"Helloooo? Hellooooooo!"

Teagan wandered about the wooded hills of the valley, intermittently calliing out, stopping only to pluck patches of clover-grass and squirrel it away in her box. She was tired of clover-grass, but there was no doubt that it was both plentiful and nutritious. 

It was for this very same reason that Teagan was delighted when she stumbled across what appeared to be a pair of persimmon trees, their ebony branches laden with the small, yellowed fruits. Teagan joyously began plucking away, and soon had an armful of the plump amber berries. Needing a place to store them, she opened her wooden box and dumped all but two of them inside. Having done this, she lowered herself to a sitting position at the foot of the tree and delicately placed Sihil and the soldier on her lap. Teagan waved at the two tomkins, who seemed unsure as to what the gesture meant. Teagan placed the second persimmon, nearly as large as the tomkins themselves, in front of the two of them. With a wink, Teagan took a bite out of hers, ready for the honey-like taste she so desperately needed.

Teagan's eyes widened.

The fruit was sour and bitter, with a taste not unlike the astringent peel of a citrine. Teagan, disgusted but too hungry to waste food, continued eating the persimmon, wincing with every horrid bite. Her eyes watered as she ate the last bit, but she managed to make it through to the end. Satisfied, she reclined against the tree for a quick nap, confident that she'd be able to tell if the tomkins tried to escape.

~

Al-Valizi gaped as the giantess, who he had just watched decimate an entire village, now recoiled after eating an unripe fruit. He looked over to Sihil.

"Does she realize that the fruit isn't ready yet? I don't know much about the plants of this land, but even I can tell that these berries aren't fully ripened!"

Sihil shrugged.

"I don't think so. I'm honestly not surprised - I guess I've gotten used to it. It's a bit strange, watching her murder savagely and indiscriminately one moment and then seeing her struggle with the most mundane of tasks the next...  but spending this long with her has shown me that the giants are people just the same."

Al-Valizi furrowed his brow and looked at the face of the giantess. She was soundly asleep now, it seemed, her eyes shut and her breathing slow and even. He looked back at Sihil.

"That is not a person. Nobody with a shred of humanity in their heart would do what this monster just did. I will not say that the giants have killed any more of us than our own wars. I will not say that I think the giants are unfeeling, unthinking brutes. I will, however, maintain that anything like this creature is a monster."

Al-Valizi looked back up at the sleeping giantess' face.

"She's asleep now," he said, standing up, "perhaps you can try and escape."

"What do you mean, I could try and escape? What about you?" Sihil replied, keeping her voice low.

"Look at me. I'm a wreck. You might have bandaged my wounds, but they're still there, and the moment I move more than the slightest bit, they burn with the same pain that they did when I received them. There's no way I could escape from this giantess, and even if I did manage that, we're without a map in the middle of the untamed wilderness. I'd only be a burden if I accompanied you."

Sihil looked around. Al-Valizi was right. If she was to escape, she would need to do it alone. Sihil readied herself to slide down the giantess' thigh when she noticed movement in the forest underbrush. She froze in fear as a giant, larger even than Teagan, slunk out from the forest, clutching a similarly giant knife in his left hand. Al-Valizi's eyes widened, and he ducked into the divide between the giantess' legs. Sihil quickly followed, watching furtively as the man snuck up behind Teagan.

~

"Don't move a muscle, lassie."

Teagan awoke to a grating voice in her ear and a painful pinch at her throat. Her heart slamming in her chest, Teagan cast her eyes down to her neck and saw a rusty knife pressed against it. She tried looking behind her, but couldn't get a good view without turning her head.

"Good, good, glad to see you're nice and awake. You're not a very smart one, shouting out like that, but you're a pretty little thing, that's for sure."

Teagan gulped nervously, her hands shaking in fear. She saw the two tomkins hiding between her legs, and felt a little more assured. She'd be furious if it was anyone but her that killed Sihil. All that effort just for someone else to steal what was rightfully hers? 

"You're a quiet one, eh? That's good... the boss doesn't like mouthy ones. You'll fit in just fine... now, what's your name, girl?"

