Being alone in total darkness is a strange sensation. When one thinks about being alone in a dark room, they will usually imagine being in their bedroom at night. However, that is not total darkness. Even in the dead of night, the stars watch down on the Earth below. The moon lights up the night sky, providing a beacon to all who are lost and lonely. But when those lights disappear, when clouds blanket the entire sky, and hold back all light, that is when despair sets in. As Andrill sat alone in utter darkness, unable to even see a hand in front of his face, he could feel despair set in. The room he sat in was completely devoid of any light. It was a small room, enclosed on all sides, with walls so close together he could take no more than two steps before he touched another wall. Yet the darkness that surrounded him transported him from a simple hole in the wall, to an infinite abyss. He had spent many hours simply looking ahead, trying to decide if he could actually see a wall in front of him, or endless nothing. At times it was hard to tell if he were awake or asleep, as he slipped seamlessly between the two states. How many days had he been here? One? A few? Weeks? It was hard to tell. Mistress Rhaolin came periodically to give him minimal food and water, but he couldn’t tell how often. She never spoke to him, and only ever gave him enough to keep him relatively healthy.
The sensation was tiny, barely noticeable in fact. But Andrill had spent enough time around Titans to notice the beginning of the tremors that herald their approach. It’s an almost imperceptible little jolt, that you can just feel if you have your hand to the ground. It was rather remarkable what one could pick up with his other senses once his sense of sight had been taken away. Very slowly, and steadily the steps grew closer. The vibrations ceased when he could feel them in his chest. The sound of rustling fabric could be heard, before the slab of wood that had served as the wall to his right slid away, giving way to a wave of searing light.
The next few moments were painful for Andrill, who’d spent a great deal of time submerged in empty night, that his eyes couldn’t handle the drastic change. So much so that he barely felt himself being seized by an enormous hand, easily as big as his body, and even more easily capable of crushing it to pulp. When his vision had at last been restored, Andrill was greeted by the beautiful face of Mistress Rhaolin. The smug grin she wore as she gazed down at the tiny man in her hand made his skin crawl.
“Today, I shall begin to teach you of your true place in this world.” she murmured.
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CRACK!
CRACK!
CRACK!
By now the task had lost its rhythm as the ax struck the tree at irregular intervals. With heavy arms and a laborious chest, Annallya continued the swing at the tree with the ax that felt much heavier than when she had began. The tree she had been told to cut down was about two feet in diameter, and more than forty feet in height. It would have been pure child’s play to have snapped the trunk at her full Titan height, or even uproot it with her bare hands. However, Gaelin demanded that she remain at human size for all of his lessons. That had been reasonable for Annallya at the time, when she had agreed to his conditions. When she had originally sought Gaelin out for help, her mind was plagued by the thought of him seeing her as nothing but a monster, just as that family of travelers had almost a month ago. Looking back, she could still plainly see the terror etched on the faces of that kindly old man and the children with him. Facing her down, they all believed that they would have died in that moment, and it sickened her to contemplate.
Fortunately for Annallya, Gaelin kept her too busy for much thought. She had already been at this for some time, and had been doing other odd tasks earlier today. She had already hiked half a mile to the river for water three times, climbed numerous trees in search of specific fruit Gaelin referred to as peaches, and drilled in swordplay for hours. Her arms felt heavy, and her muscles were as raw as hot iron from a forge. Gaelin sat off to the side, washing the basket of peaches she had gathered, while he supervised her progress. His bow and quiver sat on the ground within easy reach, as he had been more than eager to demonstrate to her in the past his willingness to use arrows as motivation to not slack. They never grazed her, however they also seemed to always land far too close for comfort. As it was, Annallya continued hacking away at the tree in front of her. Pouring all of her weariness and frustration into her assault until there was no more left in her, and the tree finally fell with a thunderous crash. Now that the job had been finished, and she was allowed a moment of rest, Annallya could appreciate how truly tired she was. It had been like this for two weeks, an endless array of tasks that felt much more like chores than actual training. Running laps, hiking for water, gathering food, chopping firewood, digging pits, and all manner of heavy lifting. When she actually did practice swordplay, it was with a fireplace poker.
