The garden of the giant castle of Vandan was one of Lorek’s favourite places to spend time in. Not only was it private and secluded, being walled-off and inaccessible to anyone outside the castle (except on special occasions), but it was also an endlessly fascinating place to explore. It was filled with a dense forest of gigantic flowers, many of them larger than most regular trees were, as well as dozens of fruit and vegetable plants that supplied food to the castle’s two giant inhabitants: Queen Belena, who was Lorek’s wife, and her sister, Princess Sylvie. As one of the few places where giant-sized plants, among the last remnants of Vandan’s past glory, still flourished, he could spend hours in its confines, alone or in Belena’s company. Right now, he was by himself, testing his climbing skill on flower stems that grew fifty feet high, but he was soon joined by another person.
Queen Belena came wandering into the garden from the castle door. Towering nearly sixty yards high and breathtakingly beautiful, she was the love of Lorek’s life, and he of hers. They had both been teenagers when, in quick succession, they had met, fallen in love and gotten married, but neither of them regretted what many in the kingdom thought was an impulsive start to a relationship. Now that they were both in their early twenties, there were still days where they felt like immature schoolchildren who were only beginning to understand their feelings of attraction to each other. This was made more complicated by the fact that she was both an immense giantess, capable of subduing an entire human army by herself if she was called upon to do so, and (since the death of her mother and abdication of her father) the sole ruler of a mighty realm. But such things mattered little to Lorek, who only wished to be her loving husband, in whom she could confide and with whom she could spend all her intimate hours. By birth a lowly peasant and no bigger than her thumb, he always thought it a miracle that a girl like Belena could fall in love with a boy like him. But she had, and the two of them couldn’t be happier in each other’s company.
It had been a long day for Belena, travelling around her kingdom’s towns and villages and attending to their inhabitants’ needs and complaints. Now that it was evening and she had returned home, she too enjoyed spending a while in her garden, before the time came for preparing supper. She and Lorek had the castle all to themselves for some time now: her father Alban, the previous king, now dwelt in his home city of Elgon, amongst the people whom he’d known since childhood, and he only came to visit his daughter and son-in-law occasionally, to catch up on what had been happening in their lives and to give Belena some much-needed advice for governing her subjects. As for her younger siblings, Valdan and Sylvie, they had both set off on journeys to see the unknown regions of the world, and she hadn’t heard any news from either of them in many weeks. She couldn’t help but be afraid for them, especially since her mother, Queen Valerie, had lost her own life while on just such an excursion into the unknown. But she also couldn’t leave Vandan behind and go looking for them, a task which could take months or years, while leaving her kingdom leaderless and defenceless. Being queen was a full-time, demanding job, and there were many days when Belena wished that the role of sovereign had gone to someone else instead of her.
Wrapped up in such thoughts, she didn’t notice her miniscule husband’s approach. Lorek saw her sit down on the bench in the garden and decided to surprise her. He snuck up to her feet underneath the cover of the colossal stone bench on which she sat. Her immense leather boots rose above him as he crept between her two feet. Since he’d spent the last few hours practicing his climbing abilities on the flowers in the garden, scrambling up the front of her left boot was a piece of cake. He grabbed onto the bottom of the dress she wore, inserting his fingers in-between the strands of the cloth it was woven from. Now he just had to climb up forty feet to reach her knees, where the flat expanse of her lap would make for easier ground to cover.
A few minutes later, an exhausted Lorek pulled himself over the final obstacle of his wife’s knee and rolled down into her soft lap. Belena noticed him at once and immediately plucked him up with two of her fingers. She squeezed his whole upper body into her lips for a loving kiss, before letting him relax in her cupped hands as she held him against her breast.
“Hello, my dearest,” she said softly, caressing him with her fingers. “I’m sorry, I suppose I should have asked if you wanted me to grab you like that…or were you planning on climbing the rest of me as well?”
“No, not really. I was just trying to be sneaky and surprise you, that’s all. How was your day?”
“Exhausting, as usual,” Belena said, giving a tired laugh. “Lots of walking around and visiting all the towns in the area, you know? I had to go all the way to Nevlor today and help repair some damage caused when their river flooded a few weeks back. Still, it was a nice walk, and I met some of my mother’s old friends who now live there, so I managed to take some time to chat as well.”
“You really should also take some time off to rest, Belena my love. You’ve been so busy these last few weeks, I only get to see you early mornings and late evenings nowadays.”
“You’re right, and I wish I could…but I’d just feel so…so guilty!” she confessed. “I can’t remember Mom ever complaining about how much work she had to do when she was queen, and here I am, trying to be as good a ruler as she was, which I’ll never be...”
“Oh, sweetheart, you know that’s not true! We both know your mother would be so proud of how you’re following in her footsteps, even though she never intended you to become queen already at this age. Belena…you’re doing great…no, you’re doing better than great. You’re doing…splendidly!”
“Oh, thank you, my little sugarplum!” she said, instantly cheered up by how earnest he sounded. She knew, deep down, that she was doing the best she could as Vandan’s new ruler, and that her mother would indeed have been proud of her, had she still been alive. She also had rarely heard any complaints or grievances from any of her subjects, although she was always explicit in telling them to let her know if they did have any problems with her. But she had nevertheless always looked up to her mother with the greatest awe and admiration, and she had always doubted that she’d be able to live up to that image of Valerie she’d formed for herself.
“Let’s go inside, what do you say?” Lorek said, hugging himself firmly against her bosom. “It’s getting dark already, and pretty soon it’ll start getting cold too.”
“Good idea. I’ll make us a small supper, then I’ll light a fire in our room upstairs, and then I promise I’ll try and relax!”
