The War Between the Giants and the Humans was an unexpectedly short conflict. The giants were so evidently physically superior to humans that their Emperor thought it would obviously be an easy conquest. But what was thought to be the apocalyptic end of Humanity turned out to be a proof of human resilience, ingenuity and cunning.
First, while the giants constituted a single unified empire, a single political unity, the humans fought in a coalition of more than fifty independent political unites, from kingdoms to dukedoms and counties and city states. The giants could conquer a city and the humans simply fell back to another of their territories and waited to take it again. Human assassins would dispatch a giant general and their advance would halt by months. A thousand human generals could die in battle and ten thousand more would replace them.
The humans outnumbered the giants a thousand to one and used their numbers as an advantage. The giants, being slow and imprecise in their movements, could not keep up with the agile human armies. Human mages cast their spells from mobile chariots that could outrun even the faster of giants, as they lacked cavalry. Human pegasus riders could land in the shoulders of the giant soldiers, and quickly strike at an exposed artery with poisoned blades, bringing the titanic soldier a swift death.
While the giants made great initial advances, they soon found out that the war wasn't developing exactly in their favour. The giant nobles, who made up the entire body of the army's officers, were growing impatient with the Emperor and were also growing tired of seeing their favourite sons and daughters returning in coffins, their necks struck by poisoned human blades.
The Human Coalition's leader, King Theodoric, was keenly aware of that. He realized that the humans could win the fight just by keeping a policy of fierce resistance and soon the giant nobles would force the invasion to stop, either through politicking around the court of the Emperor, or through civil war.
What happened wasn't exactly what Theodoric had expected, but it was certainly favoured by the humans. A certain noble, part of the general staff of the Emperor and known for her constant opposition to the Emperor's foul war policy staged a coup supported by the nobles, killed the emperor and sent the royal family into exile. Her name was Alais of Thera, and after the coup rejected the title of Empress, opting instead for that of 'Regent' and refused to sit on the throne and occupy the royal palace.
Alais ordered the army to retreat to their consolidated positions in the human realms and immediately sent diplomats to the Coalition. Citing her “wish to end the senseless conflict between our peoples, born from the lunacy of an incompetent ruler” she offered the humans peace.
The giants would retreat their armies back to their empire, and immediately end the occupation of human lands. Humans and Giants would respect each other’s territories from now on, and, as a show of good faith, they would exchange hostages. Alais offered the young prince, heir to the throne, and demanded in turn, the heir of Theodoric.
The King knew what was going on, Alais simply wanted to get rid of the prince to secure her own position, her wanting his heir, in turn, was just a logical way to make it seem more like a deal instead of a dirty political move. Yet, there was something more to it...
Alais was known to “like” humans, Theodoric only knew the broad strokes and rumours, but as far as he knew, the Regent didn’t think lowly of the humans. And while she wasn't stopping the war because she disagreed on the Emperor's view on humans but merely because she knew the war was impossible to eventually win, and while she was fairly diplomatic and seemed to respect the humans, there was no way of knowing exactly what she liked of humans. Would she use the hostage situation to gain an ally, a friend or a pet?
However, stopping the war was his upmost priority, and besides... his heir was... well...
She was vile.
Princess Gwyndolin was a known manipulator, seducer, schemer... some even said the girl was pure evil.
She had destroyed at least four friendships in the court, caused no less than seven duels over her hand (she never crowned a winner though) and it was said that in one occasion planted evidence of adultery in one of her rival's room, just to gain a hook on them. Had Gwyndolin done it to secure her position as heir or just for fun? Theodoric believed his daughter to be no sociopath, after all, who didn't scheme in a royal court? But he swore there was something more to Gwyndolin...
So when the day came, after they rode to the border, after he had exchanged pleasantries with Alais, after he had signed the treaty to thunderous applause of a crowd of giants in one side and humans in the other, while he was riding back to his lands without his daughter but with a gigantic prince at his back he thought:
“Have it your way Alais! Have your pet, but beware, left unchecked, you yourself might become a servant of the Princess!”
