Teagan felt a pang of hunger not long after Hannah woke her. She’d run out of every last bit of food, including tomkin captives.

“Hannah, could I perhaps trouble you for a bit of food?  I’ve run out, and I’m quite ravenous… I feel like I’m about to fall down if I wait any longer.”

Hannah shrugged.

“If I had any to give to you, I would do so gladly, Teagan, but as I told you earlier, I barely brought enough food to cover the journey to Sudgau, even for myself. I planned on making this last stretch of the journey without anything, and that was before I traded away some of my bread. If you can make it this one day, I can get a bowl of stew for us both to enjoy, alright?”

Teagan nodded, but she was far from content. The sun beat down upon her back, the uneven ground shifted underneath her every trembling step, and her vision swam. Teagan’s mind drifted to the soldiers, Hassan and Aaliyah… she had no reason to keep them alive, did she? Sihil would hate her even more, but that surely wouldn't matter at this point. Teagan knew that she was already reviled, so why not just commit to it? Two tomkins wouldn’t be much, but it would be enough to keep her going until she could find something more…

Teagan licked her lips as she swung the lid to her box open. The three tomkins inside shielded their eyes from the light as Teagan reached a hand in and seized both Hassan and Aaliyah, who were unprepared and immediately started to panic. Teagan felt a nagging voice in the back of her mind constantly telling her to stop, to put them down, to suffer in silence… but why suffer when a solution was so easily accessible?

“Put them down!”

Teagan looked around for the source of the voice. Hannah seemed to have moved on, and the voice sounded like that of a man, and yet nobody was visible... 

“Put them down now!”

Teagan warily dropped the two tomkins back in the box and drew the knife given to her. She scanned the flat plain in all directions, but there was nobody there, nor were there any places to hide.

“Where are you! Show yourself!” she barked, hoping to locate them from the sound of their voice even if they refused to reveal themself.

“Down here.”

Teagan could hardly believe what she saw. A single tomkin, armed with what appeared to be a lugged spear, although it was small enough that the detail escaped Teagan. Teagan hesitated a few seconds before turning to fully face this strange tomkin. He wore a grey coat, a long-sleeved jerkin, and heavy boots, all of which seemed unnecessarily cumbersome and heavy for a hot steppe. 

“A tomkin that speaks the language of men, hmm? You are interesting, little one. Very, very interesting indeed. Tell me, what is your name?” Teagan asked, her tone one of genuine intrigue and wonder.

“I didn’t think you’d want to talk… what a shame. I could go for a chat in this tongue, lest I let my vocabulary diminish and wither in the unused corners of my mind. You may call me Volkhard. Now, it would be rude of you not to tell me your name after asking mine, and rude of me to strike you down without knowing yours. You are?”

“I’m Teagan.”

“A pleasure. Now, Teagan, I assume that you have many questions right now - most do, considering my verbosity in the language of men - but I sadly lack the time for a parley. I have come here to kill you, Teagan, and I’d rather not waste my time answering the questions of a dead woman.”

“Kill me? Why, what do you intend to do with a sewing needle like that, little man?” Teagan tittered, amused by this tomkin’s almost suicidal confidence.

Teagan was less amused as Volkhard hurled his spear at her forearm with a sharp cry. The dart-sized spear hit its mark and lodged itself in her flesh, drawing a rapid trickle of blood. Teagan yelped and jerked her arm back as the pain from the wound hit her, hoping to distance herself from Volkhard and let her focus on crushing him. She was infuriated as the tomkin was somehow jerked backwards along with her, the momentum carrying him into the air. Only then did Teagan notice a thin strand or cord of sorts wound around the tomkin’s arm, one that was tied at the other end to the spear stuck in her arm. Teagan screamed and flailed about wildly as the tomkin landed on her injured arm, gripping his embedded spear as if it were a climber’s pick lodged in a mountainside. 

“You little bastard!” Teagan growled, sheathing her dagger and slapping at Volkhard with an open hand, hoping to crush him like a biting pest. 

