My armor clanked with each step through the woods.  Despite its bulk it felt no heavier than ordinary clothes and scarcely impeded the large amount of running I had recently found necessary.  I was both an unstoppable force and an immovable wall, and I owed it all to my new girdle.  The only issue was that I had yet to find anyone to impress with my newfound strength.  Since finding this girdle in a forgotten treasure trove the only person I had seen was my long-time traveling companion, the mage Elinara, and I had no need to impress her anymore.

Elinara was also the reason I began running daily marathons in my armor.  Coincidentally, the instant I buckled the girdle around my waist she had grown immensely and now towered over me; at full height, I barely reached her ankles.  Just one of her long strides took half a dozen for me to catch.  At first she tried to accommodate me by walking more slowly, but we both quickly ran out of patience for that and went back to normal speed.  We had to stop more often to catch our breath, but we both knew that now matter how big she was my role as her protector was essential.

“Are you certain you don’t want me to carry you?” she asked.  One of the worst things about her sudden and enormous growth spurt was that she had lost her melodic voice that could enchant me with a single sentence in exchange for one several octaves lower than mine that would rattle glass.  “You would hardly be a burden for me.”

“Yes, yes, I’m sure,” I answered, waving the suggestion away.  “You need both hands free for spells, and though the terrain is more difficult now it’s no challenge for me!”  I had never heard of branchless trees composed entirely of a single green stalk, but we had been blazing a trail into the wilderness this whole time.  We were bound to find natural wonders, like the long, slender trees with a man-sized white ball at their very tops.

“Like you’re sure you don’t want that new belt of yours removed?”  She seemed to have something against my wondrous find and offered to help remove it every chance she got.

“And give up my amazing strength?” I shot back.  “I’ve never felt more vigorous!  Without it, how else could I have moved that massive tree across our path yesterday, or tossed the boulders out of our way?  I’m starting to think the real issue is that you don’t like being so big since if we get into trouble I won’t be able to keep bandits or monsters away from you and you think it’ll reverse your growth.  Unfortunately it’s a necessary sacrifice, and with its help I’ll be able to dispatch anything before it gets close to you.”

“Yes, that must be it,” Elinara replied, her low voice dripping with sarcasm.  “Well, I guess if it lets you keep your new-found power, I can live with being a giantess.  I will not ask you about it again, if you insist.”  Glad to have that settled at last, I ran from her rear foot to the front, arriving just when it lifted off the ground.  Keeping up with her steps was a constant effort, and holding a conversation added unnecessary difficulty.

Three of her bounding steps later, I exited the forest of alien trees into a tremendous clearing.  A score of the largest oaks I had ever seen formed a barrier around it, stretching as far as the eye could see.  We had surely entered an area of great and ancient magical power: there was no other way to explain the quantity of such massive trees.  I was so distracted by my thoughts that I ran headlong into the back of her ankle, then stumbled backward.

Elinara suppressed a giggle as she looked down at me, stumbling away from her leg.  “You should watch where you’re going,” she teased, “or I might step on you.  Because I’m bigger than you, of course, it is you who must be careful.”

I scoffed.  “If you did, you couldn’t hurt me,” I boasted.  “I’m strong enough to keep your foot from flatting me no matter how hard you press down.”

“Then it’s my mistake for doubting you,” Elinara said, her way of apologizing.  “There is no need to test it, I know, because I don’t want to go flying when you forget your power and toss me into the air.”  She looked around at the magnificent trees before us, no doubt absorbing the majesty of them.  “Would you mind a quick break?  We’ve been travelling for hours, and I could use a rest.”

“Certainly, I could sit a spell,” I said.  I was a little short of breath, but confident I could have gone the rest of the day if need be.  This break was her idea, and it was for her.  “Moving those great long legs of yours must tire you out quickly, this is our third break since lunch.”

“They are exhausting, especially at this pace,” Elinara agreed.  She was already walking toward the nearest tree, and before I could catch up she turned around and planted her back against its bark.  Her enormous body slid down the trunk, and a cloud of dust rose when she set her butt in the dirt.

