When Rhaea woke up, she saw a light blue sky, dotted with wispy clouds. A faint murmuring noise drifted past her ears as her vision sharpened, the blurriness fading from her eyes. The sun was bright. Painfully bright. Rhaea groaned and shielded her eyes.
The giantess.
She remembered the giantess. The one that pulled into the air with a thought and a gesture. The one who killed Asander, Leto, and Philitas with almost casual effort. The one who took Theodosia and ate her, swallowed her alive, gulped her down like an entertaining morsel; a sight most gruesome and so shocking that Rhaea fainted. She’d heard stories of the giants eating innumerable people whole, but to hear of it from a dramatist was so much less… terrifying.
She’d fainted, though, and that was what was most important to her now. Rhaea assumed that she’d shortly followed Theodosia into the belly of the giantess, a fate which she seemed to have mercifully suffered while unconscious. This beautiful blue sky and distant voices, then.. this could be none other than the Elysian fields themselves, the afterlife for those who had let go of their mortality. What else could it be?
“You’re awake?”
Rhaea lowered her arm, still blocking her eyes from the sun as it was. A man with dark, shapely features, hair blacker than the darkest night, and an unkempt covering of stubble across his well-formed jaw looked over her, a tired expression on his face. Rhaea nodded and mumbled an answer even she couldn’t understand.
“You’re lucky… or maybe unlucky. It depends on whether you value freedom over survival, I guess. Are you hurt?”
“I… I don’t know…”
“That figures, but as far as appearances go, you don’t seem injured. You want to rest some more?” the man asked, backing away. Rhaea didn’t want him to leave. As much as she wanted to drift back into that dark and peaceful sleep that she had just arisen from, this no longer seemed like the afterlife. Rhaea’s desire to figure out her circumstance overpowered her yearning for further sleep.
“Where am I?” Rhaea groggily mumbled, forcing herself up to a wobbly sitting position.
“That’s a question I can’t answer exactly, but it’s not far from where you… must have been captured, I assume. You’re a prisoner now, it seems.”
“A prisoner? You, you don’t mean of the giantess, right?”
“On the contrary,” the man began, pointing behind Rhaea, “I mean exactly that.”
Rhaea turned around and unshielded her eyes. The giantess was lying chest down on the ground not even twenty paces away, her titanic legs swinging idly in the air, each lazy kick forceful enough to send a man flying. She was alive, then, but the man said she was a prisoner; had the giantess actually taken her captive? That seemed to be the only plausible explanation, but it made no sense to Rhaea: what would a giantess with obvious magical powers want with her?
“Why? Do you know why?”
“I wish I did.” the man replied, shaking his head, “I don’t know how long it’s been, but I’ve been her captive for long enough that I’ve lost track of the days. She keeps us like novelties, pets, nothing more than trifles for her to treat as she pleases. If you aren’t dead and aren’t in that horrid box at her waist, well, that’s the fate that awaits you.”
Rhaea closed her eyes for a second, trying to think this new revelation through. A pet. She was a pet? That was no way to live, no way at all.
“Well, sir, I’m about to go see if I can learn a bit more from the giantess herself. If I end up dying, I hope you’d try and at least do me the honor of pouring out a draught of whatever you happen to drink next to help keep my thirst sated on my way to the afterlife. Before I go, in the case that I live through this… what’s your name, eh? I’d recognize a Q’thumani soldier anywhere! Figure I ought to get to know one of the enemy.”
“The enemy? So you’re a Selcenian, hmm? Didn’t place you for a soldier given your uniform, but I suppose good armor’s getting harder to come by these days. My name’s Hassan, Hassan ibn Jawul. May I ask yours?”
“I’m Rhaea. It’s been a pleasure, Hassan. I feel like I’m far more calm right now than I ought to be, and I’ll probably get hysterical within the next few hours, so I hope you don’t mind if I’m a bit of a pest. I find having someone to rant to in times of crisis makes the stress a bit more manageable.”
“I’m a good listener.” Hassan replied, “It’ll be nice having a new face around. I never was very talkative myself, but company helps ease the burdens of the mind. I’ll be seeing you then, Rhaea, but if you intend to talk to the giantess… you’re going to need help.”
“You mean Sihil, right? The girl that can talk to her?” Rhaea asked, looking around. She didn’t see the girl anywhere.
“I mean her indeed! Did you see her earlier? She’s got an amazing gift… it’s a shame that she insists on using it to aid the one holding her captive.”
