Alex woke up the morning after, still leaning against the same tree as the evening before, which, considering the recent past, was a surprisingly comforting fact. After a quick stretch, she stood up and began thinking of what to do exactly that day. Improvising himself as a survival expert, he mentally listed the things he would need to survive: Food, water, shelter, a fire. Of course the unique challenge that came with being a giant made his already limited knowledge on the topic of wilderness survival virtually useless.

As he was busy elucubrating on the subject, his train of thought was derailed by a loud bang coming from somewhere in the forest. Curious, he followed the sound to a small clearing. Trying to remain hidden, he placed himself behind a tree, and observed.

He could see a band of humans dressed with poorly made hide clothes and wielding huge crude axes, surrounding a lone human girl in fancy robes. The terrain around the lone girl was scorched black.

“Stand back, barbarians! I will not miss again!” The girl shouted, then she held her left hand up in front of her. There, on her open palm, Alex could see a small flame appearing seemingly out of nowhere.

The hostile group did not seem particularly intimidated by the display; in fact, they were advancing, and fast.

In that moment, one of the branches of the tree he was leaning against gave up and fell to the ground. The group looked up and, spotting her, stopped their attack immediately. The assailants looked at each other, then in unison sprinted away.

Meanwhile, the lone girl remained seemingly oblivious to Alex’s presence. “And don’t come back!” She said, mocking the retreating humans. She then relaxed and closed her hand, snuffing out the flame. “Well, that was close” She added.

Only then, she finally turned around and spotted Alex’s barely hidden form.

An awkward moment of silence filled the clearing.

“H-hi” timidly said Alex.

“Fuck!” the girl answered, jumping back. Without wasting time, she summoned that flame again and threw it at Alex. The burning projectile however completely missed the giantess and exploded against an innocent tree, several feet away from its intended target.

“S-Stand still, you monster!” Screamed.

“I was still” answered a confused and worried Alex.

“You leave me no choice, giant! I will have to use my ultimate spell against you!” She said. She then brought her hands together, chanting some strange formula. A blue flame appeared between her fingers, and grew more and more intense with every second.

Finally, the girl let go of the incandescent orb, with an evil smile. Unfortunately for her, the flame flew upwards only to fall, several seconds later, behind her. The force of the explosion blew her away, towards a very still Alex.

After another few seconds, the cruel blue flames vanished, leaving the girl in front of Alex, with her back blackened by the explosion and on her knees.

She sighed. “You know what? That was humiliation enough for the day. Just capture me already.”

“I-I’m not here to capture you. Or anyone else.”

The girl looked up. “Do you really have to mock me as well, giant?”

“I’m serious!” Remarked Alex, throwing her arms up and taking a couple of steps back. “Why should I even capture you, lady?”

The girl immediately stood up in anger. “Hey! I am the apprentice of the famous arch-wizard Talius. I am a valuable hostage!”

“I… appreciate the honestly, but really I’m not here to capture anyone.”

“Then why are you here? You’re pretty far from home.”

“I” Alex to a second to think of a good excuse. “I cannot tell you” he finally said, mentally patting himself on the back for the clever comeback.

“Well then you’ll tell it to my master!” She shouted, as another surge of arcane power left her hands. This time, the flame hit Alex directly in her chest. He yelped in surprise, and slipped, causing her to fall down, bringing the poor tree that he used as cover down with him. The heavy trunk collided with her ribs and cut her breath short.

“Oh, I actually hit her” was the last thing Alex heard before falling unconscious.

Alex woke up a few minutes later, still laying on the ground.

“You’re awake, good” a feminine voice said.

Alex opened his eyes, and saw the figure of the female mage perched on top of his forehead, looking down at him directly into his eyes. It was the first time he could get a good look at her: Her long red hair, her sweet hazel eyes, her stern expression contrasting with her otherwise delicate face and thin body.

“Don’t try to move, I have restrained you with a powerful spell. Now listen: You will follow me to my master, then he will determine what to do with you.”

As strange as it sounds, Alex was intimidated by the scrawny girl. All he could muster was a weak yes.

“Good, now stand up and follow me” ordered.

Alex obeyed without thinking, causing the girl to lose her footing and to fall down into her cleavage.

Her muffled shouting reached Alex’s ears soon after. He tried to reach down with his hands, but to his surprise, he discovered they were tied together by a blue luminescent cable.

Fortunately for him, the girl soon resurfaced, her face completely red. “What the hell! Were you trying to get rid of me?”

“N-No, it was an accident, sorry” Alex replied.

“Whatever” she said, while she disentangled herself from the generous bust of Alex’s body. She then climbed up her shoulder and sat down. “Now go north, we should get to the master’s tower by tomorrow morning.”

Alex obeyed, and began marching. Soon afterwards, however, he suddenly remembered the reason why he woke up on the ground and looked down, where the fireball hit him. To his surprise, he discovered there were no injuries, in fact not even the dress was damaged, just dirty with smoke and ashes. Just as he was about to realize who truly was responsible for knocking him out, Alex was distracted by his captor, that commanded him to keep his eyes forward.

The trip north was uneventful, though Alex’s brain could not stop the unrelenting internal debate concerning his new companion: the human girl currently sitting on her-his shoulder. A real life mage! And an extremely cute one at that. If only she wasn’t so intimidating. Fortunately for him, they mostly kept quiet, he would trust himself to hold a conversation with her.

