*** Nephern ***

“What do you want?”

Kene felt hot and sticky in my arms. She was unconscious. A large gash right across her hairline was spilling blood down onto my shoulder and into the opening of my armor. I could feel that she was still breathing, but there was no way her condition was good. I needed to get her somewhere safe to give first aid, but there was no way I could do that right now.

I was staring down the giant in white armor standing in front of me.

Technically they saved us, but of course it couldn’t be that simple. The flying creatures were scattered through the clearing, lying dead on the ground. The giant pointed that weird metal rod at them and the next moment they were dead. I had no clue how it worked, but it was obviously a powerful weapon. The way that they were pointing it at me made it clear that I was their new target.

I wanted to just get up and run, to get Kene away as soon as possible, but it would never work. Not until I knew I could beat them. Even if I was fresh and well rested, I wouldn’t be confident in taking them on. There were too many unknowns. What were these creatures? How did their weapons work? What were their goals?

On top of all that I was exhausted. We’d been running and fighting for ours at this point and my ankle was pulsing with a red hot pain. I rolled it as I landed. It might even be broken.

I heard Sterthen enter the clearing behind me. I could rely on him if it came to blows, but he should be just as lost as I was.

Which is why I wished this weird fucking creature would just respond.

We were sitting in silence staring each other down. If they wanted to kill us, they probably could. Why were they just standing there? I felt my temper starting to swell.

“I said ‘what do you want?’ Are you going to attack us, or can we go on our way?”

No reaction. Could they even understand me?

“Look, my daughter is hurt and I need to-”

I shifted to gesture toward Kene and the giant moved. They brought the rod up to its shoulder. It was subtle, but the movement was familiar. They were bracing to strike.

My grip tightened on my spear. I’d only have one chance. I needed to turn Kene away and push off. If I could make it to Sterthen at the edge of the clearing, he could take her and run. There was no way I’d make it on my leg so I’d have to stay here and hold them back.

I didn’t give myself time to let the meaning of that sink in.

Kene comes first.

I grounded my good foot. I’d go on three.

One…

Two…

“XXXXXXXXX”

One of the other giants stepped up and pushed the weapon away with a shout. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but it seemed like they were trying to stop us from fighting. The giant in the white armor tried to step around them, but the second one kept putting themself between us.

Now could be my chance. Should I just make a run for it anyway?

I had resolved myself to die here, and I knew that was the right move, but what if there was another option. Kene comes first. If they insisted on fighting, that was our only way out, but the safest course of action was to avoid fighting altogether. We’d wait.

The argument between the two giants was becoming even more heated. The second one was frantically trying to stop the first from training it’s weapon on us, but they didn’t seem to be listening. Then the second giant said something that seemed to get through. They let out another exasperated shout and the one in the white armor stood town, taking a step back and pulling the metal rod back.

I guess they were a soldier. I could tell by their stance that they were still ready to act at a moment's notice.

Then the second giant turned back toward us and started to walk forward. I think it was supposed to be a friendly gesture, but I wasn’t taking any chances. My grip on the spear tightened once again, but I kept staring straight forward.

“Stay back,” I heard Sterthen say from right behind me. He must have taken his own chance to move forward while the two argued.

The giant stopped and held their hands open toward us. They started saying something, but it was still completely unintelligible. The giant in the white armor had a solid white helmet that hid their face, but this one was hardly wearing armor at all. In fact it seemed like none of them aside from the one that threatened us were, so I could see their faces. That should have made me feel better, but it only unsettled me more. Their faces almost looked natural, but they were off in a way I couldn’t quite place. Like their eyes were ever so slightly too small and their noses too big. They all had very prominent jaws but their brows seemed too small.

They were unlike anything I’d ever seen. They didn’t even look like the Elves or the Karnathem that I had encountered.

I couldn’t read any of their faces so I was struggling to tell what their intentions were. The one that approached us bared its teeth at us as it spoke. Was that supposed to be a smile? If it was trying to put me at ease it wasn’t working.

“I can’t understand you,” I said flatly. At this point, it was just getting frustrating.

They seemed to understand that much. They kept speaking, but they started pointing as well. They pointed at Kene, then at their own head.

“Can you help her,” I asked, pointing down at Kene. They kept up the smile and made a gesture with their head and hands. I didn’t recognize the gestures. Was that a yes or no? My confusion must have been obvious. The creature turned away from us for a second and walked back toward the group. They came back a moment later with a small box and a roll of fabric.

Bandages.

