Zahra stood and was about to leave when she stopped, and looked off into the darkness. Everything was dead silent for a moment before. . .
Out of the black ripped a jagged blue slash that cut straight through the tree trunks and right for Zahra's throat. Unfortunately, at the last second she rolled to her left, avoiding the attack and flattening all the trees in her way. She also didn't drop me and only held me to her chest as she drew her dagger.
I guess 100 thousand gold was worth holding on to.
From out in the darkness, came a deep, low chuckle. I recognized it immediately.
Zahra was on her guard now, trained in the direction the attack had come from. That being said, the next attack came from 180 degrees the other way and was aimed at the two other women. They too managed to dodge but the woman holding Peter couldn't hold on to him as she dove out of the way.
He had his sword drawn before he hit the ground and immediately launched an attack for the woman dangling Cassius. It caught her above the right shoulder causing a geyser of blood to rain down and her arm to go limp, dropping Cassius in the process.
Peter caught him and dodged just in time to avoid getting stepped on as the woman screamed in pain and stumbled around holding her shoulder. He put Cassius down and stood poised to cut her down with his next attack. Before the other woman could come to her aid, a very tall, burly man appeared on her shoulder, holding a heavy, beat up sword to her throat. It was Malakai.
For a moment, everything was still as Zahra, Peter and Malakai faced off.
"Look sister. . . . We can either do this the easy way. .or the bloody way. " Malakai said, the campfire dancing on a face that often read insanity. "Just put Ant down, and walk away with these nice girl's heads still on their shoulders!"
"From the look of this one, she doesn't have much time before the blood loss takes her" Peter added.
Zahra unconsciously squeezed me tighter as she weighed her options. The woman Peter cut had since slumped to her knees and looked pale.
"5 seconds." Malakai informed her.
I didn't honestly think that she would give up that amount of money, but at the last second, as Malakai brought his sword back to lop off her head, Zahra's fist opened and I plummeted to the ground, landing roughly but on my feet.
I looked up, and I really thought that Malakai would just kill her anyway but to my surprise, he stayed his word and jumped down from her shoulder. Immediately she rushed to the injured girl as did Zahra.
"This isn't over!" Zahra threatened as she disappeared into the darkness, supporting their sister.
As much as I wanted to stay at camp and greet Malakai, I made a spur of the moment decision to follow Zahra back to her camp. There was still hope that Julius was still alive and on top of that, Zahra had sold Jacob into slavery or worse. . Death. It wasn't something that I could forgive. . . Ever.
I sprinted into the darkness after them, and caught up just in time to leap up and snag the wounded girls skirt. In the dark, Zahra helped her mount her horse and they all rode into the night. About 20 minutes later they arrived, although it was miles and miles away from where they had mounted. The joys and inconveniences of giant travel.
I lept down to the ground just as they reached the wagon train. The way Zahra's camp worked was that the 20 fully enclosed wagons that she traveled with, were circled up when they found a suitable place to camp. From there, they went town to town loaning out money, cashing in on bounties, selling slaves, among other things.
And among other things was exactly what was going on tonight. I watched as giant, scantily clad women walked around the well lit camp. Some sharpened weapons, others washed clothes, and still others. . . . Entertained. . . human males.
Using their bodies and sexuality to make money was one of the specialties of Zahra's gang. The thing is. . . . They were as deadly as they were beautiful. On the surface, they just appeared to be a bunch of gorgeous, half naked women who traveled together, but every single one of them was personally trained by Zahra herself as a warrior and assassin. Both skills that came in handy when bounty hunting, assassination and dealing with drunken men of the giant variety.
The human men that the women attracted were infinitely easier to deal with. If they had money, they were treated like royalty, and no fantasy was outside the realm of possibility with these giant goddesses. But if they were broke, or disrespectful. . . . If they were lucky they would be allowed to leave in any condition still alive. More often than not, they were simply crushed and disposed of like garbage.