The tomkin had already dropped back to the ground before Teagan would have hit him, however, and was already readying for a second attack. Teagan’s wooziness grew worse with every passing second. Her head throbbed. Her stomach twisted. Something was terribly wrong.

“What… what did you… do to me?” she muttered, brow knit fiercely.

“Extract from the fangs of a dervish snake. Not enough to kill you on its own, I’m afraid, but it’ll help me do the job.”

Saying this, Volkhard pulled a machination resembling a crossbow from his back, and took careful aim at Teagan. She tried to pounce at him, but her knees buckled and her legs remained firmly unresponsive. She cried out as she was peppered with a barrage of needle-like bolts, fired from the weapon at an incredible speed. They only hurt a little, but Teagan assumed that they too were tipped with strength-sapping venom. Teagan tried to focus her power, to send the little warrior flying with a burst of power, but her head throbbed far too violently for her to focus. Anger and adrenaline fueled a sudden onrush of fear and desperation as Teagan felt herself drop to her knees.

“Giving up so soon, Teagan? I heard that you escaped the clutches of entire armies, and yet here you are, ready to drop against one foe. In any case, I won’t drag this on any longer. A murderer such as yourself has no place i-”

Volkhard was cut off as Teagan whipped her dagger at him with all the strength she could muster. He leapt to the side, but not entirely fast enough: the dagger clipped his leg, shattering the bone. Volkhard fell down in a tiny puff of unsettled dust, gasping in agony. Teagan’s hope was short lived, however. She watched in grave concern as the tomkin seized his mangled leg with both hands, chanting something under his breath. Flesh knitted itself back together, making way for the shattered bone of the tomkin’s leg as it was fused together, undoing the damage that Teagan had inflicted.

“I rescind my earlier words. I’m satisfied. Let me put an end to this… now!”

Teagan was speechless at what she saw next. In the blink of an eye, in an instant and nothing more, the tomkin had become a man. A fully-grown man. His apparel had grown with him, though his weapons had not, his spear and crossbow now mere playthings in his hands. Teagan tried scrambling backwards as the man picked her dagger up, eyeing its point.

“I have lived among them for years, Teagan. They are no different than us. No different at all. How can you justify murdering them for nothing more than your own delight?” he said, his tone quiet and cool. Teagan lacked the energy to even try and respond.

“I have no affinity for murder. I have always hated bloodshed, and despised cruelty. I only do what I do now because I know that the cessation of your life will save a thousand others, and that is a tradeoff that I am willing to make. I apologize.”

He struck. A cold iron dagger, aimed at her heart. Grim satisfaction on his face, in his eyes. A moment of clarity.

A moment of focus.

~

Volkhard sputtered as a phantom force knocked him breathless and sent him tumbling back. The dagger was wrenched from his gloved hand, landing at Teagan’s side. Volkhard tried getting back to his feet, but was met with a strange resistance, like that one feels when moving underwater. He saw a band of faint, almost translucent white fog encircling his limbs, doubtless the cause of his impeded movement. By the time he had managed to force himself upwards against the strange magic’s force, Teagan had hauled herself to her own feet, and was now staring straight at Volkhard with a furrowed brow and an unblinking glare. She was hunched over with exhaustion, her arms hanging limpy at her sides, her back bowed and her knees buckling, but Volkhard was intimidating by the murderous determination in her eyes. He reached down and grabbed a fistful of dirt as she charged him, dagger raised above her head, ready to strike. Just as she bore down upon him, Volkhard threw the dirt at her face and in her eyes. Instead of blinding her as he intended, however, the dirt was pushed aside by that same phantom force that Teagan seemed to somehow manifest. Volkhard grunted as he was tackled to the ground, knife’s point at his throat. 

“So this… this is how it all ends?” he mused, staring into Teagan’s wrathful eyes, “I suppose this isn’t that bad. It is an honor to be laid low by the hand of one so imbued with dogged determination. I only wish our fight had lasted somewhat longer.”

