"Guards! Guards! Summon my most faithful knights!" King Skarl bellowed from his throne. Mere minutes later, the doors to the throne room burst open, and in poured many of the King’s faithful defenders.

"What is it, my Lord?" One of the knights asked.

"Terrible, simply terrible... I just received news that—wait. Where is Jeran?" Skarl asked, looking at his troops.

"He is home sick with the Neo Flu, sire," a small blue Shoyru in oversized armour replied.

"What?!? My best knight, sick with the flu? This is awful!" King Skarl moaned, slouching in his throne. After a moment of sulking, he sat back up and addressed his army. "Well, no matter. You are all knights of my kingdom, and I am sure you will perform admirably in your duties. The situation we face is thus: A giant Bearog has been wreaking havoc in the eastern forests, and endangering the peasants. I bid you to go into the forest and dispose of the beast."

The knights gasped. A giant Bearog would be a formidable opponent, indeed. The dense woodlands were also difficult to navigate in plate armour. Regardless, the knights bowed to their king, then set off to serve their kingdom.

Running behind the hurrying troops was Valten, the weakest knight in Skarl’s army. He was constantly teased, because he was so small that not even the king's smallest armour would fit him correctly. The armour was large and clunky on him, and it caused the army’s littlest knight to be as slow as a Slorg. Huffing and puffing, the little blue Shoyru did his best to stay with the knights. He would prove himself to them someday...

After a few moments, a knight named Goraln lifted a hand, causing the party to come to a halt. "I want someone scouting ahead, so we don't get caught by any nasty surprises," Goraln barked as many of the knights took the opportunity to get a drink of water. His eyes shifted over the company, then at last came to rest on Valten, who was standing apart from the group and fumbling with his water canteen. "You!" Goraln shouted.

Valten jumped, spilling water all over his armor. He pushed up the visor of his helmet to get a better look at Goraln. "Sir!" the Shoyru cried, bowing as his visor immediately banged shut again.

"I have an important job for you," Goraln said over the soft laughter of the knights. Valten straightened, blushing, and pushed his visor up again. At last, the Shoyru had a chance to prove his worth as a knight! "It's dangerous, but you're small enough to go unnoticed. You're to scout ahead for a sign of the Bearog; if you see as much as a bent twig, I want to know about it. Got it?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Good. Get going!"

Valten bowed again (with his hand propping open his visor), turned, then hurried away into the woods. Now was his chance to show that he was just as good as any knight in King Skarl's army. He would not fail, no matter what…

After a few hours of fruitless searching, Valten grew weary, but he couldn't return to the camp without anything to report. Constructing a makeshift shelter from a fallen log nearby, he lay down to rest. He wouldn't stay long -- only a few minutes. It wasn't as if he would fall asleep...

He woke up an hour later. Realizing his mistake, Valeten quickly sprang to his feet. He had to return to camp immediately. What a fool he would make of himself, though, if he returned with nothing! He could imagine his comrades' faces when they saw him. They would think it hilarious. Not only was he a bad warrior, but a bad scout as well. Useless, that's what he'd be -- the worst knight ever to serve the King. Shaking his head, the Shoyru decided to continue his search.

Suddenly, a scream pierced the air! Valten took off running in the direction of the sound. Moments later, he realized it was coming from the direction of the knights' camp...

The Shoyru's stubby blue paw scrambled around at his side in search of his weapon, its sheath, or anything else he could wield.

Unfortunately, there was no such luck. He had only succeeded in leaving his weapons in the makeshift shelter.

Valten sighed, then nodded to himself -- there would be knights' swords scattered around the camp. He could easily defend himself with one of those…

No, there was another problem. He could barely handle his own dagger, let alone one of those huge swords that most of the other knights in the army wielded.

The little Shoyru, however, was still speeding through the wooded area. No matter how tense the situation, he had to do something to help. He might have been small and clumsy, but -- no -- he knew he was not a coward.

Valten let himself smile weakly. He tried to ignore his slowing pace, his lack of breath, and the twig in front of him that he was about to trip over…

The last thing he heard was the sound of his armor making contact with the ground, and the sharp yip of a very large Petpet making its way towards him...

