Lacking any other landmarks, the two giantesses made their
way towards the distant castle. It was beautifully crafted, with a large wall
around it and spires, even taller than they were, reaching towards the heavens.
Whomever had built it had done a marvelous job.

As they got closer Elli could see that there was a town
spread out below the walls of the castle. Looking closer she observed that the parapets
of the wall were manned by soldiers.

“Jora do you see the-” Elli started.

“I see them. Why don’t I do the talking? I tend to be more diplomatic than you are dear.”

“I can be diplomatic if I want,” said Elli defensively.

“Which one of us has a horseman in her stomach who might have been able to give us directions if he had been asked first?”

“Well I bet one of those guys might be willing to talk to us if we ask him nicely too,” shrugged Elli. “I bet I can… convince one to speak.”

“Let’s do it my way first,” said Jora, coming to a halt a few hundred yards before the outer wall. “We can always intimidate them into helping us and then devour them if that doesn’t work.”

Elli didn’t answer. She folded her arms and nodded at Jora,
inviting her to address the now very tense soldiers watching them on the wall.

“Hello,” said Jora to the soldiers, waving in what she hoped
was a friendly manner.  “I’m Jora and my
friend’s name is Elli.”

“The Vorkins found giantesses to fight on their side!” came
the call from one of the towers of the castle.

“Hello?” said Jora again. “I’m not fighting for anyone. My
friend and I were wondering what land we are in. This is not Felaria is it? Can
you tell us how to get home?”

There was a pause from the tower. Elli and Jora looked at
each other, unsure of what was being quietly discussed by the tiny humans. Then the voice called to them again.

“Lady Giantess, this is not Felaria. No, this is the land of
Deferda. Are you not of Vorka?”

“We don’t know who you mean. We’re travelers, trying to find
out where we are so we can go home,” explained Jora. “Who are the Vorka?”

“If they don’t know how to send us home do you know what
that makes them?” whispered Elli to Jora with a twinkle in her eye.

“Hush!” said Jora, annoyed because she was trying to listen
to the sentinel on the wall who was calling out to her.

 “Lady Giantess, the Empire of Vorka have threatened war upon our fair kingdom. If we did not submit to their rule they promised to wipe us from the Earth. They had promised to send a horseman to bring us their terms for surrender, but we have received no word
nor seen no horseman in days. We were prepared to accept their terms unconditionally, to spare the slaughter of our people.”

Elli was silent for a few moments, considering the part about the messenger.

“Oops,” she finally said, more to herself than anyone.

Elli turned to Jora. “Do you think that rider that I a-”

“Shhhh!” hissed Jora. She paused for a few moments choosing her words carefully. “What would happen if you didn’t accept their terms?” she asked slowly.

“They promised to raise our castle and all our citizens to
the ground, leaving no one alive to tell of their rampage,” said the voice.
“Tell us, are you of the Vorkan? Are you here to accept surrender? We are
prepared to do so unconditionally.”

“We are not the Vorkan, nor arewe acquainted with them,” said Jora, feeling that she needed to get that point across. “We are merely lost travelers seeking direction. May we approach the castle peacefully?”

http://thewiking2000.deviantart.com/#/d5gulu2

____________________________________________________________________

“Felarya?” said the monk. “Never before have I heard of such
a land. Truly, one could travel the length of one’s years and not find a place
with such a name. Our order holds maps to all the known world and the place
called Felarya must be beyond all of them for I have never in my studies heard
of a place that is host to giants.”

 Elli and Jora were now standing within the outer walls of the castle. They had explained that they were travelers who had “lost their way” and were merely “trying to make their way home.”  The Deferdians were accommodating, if not wary.  The monk, who a city guard had assured the giantesses, was the most learned and well travelled man in the kingdom, had come out to help Elli and Jora find their way home. “If anyone can tell you the way home it’s Father Briar,” the city guard said. But when presented with the name Falerya, he was at a loss.

 “We are sorry,” said a handsome young man who had introduced himself as the prince of Deferda, a man called Simian. “But it seems our best travelers have not heard of this land, Felarya. We would assist you all we can, but we are anticipating the arrival of
a messenger from the land of Vorka. They have threatened war if we do not meet
their demands.”

“As you have already told us. But what will be their demands?” asked Jora.

“In truth, it doesn’t matter,” said Prince Simian. “We shall agree to their terms unconditionally.”

“But why?” asked Jora, confused.