Volkhard shut his eyes. He may have failed, but he knew that she was in no state to continue this trek across the steppe. If Teagan skirted the city and wasn’t killed by Firkon and his men, she’d doubtless die in the unforgiving and barren lands ahead. 

“You... want to live... to fight another day?” Teagan asked, panting with exhaustion. Volkhard simply nodded in response, to which she said, “Well, then, you’re going to have… to do a few favors for me. Firstly, strip me of this damnable venom! I can barely feel my arm...” she mumbled, eyes half-lidded. Volkhard briefly pondered if he should truly tell her where the antidote was, but felt no need to sacrifice his life when her death was inevitable. The venom wouldn’t kill her in the first place, so what was the harm?

“There is a phial in my left pocket, holding a clear ether... drink it, and you should be remedied.” he said, hoping Teagan would release the point of the dagger from his throat a bit. Contrarily, she only pushed it harder into his skin as she searched his coat, drawing a bead of blood.

She quickly found the phial and downed its contents without so much as a second thought. Volkhard wished that he had kept a poison on hand - if he had, she would be dead right now - but he knew that hindsight would bring him nothing. Teagan tossed the empty phial aside and looked back to Volkhard. 

“Next… well, answer my question. You healed your wound quite impressively… can you work that same magic on others?”

“Well, while I can, it would have little effect on your injury. This particular magic reunites shattered bones and damaged internals, having only marginal effect on flesh wounds like yours. And please, please, please! That dagger of yours, it hurts! Give it some space, will you?”

“Sorry,” Teagan said almost confusedly as she took the point off of Volkhard’s neck, “but, well, I neither want, need, nor trust you to heal me. I’d like you to help someone else. You seem like the stuck up honorable type, so, er, don’t try and kill me for a moment?”

Volkhard nodded. He wasn’t ready to try and fight her anyhow, not now. His transformation had drained much of his energy, his leg still pained him where the muscle was likely torn, and even if he attacked when her dagger wasn’t at his throat, she still had the dagger. He watched as she grabbed the box she was taking tomkins out of when he first accosted her, and extracted a scared and confused Q’thumani soldier, sitting in her cupped palm. Volkhard’s worst fears were confirmed when the woman looked at him with a definite glance of recognition.

“Could it be?” she mumbled, shielding her eyes from the sun to get a better look, “Esteemed Brother Volkhard? But you’ve, you’re… you’re one of them? A giant?! My mind plays tricks on me, devilish tricks!”

Volkhard shook his head.

“It is a very long story, and one which I have never told before, for my own safety... I-”

“So that was you fighting her!” the soldier exclaimed, interrupting Volkhard, “Yet if you’re here, unarmed and on the ground, and she has a knife, does that mean she bested you?!”

“Hey!” exclaimed Teagan after the soldier trailed off, “I don’t want you two talking. I’m not here for you two to have a chat, especially when I don’t understand a word you’re saying. Volkhard, this is Aaliyah. She’s been travelling with me for around two days now, and I think I may have seriously hurt her. I haven’t seen her stand to her feet, not once, and I want you to help her if you can. Please. She has shown nothing but goodwill to others, and deserves none of what I have brought upon her. If you can make this right, I will let you go.”

Volkhard was stunned. Was this the same giantess that Firkon had told him of? Bloodthirsty, uncaring, sadistic… Firkon made her sound like another power-obsessed wanderer seeking revenge on innocent village-dwellers, but this was entirely uncharacteristic of such a type. Volkhard had scarcely before seen any positive relationships between the two races, and the few he had witnessed always ended in tragedy for one of those involved.

“Hello?” Teagan asked impatiently. Volkhard had unwittingly pondered in silence while Teagan stared at him, awaiting a reply.

“Oh, um, well, do you mind if I talk to her? It would be best to hear about her ailment firsthand, although I understand if you hold reservations about us talking, even if only for a lit-”

“Yeah, yeah, get on with it.” Teagan muttered, not happy with her concession but willing to make it on Aaliyah’s behalf.

