Characters: Malkav, Adam, Grandpa, Quentin, Mundo, Isaac, Robin Hobb, Little John
While Aisha and Rachelle verbally battered each other, Malkav managed to break the lock of the cage and the guys tiptoed out, inching alongside the wall to keep from being spotted. Fortunately, all the girls who weren’t staring at Aisha and Rachelle had their eyes to the arena and not their feet. Weaving in and out of a sea of estrogen, the guys worked their way through the stands towards the royal box section.
They were making good time until they were a few hundred yards from their destination. From there, the seats were overflowing with girls of every age who wanted the best seats in the stadium. To make matters worse, the tournament was beginning and hundreds of straggling girls were rushing to their seats, causing pillars of bare legs and sandals to slam into the concrete from all sides. A few close calls nearly mashed the guys into uglier stains than they already were.
“We’re not going to make it!” Mundo yelled over the thundering roar of clapping and cheering as the female contestants made their way into the arena. “There’s too many of them!”
But just when it seemed that they were going to need to call for a Cleric, the commotion stopped. The silence came so suddenly and so soundlessly that it was like time had frozen. Then the guys realized they were still breathing, still able to move their fingertips, and they looked at one another and then at the audience. All the girls were on their feet, staring out into the arena, without a whisper or a fidget.
“What’s going on?” Malkav asked.
As if to answer his question, an unseen girl on stage began to recite the national anthem of Ellewyn:
“Oh, Men, will you die, by our feminine might,
How so proudly we rule when you’re no longer breathing,
Whose dull brains and squished heads, through this prejudiced fight,
Over the bodies we own, are so endlessly bleeding.
And their bloody red hair, the Men bursting in air,
Gives proof through this fight that Women still rule here,
Oh, Men, do you see that you will die in waves
In the land of Women, you’re nothing but slaves.”
A rising storm of clapping and whooping and cowbells washed over the audience. Only the Men were left staring at each other, realizing, finally, how far they had fallen.
“Well, so much for originality,” Mundo said.
Adam made a break for the royal box section. “Come on, while the girls are distracted!”
The rest followed him. Fortunately, the audience continued standing and clapping for another thirty seconds before they plopped back into their seats. That gave the guys plenty of time to dodge feet and legs and reach their destination.
Of course, some of the guys were more concerned about getting there alive than others. Quentin had stopped at a crack in the base of the stadium wall, where he could look down and see the arena in its entirety. He watched the female contestants enter the stage and waved to his companions.
“Look, guys!” he said. “I see Gena.”
Although Adam tried to stop him, he wasn’t able to fight back the horde. The rest of the guys rushed over to the crack and stared down. Sure enough, making her way through the giant fire-bannered doorway was Gena, blowing bitter kisses to the audience, and her tagalong Roxanne. They were both in high spirits.
“That bitch,” Malkav spat. “I wish we could take her down now.”
Adam tried to pull his companions away from the crack, but to no avail. “We can. Let’s just go talk to the Queen. She’ll know what to do.”
“Look at all those ants down there,” Quentin frowned. “They’re going to get stepped on by all the girls.”
“Uh, those are people, idiot,” Isaac said. “You know, people, Men, like us, the size of bugs. Where the hell have you been for the last one hundred and eighty-seven pages?”
“Well, we have to do something!”
“Sure, why don’t you go kill all the girls with your deadly flute and I’ll call the cavalry to come rescue the Men. And then we can make peace with the Queen and she’ll give us some magic red slippers that will send us back home.”
“I do like red slippers…”
Isaac threw up his arms. “Okay, I’ve had enough of this foo’. Somebody has to have a better idea.”
“We could just go talk to the Queen like our plan has always been,” Adam suggested, but he was ignored.
“Anybody? Ideas?”
“She’s right over there, you know. We just have to walk through the doorway and—”
“What about you, Gramps?” Isaac said at last. “You always seem to have something to say, even if it’s ridiculously stupid. What are your thoughts?”
Grandpa stroked the hairs on his chin slowly, carefully, like each strand was important, and he stared through the crack at Gena. “That good-for-nothing hooligan kidnapped my grandson and laid a whooping on my granddaughter. I don’t think she deserves anything less than a whipping across her face. If only I had my belt.”
“It seems we’re all forgetting something here. We’re ankle-high to these bitches! We can’t just walk in there and expect to come back with our lives.”
“Life is indeed a fragile thing,” Grandpa nodded. “But let us not forget that life is freedom, to make our own choices, to walk our own paths, to live and breathe without anybody telling us how much air we can inhale or how long we can live. Choices are short-lived, if we make them so. If we walk away now, we walk the path of no life; we forsake those who need us and allow those who harm us to carry on in their sick game. What makes us better than slaves? Because we’re out here and they’re in there, about to have their heads and hopes crushed at the mercy of a bunch of teenage tyrants? What gives them the right to make the decisions for them, for us? Who made them so mighty that they can strip us of our freedoms with a simple cut of a thread? Is life not more precious than this? And will we stand by to let them take our children, our grandchildren, to enslave generations of our people so that they can quench their thirst for power? …It would be so easy to walk away now. It would be easy to admit defeat, to live on the run, hoping that we still have some control over our lives. But they would find us, eventually, and kill us. If we are all forsaken, then let us die on our own terms. Let us fight now. Let us die when we choose. Not them. This isn’t for them anymore. Our autonomy shall prevail!”
“Aye,” Robin Hobb said, putting a hand on the old man’s shoulder. “For too long, we merry men have wasted away. We went into the forest to escape the tyranny of a female society, but we never realized we were still slaves to the system. Something has to be done and today’s a great day to die. Little John and I are ready to hang up our lives to win back our freedom once more.”
Little John’s eyes widened.
“This is insane!” Adam said. “I know I’m supposed to be the moral one and all, but I’m not stupid. There’s nothing we can do.”
Grandpa raised his mighty staff. “As long as we can fight, there is always something we can do. Those Men down there were stripped of weapons and armor, but we—we have what we need right here. Together, we are unstoppable.”
“…Forget this. I’m going to see the Queen. Is anybody with me?”
“I am,” Malkav said softly and he felt the cold, hard-pressed eyes of Grandpa land on him as he made his way over to Adam. He lowered his gaze to the ground. “The Sacred Beetle may be our only ticket home… I can’t risk losing it now.”
“I understand,” Grandpa said, but his words were like daggers through Malkav’s skin.
“Well, I’m with you, Gramps,” Isaac said. Mundo nodded, signaling he was in too, and Quentin stuck his flute up his nose, which was sorta like his way of offering his services as well.
Grandpa put a bony hand on Malkav’s greasy head. “If we fail, then I hold you responsible for getting my granddaughter back home where she belongs. Siarra is a good girl, despite the problems you’ve been having with her. I hope you know that.”
“I do, sir…”
“Then I hope you know how to make things right again.”
Malkav raised his eyes to Grandpa’s, but he couldn’t hold them there for long. “…I wish I could offer you more. The fact is, though, sir… It’s over. It’s not that I don’t think Siarra is a good person. I know she is. You and her parents have done a wonderful job raising her and I have no doubt that she’ll make some man very, very happy someday. But it won’t be me. I am selfish and uncaring and I’ve come to realize that I have no place in her heart and she has none in mine. I will look out for her, I promise, and I will find a way home for the both of us. But once we’re back to the real world, it’s over. It’s all over.”
Grandpa said nothing. He just slowly pulled his fingers away from Malkav and turned away with a fading air.
Giantess World