I stopped between her ankles and leaned forward on my shield, facing her.  Half the appeal of travelling with her was how easy she was on the eyes.  A streak of white in her shoulder-length black hair fell to the side of one dark green eye.  Months on the road had baked her skin, and it was a radiant brown now that the beet red sunburn had faded.  She smiled easily, almost every time she looked at me, making the dimples in her round cheeks obvious.  Three silver rings pierced her left ear’s cartilage, with a black one through her eyebrow, but otherwise she was dressed simply.  Her crimson blouse hung loose on her slender frame, and a black belt cinched her dark green robe.  Brown flats had been chosen for comfort, but the silver tiara on her brow added a bit of flair.

I gazed up at her, and to the tree rising far above.  “How tall do you think they are?” I asked once we had stared at each other while smiling awkwardly for a minute.

Elinara looked toward its top and let out a low whistle.  “They’re a thousand feet if they’re an inch!” she answered, sounding rather impressed.  “They are truly enormous, and I’ve really never seen anything quite like them!”  She looked back down at me with a smile.  “I just wish I could see them through your eyes, like a normal-sized person.”

“They’re incredible,” I offered, then silence reigned again.  We smiled, both trying to find something to say, until I finally decided on something.  “Would you mind picking me up?”

“Oh, so now you want me to carry you?” Elinara replied.  She let out an exaggerated sigh and added, “Fine, I guess I will, but only because you asked.”  Her hand descended and loosely wrapped its fingers around me, constricting my body below the armpits.  Before picking me up she warned, “Please, don’t tug at my piercings this time, though.  You’re so strong that if you do it again, you might tear it out of my skin.”  With that ground rule in place she lifted me enough to hold me in front of her face.  The long fingers of her other hand flattened below me for support, and she grinned.

There were a few moments of silence while she held me before she broke it.  “While I like holding you,” she began, “you don’t like being held.  So I’m positive you have a reason for asking me.”

“Yes, I do,” I replied.  “What’s it like being so big?  I don’t suppose I’ll ever get the chance to know, but it must give you a unique perspective on things.”

Elinara responded with an enormous pout without saying anything for a bit, then said, “You are rubbing salt in the wound!  It’s an awful way to live!  I see villages on the horizon all the time, but I always know we can’t visit, because they would surely form a militia against me.  I’m a monster to them, and that hurts you.  Worse, while I know you’re strong enough to endure it, I’m always worried about stepping on you.  Plus, things are different for us now, and it’s my size that has to be the problem.  If I could get rid of this curse without robbing you of your strength, I would.”

“You’re being too hard on yourself,” I offered before she could start spiraling.  “You get to see things in a way only titans and giants usually get to, that’s got to count for something!  As for us, I think that’s just your perception.  You were always taller than me, and I don’t see why a few dozen feet should be any different than a few inches.”

Elinara smiled and tilted her head.  “I’m glad one of us finally said something, then,” she said.  “Maybe it’s not so bad, after all.  I’m finally almost as strong as you, and all I had to do was grow seventy feet or so.”  A tree snapped in the distance, and Elinara rushed me to the ground.  She pulled the hand out from beneath me, then released her grasp around my body, allowing me to drop right into a fighting stance.  She leaned on her staff to stand and whispered, “Get ready.  Combat is coming.”

A giantess unlike any I had seen before, even larger than Elinara, emerged from behind one of the trees.  She was a tower of corded muscle, with jet black hair and eyes that shone like gold, a shield larger than most houses on one hand and a tremendous sword dragging behind her in the other.  Her sienna skin was only a few shades lighter than her armor, including the boots that ran up to her knees.  As she approached us, she had the swagger of someone who had just won a great battle without any of the fatigue.

“You should not be out this far without a protector, mage!” she bellowed when she was halfway through the clearing.  “Toss your coin purse and spell book at my feet and you can consider this a warning!”