Teagan remained silent. She felt around the nearby ground with her hands, tearing the grass to pieces in her fear. The man waited a few seconds before sighing. Teagan was surprised when the knife lifted itself from her throat, only for her thoughts to scatter as the man bludgeoned her in the jaw with the knife's pommel, sending a jolt of pain coursing through her head.

"I'm sorry, I might have mislead you there... the boss doesn't like the loud ones, aye, but if you're asked a question, you better fucking answer! Now, I'll ask again, what's your name, eh? Don't be shy."

"Teagan." she muttered in reply, trying to ignore the coppery taste of blood in her mouth.

"A beautiful name for a beautiful woman like yourself... now, let's get moving, eh? I'm sure the boss could go for another attendant after what happened to the last one, and you'd fill the role well..."

Teagan yelped as she was yanked to her feet, sending the two tomkins on the inseams of her ragged trousers flying to the ground. The man, seeing this, dropped Teagan to the ground once more, still applying the knife to her throat.

"Whaaat have we here!? Teagan, dearie, looks like your next meal was about to escape! Unless... yeah, yeah, I don't think you'd be eating while you're asleep... surely these weren't your little friends?"

Teagan watched, petrified, as the man reached down and roughly picked up the tomkin soldier with his free hand.

"I don't believe it! You even bandaged this one up! We can't have that... you're a traitor. These things are enemies, not little dolls to play dress-up with."

Without hesitation, the man flung the tomkin soldier against the persimmon tree with as much force as he could muster, dashing him to pieces. Teagan nervously ran her hands through the grass while Sihil wept, shocked by her compatriot's sudden demise. The man, chuckling, reached down and picked Sihil up. Teagan's eyes widened, and she began to panic.

"Oooooh!" exclaimed the man, roughly groping Sihil's miniscule form, "this one's a real looker! Prettier than you, that's for sure! Gods, if she wasn't the size of a gamepiece, I'd show her a good time in bed."

Teagan barely contained a gasp as her hand wrapped itself around a sizeable rock, half embedded in the coarse mountain soil. She slowly extricated it from the earth, making sure not to draw any attention. The man continued to obliviously grope Sihil, running his pointer finger over her miniature breasts and her flat stomach.

"It's a real shame that I can't let this one live, or I'd keep it as my own little pet! I have to say, girl, you have a fine taste in tomkins."

Sihil, unable to hold any amount of composure, screamed in terror as the man cocked his arm, ready to kill her in the same way he killed Al-Valizi. Teagan, noticing the man's attention diverted and his knife lowered, bashed the man's left arm as hard as she could with the rock, producing a sickening crunch and causing him to drop the knife. The man, screaming in pain, dropped Sihil roughly to the ground as he stumbled back, clutching his broken arm. Teagan, whirling around, saw the extent of the damage she did: the man's arm was bent at an unnatural angle, clearly broken. The man shrieked with rage before diving at his dropped knife, kicking Teagan in the knee on his way to stop her from snatching it first. Sihil, too stunned from her fall to even stand, watched dazedly as the man recovered his knife and advanced on Teagan once more.

"You bitch!" he screamed, swiping at Teagan's face, "I'm gonna fucking kill you for that!"

Teagan was desperate, stressed, and felt as if her heart was going to pound out of her chest. As the man rushed at her, Teagan threw out a feeble punch aimed poorly at his chest, her eyes squeezed shut.

In an instant, for only an instant, her tension unwound, her stress projecting itself outwards and away.

Teagan heard a rush of wind followed by a crash. She felt no wound, no pain, no indication at all that she had been stabbed. She opened an eye. Her assailant was slumped against the splintered base of a nearby tree, bleeding profusely from the back of his head. He was murmuring to himself, eyes wide, broken arm dangling limply at his side. Sihil was staring slack-jawed at Teagan, her little frame trembling as she tried to stand up. Teagan, still frantic and now more confused than ever, sprang at the man, clutching her heavy rock. Ignoring his feeble resistance and inaudible pleas, she brought the rock down on his skull. Crack. He yelped in pain. Crack. He lifted an arm to try and protect himself. Crack. He went limp. Crack. Crack. Crack.

