As we continued on, the temperature began to drop, as it often does in the mountains. I'm not sure if it is the work of the gods or not, but the earth always seemed to take on the attributes of the race living in the area. In the hundreds of years since the giants had run the humans out of this area, the trees had since grown to be the same scale to the giants, that a normal tree was to humans.
I say this because we did eventually find Juliette's mine, and though it was massive in scale, it was entirely surrounded by monster trees. Trees that my group was now hiding in. Since we had been there surveying the area, it had begun to snow and even the flakes seemed bigger than they were in the human realm.
As expected, the already cold temperatures of the giant mountains, coupled with the snow and the fact that we could use no fire, made traveling with these 4 uptight, by the book, kingdom slayers almost unbearable. There really was no consolation to it, though I tried to find one.
"Do you see those tents there? It appears that they are using giant labor as well here." My sister said, pointing out the row of housing and bonfires on the far edge of the mine.
"I count 5 guards on patrol" the older man said, adding to the bigger picture. " There must be more though. 5 guards aren't enough to police the amount of potential workers in those tents."
"See there! On the hill. . . . I'll bet you anything that is where Juliette stays!" The woman pointed out, motioning to a large stone structure on the othet side of the mine, he with the glow of candles in the windows.
It definitely looked like the type of place she would stay. . . Considering the rest of the "accommodations" here.
"Ok. . . Let's get some rest. Hopefully this snow storm passes. We will see how the camp operates tomorrow and decide how to proceed." Abigail said, clearing a spot in the snow and sitting down, leaning back against the trunk of the tree we were in.
"Why don't we just ambush them now?!" The dark haired slayer "Jag" said, stomping his foot. " There are 5 of us! The guards don't look much like warriors. Let's just wipe out everyone and be done with it!"
"We don't ambush them because I'm saying not to, and I'm in charge." My sister growled. "The goal is to leave here with all the people we came here with. We don't need a repeat of Glemshire, do we?"
. . . .
"DO WE?" She repeated, loudly.
"No. . . " The man said quietly.
"What happened in Glemshire?" I asked casually as I sat down beside Abigail in the snow.
The three other slayers looked at each other and their faces showed irritation.
"Leonara happened. . " The older man said, begrudgingly.
"We. . . Had a troop of 10 slayers waiting in Glemshire for her. We had information that said she was on her way there. Everything was planned. Every detail. . ." The woman said, staring off into the night.
"She arrived out of nowhere with not a single sign. Out of thin air in the middle of the city at midnight. 3 slayers dead before we even had a clue what was going on. 4 more as we battled on. That cruel demon! We barely escaped with our lives. Luckily the city was evacuated prior but she crushed it anyway." The older man said, continuing the story.
Unfortunately, I had already decided I didn't like these three and was unsympathetic to their plight.
"Well. . . . That does sound like quite the ordeal." I said, sarcastically.
"You don't really sound like you get the gravity of the situation!" Jag said angrily, taking a step toward me.
"Oh I get the gravity. . . I mean I did just face Juliette by myself!" I said, yawning involuntarily.
"Yeah, and we just got done scraping your crumpled form off the street, didn't we? After you sent a distress message and chose not to wait for help! Isn't that right, little brother?" The woman asked, irritation in her voice.
I always hated that mentality. The thought that all slayers were family just by way of creation. Maybe in the beginning that was true. Maybe we were just weapons. . . But now we were something different and as individual as either of the other races.
"That isn't exactly how I remember it, but that isn't really important." I said dismissively, purposely trying to piss the trio off.
"I'm surprised you can remember anything at all with how hard she hit you! We saw the crater she put you in. . . Folks don't walk away from that too often, let alone lay dying in the street for 2 days and another 3 in a cart with a fever." The older man said, knowingly.
"Yeah?. . .well I do. What's your point?" I asked, knowing full well what he was getting at.
My use of the death goddess' help. It was frowned upon by probably 99% of slayers. It was said that it changes a man. Gives him dark tendencies. Maybe that is true, but I'm here now trying to make amends. Besides, I didn't seek her out. She offers her power to anyone in need. Since few take it, she has power to spare and thus the user who does choose it becomes even stronger. It's perfectly logical. . .