On her first day of official training, Gaelin had taken the practice sword Annallya had fashioned from tree branches, broken it in half, and threw them into his fireplace. He had then handed her the poker and demonstrated two different strikes to practice. Grip the handle in both hands, right hand above the left, and sweep downwards diagonally, and to the left. Then mirror the strike, but this time to the right. For the remainder of the day, Annallya had done nothing more than practice those same two strikes. All the while, she could barely contain her feelings of seeing her hard work and craftsmanship reduced to firewood. By the time the day had finished, the Titan had rehearsed those strikes at least 500 times. Her arms were more sore than any day in the Thylaran training ground, and yet Gaelin still had comments to make in regards to her foot placement and stance. It was all so aggravating, and the following two weeks were of much the same. Still, Annallya could not deny the strange sense of satisfaction that came with every completed task. This felt different from ordinary chores at home.
Annallya brushed the dust from her palms as she strode over to where Gaelin sat, munching on a peach. When she came within ten feet of him, he tossed her a plump one. Annallya took a moment to admire the exotic fruit. There were only a few fruits in the world that grew big enough for Titans to consider them berries. Anything smaller than that went by completely unnoticed by the full sized Titans. Annallya herself had no idea that there was fruit that grew this small. The outer texture felt much like velvet, and was colored in a way that reminded her of a sunset. At first, she wondered if this was even a fruit at all, but the smell of some sweet juice within, changed her mind. She bit into the strange fruit, and was greeted with a rush of flavor that helped to relieve her thirst. The taste was sweeter than anything she had ever eaten before in Thylara, though sugar is grown by Titans.
Gaelin casually tossed her a second peach, which she deftly caught. When Annallya looked at him quizzically, he answered “For the road.”
“Am I to take it that my chores are finished for the day?” she asked with a trace of half-hearted sarcasm. Rather than crack a smile, Gaelin took another bite of fruit and glanced at the freshly cut tree. Annallya was beginning to think these humans knew little of humor.
“Tomorrow, I’ll show you what you’ll be doing with that.” he answered.
“Will it have anything to do with swordplay? If all you are going to assign me is chores, then I cannot fathom what purpose I am serving here.” she said. “I could easily remain home and learn as much there.”
Rather than hurl a retort at her comments, Gaelin nodded in agreement. “Yeah, that’s always an option. Of course you’ll die at your first battle.”
“You know this to be a fact?” Annallya prodded.
“I do.” was all he said. Annallya waited for him to explain himself, but he only continued to enjoy his snack.
“Very well,” she said at last. “Then how am I to believe that what I am doing here will make any difference?”
Gaelin stood up from his stool and grabbed a cloth to dry his hands. “Get some rest. Come tomorrow ready to get your hands dirty.” He took his basket of peaches and headed for his house. Annallya looked back, not sure of what to make of the remark.
“Does it still bother you?” she asked. “That I am a Titan? Do you still hate me for it?”
“If I hated you,” he called back without turning around. “I wouldn’t be wasting my time trying to keep you alive.”
“I see the way you look at me,” she explained. Gaelin stopped just before his door. He turned back to look at her and she continued. “You look at me as if you see something that you wish you did not. Like a rotting animal carcass on your lawn, you glance at me with a disgusted look in your eye. You hate that I am here. The only reason you tolerate my being here, is because I am the friend of your own friend. Am I not correct?”
Annallya expected him to deny her accusations for whatever reasons, or admit to them and finally banish her from his home. But Gaelin only shook his head with a sigh, and in that moment, he looked far older than he had a right to.
“Andrill,” he said. “Was a royal pain in my ass.”
He paused for a moment to set the basket of fruit down. With a watchful eye, Gaelin selected three distinct peaches, and wrapped them carefully in a cloth produced from the pocket of his black coat. “He was head-strong, foul-tempered, and more than willing to jump first and think last.” his tone of voice changed over from aggravated, to one of fond remembrance. “But he has a good heart, and a good judge of character. If there was something special in you, something good, he’d see it. So as his friend, I’m obliged to do what I can to keep you alive.”
He held out the small bundle of peaches, which Annallya took. He continued, “And also because I’d sleep better knowing he had a friend looking out for him in that Sun forsaken city of yours. Would you give these to him? Tell him I’ll have more jarred soon. They’ll last him longer then.”