So they were offering help. I’m glad we were finally able to get to that, but we were taking way too long. We bought ourselves a lot of ground between us and the horde of Elves that followed us out of town, but we were sitting still here. They’d catch up in no time.

“Thank you,” I said slowly, trying my best to repeat the gestures they had used a moment ago, then pointing at the ground around us, where the dead creatures were laying, “but we can’t stay here.” I pointed from the bodies, back into the forest where we had come from. “There are more coming. We need to go,” I finished, pointing off in the opposite direction.

That seemed to be good enough.

The giant that was speaking with us turned back and said something to the group. They all started to move.

A few of them pulled out metal rods of their own that they had slung over their backs and started to move back in the direction we came from, including the one wearing the armor. Were they seriously going to try and fight?

“No! We need to go. There are too many,” I frantically tried to wave down the ones walking away and tell them they were making a mistake. They didn’t listen. I turned back toward the kind giant I was speaking with a moment ago and tried to convince them instead. They seemed to have some kind of pull in the group. If I could get them to understand, they could do the convincing for me.

I pointed at the bodies on the ground and tried to make a gesture to say that the things coming from behind us were different. They were bigger, faster, stronger. I did whatever gestures I thought would make that clear, but the kind giant only kept up the smile and affirming gestures.

They pointed at Kene’s head and my leg.

I appreciated the help, but that didn’t matter right now. Our light, why won’t this stupid creature just listen.

“No you don’t-”

“Neph, I think they get it,” Sterthen cut me off from behind and put his hand on my shoulder.

What did he mean? He had seen the Elves. The only reason we were able to get away was that we ran. There was no way to fight a group that big with just 3 people.

Fuck… They won’t listen to us. There's no way I can explain everything with just hand gestures. We’d just need to rest and catch our breath so that we could make a break for it as soon as those idiots dropped. If they patched Kene up, we could just run back into town on our own and we wouldn’t have to worry anymore.

The kind giant had sat down next to me and was gesturing toward the ground next to me, telling me to put Kene down.

I really didn’t want to leave her to these creatures, but there wasn’t much else I could do about it at this point. They at least seemed intelligent, so they should know something about what they were doing. I laid Kene down gently on the ground with her head right next to the giant. They slowly started pulling Kene’s hair back to get a clear look at the wound. I gripped my spear tightly, watching as they worked and ready to move if I saw any signs of hostility.

They reached into the box and pulled out a little bottle along with a cloth pad. They poured the contents of the bottle onto it, then slowly dabbed away at the wound. I was trying to focus on them as I felt a twinge of pain shoot through my leg. Another one of them was squatting in front of me, gently tugging at my boot.

“I’ll get it,” I barked out irritably and kicked them away, regretting that immediately as another bolt of fire coursed through my body. I could feel that my ankle was already starting to swell. My boot was far tighter than it should have been. I took a long deep breath and pulled, jerking it off in one swift movement. I let the air hiss out through my teeth as the pain flared up again. The skin around my ankle was mottled and starting to bruise. It was an ugly sight, but at least it didn’t look broken. I tested it by moving it around in a circle a couple of times. Even if it hurt like hell, I still had a full range of motion so that was a good sign.

I looked over to the giant that was trying to help and signalled that I was ready. Were they… frowning? It was still hard to tell with their faces, but it seemed like this one was looking at me with some kind of disdain. I could just feel it radiating from their eyes. Sure enough, the kind giant barked something out at them, and even though the bitter look didn’t leave, they at least started to work on my ankle.

I wanted to carefully watch them and make sure they didn’t try anything funny, but the cracks of thunder began to ring out behind us. They were so loud that it was difficult to tell how far away they were, but this meant the giants had started to fight.

Would we be okay to stay here? I craned my neck to look off into the distance behind us, but I couldn’t see anything through the trees. They were at least far enough away that we didn’t need to worry right now. We could still wait for them to treat us, but the moment I saw a single flicker of the Elves’ white skin through the trees, we’d grab Kene and run.

I could feel my attention being pulled in a dozen different directions. Between Kene, the giant by my foot, the fight going on behind us, and the sky that could still be a threat at any moment, I felt the mental fatigue starting to set in. I’d been on high alert for nearly two days straight now. Finally having a moment to breathe after the most recent crisis, I felt like I was ready to pass out.

How much longer would we have to keep going like this? More importantly, how long until we slipped up?

Without looking, I reached my free hand up and latched on to Sterthen’s belt. I needed stability. Something to keep me grounded and someone to share the burden. I felt the warmth of his hand on mine and the overwhelming sense that everything would be alright swept through me.