“Because we cannot fight them,” said King Minan. “We are a
peaceful people. We have no standing army. No warriors. Only a citizenship that
has a strong understanding of hunting by bow for food, a constabulary for
public order and a Royal Guard. Hardly the makings of an army that could hope
to defend our walls against a seasoned army with trained soldiers and siege
equipment. My people have never waged war on our fellow man. To fight the
Vorkans would be to enact a mass suicide to our people. They had promised to
slaughter every one of us if we resisted. Therefore, we have resigned ourselves
to surrender, and possibly enslavement. That is why we awaited the arrival of a
man on a white horse to accept the terms of surrender.”

“Err,” said Elli. “What if, just hypothetically, their messenger never returned?”

“Well the Vorkians might consider it an act of war,” said the king.

At that moment, a horn blared far outside the wall.

Elli and Jora looked up over the castle battlements of the
outer wall to see a scout party of a dozen men or so.

“People of Deferda!” shouted a strong looking man on
horseback. “People of Deferda!”

The king and his royal concert climbed the stairs to the
outer wall to observe the riders. When the came into view the rider continued.

“You have sent back our messenger’s horse without the messenger.
Since this is your answer, you may prepare for war. We shall kill every man,
woman and child. Make your peace with your gods Deferdans, for you shall find
no mercy with us.”

“No!” shouted the king. “This is all a misunderstanding. We have met no such messenger! We shall yield to your wishes.”

The riders seemed to have noticed Jora and Elli for the
first time. They were understandably silent for a moment before answering.

“It makes no differene that you have found a way to make your women giants. Even women such as those are no match for the full might of the Empire of Vorka. When our army arrives in force we shall kill them and you and raise you city to the ground!”

With that, the riders had disappeared back into the forest.
The king turned from the battlements, looking solemn.

“Well I for one feel a little insulted,” said Elli. “I think they’re seriously underestimating us.”

No one seemed to be listening. Instead everyone, including Jora, was looking at the king.

“My son,” he said weakly.

“Sire?” asked Prince Simian.

“Prepare our people for battle. You must lead them against the Vorkans.”

“But father, we are not warriors-”

“Do not give me excuses!” shouted the king. “We owe it to our own people to do our best to lead them in the coming days of conflict. Let us do it with honor, not hesitation.”

“You know,” said Elli to Jora. “Somehow I can’t shake the feeling that this might be our fault.”

“Would that be because you ate the messenger?” asked Jora. “And
secondly, our fault? The word 'our' implies that I had something to do with it.”

“You don’t need to point fingers,” said Elli coolly. “Besides I have a plan.”

She knelt down before the king to get closer to what might be eye level for her. Despite standing on the outer wall of the castle, King Minan still had to crane his neck backwards to look up at Elli’s beautiful face.

“Good King Minan,” said Elli, “My friend Jora and I are
willing to help you in your protection of your peace loving Deferdians. But we
shall require something in return. Food.”

“My dear lady, would that I could offer you a feast! But my
people must look to their own. We have what might be a lengthy siege before us
and we need every scrap of meat and crust of bread. I could slaughter a cow for
each of you and it would hardly stave your appetite.”

“We don’t want you cow. We eat people.” Elli grinned when
she that her words had stricken the king with an expression of the utmost of terror.
The nearby city guards, the prince and the monk were all similarly affected.
Impressively the recovered himself quickly.

 “I put the lives of my subjects before that of my own. I shall not feet my own people, my own countrymen to two giant bloodthirsty women!”

Elli’s face darkened but Jora hurried to intervene.

“Your Majesty,” she said calmly. “We would not ask you to simply line up people at random for our dinner.”

The king frowned. “What do you propose?”

___________________________________________________________________

“Out of the baths and line up!” shouted the guard.

Edward stepped from the hot bath, his skin steaming in the
cool air. This was the first bath he had been given since being convicted to
the royal prisons for stealing. He felt the cleanest he had been in months. His
time in the Royal Prisons had not been pleasant but now he had finally washed
the smell of the stinking place off of him after a long soak in a large tub of
hot water.

 As if that wasn’t enough of a peculiarity, he realized that he was being prodded by a guard into line for a barber who was cutting the hair and shaving the faces of all the
prisoners. When it was his turn, he found himself in a wooden chair before a
barber who proceeded to shave his face clean and cut his hair to nothing less
than a stubble. It felt marvelous.

“What is the meaning of all this?” he asked the guard as he
was ordered to stand by a nearby guard when the barber was done. He hurried to
comply. Looking at the guard he asked. “Am I not to be allowed clothes?”

