Colin grunted as he took another step, hoisting the body higher over his shoulder, pulling it away from the fire. He closed his eyes to the cruel world, and when he opened them, he was in darkness. A Death Carrier stood in front of him, ominously smiling. Before he could speak, it opened its mouth.

"Colin of Tybrus, I've summoned you here to grant you a favour, in the form of a deal. When you need me, All the power you'll ever need will be yours, but in return, you'll remain in whatever form I choose." The Death Carrier spoke in a voice of thick mist in a graveyard, black, matted feathers falling wherever it walked.
"Whatever you choose?" Colin questioned, unsure of the demon before him. Death Carriers were known to trick mortals with their silver tongues and hold fatal grudges to anyone who upset them in the slightest.

It was how his sister had died. Trusting the feathered demon.

"Yes, anything living or non living."
"That's stupid, I never asked for this deal." he retaliated, shivering as he felt part of his spirit drift back to his body.

"Your brother locked up my Master for good, so I'll return the favour." It grinned and swept a bony finger across his form, cutting him in two. But Colin was determined to show up this creature, the taker of so many innocent lives, player of so many lethal games.
"I will never use your stupid power, Evil One." Colin said with a grim stare, as half of his face faded away into the sour wind.
"How dare you insult me you writhing brat! You don't have the soul to refuse-"
"Never." Colin whispered as he disappeared, and skeletal fingers clacked against their palms as the creature shook with rage.

"I see, you want to be like that. Well, you'll regret this, boy. With every insignificant fibre and tissue in your disgusting mortal body. With every ounce of your soul. " The Death Carrier turned his back, and two skeletal wings tore their way straight through his back.
"You'll regret this."

Colin opened his eyes, and the roaring wind and heat assaulted him with a force like a freight train. He still had Bucky's arm in his hands, his body was still choking on acrid smoke as he stood motionless, recalling what had happened. A deal he didn't want and wouldn't use. Colin took another step forward, his round face completely dusted with ash, arms hideously burnt, covered in charred junk, but the injuries didn't stop him. They were nothing compared to the crisp, oozing, wounds covering the other man.

The flames had appeared from nowhere, igniting on the plains and greedily feeding on the dry wheat, stretching and spreading like water. The three panicked twangs of the bell had alerted Colin and the rest of his family, but Bucky was too slow. He cared too much about the other inhabitants of the village. When everyone reached the safety of the river, his older brother hadn't yet arrived.

Colin was the only one who went back for him, and he now knew that that was a mistake. A horrible, terrible mistake. Bucky was stocky, while Colin was a thin teenager. There was no way in Hell that he could pull him to the river, around 200 metres away, with the flames gaining on him. Now they would both die, consumed like another piece of firewood.

Unless.. the Death Carrier's deal.

The teenager dropped to his knees, letting Bucky fall on the hard ground behind him, mind reeling and breath coming short and fast. There was no-one there, except for the flames twisting to the dirty sky, and the cloaked figure who dropped feathers wherever it stepped.

Colin looked up to it with streaming eyes, holding in violent coughs just to stare into its sickly green eyes. Looking back to Bucky, eyes skimming over his damaged body, he came to a decision.
"I accept." he reluctantly held out a hand, cringing when its bones scraped against his burnt, raw palms.

A spike of white hot pain twisted his gut, and he fell back, convulsing on the ground.
"What do you want to do boy?" It snarled, looming over him with wings spread wide.
"Got to..save..Bucky." he coughed, and stood as the pain changed to a feeling of strange energy.
"Good choice, boy." The Death Carrier sneered, as a white light slipped from Colin's fingers, curling past the demon and drifting into Bucky's mouth and nose. The man's injuries stopped weeping and scabbed over, his brow creased and he rolled onto his side. Colin dropped his arms and faced the demon, smiling triumphantly, renewed with a new hope and new spirit.

But, something odd sucked the smile from his face. The last time Colin checked the Death Carrier was about two heads taller than him. But now he was more than three.

"What are you playing at?! What is happening to me?" he could see the demon growing in size, taking three steps back from it. The grin displayed on its skeletal face was sick, sharp bones coming together to form a wide razor smile that stretched past either side of its face.
"It's my part of the deal boy, and I choose 2 inches tall to be your forever height. Well, for the rest of your short life." It leant down to Colin, who was shrinking fast, only the size of a large doll now, and poked him in the stomach. The teenager screamed and stumbled backward, running to Bucky's comatose form.
"Bucky! Buck! Wake up!" he punched the giant form of his brother, sweating and screaming for him to wake up, while the Death Carrier jumped back to the Underworld.

And Bucky did.

"CRAP!!" Bucky cursed, the first images and feelings entering his mind bright flames and searing heat. Bucky quickly pushed himself up to his feet, the miniscule Colin sprinting out of the way of the giant sandals with his hands over his ears, coughing and crying out.

But Bucky couldn't see or hear him. He was much too small.

Colin looked up as the giant put a hand over his wounds, legs wide and ready to spring out to the river if need be, eyes still scanning for anyone that needed his help. But he didn't look down.
"Buck..y!" Colin cried weakly, waving his arms, knowing that the seemingly 60 foot giant was his only path out of the flames. But footstep after giant footstep led his ride away from him and toward safety, the heavy booms sending him cowering into a ball.

Colin was done for, there was no way out now. No way he could outrun from the flames quickly advancing upon his tiny form.

A dark feather floated through the air, it's delicate form glowing with embers.

"I told you so, Colin."
~~~
Based on a prompt from a G/T Amino I'm in! This was just a little thing, I don't know if anyone from this universe will appear again in this book. Also, some chapter doodles..

~Tsunami