Prolog:

Woodsmoke.

That was the smell that filled my nostrils when I came to. A nice wood fire was crackling behind me like a cheery friend warming my back.

Then the pain had hit. My arms were long tubes of agony suspended above me in a “Y” shape, the blood long run out of them. My knees were buckled beneath me from hanging unconscious for far too long. My head throbbed with every heartbeat. Knotted neck muscles strained to pull my head up as I opened my right eye and looked at the world about me. My left eye had swollen shut from the beating I’d taken before being knocked senseless.

The only pleasant sensations were that of the warm fire behind me and the smell of crisp mountain air mixed with woodsmoke. I breathed in the scent, hoping to clear my head.

I inhaled. A sharp stabbing pain, in contrast to the dull throbbing of my other injuries, told me some of my ribs were broken. My breath caught in my chest and I spent the next few moments taking shallow painful gasps as I fought to find the best way to mitigate my body’s agony. After a few minutes, I realized I wasn’t mitigating anything. I tried to cope with my pain but fear is just as much a modivator as pain is. Whomever had strung me up like a stuck pig had obviously had designs for me. With nothing better to do, I used my good eye to survey my surroundings.

I was on a high cliff. Far below and all around was a vast expanse of prairie desert that stretched to the fading horizon. Dusk had fallen and the sky was cluttered with stars. I was standing, or to be more accurate, was suspended between two posts, my hands bound in leather cords. There were also torches stuck into the posts, burning steadily and quietly compared to the flickering, crackling fire behind me.

It was as though this high cliff upon which I’d been bound were an alter upon which I was the sacrificial lamb. How had I come to be here? Who had caught me and what did they plan to do.

“Good of you to join us Jonah,” said a familiar voice from behind me.

“Couldn’t pass up the invitation,” I said evenly. My voice sounded hollow and far away. I wondered if I had a concussion.

There was laughter behind me. “No, I don’t suppose you could now could you?” His was the voice of someone who was well educated, and intelligent. A slight accent of his native frontier background was mixed in with a rich, deep baritone. It was the voice that could have belonged to a statesman or a preacher. Someone you would want to listen to, if only to hear them speak.

Footsteps sounded behind me. A shadow cast by the firelight began to stretch out past stakes that held the burning torches. It was followed by a man in a long leather coat, cowboy hat and sneak hide boots. The man was perhaps in his forties. He had a mustache and appeared to have not shaved for several days as a beard was beginning to come in. He was coated in a fine layer of dust. His belt held a pistol, turned backwards under his right hip. His hard blue eyes stared into mine.

Crechorian! Somewhere in the back of my mind, his name clicked into place. The man was called Crechorian.

“You know why you’re here,” he said with a nod of his head.

It wasn’t a question. It was a statement. If not for the leather cords suspending me upright, I might have staggered. I did know why I was here!

“Her,” I said.

Crechorian didn’t speak. He just nodded.

“You bastard,” I said.

“Guilty friend. There’s truth in that.”

“You feed her. You feed your own townsfolk.”

“And you’re next on the list partner. Crechorian stepped closer, his face in front of mine.  Bringing a cigar to his chapped, ragged lips he took a deep drag. The strong scent of the cigar briefly overrode that of the campfire as he allowed the smoke to curl out of his mouth and nose. In that instant, he looked like the devil. No mercy could be expected from this man.

“It’s your time friend,” he said in a low whisper, like a servant of fate brining judgment to the damned. He stepped away from my field of vision. On the horizon was a figure of a woman. She was walking towards us.

“You didn’t care about the rest of them do you?” I called after him.

“The rest?”

“Jones! Carpenter! Earhear! The freed slaved, Joe! Poor young Toby! He was only twenty at last year’s harvest! You killed them all too didn’t you? They ended up as food for her just like I have. They were all just sacrifices to you.”

“You’ve got it wrong, partner. They were sacrifices to her.”

“They were our friends,” I said quietly.

The gigantic woman was coming closer.

“ ’Sides,” he added, as if I’d said nothing. “You ought to thank me. You always did want to find out which one of us was best.”

We had fought. I had known he would take me here if I lost. Well, he had fought me and I had lost. Crechorian had beaten me senseless and placed me here like a morsel on a stone plate. Now I was tied between two stakes waiting for a giantess to devour me.

“Now you know which of us is best.”

We fell silent. The sight of the giantess walking towards us was enough to distract the most ardent debate and despite my rage at Crechorian, I couldn’t keep talking. My one, tired eye took in the last sights I would ever see. In a way I was lucky. She was a pretty sight.

The woman that would soon devour me was beautiful. She had white skin and hair as black as a raven’s. Her body was stunning; long graceful steps showed off powerful legs. Like many of the race of giantesses, she dressed scantly.  A firm fit belly showed below what might charitably be described as half a shirt that managed to cover her breasts. A strip of cloth covered her private parts. She wore nothing else.