That was all I needed.

After a while of waiting, the sounds of battle behind us stopped just as abruptly as they had started. Either all of the giants had been overtaken at once or the Elves had stopped attacking. Which was it?

I dropped my hand away from Sterthen and started to push myself up with my spear, getting another annoyed look from the giant by my foot as I forced them away. We both looked off in the distance, tracing our eyes back and forth for any sign of movement in the distance. Eventually, I caught a flicker of white. I immediately felt my feet move, but held my ground. The white wasn’t glowing like the Elves. It was the white giant, although their armor wasn’t as white as before. They were spattered with blood and walking side by side with one other giant.

They had left with 3. The third must not have made it.

That didn’t surprise me. What caught me off guard was the fact that any of them came back at all. They shouldn’t have been able to hold off a horde that size with only three people, even if their weapons were incredible.

I had seriously underestimated them.

I heard a click behind us.

My head snapped back toward Kene. The third giant was standing there, pointing a smaller version of the metal rod the white giant had used straight down at her.

“...”

“What the fuck are you doing?”

I stood there silently, dumbfounded by the situation, as Sterthen lashed out beside me. I could feel the heat radiating off of his shield as he started to step forward. I just barely caught his hand.

“Don’t…”

I could hear the defeat in my own voice.

“They were able to fight back that horde with just three of them… We can’t take them on here… Not with Kene at risk.”

They had us completely surrounded. It wasn’t just the giant pointing the weapon at Kene either. The white giant had theirs trained on us from behind and the other giant that came back also had their weapon pointed in our direction. In the time that I could get one spear off, they’d all be able to fire back at us and I had no doubt that their weapons could pierce our armor with the power they showed earlier. Even if we could stop the first shot from hurting Kene, we’d be mortally wounded in the process, so there’d be no way to stop them from killing us all.

They’d beaten us but they also weren’t killing us on the spot.

They had some other goal in mind, which meant we’d have another chance to act.

The giant that came back with the white giant slowly started circling us, keeping their distance. They were saying something, although it didn’t seem to be directed at us. They were shooting glances over toward the kind giant as they spoke. Whatever they were saying seemed to get a rise. The kind giant started spitting words back at them, but the instigator didn’t seem phased.

I had thought the kind giant was the leader from how they acted earlier, but maybe I was wrong. Either that, or this was some kind of mutiny. I just wished I could understand what the two were saying. The kind giant kept getting more and more intense in their responses. It even looked like they were about to lunge out and attack the instigator at one point. I felt Sterthen’s reassuring squeeze on my hand.

If that did happen, that would be our opening to act, so I prepared myself to strike, but the opening never came.

Just as it seemed they were going to come to blows, the instigator said something that made the friendly giant completely deflate. They let their eyes drop to the floor and went silent. Whatever conflict was brewing between them came to a close with a clear winner.

The instigator turned their attention back toward us. They kept talking, now seemingly speaking directly to us and jerking their weapon downward toward the floor. Even without understanding the words, that gesture was clear enough.

If we dropped our weapons now, it would be far more difficult to fight down the road, but we didn’t have a choice. Plus, just because it would be more difficult didn’t mean it would be impossible. For now it was best to follow their orders.

Our weapons clattered to the ground. The snide giant that had been attending to my foot quickly swept in to pick them up and move them away from us.

The instigator kept speaking. It seemed like they were trying to give a speech but whatever impact it was meant to have on us was lost. After a moment, they triumphantly turned to the rest of their group and finished up the speech. It ended in awkward silence. I’m not sure what kind of response they expected from a group this small, but they seemed to be irritated by it. They barked out an order and the group began to swarm, gathering up their supplies and getting ready to head out.

I wanted to look for an opportunity to make our move, but the white giant was standing menacingly behind us. It was impossible to see their face, but I could just feel their eyes trained on us, waiting for the slightest move. I saw the snide giant go to pick up Kene and that was almost enough to make me move regardless, but I managed to hold myself back.

The kind giant had finished patching her up just before the other group returned, so she wasn’t in any immediate danger. My foot was still swollen and aching, but the kind giant also took a moment to come over and put a tight boot on it that helped reduce the pain and let me at least put my weight on it.

We started marching west.

*** ??? ***

The two Elves, still flying above the forest on their winged mounts, looked down on the scene beneath them. Just as they were about to have Nephern and Sterthen in their clutches, the creatures that had mysteriously appeared in the forest swept in and absorbed them into their group. They ordered the horde to attack, but even with only three of the creatures fending them off, they weren’t able to make any progress. Every attempt to outmaneuver them was matched by the creature in white armor. They were making no progress.