“Sorry about that, Aaliyah.” Volkhard said, now speaking the tomkin lingua franca, “The giantess is somewhat averse to us conversing too much. Let’s make this quick, then.”

“What does she want with me?” Aaliyah asked, clearly nervous. Volkhard felt terrible for her as he noticed her little lips trembling as she spoke, in fear of what was to come. It had been so long since he beheld a tomkin from a human’s perspective that it was at this point an alien feeling to him, uncomfortable and surreal.

“She wants me to tend to your wounds, it seems. She told me that it seems to her as if you can’t stand. Is your leg paining you, or perhaps your back, or…?” Volkhard trailed off.

“There is no pain at all.” Aaliyah responded, her eyes now wide at the prospect of curative aid, “I cannot feel a thing. Nothing under my hips has any sensation at all, nor have I any control over my legs. It is a sad state, one I cannot imagine living in for the remainder of my life. Please, if there’s anything you can do, I will be forever indebted to you should you help me.”

“Don’t worry about debt. Just close your eyes and brace yourself for pain. Based on what you’ve told me, of course, pain should be a good sign, so, you’d best hope for it. Are you ready?”

Aaliyah nodded. Without another word, Volkhard concentrated. A mantra of mending repeated itself in his mind, lending him new strength and acuity. He felt the soldier’s wound, a sudden disconnect of mind from body, a severance of the harmony between thought and being. His already wavering vigor was drawn away further as he tried his hardest to mend what was broken and bring balance to Aaliyah’s fractured being. Just as he felt ready to collapse from exhaustion, he heard Aaliyah suddenly scream in pain. Volkhard smiled as he felt the soldier’s vivacity course into her formerly stagnant and unfeeling limbs. He closed his eyes, exhausted, weak, and barely able to move his own legs.

When he opened his eyes, the sun had gone from its zenith to the horizon, the formerly cloudy sky was now clear throughout, and Teagan was utterly gone. Volkhard grunted as he pushed himself up, dusting off his coat. 

“Teagan... I will figure you out.” he said, pushing himself to his feet.

~

Firkon clenched his fist angrily. Laeron stood nervously by his side, along with a few members of the town’s garrison. Firkon was looking forward to the idea of manning the town’s impressive wall when he first arrived, but not under these circumstances. He wanted to fight a giantess. Instead, sprawled out in a messy camp outside of the town’s walls was a mass of Selcenian soldiers, accompanied by an enslaved giantess. Firkon shuddered as he looked at the giantess, repulsed by its disfigured face and emotionless, unthinking eyes. A miserable creature best off dead.

“Well? What is an Orestian doing out here, with an army at his back?” demanded the Selcenian commander, shouting up to Firkon, shielded only by a truce of parley.

“I am Legatus Firkon, and I am here to slay a marauding giantess!” Firkon shouted back, “This city has pledged its walls, its bolt throwers, and its men to assist me in this cause. I will not let you raze it for some foolish war. Was it not the word of the First Emperor that all kings and nations set aside their grievances and unite against the giants? Dare you breach that sacred agreement?”

“Hah! The First Emperor is not my liege. I will heed the orders of the Basileus long before those of a dead man.” the commander scoffed, chin held high, “I am a servant of Selceus and Selceus alone.”

“You are nothing more than a heresiarch’s pet! If you dare attack, you will be held in contempt of the First Emperor’s will like the fool you are! Even Selceus cannot shelter you from the repercussions of such a gross and unintelligent act. Find some other town to besiege, you cur!”

“Ah, Legatus Firkon, I don’t think you quite understand. If the Basileus wants this town taken, then he shall see it taken. You can cooperate, leave, and find some other way to kill your giant, or you can find yourself on the head of a pike. Your Satrap informed us that you were to be returning to Orestion, and yet here you remain… there will be no defense for you.”

“The same goes for that bastard!” Firkon shouted, now enraged, “He stands in contempt of the First Emperor’s inviolable laws!”