 Soon enough, they found themselves in front of the arch-wizard’s tower. The tall, scrawny structure developed in a twisted pattern, almost like it was grown organically, rather than built by human hands, or whatever other race inhabited that world. As he got closer and closer to the entrance, he realized that it was the first man-made structure he saw since his reincarnation that was taller than her-him-his body. Of course his mind, not particularly bright under normal circumstances, was still struggling to reconcile with the reality of his new female body.

 As he was about to reach the human sized entrance to the tower, a tall and lanky figure appeared on a balcony, roughly at the same height of his eyes. The flowing robes the mysterious silhouette wore concealed its face, but did little to hide the aura of authority and wisdom that radiated from it.

“Who dares approach my fortress?” The figure asked with a booming masculine voice, much louder than Alex expected.

“I bring you a valuable prisoner, my master!” The mage girl answers from his shoulder.

“Valery? What? How did you?” The figure sighed. “How many times do I have to tell you that you are not my apprentice?”

“But...”

“No buts. If you want to be, get your magical license, then I will consider it.” The man said. He then lowered his hood and revealed his face: old, wrinkled and tired. He looked as structurally stable as his tower, which is to say: not much.

“But, grandpa, you promised.” The mage girl said, with a high pitched voice.

“Don’t call me that in front of…” He massaged his temples. “And would you care to explain to me why did you guide a dangerous beast to my home?”

“I didn’t guide her, I captured her!”

“Please, girl. Those magical bindings would not hold a baby giant, she played you for a fool, clearly. To get to me.”

The conversation stopped for an awkward second. Then Alex looked down towards his hands and tried forcing the magical chains open. And he almost immediately succeeded, the chains crumbled into sparkling dust that gently fell off his wrists and disappeared soon after. “Oh.” was all he could manage to say.

The mage girl seemed as stunned and speechless as her giant captive. “I-Well-No, wait a minute, I knocked her out! Fair and square. There’s no way she would let herself be captured. No self respecting giant would ever pretend to be defeated by a human!” She said.

“Don’t underestimate your enemy, foolish girl.” He sighed. “We will continue this conversation later. Now speak, monster: You found me, now what do you want?”

“Ehhm-I…” Alex looked at the man, but almost immediately lowered his eyes. He hasn’t felt that tense and unprepared since his high school days and the tyrannical rule of Ms. Evans, math teacher and terror of students.

“Do you think you can take me down by yourself? Bold of you!”

“N-No, no. Absolutely not!”

“Then tell me what is your plan, or I will extract it from you!”

“I-I don’t know!” Alex shouted with enough strength to push the old man back. “I don’t know.”

The wizard raised an eyebrow, then moved his hands in front of himself, forming a luminous circle of light, that he activated with a few words. The circle grew and advanced towards him, then went through him. “She is telling the truth. She does not know why she is here.”

Emilia was standing in front of the matrons’ palace. The gigantic marble structure dwarfed even her, one of the tallest giantesses in the army. She entered its white hallways and reached the central chamber, where the city’s matrons sat in a semicircle.

“You know why you’re here, right?” A matron asked.

“I heard rumors that one of our priestesses went missing. I assume this has something to do with that?”

“Correct.” She answered. “Captain Emilia Licinia, you are hereby tasked with the rescue of Alexandra Horatia, priestess of Uxarae’s temple. You will be alone in this mission, we cannot risk our actions to be interpreted as a declaration of war.”

“I understand.” Emilia said.

“Good. Now go. And bring our priestess back.”

Emilia bowed and left the chamber.

Outside, she took a deep breath. Meeting the matrons is always quite stressful. She looked around: the main plaza in front of the palace was, as usual, filled with activity: Giantesses of all ages and profession could be found in it, discussing recent events, selling their wares, or just having a pleasant morning.

 Emilia made her way to the barracks, where she collected her things. She gave her good bye to her fellow soldiers and departed for the human kingdoms: The last known location of the lost priestess. She could not help but wonder what happened to her. She met her before, but did not know her too well. A cute but shy thing, yet she did not strike her as the adventurous type, who would leave the safety of the city walls on a whim.

 As she left town, she sped up her pace. It was a peaceful period for the republic, but she did not believe it would last for long still. The matrons were worried, enough to specifically tell her not to cause trouble with the humans, which meant they expected trouble to come their way soon, likely from the dragon kingdoms of the north, or their barbaric sisters from the east. Could it be that the priestess had been kidnapped? To gain leverage on them? Unlikely, but humans were strange, so she could not ignore that possibility entirely.

 Emilia looked at the horizon. At the very least, that mission should be fun, It is always a pleasure to mess with humans, even if she was not allowed to go all out this time.

"What do you mean you do not remember? Do you suffer from amnesia or something?” Valery, the mage girl, asked.

“Sort of…”

“Well, this makes things easier I suppose.” He then looked at Valery. “Girl, I need you to escort this giant to the borders, back to her country. The political situation is volatile enough as it is, we cannot afford to rock the boat right now.

“But…”

“Why do you always have to question my orders, Valery? How do you think I will accept you as my apprentice if you refuse to obey me at every turn?”

“I-Fine, I’ll do it. But you’ll better take me officially as your apprentice when I come back.”

The old wizard rolled his eyes and muttered something under his lips. Fortunately for them both, Valery decided to interpret that as a positive response to her ultimatum.

“Good, now then, monster: Let’s go.”