Annallya looked up at the strange man and nodded, not sure of what to make of the display of affection. It was difficult at times to forget all that she had been taught of humans, and men in particular. In fact, Annallya suspected that they may share a great deal more in common with Titans than she would dare ask herself. Gaelin returned her nod, and then strode back into his house.
Annallya spared his front door one last gaze, before she let her weary legs take her home. She was becoming much more adept at navigating the forest around his home. The noise she made had not quieted by a hair, that was for sure, but she had ceased stumbling over hidden rocks and branches. Animals also appeared more frequently to her, whereas before they would skirt by unnoticed. The rustling of leaves on the ground gave way to a squirrel, pushing its small body to move faster than Annallya would have believed possible for a creature of its size. Birds were much easier to spot in the trees, especially the bright red cardinals. Gaelin had taught her a few names in the time they had spent in the woods. She had seen rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, and deer. Apparently there were also dangerous predators, called wolves, that only appear at night when the forest is most dangerous. It was all so incredible in her mind. To think that all of this time, there was an entire world of creatures she had never known about, scurrying around at her feet. In addition, she now knew at least a few different fruit that were edible, and quite sweet. All in all, Annallya felt that she was becoming fairly adept at navigating the woods, much like a human. Certainly much better than any Titan before her.
Each time she left Gaelin’s house, Annallya enjoyed taking a slightly different path, than before. It was an excuse to explore the unmapped lands that she had only ever glimpsed. It made her feel like the great Titan explorers who would walk through unknown lands and swim across oceans, and write stories of their travels. Her favorite by far had been Tiana Maelworn, or Tiana Farstrider as she had been called. Tiana travelled farther than any other Titan in her time, beginning from the Assuman sea, far east of Thylara, to the Mountains of Black Snow in the south, to the River of Stone in the great north. In her travels she wrote about many amazing sights, strange creatures, and even stranger people. It seemed childish, even to her, but Annallya loved the sensation of exploring lands yet unknown to her. Even here, among woods that have always been well within walking distance from her home, was a world of unknowns she delighted in discovering. The excitement only mounted when she pushed her way through a particularly thick wall of branches, and found herself in the center of a camp.
Six tents were haphazardly pitched in the small clearing that served as the camp. Five men were about, each carrying out a specific task. Their clothes were well worn, from having not been changed, and foul smelling. The men themselves were rather tall, rugged, and each carrying weapon. Some of the men wore no sleeves, revealing solid muscle on their bare arms. All at once each man stopped what he was doing to stare at her. Annallya, having never seen this many men at once, was startled into paralysis for a few moments.
One of the men, a rather heavy set, balding fellow, eyed her with a smile devoid of a few teeth. “What do we ‘ave here lads?” he asked his companions. “A little company fer the night?”
“Look at ‘er clothes,” said another one with a nose that looked permanently broken, and dark skin. “Too nice to be a village girl. Might be one ‘o them Ladies I heard about. The ones with coin on ‘em.”
“A Lady, eh?” the bald one mused as he stood up from the pot he was stirring, and advanced towards her. “Oh you’ll do nicely.”
“Wait a minute there Gadall,” said a shorter, stockier man in the back between the tents. “Something ain’t right here. Those ain’t the clothes of a Lady. Look more like Titans clothes to me.”
The big man who had begun walking towards her stopped to roll his eyes. “Don’t be stupid Neils. Titans are supposed ta be big as mountains. Ain’t you ever seen one before?”
But Neils only shook his head. “I read that they change size, so they can be as small as us.”
“Oh give over Neils!” Gadall exclaimed. “You can’t read so stop lyin’ about it.”
“My mother taught me to read herself,” Neils protested.
Annallya was not sure of what was happening, but it was obvious that the big man, Gadall meant her harm in some way. Swallowing her fear, as she had when facing Gaelin, she met the eyes of the bandit. “I am afraid that there has been a misunderstanding. I am not who you think I am, and I did not mean to disturb you all.” she explained. “I will leave you to your business, and continue home.”
That only seemed to make Gadall smile wider. “Oooo an educated one.” he cooed. “Educated ones are always rich.”
“I’m tellin’ you Gadall, that’s Titan talk. We’re better off lettin’ ‘er leave.” Neils asserted.