“Don’t you see? Nobody cares about that fool any more! Well, I should moreso say that nobody important cares, assuming there are others as stupid as yourself. I shouldn’t be giving you a last chance, but given that your resistance comes from ignorance rather than insolence, I give you one last chance to leave this town. “

“May the stars cross your every step, mangy dog!” Firkon spat, throwing a rock at the commander. Laeron seemed quite malcontent with how the events resolved, but Firkon paid him little mind. The giantess could wait… this fool, on the other hand, could not. Firkon smirked as the commander and his hetairoi stalked back towards their encampment. Firkon’s smirk faded as the slave giantess took a shaky step towards the city walls, which it could most likely breach with ease. Firkon was confident that he could hold the city with few casualties should the invaders be forced to scale the walls, but were they to pour in through a breach, Firkon knew that his legionaries would be demolished. The Selcenian armies consisted mostly of phalangites, poorly trained conscripts who could do little more than form a pike wall, but their heavy infantry, the thureophoroi, were nigh unparalleled in close combat, bearing great bronze-rimmed shields and deadly spears with a sword-like tip. Firkon’s men were tired, weary of travel and battle alike, and the town’s defenders were little more than burghers and conscripts headed by a handful of unprepared sergeants. If the giant breached the wall, there would be no battle, only a slaughter.

“Ballistae! Aim for the head!” Firkon shouted to the operators, who were hastily taking aim at the giantess, “Get archers on the walls, now! War bows, hunting bows, javelins, slings, or just thrown rocks, anything you can hit that creature with, you hit it with!”

Firkon held his breath as the two ballistae facing the giantess took careful aim, bolts loaded. He cursed as the first missed by a hair, bolt whizzing past the giantess’ head. The second ballista, however, hit its mark, burying a bolt into the giantess’ shoulder. The giantess screamed in pain as a stream of blood poured from the embedded bolt, but it continued plodding on after only a moment of shock. The arrows fired at it by the city’s archers seemed to have even less of an effect, only prompting the giantess to raise a hand in protection of its face. By now it had nearly reached the wall, and Firkon was beginning to panic. He watched in horror as the giantess lazily swiped a hand across the wall, seizing a squirming mass of archers. Their screams were quickly and messily silenced as the giantess applied pressure, culminating in a resounding series of sickening cracks and death rattles. The citizen archers were now in a panic, scrambling only to save their own lives as the giantess reached in once more, seizing another three poor souls. With a guttural growl, the giantess raised the three tearful archers to her mouth. Firkon could barely watch as the giantess pulverized their heads with a single bite, mindlessly tossing the limp, mangled corpses aside. Their blood dripped down her pale lips, and Firkon was disgusted further as she smiled a bloodied grin, the first show of emotion he saw from the vile creature. Firkon was at this point forced to accept that the city’s defense was likely to be a lost cause. The giantess had reached the wall, the garrison had fallen into panic, and his own men were too exhausted and too few to hold the wall. Just as he was ready to swallow his pride and start trying to negotiate a surrender with the conceited commander, a ballista bolt hit the giantess squarely in the neck, piercing it through. Firkon glanced back and saw that one of his men had loaded an unused ballista, firing it over the wall and somehow hitting his mark from across the town. Firkon cheered as the giantess slumped to the ground, clutching at the hole in her throat as she bled out. Still, he knew that the Selcenians were a far superior force, and would likely be a dangerous foe even if they had to scale the walls.

