Prolouge

Caught in lonely orbit of Saturn's shattered rays, tumble horse and rider into shipwrecked beds.

"Warning, warning, warning..." A dull mechanical voice echoed with unsettling frequency in the back ground.

"Wake up!" An equally muffled but different, terrified voice yelled. "Come on! Wake up!"

"Hull failure imminent. Emergency back-ups activated." The mechanical voice returned.

"What's going on?" Laura heard herself ask. Her voice sounded strange inside the stasis-coven. There was smoke in the space ship but through the mist she could see Janna's and Jake's covens. The door of Jake's was open, Janna seemed to be still in stasis.

Laura's heart skipped a beat when Jake suddenly appeared in front of the glass screen. He was bleeding from a cut in his forehead and looked like he had seen death itself: "Laura, we're in the atmosphere! Hull breakage! I have initiated emergency procedures to - argh!"

Suddenly the ship started to spin and shake violently and Jake was thrown around in the chamber outside Laura's coven like a rag-doll. She saw his flailing body being smashed around until it slammed against a wall and went limp, stopping his screaming all at once.

As they were racing towards the planet's surface Laura feared for her life. It would be only a matter of seconds before they'd impact on Saturn Seven's surface.

"Computer!" She screamed against the horrible noises the ship now made. "Reactivate stasis coven three, T minus four hours!" A beep in the coven let her know that the computer had understood.

"It maybe just an educational project but don't be mistaken!" Professor Miller had urged his students. "Your journey will be equally as dangerous as it will be important! I want to thank you all again for volunteering."

Several of the students scoffed under their breaths. It was an open secret that mostly those who were about to fail university would embark on Professor Miller's pointless missions to find extra terrestrial life on planets that where impossibly far away, as a hail-Mary means of saving their grades and graduation.

Until then, there hadn't been any major breakthroughs. They had discovered forms of algae, microbes and those sorts of things but the governmental space program had come up with those already decades ago. In fact, the governmental space program had decided that with the abundance of inhabitable planets in humanity's reach thanks to stasis covens and hyper travel continuing to search for intelligent aliens was a pointless waste of resources. In such a long time of manned hyper travel there just hadn't been a single major success ever.

Professor Miller, on the other hand, was convinced otherwise. He used their university's space flight students to still be able to send teams of two to other inhabitable planets and look if maybe they'd find something. If not intelligent life then maybe something interesting than algae, although he took great pride in discovering those as well.

Laura and Janna had been assigned to 'Saturn Seven', a planet so far away that the only information available was that size and atmosphere could probably sustain life. If it didn't, their field trip would be a short one and they'd have to return and maybe start again or do something else.

Saturn Seven was blue and green, just like the Earth and pretty much the same size. It was given it's name due to the ring of rock and dust that orbited in in a circular shape, much alike Saturn, the gas giant. In all likelihood it was just another boring algae planet. Three years in stasis just to get there. Three years in stasis to get back. And probably a few weeks of field study in between. If there was anything to collect and study, that was.

The ship would mostly steer itself there, according to the programming of the pilot who would be with them but would spend most of the time in stasis as well. The technology was convenient enough and there hadn't been any disasters in several decades. When Professor Miller said that their Journey would be dangerous no one took him seriously.

The problem with stasis however, was that the person in it was basically frozen and didn't change at all on the molecular level while around them the world lived, or rather aged, on. To the person in stasis it was like a night of dreamless sleep and all of the sudden their families were old or dead, friendships forgotten, loves lost. That was why going into stasis was so very unpopular. Even for a span of six years, it really messed up almost all of one's relationships. Also, there was a little hangover.

But for Laura and Janna it was the last resort. University had proved too tough for them but they couldn't accept the last few semesters of study to have been for nought. If they found something new, even if it was a stupid kind of algae, they'd get their degrees, and honourable ones too. Laura was to become an anthropologist and Janna studied biology. That even anthropology students could get their degrees by uncovering single-celled organisms did show that the university put some serious weight behind Miller's doings after all though.

The professor went on and on about how important their 'missions' were and how grateful he was for their sacrifice.

"Good god, shut up already and assign us a ship." Laura muttered. Janna nodded in agreement.

Looking down she saw a little bug crawling by her feet and entertained herself by stepping in it's path and nudging it around. Janna, her room mate, didn't like it when she did that but wasn't looking. Laura forced the bug closer to Janna's feet in hopes of it maybe climbing up her leg and grossing her out or something. Laura's mischievous plans were cut short when Janna unwittingly flattened the tiny creature whilst moving her feet to stand more comfortably.

She herself rarely ever had second moral thoughts but Janna would be genuinely sad had she known about the bug.

The pilot of their assigned ship was a young, tall, jockish blonde guy who went by the name of Jake. He seemed to be particularly happy about the prospect of travelling with the two girls. Laura anticipated hours of painfully awkward flirting but Jake wasn't as dumb as he looked and managed to make the girls laugh and smile a lot during introductory small talk.

He pressed his index finger to his lips and made wide eyes when he showed them where he was going to smuggle some beer. Alcohol, of course, was not allowed on the missions. Maybe the trip wasn't going to be as dull as Laura had feared.

Jake would have a blast, that much was clear. It seemed he couldn't decide whether he liked Laura, the petite Hispanic twenty one year old, or Janna, the more robust yet equally hot dark blonde, more. For him, this trip was also his final test of flight school, which really wasn't as big a deal as it sounded. Long ago were the times when space pilots were the best of the best. Today they mostly just punched in coordinates and spent a lot of time in the stasis coven. The ships even dodged asteroids by themselves.

Their ship was a standard issue research vessel with a chamber that housed the stasis covens, a small laboratory, a tiny kitchen, wash room and a cockpit. The lab could also be converted into a practically oriented sleep and dining room. For a few weeks, it wouldn't be too bad.

On the day of their departure they all hugged their families for the last time in six years. To the families anyway. To the three would be space travellers it would merely be a few weeks. It felt weird.

"Alright, have you ever been in stasis?" Jake asked as he set the timer on the coven.

"uh-uh" Laura shook her head.

"It's actually quite cool." he closed the door and his voice became muffled "You shut your eyes and open them again. And we're there. Just like 'poof'. Now close those beautiful eyes."

Laura involuntarily smiled at his banter while he programmed the coven to 'T minus 1095 days'. She'd wear this smile for the next three years.

-

Slowly, Janna awoke from stasis. She felt dizzy and her vision was blurry. There was barely any light in the chamber and it seemed...smokey. But that couldn't be right. She pushed against the door of the stasis coven. It wouldn't open.

"Computer, report status!" she commanded. No reply.

"Hello?" She called into the spaceship. She could see Laura on the other side of the chamber, still in her coven but in a strange, somewhat slumped position. Then it hit her. They had already landed! She tried again to push against the door. It was barred somehow. She found a handle in the top of the coven. "Manually unlock door" read a red sign next to it in white letters. She pulled the handle and the door unbarred.

The air smelled poisonous and there actually was smoke in the chamber. Something had gone wrong. Briefly, she registered Jake's coven being empty as she stumbled uphill towards the door to the lab and the front of the ship.

'Out of this gas.' she thought. She had to open this door manually as well and when it was open, she involuntarily inhaled a big gasp of the stinking air.

Looking into the lab from the coven chamber she'd expected to see the laboratory and on the other side, the door to the cockpit. Instead she looked through half of the lab, torn steel and broken cables into a wide blue sky.

Janna's head was spinning as the weight of the situation hit her. Their spaceship had torn in half and crashed. They were lost. Shipwrecked. Her vision blurred with tears and she fell to her knees. So many unknowns. How close was any ship that could rescue them. Did anybody even know about them being shipwrecked? And where was the pilot?

All circuits were dead, none of the blinking lights or screens worked. Janna stared into the sky and cried bitterly for a while until, slowly, the devastation ebbed away and more practical thoughts returned.

Somewhere in her mind she remembered protocol: 'You may exit the space craft and explore the planet's surface if all life sustainability tests have been thoroughly carried out and permit such an action.'

She gasped. Jake didn't know how to perform such a test, Laura was still in her coven. No one had tested the air she was breathing. But Saturn Seven's atmosphere didn't smell or feel poisonous at all. In fact, it was rather pleasant. Warm, fresh air that actually smelled of...forest. Eager to see the surface of the planet she stood up and stumbled further up to the torn off cockpit from where she'd be able to see down onto this world. When she was there, her head started spinning again.

They were completely encircled by green bushes and areas that seemed to be covered in some sort of moss. Despite the fact that their ship was broken and more than half their supplies lost, Janna felt relieved about the fact that they had done it. They had found life! After all, that had been the purpose of their coming to this place.

Of course, the crashing ship had caused quite the devastation to the landscape. Around the wreck bushes had been ripped out of the ground, shattered, blown away. Some had even been burned. Janna also realized there was no way of knowing for how long their ship had been sitting here other than the fact that the brush hadn't grown back yet. But that could mean anything since she didn't know how fast it could grow.

Even though her grades had not been the best, Janna was still very passionate about science and she eagerly looked for a way to climb down to the surface. Humanity had to know about this! Grudgingly she admitted to herself that there wasn't really a way to tell anybody. Still, she had to study this planet.To her, even some micro cellular organisms or algae would have been amazing enough. Now her mind was blown. And maybe plants were not the only things that lived here.

The sun, or rather x458235j14, was shining bright and the weather was pretty comfortable with a light breeze. Janna's jeans and T-shirt were perfectly alright for this climate.

Some ripped out bushes cracked and crushed under her as she let herself down onto the surface. They appeared to be made of very fragile wood and lived by photosynthesis with their tiny green leaves. They actually looked like extremely small trees in every respect, not even the tallest of them going over her knees.

Under those trees tinier plant life dwelled, all looking somewhat peculiar and fragile. She'd put those things under the microscope later and catalogue them, no matter what predicament she was in, for such was her commitment to science. Her boots left deep footprints in the soft ground and she felt sorry for the plants that perished beneath her. Everything seemed to be somewhat more fragile than on earth. She couldn't help but destroy things as she moved around in the immediate vicinity of the ship, but it was insignificant compared to what damage the ship had done.

With a few steps she reached the edge of the intact brush and bent down to give it a closer look. The bushes absolutely looked like trees on earth, as if a really committed bonzai enthusiast had been here before and planted them. Getting closer she noticed that what looked like weeds from above looked like brush from up close.

It had some strange resemblance of being in a modelled landscape at the scale of about one to fifty. Janna had to catalogue this. She was about to climb back up to the lab and try to find some utensils like pen, paper, measuring tape and so forth when she noticed something strange. Carefully she reached down to tear a single tiny leaf from a nearby bush, her comparatively gigantic fingers of course yanking dozens of leaves as well as a few branches out of the poor thing.

With a bit of fiddling she was able to get rid of everything but a single leaf which she held close to her eye to inspect it. It was hard to make out it's particular shape but...her gasp blew the leaf off of her finger. This leaf belonged to an oak tree. Indeed, the tree was an oak tree but it looked like it was hundreds of years old. And it was absolutely tiny. Janna stared around. She saw a another oak, there a beech, a miniscule fir and even a birch with it's spattered white bark and gnarled branches. This was a middle European primeval forest. Only it was very small.
-

Laura screamed when she awoke. She was breathing heavily, her heart still pounding madly. Suddenly, the smoke outside her coven was gone. So was Janna. She manually opened the door to her coven and stumbled outside. Immediately she noticed Jake's body in his pilot uniform slumped in a corner. She ran over and fell to her knees by his side. He was cold and didn't move, his face in a dried pool of blood, a huge cavity in his forehead.

Tears blurred her vision. She was numb. This was real. It had really happened. She was stranded on a planet and her pilot was dead. Janna. Maybe Janna knew what to do. She stumbled out of the coven chamber and started to cry even harder when she saw what had happened to the ship. They'd lost practically all water and food along with the toilet with that part of the vessel.

When she peeked over the edge of the broken fuselage she saw Janna, totally in shock staring at a bush incoherently mumbling to herself. It had hit her even worse than Laura.

Laura climbed down to the ground, a task made a lot easier by all the twisted metal rods and dead cables that peeked out of the hull, and put her hand on her friend's shoulder. Janna cringed and looked at her: "Laura! You have to see this! It's a tree, a...a tiny tree, like...a genuine tree like on earth but it's...so small..."

"It's kay." Laura tried to calm her down and closed Janna in her arms. Then they cried together.

"I know it's fucked up, the crash and all." Laura snivelled after a while, "But, hey, we're both alive! What are the odds of that."

"And we'll be famous." Janna cheered with a broken voice.

Laura pulled out of the embrace and ghastly looked her friend in the face.

"I'm serious." Janna smiled tearfully when she noticed Laura's bewildered expression. "We've found life. If we get out of here, we're made. They'll probably give us PHDs and a Nobel price and what not. Look!"

She pointed down and indeed, Laura hadn't really noticed it before, this planet was covered in plants. Still she was more concerned with their current situation than their would be fame at some point in the future.

"Janna..." She began. "We have no food. No water. How the fuck are we going to survive on this planet, let alone get back to earth?!"

"Where plants grow, there is water too, hold on.", Janna said, bent down and started to dig with her bare hands. Laura still wasn't so convinced of Janna's sanity but after getting about arms deep into the soft topsoil, Laura could hear the water splash.

"It's dirty." Laura said as Janna took a handful of water from the hole.

"We can filter it." Janna replied reassuringly. "Or maybe we find a lake or a river. There's gotta be something somewhere."

"And food?", Laura raised an eyebrow.

"Let's see." Janna pursed her lips and without further ado, she grabbed a large branch of the oak tree and tore it off without much of an effort.

"Eww, gross!" Laura said as Janna simply put the branch in her mouth and started chewing. The wood or what ever it was pulped easily in between her teeth but she spat it out after a few seconds.

"Yuck! Okay, I don't think we can eat the trees."

Laura cocked her head: "Trees?"

"Yeah!" Janna was getting excited again. "This here, is basically an oak tree. Only it's totally small."

"For real?" Laura asked and stepped closer. She didn't know much about trees at all, Janna was the biologist, but this thing actually looked like a tiny tree. Without a second thought, Laura raised her foot and trod it down with her full weight.

“Hehe, I crushed a tree under my foot!” She laughed like a dullard.

It's stem broke in two and every branch or piece of wood that happened to be under her sneaker was either crushed to bits or embedded deep into her foot print. Her other foot squashed another part of the tree in similar fashion just before her right foot obliterated the roots.

"What the fuck, Laura, what did you do that for?" Janna asked angrily.

"What?" Laura stopped trampling the totally obliterated tree. "There's like a billion of them here, and we can't even eat'em."

She saw Janna, angrily searching for a rebuttal, standing next to one of the 'trees'. It looked like she was a giant in a shrunken world. To emphasize her point she raised her foot again and stomped a smaller tree root and stem into the ground. A movement in the right corner of her eye caught Laura's attention. Out of the tree tops, swarms of strange looking bugs rose and flew away, scared by the tremor she had caused. Janna's jaw dropped and she just stared at the swarms of bugs flying into the distance.

"Whats wrong?", Laura asked concerned.

"Those bugs," Janna said, sounding completely baffled, "are not plants."

"Uhhh, duh?" Laura said with a laugh. "I'm not a biologist but I've never known plants to fly away?"

Even as she made fun of her friend, Laura found it amazing too. They had found life. First plants and now animals. And who knew what this planet still had in store for them. All they had to do was try and survive for as long until help arrived. It couldn't be too long, she told herself.

Janna shook her head seemingly in an attempt to get her mind back on track: "We can catch some of those bugs and eat them. They're probably full of protein, exactly what we need."

"What the fuck, no!" Laura cringed in disgust. "I'm not eating any bugs!"

"Well, starve then." Janna said and peered around into the distance seemingly looking for something. Laura followed her gaze. On second glance, the landscape wasn't all forest. Here and there there were glades in the foliage. Far to the right, hills and mountains could be seen and to the left of that the forest turned into grassland.

"Maybe we can find something bigger." Janna said thoughtfully still gazing into the distance. "Hopefully it's not bigger than us."

Laura swallowed hard: "What do you mean, bigger than us?"

"You know," Janna said, shrugging her shoulders, "bigger, and dangerous. Like a bear or a tiger or something. There could be anything out there."

Suddenly, eating bugs didn't seem so gross after all.

"Let's get back into the ship, see what equipment we have." Janna decided and started to climb back up.

"Wait." Laura called. "What do we do about Jake?"

"What do you mean?" Janna asked curiously.

They both were strangely collected as they put Jake's body back into his stasis coven and manually sealed the door. Stasis didn't work without electricity but Janna said it was the best they could do to store and preserve him and bring him back to his parents. Plus, like this, the ship wouldn't smell like a morgue.

The food, sanitary equipment and commodities had been stored in the front part of the ship that was gone now. They were left with their scientific equipment most of which, however, also required electricity to work. They were basically left with an intact field-microscope, a compass, pens, paper and some chemicals and glass utensils for testing stuff the old fashioned way.

Among the battery-reliant equipment they found were night-vision goggles, a few lanterns and a pair of binoculars with range finder and a few other fancy options. The supply of batteries wasn't too good though, without a way to recharge them. A bunch of other things they found were broken or useless without electricity. The storage units were completely in chaos, one had broken and spilled it's broken contents all over the floor.

"There's got to be a solar panel somewhere in here." Janna sighed as she crammed through one of the boxes. "Hurgh, it's useless!" She leaned back and slammed her hands into her lap. "Let's find something to eat while the sun is still up, what do you say?"

Laura was arms deep into another box to look for something useful.

"What the fuck is this?" She asked and pulled out a long stick with a metal ring and a net at the end.

Janna's eyes lit up: "That, my dear, is a landing net."
-
"Would you mind not squashing every single tree?" Janna complained a little unnerved. "Also, you're scaring away the bugs." They had been wandering through the forrest together, away from the ship, to find food and water. Janna, carrying the landing net, moved carefully through the foliage while Laura, carrying an Erlenmayer flask quickly had made a sport out of noisily flattening trees under her feet.

"What, I'm bored." Laura pouted. "And I'm telling you, I'm not eating any bugs."

They were almost microscopic anyway. Janna would have to catch a billion of them to get rid of her hunger. She could feel it already, nagging on her. She was someone who always ate when they were hungry. Even in between meals. Of course, in their day and age, that never presented a problem. But on Saturn Seven it did.

As Laura punished another tree for standing in her way a small movement ahead of her caught the girls' attention. Something tiny seemed to be running away from them. They could hear the noise of it's movement as well.

"Watch out!" Janna cried as Laura took off running after it. "It could be poisonous!"

Laura didn't think the thing she was pursuing was poisonous at all. Only very afraid. It was moving hastily through the undergrowth. She could feel her prey's panic and desperation. And she loved it. She enjoyed being the predator but she had a hard time spotting the tiny thing because of the dense foliage. The thuds of her foot steps and the crashing of the breaking trees also easily drowned out what little noise the tiny creature made.

But also, it wasn't too fast. In fact, it was rather slow. Then it was gone. Laura stopped. There it was again, swiftly showing up before vanishing again. It really was comparatively slow, Laura had accidentally overtaken it with only two quick steps. Earthly creatures of this size were much quicker in order to survive, or they reproduced really fast, or developed shells of some sort. Or poison. Laura reconsidered not to gamble with this one. She stalked the tiny thing from above, waiting to get a better view.

Janna took a few quick paces and walked beside Laura. She followed her friend's eyes and quickly spotted the tiny thing that was running from them as well. Much to her shock, Janna discovered that she had almost stepped on it when she hadn't been looking. They were only able to catch brief glimpses of it before it vanished again. It was tiny, probably 3 centimetres in length and moved very strangely. It appeared to have four limbs but sometimes it looked as if it ran and all fourths and sometimes only it's hind legs. Almost upright. As far as they could tell anyway. It was simply impossible to see the thing unobstructed by bushes and trees.

"What are we gonna do?" Laura asked excitedly.

"I don't know." Janna began trying to get a better glimpse of what the creature looked like. "Catch it, I suppose. But be careful."

"I can squash it." Laura said confidently and Janna thought to almost see Laura's footsteps land closer to the little thing.

"No!" She quickly intervened. "We need it alive!"

After some five minutes or so, the creature slowed down, apparently exhausted from endless running. This was amazing. They'd be so famous after this. No matter whether the creature was insect, mammalian, reptilian or otherwise. Perhaps even something entirely new. This is what they came here for. Well, this and intelligent life. But one couldn't have everything.

Then Janna looked a bit ahead and her world collapsed before her eyes.
-
Suddenly Laura heard Janna gasp beside her and felt her friend pull on her arm.

"You're not exhausted already, are you?" Laura laughed and looked away from the creature up to her friend's face.

Janna was pale and had stopped walking. She was barely breathing and stared a few feet ahead of them with wide eyes. Her lips were shaking madly.

"Fuck, did you get stung?! Is it poisonous!?" Laura cried and rushed to hold her friend up.

Janna shook her head and raised a shaking hand, pointing straight ahead. Slowly, Laura turned around, just in time to see the little thing that they'd been following escaping the forest and running into the open.
-
Something was up. There was a storm coming. The Gods were angry. Something of that nature. The seer probably knew about the gods. And the old men probably knew about the weather. I didn't believe in the gods though. Or at least I didn't trust them. How many times had we tried to rally them to our cause. How many times had we sacrificed and how many times had they let us down. They weren't reliable at all, but then again, I also doubted that the Twelve were any better.

They were like damned King Aele. Always there when there was something to take, game, livestock, crops, men, girls. Only when the thieves came, or the dreaded raiders he and his banner men were nowhere to be found. To this day I believe I recognized the face of one of the guards at the castle back when we brought some deer hides and venison. He looked exactly like the raider who slew my father and set our farm alight. I shall never forget his face.

The old men though, they were infallible when it came to the weather. I wondered whether they could feel a cold creeping into their old bones or if years of experience had simply taught them to read the sky. The distant commotion grew louder and feeling opportunistic I neared one of them and asked him whether we should prepare for a storm. He gave me an irritated look and shook his head.

Suddenly there was an alarming vibration in the earth. The straw on the roofs rattled as well. I saw other people stop in their tracks, fearfully looking around. It was as if the giants had risen again and were coming for us. Seers and wise women everywhere liked to tell the old tales. Human beings large as mountains, roaming the surface of the earth, doing all kinds of things.

I had dismissed them as soon as I could hunt with a bow and explore the depths of the forest myself. But now I saw them with mine own eyes. Indescribable fear gripped me as I saw two giantesses, young goddesses of impossible size, walking towards the village. A cloud of birds rushed over our heads speeding away from the titanic troublemakers, only to dramatize the spectacle more. A young hunter, completely out of breath, ran through the southern gate and looked as if he had seen the end of the world.

But the giantesses looked like they couldn't believe their eyes either. One spoke to the other in a gruesome, yet feminine voice and they just stared at us. Meanwhile the old man from earlier cursed at the young boy who, apparently, had foolishly led them directly to us. Then the elder turned to me: "To the keep, you fool!"

I don't think that I ever ran faster in my entire life. Had I had a horse, I couldn't have gotten any quicker to King Aele's soldiers. Hopefully this time, they would be able to help us.

-

Janna's mind was spinning furiously. She would've been absolutely satisfied with the trees and the bugs, probably that tiny little animal she had suspected their object of pursuit to be. But no. Fate had to put tiny people on this planet. Yes, they were people. Her scientific mind wouldn't believe her eyes yet and screamed at her to put the barely three centimetre tall things under magnification first. But it was as if to look on the model of an iron age village, something Laura, the anthropologist, immediately noticed as well.

All the tiny humanoids were frozen in place, fearfully staring up at them, except for one who hastily ran through a gate on the other side of the village. It took the girls a few more moments to overcome their state of shock before they started to move, instinctively, without talking at all, shutting both entrances to the tiny settlement.
-
When Laura moved around it, she could see everything she would expect in such a village. Cattle, tied to posts, baskets full of stuff, old people, young people - all dumbstruck and shivering. But all so incredibly tiny. A wooden palisade wall was erected around the dirt and wood houses with straw roofing, leaving only two entries, both of which were now blocked. Laura's boredom was washed away.
-
There were approximately one and a half dozen huts and twice that many people out in the open. More and more streamed out of the houses or decided to go back inside and hide. Janna forced her subconscious to realize that these were not people but, until further scientific study, an unidentified alien species. She would have been very comfortable to faint in that moment, just because it was so very significant and mind blowing. She had no idea what to do next.
-
Laura, remembering her training, made the first step, raising her right hand in a gesture of greeting. To her utter amazement, she could see several tiny people returning the gesture. A trembling tiny man repeated the gesture and walked closer to her. He was screaming something in a foreign tongue. Because his vocal chords were so short, his voice was very high pitched and not very loud.

Since she couldn't make sense of a single word he was saying, Laura just talked over him: "What the fuck?!"

"Humanoid mammal, omnivore, cultured, has developed speech, appearance comparable to very small homo sapiens, lives in little nests that look like primitive houses, closer physical examination necessary..." Janna mechanically listed a few observations relevant to her field of expertise.

"Janna!" Laura said loudly. "Breathe! It's allright. They're real. They're not running away. Well, at least we wont let them."

To emphasize her point she nudged the wooden gates shut and used her foot to create a pile of earth that sealed them so that they couldn't be opened from within. She realized immediately that if Janna would do the same with her gate the little people would be completely at their mercy.
-
"What do we do?" Janna asked insecurely, still absolutely overwhelmed with the situation.

"Well, we still need food and water." Laura said matter of factly. "Looks like they've got a few baskets of fruit there or something. Better than nothing I guess..."

"No." Janna interrupted. "I mean what, do we study them, or...or...?"

The tiny man had been speaking all the while helplessly watching his efforts being ignored.

"Shut up or I squish you." Laura said harshly.

"Laura, what the hell. Don't do that, be nice!" Janna scolded her friend. "This is like a historic moment. First contact! We can't afford to frighten a possible ally!"

Laura scoffed: "Two things. First, he can't even understand what I'm saying and second, well, future ally?! A bunch of bronze age mites?"

"Anyway." Janna said, getting back to the point. "Do you think it's okay, like, anthropology wise, if I pick one up and examine it?"

"I don't think there's much that they can do about it." Laura said, giving the tiny creatures a dismissive look. Janna was going to retort but decided to let it slip. This wasn't the time for conflict. She crouched down in front of the wooden gate and studied the aliens a few more moments. Some were hiding at this point, others were just standing in the open, staring at Laura and her.

Slowly and carefully she reached down to pick one of them up. One that looked like a female. She could hear it's tiny pleas and protests as her comparatively gigantic hand neared the little alien. The girl scurried around trying to get away. But she wasn't quick enough.

Janna's hand cornered her at a house wall and she tried to make herself as small as possible. But to no avail. With the utmost delicacy Janna picked her up with thumb and index finger and brought her up to her face and then just marvelled at the human appearance of her features.
-
The tiny man who addressed Laura just blabbered on. She bent down a little to hear him better but still couldn't make sense of his words. With Janna's attention caught somewhere else Laura had her foot land square on top of him as she stepped over the palisade. She didn't give the act much consideration, she just wanted to stop his annoying rant. A little yelp could be heard before he disappeared beneath her.

Laura's weight distributed evenly onto her right foot when her left one crossed over the palisade as well. She felt the slightest sensation of first him and then the ground giving in to her weight. When she raised her foot just out of curiosity to give him another look his crushed remains were not embedded in her footprint but rather mangled in the threads of her sneaker's soles. He hadn't stood a chance. But he was silent now and Janna hadn't even noticed. The tiny people had, though.

With nowhere to run they just stared up at her. Laura enjoyed the feeling of power and looked for the next opportunity to step on one of them. She spied a girl hiding beneath a wooden cart that was filled with green fruit. Feeling a bit hungry herself, Laura picked up the cart as if to examine it further while keeping focus on her tiny victim on the ground. It was hard to tell because it was so tiny but Laura thought to have seen a pleading expression on it's little face.

With Janna still occupied, Laura let her right foot hover above the tiny thing for a moment before she squashed it flat. The sensation of another intelligent life snuffed out beneath her shoe gave her a shiver of excitement. It was as easy as crushing bugs and easily twice as fun. In the heat of the moment she just poured the contents of the cart into her mouth and chewed. It tasted like apple.
-
"Aye, aye." Sir Ludwig said slowly after listening to my pleas. He was one of King Aele's banner men and owned the forest as well as most of it's people. When I arrived at the keep I was completely out of breath and talking gibberish like a mad man. A dull-looking soldier hit me in the gut to knock some sense into me. When I finished coughing and spitting blood they still wouldn't let me see him.
It took another man, a self-confessed poacher at that, running through the gate, talking of giant girls, to convince them to give my talk of giants some more consideration. They sliced the poachers throat before they let me inside the keep and I had to convince Sir Ludwig alone. When I entered his room he was drinking and occupied himself by fondling a young girl from a village a little north of there. He had his dirty hand way too deep underneath her skirt to not offend good morals but he wasn't one to fear the seers or wise women. He didn't seem pleased to see me either.

"Well then." He said, after patiently listening to me. "What do you suggest we do?"

I was baffled by that question. When I didn't respond he had one of his men step closer to him and said: "Take a few scouts and take that snivelling shit with you. If he gives you any trouble, cut his throat."

Under Saturn's rays I rest in eternal sleep. Giants violate my tomb and awaken me.

They were rough-looking men that wasted no time to let me know they'd joyfully kill me if I tried anything funny. They didn't give me my own horse either so I had to sit behind the back of the baldest and smelliest of them. We rode fast.
-
"I can't believe it, she's totally human." Janna said in awe. She had resolved, despite her guilty conscience, to undress the tiny girl in between her fingers. 'Undress' of course wasn't exactly the correct term to describe what her huge fingers did to the poor woman's dress. Had an arm or a leg or anything gotten in between them when Janna ripped it off, she might have ripped the woman in half too. Janna felt very bad about this, especially scaring the tiny thing like that but in the name of science she had to get the woman naked.

The woman of course was now entirely frantic but those fingers, thicker than some tree trunks to her, made short work of her struggles, all the while being gently enough. Janna, once again, had trouble believing her eyes. The woman's tiny lady parts were as far as she could see all were they should be in a human. When she finally looked up to see what Laura thought of all this she discovered that Laura was standing right in the middle of the village, tiny people fleeing and hiding away from her.

"Get out of there, you'll step on them!" She warned.

Laura gave her a look as if she didn't give that risk much consideration.

"So what?" She said.

"So what?!" Janna felt herself become angry. "Give me the Erlenmayer flask, I need to gather some examples!"

"Don't we kinda need that for water?" Laura asked still standing right inside the village.

"This is more important." Janna said, fuming. "Now step out of the village and make sure you don't destroy anything."

Janna hated being bossy with Laura but sometimes it was necessary to keep her playful and careless ways from fucking things up. Laura grudgingly complied, knowing full well what a stubborn girl Janna could be sometimes.

Chapter 1

We were a good one and a half kilometres away and still I felt my heart beating in my throat. One and a half kilometres was way too close anyway. I estimated that the giantesses were about 100 meters tall which meant that to them, we were only thirty or so meters away. Much too close for my taste. But Sir Ludwig's scouts took a keen interesst in the giantesses. Soon I learned why.

"What in the name of the gods are they doing." One of the men asked in thoughts as the taller giantess lifted yet another screaming person out of the village and deposited him in a gigantic transparent container.

"Those poor people, what will they do with them?" The other one commented.

"Useless peasants." The leader spat without remorse. "If they keep 'em occupied, thats allright."

"But they are Sir Ludwig's subjects." The soldier remarked. "Has he not sworn to protect them?"

"My arse." The leader spat dismissively. "There's much greater things at stake here. If we can make this work for us, it'll be King Ludwig soon!"

-

Janna studied every single person she put into the Erlenmayer flask. The people were absolutely frightened, squirming and screaming.

"Shhhh. It'll be alright." She tried to calm them down. "I'll have a closer look at you and then I put you back here."

They didn't understand her but her reassuring tone seemed to work on most of them.

"Damn, I wish we had chocolate or something to give to them." Janna turned to Laura. "It would show them our good intentions."

"We don't even have any food ourselves." Laura remarked. "I think we should really find...wait."

Her face lit up as if she just had an epiphany.

"No Laura, we are not eating the peop-, uh, I mean aliens. Just no!" Janna intervened quickly.

"What the fuck, no!" Laura said, making a disgusted face. "But look, they've got these fruit!"

She pointed at baskets filled with all kinds of stuff that looked like food of some sort.

"You think it's alright if we take it from them?", Janna asked insecurely. "I'd kinda feel bad. We need a lot and we can't even give them anything in return."

"So what." Laura shrugged. "Doesn't look like they can stop us, can they."

To emphasize her point, Laura reached into the village, took a tiny basked and poured it's contents into her mouth. The basket was comparatively big to the little people yet practically vanished in between her fingers. Still, Janna felt her mouth water at the thought of food.

"Mhh!" Laura exclaimed. "I don't know what that was but it was delicious!"

She nonchalantly crushed the empty basket into nothing in between her fingers, her eyes allready looking for the next. Of course, the people of the village didn't have their stuff all neatly packed up in baskets so hungry giants could easily consume them. Most of the stuff was stored away underneath the straw roofs or loosely scattered about.

"Even if we eat all the stuff, there's never going to be enough for both of us." Janna noted sceptically while she maneuvered a terribly frightened cow and some itsy-bitsy chickens into the Erlenmayer flask.

"Well." Laura began. "If we go by the theory that this is in fact a bronze-, iron- or early middle age village they would have most of their food stored away in pantries."

And without further ado she started to tear the roof off the nearest hut.

"Laura, stop! What are you doing?!" Janna exclaimed.

"Saving our starving ass!" Laura announced victoriously as she displayed some cured meat items on the palm of her hand.

Some tiny villagers ran like mad from the damaged house and the general population seemed to have resolved to stay as far away from the gigantic visitors as possible.

"You can't just rip their homes apart, god damn it!" Janna scolded Laura again before addressing the tiny people. "I'm sorry for my friend. She's a real klutz sometimes!"

"They can't understand you." Laura said with a winning smile before downing the stolen food at once. "And see, I have bacon and you have not."

"I wont allow it, Laura." Janna said determinedly. "If you want their food, go get working on their language and trade with them or something."

This inspired Laura to a new idea. She took a few baskets from where she could get them and piled them together next to each other. Then she simply pointed at the pile putting on a demanding expression on her face. To Janna's surprise, it worked. Quickly a few brave villagers ran around, in and out of houses and started piling more food onto the marked location. Having involuntarily followed the giant girls' exchange, they seemed to be strangely aware of their demands. If it would work to get the menacing titanesses off their backs remained to be seen. Ontop of obeying Laura's order some of the villagers displayed extremely submissive, almost religious behavior.

"Look." Laura noticed with a laugh. "They're totally okay with us taking their food."

Janna of course realized that this would have been mostly due to the heavily one sided size and weight comparison but she was hunger stricken herself and an excuse to fill her belly came in handy.

"For now it's okay I guess." She mumbled more to her guilty conscience than anyone else. "But we'll have to figure out some long term solution with that."

She sat the Erlenmayer flask aside and began to dig into the food that the villagers had provided. It tasted really nice but divided by two, the village didn't have that much to offer after all and soon the streams of eager food suppliers ebbed away and panic seemed to spread amongst them once again.

"It's alright!" Janna tried to reassure them. "We're very thankful for what you've given us, it's enough."

"They can't understand you if you don't use facial expression." Laura explained. "If you want to reassure them, give them a warm smile or something, so they know they've done a good job."

It worked. Having understood that the demand was met, a line of obedient villagers formed next to the food, just like servants waiting for another demand. Laura could think of an infinite number of games to play but Janna would only get grumpy again so she decided to try and communicate with the people.

"Laura." She said very slowly and overly pronounced, pointing at her self before expectantly looking at the people. There was some nattering going on over what it was the giant girl demanded now so Laura repeated her words and gesture.

After a few more moments of confusion a girl, tiny even by the standard of this planet, stepped forward, pointed at her self and shouted: "Martta!"

"Awww." Janna and Laura cooed simultaneously, overwhelmed by the sheer cuteness.

"Well, nice to meet you there, Martta" Laura added with a smile. "Did she smile back? She's just too tiny, I can't see."

Indeed, the girl's head was even smaller than a pin head, standing at under two centimeters in height. Tiny Martta timidly shouted something in her language, bowed deeply and retreated back into the line.

"Aw, no, stay here Martta." Laura called and pointed at a spot a little closer to her. As if stung by an adder, the minute little girl ran back towards where Laura had pointed.

"Good little girl." Janna commented. "If only we had something to reward her."

"We're not squishing the lot of them, that ought to be enough for now." Laura laughed but Janna didn't even bother to punish the offence.

"Aww, cute little thing." She added amicably and extended her index finger to pet the tiny girl on the head. Martta instinctively ducked but there was no escaping the finger several times her size. Even though Laura was as careful as she could Martta was knocked out of balance and fell down.

"I would never have thought it'd be like this." Janna said in thoughts. "Our first encounter, I mean. You usually picture aliens at your own size."

"And propably more alien." Laura added, receiving a nod in response. "What do you want to do now?"

"Well." Janna said. "We have to get back to the ship and give them all a closer look under the microscope and then put them back here before sundown. I don't think it's comfortable to be held prisoner in a glass bottle for so long along side a cow, two pigs and some chickens. We also should take some rough measurements regarding this village."

The settlement was about one and a half by two meters large. It contained seventeen houses that were roughly seven centimetres in height and fifteen in length, making them comparatively long.

"Longhouses." Laura commented as she measured one of the houses against her foot and found that it would fit almost perfectly beneath her shoe. In between the houses there were work benches, small crop fields, sheds, stacks of wood and straw, domestic animals and other such things.

The people who had dedicated themselves to serve didn't quite seem to understand what the giantesses were doing or talking about and seemed to grow increasingly concerned. Martta had stood up but remained right where Laura had pointed earlier. Even at the given size difference, Laura realized that the tiny people wanted Janna and her gone for good. To be fair, almost a year's worth of supplies and tributes plus two people were a high enough toll already. But Laura didn't really care much.

"I gotta pee." She announced. "I'll be right back."

Janna acknowledged it only while mumbling, still staring at the village as if it was some piece of art. While she walked away from the village Laura looked for a suitable place to conduct the necessary business.

-

"They're already talking to the people." The leader of our scout group announced. "And they need food. That's our chance. We'll return to the keep and report to Sir Ludwig."

He turned to get back to the horses.

"What about him?" One of the soldiers said pointing at me. "What if he tells King Aele."

My heart froze in my chest. The commander looked at me for a few seconds before smiling leisurely.

"Cut him up." He decided and I could feel my frozen heart drop into my britches.

"Alright, nice and easy, boy." The smelly man whom I had shared a horse back with addressed me whilst pulling his knife. "This will be over shortly."

His comrade grabbed me from behind. I put up a struggle but with my arms being held behind my back it only served to delay the inevitable. While we were fighting, none of us had felt the terrifying tremors in the ground.

-

When Laura spotted a glade in the forest, far enough away from Janna and the village, she made another astounding discovery. In the glade, not far from three panicking horses tied to trees, three tiny men seemed to have a bit of an argument with a fourth one, completely oblivious to her presence. A mischievous smile curling on her lips she stepped closer, eager to not let her playthings get away. That was when they noticed her, immediately breaking off their little fight. All four were lying on the ground, dumb struck, beneath her.

"Hi there." She cheered, not too loudly lest Janna would hear and spoil the fun. "Are you guys from the village?"

Of course they didn't understand her, but Laura wasn't really looking for a reply. One of them turned his head and yearningly looked over to the horses.

"Wanna get away, huh?" She cooed. "I'm afraid I can't let you do that."

-

"On three, every man turns around and runs." The leader of the scout party instructed us quietly.

Of course this way, he'd be the one heading for the horses, the rest of us only facing forest.

When he began counting I spat at him and snarled: "No, be damned! This is what you get for trying to kill me!"

He stopped to count, fearing two men wouldn't buy him enough time to get away.

-

"Why were you fighting?" Laura continued her entirely pointless interrogation. "Not feeling talkative, huh? Well, I will teach you."

-

With terrifying velocity her enormous hand came at us and lifted one of the scouts three meters into the air. First he screamed out of terror, then out of agony and then no more. I will never forget the sound his body made as her unstoppable digits squashed him like a fly. Had we suspected to be in danger before, we sure as sunrise knew it now.

The other soldier decided not to wait for 'three' and made a run for it. She let him run for a few seconds before an enormous, strange looking shoe rushed over our heads and just landed on top of him. When the giantess shifted her weight it sank about arms deep into the ground. Somewhere in the mud beneath that shoe was now a mangled corpse.

When I turned my head towards the scout leader he was gone. Being the hunter that I was I immediately discovered his tracks in the grass. They led about four meters away and ended in a fox's den. Son of a goat.

-

"Where did your friend go?" Laura asked disappointed, looking around for the tiny thing.

"Laura, what the fuck are you doing?" Janna suddenly called over. "I want to go back, you coming or what?"

"I can't pee when you look, turn around!" She called back. "I'll be there in a minute!"

Shrugging her shoulders, Janna turned around.

"Umm, sorry little guy." Laura addressed the remaining tiny alien in between her feet with an apologetic smile. "This could get rather unpleasant for you."

-

And then she slid down her britches and undergarments and simply squatted over me. I had seen women parts before but never anything so huge, thank the gods. I remember thinking that I should try to run. But I couldn't. I was held up by fear. By fear and the sheer absurdity of it.

Here she was, this titanic giantess. She could've crushed King Aele in his castle and ruled these lands. Gods, she could've crushed any king or queen there was and rule their lands as well. Yet here she was, squatting over an innocent little hunter and about to relieve herself on me.

-

The tiny man just stared up at Laura when the stream of piss hit him. It was so strong, to this planet any ways, that it ripped the earth open and created little ponds wherever it landed. And the little guy was right in there, being battered around by and threatened to drown in the piss of a college student. Laura almost felt a little sorry for him.

-

Steaming hot piss surrounded me. It would've disgusted me had I not had to fight the fight of my life. I could tell she aimed at me. Whenever it hit me it slammed me down and swirled me around. As soon as I reached the surface again I would breathe quickly before being pushed under again. Sticks and stones swirled around with me, hit me, bruised me, exhausted me.

It felt like it was never going to stop. I don't remember whether something hit me in the head or exhaustion overcame me, but I passed out.

-

When Laura had fully relieved herself she got up and admired her handiwork. She had created a little lake. After a few more seconds the lifeless body of the poor boy she had peed upon drifted to the surface. Walking back towards the village she thought about what Janna would say if she knew that Laura had just pissed one of her tiny, precious aliens to death.

-

A little snack was all very well but Janna was still somewhat hungry. She thought about how to solve the problem all the way back to the ship but couldn't really come up with something. It was merely their first day here and already so much had happened. They'd gone from complete and utter devastation to sheer amazement. Seeing the mangled, broken wreck of the space ship further dampened Janna's enthusiasm again.

She put the Erlenmayer flask on one of the fixed tables and ignored it for now. Yes, it wasn't very nice to keep the people in the uncomfortable prison but her own well being deserved some attention too. She and Laura went to tidy up the place and try and find some more useful utensils to improve their situation. The standard-issue equipment for these research ships was quite diversified and soon Janna had collected all that she needed for a makeshift water filter.

They discovered that in the ditch that the crashing ship had created while sliding across the planet's surface during the crash, ground water had accumulated in a comparatively handsome lake. At least the water question was solved this way. The toilet question didn't seem too difficult either. Armed with a little folding spade Laura was tasked with digging a latrine for their most basic needs. Laura had protested but Janna was able to avoid the dirty deed by spending a bit more time and effort on the water filter than would have been necessary.

Necessity very much helped them both accustom to this more primitive way of life. After all, life had to go on, even without most of modern age's comforts and commodeties. The food question remained though.

"Maybe we should put the pigs on a stick and grill them over a fire." Janna pondered while she looked at the mixed crowd in their glass prison.

"Better then starving I guess." Laura admitted to Janna's surprise.

Of course the little animals were full of bones but, as eating the meat items provided by the village had shown, that didn't provide much of a problem. They just got ground up along with the rest and swallowed without much concern.

Judging by the position of the sun it was about mid afternoon when the girls finished their chores and started their work on the little people.

-

Back at the keep Sir Ludwig ordered everyone except his most trusted advisor and the leader of the scout party, the only one who had made it back, out of the room.

"So, apparently giants need to piss too." He commented the soldier's agonizing stench with a smirk. "Aye, my Lord. Almost drowned in my hiding spot." The crude man replied. "But the giantesses need to eat as well."

"Well then it could be easier then expected." Sir Ludwig said satisfied. "Raid the villages, take their supplies. Bring it all here. We shall make the giants an offering and trade food for power."

"But, my lord..." The soldier cried desperately but apparently was at a loss for words to describe what he felt about this idea.

"We're playing with fire." Sir Ludwig's friend and advisor Lares chimed in. "We have to offer it bit by bit. Keep them hungry, make them dependant on us. And still, there's a risk if any of this is true."

Sir Ludwig narrowed his eyes: "It is the throne of Andergast that is at stake here, I am willing to take it. And when I have it, Nostria shall be mine as well."

-

The microscope eliminated any last doubt Janna had harboured about the humane appearance of the aliens. As soon as she had torn the clothes of her first subject, a man, the others obediently undressed as well. They stood in the Erlenmayer flask, shamefully covering their private parts looking at what the giantess was doing to them. When ever Janna took a new one out of the bottle she tilted it very carefully until one of them slid into the palm of her hands. When she was done with one she carefully deposited them in front of Laura who was sitting next to her and tried to learn the alien's language.

By showing them an array of different objects and pointing at her own body parts, Laura was making huge steps in a very short time. She was also able to decrypt some basic concepts such as 'mine', 'yours', 'his', 'hers' and so forth. She had always been good with languages and the pronunciation wasn't particularly hard. It was also very astounding how the tiny people seemed to support her effort to learn it. Both girls filled several pages with notes.

Overhearing Laura's exchange with the tinyies, she couldn't help but notice that some words were oddly similar to the English language, although differently pronounced.

"That's a coincidence too far." She noted when Laura had pointed at her hand and a tiny man pronounced it 'hunt'

"There's a pattern here."

"Oh yeah?" Laura scoffed. "And what is that, a giant conspiracy, like, the government shrunk people down, somehow put them back in the middle ages and left them here?"

"They could've been abducted by aliens during that time, shrunk down and left here to study them or something." Janna reasoned.

The little people cringed and held their ears when Laura burst into vicious laughter.

"Whatever." Janna dismissed her and carefully poured the remaining two people and animals onto the table. The chickens went mad and started to run around in circles while the two naked people held the cow and pigs by their collars and tried to calm them down.

"Why do you think they do that?" Janna asked perplexed.

"They're probably worried to offend you." Laura reasoned. "I think they're thinking we are gods or something. Well, to them we are, technically."

Janna seemed offended by this: "Well, can you please tell them that we are not?"

"No, not yet." Laura laughed. "And why would I? Look!"

She told the tiny aliens in front of her to bring her a chicken. Immediately the people ran and caught not one but three chickens so she could select the best one.

"Don't do that." Janna criticized. "That's wrong."

"Why is it wrong?" Laura rebutted, making no attempt to hide her distaste for Janna's supposed moral correctness.

"It's morally wrong." Janna repeated. "They don't do what you tell them because they like you but because they probably think you will squish them like bugs if they don't."

"Damn right, I will squish them like bugs." Laura grinned and pointed first at a younger man holding his chicken and then downwards. Upon her command he released his chicken and when it started to run away again Laura tracked it with her index finger for a few centimetres before pinning the pin head sized creature to the table. Then, with an almost inaudible squelching sound, she squished it flat. There was only the tiniest bit of resistance before it's tiny body popped.

Laura dragged her finger over the table and painted a small heart shape with the bloody carcass. Then she flicked it away into the room.

"What did you do that for?" Janna continued to nag at Laura. Laura just shrugged her shoulders. Janna shook her head and turned towards the microscope again.

"Hmm. The animals also look exactly like their earthly counterparts." She said after a while. "What is happening, this is impossible!"

She wiped her face with her hands and seemed to be really distressed.

"I think I need to dissect them." She said after another pause. "There's got to be a difference somewhere."

Laura scoffed again: "So, if I kill an animal, that's wrong but if you do it with a knife it's alright, huh?"

"Shut up." Janna dismissed the criticism and stood up to get a scalpel.

"Why did you take so many of them anyway, you have..." Laura counted the humanoids. "...Seventeen of them."

"Had to get a broad base for my study. Seventeen is alright I guess." Janna replied, her head half way inside a supply unit. "Might have been a few too many though, I don't know. Damn, where is this stupid thing."

Feeling a bit bored again, Laura cocked her index finger behind her thumb and aimed at the boy who had given her the chicken. She smiled right into his confused face before she flicked the tiny man through the room. His body crashed onto the floor a few times before it seized to move. The tiny people looked up at her in horror but stayed put. There was nowhere to run.

"Oh, here they are!" Janna exclaimed, having found what she was looking for. Before she turned back towards the table Laura quickly snatched a tiny girl and put her on Janna's chair. Being thrown around so suddenly caught the little thing of guard and only staggeringly she came back to her feet. She also didn't realize immediately what a terrible situation she was in.

Janna's thunderous foot steps approached and the girl began to run but when Janna dragged the chair back out from under the table she lost her footing and fell. To Laura's satisfaction Janna didn't look at the chair before sitting down, dooming the little alien girl. Laura saw her raise her tiny arms as if she could stem Janna's titanic weight before being crushed by Janna's glorious, jeans clad behind. Janna didn't even seem to notice. Eyeing the tiny people on the table, Laura pressed her finger to her lips to command them silence. They looked pretty horrified.

"I only see fifteen people." Janna remarked and looked around the bottom of the table.

"Well, maybe I miscounted." Laura offered just before Janna discovered the smear on her chair.

"Oh no! I squished one!" Janna said with a frown on her face. "Aww, it probably tried to get away by jumping on the chair first."

She called her 'it' because the girl was just too flat to be able to tell.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't see you." Janna apologized.

"I don't think that matters now." Laura laughed as Janna scrapped what was left of the tiny thing and wiped her fingers clean on the table, giving the little people a rather terrifying exhibition.

"You gotta be careful Laura, of course they would try and get away." Janna cautioned her friend.

"Not the smart ones though. Oh, look." Laura mused and pointed at the dead little man on the floor. "There's number seventeen, so I did count right."

"He got pretty far." Janna frowned, rising. "I guess the injuries from jumping down the table got him eventually. Well, at least I have one to dissect now."

She retrieved the tiny body and went back to the microscope. The little people seemed to be very troubled by the fact that Laura had so casually done away with two more of them and they behaved even more submissive than before. Their physical insignificance was shoved in their faces once again when Janna unceremoniously crushed the cow's and pig's heads with her fingers in an effort to kill them 'humanely'. She just squished them as if they were nothing.

"For science." Janna reasoned and justified the killing. While Janna disected the corpses, Laura used the dead and crushed bodies to learn the words for 'dead', 'crushed' and so forth and already practised some basic sentences.

"I'm getting tired. And I'm hungry. And I'm not finding anything new." Janna said after a while and reached over to take one tiny naked female into her hands. Upon being engulfed by Janna's mighty fingers the tiny woman screamed, kicked and begged for her life.

"Oh no. Did I hurt you?" She asked worriedly and gave her a closer inspection.

"No." Laura laughed. "She thinks you are going to squish her head."

"Don't worry little darling." Janna tried to calm her down and caressed the woman's head as carefully as possible. It worked to stop the screaming but Janna could still feel that she was afraid.

"Let's get them back to the village and set up our beds for tonight." She decided. "We should probably build a fire and roast the pigs and cow as well. Better than nothing."

"Why don't you get started on that." Laura proposed. "I'll carry them back to the village."

-

I woke up inside a house of our village, the seer washing my skin with a cold, wet rag, the stench of piss still faintly surrounding me.

"Calm." He said in his awfully scratchy voice. "It is almost evening. The gods have spared you once again. You are alive."

"The gods?" I remember asking bitterly and with a weak voice. "Why have the gods send us the giants?"

"You fool." The seer said as if it was all so very obvious. "The giants are gods!"

No. No, that couldn't be true. Gods supposedly could smite people, yes. But gods didn't squat over mortals and tried to drown them in their piss. It was luck that had spared me. Not she. Something very different was going on here. King Aele needed to know about it!

"Back down, rest." The seer commanded and softly pushed me back onto the bed when I tried to get up.

"Why didn't you get help?" The tear-stained voice of a mother called from the back of the room. "Where did you go? What did you do, huh?!"

"I went there." I tried to explain. "Sir Ludwig heard me, but he only sent scouts with me back here, they...they tried to kill me. I..."

"Liar!" She spat, interrupting me. "There were no others where we found you, you were alone! I bet you sat at a distance and watched as they crushed my poor daughter! Oh, my poor daughter!"

Then she collapsed in tears.

-

Laura laughed at the ease with which she had convinced Janna to let her take the tiny aliens back all on her own. Putting them back into the Erlenmayer flask had been surprisingly easy too, she just held the vessel at ninety degrees to the edge of the table, pointed to it and they ran.

Giving them a closer look while walking through the forest, Laura sensed that, though not entirely at ease yet, the tiny people were happy and hopeful to be brought home in one peace. Of course, they had left Laura out of the equation.

-

Apparently, Sir Ludwig's scouts and I hadn't been the only victims of the giant invaders. They had killed two and abducted many more for who knows what purpose. They had also taken almost all of our provisions.

"The gods demand their sacrifices." The seer reasoned and I felt anger build up inside myself. This stupid blind man. I could see right through his pious facade. He didn't have the slightest clue what he was talking about. He helped himself to everything we had, yet barely ever was of any use. Spiritual guidance, who needed spiritual guidance when we were starving through the winter?!

With my blood boiling I became stronger again.

"We shall prepare the remaining livestock for a sacrifice when the gods return." The seer said. "After that I will go to another village. I feel they need my spiritual guidance more. These good people can do without me."

The other people seemed to be divided on the issue. Some shook their heads in disbelief while others nodded in agreement.

I couldn't take the foolishness any more: "So, you will sacrifice all we have left and then leave us here?! We will all starve, come winter! All but you, of course, you'll be blood-sucking another village dry with your cunt-mouthed fables!"

That shut everyone up.

-

Laura gave the poor people a playful shaking inside their glass prison and happily watched them tumbling about. She turned around to see if she was far enough away from the ship before she turned back to her captives and showed them an evil grin.

"Time to get squished!" She cheered.

She wasn't going to kill all fifteen of them for it might look suspicious to Janna if she revisited the village. If two thirds of them reached the village it would be a good quota, she reckoned, randomly pouring five of them into the palm of her hand.

"Run, little bug." She told the first one she sat down in front of her feet. It was an older man with white hair and despite not understanding her language he immediately took off, running away from her in a straight line. Laura had already learned that a young man was rather slow, compared to her, but this old one was even slower.

When ever he was about to vanish beneath a tree, Laura simply tramped it down, further slowing him. She realized immediately that she would take far too long to reach the village if she kept this up.

"Too slow." She said in the language of the tinies while gently giving the man a nudge with her sole that forced him to the ground. After watching him struggle to get up amidst the broken branches of fallen trees, Laura trod on him and moved on. The little 'pop' his body made was drowned out by the sound of the breaking wood that was embedded into Laura's foot print along with her tiny victim.

Deciding not to waste as much time on her next plaything, she put a girl from her hand in the middle of a glade and raised her foot above her. To her surprise the tiny female didn't even try to outrun her. Instead she threw herself on her knees and appeared to be begging for her life, involuntarily teaching Laura the word for 'please'. Laura didn't expect to be using it often but it would be a nice addition to her notes.

Then Laura brought her foot down with force, stomping the insignificant creature out of existence before raising her foot and admiring her handiwork. The smashed remains were stuck deeply in her footprint, the body burst open from the force yet still somewhat recognizable. Laughing impishly, she stomped down again and again, each time smearing the girl deeper into the compacted earth.

Her next victim, a younger male, Laura put down in the middle of the swath that she and Janna had created walking back and forth from the village. Much to her delight, the little man furiously fled away from her and she entertained herself by lazily stepping in his path whenever he tried to leave the swath and find cover under the trees.

He wasn't too quick either, having to climb above all the fallen trees and it took quite a physical toll on him as well. Whenever he slowed down, Laura almost trod him flat which spurred him on again. She gradually increased the danger to which she exposed him by giving him less and less time to pick himself up again. After a while his running turned into crawling and not even Laura's menacing sole hovering directly above him could put him back to his feet.

Aiming carefully she pinned his tiny legs and pelvis under her shoe and lifted her other foot in the air. Her sneaker mercilessly sunk into the earth, forcing the male's torso upright, getting pushed against the side of Laura's shoe. When she lifted her foot she discovered that his lower half, crushed into the thread, glued her tiny victim to her death bringing sole. Stuck to it's own squirted-out innards the flailing creature dangled upside down.

Laura gave him another look before she took another casual step towards her destination. To her amazement, looking under her shoe again, he was now completely mangled into the threat of her sneakers yet still twitching with life. It took three more steps for his struggles had finally ceased.

Walking the soft earth, crushing trees, bushes and people had made Laura's footwear quite dirty. In another glade along the way she released the last two remaining aliens from her hand. A male and a female. The naked creatures just hugged each other and fearfully stared up at her face that, to them, was so impossibly far away.