“Kings orders,” said the guard.

“Kings orders to have us bathed and groomed but not dressed?” asked Edward.

“Such were my orders,” said the guard coolly.

Edward frownd. He had been stripped of his clothes before
the bath. Or at least, he had been stripped of the stinking rags that he had
used as his clothes. Immediately after he had taken them off, a servant had
scooped them up with a shovel, (to avoid touching the filthy things) and
carried them off to a fire to burn them.

Edward couldn’t say he was sorry to see them go but he was
wondering what he would wear to preserve what little modesty was left to a
prisoner. He was forced to wait with the group of other recently washed and
shaved convicts standing outside the bath area.

“His Majesty said that six would be enough,” said one guard
to another. “The rest will be for tomorrow.” The other guard, a young, handsome
brown haired fellow, nodded and ushered the prisoners through a gate using both
the point of his spear if anyone looked like running . He took another look at
the child masquerading as a soldier.

It would be easy to kill him, thought Edward. He was little more than a boy. Yes,
thought Edward. I’ll kill him. Then I’ll make a break for the outer walls. Sure it will be a long shot but that’s better than no shot at all.  From there I can-

Edward’s musings were interrupted when he passed through the
gate and observed what was in the courtyard outside. He blinked, just to be
sure he wasn’t dreaming. Then he stared like all the other prisoners.

Two beautiful women were in the courtyard. That was not the
most captivating thing about them. What drew his attention so keenly was that
they both seemed to be a hundred feet tall. The smaller one, the blonde, was certainly
over seventy-five feet tall while the red head was easily over a hundred feet.

Edward stopped walking, his forward momentum arrested from
the shock of coming into the presence of genuine giantesses. He found himself
being shoved from behind by the guard he had been scheming against only a
moment ago. The guard used the pole of his lance to shove Edward forward quite
roughly. He stumbled but hardly took his eyes from the two giantesses.

“They’re beautiful,” he whispered. Never before in his entire life had he seen women so attractive.

The prisoners were lined up, three before each giant women.
They towered over the men, the nearby buildings and even the castle wall,
dominating the scene in a display of tremendous beauty.  Edward was pushed by belligerent guards armed with spears before the red headed woman. That made Edward happy; he liked red heads and found them more attractive. She was seated on the ground, looking down on the three of them. And she was radiant with beauty.

“The prisoners you asked for my ladies,” said the chief guard, bowing his head.

“Wonderful,” said the blonde giantess . “Tell His Majesty that Elli and I think him.”

http://thewiking2000.deviantart.com/#/d5gw9zc

Then the red head reached down and grabbed the man next to Edward.
Off to his left, Edward could see the blonde giantess picking up one of the
three prisoners that were placed before her.

The red head put the man in her hands into her mouth and swished him around for a moment. “Mmm,” she said before swallowing. Edward watched the bulge move down her neck.

“Oh NO!” shouted the man next to him and both he and Edward
moved to escape but were prevented from escape by the guards. They had
anticapted that the prisoners would try to run when they saw what had become of
their fellows. As a precaution they held spears behind the prisoners so that
the only way they could run was towards the giantesses. And nobody seemed to
want to run in that direction.

 Edward looked back up in time to see the giant woman reaching down for him-

Suddenly he was dangling from between her finger and thumb
as she raised him high above her head. Looking down he saw her face. She was
beautiful. And terrible. Her eyes were upon him as she slowly licked her lips,
anticipating eating him like a damned herring.

“No, please. Have mercy!” shouted Edward. But her grip on
him relaxed as her mouth opened below him. Suddenly Edward found himself
falling through open air and towards her mouth.

Lips and teeth passed him on both sides. Then it was dark,
warm and wet and he couldn’t see a thing. An ear-splitting sound, the sound of
the giantess appreciating her snack, rumbled through her mouth and Edward was
left with his hands clamped to his ears to try to minimize the pain. The
giantesses wet tongue beneath him pressed him up and he felt himself sliding
backwards-

Then the giantess swallowed.

http://thewiking2000.deviantart.com/#/d5gxveh

Edward was propelled downwards at an alarming rate. He tried
to fight it and flailed his arms and legs in a futile attempt to slow his
decent but the muscles that lined her esophagus were far too strong and even in
his panic stricken brain he understood that there would be no escape.

