From where the tree had been felled Henry and Joyce’s house was in sight. Out in their yard, I could see Joyce hanging laundry with a young woman a little older than Hailee named Maida.

“I don’t think I’d mind much who I marry as long as he’s kind.” I overheard Maida saying as we approached.

“More than kind, you need him not to be a slave to the bottle.” Joyce said.

“Don’t all men drink?”

“They do.”

“So what difference does it make then?”

“Well, they don’t all drink the same. After all, the kingdom would’ve fallen by now if half of ‘em drank themselves silly by early in the day. The type that does that is the type you should be trying to avoid from my experience.”

“Hey, Honey.” Henry called out.

Joyce turned around quick, looking more confused than she was surprised.

“Hi, Mr. Henry. Hi, Jack.” Maida said. We returned the greeting. “I’ll be heading back for now, Auntie Joyce. Thanks for your advice.”

Joyce said her goodbye to the girl, then turned back to us as we stepped up to her. “Honestly, I didn’t expect you two back until past noon.”

“Hailee told me you wanted your husband straight back.” I said.

Just like her husband, Joyce gave me a look like that was her first time hearing of that. She looked to Henry, but he just shrugged his shoulders. With nothing much to do about it, she just shrugged her shoulders back and returned to hanging her family’s clothes.

“Well, thanks for that, I guess.” She said. “Looks like you’ve become a bit more responsible since those giants hit your head.”

“Thanks for the compliment.”

She choked on a laugh. “Ha! Compliment. You know, I’m starting to like you more and more since yesterday.”

“Jack is a good boy now, Joyce.” Henry grinned.

“Hmm, I wish you were a good boy too, my love.”

Henry bumped my shoulder. “You hear that, Jack? She says she loves me.”

This guy. “Anyways, I brought you a few of the meat pies my mother made. She told me—” translate that to Henry told me, “To offer them as a bride price for Hailee.”

Joyce gave her husband a knowing look before looking over the pies. “Well, I think you're still a few short of a bride price, but I think I can spare you a couple loaves and some fruit since you’ll be taking care of our Hailee for a time.”

“That’d be great, Ms. Joyce.”

She told me to wait just a bit before heading into their house with the pies. As we waited for her to gather leftovers from the celebration that never was, Henry and I spotted something.

“You see that down the road?” Henry asked. There was a large group approaching from the road that led east out of the hamlet and away from the forest.

“Yeah, I see it.”

“You see what?” Joyce stepped out the house.

“Maybe merchants?” Henry said.

“Hmph, if we ever see that many merchants coming down the road, it’ll be when the king gifts the baron the forest.”

As the group got closer, I counted about three dozen men surrounding two carts with a little more than half as many horses. None of the men rode a horse as a pair, but for most of the ones who were riding, there was another man walking beside him.

“The army?” Joyce said. It was a good guess seeing as some of the men were wearing helmets and chainmail while others carried pikes.

Riding at the head of the group were two men with no partner on foot. One was a hardened man who looked to be in his forties, while the other was a bearded twenty-something who bore some resemblance to the older man. As they reached the center of the hamlet’s one road, the pair stopped and in turn their men stopped as well.

“We’ve come here on behalf of the baron to investigate the report of a giant attack in the area.” The older man said. “Who can I expect to inform me of the events that have taken place here?”

Someone went to go fetch Mr. Edward.

While the baron's men waited, Joyce, Henry, and I were approached by a young man on a horse and his brother on foot. If them looking like clones of each other wasn’t enough to tip me off, I was feeling way too happy seeing them for them to be strangers. I’d call it the kind of feeling you get when a close friend who moved away pays you an unexpected visit.

“Hey, everyone.” The twin on the horse said.

Joyce was the first to react. “Ben? What are you two doing here?”

Ben dismounted his horse and Joyce came up to embrace her sons.

“The baron’s trackers asked if the town guard had any members who knew the area and then a few more to spare on top of that.” Matthew said, pointing back to two older men, one mounted and the other on foot. Joyce waved hello and the two of them responded with a silent greeting.

“Of course, we had to come and make sure you guys were still safe.” Ben said.

“I’d have had something to say if you hadn’t.” Joyce said.

“Is everyone else fine?” Ben asked.

She nodded. “Kevin, Hailee, and Piper are all okay.”

“They’re inside?”