Her eyes were fixed directly on me.

“Pardon my departure,” said Crechorian. “But I’ll be watching from the cave.”

I heard him walking off as the giantess reached us. Her face loomed before me, a wide smile showing off teeth as big as I was. My blood turned cold. I was nothing but food to her. I was in a fix. That much was for damn sure.

“Hello friend,” said the giantess. Her voice echoed across the rock cliff behind me and actually vibrated the ground beneath my exhausted legs.

“This your custom way of greeting your dinner? Hello friend?” I asked.  I was trying to be brave but my knees were shaking. I doubt that I fooled anyone. I was scared.

“Well now,” said the giantess. “Aren’t we a feisty one? You don’t look like you could swat a fly, much less put up a struggle in my belly, but we’ll give it a try all the same. I’d hate for Crechorian’s efforts to go to waste.”

“Die and rot woman,” I said.

“This may be personal between you and Crechorian but for me you’re just food. It’s natural for my kind to eat yours. I’m sorry but that is how it is.”

With that, she reached for me.

The giant hand ripped the steaks from the ground as if they were toothpicks. I was held in her hands before her mouth. She opened wide and I got a good look into the flickering darkness, the fire illuminating her moth only about halfway back before her red tongue gave way completely to shadows. Then I was thrust inside; the tongue rushing up to meet me. Suddenly, it was completely dark and I knew that I was in the giantess’s mouth and she had just closed it behind me. I felt crushed as her tongue pushed me into up and back into the roof of her mouth. Then I was thrust downwards as she swallowed.

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“Where did you find him?” Kari asked.

“A friend who had crossed me for the last time,” Crechorian answered.

“And he was your last friend,” she said. Her head took up most of the scenery. It was larger than the church back in Rutland. Her eyes were as big as a barn door.

“I’ll find more folk. You know I will,” he told her.

“As if I need you to do my hunting for me,” she laughed. “You think I rely on your measly offerings to sustain me? I’d be one thin giantess.”

“I do what I can,” said Crechorian evenly. It annoyed him that she didn’t respect him more.

“You could always come out of the cave where I can reach you and join your friend in my belly,” suggested Kari.

“Then I wouldn’t bring more men for you.”

“Relax. I’m just joking. If it were up to me, you’d be in my belly now. One of these days I’ll get you out of that cave. Until then, I enjoy our little talks.”

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COWBOYS AND GIANTESSES

Chapter 1

I ran under the pounding feet, large enough to crush a train boxcar flat.

“Careful Carla,” I shouted to the giantess. “You almost hit the wagon train.

If my best friend had heard me, she gave no indication. Her feet sent up a large puff of dust as they slammed into the ground and set the world rocking. I stumbled, trying to find balance on a world shaking like jelly dissert. It was my own fault for running so close to a giantess when she was walking.

Carla went after the highwaymen. They were riding hard towards a cluster of rocks some few thousands yards away. As if they had a prayer.

Carla reached down and plucked a rider from his horse as easy as I could pluck a flower from the earth. His scream was cut off as she swallowed him whole. She was already moving on to the next rider as she gulped him down.

I hurried along as fast as anyone could who had been left running on foot. Carla had already captured two more men off their horses and was pausing to swallow each in turn. She didn’t chew them either. Both got to experience being swallowed alive. Carla turned and winked at me after she ate the second one, then went back to her meal.

Now three riderless horses were running towards me and away from the giant woman who had eaten their owners. I had to hurry off to the side to avoid being trampled. They passed by me in a choking rush of hooves and dust and were gone.  I pulled my shirt over my mouth, my pace slowing as I chocked on the red Arizona soil.

Carla had reached the rock cluster about the same time the bandits had. She raised another man to her lips and popped him in, this time chewing a few times before swallowing. She went to her hands and knees to better search for the elusive O’Grady Gang, whose last few members had taken refuge among the rocks, hoping to stay hidden.

I could help her find them, if only I could catch up. I’m a good runner but I still had some distance to cover before I arrived. I urged myself on faster as I watched the giantess before me.

Carla was searching among the rocks, picking up boulders that must have weighed tons and tossing them like pebbles. She must have gotten close to one of the robbers because he suddenly jumped from his hiding place and began firing his six guns at her as he hurried away. He must not have had much experience with giantesses. I could have told him a six gun has no effect on a giantess other than to annoy, or possibly amuse her. Judging from Carla’s expression, it was the former. She picked up the tiny man and dangled him over her mouth to give him a brief but terrifying look at where he was going. She dropped him in and gulped him down in one gulp, giving the men before her a good view of her throat and the bulged that had been forced down it.