“I thought you said those things wouldn’t be a problem,” the man said quietly. He spoke plainly, without any fluctuations in his voice, but the subtle tremor in his hands betrayed the rage that was just on the edge of spilling through.

“How the fuck was I supposed to know the Sun Eaters would run this far north,” the woman practically shouted, her fury plain on her face witht the veins nearly bursting at her temples.

“Because you were specifically supposed to make sure they didn’t get in the way,” the man finally snapped, raising his voice for the first time that night.

“Yeah, and I told you I couldn’t! You see how much of a problem they are! You can’t even touch them now and you’re working with twice the force I had!”

“You could have at least-”

“At least what? Told you about them? I fucking did. You said to trust in your little plan, and look where that’s gotten us. You just had to trust your fancy little friends in the ground more than me, but they haven’t given us shit. All of this fancy bullshit and trickery and we still can't even sack a single, old, decrepit fort. I told you not to rely on them.”

The man was silent.

“What? Not going to say anything? Not going to try and defend them? Oh, or are you finally realizing that you should have just listened to me from the beginning? Am I going to get one of your elusive apologies? It’s been a while, but I never get tired of-”

“I’m thinking,” he said curtly, cutting her off.

“Oh of course, I’m sorry. Take your time. I’m ready for it, whenever it comes to you.”

The man continued to stare down quietly, gnawing at the tip of his finger as he thought. It started to become raw and red as he continued to wrack his brain. Then he suddenly jerked his head upright.

“Cease the attack,” he whispered out into the air, letting the words carry down to the horde. Abruptly, all of their movements shifted, retreating away from the group of creatures. They had lost nearly a third of the horde in the fight.

The woman looked over at him triumphantly. “Alright, I’m waiting for it.”

“I need to go,” the man said abruptly, kicking his steed in the sides and starting to dive westward, but the woman cut him off.

“Oh no you don’t. You don’t get to just run away from this after everything that’s happened.”

“I’m not running away. I’m going to wake it up.”

The woman’s smug look broke and turned into something more akin to worry.

“It’s not time yet. It’s still feeding. If you interrupt it and just throw it headlong into those things right now, it’ll just get torn down the same way the rest of them did. I’m putting a stop to this. We’re retreating and recouping. We can make our next move when it’s fully ready.”

But the man was undeterred.

“All it needs is to finish gathering its strength, so I’ll give it a kick to get it started.”

“With what? The only thing that would be enough would be one of those Sun Eaters.”

“Or one of the World’s Chosen.”

“... you can’t be serious.”

“I said at the beginning of all of this that I’d give my life to see our people freed, didn’t I?”

The woman jumped from her steed onto his, grabbing the shoulder straps of his armor and hoisting him up out of his saddle by them.

“Then give it on the battlefield when the time is right like the rest of us, not by throwing yourself into a creature’s hungry maw. Is that how you want to be remembered? A coward that ran away to let someone else fight for them. I’ve sat quietly by, watching you sully your soul with cowardice all these years because I believed in you, but I’m putting my foot down.”

At this point, the anger had drained from her voice. She was begging him more than insulting him.

“Fad’kara… this is the only way. You know that too. If I thought fighting them head on would be enough I’d gladly do it, but this is bigger than just the two of us now. My soul is a small price to pay for all of them to be free.”

“That’s not fair.”

“You’re right. None of this is fair. But it’s still what I have to do.”

He grabbed her by the wrists and her grip loosened. They stood there for a moment, hundreds of feet in the air, just looking at each other before she pulled away.

“If you’re going to go, then go. I won’t stop you. I’ll make sure your sacrifice isn’t in vain,” she said, devoid of emotion, as she jumped back to her own steed. The man sat back down in his saddle and waited for a moment, watching her intently.

“I love you Fad’kara,” he said quietly, just loud enough for her to hear. She didn’t respond as she kicked her steed into motion and dove down into the trees near where the horde was retreating to.

He spared one last look in her direction before diving back west.

*** Sterthen ***

We walked for hours before we reached our final destination. Me and Neph looked for every opportunity we could, we even tried making some ourselves, but the white giant stayed pinned on us every step of the way. It felt like there was no move we could make without them seeing it first.

Neph’s foot was still awful. Every mile or two, one of us would call out to the giants to try and communicate that she needed a break. The kind giant, as we had taken to calling them, seemed to pick up on our meaning and convince the others to rest, but we only stopped for minutes at a time before we kept going.

