The sun was starting to set, but the trio felt that it was too dangerous to stop. It was going to be a long night. They all had agreed to ride through the night and sleep for a few hours once they were safe. They needed to get to the other side of the giants' territory. There were no trees around them, all that was left from them were giant holes in the ground. They could sense the horses' nervous energies underneath them. Azareth felt sweat filling her palms as she tried to hold the reins in her hands. The increasing darkness was sending fear through her whole body. Her hair was standing up on her arms and neck.

“Azareth?” Jurah’s voice came from her left. She looked over at him and saw he looked just as nervous as her.

“This was a bad idea,” Azareth said. She looked around them, barely able to see through the darkness. “We should have gone around, just take the extra day.”

“We just have a few more hours to make it out of here,” Jurah said. Artibain trotted up next to them and hushed them.

“Will you two shut up. The giants’ hearing is impeccable, they will hear us,” Artibain said. The three of them continued in silence. There was a light ahead of them, causing them to pause in their ride.

“What do we do?” Azareth asked. It was quiet as they thought, the only sound they could hear was the heavy breathing from the horses. It took a few moments before anyone said anything.

“We have to keep going,” Jurah said. He tapped Foxtail’s side and continued forward slowly. Azareth and Artibain followed him. Azareth’s hands shook more as they moved closer to the light ahead. Artibain glanced over and saw her hands were shaking. He was still embarrassed about the morning events, but he wanted to comfort her. He reached over and gripped onto her hand, Azareth stopped shaking and looked up at him.

“Hey, relax. We’re going to be okay,” he said. Azareth moved her hand and gripped onto Aritbain’s hand.

“Thank you,” she said. They let go and carried on in silence, afraid of making any more noise. The light grew closer and there was a low rumble. A second low rumble sounded. Jurah stopped, Azareth and Artibain stopped on either side of him.

“I didn’t like that sound,” Jurah said. The sound grew closer and closer. “I think we have to go faster through here.”

“Alright, we should get moving then,” Artibain said. He started to gallop ahead, Jurah and Azareth hurried after him. As they all hurried through the darkness that was growing weaker and the lights ahead of them were growing. The low rumble grew louder and louder as they got closer to the lights.

“What is that?” Azareth yelled.

“The giants, we have to hurry,” Artibain exclaimed. They broke through a small tree line and looked to see an immeasurable camp. Huge tent-shaped structures were in their way. As they tried to maneuver around the camp, the giants began to appear out of nowhere. They began to swing their hands at the three riders, roaring ear-piercing cries. Azareth ducked under a hand as it reached out to grab her.

“Jurah! Watch out!” Artibain yelled. Jurah just narrowly avoided getting swatted off Foxtail. Artibain was just ahead of them when a humongous hand swooped down and smacked him off Dewdrop.

“Artibain!” Azareth yelled. As she was distracted a giant reached from behind her and grabbed her right off of Stormlight. Azareth screamed, kicking and punching her captor's hand. Jurah stopped riding and turned Foxtail around to see Azareth fighting for her life. Artibain was unconscious being swung around by his legs.

“Let them go! Jurah yelled, pulling his sword out and riding towards the two giants. As he ducked around the third giant’s hand, she swung his sword up and barely made a scratch on its hand. He reached the giant holding Azareth and jabbed his sword into its ankle. The giant kicked his foot out and narrowly missed Foxtail and Jurah.

“Enough!” A deep voice echoed around the camp. Jurah was ripped off of Foxtail and held by his torso. “What are you?” the giant growled in Jurah’s face.

“Let us go,” Jurah said. The giant laughed loudly, shaking his head at Jurah.

“I don’t think so, you come into our home. Unwelcomed scum,” the giant said to Jurah. Jurah looked over and saw Azareth was struggling to escape from the other giant’s grasp.

“Who are you?” Jurah asked, wiggling in the giant’s hand.

“I’m the king of this realm, Bordor,” king Bordor said. “Throw them in the cage.” Bordor gave Jurah to the giant that was holding Artibain and then they were carried off to the far side of the camp. Azareth’s captor opened the top of the wooden cage. It was roughly made and had pieces of wood sticking out in multiple places. The giant dropped the three of them into the cage and locked the top of the cage. Jurah pushed himself up off the ground and rushed over to Azareth.

“Az? Are you okay?” Jurah asked. He lifted Azareth off the ground and looked at her face. He noticed her bruised eye was healing finally, looking less swollen. She groaned and looked up at Jurah.

“I’m okay, a little bruised,” she said. “How’s Artibain? He got hit.” Jurah sighed and the two of them went over to Artibain. He was still unconscious and there was blood running down the side of his face.

“He’s still breathing, that’s a good sign,” Jurah said. He rolled Artibain onto his back and held his head straight.

