Alban awoke from a troubled sleep and found it was still dark. He was thankful, though: he’d had another bad dream and preferred to stay awake. There was nothing fanciful about his recent nightmares. They were memories, which he tried hard to suppress, but which still found a way to torment him while he slept. Memories of his capture and imprisonment by the vile warlord Bargar, who was responsible for the death of two of his closest friends, and who had kept Alban chained up in a filthy cell, starving and torturing him for his own amusement.

He had been lucky to escape alive, thanks to the timely arrival of Valerie. She had rescued him from near-certain death, despite the fact that he’d spoken rudely and abusively to her beforehand. But she was a much better person than he had been to her, and she had carried him away from Bargar’s clutches and deep into the woods, where she cleaned his wounds, fed him and restored him to his old self. It was during that moment that he had fallen in love with her, while she nestled him in her tender hands and let him lie him down on her soft chest. The same chest he was lying on now, as she lay sleeping upon the vast bed in her chambers on the giant castle’s upper floor.

Only very rarely did the two of them sleep apart. Each night, Valerie took her tiny beloved husband, undressed him completely and lay him down between her ample breasts. He felt himself completely immersed in her essence and he couldn’t imagine feeling safer than he did whenever she kept him this close to her heart. When he was alone with her up here, he could surrender himself completely to her and let her do whatever she wished with him. He had no fear that she would abuse her power over him, however. She was a most considerate lover, playful in bed and willing to experiment with new techniques of making love – experimentation being the best way to describe it – but never at the cost of making him feel uncomfortable or unsafe. She enjoyed being the dominant one in their relationship – in bed and elsewhere – but she never made him feel inferior or unequal to her.

Alban managed to wriggle his way out from between her breasts and walked up towards the base of her neck. Her chest beneath his feet undulated as she breathed, unperturbed by his insignificant weight. But suddenly she began to breathe more rapidly, and her chest began to heave up and down in quick succession. Alban tried in vain to keep his footing, before he was thrown from her torso as she suddenly sat upright, shrieking. He himself barely had time to scream as he flew through the air, before landing unharmed in a fold of the bed’s blankets. Valerie sat and gasped for air for a moment, before instinctively placing her hand on her breast to feel if her husband was all right.

“Alban?” she cried out, after realizing he was gone. “Alban, darling, where are you?”

“Over here!” came a muffled voice from somewhere in the pile of blankets. “I’m all right! I’m not hurt! Just get me out of here, would you?”

She quickly stuck her hand into the folded fabric and pulled him out, then kissed him and pressed him against her bosom, apologizing for what had happened.

“I’m really sorry!” she said, holding him tightly. “I didn’t mean to scream like that, it’s just…a nightmare! Oh, it was horrible!”

“You too, huh?” Alban replied. Then, when she looked at him inquiringly, he continued: “It’s the same nightmare I keep having, sweetheart. You know it by now. I’d still be trapped in it for real if it hadn’t been for you. Don’t worry about me, it’ll stop coming to me before long. It’s already beginning to fade, the longer I stay with you. But I can’t remember you ever having had a bad dream before. It’s not going to be a regular thing from now on, is it?”

“I…I don’t know…I really don’t know…”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“All…all right…but not in here. Come on, I want to get some fresh air.”

She placed him down on her pillow and lit a candle that stood by her bedside. Then she rose from the bed, giving him a fine view of her shapely unclad body in the flickering candlelight. She quickly put on a simple gown, fur cloak and slippers. Alban didn’t bother getting dressed himself: he knew where Valerie wanted to go and that no-one else would see them there. He also knew that she’d hold him in her hands the whole time, which would keep him safe and warm. Once she was warmly dressed, she picked him up with one hand and the candle with the other and left her bedroom, heading for the castle’s one remaining tower which still stood intact.

She headed down the hallway outside her room to the winding staircase at the end of it. It led up to the roof of the tower, which wasn’t exceptionally high from her point of view, but which soared well over five hundred yards above the ground from the humans’ perspective. Up here, she had put a chair and a small table, making it a nice, secluded place where she could sit and think, read or talk to Alban in private, while giving her an unmatched view of the lands surrounding her. Since it was still dark, she didn’t spend any time admiring the view, but sat down and placed the candle on the table. Valerie held her husband snugly between the fingers of both hands, enjoying the warm feeling of his miniscule nude body against her own skin. She knew that he was a grown man who was well capable of looking after himself and who didn’t need her for protection – but, whenever she held him like this, she couldn’t help but think of him as fragile and in need of her tender care, though she never told him so. She loved him immensely and she promised herself each day to never let anything bad happen to him.