"Shoe. Dirt." Laura said in the alien language and substituted the yet unlearned word for 'clean' by demandingly pointing at her foot. They just stared back, baffled. When Laura pointed at her tongue and back at her shoe, they got the message. A power rush went through her as she watched the tiny people's reluctance turn into determination. They threw themselves against her feet and started to clean off the raw dirt with their puny little tongues.

Suddenly the female raised her head and yelled up at Laura, "Please, don't crush us!", before she eagerly started to lick again. Though spoken in the alien tongue Laura had understood almost every word.

But of course, two little people were not nearly enough to clean the shoes, larger than houses to them with just their hands and mouths and after marvelling for a few minutes Laura called the game off.

"Good.", She addressed them in their language. "Stay!"

Their little hearts might have jumped with joy when Laura stepped over them seemingly continuing on her journey but they would have gotten stuck in their throats when Laura's knees bend and her behind came down on top of them.

With a thud, Laura's butt made contact with the earth. Knowing that they were there, Laura could even feel the tiny people. She felt faintly where they were, even faintly recognized that they were trying to move but also noticed that they absolutely couldn't. With a huge smile on her face she teetered back and forth a few times, enlarging the dent in the earth beneath her.

Raising the left butt cheek to check for her victim she felt something pop under the other. The girl was buried in the earth, only it's right side barely showing, weakly raising an arm. Laura promptly sat down on top of it again and raised the right cheek, now producing a pop under the left. The guy's body was buried even deeper, but there also was a tiny wet spot of blood from when his body had popped under Laura's weight.

Getting up, Laura brushed the dirt off her behind as far as that was possible. The fine top soil had been driven deeply into the fabric and Laura would need more than her hands to get it out again. Her only pair of trousers stained with dirt Laura continued on her journey. The sun was already beginning to set in the distance.

-

Janna had been reluctant to give the little people to Laura for she knew that her friend could be a little careless at times but she felt that they really needed what little daylight they had left. She was also glad not having to make the walk again on an empty stomach. She filtered water and build a small fire where the ship had uprooted all the trees.

Using the scalpel she turned a young tree into a handy stick, put the animal's carcasses on them, sat down by the fire and grilled them. The puny little things would be as useful as homeopathy, merely a drop in the ocean, but then again, it was better than nothing. Better than nothing pretty accurately described the situation she and Laura were in, Janna found.

She watched the sun slowly setting in the distance, drank water and reluctantly nibbled on the meat. Before long the cow and one pig had found their way into her belly and she simply put the last pig into her mouth as well. Her molars ground the tiny thing into pulp barely meeting any resistance. If only everything was a little bigger here, she thought. When Laura would return, she'd probably be angry at Janna for eating all the food herself.

-

The seer demanded blood for the offence. Under normal circumstances they may have had me strangled to death but with the giants having taken away our, food every hunter was needed. I saw a sadistic satisfaction in the seer's eyes as they dragged me out of the house and tied me to a post to whip me. I was naked and the sun was beginning to set.

They determined the tallest and largest of the lumber men to carry out the sentence. I trembled with rage and fear, unsure if luck would spare me yet again today. A brutal whipping could still kill a man, especially if he was in a frail position like I was.

"You have been condemned and you shall suffer!" The seer began his tirade in front of the other villagers. "Under the eyes of gods and men. You have sinned gravely, your heresy is besmirching our village! Nothing other than death could appease the gods but they have determined to strike these good people's hearts with mercy. You are not worthy of..."

A terribly familiar tremble in the ground made him stop. The people of the village fearfully looked around, knowing what was going on.

"Like I prophesied!" The seer announced with sneering satisfaction. "The gods have come back to accept their sacrifice."

He pointed in between two houses were the villagers had rounded up all our remaining livestock. I admit that in this moment I was briefly inclined to believe the seer's words. Why else would they come back? What else was there to take?

-

When Laura approached the village a large group of tiny people had gathered, many more than they had seen before. It was a rather peculiar scene. Many of the tiny people bowed or raised their hands as a greeting, a naked man was tied to a post and a hooded figure in black robes spread his arms and yelled praises at her.

The hooded man gesticulated towards a larger group of cattle and from what little Laura understood she learned that they were meant for her. Playing along, Laura bowed her head and carefully released the prisoners from the Erlenmayer flask into the village.

-

The people she brought back had seen untold horrors, I could tell. They ran back to their loved ones and hugged them intimately. Not nearly all of them had returned but the seer seemed to be even more convinced of his own nonsense and loudly announced that the goddess had accepted their sacrifice. Sighs of relief could be heard from the crowd.

When I turned my head back towards the giantess, my blood froze in my veins.

"For me?" She clumsily asked in our tongue, pointing at me.

The seer's eyes met mine and a vicious smile curled on his thin lips.

"Yes!” He hissed up at her.

-

Laura nonchalantly stuffed the cows and pigs into her pockets. They weren't many but they would accompany Janna's and her dinner for tonight. Human sacrifices weren't uncommon in many ancient cultures but she figured that only one man was a little meagre. On the other hand, her time was running out. It would be hellishly difficult to get back to the ship once the sun had set completely.

-

"Please, you can't do this!" I begged the people of my village but none had the courage to stand up for me. I wasn't particularly liked. They had taken me in as a boy, yes, but I didn't have family ties with any of them. The damned raiders had made sure of that. The few lads I had been able to befriend shamefully looked away when my eyes met theirs.

"Oh, beautiful goddess, accept thy sacrifice!" The seer blubbered on trying to get her to take me and leave the rest of them the hell alone. The giantess gave him an irritated look and raised her foot above him. She seemingly didn't appreciate being told what to do. Not without some vengeful satisfaction, I saw his eyes widen in horror.

-

This village didn't seem to have learned from what happened to the last talker, Laura thought and pivoted her food above the hooded man. He shut up immediately but she squished him all the same for good measure. His body crumbled underneath her weight and she didn't even lift her foot again.

-

The sound when she crushed his body with her shoe and gave it a little twist made me sick to the stomach. I knew what was in store for me. Crying, I fell to my knees and bowed down to her. I didn't dare repeat the other villagers' cries for mercy.

-

It was time to get going, Laura decided with a look to the horizon, but she still hadn't decided what to do with the tiny man that was offered to her. Simply squishing him like the others just didn't seem appropriately divine. She had another evil idea and knelt down to untie her laces.

Giant, sock clad feet slipped out of her titanic foot wear. I was confused. Not even the rich people in the capital owned such fine socks, us simple folk had none at all, and she, as if uncaring, stained them with dirt. Her unworldly attire really seemed to be divine. But then again, what she did next convinced me that she was merely really huge and not a goddess like the seer had said.

-

Laura carefully broke the post that the offered man was tied to in half and lifted his naked form to her face. The terrified look on his face looked oddly familiar but she couldn't really put a finger on it where it had been. Without further ado she put him inside her shoe.

-

I will never forget how powerless I felt when she deposited me inside her footwear. I never liked the smell of feet. Why was she doing this? I really couldn't fathom any other reason other than cruelty against a helpless victim. It was more creative than just stepping on me, I give her that, but noone could claim that it served a higher purpose.

-

One tiny man for two giant shoes wasn't enough, Laura decided and so she randomly picked a few people from the crowd and dumped them into her shoes as well. Three for each and she was satisfied and slipped her feet back in.

-

At least I wouldn't go alone, I thought when a young terrified couple was deposited next to me. What little light entered through the opening above was suddenly blocked away when her sock clad foot came at us.

"Run!" I screamed and sprinted towards were her toes would be. The boy ran with me but the girl, foolish and young as she was decided to go the other way, pressing herself against the side where the giantess's heel would settle. Immediately, I knew she wouldn't last long there.

We pushed ourselves away from our tormentor's giant toes and hoped for the best. When she started to walk, all hell broke lose.

-

Laura laughed innocently and wiggled her toes. The tiny people would go through hell before they'd be turned into toe jam.

"Bye." She said onto the people in the village, turned on her heels and marched back the way she came.

Every now and then something would slip beneath her toes and turn wet. Every step she took squished their tiny, mangled bodies more. She'd have to clean her socks tomorrow anyway. Or she'd just go barefoot. It didn't seem as if anything could hurt her on this planet any ways.

-

The sound of breaking wood underneath the giantess's foot accompanied me for the entire torterous journey. The air was damp and smelled horrible. We were thrown around and I became nauseous but I desperately clung to a little thread that I had found poking out of a joint inside her shoe. The other man screamed helplessly as he slipped underneath her toes and when her titanic weight settled on top of him he was turned into paste. It was a sound I could never get used to.

After what seemed like an eternity she stopped and her foot left me alone. I was very weak at this point and my head was spinning horribly. I recognized my fellow sufferer as a pinkish-red smear on the bottom of the giant shoe. Then I passed out.

-

"Woa, without the fire I wouldn't have made it back here." Laura said to Janna when she had come back.

"Yeah, it gets pretty dark." Janna lectured. "No city lights and stuff. Any trouble?"

"No." Laura shook her head. "They were pretty happy to get back though."

"Of course." Janna said, satisfied.

Laura had brought more cattle and Janna used the scalpel to disembowel them before putting them on a stick and roasting them too. They shared evenly. It still wasn't barely enough for the two of them but Janna reckoned there wouldn't be anything else.

"You think they like us?" She asked when Laura told her that the villagers had practically insisted she take the animals with her.

"I think so." Laura replied, shrugging her shoulders and staring into the fire.

Janna had converted two of the fixed tables into field beds like they were designed to and after brushing their teeth with their fingers at the lake, the two tiredly stumbled into their beds in the darkness.

After using the latrine Laura untied her shoes again and felt inside if any of her little prisoners was still alive. Most of them were dirt, as she had expected, but to her surprise she retrieved a single lifeless male from her right sneaker. In the dim light of the burnt out fire, she recognized him as the one who had been sacrificed. The one with the oddly familiar face.

Janna was allready fast asleep when she climbed back into the ship and she dumped the tiny man right into her friend's boot. Her last evil deed of the day.

Chapter 2

Gold is for the mistress, silver for the maid, copper for the craftsman, cunning at his trade.

'Good.', Said King Aele, sitting in his hall, 'But iron, cold iron, is the master of them all.'

"Please, Sire, we cannot give them everything!" the old woman begged, kneeling in front of Lares. He had already heard that sentence a couple too often this morning so he lazily shoved his sword into her chest, twisted it once and let her body drop to the ground. The villagers held the eyes of their children shut.

They were collecting food for the giantesses just like Sir Ludwig had said but the villages held dearly to their supplies. It didn't matter much. A few dead people here and there and they happily gave it up. This was the last village they would plunder before sending the first small caravan to the giants. Sir Ludwig's plan was bold and Lares was still in doubt about whether it would work.

-

When she woke up, Janna was even hungrier yet. She couldn't tell what time it was which annoyed her a great deal because she hated getting up too late. She felt like it was about nine am but there was no way to be sure.

She and Laura had gone to bed at a good time, biologically speaking, but the day before had been really exhausting too so she still felt somewhat sleepy. The lack of food made it worse. Contrary to her, Laura was a long sleeper so Janna didn't bother to wake her up and silently went to get dressed.

Wearing the same panties and socks for two days deeply offended her sense of hygiene but she figured there was no other way for now. It would be unpractical to wash them every single day. Her brown leather boots were dirt stained too but she noticed that it wasn't quite as bad as the dirt on Laura's footwear. Boots were much more appropriate for this planet than sneakers.

Even though Janna's footwear sported a wooden block under the heel, she was able to move quite well on the soft top soil. When she slipped her foot inside she noticed something peculiar.

-

I awoke with a rumbling. The smell of feet was still around but something much heavier hung in the air. Leather. I noticed immediately that I was in a shoe, but a different one than before. Were the other was made from a strange but very sophisticated fabric, this one was made of leather. I could only imagine how many animals it might have taken to make it, or how large they might have been.

After all, these giants came out of nothing. Sleeping under the mountains for thousands of years, was the common tale. I wondered what, if anything, had woken them up.

What had woken me up became terrifyingly clear to me when what little light entered this shoe was blocked out by what could only be a giant foot. And so it was. I tried to get up but the foot was too quick. It shoved itself above me, pinning me to the sole. And then I felt it. The unstoppable weight that multiplied in split-seconds and would surely crush my puny little body into nothing at any moment.

-

When Janna slipped into her right boot she felt something under her foot. In her sleepy condition she dismissed it as a stone that she would remove as soon as it would bother her. Slowly putting her weight on it so not to hurt herself, she discovered that it was not a stone but something soft. For a moment she was happy that it wasn't a stone and just about to let her weight settle when her alarm bells rang.

She sat down on her butt so not to loose balance and carefully removed her shoe. Then she tilted it and let what ever was inside softly slide onto the hard floor. Sand, of this planet and of Earth, among with some of this planet's tree's leaves poured out before, inexplicably, a young naked man rolled onto the ground. He must have tried to flee from the table but discovered that he couldn't leave the ship and hide in her boot in the night, Janna thought.

-

When her weight lifted off me I felt strange. I couldn't explain how came I was such a lucky bastard all of a sudden. Picking myself up I mustered all my strength and again ran towards were the giantess's toes would be. Another wretched day spent in a shoe still seemed preferable over being turned into a smear.

I hadn't made my first step when my world shook and then, to my horror, tilted. Amidst sand and stones and other dirt I tumbled towards a grey surface.

When I landed there it took me a moment to catch my bearings. What turned out to be a giant boot was there, opening towards me, grey solid ground around before ending in walls of more grey, strange things, giant plateaus on single gigantic pillars made of steel...

A sudden warm breeze washing over me made me spin around and face her. The other giantess, the one I had evidently yet to suffer my share of torment from, was sitting over me. Well, technically, in front of me, but close enough to tower above me like a mountain and make me feel completely insignificant. Perhaps I wasn't such a lucky bastard after all.

I might have turned and run then or bow down and submit myself but I just stood there, utterly dumbstruck, staring at her unearthly proportions.

-

As lucky as she was to have saved the tiny guy, Janna found herself to be also quite angry with him.

"Who would be so stupid and irresponsible to hide in a giant shoe?!" She whispered, scolding him, "I could've crushed you, you little idiot!"

She felt like he needed a proper earful and with the least amount of care acceptable not to hurt him, she snatched his naked form off the floor, stood up and climbed out of the ship, to the ground. She moved around the ship and put the tiny guy by the lake.

Janna noticed that she was really disproportionately angry about this incident. Putting him on the ground in between her feet was probably overdoing it too. But had she accidentally crushed the young man, she would have been really sad and upset about it. The harangue wouldn't last long anyway.

"Do not ever hide in my shoes again!" She boomed from above. "It is dangerous and reckless and I swear next time maybe I wont notice you. And then I'll be sad. Do you want to make me sad? Don't run away when I'm talking to you!"

-

She was really mad at me for some reason. The slightly smaller giant girl from yesterday had done her gruesome deeds with an innocently curious and occasionally playful, evil smile on her face, yet this woman seemed to be really more on the angrier side. I wondered what I could have done to offend her. I also wondered if she wanted me to throw myself on the ground in submission.

Her voice was getting increasingly louder and I had to hold my ears to protect them. She was so mad that I was absolutely convinced she'd kill me. So I took off.

-

Janna stomped her foot on the ground next to him, paying no attention to the little tree that stood there, covering the tiny guy in bursting wood and creating a shock wave that sent him to the ground.

-

I saw her foot coming for me, impossibly large, impossibly quick, coming down not far from me on a little tree, smashing it to bits and driving most of it into the ground. I felt so helpless. I didn't know what she was mad at me for but I knew that I couldn't run away. The earth shook under her weight and I fell to the ground. I didn't bother to try and get up. Curling up into a ball I lied next to her feet, whimpering, awaiting the inevitable.

-

Suddenly, Janna felt sorry for him. She'd over done it. Completely. She realized she hadn't wanted to teach the tiny man a lesson, so much as releasing her anger over him almost making her kill him. He was lying next to her foot in fetal position covering his face in his miniature hands.

"I'm...sorry." She mumbled softly and knelt down to pick him up. "Are you hurt?"

She put him on the palm of her hand and briefly examined him but found him unharmed, if a little dirty.

-

Her tone had changed all of the sudden. It was soft now. There was almost something caring to it. I wasn't ready to tell whether she had forgiven me for whatever I did or was rather playing another game with me. She lifted me along with a good part of the ground I had been laying upon and carried me close to her gigantic face. What else was there to do than to curl up and hope she'd make it quick, I thought. She was just so impossibly huge.

-

Janna hated it that she couldn't communicate with the little guy. Incapable of asking him, she just decided that it was better for him to be clean, so, somewhat clumsily, she enclosed him in her fist, held him under water and swooshed him around a few times. It was enough to get the worst of the dirt off, plus he wasn't curled up in a ball any more.

-

Suddenly her fingers closed around me and she dunked me into the water. I know I always thought the worst of her so far but given my experiences with giants at that point I was absolutely right, so when she held me under water I seriously contemplated whether I'd prefer to be drowned or eaten. I was afraid she was going to eat me earlier but apparently I was too dirty. The violent way she thrashed me around in the water, that must have been the way a fish felt like after being caught by an otter.

When she took me out she addressed me again in her strange foreign tongue. It sounded as if she was talking to a pet puppy. With her free hand and her face she tried to tell me all kinds of things, most of which I didn't understand and whenever I said something she unintelligibly repeated my words like some kind of primitive. How ironic, that she would talk to me as if I was just some animal. I feared the giants' limited mental capacity might make them easier for Sir Ludwig to control.

He was Lord Ludwig in truth. Lord of these lands, ruling from his hold fast on a small hill. I do not know why he went with Sir instead, the title for knights with no large land possessions. Perhaps it was because he didn't command any knights under him. His men were all shady, Lares most of all. They meant to usurp the crown of Andergast now. I had no business or interest being anywhere near or even knowing about that matter. But then again, I had no business or interest to be in this giant monster's possession either.

Through our exchange, however, I became more and more convinced that the giantess wanted me no evil. This of course amazed me to the utmost, given what I had gone through the day before. At some point, she even put me back on the ground but eyed me suspiciously for a few seconds. I realized there was no point in running away from her, even less a point than running from men on horses.

Then I heard a large amount of air gurgling in her gut. She was hungry.

-

After trying to communicate with the tiny guy for a while, trying to apply Laura's tricks and techniques, Janna softly put him down next to her and went to wash herself in the lake. She had made some progress with the primitive alien but ran into some problems with theoretic concepts that he seemingly wasn't able to grasp at all. It was terribly annoying to do on an empty stomach.

She took off her T-Shirt and washed her face, arms and arm pits with water. She'd have to take a more thorough bath at some point in the coming days, but not today. Today she was hungry and still had to find out what to do with her tiny guest.

-

I still had no clue, what she was going to do with me. If she decided to keep me, there was nothing I could do about that. If she decided to let me go home, where was I going? I didn't have a home at that point. I wasn't going back to the village that had sold me out.

She didn't even pay me any attention while she washed herself in the lake. I noticed that her breasts were secured in a sturdy piece of clothing, much more sophisticated than even the kind rich woman folk of our kind wore. It was black and seemed to have a kind of pattern on it, embroidered with something like rambling flowers. It was beautiful and looked just fit for a goddess. Surely she couldn't have made it herself. I was curious. It seemed foolish to me, but since she didn't show me any hostility any longer I was all the more inclined to ask.

"Did you make that?" I inquired as loudly as I could and pointed at the piece of art that secured her enormous bosom. She turned to me, leaned in closer and gave me a bemused look.

"Did you make that?" I asked again and she looked at her chest.

"That?" She asked in our language and looked back at me. I nodded and she gave me a warm smile.

-

'Men, they're just the same, no matter where you go.' Janna thought and couldn't help but smile.

Under normal circumstances she would have been offended but although he was undoubtedly human-like and male, she didn't really consider the tiny mite next to her feet a man.

"No." She told him in the alien tongue but knew she couldn't possibly explain 'I bought it in a shopping mall'.

Since he seemed really fascinated with either her bra or her boobs, she decided that she was going to show him both to keep him occupied until she was ready to go. She found it amazing that he hadn't tried to run away yet. Not that she would let him, but he had plenty of opportunity to try.

-

Suddenly, her impossibly long arm slung around her torso and with a 'click' the ridiculously thick beams that held her titanic breasts loosened. Her boson dropped a little, weighed down by it's enormous mass. I couldn't believe that they were tits that I was looking at. Perfect, young, large, silky breasts, signs of youth and vitality. Only, these could easily flatten a house. I was terrified and amazed at the same time.

She put her 'breast-cups', for lack of a better word, down by me, careful not to get dirt on the inside and I saw that even though it was really nice from far away, the embroidery didn't really go into finer details, as if it had been made by giant hands. Up close, the work looked almost crude, lazy.

I estimated that the cups would be large enough to cover a hill about nine meters high when the wave of her feminine scent hit me. It was strong and everywhere, overwhelming me. It aroused me enough to make my head light and I stumbled backwards a few steps and fell. I couldn't think. I just laid there, paralysed, my erect member sticking out in between my thighs.

"Oh." I heard her gasp from above and she took it away. When the blood rushed back into my brains again I started to shiver. What in the name of the gods had I been thinking, she had every right in the world to smite me now. I tried to hide my erection and fight against it staring up at her in horror. She didn't look angry though, only concerned.

-

"Sorry." Janna mumbled awkwardly. Of course these tiny creatures would have a much better sense of smell, so he probably noticed she hadn't put on a fresh bra today. She was kind of surprised though, that it was worse enough to knock him out. She felt ashamed.

She also realized how scared he must have been to of all things choose her boot as a hiding spot for the night. It was time to bring the poor little creature home.

-

The fear of offending her helped to end my raging manhood's uproar rather quickly and I started to calm down. She had an almost apologetic look on her face as if she was sorry for arousing me that way. It was a really strange situation.

The giantess put on her shirt again and rose to stretch herself in the morning sun. Lying on my back beneath her, it was a once in a lifetime experience to see. I still had no idea what she was going to do with me. Smiting me didn't even seem to occur to her. I wondered why she bothered with me then. Maybe she was going to eat me, keep me or force me to do something my tiny hands could do better than hers. But she didn't show any evil intentions. If I tried to run now, maybe she'd even let me.

I got up and looked out for landmarks. Not only did I not have a home any more, I also had no idea where I was. Except for the colossal, strange-looking, grey temple I couldn't really see anything. I was torn in between trying to run and just waiting what would happen.

Then she bent down and offered me to climb onto her hand. That took a great toll on me. This gigantic, young behemoth offered me to climb onto her hand! She could've just snatched me off the ground like before, but no, she was going to let me decide. Or was she. I was still undecided when her friendly voice boomed from above.

"I take you to...", she began, evidently not knowing what the next word was in our language.

Pressing my luck I climbed into the palm of her hand. When she had lifted me up, closer to her face I offered: "Home?"

She gave me a quizzical look so I pointed at the temple and then at her, then to me and into the distance. Her face lit up.

"Home!" She exclaimed, clumsily happy, and smiled. My ears were ringing.

-

He could only have been one of the villagers so Janna confidently strode on the already beaten path in the forest towards it. She was happy to be able to help the poor little thing but the lack of food in her belly was really dampening. Once she'd brought him back to his people, solving the food question was next on her to-do list for today. If it could be solved, that was.

Occasionally Janna would point at something along the way to learn the aliens' words for it and also try to make conversation, although it was really awkward and difficult. Mostly, she would just repeat sentences he taught her and try to decipher the meaning by asking for specific words. Through this, she also learned the name of her tiny companion. Marvin, although he pronounced it 'Marrveen'. The similarity struck her again. Something was very odd about this planet.

-

"Good work, Lares." Sir Ludwig had said when the men had brought the first bunch of food from villages, farms and hunting cabins. It was late summer and there was summer harvest and early autumn harvest to be had, a great time for a ploy such as this, though Ludwig's particular lands were not rich and poor in agriculture.

His lands consisted of mostly forest, so he paid his tributes to King Aele in lumber, wild leather, game, wild fruit, mushrooms and the like. There were other fiefdoms in Andergast that produced mostly grains and meat from cattle. The mountain regions however were tightly under King Aele's personal control, bar some minor and occasionally illegal exceptions. The supply of iron for swords, lances and arrows, and stone to build castles and keeps were what the king built his might upon.

It was still to be seen if Ludwig could convince the giants to fight for him. He was willing to bleed his own lands dry and let his people starve. If he had all the food the giants had no other choice. He'd hide it in the forest if necessary. It was still quite a risky and headily plan but at least there was excitement now. Something to do. Sir Ludwig was tired of being in charge of a bunch of stupid trees, hunters, lumber workers and gatherers. He was surely born for something bigger. The arrival of the giants provided him with the opportunity he had been waiting for for years.

He led the first caravan off in direction of the village where the giantesses had first been sighted. Until the scouts provided him with a better destination, it was his best shot. Five carts filled with everything his subjects had had to offer, guarded by armed men from thieves, raiders and other lowlifes.

He had heard that the giantesses spoke a strange tongue, which might develop into a problem. On the other hand, if the Ludwig was the only noble able to communicate with the giants, it would greatly improve his chances of controlling them.

-

'Janna' was the giantess' name and she was going to take me 'home'. It didn't take me long to realize she was taking me back to my old village. I didn't want to go there. Maybe the people would even blame me for what happened and kill me. Another terrifying rumble in the her gargantuan gut gave me an idea. I'd have my revenge on Sir Ludwig for trying to have me killed and at the same time repaying the giantess for her kindness.

"I know where you can get food!" I yelled up at her face. Immediately her hungry eyes narrowed in on me and she stopped walking.

"Food?" She asked, probably the only word she had understood.

"Fruit and meat other things!" I explained. "Go there!"

And I pointed in the direction of Sir Ludwig's keep.

"You no want go home?" She asked, savagely butchering the already simple speech I had tried to teach her.

"I don't have a home." I replied and turned my gaze into the distance.

-

Poor little thing, Janna thought, but really nice of him to help her out with the food. She'd almost reached the village when he had told her to change course. After a while she spotted a small dirt road to her right and decided to walk on it to spare the forest some unnecessary destruction. Her feet were four times as wide as the road and pretty much tore it up with each step but Janna's feet didn't sink into the ground quite as deep when she walked on it.

The clouds in the sky had blocked out the sun a while ago and it started to drizzle. Something in this planet's atmosphere or magnetic field seemingly changed the cloud's behaviour though. It was a mackarel sky but the sheep-like clouds were already releasing their water. Even rain was small here, how very odd, Janna thought. Normal rain, like on earth, would probably have torn the soft topsoil and it's fragile plants apart, not to mention wash away whole civilizations in a storm.

-

The caravan was dragging itself slowly towards the village through the dense forest. Without these dirt roads, carts would never get through, Sir Ludwig thought and immediately grasped the necessity to maintain them for his plan to work. The peasants that steered the carts didn't have any idea were they were going.

"Stop burying your sister under the apples!" An old, withered farmer on a cart shouted at his son.

The two only laughed and continued with their game.

After the road had made a turn they saw her. A massive young woman standing in the distance, standing on the very road they were on, gazing into the sky. She was just huge. Sir Ludwig realized immediately that five carts weren't even remotely enough to feed her. Still he had the caravan proceed, the soldiers forcing the peasants to press on.

The one hundred meter tall giantess struck fear in every single one of their hearts. The farmer's boy pressed tightly against his father and the horses and oxen needed some whipping to be convinced to move on too.

-

When Janna turned back to the road to move on she saw something slowly move towards her in the distance. A track of carts, dragged by oxen and people, most on the ground and some on horses. Curious, She quickened her pace and it didn't take long to get to them.

-

With terrifying speed the giantess strode towards them. A few peasants and even some soldiers lost their nerve and ran into the wilderness.

"Steady, men!" Sir Ludwig commanded.

About 50 meters in front of the caravan she stopped, happily ogling them from above.

"That, for me?" She asked before Sir Ludwig saw a naked man stand over the edge of the giant palm and nod. Even though it was far away, He recognized the young man's face. That bastard.

Sir Ludwig was going to hang that wretched scout as soon as possible for failing to kill the hunter and putting his plans in jeopardy. On the other hand, meeting the giantess was the best thing Ludwig could hope for. He just couldn't decipher the hunter's role yet.

"Oh, mighty giantess!" He hollerred. "This food is for you! It is a gift from me, Sir Ludwig, to your person! If it is not enough so rest assured, we will bring you more!"

She gave him a confused look and asked again: "That for me?"

Sir Ludwig sighed. So the giants did speak their language, only not very well.

"Yes!", he hollerred, trying to simplify the message and employing arms and hands to be understood. "From me, to you!"

"Thank you!" The giant girl beamed and took another casual step towards the caravan. When she crouched and reached for the first cart, the one with the apples and pears, the peasants and soldiers around fled away in panic.

"No!" Sir Ludwig heard the man who had been driving the cart scream next to him in terror. With the look of helpless devastation in his eyes he stared at the cart that was effortlessly lifted along with the oxen towards a giant beautiful face. Greedily the giantess poured the contents of the cart into her mouth.

-

In the matchbox-sized cart there were apples, pears and something else that tasted almost like nothing but Janna was way too hungry to care. She shoved the lump onto her molars and bit down. It tasted salty after she crushed it in between her teeth, meaty, bloody, and incredibly good.

Then there was no holding back any more. She put the cart and the animal back down were it had been before and reached for the next cart barely giving the tiny people time to jump off before she poured it's contents into her mouth.

She could tell that the tinies had neatly divided her food into fruit, meat and bread items but she simply reached for cart after cart and poured it all in before she briefly chewed and swallowed. It wasn't enough.

-

The oxen ran around on the ground, dragging their now empty carts and getting stuck in ditches and mud. People fell on top of each other as they started running away. They all realized that their pathetic five carts of food had more awoken the giantess' hunger than quenched it and none of them knew what would happen next.

"Please, eat the oxen!" Sir Ludwig yelled from his distressed horse while trying to maintain order in his ranks. The more of his people fled the weaker the moral of the remaining people became. The giantess shrugged her shoulders, grabbed an oxen and broke it lose from it's cart. Then she put the animal into her mouth and chewed. Frantically, he looked for other sources of food for her.

-

Eating the food from the carts had made Janna even hungrier. She knew that in about half an hour a feeling of saturation would spread in her stomach no matter how much or little she'd eat. But she wasn't going to wait that long. When the tiny man on the horse who had been talking to her offered her the oxen, she just took them, not even bothering to get them clean.

The frightened animals panicked in her mouth but were no match for her tongue that shoved them onto her molars before she ground them into paste. They didn't even taste that bad.

-

As soon as she had spotted the food, the giantess didn't pay me any attention any more. After she had devoured the stuff from the wagons she went to eat the oxen. Her mouth was so big that fifteen of them would have easily fit inside, yet there were only five. The animals mooed in terror before her maw ground their bones into a pulp. Should one day she decide to eat us, there would be nothing we could do.

"Eat the horses too!" I heard Sir Ludwig yell frantically in the distance. He had gotten off his frantic steed and ordered his two remaining riders down from their horses as well. Janna didn't think long before she snatched them all three, shoved them into her mouth and pulverized them, saddle, bridle and all. Now there were only we people left.

"Catch the peasants!" Sir Ludwig commanded his remaining soldiers "She can eat them too!"

-

Janna looked around for more, involuntarily paying the tiny people a little more attention. Most of them had ran away, no doubt terrified by her feeding frenzy. Some carts were broken, others overturned as she had carelessly discarded them. All animals were gone, either on the run or in her digestive system. She felt a little sorry for having eaten the poor things alive, but she had been so mind-numbingly hungry.

"You can eat them too!" The tiny man who apparently was in charge around here and had offered her all this food said pointing at three poor looking people who were being held by soldiers. An older man, a woman and a boy.

"No." Janna shook her head, blushing. "I don't eat people."

She found this display of inhumanity rather disturbing, but then again, the dark ages were called the dark ages for a reason. One of the aliens offered to her seemed to be offended by this.

"You ate my daughter!" He exclaimed in tears. "She was hiding on the apple cart!"

He fell to his knees and cried bitterly, the boy dropping down by his side, hugging him. The soldiers let them be, chewing on their lips with crooked teeth and haunted looks on their faces.

"Daughter, cart, hiding?" Janna repeated perplexed and Marvin jumped to her aid translating it into easier language.

"His girl. You ate his girl. She was under the apples."

Janna swollowed hard and tried to remember. Yes. The salty lump that had been among the apples. The that had been so tasty. She had thought it was a sack of meat items or something. She looked at the sobbing man in terror. She had eaten this poor man's daughter. Chewed her up as if she was a snack, her indistinguishable remains now goo among the other stuff she had devoured.

She felt incredibly sorry, but she wasn't able to articulate it in any way. Tears welled up in her eyes and she blinked them away. It was all so horrible all of a sudden.

-

The mighty giantess was horror struck over what she had done. Tears, as large as my head, ran down her cheeks and fell to the ground. It was fascinating to see, fascinating to see that she cared. I wanted desperately to help her.

"How can I make good?" She asked through her tears.

"Put me down, please." I told her and she lowered me to the ground.

"She is very sorry, as you can see." I told the farmer who seemed to be rather irritated about the fact that I was being nakedly carried around by a one hundred meter tall woman. "Is there anything the giantess can do for you?"

Suddenly, Sir Ludwig jumped to his side and whispered in his ear. The farmer nodded and before I could intervene he pointed at me and said: "Kill him!"

I had made a mistake but I was just too dumbstruck at the way I was being sold out. Sir Ludwig probably promised the man a few coppers in exchange for his lies. Having survived being pissed and trodden upon, this couldn't possibly be my end. And for what, I asked myself. I was a hunter. I had nothing to do with any of this.

"He is a bad man!" Our liege lord proclaimed loudly. "He has killed many women and children! He is a rapist and a murderer! He deserves to die!"

Rapist, murderer, she couldn't possibly know those terms. Bad man, she understood though, and the other words sounded bad enough on their own merit even without their dreadful meaning. Ludwig's mummery was impressive and did the rest of it. Giant eyes looked at me with grave disappointment.

“No, it's a lie! A lie!” I shouted at her, blind with rage. “He wants to use you! He means to usurp the crown of King Aele, he is a traitor, he – argh!”

The butt of a spear hit me hard in back. I looked up. I could read in her face that she didn't believe me. She was angry again.

-

Sir Ludwig observed contently as the giantess flared her nostrils. If she had understood the hunter's pleas, she didn't believe them. He had used far too many words in any case while Ludwig had pointed at him before at man woman and child alike and drawing an invisible blade across his own throat.

"He is evil, bad!" He screamed desperately once again and the giantess made her move. She plucked the naked man off the floor and lifted him high into the air as if he weighed nothing.

She craned her neck and held him dangling up side down above her face, eyeing him with the look of a betrayed woman. Not wasting another word on him she opened her mouth, showing him where he would go, before almost gently lowering him inside. She lowered her head so we could all see his desperate struggles in her gaping maw. It was huge, easily large enough to devour twenty men at once.

With a terrified look on his face the hunter tried to crawl towards her lips but right before he reached her front teeth her mighty jaws shut. She swallowed noisily before opening her mouth again, revealing the emptiness inside.

Sir Ludwig smiled. It had worked out well.

-

Janna felt betrayed. She had saved Marvin and offered to carry him home, almost befriended him only to learn that he was a man wanted for murder. She hadn't quite understood what else Marvin had done, but it had to be something evil for this innocent farmer to of all things wish for Marvin's death. Being digested alive was probably a fit punishment for his crimes. She couldn't stand evil, nor being used.

Occasionally she thought to feel his faint struggles in her belly, barely notable, but that may as well have been her stomach doing it's work on him.

The tiny man in charge ordered the remaining people, except for three soldiers to return to where ever they'd come from. Through her exchanges with him she learned more than she ever could have with Marvin. The man in command, who revealed himself as Sir Ludwig, spoke very patiently with her. It didn't take long until she was convinced of his good intentions. He was very intelligent and able to teach Janna new words quickly.

Apparently, these lands were called Andergast, a kingdom among many with many problems that plagued it's people. Although he was careful not to show it directly, Janna felt that Sir Ludwig saw most of this Kingdom's problems with the higher leadership, meaning the king or whoever else when pointing above his head and calling them bad and evil. There seemed to be an immoral, exploitative bunch of people out there, standing in the way of his vision of a better world. King Aele seemed to be one of them.

About one and a half days march, for her, to the west and Janna would reach the kingdom of Nostria and beyond that, the Lands of the Thorwalsh, a people of raiders and fishermen. The north was mostly empty steppe but to the south and beyond the eastern mountains was a much larger and richer kingdom called the Garethian Empire.

"Tomorrow morning we will bring more food." Sir Ludwig also promised her. "Just come to my keep at the end of this road, we shall be waiting for you, righteous giantess."

'Righteous giantess', how he commonly referred to Janna had a nice ring to it. In return, Janna obediently called him 'my lord.'

Of course, given the fact that Janna had to learn most of the more complex words first, they were speaking for several hours. Janna had sat down on the cart track and lifted Sir Ludwig closer to her ears so that he wouldn't have to shout all the time. Given that the food question was solved for now, she figured that it was time well spent. It was all terribly exciting too.

"Stop running away!" Laura laughed. The tiny people at her feet were terrified. They had tried to run when she towered above their hunting cabin but a stomp in their path had convinced them to stay.

The rain, merely a drizzle to Laura, weighed heavy on them. They stood in line in front of their house and regretted having waited for more favourable weather.

After waking up, Laura had realized quickly that sitting in the grey space ship, drinking filtered water and waiting for Janna to return was a tad too boring for her to endure. If Janna could go out and explore the tiny world, Laura decided, then she could too.

She had chosen to go in the opposite direction from yesterday, treading were no human had trodden before. At first, there hadn't been anything but forest but at a small river she found a dirt road through the woods. A little column of smoke had then shown her the position of the tiny house she was now standing in front of, very much to the discomfort of it's puny inhabitants.

The rain had softened up the already soft top soil and Laura's bare feet were sinking even deeper into the earth than the day before. It wasn't uncomfortably cold though.

The house was old and made completely from wood and was about the size of Laura's fist. Must and ivy had climbed the facade and roof. It looked like it had been there for a long time. The six people, five men and a woman, standing in front of it didn't look that old though. Laura's toes wriggled with anticipation.

"What do you want, giantess?" The woman yelled up at Laura, surprisingly fierce for someone this small.

That much she understood, with a little work of her mind. The grammar was simple, easy, and she had learned many words yesterday. She knew her speech wasn't anywhere near flawless, but she already felt able to express her desires in this case. Verbs were harder to learn than nouns and involved some serious party-pantomime-game skills to make the little people understand what she wanted to know but Laura had always been good at those. Words for crushing things were an obvious necessity at her size and she had gotten her tiny teachers to teach her easily enough. Then she had crushed a few of them, later. And she was going to crush some more now.

"I want to eat food and squish people." She announced flatly. "Who of you would like to be smushed first?"

It was a terribly surreal question to be asked, no doubt, even more so when the asker was more than able to make it true.

"Why?!" the woman yelled angrily after a few seconds.

"Because I'm hungry, people have to eat, you know?" Laura said with a grin and quickly dabbed one of the men to the ground with her big toe. He fit beneath it quite nicely and she pushed down, compressing his tiny helpless body into the dirt. It felt exciting to feel him squish under her bare skin.

The other men rushed away from Laura's foot and quickly scurried back into the house. The woman remained were she was, unable to grasp the senseless cruelty.

"But why do you have to kill people?!" She asked with a shaking voice, filled with helpless dread.

"Because I'm big and I can." Laura laughed.

The tiny woman was furious. She yelled some profane insults that Laura didn't understand and charged at the giant girl's foot. Instinctively, Laura pulled it back at first but then waited to see if the tiny female was able to do any damage. She couldn't help but giggle at the way the puny little alien's hits and kicks were barely tickling her.

"Aww, look..." Laura cooed after the beating had slowed down a little. "I'm sorry I squished your friend, okay? Let's sit down and talk."

Careful not to squish the the little female, she turned around and slowly lowered her behind on the hunting cabin.

"Get out!" The woman screamed at the men in the house but it was too late. With a 'crunch' Laura's buttocks bulldozed the tiny lodge flat.

"Oops, sorry!" Laura giggled and lifted her butt a few times and letting it fall down again, causing deeper and deeper craters in the earth. "I think your friends are pretty flat now."

The woman was crying and fell to her knees.

"Why?!" She cried repeatedly.

"Why do you squash a bug?" Laura countered the question. "There is no why, it is simply convenient to do so. Do you wanna play a game little bug?"

"No!" The woman squealed but Laura didn't care. The tiny thing was bothersome and boring anyway. She lifted herself off the flattened building and turned around. The house had flattened marvellously, embedded in the imprint of Laura's ass, and with her index finger she poked among the rubble to find the men. Their tiny bodies were smashed completely.

"Hey little bug." Laura said turning back to the crying woman. "I'll make you a trade. You show me were the next village is and I wont squash you, okay?"

The woman wiped her tears away and slowly stood up. In the rain it had something awe inspiring, even at her minute scale.

"No!" She yelled decidedly. "I'd rather die than tell you anything!"

"Well." Laura began with a sigh. "I guess I can arrange that."

She snatched the little fighter off the ground and pinched her head in between her thumb and index finger. Smilingly, she looked her tiny victim straight in the eye while she started to squeeze. When the woman started to squeal, Laura let go. It seemed unusually difficult to squish the tiny female's head but Laura hadn't even nearly used all her strength yet.

-

Shiela felt the unearthly pressure on her skull retreat. It was clear to her that this giantess had easily enough power to crush her, no matter how many protective spells she would cast upon herself. She sensed that the depravity of her captor would require another kind of magic to escape.

"Oh." the giantess said in her clumsy, careless way to speak the common tongue that made her sound so mindlessly stupid. "Don't want talk yet? That pity, little bug."

Shiela smiled right into her captors face when she grabbed her volcanic glass dagger.

"No!" She yelled again and drove the weapon deep into the giantess' thumb.

"Outch!" The giantess yelped and let go of Shiela. Soaring towards the earth from a height of eighty steps, Shiela holstered her dagger and spread her arms.

-

The pain hadn't been bad at all, even less painful than a sting with a needle yet it had come unexpected and Laura had been surprised. She spied the tiny woman falling to her death but, with a sudden unexpected twist, the tiny body vanished out of her clothes.

Laura blinked twice to believe her eyes. An empty leather coat and green rags slipped to the ground and a bird, a crow, soared into the forest and was gone. Laura was dumbstruck.

"Wait!" She yelled and stomped after the crow, crushing and ripping the forest apart. "Come back, please!"

But it was gone. Laura frantically searched the ground for maybe she had been blinded by a trick or something, but the ground showed no sign of the woman at all. She had seen it, Laura was sure, she had seen that puny little bitch turn into a crow. She had seen magic. Something shivered her. Goosebumps raised the fine hair on her arms.

-

Shiela dove through the foliage and made haste to get away, the mad giantess stomping after her, flattening trees as if they were nothing. It had been a tad too close for Shiela's taste. Her black wings fluttered furiously. She was still good at this, even though she hadn't used this spell, or any spell for that matter, in a very long time.

It was time to call upon the other druids and witches and try to purge the land of the giants once again. She had enjoyed her time with the hunters but a more serious age was upon them all. An age that would rattle the lands in their foundations and reshape the rule of kings of queens. Soaring high into the sky she uttered her call and a thousand beasts answered, running to tell the others that the council would meet.

The rat familiar cries out, to the witch in the village, she rises up from her hide out, and screams over and over again.

-

Suddenly, everywhere around, birds rushed out of the foliage and fluttered into the distance. Something strange and oddly magical was going on here. As cool and exciting as it was, Laura also found it scary. She noticed a crow that had flown the highest and now turned back towards the cover of the trees, just an arms length in front of her.

"Come here!" She roared and slammed her hands together just below it. The gust of wind produced by her hands sent the tiny bird tumbling upwards, so Laura smashed at it again, barely missing it a second time. The crow was smaller than a pin head, flying around like a fruit fly and just as hard to catch.

-

The giantess seemed even more massive when Shiela was in crow form. Mindlessly, the behemoth smashed at her, risking to liquefy it's prey with every move. But as ineffective the gargantuan hands were in catching Shiela due to the wind that they caused, the giant girl herself was able to walk much faster than Shiela could fly.

She had underestimated the giantess and uttered her call too early. Now she really feared for her life.

-

Laura changed tactics from smashing her hands together to swatting at her tiny victim. It was surprisingly entertaining because for once there was a prey that was actually hard to catch. Not paying any attention to where she was going, Laura pursued her tiny victim, unsuccessfully swatting at it. The little raven was just too light and was continuously pushed out of the way by the air that Laura's hands displaced.

This however, made it extremely difficult for the tiny crow to stay in the air. After some five minutes of swatting, the bird crashed into a clearing.

-

Shiela was done for. The giantess had too much power and didn't get tired swatting at her. Her little wings finally gave in and she tumbled to the ground. As soon as she'd hit it, she began to turn back into her human form. The giantess was quick to put a thumb on her, but Shiela couldn't have moved anyway, she was so tired.

-

"Try anything funny like turning into a bird again and I'll fucking squelch you, you little shit!" Laura roared victoriously.

One minute later the tiny thing was stuck in Laura's fist and looked really desperate. If the little prisoner would decide to turn air worthy again, Laura would just close her fist and squish it.

"What are you?!" She demanded a little too loud and excited, causing visible pain to the tiny alien's ears.

-

"I'm a druid!" Shiela whined. "I am one with the forest and protector of the balance!"

The giant idiot obviously didn't understand a word she was saying.

"How can you turn to bird?" The stupid behemoth asked further.

"Magic." Shiela said at a loss for words that the giantess could comprehend.

The giant girl repeated the word but wrinkled her forehead. Shiela gathered some strength and summoned a lightning ball that struck the giantess' fist. A surprised gasp escaped her lips but she wouldn't let Shiela slip a second time.

"Ma-gic" The giantess repeated and seemed to be completely in awe. Shiela found it stupid that a being so utterly in defiance of balance and nature as a giant would gawk at a tiny ball of lightning like a simple peasant. Dragons were powerful and ruthless too but at least their minds were sharp and could be reasoned with, or so her master had taught her. Dragons had been gone even a lot longer than the giants, as had the elves and all the others, bar the wretched undead.

This brought a new idea to her. There was a fairly simple spell, that almost any druid knew, that allowed them to communicate with animals. Shiela reckoned that it was worth a try. When she had canalized the arcane energy, a dull pain in her forehead told her that this was her last spell for the day.

-

Suddenly, Laura felt a little light headed. Something had changed, but she didn't know what it was. Memories of what the woman had said suddenly formed in her head, as if she could understand her in retrospect somehow.

"Druid." She whispered. "Magic."

"I will understand you and you will understand me, for a limited amount of time." The tiny woman explained. Her voice had changed, Laura could understand her much clearer and better now, almost effortlessly like talking in her mother tongue, or even better.

Laura was not sure if she was comfortable with this.

"Are you in my head?" She asked suspiciously and tightened her grip around the tiny witch.

"No!" Came the croaking answer. "Please, stop!"

Laura loosened her grip a little but narrowed her eyes and repeated her question from earlier: "How do you do this?"

"Anyone capable of magic is born with it." Shiela explained in pain. "I became a druid after my mentor came to my family and took me."

"They just take children and make them their subjects?" Laura asked, taking anthropologist's notes in her head.

While Shiela explained further, Laura was quickly able to grasp the picture. The druids and witches were comparable to a cult, shunned by the general public, most living alone or undercover and pursuing such senseless hippie-goals as protecting the forest and maintaining 'balance'. Apparently, there were other, more or less accepted brands of 'magicians', but the overall amount of people who were able to do magic was pretty small. Whenever Shiela was reluctant to go on, Laura hurt her until she complied. The tiny woman was very weak by then and less and less able to put up any resistance.

"I want to see your magic again." Laura demanded but Shiela shook her little head.

"I have spent all my arcane powers for today." She said. "Please stop torturing me."

She started to weep in Laura's hands but Laura didn't feel any pity for her.

-

The giantess didn't stop and continued to interrogate her. Too weak to bear the pain any longer, Shiela regretfully told her anything she could, including where villages and cities were, that she knew of.

Most of the questions seemed almost benign however and Shiela asked herself why a giant would want to know how the society of the people was organized. She told the giantess about how the kingdom, villages and families were organized. Surely, that knowledge couldn't harm anybody.

Some questions though, like such about the nature and make up of her magic, Shiela couldn't sufficiently explain, and was punished by being squeezed until her head spun.

-

Laura mercilessly squeezed the orange dry, being more and more ruff with the little druidess until she was sure she told her everything voluntarily. A wealth of information she was able to obtain from her and when at some point the spell stopped working, the little thing was almost unconscious.

The overall structure of society seemed to be pretty medieval with only the people capable of magic playing a special, yet fairly unimportant, role.

Tomorrow she would make the woman answer some more questions, Laura decided, and show her magic or what ever it was to Janna, so they could study it and become even more famous once they'd be saved from this planet. It seemed to be a pretty easy way to gain a lot of information without the trouble of having to research it all by observation.

Shoving Shiela into her pocket, Laura took off to the nearest village to finally get some food. Her fingers played with the tiny woman. It had a certain kink to it, having so much power over the little thing. Perhaps she'd live it out on some village people soon.

-

In Andergast, the name giving capital of the kingdom, King Aele sat bored in his throne and was getting drunk. He was a large man with rosy cheeks and an appetite for whine and ale and the years after he had inherited the kingdom from his father, saved it from civil war and worked out a shaky truce with the neighbouring kingdom of Nostria had grown him fat and impatient.

Nothing ever happened and only tournaments, hunting trips and drink were able to sweeten his sour mood. He hadn't touched his undesirable wife in two years except for beating her bloody when her endless pouting and ugly visage enraged him every now and then.

Today he was in a particularly bad mood, his wife sitting by his side with a fresh black eye.

Suddenly, a strange looking man wandered through the mighty gates to the throne room. He was easily two heads smaller than than the King, stocky and dirty, clothed in earth coloured rags with a filthy, long beard of black and grey that looked like a birds nest. King Aele knew the man and that his beard actually was a birds nest. It was Vengyr, the eldest and most mighty of the druids.

The two had had a bit of a falling out after the druids and witches, who hardly ever engaged in the affairs of men, helped the king to end the civil war.

Aele jumped from his seat in alarm.

"Who in Praios' name let him in here?!" He screamed at his men, "Protect me from him!"

Two of his kings guard immediately shot their cross bows but a sudden gust of wind, strong enough to blow the two seemingly sleeping guards at the gate off their feet, threw the bolts off track.

"Mage!" King Aele hollerred at his only court mage and the blue-robed man stepped forward. "Protect me from his magic!"

The mage made a few fancy looking gestures with his hands and staff before Vengyr tiredly raised his had. Suddenly, the mage dropped his staff to the ground and started to dance and jump hilariously through the room, clearing the way between the druid and the king.

"At him, damn it!" Aele yelled at his guards but they only stared to the ceiling, drooling from their mouths, a simpleton's satisfaction in their eyes.

Vengyr chuckled hideously and stepped closer.

"Have you forgotten me, king?!" He demanded. "I have come to collect on a promise you gave me once!"

"We have no open promises, you bastard!" King Aele fumed and looked for his squire who fearfully cowered in a corner with the king's sword. "You helped me appease the lords and I would let your people in peace. Tell me why else I shouldn't have every single one of you burned for the witchers you are?!"

"Oh my king, you are in the wrong!" The druid hissed. "Your people have scorned mine were they could and have burned them at their will!"

"I am not responsible for the actions of peasants!" King Aele roared as the druid got even closer.

"But you have wronged me twice!" Vengyr went on. "You promised to rule with justice, you promised to rule with reason and you promised to rule with mercy!"

He raised his hand again and King Aele was thrown back into his chair, fighting futilely to get back up, helpless against the powerful spell.

"Giants have risen again!" The druid continued. "And one of your shady, little lords is with them!"

"This talk of giants is madness!" King Aele screamed at the top of his lungs. "I have everyone flogged who dares to speak of it!"

"Madness?!" Vengyr repeated wrathfully and clenched his hand into a fist, drawing screams of agony from the king.

Then he lowered his hand and the king relaxed. The guards woke up from their drooling and the mage finally stopped to dance around. Vengyr stood there in the middle of the room with hanging shoulders and a look of wise sadness in his eyes before he dissolved into a murder of crows that flew hastily through the nearest window.

"Oh, but it is not madness, my king." His calm voice echoed in the hall. "It is Ludwig who is betraying you. Slay the giants and the debt is paid."

"Call in the bloody banners!" King Aele growled at his guardsmen, his chest heaving with hatred. "Tomorrow we will ride and fight! Send scouts to the lands of Sir Ludwig and have them report to me in the morning!"

"Cup bearer!" He added as the guardsmen rushed out of the room. "Bring me the strongest ale we've got!"

-

The village of Andrafall was one of the larger in Andergast, almost a small city. It was build along the banks of the Andra, a river that connected it with the capital. The surrounding lands produced mostly timber, most of which was processed in Andrafall, supporting a small, local economy.

The quaint life of the villagers going about their day to day business was abruptly disturbed, when faint but ever increasing tremors could be felt in the ground. Soon they noticed a gigantically tall girl, smilingly walking down stream towards them.

"Hide!" The captain of the militia yelled at the people. The horn was blown to let every able man know to arm themselves.

"Is it bandits?" Some of the men who joined the bunch armed with pikes and pitchforks foolishly asked. "Is it the castle's men?"

They all stood and looked in horror when they saw what was coming at them.

-

The fine drizzling rain had finally soaked through Laura's clothes and she was happy to get something to eat at last. She'd taken an awful lot of time talking to Shiela, although it had very much paid off.

When she came closer to the village, she saw that there was already panic on the ground. People running around, hiding in houses, an empty float slowly floating down stream, hastily abandoned, but also a small mob of armed men, forming a circle, protectively raising their weapons against her.

The village was a great deal larger than the one Laura had seen the day before, covering an area the size of an average swimming pool. There were several stone houses and a small tower in the centre.

"Hey little peeps." Laura greeted them playfully. "Don't be afraid. I just want something to eat."

Even though Shiela's spell had worn off, Laura found that her ability to speak the alien language having improved greatly, as if she had learned during the time that the spell was active.

"There are two ways we can do this." She explained. "You feed me until I'm full, or I crush every single one of you flat. What's it gonna be?"

-

The local bailiff, head of the militia in case of an attack such as this, had never been a bright fellow. A blow to his forehead with an iron skillet as a kid from his mother had left him simple but he possessed an impeccable sense for immediate action.

A giant woman coming to town, demanding to be fed lest she squish people was a problem and even though some of his men had already retreated into the dubious safety of their homes, he was armed and willing to deal with it.

"Form line! Advance!" He ordered and the militiamen hesitantly followed.

-

Laura narrowed her lips in disapproval, unsure what to make of about one hundred tiny people advancing at her with tooth picks. She'd like to try out if those weapons could hurt her feet before she would start to fight back. Her hesitation was punished right away.

"Charge!" One of the men yelled and they came running at her. Surprised, she took a step back and the men, encouraged by her insecurity, quickened their pace, another step and then another until someone in their ranks yelled: "Halt!"

Cheering and screaming, beating their chests, the puny little villagers stood before Laura, having pushed her back five steps away from the village. Laura couldn't let that stand. Hesitantly she stretched out one leg, presenting her foot for the people to attack.

One younger lad, suddenly very brave, ran forward and hauled his pitchfork at her foot. It bounced off, not dealing any damage.

-

A knight's sword, a well forged lance, a scorpion's bolt or something of that calibre might have pierced the giantess's skin. But with King Aele controlling the steel and iron production, those weapons were reserved for his men, not simple peasants.

The smarter one's among the militia watched in horror, as the giantess seemed to understand. The bailiff however was very astonished when the giantess leapt in to the air and landed on top of him.

-

It didn't hurt at all. Laura had jumped into the air and had her feet land on the densest part of the formation. Spears and pitch forks broke, the earth sunk and bodies were liquefied under the enormous weight of her landing body. People popped open and sprayed the bystanders with blood and body matter along with dirt and water displaced by her mighty feet.

The panic sat in immediately. Most weapons were dropped and the men dispersed heedlessly in all directions. Some still tried to poke at Laura's feet without success except for one who had inherited the lance of his father and was repaid for the needle poke by Laura's foot sliding sideways and running him over.

Laura licked her lips as she started the crush-fest, mercilessly stomping fleeing militia into the ground, aiming at larger groups first. As their ranks thinned out she allowed herself to become more playful. She marched in goose step over her victims or stomped single men as hard she could to see how mushy they would turn.

When she couldn't see anybody running any more she searched around and made a pile of the half-squished, wounded people. There were only about ten and she piled them up and took position.

"Tick, tack..." She laughed and made the first steps towards the pile. "...Toe!"

She put her toes on the pile and started to mash the people in between them, grinding them to a pulp before admiring her work. Some had escaped, sure, but there couldn't be any doubt that she had easily just squashed a total eighty or so people into paste in about three minutes. Her toes and soles were covered in dirt, blood and pieces of people. She was horny with power, inexplicably wet between the legs.

-

"I'm sorry, my lord." Janna said after hours of talking to Sir Ludwig. "I'm so hungry, I cannot..."

"Concentrate." Sir Ludwig finished and lowered his head. "I understand, righteous giantess. Let me propose to you that we will go to my keep and see if my men have prepared more for you."

"You think they have, my lord?", Janna asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course they have!" Sir Ludwig answered fervently. "On my orders!"

"Where are they taking it from?" She inquired further.

