Nikolas was up in the trees when he caught that familiar smell. Jumping from tree to tree, he moved closer to his friend, confused by the sad expression on Torrle's face. Torrle was always happy to see him...

After Torrle passed, the fox leapt from the tree, latching onto Torrle's back. "Woofy!" he exclaimed.

Torrle reached back and carefully gathered Nikolas to his frontside, smiling for the first time in days as the fox nuzzled his chest. After a few loving slurps, he moved under a tree, and clutched Nikolas to his belly.

Nik, who was four feet tall smiled up to his seven foot tall friend. "What's wrong Tor? You seem all shook up."

"It's my pack... they found out about us."

"Are we not supposed to see each other anymore?" The fox's ever present smile started to fade.

"Worse..." said Torrle, sniffling a bit.

Nikolas rubbed on Torrle's large paws, concerned by the wolf's tone. "What could be worse than never seeing you again?"

"I have to take your tail, then eat you Nikolas."

"My tail?" he asked, moving it through his legs to his chest, hugging it. "So then I couldn't..."

Torrle lifted him up, nodding to answer the unfinished question. He sat Nik around his shoulders, just staring into the distance with his paws wrapping up Nik's lower legs.

Nikolas stared as well, thinking. "What if there's another way?"

"There's no other way, I have to come back with your tail, and the mass of one fox here," said Torrle as he patted his belly.

Nikolas hopped down to rub Tor's belly, "There's always another way old friend. I can stuff you with enough food to make it look like you ate me."

"That might work, but what about the tail?"

Nikolas stopped rubbing for a bit, hugging his tail again. "You can have it..."

"No... I couldn't Nikolas. I'll just go back, say I couldn't find you."

"And be put to death? Just so I can keep my tail? No way."

Torrle lifted him back up, crying and holding Nikolas tight. "What about your magic? You can't do any without your tail."

"I know Tor, but you're worth more than all that." Nikolas buried his head in Torrle's chest fur, crying as well.

They just sat in the embrace for quite a while, Torrle eventually breaking the silence. "So how are we going to get your tail off?"

"Let's worry about fattening you up first, I do need my balance to hunt." With that, Nik took off. It wasn't going to be easy to get enough meat, but it had to be done. Over the next few hours, Torrle got quite a buffet of squirrels, mice, lizards, even a couple birds. Torrle just ate them all like an obedient pup, gorging until he could take no more.

"That's enough now Nik," said Torrle firmly, "I can't eat another bite."

Nikolas walked up and massaged the swollen belly, smiling up with his tail wagging. "You should stay plump like this, it's cute!"

Torrle smiled down, gently wrapping his strong hands around the tail. "So... how are we going to do this?"

Nik looked up mischievously and moved his claws out, slashing at Torrle's loin cloth. He tattered the fabric a bit, getting a square out and setting it up on the wolf's thigh. "If they're going to think you ate me, I want them to think I struggled. You're going to have to sever the tail at the base with your teeth. Then use that fabric to stop the bleeding."

Nik then laid down on his belly and stuck his tail straight into the air, trembling a bit in anticipation. Torrle moved over him, slowly slurping the length of foxtail into his mouth. Deciding one quick chomp would be the most humane way, he steadied his friend and opened wide, then CHOMP and it was off. The salty taste of fox blood hit the wolf's palate before Nikolas spazzed forward. Torrle was snapped back into the moment by this motion, holding the tail in his mouth and pressing the fabric down onto where the base was. He sucked the remaining blood from the tail, keeping firm pressure on the wound the whole time.

"Nik, tell me you're okay, please..." pleaded Torrle after carefully spitting the tail onto the fox's back.

Nik murmured for a while, desperate to scream from the pain, but he decided to keep it to himself. "I will be alright, just need some time."

Torrle lifted Nik up again, cradling him to his chest, rubbing on the wound. Torrle let out a deep sigh of relief as his friend started to murr. Holding him in this embrace, considering the sacrifice, Torrle realized just how lucky he was. "Nik?"

"Yeah...?" responded the fox groggily.

"The bleeding has stopped. I just have to thank you." He set Nikolas down onto his feet, and he was able to stand. However, one attempted step sent the fox tumbling to the ground.

"It seems walking back is out of the question."

"Then how are you going to make it back?"

"You'll have to carry me."

"I can't go to your village Nik, you know that."

"You have to Torrle, it's the only way."

He nodded and picked the fox up. Nikolas had just sacrificed his whole world to live what was sure to be an empty shell of a life from now on, and on top of that, he was now leading him to the fox village, where no other wolf had been allowed... for good reason. After the walk, he set him down at the fringe of the city.

"It truly is a thing of beauty Nikolas."

"Yes it is Torrle. You make sure to come and visit your dead friend again."

Torrle looked worried until Nikolas smiled up at him. After a short belly scritch, Torrle headed back home.

- - - - -

"Here you are sir, one fox tail," said Torrle, rubbing his gut with the tail clutched in his paw, "and one dead fox."

"You did excellent work," said the elder wolf nodding to the pair of guards by the door, "If only you had done what we requested."

Torrle looked shocked as the two burly guards grabbed him, each at least two feet taller than him. "What do you mean? I ate the fox, I took his tail..."

"You and I both know what really happened Torrle. We had you under surveillance, and that fox is still alive, but not for too much longer."