“She’s a captive?! Gods above and below, friend, when I first saw her, it seemed to me more like she was working with the giantess! She was a cruel little mouthpiece, to be sure, but not quite as useful as a bargaining chip for my… my late captain. Ah, but that, that’s a story I’m sure we’ve both lived. You know where Sihil is now?”
Hassan pointed over to the giantess, to which Rhaea raised a querying eyebrow.
“In front of her face.” Hassan said, noticing Rhaea’s quizzical glance.
Rhaea looked again, now focusing where Hassan bid her, and surely enough saw two people sitting in front of the face of the giantess, chatting with each other and playing what appeared to be a game of sorts. One of them, a tired-looking woman with a complexion like that of Hassan and with an even sharper profile, noticed Rhaea looking at her. She tapped the person adjacent herself - undoubtedly Sihil, given her slight frame and unmistakably red hair - and pointed at Rhaea, who was walking surprisingly calmly forth. Sihil’s cursory glance at Rhaea in turn drew the attention of the giantess, who settled her gaze on the dazed tomkin as she approached. Finally, standing just a few paces from Sihil, Rhaea stopped.
“Sihil, that’s your name, right?”
Sihil nodded.
“That’s an Orestian name. You must have been stuck with her for a while, eh?”
“I’ve lost count of the days.” Sihil replied, shaking her head solemnly.
“I wish I could help you on that account, but time similarly loses its meaning when you’re hanging around a desolate border outpost for weeks on end… hey, you can, uh, you can talk to her. Could you ask her a question for me?”
Sihil nodded again.
“Can you ask her what she plans on, well, doing with me? I’d at least like to know if she intends to eat me or not. If not, well, why am I even here, huh?”
“You might not like the answer.” Sihil replied, shaking her head.
“I don’t like being ignorant either, you traitorous bitch, so why don’t you just ask her!” Rhaea snapped, inciting a wary glare from the giantess and surprising Sihil with the sudden change in her temperament.
Sihil pouted, clearly distraught by Rhaea’s hostility, and stayed silent for a tense moment before responding to Rhaea in a low, frustrated tone.
“I didn’t mean that in a way I thought you’d find offensive. I’m not your enemy, you know, I’m a captive just like you. I can’t control her actions,” Sihil paused, pointing at the giantess, “but I can absolutely try and influence them. She would have slaughtered you all without warning if it weren’t for me convincing her to try and bargain for food at first. I did nothing to you. You have neither reason nor right to hate me, especially if you’re to call me a bitch and ask a favor of me in the same breath.”
“You watched as she murdered us.” Rhaea growled.
“You attacked first, from what I could tell.”
“Because you demanded our food! It doesn’t matter if you tried to compensate us, we said no and you took it by force!”
“The alternative was her just eating you and saving your food for later. I think we’d all prefer that she eats food to people, hmm?”
“I’d prefer most if she were dead, her and the rest of her brutish kin. I’m sure you’ve had chances to kill her if she values you as a companion… but it seems you really are her companion. I can’t believe anyone would side with a murderer over your own kin, your own brothers and sisters, especially a prisoner! You’re a tool, a mouthpiece, a slave and nothing more to her. It’s already obvious to me. If for some reason you truly do think she cares about you, well, I guess there’s no point in my attempt to reason with you at all. She’s already brainwashed you with her lies.”
“You’re one to talk about lies! You judge her to be a remorseless monster and you’ve not even spoken to her. I’ve lived with her, soldier, and I’ve seen the world through her eyes. I’ve seen death, pain, sorrow, and hatred more than ever before. I’ve seen the ugliness of this wretched world as she has faced it, and I find it all… disgusting. You were born in that hatred, mired in it, and now it drives you forth to spread it with every word you spit at me.”
“I don’t need to speak with her to know I hate her! She ate my captain, ate her alive and whole, and she enjoyed it! You saw her tease the poor woman as she struggled for her life!”
“Your captain tried to kill her for the sin of starving. As I see it, her life was forfeit the moment she gave the order to fight.”
“Gods, the excuses you find to defend this creature are sickening. She delights in murder, and you admitted yourself that you can’t restrain her. I could understand if you didn’t act against her out of fear, but defending her like this to another human? You’re out of your mind! She’s eaten people, and between the number of scars she’s got and the fact that you’ve been with her since she was in bloody Orestion, I’d figure you’ve seen her eat more than a few!”