“Kevin and Piper are, but Hailee is staying over at Ms. Agatha’s for the week.”

“For real?” Ben said. Him and his brother were both looking amused hearing that. “Bet Andrew is loving that.”

Joyce was looking a bit more solemn when he brought Andrew up. Matthew must have noticed because his grin disappeared right after her smile did. Ben didn’t seem to be so observant.

“How long has she been with them so far?” He asked.

“Since the morning. Your father just got back from taking her over.”

“That explains why Jacob is here then.” Ben looked to me. “It’s good to see that the giants didn’t get you either.”

Jacob, huh? I’d never been called that before, but it was the nickname—or maybe something else—that I had seen on my page listed below my name. Looked like it was finally time for it to come into play with the twins here.

“Something wrong?” Ben asked when I didn’t respond.

“You called me Jacob.”

“Well yeah, because it’s your name.”

“I’ve forgotten a lot, but I think I’d remember it if my name was Jacob.”

“Huh?”

Henry grabbed my shoulder before I could respond. “Jacob and his family got into something bad with the giants. One of the giants knocked his head, so he’s lost most of his memories.”

“No way...” Ben whispered.

“Lost his whole family too except for Agatha.” Joyce added.

After hearing that, Ben and Matthew stood silent. Needless to say, learning about their best friend’s amnesia and death of his family had left them shocked.

“Sorry.” Matthew finally managed and Ben followed suit.

“There’s still some things he needs his mother to explain to him.” Henry said. “Make sure you ask her what when you get back home okay, Jacob?”

“Okay.” I nodded. The message was received. My name was Jacob, at least until I asked Agatha what was going on.

In the time it took for Mr. Edward to finally meet the investigation party’s leads and talk to them, Joyce and Henry did the best that they could to catch Ben and Matthew up on recent events.

“Where did the giant hit you on your head?” Ben asked, looking for a mark.

“My mom didn’t actually see when the giant hit me.” I lied. “She just found me laid out on the yard with... everyone else.”

Instead of answering more of their questions, I thought it would probably be best to go home and warn Agatha that the investigation party was coming. Before I had the chance to start on my way back, however, Mr. Edward called out to me.

“Jacob.” He said. It looked like he was in on this whole Jacob thing too. It was probably the case for everyone in the hamlet.

“Yes, Mr. Edward?” I asked. The two group leaders were standing beside him.

“The men lined up here are investigating the giants’ attack in this area. Can you show them the way to your home?”

“Sure.” I said. It wasn’t like I could have said no to begin with.

With the baron’s men and a few town guards in tow, I set off back into the woods. The twins offered me their horse, but I told them I was fine. Apparently, the horse had been a gift from Old Jack’s father after they spent the better half of their teens working on his property.

“Gave it to us for our years of keeping you out of trouble too.” Matthew felt the need to add on.

Since Mr. Edward had given some explanation of my supposed mental situation to the party’s two leads, I didn’t have to say much to either of them on the way back. Instead, I got to catch up with the twins. No doubt, they were feeling down after hearing that their friend’s family had died, but since we had my memory problems to discuss, they chose to focus on that for now.

“Do you remember when we used to climb these trees?” Ben asked. I told him I didn’t and he clicked his tongue. “Man, we used to race up these trees all the time back when we were kids.” He paused, before saying, “I was always the best at it, you know.”

“The best at racing?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“Pretty sure that was Jack, Ben.” Matthew said.

I smiled. “Oh?”

Ben was taken aback. “I can’t believe it. Look at this Jack. My own brother, born from the womb as I, mind you, ratting me out.”

“Heh.” I looked to Matthew. “Did we do any climbing when we were older?”

“Yeah,” he said, “All the time. But we don’t really race anymore.”

“We should do one before Matt and I head back to town.” Ben said.

“Sounds good to me.” I replied.

As we continued down the path, we talked about a good handful of things that the other Jack and the pair had done when they were younger. Learning archery, setting up rope swings with their dads, and pissing off Joyce by spending the day hanging out in the woods instead of working were all fondly reminisced on.

Of course, I wasn’t there for any of that, but I was happy to reminisce with them about it. Even if I wasn’t carrying their friend’s feelings, I think I still would have ended up liking these guys.

The twins’ expressions became complicated when they saw their friend’s now ruined property. They’d spent too much of their youth here for that not to happen.