Right when Valten managed to roll to the side in an attempt to get to his feet, a set of yellowed Petpet teeth chomped down on where he was lying just moments before. Looking up, he realized that one of the other heads was again bearing down on him. He quickly rolled to the side again, narrowly escaping the clacking fangs.

I'm not going to be able to get up unless I distract it! the blue Shoyru thought. His mind raced as he attempted to come up with a plan, but all that he could think about was those three sets of slavering teeth.

As if on cue, the middle head lunged down, and Valten was trapped in the beast's maw. He gave a small shout of alarm. The foolish thought of what Shoyrus tasted like passed through his panicked mind.

Just then, Valten noticed that he was miraculously sliding out of the Bearog's mouth -- or, at least, out of his armor. Finally, his small size benefited him! The Shoyru wriggled a bit and soon found himself back on the ground, sans his armor.

Now, however, he had no armor, no weapon, and a very irritated giant Bearog on his hands…

Thinking quickly, Valten began to run from the campsite. If I can't defeat it, he thought, I can at least get it away from the camp...

Unfortunately, the Bearog saw through his plan and still headed for the camp. He ran back to the Bearog, picking up an awfully large stick for his size. He lunged at the Bearog and smashed the stick onto its toes.

The Bearog let out a loud scream, causing Valten to fall to the ground, clutching his ears. The enraged Petpet quickly rounded on him. "Uh, oh..." the Shoyru said out loud.

Valten had caused the Bearog to reach its limit. It suddenly began to run at him. The Shoyru began flapping his wings as fast as he could, until he was level with the Bearog's middle head. Thinking quickly, he stuck his tongue out at the Bearog. It gave out another loud roar and grabbed Valten by the tail.

"Hey!" Valten screamed. "You can't--"

But it was no use. The Bearog was already swaggering towards the camp, despite Valten's loud protests.

When they reached it, both the Shoyru and the Bearog were surprised to find the camp...

Meanwhile, Valten was sitting in the beast's jaws, fearing that the end was near and feeling quite miserable. He would forever be known as Valten the Tiny: the insignificant knight who'd met his demise at the hands of an overgrown Petpet. How horrible that would... Valten suddenly snapped out of his train of thought as a realization came to him: he was slipping. The Bearog's central head was too busy fighting with the left head over the knights' rations to notice. Slipping along the creature's wet tongue, Valten slid out of the beast's teeth and onto the ground. Saved by drool -- not the most honorable rescue, but it beat being known as a Petpet's dinner.

He glanced up at the Bearog and crawled away into the deep forest, where the footprints of many Neopets in heavy armor led.

The Shoyru stepped on a stick, and the Petpet suddenly snapped to attention. Valten leapt to his feet and dashed off into the forest, with the Bearog snapping and barking behind him. Thankfully, the trees gave the massive Petpet some trouble, and the Shoyru was able to quickly get lost within their midst.

Breathless, Valten stumbled into a clearing, looking behind him for signs of the Bearog.

"Valten! It's about time. We were sure you were a Bearog biscuit by now," a knight teased.

"C'mon Ferion, now's not the time," another chided.

"Well, it is his fault that we have to do this now with so little warning."

Valten looked around at the group of knights, who went back to their former discussion. They were standing near what appeared to be a giant collar and muzzle.

"The device itself is a rather simple gift from Illusen. Once the collars are slipped around the Bearog's necks, all we would have to do is pull this leather strap and buckle it in place. That will pull the muzzles up over its jaws. With that done, we could quickly subdue the beast," Goraln was saying.

"But the concept's insane," a knight chimed in. "There's no one who could pull that off without getting eaten. It would take a massive distraction..."

"And someone who's extremely small and agile to get it into place," another knight added.

The group turned around to look at Valten, but they were too late. The Shoyru -- and the collar -- were already gone...

The first step came easily enough -- he had to find the beast before doing anything else.

It wasn't difficult to locate the monstrous Petpet. After giving up on chasing the Shoyru, the Bearog had lumbered back to the campsite, where it continued to work on the knights' rations. It was so busy eating that it didn't notice Valten returning (which was a miracle in and of itself, considering that the poor Shoyru had tripped over a vine mid-flight.)

"Alright," Valten said to himself. "I suppose I'd best get the collar on first... but how?"