“I’m sure any one day of your emperor’s pointless war has claimed more lives than she has since the day she first captured me. I’ve come to understand now that we are all ubiquitous, mundane faces in a sea of lives so vast that the death of an individual means nothing.We call it a victory if a hundred soldiers give the lives to kill a single giant.”
“You really are insane, aren’t you?” Rhaea asked, taking a step backwards, “I don’t even know what you’re going on about now. This isn’t about wars, this is about your giantess friend being a killer.”
“Maybe I am losing my mind here, but I’ve seen enough to have figured it all out! The First Emperor’s doctrine, it was not one of benefaction and camaraderie, not in the slightest. Militant destruction of an entire race, the stamping out of insubordination and any who dare try and found their own lives separate from His Empire, the glorification of battle and the rabid instilling of these ideas into all who lives within the confines of civilization; it all adds up to the creation of something terrible.”
“Can you just ask her my question? I really don’t understand what you’re going on about… and I guess I’m sorry for calling you a bitch. You’re not at fault for any of this, and you’re barely even old enough to be considered an adult from the looks of it.”
“That didn’t quite sound like a heartfelt apology of any degree, but I guess I can’t expect it from someone I don’t know. That is. I like to meet people before I condemn them… I’ll drop it for now. Yeah, I’ll ask her your question.”
~
“So, why was she angry at you? It’s not like you had anything to do with her idiot friends getting themselves killed.” Teagan said, watching the tomkin out of the corner of her eye. She was a temperamental one, that was for sure. Maybe just eating her would be for the best, if even Sihil didn’t like her.
“She’s probably just confused, tired, and angry. She thinks you’re a murderer, after all.” Sihil replied, with a shrug, “Which, of course, is to some extent true, but I think I’ve started getting over that.”
“Getting over that?” Teagan asked, incredulous, “That does NOT seem like the kind of answer you’d have for me. Aren’t you the one pushing for me to be more merciful and all?”
“Well, sure, I certainly am, but a little bit of you rubbed off on me, I guess, just as some of me rubbed off on you - gods, I’m not sure I like that phrasing, your language is full of these euphemisms - I don’t think you go out of your way for wanton murder any more. I think there’s goodness in you, and, well, I think that goodness is somewhat exempted when everyone here is an interloper living in a world they stole. Especially when they try to kill you first. On that note, she wants me to ask you a question.”
“Huh. Well, what is it?”
“She wants to know why you elected to keep her alive. Honestly, I’ve kind of been wondering the same thing myself, and I was planning on asking you about it later. Same thing with Aaliyah and Hassan, for that matter, but I suppose that’s a different issue. What should I tell her, in the meantime?”
“Not a lot of tomkins have the gall to sneak right behind a giantess. I guess I took a bit of a liking to her bravery… and you people are beginning to grow on me. Yeah, I admire her bravado, but not enough to let her off the hook for threatening you.”
“Tomkins… where does that name even come from? It sounds childish, in a way. I hate it.”
“I can’t say I’m sure. I’ll let you know if I figure it out, although I doubt that’ll ever happen. Anyhow, you can just tell her what I said about bravery and all.”
“Well…” Sihil began, pursing her lips, “I don’t think she’ll like to hear that you decided to do this to her for threatening me. Specifically, she won’t like me because of it. I think I’ll just leave that part out, if you don’t mind. Say something about you just wanting to make another addition to your list of prisoners to get attached to.”
“Very funny. Just get on with it and tell her whatever you want, will you? She looks pretty impatient. Not that I care what she feels, but hey, I figure you might, so…”
Teagan laid back on the ground as Sihil started to talk with the other tomkin again. The sky was clouded and grey, the wind carried a moist chill, and the air was damp with the petrichorous odor of wet earth. Teagan shivered as she debated whether she should press onwards. It was obvious that it was going to rain, and exposure to such an element in the condition that she was in would be dangerous, and Teagan was well aware of it. On the other hand, travelling in her condition was perhaps equally dangerous, especially if she ended up not escaping the rain anyhow.
Her thoughts were scattered when she heard Sihil yelp. She looked down to see Sihil, mouth agape, drenched in water. As if on cue, a sprinkling of fat raindrops fell on her head, the shower lasting for only a few seconds before dissipating as soon as it came. Teagan wasn’t quite affected, but Aaliyah, Hassan, Sihil, and the new tomkin were all soaked.