Teagan, exhausted, dropped the bloodied rock to the ground. She was panting, covered in the man's blood, fists clenched. Teagan turned her attention over to Sihil. The tomkin was trembling like a leaf in the wind, her face pale. Teagan reached out to her with a bloodied hand, wanting not only to comfort the tomkin girl, but to see if she knew what it was that stopped the man from killing her. Teagan lightly scooped Sihil up and held the trembling tomkin to her breast, feeling as her heartbeat gradually slowed down, her panic subsiding. Teagan felt guilt wrap itself around her heart as Sihil wept into her torn vestements, her stomach upset at the her confrontation with reality. She had killed a man to save a tomkin, when she herself had killed thousands of their number. Teagan felt nearly ready to shed tears of her own when she focused her attention back on Sihil, who was still trembling and weeping. Teagan gently stroked the tomkin's hair, slowly raising her to eye level. Teagan simply waited, taking long, deep breaths, as the girl exhausted herself crying against Teagan's cheek. When Sihil was finally done, her face reddened and tearstreaked, Teagan gently lowered the tomkin to the ground, next to the wooden box. When that was done, she turned to the man. He seemed to be a lowly brigand, his knife rusty, gloves tattered, and trousers stained with grass. What intrigued Teagan the most, however, was the man's quilted gambeson. It was in poor condition, but seemed to be from the time before the war, bearing the crest of Dunnehain, one of the last duchies to fall to the tomkins. Teagan quickly surmised that it must have been looted from somewhere, although that somewhere may not be anywhere nearby. Teagan stripped the man of his knife and scabbard, his trousers, his hardtack-laden rucksack, his canteen, and his gloves, leaving the gambeson behind due to its weight. When this was done, Teagan picked Sihil up once more, settling the tomkin down on her shoulder, and headed back towards the lake, intent on filling her canteen and then beginning the journey across the mountain pass. As she walked, Teagan couldn't help but think about killing the man... the power she felt... his helpless struggles... as she replayed the murder in her mind over and over again, she realized that she relished the feeling just as much as she did any of her rampages through a tomkin village. She pictured the man in her mouth, screaming, begging for mercy as she pushed him deeper and deeper into her throat, culminating with her swallowing and tracing his little bulge down into her stomach. She imagined smothering him under her breasts, listening to his muffled cries as his bones began to snap under the soft weight of her plush breasts, ending only when he was reduced to a stain. She imagined crushing him between her thighs, tearing off his little arms, grinding him into paste beneath her heel.

Teagan was pleased to find her old self back.

~

Adelpha thanked the wagon driver as she helped Phyllida down to the ground. The ride to Q'thuman cost a hefty sum indeed, but pack animals from the Old Land were a rarity indeed, and the only other option was travel by foot. Phyllida seemed awestruck by the massive city, imposing walls made only slightly less threatening with the addition of streamers. Music was faintly audible to Adelpha as the two approached the city gates. After waiting in a messy queue long enough to see the sun sink under the horizon, the two reached an amicable guard.

"Names?"

"I am Adelpha, and this is Phyllida. Our village was attacked by... by a giantess. We come seeking aid, and to help in finding her."

"Oh! Oh, uh, yes, yes, come with me, please!" the city guard said, excitedly, motioning for them to follow.

Adelpha and Phyllida rushed through the city streets, following the guard as he slipped through the dense crowd of revelers. Adelpha was almost hurt by the sight of these cityfolk drunkenly parading behind their walls while farmers and townspeople like herself were at the mercy of the roaming giants outside. She was too busy to ruminate on her anger, however, occupied as she was with following the guard. After slipping through a few alleyways, the guard finally stopped at a large barracks complex, knocking thrice on the door. After a short pause, a young man, dressed in the clothes of an Orestian leigionary, opened the door, eyes somewhat bleary.

"Yes? What is it?" he inquired, leaning tiredly on the doorframe.

"These two say that a giantess attacked their village. They say that they may be able to help in her pursuit."

At these words, the young man's eyes lit up, and he called back into the barracks.

"Firkon, sir! A pair of villagers are here! They say the giantess attacked their village!"

"Well, what are you waiting for, Laeron?" came the immediate reply, "let them in, and get them a warm meal!"