Firkon watched closely to see what the Selcenians’ next move would be. Surely any chance he once had of negotiating a surrender were now hopeless, and the commander already made it clear that a Selcenian concession wasn’t a consideration. At first, it seemed as if the Selcenians were simply waiting, with almost no movement going on in their war camp. Firkon worried that they intended to starve him out rather than storm the walls, forcing him to sally out into a pitched battle lest he and his men perish of hunger. Firkon had hoped that the urgency the commander conveyed meant that they wouldn’t consider a protracted siege, for he knew that he had no way to claim victory if the Selcenians did so. He was, consequently, strangely relieved by the sight of the Selcenian troops rushing at the wall, their ranks veritably bristling with half-raised siege ladders. Firkon, remembering the words of Volkhard, seized a discarded spear from the floor and rushed to the ramparts alongside the rest of his men. He was not the kind of coward to sit and watch as his men fought for their lives in a battle he had helped orchestrate. Such an undertaking was a risky gamble, however: Firkon knew that his soldiers’ spirits would be bolstered if he fought alongside them, but should he die alongside them, they would likely rout. Firkon resolved to himself that he simply wouldn’t die, no matter how much it seemed like he ought to. As the first ladder slammed against the wall, Firkon gave a silent prayer. It would take a miracle for this situation to end well, and he wished for nothing less. 

~

Teagan, already exhausted from her dangerously close encounter with Volkhard, was left with blurry vision and numbed limbs as she finished the sprint to Hannah, who was apparently unaware of Teagan’s absence for a good few minutes and had continued moving on until such.

“Teagan! There you are! What happened to you, eh? You had me worried.”

“I just needed to rest for a bit, relax!” Teagan lied, “I was gonna pass out if I kept going. You didn’t wait for me, did you?”

“I backtracked for you, actually. Not enough to really make much of a difference, but still, I needed to tell you something. Er, rather, to show you something.”

“Yeah?” Teagan asked, “What is it?”

“Follow me. You’d best see it for yourself. I’m not really sure what to make of it, nor what to do about it, but I figure that you might have some ideas. You seem to be quite the quick thinking type. I bet I’d do well to learn from you, if you’re willing to give me a few tips.”

“Tips come later. First, show me whatever you’re talking about, will you? The suspense is already killing me.” Teagan said, hoping to move on. She wasn’t in the mood for talk.

Hannah led Teagan past the last few tufts of tall grass, and to the end of the steppe. The two were firmly in the desert now, a red-sanded scrubland that seemed terribly inhospitable. Teagan noticed that Hannah was leading her up a steep ascent, to the top of a small mesa. 

“What’s the point of climbing this? Why can’t we just go around?” Teagan asked.

“The view, mostly, but also remember that the strength expended going uphill will soon be strength saved going downhill. Just don’t fall this time, okay?” Hannah quipped.

Hannah was the first to reach the top of the mesa, and sauntered slowly over to the plateau’s front edge, waiting for Teagan to finish her ascent. Teagan dragged herself over to Hannah’s side, wondering what it was that could possibly warrant needing such a view.

She could hardly believe what she saw.

In the distance raged what appeared to be a siege en miniature, consisting of a sizeable tomkin army storming a walled tomkin town. This was the first Teagan had ever seen of tomkins waging war on other tomkins, although she assumed such an occurrence had happened before, given their propensity to sometimes carry sidearms that were too small to be of any use against a human, suited only to killing other tomkins. What startled Teagan the most, however, was the sight of a human corpse leaning against the town wall. The body was nude, malnourished, and horribly scarred. Could this have been a tomkin slave? Teagan turned to Hannah, her face contorted in disgust and fear.

“That person… I wonder how many others there are like that, reduced to slaves to those smaller and weaker than themselves. It’s horrible, isn’t it?”

“It is, but there’s nothing we can do about it.” Hannah chided, “We serve them best by surviving ourselves, lost already as their cause is. I say we give that place as wide a berth as we can manage, but if you have any better ideas, lay them on me. I’m sure that army has plenty of rations in store somewhere, hmm?”

Teagan absentmindedly nodded. She had already made up her mind. Those tomkins had no right to use humans in their petty, meaningless wars. She could exact her revenge, and if done right, play the role of the savior to the beleaguered town.

“I think we ought to strike at them, Hannah. They’re already engaged in combat, and they likely aren’t prepared explicitly for facing humans. There is much to be gained and little to be lost… and it’s been far too long since I’ve indulged myself with a little carnage.”