“I dreamt about my childhood,” she told him. “Back when my father was still king in this castle, when the giants still ruled over all of the lands for hundreds of miles around us. It was so long ago for you, I know, but for me it’s still a fresh and vivid memory. As long as I could remember, I had hated the thought of harming humans…but my family…my father and brother…the things they had made me see, when I was just a child…Alban, I hated every moment I was forced to spend with them! Watching them treat humans like cockroaches, murdering them in all kinds of twisted ways, while all the other giants at my father’s court cheered them on, and themselves took part in the whole horrid affair!”

“Valerie, none of that was your fault! No-one here blames you for things that happened hundreds of years ago.”

“I know…but if they did, I would understand. They say that the giants…my people…that they were wiped out by a plague centuries ago. Well, I think that’s the best thing that ever happened to this land! How could they…how could we…have been so cruel, Alban? What made them look at humans, at people who were so much smaller than them and defenceless, and made them want to hurt and abuse and kill them?”

“I…I don’t know, my love,” Alban said, trying his best to offer his distraught wife some comfort. At times like this, when she needed his emotional support, he wished he was as tall as she was, that he could sit next to her and wrap his arms around her and let her lay her head down on his shoulder. But he couldn’t, so he hugged her thumb instead and kissed her, over and over.

“Cruelty exists in humans too,” he continued. “We can be as vicious to our own kind as the giants were to us – it was just easier for them, since we couldn’t fight back. You have nothing to apologise for; you’ve told me many times how you did everything you could to help humans, back in those days. And just look at how many people you’re helping now, how many families with children who had nowhere else to go, for whom you’ve created a new life and a new home here. This is just the beginning too – wasn’t that what you told me the other day? I think, my dearest wife, that the good that you will do in this world will be so much more than you can imagine right now.”

“Oh, Alban, now you’re just being melodramatic…but thank you!” She lifted his head up to her lips and kissed him long and slowly, savouring every second.

“I just wish that there had been others back then,” she said afterwards. “Other giants who thought like me, to whom I could relate. Yes, I have seen how humans can be cruel, but so many of you are not…while I never met another giant who didn’t think of humans as disposable playthings or worse.”

“But you also had a very sheltered life, Valerie. You told me how you were almost never allowed outside the castle. Who can say what the giants who didn’t belong to the royal court thought? Perhaps some of them…perhaps many, even…shared your views on humans.”

“Perhaps…yes, maybe you’re right. And maybe…maybe some of them are still alive today, living far away, where the plague…if that’s what it was…couldn’t reach them. Maybe, someday, they’ll return home – but until that day, I’ll do the best I can to restore the people’s faith in me. My size and strength are gifts, and I will use them as best I can, to make sure that cruelty, terror, oppression and war have no place here in Vandan.”

She kissed Alban once more, then slipped him in underneath the bust of her dress, so that he lay snugly between the gown’s fabric and the bare skin of her breast. She could feel his feet touching her nipple and knew that he was probably getting very aroused right now. She herself was on the verge of returning to bed for some more lovemaking with her little man, but when she saw that the eastern sky was beginning to grow lighter, she decided to stay up here and watch the sunrise instead. So, she took Alban out again, against his protests, and set him down on her shoulder. Although he was naked, he could easily cover himself by wrapping his entire body up in her long hair. Together, they watched as the sun rose over the serene landscape of Vandan, no longer the land of dread and terror it had once been, in an age long ago.

“I think I’d like to do something special for our people, Alban,” Valerie said as she headed down the stairs and back inside the castle. “Something that’ll show them how much they mean to me and that’ll make them feel at home here, if they don’t feel so already.”

“What do you have in mind?” Alban asked.

“Oh, I don’t know, something where I can invite them all to the castle, and get to meet some of them in person. Not a great festival or a ball – something like that would be too grand, and I don’t have the time and patience to organise and prepare for such an event in any case. But I’ll give it some thought and see what’s practical. That will have to wait, though; right now, it’s time for a bath and a nice breakfast.”

“I can’t wait. Your hair feels lovely when I’m wrapped in it like this, but it’s a bit lacking when it comes to keeping away the cold!”

“You just have to make a fuss about everything, don’t you, sweetie? Come here, I’ll keep you warm!”