Who knew what the fate of these current men would be as some were carried into various wagons by their giant mistresses while others just followed behind on foot in a mesmerized stupor. Using the guise of one of the men from whatever village these men were from, I slipped into the camp unnoticed.
Zahra and the other two women had sat down at a table that was set up outside what I knew to be Zahra's personal wagon. It was much bigger than the rest and lavishly decorated on the outside. The inside was no exception, filled with the most valuable items from their travels all over the world, from the human capital at the very edge of the map, as far away from giants as you could possibly get. . . To the oldest, most baron lands that the giant realm had to offer.
Women buzzed around them as Zahra feverishly worked to stop the bleeding, soaking rag after rag and bandage after bandage. She cursed us out as she worked.
"Just wait sister! Wait until we get our hands on the slayer that did this to you. You can personally rip him limb from limb! The same goes for the one that ambushed us! After our sister's ravage him for months on end. . . . Then maybe. . . MAYBE. . . He will have my blessing to die!" She seethed, pounding her fist on the table.
"I. . . I can't move my arm!" The woman wailed, as two others worked to keep her calm.
I chose to keep moving at that point. I already knew what was coming. It always came. The thing to know about Zahra and her gang was. . . It was unwise to mess with them. Period.
Zahra was a wanted criminal in both realms but somehow she was allowed to roam free across the map like a saint. That is because nobody had mustered the strength nor the wit to take her down. She could match any slayer with a sword, crush any human with sheer size, and evade or fight any giant and win. It wasn't that nobody wanted her dead. . . It was that there wasn't anything anyone had been able to do about it.
But I digress. . . What would happen next is that the next morning, likely the whole camp, all 20 plus women would mobilize and come to wipe us out. Our only saving grace was that I knew that, Peter knew that, and Malakai knew that. I was 100% sure they wouldn't be there when either I nor Zahra and her gang got back.
Clearing those thoughts from my mind, I waited for the right moment, then broke off from the pack of humans and crept under the nearest wagon. I used my size to easily sneak in through a gap in the floor board.
Inside was what appeared to be a living quarters. There were candles on the walls and in the dim light I could see a bare leg hanging out the side of a bunk attached to the wall. I could hear her breathing softly and prayed she was as actually asleep. To my left was a dresser and it seemed as good a spot as any to keep what I was looking for.
I climbed to the top and took in my surroundings. The giantess was indeed sleeping, her arm over her forehead and her large, perky breasts on display. I had to remind myself what my goal was as I pryed my eyes away. There was another bunk in line with the first but this one was empty at the moment. Something to note.
On the dresser, as expected, I found what I was looking for. A row of ten little individual cages. I walked along the row, and luckily the candle on the wall provided enough light to get a look at who was inside.
Both human men and women in various states of despair and condition. Some cried and moaned for my help but I kept walking Another thing to mention about Zahra and her gang was that they didn't just go around enslaving every human they came in contact with. That wasn't exactly good for business so it was usually the unfortunate souls they came across in the wilderness that got volunteered to service the gang.
Here now was the results of that, and though I had the power to free them, if they couldn't successfully escape the camp, the outcome would likely be death for them. I passed cage after cage, most with 2 or 3 humans sleeping or just plain unconscious until I reached the very last one.
And there he was.
"Julius! I whispered. "Julius. . . "
He didn't move or make a sound. He just stayed in a heap on the floor of his cage. Checking to make sure the giantess was still asleep, I climbed the bars of the cage and lifted the lid. None of them were locked because humans were. . . . Inefficient enough. . To not escape on their own.
I dropped down and walked to him. The first thing I noticed was the smell. He was absolutely covered in the stench of female fluids. Not surprising. Upon closer inspection, his whole body was encrusted and he appeared malnourished and beat up.
While it was true, giant women, like both slayer women and human women, could be as delicate as the gods themselves. . . . They also had a flair for the brutal and dominating when they wanted to and that is the treatment Julius seemed to have gotten for nothing more than associating with me. I owed it to him to get him out of here.
