The euphoria was short lived. The lovely little city that Raquel remembered was now in ruins and the smell of burning flesh filled the air. Why did I delay? she asked herself.
“Final report?” The king asked Sinclair.
“4,100 dead, most of them civilians, 6,000,000 more wounded, most of them are not expected to live long.”
Raquel couldn’t hold back her tears any longer and while she didn’t sob, the tone of her voice was considerably melancholy.
“I can’t stay here.” she said.
“Raquel, wait!” cried the king. “Do you think it’s possible more of your kind could help us?”
“I’m not sure,” replied Raquel. “Most of our contact with humanity has been with the Sturmgewehr, but then again my father is a member of parliament and has been known for pioneering charitable causes so maybe there is a chance.”
“Can I see him now?” he asked her.
“But what about the people?” Sinclair asked.
“If we don’t get help soon the people will die here. Now while we’re gone, all the wounded need to be treated at once and have all doctors put to work on the wounded at once, create makeshift shelters if you have to.”
“Yes sir,” replied Sinclair.
Raquel then picked up the king in her hand and walked off with him.
The trip was rather dull despite the sights the king witnessed. However when they came to a familiar lakeside, the king looked at Raquel’s face and said, “Keep going, don’t stop.” But 10 seconds latter, she stopped.
“Just keep going!” he snapped.
“Wait,” replied Raquel. “Just listen.” The king humored her but then discovered what she was talking about. There was this beautifully melancholy tune that seemed to be played on a wind instrument.
“Oh my, that is lovely,” said the king. “It sound Elvish.”
“I believe it is.”
She kneeled down and crept close to the source of the music. The king hopped off her shoulder and followed. Near where Marlon was buried, they saw an Elf playing a pan flute. The Elf was tall and lanky with black hair. He wore green, white and red hunting clothes and had a bow and an arrow sack over his left shoulder.
“It’s Pixitatonolous,” said the king in amazement. Raquel gave the king a confused glance.
“He was a friend of Marlon, everyone else likes to call him Pixis for short.”
“Oh yes, I remember Marlon talking about him once.”
“Stay here.”
The king slowly walked over to him.
“Oh,” said Pixis. “Lord Tillinghast, this is a pleasant surprise.” And with that, he put away his pan flute.
“I wish we’d meet somewhere more pleasant than here,” replied the king.
“What are you doing here?”
“The Sturmgewehr have devastated my kingdom and I’m going to seek help from the giants.”
“The giants, why them?”
“Marlon was in love with one of them,” he turned to Raquel and said, “You can come forward.”
Raquel got up and stepped over to the two of them.
“Raquel, meet Pixis, Pixis, meet Raquel” said the king happily.
“Hi,” said Raquel. Pixis was speechless. He loved to think of himself as a classy ladies’ man but he had one weakness, redheads, especially if they were much larger than him.
“You look tense,” said the king.
“It’s just the wind,” replied Pixis. “It’s kind of chilly.”
“What wind?” the king asked.
“Well, never mind that,” said Pixis quickly. “Can I join you?”
“I guess you can,” said Raquel, “but why?”
“Why not?” replied Pixis. “You could use the company.” Raquel could tell that the Elf was infatuated with her so she thought to herself, Might as well, I don’t want this guy stalking me.
“Let’s go,” she said and placed the two of them on her right shoulder.
The trek continued to an extinct volcano. Raquel climbed halfway up the volcano and came to an entrance in the middle of the rock face and entered. The cave was lit only by small lanterns but they did give off enough light for the three of them to see. She made her way down the cave until she finally stopped at the cliff edge and said, “Well, here’s home.”
Her two passengers looked and gawked at an enormous crater that law before them. The crater was 525 meters deep and 1200 meters in diameter with the mouth of the volcano looming above it. Buildings, be they houses, factories or businesses, were carved into the wall of the crater and the very bottom was a majestic palace that unlike all the other buildings was actually built with marble and ivory instead of carved from the rock of the crater.
“This is amazing!” said Pixis in astonishment.
“Indeed,” said the king, “but how do we get down?”
“Easy,” replied Raquel. She grabbed a rope that was attached to the edge of the cliff and pulled it up. At the end of the rope was a harness. She then put it on her, let the rope slip down the chasm and then positioned herself on the edge of the crater.
“Isn’t there a safer way to do this?” asked the king.