“It is, I’m worried about this bleeding,” Azareth said. She ripped a piece of her sleeve off and pressed it to the cut on Artibain’s hairline. “It’s not a strong flow, but I think we should keep pressure on it until it stops.”

“Alright, but we should be trying to get out of here.”

“Jurah, we can’t think of that right now.”

“We have to, if they discover he’s a human we’re all in trouble.”

“You don’t think I know that. We can’t leave him here and we are going to need all the help we can get if you think we are going to get out of here.”

“You’re right, how do we wake him up?”

“I don’t know, we’ll just have to wait,” Azareth said. Jurah looked and saw that Azareth was staring down at Artibain. His stomach turned as he watched her brush hair out of his face.

The sun was up and shining through the wooden bars into the faces of the trio. Azareth was sitting next to Artibain making sure he got through the night. Jurah was pacing around the cage looking for any way out of the cage. Artibain hadn’t woken up but was stirring in his sleep now. Azareth believed that it was a good sign.

“Anything?” Azareth asked. Jurah had stopped pacing and turned around to look at her.

“Nothing I can see,” Jurah said. Jurah sat down across the cage from Azareth and Artibain. They were quiet, listening to the giants around them. Stomping around the camp and causing damage to anything in their paths. Azareth looked over at Artibain and noticed his eyes were fluttering open.

“Artibain?” she asked. Artibain’s eyes opened fully and found Azareth’s face. “Hey, how are you feeling?”

“My head hurts,” Artibain said.

“You were smacked off your horse,” Jurah said. Artibain tried to sit up but struggled to get his elbows underneath himself. Azareth helped him sit up against the side of the cage.

“Where is Dewdrop? Are the horses okay?” Artibain asked. Azareth put her hands on his shoulders, keeping him from trying to stand up.

“As far as we can see the horses are fine,” Azareth said. “They are tied up in a pen over there.” She pointed to the horses, Artibain looked over. He sighed in relief as his eyes landed on Dewdrop.

“How do we get out of here?” Artibain asked. Jurah and Azareth looked at each other, shaking their heads.

“We don’t,” Jurah said. “I’ve paced around this cage all night. As far as I can see the only way out is up there.” Jurah pointed to the roof of the cage, the three of them all looked up. It was at least twenty feet above them. Feeling discouraged, the three of them sat in silence for a few minutes.

“Even if we stood on top of each other,” Artibain said. He looked up and then at the others. “No way we can reach that.”

“What should we do? If we stay here we’re dead,” Azareth said. The two men were silent, not looking up from the ground. “I know what you two are thinking, this is my fault.”

“Azareth, that isn’t what we’re thinking,” Jurah said. He went to hold her hand but pulled it back when he saw Artibain was watching him.

“Well, it is, if we had gone down the other trail we wouldn't have been captured.”

“Enough sulking, the only way to get out of here is to wait for an opening,” Artibain said. They all knew he was right, but it was scary to think about. “Have they been by since they put us in here?”

“No, but they’re around,” Jurah said, gesturing with his head around them. “I wouldn’t want to risk being overheard either.” Artibain looked around the cage and didn’t see any giants close enough to them. He pushed himself up more and waved his hand for the other two to move closer.

“I have an idea,” Artibain said. “When they come to take us to the King, they will sooner or later. We have to find an opening and take it. If their grip on you is loose, fight your way out. If they put us on the ground for any reason, bolt.”

“What about the others?” Azareth asked. The two men shared a knowing look. “We can’t split up now, I couldn’t leave you two to die.”

“Az, if you get free, promise me you will take the chance to run,” Jurah said.

“Hell no, that is not happening.” Azareth shook her head and Jurah grabbed her hand, causing her to focus on him.

“Please,” Jurah begged. His green eyes burned into Azareth’s golden eyes.

“Looky, looky, the tiny ones are awake,” a giant spoke, thumping his way towards the cage. The three of them pushed away from each other and made their way to their feet. The giant and his friend opened the top of the cage.

“King Bordor wants to see you,” the second giant spoke as he reached into the cage. His large hairy hand was going in the direction of Azareth, but Jurah pushed her out of the way. Jurah was wrapped in the giant’s hand and lifted out of the cage.

“Let him go!” Azareth yelled up at the giants. They laughed eccentrically, as a second hand stretched it's way towards Artibain and Azareth. Artibain followed Jurah’s example and pushed Azareth out of the way. He was grabbed and pulled out of the top of the cage. Both Jurah and Artibain were fighting to escape the giant’s fists. The first giant reached into the cage and fished around for Azareth. She ran away from his fist and tried to avoid getting pulled off her feet. She was cornered and watched as the giant’s hand grew closer to her.

“No!” she screamed. The giant’s three trunk-like fingers wrapped around her. “Let me go.”