"Julius!" I whispered again, nudging his shoulder.
Still he said nothing.
I checked his pulse and he was still alive, but I couldn't be sure why he was unresponsive. I would figure it out later, and just grabbed him, throwing his light body over my shoulder before climbing out of the cage. Just as I made it out and back down to the table, the door to the wagon swung open and the woman from before, the one who Peter didn't cut, walked in.
In the dim lighting, I could see the expression on her face was. . . Emotional. Somewhere between hurt and furious. She stomped in and slammed the door behind her. In the split second her back was turned, I made a move,dropping to the floor and hiding behind some junk under the table.
Just as I did, she stepped up to it, and seemed to be looking for something on the table top. Her giant, dirty, bare feet flexed only yards from me as she searched for whatever. A moment later her foot stomped.
"Hilde!. . "She said, apparently addressing the sleeping woman. "Hilde!. . " she repeated, louder as she shook the woman's shoulder.
"Hilde" mumbled something unintelligible as she rolled over and away from her roommate.
"Hilde! Wake up! Where is that little man that Zahra gave us to hold on to?" She asked, her voice impatient.
"Mmmm!" Came an irritated groan in response from under the covers.
As sure as I was that there were multiple "little men that Zahra gave them to hold on to" I was just as sure that the specific one she was looking for just so happened to be draped over my shoulder at the moment and that meant that hanging around wasn't in my best interest.
With haste, I dropped back through the hole I climbed in from, before the woman could get a clear answer out of sleeping beauty. We made it safely into the trees, where it was easy to hide since every woman around us was as tall if not taller than them and the leaves blocked their view of the ground.
Not that anyone was yet looking for us, but the usual 4 woman perimeter patrol that Zahra kept was a constant threat. I really didn't know if it was smarter to get as far away from there as possible or hide right under their noses until they left in the morning to destroy myself and my companions.
I decided to wait it out. Zahra was still patching up the girl, and her mood seemed no less foul. I could hear her cursing us out still as she worked. The woman had since stopped screaming and seemed to be stable at best. She was still very pale and shaky but it appeared that she could at least function, although her arm still seemed dead. Whether or not they knew it, it would probably never work again. That is what you got when you tangled with the surgeon.
As I observed the camp from the darkness, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched. I knew it wasn't a giant, but I rested my hand on my sword just for safety.
Sometime later, Zahra finished bandaging the woman and stood. She surveyed the barrier of wagons and for a few seconds she seemed to be staring right at me, but ultimately she turned and retired to her wagon. As I watched her disappear, thoughts of revenge for my brother began to fill my he-
Out of nowhere, to my left, some type of animal charged me through the dark. Fortunately I was more than quick enough to see the attack from a mile away and I grabbed the beast by its lowered head, and stopped it dead in its tracks, though it pushed me back a step.
Everything seemed dead silent in that moment before. . .
"Marcel! You brown bastard!" I cried with joy as I wrapped my arms around the horses neck. He let out his trademark whiny in response. This. . . This was honestly the happiest moment in recent memory for me. We stood, just embracing for a time, before I released him.
There was so much I needed to ask and say to him, but there was no real time for it now. My guess is he decided to just follow the camp after they sold jake off knowing it would be his best chance of finding me again. . . . Clever, clever animal.
"Ok Marcel, listen up!" I said, picking Julius off the ground and slinging him over Marcel's broad back. "We made camp southeast of here. I need you to ride hard and meet up with Peter and Malakai, ok? Get Julius to safety. I'll be back around soon." I instructed him.
He gave me a look and neigh that said he really didn't want to separate but I had business to attend to.
"Go on, boy!" I said loudly, and without further protest, he took off galloping to the south.
With that, I turned my attention back to the matter at hand. Since Zahra had returned, activity at the camp had settled down. The women used a sort of buddy system. They always knew where the leaving members were going and a rough estimate of how long the business would take. If it exceeded that time frame, they immediately sent help without question. With her and the other two back "safely", the nonessential girls had went to bed now and only the 4 on guard remained.
