Author's Note:

Hello everyone and welcome to another AU set in the world of Tellius. This one was inspired by a picture someone had done and focuses upon Gatrie. In terms of canon, its set during 'Path of Radiance' and starts in Chapter 18: Crimea Marches. I hope you all enjoy the chapter.

I do not own any aspect of Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance.

Chapter 1

Unexpected was an understatement for what happened.

They'd been marching across Begnion and were now launching an assault upon Daein's border wall. The motley army of mercenaries, freedom fighters, Begnion soldiers and Laguz were somehow gelling together as a unit and the fight was going well, especially when you considered how outnumbered they were.

They were right in the middle of the battle when things were totally screwed over.

Gatrie was right on the front lines, absorbing the attacks from Daein's melee troops and holding their attention so the mages and archers behind him could take them out. Slowly but surely, they were pushing their way along the top of the wall, gaining ground and forcing the enemy back. Around him, Oscar and Kieran were taking out archers and mages, halting them from causing problems, Ike was up ahead, striking down any who went against him, while Boyd, Brom and Nephenee were helping him hold the front line.

A large gust of wind shot past him, blasting away a soldier that was aiming to stab him through a gap in his armour, and Gatrie grinned, knowing Soren to be the one responsible for it. So far, things were going well, and it looked like they'd soon claim yet another victory.

Then the crazy mage happened.

One Daein mage had slipped past the two paladins, remaining unnoticed in the chaos of battle, and was making a beeline for Ike. The young commander, occupied with some sort of intense standoff with an enemy archer (who looked a lot like Shinon), didn't register the approaching foe. In fact, it seemed that only Gatrie had noticed the rogue mage.

The enemy grinned and held up his hand as he started to chant his spell, no doubt the man thought he could turn the battle and claim incredible glory by killing the commander, but Gatrie wasn't letting that happen, not on his watch.

Putting on a remarkable burst of speed, considering his heavy armour, he rushed the mage, lance ready to put an end to his attempted sneak attack. Unfortunately, the mage had heard him coming and spun round, still chanting. The man sped up his chant, changing his target but Gatrie kept charging, he crashed into the enemy like thunder but even though he'd moved as fast as he could, the chant finished.

As he collided with his foe, his lance finding a target deep in the mage's chest, the spell struck him at point blank range, straight into his own chest. The impact flung him back, the force throwing him several feet.

"Gatrie!"

In a flash, Mist had brought her horse galloping to his side, staff ready to begin immediate healing. Gatrie groggily clambered to his feet, his head feeling scrambled from the spell, however, he didn't feel any sort of injury from where it had struck him.

He barely noticed how the front-line fighters had swiftly repositioned to protect him, nor did he see the freshly invigorated laguz fling themselves back into the fray after resting to regain their animal forms. In fact, he barely noticed anything around him, his head felt bizarre and the feeling seemed to have quickly spread throughout his body. He dimly registered Mist telling him to stop moving so she could tend to him, but he paid it no heed.

His body felt heavy, so heavy. What was happening? He grunted with pain, tiny stabs of pain radiated throughout his limbs, he'd been hit by a few spells throughout his time of service but none of them had felt like this, what was going on?

He realised that Mist was now shouting in alarm, and he opened his eyes (when had he shut them?) and looked down at her.

Her eyes stared up at him in shock, her mouth giving forth shouts that he couldn't quite understand right at that moment, and was she getting further away? No…she was shrinking! No…wait! She wasn't shrinking, he was growing!

He yelped in panic and stepped back, only to find that he didn't have space to step anymore. His foot caught the ramparts of the wall and he tumbled backwards, arms flailing as he plummeted to the ground with a mighty crash.

Gatrie groaned.

His whole body hurt, and he felt like he'd been running all day in full armour. Wait…he was still wearing his armour, how'd he fallen asleep wearing that?

He groaned again, and slowly opened his eyes to be greeted by the vast canopy of a starry sky. He frowned, why wasn't he in a tent? Had he been injured out on the battlefield and hadn't been found yet? That would account for the pain and his very foggy mind, but although he hurt, he didn't feel like he was injured.

"Gatrie?"

That voice, it was Ike, the commander. With a third groan, he heaved himself into a sitting position and looked around for Ike, only to receive the biggest shock of his life.

He was still at the foot of the border wall, surrounded by the tents of their army, but everything was far smaller than it had been.

"Huh!?"

He glanced down beside him, and saw Ike staring up at him.

"Commander?"

The young man simply nodded, somehow looking entirely unflappable, and Gatrie stared around him, trying to come to terms with what he was seeing, he looked back at his commander, "What happened?"

Soren stepped out from the surrounding crowds that were stood watching some distance off, "We believe that when you attacked that mage, they became flustered and mis-chanted the spell they were trying to cast, resulting in you growing tremendously in size."

"Is there any way to fix it?"

The tactician answered honestly.

"We retrieved the tome the mage had been using and are studying it, but for the moment, no."

It seemed that a big body came with a big appetite.

Gatrie had quickly grown hungry after waking (not surprising since he'd not eaten since before the battle and had grown immensely since then) and hadn't been satisfied until he'd devoured two whole boars and downed an entire barrel of water, watched by wide-eyed bystanders.

As he'd eaten, Soren had told him what he knew about the tome they'd retrieved.