The breaks were of course to help Neph, but they were also chances for us to look for any weaknesses they might show. The giant that was carrying Kene seemed like the weakest link. The entire trip, they moaned and complained. Although the specifics of their complaints were lost on us, their tone and the other giant’s reactions made it clear what was happening.

In their complaints, they also left themselves open constantly, especially whenever we rested. If it hadn’t been for the white giant, we could have already made our move. Which meant that we just needed to force them to falter and we’d be set.

We figured that the language barrier could work in our favor as well. Me and Neph quietly discussed a plan as we walked. We were being marched along near the back of the group. The traitor giant was leading the group, with the whiny giant carrying Kene right behind them. Between us and Kene were the kind giant and the other unarmed giant, so the only people behind us were the white giant and the other giant with the weapon. Those two had our weapons strapped to their backs.

Once we had an opening, Neph would block the two behind us as best she could so they couldn’t stop me when I ran forward to get Kene. First, I’d take down the one carrying her, but I’d have to immediately move past them to stop the traitor giant from firing back on us. Once I neutralized him, I’d scoop up Kene and decide what to do next.

“If I say so, you run. Don’t look back or try to help me,” Nephern said definitively.

I wanted to argue. I didn’t even want to entertain the idea of leaving one of us behind.

But of course, she was right. She wouldn’t be able to keep up with us with her leg, so if we couldn’t completely neutralize the two behind us, the only chance for Kene was for me to get away as soon as possible. I tried to resolve myself, but I didn’t know how I would react in the moment. If the pull showed up again, I might rush in to save her without even thinking.

With that in mind, I refused to let that be the only option.

The best case scenario would be getting our weapons back, but in order to do that we’d have to beat the two who were the biggest threats in the first place, which meant it was basically impossible. Instead, I set my eyes on the next best thing. I carefully watched the traitor giant ahead of us as he wielded his weapon. I watched how he moved with it, how he handled it, everything.

If we couldn’t fight with our own weapons, we’d take theirs instead.

As we went farther west, the terrain started to change and it became clear that we were entering the Helefiran. As soon as we started heading west, I assumed the giants originally came from the dark forest, but as soon as the trees started to grow more slender and wiry, the group’s attitude shifted. They became quiet and anxious.

They were just as unfamiliar with this place as me and Neph were. Even better for us.

After a bit of walking, we had a run in with some of the local wildlife. We saw the tracks long before they did so we knew it was coming up. We could tell that they were a small group of Mangtherm from the tracks, which are a type of large herbivore that only attack people in self defense, so it was nothing too intense. They were actually quite common in the woods outside of the Helefiran, so it wasn’t that unusual to see them. We discussed it and, because the Mangtherm aren’t serious threats on their own, we decided to just observe rather than try and make our move.

I wanted to see how the traitor giant reacted and, more importantly, how they used their weapon. It would be better to wait for a serious threat to strike before we tried to break free,

Sure enough, just as we rounded one of the massive boulders that littered the forest, the Mangtherm sprung out and sprinted past us. On reflex, the giant fired a few times and three massive holes opened up in the chest of the Mangtherm, dropping it to the ground. It wasn’t fully dead, but it would be in no time. The giants didn’t hesitate to keep moving, but it had told me all I needed to know.

There was a small lever on the base. The giant held it down to fire and it kept shooting until they let go. However, they fired 4 times and only three of those hit the Mangtherm. I could tell that with each shot, the weapon kicked backward, which must have been why the last one went astray. That would also explain their posture and grip on the weapon if they needed to compensate for it. It also told me that the weapons could miss, which made the whole experience worthwhile.

If they could miss, we could fight back.

It wasn’t perfect, but this was enough for us to commit to an escape. We both agreed that the next time something like this happened, we’d be ready for it and make our move. Neph said she’d take care of forcing an opening in the white giant’s defense, so it was up to me to handle the rest.

With the plan set, we waited.

But the opportunity never came.

We didn’t know where we were going so we had no clue how long we would have, but it turned out there was very little time. By the time we realized, it was too late. The sun was cresting over the horizon, and with it we began to see tracks. Far more of them.

More giants.

By the time we confirmed that with each other, a camp started to come into view. A massive one. Over a dozen large buildings… no, tents… were set up in a clearing and it appeared that a large number of trees had been felled nearby just to give them more room. There were countless giants running to and fro frantically around the camp. It seemed like they were still in the process of setting it all up.

We had missed our chance to fight back.