"I think you know. . " The man replied, darkly.
"Hmm" was my response, as I closed my eyes and huddled close to my sister for warmth.
"Look at that! Dabbles in the unnatural and still sleeps like a baby on big sister's tit!" Jag said begrudgingly as he walked further down the trunk and assumed a similar position to ours.
The woman and older man followed suit, gathering on the opposite side of Abigail and staying tight for heat. The man produced a large blanket and covered the 5 of us.
Sometime early in the morning I awoke. The sun was just thinking of rising and it took me a moment to remember where I was. In the night, we had been covered in about a foot of snow and it was completely covering all of us. Nobody else seemed to be awake, and I saw my opportunity to do some investigating on my own.
I carefully slipped away from the group and made my way through the tree tops on the edge of the mine. Below, both giants and humans had begun to stir. Women of both sizes tended to campfires while men put on their tools and headed to the base of the mine, a few miles down the stretch.
After a few minutes of running, I finally reached my destination. The stone building. Using a low branch, I slipped in through the window, standing on the window sill. Inside was not what I expected at all.
First of all, it was perfectly clean. Nothing out of place. Next, it was deceivingly luxurious inside. It has everything you would expect in a royal bedroom from the 4 post bed, to the-
Shit. . . . There she is. . . Juliette. Across from the window, in some type of strange bath that was heated by it's own fireplace was Juliette. This style of tub was something I had never seen before. Granted, before my spirit of the woods endeavor, it had been a couple years since I had been to giant country, but generally human and giant technology advanced at roughly the same pace, at least in the rural areas.
Her eyes were closed as she relaxed in the massive tub. It was so big that she actually managed to look small in it. Behind her, another woman outside the tub was gently washing her back and shoulders. The woman looked to be from one of the more wild giant tribes. Her skin was orange and her short, spikey hair was white with dark blue eyes. She wore brown servants robes and was barefoot.
As they both seemed occupied, I used the opportunity to move closer. I passed the threshold to drop down to a table below but as soon as I stepped inside, something felt immediately wrong. I instantly felt cold, and the air around me felt heavy some how.
Ignoring my instincts, I dropped to the table, which held a bunch of what looked like custom black smithing tools messily strewn about. The cage she had with her the day we fought was also there. Walking past them, I stopped at the edge and took the building in.
Next to the 4 post bed, Juliette's giant sword was leaning against the wall. On her nightstand, a little cage, though I couldn't see if the boy was in there. Further right, the tub and beyond that, what must have been the servants bed. In the corner across from that, a spotless kitchen and kitchen table with a vace full of flowers.
"Are you just here to ogle me and my home or are you going to try to rescue the little boy?"
The voice shocked me from my trance, but when I looked over, Juliette wasn't even looking at me. Her eyes were still closed as the servant moved to massaging her giant, exposed breasts now. I didn't respond, not wanting to give myself away unnecessarily, though I couldn't look away either.
"Yes I'm talking to you, little slayer on my work bench." She said, confirming that I was discovered.
"Well. . . . The boy IS my main priority, but killing you would be a nice bonus for me." I said, leaning up against a hammer she had on the table.
"I think both you and that conniving city leader Jonathan will be relieved to know that I've decided to keep the boy as my pet, so you have nothing to worry about. He has been adopted by royalty and will have a better life than he could ever have imagined growing up in that little village!" Juliette informed me, as if she was doing him some huge favor.
I had to stifle a snarky laugh before I spoke. "As much of an honor as I'm sure you think that is, the boy needs his father!" I said, my tone sharp with authority.
"Huh. . . You know who else enjoyed the company of their father?" Juliette asked rethorically, her own voice showing me the first hint of any emotion since I had been there.
"I am truly sorry for your loss Juliette, but I nor that boy nor Jonathan had anything to do with with your father's death! The boy is coming with me!" I shouted at her.
She let out a prissy huff before speaking.