Apparently, it had been some sort of dark magic, likely experimental, and was supposed to cause its target to basically wither away, ending up drastically weakened or outright killed. He theorised that the mis-chant had caused it to have the opposite effect, causing him to increase in strength and physically grow. He and their other magical experts, believed that it might be possible to use the tome as it was supposed to be used, and manipulate its weakening effect in such a way as to return him to normal size and strength. Unfortunately, they weren't sure exactly how to do that safely, and they weren't about to start testing it willy-nilly to find out.

Basically, they had theories, but he'd have to get used to being a giant for an indefinite amount of time.

Fortunately, his clothes and armour had also increased in size along with him, so at least he didn't have to worry about that. The flip side was that his lance hadn't been affected by the spell, so all their weapons were useless to him, except maybe as toothpicks, or kebabs. He had a feeling that it wouldn't matter too much, seeing as he could probably now squash a transformed laguz with his sheer size, as Reyson could attest to (apparently, he'd nearly crushed the heron when he fell from the wall).

However, having ridiculous levels of strength and using it effectively were very different matters.

He'd already crushed a whole barrel that no one person could lift by accident when he went to pick it up, and a boulder he'd tossed aside without thinking because it was digging into his back, had taken out a chunk of the border wall and nearly flattened Kieran, (the poor knight had actually fainted afterwards). He'd certainly be endangering his own comrades in battle if he was already almost killing them by accident out with combat.

Also, his new size meant that he certainly wouldn't fit in anyone's tent, meaning that he was stuck outside, in the snow. At least his increased strength also seemed to come with an increased resistance to the cold, but it was still pretty uncomfortable to be stuck outside.

"Gatrie!"

A small voice called up to him and he glanced downwards, spotting Mist standing near his right hand. The girl gave what he thought was a smile (it was kind of hard to see from his height), "Are you warm enough?"

He leaned down towards her, "I think so, it seems that my increased size also gives me increased resistance to the cold."

Her smile grew, "That's good to hear, I was worried that you'd be freezing out here." She then frowned, "Though I guess I'm not sure what I'd have done if you were."

That was a good point, they'd probably have to gather up the blankets of every member of the army and stitch them together to make one big enough for him. He grinned down at her, "No need to worry, I'm fine."

She beamed once more, "That's great, and I'm sure Soren will work out how to get you back to normal in no time."

"No doubt." He agreed readily, Mist was always so optimistic it was hard not to be as well.

He spotted more people heading his way, it seemed that Mist's approach had acted like some sort of signal, and others came for a closer look at him. Boyd was the first to arrive, and he unsensitively poked his ankle, as if to prove that Gatrie was indeed real.

"Boyd!"

Mist berated the young warrior and Gatrie chuckled lightly, the sound rumbling in the ears of the normal sized. Oscar and Rolf were next, and the two brothers simply gazed up at him, Rolf bearing an expression of awe. He felt a light sensation and found that Boyd had ignored Mist telling him off and was still prodding the giant mercenary.

With a grin, Gatrie reached down and gently plucked the boy from the ground, laughing as the middle brother gave a yelp of surprise.

"What are you doing!? Oscar, help!"

Unfortunately for Boyd, his older brother seemed completely unwilling to lend his assistance, not that there was much he could've done anyway. Gatrie brought the young warrior up to his eyeline, chuckling as he watched the boy cling to his fingers for dear life once he realised just how high up he was.

"Gatrie, put him down!"

Titania had arrived during the course of these events, and while amusement was evident in her voice, she came to the aid of the slightly terrified Boyd.

Obediently, Gatrie did as ordered and gently placed the boy back on the ground, who proceeded to slip behind his older brother, while trying to look like he hadn't been scared. Other members of the army also gathered round him, the hawks and Reyson stayed a respectable distance away, the heron no doubt wary after his near crushing, but Lethe and Mordecai joined the others beside him. Tormod all but ran up, dragging a reluctant Sothe with him and Muarim close behind.

The fire mage yelled up excitedly, "What's it like being so big!?"

"Little one…" Muarim spoke to his charge warningly but Gatrie grinned.

"Not that bad really."

"Prepare yourself braggard, for I, Sir Kieran challenge you to a duel!"

It seemed that Kieran had finally woken up from his faint and was as overexuberant as ever, the red knight was striding towards him with purpose, ignoring the protests of Rhys chasing after him.

Gatrie eyed him in amusement, normally, he'd have probably humoured the knight, but he kind of had an unfair advantage now, seeing as he could squash Kieran with one hand as he was. Regardless, the Crimean was undaunted and stood proudly beside Gatrie's hand, "I shall make you pay for your dishonourable attempt to best me with that sneak attack boulder!"

In any other situation, that statement would've been completely ludicrous, but you couldn't deny he had nearly taken the man out with a boulder, even if it was by accident.

Everything was interrupted by the blare of a warning horn, announcing the approach of the enemy and instantly, everyone was dashing off to prepare for battle. Gatrie hesitated a moment then carefully stood, with his new height, he could actually peer over the border wall and he turned his gaze upon Daein.

After a moment or two, he spotted the familiar shapes of wyvern riders.

PS-So there we have it, one super-sized Gatrie. Please let me know what you thought and I'll hopefully update soon.