"Taxes, only what the people of the land can spare." He lied, knowing full well that the righteous giantess could never know that his men were plundering his very own villages and settlements to feed her.

She seemed a little unsure: "But not...mean, right? I could never..."

"No, no!" Ludwig raised his hand, interrupting her. "No one will starve because you eat a little food, and why would they? We have plenty, rest assured!"

Somehow, lying had always come very easy to him, even as a boy.

"Good." Janna said and collected the unwilling soldiers into her hand. "Down this road?"

-

The soldiers hadn't wanted to be carried by Janna but she paid little concern to their discomfort. After all, they were good Sir Ludwig's men and they'd be able to handle it. Plus, Janna was just too awfully hungry at this point.

The keep was like a tiny castle, situated on a little hill in the forest, with a single stone tower and a hall, some wooden houses and stables surrounding it. It looked dark, functional and positively medieval. If Janna sat on the hill, she could have covered the entire thing with her butt.

At the foot of the hill there were a few more huts and a larger open space were people and wagons stood. Wagons full of food.

-

Lares was a genius, Ludwig thought. Even though the man was merely the bastard son of a sell-sword, he was extremely capable indeed. When they reached the open space were goods were usually loaded there was a feast for the giantess.

"Put us down, my dear." He told the giantess and she complied happily. It was all too easy.

"Thank you, milord." One of his soldier mumbled to him when they stepped off the enormous hand.

"Feel free to feast, righteous giantess! This is all for you!" Sir Ludwig called and was rewarded with a giant grin.

-

Finally there was a meal that would get Janna full. She hesitated to start because there were still tiny frightened people loading the wagons with food. She did not want to eat any more innocent people or hurt them in other ways.

"Get out of the way, little ones." She cooed before she knelt down slowly and carefully. A huge, gargantuan body such as hers was here could cause much fright and destruction. There were over thirty wagons tightly packing the square, each filled with all kinds of delicious things. When she extended her hand to grab the first wagon, the tiny people stopped scurrying around and watched her eat.

Eagerly, Janna gobbled up carload for carload. There was meat, beets, cabbage, apples, mushrooms, corn, bread and even kohlrabi. Halfway through the meal three very frightened cattle drivers drove thirty heads of cattle around the square and into Janna's reach. Confronted with a hungry giant the herd panicked but the cows were picked off piece by piece, ground into a pulp and sent into Janna's belly before any of them could escape. Her teeth mauled ten cows at once without a problem, raw meat, guts, brains and all. It didn't disgust her as she would otherwise have expected it would, perhaps on account of her hunger.

-

Behind the giantess, three bullies played at a younger boy.

"Do it. Or we beat you some more!" One said.

"I knew he wouldn't do it, coward!" Another one spat and came at him.

"No!" The boy cried, turned around and ran. The giantess was kneeling and sitting on her heels, the soles of her boots sticking out behind her. The bullies laughed as they saw the boy vanish in between her feet.

It was strange and the voice atmosphere was a little like inside a cave. The giantess's enormous legs created a tunnel towards her knees. Heat radiated from her body. Still hearing the bullies sneer at him he pressed on, only faintly aware of the danger he was in.

In between her thighs there was a small gap were he could watch past her breasts towards her face, just as she lifted a cow inside her mouth and chewed. It was gruesome. Deciding to go back, the boy noticed the tunnel becoming wider, the legs moving outwards. Back to her feet, out of here, he thought. It was a fatal mistake.

Relaxing and enjoying the meal, Janna positioned herself a little more comfortably. Letting her knees slide apart, she settled on her butt but she was way to occupied filling her belly to feel the faint and momentary struggle before the boy was squashed like a grape.

The bullies made a hasty retreat, laughing at the boy's demise.

-

Sir Ludwig hadn't noticed any of it as he stood on the opposite end of the giantess, discussing further plans with Lares and watching the cows meet their gruesome ends.

As always, Lares was concerned.

"We will run out of food within three days." He said. "And even if we manage to feed her for the fourth, the peasants are not taking it, my lord. If we keep this up they will rebel."

"Then we have her squash them." Ludwig replied dismissively "You should've seen what she did to that hunter I sent with the scouts. I told the bitch he was a rapist and," he snapped his fingers, "down the hatch he went. She's not very bright and rather unstable, as are most women."

"Sounds like your wife." Lares commented with a grin.

"Haha, indeed." Ludwig sneered. "If only she knew how often I fucked that miller's daughter last month."

Lares smiled: "What about the other giantess, the one the villagers talk about?"

"You mean the one we haven't seen yet?" Ludwig said tiredly. "Put that off till tomorrow, will you. If she exists I dare bet she will be hard to miss."

-

Meanwhile, Laura was feasting too.

"Just bring me food and no one else is going to die." She had said upon entering the village. "I will squash houses until all of you are here in the centre."

Having said that she started with the nearest little hut. Her toes had brought down the house with ease and Laura rested them on top of the rubble and gave them a few twists, mercilessly squashing the family she had spied running inside before.

It hadn't taken long for the villagers to understand how it was going to be.

Now, Laura was sitting amidst several hundreds of them, having destroyed a few unfortunate houses with her legs stretched. The people stood and walked well within arms reach of Laura, who just put her hand on the ground to have it filled with more food. When her hand was full she'd bring it up to her mouth and poured the food inside.

"Do you need anything else?" A woman asked hesitantly as Laura poured another hand of food into her mouth.

"Yes." Laura said, faking annoyance. "To be undisturbed while I eat."

She lifted one butt cheek and she pushed the woman underneath before settling down again. Laura giggled as she felt the woman pop underneath her weight. She remembered an old fairytale and decided to play it out.

"Just kidding." She said tracking a tiny girl with her thumb before pinning her down and lifting her up. "When I have eaten I will take thirty of your prettiest girls. Round them up, start now."

It was mind-boggling to observe the cruel group mechanics at work. Protective fathers, mothers and husbands were beaten down and held, having to watch as the most precious things in their lives were taken away from them and offered to an evil monster.

While the girls were being rounded up and her left hand was being filled with food again, Laura regarded the tiny girl in her other hand. The poor thing was frightened to the death but didn't struggle, scarred stiff.

Laura played around with her, lifting the girl above her mouth and opening it. A few gasps and 'mercy' cries erupted from the crowd. Laura closed her mouth again, wrinkling her nose, unsure if she really wanted to eat the girl.

The girl's last cry was cut short as she was crushed like a grape in between Laura's thumb and index finger, drawing a squirt of blood splashing on Laura's shirt. After smearing the remains in between her fingers, she hesitantly touched them with her tongue, trying the taste. It tasted like raw meat smelled, with a funny, somewhat exciting note to it.

Curious, she took another girl from the crowd, carelessly ripped her clothes off and threw her into her mouth. The tiny thing tried to walk around but slipped and slid helplessly on Laura's tongue. Practically on it's own doing, Laura's little snack moved itself towards doom. She let it happen, and when the tiny morsel fell into her throat, she swallowed. The realization that there was now a living person inside her belly, facing digestion, had a whole new type of power rush to it. Laura felt like going somewhere more private.

"Undress them." She commanded, nodding at the thirty little sacrifices while standing up. Men and women alike blissfully ripped the clothes of the girls' bodies, accepting their demise as a fair price for having the giantess gone.

Carefully not to brake them, Laura picked her tiny toys up and distributed them among her front jeans pockets, giving Shiela a little company. Looking down, Laura found that the people still obediently stood around her in a half circle.

"Bye." She said and stomped a last time into the crowd, turning her foot print into a mass grave.

People around her foot were knocked to the ground and sprayed with the remnants of their fellow villagers. She gave them a last smile before she walked back the way she came, trying to figure out where best to play with her prisoners. The rain had stopped but the ground was still soft and it would be evening soon.

-

When Janna was satisfied with her meal she thought about how Laura might have spent the day. Probably exploring, doing something crazy, Janna worried. It was either that or sleeping all day. Janna hoped that her friend had been able to find some food at least. There was nothing significant left here that Janna could take home for her friend but she also knew that bringing more food would take the tinies time and it was already late afternoon.

"My lord.", Janna apologetically addressed Sir Ludwig, "Might I...um...might I ask for some more?"

-

Ludwig and Lares just stared at the giantess in disbelief. What she had eaten would have fed an entire army for a month. Thirty wagons of food, thirty heads of cattle. Perhaps Lares was right.

"Are you not satisfied, righteous giantess? Are you not full?" Sir Ludwig called at her.

"She is like my fucking wife." He angrily whispered to Lares.

"I am." The giantess announced. "And I am very, very thankful for all you have given me. But my friend is at my...homestead, and she likely hasn't eaten in a long time. My lord, I beg you for some more."

"So there's that with the other bitch." Ludwig whispered. "Get moving, bring everything you can until sundown. Empty the dungeons, undress them and gag them, let them wash themselves first. Once she feeds on people our little food crisis will be over. Make haste."

"You think she'll eat them?" Lares asked already half on the move.

"Let this be my concern." Ludwig said sternly and started to walk towards the towering titaness.

-

"Of course, my dear!" Tiny Sir Ludwig proclaimed fatherly while he walked in between the empty wagons. "It will only take some more time.”

Somewhat relieved, Janna smiled. She offered the minute man her hand to climb on to and he did.

"Let us walk for a while." He said. "I must speak to you."

Obediently, Janna stood up and strolled along the empty road, carefully listening the lord's concerns.

"As you already learned, righteous giantess," He began slowly, "there are evil people out there. Rapists, murderers, thieves and the like. In fact, we have captured a few of them and are holding them prisoner."

Janna couldn't guess what he was aiming at and continued listening.

"It is customary to execute them." He explained further. "But it is a practise that I despise, however my people demand it. Still, wasting their lives, throwing them away so," he sighed deeply before he continued, "I should like their deaths to serve a higher purpose."

"Woa, tread carefully, little lord." Janna objected as she started to grasp what he was getting at.

"Of course, righteous giantess." Sir Ludwig cringed, atoning. "Forgive me, I forgot myself, only..."

He sighed deeply again as if something heavy was weighing on his mind.

"What?" Janna asked, filled with concern.

"I'm not sure if we can feed two of your size." Sir Ludwig explained. "And the prisoners are so many! Such a tragedy to waste their lives on the block!"

"If we are being a burden on you or your people we will go to another kingdom and ask them for food." She offered. "We are big. We can go very far in a very short time. I'm sure we will find something else."

"Oh, righteous giantess." He mourned. "I'm afraid the other kingdoms will attack you and slay you down!"

"I don't think they could." Janna chuckled and randomly squashed a tree to illustrate her point.

They were just trees after all and she destroyed so many of them while walking. One more or less didn't make a difference at this point.

"Oh, but they are stronger than you think." He said, looking directly into her eyes. "And if not, would you rather kill the innocent to take their food instead of eating murderers and rapists?"

Janna abruptly stopped and regarded the tiny man in her hands. She could trust him, she was sure, and his reason was impeccable. He'd not lie to her. She could squish him like a pesky fly if she wanted to and yet he had obediently climbed into her hand, showing her that he trusted her as well. She was lucky to have found him.

"Perhaps we can make the world better, one evil man at a time." She replied softly. "I will give it a try, but it will be difficult."

"Thank you." Sir Ludwig said and gratefully lowered his head.

"I should warn you though." Janna added. "My friend is a little, say, less careful than I am. She can get carried away, unaware of her size. People might get hurt."

-

Ludwig listened up. That sounded very promising. Perhaps, the other giantess could be easier convinced to commit violence and prove even more useful to him.

"It is quite alright." He tried to conciliate the giantess' concerns. "I trust that you can contain her."

"I don't know." She answered unconvinced. "Maybe she shouldn't interact with your kind at all."

"I should like to meet her." He proposed in return. "I am sure that everything will be good."

-

When Laura arrived back at the ship she took the girls out of her pockets and deposited them on her mattress. Shiela she carefully put in another Erlenmayer flask, sealing the bottle with a cork to prevent her from flying away when she would be able to.

Laura could hardly wait to hear what Janna would have to say about the druidess' magic but was also glad that her friend wasn't here yet, giving her time to play with her other hostages.

The scared little dolls huddled up on the field bed while Laura stepped out of her clothes. Naked, she crawled upon the bed with her eyes glued to the little girls. Some of the naked teenagers were crying, others faced their fate with silent helplessness.

They were all very beautiful, Laura found as she eyed them from up close. Laura imagined they were fellow students from the university. Not that she ever had any trouble with the popular, beautiful females at her university, in fact being one of them herself, but it was a very compelling thought to be able to make them all into tiny sex slaves at her mercy.

She sat down in front of them, spreading her legs, exposing them to her womanhood. They all stared at it, fearfully. Laura licked her lips and started to touch herself, her left hand playing with her tits.

"It's bigger than you." she whispered and plucked her first victim out of the crowd. Using the wetness from her crotch the helpless girl stuck to the tip of Laura's finger and she carefully carried the tiny thing in between her legs to push her inside herself. Tiny kicks and struggles could be felt but the girl was way too little to stimulate Laura on her own.

Still, the thought of using a person for a dildo sent a shiver down her spine. She pushed a little deeper until the girl got stuck somewhere inside of her and pulled out her finger. She shivered. Shocked, the naked beauties stared at Laura's empty fingertip.

Hungrily, she pushed herself forward and forced the crowd of girls towards her crotch with her hands. Even though the mattress was pretty hard, Laura's weight formed a dent in it and the girls closest to Laura started to slide beneath her towering body.

She leaned back a little and spread her lips with her fingers.

"Inside." She commanded but the girls didn't think that was a good idea. Laura's hand grabbed one and forcefully shoved her in, no doubt hurting her in the process, then again, until the rest obediently followed.

With a little more help from Laura's fingers the last one, except for four who had become partially stuck under Laura's butt, was shoved inside. Now Laura could feel them clearly. Their tiny hands and feet, imprisoned inside of her, fighting for their lives. It felt incredible.

After she saved one last girl from in between the mattress and her butt, Laura reclined on her back, her fingers already playing inside herself. The naked girl she saved she pressed onto her love button, the little struggles intensifying her pleasures even more.

Then she paused shortly to appreciate the moment. Thirty beautiful girls for one orgasm, giving their lives so that she could have some sexual relief. It seemed wasteful and excessive. A mischievous smile curled on Laura's lips and she continued to masturbate away.

More and more recklessly, Laura played with herself, breaking the girls inside her. She mashed the other girl against her clitoris, smearing her all over the place. She thought about what it had to be like to be used as a sex toy by a giant girl, what her victims might be thinking, tasting, smelling, feeling, how many had been smothered to death by now, how many had been crushed or drowned in her inner wetness.

Laura's back arched and her hips slid forward, squashing the remaining little girls under her butt. She shook violently for a few times before she collapsed on the mattress, panting heavily.

"Sorry, little people." She mumbled. "That was necessary."

It had been indeed.

Slowly she withdrew her fingers from within herself. They had surprisingly little blood on them but that didn't mean much. Laura felt around in her crotch with her other hand and found a few squished bodies. Anything else had worked it's way deeper inside of her.

She enjoyed the afterglow of the orgasm for a few more minutes before she reluctantly went to remove the traces of her games. There was no point in making Janna upset unnecessarily, plus Laura really wasn't comfortable sleeping with a pussy full of corpses. She wiped the bodies off her bed with a paper towel and took a quick bath in the lake to clean herself out.

Bodies, mangled or whole drifted to the surface. When Laura was finished, she noticed that one of them was still moving. She really had to suppress a laugh. Indeed, there was a tiny naked girl, trying desperately to swim ashore. With a huge grin on her face, Laura lifted her out of the water.

"Hello there." She cooed. "Did you enjoy the ride? How did you survive that?"

"Please!" The girl begged weakly and in horror. "Please, let me go!"

Laura wrinkled her nose and slowly shook her head.

"God, I love to be big." She said and lowered the girl back towards her crotch. She could still feel the tiny plaything kicking while she walked back to the spaceship.

-

Janna wasn't really sure if she was comfortable with the idea of eating prisoners but it seemed to mean a lot to the tiny lord. If they were going to be killed anyway they might as well serve to quench her hunger. Convincing Laura of eating them would probably be the most difficult part but if Laura wasn't going to eat them, Janna would simply have them for breakfast. What a weird thought, she found.

Eighteen prisoners, Janna counted, mostly men but also a few females in the bunch. Young, old, everything was among them. They were gagged, blindfolded and had their hands tied with string. Apart from the prisoners the tiny people had only been able to provide five more wagons full of food. Janna took her shirt off and folded it into a sack to carry the food. It wouldn't be enough to get Laura full, but at least her friend wouldn't starve.

"Thank you for everything." Janna said and truly meant it. "I hope I haven't overstretched your hospitality."

"Never!" Sir Ludwig beamed and bowed down. "And I thank you as well. You can come here tomorrow to break your fast!"

That last sentence earned him a look of disbelief from the man standing next to him.

"'Till tomorrow then, my lord." Janna smiled thankfully and turned around to return to the space ship, the improvised sack in the one hand, the prisoners in the other. Her hands were quite full but none of the blindfolded people dared to move. She could feel them shiver with fear while she walked.

When she was halfway back to the ship, she stopped at a glade along the way. She put the food down and carefully poured the prisoners onto the grass. It was already getting dark but she had to get rid of her doubts.

She picked out a young, intelligent looking man and lifted him to his feet. His knees were shaking put he remained where he was, fearfully turning his head, unable to see.

"Hold still." Janna commanded and very carefully ripped the gag out of his mouth, causing him visible discomfort.

"What do you want with me?" The boy mewled as soon has she had let go of him.

"What is your crime?" Janna harshly ignored his question. "Speak the truth or I swear I will rip your head off."

"Please!" The boy begged. "I...I stole a pig. I don't want to die I just...it was just a pig!"

Killing someone for stealing a pig wasn't just at all but absolutely common in any primitive society. After all, a pig was quite an investment on a families part and stealing it could mean a great setback for them, even putting them at risk of starvation.

"Are the others criminals too?" she asked calmly.

The boy nodded: "Yes, we are from the lord's dungeon. Please, what will you do with us?"

Janna was in a bad mood. This place was making her sick. The alien society was so rotten, poor and desperate that it seemed impossible to tell good from evil. She took the boy in between her fingers and lifted him to her mouth.

"I will eat you." She whispered and lowered him inside. She didn't swallow him right away while she collected the other prisoners and continued on her path.

He blindly stumbled around her mouth, falling, slipping, trying to find a way out with his hands. When he reached her molars he tried to climb over them and Janna helped him up with her tongue. Just when he had hauled himself on top she started to chew. Mercilessly, her unforgiving teeth ground the boy into a pulp that she sucked on her tongue and swallowed.

Janna recognized that she could eat these people with indifference.

When she was back at the ship she found that Laura had built a small fire inside the ship, just at the side that got torn off so that the smoke could escape. The girl sat next to it, wearing only panties and t-shirt while scribbling notes on a piece of paper in the loom of the flames.

It was kind of awkward for Janna.

"Hi." She said apologetically. "Sorry I wasn't here all day. I talked to this lord of that castle and he told me all kinds of things. I've brought you some food. Please don't be mad at me."

"Why would I be mad at you?" Laura smiled. "I went out a lone and some villagers gave me some food. It was alright."

"Oh, uh, good!" Janna sat down next to the fire. "Are you hungry? Here."

She opened her folded shirt and poured the prisoners next to the pile of food.

"Um, what the fuck?" Laura raised an eyebrow.

"It's alright." Janna explained calmly. "They are prisoners, thieves, rapists and stuff. Sir Ludwig says it's okay if we eat 'em. Try them, they're good."

She lifted a naked, blindfolded woman to her mouth, pushed her inside and started chewing.

"Wow, what happened?!" Laura asked perplexed.

"They're like on death row or something." Janna explained, swallowing her morsel. "I thought, if they are going to die anyway, why not eat them? Save the little people some trouble, you know?"

Laura couldn't help but chuckle at the fact that Janna, of all people, was sitting in front of her advocating murder, and eating people no less. Janna knew it was quite a change for her, but what else was she to do?

"Well, if you say so." Laura mused and picked a man from the group of prisoners. "Eww, that one's old!" She complained and flicked him out of the spaceship into the forest.

"What?!" She added upon noticing the disapproval in Janna's eyes. "I'm not gonna eat an old man with his balls and dick."

She shuddered at the thought and Janna laughed.

Laura picked a middle aged woman, shrugged her shoulders and threw her into her mouth. Janna heard screams of horror from Laura's half open maw as the girl was slowly crushed in between Laura's molars. She was going to say something, but let it slip, happy about Laura's lack of objection to the new food source.

-

Having seen Janna do it, it was quite alright, Laura decided, already picking out the next morsel. She brought the comparatively tall boy to her lips and started to lick his groin.

"Eww, what are you doing?" Janna asked horrified.

"What, I want him to die a happy man." Laura grinned impishly. Her efforts however didn't provoke a response from the tiny guy, his fear of death having heard the screams of horror and the grinding of bones preventing even the slightest sexual thought in his mind.

"Well, if you don't want." Laura commented and threw him into the air, skill-fully catching him with her mouth before swallowing him alive.

"I can too!" Janna exclaimed and took another man, throwing him in the air. Janna missed however and the man bounced of her cheek and fell to the ground.

"Meh!" She pouted and both girls regarded the man on the floor. He was alive but severely injured by the fall, slowly dragging himself forward.

"That's just wrong, Laura." Janna complained, having changed her mind about the game. "We should just eat them, not torture them. It's a bad enough punishment already."

"Don't tell me what to do." Laura responded. "It's not my bad if you suck at catching peanuts with your mouth."

Janna mumbled something that Laura couldn't understand.

"Dispose of him, will you?" Laura added demandingly. "You fucked him up, you put him out of his misery."

The tiny man really did look miserable but Janna was still hesitant.

"Just sit on top of him." Laura suggested. "You will hardly notice."

But he would, she added chuckling in her mind. Janna looked really sceptical about it but didn't seem to have a better idea either.

"Sorry, little guy." She apologised, lifted herself off the floor to move on top of him.

Laura had always admired Janna's butt. Where her own was tight, firm and well proportioned, Janna's was simply a monument. Not fat or anything, just large and round and awesome.

"Wait." She announced. "I wanna see how you flatten him."

Janna rolled her eyes but waited until Laura was lying flat on her stomach, able to see the man about to be crushed into a stamp.

Slowly, Janna lowered herself until her jeans clad behind touched the tiny guy. He had tried to crawl away but had been way too slow. Giving Laura a perfect show, Janna lowered herself even slower until the man was out of side and a muffled 'pop' announced the end of his life.

"See?" Laura grinned, getting back up. "Easy."

"I guess we can't go around killing a few of them." Janna justified herself but was visibly uneasy.

"Don't worry, it's like you said.", Laura said, picking two men at once and putting them to the grinders. "Their lives serve a higher purpose."

Accompanied by the men's screams and the squelching sound of their bodies it sounded even more absurd.

-

"Oh, there's something you need to look at." Laura suddenly exclaimed and pointed at the table. An Erlenmeyer flask was standing on top of it, something tiny at it's bottom. Getting closer, Janna saw that it was a naked, sleeping girl.

"What did she do?" Janna asked concerned.

"You wont believe." Laura could barely contain herself. "This one's a druid. Like some fantasy shit."

Janna turned around, sure that she had misheard: "What? Aren't druids like, from the celtish culture or something?"

"Yeah.", Laura proclaimed proudly. "But this one is real. A real fucking magician. She can summon electricity and turn into a crow and make you understand her and stuff."

"Huh?! What?!" Janna asked perplexed. "Have you been eating some mushrooms by any chance?"

"No!" Laura laughed. "Well, in fact I probably have, but I assure you that I saw what I saw. She's going to show you tomorrow."

"Why can't we wake and have her show it now?" Janna asked but Laura shook her head.

"I've totally milked her dry." She replied, shrugging. "Seems she only has so much power for one day."

Janna seriously doubted Laura's sanity and let her face show it.

"You're going to see, don't worry." Laura laughed. "I knew you totally wouldn't believe me. Do you want any more of those people?"

"Let's safe them for breakfast, shall we." Janna said, sitting down, still struggling to deal with what Laura had said. "Tomorrow I also want to introduce you to Sir Ludwig. He's really good, but I warn you, behave yourself. He's going to prepare a large breakfast for us as well."

-

"I might just add him to it." Laura laughed as she picked one last tiny man and lowered him into her mouth. She deposited the remaining nine prisoners and the rest of the food on the table, next to Shiela's prison before she swallowed the little guy.

After brushing their teeth with their fingers by the lake, almost in pitch darkness the girls went to bed.

"We need to clean up, tomorrow." Janna decided with a tired voice from her bed.

Indeed, everything had gotten pretty dirty already. All of their clothes, shoes and the the ground of the spaceship were stained with earth.

In the morning, a group of tired scout riders entered King Aele's hall while he was helped into his armour by a squire. The men had ridden the entire night and looked worn out, but there was something in their eyes beyond weariness. Sheer horror.

"Ah, my loyal men!" He greeted them in hopes of building back up their morale. "Have you seen the giants?"

"No, my king." The first one responded and knelt, bowing his head.

"Rise." King Aele said generously. "Are the stories untrue then?"

"They are true, my lord." The rising soldier said with a shaking voice. "We have seen."

"And?" King Aele pressed on impatiently. "What have you seen that so frightens you? Have they killed people?"

"They have slaughtered them!" The soldier broke down, sliding forward on his knees like a beggar. "One hit the village of Andrafall yesterday, past noon, killing over a hundred. She played with people like a kid likes to play with ants! She crushed houses with a single step. We have seen the bodies. We are no match for their strength, my king!"

"How big was she then?" King Aele asked concerned.

"About a hundred meters, according to the villagers." The soldier responded. "We have seen her footprints as large as long-houses!"

"Nonsense!" The court mage entered the conversation from a window seat. "The old scriptures tell us that a giant is five times the size of a man! That means nine meters, scout, not a hundred. And their feet could never cover a house. It's a common peasant exaggeration."

The soldier looked helpless. He could never accuse a magus of being untrue.

Unhindered, the mage went on: "It is known that they are of violent nature, yes. They seem to just enjoy killing. I am sure that Andrafall was befallen by giants, my king, but I assure you, that they are not nearly as tall as this soldier reports."

It was said that giants had been forged by the gods and ascended from the sky. They ruled the world when humanity was still young, enslaving the people until an alliance of druids, witches and men defeated them, banning their kind into the highest mountains where, to this day, they remained.

-

Janna had slept naked because of the lack of clean clothes. The small fire at the edge of the ship had burnt down and Laura was still sleeping tight. In the mood for an early snack, Janna slipped out of the sheets and walked over to the table where they had deposited the food and the prisoners. The tiny girl in the Erlenmeyer flask was already awake and watched her anxiously.

"Aww, don't be afraid little one." Janna whispered softly and tapped against the glass of the bottle.

Yawning and stretching she looked between the food and the prisoners and thought about what to eat. The food was quite alright, but as much as she hated to admit it to herself, she had really grown to like the taste of the tiny people. It was as if with every other one she consumed, they tasted better.

Looking back to see that Laura was still asleep, she licked her lips and took four of the nine remaining morsels into her mouth. She felt their weak little bodies struggle for a moment before her jaw turned them into mush. It was really good, of all the treats this planet had to offer, people were her favourite. Eating them alive was cruel though and thus it was a guilty pleasure, like a box of chocolate on a diet.

When Janna swallowed the mashed corpses one of the blind prisoners started to run.

"Stay here." She purred and found herself quite amused by her food's attempt to run away from her, effortlessly catching him in her hand. She put the tiny man on her tongue and pushed him against the roof of her mouth until his body burst open and joined the others in her gut.

"Please, what did we do?" One of the last four remaining prisoners cried.

"I think you know that best." She rebutted, lifted him by a leg and over her mouth. "Think about your poor victims."

Then she dropped him. Munching evil people was not only a treat for Janna's palate but also made her feel all good and righteous inside.

"I'm innoce-," were his last words before her molars squelched him.

"He wasn't innocent!" The last remaining female of the prisoners spoke up. "He was a murderer and a drunk! I know he...he told me!"

"But you are innocent?" Janna cooed as if she believed the woman.

"Y-yes!" The woman stammered. "I'm innocent, please! Let me go!"

"Okay." Janna said with a grin and lowered herself beneath the table. "Follow my voice, it will bring you to safety."

Hesitantly the woman got up and stumbled into Janna's direction but the two remaining males tried to get to safety as well. The tapping of their tiny bare feet on the steel table alarmed the tiny female and she quickened her pace.

"Come, come." Janna lured them with her voice. "Only the first one gets free."

Upon hearing that, all three of them started to sprint heedlessly towards the edge of the table where Janna was waiting with an open maw. Unrestrained, they ran straight into their doom. Janna only had to move her head a little to catch the last one.

"Sorry." Janna giggled when she felt them all squirming inside her mouth. It was really untypical for her to play cruel like that, however she found that she was still utterly uncaring about the prisoners. They probably deserved what they were getting anyway. Or maybe not. This world made it really hard to judge.

Quenching any further second thoughts, she put the people to the grinders, ultimately silencing their pleas for mercy as her teeth crushed their tiny victims and tore them apart. When she swallowed the puréed people she involuntarily made eye contact with the girl in the bottle.

The little female was absolutely loosing it, crawling away from Janna as far as she could, cowering against the glass as if she could squeeze through somehow. It had an erotic touch of absolute dominance and Janna found herself seriously contemplating to eat the innocent, little thing.

She weighed her options. She was hungry for more and since Laura was still asleep she could claim that the tiny thing had somehow gotten away. What was one more or less innocent dead, on this planet anyway.

-

Shiela's heart was racing. This giant, naked goddess had just devoured nine living, screaming people for her breakfast, and maybe Shiela was next. She had tried everything, like summoning a wind to uncork the bottle but it was impossible to cast magic where she was.

The reason why druids commonly carried obsidian daggers as ritualistic weapons was that touching iron or steel with the bare skin made casting magic almost impossible. In an iron rich environment like a steel cage or a smith's workshop it was also very difficult. This giant grey temple, or whatever it was, seemed to be made up almost entirely of steel.

Suddenly, the giantess took the bottle with one hand, uncorked it with the other and tilted it towards her mouth. It happened so quickly that Shiela couldn't react before she already felt herself slide downwards. Futilely she searched for a hold on the glass and screamed in terror.

Sliding faster and faster she saw the giantess's awe inspiring maw. She closed her eyes and hoped with every fibre of her body that the spell would work. It didn't. There was a moment of free fall and utter hopelessness before she landed on a hot, wet surface. Then it went rather quickly.

Horror-struck, she felt the impossibly huge tongue move her onto a hard surface and another one pin her from above. Then her body gave in to the pressure.

-

Janna savoured the taste of her last tiny morsel, which tasted especially good. The tiny thing would have been useful to get that strange idea of 'magic' out of Laura's head, Janna thought, but it was probably not too bad. Laura often got into stupid ideas but never stuck with them for too long.

She didn't mind starting the clean up before Laura awoke but it felt unusual doing it all completely naked. First she brought her clothes to the lake and started to wash them, putting them up the entrance of the spaceship afterwards so they could dry. After cleaning her boots as well, she thought about how to get the spaceship clean.

There wasn't any cleaning equipment onboard and the lab supplies only had a couple of paper towels and rags for mopping up spills. When she rooted through the dark coven chamber however, she made a different discovery. Jake's case of beer. She decided to leave it where it was for now. Laura would probably drink it all up in a few days and there wouldn't be anything left when there was something to celebrate.

"Aww, no!" Laura's voice rang from the laboratory.

"What's wrong?" Janna asked genuinely when she came back, though she could already guess what was upsetting her friend so early. Laura was naked too and comprehensibly displeased.

"Shiela, she's gone!" She said pointing at the empty and uncorked Erlenmeyer flask.

Janna guiltily rubbed her belly where what apparently had been 'Shiela' was currently being dissolved in acid.

"I know." She said meakly. "She must have gotten out in the night."

"I wanted to show you her magic." Laura pouted. "I shouldn't have underestimated her powers."

She shook her head, still completely serious about the issue.

"What do you mean?" Janna teased carefully. "You think she conjured the bottle open, turned into a bird and flew away?"

"How else would she have escaped?" Laura countered the question.

That was true, Janna had to admit to herself, but she obviously couldn't tell Laura the truth.

"She might have climbed." She offered instead. "Maybe the prisoners helped her, see, they're gone as well."

"Little shits." Laura muttered and started to look around in the ship. "You think they're still here? I want to make them pay."

"Nah, don't think so." Janna lied. "I already started with the clean up and didn't find a trace of them."

"I think it was probably the druidess that helped the prisoners escape though." Laura pondered, "Filthy little witch. We must find more of them so we can study their magic or what ever it is they are doing."

"Laura...” Janna was uncomfortable. "There is no such thing as magic. You probably overreacted because it is all so horrible with the crash and all or maybe there were hallucinogens in the food that those villagers gave you. I mean, listen to yourself."

"Fuck you." Laura spat. "I saw what I saw."

"I know." Janna reasoned calmly. "But maybe what you saw wasn't real."

Laura was in a bad mood for the rest of the clean up. She too washed her clothes in the lake before both girls mopped the floor together. Without buckets it was an annoying task, sitting on their knees, scrubbing.

Janna offered Laura the rest of the food and Laura thankfully downed what was left at once. The weather outside was really good and the girls agreed upon going to Sir Ludwig's keep for a real breakfast once they'd finished to clean the ship.

"I'm starting to get fed up with this planet and it's people." Janna mentioned at some point, vigorously scrubbing the floor.

"Because it's all so dirty here?"

"Dirty on the outside," Janna began angrily, "and dirty on the inside."

"Can you believe earth was like that once?" Laura pondered. "And I mean, it pretty much still is in the poor countries. My mum watched the news the other day."

"Really?" Janna responded. "That's fucked up."

It really was more than three years ago that Laura's mother would have been watching what ever particular broadcast Laura was referring to, but since they had been in stasis it didn't feel that way to them.

"I know, right?" Laura laughed. "I mean, why would anyone watch the news in the first place. God, I miss TV, do you think they sent help yet?"

"Not if they don't expect a transmission from us." Janna said bitterly. "Honestly, I don't know. But we'll be stuck here for a few years at least, you know that, right?"

Laura swallowed hard at that. Perhaps she hadn't realized it before, or else chosen not to think about it.

"We should make the ship more cosy. I don't feel at home here at all." She said, dismissively looking at the grey walls and tables. "Paint some pictures or whatever."

"We can ask the tinies to make us something!" Janna cheered. "I'm sure Sir Ludwig would be happy to help."

"What's with that Ludwig guy anyway?" Laura asked suspiciously. "What does he gain from you other than keeping you from squashing him?"

Janna was taking offence: "I wouldn't squash anybody. I think he just wants to help 'cause he's a good guy."

"Come on Janna." Laura said, shaking her head. "A, you straight up ate people yesterday, you would squash anybody if it was convenient to do so and B, 'good guy', are you fucking serious? Do you have any idea how much food we need?"

"I study biology." Janna rebutted angrily. "I know exactly how much fucking food we need."

"It's a lot, isn't it."

"Yeah." Janna admitted. "But they have a lot of food too."

"Which is why they have now started to feed their fellow people to us." Laura smiled and cocked her head as she did often when winning one of their friendly arguments.

"Those were prisoners!" Janna countered vigorously. "They would have been executed!"

Laura's grin grew wider: "And you are sure every one of them was guilty?"

Janna searched for an answer for a few seconds before she turned and directed her anger at a particularly stubborn stain on the ground instead.

-

The soldiers groaned under the weight of their field kits and long spears. The sun was burning hot but King Aele's army had made good progress. Five hundred fighters, mostly men except for some few Thorwalsh mercenary women. Next to the infantry and rabble, there were a hundred and twenty horses, lance riders, some knights and skirmishers. Skirmishers were simple, but those on horseback were mercenaries of a different breed. Aele had no doubt that they might be raiders in truth, turned sell-sword to make a quick coin, but they would serve their purpose nonetheless. Same was true for lance riders, another breed of soldier rather uncommon in Andergast.

Andergast's regular army was made up by enlarge of levied spear men, longbow archers along with light cavalry from peasants able to ride. Lastly, there were the knights in heavy ring mail, sitting formidable horses, men of noble blood many with ancient families and claims to land, much to lose and near unwavering loyalty, fervour and honour. There weren't many of them though, and at the end of the day, a man was a man, title, land or no. The call for the banners had been on very short notice, and only so many men could be assembled, so Aele was glad for the mercenaries in particular.

The city guard and a the stationary handful of longbow men were left behind to protect the city in his absence. Who knew what other evils were brewing in the forests while he had been idling.

He figured that a smaller army like this, composed of more able fighting men, would do him more good in this case anyhow. The plan was to feather a giant with spears and arrows and then drive so many lances into him that he would die. None of the soldiers, or King Aele for that matter, had ever seen a giant though. But that could only mean that there were not too many of them.

Confidently the king had his men march faster, eager to put Ludwig to justice. Vengyr had said that Ludwig was a traitor. That was enough.

'Slay the giants and the debt is paid.'

"Bloody Bastard" King Aele mumbled through his teeth.

When they came onto the village of Andrafall they discovered what the scout had been talking about. A part of the village lay in ruins, many people had fled, abandoning their homes and the local economy had halted. A wheel on a stick, the sign of Boron, god of death and sleep, marked a huge, fresh mass grave.

The remaining people came running towards his army with praises and whatever gifts they had left, bestowing them upon his men. Usually the people in these northern parts would get suspicious when he and his men came through. More often than once during the civil war, they had ravaged the village, raped their women and seized their supplies. Now his men were treated like heroes and it was as if their presence dragged the villagers out of a state of deep depression and shock.

"Apologies, my king." An old man approached and bowed deeply. It was the Travia priest of the village, leaning on a wooden staff. "Had we known you came, we would have made preparations!"

The looked rather unpresentable with mud spatter on his hands and white-green tunic, but Aele didn't care for that.

"It is war that brings me here." He said briskly. "I have no use for pomp."

"Of course, my king." The man bowed submissively again. "I am none of the wretched, ungodly seers but it will please you to hear that even I have foreseen your your victory. Indeed, I have seen you in my dreams, holding a white goose, standing on the shattered body of the giantess that did this to our village."

He pointed to the ruins and the grave. King Aele fathomed that although this was a lot of destruction for a single, nine meter tall giant, it was less than one would expect from a hundred meter tall one. He didn't give much prophecy, although he did hold the Twelve in high regard. He just couldn't picture himself holding a goose, the animal of the goddess of hospitality, friendship, peace, hearth, cooking and of all things marriage and family.

"A single giantess did this?" He asked sceptically. "How big was she?"

"As large as a mountain, my king." The priest explained. "She crushed houses with a single step and buried men alive under her feet, her lust for murder could only be quenched by a sacrifice. We beg of you to purge these lands of her evil and the treachery of our lord who is stealing from the innocent to feed the behemoths and make them his mercenaries."

"I vow to destroy the giants and bring to justice your treacherous lord!" King Aele announced proudly although the very convincing statement of the giantess's size made him shiver inside.

There was no way of knowing if his army of five hundred would be enough to stand up to such a giant, if it turned out that way. According to court mage Jindrich Welzelin they were much smaller, and mages for all their estranging weirdness were said to be wise and well-read after all. A larger number of smaller giants may prove equally troublesome though.

On the other hand, the soldiers were fairly well trained and armed and more banners were already being called in so that Aele might return and get them after he had brought Ludwig to justice. In the meantime the giants would be having more trouble to find food, hopefully wearing them out enough for an easy victory once he'd return with an army tenfold as large as this one.

The crowd erupted in cheers and Aele's morale among that of his men rose considerably. Still, the king thought, he'd probably have to burn down as many villages as possible to starve the giants for good. With any luck they would die or move over to Nostria and cause their mischief there. When Ludwig was dead, Aele decided, he'd come here first and lay waste to the village and it's people.

It was nice to be in a war again, with all the excitement in the air. Raping a few peasant girls would hopefully make him forget about his sour wife.

-

"I'm thinking about fixing this stupid planet." Janna said when they were almost done with the cleaning.

"What do you mean?" Laura asked perplexed. "We shouldn't interfere with their society too much, it will mess up the science."

Janna wasn't pleased to hear this: "But we must help them somehow, at least give them a just leader or something."

"And who would that be?" Laura inquired sceptically. "Sir Ludwig?"

Janna nodded: "Why not? He is intelligent and kind. He will be good to the people."

"And what about their old king?" Laura kept asking.

"The old king is the problem." Janna explained. "He's some kind of Hitler or something."

"Yeah, but he will have his own followers, right?" Laura retorted. "You could inspire civil war if you're not careful."

"Then I'll squish his followers and anyone who questions Sir Ludwig's reign." Janna rebutted grimly in turn. "Oh, you liked the old king? Nice! Let me introduce you to the bottom of my foot."

Laura noticed how erroneous her friend's logic was but was also intrigued by the idea. They'd spend the next couple of years on this planet and not only might it become incredibly boring but their presence would have a detrimental impact on the tiny alien's society anyway. It was also a convenient excuse to crush people.

"I'll help you." She said confidently. "Let me meet that Ludwig guy."

Janna was happy to be able to share the effort with her friend and they decided to go after a break of enjoying the sun and trying to get a tan.

"Should we go naked?" Laura asked jokingly after half an hour.

"Huh?" Janna said, awaking from a snooze. "You wanna get a few hundred men flustered with your giant pussy?"

"What are they gonna do?" Laura asked. "Try to have sex with me? Okay, but I'll be on top."

"Death by snu-snu!" Janna horsed, laughing.

"You know there was a case once with some remote rain forest tribe or something called the Yanomami. One of the anthropologists studying them, old, bold, ugly-ass fucker, married like a twelve year old girl of their tribe. That perv."

"Eww! What did the tribe think of that?" Janna frowned, appalled.

"Not much." Laura mused. "Twelve was like the usual marital age for them so it was okay. The scientific community felt different about it of course."

"What became of the tribe?" Janna asked after a short pause.

"Well, another group of anthropologists visited them but some of their helps had the flu. They didn't want to wait because they wanted to get famous and ended up killing most of the tribe. The Yanomami still exist today but they totally hate westerners and don't want to have any contact."

Janna sounded concerned: "You think the same could happen here, if we're not careful?"

"Sure." Laura said, shrugging her shoulders. "But I don't think it will matter much. We don't know how big this planet is and if we fuck up this kingdom or the other there will be still enough of their civilization left for other scientists to destroy."

Janna scratched her head at that and seemed to think about it for a moment.

"Okay." She said then. "We should definitely wear clothes though. No point in getting these poor guys all excited for nothing. Let's go, I'm freaking starving."

-

"Into the keep!" Sir Ludwig yelled as the king's army attacked. They had been waiting by the wagons for the giantess to arrive and have breakfast when suddenly banners appeared on the road to the east. King Aele had somehow learned about Ludwig's plot and been able to march through the fiefdom without Ludwig learning about it. Pressing the food from the peasants had turned them treacherous. That was something neither he nor Lares had considered before.

They abandoned the wagons full of food and made it into the keep just in time. King Aele's soldiers seized the wagons, searched through the houses outside the walls and encircled Sir Ludwig and his fifty soldiers. Not raising levies to protect themselves while the giantesses were away had been another mistake, he reflected. A handful of peasants were trapped behind the walls with them but putting spears into their hands might bring it's own troubles, plus Aele had only brought a small force of well trained troops.

Ludwig stood on the battlements and saw the king approach the gate after coordinating the construction of siege equipment.

"Come out you filthy traitor and we'll let your people live!" He yelled up at him. "You are encircled, trapped, how much food do you and your men have? How long can you hold out?"

Ludwig gritted his teeth. The truth was that they didn't have any food, having sacrificed all they had to the giantess. He saw that some of the king's men were already destroying houses to gain material to build ladders. It was only a matter of hours now. The question was if the giantess would come today and if she would arrive on time.

"We are strong!" Sir Ludwig lied. "We will repel you until help arrives!"

"And what help would that be?" The king sneered. "Your unholy alliance with the monsters? I don't see any of them here. You are alone, Sir!"

King Aele had probably seen or heard of the destruction the giantesses had caused to the forest along the eastern road and knew that he didn't have time for a prolonged siege. If he was able to turn Ludwig's men against their lord he would be able to end all this in a matter of minutes. If not, he'd have to take the keep with ladders which wouldn't take very long either.

Ludwig heard a commotion behind him and turned around just to see one of his own men with a desperate look in his eyes come charging at him with a dagger. Lares, having stood only a few meters away rushed in his path. In a single move, Lares drew his sword and delivered a blow to the soldier's head, instantly killing him.

"Your men's morale is already fleeting!" King Aele declared. "Give up now and I promise you a quick death!"

"Sooner will I cut off my own manhood before spending another day ruled by you, fat king!" Ludwig hollerred angrily.

"Men!" King Aele addressed the others behind the wall. "Bring your liege lord's head to me and I promise you not only life but riches! A gold piece for each of you if you submit him to me now!"

A murmur erupted from the group of Ludwig's men and he saw in each and every one of their faces that they were giving the king's offer serious consideration. Helplessly he looked at Lares who curiously returned a look of happy relief.

"My lord, look!" He whispered and nodded over to the eastern road.

Horns were blown and the men in the keep cheered. The siege that could have turned into a nightmare was already about to be smashed.

-

King Aele was caught in a dire situation. Hastily he organized his army away from the keep towards the approaching behemoths while still keeping pressure on the men on the walls. Not many nine meter tall giants he had to deal with, neither a single a hundred meter tall one, but two of them. Fear struck his heart but he was confident that his army stood a chance.

"Knights, dismount!" He yelled. "Light infantry, get the ladders up, bring me Ludwig's head!"

A scream from the light foot and knights showed their acknowledgement of the command. While it seemed like the men had been wavering for a second, the strong voice of their leader tied their morale back together again. They took the few ladders that had been built so far and rushed towards the castle walls. Sword men, Aele reckoned given the giantess's size, would be more useful on the walls while only troops with a certain range stood a chance at holding the giantesses off.

"Heavy infantry, defensive positions, spear wall! Lance riders, right flank! Skirmishers, charge!"

-

From afar Laura and Janna had noticed the commotion at Ludwig's keep. There was an unusually large amount of tiny people there, carrying banners that Janna hadn't seen before. When they got closer they noticed that the men were armed with long pikes that were pointed in the direction of the girls and a handful of riders coming at them. Janna couldn't really make sense of the situation.

"Hey, little people." She greeted the fast galloping riders. "What's going on?"

They didn't answer and rode past her and Laura's feet, throwing their spears at them. Both girls were wearing jeans and t-shirts again but while Janna wore her trusty boots, Laura had decided to go barefoot once again in the hot weather.

"Ouch, they are throwing needles at me!" Laura cried as she noticed the pokes on her bare feet. The jeans cloth and Janna's boots however were absolutely impenetrable for the tiny projectiles. Laura danced a few meters into the forest to be out of reach.

"Didn't you say Sir Ludwig's guys were the good ones?" She asked perplexed and watched the skirmishers futilely thrust their javelins into Janna's boots.

"I'll get to the bottom of this." Janna said confidently, carefully stepped over the riders and went over to the tiny stronghold. She saw Sir Ludwig standing on the battlements of his keep frantically waving his arms. When she came closer to the large bulk of foot soldiers they came charging at her with their little, iron-tipped sticks.

"Are you kidding me?" She asked dumbfounded and watched the soldiers vigorously trying to pierce the heavy leather of her boots with their tiny weapons. "You can't hurt me, little people, sorry."

There were now so many tiny soldiers swarming around her that it was impossible to get any closer to the keep without getting some of them underfoot. She lifted her right foot and hovered it above the crowd that hastily dispersed. Some, however, remained were they were and confidently stuck their pikes into her heel. The space where her foot had been before was now covered with soldiers as well and so Janna stood there, balancing on one leg, trying not to kill anybody.

"Get away from me! This is dangerous!" She scolded them, rowing with her arms to stay balanced.

She tried until the last moment, refusing to crush any of what she believed were Sir Ludwig's men. The fighters beneath her took her hesitation for a sign of success and more joined them, ramming their pikes into the sole of her boot as if it had any effect.

Feeling that she was going to lose balance Janna lowered her foot until the weapons broke like the little insignificant twigs that they were to her which finally convinced the soldiers to get out of harms way. Her left foot followed the same way but this time Janna oversaw a young soldier that tripped and fell. Vainly, he raised his hand at his fleeing comrades who failed to turn back as the shadows engulfed him and the giant boot pushed him into the ground.

His last scream was barely audible over the battle-cries and turned into a gargle when the unstoppable weight settled. As Janna raised her right foot again to get closer to Sir Ludwig the young man became the first victim of the fight.

When the flattened corpse was revealed as the giantess took yet another unstoppable step towards the keep the soldiers became furious. Some dropped their pikes and hauled themselves at the mighty feet in an attempt to climb up and try their luck with their side arms. Janna ignored them. She just kept taking small, careful steps until she was close enough to bend down and address Sir Ludwig from up close.

"Thank Phex you are here!" Ludwig hollerred at her, frantically looking for attackers that were still climbing the walls. They had been able to repel some of them but they were gaining a foothold on the walls.

"What's going on?" Janna asked again. "Why are these men fighting?"

"They're the king's men!" Ludwig explained frantically. "They want to destroy us! And You! Argh!"

In the last moment he noticed a heavily armoured knight that rushed past Lares to Ludwig's right. Lares was fighting two light swordsmen at once. Ludwig raised his sword to block the knight's blow that would have cut a man in two if left un-parried. He tried to sweep at the knight's feet but the man skill-fully dodged the attack and hurled his sword over his head to deliver another mighty blow.

Using the momentum of the failed attack Ludwig hurled his sword over his own head and was able to parry once again, leaving the edges of their blades digging into each other.

"Usurper!" The knight growled and pulled Sir Ludwig close to him, hitting his opponents face with his helmet. The lord was knocked back which freed the swords again, Ludwig barely being able to hold onto his one. Sensing his opponents weakness the knight charged with another mighty blow but Ludwig was once more able to defend himself.

The knight knew his advantage however and rammed his opponent with his heavy ring-mailed shoulder. Sir Ludwig was thrown onto his back, his sword sliding over the cold stone, out of reach. The victorious fighter stood over him raising his sword for the final blow when Janna noticed that she could no longer stay inactive. Catching the knight off guard she took him in between her thumb and index finger, lifting him away from the tiny lord. It seemed that only now he acknowledged her, starting to scream angrily and thrusting his long sword into her finger.

"Ouch!" Janna exclaimed and dropped the man.

The knight fell a few meters deep by comparison but his armour saved him from any major injury as he crashed on top of the stone wall. He was a battle-hardened fighter and quickly found back to his feet only to look into the glaring giantess's face.

Janna cocked her index finger behind her thumb and quickly gave the man a flick. To her surprise, it sent him flying over the small courtyard and the opposite wall as well, down the hill that Ludwig's keep had been built upon. Pieces of ring mail were flying off him whilst he tumbled through the air.

Janna noticed one of Sir Ludwig's men whom she had seen before, skill-fully defending himself against two attackers at once. Aiming carefully she flicked the first one off the wall as well before she took the other in between her fingers and lifted him to her face. After she had made sure that he had dropped his sword, Janna threw him into her mouth and started chewing. His clothes and chain mail made no difference to her at all except for spoiling the taste a tiny bit.

With a sweep of her hand she disposed of the ladders leaning against the battlements, sending countless swordsmen tumbling to death and injury. After flicking some more of the king's soldiers off the walls she turned her attention to the army at her feet.

-

Meanwhile Laura lingered at the edge of the forest, luring the skirmishers on horseback closer to her to risk a shot. She didn't like being poked with needles and, Sir Ludwig's men or not, these little guys would die.

Getting an idea, she yanked a massive oak tree out from the ground and used it as a brush to sweep the riders off their horses. They didn't stand a chance. They tried to avoid the massive tree coming at them but it was much too quick and the giantess wielding it much too agile and a thousand twigs swept them off their horses sending them to the ground leaving many with injury and some dead.

Laura grinned at her tiny victims and took her time with them. The first one had his lower half buried under his injured horse and couldn't even move when Laura's foot came down on top of him. Not without personal satisfaction, she crushed him as slowly as possible until his body became one with his animal under the pressure.

She noticed a next one, frantically crawling away from her.

"Aww, are you hurt?" She whispered with a grin. "Here, let me help you."

She pushed him down with her big toe until he was pinned and then continued until he was mush. Next, she spotted a horse that made it back to it's feet and took off without it's rider who was stumbling into the opposite direction. She violently stomped the animal into the ground before turning her attention to the tiny guy that had been riding it.

While going after him Laura noticed another one that tried to cover himself with greens as a camouflage. She just squashed him flat without breaking her stride.

"Come here, little guy, I wanna play!" She laughed as she caught up with the runner.

Putting her foot in his path she saw him slide to the ground before getting back up and trying his luck running into the opposite direction. Again, Laura put her foot in his path and came to a tumbling halt, fearfully looking up at the giantess's face.

"Please, don't kill me!" He begged and threw himself to his knees.

"Lick my toes." Laura commanded playfully and put her foot next to him.

After a short moment of hesitation he picked himself up and obediently licked Laura's big toe, embracing it with both his hands, while shooting fearful glances at her face. Laura relished the power rush and felt herself becoming aroused.

"Please don't crush me!" He cried again as she lifted her toe a little to force him to lick the bottom of it.

Ignoring his pleas, Laura lowered her toe until she could feel him squirm underneath, still licking for his life, before she pushed down hard and gave it a little twist. A gasp escaped her lips when she felt him crush.

-

King Aele was starting to question his strategy. The immediate idea had been to bring the giantess to a fall and have the lance riders charge but realizing that would not happen, the lancers stood idly by, awaiting his command. Some where already looking for which way provided the best route of escape.

'Bloody mercenaries.' He thought. What he had thought to be early successes in the battle turned out to be something else entirely while the giantess had already relieved the keep of the pressure he had put on it.

The men were still surrounding her feet at the bottom of the hill, stabbing at them but she didn't seem to pay them much attention any more. Until now.

She had picked up a sword fighter from the top of the hill carelessly dropped him onto the army. The man fell, screaming, before becoming unluckily impaled on one of the pikes, showering it's carrier with blood. And then the giantess was looking down again.

-

Janna wasn't really sure if she was supposed to feel sorry for what she was about to do. She did pity the fools at her feet though, who were going to die in their stupid effort to serve their stupid king. Nonetheless, it had an awesomely powerful touch to be invincible. It put a smirk on her face.

She raised her foot and moved it over a particularly tightly packed part in the formation. She could almost see the tiny faces turn from battle rage to fear. Then she brought it down.

The sickening crunch of breaking pikes, helmets, armour and bodies squelching under her unforgiving sole was enough to send the idle lancers into retreat. Foot soldiers forced their way away from the giant foot and anyone who had still been trying to climb up fell down on top of his comrades.

Lifting her foot, Janna inspected the liquefied bodies. No one had survived the mighty stomp, even the one's that only got half way under her foot and popped under the pressure. Stomp, and another part of the army was gone, chaos ensuing all over the place but Janna wasn't going to let them retreat just yet.

Her smirk grew wider and wider as she now used both feet to rhythmically stamp up and down, stomping the army into the dirt. Soldiers dropped their weapons and tried to scramble away from her but most of them quickly found a squishy end in her footprints.

As the ranks thinned out, a giggle escaped Janna's mouth as she watched straggler for straggler disappear beneath her foot. The place turned into a swamp of blood and body matter, producing horrible squelching noises with each time her boot sunk into the ground.

-

Sir Ludwig stood on the battlements and rejoiced in watching the massacre. This horrible monster could not only make him king of Andergast, it could make him emperor of the world. Still there was a drop of bitterness in watching so many good fighters perishing under the gargantuan foot falls.

"Nothing except a battle lost could be half as horrible as this. By the gods, my lord, what have you done?" Lares pondered, looking down. For a man of such unscrupulousness it was quite a statement indeed.

-

Somewhere in the back of her head, Janna realized that she was treating conscious almost-human beings like ants but decided to be practical about the situation. Anyone crushed today would not be there to fight tomorrow. She tracked two tiny soldiers with her foot who then started to split up. When her foot came down on the left one the other stopped, stretched out his hand fell to his knees.

Janna laughed more evilly that she had ever before and twisted her foot. "Did I smush your tiny friend? Ha, sorry!"

Making bad things happen to bad people made her happy. And then she went on to go and kill others, leaving the devastated guy alone.

-

King Aele had helplessly watched his cavalry retreat and his infantry being slaughtered. The scout, earlier that day, had been right. They didn't stand a chance against a giantess' might. When half his army had already been crushed to paste his horse decided to flee as well, throwing the mighty king of it's back and into the dirt. Weighed down by his heavy and recently quite ill-fitting plate and mail he got up in the horribly reeking mud and found that the giantess had overlooked him. Her back turned towards him, she happily trod on his fleeing men, mercilessly crushing them into pulp.

Seeing his chance, he stumbled through the dirt towards the forest. Away, he thought, just away from this madness. He'd try to raise a peasant army, as large as possible and get the best engineers he could pay, perhaps even Horasian ones, to build giant machines, scorpions, catapults, to try and kill off the giants that way. It was either that or appeasing them as Ludwig had apparently chosen to do.

Aele spotted one of the female Thorwalsh who had dug herself into the mud in order to avoid detection. Their eyes met as he stumbled past her and he thought nothing of it but after a few more steps he could hear her roar from behind.