Annallya looked at each of the men around her as she took a careful step back. Five in total, all were much stronger than her, and armed. Meanwhile, Annallya only had the knife at her belt, hardly a deterrent to five armed men. So she resisted the urge to grip her belt knife, and stood her ground.
“I know not of what you are talking about,” she tried to explain. “But it is not my wish that we come to conflict. I do not seek to hurt any of you.”
That brought forth a vicious round of laughter from the men watching her. Annallya drop her bundle of fruit in surprise when she felt a presence behind her, as well as a rough hand squeezing her shoulder. “How kind ‘o ya Ms.” said a deep, sinister voice behind her.
All at once the situation changed for Annallya, as she grasped what was happening. These men meant to take advantage of her, and she would have none of it. Her training as a soldier came to the front of her mind, and she rammed her elbow into the stomach of the man behind her. She only managed to knock some of the wind out of him, but that was only meant to give her a little space as she struck him in the jaw with her opposite elbow. That blow caused the sixth man to stagger back a bit. Annallya wasted no time in pressing her advantage. She gave a swift punch to his stomach to knock the wind fully out of him, then one to his throat. Then Annallya drew the sword from his belt before giving him a final kick backwards, and the man dropped like fallen fruit. She whirled instantly to face the other men, who’d watched with gaping mouths. All except for Gadall, who was smiling even wider, his own blade in his hand.
He chuckled, “Oh I like you. You go’ fire. You’ll need it later.”
Annallya narrowed her eyes. “You repulse me,” she spat.
“Aw, y’er gonna hurt my feelin’s.” he replied.
“This is my last warning. Stand down now or I shall crush you like the insect that you are.”
“Do as she says Gradall,” the shorter one urged. “Only Titans fight like that.”
“Shut it Neils,” he called back, then turned back to Annallya. “You’re tryin’ to convince me that you really are a Titan. Clever.” He lowered his sword and spread his arms. “Alrigh’ then, prove it.”
Annallya tossed aside both the sword, and her bundle of peaches, she did not want Andrill’s fruit to be crushed.
Annallya faced Gradall down, drawing herself up, and giving the air of a woman of nobility gazing down upon the lowly. Gradall gave a good sneer of amusement, which was quickly wiped away when Annallya started to grow. The slender woman looked down on the big man from a height of 20 feet and continued to rise. Her clothes and knife somehow grew with her, but none of the men gave it a thought as Annallya surpassed 50 feet in height.
“Burn it all Gradall! What did I tell you!” Neils swore in a panic, but he did not run. None of the men did, they were too petrified to move their legs.
By now Annallya had reached her full height of 100 feet, and stood head and shoulders above the tallest of trees. She looked down at the bandits, like a true queen staring down at insects in her court. Birds scattered from the trees her body crashed through, and the men below could only look upwards and gape. Now Annallya drew upon every memory of her mother and Queen Phelonous in her court. The way they would speak with absolute authority and command obedience She channelled that as she looked down upon the lowly bandits, and raised her foot. That sight, one that the bandits had heard described over ale and around campfires, the sight of a Titan about to crush you, jarred the men into motion. They scattered before her feet and attempted to run as far away as possible. But the giantess had anticipated this, and brought her foot down as quickly and with as much force as possible. She had not crushed anyone, nor had she intended to, but the sudden tremor caused by Annallya’s stomp knocked each man to the ground. Gradall was quick to recover, but not quick enough, and he soon found himself pinned beneath the sole of the Titan’s sandal. She kept her full weight off of him, but even the tiniest press of her foot forced the air from his lungs. Gradall had no hope of removing her foot from his body, and his legs were too tightly pinned for him to crawl away. All he could do was wait to die. The other men were beginning to pick themselves off the ground, Annallya quickly glanced around for one man in particular. She spotted Neils as he tried to scramble away on his hands and knees, and snatched him up. Unlike Andrill, who Annallya had always been gentle with when picking up and carrying, she held Neils in her closed fist. She slowly brought the miniscule man to eye level, and held him there so that fear would have ample time to set in. The other men tried to run again.
“Halt where you are!” the giantess commanded. She did not yell her remark, but her voice was so large now that each man could almost feel it in their chests. The bandits obeyed and stood in place, watching her in naked terror.