My shoulders slumped. How many times tonight had I felt the stinging sensation of defeat? Me and Neph were strong. So strong that we had confidently settled ourselves down, right next to one of the most dangerous places in the Empire, and laughed about it. There was no doubt about it. We’d be able to protect Kene no matter what came. And yet, here we were.

We had totally failed.

The only hope left was to hope for some kind of divine intervention. Maybe the giants didn’t have any ulterior motives. Maybe the rest of them in the camp were more like the kind giant and not like the traitor. Maybe the imperial army would march in right behind us and free us.

A whole lot of maybes, each of which seemed more impossible than the last.

I felt the drive to do something. Anything. But my mind and body were both completely drained. There was nothing left in me to work with.

As soon as we entered the clearing, every eye in the camp turned to us. Giants swarmed us, talking frantically and shooting glances at us. The group that dragged us here dispersed, each heading off to their own places in the camp and setting to work on something I had no desire to comprehend. Kene was still unconscious as she was handed off to another giant and we were escorted into one of the buildings by the white giant.

They cuffed the three of us to some kind of metal structure inside the tent and then we were abandoned. The only one left standing in the tent with us was the white giant, still carefully watching. I felt unconsciousness pulling at my eyelids.

“I’m sorry Neph…”

“Don’t say that. It’s not over yet. Just sleep. You’ll need your energy to escape. I’ll keep watch,” she said, slurring her words, clearly pushing her own limits.

They cuffed us together on a long beam so I slid over toward her, pulling Kene up onto my lap and leaning my head on Neph’s shoulder.

“I love you Neph…”

“Go to sleep Sterthen.”

I faded into unconsciousness with those last words.

*** Nephern ***

I stared up into the blank white mask staring back down at me, glaring at the faint streaks of red left over on it from all of the fighting. It didn’t even have holes for eyes. How could the giant behind it see me? I knew instinctively that they could, but I had no clue how.

Did the giant have some kind of power that they used to see instead of eyes or was it something special about the helmet? It was a trivial question, but it was just about the only thing I could focus my mind on. There were no windows to let us see outside, so I couldn’t gather any information that way and there was nothing useful to examine in the tent. The metal structure we were connected to was too complex for me to even begin to decipher, but I knew soldiers and I knew armor.

If I could just figure it out, I could…

I could what? This whole thing was pointless. I knew that there was nothing left to do, but I refused to just stop fighting. This was my last futile effort to put up a fight, but it was just that.

Futile.

I let my head drop back against the metal behind me and finally let myself break eye contact with the giant. I looked down at the two of them next to me. Kene still hadn’t woken up, but at least she was breathing. I reached out and traced her face with my fingers as I felt the tears welling up in my eyes. I pulled the two of them tight against me and sat like that for a while.

The question of whether any of this was worth it flicked through my mind, but I immediately stamped it down. I had no doubts in my mind. If me and Sterthen had stayed in the Capitol, none of this would have happened, but the last 7 years with Kene were worth it.

At some point as I thought that, my mind started to drift, and I must have fallen asleep. I had never fallen asleep on watch before, but this was a night of firsts. I woke up to a loud rumbling coursing through the ground. Was it an earthquake? We felt them from time to time in the Capitol, but there hadn’t been one during our entire time in Anghelen. Was that really what it was?

I opened my eyes to see that we were completely alone in the tent. The white giant was gone. I had given up on it entirely, but this could be the moment we were waiting for.

“Then, wake up,” I whispered, elbowing him in the side. He slowly roused, but as he got his bearings and noticed the rumbling, his eyes shot open.

“What is that?”

“I don’t know, but we’re alone. We need to find a way out, before-”

A series of screams rang out through the camp along with the sharp cracks of the giant’s weapons. Something was here.

I started frantically pulling at the cuffs, there was no way to get them off through force alone.

“Then, let me see your arm,” I said frantically. He held it out to me. I had never done anything like this, but now was the time to try. I held my open palm a few inches away from it and started concentrating. My spear normally acted as a conduit for my power to help amplify them, but I should be able to do the same even without it.

I felt the warmth fill my palm and a tiny mote of light appeared. I focused as hard as I could on elongating it, shaping it into a little spear, before I released it.

PING

The sound of metal snapping rang out and the chain connected to his cuff was hanging loose. This was perfect. I could barely contain my excitement until the wave of nausea swept over me. I was already running on empty and without my spear, even something that small took more out of me than shooting off a dozen full sized spears of light. But that’s fine, I had all that I needed left.