"You can't, you just can't!" he screamed, struggling to get free.

"Oh we can, and thanks to your little buddy we know just where to go," the elder wolf got up looking down into Torrle's face.

As the elder wolf spat those words down, Torrle screamed, "No! This is all wrong!"

"Feels right to me. But don't worry, we won't just kill him, we'll destroy the entire village."

Torrle just closed his eyes, growling. He had just given his best friend, his only friend, a death sentence. He clutched Nik's tail, and something just snapped inside of him. Two shoulder thrusts and the guards were on the ground. Torrle reached forward, grabbing the elder by the throat. "Call off the attack."

The elder shook his head no, and Torrle started to lift him off the ground. Only he wasn't moving, he was growing. "I said, call off the attack."

The elder motioned no again, seeing one guard back to his feet and sneaking up on Torrle. Torrle growled, snapping the neck of the elder with a mere twist, then turning to the guard, who he was now able to look down at. He clubbed him with the dead elder and looked to the other guard who fled in terror, running for re-enforcements.

Looking to the tail in his paw, Torrle smiled, and found himself able to will his growth upward. Bones stretched, sinew swelled, and his fur thickened as he burst through the roof into the air, obliterating the structure, and approaching 100 ft. Now looking down at the assembled invasion forces, he contemplated and kept swelling higher, letting loose a blood-curdling howl at the assembled troops. Now over 200 ft in height, he scanned the gathered troops, finding a certain squad just standing there muzzles agape. Springing forward, Torrle quickly crushed his litter-mates, six brothers smothered under one massive footpaw, which he ground down upon them. Some of the forces began to flee and Torrle let them, now that he had his vengeance, he only had to worry about keeping Nikolas safe. Those who were foolish enough to fight did so in futility, their swords were nothing to the macro's feet, Torrle just crushed them with ease, along with everything else in the town, a lifetime of suppressed rage becoming an orgy of destruction, until the once mighty town was nothing but a large blood stain on the map.

Then Torrle sat down right in the center, after brushing aside some rubble. Sighing heavily, he said to himself, "It looks like our conflict is finally over..."

- - - - -

Two guards stood on the outside of the fox village, keeping a watchful eye for defense. Even though Nikolas was trusted in the city, his relationship with Torrle had put the citizenry on alert. Torrle was headed back to Nik's village, still in his massive 200 ft. tall state.

"We've got a wolf approaching!"

"A wolf? Is it Torrle?"

"It can't be Nik's wolf, he's one hell of a lot bigger than I've ever heard of any wolf being!"

The second guard looked through his binoculars, and seeing the enormity of the oncoming wolf, panicked and called out the mages. As they moved to the village borderlines, Nikolas ran out of his hut.

"What's the commotion?" asked Nikolas, grabbing a passing mage.

"There's a giant wolf headed this way, we're gathering to destroy him."

"A giant wolf? Torrle..." Nikolas took off where they were all headed, shocked. "It's got to be him, but how...?"

Finally he arrived at the front lines, sniffing the air before screaming to the gathered mages. "Do not fire! This wolf is Torrle!" Unfortunately, it was too late, Torrle was in view and the first wave of mages had fired. Torrle fell back, crashing to the ground. "Bring the clerics!! We can't let him die!!" Nik kept running, climbing and running up the leg of his dear friend, over his gut to his chest, shaking his muzzle. "TORRLE!!"

The wolf blinked groggily, reaching back to rub his head. "Nik?"

Nikolas fell down onto Torrle's neck, hugging and rubbing on the thick fur, "You've got to be alright... you're gonna make it." The assembled clerics circled around Torrle and Nik, beginning to chant. The opening attacks from the mages hadn't been too rough, the fall had actually done more damage. As the clerics closed their circle in, the wolf began to feel a lot better, but also noticed he was shrinking back down. As his height dwindled, he wrapped his arms back around his dear friend.

"I think I'm okay little buddy." The clerics eventually stopped with their chants, and Torrle was back to his original size, arms wrapped around Nikolas as he sat up, with the fox's tail in one paw. Nik's face was buried in Torrle's chest "Thank you clerics for your help."

The head cleric stepped forward, looking up to the wolf, "If that is Nikolas's tail, we can re-attach it to him. I gather that's how you attained the size you were at?"

Torrle started to speak, but Nikolas whipped around, tears in his eyes from the joy of his friend being safe again, "Re-attach my tail!?"

"I think my buddy will take you up on that offer there sir." Torrle handed the tail to the cleric and pressed Nikolas into his chest again. "But how was I able to harness the power of his tail?"

The cleric scratched his chin as he handed the tail off to another cleric, who began incanting a spell to re-connect the tail. "In all honesty, there should be no way for you to do anything with a fox tail Torrle. Wolves just don't have the capacity for magic. There has to be something, but I couldn't tell you for the life of me."

Nikolas smiled, watching his tail get put back on and wagging it furiously just to test. "Guess there's just something about my buddy Torrle," he said, "and now we never have to part again my friend."

"That is true little buddy," said Torrle, chuckling as he took a gentle hold on the fox's tail, "but now you're in trouble because I can control your magic too!" After standing up, he took a firmer grip on the fox's tail and shrunk him down to just a foot tall. With a friendly wave to the clerics, he ran off into the forest, both the fox and wolf laughing with glee.