I could tell that Agatha and Hailee had heard all the ruckus the near forty men now in the yard were making since they opened the front door before we had the chance to step up on the porch and knock.

“Hi Auntie Agatha.” Ben said, waving along with Matthew. Agatha waved back at the two as she approached us while Hailee waited on the porch. I was worried that she might not be ready to handle this situation unprepared, but then the first thing out of her mouth was, “Jacob, what’s going on here?”

The younger of the two party leads rode forward and stopped beside us. “We’re the men that the baron has sent to investigate the giant’s attack, Miss.”

Riding up at a slower pace, the older lead joined us as well. On our way there from the hamlet, the twins explained to me that these two were a father-son tracking team under the employ of the baron and that they had experience leading manhunts. I’m not sure how well that translated to hunting giants, but that was their specialization.

“We’d like to ask you some questions about what took place here.” The father—Godfrey Sr.—said.

“What do you want to know?” Agatha asked.

Godfrey asked for Agatha’s account of the giants’ attack and she obliged. It was supposed to be my second time hearing it, but right away, I noticed differences in what she told them versus what she told me. She cut out the personal things unless they were important and started this recollection of events off when she stepped out the door and saw two giants standing in the yard.

The giants demanded tribute, we didn’t have it. She didn’t feel the need to give the trackers the reason why and the trackers didn’t seem interested in finding it out. In fact, it seemed like Agatha was dead set on giving them as little information as possible without prompt. She probably wouldn’t have even mentioned who exactly was present if they hadn’t ended up asking her.

“You gave them livestock?” Godfrey Sr. asked.

“Yes.”

“Did they use something special to keep the animals calm?” His son—Godfrey Jr.—asked. He and his father would each ask a few questions before switching off.

“Yes, they did.”

“Do you know how?”

“They made us tie golden ropes around each of their necks and it kept them calm.”

“Did they use it on any of the people present?”

Agatha shook her head.

“How’d they deal with the grain?”

“We didn’t have enough for what they wanted, but they loaded most of what we had into their bags.”

She hadn’t mentioned either of those magic items when she told me the story. Probably hadn’t really thought those things were that important on account of all the death and bloodshed that was going on around her. Speaking of that...

“So at what point in the discussion did the fighting break out?”

“The fighting broke out when the giants reached towards my youngest on the second floor.” Agatha pointed to the tarp covered hole in my room. “If you find them, please let me know.”

There was some genuine desperation in her voice when she said that. It made me feel guilty, but I couldn’t tell her that the page had already confirmed their passing.

“We’ll do our best, Miss.” Godfrey Jr. said. “Did you happen to see the fight?”

“Only up until the third giant showed up.” Agatha said, before pointing towards the direction the giants had kicked her son. “He kicked my second oldest, Andrew—” She choked up. “He kicked my boy, Andrew. He kicked him so hard that he sent him flying over the trees.”

Hailee gasped and Ben swore under his breath. As Agatha’s tears began to flow, Hailee and I rushed over to comfort her. Hailee was in tears too, but somehow we were able to manage consoling Agatha faster than I had been able to alone.

After we finished calming her down, Agatha told the hunters that she went running after Andrew, so she didn’t see the rest of what happened. “All I found were the bodies.” She said, still successfully failing to mention me directly in her retelling.

“Did you see the giants use any other magical items during or before the fight?”

Agatha shook her head. “No.”

“Alright.” Godfrey Sr. called forth his three advanced scouts on their horses. “I’d like to have our group setup camp here while we spend the next few days checking the forest for giants. Is that okay with you?”

“Make yourselves at home.” Agatha said.

He thanked her, then turned to his scouts. “I want you three to head down the giant’s path while we set up camp here. We haven’t heard word from any of the villagers about the giants having magic items that could affect you, but keep your eyes open.

“I either want to hear the bell or see you three back by sunset. Understood?”

“Yes, Sir.” The three men said.

“Then head out.”

The advanced scouts did as their leader told them and rode out from the property.

Before the Godfreys could start assigning people to set up camp and begin their patrols, Ben and Matthew asked if they could speak with Hailee, Agatha, and I in private. Probably, considering that this whole matter was a very personal situation for the twins, Godfrey Sr. gave them the okay.

With their leaders’ permission granted, Ben handed off his shared horse to one of his fellow town guards, Howard, and the five of us went inside. Finally, it was time for Jacob to get his explanation.