“Sorry,”” replied Raquel, “but it’s the only way.”
“And your people have this sort of equipment lying around?” snapped the king.
“It’s a necessity,” said Raquel. “Now hang on!” She stuffed her two companions in her cleavage. Se then pushed her self off the edge of the canyon and rapelled down. She repeated the process nine more times and while the king was struck with fear, Pixis’s mind was clouded by the euphoria of his surroundings. She finally landed on another ledge but this time there was flight of stairs that lead into the city. She took off the harness and looked down in her cleavage.
“Are you ok?” she asked as she picked her friends out of her cleavage.
“Well, I’m alive,” said the king. Raquel needed no answer from Pixis, the look on his face that was somewhere between cheeky and horny was the only answer she needed from him. Raquel made her way down the stairs and while she felt at home, the king was in awe of the size of the buildings. An ordinary house here could be a mansion in any human kingdom. When they got to the 12th ring of houses, she turned to the right and made her way down to the 7th house. She opened the door and stepped in.
“Mom?” she called out.
From out of another room in the house came a much older giantess, her hair was black with evidence that it was going grey, she was also a little bit shorter than Raquel and had lovely green eyes.
“Oh honey,” she cried. “Where have you been? First you vanish for three days, then you come and you’re traumatized, and as if the things couldn’t get any worse, I go to wake you up and you’re not in your bedroom!”
“Sorry, Mom, it’s long a story.”
“It better be truthful,” she replied and looked into her daughter’s cleavage.
“Who are they?” she asked in surprise.
“Oh,” gasped Raquel and quickly plucked her friends out.
“I’ll let them introduce themselves,” said Raquel.
“Hello, my lady,” said the king. “I’m Rupert Tillinghast.”
“And I’m Pixitatonolous Karmantocoth the 75th.”
“Well,” replied the older giantess. “I must say, it’s nice meet you but that’s beside the point. Where were you, dear?”
Before Raquel could say anything, the door opened again and in stepped a male giant who was a little bit older than Raquel’s mother, with a receding hairline, blue eyes and glasses.
“Well,” he said deadpan. “Raqqy’s back.”
“Hi dad,” replied Raquel meekly.
“And we have some visitors I see,” he continued.
Raquel’s friends quickly introduced themselves to her father.
“Nice to meet you two,” he said. “My name is Harlan and see you’ve already met my wife Valerie.” He then turned to his daughter.
“Now,” said Valerie. “Give me that explanation you promised.”
Raquel told them everything that happened to her, the capture, her relationship with Marlon and other humans, the tragedy that had befallen Marlon and his father, why she went back and the king’s plea for help. Her parents were speechless.
“Well,” said Harlan. “I’m sorry about what happened to your son, Rupert, and I promise you I’ll do what I can to help your people.”
“Harlan,” said Valerie nervously. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves now.”
“What’s wrong with helping out another species in a crisis?” Harlan protested.
“Nothing,” she replied. “But shouldn’t we let the humans sort this out themselves.” She then turned to Rupert and said meekly, “No offense”
“None taken,” the king replied.
“Valerie,” said Harlan, “this may well concern every civilization known to this world and that includes us.”
“Thanks, dad,” said Raquel. “I was afraid you’d say no.”
“Why would I? Judging from your story it sounds like what’s left of Rupert’s kingdom could potentially fall into chaos. That could be quite dangerous both to his people and the outside world and I think you and we have a responsibility that your land goes through a stable transition of reconstruction.”
“You sound like you’ve seen stuff like this before,” said Pixis.
“I have,” replied Harlan, “Several times as matter of fact.”
“Really?” asked Rupert in astonishment.
“Really,” said Harlan. “Before our kind came to the point we are now, our government was once a very corrupt monarchy. The middle and working classes were suffering from over work and disease but rulers refused to help them. They were consumed in their own private perfect little world. However the people started a revolution and took the government down by force. But even though the elite was taken down, the workers became elite thus creating a new generation of depressed workers who in time started their own revolution and this scenario of the workers becoming the very people they hate repeated itself for three centuries until it reached a point that left our homeland in shambles at the mercy of another corrupt system of government. But finally a small group of people, my wife and I included, decided to have a non violent revolution this time. We staged protests, gave speeches and before we knew it things started to change. The government started to reform itself into a democracy and to make a long story short I became a senator of the parliament and we started having close relationships with other races such as the Elves and the Dwarves.”