In the total darkness he felt himself propelled through a thickly
muscled sort of valve, then was in freefall for a brief moment. He slammed into
a sort of sloped floor that gave slightly as he hit. All in all it was a much
less jarring impact then he had expected. Then he rolled down the slimy stomach
lining and into a shallow small pool of horrible smelling liquid.

 It hurt! Badly! It was as if he were immersed in liquid fire.

Edward hurried to his hands and knees, trying to climb out
of the painful, noxious water. He screamed involuntarily and heard another
voice somewhere behind him –must be that first guy she ate- screaming for help.

You dumb bastard. No one can help us now, thought Edward. There was another scream in the darkness above them as a third man fell into the stomach and landed in the
liquid, splashing Edward with acid. The screams of the new man went from
terrified to agonized in seconds.

“Get out of the liquid!” shouted Edward. He could hear the man moving to try and do just that. Edward, for his part, was attempting to maintain a pitiful hold on where he was just on the sloped stomach wall, out of the digestive juices. The stomach walls were slippery which put him in constant danger of sliding back into the painful liquid. For now he seemed safe- safe considering he was in the stomach of a giantess- although he was having trouble breathing. His mind, now having time to come to terms with his amazing
predicament was spinning. It can’t be. It can’t be, he thought to himself over and over.

The world lurched sideways and Edward suddenly felt himself in a lower part of the stomach, most likely because the giantess had bent over or moved somehow.  The digestive juices flowed down towards Edward. A screaming man- it was impossible to tell who- crashed into him and they slid along the stomach in a confusion of arms and legs.

The digestive juices flowed over Edward’s face, going up his
nose and down his mouth as he tried to breathe. He choked and spluttered, his
skin on fire and his eyes two points of agony burning in his brain. It was
barely possible to think clearly.

There was the loud sound of the giantess’s voice-muffled and
all around them but the words were hard to make out over the screaming of
Edward’s fellow occupants of the giantess’s stomach. The fact that one of his
eardrums had been ruptured when the giantess had said “Mmm” while he was in her
mouth didn’t improve things either. What he was able to make out was this;

“They were delicious. … His Majesty that we… looking forward to helping…”

 The stomach kept lurching this way and that in a rhythmic motion. She is walking somewhere, thought Edward. He was very upset that he was still alive. Death seemed to be a long time in coming and he was left with nothing to do but try and keep out of the digestive juices. That proved impossible while the giantess was walking and now it almost hurt too much to even try and do anything.

Suddenly the motion stopped. The giantess had stopped walking. But oh man did it hurt. He tried to climb out of the burning water. Maybe he could buy himself some time.
____________________________________________________________________

Elli sat down on the outer wall of the castle, very nearly
squishing a guard who very narrowly escaped being under her backside. His leg
was just caught under her tush but he was fortunate that little pressure was
applied. With a yank he pulled his leg free. He wanted to be no closer to this
man eating giantess than absolutely necessary. Elli could feel plenty of
delightful squirming coming from within her belly right now. It felt so good
that she was distracted and had forgotten to check for people before she sat
down.

“We’re happy to help you fight those no good soldiers. A war
is one thing but promising to kill every woman and child… it’s just barbaric.”
Jora was saying to the crowd of people who had watched them eat the prisoners-
a group of mostly guards, a few political leaders and several other prisoners
who were scheduled to be lunch tomorrow.

“Strong words coming from a woman who has just eaten three
man alive,” said the Chancellor of Keys, one of the politicians. He was a
handsome and well dressed man and seemed to have no fear of the giant women.

“Nevertheless,” said Jora, standing from where she had been
kneeling and finishing her own snack, “We’ll help you fight. You just have to
keep us fed until then. You must understand that humans are a staple part of
our diet. If you have plenty more prisoners we’ll be fine until the enemy attacks.”

“His Majesty’s Dungeon’s hold enough prisoners for you to
eat well until we can add some of the Vorkin’s to your diet. You needn’t worry.
For now I’m having a dozen more prisoners bathed and prepared for you for your
lunch tomorrow.

Below Jora, the brown haired guard whose name was Ross
looked up at the blonde giantess. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever
seen. He was not sure why but after watching her eat three prisoners, Ross was
even more enamored. He was enthralled, as she rubbed her belly absentmindedly
and listened to Elli.

“That sounds delightful, thank you,” said Elli. “We’re
looking forward to keeping your city safe. Jora and I are used to dealing with
soldiers so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

Meanwhile the Chancellor of Keys was looking appraisingly at
Elli. Their eyes met briefly. Elli only raised one auburn eyebrow. The
Chancellor smilled.