"You dare to raise your voice with me, you tiny peasant!?" She demanded in upset disbelief. "And I'm so sure that a blood thirsty little slayer like you is so sorry that a giant was murdered in cold blood just about as far away from human realm as he could be!" She spat at me. "I've decided the boy is mine, and there is nothing you can do to change my mind!" She finished, and her decree had all the legality you would expect from a princess.
"Nothing I can do huh?" I asked, gripping my sword.
Juliette only laughed. . . Which was unnerving because at this point she still hadn't opened her eyes even once and was currently naked in a bath tub.
"What? An honorable man such as yourself would attack a naked, unarmed woman while she bathes? Though. . . . You have already proven yourself to be less than fair in combat, haven't you?" She asked, smoothly.
The servant girl continued to massage nonchalantly as two enemies moved closer and closer to some type of engagement. She seemed utterly unphased by my presence as she put vigor into rubbing Juliette down.
"Aww, I see you even brought your sword with you this time!" Juliette fawned, feigning joy like one would do when speaking to a small child. "Although, you might find it difficult to reach me from where you're standing."
Was she serious? Granted, the last time we faced off I was under the influence of the death goddess, but I still launched an attack from over a quarter mile away. It should have been obvious that I could probably cut through her, her servant and the back wall at this distance.
As if reading my thoughts, she decided to challenge me.
"Go on! Give it your best shot, little man." She prodded, eyes still closed.
I stayed calm, not allowing myself to get drawn into a trap. "The names Ant." I said.
She only chuckled again
"Well ANT. . . . I wonder. . .have you figured out the weight in this room yet, or is it fear that stays your blade?"
"What are you talking about?" I demanded.
"Hmm. . .what indeed?" She repeated smuggly. "See, if you couldn't already feel it, this building has some. . .special characteristics when it comes to people like you. It took quite a bit of work to make it so. . . . Hunting down the list of slayers that the gods demanded, the blood sacrifices. . . . But it was worth the peace of mind that you worms couldn't ever perpetrate another assassination the likes of my father's!"
Suddenly, I understood what that feeling was that I had when I entered the window. . . My connection to the gods. . . . It was gone! Sure enough, when I closed my eyes and whispered the most basic of prayers. . . . Nothing. This. . . . This was a problem.
"Now you get it!" She said, with a slight grin. "Your precious gods can't hear you inside these walls!. . . Or. . . "Won't". I'm not sure which exactly but never the less! Now you know what it feels like to be forsaken by those who created you. Those who were said to love and protect you, not create something new just to exterminate you for being nothing more than what you are!" She finished, her tone more cold than I had heard it thus far.
The weight of her words hit me with about as much force as she had days prior. The coldness seemed to further tighten it's grip on me now.
"I have to tell you. . .It's not too late to flee, little one. Scurry back through the window like a timid little field mouse and back into the hole I left you in!" She laughed, as did the servant for the first time. "Before I decide to crush you for good this time!"
I was honestly beginning to get angry now. I didn't often use my emotions in battle, but this woman was effortlessly toying with me, and hadn't even bothered to open her eyes yet. Could she really see me as that little of a threat to her?
As if to drive the point home, Juliette waved her servant off, and turned a knob that seemed to add more heat to the bath. She sunk under the water until only her head was above and her unbraided hair floated strewn about on the surface. She sighed a deep sigh of relaxation just to rub it in.
"Ooh! And just who is this angry little man?" Juliette asked suddenly, her voice back to her normal, bubbly self.
I cocked an eyebrow, unsure of if she meant me, but then I looked behind me to see Jag standing in the window sill now. His look was pure hatred, but I wasn't sure if it was directed at me, or her.
"Why haven't you killed her yet!?" He screamed at me.
He jumped down from the ledge to the table and stormed toward me, blade drawn. The thing was, although he was coming for me, I sensed no intention to kill me. He closed his eyes, and said a prayer as he drew his sword back for a vertical slash. I stepped out of the way as the man let loose in Juliette's direction. . . .
Let loose with a pathetic attack that did nothing but cut the air in front of him. . .