Strangely enough, Annallya felt something stir within her, something she had never felt before. A sense of strength, of power, that she had never experienced when playing with humans. Ever since she was a little girl, Titans always looked at humans as creatures beneath them. Pets, made to entertain little girls. That had all changed when she had taken the time to speak with Andrill. That was when she began to learn that humans were anything but savage animals. Her time spent with Gaelin introduced her to a new perspective, one that suggested that Titans have more in common with humans than they would dare admit. Both men had shown her that these people before her were, in some way, her equal. Only now, now that she held one in her fist and another beneath her foot, she felt so mighty, so much stronger than any of them. It caused her womanhood to itch and tingle in ways she had never felt. It was the kind of power one could grow drunk off of, a sensation she wanted to revel in, while she played with her new toys.
The sound of sniveling brought the rational part of Annallya’s brain out of her fantasies of power. Neils, to his credit, looked the Titan in the eye without so much as a flinch or a shudder. He was mouthing the words to a prayer, and for a moment Annallya thought she was the glint of a tear in his eye. The man who had told his friends from the beginning to leave her alone, thought he was going to die. This softened Annallya’s heart and reminded her of her original mission to meet humans, not slaughter them like a monster.
But the bandits did not know that.
Continuing in her guise of the monstrous Titan, she addressed the men at her feet. “Is this how you treat wandering travelers? Lone women who stumble upon you all, and attempt to leave in good faith? Is this the hospitality you show to your fellow men? What if a family of young boys and girls had come here instead?” she asked, remembering the family she had met in the woods, and how they had been just as afraid of her. “Would you have hurt them as well?”
The men on the ground did not answer her. They only continued to look up in fear. Out of the corner of her eye, she observed Neils. The mask of resolve he wore to hide his fear gave way to an expression of guilt and shame. This confirmed her suspicions. Even if there really were men who lived like animals and treated others with violence, they could still feel in ways that no animal could. This time she spoke to Neils, and she made her voice considerably softer.
“You, however, spoke words of wisdom that the others did not heed. For that, you have my thanks, and I shall allow you to walk away unharmed. On the condition that you find a more beneficial career, rather than attacking and stealing from lone travelers in the woods.” she instructed.
Neils, so overcome with relief at hearing this, wept openly and kissed her thumb. “Under Sun and Stars above Ms, I swear it.” he vowed.
She favored him with a nod, and turned her cross gaze to the rest of the bandits. “The same goes for all of you.”. They were quick to agree.
“And now,” she declared. “For the bug beneath my foot. Let him be an example to you all.”
This next part was going to be tricky. Annallya had only seen this done once before, along time ago in Thylara. It had scared her back then, and she hoped it would do the same for the men. Very slowly, with the utmost control, she increased the pressure on Gadall’s legs, or where she guessed his legs to be. It was incredibly scary and nerve racking to be unable to feel what was happening under her sole. She could so easily kill him. A sudden POP followed by a scream, told her that she had done it right. The Titan removed her sandaled foot to reveal a pained, but very much alive Gradall. His left leg had been broken from the pressure, but not crushed entirely. The bandits all around him looked on in horror as they considered what might have happened if the giant woman had only put a little more pressure on him. One of the bigger men turned away to hurl.
“I suggest you begin limping now. Who knows how long it will take to find someone who can treat your leg.” she commanded. Annallya had not wanted to hurt him so badly, but an example had to have been made in front of the bandits. At least this way, the man did not have to die, and he will not soon forget this day. If there was anything she had learned in the Queen’s court, it is that sometimes one has to take extreme measures when keeping others in line for the greater good. She placed Neils gently on the ground among the other men. Then she calmly shrank back down to human height, and continued on her way without so much as a backwards glance at the camp of robbers. It took Annallya maybe a few moments to remember Andrill’s peaches and that she had left them behind. When she made her way back to the bandit’s camp, however, she noticed from the bushes that the men had all gathered around Gadall’s whimpering form. Neils was giving him sips from a waterskin, and muttering reassuring words to him, while two others were making a stretcher out of tarp and tent poles. Annallya looked on in quiet amazement. Even though the actions of that one had almost gotten all of them killed, or so they thought, they refused to leave him to fend for himself, and instead were helping to carry him to safety. Her suspicions had been right. Titans understanding of men was completely wrong.