I was already advancing toward her before Elinara replied, “Think again!  I’ve the greatest protector any mage could ask for, and you’ll be sorry for doubting him!”  I had just passed her toes, advancing with sword and shield at the ready, when she shouted, “Show her no mercy!”

The approaching giantess did not stop her slow advance, but glanced left and right and then up before looking down.  She spotted me moving toward her and burst into raucous laughter.  “This?  This is your protector?” she managed before belting out some more laughs.  “He’s so puny he’d not stand a chance against my cat, let alone me!  Go on, send him against my ankles, this’ll be even easier than I thought.”

I moved to square up with the toe of a boot, certain in my abilities.  In the past I had felled a score of giantesses, and they were all dismissive about my size; she would be no different.  Behind her back ankle, however, I saw someone slowly drift to the ground.  Unless it was a fall from the middle of her boot, this person had some enchantment on them.  “Look out, Elinara!” I shouted.  “This giantess has a human mage behind her!”  Though she was much larger than me, I had no doubt that she heard my warning.

Soon I was in striking distance of the giantess and seized the initiative.  I swung my head in an overhead strike at her boot, and she made no move to block or even avoid it.  The edge barely cut the leather over her boot, and she chuckled.  “You’ve got spirit.  I’ll have some fun with you after I kill your mage.”

Her retaliation was a low, lazy swing that came much faster than expected.  She hit me with the flat of her blade, tossing me into the air with tremendous power.  I sailed away from the combat, half my body numb from the impact, until I landed a long distance away.  My body ploughed a deep trench in the dirt before I came to a stop, the other half of my body numb.  Though I wanted to get up and return to the fight I had very little control, and even turning my head back toward it caused a sharp pain to run down my neck.

The giantess collapsed without a single wound, and Elinara stepped forward.  “Try brushing this off with your spell protections!” she shouted, loud enough to make my ears ring, then raised a foot high into the air.  She brought it down right where the enemy mage had been standing, then lifted it back up.  She stomped on her over and over again, grunting with each strike that drove the spellcaster further into the dirt.

By the time she stopped, I was finally able to get back to my feet.  Elinara forlornly looked in my direction, and must have spotted me when she smirked.  She knelt over the person she had smashed, and though her lips moved quickly I could not hear a single syllable.  I continued steadily walking toward her even though every movement caused a new shock of pain, elated she handled it by herself.  Just before my titanic travelling companion was blocked by the giantess’s body I saw her slip something into her hand, though I was too far away to see what.

When I could see around the raven-haired hill I saw Elinara making the same journey, back at her original size.  We ran toward each other over a carpet of dark hair, and when we met she wrapped me in a warm embrace.  “You’re alive!” she exclaimed.  “I was worried, but I knew you would survive that if anyone could!”  Her voice was warmer than a fire, and since she was no longer tremendous her voice sounded like music again. 

I hugged her back as tightly as I could, the first time I’d been able to get my arms around her in a month.  “You’re the one who stopped them without so much as a scratch,” I replied.  “Not just that, you lifted your curse without taking away my strength!”  If I had been weaker, I knew I would not have reached her and would instead be dead in the dirt some distance away.

Elinara vigorously clapped my back several times before responding.  “Yes, I lifted my curse!” she affirmed, then grabbed my shoulders.  She held me at length and looked to our attackers.  “Shall we collect our spoils?”

I glanced down at her hand, then back to her.  “Looks like you already did.  The emerald in that ring brings out your eyes.”

Her smile spread larger than I had seen since her curse, despite no longer being gigantic.  “I am so glad you think so.  I will keep it then.  What about your loot, though?”

“You’re the one who earned it,” I said, “and the giantess is too big for me to use anything of hers.  Even her coins would be too heavy to be worth carrying until we can get them melted down into something usable.”

Elinara let me go and started walking by me, placing a hand on my shoulder.  With a nudge she turned me with her and ran her fingers down my arm until her hand wrapped around mine.  “Let us go, then.  We’ve a long way to go to the next town, I feel, and some much bigger challenges to face on the way.”  I squeezed her hand in mine and joined her, walking through the middle of the clearing between the largest trees on the planet.