“Quick, hold Kene’s-”

Of course, in that moment, the flaps of the tent swung open and the blinding midday light flooded in along with the screams from the camp. The white giant stormed in followed by the traitor and the snide giant. They each had their weapons in hand and moved with haste.

They were shouting to each other and the moment they saw that Sterthen was free, they all pointed the weapons at him. He didn’t miss his chance though, before they even recognized the situation he had dashed straight at the white giant, forcing their weapon upward and wrapping one arm around their waist. Anyone else would have been taken to the ground immediately, but the white giant was something else. All they had to do was wrap one arm around Sterthen’s trunk and he was stuck in place while the other two stormed in and pointed their weapons at me and Kene.

Our escape had ended as soon as it started.

Sterthen saw what happened and let go of the white giant, raising his hands in a gesture of submission. The white giant struck him once across the chin with the back side of his weapon and Sterthen dropped.

The traitor said something in their language and the white giant hoisted Sterthen up over his shoulder and walked out of the tent.

“Hey! Where are you going?!”

The traitor kept his weapon trained on Kene while the snide giant approached and undid my cuff. There was nothing I could do, even in that moment. I let them reconnect the cuff so my hands were stuck behind my back. Then they undid Kene’s and picked her up in one arm, and started shoving me out of the tent.

I saw the thing that was making all of the noise but I could barely even begin to understand what it was. It thrashed and writhed in the distance, a nearly 30 foot tall mass of… something. It looked like it was made of flesh, but it didn’t seem like any animal I’d ever seen, so I didn’t even want to consider it that.

“Haha”

I let out a cackling laugh as I saw it tearing through the camp.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

Of course this was going to happen right now. What else could go wrong? At least I could die knowing that these piece-of-shit giants would die here with me. I cackled at the absurdity of the situation as the giants forced me to keep walking toward the center of camp where a large metal circle was set up on the ground.

A large huddled mass of giants were standing on the circle while a line formed, getting ready to step on themselves. A flash of light blinded me. A moment later my vision returned and I saw that all of the giants on the platform were gone. The ones in the line were quickly swarming their way onto the platform a dozen at a time.

That wouldn’t do.

That’s their way out.

I already decided they’d be dying here with me. I couldn’t stop them all, but I would be making sure that the three here right now didn’t touch that platform. The white giant was far enough ahead with Sterthen, I didn’t need to worry about them right now.

I slowed down, baiting the traitor into shoving me forward. I waited for the shove and pivoted on my good foot as soon as the weapon was about to hit me. I shoulder checked them, knocking them backward, their weapon clattering to the ground.

I felt warmth fill my palms and another wave of nausea pulse through me as I let a little light of spear out and severed my cuffs, but I kept my footing. I turned to the snide giant, still holding Kene. They didn’t have their weapon ready so I stepped forward and cold cocked them straight across the jaw, catching Kene out of their hands as they fell.

The traitor shouted out and I saw the white giant turning back to us. They immediately dropped Sterthen to the ground and brought their weapon to bear, but I was already moving. I darted off between the two tents, but I accidentally put too much pressure on my bad leg, making me stumble and drop to one knee. As soon as I did, a crack of thunder rang out and a large hole tore through the fabric above me.

I scrambled back to my feet and kept moving. Thunder rang out behind me as more holes opened up around me, but none of them found purchase. I had ducked into the nearest opening I could find, but I quickly realized I was running straight into the thing that was wrecking the camp. I’d have to-

The tent in front of me was crushed by a massive tendril of meat and I was smacked in the face by the stench of rotting flesh. It cut off my path of escape. I turned to see the white giant emerge from the path of the tents behind me. I was pinned in. But ultimately that was what I wanted. The white giant took aim and said something, although I couldn’t understand. Before they could do anything else, they looked up and jumped backward, just barely avoiding another massive tentacle slamming down.

I dove off into another tent, cutting my way in with another flash of light. I blacked out for a moment just as I leapt through the tear, but then woke up on the ground in a puddle of my own vomit. The sounds of battle were still ringing out. It had to have only been a moment. I scooped up Kene and kept running.

I found the flap leading back out in the opposite direction of the thing and burst through just in time to avoid being crushed by another tentacle obliterating the tent. It slammed down right next to me, still keeping me blocked in. The only way for me to run was back toward the platform at the middle of the camp.

“Fuck it.”

I started running that way.

There were no more giants in the camp outside of that central area. I didn’t even see the white giant as I made my way through the camp. Hopefully they were still fighting the thing, but either way, this was my chance to find a way out.