Something caught the Shoyru's eye. It was tricky -- not to mention dangerous -- but it just might work…

The Bearog was lazily sprawled out in the middle of their camp, licking its chops and yawning... the knights sure had brought a lot of food with them!

It was just about to doze off, when the most peculiar sound came from nearby.

"MEOW!" a voice said. All three heads snapped to attention. They looked around… there! A Meowclops was standing at the line of trees. It was rather large, and there was silver armor peeking out from underneath its fur. In fact, the fur resembled the shredded tents that lay in the ruins. Why, it didn't even smell like a Meowclops! Needless to say, though, the beast was intrigued.

Valten fervently hoped that the Bearog was as dense as it was large. Thankfully, his hopes were well founded, as the beast scrambled to its feet and lunged at Valten...

Looking around the woods, Valten picked up the largest stick he could find. This is not the time to hesitate, Valten thought to himself as he scurried back to the camp. He made a semi-circle and emerged from the other side of the campsite, advancing quietly on the Bearog as it tried to devour his former costume.

Valten had forgotten about the collar. It was lying even farther away, but at least it was probably out of the Bearog's vision. Heart hammering, Valten made a dash for the collar. He didn't need the stick, so he dropped it and hefted the collar up.

Gathering up all of his courage while trying to maintain his strength, Valten drew a breath. "Hey, Bearog!" he cried, adjusting the collar slightly in his arms. His plan would work most efficiently if he could slip the collar around the middle head's neck. The Bearog lunged at Valten, and its middle head snapped its jaws in another attempt to devour him. Thinking fast, the small Shoyru threw the collar over the Bearog's face with a yell and successfully slipped it over the Petpet's neck.

Valten grabbed the muzzles before the Bearog had a chance to notice what was going on. It sat down on the forest floor, shaking its surroundings like a tiny earthquake. All three of its heads began trying to chew the collar off. Quickly, the Shoyru flew up behind the beast's heads. He managed to trap the middle head within the muzzle by desperately shoving the Bearog's face into it. Valten repeated the deed with the right head, but he wasn't quick enough to see the left jaw coming right at him, teeth gleaming...

"Ouch!" Valten cried. His wing hurt terribly, and the Bearog's mouth was still clamped down on it. Triumphantly, the giant Petpet turned and trotted back towards the camp, dragging Valten like a rag doll.

This is it, the small Shoyru thought sadly, feeling even more forlorn than before. With my wing hurt, even if I do manage to escape, I won't get far. Why did I have to be this way? Every chance I get, I mess things up! I'll never be good enough! Never!

Valten forgot where he was. In a fit of rage, he slammed his fist down on the Bearog's nose. The Petpet roared in anger, dropping Valten as it did so. The Shoyru hit the ground. A good knight would have picked himself up, found a weapon, and commenced fighting. Valten, being Valten, kept rolling on and on until he finally crashed into a tree. The Bearog lunged for him and missed, also crashing into the tree. Valten bounced off the trunk and continued rolling in the opposite direction.

The small Shoyru was hit with a sudden realization as he came to a dizzy stop. Of course he wouldn't succeed... he was acting like somebody else! Somebody big! To truly be great, Valten needed to be true to himself.

The Bearog recovered, but a little worse for the wear. All this Shoyru-chasing was taking its toll. Valten dashed away with the Bearog in hot pursuit. The Shoyru knew what he was doing this time. He ran around in circles, tripped over roots, and fell over backwards, all the while trying to ignore his wounded wing. Instead of hindering him for once, these little quirks helped him! Being small and nimble, Valten could pick himself up easily, but the Bearog tripping after him could not get out of such situations.

Soon, the Bearog was tangled hopelessly in the trees and the wreckage of the camp. Valten managed to slip the left head into the remaining muzzle before he sighed and dropped to the ground, completely exhausted. At least the Bearog couldn't move either. The other knights soon arrived to help him.

"Well done," Goraln said gruffly to the Shoyru. Valten grinned, bowed a little too deeply, and fell off balance. Though the others still laughed, there was a newfound respect in all their voices. The Shoyru looked at the faces of the other knights, and for once in his life, he didn't notice a height difference.

The End