A look of confusion showed on his face, but it was short lived. In his hesitation, the now on guard servant girl delivered a punch that sent him flying back to the wall where the table butted up against it. He bounced off of it hard, chipping a bit of stone but ultimately landed on his feet, dazed. Again she took advantage of this and struck with another punch. This one plowed into him and continued on into the wall, smashing him between and crumbling more of the old brick work.
He was barely conscious now, and his sword fell from his hand and clanged to the table. The woman's fist turned to open palm as she picked up the rag doll of a man and carried him over to the nightstand. Here, she reached down and grabbed a different, much more stout cage than the one for the humans. This one had thick bars and looked to only fit one person.
She flicked open the door to it and crammed him inside, before shutting and locking it. She gave it a shake before placing it on the edge of the bath down by where Juliette's feet were.
Seeing this brutality woke me up, and I drew my sword. Knowing she wouldn't have the element of surprise, the servant girl wrapped her hand in a towel so that she could stop my blade from stabbing her before squaring off against me.
She decided to make the first move, swinging her now club sized fist down to crush me into the table. Unfortunately, her movements were nowhere near quick enough and I lept on to her arm, running up it to get to her face. Instinctively, she made a grab for me with her other hand but withdrew it just in the nick of time as I gave her a counter attack that surely would have cut off at least two fingers.
Seeing the final opening, I jumped to drive my blade through her forehead but at the last second I was hit from the side. A massive (to me) splash of water came from the bath tub as Juliette intervened to save her servant. The woman was drenched, but she looked thankful for the help.
I on the other hand lost my balance and plummeted to the floor. I managed to tuck and stumble but it put me off balance for the next attack. All I saw was shadow and dirty sole before I was stomped into the wooden floor.
Because I wasn't fully healed yet from Juliette's first beating, one stomp was all it took to put me down, though the servant girl took good care to mash all of my limbs thoroughly into uselessness. From there, her foot was lifted, and I was picked up. Though her face was soaked, she had a big grin on it, likely due to the fact that she had managed to best 2 slayers in the course of about 1 minute.
I heard her dig again in the nightstand but this time she retried something I didn't recognize. It appeared to be a small (by giant standards) sock but what was interesting is that it seemed to be made of some type of steel fiber and had a loop rope at the top.
I had no time to ponder it though, as my body was stuffed inside. It was designed so that the prisoner's head was the only thing left outside and as the woman pulled on the string, the whole sock became nearly skin tight and closed around my neck, restricting my breathing. Finally, in one final humiliating gesture, the rope was hung from a hook above the water at Juliette's feet.
The servant girl collected our swords, and stuck them in a pin cushion on the work bench I hadn't noticed before. I watched them blend in amongst the other dozen or so slayers blades before she replaced it.
"I'm going to go warn the guards of other possible accomplices to these two. It could be an ambush." She said, as she pulled on a pair of boots and walked out the door, leaving us alone with Juliette.
"As I was saying, before your little friend decided to join us" Juliette began, and opened her eyes for the first time since I had been there.
For a split second, they appeared pure white, before they returned to their normal pale blue.
"You slayers have no unnatural ability here. Through research and appeal to reason, my sister made sure of that."
"What have you done!" The man in the cage screamed at her, rattling the cage.
"It's simple really. . . . In here, the playing field is level. True, Leo intended for it to be a defensive measure, but if we were to fight. . It would be natural swordsmanship vs natural swordsmanship. No long range attacks. No rising from the dead. None of the other numerous party tricks that your kind employs."
"Yeah, except for about the 124 feet of height and who knows how many pounds you have on us, it would be totally fair!" I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm.
Juliette only shrugged and smirked at us.
As I thought about it, it only made sense that the giants would seek to find some type of advantage over slayers eventually and it seemed now is that time.
"The whole process is sort of boring, but long story short, we gathered a few slayers that the gods had become unhappy with, and their blood sacrifice enabled us to ask prayers of the gods. . . . To an extent anyway. Our. . . Rocky relationship. . With the humans meant that we could only ask for so much, but safety in our homes was within reason. Especially after you monsters murdered the original giant!" She explained, her mouth just barely out of the water as she regarded us.
"So what are you going to do to us?" I asked, through struggled breathing.