Then I saw the flash of light and I chanced a look over toward the platform. It was just on the edge of my vision, but I saw the snide giant and the traitor, just starting to run onto it with the last group of giants. Draped over their shoulders was his distinctive golden armor.

They had Sterthen propped up between them.

I froze.

We had always talked about situations like this, where one of us had to leave the other behind. I had always thought that I’d be able to do it without a second thought, especially for Kene. I think that if this was any other situation I still would have, but I wasn’t fighting for survival anymore. I knew I wasn’t getting out alive. Even if I escaped the giants, there was still the thing. Even if I escaped it, there was still the horde of Elves out there somewhere and the hostile wildlife of the Helefiran. There was basically zero chance of me making it safely back to Anghelen in my current state.

I had made peace with that.

These were my final moments and there were only two people I wanted to spend them with.

I charged forward into the central area.

“Hey fuckers,” I called out, managing to catch everyone’s attention. Most of the giants just looked at me with confusion, but the traitor took the bait.

They shouted something out and pointed over toward… the friendly giant? The friendly giant was standing just off of the platform at a weird metal box. The traitor kept shouting out at the friendly giant and pushed the snide giant forward off of the platform.

They were only going to send the snide giant at me? Fine, even if it’s just one, I’ll take it. I was going to stomp in their filthy face if it was the last thing I did. Then I’d deal with the traitor.

I charged forward as the snide giant stumbled and tried to regain their footing. They pulled their weapon up toward me, but they were a moment too late. I shoved it aside with my free hand and slammed my head up into their chin. I staggered backward from the pain, but they seemed just as disoriented by it. I shook my head and locked my eyes on them, ready to charge again.

When I was blinded by a flash.

The platform had glowed and everyone on it was gone… Sterthen included.

What had happened? Then I heard the crack of thunder. Blood sprayed out of the snide giant’s chest. They looked down for a moment, struggling to figure out what had happened just like I was, before crumbling to their knees and dropping to the ground.

What?

The friendly giant was walking over toward us, one of the smaller weapons extended straight out toward the fallen body. Had they just killed one of their own? I had so many things I wanted to ask, but I could only watch as they walked over and shot down into the body two more times.

I was so shocked, I wasn’t even ready to defend myself. I was just staring dumbly. Luckily, the friendly giant didn’t seem to want to fight. They walked over and kicked the body one more time for good measure before looking my way. The sound of the thing was still ringing out through the camp, with only a few remaining cracks ringing out. It seemed like nearly every giant that was left here was dead.

It was just the two of us in this moment of calm.

They said something to me and pointed off into the distance.

“Are you telling me to go?”

They did the same gesture of affirmation from earlier and turned to walk back over to the metal box where they were standing before. That was all it took. After all of this, that was how it was going to end? I wished I could be grateful, but the vision of the thing writhing toward us just made this all the more tragic.

It was fast. At this distance, it didn’t even matter. The last sounds of fighting in the distance went silent and it was rapidly approaching now that we were the only things left here.

I was finally free to leave, but it didn’t matter.

Then another flash of light and my ears started ringing. This time, it wasn’t from the platform. A ball of fire erupted from the thing. The heat and force threw me to the ground and my vision had a massive black spot in it. The image of that fireball burned into my eyes.

My body was completely numb. I felt my vision start to go black and a creeping chill started to overtake my fingers. I tried to look out at what had happened.

The thing was still there, engulfed in flame and thrashing about lazily, trying to put them out, but it’s movements were sluggish too. A huge portion of it was missing.

I didn’t care.

I looked over beside me and saw that the friendly giant was lying there too, although they were already picking themselves up and trying to move. They were limping back over to the box. Then they turned back toward me. No, they were looking past me. The white giant limped past me, headed straight for the platform.

Their white armor was almost completely destroyed. It was blackened all over and huge pieces were missing. The only part that was still mostly intact was the helmet.

They just barely passed me as I saw them drop. The friendly giant drew the small weapon and fired it, but I couldn’t hear it over the ringing. I just saw the flash and the white giant dropped.

The friendly giant tried to fire again and again, but the weapon didn’t flash again. They said something down to the white giant, then went back to the box, and stepped up onto the platform.

A blinding flash of light filled my eyes and the friendly giant was gone.

I was alone.

Alone with Kene.

She was laying on my chest, her breathing faint, but there. Tears ran down my cheeks as I used the last of my strength to lift my hand over her and hold her to me. I wish I had just been strong enough to save her. I felt the faint warmth of someone’s hand on mine.

Sterthen.

Then I died.