"Uargh!" She screamed and jumped his back, bringing him down to a fall and tumbling along with him. She was barely armoured and quicker at her feet than he was, using her advantage to deliver a kick to his face. He fell to his back again and the woman picked up a broken spear from the ground.

While the king was standing up she kept beating his back and shoulders, her blows however defeated by Aele's armour. He drew his sword and the two looked at each other for a moment. She was a Thorwalsh indeed, a huge, muscular, big chested shield maiden with curly, fire-red hair, painted leather vest and sail cloth britches in white and red stripes running down the length of her legs.

Theirs were a folk of fishermen, seafaring raiders and pirates, fortune seekers and the such like who were proud of their freedom and independence, taking particular pride in the fighting strength of their shield maidens. In Thorwal, women were known to beat their husbands just as much as taking it. Aele had no love or patience for such a queer people.

"What are you doing, woman?!" He screamed at her. "I bought your loyalty, stand down!"

The response was immediate and brutal. With another scream she came charging at him, thrusting her broken spear at his neck. He beat it away with sword and abruptly carried out a riposte but only managed to strike the woman's head with the flat side.

Bleeding from a cut on her forehead the woman swung her spear at his head, hitting but only delivering a minor blow thanks to the helmet. While King Aele lifted his sword to deliver a sharp blow this time, the mercenary countered with a risky thrust at his sword arm.

With a shatter, the tip of the spear punched through ring mail and gambeson and through the king's wrist, crunching out from the other side, bloody red and dripping.

"Aaaahrgh!" He screamed in pain and the sell-sword yanked at the spear, breaking his wrist completely. His expensive sword fell to the ground and came to a quavery hold, sticking in the mud.

-

Having finished the annoying skirmishers Laura had seen the lancer cavalry's retreat and went after them. Running at full speed it didn't take long for her to catch up with them and the men and horses noticed the gargantuan foot falls behind. Trees in Laura's way were brutally crushed and it didn't take long until the first riders were carelessly flattened among them.

She slowed down to a jogging pace and playfully had her feet land on the fleeing men, enjoying the feeling of horse and rider squish equally under her. Give or take a few lucky survivors who managed to ride into the brush and hide, Laura was happy with the hunt and slowed down to halt to catch her breath before she returned over to the keep. Along the way, she saw the dozens of unlucky riders, squashed, deeply embedded in her foot prints.

-

The last stragglers of the infantry who had made it the farthest were worn out and Janna took a casual stroll around the immediate battlefield, squashing people flat. Many were injured, most probably having been trampled on by horses and other men. On her way back to the keep she noticed two figures on the ground whom she had evidently overlooked. She was going to finish them off as well when she noticed that one had more fancy armour on than the others and was being held hostage by a female, knife to the throat.

"Halt!" The tiny female screamed at the top of her lungs but Janna was unimpressed.

"Let me guess." Janna mused and leaned closer. "You're going to tell me why I shouldn't squish you."

The tiny woman made a step backwards.

"I have captured the king!" She said with a strong, raspy voice. "He's worth more to you alive than dead!"

Janna's face lit up. She had never expected to find the king among the soldiers, although in retrospect it made very much sense. He could have ended up beneath her, unnoticed, crushed beyond recognition like so many others and no one would have known. Still Janna decided to play a little game.

"And what makes you think that?" She asked playfully, grinningly leaning even closer.

The tiny woman didn't budge.

"He's the key to the kingdom!" She reasoned. "That lord Ludwig will want him alive!"

That statement was undeniably true. Holding the king alive could make putting Ludwig in his place a thousand times easier. Also, Janna was beginning to think that she had killed enough people for one day.

"Fine." Janna gave in. "What do you want?"

"Free passage back to Thorwal!" The fierce little fighter demanded. "And my weight in gold!"

Janna was equally offended and amazed by such bold bravery. After all, once the king was hers there was nothing to stop her from killing the tiny female.

"Alright, you shall have it." She said simply. "Now give him to me."

The Thorwalsh shield maiden eyed her suspiciously for a moment before she asked: "Do I have your word?"

Janna nodded, confused as to how this could actually be working. Perhaps the woman was just stupid, or else she was deeply believing in some honourable code of conduct. Spattered in mud and blood as the little one was, Janna found that hard to believe. Perhaps it was just panic and post traumatic stress after all.

The she-warrior pushed the king forward and gave him a kick in the back, sending him face first into the mud. Janna wasted no time and took him into her hand, raising back up to intimidate the tiny woman.

"Actually," She began with a smirk, "I think I'll just squash you flat."

"You can't!" The woman said, upset. "You gave me your word!"

"What are you going to do about it?" Janna asked amusedly and raised her foot.

"Fine!" Came the angry reply. "Crush me then! I will join my forefathers in Swafnir's halls and drink and feast with them in eternity! Crush me!"

That turned the whole thing on it's head for Janna. She was impressed and could also not overlook the fact that this was likely a person from a different culture than Andergast according to observation. Her clothes, her manners and her accent, all were different and she was fierce and admirable on her own merit.

She set her foot aside: "Okay. I'll let you live. You can go home."

"I'm not going home empty handed!" The tiny woman countered, stubborn as a stone. "Crush me or pay me! I am owed coin and plunder!"

"Again, little girl." Janna sighed. "You can't force me to do either, can you?"

The tiny thing roared and charged at Janna's feet.

Meanwhile Laura had joined the scene and amusedly watched the ridiculous exchange.

"She makes it sound like some Scandinavian Viking culture." She observed. "Let me have her, I'll add what she can tell me to my notes. I might even pay her cultural sphere a little visit. What do you think? A trip to the sea?"

While the Thorwalsh woman hacked at Janna's boots with her tiny knife Janna shrugged her shoulders: "I think we're seriously at war now, Laura. Ludwig might need our help and protection a few times more."

"Let him raise an army to protect him." Laura suggested. "Once he's done that we are more free. We can go around the country and persuade this or that little lord to join his cause. Or squish them altogether."

"Sounds solid." Janna sighed and gave the woman at her feet a gentle flick, putting her on her back and pinning her knife wielding hand with her index finger. "Let go of the knife. Or I'll squish your arm. With or without it, you're coming with us."

"The battle is over. We have won!" Ludwig announced to the people in the courtyard. They cheered and the gate was opened, people running over each other to collect booty from the corpses. Good steel, weapons and armour were expensive and it was common for the simple folk to carry off as much as possible after a battle.

Upon seeing the battlefield however, their fervour halted quickly and they froze on the edge of the steep hill, watching the gruesomely squashed bodies laid out before them. Silently they marched on, collecting what little was left intact. The crows were already having a feast.

Laura had put the female prisoner into the pocket of her pants and Janna went back over to the keep to put the injured king down by Sir Ludwig's side. Scavenging people and birds alike ran out of her way though she was especially careful not to tread on any of them.

"Come." Janna encouraged her friend who reluctantly followed through the mud.

Sir Ludwig was alight with joy.

"You have captured the king!" He cheered. "Oh what a great day this is, what a good deed you have done! On this day I shall proclaim myself the rightful king of Andergast, ruler of it's people. Let all men perish who question my reign!"

Lares knelt down next to him, Aele just stood there holding his bleeding wrist.

Laura regarded them sceptically. The old king looked like a king should, to her feeling, wearing splendid, shiny armour over a large beer belly. He was older than Ludwig, grey hair already showing in his full beard. Ludwig was tall and slender, with short, thin black hair and a ruff stubbly beard in his face. His attire was simple. A coal black tunic over a chain mail hauberk, black trousers and boots.

Lares was shorter than the king but broader built. His attire looked as though he had picked it together from other things, leather, fur, cloth, mail and even a patch of plate. It would have been befitting any simple cut throat but his cunning eyes and perpetual smirk made him look both intelligent and dangerous.

In an awkward move Janna knelt down down as well and smiled happily. Laura raised an eyebrow.

"So, my new king." Janna addressed the puny little lordling. "What should we do now?"

"We shall feast, righteous giantess!" King Ludwig announced, spreading his arms and smiling to her face.

The wagons with the food had been destroyed by King Aele's soldiers when it had become clear that they wouldn't need it for a prolonged siege. Then, while pursuing the fleeing men, Janna's uncaring feet had stepped on a lot of things along with their victims. Most of it was dirty purée.

"I'm sorry, my lord.", Janna began slowly, "While I am very hungry, I fear there is not much left to feast upon."

"Worry not, righteous one!" Ludwig proclaimed. "I'll have Lares here bring more food, once he has brought our prisoner to the dungeons."

Lares bowed down and grabbed the old king by the arm, forcefully pulling him over to the stairwell that led to the courtyard.

"This will not stand, usurper!" Aele spat as he was dragged past Ludwig. "The druids will find a way to tame your monsters. And then, may the gods have mercy on your soul, you will pay for your treachery!"

"Quit your yapping and move." Lares hissed but Laura intervened.

"Wait." She called. "What did you say about druids?"

"Probably just a religious superstition." Janna threw in and Ludwig concurred.

"The druids and witches haven't done anything meaningful since the dawn of man!" He jeered. "Whenever we find one of them causing mischief on one of the villages we have them burned at the stake!"

"It was Vengyr himself who told me of your plans, usurper!" King Aele growled, foaming from his mouth with rage. "He will not rest until you and your giants are dealt with!"

"Can the druids cast magic and turn into animals?" Laura inquired excitedly.

King Aele looked at her as if she was a stupid child: "Of course they can. What else would they do, you giant kitchen wench!?"

Lares hit him in the face and dragged him on while Laura victoriously turned to Janna.

"See?" She cheered in English. "I told you."

"That means nothing." Janna told her off. "People in the middle ages believed in dragons and stuff, doesn't mean they were real."

"Sir Ludwig." Laura began after a short pause, speaking the common tongue again. "Can you capture a witch or a druid and show them to us?"

While he was just opening his mouth to speak a sudden gust of wind blew his hair and tunic forward before he himself was lifted off the ground, thrown forward over the battlements and down the hill. Quick-witted as she was, Laura reached forward and caught the new king in mid air, saving him from tumbling to his death.

Seemingly out of nowhere a man had appeared in the courtyard, old and dirty looking, his hand extended towards where Ludwig had stood. He faced the dumbfounded giantesses for a second before he began to speak.

-

Vengyr had stood idly by in the forest, grimly watching the slaughter. He had heard Shiela's call that the giants had risen again and assumed that it was true, for Shiela was known to be truthful and reliable. She was young though, and hadn't been there, back when Vengyr and the others had banned the giants into the mountains, thousands of summers ago. She couldn't know that these were no giants as the world had seen them before. These creatures were much bigger and more powerful and had an utterly foreign aura to them.

For the first time since he could remember, Vengyr was clueless. Clueless and enraged. The giantesses had slain all these people not only with indifference but with joy. He knew that common giants were incredibly resistant to magic and he could only guess how using magic on these behemoths would turn out.

Mind altering spells were the perk of the druids, the one thing they excelled in over the mages in their colleges, and Vengyr was the eldest and mightiest among them. If anyone stood a chance against the giant monsters, it was him.

Turning into a murder of crows he had flown into the castle and hidden until the new king's lackey vanished into the bergfried to bring Aele down to the dungeons.

He stepped out of the shadows and summoned a gust of wind that blasted Ludwig off the battlements with a single blow. He despised killing but sometimes it was necessary to try and fix the world.

"Giants!" He addressed the behemoths before him. "Your existence is in defiance of the laws of the world. We shall not have you!"

His eyes widened as he tried to enter the giantesses' mind. Striking them with fear, as he could do with any common man, failed completely. Putting them to sleep, making them attack each other, any spell that worked on human beings failed as well.

"Did you make that wind?" The taller giantess asked, staring at him with huge, dim-witted eyes.

Vengyr ignored her but was already close to running out of ideas. He picked up a pebble from the ground, spun and hurled it at her gargantuan face.

"You do not belong!" He screamed and in mid air the pebble turned into a massive stone that struck the giantess on her forehead. The stone would have crushed any man but compared to her it was merely a pebble still.

Nonetheless she flinched back and muttered her discomfort, but that was a lot less than Vengyr had hoped and expected. There was a common druid spell that allowed one to control any beast of the wild but didn't work on humans at all. Vengyr decided to give it a try, lest he be entirely useless here, mightiest druid or not.

-

"See I told you there was ma..." Laura began but lost complete control of her speech and motor skills mid-sentence.

"What's wrong?" She heard Janna ask next to her but as much as she tried, she couldn't answer.

Janna concernedly observed her friend who had a calm, utterly indifferent look on her face.

Laura noticed her own body do things she hadn't told it to. As if she had taken a back seat within her own self she watched herself through her own eyes lift the tiny lord in her hand and to her face.

"What are you doing?" Janna asked perplexed but still Laura had no capacity to answer.

She watched helplessly as her body put Sir Ludwig in between her thumb and index finger and started to squeeze. He screamed terribly for a moment before his organs were forced outwards through his mouth and his chest popped open.

Janna's jaw dropped as she saw Ludwig smush in between Laura's fingers.

"Wha...wha...why.." She stammered bewilderedly and looked back up to her friend's indifferent face. Laura looked like a zombie.

Laura watched herself take a swing with her left hand at her friend's head. The strike hit Janna unprepared and the girl cried and fell to the ground. A few unlucky peasants and soldiers were buried under the gargantuan body and the others noticed the commotion and started to flee.

Quickly Laura was over her, the pale expression still in her eyes, grabbing Janna's throat and starting to squeeze. Janna was heavier and stronger than Laura but the sudden and unexplainable ferocity with which her friend attacked her caught her off guard.

"Laura, please!" She croaked, fighting against the choke which only made Laura squeeze harder. Frantically, Janna grabbed at Laura's hands and arms but it was no use. With every second she became weaker. In a last attempt to safe herself she lifted her butt off the ground and drove her knee forcefully into Laura's side.

Laura groaned and fell off her, killing a few more fleeing bystanders in the process.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Janna screamed at her as she scrambled back to her feet. Wasting no time with a reply Laura came charging at her again but this time Janna was prepared. Using her longer arms, She was able to hold Laura at bay, her weight allowing her to withstand Laura's attempts to wrestle her to the ground.

While they fought, many of the tiny people at their feet ended up crushed without notice, innocent victims in the wrong place at the wrong time. Janna racked her brain to explain Laura's behaviour. Sudden psychosis seemed to be an option and in the absence of any tranquillizers posed a serious problem. The idea that the figure in the courtyard had something to do with it seemed obvious, yet utterly implausible.

Still, Janna was going to rule out the possibility, slowly wrestling Laura closer to the keep. Laura seemed to see through her plan though and did everything to keep her away from it. Fed up, Janna struck her friend's head with her own and kicked her away to gain some space before sprinting towards the keep, determined not to give Laura any more time.

"Wait!" She heard Laura call in the language of the aliens but it was too late. Victoriously, Janna jumped into the air, spinning around her own axis and landing on the tiny hill with the keep on top, her butt covering it perfectly. The stonewalls, the buildings and the bergfried crumbled easily under her weight and anything in or among them was crushed flat in an instant.

-

All of the five people in the keep who hadn't gone looting were killed. First Ludwig's wife, a mental child in the body of a woman so fat that she hadn't left her bed in over a year. She was struck dead by falling stones before Janna's butt squished her.

Second was the daughter of a miller, a gorgeous little thing that had become Ludwig's playmate after he had forced himself upon her a couple of times. Not sharing her lover's enthusiasm for the giantesses she had stayed inside, hiding beneath the bed they shared when the commotion started outside.

Third was Vengyr, too slow to leave Laura's head, only being able to see through his own eyes a last time before he was squashed against ground of the courtyard. His body popped like that of any common man would.

Fourth was King Aele, presumably the rightful king of Andergast again after Ludwig had been squished by a Vengyr-controlled Laura. However Andergast lost another King within under two minutes of the first one when Janna's weight compressed the entire hill beneath her, burying the king alive in his dungeon cell.

Lares had almost survived because he noticed the fight outside from within the dungeons. The large doors of the cells rattled and the hanging cages swung back and forth from the tremors of the heavy footfalls. The turn key was off duty due to the lack of prisoners after Janna had so willingly devoured all of them but Lares had the key to the dungeons as well. He opened the tiny iron gate to the canal that was used to dispose of dead prisoners, spoiled food and excrements and led downwards to the bottom of the hill.

It smelled horribly but Lares covered his nose and mouth and jumped inside. Ever faster by the second he slid over the wet stones before he splashed into a stinking pool of shit and rotten food. Decaying bodies mitigated the impact. That was when Janna came down on the keep.

The castle wall at the back of the keep was toppled over by her enormous behind, broke into pieces and came down directly on top of the poor man.

"I told you." Were his last whispered words before the stones buried him.

-

Laura felt her motor skills coming back to her and her face reacting to her feelings as well. Her side and her head hurt were Janna had struck her but she was happy to have control over herself again. Janna sat on top of the flattened holdfast and eyed her suspiciously.

"Got enough?" She asked and raised a brow.

"Janna, I'm so sorry!" Laura began sobbing. She was shaking and terrified.

Janna grimly rubbed her head where Laura had hit her: "So there is magic."

Tears filled Laura's eyes. She was scared, paralysed and felt violated. She sunk down on the ground and cried bitterly. Soon she felt Janna's warm embrace around her.

"Shhhh." Janna cooed. "It's alright. It's over. He's dead."

"I want to go home!" Laura sobbed, burying her face in her friend's shoulder.

"I don't think we'll ever get home." Janna pondered with a calm voice that surprised even herself. "I'm starting to think this might not even be the same god damn dimension."

"What?" Laura looked up at her friend's face in bewilderment.

"Think about it." Janna explained as if it wasn't all that horrible. "Ships don't crash like that for no reason. If we got sucked into a black hole however...have you seen the way fire burns on this planet?"

"Yes...no..." Laura stuttered as she was trying to remember.

"Now a small flame like we've seen few times should look like a candle or something, not a shrunken camp fire which it fucking does on this planet. I was startled for the first time by how thin the flames burned when I cooked the animals. The flame from the Bunsen burner looked freakish as well. I thought it was due to different air pressure but honestly, we would have noticed something from that as well. Then there's cloud forming, the way the rain behaves, all the little differences."

"On top of that..." Janna added closing Laura into her arms again. "...fucking magic?! Mind controlling druids that make you attack your friends and summon gust of winds and giant stones that fly through the air? There might as well be dragons out there as far as I'm concerned."

"But how did we survive all that?" Laura asked, her voice muffled by Janna's shirt.

"I don't know." Janna sighed and looked into the distance. "I guess life is funny that way..."

They sat like that for a couple of minutes before they started to asses the aftermath of the incident. Ludwig's keep was flattened and the hill it sat on top of partially disintegrated. Janna's marvellous jeans clad behind had shaped the ground.

"I feel bad for Lares." Laura said after inspecting the site. "He looked like a witty guy."

"Well, he's somewhere in there." Janna frowned and dug out a few stones that had been pushed into the ground, stacking them on top of each other like toy blocks. "I feel worse about Ludwig though."

Laura sighed in response.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't control myself." She repeated and lowered her head.

"It's okay." Janna said, trying to cheer her up with a forced shrug. "He was probably just a monster like the old king."

It didn't even feel much like a lie at all.

"But I thought you..." Laura began before Janna cut her off.

"You were right about the food." She said. "I guess I just needed something to believe in. Something to cling to."

"Hmm." Laura began and reached into her pocket. "Eww, the Viking girl is smeared all in my jeans!"

"Is there anybody we didn't squish around here?" Janna asked half-jokingly and started to look around.

"I saw some of them get away. Lucky shrimps." Laura laughed in response.

"They'll tell the tale of what happened here." Janna said grimly again. "With us being here, no lord will want to be heir of this land. Without a lord, the people will try to get away as far as possible before outlaws take the land or a foreign power burns them out. Or we eat them all once they've run out of food."

"Better for them if they want to live I guess." Laura pondered not sure what Janna was getting at.

"But bad for us. Without food from the tiny people we'll starve. I'm not going to hunt tiny animals all day."

"What do you suggest we do?" Laura asked concernedly but Janna already seemed to have her mind made up.

"We have to move." She announced. "Turn as much as we can of our equipment into travelling gear. I think our blankets are rain proof and can be turned into sleeping bags for example. We have to make it south before the winter anyway or we'll freeze to death."

"What will we eat along the way?" Laura inquired further.

"Villages." Janna answered, slightly amused. "We should also check out the capital along the way. Could be fun."

"Didn't you say we shouldn't..." Laura began but was cut off again.

"Forget what I said. We're giants in a fucked up fantasy world. It's what we do. Let's find something to eat, I'm starving already."

-

The girls had returned to the ship first and stripped down to their underwear, their clothes simply too dirty to wear after the fight. Laura had told Janna about the larger village she had found and they agreed to go there and fill their bellies.

"Should I wear my boots in case we encounter any resistance?" Janna had asked.

"Nah." Laura admitted reluctantly, not sure how her friend would react, "I kind of squashed any resistance I met."

Janna froze for a moment before she shrugged.

"Cool."

Upon arriving at the village the tiny people were in shock, as if they hadn't expected to see Laura ever again. Quickly, they fell into old patterns though and gathered were they had gathered before, perfectly leaving out the space were Laura had sat on her last visit. They also started to bring what little food they had left and seized the more beautiful girls as a sacrifice.

"Sorry, peeps." Laura laughed. "I wont be needing any pretty girls today."

"What did you need pretty girls for in the first place?" Janna smirked like an imp.

"Uhhhh, sexy time." Laura admitted, blushing.

A flicker glanced up in Janna's eyes in an instant. She was intrigued.

"How did it turn out?"

"Squishy." Laura responded and both girls laughed.

"Sounds like fun." Janna said, shrugging her shoulders after a short pause before she knelt down and randomly snatched a handful of people off the ground.

"Mhhh, you look yummy!" She taunted them before pouring them into her mouth. Laura watched amazed as Janna's jaw started to move and crush the tiny people into paste.

"Don't look at me like that." Janna protested after noticing the look. "We're in another fucking dimension, we can do whatever we want."

"But you've changed so much." Laura mentioned and gave Janna a serious look.

"Of course I have." Janna responded seriously. "I have killed a few hundred people today, then our plan went down the drain, some magical druid mind controlled you and we will probably never get home."

While it was a tantrum to some extend it didn't sound as hysterical as by any rights it should have.

"Are you alright though?" Laura asked concerned.

"You know what?", Janna began and lifted her foot above the crowd. "I feel alright for the first time since we fucking got here."

Chapter 6

The self appointed giant-slayers crowded the empress's throne hall. Dari noticed that they had divided up by rank and social status, knights and renowned warriors at the front, common sell swords and fortune seekers at the back. Five short but bulky brothers, called 'the dwarfs' by everyone else, had even brought their giant ballista into the hall.

Dari was disguised as a southerner. Black leather boots and brown britches, a fine white shirt under a black leather west and a hat, black as well, with an absurdly long feather tugged under a leather rim. She could speak the accent of the southerners well enough to fool anyone here.

"We can shoot a heavy spear a mile far.” Dari had heard the 'dwarfs' boast to some knight who had argued that the giants would spot them and lay waste to the apparatus before there would be any time to fire. The hall was enormous, the largest of it's kind built by mankind but it was not every day that common people were let inside, much less be allowed to lay eyes on the empress. Xaviera, empress of Gareth, was but a sickly girl of ten, having come to power unexpectedly when the rest of her family burned alive in their wheel house on their way to some holy place in the east. Surely, she just sat there as a token of legitimacy to her advisors who had divided the real power amongst themselves.

Dari saw them, standing besides the massive golden throne. There were honourable knights in shining decorated armour, wealthy fat men in expensive silks, a few mages in their robes and a representative of each of the twelve gods.

Praios was the highest of the gods and his high priest, holding the sceptre of the sun, looked grimly into the crowd. His thin lips twitched unkindly and his narrow eyes seemed to spot abomination where ever they looked.

A Rondra priestess was standing right next to him, proudly wearing a fierce lion on her chest and wielding a flame-edged sword as befitting a representative of the warrior goddess.

The other priests were clothed in embroidered robes bearing the symbols of their gods, only the Ingerim priest looked like a common black smith, though even more muscular.

"Silentium!" The Rondra priestess announced, spreading her arms wide. "Her royal highness has decreed that it be in the interest of the throne to slay the giants that are plaguing the empire of Gareth. Anyone who can prove to have slain a giant will receive their own weight in gold, thrice over!"

Dari chuckled at the sight of a very fat sell sword who slapped his large belly. If he was to kill one giant, she would have to kill at least four to make as much gold as him.

Three days ago giants had come out of the mountains and started to cause problems in the country side. Dari had always thought the old tales to be nothing but fables but apparently there was more truth to them than she knew. Word on the streets was that some mighty druid had died and some mighty ancient spell with him, allowing the giants to rise once again. But then again, others called them a punishment of the gods, or better yet nameless summonings of demon worshippers.

Dari didn't know which was true, only that nine meter tall beasts walked the lands, plundering and killing at their heart's content. To prove the word of the throne, a giant wooden scale had been erected and, accompanied by the cheering of the crowd, an enormous man walked onto one side while the other was being piled with gold until the scale was even.

"Ugo, Ugo, Ugo!" the crowd cheered. The brutal looking knight Sir Ugo Tannhaus had assumed the name Ugo Giantsbane as he was the first and only one so far who had been able to slay a giant. The taverns of the city were full of talk of his bravery. While sell swords attacked the giant from the front, Sir Hugo had ridden around the beast and driven his lance through it's knee from full gallop. The giant fell but fought on, killing anyone it could grasp.

Sir Ugo had then dismounted, ordered the other soldiers into the breach and slipped in while the beast was crushing the heads of two others. He pushed his two handed great sword through the giant's chin up into it's brains, killing it instantly.

When Dari would try her luck at a giant, she'd be more efficient, she thought. Slip in quickly and quietly and kill the beast with poison. Of course, a giant wouldn't fall to just any poison that would kill a common man. As an accomplished assassin, Dari's supplies of those were enormous but one had to have a more rare and potent brew to bring down a giant. She had brought the vial of Zorgan's Dread with her, a thick, black liquid.

Possession of such a substance was punishable by death but Dari wasn't scared at all. Most of the weapons she carried hidden about her person would earn her the flaying rack anyway. A jaw stabber, a gut ripper and the Mengbillar, a razor sharp, hollow dagger, made for injecting poison into an unsuspecting victim.

The substance had been terribly expensive as well, but Dari wasn't in this for the money. It was boredom and a taste for prestige. As of late she had rejected some very easy yet disproportionately lucrative contracts just for the reason of them being too boring. Without a sense of danger, even killing a man could be a dull experience.

A sense of unease tingled in Dari's neck. Someone was watching her. She could almost always tell when someone was watching her. She squeezed past another bulky, mail-clad sell sword and rushed to the side of the hall without drawing any attention.

"Is there a privy, some place here, where a young lady might squat down?" She approached a guardsman in flawless southern accent. Southerners always talked bluntly.

"Over there, there is." The lad pointed her to the other side of the hall. Giving him a thankful smile, she turned around to see if she could spot who was following her. There, amongst the crowd stood another one of the guardsmen, dimly staring at her, not paying the spectacle Sir Ugo made with his gold any mind. He looked in far worse condition than any of the other guards in the hall though. He didn't belong here.

As quickly as a shadow, Dari made her way to the other side of the hall, keeping a good deal of flesh in between herself and the stranger. How could she have been spotted so easily, and if the guard knew who she was, why wasn't he raising the alarm? She pretended to go into the privy but slipped behind another guard's back as soon as she was out of his field of vision. Without making so much as a sound she slipped through another door and found herself in a dimly lit corridor, used by servants to bring food and supplies to the main hall. They were empty now.

Already, she heard something move in front of the door and hopped into a corner so that the open door would conceal her. When the door was closed she saw him, dirty and ogrish looking, his small eyes darting into every corner. In a split second the jaw stabber was in her hand and she had stabbed him, lighting fast, in and out the soft spot under the jaw. Blood came rushing out of his wound and with a soft, gurgling squeal he went to his knees and died.

"Hm, most impressive." An amused voice spoke right behind her.

Instinctively, Dari spun around and thrust the blade up into the jaw of who ever was standing there. It was a man, an old one and he was clad in grey robes. The blade went in under his jaw but stopped as if it was unable to penetrate his skin. The two stared at each other for a moment and the man gave her a pitiful look. He was standing right were she had been before but there seemed to be no explanation as to how he had gotten there.

Dari tried again, drawing her blade about his neck, time and again, left, right, the old man's eyes only grew more pitiful and sad. Armatrutz, Dari knew, a spell that could make a mage's skin tougher than armour. She had killed mages before, of course, those were very interesting contracts. When trying to kill a mage, the best cause was to hit him unsuspectedly but of course in this case, the mage wasn't the prey. Dari was. Fear, as dark and poisonous as Zorgan's dread, crept down her spine.

Then suddenly the door opened, and guards came streaming in, overwhelming her, and the last thing Dari saw was a wooden club crashing down on her face. With a horrible 'crack' her world went dark.

-

It had taken hours, pushing herself out of the cold stone of the mountains. Nagash had been exhausted and hungry by the time she was done and when she had glanced back at the massive rock her body had stuck in she saw that she hadn't left a mark, as if she somehow had been one with the matter of the mountains. It was strange and scary to behold, a feeling that she was not used to.

Only faint memories remained of what she had once been, what the world had been. She dragged herself through the mountains and into the woods. No food for two days. When finally she had come upon a lonely hunting cabin she had acted as if she had done this a hundred times before.

Little humans dwelled in the cabin, skinning their day's game. With her last strength Nagash came upon them, the little hunters less than a sixth of her size. One actually managed to get his bow and quill fast enough to shoot an arrow at her but the insignificant sting in her skin was nothing against the empty pains in her stomach. She lifted the bowman with one hand and grabbed his head with the other. When she twisted it off the two others were already on the run.

Nagash's strides outlasted theirs easily and soon the male and the female were right in front of her. When she jumped over them, the man human rushed in front of the girl and drew a pathetic little blade. Nagash didn't even bother to take it off of him when she grabbed his torso and flung him back against the cabin where he crashed through the wall and was nowhere to be seen.

She had forgotten how much she enjoyed killing humans.

"Please don't kill me." The pathetic little human wept while Nagash towered over her. She had fallen to her knees and crept backwards.

Nagash followed her with slow, threatening steps: "What place is this? Answer quickly, before I crush your head!"

She spoke the human tongue well enough, according to her own judgement. Humans on the other hand were too stupid to learn the giants' tongue. None of the slaves had ever been able to acquire it and so the giants had started to learn in order to make their humans more useful.

"The green forest!" The girl was eager with terror.

Nagash exhaled angrily: "There are a thousand places you meagre little worms call green forest!"

Calling a place full of trees with green leaves and needles Green Forest was just the typical, exhausting human stupidity.

"Wha-...No, I..." The girl stammered while she bumped backwards against a stone and came to a halt, "It...It's Angergast. The Kingdom of King Aele by the graces of the gods, please...please don't..."

Andergast, Nagash thought while she forced the tiny head onto the stone that had blocked it's retreat. She had never heard of such a place.

"How much time has passed?" She inquired further and locked the girl's head on the stone with her bare foot.

"What?! I...I do not know, please..." The girl begged before Nagash's foot squashed her head against the stone.

Wiping her feet clean on the grass while she returned to the cabin, Nagash began to understand that the times had changed. She remembered barely how the earth had one day swallowed them all up. Somehow, it seemed, it had released them again.

-

"Ahh, what a pity." Dari heard a ruff, scratchy voice say when she woke up. "Did you have to smash her face in like that?! I like them pretty girls."

Her head was pounding and she couldn't breath through her nose. In fact, her face was a pounding mess too but it felt as if her nose was somewhere where her upper front teeth had been. She swallowed a mouth full of blood and teeth which almost made her gag.

"Pretty? Hehe!" Another voice said, nasal and high pitched and utterly unpleasant. "Down here, you fuck anything that has three holes."

"Or only two." A third voice added, chuckling; deep, hollow and dull.

Dari's right eye slowly adjusted to the light, her left eye was blind. She wasn't even sure if it was still in it's socket. The walls of the dungeons were grey and moist and covered in mildew. Weird apparatuses were standing around and a few tables had all manner of wooden and metallic objects on them. She was seated in a chair, she recognized, and chained to it by her hands and feet.

One of the guards who had overwhelmed her was kneeling in front of her, grinning a horribly toothless smile. His oily skin and hair were shining in the torch light but couldn't betray the fact that he was dirty all over. Dari was almost thankful that she couldn't smell.

Two more guards were standing in the back, regarding her, and it was easy to tell which voice belonged to whom. There was a short and slender one with a face that looked like a rat's and a tall, fat, flat faced one who had a horrible scar running about his temple where his head had probably once been smashed in.

"I think we can rape her few times before the fucking wizard gets here. We can't help it, there's no way out and nothing better to do?!" The closest guard argued. "Face or not, she has some nice little tits and I bet that cunt of hers is fairly decent too. She doesn't look like a common wench for once."

After fondling Dari's breasts with his dirty hands he made to slip his hands down her britches but the fat guard made a threatening step forward: "She is not to be harmed, master said, keep your hands off her."

"Oh, really?" The other guard answered before turning around to face the fat one. "But master Xardas isn't here, is he?! He wont even notice, he's like to kill her anyway."

"Yeah, let's take the bitch for a ride." The rat-looking one agreed and made his way towards Dari. "Bet I can shove my cock down her mouth and she wont even bite, hehe, 'bitch is missing most of her teeth."

"Oh, but master said she is dangerous." The fat guard warned. "He said she is likely to rip off your man parts. Root and stem, he said."

"She doesn't look very dangerous to me." The first guard said and took a step back.

The smaller guard conceded: "Yes, let's fuck her already!"

"Fine." The fat guard spat. "Have some fun. But I get her first!"

"No, I get her first!" The smallest of the guards protested. "Stiff was first the last time. It's my turn!"

"Shut your gub, Rat." Stiff, the ugly one with the oily skin replied. "Fatty went first last time."

"Ohh, she's awake." The fat one noticed, staining himself with his own spittle. "I like it when they squirm. I get first."

When Stiff and Rat began to object he grabbed them both by the neck and squeezed. That was argument enough for them to concede, afterwards.

They took Dari from the chair and pushed her to the ground and held her there. One was holding her arms behind about her chest while the others tore at her britches. Dari tried to struggle but she was too weak. They pulled her britches down and shoved her feet upwards to gain access to her woman hood. She saw that 'Fatty' had pulled out his erect member, tiny in comparison to the rest of his body. He leaned forward and fumbled forward in order to enter her, a task made more difficult by the fact that his belly was so large that he couldn't see his penis. Dari saw her chance.

Leaning forward, slow and way too heavy for his frame, the fat guard's neck became a vulnerable target. Instinctively and faster than he could fathom, Dari pushed his head side ways and a little upwards with her feet, just to the point where the neck was most likely to break. Three quick but powerful kicks against his temple and 'Fatty' sunk to the ground, dead.

"What the..." Stiff, holding her hands, began but Dari was already moving on. She lifted herself in his grip and acrobatically swung atop his shoulders. Surprised, the guard stood up and groped at her but with her britches down there wasn't much to hold on to.

She gave the approaching Rat a quick kick to the face that sent him stumbling backwards before she locked her legs around Stiff's neck and threw herself front over. The man came down with her but Dari twisted sideways with all her might so that she came to rest on top of him, breaking his neck with their combined bodyweight. His death rattle was a short and high pitched squeak. He was just like a pig, Dari thought before she turned to the last guard.

He had used his time to grab a wooden club but he wasn't wielding it at her. Instead he stood and looked at the limp, dead bodies of his comrades. The weapon shook in his hand. Dari jumped to the table with the torture equipment and got a cleaver, big and heavy, with a rusty edge.

"I yield!" The little man squealed and dropped his weapon. "Please don't kill me, I...I'm only a little servant, I'll make it up to you I swear!"

Dari used the time to pull her pants back up and cover her nakedness. Pure hate pulsed through her mind and what little eyesight remained to her was focused only on him. She stood over him and lifted the weapon over her head, ready to take his head off.

"Ohhh, master!" The guard pointed and gestured to where the chair stood. "Help me! Please, help your humble servant, I beg you!"

"I think I remember instructing you not to touch her." The mage's tired voice rang through the dungeon.

Dari spun around to see him step out of the darkness. He wore the same grey robes as before. Even though his mouth was showing a hint of amusement, his eyes were as sad, tired and a thousand miles away.

"Master!" The guard in front of her shrieked. "My deepest apologies! I...It wasn't my idea! It was them! I only went along so that they wouldn't beat me. Help me, please!"

Dari turned back towards the wizard who only cocked his head as if he wanted to see what she would do next. Then she let the cleaver sink.

"Thank you!" The small man began to cry. "Thank you!"

As fast as lightning Dari drew the cleaver through his neck, separating the head from his body. It hit the ground with a thud that was not unfamiliar to her.

"Weren't you going to be merciful?" The mage scolded her with his amused yet somehow sad voice and stepped a little closer.

"I was merciful." Dari spat and turned to face him, cleaver in hand. "A clean, painless death."

The mage lowered his gaze: "A common misconception. Being such a prominent assassin, I thought you would know..."

"If I am a prominent assassin I must have been doing it wrong." Dari argued, only buying time to find a way to escape him.

"Indeed." The wizard chuckled softly. "My experiments have shown, that the severed head of a man lives on for a surprisingly lengthy period of time. He cannot talk, of course, but he will react to being called and look about. Thus, astoundingly, I must conclude that obliterating the brain with a hammer is, ironically, a less painful method of inducing death; without the employment of arcane or alchemical means, of course."

"Those 'experiments' sound like they might get you in trouble with the Praios church." Dari said, contemplating if making a rush for the door or flinging the cleaver was the better option.

He shrugged in response: "What the sun doth not know, doth her no woe."

"Are you a black mage then?" Dari inquired to keep him talking. "You are wearing grey robes..."

"Anyone can don grey robes." He said giving her a tired look. "Now do you want to keep this up or will you fling that cleaver at me? You might just try rushing through the door as well, I shall not stop you."

Dari smelled a trap: "If you are going to kill me then do it already. See how long my head lives on to look about when you cut it off."

"Cutting it off will not improve the condition these fools have left said head in, I fear. More over, I require it connected to the other, well-trained rest of you." He stepped closer and Dari made a step back.

"I would gut you if you didn't hide behind that spell." Dari spat hatefully.

"Oh, no doubt." The mage said with a twist of his mouth. "Thus it may interest you that I am standing here, unprotected."

"As if..." Dari began but he already walked up to the nearest table, took up an axe laid his bare wrist onto the wood. Then he looked her square in the remaining eye. From deep within her, a scream escaped when the axe came crashing down on his very own wrist. He held the stump up and regarded it with some interest, blood gushing out with every beat of his heart.

"You see?" He said, not showing the slightest indication of pain. "You can go ahead and kill me. Although, I am sad to say that would mean I cannot be here to see if you ever make it out of this dungeon. The fat one's flesh will feed you for about two weeks alone, but water is terribly scarce down here."

Dari rushed for the door and pulled at the handle. It cracked and squeaked but it opened. Gleefully she almost ran through it before she stopped herself in the last instant.

Behind the door was nothing but a wall.

-

The little human Nagash had thrown right through his cabin wall was dead. She helped herself to some cold roasted meat and some carrots and potatoes she found. When she had eaten, she took some hides the hunters had prepared for transportation and went to make some primitive clothing to cover herself with. It was barely enough for a loin cloth and a sheet that she wrapped around her chest to keep her breasts from bouncing when she ran, but she was used to wearing clothes like that. It was all a giantess needed.

Her hands had their difficulty working the fine material. What to humans was sturdy, hard, raw leather was rather thin and delicate to her. But she got the job done well enough to have something to cover herself with until she had made some human slaves. For all their stupidity, humans made excellent slaves. They talked and were crafty and could make and build the most astounding and sophisticated things, yet their bodies were tiny and fragile so they didn't need much food and could be put into order most easily.

Until Nagash found a male giant or even a clan to join, the humans had other uses too, although they sometimes broke during the act. It wasn't too bad, there were always some more.

Humans could be dangerous though too. When they were clad in shining armour, it was best to avoid them, Nagash's mother had taught her and shown her a captive human knight. The metal suit crumbled easily when Nagash stepped on him just to see if he would be able to take her weight but she understood that they were better fighters and less likely to run away. Killing running humans was as easy as trampling pigs, although mother had always been mad when Nagash had killed the latter.

"Animals are for eating, humans are for work." She had always said, but somehow Nagash was never scolded for killing humans. The ones who were good at making clothes or cooking were protected of course, but those who looked after animals or cleaned up were never missed when Nagash killed them out of boredom. Her mother did it too, she had noticed early, sometimes for being in her path, sometimes for talking, sometimes for doing nothing at all. The ones she took during the night never lived to tell the tale and when Nagash was old enough she took them too when she felt like it.

Slaves were not too hard to come by. Most villages and farms were protected poorly and made for easy prey. Nagash had joined a few raids on villages and once she had even attacked a farm all by herself. The old father and his three sons had tried to fight her with pitch forks for all the good it did them and the females had run into the woods. Hunting them down was one of the most fun things Nagash had ever experienced.

The old, slow mother had turned around and tried to waste Nagash's time to allow the daughters to escape but the giantess had made short work of her. Then, Nagash had tracked down the group of sisters, stalked them until they slept and captured all of them at once. The youngest had been a sweet little morsel but the others were older, about Nagash's age. Deeply in the comfortable lonliness of the woods, they had helped her to explore that thing between her legs. Thenceforth, she always got a little tingly in there when she played with the slaves.

Male giants were very rare and were also called 'ogres'. They didn't stay with a single clan for long but strolled the world, hunting and making slaves to impress a clan of females who would then have him for as long as they saw fit. For protection of their children, the clans lived far away from the humans to avoid becoming a target for their revenge raids and humans came into contact with ogres much more often than with female giants.

That all had been before 'Albino' had made himself king of the giants and organized them to be able to stand against human armies. While Nagash grew and became a woman, the land was laying in ashes and no male giants came to mate with her. Humans were growing scarce as well. Then some day, it must have been the day of a big battle, the sky had turned purple and the earth had swallowed them right up.

The next thing Nagash knew was that she was somehow stuck inside a rock and had to push herself out. She could have taken the girl for a slave, she reckoned, but she wouldn't be staying here for long. The girl would have only slowed her down. Grudgingly she packed as many supplies as she could and made her way into the forest. She followed a beat track she hoped would take her to the next bigger settlement, from there she would try to obtain information about others of her kind in the area and try to join up with them.

Somewhere, there had to be giants in Andergast. She couldn't be the only one to have escaped what ever had banished her into the stone.

-

"All those tools." The wizard pondered "Yet nothing crushes a spirit as quickly as a wall behind a door. You are right, there is no way out of this room."

He lifted his severed hand to his stump and closed his good hand around the cut. After a second he removed it and arm and wrist were one again.

"I can do the same with your face, if you will let me." He offered.

Dari was inclined. Something deep within her screamed for her to let him do it. The stern look she tried to give herself hurt on her broken face.

"I don't care about good looks." She spat, though on the inside she cried for having lost them.

"Of course you do." The mage said tiredly. "They are what has made you the most successful of your kind in Gareth. No need to be offended, my lady. I only mean to say, good looks accompany your deadly skill perfectly. Who might suspect and innocent girl of doing the things that you have done?"

He was right but Dari wasn't going to give in.

"I'm not a lady." She said stubbornly and ground what remained of her teeth.

"Oh, but you have been many times before." He knew. "And you can be anytime again, if you want."

He was right again. For many a contract Dari had disguised herself as a high-born. There was no easier opportunity for a hit on a noble man than those silly masked-balls that the Garethians held, copying a fancy Horasian custom.

"But not as long as you look like this." The wizard added and produced a huge, stained piece of glass that had been treated with quicksilver on the back.

Dari looked at her reflection and tears welled up in her remaining eye, which thankfully blurred her vision. It was horrible. Her face was caved in about where her nose had been, the blind eye had been smashed out of it's socket and stuck somewhere too far on the left, staring into an awkward direction. Her smile, once bright and beautiful and enough to win the charms of any man would send children crying for their mothers now. The rest was green, blue, swollen and bloody. The bruises would heal, and flesh would grow over the cuts, but even though, she was a monster. And an easily recognizable one at that.

"My lady," The mage began apologetically, "I fear my time is scarce. I can restore your face to it's old beauty and get you out of this dungeon but I am afraid I can only do so if you concede to do something for me in return."

"Anything." Dari mumbled and sank to the ground against the wall.

The mage made a step towards her and cocked his head again: "My apologies, little bird, I'm afraid I did not hear..."

"Anything!" She screamed and her voice echoed from the walls of the dungeon.

"Take my hand." He offered and when Dari looked up she found that he was suddenly standing right above her. When she recoiled he smiled at her reassuringly and stretched out his palm only more insisting. Despairing, Dari took it.

It felt as if someone had yanked her upright through a windy canal. She was sitting in a comfortable feather bed with red sheets in a warmly lit room. The walls were black marble and an expensive carpet was laying in front of a burning hearth. A small table was standing in the middle of the room, a scale and a sand clock on it and there were drawers and shelves full of books in the corners, besides other fine pieces of furniture.

She felt rested and strangely at ease, although she had never seen this place before. Immediately, her fingers rushed to her face and felt for the mess that it was. It was gone. Her nose, her eye, her teeth, everything was in place. The bruises were gone too. A small mirror hung by the door and she rushed to it, looking at her dusty reflection. It was as if she'd never been hit at all.

The mage was nowhere to be seen. She was naked, she realized, but a selection of garments had been laid out on a nearby drawer. She skipped through them and found that all were expensive dresses or robes of one sort or the other. When she opened a mighty cabinet, she found more garments, all about her size, as if they had been made to befit her. At the bottom of a stack of gowns she found a red, silken shirt and black leather britches and vest. She donned those eagerly and opened a drawer to look for some shoes.

She found a pair of sturdy black leather boots that fit her perfectly and beneath them a belt that had all her previous equipment on it, nicely concealed in leather sheaths. After putting on the belt she drew the foldable jaw stabber and quietly opened the door. Candles lit a narrow hallway that didn't seem to have any other doors. Quietly, she snuck along towards a larger room that was brightly lit by chandeliers in the shape of five pointed stars.

The room was round and had another exit that seemingly led outside into the early morning. The walls were covered by huge shelves, easily five meters high and stuffed over and over with dusty books and scrolls. She was tempted to go outside but a huge old tome on a lectern caught her attention. It seemed old and ponderous, yet somehow she felt curiously drawn to it.

She flipped it open and began to read. 'These are the records of Xardas,' it read on the first page. Dari flipped through a couple of pages that told of Xardas's life at the mages college of Betana, an institution of the white guild. There were three guilds of mages. The black guild, that was open to most anything in the name of progress but often lost itself in occultism, necromancy, mental illness and demon worship, the grey guild, that was the biggest, apolitical and not trying to overachieve in anything, and the white guild, that was very strict, pious and militaristic. With the Praios church's inquisition the white guild aimed to rid the world of anything unworldly and was thus in constant struggle with it's own existence.

Xardas's records spoke of his experiences at the academy, how he hated being limited by the elder magici and how he started experiments of his own. Dari flipped a few pages and found that he had also tried the grey and the black guild after apparently having escaped the inquisition only barely, but was gravely disappointed with them as well. Then there were pages upon pages of his own work, some of which seemed to come straight out of a nightmare. Some pictures froze the blood in Dari's veins and then she saw that Xardas had done exactly that with a poor subject of his in an attempt to reanimate him after thawing him up again. Apparently, it had failed.

Besides Betana, Dari didn't recognize any of the cities' names that were mentioned here and there. Sometimes there seemed to be old versions of names used today, but there was no way to be sure. Some numbers indicated years but Dari didn't even know what year this one was. It was only something historians and astrologers cared about. Something told her that Xardas's life span had exceeded that of any mortal person greatly.

The few times Xardas had been able to experiment on giants Dari read especially closely. Their physiology seemed similar to that of mankind, only larger. This would come in handy if Dari met a giant at some point. Besides the experiments, historical events were mentioned here and there, most of which Dari had never heard of either.

The purpose of Xardas's doings seemed to be to gain more knowledge, power and ability, but there was no hint as for what he would use those.

Then there was a picture of a fierce looking man with a birds nest in his felted beard and animals of the forest all around him. The sky above him was in thunder.

'The druid Vengyr at the battle of Iron forest,' it read beneath the picture. On the page next to it Dari read: 'According to Hesindeus II the battle went on for three days and two nights. One can only imagine the slaughter. Although he makes no record of total lives lost, it seems that even the number of slain notability exceeds his will to remember. On nightfall of the third day, Vengyr assembled the druids on the mountain of stars. The specifics of their ritual remain a mystery and require further study. The purple colour of the sky suggest an origin in blood magic, the essence of druidic rituality. When hearing emperor Hal claim that Albino could not be destroyed by mortal means, Vengyr left the hall mumbling something about a prison. I must change my disguise when I go to the meetings. People have noted the odd, old man scrubbing the floor every time they are holding council.'

'The giants are gone. Just like that,' it read on the next page, 'Swallowed up by the earth, they say. Vengyr what have you done? Who gave you such power? The old fool will not talk to me and hides in the forest. The white guild found me but wasn't able to put up much of a fight. It seems, for all their piety, I have exceeded their power greatly. I will erect a tower and conduct my studies where I am undisturbed. I must find out what Vengyr did.'

'Vengyr will not show himself to me,' it continued, 'I have put several of his kin to the question but none of them knew where he is. One only told me they were seeking refuge in Andergast. Let's see what the faith's mindless zealots have to say about that. I must find Vengyr. The more I study, the more it seems I am never going to find out what he did. Does he even realize what he has done?'

Then there were endless more gruesome experiments and fruitless torture of people whom Xardas believed to be affiliated with Vengyr before the scripture turned towards more ponderous subjects such as other-worlds, demons and meditation. With every new page, Dari understood less and less and she skipped forward to see if there was anything else of interest further on. Suddenly the writing became erratic:

'Something has shattered the foundations of the world. Something big. The druids have called a gathering somewhere in Andergast. If only I knew where...'

'Giants! Giants have risen again! That can only mean Vengyr the old fool has gotten himself killed. Or worse. His secret must not have died with him. There is a way to extract it from his bones, I know it. I must get to work. I need someone to find Vengyr for me while I work on the formula. I think I have found the right person. I only needs get her to help me...'

"Is that polite, to read someone's records when they are not finished?" The mage's voice called calmly. Dari spun around. He had donned dark purple robes that were covered in runes and glyphs and he looked at her from the entrance to the hallway in his sad, old, tired way.

"I'm sorry, I only..." Dari began but he interrupted her.

"Do you still want to kill me?" He asked and motioned to the knife that Dari had absentmindedly put besides the huge book.

Dari looked at it in embarrassment.

"No." She conceded and hid it back on her belt. "Are...are you Xardas?"

Their eyes locked for a while and suddenly Dari knew.

-

Nagash saw the settlement through the trees. Closer and closer she moved, as silently as she could, always on the look out for anyone who might spot her. Oddly, there was no sound coming from the houses, and when she edged closer she saw that the village lay in ruins.

More than that, it had been obliterated. What she had seen through the woods were only a few last wooden walls, remained standing. The forest had already began to reclaim the human structures but beneath the young ferns Nagash could see shattered wooden planks, torn earth and here and there large numbers of bones. There must be a war raging, she concluded and inspected a few bones closer. It was hard to say how they died because ravens, foxes, wolves and vermin had torn the bodies apart.

Suddenly her nose picked up the sent of smoke and humans. Then she saw it. On the other side of the village a fire burned and meat was roasting. Keeping as low a profile as she could she moved towards it, curious, and hungry again. Someone had made camp in an oval shaped hollow that looked a bit like an enormous footprint, surrounded by bushes of thorn.

Nobody seemed to notice her approach and when she peered over the brush. Nagash saw two human figures. One was a little female, bound by her hands and feet, the other was what her mothers had warned her about. A man in a shiny metal shirt, glittering in the light. He wore a metal hat as well and his long spear was laying next to him. He was apparently eating roasted meat and didn't pay much attention to his surroundings. The girl, however, noticed the giant head, looking down at her and she began to squirm and mumble. Only then did Nagash see that she had been gagged. The man gave her a quick punch in the ribs to shut her up.

Nagash heard her mother's voice in her head: "When you see humans in shining shirts, run! Don't you try and mess with them alone!"

But technically this was only one human, plus his shirt wasn't actually that shiny and Nagash remembered how the knight had crumbled beneath her weight when she had trod on him too. Still she didn't want to be stabbed with that spear. A wound might fester and slow her down enough to make her easy prey for other humans.

The human girl just wouldn't shut up. Nagash pushed herself through the bushes at once, the tiny pricks incapable of punching through her skin, leapt into the air and aimed for the shiny man. He didn't even have time to turn around.

Her feet forced him to the ground and landed square on his upper and lower back. Her weight went right through his tiny frame and a number of cracks told the tale of broken bones. She carefully stepped off of him to see if he was going to put up any more resistance. Blood had squirted out of his mouth and stained the grass next to the head. He was squirming and frantically trying to speak, one hand reaching feebly towards the spear. Nagash stepped on the weapon and broke it in half.

While the girl looked at her in terror, the giantess turned around and sat down square on the broken man, putting an end to his annoying noises. Every now and then she felt a dying twitch underneath her rump while she helped herself to the goat roast that was smouldering over the fire.

-

With the picture of Vengyr in her pocket Dari stood at the gates of Andergast. Xardas had torn the page right out of his records and told her to find his corpse that was supposed to be somewhere in these lands. He had then taken her hand, and after another wooshing sensation they had been standing somewhere in deep forest. He had pointed her towards the city and teleported away, to 'work on the formula' or what ever that meant.

It was beyond Dari why she had been picked for this mission. She was good at tracking people, yes, but that didn't go for super powerful druids who had gone missing for the last who knows how many hundred years. Besides, her talents lay really more with the living target than with the dead one. Xardas had given her a necklace as well, a silver pentagram on a string of leather, and indicated that she better not try get rid of it. Once she had found the body, she was to call him through the amulet. Dari didn't care or dare to question if and how that was supposed to work. Mages were always weird, but this one was a special case of his own.

Looking at her clothes she regretted not having donned one of the dresses that had been laid out for her. With such a dress it would have been easy to get passed the gate but not when she looked like a burglar. Her leather clothes were good for fighting and travelling and staying undetected by night but in daylight, they made her look suspicious.

A sheer endless row of wagons was seeking entrance into the city but it seemed the guards didn't let any more refugees in, causing a good deal of trouble with the farmers who tried to take their goods to market.

The city had grown too big for it's old walls so people had settled outside the gates and the road side shops now tried to press the last coin or valuable possession from the refugees. They were fleeing from the giants, Dari overheard the father of no less than twelve daughters argue with a butcher who offered him his house outside the walls in exchange for six of the girls whom he eyed pruriently.

"You pig headed fool!" The father bellowed. "We will not settle for anything outside the walls! When the giants come, you here are all dead! And if you keep looking at my daughters like that I will gut you with your own cleaver!"

Just as he made ready to punch the butcher in the face he found said cleaver buried deeply in between his eyes. The daughters screamed horribly and a bit of a brawl ensued, the butcher hacking at people with his cleaver, while desperate refugees already started to plunder his shop.

Most of the guards keeping the gate and trying to get the merchants and farmers through the refugees rushed to arrest the butcher and appease the struggling crowd. The two remaining guards at the gate had their trouble keeping back the people who tried to push in.

Dari pushed herself through the masses and slipped one of the guards a silver. He was so dumbfounded by the generous bribe that he let five more people pass the gate with her. The purse that Xardas had given her didn't contain any coppers and Dari was in no mood to haggle over change.

The streets of Andergast lay before her. Andergast, of all places. The Horasians in the mid-southern-west liked to joke about how backwards and primitive the Garethians were. And the Garethians liked to say the same about Andergast and Nostria. The only thing was, in Andergast and Nostria it was undeniably true.

Here it was said that some villages still had so called seers who could read the future out of bones, did human sacrifice and the such like. It was a thorn in the eye of the large churches of the Twelve, Praios in particular, that were undertaking an effort to carry their rule into even the farthest corner of the kingdom. It must have been a tedious effort, for Andergast was covered in thick, ancient forest for the most part. The capital of the same name was a city worth mentioning, but beyond that there was not much else, just forest, hunters, gatherers, peasants and the important production of stoneoak wood.

Where the Empires of Gareth and Horas had entered a period of modernization, Andergast and Nostria had stayed the same. Somehow new ideas, inventions and changes didn't make it to these lands, either because it's people were too dull to understand them, or too stuck up to accept them. The truth was probably a mixture of both.

Frustrated and unsure what to do, Dari went ahead and looked for a tavern to pick up on the latest gossip. Maybe someone had a hint for her.

-

Nagash noticed the girl still staring at her in terror and disbelief. The giantess disapproved. Surely, such tiny and defenceless creatures did understand their place in the world. She had been the captive of the shiny man and now she was the captive of Nagash. Whether she'd serve as slave or viand was still open to decision.

Human meat tasted well enough, Nagash found, but her mother had not liked the taste of them.

"And eating humans will make you smaller." She had insisted but Nagash found that hard to believe. No one she knew had ever turned into a pig from eating pork either. The little thing probably wasn't any good for work. She was not very tall and scrawny as bone. That meant she didn't have much meat either. Maybe Nagash would have to fatten her for a while.

