Giantess World
Good-byes were exchanged between the parties of Siarra and Kendira and the two groups boarded two ships bound for different places. They slept onboard that night, sailing under the lonely stars that drifted in the sky so close and yet so distant from each other. Not a word was spoken.
But when Siarra’s ship at last docked in a port city of Oyster’s Eye shortly after daybreak, they found themselves among so much booming activity that they soon forgot their weariness and their stiff joints from the night’s voyage overseas. Again, the town was overflowing with females, but this time only sailors with torn sleeves and shorts and bandanas wrapped tightly around their heads. There were no real other travels around, as Oyster’s Eye was mostly used for shipping cargo rather than people, so the party stuck out rather colorfully. There also weren’t many men that they could see, but the ones they did spot huddled close to the city’s walls and buildings as the females stomped through the streets with little care what went under their bare feet.
For that reason, the guys in the group trailed close to Siarra’s heels. She led them to an outside café that jutted out from the peninsula and over the water like a cliff. The floor and railings and even the tables and chairs were all made of the same cheap, knotted kind of wood that was splintered in some parts, leaving a gaping hole over the rush of water. The guys avoided these holes, but the girls paid them no mind, their feet simply too big to fall through such a small crack in the floor.
The café was also feathered with seagulls who colored the wood with dry, white stains like looked like splattered paint everywhere. The guys tried to avoid those landmines as well, but it was of little use. When they reached a table, though—and Siarra had chosen the table farthest away from the shore as possible even though the café was almost deserted—Aisha bent down, scooped up the guys one by one, and set them at the table. She then took a seat across from Siarra, resting her scepter on the empty seat next to her, and pulled out a crinkled map.
“This is the entire continent of Neverquest,” she said, tapping her finger to the city of Oyster’s Eye, far in the northwest of the map, where they were now. The island of the Abbey looked like a blot in the ocean compared to the size of the mainland. “And…this is Felwinter.” She dragged her finger some one hundred miles north by northeast to a city marked by a large red dot on the map. “That’s where Kendira asked us to meet her after we recover the first piece of the beetle’s body.”
“Where is the first piece at?” Malkav asked, looking down at the golden beetle around his neck. It was amazing, but the beetle had seemed to shrink when Kendira gave it to him, making it the perfect size for him to wear. Now it just sat there, glittering, its fatal red eyes staring back at him.
“Well, the closest piece is the Scarab of Earth, rumored to be in the enchanted forest between where we are now and Felwinter.”
Eric glanced up the huge, round face of Aisha. “When you say ‘enchanted forest’, do you mean ‘cute and cuddly animals’ enchanted forest or ‘dark, ominous, and haunted by ghosts and phantoms of a million twisted souls for the rest of eternity’ enchanted forest?”
“…Just be glad you have a Cleric with you.”
“Goddamn enchanted forests. I hate you, Winnie the Pooh.”
Before Aisha could respond, a waitress dressed in tanned linen appeared at the table.
“You girls want to order anything?” she asked.
“I haven’t been here in ages,” Aisha said, almost to herself. “What do you have?”
“Fish casserole, fish salad, fish rolls, fish-on-a-stick, fish steak, fried fish, raw fish, fresh fish, one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish….”
Aisha looked at Siarra. “This would be a bad time to mention I’m a vegetarian.”
“That’s okay. Fish doesn’t count as a meat.”
“What?”
“Really, it doesn’t. Neither do eggs.”
“…That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
The waitress sighed. “Are you going to order or not? As you can see, we’re very busy here.”
The only other table occupied was by that of a seagull pecking at crumbs, but he soon cawed and flew away.
“I’ll have the fish steak,” Siarra said.
Aisha blinked. “I didn’t even know that was possible. …Okay, make that two fish steaks.”
“Ha, slap a bib on me, call me ‘bitch’, and make that three fish steaks!” Cain laughed.
The waitress scowled down at the six guys standing on the table, the size of the salt shaker. “Sorry, we don’t serve newbs here.”
“Like hell you don’t!” Cain stamped his foot. “You’re a waitress, honey. Go bring me some ketchup. Chop, chop, bitch.”
“How would you like to be today’s special?”
“Better shut up, dwarf,” Eric whispered in Cain’s ear. “I don’t think you’re going to charm this one over.”
“Come on,” Siarra said to the waitress. “The newbs are with us. We’ll pay for their food.”
“Sorry, I’d rather see the race of Men starve to death than to gain a single copper from feeding them. They’re too small to matter.”
“You have a true heart of stone,” Adam said. “How can you judge us by our size? If you cut us, do we not bleed?”
“The ones I have certainly do.”
“…That’s it, I vote we eat somewhere else,” Vic said.
“I hear the mousehole next door just opened their doors.”
“I’m about to open your head!” Cain roared.
Malkav and Grandpa looked at each other and, though no words were spoken between them, they knew something had to be done before Cain got them all killed.
Again.
Grandpa stepped forward, his legs trembling, his arm barely able to keep his cane still as he pretended to have a broken back (which still did hurt from the previous day). “Oooh, please, Miss… We were shipwrecked and haven’t eaten in days. These two lovely ladies—neither of which I am a blood relative to, I assure you—have shown us much kindness, but we are growing weaker in our last hours.” He coughed. “…Would you believe I’m fifteen years old? Look how withered my skin has become over these past few days.”
“You do look rather sick,” the waitress said with half concern. “…And old. Definitely old. I didn’t think newbs lived to be fifteen. Most of them get stepped on before then.”
“I was one of the lucky ones… But please, don’t make us suffer anymore. Just let these kind ladies pay for our meals and, with any luck, we’ll be dead before the night comes. But at least let us die with food in our stomachs and a shred of dignity.”
The waitress stared at him for awhile longer and then looked to Siarra and then to Aisha. “Well… I don’t understand why you two are being so kind to a bunch of newbs, but it’s not my place to ask. If I give them food, do you promise not to tell anybody—and to get out of here as soon as you finish? I don’t want to be caught breaking the law, but I don’t want to see elderly newbs suffer either. They’re pathetic enough as it is.”
“Our lips are sealed,” Siarra assured her.
“And we’ll blow out as quickly and soundlessly as the breeze,” Aisha added. “You have my promise both as a Cleric and as a disciple of Dai Celesta.”
“That was pretty good,” Malkav said to Grandpa when the girls weren’t looking.
“Just one of a Wizard’s many tricks, my boy—just one of many!”
“Okay,” the waitress said. “What should I get for the newbs?”
“Fish steaks all around!” Cain said.
The waitress paid him no mind, but instead looked to Siarra.
She grinned. “Have any bread crumbs?”