Chapter #4Losing More than Muscle Mass by: Ponymon   (Set before the Chapter 7 mission in October. No spoilers.)
“Wraaaagh!” Raphael bellowed as he tossed a pile of horse saddles into an unruly heap next to the other supplies. Relieved of his load he took a deep breath and stretched, reaching his arms above his head. A small amount of perspiration dripped from his head, the only sign of strain from wielding such a heavy load.
Beside him, a lone knight clumsily let another saddle drop to the ground. She panted heavily, exhausted from lugging around equipment for the past hours. Raphael approached the woman with a warm smile. “You know, you’d probably be less tired if you didn’t wear all that heavy armor. It’s just weighing you down.” He gave her a hearty pat on the back, encouraging the knight to stand up straight.
“Even without this armor on, I would still be exhausted.” She groaned, short of breath.
“Well, guess you have been working for a couple hours. That was a lot of stuff to move for one knight.” Raphael mused, scratching his neck.
“And it would have been a few more if you hadn’t helped Raphael. Your muscles truly are good for tasks such as these.” The knight praised, before looking at Raphael’s work. Raphael had been a big help, bringing a lot of the supplies to the stables, but his organization skills left… much to be desired. The knight sighed wearily, she still had a lot of organizing to do before she could report her duties as finished.
Raphael, oblivious to the knights worries, laughed heartily. “Yeah, my muscles can be pretty handy.” He boasted, while flexing his bicep, straining his already tight clothes. ”When I saw how much stuff you had to haul I just knew I had to lend a hand.”
Figuring it was time for a break, the knight nodded and gave Raphael an appreciative pat on the back. “Thank you again for your help, I hope I didn’t take too much time away from your work.”
“Eh, don’t worry about it. I’m happy to help anytime!” Raphael waved as the knight left. He was always happy to help however he could. He had just gotten back from the marketplace outside of the monastery. As usual, he had picked up a lot of extra stuff around town. And even though he was hungry, he made certain not to eat any of the food he was sent for; didn’t want Claude to scold him again for the same mistake.
Rolling his shoulders, he returned to where he had left the supplies he’d picked up from town. There was all manners of food there, along with some books, weapons, and some training weights a merchant had been selling. “Kind of that knight to bring the stuff here for me. I would’ve hated having to go all the way back to the gate.”
Diligently, Raphael gather all of the items into a stack that he could carry. For most people the amount of stuff he had would be too great for one trip, but he knew he could handle it. As her gathered the last of the things, he looked up at a high shelf and realized something. “Oh, almost forgot those!” Setting down what he had, he moved over to the shelf.
On its surface was a box filled with an assortment of bottles filled with various liquids. This was the most interesting item that Raphael had picked up on his trip. He got them from a strange looking but friendly merchant that most people were ignoring. He had a lot of interesting looking stuff, including things like boar tusks, which Raphael also purchased off him. It was at the merchant’s recommendation that Raphael got the bottles. He talked about how they had all sorts of cool magical properties in them. He figured that Lysithea or some other mage in the monastery might want to take a look.
“I’m surprised the knight was able to get these up here.” Raphael said as he got on his tiptoes to grab the box. The shelf was really high off the ground, even he had problems reaching what he wanted! Grunting, he stretched as far as he could to wrap his hands around the small box. As one would expect Raphael lost his balance and ended up falling forward into the shelf! With a mighty crash, the shelf gave away under his massive frame and he tumbled to the ground. Unfortunately, the bottles were also a casualty of the accident; there contents spilling all over the massive blonde.
Sprawled out on the floor and soaking wet, Raphael groaned uncomfortably. “Aw, I ruined those bottles. I bet someone would’ve really liked ‘em.” He pushed a hand through his hair feeling how wet it was. He quietly wondered to himself if any of those bottles might have had poison in them. He knew Claude made that kind of stuff, so someone else could have too.
“Welp, no use worrying about it. I bet professor Manuela could cure anything like that.” He said getting to his feet. “I should get back to…” Raphael’s train of thought was interrupted when he saw his surroundings. Everything was gigantic now! The pile of supplies he had created was like a gigantic mountain in the distance, larger than even the monastery! Scattered all around him was the remains of the bottles he had broken, puddles of their content on the floor.
“Wow, I can’t believe it!” Raphael shouted, astounded. “Those potions were crazy powerful, I can’t believe I broke them like that!” He lamented. Only after he got over the wastefulness of his accident did he realize he had bigger issues to deal with, literally.
“Well this isn’t good. I can’t get anything done at this size. I gotta find help! But uh, I can’t exactly leave. The stables are far away from pretty much everywhere. Maybe I can wait for a knight to get back and get their attention…” Raphael brought his hand to his chin, considering his options. Staying would be the safest bet, but that could take a while. He could try to make it to a more crowded area, but that was pretty dangerous.
Raphael’s musing was interrupted by a knock on the door. From his spot on the floor, Raphael could see a shadow cast across the floor. “Huh, that’s lucky.” He thought optimistically. “I can get help from whoever’s coming in here!”
As if on cue, the doors swung open to reveal Raphael’s potential savior. It was...  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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