She offered the human a small bit of goat roast while the lifting the lion's share of what was left to her own mouth. The girl did not so much as look at the food.

"Mhhh!" Nagash grunted in displeasure and shook the meat in her hands. It didn't produce the desired effect. Raising an eyebrow she changed hands, now offering the larger part to the tiny thing. Still, it wouldn't comply.

That made Nagash angry and she ate all of the meat before lifting herself of the broken man beneath her. He was dead for good by now, his life pressed out of him by her unforgiving weight. She lifted his corpse up and flung it into the bushes. She kept his helmet though and moulded it into a drinking cup with her hands. The metal parts on the shiny men really weren't that sturdy after all.

"If you don't do what I say, I must punish you." Nagash proclaimed firmly. The tiny human didn't seem to understand. Nagash grabbed her by the neck and dragged her a few steps until she found a nice field stone. She lifted the little thing and was about to smash it's head against the rock when she decided otherwise. Such punishment could easily kill her only servant and she didn't want to do that just yet. She dragged the struggling girl back to the fire shoved her face into the glowing coals.

By now they weren't too hot any more but the girl still screamed like a dying pig. Nagash didn't make it last very long. Afterwards the human's face was covered in ashes and burned pretty badly on one side. And it was crying.

"There, there." Nagash cooed and pushed the tiny face into the grass, roughly rubbing it around to make it clean again. Then she left the girl alone with her pains, much of her burned skin rubbed raw. New slaves always needed a little time to be broken in, especially when there were no old slaves around to help them.

Going through the supplies that had been stacked at the other side of the fire she found a wine skin and eagerly filled it's content into the helmet. The remaining sweat of it's old possessor could not have spoiled the cheap, sour vintage but Nagash was glad to have something to drink at all.

"Who destroyed this village?" She asked the crying girl next to her she had reached for the broken spear to cut the bonds and gag. The girl suffered a few minor cuts but that didn't seem to stop her to frantically crawling away as soon as Nagash released her. Displeased, she stood up and went after her, pushing the tiny thing to the ground with her foot as soon as she was upon her.

"Now I must punish you again." She said and went for the rock this time. The three times she smashed the tiny skull against the rock had been almost gentle but still the human girl was bleeding from the head and very disoriented.

"Who destroyed this village?" Nagash asked again but still didn't receive a reply.

She dragged the little human back to the fire and shoved it's face into the coals again, longer this time, not showing any sign of stopping.

"Giants!" Nagash understood in between the agonizing screams and stopped the torture.

"When? Where did they go?" She inquired hastily and shook the girl to get it out of her more quickly.

The human didn't answer but only continued to scream incoherently. Nagash took one tiny arm and twisted it until it broke, then some more until a broken bone poked through the flesh.

"I don't know, I'm not from this village!" The girl cried in terror as soon as she had found her words.

"Were they ogres, or like me?" Nagash pressed on impatiently and smashed a tiny leg with her fist.

"No!" The girl screamed towards the sky, arousing Nagash's fury even more.

"What does that mean, 'no'?" She yelled while tearing at the shattered leg until it began to come off. "Where did they go?"

"South! South!" The tiny girl cried feverishly but suddenly fell silent and went limp.

Nagash cursed herself. Her quick temper had gotten the better of her again and another opportunity to make a slave was lost. The human was still breathing but rendered useless now. She tore the arm off completely and impaled the rest of the girl on the stick the goat had been on to roast her over the fire. Nibbling on the raw, skinny arm while she waited, Nagash reflected on how many humans she had wasted today.

A tall human did not reach Nagash's knee so one alone didn't pose a very high threat at any given time. Ten of them however, armed with spears, might have a chance, though be it a little one, of taking her down. A hundred of them, or humans on horseback...Nagash would have to find the other giants and hope that they would take her in.

-

Talk of giants was omnipresent in the shabby tavern that Dari had started her search in. She booked room and board with the middle aged, grumpy but honest tavern keep, sat down on one of the long benches, that were barely more than planks on empty barrels and regarded the mushy grey stew and stale ale. The shady creatures in the taproom gave her uncomforting glances while eating, drinking, playing dice and picking at their rotten teeth with knives.

"Hello there, sweet child." One drunkard had approached her sloppily. "You and I would make a perfect match, don't you think?"

"Piss off, grandfather." She spat at him but he advanced further to grope at her.

"Yah! Piss off, you filthy, stinking pig-head!" The tavern keep bellowed and rushed towards him with a wooden spoon. She smacked the drunkard on the head with it and drove him towards a bench by the entrance where he fell down and soiled himself.

"Don't worry child." She assured Dari as she made her way back towards the bar. "Any of these rats try to touch you, I'll give 'em the spoon till they wince."

"Merry, Merry, can I have another cup?" Another man slurred from a dark niche. He leaned into the light and Dari saw him for the first time. His eyes were glassy and he was clearly drunk but he seemed not to entirely belong here. He wore a coat of arms but the symbol on it was covered in his own vomit. His hair was filthy and his grey beard grew unrestrained.

"Not until you pay up for the last five, Gunther." The tavern keep responded, visibly annoyed.

"I am a man of our king!" He hollerred loudly, for everyone to hear. "King Aele! The best king we ever had!"

The keep said the last sentence in chorus with him and rolled her eyes.

"That's right." He added with a gushy gesture and looked rather confused.

"Give him one." Dari said after short consideration and flipped Merry another coin. The stout woman bit it and shrugged, turning around to pour another cup of the cheap ale.

"Most generous, mhhhmh-my lady." Gunther mumbled and bowed down before he stumbled back into his niche. Dari left her stew, took her cup and went over to him, sitting down on the opposite side of the table.

"Would you care for some company, Sir?" She said sweetly and licked her lips just discretely enough to not come across like a whore. Gunther looked as though he couldn't believe his luck.

"A man of the king's guard never drinks alone!" He proclaimed proudly, betraying the fact that he most obviously had been drinking alone these past few days.

"Oh, you're a man of the king's guard?" Dari said, giving him an admiring look.

"Yes!" He started eagerly but became very sad a second later. "I mean...I was. I could not bear our good king's death, I'm afraid. I will drink myself to an early end to see him again."

"The king died?" Dari blurted out perplexed and knew immediately that she had outed herself as a foreigner.

A few heads in the tavern turned towards them but Gunther went right on: "Yes, but I still wear his colours with pride."

He noticed the puke on his coat of arms and began to scrub it off with his bare hands.

"He was killed by giants in the massacre of Ludwig's keep." He continued and his voice grew raw, "I saw it. They took him, the monsters took him. And then...they destroyed the entire keep! Afterwards I vanished into the forest with all the others. I should have stayed. I should have tried to save him!"

He gave up on cleaning his old lord's colours and started to sob.

"There, there." Dari said comforting and took his dirty, big hand in her clean, delicate one. She was becoming annoyed and asked herself if he was worth her time and ale. She took a sip and looked at the pattern of cracks on the wall.

"That damned Vengyr." Gunther muttered under his tears and gripped her hand tightly. Dari listened up.

"What did you say?" She asked demandingly, forgetting about the masquerade.

"Vengyr, the druid." Gunther half glowered and half sobbed before taking a swallow from his cup.

"I know." Dari pressed on impatiently, trying to keep her voice down. "What about him, do you blame him for your King's death?"

"Of course I do!" He answered as though it was obvious. "Good King Aele would never have gone to kill giants if it wasn't for Vengyr. He came into the throne room and struck us all with magic before he made his demands and flew away, that treacherous coward!"

"Was he in the battle at that Ludwig's place?" Dari pressed on, leaning so far over the table that her necklace fell out of her cleavage.

"Many deny it but I am sure that he was!" Gunther proclaimed and rose from his seat. "I saw the ravens fly!"

He sunk back down and stared into his cup for a moment before something seemed to disturb him.

"Why do you want to know all this? Are you in with him?" He inquired, looking at her strangely as though he wasn't so sure of her friendliness any more.

"No." Dari said and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "It's just a thrilling tale, that's all."

In a quick motion she covered his mouth with her left hand and slipped the jaw stabber under his chin. His eyes widened for a moment but no sound escaped his mouth. Softly, she put his head to rest on the table while dark, red blood pooled out of his throat and trickled down to the floor. She wiped the blade on his coat of arms, concealed it again and made her way to leave the tavern.

"Did he fall asleep for once, the old story teller?" Merry asked with a motherly smile as Dari passed her. "You're such a sweet child, having listened to him. He's so lonely these days."

In the early autumn afternoon the sun was still shining warmly and the people in the streets looked much friendlier than any of those in the tavern. Dari entered a nearby stable where very capable horses were attended to by a tall and slender lad.

"Oi!" He said by way of greeting, his freckled cheeks moving into a crooked teeth smile. "You don't have a horse. What can I do for you?"

"I want to buy one." Dari said and returned the smile.

"Well, you are wrong here." The boy said apologetically. "These horses don't belong to me, you see. I only take care of them, for a copper a day."

"That's a high price." Dari noted and gave the steeds a closer inspection.

"Yeah, but I'm good to them, you see." He explained. "They only get the best grains, a daily scrubbing, I see after their hoofs and even ride them out if it's a longer time."

"Are you sure you can't just let one of those horses escape?" Dari asked, letting a gold coin travel through her fingers suggestively.

The boy looked at the cash and scratched the back of his head: "I guess, I could. But I might get in trouble..."

"Any trouble that's not worth a coin of gold?" Dari asked further, giving him a wink. "Besides, if you become my friend, I might let you play with me for a while."

She licked her lips seductively and moved towards him. Already, there was a pretty impressive bulge growing under his linen britches that seemed to incapacitate him to reply, although his face said that he did still not entirely agree with her suggestion.

Like a loyal dog he came along when Dari grabbed his cock and pulled him deeper in to the long, damp stables. She pushed him against a wooden wall and kissed him passionately. He had good teeth and was handsome enough for Dari not to feel any disgust of it, but he was at least five years the younger of her.

When she looked at his face again, his doubts seemed to have melted away and he eagerly released his manhood from his trousers. Dari looked at his impressing organ and back to his face. Their eyes locked and the boy looked happy. When the pointy blade entered his belly, however, he looked surprised. He glanced down at it, where blood ran down his flat stomach, along his shaft and dripped down the tip of his manhood. He did not scream or make a sound, other than a soft moan when she had stabbed him. He looked back into her eyes with a sad expression that said only that he didn't understand.

Dari gave him a last apologetic smile before she released the mechanism on the blade that made it fan out, entangling itself in his bowels. She twisted and pulled it out, taking a step to the side to avoid getting hit by blood and organs that splashed onto the floor. While she walked back to take one of the horses, she heard him go to his knees before falling face first into the mess.

"A fuck for a horse, are you kidding me?!" She mumbled while she mounted a trusty white steed and galloped out of the stables.

-

Laura stood above her village and grinned. Whenever she was observing them, her tiny population worked as if their lives depended on it. Well, technically, that was true.

'Who doesn't work, gets squished,' was the directive she had put out.

They had build Lauraville from scratch, just twenty meters next to the spaceship under Laura's supervision. She had taken people from villages she had visited and put them here to produce food for her. It was too late in the year, to plant anything, so almost all of their produce was meat from hunting and keeping animals, as well as collecting berries, fruit, nuts and mushrooms in the woods.

In the beginning, Laura had simply trampled a large clearing into the forest and told her first subjects to start building. Tools she had taken from existing villages as well. It was circular shaped and had a big crossroads in the middle where the four main roads met, each barely wide enough for Laura to walk on. When she came through to check on them, the people scurried aside. If someone wasn't quick enough, they more often than not ended up squished beneath her toes.

The village had a foreman and five executives who were in charge and responsible for the entire operation. Only families were allowed in the village to prevent people from running away. If someone was missing either because they had run away or because Laura had made them go missing, it was to the executives to have the rest of the family seized and presented to Laura on her next visit. Not many people tried to run and any who did doomed their loved ones to Laura's mercy.

When new workers were brought in, the executives divided the able one's with sufficient family from the others whom Laura ate or played with. She usually just took them into the forest and crushed them.

It was a nice pass time until she and Janna would head south. The girls were still hesitant to start the unpleasant journey. Here, they had a roof over their head, beds, the equipment. Still, the day of their departure came closer and closer for with every day it became more difficult to find food.

Janna had made a sport of wiping out a villages population after she had filled her belly with as many of it's inhabitants as she required. Escaping tinies had spread the tale of the gargantuan goddess that crushed people for her amusement, and caused a major emigration from the kingdom. Of course, any refugees they came upon, were made short work of as well.

They had to go farther and farther to find populated villages, as more and more were left completely or mostly abandoned by it's inhabitants. There were bands of plunderers roaming around but the small groups who were often on horseback dispersed quickly as soon as they heard the giant girls coming and were bothersome to hunt down.

Lauraville wasn't big enough yet to produce enough food to feed Laura. She had also decreed, that the population have enough to eat, not too much, just enough to keep them strong and able workers. Janna had eyed the village hungrily a few times, but Laura had forbidden her to come near it.

Standing in the middle of the cross roads, Laura could smell the bacon being made in the smoke house. She was naked and let the warm sun caress her body while she observed the busy world below. Without a razor or wax, her pubes had started to grow back. There were no men here who could refuse to go down on her because of that, but she still kind of wanted them gone.

The foreman of Lauraville cautiously approached her. Laura had not killed anyone so far, at least none that she knew of, but she understood that he liked to be careful. She bent down and plucked him up, carefully depositing him in the palm of her hand so that they could talk.

"Goddess!" He began and knelt. "There are no criminals, no escapees and none without family. The production of cured meat is up by another fifth and we have put the workers you gave us yesterday to good use."

"So who am I going to crush today?" She asked with a smile.

All labour in the village stopped for a second after her words washed over the roofs of the houses like distant thunder. The foreman looked at her frightened for a moment before he replied: "The construction of the second smoke house could go quicker. Perhaps we should replace the builders?"

"Good idea." Laura grinned and moved him back towards the ground. "Have them and their families rounded up and brought to me immediately. Good work by the way, this village seems to really become something."

The population of the village was about three to four hundred people already, Laura had been informed.

It took them only two minutes to bring the people in question before her. There were twelve builders and their families, most of whom were already working in one profession or the other as well. They knew their fate and cried, faught and pleaded, but the good people of Lauraville understood the rules. When Laura wanted to crush someone, there was nothing that could stop her from that. Any attempt to reason with her usually only resulted in more people ending up under foot.

But Laura didn't feel like killing perfectly good workers.

"Calm down, I wont step on you." She told them, which calmed some down, while others were evidently convinced she would sit on them or send them down her gullet instead. It was only when she told them to get tools that their minds seemed to settle a bit.

She carefully stepped out of the village and laid down next to it, the workers and their tools following suit. Delicately, she picked them up and deposited them on her belly were they stood insecurely, moving up and down with every breath she took.

"Cut this hair.", Laura commanded and pointed at her pubes. Eagerly, they went to work and began to shorten the wiry hair with axes, saws and sickles. It brought Laura a tingling sensation on her Venus and she enjoyed watching them.

"Get it as short as you can.", She instructed them. It seemed to work easily enough on her mons Veneris but farther down, they would be endanger of falling off. She thought about having them use ropes to go down there but the first had seemingly already started to climb down, holding onto what ever there was. The sensation of tiny people, working for their lives, climbing around her labia made her oddly wet.

She put her head down, closed her eyes and relaxed. It had been too long since her last orgasm when she had taken the girls from that village with her and even they had been no real substitute for a decent fuck. At times, Laura caught herself even giving Janna lascivious looks. She was big and beautiful and strong. Laura let a finger circle around the nipple of her left breast while the other hand edged closer and closer to her loins.

Then the tiny people moved up to her belly again. When she raised her head to see what was going on a tiny builder came running across her belly and in between her breasts.

"Goddess!" He addressed her and knelt, completely dwarfed by her tits. "We are finished! These good people hope you are thrilled with the result."

Laura let her fingers travel in between her legs and felt that they had done an excellent job. Still, she was somewhat disappointed that it was over already. She considered sending them down there again to please her before she decided to have her arm pits done first. She grabbed her breasts and started to push them together giving the tiny builder only barely enough time to escape. Laughing, she imagined how Janna would crush people in her enormous cleavage, which made her privates tingle again.

Laura did her best not to giggle the entire time the poor tinies were working on her armpits. When the tickling became too worse she used her hand to catch those who had fallen off during her laughter and put them back on her belly. Luckily, they didn't take too long. By then Laura had already thought of another way in which they could serve her hygiene.

She released all of the workers except for six females whom she hand picked because they had the tallest and most slender frames. They were to strip naked on her hand, before she told them what she actually wanted of them.

"You will clean my teeth." She told them. "I can get the surface clean easily enough, but I need you to clean the space in between, understood?"

All of them nodded but none looked too happy about the task. Everyone of them knew or had even witnessed first hand how Laura had eaten people; put them in her mouth and crushed them to paste in between her molars. Surely, there would be body parts in between them. Plus there was a real possibility of getting eaten on the job.

Laura lifted her palm up to her mouth and let the naked, little females step onto her tongue. Moving in her mouth was never easy for the tinies, Laura knew, and it was most certainly a very uncomfortable environment in which to work in. But the girls went to work just as eagerly as before and Laura had to force herself not to disturb them with her tongue all the time. She carefully sat down and tried to while away her time, observing the foreman and two of his executives instructing the builders who were now back at work on the new smoke house.

She also saw a group of hunters, leaving the village for game, some wood cutters making planks, a young woman feeding her babe; it was all so harmonious and peaceful. While she became a little dozy in the sunlight, she wondered if she'd be able to run a kingdom. She should get a kingdom of her own, she thought. All it took to get one, was crush some king.

-

"Help me!" Birsel cried out. A moment ago she had been pulling at a severed leg that was stuck in between Goddess Laura's molars, the next her own leg was stuck in between two of the massive teeth. The giantess had evidently laid down again and dozed off, her head sideways and mouth lightly opened, snoring softly.

"Are you mad?" The woman who came to her rescue whispered and tugged Birsel's leg free. "The goddess is sleeping. If you wake her up, she might swallow us all!"

Someone screamed at the back of the cavernous maw and a sudden jerk of the whale sized tongue told them that this someone had been swallowed indeed. The Goddess Laura could swallow people whole without a problem. With a horrible feeling in her gut, Birsel went back to work trying to distract herself from thinking what it might be like to be digested alive. The goddess had not even noticed. She just slumbered on innocently.

Birsel hated every bit of this task. She was a weaver actually, secretly making clothes and cloths from their families house in Lauraville. Weaving was not a profession the gargantuan goddess had decreed and thus it had to be done in the shadows. Even Foreman the foreman understood the need for clothes and cloths, and turned a blind eye to their activities.

But here she was, Birsel thought, picking the monstrous teeth that so often crushed people in between them. It was unbearably humid and warm and soon enough they had to climb to get other places clean. With Laura's head sideways it was almost impossible but none of the remaining five dared waking her. Birsel was covered in spittle that soon began to burn on her skin. They were slowly dissolving which made it horribly apparent that they were naught but food for the goddess.

Somehow they managed to climb up to the places out of reach without falling or arousing some reflex to swallow. While the burning on Birsel's skin became closer and closer to unbearable they scrubbed and scrubbed, double checked every corner thrice, not daring to leave the goddess mouth for fear of making her angry when she woke up. The burning and itching got worse and worse and drove Birsel sheer mad. She stopped and looked around at the others who desperately looked for other places to clean, and took a break.

"Work, or I'll report you to the foreman!" The woman who had saved her earlier hissed, polishing the perfectly clean teeth with her bare hands. Birsel looked at her for a moment before she snapped. She got up on the slippery surface and strode towards the exit where Laura's lips were opened just a bit to leave air and light in.

"Come back!" The woman hissed after her but Birsel didn't so much as turn around.

When she was at the exit, the world shook. The goddess was awaking. Quickly Birsel jumped out onto the soft grass, just before the giant lips closed behind her. The mouth moved and Birsel heard the whale sized tongue swirl around everything inside in an avalanche of saliva. And then Laura swallowed it all.

-

Laura awoke, blinking, and wondered how it came that she was laying on the ground. She sat back up slowly while her mind did a quick reboot to remember what it was she was doing. A tiny naked girl in front of her gave her the clue she needed. After stretching and yawning extensively, she lowered herself on her stomach and looked at the naked girl.

"Hey little thing." She whispered kindly. "Did you guys finish my teeth while I slept?"

She ran her tongue over her teeth and found that they had never felt so clean before.

"Yes, goddess!" The tiny girl squeaked, visibly afraid.

"Where are the other five?" Laura inquired with a warm smile. "I have a reward for you."

Actually, she was just going to get herself off with them, but there was no point in telling them that yet. She moved her face over the little girl and smiled wickedly.

"You swallowed them all, goddess!" The girl squeaked and shrank down under her gaze. Laura felt disappointed. Using them as sex slaves would have been the perfect ending to it. She could still do it with this one though. One tiny girl didn't seem even remotely enough. On the other hand, with only one little slave Laura could establish a much more intimate setting.

"Oh, oops!" She commented casually. "Well, that's a pity. Guess only you will get a reward today. And you'll get all of it for yourself. Lucky you!"

She gingerly picked up her tiny toy and strode into the direction of the space ship.

-

The inside of the goddess' temple was grey and disproportionately wast. Birsel was on some kind of platform with a soft surface that on second glance seemed to be some giant bed. She knew, nothing good was going to come out of this. The predatory way in which the goddess had looked at her had foretold some evil turn side of the reward she was promised. A few days off work, an extra ration of food or being allowed to return to her chores unharmed; anything Birsel would have preferred over this. She shuddered and looked what Laura was about to do.

The giantess sat down on the bed spread legged and looked down on her. Birsel's eyes travelled up from the cavernous, young womanhood over a flat, smooth belly, mountainous breasts to an awe inspiring face that wore a mischievous grin.

"You know you weren't really getting a reward, don't you?" Laura teased and giggled.

Birsel shook her head, trembling. She had to concentrate on keeping her knees straight, lest she might fall to the ground, so afraid was she. Laura spread her wet, sticky labia and inserted a finger into herself. She drew it out again and it was glistening with her juices. Her eyes never left Birsel while she licked it off suggestively. Birsel always felt insignificant when the goddess stood over the village but right now she felt like less than a bug.

The naked behemoth leaned forward and crawled towards her, slowly and threateningly. Birsel looked around to but saw that there was no way off the bed. Laura would easily catch her anyway. Despaired, she broke down and cried, looking at the titaness that towered over her like a mountain.

"Aww, are you afraid, little one? Don't want to be smushed?" Laura teased, smiling. "Look, I'll break your neck before I flatten you so it won't hurt. Would you like that?"

Birsel shook her head and cried out as loudly as she could: "I don't want to be flattened, I want to live! I want to live, Goddess, please!"

"Well, if you don't want me to crush you," Laura began, breathing heavily from touching herself, "you owe me something, isn't that right?"

Birsel wiped her tears from her face and stood up, bracing herself for what ever was coming.

"Here is the deal." Laura offered and reclined, spreading her thighs. "You get one chance to get me off. If you fail, I will do it myself and use you as lubricant. Understood?"

-

The swath in the forest was a weird thing. It lead south, so maybe it had been left by the giants Nagash wanted to find but it seemed unnecessarily big even for their stature. The mightiest trees, the kind not even a giant could hope to bring down alone, had been pushed over, sometimes been smashed to pieces and then left there. What was the point of beating a path to a depopulated village, Nagash didn't understand. They had to be many though, or prosperous enough to be able to spare the time it took to make such a track.

It didn't look as if this track had been used twice though. Actually, there weren't even any foot steps to be found which made Nagash cautious. Horses had come through here recently though, but giants were too big and heavy for those. She decided to go besides the track and look out for possible dangers or anything weird.

Her supplies had run out. What she had taken from the hunting cabin had not been little but the shiny man had only carried a mouldy loaf of bread, an apple and a little hard cheese. The skinny girl had tasted stale and boring. In lack of any more wine and something to carry it in, Nagash had discarded her steel helmet cup as well.

Suddenly, once again, she smelled a fire burning. She froze, smelled and listened. From further down, the wind carried human voices to her and the smell of horses. A group of riders had made camp in the middle of the track. They looked a lot like the shiny man Nagash had crushed the day before, but these were at least eighteen of them. They must have posted scouts up and down the track she concluded from the fact that there were four horses too many. Why she hadn't been spotted, Nagash couldn't tell.

Amongst the humans' equipment were all kinds of things that looked as though they had stolen them from somewhere, and food as well, though be it just a bunch of turnips, carrots and beets.

"Haha, these refugees are easy targets. This is the time!" A voice said behind Nagash and made her freeze again "If we keep this up we'll be rich by winter."

"Pah!" Another, more mature voice spat. "The buggers never have anything worth stealing. Just turnips and pots. No gold, no spices, no silk. I don't know why Dexter brought us here. It's easy enough, true, but the yield is piss."

"Maybe we should try and raid that giant's village?!" The first voice suggested. "There's got to be something there for giant monsters to protect it, right? probably diamonds..."

"Piss on that." The other voice replied dismissively. "I'm not gettin' any closer to that place. We're like to have ourselves killed anyway, camping in the open like that. Dexter is a fool."

Nagash turned around, slowly. Two humans with spears had come out of the undergrowth and sat down on a fallen branch, observing the beat track, backs turned to her, completely oblivious to her presence. They passed a canteen in between them and took little, delicate sips, hissing every time the alcohol passed their throats.

"That's strong stuff." The left one said to his companion and gave him the bottle.

Nagash didn't dare to move. If either of these men sounded the alarm she'd be in big trouble. With horses, they had a good chance of catching up to her and twenty spears were not unlikely to stand a chance against her. She'd have to dispose of the scouts, quickly and quietly. She was pretty lucky that they hadn't seen her already.

"How come Dexter is the boss anyway?" The younger man on guard duty slurred.

"He killed the old one." The other said with a shrug. "He told him he was fucking fed up with him and then smashed his head in, right in the open. He's a good fighter, Dexter, I'll give him that."

The men were ten meters in front of Nagash which wasn't really much to her. But in the dense forest it was difficult for her to move quietly, mostly because the trees had leaves and low hanging branches here and she stood eleven meters tall. When she took a step forward the sound of twigs and branches crushing underneath her foot had the men spin around.

"Alarm!" The older one cried and the younger one fumbled for his hunting horn before giving it a long blow. Commotion could be heard from the camp where everyone rushed to their horses. Nagash didn't know what to do. The two sentries had picked up their spears and pointed them at her, but she could see that they were just as afraid as she was.

She turned and ran, as quickly as the forest allowed her to. Already, riders were approaching. Right in front of her one of them entered the brush and raised his lance at her but he had no time left to accelerate his horse. Nagash smashed into them with her knee, knocking the rider off his horse and bringing his mount down on top of him. She felt a sharp pain in her thigh were the lance had hurt her. The wound wasn't too big but extremely painful, the tip of the spear having broken off and remaining stuck inside.

They knew where she was. Next to her on the beaten track they were able to ride much faster and tried to flank her from the left. A rider came straight at her, with speed this time, raising his lance. Nagash let him come but threw herself against a tree just before he was able to hit her. The momentum of her body shattered all the branches and a lot of them came off. One of them was thick and straight and just to Nagash's liking.

She picked it up and when she rider approached a second time she stepped to the side, avoiding the thrust only narrowly and swinging her wooden club at her attacker with force. The mighty branch hit the raider with such force that it blew him right off his horse. His broken body rested on some roots, trying to lift itself but evidently unable to.

"No, no!" He screamed when Nagash raised the club a second time and brought it down on him, crushing his head under the unforgiving wood. When she turned back around a spear came flying at her and hit her in the chest. She pulled it out and moved on, but noticed that more and more riders were upon her now.

In a desperate move she broke through the brush with a sidestep, back onto the beat track, smashing three riders and their horses in a single mighty blow with her branch. Another spear that came flying only hit her weapon and remained stuck in the wood without doing any harm.

Unhindered by trees, Nagash was much quicker as well, but the horses were quick as well. Arrows hissed over her head and a few found their way into her back, where they did little more than annoy her. Suddenly, there was a sharp pain in her left foot. For a second, her world went black and she stumbled over a fallen tree and fell.

A spear was sticking out of the tendon at the back of the heel and hurt horribly. It felt as though her foot was somehow locked when she tried to get up, as if she couldn't use it any more. She tried to remove the spear, but as soon as she touched it, she blacked and fell down again. She was breathing heavily from the run when the riders surrounded her.

She still had her branch though. Standing on her knees, she waved it around, threateningly, keeping them at bay.

"Oi!" A man with stubbly grey hair said behind the spear wall. "Aren't you a big fucking wench?!"

Nagash had no notion of what that meant: "I have nothing you want, human!"

"Oh, my bad!" The man mocked. "You're just passing through, eh?! Well, my lady, my deepest apologies for wasting your time!"

This man was speaking in riddles, Nagash thought and decided to kill him if she got the chance.

"Come closer, and I'll smash your head in, you tiny little worm!" She threatened and waved her branch.

"Dexter, she killed Sly and Black Pete." A woman who came running on foot reported between breaths. "Big Foot, Nopants and Deaf Hans are looking pretty bad. Might be, they don't make it."

"And what makes you think you can stroll through our forest and kill my men?" Dexter addressed Nagash. His sly smile had died away.

"Come near me and I'll kill some more, human!" She growled at him just before someone threw a spear into her back making her cry out in pain.

"Halt!" Dexter commanded again and looked scolding at his riders.

"Where are you going?" He asked her and sounded pretty honest about it all of the sudden.

"South!" Nagash said through her teeth.

"South?" Dexter sounded surprised. "Why, don't you know what south of here lies? There's giants there."

"I am a giant, you stupid little human." Nagash hissed at him.

Dexter looked confused: "Well, of course, but the one's south are bigger than you. A lot bigger!"

The giantess was offended. She was one of the tallest of her kind, and this meagre little worm would not get to question her size. Grunting, she got up, although the pain almost blinded her again. Defiantly, she towered over the humans on their horses, the branch in her hand, ready to smash anyone who dared to come at her. Some horses cried out in fear and reared.

"Woa, woa, woa!" Dexter raised his arms calmingly. "There's no need to stand up there! Get down, or I'll have them throw spears at you again!"

"If I throw this stick at you we both die!" Nagash offered. It was not certain, but very likely. The branch was easily seven meters long and very thick, it's weight alone could probably crush the tiny man to death.

"There is no need for that!" Dexter said. "Hear my words and choose wisely. I'll let you go if you help me mitigate my losses."

"How?" Nagash asked and used the branch as a crutch.

"Join us!" He explained. "We're The Spear Brothers, you see. Free men and women who don't want to be ruled by a dead king's incapable widow. We take what we want, we do what we want. It's a good life, but if you want to go after our next raid, I will let you go, I swear it."

"Are you going south?" Nagash asked truculently.

"Only a mad man would go south!" He urged. "We're only here to avoid a bigger raiding party that was chasing us. With you by our side, we can smash them into oblivion!"

"Dexter, you can't be serious." The woman on foot whispered a little too loudly but he didn't pay her any mind. He just looked up at Nagash who considered his proposal carefully. A human raiding party was not exactly the company she was looking for. On the other hand, there would be food, company and action. She'd get to crush more people, maybe even take some slaves. Ultimately, it seemed to be the only way out of this situation. Taking orders from a human would be difficult though, but this one seemed pretty capable. And of course, she had heard how he had become the boss.

-

A friendly guard had pointed Dari into the direction of Andrafall, from where she was to ask the locals for further instructions on how to get to Ludwig's keep. People shouted at her that she was going the wrong way, that there were giants and that it was dangerous. She knew all that already. She had filled the Mengbillar with Zorgan's Dread just in case a giant would surprise her somehow. She thought it very unlikely though. They were supposed to be around nine meters tall, too big and clumsy to sneak up on someone like her. Or so she hoped.

The stolen steed was swift and patient but had refused to ride down the refugee that had stepped in Dari's path. He had screamed at her like a mad man that she was going the wrong way and that one hundred meter tall monsters dwelled where she was going. Peasants always exaggerated things, especially in these hinterlands.

The further she rode, the fewer people she encountered. Early on the second day, after spending the night in an abandoned shack she had continued on and regretted not bringing any provisions with her. A family of fleeing bakers charged her a silver for half a loaf of bread. Faced with such blatant insolence her hand had travelled to her knife. The baker and his wife had four little children but normally that did not concern Dari much. Killing children came easy to her, though she was never proud of it. Many a rich man needed this or that bastard of his to disappear, or a problematic pregnancy to be terminated. Thus, Dari had murdered children of all ages, even infants and unborn ones, and never felt much about it.

This was different though. Just about to draw the blade out of it's sheath and right through the fool's neck, her eyes had met those of their youngest son. His face was as pale as snow and snot ran out of his little nose but his eyes were as green as emeralds. Suddenly she felt as though she had known him for a life time. He was so innocent and sweet, she couldn't possibly kill this child. And just as she had thought it, her anger had withered away. Gracefully, she paid up and wished them farewell.

She thought about this incident for the rest of her journey to Andrafall. There, so she planned, she would buy some provisions and other things she might need for searching Vengyr. She'd also need to learn where Ludwig's keep was.

Around noon she came upon a village that had been entirely destroyed. It hadn't been burned but no wall stood straight as if someone had torn the buildings down and then smashed them to pieces. If anything, this could only have been the work of giants, Dari guessed. They would have had to have been many though, as this village looked rather big. Something terrible had happened here.

She noticed a peculiar person, cowering by some kind of pond, measuring it with string. Dari rode closer.

"Hey there, fella!" She greeted him but he didn't look up. He was a strange man, rather short and thin, with dark blonde hair, green britches and shirt and a brown coat, matching his rucksack. He had all kinds of strange brass and glass apparatuses about his person but didn't wear any weapon. Dari could just kill him and take his fancy things, she thought, curious about what they might do.

"Impossible." The man mumbled and fingered with a bit of parchment and a stick of coal, hastily scribbling numbers, crossing them out and writing them again.

"What's impossible?" Dari inquired in an attempt to get his attention.

"The size!" The man squeaked and took the string again, putting the lead weight on one end of the pond and measuring the length of it by nots on the string. Then he scribbled again. Dari was annoyed and disappointed. He was just a madman, probably some rich man's son.

"Is it still far to Andrafall?", She asked him and hoped for the best.

"Andrafall?" He repeated and seemed to think "Why, this is Andrafall. Yes!"

Dari's heart sank a bit. She had been looking forward to a meal, some provisions a sleeping bag and a tent.

"What happened here?" She already guessed the answer but she wanted to hear it for sure.

"Giants." The weird man answered. "Giantesses to be exact. Yes! Two of them. Yes. And this one was about one hundred meters tall. Mh!"

"How can you tell that from measuring two puddles of water?" Dari asked dismissively.

"A footprint. Yes!" He answered and pointed to the smaller pond. "That is the heel, and this is the rest of the boot. And then there are the eyewitness accounts. Yes."

"You mean to tell me," Dari asked, raising an eyebrow, "a bunch of peasants told you a story about giants and now you take two shallow pits in the ground for an imprint of a boot the size of a barn?"

"Well," The man mumbled. "I take them as evidence. See."

He reached into the brown water and fumbled for something, when he took it out again his hand was full of shattered bones. Human bones.

"So what, bones in a pond." Dari criticised, not entirely sure why she was even bothering with him. "That doesn't prove anything."

"It's only evidence for my hypothesis." The man argued. "It is not fully established yet. I seek to prove the existence of said giants. Such would very much please his royal magnificence Horasio III. Yes!"

Horasians, Dari thought, they were always a bit weird.

"Do you know how I can get to Ludwig's keep?" She asked uncomfortably.

"Ludwig's keep, why, yes!" He blurted out. "Splendid! I'm going there myself. I can offer you to accompany me, young lady!"

Dari somehow felt strongly opposed to that idea but consented anyway. She had a job to do. The weird man gathered his things and went to get his horse, a brown hack that was old but calm tempered.

"My name is Lionel Logue, adventurer, discoverer and scientist by the pleasure of his royal magnificence Horasio III, at your service!" He made an awkward bow on his weedy horse and drew his woollen cap.

"I am Sina Stonecutter." Dari lied. "It's a...pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"The pleasure is mine, yes!" Lionel said amused and suddenly seemed to enjoy riding very much.

He went on and on about his adventures that had apparently taken him to the tops of the remotest mountains and the tropical islands of the south, places that Dari only knew from stories and tales. For a man who had seen so much of the world he seemed remarkably fanciful and alien to common sense, as if he had been living in an entirely different world.

Suddenly, he jumped off his horse and ran towards the woods like a mad man, completely forgetting about his horse which came patiently trotting behind him.

"Look at this!" He shouted and pointed at another pair of ponds, not entirely different to the ones they had seen before. A group of trees looked as if they had been squashed aside around it.

"Look at the way the trees broke!" He urged Dari when she came closer. "Coincidence? Ha! I think not! Yes!"

Forgetting about their destination, he went to measure this example as well, taking his sweet time all while Dari was getting annoyed. She considered forcing him to move on at knife point but worried that he wouldn't understand something as simple and logical as a death threat. Without him, finding Ludwig's keep would take a great deal longer.

-

Janna had searched more than half a day before finding a populated village to sate her hunger. A farm she had found earlier had only served as an appetizer to keep her going. The farmer, his wife and their seven children as well as 4 pigs, a cow and an ox had found their way into her belly but of course she needed more. Much more. The few refugees she found along the way didn't help much either.

What she had found now was a small village next to a wooden stronghold. It was basically just a collection of houses next to a small hill with a palisade around it and a wooden bergfried on top. It was even smaller and less sophisticated than Ludwig's keep had been before she crushed it. They all ran, as soon as they saw her, but not into the forest where they might have had a chance of escaping, but into the dubious protection of their keep.

If Janna would sit down on the thing that was half the size of a shoebox, She'd crush them all at once. The idea was tempting but she was hungry and had to eat.

Bows were given to peasants, she saw, and they readied to shoot arrows at her. She gave them a mild smile and waited patiently out of range until the last one had made it into the keep, although the bergfried seemed to become lightly overcrowded by then.

She wore jeans and t-shirt, so arrows wouldn't really be able to bother her. Her boots that had ended the lives of thousands in the past few days were stained with dirt from endless walking and crushing things. After She and Laura had wiped Andrafall off the face of the earth, Janna had kind of taken up the habit of smashing and flattening everything and everyone in a village, even when she had had enough to eat. Killing them brought her some peculiar sense of satisfaction, as if she was punishing them for bringing her to this place. Of course, her being sucked into another dimension was probably not the fault of some peasants in a remote village in Andergast but that didn't change the way she felt about crushing them.

Janna went to the village first, devouring what few animals she could find out in the open, in the name of diversifying her diet a little bit. Pigs and horses and cows tasted nice enough but somehow didn't have that special taste she liked so much about eating little people. She ripped the roofs off some of the houses and looked for more food. A shelf of bread or a basket of cabbage were not wasted but it was bothersome to pick up such tiny objects one at a time. She randomly squashed a house beneath her boot and enjoyed the feeling of the petty little structure crumbling beneath her.

A boy came running out of a house next to it and looked at her in terror before attempting to flee. Janna smiled evilly and put her foot down in his path, flattening half another house under the heel. He turned and ran the other way, only to find his way blocked by a massive wall of leather again.

"Awww." Janna cooed with a broad smile. "Is the big girl being mean to you? Are you being picked on? I'm such a meanie!"

He attempted another direction, now going straight for one of the bigger houses. Janna stomped down on it with enough force to send him off his feet.

"Oh no, you don't." She grinned and bit her lip. The boy broke down on the ground and looked up at her, pleadingly.

"Awww, whats the matter? Don't want to be squished, sweetie?" She added and let the sole of her boot hover over him.

He picked himself up again and ran out of the menacing shadow. Janna stomped down again as soon as he was out of danger and he fell once more. Half crawling, half running he reached the house that her heel had damaged and slipped inside, out of view.

"Oh no, where did you go?" Janna teased and lifted her foot above the house next to his hiding place.

"Did you go in this one?" She trod the house flat with a single stomp. "Or that one?"

Another house in the vicinity was obliterated.

"Ah, I know." She continued and slowly lowered foot on his hiding place. "Must be this one."

She was so immeasurably powerful to the tiny people. The damaged structure creaked as she applied some pressure onto it and started to give in even easier than the undamaged ones.

"Better run out little bug.", She teased, "Big meanie is going to squash your little house."

When he stepped outside again, the house behind him collapsed helplessly under Janna's weight.

"There you are." Janna cooed and gave him an almost motherly smile. "Where will you hide now little guy? It's all squished and squashed around here."

He dropped to his knees and started pleading with her again. Janna loved it when they did that before she crushed them. It made her feel empowered even more.

"Don't worry, I understand." She told him although she wasn't able to make out his words. "I'll put you out of your misery."

When he learned that that meant getting crushed under her sole he started to shake his head vigorously but Janna ignored his pleas and pinned him to the ground underneath her boot. She relished the feeling of resistance for a second and gently touched herself before she trod down.

After giving him a little twist, the boy was nothing more than a smear.

-

The woman who had objected was tasked with removing arrows and spear heads from Nagash's body. Nagash told her to remove the one in her foot last, because she knew it was going to be painful and likely to rouse her anger. The other raiders watched her suspiciously and some made no secret of their hatred for her. Dexter didn't look too pleased either, knowing his raiding party was not fully in with his idea of having their very own war beast. They didn't have shackles or anything sturdy to bind Nagash except for a few ropes, but they didn't attempt to use them on her. If she tried to run there would be an escalation and blood would spill. Hers and theirs. But she couldn't run with that spear in her heel, anyway.

While the woman removed the arrows from Nagash's back and sewed the larger wounds shut she thought about what she would do. These humans would make excellent slaves to bring to the giantesses' tribe as a gift. She could smash Dexter to bits, become their leader and lead them south. They wouldn't accept her if she did it now, she knew. She'd have to wait.

They had given her a bowl of watery mashed potatoes. It might have filled a human, to Nagash it was barely anything. She was hungry again. The humans had buried their dead comrades and there seemed to be no other meat on the menu. The three wounded ones were off limits too, though they looked as though they'd likely not make it. One had not waken up yet, another was lamed and a third one had a shattered arm.

"More." Nagash demanded and shoved her bowl into the arms of a skinny, young raider. The lad ran immediately but an older comrade moved in front of the kettle.

"One helping per brother." He said sternly, looking her square in the eye.

"I'm six times your size, maggot!" She spat before thinking. "And I'm not your brother!"

"Yes! You are just a treacherous monster that kills our brothers!" He countered and his hand reached for his spear. A few voices around sounded their agreement and the phrase.

"Let's kill her!" Was uttered somewhere.

"Enough!" Dexter commanded sharply and the camp fell silent. "Giants have a quick temper and a big appetite, everybody knows that, so don't offend her for Praios' sake and give her another fucking bowl! Otherwise, take it up with me, personally!"

Grumpily, the older brother stepped aside.

"Umm..." The tiny woman who was treating Nagash begged for attention. "I am going to remove the last one now, hold still please."

She was a pretty little thing with blonde hair, and looked far too innocent for this group of dogs.

"What's your name?" Nagash asked her before offering her ankle to be treated.

"They call me Daisy." The girl said and gave the giantess an insecure look.

Nagash smiled.

"I squash daisies under my feet all the time." She whispered and the girl went pale. "Hurt me and I will squash you too."

Daisy swallowed hard and went to work with her delicate, shaking fingers. The threat worked wonders and the tip of the spear came out almost painlessly. It would be fun to play with such a puny little, helpless thing, Nagash thought.

Her food arrived and she wolfed it down at once. It was still not enough but to her surprise, Daisy asked the young boy to bring her own helping to Nagash as well, stating that she wasn't hungry any more. Nagash was nowhere near full, but it would keep the hunger pains away for at least a little while.

She stood up and stretched, finding that she could move her foot much better now and almost without any pain. Enjoying the early evening, a few Spear Brothers had gathered around the fire and drank, nattering with one another. The three women of the group, both except for Daisy looking like fighters as well, took the kettle and wooden bowls and walked over to a shallow ditch to wash them. Nagash followed them, most eyes of the camp still on her.

While the women looked on in confusion, Nagash knealt at the bank of the small stream, lowered her face towards the water and drank. She caught a glimpse of her own reflection for a moment and understood why the humans feared her this much. Her hair was like bears fur, only longer, a heap of nots that made her look wild, tiny twigs and leaves entwined in it from her hike through the woods. Hunger had hardened her facial features as well and the exertions had made her body lean and strong. She'd have to prove that she was friendly towards those that were of use to her, like Daisy was with her skill in treating wounds.

"Let me help you." Nagash offered and took the huge bronze kettle Daisy had been struggling with, in to her own hands. The other women looked rather displeased.

"You don't have to." The little girl began. "It's alright."

Nagash submerged the kettle under the stream and scrubbed it good while the others looked on.

"Thank you." Daisy whispered after a short while and was first to start cleaning bowls again. "I hate that heavy thing."

"Piss off, we don't want you here. This is women's work!" One of the other women hissed.

Nagash turned towards her and lifted her leathern loin cloth.

"I am a woman too." She remarked with a smirk.

Daisy swallowed hard at the sight of the huge sex, knowing full well that she would fit inside.

"What are you doing waving your cunt around!" The other woman whispered with a scolding tone. "It's worse enough with so many wifeless men already!"

Nagash knew that many female humans, most being smaller than their male counterparts, had to endure a lot of harassment in their live times. Giantesses being taller than ogres and about as strong, had much less to fear and acted more dominant on the males.

"If one of these dogs give you any trouble, just come to me." Nagash offered with a reassuring smile. "I will sort them out."

"Dexter will sort them out." The woman corrected, but her expression softened a little.

"Dexter..." Daisy blurted out and cringed. The woman next to her put her hand on the younger one's shoulder and patted her softly. Daisy was fighting back tears.

"When?" The other woman asked concerned and had completely forgotten about the dish washing.

"The day before yesterday." Daisy said, sniffing hard before she caught herself, washed her face and went back to scrubbing. The other women looked to the ground awkwardly before they continued as well. Nagash looked at them in confusion.

"What?" She asked after a moment of silence. "What happened the day before yesterday."

"Shhhhh!" One of the older women made. "We don't talk about it! It's Dexter's...thing. He has done it with everyone of us. If you want to be a part of this group you'll have to give him a go between your legs."

Nagash found that funny and had to suppress a giggle: "You mean he'll come for me too?"

The idea of being taken by a human seemed absurd to her. Still, finally being with a man had something intriguing. Maybe she'd give him a chance and not try to crush him if he dared to come for her tonight.

"The other men know about it." Daisy said sternly. "If he doesn't do it with every one of us, he looks weak. He told me so."

"That's his way of saying that he is sorry." One of the other women reassured her before turning to Nagash, "If he comes for you, you have nothing to fear. With that monstrous twat of yours, you're not even like to feel him."

In a moments notice Nagash had grabbed the woman by the neck and thrust her into the ditch, holding her face under the water, smirking vengefully at the little twitches and the bubbles of air that popped at the surface.

"Stop, stop!" Daisy cried and rushed into the shallow waters, feebly trying to lift Nagash's hand. The soft, little hands on her own had a remarkably calming effect on Nagash and she released the woman from being drowned. She realized that she had killed this woman, like the others before her, in her blind murderous frenzy, if the tiny beauty hadn't intervened.

"Don't talk to her like that!" Daisy instructed the coughing female. "You heard what Dexter said!"

The woman looked as angry as helpless. Her hand went to the axe on her belt but when she regarded Nagash, towering over her even on her knees, she let go. She and the other one picked up the bowls and scurried away, leaving Daisy and the kettle behind.

The little girl looked terribly insecure, torn in between going after the others and staying. Nagash became aroused by the little one's delicate features but somehow she began to like her for her character as well. It was weird, feeling this way towards a human.

"Did you..." Daisy began hesitantly. "Did you mean what you said?"

"About crushing you?" Nagash asked and realized that saying it had been stupid. Daisy was no threat to her and feared her anyway. The ones who were still giving her hateful looks were those whom she had to teach to fear her.

"N-no" Daisy stammered softly. "About the men. Will you really keep them off me?"

"Who is giving you trouble?" Nagash inquired and leaned close so that Daisy could whisper directly into her hear.

"No one, Dexter would hack their...things off if they tried to." She said uncomfortably. "It's just...they look at me all the time. A little touch here and there, a comment, pestering me, following me to watch me make water...some day one of them will force himself on me. Someone other than Dexter."

"I wont let that happen." Nagash assured her sternly and cracked her knuckles. "And if Dexter means to come for you again, I will rip off his man parts and shove them down his throat."

"No, no, he's not that bad." Daisy warded off. "It's like he says, he has to do it, or the men don't respect him any more. And he's really sorry for it. I am thankful to him, actually, I..."

Her voice broke and the words caught in her throat. Tears welled up in her eyes again which she desperately tried to hide from the rest of the camp. She obviously couldn't lie to herself any more. Nagash felt strangely touched by little Daisy's hardship. She extended a hand and caressed the dirty golden hair with her fingers, as gently and delicately as she could.

"Thank you." Daisy said with a much stronger voice after she had gathered herself up again. "Let's go to the others. It will look suspicious if we stand here all this time, doing nothing."

"What are they drinking?" Nagash asked, nodding over to the men by the fire.

"Boron's Tears." Daisy answered. "We got a few boxes of it recently, they are drinking it to pass the time. It's very strong..."

"Let's join them." Nagash suggested and stood, amicably looking down on the little girl. She didn't know of any giants that had ever managed to produce alcohol but that didn't mean they disliked it. Wine, Ale and Liquor were among the highest valued goods amongst their people.

All conversations died when Nagash approached the fire. She helped herself to a bottle of Boron's Tears but no one would make and room for her. To gain some respect, she almost sat down on one of the men, causing him to scramble to the side and make room for her. All eyes were watching, no mouth said a word. After futilely fumbling with the bottle for a while Nagash gave it to the man she had almost buried under her rump. He looked at the others in confusion before slowly uncorking the thing and giving it back to her.

She offered it to Daisy whose refusals echoed much too loudly in the quiet group: "No, no, no, no, it's too strong for me, I will lose myself!"

Many an intoxicated mind listened up visibly in the pleasant caress of the sun that would settle soon.

"Come on, Daisy!" A drunk brother from the other side of the fire called fearlessly. "Drink with us!"

"Yah!" A few others chimed in and Nagash felt the tension loosen up a little. Following an impulse she pushed against the girl's back with her left hand and shoved the bottle into her face with the other.

"I will, urgh!" Daisy was able to say before Nagash poured the stinking liquid into her. After a few seconds, the girl started to cough and the green alcohol sprayed to the sides accompanied by thunderous laughter. The drops that landed in the fire produced a blue flame and a hiss. Nagash poured the rest of the substance down her own throat in one go. It burned horribly and tasted almost worse but one bottle was so tiny compared to her. Not a soul objected, when she took the next and had it opened by the man next to her, who in turn was much more forthcoming this time around. It felt strange but not impossible to be bonding with such small creatures. And Boron's Tears helped.

The two pouting washing women sat behind Dexter who was drinking as well, shooting the giantess nervous glances every now and then. After the third bottle, Nagash began to feel a little light headed and got cautious. Crushing one of the humans in a drunken stupor was something she wanted to avoid. She also noticed that some of the brothers abstained from the substance, looking at her hatefully, their weapons close by. She was having fun, she noticed, listening to the conversations the humans had and hoped that the night wouldn't turn ugly. Still, she went for a fourth bottle of snaps.

"With her," an extremely drunken brother said after a while, standing up swaying and gesturing towards Nagash, "I say we can crush the Howling Wolves and go raiding at our hearts desire! Who do they think they are, messing with the Spear Brothers?!"

"Yah!" The crowd cheered again and the drunkard went on: "Let us raise our cups to those fallen today, but also to our new bro- uh, - sister...may she smash our enemies to bits, while we take the spoils, hahaha!"

"To the giantess!" and, "To the monster!", and, "To the fallen!", they drank, some considerably more cheerful than others.

"To our new spear sister!" Daisy screamed cutely, suffering from a terrible case of the hiccups.

"Heh, giant!" A drunken brother addressed Nagash with his tongue hanging out, looking like a dullard. "How many men have you killed?"

Nagash had to think for a moment. Back when she had been with her clan she hadn't really counted the humans she broke.

"Counting only the ones who put up a fight?" She answered answered. "I'd say about a dozen."

"That's weak." He answered sloppily. "Even Oldbones has as many as you!"

Oldbones was exactly what his name promised, a grey haired, bony, skeleton of a man, resting on the hilt of his antiquated axe, sleeping.

"Well, let's see how the count stands after the next fight." Nagash proclaimed, accepting the challenge.

"Yes. But how many brothers will you have on that list by then?" One of the distrusting, sober brothers asked.

The happy atmosphere froze all of the sudden, as if a cold wind had come through. Nobody said a word while Nagash wrestled to find an answer that would reassure them. The speaker looked her square in the eye, his dark eyes filled with vengeful hatred. With every heartbeat, the situation grew more awkward, as the right words just wouldn't come.

"I will have you on my list if you don't start drinking already, you grumpy, old bugger!" A slurring, young, female voice called into the quiet. Everyone burst into laughter. Daisy beamed up at Nagash, her cheeks flushed red, clumsily sipping from a wooden cup. The drunken, tiny girl had jumped into the breach and washed the awkwardness away.

"Thank you." Nagash mouthed to her and padded the little human on the head.

"No but, really." Another brother addressed Dexter, taking a sip from his cup. "We all know each other. How will we make sure, she doesn't kill any of us by fault?"

"You are right." Dexter agreed. "That is a problem."

He turned to Nagash and began to explain: "We don't wear any colours, you see, and we keep our coats mixed. That way we sow confusion in disorganized ranks. It only works because every one of us knows every other brother's face by heart."

"It's not a problem!" Daisy jumped in and totteringly got to her feet. "I can sit on her shoulders and tell her who to smash!"

"That could work." Dexter said after a while, scratching the grey stubbles on his chin. "Looks like we've finally found some use for you in a fight, huh? Hehe!"

"Giantess!" Daisy said in a commanding tone and pointed at Dexter. "Smash him!"

Nagash looked between her and Dexter in confusion.

"It was a jape, you big fool!" Daisy laughed and had seemingly forgotten about the giantess's temperament. But instead of crushing the life out of the little girl, Nagash felt her lips bend into a smile.

"Get some rest, brothers!" One of the sober raiders called after a while. "We all need to be able to ride tomorrow."

The drunkards protested but Dexter settled the issue: "He's right! Go to sleep. Tomorrow we return west with our giantess!"

He raised his wooden cup to Nagash who was on her sixth bottle by then. Those raiders who had drunk of the substance raised their cups and bottles in unison. Those who were still awake, that was. A few had already fallen back and slumbered deeply. Nagash drained the bottle at once and turned to Daisy who was getting up.

"I, umm, I need to," The girl stammered tipsily and stumbled towards the forest to make water. Nagash had half a mind to follow but thought better of it. One drunkard stood up and dreamily went after Daisy as if he was walking on clouds. Nagash put her hand on his shoulders and gently pushed him back down again. He got the message and made himself comfortable on the grass.

Most of the others went to sleep were they had sat. Some had sleeping bags, some had blankets, others had nothing at all. Nagash put herself down away from the group. She couldn't rule out that some of the raiders were up to something and this way, she had a chance of hearing them come. She'd try not to sleep, she told herself, but the harder she tried the more tired she seemed to become. When she was on the brink of slumber she felt a pair of tiny hands on her belly.

Looking up, she saw that it was only Daisy, crawling up on her, eyes already closed, curling into a ball and falling asleep almost instantly. The alcohol had worked hard on the poor little thing. Nagash covered her with a hand and before she knew it, she drifted into a comfortable slumber herself.

She dreamed of the girls she had chased in the woods. Sleeping by a rock wall, they had cornered themselves, giving her all the time in the world to play with them. She devoured the smallest one first and towered over the others when her womanly parts suddenly demanded to be touched. She had known these urges before, but in the clan with the other giantesses around, she had never acted on them.

Once, Nagash had pretended to be asleep and then watched her mother take a little human into her bed, pressing it's little face in between her massive thighs until her breathing became erratic and a short, high pitched squeal of pleasure escaped her lips. Then her mother had snapped the slave's neck and tossed him aside like a used rag.

Curiously, Nagash ripped the clothes off the girls' bodies, studying their privates intently before using the first in the fashion her mother had. The power she felt, was amazing. Insatiably, she had dragged the girl along her snatch until the tiny head slipped inside of her and she had thrust the girl in and out of herself until the tiny thing had drowned in her juices. Breathing heavily and shaking in the legs, Nagash licked the body clean before throwing it into the woods.

The remaining sister had seen everything and begged Nagash to stop. Somehow, her feeble little pleas turned Nagash on even more, and she was far from done yet. She forced the human's legs apart and licked her down there and when Nagash finally pushed the girl's little mouth to her own sex, it knew what it was supposed to do.

It was different but undeniably pleasurable as well. She had that last girl for hours, forcing her to take her to that point time and again. When alas, Nagash felt it was time to return to her clan, she had put the exhausted little human on the trunk of a fallen tree and bestrode it, just like a human would sit on a horse. Then she rode it, slowly at first, relishing the feeling of the tiny thing breaking under her sex with every grind. She had left the girl there, mercifully dead after half an hour of getting crushed flat by her love making.

When Nagash looked behind in her dream, the girl had Daisy's face, somehow.