This is the story of Princess Gwyndolin and Alais of Thera, of how they lived, of the challenges both endured, the bonds they forged and mostly, how they both fought, seemingly unendlessly, needlessly, and to some observers fruitlessly and stupidly, to define who truly was the Master, and who was the Pet.
Alais of Thera sat stoically in her seat on the carriage. She was a commanding presence and she knew it. Her pristine black military uniform, adorned with medals and insignias, impressed both giants and humans in the audience in the peace treaty ceremony. She proudly noticed how people stared in awe at her, as if she was some sort of goddess among mortals, and that feeling was not kept just to the humans.
But, she liked the humans. Her colleagues referred to her as "open minded", and that was because after a general had dared call her a "human lover" and insinuate her motives to stop the war were born of her feelings towards the human race he was challenged to a duel by Alais herself. As a result, she won another scar and the man that insulted her lost two fingers, several teeth, and his pride.
“Ah, but the human king was hardly impressed” she thought, lightly annoyed. “Although he seemed almost relieved at me taking his daughter away...”
Truly, Alais found herself thinking a lot of the Human Princess. While she had seen plenty of their kind before, this individual was the first time she had seen human royalty, and the Princess played her role well.
She was unflinching, yet gentle. She was also strangely humble. The dress she had chosen for the occasion was a simple, black dress; she wasn't covered in jewelry, wearing only a diadem indicating her status and a ring with her family's emblem. She kept her hair, as black as her dress, short. And while Alais couldn't quite see them due to their size difference, her eyes were plagued by big, black eye bags. “The poor thing has not been sleeping well of lately” she thought. Alais couldn't help but to catch a glance on her from time to time, she felt almost captivated by her.
On the other side of the luxurious carriage was a cold, professional maid, diligently holding a silver plate in one hand. On said plate, a miniature sofa with a tea table was placed for the Princess. Unbeknown to the red haired giant, Gwyndolin had spent most of the journey taking a mental note on Alais’ behaviour, mannerisms and personality.
“She keeps her hair long to hide the battle scars in her face. And to partially cover the eye patch hiding her empty eye socket, does she feel ashamed of her wounds?” Wondered the Princess. She sat with a boorish look on her eyes, glancing at the giant Tyrant briefly time after time, methodically discrete as to not draw her attention. She waited, looking at the window from here vantage point at the maid's silver plate, not even slightly impressed at the giant landscape. Then, she saw Alais moving from the corner of her eye, and took another glance at her, almost instinctively.
Both had not said a word to each other since introducing themselves at the ceremony. Gwyndolin didn't want to make the first move, didn't want to beg the giant for a conversation. Alais, on her part, didn't want to start with an awkward line about the weather, the landscape or something, the Princess was a hostage, Alais understood that she might not be in a rather talkative mood, and simply looked at the landscape for a while, waiting for an opportunity to at least get to know the human.
Gwyndolin caught the Regent staring through the window and took the chance to study her behaviour again. And in a split second, the regent turned her only working eye to her hostage. They were now effectively staring at each other.
“Shit!” thought the princess “Shit! Shit! SHIT! She baited me! Now that we're exchanging glances this way I am forced to say something!”
Alais smirked “Why, are you too distracted by my looks, little one?”
The tone, the confidence, the way she had skipped all formalities, not addressing her as “Princess” but as “Little One”, it demolished Gwyndolin. The Princess fell back into her mind, cornered. She could, most of the times, dismiss such a comment by use of clever sarcasm, but not with her. This one was no lowly knight or drunk noble, but the ruler of an Empire, a talented military woman, a warrior... and she was many, many times her size.
But Gwyndolin didn't give in to despair, she had to respond, if she did not, if she cowarded, Alais would certainly think “Ah, the human can't even take me being a little smug! She flinches at the slightest provocation! She will make a good pet!”. And the princess wouldn't have that.
“I was just wondering, how did you lose that eye?” Said the Princess, tasting the perfection of her attack. She had not only dodged the question, she had maneuvered through Alais' dumb insult and struck at a topic the Regent was probably uncomfortable with, why would she cover the eyepatch then?
