapped at the top of this small tree for half an hour just looking down at this thing that wanted him for lunch. Unlike most animals here this creature, that John now called a Borilla, was emitting some sort of black smoke from its body. Combined that with the glowing red eyes meant that this thing was either the apex predator here, or a demon of some sort. The thing that scared John the most was the fact that creatures like these were in this forest and his wife probably didn’t know about them.

“So this is where you ran off to.” Came a feminine voice from off to John’s left. Walking out of the clearing was another human girl. The first human that John had seen since he got here.

The girl was a little on the short side, maybe 10’6” by John’s estimate. She was wearing some sort of leather armor and would have looked perfect on the set of a popular fantasy movie of some sort. The brown haired girl held a single sword in her hand that she was moving around with ease. Despite the creature roaring at her, the girl didn’t seem to show the slightest hint of fear. In fact it was she who charged first.

“Take this!” shouted Terra as she planted her boot into the creature’s chest. The force of her kick was enough to send the creature flying backwards five feet. It was more of a bother for her than it was a challenge as she quickly thrust her sword downwards into the thing’s chest. The creature burst into a cloud of black smoke leaving only an outline of soot on the ground where it had once been.

Now that this was taken care of Terra had to get right back to business. “Have you seen an elf around here by chance?” Terra waited patiently for the guy to finally come out of the tree that he had been hiding in. She noted that his clothing seemed different than any that she had seen before. The man before her was clearly injured so she decided to help the guy down gently. Once on the ground Terra could feel something familiar about him.

“Eyes up her dude,” remarked Terra as John continued to look at her in wonder. “Have you seen an elf around here anywhere?”

There were a thousand questions that were going through John’s mind, but he decided to let all of this go. It would be a huge head ache just to try and make sense of all of this.

“Not since I came to this,” said John as he raised his arms above him, “place.”

“He shouldn’t have gotten too far away from me; we both went through that portal together.” Terra was now twirling a piece of her hair between her fingers as she tried to process her next move. John just watched the girl in front of him think to herself.

“Alright then, we’re going to go this way.” Terra began making her way towards a path until she noticed the guy still standing where he was.

“What do you mean we?” asked John.

“The way I see things something or someone brought us here for a reason. We’ll probably learn why in time, but as of now it would be in your best interest to follow the giant girl with the sword.”
?
John didn’t need much more motivation than this as he hurried to catch up with the girl in front of him. He felt a lot safer at her side than he was if he was alone.
?
“The name’s Terra by the way.” said Terra as she held out her hand.
?
“John.”

The two continued to walk into the forest not knowing the events that were about to unfold before them.