-

Birsel was clinging to Laura's folds with both hands, licking and sucking at the fleshy nob the goddess had pointed out to her. Laura was moaning and twitching and Birsel held on for dear live. Sometimes, massive fingers came, ready to pinch her in between them and rub her all over the place, but they cringed and moved back when Birsel intensified her efforts.

She was sweating, thirsty and exhausted but knew she could not let off lest Laura would crush her. When the gargantuan body reared up and a scream escaped Laura's lips, Birsel knew that she had accomplished what she set out to do. It was scary to witness the sheer force that came from the goddess gargantuan body in the heat of lust. After coming up, Laura's back fell down on the bed again and the tiny girl was thrown off the enormous, throbbing sex and landed hard on the queer surface where she bounced a few times. The gargantuan legs on either side of her where shaking in delight, sending vibrations through the bed that slowly woke Birsel up. Her world spinning, she was still catching her bearings when Laura sat up and looked down on her.

"Nice job, little one." The giantess said, considerably out of breath, and picked Birsel up in between her fingers. Huge brown eyes mustered her for a moment before a pitiful smile crept on cruel, gargantuan lips.

"I'd take you back to the village, but I'm too lazy. You're getting squished. Sorry..."

Birsel felt the massive digits moving closer together and panicked. They would crush her if Laura didn't stop. Her heart pounded as if it was going to rip out of her chest.

"Wait!" She cried out hastily, before Laura could force the air out of her lungs. "If you kill me, you'll have to kill my family as well!"

The goddess seemed amused by the argument but her thumb and index finger stopped pushing for a second.

"I'll smush them tomorrow, don't worry." she cooed and started to really crush Birsel in between her fingers.

"But...we're...weavers!" Birsel was able to croak before she had no air left.

"Weavers?" Laura asked with a raise of an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"No...clothes!" Birsel said, barely audible even to herself. The fingers released her a bit and Birsel drew in as much air as she could.

"We're the only weavers in Lauraville, goddess!" She explained so hastily that the words almost tumbled atop of each other when they spilled out of her mouth. "If you kill us, the people will have no clothes!"

The blood in Birsel's veins froze as Laura seemed to think for a moment. She started sweating uncontrollably and shook violently from time to time without being able to stop it.

"But they already have clothes." Laura argued against that, yet seemed to have become a little uncertain.

"Clothes wear and tear, especially during hard labour!" Birsel continued eagerly. "Without us, the people have to make their clothes themselves and will be less productive!"

Birsel looked deeply into Laura's eyes, not pleadingly, but trying to look reasonable, while every fibre of her body hoped that she would be spared.

"Not bad." Laura admitted after a period of consideration. "So, I guess, I'm not squishing you then, huh?"

Upon hearing these words Birsel's world spun again and she felt luckier than ever before. Tears welled up in her eyes and her body stopped twitching.

"But actually." Laura said while her smile reappeared. "I can go find some new weavers tomorrow. Surely there's a few in every village, right? How do you want it, fingers still? I kinda feel like making you join your co-workers..."

Birsel was lifted towards the goddess's mouth while she twitched and cried.

"No! Not in there again, please!" She begged.

"Oh, you don't like it in my mouth?" Laura purred. "Why, that's where everyone puts there food, no?"

"I'm not food!" Birsel whined but the giantess only grinned.

"Yes, you are." She said and dragged the entire length of her whale sized tongue over Birsel's body. "Mhhh. A tasty little morsel, you are."

"Oh!" Laura added with a cock of her brows. "Do you think your friends are still alive in me? Tell them I'm kinda sorry for swallowing them. Even though I'm really not. Oh my gosh, if they're still alive they hear everything I say, don't they?!"

"Little people!" She called, cutely looking at the ceiling. "Are you alive, little people?"

She turned her eyes back to the girl in her hand and faked disappointment. "Meh, I think they're gone already. Don't be sad, maybe you'll all end up in the same turd. Better than nothing, right?"

Birsel couldn't really follow the conversation any more. All she knew was that Laura toyed with her. It was something the giantess had done with villagers before and Birsel knew how it ended. She liked to bully people before she killed them. Desperately, Birsel started grasping for straws.

"Didn't you like the way I pleasured you, goddess?" She pleaded, deciding that staying alive was preferable to keeping her dignity. "Didn't you enjoy my service? Wouldn't you like to feel it again?"

-

After Lionel Logue had finally measured and catalogued the foot print, which included making a precise drawing of it, he and Dari were on their way again. They had shared some of Lionel's provisions which oddly contained mostly expensive blue cheese, white bred and red wine.

As it turned out, the adventurer, discoverer and scientist was marvellously equipped for Dari's purposes. He had a rain proof tent, a sleeping bag, dried mushrooms for staying awake and a special pipe stuffing of Mibeltube for going to sleep again. Dari guessed that excessive use of the last two explained most of his awkward behaviour. Although he carried all those expensive things about his person, he did not carry a weapon. He'd be almost too easy to kill, Dari thought, but of course she couldn't let him go after all this. Who knew what long term consequences her affiliation with Xardas would have. The fewer witnesses, the better. She hadn't killed Gunther and the stable boy without reason, even though she had gone soft on the bakers and their kids.

The road through the forest made a turn and suddenly a wind came up, carrying the most foul stench, Dari had ever smelled. Her horse reared and backed off, while she wretched out Lionel's provisions to the side.

"Ah, yes. The odor of corpses." Lionel said amused. "Most, heh, unpleasant!"

He offered her a mask of perfumed linen and Dari donned it without hesitation. She was used to the sewers of Gareth, which were arguably one of the worst smelling places in the world, but never had her nose been so offended as here. The odor of death and decay was excruciating. Lionel didn't seem to mind at all, neither did his horse.

Corpses, or what was left of them, were everywhere. Where in Andrafall, passers by had taken care of most of the bodies, the battlefield of Ludwig's keep was an open graveyard. The small village by the keep was abandoned but seemed still somewhat intact, the keep itself was reduced to nothing more than a pile of stones.

The centre of the battlefield had been just at the bottom of the hill, as evidenced by the density of crushed bodies. She looked at the drawn picture of Vengyr at the battle of Iron forest. Finding a single specific corpse here, would take weeks at the least, if he was left identifiable at all; only one body in ten seemed to be. She showed the picture to Lionel with the weird hope that he might just stumble over what she was looking for.

"How many giants were here?" She asked the discoverer, "Do you know? One hundred?"

"Two." Lionel said. "According to eyewitness accounts. Yes."

"Two hundred giants?!" Dari asked aghast. Surely, the crown's efforts of getting the giant-problem under control were not sufficient then.

"No. Mh. Mh." Lionel corrected. "Only two. Two point zero giants. Giantesses, to be exact. Yes."

"But giants are only nine to eleven meters tall, how could only two of them have killed so many people?" Dari countered.

"According to my hypothesis," Lionel argued and swelled his chest, "there is a new species of giant at work here. I call them Gigantus Horasius Loguae. Yes."

Someone as mighty as this Vengyr person would likely have fought at the centre of the battlefield, Dari reasoned and began her search there while Lionel went up to the keep in order to take some more measurements.

The bodies here looked as though they had been squashed multiple times. For most it was barely possible to say if they had been humanoid. To identify Vengyr, Dari went mostly by clothing but on some bodies not even that would serve. It was disgusting and frustrating work and the perfume in the mask gave her a headache.

Suddenly, the hair on Dari's neck stood up as it so often did when danger was looming. She looked around but saw nothing other than the thousands of ravens that feasted here and whose cawing and flapping of wings drowned out most other sounds. Her steed, that she bad bound to a post by the bottom of the hill was freaking out because of the smell anyway. She rattled some of the bodies to see if they would move. There had been horrible stories of undead people in Xardas's book. However, the dead seemed to remain dead after all.

"Hey!" Lionel suddenly called down at her from the top of the hill. He was very enthusiastic about something and waving at her like the madman that he was.

"Hey!" He repeated with a little hop. "I found your dead man! He is alive!"

-

Janna had used her spare time these last few days to experiment and research a bit more on the tiny population. They were quite nutritious. About two to three hundred per day should be enough for a healthy calorie level, Janna had calculated, and of course, Laura and her tried to eat other things as well. Laura's attempt to solve the food problem permanently by enslaving an entire village to non-stop food production was ill conceived and more like home gardening than industrial food production. When Janna started for food in the morning, she often gave Laura's village a glance from afar, thinking how much time she would save by eating it's people instead of going to find another village. It also had the appeal of the forbidden.

When Janna had seen a group of hunters scurry through the woods by the space ship two days earlier, she had felt like a little girl. They could only have been Laura's precious little workers. The five men had all hidden in the same bush, making them easy prey for her. Laura stood at the edge of the ship, enjoying the morning sun and would know what was going on when Janna suddenly started stomping the ground. Instead, Janna had turned her back to the hiding hunters, and plopped her butt right down on top of their hiding place. The satisfaction she felt when all manner of things were crushed under her behind had been a bright start in the day. She acted as if something had been in her boot before she moved on, leaving the tiny men deeply embedded in the imprint of her butt. It made her chuckle to think about it.

The sound of more houses getting flattened beneath her feet sent more tiny people fleeing from their homes. They had speculated, with all the people and the lord in the keep, the village would be largely ignored. They were wrong. Countless had already been trodden flat along with their homes.

"Come out, you little people." Janna teased. "It is annihilation time."

She had learned to love these games. They made her unbelievably wet in the loins and after she had put a community under foot she'd usually find a nice, quiet spot and finger herself to the memory. The morbid fascination of near absolute power over hundreds of beings that were, at the end of the day, just like her was unbelievable. They had simply picked shorter straws than her. Much shorter.

She chased a running woman that was carrying something with the tip of her boot for a moment before crushing her. After she withdrew her foot she let it settle on some grandfather that was crawling slowly over the ground. The thick soles of her boots let only a slight resistance be felt when Janna trod on some unfortunate person, yet she loved doing it with them. Squashing people barefoot had it's merits as well, a more intensive feeling for one, but the heavy foot wear allowed Janna to squash anything and anyone completely without concern weapons, sharp edges or splinters.

A young couple was next to fall victim to Janna's feet. When she stomped down on them the boy shoved his beloved aside sending her falling and rolling over the ground while he was crushed to paste under Janna's weight. When the girl looked up, she only saw the giant foot, resting on top of her lover. In a fit of madness she ran to it and beat the brown leather with her puny little hands. Janna lifted her foot to let the girl see what had become of her boyfriend before joining them as one for eternity. Rhythmically stomping up and down, house after house fell victim to Janna's feet until the village was reduced to splinters and tramped earth.

"Lunch break." She announced and turned her attention to the people in the bergfried.

They had arranged bowmen with fire arrows on top of the tower. Not a bad move indeed, because Janna's hair and t-shirt could be set alight if enough arrows hit a single spot. She moved into arrow range face first and when the first volley of arrows soared towards her, she blew as hard as she could. The wind she created simply blew the arrows aside and even put out the fire on some of them.

"Again! Draw!" Janna heard, faintly from the top of the tower "Loose!"

Another volley of arrows was met by her blowing and all but a single one failed to hit her. A petty little sting in her upper lip told Janna that she had been hit. She pinched the tiny wooden splinter in between her fingernails and drew it out. It hadn't penetrated deep at all, it's kinetic energy just no match for the sheer size of her.

"Draw!" It rang softly from the bergfried.

"Shoot me one more time and I crush you all." Janna threatened from above.

"Loose!" Came the defiant command after who ever was in charge had processed what the giantess had said.

Not a single arrow left the battlements.

Janna smiled and moved closer, ready to fill her belly. As she loomed over them, the archers tried to get inside the tower and squeezed towards the narrow stairway down. Apparently though, the inside of the stronghold was already packed quite tightly. She reached right into the hustle and filled her mouth with the puny little things. Naked, they tasted better, but usually Janna was too impatient and ate them along with anything they had on them. When she ate soldiers or knights, sometimes a tiny sword or a spear would sting her gums or tongue, an immediate death sentence for anyone or anything unfortunate enough to be in her mouth. Like fish bones, she would sometimes spit out bent swords or mangled pieces of armour.

As half as big as a shoe box, the tower was quite big and an impressive accomplishment for the little people. But what was enough to repell brigands and plunderers was nothing more than a tightly packed lunch box to Janna. Soon, the top floor was void of any people, only a lucky few having made it inside. When she held the lord of the hold fast in between her fingers, Janna considered talking to him for a second, but dismissed the idea soon enough and made him join his minions. His chain mail produced a gnashing sound when he was ground to paste in between her molars.

Before tearing into the building, Janna put a handful of earth in front of the main gate to prevent any smart people from escaping, finally putting them all, one hundred percent, at her mercy. Whilst she was still indulging in the thought, a voice behind her made her cringe: "Hey, you!"

It was male and far too strong for any of the little people to have uttered it. A pinch of fear crept into Janna's chest when she spun around and looked for the talker. There he stood, at the other end of the wasteland that she had turned the village into. He was smaller than a ken doll, but almost as handsome in a strange, crude sort of way.

His body was as defined as Ken's but wore many a scar, speaking of hardship. His head was covered in coarse knots of red hair and his young face spoke of youth and vitality. Janna didn't know what to make of him. He was barely clothed and unarmed and probably didn't pose a greater threat to her than a normal sized rat. Yet he stood there, looking at her with his deep, blue eyes under somewhat savage, red eyebrows, as if he had just spoken to an ally.

"What are you doing?" He addressed Janna in a scolding tone "We're supposed to look for Vengyr, don't you know? Albino said so!"

Janna was perplexed. Not only was this comparative giant the largest worldly being she had come across so far, but he had come out of nowhere, apparently thought to be of one kind with her and spoke a bunch of nonsense. The name Vengyr had rang a bell though, but she couldn't quite remember where she had heard it before. She just stared at him, unsure what to say or do.

"Are you as dim as you are big, woman?!" He urged her. "Come, help me look for the druid!"

The druid! Janna remembered now, late king Aele had said the name right before the druid had turned Laura into a zombie. But she had crushed him.

"I didn't know any giantess could grow this large." He pondered while walking closer to her. Reflexively, Janna shrunk back.

"Don't fear me, you big idiot!" The boyish giant said in a reassuring tone. "Can you speak?"

"Yes." Janna said matter of factly and began to try and wrap her mind around what was happening.

"Good." The boy said slowly as if he was talking to a child. "I am Hagar. Albino, our king, has ordered us to find the druid Vengyr, so that we can destroy him for banning us into the mountains at the battle of iron forest. Do you understand?"

Janna barely understood a single word.

"I think he's dead." She said. "I crushed him at Ludwig's Keep."

"Are you sure it is him?" He asked, raising a red eyebrow. "We will have to go there and see. Albino says, Vengyr is weak but alive. I don't think one could crush to death a being as mighty as he, not even you."

"Who is Albino?" Janna asked concerned still trying to make sense of things.

I am Albino, evil, witch finder.

"Why, Albino, our king." The boy said as if he couldn't believe that Janna never heard of him.

"What do you mean, 'our king'?" Janna asked, slightly objecting. "King of what?"

"Of the giants!" The boy said as if it was as obvious as clear sky. "That means, he is your king too! Now take me to that place to look for the druid!"

Even on her knees, Janna towered over the young giant like a tree. To her, he was about the size the little people would be to him, even larger in fact. He couldn't make her do anything, but he seemed too young and naive to understand that.

Still, Janna was inclined to engage in this new development. If there were more like him, they would have the potential to make for some sturdier toys and might be able to help Laura and her to solve their food problem. She decided to play along for the moment.

"As you wish." She gave in and lowered her head in submission. "Let me just finish here, and I will lead you there."

"Finish what?" the boy asked with a hint of disapproval.

"My meal." Janna said and gave him a wicked smile.

-

Birsel collapsed as soon as Laura dropped her gently in the centre of the village. The giantess had made her do it twice again before she seemed satisfied. With each turn, Birsel learned more about her new profession. She was tasked, now, to teach others as well. A new profession in Lauraville's economics: Getting the giant, young goddess off. Laura had lifted Foreman the foreman to her face and instructed him. Of course, every one in the village could hear her words.

They all stood and looked at Birsel's naked form, shivering on the dirty ground. Some looked as though they felt for her, others looked disaproving, even spiteful. When Foreman was dropped by her side he didn't give her anything to cover herself with. He didn't even look down at her.

"I am to assign you any female worker that you require." He said in his cold, offical tone and the usual cock of his nose. "I would like to remind you though, that the provision of food be of paramount importance. Any labourer you withdraw from that endeavour might have a negative impact on the village's productivity and will thus endanger us all. So I...beg you...to practise moderation."

With that he stepped off, stiff-legged as ever.

"Child!" Birsel heard her mother's voice behind her and a blanket was wrapped around her shoulders. Her elder brother Alrik, the builder, carried her back to their home. Laura had returned to her giant iron dome and all the people gathered at the side of the street to look at her. She could see them whisper and exchange shocked glances. The girls of Birsel's age, tried to hide their faces from her. Birsel faught back a tear. She had survived the unthinkable and now this. She'd make them all pay. Anyone of them who looked at her spitefully now, anyone of them who didn't help her, she'd condemn them or their daughters to Laura's cunt. A warm and moist grave for the slimy little serpents they were.

-

Dari climbed over the ruins of what had once been a gate. Some of the stones had been pushed deep into the ground as if something heavy had sat atop of them and the wood had cracked of it. There were no corpses to be seen here, but the stench of the battlefield was omnipresent. Eagerly she climbed, jumped and ran towards were Lionel Logue had stood. Then she saw him, right in the middle of one of the two half moon shaped swales, kneeling down by a man. It was Vengyr, Dari noticed at first glance.

He was partially pushed into the ground, like the stones, but his beard and clothing were unmistakeable. And he was alive, Lionel had been right, but only barely so. Spittle ran down his chin as he attempted to talk, his belly had burst and spilled part of his guts into the dirt and his broken frame did not seem to permit him much movement any more. Dried blood was everywhere about him, on his clothes, his beard and on his skin. His eyes twitched around in violent confusion. The ravens seemed to be drawn to him like flies, but they did not peck at him as they would at any other man. They seemed to grieve for him.

"What do we do?" Lionel asked with wide eyes.

"I don't know." Dari answered, and that was true. She put the man's guts back into his flattened body the way they should be and searched Lionel's backpack for needle and yarn. She had extensive, forbidden knowledge of anatomy but she had only ever learned and used it in order to make people die quicker and quieter, never to keep them alive. Suddenly, the strange sense of danger was there again. She ignored it and went to work, to sew the broken druid shut. The way he was crushed, it seemed to be a miracle that he was alive. But then again, normal rules of living and dying might not apply to someone this fancy. She wondered if she would get a passage in Xardas's history book for this, but her role was probably too mundane. Sewing up a body for healing didn't compete well with trying to communicate with arch-demons. Lionel stood by, absolutely helpless. It seemed that among all those things he was educated in, was not a single useful skill.

When she was done stitching, Dari fumbled for the amulet.

"Let's see if this works." She mumbled and wondered about what to say in order to call for Xardas.

Suddenly, a skinny, blood stained hand grabbed her wrist. It was Vengyr. He stared at the amulet in utter terror before shifting his eyes to look into hers.

"No!" He whispered, barely audible, which seemed to cost him all the strength he had left. Dari froze and looked back. This was what she had come here for. Xardas had sent her. She shouldn't hesitate! If she didn't deliver, Xardas would kill her. Or worse. He was capable of worse, far worse, Dari knew. But calling him now would mean to send Vengyr into this hell instead of her.

"Better you than me." Dari whispered and tore the amulet loose from her throat. The tingling in her neck became almost unbearable as she noticed something else. Thousands of ravens took off into the sky at once, the flapping of their wings making for an ear deafening orchestra of black. Their sheer mass even blocked out the sun for a second. Only then did Dari notice tremors in the ground. She looked at Vengyr in hopes of finding an explanation and saw that his eyes had now widened even more.

"Hide!" He coughed, before falling unconscious in Dari's arms.

-

Janna had to walk slowly to let the boy-giant keep up with her. He seemed to be very excited about Janna's size and power, thinking that she was on his side. The ease with which she had turned a holdfast full of people into her dinner had impressed him deeply. He went on and on about how they would win the war this time and make the druids and witches pay. Apparently, the druids and witches had once cast a mighty spell that had banned the the 'giants', as the boy called his species, into the earth, putting an end to a long and gruesome war with mankind.

Killing druids and witches was something that Janna could very well support but the boy's plans for Janna helping them to subdue the humans might turn out differently than he thought. In the end, they'd cry and beg for mercy just like the villagers had that now filled Janna's belly. When she had eaten enough she had buried the rest of them alive, crushing the wooden keep as flat as a pancake under her butt. She had half a mind to try what Hagar thought about her sitting on top of him. Hagar, that was the boys name, sounding old and archaic, much too awe inspiring for such a green little boy.

Janna had refused to tell him her name, when he had asked, for she knew that it would sound odd to him and might reveal that she was not at all one of his kind. He called her 'Glutton' instead, for the way she had eaten all those villagers.

When finally, Ludiwg's keep was in sight, Janna was still listening eagerly to the tiny giant beside her. His ongoings about how the world would look once humanity was enslaved and the giants ruled everything were pointless but very insightful. Albino's vision for the future of the giants saw fit, that they move into the human system of feudalism and take the place of the nobility. Hagar hoped to become a lord of some sort for finding Vengyr. The idea promised not a just but possibly functional future for everyone, without too much war and all that and enough to eat for the bigger species. This sparked an idea of Janna's very own. If she could use the giants to enslave humanity at large, She and Laura might have enough to eat without going for days on end. She'd just have to replace Albino with Laura and herself. A vision of a gargantuan throne, carved into a mountain, with humans and giants tending to her every need, grew in Janna's mind.

When they approached the keep, thousands of ravens took off into the sky. The smell of death and decay was very unpleasant and Janna wished nothing more than to leave as quickly as possible.

"You did this?" Hagar asked with a hand covering his mouth nodding at the carnage at their feet. Upon Janna's nodding he only looked around in admiration.

She found the druid immediately, right were he had been, but not in the horrible state her butt had left him in. There was a lot of blood, but no guts, she saw. He still looked rather dead when she took him in between her fingers, all limp and crushed, but a little bit of warmth still radiating from his body told her that he was not.

"You're right, he is alive." She remarked in amazement.

"Did you destroy this keep too?" Hagar asked and laboriously climbed to the top of the hill.

Before Janna could utter a response, a tiny human in green and brown attire strode towards her from behind a stone.

-

"Stay here, you damned fool!" Dari had hissed but Lionel was just too excited.

"They're real! I'm right! His magnificence will be so pleased!" He had muttered on and on as they hid behind the boulder Dari had dragged him behind.

He was right though. His hypothesis seemed true. Dari had only caught a glimpse of the gargantuan monster that towered above them but she knew, getting seen by it would be their end. If it was one of the two that committed the massacres of Andrafall and Ludwig's Keep not being seen by it was the only feasible course of action. Lionel, though, didn't seem to understand the concept of staying alive.

"I'll talk to her. Yes!" He had said with wide eyes and looked like a little boy that was having cake for the first time in his life. A moment later, he was gone.

"Dear marvellously gigantic giantess!" Dari could hear him holler. "My name is Lionel Logue, adventurer, discoverer and scientist by the pleasure of his royal magnificence Horasio III and I am here to discover you!"

Dari couldn't help it. She had to look. Carefully, she peeked around the corner and saw. Lionel was standing there, his arms spread wide and even from behind Dari could tell that he had a massive grin on his face. Then she saw the other. If there were any gods they should have never let something grow so big. Or perhaps this was a god, Dari couldn't know. She only knew that if this thing wanted to kill her, there'd be virtually no way out. Dari was quick, she could run fast, jump big distances and avoid most anything. But this giantess could simply lay waste to the entire hill they were standing on.

"Are you a druid?" Her voice washed over the mountain like thunder. It shook every single one of Dari's bones to the marrow. The tingling in her neck was gone as if her instinct that had warned her so many times had given up on her for ignoring it so foolishly this time. Or maybe it was already too late for her.

Opposite Lionel, she saw what could only be a regular sized giant climbing the hill. He looked young and inexperienced but also quick and strong. He was massive and frightening on his own, clothed in dirty furs and impossibly huge. Still, he paled in comparison to the female, but the behemoth of a woman didn't seem to pay him any mind.

"Albino never lies." He said when he was at the top. "Give him to me."

The giantess chose to ignore him completely and still looked at the human, demanding an answer.

"I am not a druid, dearest titaness!" Lionel said insecurely, eyeing the ogre suspiciously.

"You're worthless, then." She answered and in the blink of an eye she snatched the tiny man off the ground. She gave his screaming form a look from each side before lazily tossing him into her cavernous maw. If she hadn't lost her food before, Dari might have wretched when the gargantuan maw made a move and squelched the man to a pulp. The monster's face twisted in disgust and a moment later she spat the mashed body into the distance. Parts of what had been Lionel and his equipment rained down all around Dari's hiding spot.

She couldn't hold it any more. She pulled back into cover and gagged in revulsion, but nothing but spittle and bile ran to the ground. Then Dari heard the giantess mutter something about blue cheese before the male giant called for silence. He sniffed at the air as though picking up some peculiar scent. Dari's heart missed a beat.

"There are more humans here." He announced and took a few steps towards Dari's hiding spot.

"Isn't it Vengyr you are smelling?" The titaness asked from above while the giant came uncomfortably close to Dari's stone.

"No." She heard him answer and saw giant hands, large enough to crush her head in, grab the edge of the boulder she was hiding behind. She could see his face from below, drawing in the air through his nostrils, before he looked down. Hearing him come closer, Dari had looked for a way out but didn't find any. Instead, she had pulled the vial of Zorgan's dread from her pockets and filled the Mengbillar to the full. Her eyes met the young giant's for a second before the dagger spun through the air and sliced through the centre of his left eye.

He reared back and screamed in pain before furiously coming back after her. His vision impaired it was easy to avoid his initial grasp and Dari sprinted what she could, away from him, towards the path off the hill. She knew, if the larger one came after her, no stone would be big enough to protect her.

The giant rushed after her, stumbling clumsily, still holding his bleeding eye. Still, he was quicker than her by far in the long run, for his long legs allowed him to get over obstacles much faster. Dari shifted left and right, slipped through gaps that he wouldn't fit through, successfully avoiding him for the moment.

The poison was already showing it's first effects. He was getting slower and even more clumsy. With every step he took he seemed to be less and less stable, until finally, a child could have avoided his ill-aimed strikes. He collapsed to his knees and started gasping, then he fell to the ground and drew his final three breaths.

"Not bad." The thunderous voice of the giantess washed over her and almost made her heart stop. She was standing right above Dari and looked rather displeased.

"But I wanted to keep this one, you know?"

She extended her fingers to pick Dari up.

"No!" Dari screamed and slashed the gut-ripper into the skin of the thumb that was large enough to squish her like a fly. The blade went in but when Dari tried to pull it back out with the blades fanned, the weapon broke and remained stuck. Still, the giantess seemed to have felt it.

"Ouch! You little shit! I will hurt you for this!" She roared and tried to pinch Dari against the ground. The massive digits only picked up a bunch of earth because the girl had slipped aside at the last moment. A huge hand, easily four meters high, slammed into Dari's way, blocking her way like a wall.

"You know, if I wanted to swat you I would have done it by now. I want to rip your little limbs out before I digest you alive." The giantess said with a vengeful smile while her fingers came at Dari again.

Dari had never felt so powerless. Like a little bug on a cobble street, she crawled from cover to cover while gargantuan fingers clawed after her. Tears filled her eyes over her helplessness and in a moment of total devastation, Dari felt herself being pushed to the ground.

"Got you.", The giantess proclaimed triumphantly and lifted Dari to her enormous face. Dari tried desperately to get to her jaw-stabber but the massive digits crushed her flat in between them. Giant blue eyes inspected her all over. Then, while the giantess freed Dari's right arm to rip it off, there was an opportunity. With lighting speed Dari drew the jaw-stabber and thrust the razor sharp blade into the giantess's skin.

"Ah!" Came the immediate response and Dari felt that she was falling. She fell, and fell, soon past the point where the giantess might have caught her. A peculiar sense of dying befell her as she rushed towards the death bringing ground.

So, that was it, she thought. The most accomplished assassin of her time, not executed in a city, not tortured to death in a dungeon, not crushed by a giant monster, but dropped out of thin air and smashed to bits on the ever closing ground. A rather unbefitting end, she felt, oddly disappointed. She noted that she still had the amulet in her left hand, having simply forgotten about it in shock. A sad smile crept on her lips at the thought of what her death meant for Xardas's plans. Or if it mattered at all.

Then, for a moment, she could even see the wizard, top down as she was, falling to his death with her. Then he covered her eyes with his hands and the falling stopped.

As gently as if she had fallen out of her bed, Dari landed on a pillow of grass. She immediately knew that she was somewhere else.

The air smelled of evening, damp moss and trees. She was lying on the ground, face down, the fear still aching in her limbs. Painfully, she got up and caught her bearings. They were standing in the forest on a little hill that gave limited view of Ludwig's keep in the distance. The giantess was furious about Dari's escape and seemed determined to flatten everything that was even remotely above ground level, which would inevitably include the horses at some point.

Xardas stood under a nearby tree and looked on, as sad and tired as ever.

"Did you know that this would happen?" Dari asked him and stepped to his side.
"No." He admitted. "But it's the last piece of the jigsaw I have been working to solve since I left you. The space and time continuum is failing. The world is going to end."

"How?" Dari demanded to know.

He seemed surprised and turned towards her: "How? Why, is the assassin now concerned about the well being of the world?"

"It's my world too, isn't it?!" Dari countered but knew that she would probably barely understand what came next.

"Fair enough." He inclined his head. "You see, I have been fearing this for a long time now. Vengyr, the fool, has meddled with dark forces to accomplish what he did to the giants in the battle of iron forest. This has ripped a whole into our dimension, hence the gargantuan monster that pledged to...rip you apart and digest you alive, was it?"

"But they are here now, what are you going to do about it?" Dari asked concerned.

"Oh, they have to go, sooner rather than later." Xardas said with a tired shrug. "I don't know how much time we have exactly. The whole has been torn, and it is ever growing, I'm afraid. But killing the mega giants will not serve to stitch it up. We have to ban them back to where they came from."

"And how will you do that?" Dari asked, turning towards the old sorcerer while she already guessed his answer.

He sighed but a little smile crept on his thin, cracked lips: "I will need time. And Vengyr."

Dari had dreaded this coming. The giantess had Vengyr, she saw it, and getting close to that behemoth again, was the thing Dari wanted least in the world.

"She has crushed your horse and that of your unfortunate companion." Xardas remarked. "But it should be easy for you to follow her footsteps. They're pretty big. Call me through the amulet when you have the druid."

Curse words twisted on Dari's tongue and she fought hard not to speak them out loud.

"Oh, one more thing." Xardas added after he had walked a few steps away from Dari. "Don't die. And watch out, she is coming this way."

"Wait!" Dari called but a moment too late as with a 'woosh', the wizard had already disappeared.

"Why don't you help me with this?" She whispered into forest but the only answer were the giantess foot steps, quickly drawing closer to where Dari stood.

-

Nagash awoke from her dream in a state of unbearable arousal. Before she was fully at her senses, she had slipped a finger inside herself and gently caressed the inside of her woman hood. Her eyes travelled to Daisy who was still slumbering innocently on her chest, moving up and down ever faster with Nagash's quickening breaths. She wanted it, but she couldn't go through with it.

She dropped the girl on the ground as gently as she could. Even with clothes on the tiny, innocent thing looked so sweet that Nagash had hard time holding herself back. She wanted to know what Daisy felt like. Just once. She looked over to the rest of the band of raiders and saw that those who hadn't drunk were still sitting at the fire, dozing, talking quietly or holding nocturnal vigil in silence.

It wasn't late yet, the moon had barely risen and the last rays of sunlight still dipped the top of the tree line in a warm light. Acting as though she was turning in her sleep, Nagash tugged her breasts free and rolled over the tiny girl, burrying her under her chest. No one could blame her. She was sleeping, after all. Nagash's right breast covered Daisy's face completely and it wasn't long before the girl started twitching. The giantess didn't move, resting on top the little human with all the weight of her chest, slowly smothering Daisy to death.

Daisy was awake now and she scratched and clawed at Nagash's body but the feeble struggles only made it better. When the squirming grew weaker, Nagash rolled onto her back again, still acting the sleeper. She felt little Daisy crawl away from her, but like a child reaching for something to hug in the night, Nagash pulled her in again.

"No." Daisy squeaked softly before Nagash's tits rolled over her again. The giantess couldn't help but smile as the tiny human started struggling for air again. It was all nice foreplay, but couldn't hope to satisfy. Frustrated, Nagash rolled back and let her tiny friend go. It was hard to stay still and try to sleep after that. She considered going into the woods as though to make water and get herself off, but that wasn't the same. Still, it was all she could do if she wanted to get any sleep.

She got up, slowly, and rubbed her eyes, acted surprised to see Daisy back, cowering at the fire and made her way into the woods. She found a neat little place, sat down and began to touch herself. Thinking of Daisy served well, but it was slightly disappointing. Again and again the image in her mind slipped and she wound herself asking, what she was doing with a bunch of humans at night in a forest, rubbing herself off. That was when she noticed a face among the leaves.

Visibly shaking, but undeniably aroused, Dexter stepped out of the bushes. He couldn't have had a better timing. Without a second thought, Nagash grabbed him by the hip and pulled him over to her. As well as her giant hands could, she helped to undress him and soon his erect, tiny human cock stood up straight before her in the evening. It was about was long as the tip of her index finger, quite a size for a human.

He got up and tried to move the giantess's legs apart. Nagash didn't know much about the human way of love making, and so she let him have his go. She had to help him part her legs, for his arms, though undeniably strong, couldn't hope to lift them. Laying on her back, Nagash found that he looked pathetic with his tiny little cock before her comparatively monstrous woman hood. Still, she didn't intervene. The women had been right, she thought, Dexter did take every girl in his band.

He didn't fill her, at all, and lying passively on her back, she found his humping and pounding more humorous than stimulating. She let her finger circle around her loveknob so not to entirely lose the mood. Dexter didn't seem too satisfied either. Fed up, Nagsah got off her back and pushed the tiny man to the ground. She knelt before, or rather above him and saw that his member was losing size and rigidity. She lowered her mouth, drew out her long, fleshy tongue and gave it a lick. Within a heart beat, it stood straight up again.

Again and again, Nagash licked over Dexter's cock before she drew all his manhood, bone and stones, into her mouth and sucked gently. A squeal of pleasure erupted from the Spear Brother's mouth and echoed from the nearby trees. Nagash enjoyed it as well, strangely. When she stopped sucking, he looked at her with wide eyes which grew fearfull as she lowered her hips onto his. His face grew painfull as her weight settled on top of him but when she stopped he urged her to keep going. She could feel him much better now, her tiny pathetic man with his diminuitive little cock inside her.

Pain and pleasure seemed to go through him simultaneously as she started to move back and forth on him. Quicker and quicker Nagash ground herself on his hips as the pleasure started to spread in her loins. When she started to move up and down on him he tried to push her away but she took his arms in her hands and pushed them against the cold ground. Little whimpers of pain now came, every time Nagash's hips crashed gently onto the human's pelvis. She couldn't over do this lest she cripple the little man. She got off him and sucked at his manhood again which seemingly suited him much better. It wasn't long before he grunted and shot his pathetic little load onto her tongue.

After Nagash had Swallowed his seed, Dexter scrambled to his feet and collect his clothes, visibly satisfied.

"You're not finished." She whispered and took his arm into her hand. She gave him a disappointed look. Of course, the rules of this game didn't include any obligation on his part to get her off, but Nagash wanted it, needed it and would have it, whether he consented or not. She couldn't risk to hurt him though, especially not now. She leaned back and spread her legs, drawing him closer to her woman hood. He came, half being pulled, half walking on his own curiosity. Gingerly, Nagash inserted his arm into her self, showing him how to do it before he move it on his own.

The other arm came in as well and Nagash felt the pleasureable feeling build up again. Her breathing quickened while he massaged her and her hips moved gently back and forth. Almost insecurely, she grabbed his neck from behind and pushed him facefirst onto her clitoris. He didn't mind first but tried to pull back soon after. She didn't let him. As her breaths became heavier she pushed his face all over it, stimulating herself towards climax. He protested and faught and his arms left her most inner spot.

"Wait, you selfish, little prick." Nagash said and pushed him head first into her vulva. It had a sense of heavenly justice to the way his protests were muffled inside her. She arched her back and pushed him deeper, drawing him out again, shoving him in again, letting him know with every time that he was not her leader, not her boss, but just a toy to her, a tool to fulfil her desires. The few times his face left her folds he drew in breaths like a drowning man and didn't waste any more time protesting.

Nagash masturbated until she came right on top of him and held him inside her for a while longer. His body twitched and spasmed, adding a nice edge to her post orgasm. The thought of drowning him in there crossed her mind but he was too important for her plan with the raiders. He was the one who held the lot together, he was the one whom they all followed. For now.

When she let go of him, he frantically struggled free and coughed up two mouths full of the slime he was covered in. He gave her the look of a beaten dog, gathered up his things and made back to the camp, his cock tugged between his legs. Nagash smiled victoriously. He could never let anyone know about this, lest the other men would lose all respect for him. Perhaps, upon occasion, Nagash would use him again.

That was when she noticed the tremors in the ground.

Chapter 7

The rusty, old chains rattled as they were dragged over the dry wood. The little pin that prevented the gearwheel from rolling backwards clicked with every next tooth. Giant white hands worked the mechanic until the naked witch was stretched out on the rack. She was breathing quickly and afraid but did not make a sound. The pale giant leaned over and impaled her with his red eyes. His head was bare of any hair but red runes were painted all over him, ancient and archaic, their meaning lost to but a few. The evening fell silent as they looked at each other. The giant's face was indecipherable but the young witch was increasingly terrified.

Other giants stood in a large circle around the stretching bank, observing their king interrogate the enemy. The bodies of the four unfortunate souls that had been interrogated before lay piled up next to the scene. Their bodies were stretched and torn, and some were missing limbs. When the young witch looked over to the pile, the giant grinned, showing a row of pearly white teeth, filed to dagger points.

"Tell me, where is Vengyr?" He whispered and the witch looked back at him.

Her face hardened. She didn't know. None of them knew. When she failed to reply he touched the mechanic suggestively. The device was made by humans, for humans. Only the gods knew how the giants got their hands on it. They had probably taken it from some dungeon they had raided. Slow but steadily, Albino started to pull. The witch's joints and tendons stretched. Effortlessly he worked the mechanic, far too strong for her soft and tender flesh.

A scream tore the silence apart. Still his hands worked, stretching her further and further. She might have twitched and wiggled in pain but the chains that held her were already too tight. Still further. Her shoulders jumped out of their sockets. Her screams filled the night. It didn't seem to cost the giant any effort to stretch her this far. A last click of the pin, and he stopped.

"You do not know, do you?" He asked with a sigh.

Frantically, she shook her head, the last movement she was still capable of.

"Edda!" He called and a huge giantess entered the circle. "You have captured her. She is yours. Do with her as you please."

She was taller than the male giants, but not quite as tall as the pale one. Heavy footed she stepped closer and looked at the witch with indifference. Albino turned to go but she addressed him with a voice that sounded like bones being ground into powder.

"She witch, king." She rasped. "She no slave. She die!"

"Oh..." Albino said without turning around but lifted his head as if he had temporarily forgotten about the matter "Well."

As the giants walked away, Edda towered over the little witch on the rack.

"Iron." The giantess whispered with a wicked smile and touched the shackles around the tiny, human wrists.

She stretched out her index finger and pressed it on the witch's lips. She shook her head and moaned in protest but soon Edda had pried her little mouth open and forced a finger down into her throat. The witch twitched and twisted on her chains as she fought the asphyxiation. Edda smiled with a morbid fascination on her face. She liked killing and she was good at it.

She was well fed and heavy, even for a giantess, having feasted tirelessly on the helpless refugees on the roads of Andergast. Edda the Child-eater. Edda the Ogre. Those were the notorious names the humans had given her. And she had earned them.

When her victim neared death, she withdrew her finger and allowed it to breath again. The witch's lips were bloody and she was missing one of her front teeth. Edda's smile grew wider and she gave the stretching rack a closer look. It was a massive, solid thing. She worked the chains some more until the witch's knees and hips were uncoupled. Endless screaming filled the night, but there was no one near to care.

Edda positioned herself over the rack, her behind a meter high above the witch's head. The screaming ceased abruptly when she let herself fall. A crack was heard from the stretching bank, hurting under the giantess weight. The witch was still alive, even after the second time around. Her head bloodied and pressed flat, sideways, her eyes bulging from their sockets, only her flapping tongue foretold that she was still trying to breath.

After the third fall, the wood gave in, cracking and splintering to bits, just like the witch that had been tied upon it. But Edda didn't stop. Giggling girlishly every time her butt came down and produced another squelching sound.

-

Janna woke with a pounding headache. It had been day for a long time, by the looks of it. She had slept in her clothes for some reason but was pleased to find that at least she had gotten her boots off. She forced herself upwards and regretted it a moment later as the space ship rocked left and right before her eyes and her stomach turned. She was going to lay down again but it was too late. Hastily she stumbled out of her bed and ran, half falling, towards the edge of the ship where she wretched onto the ground below. The smell was sour, like an abandoned bottle of week-old beer.

The inside of the ship explained that. Empty bottles of Jake's beer were lying around, the case overturned and abandoned. A Petri dish was on the table, filled with beer too, and tiny puddles of what could only be vomit around it. Laura was sleeping nakedly on her belly with her legs spread, allowing Janna an intimate glimpse. On one of the chairs there was a tiny person, flat as paper, crushed beyond recognition. That was when she noticed a thread, bound to the chair, and when she followed it, all came back to her at once:

"Babe, are you here?" Janna had called into the space craft as she made her way up where the ship had broken in two. 'Babe', that was an odd expression she had never used before. It had just slipped off her tongue along with the rest of the words and Janna couldn't really tell why. Her surprise for Laura, she held tightly in her grip, not letting this tiny giant get away or be killed by some freak little alien that could vanish into thin air.

"Yeah, I'm here!" Laura called back, much too loud.

When Janna reached the top, she could only see shadows inside. The fire that burned in the usual spot had been neglected to the point where it only served to add a slightly stronger contrast to the few shapes that she could make out. She tossed a few trees that were piled up nearby into the fire and gazed into the ship as the shapes and spectres became forms with colours.

Laura was naked, sitting at a table, with four and a half empty bottles of beer in front of her. She looked drunk, tired and bored. This was not the state Janna had hoped to find her in.

"How have you been?" Janna asked concerned.

"Bored." Laura answered and raised the half empty bottle to her lips. "Lonely."

"You're not that lonely, I see." Janna commented when she noticed a tiny person move on the table.

"Oh, ya." Laura smiled drunkenly. "This is, uh, Birsel, my tiny fuck slave. She's helping me out, since there is no fucking cock to be had on this planet."

"Isn't that nice of her?" She added sarcastically and took another long drag from her bottle. "I would kill for a cigarette right now."

"I see you found Jake's beer." Janna noted with a sigh and came closer to the table.

"Yap." Laura burped and reached beneath her stool, producing a fresh bottle and tossing it over to Janna.

"Carefull!" Janna warned and almost had to leap forward to catch it. "We only have that one case!"

"Ya, whatever, it's not like it's precious." Laura shrugged and drank.

Janna twisted the bottle open and took a sip. The smell was somewhat odd, yet the shape of the bottle and the logo on it promised a taste that would pleasantly remind her of home. When the foul liquid touched her tongue however, she grimaced and spat it out.

"Hahaha, yap!" Laura giggled hysterically. "Jake's an idiot. It's official!"

Of course. Janna turned the bottle and saw that the beer had turned years ago. She knew that bad beer wouldn't exactly turn into poison but time had made it stale and foul of taste. Nonetheless, she took another swig and forced it down her throat, the pleasant numbness spreading in her head soon after.

"I haven't had any dinner." Laura said, smiling like a madman. "Shit's kickin' in real good."

"So I see." Janna sighed and sat down at the table, opposite side of her friend. "I brought you some."

When she had heard the shouting beneath her boots her initial reaction was to crush the first tiny raider she could spy in the dimly lit forest. Others scrambled to get away so she bent down, picking them up as fast as she could, stuffing their helpless forms into her pockets to play with where the light was better. Then, she had almost not believed her eyes, a Barbie-sized giantess had stumbled from in between the trees and stared up at her in complete and utter terror. Whenever the beast had struggled, Janna had squeezed it's torso while she hurried back to show Laura.

She put the giantess on the table into Laura's view, deliberately so as though it was a usual thing one found every day, whilst she fumbled in her pockets for the seven raiders she had been able to catch.

"The fuck?!" Laura gasped, her mouth gaping.

The giantess sat on the table, visibly scared out of her mind while Janna assembled the other captives.

"Form circle!" An older raider commanded and his minions huddled to his side.

"Ha, don't you just love it when your food employs defensive tactics?" Janna laughed and sipped on her beer.

Oddly, the giantess scrambled to her feet and huddled to the tinier beings, awkwardly trying to integrate into their formation.

"She's huge!" Laura exclaimed, having found her voice again.

"Yap." Janna smiled. "That's the newest shit this weird world has come up with. Apparently, these used to be the giants here, before we came around."

"How did you...what...why...." Laura stuttered, not taking her eyes off the creature.

Janna noticed that one of the tiny humans tried time and again to blend in with raiders but they continued to block her off. Janna recognized her red shirt and leather clothing.

"Well, what the fuck." She said, astounded. "Check this out. So, first I was sitting by some castle, eating and stuff, then one of these approach me, thinking I was like a big version of them or some shit, telling me all about his king 'Albino' and that the 'giants' wanted to take over the world."

Laura looked up, confusion and amusement mixing on her face.

"Then we go to find that super druid that made you beat me. He's still alive, by the way, I have him here. He's not much of a talker any more though."

She retrieved Vengyr from her pocket and put him on the table as well.

"Is it safe to bring him here?", Laura asked, concerned.

"It's kay, look, he's all squashed." Janna explained. "I need to know more about this stuff though, and the giants want him real bad, so...couldn't really leave him out there."

"And then?" Laura inquired, raising an eyebrow at the fantastic story Janna was unfolding.

"Then," Janna paused to add weight to her words, "We met this little bitch."

She pointed at the tiny girl in leather, who froze at the finger pointed at her.

-

Dari had clung to the giant boot for dear life. There was a brass buckle, holding three leather straps at the side that offered her grip and protection enough from the endless count of trees the giantess marched through. At some point there was shouting below and the giant foot lifted higher than before. The next thing she knew was that she was tucked in a prison of cloth with people whose voices she had never heard before. She would have been thrown off by the stomp, she figured, and captured while she was passed out.

After that, this. A giant iron table and a goddess on two ends of it. Dari didn't dare to move but stroked the amulet in her fists and called for Xardas under her breath. But the wizard didn't show.

The giantesses were talking to each other in an alien tongue Dari couldn't understand. Diplomacy, she thought, there had to be a way to talk herself out of this mess.

From the others on the table there was no help to be expected. They were just morsels, playthings for the giant beings, picked up along the way to be used and consumed like the starving children did with bugs and strays in the streets of Gareth. She tried to tackle the problem that way and asked herself what a bug might do to convince a Garethian street girl from filling her empty belly with it. Gold, of course, if a bug was ever able to produce it, but that wouldn't serve here. If they wanted gold, there would be mountains of it lying around or they would have demanded it by now. By the looks of the temple or what ever it was, they were more interested in iron than gold.

"You." The clothed behemoth suddenly addressed Dari in the common tongue.

Dari froze. This couldn't be good.

"I wanted to kill you after you slew my giant. How did you get away?" The giantess' thunderous voice washed over them all on the table.

Vengyr was there, only meters away from Dari. If only Xardas showed up and teleported them all out of here. The mountain of a girl genuinely looked as though she expected an answer.

"I poisoned your giant!" Dari exclaimed with a shaking voice. "After that, I got lucky! I clung to your boot until I was shaken off and you caught me!"

The best lies always had a little truth in them, although 'getting lucky' was not exactly the most detailed or plausible explanation since the giantess had basically levelled the entire hill in her rage.

"She is a real fighter that one." One goddess explained to the other while never lifting her gaze, "Pricked my finger to get free. Speaking of which, I think we two still have unfinished business, little one."

Dari was defenceless when the tree trunk sized fingers came for her this time.

"Punishment." The goddess in clothes announced and Dari was yanked upwards by her vest. Before she could attempt to slip out, she had already been carried over to one of the enormous brown bottles and dropped inside. At last notice she shot her arms out and managed to cling to the round, slippery edge of brown glass, futilely trying to pull herself up. Thunderous giggles shook her and the giantess extended an index finger above her and pushed her down.

Dari slipped and fell for a terrible second before splashing into the horribly reeking ale. Where many people would have drowned, she was easily able to keep herself above the water, or rather beer, even with her clothes on but there was no conceivable way out of here. The four giant eyes that watched her through the glass were horribly distorted as if this was a nightmare. 'Wake up!', Dari thought, and would have cried if it had helped.

"Please!" She pleaded and her voice echoed inside the bottle. "Let me out!"

"I believe your beer is demanding to be drunk." The naked giantess remarked, using the common tongue to mock.

A giant hand clasped the bottle and lifted it up, effortlessly, and tilted it towards a cavernous maw. Inside, Dari was still paddling, hoping that the giantess couldn't manage to drink all of the beer. The level was falling, and Dari along with it, as gulp after gulp of beer passed the goddess's lips and down into her belly where death and digestion awaited.

Dari tried clinging to the glass, but it was wet and slippery and didn't provide any hold. When she was in the neck of the bottle it went quickly, a loud wooshing sound and she was inside the giantess's maw. She couldn't breath, being swirled around in beer, but it didn't matter much for she knew all it took now was a single swallow and she would be gone.

Out of her mind, Dari reached for everything, anything to hold on to. She managed to get ahold on the edge of a tooth a few times, but the current created by the impossibly large tongue beneath her was too strong and she slipped away. Still, she refused to give up.

-

The girl in her mouth just wouldn't grow tired. The amount of resistance she put up, her will to stay alive, was remarkable. It would be a shame just to swallow this one, Janna found, and pushed the struggling thing against the roof of her mouth before sending the beer down into her belly without it.

"I think I'll make her my little fuck slave." Janna laughed after spitting the girl back onto the table.

"I could have mine here train her, if you like." Laura offered promiscuously. "She's really good. I had put her back into my village already, but somehow I got horny again."

She stroked her tiny slave's head with her finger before lifting her up and beneath the table, giving Janna a challenging look.

"Is this turning into some kind of lesbo session?" Janna asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Perhaps...'babe'." Laura winked and flashed her tongue over her shiny white teeth for a split second.

They had kissed before, drunk, at parties, but only ever to attract the attention of the boys. Yet somehow, now, Janna felt like kissing her for real, as she sat there with her smooth, brown skin, so cute and petite. She washed the thought out of her head with a new bottle of beer. It was as Laura said, there was no god damn cock to be had here. It was as though they were in prison, together.

"Anyway." Janna continued her initial story. "So I'm walking home and run into these little guys who have the Barbie doll here as a cherry on top."

"So, you mean to tell me," Laura began, one hand still beneath the table, "there is a bunch of Kens and Barbies running around out there, trying to take over the world?"

"Pretty much." Janna shrugged and drank.

"Will we let them?" Laura asked smilingly after a while.

"Well, I thought...", Janna began and made herself comfortable on the chair, "The tinies could make food and what not while the giants watch over them. We can't be everywhere at all times. We would sit as goddess emperors somewhere, having our every need tended to by tiny and tinier little things."

-

Only a madman would go south. Are they like me? No. It all made sense now. Nagash cowered on the cold, iron surface next to her puny little allies. Dexter was with them and Daisy too, plus a handful of others. They all looked pale and afraid.

The stranger girl, a beautiful, fit little thing, lay where the behemoth had spat her out, curled into a ball, her clothes wet from ale and spittle. They had not yet killed anyone on the table but they would eventually, if Nagash was any judge.

"Can you speak?" A question thundered, unmistakably directed at someone on the table.

When Nagash saw that everyone's eyes were upon her, she opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't, settling for a shaky nod instead. It was the naked one who had spoken to her, a mountain of a girl just like the other but a little smaller, with darker skin, black hair and softer features.

"Do it then." The impossibly huge being commanded.

Nagash's lips were shaking.

"I...I..." She stammered. "I..."

"Are you scared?" The behemoth asked with a mocking smile. "Why, you are as little to us as you are big to your little companions. They don't seem to fear you now?"

That was true, the Spear Brothers and Sisters had huddled up right beside her, even those who did not trust or like her. The two enormities starring them down were infinitely more scary. The naked one extended a hand and let it hover over their protective circle.

"Do you mind if I eat one of your friends?" She asked, letting her face show that Nagash's opinion didn't matter.

No, Nagash thought, only Daisy. Please don't eat Daisy. The humans looked up at her all, pleading expressions on their little faces, even Dexter's. Now it would show, if he was right to put his trust in her. But on the other hand, it didn't matter. Nagash wouldn't be able to stop the behemoth from what she was about to do.

When Nagash failed to respond the giantess asked: "Do you mind if I eat you?"

Nagash's mouth dried. She'd rather the giantess not eat any of the Spear Brothers, but the least she wanted was to be eaten herself, as she had done with so many humans. It was terrible to feel like food and Nagash decided not to eat humans ever again, or at least not to toy with them before eating. She nodded her head vigorously.

Her tormentor laughed: "Relax, I'm not gonna eat you, you're way to big to swallow."

"You can put her on a big stick and roast her." A human male's voice behind Nagash bellowed. "Then when she's nice and crispy, sprinkle some salt on the beast, and let us little people go. There's no meat on us, you'll only end up getting our scrawny little bones stuck in between your teeth! You might even get a belly ache, the way I see it. I've had the shits this whole summer! Must have been the-"

The sound that Dexter's fist made when it came crashing on the talkers face was sickening. The brother who had wanted to deny Nagash another bowl of potatoes earlier, had stood up from their circle to speak before Dexter had knocked him down.

"She's one of us now!" Dexter screamed at him. "And you're not going to rat her out!"

The man spat a mouth full of blood and broken teeth at Dexter's feet.

"Seems like there is disorder in your ranks." The clothed giantess noted with a smile. "Let me help you punish him."

"Fuck off!" Dexter spat at her defiantly after a second. "If you must eat one, let it be me!"

He put himself protectively over the brother who had just defied him.

"No!" A spear sister called and stood up herself. "We need our leader. Eat me instead, let the others go!"

"That's all very touching." The colossal, young woman intervened. "But my friend here is going to have to eat all of you. I ate the better part of an entire village's population today, seven of you are barely half a mouth full. She's going to eat all of you, save for your giant friend here."

Resignation spread amongst the Spear Brothers like a fever and they all looked to the ground or into the distance, or stared at Nagash with envy and hostility. Daisy gave Nagash a look that spoke of farewell.

"Might we have some of that ale then, before we die?" Dexter asked hopefully. "If I cannot go down fighting, I'd sooner go with a belly full of ale!"

-

That was the last thing Janna remembered though.

"Did we end up killing all the others?" She asked the tiny giantess sitting on her lap. The other end of the thread was bound around the young woman's neck. She thought about the crushed person on the other chair, the chair that had been hers the night before.

"I don't remember, mistress." The giantess spoke, holding her own head with a frown. "You made us drink so much. You were enjoying yourselves. I believe you took some of the raiders outside. That was when you tasked me to clean your boots. They are clean, mistress, I cleaned them all night, see. You said, you'd sit on me if I don't clean them, but I did! Please don't sit on me!"

Sitting on the tiny girl would be fun no doubt but Janna would put that off until she felt better. The boots, Janna saw, were clean indeed.

"What's up?" Laura yawned from her bed. "Urgh, what the fuck did we do yesterday?"

"Drinking games, apparently." Janna answered.

"One of my worse ideas." Laura admitted and stretched. "Well, you wanna go outside and see if they've prepared our breakfast?"

"Breakfast?" Janna asked perplexed. "Who, where?"

"My village, you ungrateful shmuck." Laura said with a laugh. "I told you it was good for something. Don't you remember?"

Janna could only shake her head and raise a brow.

"Well." Laura continued. "That raider captain guy named Dexter, he asked about my village and stuff and he promised that he could get them to have a breakfast big enough for both of us by the time we woke up. Which is now, if I'm not still dreaming."

"You actually bought that?" Janna asked perplexed. "He's probably out of Andergast by now."

"Nah, he cares real much for his 'Spear brothers', including the Barbie doll on your lap and that other kid you had clean your boots." Laura explained.

"Where's..." Janna began and looked around on the floor.

"I told her to hide in a niche." The giantess admitted fearfully. "We were afraid one of you might step on her without even noticing. She is so tiny you see, even amongst her own kind. Come out Daisy, your mistress wants you!"

Tiny feet slapped on the iron floor but were nowhere near large or heavy enough to make a sound. Daisy was tiny and Janna might have overlooked and crushed her, just as the tiny giantess had said. It took those short and slender legs awfully long to come up into shouting range.

"I am here, mistress, I serve at your pleasure!" Daisy squeaked.

Standing in front of Janna's toes she looked even tinier.

"Nagash." Laura commanded. "See that you clean this place up a bit."

