AN: I would first like to apologize to everyone reading Winter's Color. I have not updated in several months. This year has been particularly difficult for me as I have experienced several deaths, back to back, of close family and friends. For the time being, I have chosen to begin a new FanFic without the too real and dark substances of Winter's Color. Not saying I won't ever update it, just simply that it will be awhile until I can balance everything out. Thank you for your understanding.

Rolling Over

My feet were almost completely numb, rubbing holes into my tattered socks and soon to be useless shoes. The semi-muscular legs attached wouldn't take much longer before they gave. I groaned carelessly into the delicate wind. A soft fur brushed against my thigh, almost encouraging me to keep going. My traveling companion glanced up with golden eyes, blinking a few moments before pausing to yawn.

"I really should find you some water, Kovak." I said to the black hound, running my fingers through the long hair on his back.

Everything was so vividly green today. I found it a shame that I decided to walk through the dark night, completely giving up on sleep. I wouldn't be able to enjoy the sun or the warmth of the wind; instead all I could hope was to find a nice flower bed to crash in.

After trudging up an unforgivable hill, I planted my bottom down onto the ground beside a boulder. Holding a hand over my eyes to shield the sun, I could see a small village in the distance. I assumed it would take maybe less than a half hour walk. Ugh, I'm too tired. So there I remained next to the sleeping Kovak. My mossy colored backpack hit the ground, and then my head hit the backpack. Oh dear, I could sleep for…

"Come to the Boar Hat!"

What the hell?

She came out of nowhere, I swear. Who knows how she did; the girl had to have been over twenty-five feet tall! She twirled around in a burnt orange suit, fiddling with her brown pigtails and flashing a smile. "Come on in for food and drinks!" The girl continued to cheer, pointing to the quaint building. It had a yellow brick roof pointed quite sharply. It was kind of cute.

Kovak started to bark. Not the sort of bark that said he was scared. No, this was a small kind of talkative bark; the one that meant "I smell food and I'm leaving with or without you". I relented and threw the backpack on. "Kovak, you shit. We're getting it to go."

I fiddled in the pockets of my sweater dress, assuring myself I had enough coinage before carrying on. Down the hill we went; not that my knees were too happy about it.

"Oh look a customer!"

Tall girl shrieked, scaring me so terribly that I fell and began to roll down the hill. My cursed luck nailed my body with every rock and bush as I screamed all the way down, waiting for the land to even itself out. By the time it did, I was seething at the sky and cursing my dress for being so short. The bottom had been pushed uncomfortably up to my waist, and the rest had been twisted and ripped by miscellaneous branches.

"Motherfu.."

Kovak dragged my backpack to my side before licking at my face. The ground began to thump loudly as my body bounced up and down of the grass.

"Oh my, are you okay? I'm so so sorry!"

I whimpered painfully, pushing myself off the ground and resting on my bum. I had to throw my head all the way back just to get a good look at her face. As giant and bubbly as she was, she was also quite lovely.

"You're forgiven." I sighed.

"Come into the boar hat and I promise we'll serve you. It's on me!"

Kovak and I were now in the hands of a giant. I didn't freak out as much, considering I was still in a shit load of pain from the death roll. She was gentle with us, delivering us straight to the tavern. Mind you, what took her three steps would have taken us plenty more.

"My name is Diane." She smiled as she set us down.

"This is Kovak." I gestured to the hound. "I'm Lenara, but you can call me Lenny."

"It's nice to meet you." She giggled before lightly tapping on the window. The expression on her face turned extremely sour. "MELIODAS, YOU FILTHY MAN WHORE!"

I shivered at the sound and found myself knocked back onto the steps of the Boar Hat. Kovak and I exchanged worried glances. What the hell have we gotten ourselves into? If she's a giant, what kind of other people are in this place?

"Diane! Please, it's no big deal. Come on, why do you care anyways?" A soft and sad voice pleaded.

"Hey, aren't you supposed to be getting customers?" A light hearted boy asked.

She angrily gritted her teeth. "Well I did, but I scared her so bad she ended up rolling halfway to death on the hill. I told her it was on the house!"

The door flung open to reveal a young man with bold yellow hair that stuck up on end. White teeth grinned so wide that I couldn't help but feel freaked out. The more I stared, I realized he couldn't even been a man. He was also kind of short for a guy, but still taller than me. Everyone is taller than you, stupid. Are you even an inch over five feet?

"Come on in, I heard we owe you a drink!" He said kindly. He wore a dark vest, the tapered ends nearly reaching the bottom of his knees.

"Yeah, me and the dog." I mumbled, slithering my way passed him. He had a kind of earthy odor about him; something I enjoyed until a felt a sudden pressure around my bum.

"You son of a…" I heard Diane simmer from above. My neck twisted back in time to see him retract his hand from the area. He was pink in the cheeks, grinning happily. Not for long.

The back of my hand flew into his cheek, sending him tumbling into the door. "I don't recall giving you permission to do that! Is that what you do, lure young women here just so you can cop a feel? You absolute wanker!"

He rubbed his cheek and laughed heartily. "Okay, I'm sorry! We got off on the wrong foot. I guess your next seven meals are on the house aren't they?"

I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest. Kovak wagged his tail back and forth in excitement before rolling around on the floor. A small hand squeezed my shoulder. "I'm sorry, he does that a lot. Can I get you a drink?"

The girl was pretty and dainty like a lavender jewel. Her waist length hair shimmered and swayed as she walked behind the bar, kindly pouring Kovak a dish of water and setting it on the floor. "Sure, water will be great."

I sat at the bar, chin resting in my hand as I looked the place over. The inside was simple and cute too, I just couldn't understand what it was doing being run by a pervert. "My name is Meliodas." The pervert said, plopping down right next to me.