She plucked him out of her hair and put him feet-first into her open mouth. Alban protested again, but with his head pressed tightly between her lips, there was nothing he could do about it. So, he resigned himself to the situation and waited patiently until his wife took him out, once she’d prepared her bath. He knew that she was only playfully teasing him and that she’d reward him by letting him explore all over her body while she bathed. He also hoped fervently that no word of the intimate activities he and Valerie got up to when they were alone in the castle would ever spread outside its walls.

Five days later, Valerie invited all of the people of Rismark to the special event she had planned all week. It was a huge feast held in the castle’s throne room, which had been specially decorated for the occasion. Seven gigantic tables were arranged in a semicircle, and upon them had been placed a multitude of human-sized tables and chairs, providing enough room for five hundred guests to sit at. Even more people showed up than she’d planned for, but there were no more chairs to be found anywhere, so they had to be content with sitting on the giant tables themselves. Great candles the size of small trees stood on the tables, providing ample light for the occasion. Each table also had a huge wooden ramp fitted which led down to the floor, so that visitors could come and go as they pleased, and which also freed Valerie from the task of having to lift the hundreds and hundreds of arrivals up to the tabletops herself. Finally, she’d placed a row of small boulders around the perimeter of each giant table, to prevent anyone from getting too close to the edge and accidentally falling off. She’d handled most of these preparations herself, since she was the only one strong enough to move boulders and super-sized furniture around easily.

She also did most of the cooking for the feast. This mostly consisted of fruits and vegetables from her garden, all of them from giant-sized plants, which meant that there would be more than enough to feed the whole town. Sadly, there were no longer in any giant livestock or poultry to be found in Vandan, so the meat had to procured from the many farmers who had settled in the area and brought their animals with them. Valerie paid the farmers more than enough gold for all of the livestock that she needed for the feast, and since she also prepared all of the meat dishes for the occasion as well, she still considered it her gift to the people. As for the drinks, she left that up to her subjects to provide for themselves. Though there were giant grapevines in her garden, she didn’t know how to make wine from them and she had never been fond of drinking it.

On the evening of the feast, Valerie sat on her throne in the centre of the room and watched as throngs of people began to arrive, making their way onto the tables via the ramps. Alban sat on her shoulder as usual, although he planned on joining the guests soon enough. Once a large enough number of people had arrived, Valerie stood up and raised her hands to silence the crowds. She was only partially successful, but it didn’t really matter: her voice was clear and powerful enough for everyone in the enormous room to hear her. Wearing a voluminous white royal gown with golden embroidered patterns on it, she was a magnificent, commanding presence and she soon had everyone’s attention.

“Welcome, everyone, to this evening of celebration,” she said. “I have not met most of you in person, and the few I have met I have not known for very long, so I have decided to invite all of you, citizens of Vandan, my subjects, to this feast. I know that for many of you, moving here with your families and leaving behind the life you were familiar with, has not been an easy decision to make. I also know that many of you are still fearful or distrustful of me, and, having seen first-hand how my own people treated you humans long ago, I don’t blame you for your fears. But, beginning tonight, I hope to be able to get to know you a bit better, and for you to come to know me better as well. More and more people are arriving in Vandan every day, so a feast like this where everyone is invited won’t be possible for very long. That is why tonight is important. I hope you will all enjoy yourselves, that you will come to know many of your new neighbours here in Vandan better as well, and that you will head home tonight knowing that there is nothing I won’t do, as your new ruler, to ensure that your lives here are peaceful and fruitful.”

There were cheers and toasts to her health from many of the tables, but, as Valerie had predicted, most of the guests remained silent, or simply resumed talking amongst themselves. But she wasn’t disheartened. She set Alban down on the nearest table, where many of his own family members, and other upper-class folk from Elgon who had moved here, were sitting, and he took a seat amongst them. She, on the other hand, picked up a nearby chair and went and sat at the furthest table. The people on it were not so well-off, but instead were mostly poor peasants, those who had lost their homes, belongings and families in wars, or else those who had grown up on the streets of cities like Elgon in the worst poverty. For many of them, a meal like this consisted of more food than they were used to eating in a week in their old lives.

As she talked to her guests while they ate, and answered their questions, Valerie realised that her own childhood years, difficult and traumatising as they had been, didn’t represent the only kind of bad experience a person could have. Now, faced with the task of providing a new, better life for hundreds of people, she suddenly felt out of her depth. She was still so young and inexperienced, and no wiser than a child in many areas, but she didn’t want to give up on her dream now. With the help of her loving husband, and with the skills and knowledge of all the men and women who had come to Vandan so far, and those still to come, she would try her very best to create the greatest kingdom the world ever knew.