"You boys are in luck!" She replied with a genuine smile as her foot emerged from the water and poked me in the chest causing me to swing uncontrollably. It seemed to amuse her as she let out a cute giggle. "Usually I would just execute you painlessly but, today is special because my sister is coming to camp to pick up a shipment of weapons on her way back to the capital. I think you two will make great additions to her research. Like a little gift!" She said, extremely pleased with the thought of giving us to her sister.
My initial thought was "weapons?" But my associate heard something else entirely.
"Le-. . . Leonara?" He stammered, his fear obvious.
"That's right! Do you know her?" She asked, again flashing that childlike innocence she seemed to have.
"I know her! That monster killed 7 of my friends not 2 weeks ago!" He shouted at her, rattling his cage even more now.
She made a somehow cute thinking face, as if she was trying to comprehend what he was saying, before she suddenly stood and got out of the tub. We both stared up in awe. It should have been an amazing moment to witness her goddess-like body fully nude, but there was no arousal present. Somehow she just seemed unfathomably enormous when the gods weren't on your side.
She grabbed a towel and began to dry herself off as she spoke to him.
"I'm. . . Sorry to hear that." She replied, with a brief glance in our direction and with a hint of sadness. "But. . . This IS war after all."
This was met with a flurry of insults from him as he shook and rattled his cage. She seemed unphased as she pulled on her clothes layer by layer until she matched my last known memory of her.
"I really don't know what you want to hear, slayer. . ." She replied, if anything somewhat frustrated.
"My name is Jag!" He spat at her.
"Well Jag. . . As with every other adult, my sister does what she wants. I don't question her and she doesn't question me. I didn't mean to start a discussion. Whether you knew her was just a yes or no question. I'm sure she had a reason for her actions whether you agree with them or not." She finished, pulling her sandals on and lacing them up.
"Well boys, I'm off! I'll be back for you when my sister arrives!" She said cheerfully, before grabbing her mammoth sword and walking out, closing the door behind her.
"So. . . .. . . What do we do now?" I asked, slightly annoyed that he had followed me in the first place.
"I know that a "free lance" slayer like yourself might find it hard to believe, but it can be wise to tell your comrades where you are going when you leave, for moments just like this. As long as Leonara doesn't show up in the next few minutes, somebody should come along and get us out of here."
As if on cue and to my annoyance, a second later, a voice called from above us.
"What type of trouble did little brother get himself into now?" She called as the female slayer dropped down to the floor from the table.
"Shut your mouth and get us out of here! We need to leave. NOW!" He shouted at her.
"What's your hurry? I see you already drew yourself a bath!" She laughed as she in turn jumped up to the ledge and walked to his holding cell.
"Leo- Leonara is on her way here!" He barely managed to spit out.
The smile on the woman's face immediately disappeared and her whole body became pale. Right away she unlocked his cell and pulled me from over the water, before cutting the rope and releasing me. We retrieved our swords before making an exit through the window just as the servant girl walked back in.
Jag was just about to jump back into the trees, when he saw her return. He turned and drew his sword. He closed his eyes and was about to attack through the window, when suddenly an unseen guard spotted us. A split second later, Jag narrowly avoided a giant arrow through the chest.
We didn't wait around to see where it came from and just ran through the tree tops. Giant arrows shot through the trees at random and I had to dodge multiple times. Finally, we reached sister and the other man.
"Ok, we are found out. We need to go, right now." My sister commanded.
Our backs were against the wall so to speak as they surrounded the tree and blocked the entrance to the mine. Juliette herself was standing between two guards in the middle of the only real path out. Side by side, her height and size was truly obvious. Every part of her was just bigger than those grown giant men and she stood half a head taller than them. Her sword was drawn and the tip was resting on the ground so she didn't have to support it's weight.
"Looks like we are going to have to fight our way out." The old man said, drawing his sword.
"Fine with me!" Jag replied with a smile.
"Alright. Watch each other's backs. Jag, Olivia, and Thomas, you take the front. We will take the back. We escape through the first opening we see!" My sister said, pulling her own blade.
With all of our firepower drawn, we sprinted down the tree trunk and into battle.
Giantess World
