After Matthew closed the front door behind us, I asked Hailee if she was alright.

“Yeah, I’m fine.“ She rubbed one of her eyes. ”I was just surprised, is all.”

“Come here.” Agatha pulled Hailee into her arms. “I’m so sorry you had to hear that about Andrew.”

“It’s fine.” Hailee hugged her back. The twins and I gave the two of them a moment.

“So, can I get an explanation of why I’m just finding out that my birth name is Jacob?” I asked, once they had let each other go.

“It’s not.” Agatha said. “It’s what we call you when strangers are around.”

“Why?”

“After the war started, the king declared that everyone named Jack had to join his army.”

“At least every Jack between ten and forty.” Ben added.

“Ten?” I repeated. “Isn’t that a bit...”

“Young?” Matthew finished the thought. “Yeah, it is.”

“It’s good that you still know that.” Ben said.

“Why?” I asked.

“So they can fight giants?”

“No, I mean why Jacks?”

“Oh. Well… Guys named Jack are usually the heroes in a lot of the stories, aren’t they?” Ben said, sounding plenty unsure. “Especially when it comes to dealing with giants.”

Stories? I thought, then asked, “That’s the reason for the draft?”

“What draft?”

“The king’s draft.”

That got me weird looks from the twins.

“Like the wind?” Ben asked.

“No, I mean, is that really the reason the king is making Jacks join the army?”

“That’s the reason that most everyone assumes.” Matthew said.

“And that’s why you can’t act like it’s not your name when strangers are around.” Agatha said, grabbing my hand. “I wasn’t going to let them send you east to get killed by those giants before you lost your memories and I’m not going to let them do it now.

“Don’t worry about anyone at the hamlet. Everyone there who's old enough to know already knows.”

“Even Kevin and Piper know.” Hailee jumped in. “I’m not sure if the other kids know, but you can probably just act like they made a mistake.”

Agatha continued. “You just have to remember to act like your name is Jacob when strangers are around or when you go to the village and the town over.”

Hearing all of that, I couldn’t help but sigh. First day, I wake up in the body of someone whose whole family just got murdered. Second day, I find out that people will assume that I’m some fey spawned undead in need of a good burning at the stake if anyone finds out about that. And now it’s day three and I just found out I inherited the body of a draft dodger.

Come on! When does this start getting better?! Was a good summary of what I was thinking at the moment.

Showing none of that emotion beyond the sigh, I told Agatha that I’d remember what she told me.

“Glad that’s solved then.” Ben said.

“It’s a good thing you said my name back at the hamlet.” I said. “I probably would have gotten myself into trouble when Mr. Edward brought over the baron’s trackers.”

Ben smiled. “It’s like Matthew said, we’re always keeping you out of trouble.”

“Hmph.” Agatha sounded amused hearing that one. It was the sort of reaction that definitely didn’t make it sound like that had “always” been the case.

Anyways, with me caught up to speed on my Jacob alias, it was time for Ben and Matthew to explain to Hailee and Agatha how they ended up coming along with the investigation party. Once that was done, the twins and I left the ladies to their business and went back out into the yard.

While Ben and Matthew went over to the manhunters to get assigned their duties, I got to work on cleaning up some of the mess the giants had left behind. Maybe I could have started on the puddles of undried giant’s blood, but the holes they had kicked up all over the yard were honestly a bigger issue. Couldn’t work on the holes, though, since there was a camp being set up for about four short of forty men in our yard and besides that, all our shovels were still in the barn.

Yes, the same barn that looked like one of the giants had body slammed it in half. So yeah, it looked like cleaning up barn debris was going to be my job for the day.

With my axe slung to my belt, I took to clearing the barn’s collapsed middle section. I threw the smaller chunks of wood to the side and chopped the heavy beams into something smaller.

Major Woodcutting ability was handy the whole job through. It let me chop beams of wood in half clean through without even putting my back full in it. That took some beyond human strength there. Probably some magic too to make the cuts clean.

It made sense for a character who's supposed to be able to chop down a giant beanstalk taller than a skyscraper and thick enough to hold a giant. Judging by the ‘smaller pieces’ I could throw around, I think it also increased my normal strength too.

Once I about had the midsection of the barn’s remains organized and piled, it was about time for a certain duo to come over and distract me.

“Hey Jacob, check this out.” He lifted up an old bell with a handle.

“A bell?” I asked.

“A miracle bell.” Ben specified. “They let us have a break, so we could explain what it was to Auntie Agatha, Hailee, and you.”

“Let’s head inside then?”

He shook his head. “Nah. We’ll tell Hailee and Agatha after. It’ll make the break longer.”

I showed the pair of slackers a grin. “So what’s the miracle?”

“It’s supposed to keep the same sound for leagues when you ring it. Just as loud five feet away as it is five hundred. You can even tell which direction the sound is coming from, even when it echoes.”

“Okay, that is pretty amazing.”

“Right?”

“Does it know when you don’t want it to make a sound too? You were shaking it like mad the whole way here and it hasn’t made a sound yet.”

“That’s because I’ve got the tongue locked.” He leaned the bell sideways, revealing a metal piece holding the bell’s clapper in place.

“Oh. Well, I guess that would be easier than putting magic in it.”

“No doubt.” Ben said. “Anyways, we haven’t gotten the chance to hear it yet, but all the baron’s men already have. Before we left town, they taught us some chime patterns to use in different situations. We could teach them to you real quick if you want.”