“Shit. I didn’t think about you guys..You’ll get waterlogged if I leave you in the bag, and Sihil, I assume you aren’t quite comfortable going back in that box, especially given how it still has, um, residents…”
“Don’t remind me.” Sihil glumly replied, her wet hair hanging limply in front of her downcast face, “That isn’t what I want to remember when I’m freezing to death.”
“Well, what am I supposed to do with you then? You’ll freeze to death if I carry you in the open, and I’m scared I’d hurt you if I kept you all in my hands. I…”
Teagan harrumphed frustratedly and blew a strand of wet hair out of her face. The rain had returned in force, and the tomkins were shivering now, unprotected from the harsh rain.
“I… I have an idea.” Teagan said, hesitantly, looking with pity on the four huddled tomkins at her feet, “Sihil, you’re going first… let me know if this is uncomfortable.”
Before Sihil could ask any questions, Teagan gently lifted her, held her at chest height, and with a deep breath, placed the freezing tomkin in her cleavage.
“God, I can’t help but feel like this is cliche…” Teagan muttered, immediately afterwards unsure what she meant by the remark, “Well, Sihil? Is it, um, tolerable?”
“I-it’s a bit constricting, b-but it’s warm…” Sihil replied, teeth chattering.
“Alright, well, as long as you can breathe, I guess it’s the best I can do. Let’s get everyone else in, then…”
~
Sihil was oddly comforted by Teagan’s softness and the faint rhythm of her heart, but she could tell that not everyone was similarly pleased in that regard. Aaliyah kept sinking down below the surface of Teagan’s chest, and constantly had to push herself up lest she was entirely enveloped in Teagan’s bust. The soldier, her name still as of yet unknown to all, seemed extremely perturbed with Teagan’s choice of where to stow her, and would constantly shift around and mutter dejectedly.
Hassan, comparatively, didn’t seem to mind the situation too much either, as Sihil could tell from the content smile on his face and his half-lidded expression of happiness, but she attributed his happiness to neither warmth nor Teagan’s ever present heartbeat.
Sihil watched as Teagan’s broad but clearly limping strides carried her across the landscape at a rapacious pace, a view made all the more amazing when seen from such a height. Sihil had sat on Teagan’s shoulder before, but even now, the experience of being so high and moving so quickly always felt new.
What was new, however, was the bounciness of the ride. Teagan tightly covered her chest with an arm to help keep everyone still and ensure that nobody managed to slip out, but no amount of compression short of that which would crush the passengers could keep Teagan’s chest from heaving with every breath she took, no matter how slow it was.
“What’s that?” Hassan suddenly blurted out, struggling to point at something in the distance.
Sihil strained her eyes to look at what Hassan was gesturing towards, but between the driving rain and the constant swaying of her perch, she made out nothing save a rolling green hill.
“I don’t see a thing.” she replied, shrugging, “What do you see?”
“I could have sworn I saw something bright blue peeking out from behind one of those hills, maybe a feather? Perhaps it was a bird. I suppose I have less to fear of them with such an escort as we have, eh?”
Sihil nodded. The deadly creatures that lurked about these lands were likely no more than mundane vermin to the giants. For all the pains of her journeying with Teagan, this was undoubtedly an upside.
“It was probably a bird, yeah.” Aaliyah said, giving Hassan a reassuring nod, “Best not to dwell on such things. Teagan is… more than competent, as we’ve seen. I’m more scared of her than of anything that would attack her, even if she’s trying to defend us…”
Hassan gave Aaliyah’s hand a quick squeeze and shook his head.
“No need to be afraid. If she intended to hurt us any further, she’d have done it by now. Best thing we can do is ride this out and see where it takes us.”
“That isn’t a plan I like to hear, but I guess I understand whAAH!”
Aaliyah shouted in panic as giants wielding an assortment of different weapons ranging from crossbows to giant flame-bladed swords sprang up from behind the hillside. They were dressed in extravagantly vivid colors, their overall palette consisting of bright yellow and deep purple accentuated by indigo feathers in their wide-brimmed, droopy hats.
“Du bizter einer eindringling im diezer landen! Kapituloten so kannster du zalin deiner skuld!” one of them cried out, waving their crossbow threateningly.
“What are they saying?” Aaliyah asked Sihil, eyes wide with panic.
“...Gods, Aaliyah, I have no clue at all. That’s not any language I understand.”