I easily snuck past them and under Zahra's personal wagon planning on entering the same way as last time, only this time, there was no easy access hole or any gaps in the wood. It seemed to be meticulously crafted with extra care taken to not allow people like me in. Zahra was a lot of things, but a fool wasn't one of them. I guess that is what actually having money buys you. . . Who knew?
I worked my way up and around it, but the whole thing was solid. As I stood on the roof in front of my last resort for a quiet entry, I began to have second thoughts on whether or not this needed to happen "right now".
The fact of the matter was. . . She more or less killed my brother and I couldn't let that go. Without further hesitation, I jumped down the opening to the internal fireplace, which just so happened to be lit at the moment. I plunged through the smoke and at the last second, kicked off the wall of the fireplace and out the opening, narrowly avoiding the flames. All while managing to stay silent, I landed on the floor with a roll and surveyed the room.
It was as cluttered with jewels and precious artifacts as I imagined it would be. Both walls, up to the ceiling. She also had a desk along one side, with piles of scrolls on it. I knew they were bounty posters and ledgers. I had had my face forcefully plastered to my own ledger a few times in my day as a reminder of my debt
The room was dim, but across the wagon I could hear Zahra. Her voice was coming from her bed. I stayed on the floor so she wouldn't see me approach, then climbed a dresser opposite her desk and there she was.
In the time it had taken for me to gain access to her wagon, she had stripped off her clothes and was lying on her bed completely naked. Her ebony skin glowing in the candle light. It was immediately clear what the noise was. There was an empty cage next to her and in her hand was a human woman.
Zahra's cries and moans of pleasure rose and fell as the woman was pushed and pulled into her hungry snatch. The more she screamed and fought, the more Zahra enjoyed herself and it wasn't long before she shook the wagon with her climax. Breathing heavily, she cast the woman aside like garbage before laying back and dousing the main lamp closest to Her, taking half the light with her.
I waited. Waited in the dark. And as I waited, my soul began to burn. Just seeing Zahra. . .so calm. . . So unphased after ripping apart my family. . . My desire to see her dead was becoming unbearable.
But it didn't feel like only. . . . MY desire.
It was as if I was only along for the ride. A passenger on the path to the same destination, but not ultimately the driving force.
I had only felt this way one other time in my life.
Moments later, I was overcome by the feeling and the next thing I knew, my blade was drawn and I was looking down her edge at my brother's executioner.
She lay motionless.
Defenseless.
Unsuspecting.
Asleep.
Everything about this was against the warriors code, but I knew I could not fight it. She had gone too far. Taken the one person in this world I would do anything for. The one constant positive in my dishonest, drunken, degenerate existence.
It was time.
The goddess was willing it so.
Without warning or prayer, my sword glowed green as I was made to lift it. It hung there for a moment, perhaps accentuating my lack of control over my own body before I dropped the blade.
With a splatter of blood across the back wall. . . And just like that. . .
Zahra was gone.
And just as quickly, the possessing force was gone as well and I was left alone with what I'd done. Zahra's lifeless body. . . A massive gash down her entire left side. Her bed, the wall. . . . Both soaked in blood.
All of it. . . All of this. . . It felt so much more empty than I thought it would. . . But then. . .
Like water receding before a tidal wave, the power of the death goddess came rushing back and over my soul stronger than I had ever felt it. But this time. . . It felt different. . Not the usual sensation of the energy being a. . . Loan of sorts, this time it felt like a gift. Like my whole body was now permanently stronger, but I couldn't linger in the experience. I needed to go.
I sheathed my sword and was just about to jump down from the dresser, when a faint but very familiar voice called my name.
"Ant?. . Is. . .is that you?"
For the first time since I had climbed up, I noticed a row of cages along the top of her dresser. My focus had been too intense to see them there. . . . Cautiously, I stalked toward them in disbelief. There in the last cage to the right, was a figure standing behind the bars.
"Jacob?"
Giantess World