I shrugged. “Sure.”

“Matt, you want to tell him?”

“You need me to remind you?” Matthew asked.

“Just trying to make sure I’ve got everything down.” Ben smiled.

Matthew looked to me. “You might not remember this, but that’s his way of saying he wasn’t paying attention.”

“Hey.”

Matthew ignored his brother and began his explanation. “The baron’s men taught us five chime patterns for the bell. We’re supposed to ring the bell the right number of times for the situation, pause, then repeat.

“You ring a one-chime pattern if you found something of interest that we weren’t looking for, a two-chime pattern if you found something we were looking for, and a four-chime pattern if you’re on the trail of what we’re looking for, but you think the target has gone out of the bells range. The three-chime pattern is to recall everyone to camp, but they told us not to use that one.”

That’s four. “What about the last one?” I asked.

“You just ring the bell like crazy for that one.” Ben said.

“It’s to call for reinforcements when you’re in danger.” Matthew explained. “They told us to ring like that, no matter what if we see a giant.”

To that, someone clicked their tongue.

“If they think I’m going to ring that bell with one of those giants around, they can shove it.” Lawrence, one of the other two town guards, said as he walked over. Though the man appeared to be in his mid-to-late thirties on the outside, in his heart of hearts, he was already a jaded man deep into his fifties. With over a decade and a half of experience in the guard, he was the most veteran member from the town present.

“Miracle bell.” Lawrence said before grunting. “It’ll be a miracle if whoever rings the bloody thing for a giant survives until we get there and it’ll be a miracle if half of us survive if we go running straight into one. Let me tell you boys, I’ve never seen a giant, but I know full well men ain’t made to be fighting them.”

I could say that I knew that from experience. Or at least my body could. “Then what are we supposed to do?” I asked.

Lawrence shrugged. “There’s nothing we can do. That’s just how big the difference is between us. Least in an open fight.

“It’s why they had to use magic and tricks back in the day to gain their freedom.” He said, speaking of his people’s ancestors. “It’s also why they started growing thornwood forests like this one after they took over. Giants can’t just ram into them like normal trees unless they want to spear themselves.”

“So we just need to climb the trees then.” Ben said.

But Lawrence shook his head to that. “Whoever ’s ringing that bell won’t be surviving just climbing up a tree, I’ll tell you that now. They better be hoping that their horse can carry them off fast enough.”

“They’ll be getting a pretty good head start with all the noise the giants make walking.” I said.

“That’s If the giants are actually trying to make noise.” He said. “Apparently, all that ground shaking and leaving footprints behind in the stories is just something the giants do for show. I’ve heard stories from the frontline where they could walk on mud without leaving a print if they wanted to and if they’re trying to sneak up on you, you’ll only hear them when they knock against something or rustle the leaves.”

“And who told you tha—'' I stopped mid sentence. I didn’t believe him at first, but, “Wait...” my eyes widened as I thought back to when the giants passed me by in the forest. I’d heard that big orange oaf’s footsteps while he was walking to pick up the corpse, but other than that time, I’d only heard the grey giant’s.

“You remembering something from before them giants knocked your head, boy?”

“No. I saw—” Before I could say anymore, I caught myself. I couldn’t tell them that I saw the giants when I woke up in the forest. As far as anyone besides Agatha and I were concerned, I had never left the property during the incident.

After a brief pause, I said, “Maybe.”

“Alright!” Ben pumped his fist in the air.. “It’s good to know something is coming back.”

“Don’t go running to my mom to tell her,” I said, “Okay?”

“Right.” He nodded. “I’ll wait until you remember something better”

I gave him a nod in return, then turned back to Lawrence. “You have anymore to add to your lesson on giants?”

“What I was getting to is that if the giants want to sneak up on us, they can. Before the baron’s men set up the patrols just now, the giants could have been surrounding this place for all we knew.”

Just going to add sneaking giants to my list of worries… “If it’s that bad, how is it on the frontlines?” I asked.

“It might as well be a death sentence if a giant spots you out there.” He said.

“What about for all the Jacks that were sent there by the army?”

“Bet there’s a hundred dead for every hero the army finds among ‘em. Maybe even a thousand.”

Welp, it looked like I was going to have to keep up this draft dodger thing until I developed superpowers. “But some of them were heroes?” I asked.

“Some of them are heroes,” Lawrence corrected me, “But they’d have been bound to find some of those among any bunch of men they threw at the giants. King probably just wanted there to be less people who have his name, honestly.”

“But didn’t the king put down a whole bunch of fey at the border before he married into the crown?” Ben asked.

“Look, just because some bloke has the same name as him doesn’t mean he’s gonna be able to do all of that.”

“So you don’t think there’s anyone here who could be a hero?” I asked.

“Don’t know. I’d sure hope so if someone rings one of those funeral bells. Otherwise, it’s going to be half of us getting the worst of what those giants have to offer.”

“Well, I hope that—” Ben began, but before he could get the chance to jinx us, the beautiful sound of a bell reverberated in the air. It was by magic that the sound of its frantic ringing pleasured our ears and it was by magic as well that it lifted our hearts. The feelings it had summoned, however, were just some illusion masking the doom it had announced for us.

Like Ben had said, we could all tell which direction it was ringing from. West from where the property stood. West to where the giants had gone.

As we met eyes, Lawrence and I shared a sigh. It looked like today wasn’t going to be getting any better for either of us.