As it was autumn, it had been getting dark earlier each night for a couple of months now. Lorek didn’t like this time of the year, but Belena loved it. She especially enjoyed watching the leaves on the giant trees change colour and fall, blanketing the ground around the castle and the adjoining village of Rismark and creating quite a sight to behold for its human inhabitants. For Lorek, however, the splendours of the natural world paled in comparison to the beauty of the woman he had married. He could spend an entire day on her shoulder, wrapping himself up in her hair and whispering into her ear, and be as happy as anyone could be.
Supper for the royal couple was usually a very simple meal consisting of vegetables and fruits from the castle garden, and on rare occasions Belena would be given a gift of meat from one or another of her subjects, usually in the form of an entire livestock animal, or even several. On these occasions, she would enlist the help of skilled cooks from Rismark in helping her prepare such a meal, since she herself wasn’t too familiar with cooking and preparing meat dishes. Recently, however, her mealtime options had become more varied. Working with the sap from the area’s giant-sized trees as well as their seeds and fruits, a pair of alchemists dwelling in Rismark had managed to create an elixir which could cause any plant or plant-based food to enlarge in size, until it was large in proportion with Vandan’s giant lifeforms. This meant not only that more food could potentially be produced, helping to alleviate famine in times of want, but also allowed Belena and Sylvie the chance to try out new foods, such as bread, sugar, spices and many others, that they could not get from their garden. The elixir was, however, extremely costly and difficult to produce, so the two giantesses didn’t hoard it for their personal use, only using it when needed. Sylvie had taken a vial along with her on her travels, to prevent her from ever having to go hungry while she was away from home. Belena had a couple of vials too, which she used whenever she was in the mood for something out-of-the-ordinary.
Belena sat at the supper table, with Lorek sitting on top of it right next to her room-sized dinner plate, and watched the candlelight flicker on the walls around her – and she felt a twinge of loneliness, as she had often done these past few weeks. She had grown up in a household of five, which later became six when Lorek joined them, but now she and her husband were the only ones who remained in the castle. Her father Alban came and visited every now and then, but not often enough for her liking, and she longed for the return of her little brother and sister. Lorek caught her staring off into space, her meal still half uneaten. He stood up from the little table where he sat and walked over to Belena’s right hand. Then he took hold of her index finger and squeezed it as hard as he could.
“They’ll be back soon, darling,” he said to her, and she glanced down at him in surprise. “They won’t be gone forever, you know that. I miss them too, but I know they’ll be back someday soon.”
“Oh, Lorek, I do hope you’re right! This castle feels so cold and empty without them, and without Daddy, and without…”
She sniffed and blinked back the tears that came when she thought of her mother, and Lorek squeezed her finger twice as hard. Even though it had been over a year since Valerie’s heroic death, Belena couldn’t shake the feelings of grief that came whenever she thought of her. Lorek knew that his wife’s suffering was twofold – from Valerie’s death and from her own constant worrying that she’ll never be as good a ruler as her mother had been. He wished there was something more he could do to help, but all of his previous ideas had seemed to be of no help at all. Nevertheless, he once again tried his luck and came up with another suggestion.
“I think we need to leave this place for a bit,” he said, as Belena lifted him up to her chest and pressed him firmly against its soft embrace. “Why don’t you and I go for a little journey, just the two of us, in the lands outside Vandan? That will give you a chance to see more of the world yourself, just like Sylvie and Valdan are doing – and, who knows, maybe it’ll make you feel better too.”
“But…what about here? What about Vandan? I can’t just leave and abandon my responsibilities, just because I feel like taking a holiday! What kind of ruler would that make me?”
“It would make you just like everyone else, Belena. You’ve been working as hard as anyone possibly can these last few months, keeping the lands sae and looking after the people’s needs, and the people know it. They’ll understand that you need to take some time off and relax. I’m sure your father wouldn’t mind ruling in your place for a few weeks, just until you return. He’s certainly not too old to take over, far from it – he doesn’t even have any grey hairs yet!”
Belena couldn’t help but giggle.
“You…you’re right, my dearest little Lorek,” she said, giving him an appreciative kiss. “See how much you mean to me? Without you in my life, I’d be sitting here every night, feeling miserable, with no-one to talk to and no-one to cheer me up. All right, it’s settled then. Tomorrow morning, I’ll send a messenger to Daddy in Elgon and let him know of our plans… no, I’ll go there myself and tell him. I’m sure he’ll understand too.”
“Of course, he will. He loves you just as much as I’ve ever seen any parent love their child.”
“Thank you, Lorek. Come on, let’s head upstairs and go to bed. I’m not so hungry tonight. Then you can come up with some more lovely things to say about me.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I’ve got plenty more!”
Lorek rarely felt as happy as when he was lying in-between Belena’s breasts as she lay in bed, his miniscule naked body dwarfed by his wife’s shapely contours. He knew he was in the safest place on Earth in her bosom, her delicate fingers caressing him and touching him all over, but never hurting him. Her radiant body heat and her sweet perfume were all he could feel and smell, and it was heavenly. He couldn’t imagine leaving her for a girl of normal size, nor did she ever think that she would have preferred a man who was the same size as she was. The romantic spell that had come over Alban and Valerie and made them fall deeply in love with each other had now been passed on to their daughter and her true love as well. Belena drew her blankets closer around her, sighing with pleasure as she felt Lorek roll around in the depths of her cleavage. She could do so many things with him that no ordinary woman could ever do with her own lover. Without Lorek in her life, she thought, she wouldn’t want to carry on, on her own. She promised herself never to let him go.
Giantess World
Story Notes:
This story follows on after Chronicles of Vandan: Far From Home.