“That’s quite a story,” replied Rupert
“I wouldn’t want any other race to go through the centuries of hell my people went through,” finished Harlan.
“Again, Dad,” said Raquel. “I can’t thank you enough for supporting this cause”
“It won’t be easy getting parliament to help you but I promise I will do all that I can.”
Klaus’s battered army entered the gates of their home city Sterminus. As they passed through its magnificent expansive streets, Klaus noticed that his people were peering out their windows and looked at them with concern, uncertainty and doubt.
Klaus turned to the armored car’s driver and barked, “Take me to the Fortress at once.”
The driver nodded and cautiously maneuvered through the city and went directly to the center of it.
The Fortress was distinguished by the 500 ft. pyramid that served as both a home to the ruling body of chancellors (which Klaus was part of) and as command center for planning military strategies as well with dealing with local affairs. Beneath the pyramid were barracks and armories for the Sturmgewehr’s growing military force. The car stopped and Klaus promptly exited the vehicle, where he was immediately greeted by Maximilian Molotov the chancellor of information.
“What happened, Klaus?” he asked.
“I was humiliated again by that oversized bitch,” Klaus growled, “and to make matters worse our people may be starting to doubt us, we cannot let that happen.”
“What do you wish me to say to them?” Maximilian asked.
“I don’t care,” snapped Klaus and he marched into the fortress where he ran into his chief military strategist Carlos Kaman.
“Oh sir,” he said. “It’s good to se—”
“Not now,” barked Klaus. “I’m not in the mood.”
“But I do have good news.”
“Well, let’s hear it.” said Klaus.
“The 67th bomber squadron reported that they’re inbound to Argena.”
“Well, that is good news,” said Klaus in a pleased tone. “Prepare a battalion of soldiers to take care of any survivors.”
Raquel exited the volcano with her two tiny companions on her shoulder and a large sack of food that her mother gave her for the king’s people. She made her way down the mountain and was about to head back to the king’s homeland when Pixis abruptly announced, “I’m off” and slid down her body to the ground.
“You’re going home?” Raquel asked.
“Right, I have to meet family in Argena for supper.”
“You want me to give you a ride home?” she asked again.
“No thanks,” Pixis replied. “I’ll head back on my own.” As he waved goodbye, Raquel and the king waved back and headed off back to the kingdom.
When they arrived the horrific smell was gone but the sense of hopelessness remained.
Raquel gathered some scattered wood into a pile, poured some powder from a few artillery shell casings on the pile, and rubbed two shards of metal together. Sparks flew and the fire started. Raquel took out a frying pan and dish from her sack and began cooking food for the victims. When she had enough well cooked food on the dish she presented it to the humans who were huddled together in overcrowded hospitals shelters made out of beams and planks of wood. The humans now looked at her as if she was God incarnate and they grabbed at the food.
“One at a time,” Raquel ordered polity and they reluctantly obeyed. When the plate was empty, she went to fix up another batch. As she was making it she overheard the king talking to someone and it sounded urgent.
“Is anything wrong?” she asked him. The king stepped over to her.
“Sinclair tells me the wounded Sturmgewehr soldiers we captured are not responding to our interrogators and I fear we my have to take drastic steps to get information out of them.”
“There’s one who’s a practically fine nuisance named Claude Reinhart,” added Sinclair who was at the king’s side. “He simply refuses to speak and on the occasions he does speak, it’s always an insult.”
“Perhaps I can help,” replied Raquel. “Let me finish up with this batch and I’ll talk to him.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” asked Sinclair.
“Don’t worry, I have an idea but I need a chessboard to make it work.”
Pixis’s journey was more or less as he expected it to be, uneventful and the pleasant sunset seemed to punctuate the feeling perfectly. But the feeling of tranquility came to an end when just above the horizon he saw plumes of black smoke coming from where Argena was located. His heart began to race, and he began to pick up speed. The sound of airplanes roared overhead and he began to pick up the pace again. As Argena came into view, Pixis’s feelings of hopelessness grew stronger. The once magnificent iron and glass skyscrapers that dominated the kingdom’s skyline were reduced to metallic burned out stumps with smoke coming out of them. Fire dominated the smaller buildings and the mighty rock wall that protected the people was now playing a part in their suffering. Pixis collapsed to the ground and screamed at the heavens in sorrow and rage.
Giantess World