"Lenny." I said flatly and pointed to the hound. "Kovak."

"I'm Elizabeth." The dainty jewel said sweetly. She wore a tiny pink blouse, barely containing her chest. The same could be said for her little skirt. Elizabeth…I knew an Elizabeth.

"It's nice to meet you." I smiled at her kindly. Elizabeth seemed to be the innocent one in the arrangement to tell the truth. I liked Diane as well, and couldn't help but feel a little bad for her. She seemed to be at her wits end with this perverted Meliodas.

"What the hell is this? Why is there a dog in here?"

I glanced around quickly, searching for the source of the high pitched voice. Kovak simply laid down with his tongue lapping eagerly at the water. I turned back to my own cup and saw a very tiny pink pig, shooting glares straight at me. "I hope he doesn't like pork, and I sure as hell hope he doesn't come near my scraps!"

"Excuse me?" I raised a brow. "Oh. I guess that's why they call it the boar hat." I mused and sipped more water.

A little boy grasping a green pillow effortlessly floated over the bar. "Don't mind Hawk. He's just making up for his size," He told me softly, with half closed eyes.

"Still a little hung-over, King?" Meliodas teased.

"I suppose so." He replied, tugging at his teal sleeves and re-adjusting himself over the pillow.

"You guys sure have a full house." I commented.

"We do." Elizabeth replied. "I guess I'm still not sure where Gowther and Ban ran off too."

"Yeah, Ban is a really great cook. However, I could definitely fix something up if you're hungry!" Meliodas smiled, over-dramatically strapping on an apron and hopping behind the bar to grab Elizabeth in an unspeakable region.

"Please, Meliodas! We only just met her; we aren't trying to kill her!" Elizabeth shrieked, face turning crimson.

"I can't wait to get more of those pills from Merlin." I heard Diane sigh.

"Diane! I've already told you, you don't need them!" The boy, King, screamed and punched his pillow.

I looked at Kovak, and he looked at me. This place was a hot mess.

"You don't seem to be bothered by a talking pig and a floating kid on a pillow. Oh, and the giant outside our door doesn't mean anything to you either?"

By this time, I was hydrated enough to switch to ale. Thank goodness for that. Meliodas started asking me all kinds of strange questions. He turned from pervert to a complete interrogator. I ran my fingers over my crown of mauve braids and sighed. "I don't know. I've been traveling with Kovak for awhile now. I've seen a lot of weird things. I figure as long as I'm not being attacked, then I'm okay for now."

"Are you running from something?"

I gritted my teeth and clenched the heavy cup with small fingers; seeing my face reflect in the liquid. I saw the green speckles in my amber eyes twist and turn into a raging flame. Run away. Run as far as you can, they said. Don't look back. If they find you…

"Nope! Not a thing." I smiled, fluttering my eyelashes..

Meliodas gave an intrigued look for a moment, and then smiled. "Well I guess that's it! By the way, did you notice that you're still bleeding?"

I looked down. My grey sleeves were indeed torn and had been splattered with a red that was quickly drying. The same could be said around my chest and stomach. A few splints cut my skin and remained in the wounds; needing to be picked before an infection developed.

"Thanks Ban!" I heard a laugh from outside.

"Sure, don't overdose." A deep voice advised.

A few minutes later, the door was burst open by a much tinier version of Diane. She swirled around, showing off her pink dress and completely new size. "Ban picked up the pills from Merlin!"

"I told you, you were just fine." King grumbled from above, not wanting to be heard.

An exceptionally tall man wearing flashy red leather followed, carrying two dead animal carcasses over his shoulder. His face resembled that of a fox; sneaky and hungry with sharp eye teeth. "We're eating good tonight." He cooed.

"I suppose if you like a lot of fat." A young man with pink hair interjected as he cleaned his glasses. "According to my calculations, there is about thirty percent of fat per pound on those carcasses."

"Come on, Gowther. Fat is where all of the flavor comes from anyways. Besides, thirty percent isn't terrible." The fox man argued.

"He's right!" Hawk agreed. "I used to have a whole lot of fat and you guys still tried to eat me!"

I stared nervously into my cup, feeling overwhelmed by the sudden amount of people in the room. There was a time I used to be good at it, but something was wrong. My hand fell into my lap, and for a moment I thought I spilled my cup. No, I was staring at it. Then why was my hand so wet?

Diane must have sensed something. I felt her hand grip my shoulder tightly. "Lenara? Are you okay?"

I could see Kovak licking the tall man's fingers. "Hey…I like this guy." He said. Kovak flipped onto his back and allowed him to scratch at his tummy. "Where'd you come from, big boy?"

My eyes grew wide as I felt it. How could I have sat here this long and not noticed the branch inside of me? It was keeping the blood in my body, but now it started coming loose. "Diane, there's a branch in my stomach." I cringed.

"She's right." The pink haired guy suddenly appeared next to me. "I'd recommend taking it out and bandaging the wound immediately. Infection is possible."

Elizabeth cringed when I raised my bloody hand in shock. "Meliodas, do something!"

He nodded. "Ban, take her to Elizabeth's bed so we can extract the branch."

"But I sleep in Elizabeth's bed." Ban told him monotonously.

Meliodas put his finger to his chin and gave another thought. "Ban, take her to your bed so we can extract the branch."

"Sure, captain." He agreed, shoving hands beneath my armpits and picking me straight up. "Whoa, you really did get tore up. How come you haven't passed out yet?"

I lolled my head to the side and closed my eyes and tried to pass out. The pain was starting to creep as I felt him leave the room with my body in hand. Eventually I felt it creep all over. It was too much for me.