“Silence, you punt thing,” the giant said in Azareth’s face, drops of spit flying and landing all over her. Azareth punched as hard as she could on the giant’s hand. She wasn’t doing any damage. She looked and saw that the giant wasn’t phased by her struggling. She fought as they walked through the camp, seeing all the huge tents around them. Even though the giants were a poor kingdom, Azareth looked around sadly.

They stopped in the middle of a large group of giants. Azareth noticed one of them was sitting in what she guessed was supposed to be his throne. It was made from large tree stumps, covered in moss and what appeared to be animal bones. Azareth stared at the king, seeing he was dressed like everyone else. All of them wore loincloths around their waists. The only difference the king had, he was much larger than the others. Well, the majority of the giants were around twenty to twenty-five feet, the king looked over thirty feet tall.

“Sire, we got the small ones for you,” the giant holding both Artibain and Jurah said. The two giants stuck out their hands and held the three captured towards the king.

“What are you?” Bordor bellowed from his seat on his throne. “Human? Elf? Dragon lord?”

“What?” Azareth asked. Bordor growled under his breath and leaned forward on his dirty knees.

“What creature are you three?” Bordor asked. Azareth looked over at Jurah, they made eye contact and Jurah shook his head. “If you don’t say, we shall just check your filthy ears.”

“Our ears?” Azareth asked.

“Yes, elf and dragon lord ears are pointy. Human ears are not,” Bordor said. Artibain was fighting as hard as he could to escape from the hand holding him. Azareth looked at him, she could see the fear and desperation growing on his face.

“You’re right, but why would elves be travelling with a human?” Azareth asked. “After what they did to us?”

“What they did to you?” Bordor asked. “What about what they did to us? Forcing us into servitude, building their structures, hauling their boulders everywhere.”

“You’re right, but didn’t your ancestors follow the ancient elves in defending yourselves against the humans?”

“Is that what you leaders tell you?” Bordor asked.

“Yes, your highness,” Jurah said. Bordor laughed and smacked his hand on the side of his throne.

“You talk like an elf,” Bordor said. He sat looking at the three of them thoughtfully. Azareth felt her stomach twist as his huge dark eyes landed on her. “Check their ears, only humans try to talk their way out of traps.” The giants began to reach towards their heads, Azareth shook her head and tried to dodge the giant’s fingers. To no avail, the giant pulled her hair up and lifted her upright into his face.

“The female is an elf, pointy ears,” the giant said. He turned to look at the giant who was holding both Artibain and Jurah. The giant held Artibain out towards the first giant, who lifted his free hand towards Artibain’s head.

“Don’t touch me!” Artibain yelled. He threw his head around trying to avoid the giant’s free hand. Punching and kicking as hard as he could. The giant grabbed his head and forced Artibain to turn towards him.

“A human!” the giant exclaimed to everyone in the circle. The other giants roared in rage and began to stop their feet.

“What about the third?” Bordor said, rage fueling his voice. The first giant looked at Jurah and pulled his hair up.

“Elf.”

“Two elves covering for a filthy human?” Bordor looked at Jurah and Azareth, his eyes wide and full of anger. “Disgusting. For your lies, the three of you shall be executed.”

“No!” The three of them protested.

As they fought to be let go, the giants took them over to a large pen. The rest of the group followed the king and the two guards. They wanted to watch the three of them die. Inside the pen were three small cages. Azareth could hear small growls coming from them. Three logs were stabbed into the ground in a row, about five feet apart. The giant holding Azareth bent down and tied her to the center log. He tied Jurah to her left and Artibain to her right. Once the three of them were tied up, the king called for the group to be silent. Azareth looked to her left and saw Jurah pulling on his binds. She turned to her left and saw Artibain was trying to pull away from the log.

“For the crime of lying to the king of giants, you three are sentenced to death by drog,” Bordor said. The three of them looked at the king, then over at the cages across the pen.

“What?” Jurah asked.

“Did he say drogs?” Azareth asked. She stared at the cages feeling her heart begin to pound in her chest.

“Release the drogs!” Bordor called to the giant standing next to the three cages. The giant pulled on a rope, opening the doors of the cages. Three large drogs came stalking out of them, sniffing the air. They were all a light orange colour, their beady eyes burning into the three of them.

“What the hell?” Artibain yelled. He was struggling to free his arms from the ropes that were around him. Azareth was kicking with her feet to try and get as far away from the drogs as she could. Jurah was standing still staring straight ahead of him, his eyes wide.

“Jurah? Jurah, what do we do?” Azare yelled. Jurah didn’t move a muscle as the first drog got closer to him. Inch by inch the drog made its way towards Jurah.

“Jurah, man wake the fuck up?” Artibain yelled as he began to kick his legs. The second drog had changed its mind, heading away from Azareth towards Artibain.

“Jurah!” Azareth screamed as the drog leaped forward at Jurah’s legs. Just as the drog bit down on Jurah’s boot a large dark shadow flew over the pen. Azareth looked up to see a huge creature flying down fast in their direction.