Laura crawled out of her bed and strode towards the edge of the ship, naked as she was. Suddenly, the tiny giantess jumped from Janna's lap, slid down her legs and fished Daisy off the floor right before one of Laura's careless bare feet slammed down right where Daisy had stood. That tiny thing was going to get herself underfoot pretty soon, Janna judged.

She was confused about all of this, her hung-over mind not quite able to wrap around it yet. Some food would help, probably. Janna begrudged Laura that she could remember and that she didn't feel as bad as herself. She looked down. The tiny giantess Nagash was struggling to lift an empty bottle of beer. Laura had climbed outside.

"Daisy, come here." Janna commanded and the tiny girl scurried over to her massive bare feet.

"Yes, mistress?" She squeaked fearfully.

Janna raised one of her feet off the ground and moved it over her, cruelly slow, until she couldn't see the girl any more. After a few moments the girl rushed to the side, running for her life.

"Did I allow you to move?" Janna asked coldly and flexed her toes. "Stand still and let me crush you."

Something so tiny and fragile would not last long, Janna had decided, so all the better to enjoy killing her before she ended up squished accidentally by Laura or herself. Killing things might help clear her head. The girl didn't stop, so Janna planted her other foot in her way.

"Mistress." Nagash began and took a careful step forward raising her hands in a soothing motion. "There is no need to crush the little girl, she's has done everything you asked."

"I have no use for her." Janna shrugged while she watched Daisy running the other way. "Get back to work."

"But Mistress." Nagash pleaded hesitantly. "Daisy is skilled in healing, she will do well in your village."

The tiny giantess came creeping towards Janna, slowly and carefully, and visibly determined.

"I don't give two fucks about Laura's village." Janna spat and raised a foot to bury Daisy under it.

Janna's breaths grew shallow and she felt herself becoming aroused. She always got a little itchy when she power-played but now in her hungover state, the feeling was more demanding than usual. She'd make a nice little smear of the tiny girl and then see what next. The fact that Nagash seemed to try to talk her out of it made it only more exciting. She blocked the tiny girl's path yet again and when she cowered and looked about where to go next, Janna buried her under her toes, feeling her squirm. A little squirming always made it better.

Janna flushed and her hand shot in between her thighs almost involuntarily. A tiny, living, thinking girl, slave to her smothering toes. She wriggled them on top of her prey while she touched herself and gasped.

"Lick." She commanded. Daisy's tiny tongue could barely be felt on Janna's skin, but that was not what mattered. She slipped her hand inside her jeans and caressed herself. It felt good. She was going to have it now, and all little Daisy could do was to suffer it. She released the girl from under her toes and snatched her up, ripping her clothes off before tossing her onto Laura's bed. Wriggling out of her Jeans, Janna followed.

Daisy bounced a few times on the mattress and lost her bearing, when she caught herself and tried to hide beneath Laura's sheets, Janna was almost above her.

"Come here, little worm." Janna teased. "Your mistress wants to fuck you."

She drew the sheets aside and towered over her prey, victoriously. She was breathing heavily, enjoying every moment of it. Daisy was on her back, staring up at her, terror in her eyes. All pity or sympathy Janna might have felt was crushed beneath all her lechery. Her panties were soaking wet at the bottom, and she slipped out of them as well.

She put the girl on Laura's pillow and bestrode it. Daisy was so tiny and forlorn in between her massive thighs. Janna's crotch was covered in short pubes from lack of shaving but she didn't mind it at all. She used to do it because all the girls did, and now, there was no one around but Laura, and no college boy who could be turned away by it.

She lowered herself slowly onto the tiny girl, covering her in her wet hair before burying her under her labia. She shifted back and forth a few times and enjoyed the feeling of the helpless tiny thing, slave to her sex, her lust and her desire.

Her fingers helped Daisy slip inside her and then she bucked her hips into the pillow violently. This was what she had craved, this was what she had needed, she thought. There was to be no mercy.

-

Nagash chewed her fingers nervously. The mistress was going to kill Daisy for her pleasure. Crushing Daisy would have been easy for Nagash but for such an enormous being as Janna it would be a mere triviality and the mistress showed no sign of restraint whilst she rode the giant pillow and moaned. A sweet little thing such as Daisy should not die in such a way, Nagash decided. If anyone was to fuck her flat, it should be Nagash herself.

The plan was not the most cunning one, but Nagash had nothing else to come up with. She climbed onto the bed, behind the violently bucking hips and threw herself at them, kicking and screaming. The mistress spun around, never stopping her grinding, seized Nagash by the throat and glared into her eyes. There was naught but hunger and horniness in those eyes, and Nagash wondered if she might have looked the same whilst she pleased herself on Dexter.

"Please, mistress, let me-" Nagash began before she was yanked around and it was her, pinned on the pillow, the panting behemoth above her.

The weight of the giant woman was enough to force the air from Nagash's lungs and when Janna started to grind on her, she could feel her rips bend. The coarse hair that dragged over Nagash's faces was covered in Janna's juices already and the sweet smell of her sex bulldozed over everything else.

She was used, as she herself had used so many others, in a way that could be deadly, as Nagash well knew. It was all but for the soft pillow beneath her, that kept the titaness from grinding her bones to breakage.

The giantess let out a cry of relief as her motions grew harder yet. Nagash could only imagine what it was like for Daisy though, deep inside Janna's cunt. She tried to plead with her mistress but was only able to mutter a few gurgles that not even she herself could understand.

When Janna leaned backwards and started to scream with every thrust, Nagash knew that it would be over soon. Then Janna lifted herself off of her, her slit hovering just above Nagash's face, and fingered herself violently and quickly, drawing drops of her juices splashing down. It went on for a good fifteen seconds, until parts of what had been Daisy came out, flying, and the giantess wheezed and fell over backwards, burying Nagash under her butt.

When the giantess finally unmounted her, Nagash was covered in her juices and little bits of mangled corpse.

"Clean all this up and turn the pillow." Janna commanded and slipped into her underpants. She gave Nagash a last, deprecating look, before she turned around and left.

-

Dari dwelled in the shadows of a wood shed as the terrible, naked goddess towered over Lauraville and greeted them with a menacing grin.

They had worked all night and she was tired. After the drunken behemoths had left them in the village, the first task was to keep Foreman the foreman, a tall, stocky man with antagonizing demeanour, from binding them to posts to be eaten along with the rest of the food, come the morrow.

He had understood the task 'breakfast' well enough, yet, instead of letting Dexter the raider take charge of the villagers as commanded, he wanted to take it upon himself.

They had stood side by side, Dexter, another raider called Oleg, a naked girl called Birsel, and Dari. The rest of the raiding party was dead, or presumed so. It had been hazy and confusing when the goddesses made them drink from a giant glass dish, while they ate, tortured or crushed people if they felt they weren't drinking enough. Dari was not quite sure how she made it out of there, but she was very glad that she did.

When Foreman gave the command to seize them it had been Dexter though who struck down the first man comming forward with a drunkenly lunging punch that had smashed the man's jaw. Afterwards the villagers were more cautious and encircled them, moving in slowly, waiting for their moment. But Dari wasn't going to have herself offered as a sacrifice by some stupid peasants.

She fainted an attack at one man, then jumped left, hid a washing woman square in the face with an elbow and jumped onto Foreman, locking his head in her arms before he knew what was happening. She gave the villagers a cold hearted look before twisting Foreman's head until his neck broke. Next, one of the officers, as she later learned, had attacked her. Dari blinded him with a quick stab at his eyes with her left hand, before she kicked him in the balls, leaving him wheezing and begging for mercy at her feet.

After that, the villagers had agreed to work with Dexter on the task, lest they all be killed once the giantess came the next morning.

"I know a killer, when I see one." Dexter had approached Dari soon after. "That was fine work. Couldn't have done it better myself."

There was not only admiration in him though. He was cautious of her, as though he knew what threat she posed to them all.

"I don't know how you ended up in the big one's clutches, and I don't care." He pointed out to her. "I trust you will not try to kill me or any of my men?"

"Oleg is the last of your men." Dari had responded and asked herself what it was about the Spear Brothers that made them stick so tight.

"I still have Daisy and the giantess to worry about." Dexter said with a certain sadness about his lost brothers. "They are mine too. And I trust you wont run either?"

It was alien to Dari how he could know that. There were no horses in the village, but she still might have tried to make it out of here on foot if it wasn't for her mission.

"I must-" Dari was about to lie before he bid her silence.

"I do not care." Dexter said with a smile. "A man has to do, what a man has to do. You wont run, that's all I know and need to know. But you will understand that I must put you to work right now."

"I can shoot a bow." Dari offered but he declined again.

"We will go hunt some special prey." He said and bid her follow him grabbing the best weapons they could find.

He had every able body arm themselves and assemble at the cross roads. They looked confused, holding their hunting bows, wooden sticks, pitchforks, sickles and kitchen knives.

"Shouldn't we be hunting right now, or gathering?" A younger villager asked and the crowd murmured approval.

"And what would we hunt in the dark, huh? And how many apple trees do you think we'd find." Dexter countered.

Only the fittest, Dexter wanted in his company, which in the end was about three dozen strong.

"You can't mean for us to flee!" A man with arms as thick as Dari's upper legs grumbled. "The goddess forbids it. She will eat our families as a punishment!"

"We're not going to flee!" Dexter addressed him. "We will come back with all the food we need. And more."

Dari had been as sceptical as the villagers for the hours Dexter had them run through the forest like hunted animals. A few times they had to stop and convince villagers that refused to go on, but Oleg, an ogrish looking Bornlander, always set them straight. The Bornlands where in the far north east of the continent, Dari knew. Ruled by a family of tyrants and sadists, this land bred a hardy people. Oleg seldom spoke, but when he did he rolled his R's and stretched his syllables like there was no tomorrow.

Then, Dexter bid them halt.

"Hush now, everyone." He commanded, softly but sternly. "We are about to stumble upon a camp of refugees. We will take them by surprise and subdue them, anyone who wishes to resist will be killed. When it's done, we take them and their wagons back to the village. We should arrive in the early morning, still enough time to prepare everything."

And so it happened.

The camp had been there for a time, new refugees arriving and keeping it up while others left. They were fleeing southwards all, even those who lived north of Lauraville. There was nothing further north, only a mountain range first, and then the steppe, then mountains again and an icy desert.

The refugees were as good fighters as the inhabitants of Lauraville, but none of them stood a chance against Dexter, Oleg or Dari. They encircled the camp, feathered the sentries with arrows and before anyone could even think of running, Dari slit a few throats with a carving knife and Oleg cracked skulls with his two-handed, wooden hammer, while Dexter called out that no one was to move if they wanted to live.

This way, suffering not a single loss, less then forty villagers from Lauraville caught ten dozen refugees. They were simply too demoralized by the sudden attack to offer any resistance.

"We want you no harm.“ Dexter explained to them after he had climbed onto a particularly large wagon. “We will take you all to a safe place. No harm will come to you there, if you behave yourself. We will take the wagons with us and any equipment you have.“

They bound scores of men, women and children to the wagons, which were filled with every thing the refugees had possessed. There was tons of food like fruit, vegetables and cured meat, bread, wheat and barley. They had cows, pigs and field horses as well as chickens in cages. But then there were also tools, tents, some furniture, kettles, pots, buckets of all sizes and, last but not least, salt.

They all behaved themselves, some even looked relieved as though they believed what Dexter had told them. The one who tried to run away, Dari struck down with an arrow through the neck and afterwards everyone stayed put.

With a few minor instances of wagons getting stuck or wheels breaking, they made it back to Lauraville by sunrise.

"How is my tiny village doing?“ The naked titaness Laura, whom some referred to as goddess, boomed.

"We are well!“ Dexter proclaimed loudly.

The giant's breakfast had been laid out at the edge of the village where Dexter had some villagers prepare a suitably big clearing from the trodden down trees. Laura looked pleased.

“Nice work, tiny man.“ She acknowledged him, sat down and lifted a tub of mashed fruit, cut with saw dust for more mass, to her lip. Dexter said she would not notice the saw dust in it and they could save some food for other days. He was right.

"Delicious!“ She proclaimed after emptying it at once.

She ate two carts of cured meat and a basket of bread before she raised an eyebrow at the villagers.

"Has my village grown since yesterday?“ She asked, incredulous.

"Yes, mistress!“ Dexter answered. "At your pleasure, we have taken in one hundred refugees, fleeing from the unruly land, seeking your protection!“

Laura seemed even more pleased with that: "I trust my foreman has looked them over according to the common rules? Where is he?“

"Mistress...“ Dexter began as though it pained him to say it. "The old foreman is dead. I killed him when he tried to kill me. I do not know as to why though.“

The goddess raised an eyebrow again: "So you are my new foreman?“

"I serve at your pleasure, mistress.“ He proclaimed sternly, although Dari could see his head shining with sweat in the sunlight. "If you wish me to continue in this duty, so it shall be.“

Laura shrugged for a response and took another cart of meat. Beneath the genuine meat items from various animals both wild and domestic, there were hacked off limbs, severed heads and quartered torsos. About a hundred refugees were now villagers, but the rest of the ten dozen they had once been, had been butchered like animals.

Dari couldn't remember cutting so many throats in such a short time ever before, but she did it all the same. These people didn't matter to her. She cut their throats with her carving knife and Oleg hacked them to pieces with his cleaver. After seeing a Spear Brother being chewed alive in Laura's mouth, it had not really shocked her and even the villagers didn't look too troubled. They had seen worse probably, at the hands of their goddess.

Laura didn't allow horses for fear of villagers using them to escape so they had bound them all up for her to be devoured alive. It was quite an awe inspiring sight to see her do so, although the animal's screams when it was crushed up by her jaw were nothing but terrifying.

"Anyone without family?“ Laura asked. "Any escapees, criminals?“

Dari's blood froze. She didn't have family. If Dexter was true to his knew task he might just have her brought forth and she would go down Laura's gullet just like that cart of turnips just had. Or worse.

"None, mistress!“ Dexter lied and Dari's heart started beating again.

"Is there anything I can do for you?“ Laura seemed more pleased by the minute while she snatched a peasant boy off the ground and dangled him in front of her face with a grin.

"Besides more workers as we can always make use of...“ Dexter explained, eyeing the dangling boy painfully. "The newly arrived hundred need housing, great mistress. Therefore I ask humbly that the giantess Nagash might be put here with us to help with the construction.“

Dari was impressed. Dexter had adopted to his new role quickly, without losing sight of saving those dear to him.

"Also, I might ask for my spear sister Daisy who is skilled in the healing arts.“ He continued. "Having your humble servants' injuries and illnesses treated professionally will further increase our productivity to your pleasure.“

Laura seemed impressed as well: "Alright, I'll bring them to you, once I have eaten.“

The boy vanished in her gargantuan mouth with that, never to be seen again. Nobody had acted on his screams for help, no one had headed his cries for mercy. There were over three hundred souls in Lauraville now and they all stood before her, powerless.

The foot falls of the larger giantess shook the earth. She had undressed to her small clothes and sat down beside Laura hungrily eyeing the wagons of food and villagers alike. She didn't seem to have stomached the night of drinking as good as any of them but something told Dari that wasn't the only reason for her exhaustion.

They started talking in that alien tongue of theirs, that sounded weird to the ear and rather difficult. Dari couldn't make sense of any of the words and she watched them eat and enjoy the pleasant day that it was. Her mind rested a bit, sensing that the most dangerous part was over for a while, but with relaxation, exhaustion crept into her limbs.

Vengyr was in the ship. She had seen him, had been so close to him. But Xardas hadn't shown. It was the iron, it had to be the iron, one of the few weaknesses of the magically enabled. Dari would have to bring Vengyr away from here, how far, she didn't know. probably not too far, Xardas was powerful. The hardest part though, would be to get the smashed druid out of that giant iron thing. It was taller then any mountain Dari had ever seen. But then again, she had never seen that many mountains. Climbing was not an option, she saw that much when the giantesses had brought her here.

Apart from the new foreman, the newcomers and the breakfast, the girl named Birsel was often talked about by the villagers. The whore monger, Dari had overheard some villagers call her. From what she understood, Birsel was in charge of training and providing female slaves to Laura, to be used for sexual pleasure. The difference in size could only mean bizarre and infinitely cruel practices. But Birsel had been with them in the ship at some point, which meant that Dari could too, if she was one of the sex slaves. Then it was to escape the giantess, find Vengyr, rescue him and take him away from here. Easy.

Dari sighed deeply and rubbed her eyes. The word was that the girls would be chosen by Birsel herself for the task. Dari didn't know if the whore monger had even started yet, though. Wait and see, she thought. Until such time, she would have to ask Dexter for an occupation. Who didn't work got squished, so the villagers had let her known early on.

Nine villagers perished to Janna's hunger before she was done. She just picked them randomly from the onlookers and threw them into her maw along with anything else she meant to eat at each time. Whether to add a certain edge to her food or just out of cruelty, Dari didn't know. They were pulped up with turnips, bread or meat, and swallowed without a hint of pity. Each time though, Laura looked considerately displeased, yet held her tongue all the same. Janna looked in no state to be messed with.

Also, Janna's appetite seemed to be much larger than Laura's. Hungrily, she stuffed her belly with horses, carts of food and the occasional villager. It felt a little weird, like a sacrificial ceremony to some goddess that had suddenly become material. Dari was surprised there weren't any clergy around.

Dari could have slept then and there but she dared not. Instead, she snuck around where groups of villagers stood talking, trying to listen in on their conversations and learn about their state of mind. As expected, the sudden transition of power didn't sit so well with people. If one foreman could go, why not two, so they whispered suggestively. The villagers resented what they had done to the refugees and the refugees resented what had been done to them.

There was something bad brewing. Dexter had changed the rules and now it seemed, some people would abandon them altogether. He needed help. Dari feared that she, Dexter and Oleg would soon be facing off against a mob of a hundred villagers. She moved close to Dexter and whispered as much into his ear. He nodded as though he had expected it all along.

Then, without a warning, Janna stood up to her full height, stretched and lifted a foot to stomp Dexter and anyone around him, including Dari, into the ground. It had happened so quickly and unexpectedly, that they all could only gasp before it was brought down. It stopped three meters above their heads, as quickly as it had started. The wind it carried could be felt on the ground below.

Dari looked around. They all cowered on the ground, some had tears in their eyes and it started to smell of piss. She was cowering herself, she noticed, like all the other worms. If only she hadn't been so damned tired. Janna removed her bare sole from above them and gave them an icy look.

"Pathetic.“ She announced before turning around to go. Her thundering foot steps could be felt in the ground.

"Never mind her.“ Laura said, seemingly perplexed herself. "She didn't sleep so well.“

"Mistress!” Dexter jumped in for the opportunity, still as pale as morning snow. "I must humbly beg again for my companions, Nagash and Daisy. Also, with your leave, I want to start the construction of a smithy, bowyery, tannery, weavery and coopery.

"What do you need those for?“ Laura asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What the refugees so forthcomingly brought with them does not suffice, mistress.“ Dexter explained. "Mostly, our tools need repair, the bows new strings and arrows. We need sturdy leathers and pelts for the hunters. Some of their garments are reduced to rags and the cold slows them down and makes them prone to illness.“

"What, uh...“ Laura actually seemed a little embarrassed. "What does a coopery do?“

"Barrels, mistress.“ Dexter went on, happily. "You saw yourself that the vessels we serve you, are inferior. We need large and sturdy ones that do not break to your merest touch.“

That was true, Dari thought. Quite a few times the tub, barrel, basket or cart the food had been served with, broke because of the giantesses' clumsiness. They were just too big for their little world.

Laura looked at the tiny Dexter with admiration and praise.

"You know, when you said you killed my foreman, the thought of crushing you crossed my mind.“ She said, a hint mischief flashing up in her brown eyes.

"I'm glad, you didn't.“ Dexter replied, lacking his solemn tone of earlier.

And with that, the naked goddess took her leave of them.

-

Nagash had to take a while to collect herself. The shock of how mistress Janna had used her drowned out the sorrow she felt over the loss of Daisy. It had been stupid anyway, she decided, to like the girl. Humans were humans. Humans were weak.

Out of here, she thought when she was able to stand without trembling. The thread around her neck didn't look very tough but it proved stronger than anything Nagash had ever had in her hands. It wouldn't budge and the knot could not be opened either. Perhaps a human's tiny hands might be able to help her. The irony made her gnash her teeth in frustration. Yes, a human might have actually had a chance at opening it, but the only human within reach was crushed to bits all over the place.

It was useless. If she wanted to live, Nagash would have to adapt to her new role. She was a human now, she realized, a tiny, helpless little slave, cleaning up for the larger creatures and be used for pleasure whenever they desired. There was no doubt in her mind that Janna would do it again.

In lack of any better idea and afraid of punishment, Nagash went to her task. She flipped the enormous pillow with some difficulty and collected what ever of Daisy she could find. Then she tried managing the huge brown bottles, dragging them over to the box and putting them inside. It was tedious work, that left her sweating. She had only stored three bottles away when Janna returned from outside.

"You are slow.“ She said, matter of factly and kicked Nagash as though she were some stray dog.

Nagash felt anger well up inside her, but she could do naught but whimper softly in frustration.

Janna just rested on her bed after that, relaxing while Nagash moved the bottles as quietly as she could. Cleaning the place up would take all day, and then Laura and Janna would get it all dirty again.

When Laura came and told her she would help Dexter build houses, Nagash was actually glad. She had never built houses, but after the night before, Dexter was someone she trusted. She suddenly felt very bad for having used him. After losing Daisy, he seemed like the last friend she had. She prayed that he was not going to avenge himself.

Janna disagreed with taking Nagash away from cleaning the floor though, and the too imposing titanesses had a short but fierce exchange of words in their alien tongue.

Afterwards, Laura looked grumpy but took the other end of the thread off the chair all the same.

When asked where Daisy was, all Nagash could do was shake her head, to which Laura sighed and took Nagash outside.

Laura bound the threat to the heaviest stone oak she could find lying around, and put it down where Dexter directed her to. The raider seemed to have assumed leadership of the village and was ordering humans around, managing leftovers from the feast that they had provided, whilst others were already preparing the construction of houses.

"Your Daisy is gone and I have to clean up yesterdays mess so you can have her.“ Laura informed him darkly and nodded over to Nagash. "I hope you appreciate that and don't let her escape.“

"No worries, mistress!“ Dexter called back obediently.

He seemed exchanged after what had happened the night before, but then again, Nagash was too. She was no longer the free, fearsome beast she had been. She was afraid, and tiny, and now she would take orders from humans to help them build shelter for themselves. Nagash resented every bit of it.

"One more thing.“ Laura said, as coldly as a northern breeze. "Janna gets twenty of you people in exchange for the giantess.“

Her words washed over every villager like the black pest. Eyes widened, throats went dry and hearts dropped to the floor, builders stood frozen with what they were carrying in hand, saws went as silent as did hammers, shovels and axes. A girl dropped a basket of apples and the birds sung their early autumn song in the back ground as though to mock them.

"O...of course.“ Dexter stammered and started to look around.

"Don't bother.“ Laura said annoyed and started snatching people up at random, starting with the unfortunate apple dropper.

People ran for their homes, tried to hide under wagons or called out for their loved ones. Laura didn't seem to care.

"Wait mistress!“ Dexter urged her. "Let me select the weakest and least useful for you, and their families so there be less harm done to our productivity!“

Nagash could feel the resentment growing among the villagers. It was cold hearted, yes, but they should thank him all the same, for he did it to their good. She didn't fail to notice though, that he hadn't offered himself up as he had yesterday.

There was much wailing, crying and pleading when the chosen were carried off. The people who had their loved ones returned to them however, rejoiced and hearted each other, and were full of praise and thanks for their new leader. Dexter had arranged it so, that no one in the village was left lacking family and would thus be sacrificed, as Nagash learned later.

"It's good to have you back.“ Dexter said bitterly when he approached her. The villagers eyed them both cautiously. Nagash didn't say a word.

"You will help with the construction of houses.“ He continued, moving in even closer and bidding her to bend down.

"We must stick together now.“ He whispered into her ear when she did. "There's trouble brewing in the village. I need you on my side. We only have each other now, Oleg, you and me. Let us play along for the time being until we can make our escape and come out on top. Can I count on you, sister?“

Nagash chewed her lip before she nodded.

She opened her mouth to speak but he cut her short: "We will talk later. Have you eaten? I'll have them bring you some food, you look exhausted.“

"I didn't sleep.“ Nagash said finally and rose back up, letting her eyes travel over the hundreds of villagers who were still watching them.

"Neither have I.“ Dexter responded and turned it into an announcement. "I know many of you are tired, but there is much work to be done. To compensate for yesterday, every family will get an extra ration of food from the leftovers.“

That seemed to earn him some respect with some people, while others looked as bitter as before.

"There's corpse flesh amongst the meat and saw dust in the most of the fruit!“ An older builder with singular teeth, a bent back and arms as thick as a child's torso spat.

There was agreement amongst villagers. Too much agreement.

In the Spear Brothers, Dexter might have drawn his axe and dealt a scar for the provocation, but that would not serve here. Instead he turned to Nagash and nodded over at the man suggestively. Nagash understood.

With three tired strides she was over the man, grabbed him by one stiff arm and yanked him upwards. His bent back crackled and gnashed and he cried out in pain. She looked over to Dexter who looked back for a few seconds until nodding again, and Nagash set the man down. He whimpered on the ground before her but kept his mouth shut otherwise as did everyone else, for now.

They gave Nagash more food than she could eat and her belly was entirely full for once and she started feeling better. She made a point of sucking the flesh off a severed leg. It tasted stale compared to the cured meat items but she did it to install some more fear in the little villagers. With the bigger giantesses gone, it helped her feel on top of the food chain again, maybe she would even get to vent some of her frustrations on some unruly, little humans.

Her first task was demolition. A small hut, right in the centre of the village was to be torn down and a smithy build in it's place. This didn't sit well with the young couple inhabiting the place however, and Nagash almost thought she would be required to hurt somebody again. Her sheer presence, towering over the protesters and their domicile, was enough though to silence them and they had to watch as Nagash dismantled it.

Afterwards she spent most of her time carrying wood and stones and putting them where the builders told her to. What easily required the strength of four humans to lift, she was able to lift almost effortlessly and then lift it much higher, inspiring Dexter to command the construction of two or more story houses as they were found in human cities. With Nagash for a crane and an army of villagers as helping hands, the construction made huge progress in a very short time.

There were even only three incidents. The first one was a builder, directing a huge wooden beam carried by Nagash, and the giantess just couldn't resist but to accidently push him over the edge of the roof he was standing on. He broke a leg and was carried away without consequences.

Next, without Nagash's doing, a boy missed with an axe and lost two fingers. He cried horribly and even Nagash felt a little bad for him.

Lastly, as Nagash was getting bored and more tired yet, she killed a scrawny girl of fourteen. The poor thing had been carrying water, struggling with the heavy bucket and had decided to cross by Nagash rather than to make the longer route around the next house.

Nagash had been standing still, lifting yet another beam to the builders when one of them bid her to wait for him to widen a fit. As though shifting to stand more comfortably, she pushed the girl to the ground with her left foot and trod down, all in one motion, purposefully putting as much weight on the foot as she could. The buckets fell to the floor, the water spilled and the girl's cry was cut short before the cracking of her bones made everyone stop what they were doing.

There was no pavement in the village but the ground was trampled pretty hard, still the girl sank in a bit with Nagash's weight on top of her.

"Oh no, I am sorry!“ Nagash exclaimed, trying to sound as genuine as she could.

Villagers raced to her and tried to help, but they could only watch as the smashed, scrawny little thing gargled blood for a minute before she died. She could have survived, Nagash judged, but her torso had been caught side ways, very unfavourably, beneath Nagash's foot, and her rips that broke like twigs under the giantess's weight ripped through her lungs, leaving her no chance. Nagash had to suppress a grin.

When Dexter heard of it though, he was not pleased. He believed her accident story, officially, but something told Nagash that the old raider was cunning enough to smell the falsehood. In any case, it didn't matter. She was too important for the villagers to punish her because she had accidentally killed a little girl. She was the only giantess they had and they had many little girls.

-

Janna was feeling vengeful.

Her pride was hurt because Laura had proven that that stupid village of hers was actually useful to have. She was sitting at the edge of the ship, dangling her legs, while Laura groaned and cursed, cleaning up yesterdays mess. That wasn't punishment enough though.

Twenty of Laura's precious villagers belonged to Janna now, and she would make their deaths as pointless as she could. She would have to go and find some more food today at some point, she knew, but she still had time for a little play.

"Hey there.“ She cooed, loud enough for Laura to hear every word.

The villagers didn't answer. They had tried to run deeper into the ship first but Janna had patiently put them back beside her on the floor until they were tired enough not to try it again. Now they huddled there, staring up at her. She couldn't hide a grin.

"Let's play a game!“ She suggested excitedly. "You get to ask me a riddle and I get to ask you one.“

Janna could tell, Laura knew where she was getting with this. The villagers however seemed at a loss.

"What is...-“ The youngest villager, a little, sickly looking boy began before Janna cut him off.

"Ah, ah, ah.“ She grinned. "We haven't determined the catch yet.“

She lifted a villager at random, a wife of someone, by the looks of it, and lifted a butt cheek off the floor.

"If you can't solve my riddle or I can solve yours,“ She began, putting the screaming and struggling woman beneath her, "I do this.“

The steel didn't budge an inch. Janna's butt, as she sat down, distributed itself as it usually did, regardless of the puny, little human creature in the way. The woman was pinned first as it rolled over her and when the pressure became too much, Janna felt a pop. The villagers had heard it too and started begging for mercy.

"It's just a game.“ Janna giggled innocently. "Riddle me well and you shall live. You start.“

They remained as silent and unmoving as blocks of salt. Except for one. A dodderer stepped forward, as quickly as his old bones allowed him to. Janna looked on with curious fascination. The old man either took his time or was just too old and fragile to move any quicker. She had half a mind to bulldoze him flat and move on, when he started to speak.

“What two things,“ He said with throaty voice, "can you never eat to break your fast.“

Janna was dumbfounded for a moment before she started to think. It was a stupid riddle. It could be anything obviously. Iron and toenails, battle tanks and excrement, McDonald's and Wendy's, pussy and poison...she was curious though as to what the answer was.

The old man actually allowed himself a smile.

"Lunch and supper!“ He said, giving her no more time to think. Janna wondered if the old man even understood what he was talking about or what was at stake for them. For now though, he was the only one willing to play, and Janna felt challenged. There would still be plenty of time to crush him once he had failed to solve her riddle.

"You didn't give me enough time. I was about to say that.“ She pouted and reached for another villager.

She had grabbed the sickly looking boy she had cut off earlier and found that he was little more than a kid. A sting of guilt pierced the back of her head like a needle.

"So big and yet afraid to loose to a little dwarf like me?” The old man said softly.

Janna put the boy back down and glared at the old man. This was meant to regain her pride, not lose it. Flattening him now though, would just prove his point. None of the villagers would live to tell of it, but Laura was still within earshot.

"Riddle me this, grandpa.“ She spat at him. "When I buy it, I do not need it, but when I need, it I cannot buy it.“

The old man took a rest before he responded: "A coffin!“

Janna's mouth twisted and some villager woman actually escaped a cheer. When Janna was about to angrily single her out, the old man posed his next riddle: "Some day, two fathers and two sons went fishing. When they caught three fish, each of them had one for dinner. How was this possible?”

Because they bought one on the market, Janna was about to say when the right answer came to her: "Because the one father is the other father's son!“

The smile on the old man's face died.

Victoriously, Janna lifted the woman out of the crowd and pinned her next to the red splotch that was left of her last victim.

"You can't safe them all, old man.“ She said apologetically and lowered herself. This one didn't pop but was squashed outwards by Janna's weight.

"Poor thing.” She commented casually with a shrug while she thought about her next riddle.

Playing riddles had been short sighted, she saw now, she just didn't know too many of them. It didn't matter though, she felt better and it was time to play something else anyway.

"Hey grandpa.“ She asked cruelly. "What is old, with brittle bones and goes squish when I sit on it?”

The old man looked up to her in confusion before it dawned on him and fear crept into his wrinkled face.

"I...uh, I...uh.“ He stammered and Janna pushed herself off the ground and to the side, landing on top of him with a crash. His old bones were brittle indeed and there was significantly little resistance when her rump scrunched him into a stain.

That sent the villagers running though, as Janna had come down right next to them. She scrambled on all fourths and started battering them around, like a cat that played with a bunch of baby mice. She swatted a running cripple like a cock roach and pinned a group of three under her crotch, spreading her legs wider and wider until her pussy lips had squashed them all flat.

The rest she drove to a pile infront of her until they were tired of running again.

"Thirteen left.“ She counted and laughed into their haunted faces.

"You nameless-worshipping demon!“ Someone screamed at her from the pile.

"Huh?“ Janna asked involuntarily, cocking her head. "Who is nameless?“

"There used to be thirteen gods.“ Laura explained in English from the table, audibly annoyed, scrubbing the floor. "One of them went full devil mode and so now there's only twelve. Twelve is a lucky number, thirteen is an unlucky one.“

"I guess they're unlucky then.“ Janna laughed but Laura only sighed.

"Janna, could you go outside please and let me clean this shit in peace?“ She said, antagonized.

"Don't worry, I'm almost done.“ Janna responded with a smirk.

"Hey little ones.“ She addressed the pile before her. "There is only one god and that is me. To show me your devotion I only need you all to stay right were you are.“

The pile started to dissolve. People tried to disentangle themselves from each other, and what before had given them some tiny sense of comfort was becoming their death trap. Any one who got out was only able to crawl a few feet before Janna's butt settled on top of them. Janna couldn't help but giggle. Thirteen sighs, thirteen cries for mercy were drowned out one by one as she lowered herself. It wasn't long before the weaker people started breaking.

After her full weight was on them there was still some twitching, so she leaned left and right, back and forth to flatten them all equally. Then she lifted herself and fell down again. And again. And again, until all the pile was even with the ground.

"Don't forget this spot.“ Janna teased and pointed to the massacre.

Laura looked at her emptily and shrugged: "Why are we friends? I completely forgot why we're friends.“

"Because someone has to remind you that these are not worth anything.“ Janna shot back and pointed at the carnage.

"Gosh, I have your precious little friends all over my butt.“ She added arrogantly while making her way out.

-

Laura flared her nostrils. She had never known her friend to be this way. Back in the beginning, Janna had tried to protect the tiny people from Laura's playfulness and now she didn't even restrain from torturing Laura, though be it in a non-physical way.

Laura didn't care about the twenty villagers other than the loss of work force for her tiny village. To think that Janna meant to hurt her though...

Hurt. Janna had never hurt anything, why would she be so monstrous right now. It didn't make any sense.

Her head full of worries, she found scrubbing the floor too bothersome. The tiny puke and body stains, spilled beer and empty bottles had been the least of it anyway. Janna's massacre wasn't too bad either, the worst part was just the common dirt on the floor that they carried in from outside.

Janna's shapely butt had really made mush of the tiny people. She cleaned the worst of it and called her work done. If Janna protested she'd just tell her to fuck off. Laura wasn't going to suffer because Janna couldn't handle a night of drinking.

To her surprise, she found Janna sitting outside, by the village, squatting and hugging her knees.

Assuming the worst, Laura rushed over to her but before she could say anything, Janna opened her mouth.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean that.“ She said without turning around.

Janna hadn't harmed a single villager, just observing them from above as they laboured off like ants. Laura slowed her pace until she stood beside her.

"They are using the giantess for a crane.“ Janna pointed out, and indeed they did. There were already two new completed structures and three in the middle of being built. It was a different style of architecture too, moving away from the longhouses Laura had seen before and going towards more sophisticated half-timber structures, that were higher and much less crude to look upon.

"So much can happen if you don't crush everyone you can get your hands on.“ Laura said and sat down cross-legged beside Janna.

There had probably been many capable people who could have accomplished great things among those, she and especially Janna had tread down, sat upon or eaten.

"Yeah, but whatever.“ Janna shrugged and Laura couldn't help but agree.

"Where's my little fuck slave?!“ Laura called out over the village and soon enough Birsel emerged from one of the houses, three young girls in tow.

"I'm here, mistress!“ She called fearfully when she was in reach.

"Are those your...students?“ Laura chuckled and pointed at the girls. They looked terrified. Laura wondered how Birsel had gone about teaching the girls how to please giant goddesses. They looked good though, pretty little things. A brunette, a red head and a blonde.

"Come closer, my little darlings.“ Laura urged them motherly. "I don't bite.“

That drew a chuckle from Janna. Birsel let the girls before her and shoved them forward gently.

"Show me the goods.“ Laura comaded and Birsel had the girls slip out of their dresses. They were skinny but healthy, and undeniably beautiful.

“Good.“ Laura smiled. "Are they ready yet? Give me a demonstration. I'll have the red head.“

Laura untangled her legs and spread them, exposing her woman hood to the better part of the village. She had never bothered to don any clothes today, as she oft did not, and her pussy was still as clean shaven as yesterday. The tiny, fire-haired girl looked at Birsel for help, but wasn't like to recieve any. She stumbled frightened towards Laura's crotch until the pink, fleshy lips towered over her. Janna was shifting uneasily but Laura didn't pay her any mind.

"Go ahead.“ Laura urged with a friendly smile. "I promise I wont squash you with it.“

The tiniest of hands reached out and touched her. Then the girl seemed to remember her lessons, and moved in head first, starting to do all her tiny frame would allow her to. A gasp escaped Laura's lips and she felt her sex moisten. Her hips slid forward just a tiny inch, involuntarily, pushing the terrified girl to the ground. Laura leaned back just enough and used her hands to open herself.

"Go on. Inside with you.“ She commanded.

The red head tried, really, but as much as she fought, struggled, climbed and crawled, she wasn't able to make it. It was pleasurable to Laura all the same, but left her wanting inside. It would have been easy to her just to give the girl a push, but she didn't. Instead she decided to play a little cruel.

"Get inside or I stuff you so deep in the there, you will never be able to get out.“ She threatened, almost panting.

Then, suddenly, there was another hand. A giant hand, and a long arm, giving the poor little thing a gentle push and slipping into Laura's folds behind it. Laura's eyes met Janna's for a long moment before the bigger girl leaned over her to kiss. Their lips met softly at first, before Janna pushed Laura back and invaded her mouth with her tongue.

All the while, Janna was fingering her gently, pushing the struggling, petite sex slave around in Laura's cunt, leaving Laura breathless in ecstasy, no mind left to heed right or wrong. Janna moved up and looked down at her while she locked her arm before her hips and started thrusting gently. Laura could feel her, not only the fingers inside her, not only the hand kneading her breast, not only the tongue that licked salty sweat of her neck when Janna leaned in, but Janna as a whole, her strength, her warmth, her power, her might.

A girlish cry escaped Laura's lips when Janna thrust deeper. Her legs started shuddering, her eyes bulged and her breaths only came in shallow panting that left her light head spinning and the world turning. After a short while, Janna moved position and Laura saw briefly how she reached into the village. She showed the tiny naked brunette to Laura and grinned maliciously before she pinned the thing to Laura's naked sex and smothered it with her panty-covered own.

Rhythmically, they ground their hips together. Laura could feel everything, the tiny, drowning thing inside her, the slave girl in between them being smothered and crushed, and Janna's hot, moist lips underneath the fabric of her panties. They fucked harder and faster until the brunette was only a skid mark on Janna's crotch.

When Laura arched her back and cried out, her pussy clamping down on the girl inside her, Janna rushed her head in between her legs and started to suck on her clitoris until Laura could only kick and beat the earth around her in uncontrollable climax.

She was laying on her back, panting, looking into the sky, when Janna moved up from in between her legs, twisting her lips into a smile, as cute as a button. Then they kissed again. Janna's tongue tasted of sex, but then there was something else.

Kicking and struggling weakly, the red haired girl passed from Janna's into Laura's mouth.

Laura giggled and let the girl travel over her tongue, licking Janna's saliva off of her. Then she kissed Janna again, passionately, and let the tiny thing travel back in between their lips.

Janna stretched out her tongue with the girl on it. She was laying, coated in saliva, too weak to do anything but extend one hand pleadingly towards Laura. Then Janna drew her back in and moved the girl onto her molars. She kept her mouth open to let Laura watch while her teeth first crushed the girl flat until half of her was squirting out to the side and then chomped down on the rest of her until she was nothing but a pulpy mess.

They both looked to the village at the same time. All labour had stopped and they all just gaped at them with pale faces.

"Get back to work you little bugs.“ Laura laughed at them. "If I catch anyone sleeping outside by nightfall, I'll let Janna play with you for a while.”

"Our numbers are growing king." Edda the Ogre grunted. "And near everyone is itching for a fight. We want to attack hold fasts and castles. Slaughtering refugees all day is no fun!"

"How are the humans in these parts so defenceless? I do not remember it being that easy." A male giant grumbled in agreement.

"The humans are disorganised and frail." Edda pressed on. "Andergast is ripe for the taking. Let us take it, my king!"

This drew mumbled consent from the giants around.

"Raaah!" Albino screamed angrily and pounded a slave girl they had given him square into the ground, crushing her. Every one fell silent and eyed him fearfully.

"We are not here to conquer Andergast!" He roared. "We are here to conquer the world! Are there enough of us to stand against Gareth or Horas?!"

He stood up and started walking around, looking each of them square in the eye: "You have already caused too much trouble. Gareth will recognize the streams of fleeing humans and send an army to root you out! I have half a mind to do it for them!"

He made a threatening move towards Edda and the giants around her, when a hollow voice, like the echo of wind, reached his ear: "We have not caused this exodus, my king."

Stonetree. No one had noticed him entering their midst, and no one would have noticed him taking his leave if he had not spoken. He was an old giant, with long slender limbs and dirty skin, a grey fuzzy beard and bushy eyebrows. Many giants frowned upon him, for Stonetree seldom fought. He was a wanderer who knew how to move quietly, without leaving much of a trace and he was invaluable as a scout. For a weapon he carried a dead, young tree that enveloped a rock firmly in it's roots, giving him his name.

"Then what has caused this...exodus, Stonetree?" Albino snapped and turned around.

Stonetree's eyes were near colourless and he looked into Albino's red ones. He did not do that often. Usually his eyes were shifty and would follow bugs or birds and sounds, giving away that his real priorities probably lied elsewhere. After what seemed like an eternity, Stonetree's dry lips parted.

"Not what, my king." He whispered with his lips curling strangely into a smile. "But who!?"

-

A stolen, ragged dress and a handful of dirt, masterly applied to the face, were enough to fool most of the other people. The villagers all knew each other but they didn't know the refugees and the refugees couldn't tell who from what amongst their own. Dari slipped by them, faking chores and chit-chatting. In doing that, she drew a map in her head: Who belonged to whom, who trusted whom and whom each person's death would get killed as well, according to Laura's rules.

Everyone was still very much under the impression of the earlier coupling of their "goddesses".

"It's a good sign! For love breeds mercy and compassion. We shall suffer no longer, our goddess Laura has heard our prayers at last!" a middle aged woman preached a little too loudly to a mixed group of people listening to her.

"Shut your mouth, Hilda." A passing woodcutter spat. "It's an abomination and you know it. The gods will not look kindly on this."

That drew a mad laugh from Hilda: "The gods? Where are the gods, Hugor?! Where is their power?! Where is their mercy?! There is only one goddess that can protect us and that is Laura! How can it be abomination, if the Goddess does it herself? Let girls lay with girls I say!"

"They are demons! Servants of the Nameless! They kill for joy and pleasure and bring nothing but misery upon the land! Oh, but not much longer! The Twelve will end their misdeeds! Your demonic whore-gods shall perish!", The woodcutter countered with a swollen chest.

Just as the woman wanted to retort, Oleg showed up behind him.

"Seize him." Dexter's voice sounded and Oleg did just that. The man fought back, but Oleg, a bear of a man, was much too strong.

"Chop him up and add him to the meat." Dexter commanded casually and took his leave.

The man fought harder but Oleg had him firmly.

"You just woodcutter, why you have to preach?" Oleg asked shrugging his shoulders, before dragging the struggling man away. And just like that, it was over.

It took Dari only a minute to intercept Dexter when he was walking in between two huts back to the builders.

"Hugor is well liked with the villagers that were here before we came." She told him hastily but softly. "Be aware, this might stir something up."

"They already look pretty stirred up to me." Dexter whispered and looked left and right if someone might hear them. The tingling sensation in Dari's neck was there again. Danger loomed, she knew. It would be smart to leave this place and get somewhere in the open.

"I'm not saying you should keep him alive either." Dari responded while dragging Dexter by his vest. "Just be prepared when the inevitable happens."

"Looks like it's happening right now." Dexter said when a group of villagers suddenly blocked their path out from in between the two huts. Dari went backwards immediately but soon discovered that the other exit was blocked as well.

Villagers and refugees, all men with axes and knives, stood there, ready to come at them. Dari cursed herself for getting themselves trapped so foolishly. She had been eaves dropping all day and had worked out that they might do something eventually, but not that they would do it so quickly. There was no way of telling how many they were and in the small space between the houses they could overwhelm them both with ease.

"Stand aside woman, this needs not concern you." Hugor said with a smirk.

He had a felling axe in his hands, moving it up and down, letting the blunt side of the head hit the palm of his left hand with a cold, iron 'smack'.

Dari brushed back her hair and gave him a defiant look: "Mustn't it?"

Fear flashed up in his eyes for a moment as he recognized her before he gritted his teeth: "Fine! You are third on our list anyway."

That probably meant that they had killed Oleg already.

"Get on with it, you cowards." Dexter snarled and bared his dagger. They'd be able to kill a lot of them, no doubt, but the odds of comming out alive were not good enough for Dari to risk a fight.

Her instincts went into action like a machine. She jumped up and drop-kicked Dexter in the chest, sending the old man crashing through the wall behind him. Before any of the villagers could move, she was on her feet again, through the hole and dragged Dexter to his feet. His face was a grimace of pain but the old raider had doubtlessly functioned under worse conditions before.

Not letting go of him, Dari raced out of the house, punching the first villager that came at her in the face with her elbow and taking off as fast as Dexter could. Everyone looked at them, startled, as they came rushing past. Left, right, left, Dari could still hear the attackers behind them. Panic started to well up in her. It would be easy enough to escape on her own, but with Dexter in tow, it was much more difficult.

Yearning, she looked upwards, but Laura and Janna had left some while ago.

"Where to?" She hissed at the panting Dexter who was holding his side as though he had broken a rib.

"Nagash!" He gasped back and Dari took the next turn left towards the construction sites.

The steps behind them drew closer and closer and Dari almost thought they wouldn't make it when the brown, fuzzy mane that was Nagash's came into view.

"Help us!" Dari called and threw Dexter and herself at the giantess' feet.

Nagash looked down at them, past the huge wooden beam in her hands, totally confused. Then she looked up the approaching attackers and Dari saw her face change.

-

Nagash grinned at the approaching humans. Lifting stuff into places had become dull quickly and she yearned for some action. They stopped in their tracks, staring at her, wielding their knives and axes threateningly. She did not need to fear them.

"Stand down, beast!" One villager hollerred at her. "This business is between us and them. We won't harm you if you stand down!"

She chuckled involuntarily at his threats.

"Fine.", He spat, "We were going to kill you in your sleep, but we might as well do it right now."

"Hugor...", Another villager stammered, putting a hand on his shoulder. "It's not worth it, come on, we can't..."

"Bugger off, coward!" Hugor slapped his hand away. "It was worse enough before they arrived, now it's sheer unbearable!"

That seemed to give the other villagers some courage.

"Take them!" Hugor screamed and one of the villagers started to charge forward, raising his axe.

For a entertaining moment, Nagash found his bravery quite admirable, before she lifted the wooden beam in her hands and buried him under the far end. It went through the man, like a hot knife through butter, forcing his tiny form to the ground before stamping out a great part of the middle of him. The beam remained intact, sticking out of the man's remains like a disproportionate, wooden tombstone.

Two other villagers saw too late what had happened to their peer and had already followed him. Nagash raised her foot and grabbed the first one's throat in between her toes before bringing her weight down on top of his falling form in force. Another squelching sound was heard and half the attacker popped out in blood and innards from the side of her foot.

The other, Nagash knocked to ground with her hand, wrapping her fingers around his tiny neck and lifting him up for everyone to see. His flailing screams turned into sickening gurgles as she crushed his windpipe and torso in her grip. She did it slowly, watching the reaction of the others.

Some fled outright on the back and the ones in front looked up to her in fear. They huddled together against her, lifting their pathetic little weapons in unison. Nagash dropped their dead comrade to the ground and made sure her foot squashed the rest of him when she stepped over Dexter and the girl he was with.

"Stupid humans." She grinned, towering over them. "Who wants to be next?"

There were a dozen left, Nagash judged quickly, so she had to kill at least six of them quickly before she would be able to enjoy and take her time with the rest. She lifted her right leg and jumped forward with the left, before bringing her right foot down right in the middle of them. She got two of them half, obliterating four legs in one stomp.

More turned and ran but six of them, including their talkative leader, buried their weapons in Nagash's leg. They barely scratched her, a knife and an axe broke outright and only one knife was sharp enough to draw a little blood. Nagash had hurt herself more on pointy stones before.

Her left foot followed and buried a third villager under it, and again the remaining attackers hacked away with similarly poor results. Nagsh gave the leader a quick flick to his head that rendered him unconscious. She wouldn't pass on having fun with him later. Unfortunately, that send the rest of them running like deer.

"I'm not done with you!" She droned from above and stomped another villager square in the ground.

It was easy to keep up with the humans' pace, and after three steps another one fell victim to her foot falls. Then, just after a third one had his legs squashed, a burning pain flamed up around Nagash's neck and her legs came out flying from beneath her. The thread around her neck, she had forgotten about it. Swearing in the giants' ancient tongue she rose to her feet, watching the remaining villagers escape to safety.

Everyone else had taken cover and watched the spectacle from a safe distance. The silence was deafening, except for the whimpering of those whose legs Nagash had turned into bleeding, useless appendages.

"Thank you.", the girl Dexter was with said and stood up, brushing the dust off her dress. She was beautiful, on second glance, as Nagash discovered, but not in Daisy's innocent, helpless kind of way. Still, she might serve, if Nagash got her hands on her in an undisturbed moment.

-

"Aaargh, Phex!" Dexter said and spat pink slime to the ground. "I didn't expect them to do something so quickly."

"Neither did I." Dari said and watched as the giantess called Nagash began to twist an arm off of one of the survivors while he was pinned under her foot that slowly crushed him simultaneously.

"We will have to make an example out of these." Dari added and motioned towards the dead or dying attackers. Nagash was finished with the first one and had sat down on the next one while taunting him. He tried to drag himself forwards from under her weight, much to the amusement of the giantess.

"I know their names, their families. And I have an idea whom we can trust. I'll round them up for you, let Laura have them tonight or on the morrow. Let them see what happens." Dari continued softly.

Dexter scratched his beard.

"No." He said resolutely after a while. "Nagash, stop. Bring 'em here!"

Nagash looked disappointed. She had just finished crushing to death the man she had been sitting on, by shifting more and more weight from his obliterated legs to his torso, all the while laughing softly and poking at his face.

"You can't be serious." Dari objected. "They need to be punished, the others need to see."

"We've killed enough of them." Dexter said calmly. "And we will no doubt continue killing more of them. So will Nagash and so will those two gigantic, fucking cunts."

His voice had died down to a whisper by the end, knowing full well that those who believed Laura and Janna were goddesses were their strongest asset in the village, apart from Nagash. It was refreshing to Dari, though, to see Dexter had not bought into it as well, not really anyway. She'd gotten a slightly different impression during the 'breakfast' earlier in the day.

Still she wasn't convinced: "Carrots and sticks is a sound motto, but this one calls for sticks, if you ask me."

"Forgiveness is a strong force. You heard him." Dexter countered and gave the unconscious Hugor a nudge with his foot. "Unbearable, he said. If we make it more unbearable, this piss will happen more often. I can't have that."

A bucket of water and Hugor was awake again. He scrambled to his feet, but Nagash firmly pushed him back to the ground. His head spun around and he still tried to wriggle free until he noticed Dexter, looking him square in the eye.

"Do you want to live?" Dexter asked coldly.

To Dari's surprise the man's lip started to shake and he nodded his head vigorously.

"Good." Dexter concluded. "Then you will support me from now on."

Again, Hugor nodded his head like a madman.

"You will tell the families of those who died that they must fear no repercussions." Dexter went on. "And you will tell those that survived to support me as well."

"I...I will!" Hugor stammered. "I will, I...I swear it. By the Gods, all of them."

"Hmm?" Dexter raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry." Hugor amended his words hastily. "I swear it by the goddess Laura and her mercy!"

"Good." Dexter said again and motioned for Nagash to let him go.

He scrambled and ran, Dari looking after him, wondering if Dexter was right.

"Dari." Dexter addressed her suddenly. "Hide that one over there in the village and make sure he is looked after."

He pointed at the last wounded attacker. The man had fallen unconscious of the pain and his legs were in horrible shape.

"He will never walk again." Dari said softly. "What good is he?"

"He will work, sitting." Dexter shrugged. "There are a million chores one can do, sitting."

"So, no one will be offered to Laura?" Dari asked hesitantly.

"No one." Dexter answered firmly.

Dari chewed her lip. Dexter was her only real ally in the village yet, and she felt she should make sure he didn't end up in Laura's belly or beneath one of Janna's boots.

"If no one ever gets sacrificed, it will look suspicious." She blurted out.

"No." Dexter smiled. "Well handled is what it is going to look like."

It was easier after that. Dari got rid of the ragged dress and took the wounded man to a nearby family to look after him. Without a word, they took him in. Oleg was found with his head smashed in by axe from behind. No one had moved him, or even cared about him, it seemed. A young butcher with bloody hands helped her carry the bulky Bornlander to Nagash, who ripped the dead bodies to pieces and threw them on a cart. No meat was to be wasted as per Dexter's orders.

As evening fell, Dari sat on a stack of wood within Nagash's walking range and watched as they continued building. Her mission flashed back into her mind like a kick to the stomach. Like the Brazen Sword, the huge impassable mountain range in the east beyond the Bornlands, the giant, iron thing loomed above the village, even though it was pretty far away. For them, that was. For Laura and Janna it was merely a few steps. The two titanesses had not returned yet, and Dari wondered if Nagash would be able to climb up there, if Dari freed her from the tree bound to her neck.

It was either that, or Birsel's whores. The girl called Birsel had already picked replacements for those that Janna and Laura had so literally loved to bits before. The families had cried and begged but not even Hugor or the other villagers dared to question her authority. She was part of the old way under Foreman the foreman, after all. Somehow that settled it for them.

Dari had already gotten an idea, how Birsel trained the girls. Birsel had them please her with tongue and hands and used a tiny wooden figure of a person to explain in detail their task with Laura. When Birsel passed, she had the right of way, and she took it. Some of the villagers would even throw in a hint of a bow when she passed. After all, being on her good side might protect their daughters when Birsel was to select replacements again.

The wood Dari was lying on, had collected the warmth of the sun all day and now yielded it slowly to the cooler evening. Dari closed her hurting eyes and allowed herself to enjoy it for a second. She wanted to sleep, forget about the horrors and gather strength for another day in hell. And then she was dreaming.

She dreamt about Gareth and her ease of life there. About hordes of giants invading it, burning it to the ground. She wanted to fight them, but was helpless to do so. When she approached the soldiers, they didn't even look at her or, if they did, only made advances at her, turning into drooling simpletons. It all happened quickly, and they were enslaved by the giants in a dark place. The sky was black, the earth scorched and they wore rusty iron shackles around their feet, carrying impossibly large rocks upon their backs, while being whipped by laughing and screaming giantesses.

One of them was picking on Dari, whipping her in the face, time and again while shouting: "Eat!"

"There is no food!" Dari screamed in tears. "I want to eat, but there is no food, please stop hitting me!"

The last whip was the hardest and Dari woke up, staring into Nagash's face.

"Eat!" The giantess said sternly and lowered a wooden bowl of broth in Dari's arms. Dari's face hurt and she knew, Nagash had been flicking her. The giantess sat down beside her and ate from a large basket that was filled with leftovers from the breakfast.

Dari looked down at the broth in her wooden bowl. Hesitantly, she took a sip from it, finding that it was made from roots, carrots and potatoes, without the use of meat or flesh. Relieved, she began to drink.

"Did Dexter say where we will sleep tonight?" Dari asked after a while, not completely sure what she was doing.

"We three all sleep by each other." Nagash grumbled in her dull voice. "Don't want humans to cut our throats in the night. We will watch over him."

"Didn't we both saved his live once today already?" Dari blurted out.

To her surprise, Nagash smiled: "Little Dexter will need a lot more saving."

She took a piece of meat from the basket and offered it to Dari as a gesture of friendship. It was a human foot.

"Ohh..." Nagash mumbled apologetically when she saw Dari's distaste, threw the stiff, pale piece of flesh into her own mouth and fumbled for half a hard sausage that she gave Dari instead.

"Thanks." Dari said and took a bite.

It was only half bad. Suddenly, Nagash turned her head at her and eyed her suspiciously.

"How does something as tiny as you kill giant?" The giantess asked.

There was something threatening about her and Dari felt uneasy. It was as if Nagash grew even larger before her eyes.

"Speed." Dari answered, swallowing her fear.

"Speed?" Nagash asked mockingly. "You think you can kill me just by being quicker than me?"

"I've lost all of my weapons." Dari admitted in defeat. A smart assassin never revealed what she was capable of. There was enough lying around, that she could use, but none of it was near as good as her old equipment. Fighting Nagash would be a contest she was not unlikely to lose without the element of surprise.