The giant face, once overflowing in confidence, tensed just a little bit, reflecting confusion. “Yes!” thought Gwyndolin “My attack is almost complete, now, giant Tyrant, take the bait...”
Alais' mouth was about to pronounce a slightly confused “What?”, Gwyndolin noticed it, and took the chance to speak over her and to deliver her final charge.
“I was just wondering, it is not often you see a ruler maimed”
The Giant sighed, the human had an attitude. “By the gods! She is as cute as a mouse, as venomous as a snake...”
Alais resisted to say, even if it was just the inner voice in her head: she's my type.
Gwyndolin relaxed a bit, as long as she could keep the giant at bay verbally she could in a way overcome the overwhelming physical differences between the two, and that way ensure that she wouldn't be seen as a small pet.
“Well” said the giant. “If you're so curious, little one, let me tell you how it happened, it's actually a fun anecdote, though a little embarrassing...”
The princess smiled confidently. “Please do te-“ but was interrupted as a giant gloved hand snatched her from the comfort of the miniature sofa in the maid's plate.
She felt the world turning, spinning, she held tightly to the black leather that was holding her. Then dark, just the smell and the texture of leather and muffled sounds of the carriage, and then light. She scouted her surroundings, the altitude had changed and she could see the maid's cold, bored eyes, far, far from where she was sitting. Gwyndolin put two and two together and the result terrified her.
As of now her only interactions with giants were indirect. Alais' maid had set the plate with the sofa in the table where the treaty was signed and waited for her to sit down to actually move. She had accessed the table through a small elevator. But this, as she now realized, was the first time a giant had grabbed her.
She looked up; Alais was looking at her the same way a small girl looked at an injured small animal.
“Sorry if I scared you Little Princess, but this is way more comfortable and I like to tell my stories in a comfortable way” Said the giant.
Gwyndolin didn't really catch that, as she was still processing what just happened.
SHE GRABBED ME she thought SHE GRABBED ME SHE GRABBED ME
"As I was saying, it all started when I was putting down a rebellion in the Northern provinces, a noble by the name of..."
“SHE PICKED ME UP LIKE A MOUSE”
“...at least two infantry regiments of his private army when...”
“A LIVING DOLL, SHE THINKS OF ME NO MORE THAN A LITTLE LIVING DOLL”
“...now for some reason northern pikes are made significantly longer than...”
“A DOLL A DOLL A DOLL A DO-“
“Hey.” Came the voice from above.
Gwyndolin was brought back down on reality.
“Huh?” She said, in a meeker tone than intended.
“You were not paying attention.” said the giant, almost in a scolding tone.
“I...” tried to say Gwyndolin, but even now that she snapped back from her catastrophic panic words didn't come our easily.
Suddenly, the giant brought a hand to her mouth, suppressing a concerned intake. “By the Gods! I DID scare you!”
“You... yes... a bit” said Gwyndolin.
“Oh, little one, I am so sorry!” said Alais, Gwyndolin knew that she was genuinely concerned, and the thought lingered in her mind when the giant brought her to her chest, as if hugging her.
“I really didn't meant to Princess, I... am not used to humans that's all, it is hard to measure one's relative strength compared to you.”
Gwyndolin didn't answer. She thanked her face was partially blocked by the giant pair of hands for she was a red, sweaty mess. The care she was feeling from the giant, the warmth of her hands, even her smell... it was almost enthralling.
“You... you are forgiven..., it's nothing, don't worry about it”
Alais sighed of relief and relaxed her arms, however...
She enjoyed the feeling of having the Princess that close to her chest.
Gwyndolin didn't want to admit that it felt good too. But also didn't want to be awkward and ask Alais to return her to her seat. The giant, on her part, didn't want to move the human without her permission, as to not scare her again.
Both had gridlocked themselves into waiting for the other to say something.
And, unintentionally, they spent the entire afternoon that way, until they reached Alais' mansion.
And Gwyndolin couldn't shake the feeling, as she cursed between her teeth, that in this situation, she was the scared little animal. For now, she was the pet.