(picture link)

http://thewiking2000.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d5fubfy

http://thewiking2000.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d5fubyx

She renewed her search. At about the time I was coming up on her hindquarters. She was just as beautiful from behind as she was in front. I watched as cloth covering her backside stretched as she bent forward to grab another member of the dangerous gang.

Before me, a man that would have been easily missed from Cara’s point of view, was hidden under the rocks. Fortunately for me, he was admiring Cara’s marvelous tush instead of looking my way. I arrived a moment later with a rock I had scooped up along the way. I bashed his skull and the bad guy reeled. He punched me right in the gut. I was already breathing hard from an all out sprint for over a mile. He caught me as I was breathing in and the air exploded in my chest. Lucky shot.

I sat down to catch my breath as he took off away from Carla. She was eating someone else but I was too busy trying to breath to watch.

(Picture link)

http://thewiking2000.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d5fubsp

A moment later, Carla noticed that I was behind her. I indicated the man running from us. In half a stride she had caught up to him. She grabbed him and then sat down next to me, placing her back to the rocky cliff. Picking me up far more gently than she did the highwayman, she placed us both on her belly.

Her bare stomach was below us. It was well muscled and tanned. I had seen how much Carla could eat and knew it could easily hold the two of us despite her having just eaten nearly a dozen men. Beneath our feet was the rest of this man’s gang. He didn’t seem to miss that particular point as he looked a Carla. She was beautiful to behold, although if you were a potential meal, she would also have seemed terrifying. Like all giantesses, her face was incredibly beautiful, but it seemed to me that she was even prettier than all the other unearthly beautiful giantesses I’d ever seen. Her long red hair had fell in beautiful crimson curls. Her green eyes twinkled as she stared down at the thief, ignoring me completely.

The man fell to his knees on Cara’s firm belly and held up his hands beseechingly.

“Oh please!” he wailed pitifully. “Please let me go! We didn’t do nothing wrong!”

(Picture link)  

http://thewiking2000.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d5fucnd

A moment later, when the train robber had joined his friends beneath my feet in Carla’s belly, I finally spoke up.

“Good haul,” I said to my gigantic friend.

“You said it,” she agreed, rubbing her stomach and being careful not to knock me over when she did so.  “Those guys tasted even better than the three bank robbers in Huston did.”

I threw myself onto Carla’s belly, lying on my back to rest. “You could have carried me all that way you know. I didn’t have to run after you.”

Carla laughed, making her stomach go up and down as the muscles beneath me tightened and relaxed. It bounced me uncomfortably. “Oh you didn’t mind. It’s good exercise.”

“Okay but next time let me ride on your shoulder? It’s a lot more fun to watch you from there.

“And look down my shirt?” asked Carla. My face grew hot.

“Well, I didn’t say that I would,” I said.

“We both know that you do. I’ve caught you doing it before. If you want to then why don’t you just say so?

Giantesses have a different idea about modesty than most normal sized women. It must be because they are practically invulnerable to men that they give scant regard to whether or not their bodies are easily seen by men. Another reason for this might be that it would be impossible to cover things up completely to men who were so diminutive, that they had to have a cavalier attitude about nudity. They regard modesty among normal sized females as understandable but could hardly care less if a man sees them naked.

“Well I couldn’t keep you balanced on my shoulder when I’m chasing after my lunch. And having you riding in my bra just doesn’t seem like the image I want to portray when I’m chasing after bandits. They wouldn’t take me seriously. Besides you don’t mind running after me. You always liked looking at my rear end more,” said the giantess.

The rhythmic motion of her breath carried me up and down on the firm but comfortable surface. I lay my head sideways on her belly and was suddenly able to hear her stomach digesting its contents. Over the sound of gurgling acids, a voice from deep within her belly clearly shouted “Joe Bob! This is all ‘yer fault!” I jerked my head up on instinct, as if I had laid it on a hot stove. Someone was still alive in there, maybe even several people. Apparently they were playing the blame game in their last few minutes of life. They were in my friends belly and were now nothing more than food. Carla had probably stopped thinking about them other than a pleasant sensation in her stomach.

“So what’s our plan from here?” asked Carla.

“Got back into town and send a telegraph to Marshall Weist in the Fort Henry. He’ll credit us the money he owes us for you eating the O’Grady Gang. They were priced at $300 apiece as each one of them had killed a lawman that had come after them. I won’t even mention numbers of the innocents they murdered.”

“How awful!” said Carla, and burped. She held a hand to her mouth, the one that had been stroking her belly, and excused herself.

“Well, I’m ready if you are,” I said. “Can I count on you to carry me this time?”

“Sure thing dear. I don’t see a need for you to run after me.”