As Nickolas ran all he could think was that this was the real forest, the forest were ghosts and evil spirits roamed. Where people heard the dead weep in the night. Soon his disbelieve was shattered by the sound of hounds baying in the distance. “Damn assholes left my hands tied so I can’t even fight back once the dogs catch me.” As he ran he saw a flickering of light in the distance. “A fire? Someone must be here they’ll help me they have too,” Nickolas thought out loud. As he neared the light he realized it was coming from the inside of a huge old cave. Nickolas took a breath and darted inside the hounds barking grew quieter as they moved into the distance. He headed towards the light coming from deeper inside the cave. As he walked he noticed the walls of the cave were covered in cracking peeling paint it appeared to be some sort of ancient religious art and writing. As he reached the fire he marveled at the size of the cave. It was covered from floor to ceiling in art and text until it reached the top of the cave which was open revealing the night sky and letting light from the moon and stars in. In the very center of the cave was an enormous statue of a woman some unknown goddess most likely. As Nickolas looked up at the night sky he felt a warm breeze begin blowing from somewhere. As he looked for its source something about the statue caught his eye. Something was different its eyes were open now its head moved and its golden eyes locked onto his.
For the first time since he had lost his mother Nickolas’s courage left him and overwhelmed by all that had happened to him that night he fell to his knees and began to cry. The statue reached out, and Nickolas prepared to be crushed as the hand moved over his head. He felt a slight tug on both his arms and then slack the hand moved back to its original position. He moved to wipe the tears from his eyes and realized his arms were free. He turned around and picked up the rope that had bound his arms it looked like someone had cut through it. When Nickolas looked up he saw that the statue was facing the opposite way and looking down. His courage flooding back into him he walked closer to the massive figure and began to walk to be face to face with the thing. As he came around the front the clouds moved letting the moon light shine brightly into the cave. He looked up into the face of a young woman, not a cold stone statue but a giant made of warm flesh and blood. She looked away breaking their eye contact; Nickolas moved staring back into her eyes. She looked back at him let out a sigh and offered a sad apologetic smile.
Nickolas smiled up at the giant girl and shouted, “So what’s your story are you a goddess, giant sized person, or some kind of monster? He stood waiting for some time with no response so he defiantly sat down with his hand propping his head up and stared upward waiting. Nickolas was nearly asleep when a strange rumble caught his attention it was the giant girl fidgeting then in a strange almost musical whisper she said “I don’t know what I am but I’ve been all three of those at one point of time in my life.” Nickolas thought about her answer for a moment then smiled up at her and said, “I don’t know about the first two but the third doesn’t seem to fit you at all. You don’t seem very monster like to me, monsters don’t help people. Plus if you were a monster you’d have crushed or eaten me by now, I don’t smell delicious to you do I.” The girl started to laugh and cry at the same time, and Nickolas had to dodge bucket sized tear drops. One landed right on him drenching the whole top half of his body. The girl pulled herself together an apologized, “I’m sorry I just haven’t talked with someone who treated me like a person in so long, and now I’ve got you drenched.” “Hey it’s ok I’ll just take my shirt off until it dries, it’ll dry fast. I’ve been colder then this lots of times so it doesn’t really bother me,” Nickolas explained. The girl grabbed hold of her shirt sleeve and tore a small strip off, she reached out and presented it to the shirtless Nickolas and said, “Here this should keep you warm, you don’t seem to have a blanket so you can keep it if you’d like.” Now it was Nickolas who felt like crying, no one had given him anything since he’d lost his mother. “Thanks my name is Nickolas by the way, what’s your name?” The giant girl smiled and said “My name is Antoinette but you can call me Ann.”