"Ha." Nagash laughed before her face turned sinister all of a sudden.

Before Dari had time to react, the giantess' huge hand slapped her from behind and sent her flying off the stack. Dari had almost gotten up again when Nagash's foot came crashing down on her, pushing her into the dirt.

"Remember what I will do to you if you try anything funny." The giantess spat threateningly and used her immense weight to force the air from Dari's lungs before relieving her.

Then, Nagash simply stood up and walked away.

-

Laura and Janna had been walking for hours before stumbling upon the first settlement, only to find that it had been abandoned. There was a dirt road to follow though, which took them to the second and third settlements, both of which had been abandoned as well.

They were hungry, frustrated and it was getting late.

"Let's just get back and eat from your village again." Janna suggested as they walked. "If it gets too late, we won't be able to find our path any more, you know how dark it gets here."

"They don't have enough food and I don't want to reduce the population too much, now that it finally started to really grow." Laura objected.

"If we can't find food around, we will have to move south anyway." Janna cautioned. "What becomes of it when you are no longer around, huh?"

"What if we don't make it back to the ship?" Laura asked.

"Sleep on the ground." Janna shrugged. "Hey, I don't like it either, alright. None of this shit. Just be thankful I made you put on your clothes."

When they started out to find food, Laura had wanted to go naked but Janna had insisted she put on clothes, to which Laura had only grumpily complied.

"But it's dirty..." Laura pouted and looked around as if deciding where she should sleep right now.

"Hello, wake up call." Janna said in a mocking tone. "Dirty is part of our life now! And besides, you're the one who won't make sacrifices for our survival."

"Won't make sacrifices?!" Laura spat in response. "Look at me! I don't make sacrifices?! Do you have any fucking idea how I feel?!"

Tears began to well up in her eyes.

"I...I was talking about the village. I didn't mean to...I don't want to fight." Janna cooed consolingly and embraced Laura in her arms. They started kissing after a while and the bad thoughts exited Laura's head. It felt so good to be close to Janna.

"Laura, Janna!" Someone called in the distance, almost too soft to hear.

They unlocked their embrace and looked around. The sun was settling but the light was still good enough to see anyone their size who might approach on the horizon. It took Laura a few seconds to remember, that no one would come. Like a stone in her guts, their whole situation was at the forefront again. She had probably been day dreaming.

"Did you hear that?" Janna asked wide-eyed, looking around like a maniac.

Then, there it was again: "Laura, Janna! Down here!"

Laura almost threw up. The voice was speaking in English! They looked down at their feet but in between the trees twilight had already set in and it was hard to spot things.

"I'm over here!" The voice called and Laura could barely make out the shape of something tiny, coming down the dirt road they were following.

He was quick and soon enough they could see him a little clearer. He wore one of the suits Janna and Laura would have worn if their mission had gone according to plan, but without the helmet. The fact that he had about the regular height of a person on this planet, barely upwards of three centimetres, sent Laura's head spinning.

"I need to..." She mumbled and felt her butt crashing into the ground beneath her, which almost threw the man off his feet.

"Woa, watch it!" He called again. "What the hell happened to you guys."

And he came closer yet until he was standing half a step, to them, away. It was Steve, one of their classmates on earth, sent on a similar mission to a different planet, the same day as they had been. Laura remembered him with short, light brown hair, broad shoulders and quite an impressive chin. He was not the most handsome of guys, but able to talk himself into a lot of girls' pants. He had never really tried with Laura, though, she was simply out of his league. It felt unreal to see him standing there now, so tiny.

Laura couldn't tell if she had approached Steve and who ever he was with if the roles were reversed. Yet here he was, either very brave or too stupid to care and impossibly small. But then again, he had probably no idea what they had done.

"Damn, I knew someone was talking good 'ol English over here, but fuck! When I recognized your faces I was like, what the fuck, guys?!" He screamed up at Janna so that she could hear him.

Janna didn't say anything. The situation was awkward to the bone. They just looked at each other. Steve, catching his breath from running, Janna slowly sinking onto her own behind and Laura trying hard to catch her bearings.

"I swear, if it's one of those damn druids, messing with our heads again, I'll fucking pulverize him." Janna said after finding her words.

Steve didn't seem alarmed but perplexed.

"Hey, what are you talking about?" He asked, spreading his arms wide. "It's me, Steve, I'm in your class, remember? Did you hit the same anomaly as us?"

"A...anomaly?" Laura croaked, finally finding her words.

"Yeah." Steve addressed her. "Our pilot can explain it better. We flew through that thing and ended up here. Engine fucked. Other systems are mostly okay though. We were all in stasis when it happened. Fucking autopilot I tell ya. How did you guys get so big?"

"We don't know." Laura blurted out. "Actually, we thought this planet was small, before we met you just a moment ago. You're not part of a rescue mission by any chance?"

"I'm afraid not." Steve shrugged. "We're kinda hoping to get rescued ourselves. What happened to your ship?"

"It's as big as we are, but only half of it is left. Guess that anomaly thing hit us a little harder than you." Laura said, getting calmer.

"This can't be." Janna mumbled suddenly. "You're not real. This is a parallel universe or some shit. There's never going to be any help..."

She extended a hand to reach for Steve and Laura quickly grabbed her by the wrist, stopping her. She had seen often enough what Janna's hands did to tiny people.

"His explanation makes sense actually, somehow." Laura tried to calm her friend.

"But...but..." Janna whimpered and started to sob.

"Look at the bright side." Laura encouraged her. "There's hope! We can get rescued!"

"But we're fucking huge freaks!" Janna burst out, loud enough to make Steve cry out in pain, holding his ears.

Janna had a point but Laura didn't want to focus on that for the moment.

"Don't worry about that!" Steve chimed in from below. "On earth we got, like, a ton of scientists that can fix this. Believe me, if there's a way to grow, there's a way to shrink, perhaps."

"You think so?" Janna asked through her tears.

"Uhhh, Yep." He shrugged and actually grinned.

Laura could have kissed him right there. She hugged Janna intimately for a long time and that rock in her belly started to lighten a little.

"So, uh, we've done it, huh?" Steve interrupted them after a while. "Found life, I mean. Intelligence and stuff."

"Did you...interact with them?" Janna asked after a while.

"Nah." Steve shrugged again. "All according to the book, you know. Just observed them a little. They seem pretty medieval if you ask me. Didn't wanna get burned at the stake or something. We were planning to open to them once our rations would run out, you know. What about you guys?"

"We...uh, yeah...umm...we..." Janna started, stammering.

"Just a few brief encounters when it was unavoidable." Laura threw in quickly. "We're kinda hard to miss, you see."

If Steve found out and reported what they had done, Laura and Janna would face charges of mass murder, possibly genocide and bunch of other nasty things. Janna nodded vigorously and showed a fake smile.

"Who's with you?" Laura asked, involuntarily mixing a little sweetness into her voice.

"Uh, Christina, actually." Steve answered. "Do you know her?"

"She's that black, tomboyish looking type, isn't she?" Laura asked in return.

"Yeah." Steve nodded. "We also got Val, uh, Valerie, pilot. Who is your number three?"

"Our pilot died in the crash." Laura said and lowered her gaze.

Steve scratched his head made a face: "Aw, damn. That sucks. Could you put him back in stasis or something?"

Laura looked up and shook her head: "All circuits dead."

Steve made a 'phew' sound and scratched his head again: "Hey, why, uh, why don't we continue this at our ship? You should meet the others. Maybe we can figure something out. I don't know..."

"Great idea." Laura smiled at him. "Where is it?"

"It's down this road, but not too far. There's a local tavern or something over there.", Steve pointed in the direction he had come.

Janna and Laura exchanged glances for a moment and Janna licked her lips.

"Then, uh, it's to the right, ninety degrees, one click I guess." Steve concluded and turned back towards them.

When Laura extended her hand and put it down beside him, to allow him to climb on, he jumped away in terror.

"Woa, woa, woa!" He screamed. "What the fuck are you doing?!"

"We can't follow you when you're in between the trees." Laura explained. "Plus it's dangerous, we might step on you. I can carry you, it's no big deal."

"Shit, that makes sense." Steve admitted with a laugh, calming himself. "You're just so...fucking huge!"

"Nice way to rub it in, asshole." Laura taunted with a smile and Steve chuckled before climbing onto her hand.

With utmost care, Laura stood up. She didn't close her hand around the tiny college boy to allow him to see and guide them. He laid down on his belly, peeking over the edge of her fingers, telling them where to go.

"This is unbelievable." He commented along the way. "I'm being carried by a girl."

Laura remembered him on earth. He wasn't exactly jockish, but fit nonetheless. But also more of a partier than a studier, much like herself.

"Well, get used to it." Laura winked at him from above.

"There it is!" Steve called out, suddenly. "Stop, you're gonna step on it."

Laura spotted the ship one step ahead of them. It was an explorer class, like their own, only the size of a shoe. It looked like it had taken down a couple of trees when it came down, but looked mostly intact. She sat Steve down in front of the ship and Janna crouched next to her, eager to see the other tiny humans. The ships doors were closed and no lights outside indicated that someone was inside.

"It's okay guys, you can open up! I found some friends!" Steve called but no one answered.

"Uhh, they're propably scared shitless because of you." He added apologetically. "Come out guys, it's totally safe!"

With a hissing sound, the door opened and two heads peeked out, a black face with short hair and a white face with long hair.

"Hi." Janna cooed softly. "Don't be afraid, you guys."

"Steve!" Christina, the black girl, shouted. "What in the living fuck is this shit?!"

"It's Laura and Janna, from class!" Steve explained. "Seems that anomaly thingy made them big, somehow. Real big."

Laura could see Christina step into the door and climbing out, gaping at them. There was light inside the tiny ship, so most of their systems seemed to be running still.

"What in the..." Christina cursed and came closer. "Hey, Val! Come out here and look at this!"

"I ain't goin' out there to those giant freaks!" Valerie's voice echoes from inside the space ship.

"Don't take it personal." Steve addressed Janna. "You have no idea how fucking huge you are. She probably saw you on the screen and stuff. Ey, did you piss your pants or what?! Come out here, it's kay, alright?"

Then Valerie came into view. She was good looking, from what Laura could see, had long blonde hair, a slender figure and was comparatively tall, like a model.

"Daaamn, that anomaly messed you up good." Christina said and stepped closer, gaping up at them in amazement.

"Yeah." Laura admitted, faking embarrassment.

The truth was, the more she thought about it, the more she decided she'd rather be big on this planet than small. In fact, she got a certain rush of power, looking at her tiny classmates. That was not good and she knew it.

"I'm not doing it!" Valerie announced suddenly and rushed back into hiding. "You can't make me!"

"Aww." Janna cooed, amused.

"Fuck off, go away, you giant freak, you can't make me!" Valerie went on from inside the ship.

That statement was obviously not true but Laura hoped that Janna would pass on showing her.

"Actually I could." Janna said victoriously. "Watch this guys."

She reached to the side and wrapped her fingers around a large spruce, yanking it out of the ground with a quick pull and lifted it up. Then she pressed harder on the trunk until it snapped in her hand like a twig before she ground it to splinters in her hand.

"Holy shit!" Steve exclaimed in awe. "That's awesome!"

"Valerie." Janna sang sweetly. "Come out, Valerie. Don't make me come get you."

"I ain't fucking doin' it!", Valerie cried from inside and went on a rant that was hard to comprehend.

When Laura saw the amusement in Janna's eyes, she knew she had to step in.

"Actually," She addressed Steve, "Why don't you guys go in, talk to her, try to calm her down. We have to get moving, it's getting dark. And it get's seriously dark out here, like, seriously. We'll go check on that tavern you talked about. How does that sound?"

"Uh, you wanna take us with you?" Steve asked.

"No, we leave you here, dumb-ass." Janna laughed at him. "We leave you here, so that the locals can kill you guys as soon as you run out of supplies. You're coming with us."

"Uhhh...sure, makes sense. Give me ten mikes, I'll convince her." Steve shrugged again and turned to go into the space ship.

Laura and Janna almost ran back to the road and they followed it according to Steve's description.

"Finally, someone begging for their life to fill my belly." Janna said in full earnest.

"Speak softer!" Laura whispered. "We don't know how far our voices carry. They might hear you!"

"Can you believe how tiny they are?" Janna whispered right on.

"I know, right?" Laura responded. "Oh, I wish it had been Amber. That fucking bitch."

"Oh yeah, I hear you." Janna conceded. "With her, things would have been...different."

They both chuckled.

"Hey, but we're not really doing anything with the guys, right? Steve, Christina and Val?" Janna continued after a short while.

"I'm so glad you said that." Laura answered relieved. "They're off limits. And they can never learn what we did to the local people. They can bring hell down upon us, once we get rescued."

They spotted the tavern in front of them. There were lights inside but it was as quiet as a grave. No doubt, whoever was inside had heard them approach and was now hiding in fear. Laura only hoped that it was packed with patrons but the abandoned village near the place didn't get her hopes up. The building was built along side the road, had two stories and it's outline was about the size and shape of a regular bible. There was a stable from which they could hear horses neighing too.

"Yeah, but what if they do find out?" Janna asked, blocking any exit with earth, using her boot.

The phrase 'accidents do happen' crossed Laura's mind, but she decided to go with: "Let's think about that when it happens, alright?"

"Right." Janna nodded and ripped off the entire roof at once.

There were rooms beneath it, with people cowering inside, furnished with beds, tables and chairs.

"Eat quick, we gotta get home." Janna said and reached inside without wasting any time.

'Home', that sounded so strange and far away, Laura thought once more. Janna had already found her first victim, a middle aged man who looked well fed and absolutely terrified. She grinned hungrily at him for a second as he dangled in front of her teeth, before she dropped him inside and moved her lips.

"Mhh." She moaned. "I love the way they melt on my tongue when I suck on them."

Laura swallowed hard. She could feel herself getting aroused just by thinking about that. Already, Janna lifted a married couple dangling by their night gowns to her mouth, each in one hand.

"Who wants to go first, hm?" She taunted them in the local language. "Well, it doesn't really matter now, does it."

And with that, the man vanished in her mouth, just like the first one had.

Janna noticed Laura watching her and grinned sheepishly. She lifted the screaming woman in between her front teeth and bit down on her only hard enough to keep her in place. When they kissed, Laura's breath became shallow again and Janna let the woman travel into her mouth. It ended far too soon, Laura thought, but then again, they had stuff to do.

She started to suck on the woman, like Janna had, and soon she could actually feel the tiny morsel dissolve on her tongue. The taste was exquisite. Janna also ate the last person they could see on the upper story but Laura found two more, hiding under a bed. One was a woman, slightly older than them by the looks of her, but beside her was a boy of only six or seven. That gave Laura pause.

"What's wrong, will you eat them already so we can dig into those below?" Janna pushed her.

"I'm sorry.", Laura whispered and lifted the mother by her dress and into her mouth. She gave her a quick death in between her molars before turning her attention to the kid.

She had probably killed children before, when she indiscriminately stomped houses or groups of people, but it had never been that personal before. Sighing, she lifted him by his jacked and regarded him for a moment. He wasn't crying, but visibly afraid.

"I can't.", She whispered and set the boy on the ground in between Janna and herself.

"Run, little guy, run far away and hide. And only come out when you see someone your size." Laura encouraged him.

He looked frightened at her for a moment, before Janna's fingers closed around him and hurled him upwards, before dropping him into the doom that was Janna's maw.

"Hey what the hell?!" Laura protested. "He was just a kid!"

"He's food!" Janna countered. "And a girl's got to eat, alright?!"

As an example, Janna opened her mouth again, exposing the frightened boy, sitting on the centre of her tongue, before she closed her mouth, swallowed and opened it again, showing that he was gone. Deep down, Laura knew Janna was right. The little one had probably starved to death in the wild anyway, or worse.

"A horse?" She asked diplomatically and lifted one from the stable next to her. It was a white steed that looked exemplary for it's race.

"Sure." Janna grinned and took it.

After wolfing down the beautiful beast, Janna carefully lifted off the first story of the building, largely preventing any collapse. Beneath it, it was a feast. Not without some gratitude, Laura noticed that it was mostly frightened men, safe for some tavern wenches and no kids to be seen. When she and Janna were about to dig in, the tavern keep, a large man without much hair on his head called out.

"Wait!" He begged, shouting over the frightened screaming. "Don't kill us, please!"

The two looked at each other and chuckled.

"And what are you giving us in return for your lives?" Janna inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Food!" The keep said and motioned to a closet behind the bar that was filled with all manner of things. "Take it! I...it's yours!"

"And?" Janna continued with a devilish grin.

"And ale!" The keep added quickly. "There's a huge barrel in the basement, I have the key here!"

He held up the pathetic, little key, almost too small for Laura to see.

"I think I'm too large for the stairs, would you mind pointing it out to me?" Janna said, visibly enjoying the game.

The man pointed to the area beneath the bar, that was immediately vacated by the people around. The screaming had stopped and it seemed as though some had actually gotten their hopes up.

Unceremoneously, Janna pushed through the floor boards with her hand, cleared an opening by wriggling her arm and withdrew a considerably huge barrel from the basement.

"That's it!" The keep exclaimed. "Take it, it's all yours!"

Janna and Laura exchanged a glance. The barrel was still tiny to them, containing approximately a tenth of a litre if it were full. Janna pushed in the top with her finger and smelled it for a second.

"Cheers." She said, raising the barrel at Laura and took a brief sip.

"Damn." She commented in English before giving the barrel to Laura, "Now that's beer."

Laura took a sip herself and found it much more pleasurable than the stale, expired stuff they had the night before.

"It's good, yes?" The keep inquired eagerly and even managed the nervous smile of a service man dealing with displeased customers.

"Not bad." Janna said appreciatively. "But I'm not much of a drinker. I usually just go to the bar for snacks."

Laura could see the nervous smile die on the keep's face when Janna reached for him. She let him dangle by a leg in front of her mouth.

"Tell me, little snack." She taunted him. "Where can I get the most beer in one place, all at once?"

Without thinking too much about it, Laura lifted two horses into her mouth and chewed them while she watched Janna play.

"I...i....in the capital. Andergast. The city. The capital. They have the most." He blurted out while Janna made him swing back and forth.

"Good." Janna said, giving him a warm smile. "You look a little fat. Try not to upset my stomach."

She threw him into her mouth like a peanut and started chewing him noisily, looking at the crowd. Chaos ensued instantly. People were running and crawling over each other, trying to find a way out, to hide or to plead with them.

Simultaneously, Laura and Janna came for them, each lifting five people at once. While Janna had them melt on her tongue again, Laura simply washed them down her throat alive with another swig of beer.

"Want some more of this?" She asked Janna, motioning with the barrel.

"Nah, you drink it." Janna said, chewing her next mouthful of people. "Give me another horse."

Laura plundered the closet behind the bar, while Janna hunted down three patrons that wouldn't stop running, which amused her greatly. The last handful of people, four of them, cowering in a corner, were for Laura.

"Damn, I'm not full." Janna pouted, regarding her last three morsels.

"We'll find more tomorrow, come on, we gotta go." Laura said, threw the four into her mouth and washed them down with the rest of the beer. Janna sighed and stood up, already sucking on the first of her last three.

"I love to be big." Janna commented as they strolled back to the tiny space ship.

"Must suck to be so small." Laura laughed in response, holding her belly. "I can feel them kicking inside me."

"I haven't got you pregnant have I?" Janna asked in jest. "No, really. Being digested alive must suck."

"Come on, eat the last two. The others mustn't see them." Laura urged but Janna suddenly stopped.

When she held her hand up, Laura could see that the last two were both tavern wenches. With a seductive smile, Janna opened the button on Laura's jeans.

"What are you doing?" Laura asked nervously and half heartedly tried to push Janna away.

"One whore for you." Janna began and slipped her hand, carrying one of the wenches, into Laura's pants while simultaneously doing the same to herself.

"And one for me." She concluded, slipping the frightened little girl above Laura's labia and pushing her in between her lips.

Laura was wet from having watched Janna earlier and Janna's finger, pushing the wench, slipped in without any effort.

"Oh, a little worked up, are we, huh?" Janna commented and started to finger her girlfriend and herself.

"You're damn hot when you eat people." Laura gasped as she felt a little kick from the helpless, tiny girl within her.

"Ha. Knew it." Janna laughed and withdrew her hands from their panties. "You're a weirdo. Come on let's go."

Occasionally, on the way, a gasp would escape Laura and she'd get weak in the knees, every time the tiny girl kicked and struggled harder.

"Is yours as much a fighter as mine?" Janna whispered chuckling. "That feels great."

Laura only managed a nod and a grin. It felt awesome to be able to do that to someone without remorse or repercussion.

"Gee, you think I could make Steve do that once?" Janan said dreamily.

"No, you can't!" Laura had to fight to bring the words out in order.

"I wouldn't force him, you know." Janna whispered while gesturing leisurely. "He's a free man. If he does it of his own volition it's fine right?"

"No it isn't?!" Laura whispered back vigorously. "You'd fucking squash or drown him or something."

When they approached the ship, their two classmates and the pilot stood outside, waiting for them. When Valerie tried to retreat into the ship again, Steve and Christina held her back.

"It's alright, Val, calm down!", Steve said and after a while Val stopped.

"I fucking hate you guys!" She spat but remained where she stood, shaking visibly.

"It's okay, Val." Laura cooed and crouched down. "We're not going to hurt you. Come on you guys, climb onto my hand, we have to get going or we won't to reach our ship before it gets too dark."

Steve and Christina climbed onto her hand without incident, but Val needed some more convincing. Then, finally, they were on their way. They didn't talk much while they followed their tracks back, the crushing of trees beneath their feet, that moved quickly, drowned out the tiny voices of their classmates anyway. Janna carried their space ship along with them, trying not to shake it too hard, to avoid things breaking inside.

The tiny wench had wriggled her way out of Laura's vagina and was trapped in her panties now, pinned down by her labia. Still, the occasional kick or attempt to free herself could be felt.

-

After supper, Dexter made the builders throw in a few hours extra. They understood why and didn't complain about it. They built a few fires to spend light and Dari sat close to one of them for warmth. She fought hard not to fall asleep, not where Nagash could accidentally step on her. The incident still stuck in her bones.

Laura and Janna had still not returned, or maybe Dari had been sleeping a little and missed them. She couldn't really tell. She wished they'd never return, actually, but then again, she had to save Vengyr and thereby the world, according to Xardas. Without either of the titanesses, Nagash was her only chance to get into the ship. She thought about simply leaving the village. If she stole enough supplies, maybe she'd make it up there, but it would take forever. And they'd find her, most likely.

Large areas around the village were deforested by now. It wasn't so much that the villagers had cut down a lot of trees but more that Janna and Laura had simply been walking around the place. The trees their gigantic feet pushed down, the villagers would scramble and use for wood for construction or building fires.

Dari had heard a few hunters say how there was little to no large game left around. Sure, she thought. If she was a stag or a bear or anything like that, she'd leave this place too and never come back. Rabbits and birds could still be found though. Mostly birds, for they were stupid enough to came back every time after a titaness marching through had scared them away.

"Pack in! Go to sleep, we'll continue on the morrow at first light!" Dexter announced to the builders.

By that time, four new two story homes had been built in record time and the ground work for smithy, coopery and weavery had been layed. The old raider walked over besides Dari and stretched his back with a grimace of pain on his face.

"How is that rib?" Dari asked, concerned.

"It's fine. I've had worse." He shrugged. "The back is killing me though."

"Sit with the back to the fire, the warmth will help." She told him.

"Right." He grunted and followed her advice.

"We'll make the cut tomorrow, if they want to break their fast." Dexter said in thoughts, staring into the distance. "The day after that too. I'm thinking about another raid. If only we had horses. I'm going to have to speak to Laura about that."

"They haven't returned yet, have they?" Dari asked, turning towards him.

"No, they haven't." Dexter grimaced again. "I don't know if they find their way in the dark though. They might have gotten lost. Wouldn't that be something?"

He showed a wry grin.

"What if they don't return?" Dari asked.

"Well, than this little adventure is over. I don't know what happens then." He admitted.

Nagash had come over and sat down beside them.

"Sleep here?" She asked and Dexter nodded.

"You watch first." She commanded, gave Dari a gentle push and curled up into a ball.

It wasn't long after that, that the giantess started snoring. Dari hoped that Dexter would let her sleep first, but he did no such thing.

"Who can I trust?" He asked suddenly, turning around towards the fire.

Dari gave him the names of the most fanatic that came to mind. These people had accepted Lauraville as their fate, and Laura as their goddess. They were the minority still, but what they lacked in numbers, these crazy people made up in resolve. Some of these people would gladly offer their children to the barbaric titaness.

Then they heard Nagash whimper in her sleep.

"Is she holding up?" Dari asked concerned.

It was weird, hearing such a gigantic and fiercely strong creature cry.

"I honestly don't know." Dexter said with equal concern in his voice. "We only met her yesterday. It's strange how quick one makes friends in these times. One of our goddesses killed the girl Daisy. The two were growing somewhat close, I think."

Then Dexter did something, Dari hadn't expected. He stood up, strode over to the giantess and leaned against her, preparing to sleep. It wasn't long before Nagash hugged him like a doll and nestled him against her breasts.

Dari got up and threw some additional wood into the fire. The burning pile was as high as herself, for Nagash had built it. Then she looked around at the dancing shadows on the new buildings. She was unbelievably tired. Trying hard to stay awake, she couldn't help but drift in and out of sleep, having the weirdest dreams of her life, all of which she fought hard to forget.

Then, when darkness had surrounded everything outside the light of the fires, the earth started shaking gently, announcing the return of the titanesses.

'Please, let them be full and as tired as me.' Dari thought, before sleep overtook her like a practised lover.

-

It had gotten almost so dark that they couldn't see their hands before their eyes. They had lost their track and were stumbling around the darkness. They knew they had to be close to their ship but they couldn't make it out anywhere. They had talked about sleeping right then and there and continuing on the next day, when Steve had called out that he saw a light.

Laura and Janna saw it too and they walked towards it. Soon, they spotted the outline of the ship as well, and Laura was relieved. She didn't bother checking on her village more than taking a single look. Several fires burned and people were sitting next to them, some sleeping, some looking up at her in fear. Around the by far largest fire, Laura could see the tiny giantess, sleeping soundly, no doubt recovering from a hard day of work. The progress of the construction pleased her, but what pleased her most, was the thought, that Dexter had erected a signal fire, to guide them back to their homes. Surely, the tiny man had not missed that she and Janna had not returned. She was proud of him once more.

She held her three new friends closely in her fist, not allowing them to see, so not to raise any questions about why there was a village so close to their gargantuan space ship.

Inside, Janna was building a fire in the usual place, after she had placed the space ship on the table, unharmed.

"Is, uh, everything clean?" Laura asked, hinting. "We wouldn't want to...give a bad impression."

"Uh, yeah, sure." Janna said chewing her lip. "It should be fine."

Laura conceded that they had no choice. If there were remnants of crushed people somewhere, she sure would not find them now. The table, the tiny space ship sat upon, was mostly clean though, she remembered. Letting Steve, Christina and Valerie walk around on the floor would be stupid anyway. She placed her hand next to the ship, and allowed them to climb down.

"Wooow!" Steve said, running a few steps and gaping at the enormity around him. "This is, like, so freaking freaky. Shit!"

To him, it seemed like a cool fun park. Christina and Valerie looked around in amazement as well, but seemed fearful at the same time.

-

Stonetree couldn't help but smile. He smiled often these days, much more often than in the days of the great war, back when it looked like they might actually win it. He stuck to his race, because he was one of them, but deep down he somehow knew that he was different. There was no place for him anywhere else.

Albino was a smart leader. That was out of the question. But Stonetree had a hunch that the pale king's vision of the future involved more wheels, furnaces and blood than he could stomach. Also, Albino had given giants like Edda, a living monster that particularily rejoiced in eating human children in front of their mothers' eyes, far too much responsibility. She was an exemplary giant when it came to fighting and killing, but she was unsteady, erratic, sadistic and arrogant.

However, such was the quality of the breed that Albino's war had brought forth. Giants, unable to sustain themselves, unable to control themselves, having lost their old, proven ways completely.

That was why Stonetree took great pleasure in watching Edda's pale face now, as well as her two equally ogrish, female companions. All three of them towered above him in height and were definitely stronger than him. They might well have beaten and killed him with ease in a fair fight. But none of them had seen the real giants before.

They were hidden at the edge of the forest, in front of them flattened trees. The sight of that alone had put an end to Edda's mockery of Stonetree, that she had put up, for the entirety of their journey here. Albino had tasked Stonetree to show to Edda what he had seen, so that she might confirm it to him. Stonetree remembered a time, when his voice was trusted, but apparently, that time had passed. Albino had laughed and asserted that he was hallucinating.

It wasn't long before the two titanesses strode past them in the distance and climbed into the massive, mountainous thing they had made their home. The darkness had only allowed them to see their outline against the moon and stars, but when one of them had leaned closer to the nearby village, where fires burned, they had gotten a brief but better glimpse of the creature.

Ever since then, Edda and her brutes had remained silent.

"Have you seen enough?" Stonetree asked softly.

He could see Edda swallowing hard.

"Why she not destroy village?" She asked, grunting.

"I don't know." Stonetree admitted. "It seems she...cares about it."

To his surprise, she laughed heartily at that and her companions joined in.

"Then she weak!" She spat. "She no threat."

Stonetree needed a moment to stomach the stupidity and sheer arrogance of what he had just heard.

"The two of them have killed hundreds, if not thousands, from what I have seen." He cautioned.

"And yet, she let pathetic little humans live next to her." Edda countered, unconcerned. "We tell Albino, no threat here."

Stonetree felt himself getting angry. Not only was she undermining him, she would also endanger their entire campaign by withholding information about two gargantuan killing machines, that they would inevitably run into at some point.

"We keep slaves around as well..." He tried to reason, unwilling to give up and let her tarnish his reputation with Albino further. But the longer the living behemoths were out of sight, the more Edda seemed to grow back her courage.

"We treat human like little worm they are. We not protect them." She proclaimed confidently.

Stonetree began to understand just how stupid Edda really was.

"It seems, they keep one of us as a slave too." He mentioned, sure that this one would convince her. "She's over there, right at that pyre, sleeping."

Edda narrowed her watery eyes but Stonetree knew that she couldn't see her.

"Liar." She grunted after a while. "No giant can be slave."

Stonetree gritted his teeth: "Fine. Then let's go."

"No." Edda chuckled at him. "We will destroy humans."

"You can't be serious." Stonetree urged her, almost unwilling to believe his ears. "If the bigger ones hear you..."

"They gone sleeping." She cut him off. "And village only humans, hehehehe!"

She licked her thick lips, no doubt thinking about the children she could devour. It was insanity, but on the other hand, Edda would see the enslaved giantess and maybe come to reason.

"Fine." He conceded. "But we have to be quiet until we get there."

"Of course, mhhhhmhmhmh." She chuckled. "Don't want humans to get away, hehe!"

The three giantesses had never learned how to move quietly and Stonetree soon let them overtake him, hoping that the darkness would conceal him if the worst happened. But grudgingly, he had to admit that there was a good possibility that Edda was right. If the titanesses slept, they should be able to clear out the village, retrieve the giantess and get away unscathed. He already resented the massacre about to ensue, though. He fell back more and more, trying to keep out of the fight if possible.

Like moths drawn to a flame, Edda went directly for the big fire.

-

Dari awoke to a tingling in her neck. It was strong. Danger was imminent. She realized that she had fallen asleep on her watch and never told Nagash to take over. The giantess was still snoring beside her.

She looked around to the houses to see if more villagers were gathering to attack. The fire had lost size but was still big enough to reach them. Then she heard the foot steps approaching. They sounded like Nagash's, but there were at least three pairs of feet, trampling towards her.

Instinctively, she layed flat on the ground and crawled for the darkness. It were giants, those of Nagash's kind, she knew it. She considered calling for alarm, but doubted that would be wise. The people in the village would fall to these creatures like sheep to wolves. Did they come for Nagash? Maybe they would just take the giantess and leave.

When Dari was shrouded in darkness enough, she made a run for the hunting equipment. The short knife that she carried on her person would not do much against a giant if it came to a fight. A long, reasonably sturdy spear, a bow and arrows were her choices. Then she returned to the darkness in between the new built houses to see what would happen.

There were three of them, all female and wild. Two looked alot like Nagash, but the one at the front was a different calibre, thick boned and brutish looking.

"What do we have here? Ahaha!" The fat ogre laughed upon seeing Nagash. "The coward was right. Stand!"

Nagash seemed to awake and looked around in confusion. Part of Dari knew, that she was looking for her, too. Then Dexter jumped to his feet, baring his dagger, stepping protectively in front of Nagash. It looked insane.

"Ahahaha!" The fat ogre laughed again. "Little human. I will crush, little human!"

That was just about enough for Dari. Aiming for one of the giantesses standing at the back, she went for the eyeshot with the hunting bow. It was a difficult shot. There was basically no wind and the distance was medium, but the only source of light was the fire, making it difficult to judge the distance correctly. What made it easier, though, was that giants had much larger eyes than humans and Dari would have confidently shot a cat through the eye under these conditions.

The bow sang and the arrow flew, hitting the target perfectly.

"Argh!" The giantess screamed and held her bleeding, ruined eye. "I kill you!"

Her voice echoed from the houses and the forest in the distance and Dari knew, the village would be awake soon. Blindly, the giantess stomped towards her, doing exactly what Dari wanted. She knew that arrow wouldn't kill her, the point was to distract the fat one from killing Dexter. With the fire in her back, the approaching behemoth made a formidable target and the second arrow destroyed the giantess' other eye, drawing more screaming.

The blind monster cried in pain, and Dari was quick to grab the spear and close in. Both hands occupied, holding ruined eyes, it was almost too easy. Still, Dari had to muster all her strength to push the spear through the giant leg and through the artery that ran there. That artery carried enough blood to, if it was nicked, kill within seconds. When Dari withdrew the spear and retreated into the darkness, litres of blood soiled the sand and the ogre fell dead like a rock.

Everyone looked towards her, Dari saw, even Dexter and Nagash, but she knew that they could not see her.

"What was that?!" The fat giantess grunted with unmistakable fear in her voice. "Go kill it!"

The other giantess started to roar and ran in Dari's general direction, surprisingly quick. Throwing the spear would not carry enough force to punch through her heart, Dari decided, and went for lying on the ground, as flat as she could, hoping that the giantess would miss her and let herself be killed from behind. When their eyes met, Dari knew that she was out of luck.

A giant foot came down, crashing upon her, and she lost the spear, rolling to the side. Another stomp meant to crush her out of existence, but this time, Dari was better prepared and used the momentum of another roll to get up and run for her life.

-

"Uhraw!" The giantess in front of Nagash screamed and showered Dexter with her spittle.

Nagash didn't know what to do. Everything happened so quickly and none of the words spoken had helped her understand what was happening. The village was being attacked by giants, obviously, but was she under attack too? Had they come to free her or would they kill her as well? Did she want to go with them?

"You stay away from her!" Dexter shouted at the behemoth before him, that was shorter but much heavier than Nagash.

For a weird moment, Nagash remembered how they had met, how he had defended her in front of the other raiders, how she had swallowed his seed in the forest before using him and how he had broken the jaw of the Spear Brother, that had tried to rat her out.

"Time to die, little human!" The ogress slobbered and made a step towards him. "You cannot slave giants!"

But that was wrong, Nagash thought. She wasn't Dexter slave, even if he told her what to do, she was Laura's. And Laura could, just by virtue of her size, make a slave out of any common giant, this fat, drooling ogre included.

"I'm not his, don't hurt him!", Nagash said quickly but firmly.

"Silence, slave!" The ogress sneered, "How can you let yourself be kept by humans?! I will take you and King Albino will be new master of you!"

Nagash felt her anger quickly rising with in her. Noone would call her a slave, she wouldn't have it. Also, she had heard of Albino, the pale king, but she never had any interesst in joining his stupid war. If anything, that war had quite ruined her growing up, with no male giants comming to mate with her.

"I will not fight for that pale son of a maggot!" She snarled and flexed her shoulders.

The ogress' tiny, porcine eyes widened and she flared her nostrils: "You die for this!"

"Oi!" Dexter roared, but the tiny man's voice sounded pathetic and weak against that of the giantess, "You have to get past me first, you fat, fucking...urgh!"

The ogress lifted her foot, surprisingly quickly for a creature of her weight, and brought it down, forcefully, right were Dexter stood. The sound, his body made when being crushed into the ground, was something Nagash was all too familiar with. It had been stupid, as she had known all along, to hang her heart on humans. They died so easily, and yet, she felt her eyes burn on account of the loss. But her anger grew too.

Without a second thought, she threw herself at her opponent, taking her down with her. Then, on top of her, Nagash channelled her hate into her fists, letting them crash into the fat, ugly face, sending sprays of blood flying every time. Then, suddenly, fleshy fingers caught her wrist and held it tight.

The ogress was strong, stronger than Nagash, as she had to admit in panic. Pain shot through her arm as it was twisted and forced her to kneel. Then the ogress took a swing at her face, that sent her crashing onto the ground and made her ears ring. She could hear the taunting laughter above her.

-

Dari had always been a swift sprinter but compared to the giantess hunting her, more than ten meters tall, she was but easy prey. The thuds behind her started slow, before picking up pace and too soon they were closing in. She could swear to hear laughter from above and tried to guess when the giantess would take her first stomp at her. Then, she saw a leg from the left corner of her eye and knew she had to cut right.

Instead of from above, however, the foot came from the side and tripped her. Expertly, she rolled two times before jumping back to her feet, when she crashed into a fleshy surface that came out of nowhere. The beast was quicker in the head than she had expected.

Lying on her back, looking up, Dari could see the monster above her. The giant legs were easily five meters long, the labia visible beneath the loin cloth almost thirty centimetres, the face ten meters above her. Such a creature easily weighed in access of ten thousand kilograms, and Dari didn't want to be beneath that.

She lifted her legs to get momentum for a backwards roll, but when the executed it, two fingers snatched her leather vest and lifted her, restricting her arms by her own weight. When she had wriggled out of her vest, the giantess' other hand closed around her torso.

It was a stunning realisation that overcame Dari. A feeling she was not too familiar with. The feeling that she had lost. She felt like in Gareth, when the guards had beaten and Xardas toyed with her. She felt like back in the gargantuan bottle of ale, when Janna was drinking it, and would only have had to swallow. Dari realized how lucky she'd been up to this point, but also that she had run out of luck now.

"Aaah!" She screamed when the giantess squeezed. She was unforgiving and strong and Dari felt her torso compress in the massive grip.

The giantess chuckled evilly and grinned at her. She licked her lips, while watching Dari suffer. As her head began to spin from loss of breath, Dari thought to hear steps again, and see a shadow, shifting in the darkness, just beside the giantess head, but that might as easily have been hallucinations.

A rock, held in place by the roots of a young tree, came out of nowhere and struck the giantess in the head. Dari saw blood pour from the wound and a pice of bone sticking out.

Then, the grip losened. After the first breath her mind became clearer but she knew to her horror that she was slipping and almost ten meters up in the air. The giantess expression was dull and dead, as her headed snapped back and forth from the force of the blow and her knees started to give in. She was falling forward. If Dari didn't die from the fall, she would be buried under this ten ton colossus.

But suddenly, there were other fingers. A little smaller, perhaps, but older, dirtier and with broken fingernails. They closed around her gently, and lifted her up again. A male face, smaller than that of the giantess, but much larger than that of a man. It had a dirty, wild beard that looked as though, moss, mould, algae and fungi were living in it.

The old giant regarded her for a second, while Dari was too scared to move at all. Then he sighed and it sounded like wind, blowing through trees, before putting her down to the ground, next to the fallen giantess. Hectically, Dari fumbled for the knife on her belt. When she drew it and looked back up at him again, she could only see the last remnants of his shape, fusing with the darkness of the night. She blinked once, he was gone. That was when the menacing laughter of the fat giantess arrived at her ears.

-

Nagash felt the meaty hands close around her neck and squeeze. She fought back, scratched, beat, hit, groped, nothing made them yield. Her jaw twisted up and down as she was yapping for air but didn't get any. A punch in the giantess' gut yielded similarly small results and provoked only vicious laughter. She needed help, she thought, or she would die right then and there. But there was nobody around that could.

When she had almost accepted her fate, she saw the leather clad girl, that tiny, pathetic, little thing, climbing onto the giantess' head. She would have had to climb up the ragged furs, the fat ogress wore, unnoticed in the heat of combat. The girl took the knife that he had bitten on to climb, lifted it towards the moon and brought it down, rapidly, again and again in quick succession. Blood gushed forward, a scream uttered and the giantess groped on her head for the little girl, who kept stabbing like a madman until the ogress' eyes were naught but a gory mess.

As Nagash sank to the ground, breathing furiously, she saw the thick, meaty fingers finally grab the tiny girl by the leg and throw her away, like something that the world didn't need any more.

Nagash prepared to end it and got up, having found new strength.

The blind monster plodded around in darkness, her arms outstretched, unable to see, while Nagash circled her. She shifted positions and took the cord around her neck to make a double loop that she threw around the ogress' neck, pulling it tight before she could free herself of it. Then she ran.

It wasn't long before the end of her range was reached again and she was yanked back and fell to the ground. But this time, with a satisfying crack, Edda the Ogre's neck broke, ridding the world of all the evil she was.

-

"Have you guys measured yourselves yet?" Christina asked as Janna and Laura took seat at the table.

"What do you mean?" Janna asked, cocking her head.

"I mean," Christina said, interrupted by a laugh, "do you have any idea how big you guys are exactly?"

"Uh, no..." Laura fell in, admitting. "You know, we didn't think we changed, like, we thought this planet was just...seriously fucking small."

"Your scanners are all fucked anyway, right?" Steve asked and she and Janna nodded.

"Well, ours aren't." Christina said. "Let's find out exactly how fucked up this is."

Explorer class ships had scanners installed above the cockpit, for measuring all manner of things without having to leave the ship. The intend was, to be able to determine these things on a planet that had too strong gravity or was simply too hot for humans.

"I know exactly how fucked up this is." Valerie sneered. "Very fucked up. What the hell do you want to measure these freaks for?"

"Val." Christina said, putting her hands on her hips. "These freaks are our class mates. Also, this anomaly is a serious discovery. You don't have to be a nerd to see that we have a scientific duty to study that shit."

"Stand aside in the name of science!" Steve laughed and jogged past Valerie and into the tiny ship.

Next they heard his voice amplified by speakers on the outside of the ship: "Janna, you first. Please strip down to your underwear so I can scan you."

"Steve!" Christina scolded into the ship.

"I know right." It rang out of the speakers. "The things we do for science..."

Christina called him a 'perv' but Janna had already stripped down to her panties and bra.

"Alright." Steve began to explain. "Please step in front of the scanner, a little more, yes, and for the fun of it, tell us exactly how tall you were before you grew."

"One meter, sixty seven." Janna said loud and clearly.

"So, uh, that's a sexy five foot six for our first contestant." He joked into the microphone. "Now, tell us your weight, honey."

"What the fuck happened to science? Stick to the metric system, you dweep." Janna scolded him, shaking her head but smiling.

"How much? Don't lead us astray here." Steve said again, still going with the game show gig.

Janna sighed: "A hundred and and thirty seven pounds...and a half. How much is that in metric, Einstein?"

"That's a whopping sixty one kilos!" Steve went on. "But no worries, hun, still sexy."

That was damn true, Laura thought.

"Sooo, scan, scan, scan." Steve announced after drumming on the mic. "You are now...holy shit!"

"What?" Janna asked, genuinely interested.

"You are around one hundred meters tall now and, uh, you weigh twelve thousand nine hundred thirty seven metric, fucking, tons." He said, without the gig this time.

That gave every one a little pause.

"I, uh, hate to brake it to you." Steve's voice rang again, sounding gravely concerned. "But you did put on some serious weight."

There was a silence before Janna and Laura, and then everyone else, laughed.

"Holy crap, man!" Steve went on. "One of your jugs almost weighs three hundred tons."

"Are you checking out her tits on the fucking monitor?" Christina asked alarmed and jumped into the ship as well.

"Oh, he better don't." Janna said with a half joking smile. "Or I'll dump a three hundred ton boob on his little ass."

"Uh, there's no need for that." Steve said but Laura couldn't tell if his anxious tone was played or real. "Laura. Why don't we measure you next."

This time he did it without putting on a show. Laura was smaller and lighter than Janna, standing at one point five four meters, or five foot one, and weighing roughly fifty one kilo grams, or a hundred and twelve pounds, before growing. Now she stood at about ninety meters tall and weighed roughly nine thousand nine hundred metric tons.

"Ha, you're ten meters smaller than me, squirt!" Janna laughed heartily.

"And my boobs?" Laura asked sheepishly.

"Uh, at the risk of getting buried under it..." Steve said, finding back his humour. "...one hundred forty two tons, metric. Wanna give it a shot? I think I could take that."

"The hell you could, now shut that thing off!" Christina laughed and from what Laura heard on the speakers, slapped him against the back of his head.

"You're right, I'd probably die." Steve said dreamily. "A very, very happy man."

Laura considered putting her clothes on again, but they'd soon go to bed anyway.

After that they met outside and discussed the probability of getting rescued. The tiny ship was continuously sending emergency calls, but so far no one had answered and none of them had even the slightest clue, as to when help could be expected to arrive.

"And you guys have made contact already?" Christina asked all of a sudden. "With the locals I mean? It's so freaky how human they look."

Laura and Janna exchanged an uneasy look and Laura decided to stand up and put some more trees into the fire.

"Uh, yeah, actually." Janna began, bumpily. "And they're pretty human on the inside too."

"How the hell would you know that?!" Valerie suddenly called in a shrill voice. "You didn't kill any of them, or did you?"

"No, no, no!" Janna hastily lied. "We found, uh, dead ones."

"Ha, as if!" Valerie scoffed. "You thought they were just insects didn't ya, since you're so big?!"

That sounded much too close to the truth for Laura's liking.

"I...I...uh..." Janna stammered.

"The animals and plants are, like, completely earthly as well. It's totally freaky!" Laura threw in quickly, while walking back to the table.

"What the fuck?!" Valerie screamed, pointing at Laura's crotch.

"What?" Laura asked, before she remembered and her heart skipped a beat.

"There was something twitching in your panties!" Valerie said loud and clearly, nodding to herself.

"No there wasn't?" Laura said, swallowing hard and sitting down just a tad too quickly.

She felt the tiny wench more clearly, now she was pressed against her labia again and was aware of her presence. She arched her back slightly and leaned forward until she felt a satisfying 'pop' as her nether lips squashed the girl flat. Nine thousand nine hundred tons...

"Stand up and show us!" Valerie demanded with shaking hysteria in her voice.

Laura looked over to Janna, who looked as forlorn as she felt herself.

"Stand up, Laura." Christina said, more calmly but also firm.

In lack of any idea to talk herself out of it, Laura lifted herself from her chair until she stood, her crotch at eye-level with her tiny classmates.

"Oh my God!" Christina said, horrified and Valerie started sobbing and sank to the ground.

"Wha...what?" Laura tried to play it cool, but her mouth was much too dry for it.

"Please tell me that wasn't a person." Christina begged and cupped her mouth with her hand.

"There's...there's blood, Laura." Steve called up to her and this time the concern in his voice was unmistakably real.

When Laura leaned forward, she saw it. Tiny to her, but probably clear to see for those that had not shrunk. A red dot could be seen, right where the wench had yielded her life to Laura's weight. The cotton fabric was dirty, as was unavoidable on this planet, but the red colour stood out and it was spreading as the fabric soaked with blood.

"Oh, urgh, must be that time of the month, huh?" Janna suddenly interrupted the awkward silence.

"Ye...yes!" Laura called out in relief. "Oh shoot, that's embarrassing! We don't have any tampons or anything, do we?"

"Nah." Janna quickly followed up. "I can give you some cotton wad from the laboratory stuff but that's as good as it's gonna get."

"Urgh, girls are gross." Steve commented and shook himself.

"No way!" Valerie protested through her tears. "What about the twitching I saw?!"

"You probably saw a dancing shadow from that fire over there.", Steve reasoned with a shrug and pointed to the burning pile of trees at the entrance.

"I saw what I saw! Turn your panties inside out, you freak!" Valerie pushed, as hysterical as before.

"No." Laura said firmly, sitting back down. "I'm not gonna undress and show you my vag just because you got halos. I don't even know you."

"You believe me, right?" Valerie turned to Christina.

All eyes were on the tiny black girl.

"I, uh...I don't know, Val." Christina stammered and shook her head in disbelief. "Why would she do such a thing, that doesn't make any sense."

"Because power corrupts, Chris!" Valerie flared up. "And she's, like what, ninety meters tall?! Imagine the things she can do to people, imagine the things you could do, if you were that big. I know what I could do..."

"Hey, just because you're a bitch doesn't mean she is too." Janna stepped in, convincingly angry.

"You know what?" Janna went on as all eyes turned to her. "I think you should apologise for even thinking such a thing."

"Blow me, you giant cunt!" Valerie spat in response.

"Woa, woa, woa!" Steve stepped in between the two with his arms outstretched, "Let's not blow this out of proportion, alright?"

He looked so tiny and pathetic next to Janna, Laura hoped her friend could contain herself. Janna was now visibly angry too but didn't see about to do anything stupid.

"I will let that one slide just because I could squish you with my thumb if I wanted to." Janna said calmly but with a certain frostiness in her voice before she narrowed her eyes and added: "If you apologise."

Now everyone looked to Valerie again.

Much to Laura's dismay, Valerie took a few vigorous steps towards Janna and said: "So, you want to squish me under your thumb, huh? Sounds like you have experience with that!"

"I don't get my hands dirty with tiny squirts like you." Janna countered, baring her teeth and leaning forward threateningly until her three hundred ton breasts were touching the table. Somehow, Laura could picture Valerie buried under one of those quite clearly. They glared at each other for a while before Laura decided to break the silence.

"I think we're all a little worked up by this entire...situation." She said firmly. "Let's all get a good night's rest and start over tomorrow, shall we?"

"Fine be me." Steve commented with a shrug and Christina nodded vigorously. "Come on Val."

Christina took Valerie by the arm and led her away. Steve went last.

"Hey, Steve." Laura called softly just as he was about to enter their tiny space ship. "Did you guys learn the local language yet?"

"Uhh, no." He answered, taken aback. "Who should we have learned it from?"

Laura shrugged and smiled: "We learned it already. It's real easy. Let's arrange something tomorrow, so you guys can learn it too."

"Wow, great." Steve smiled back and followed the others. With a 'hiss' the door of the tiny vessel closed.

"What a bitch..." Janna began but Laura bid her silence.

"They will most likely be able to hear us, even if we whisper." Laura said calmly in the language of the locals. "But this way, they won't be able to understand us."

"Smart." Janna answered, using the local tongue as well.

"Keep it inconspicuous and no names!" Laura went on. "We mustn't give you-know-who any reason to become any more of a problem than she already is. Let's get some sleep."

"Alright." Janna said and went to her own bed and slipped inside. "And no lesbian stuff when they're around. That's super embarrassing."

That stung a little, Laura had to admit.

As she was staring into the darkness, trying to sleep, she heard Janna's breaths become shallower and quicker. She knew that there, under the blanket next to her, a tiny tavern wench was going through hell.

Chapter 9

The city of Andergast was covered in fog in the early morning as six long ships, navigating carefully on the river, prepared to dock. The sun had just started to come up, as were the first people in the streets. The city was packed with refugees, beggars and poor people and it reeked of the dirt they brought with them. Living conditions in Andergast had always been a tad on the rough side of things, but the recent developments were tipping the city's climate more and more towards the sour end.

It was situated on the north bank of the river Ingval which connected to the ocean, and the west bank of the river Andra, which joined the Ingval there. Across the Ingval there had been build a fortified bridge which ended on the southern bank into Ingval-castle. Thus, the bridge was protecting the open docks on the river against attacks, requiring no further fortifications behind them. The street to the north end of the bridge was leading just past the bergfried of the King's castle, the seat of King Aele of Andergast. Besides the castle, docks and central marked place, the city was quartered according to the four, most powerful artisan guilds: Metals in the north, leather in the east, textiles in the west and wood, closest to the docks, in the south.

With the king's castle directly beside the docks, the walk to the throne room did not take long.

"Thorsten Haffthor Olafson, of Thorwal, third son of the hetman of hetmen!" The sergeant carrying a halberd announced loudly as they entered the throne room.

"Thank the twelve you are here!" Queen Effine of Andergast exclaimed, rising from her throne.

The woman was utterly unattractive, Thorsten found. There was too much meat on her, hanging from her small stature, and on her face too that was round and puffy. Her thin, blue lips raised no affection and her eyes were utterly without glimmer to them. Her hair was mostly concealed under white cloth, held in place by a golden ring on her head, but from what could be seen, it was thin and strawy and actually missing in some places, not unlike the hair on an old man's head.

"Kneel before the queen." The sergeant grunted but Thorsten had no intention of kneeling.

The Thorwalsh never knelt.

Thorsten stood just over two meters tall, as many of his kinsmen did, and thusly towered over most other people anywhere. He wore traditional waxed sail cloth britches in red and white, held by a broad, brown leather belt, and a sheep skin vest. His muscular chest was covered in coarse, brown hair with the small, silver figure of a whale enthroned upon it that held by a leathern thread around his neck. He was young, so his beard was still not grown fully and fierce, but his wild, strong eyebrows showed that he would grow a fearsome beard to match them soon enough.

The Throwalsh were a proud, seafaring people that loved their freedom above anything else. They loved to fight too, and no one did they like to fight more than the Horasians south of them, for they hunted whales for lamp oil and ambergris. Swafnir, the one and only true god for most Thorwalsh, was a giant white whale himself.

"Your false gods have nothing to do with this." Thorsten said, ignoring the sergant and openly defying the queen, "You called for help. Here we are. Six longships, one hundred and twenty men."

There were more than enough female warriors and shield maidens amongst the fighters he had brought, but to the Thorwalsh that didn't make any difference. They did not regard their women as different or weaker, like most other peoples did.

"A drop of water into a brazier." A robed mage said, stepping into the light. "We were expecting the hetman himself and an army."

"My father and elder siblings are raiding Horas' coastline." Thorsten shrugged. "A punishment for their whaling. They left long before giants were first seen in Thorwal."

Many Thorwalsh superstitiously feared the arcane, but Thorsten did not really believe there was such a thing. The way he saw it, wizards were like the false priests of the twelve gods who liked to read a lot and hide behind others when it came to fighting. Nothing like Swafnir's true servants.

"We need more." The queen said, sinking back on her throne, desperate and frustrated, looking awfully tired in the torch-lit room.

She waved annoyed with her hand and the Sergeant took his leave, snorting furiously.

"Has King Aele let his kingdom grow so weak?" Thorsten commented snidely. "The giants are more dangerous and damaging than wolves, bears or bandits, I admit. But they act mostly alone and never with tactics or organization. They do what they do to sustain themselves."

"Not here." The mage explained sharply. "They operate in groups in our forests, killing or enslaving anyone they can get their hands on, destroying villages and creating chaos. Our city is overrun by refugees and what remains of our garrison gets smaller every day. We are at war."

"Then let King Aele call in his banners and root them out!" Thorsten urged in reply.

A solemn silence befell the room that Thorsten did not understand.

"He tried." The queen said, lowering her gaze. "My husband fell in the battle of Andrafall, along with most of his men."

"We tried to call in more troops but, without the king, the lords are hesitant and prefer keeping their men to themselves. Desertion is rampant everywhere, as is reaving, raping and murder. But that is not the worst." The mage added, darkly. "We have heard of at least two giant creatures that are ten times larger and much deadlier than the other giants."

"An exaggeration, perhaps?" Thorsten suggested hopefully, his snide tone gone.

"That's what we thought at first. But as muddled and confusing the reports are, the two sky high monsters are a common theme. What's more is that the devastations at Andrafall are simply too big, even for an army of common giants." The mage concluded.

"Swafnir, help us." Thorsten muttered, not entirely able yet to wrap his mind around all this.

"We have seen abandoned villages by the river." He went on after a while. "But nothing otherworldly as you describe."

"The worst is north of here." The mage replied. "Take your boats north, up the river to Andrafall and see for yourself, if you dare."

Thorsten did not like to be challenged by a coward.

"You are a protectorate of Gareth, as are we." He declared. "We are bound by treaty to be allies and we will gladly die for you in battle."

Who died in battle dined forever in Swafnir's mead hall under the sea. With this firm belief at heart, no Thorwlash warrior needed to fear death. Some had been known to tremble when the end was near, for all creatures' instincts told them to survive. In general, however, the Thorwalsh were infamous for charging into spear walls with joyful and menacing laughter.

But that didn't mean that they threw their lives away easy, either.

Thorsten's father Olaf, when taken prisoner by a rebellious hetman, had famously convinced his executioners to hold his beard aside so that it not be severed and he still had it, in all it's golden glory, drinking in Swafnir's halls. When the sword fell at his neck he had pulled back so that the hands holding his beard were cut off clean instead. The usurper had been so impressed that he ended his rebellion and renewed his oath with his former hetman of hetmen right then and there. Or at least, that is how the story was told.

"Do not be fools, as my husband was." The queen urged him. "Take from our armouries what you deem necessary and if you must leave the city, make sure you come back in once piece."

"You'd rather we stay here and do nothing?!" Thorsten asked, making sure his tone carried home that he was not going to comply.

"We want you to be here in full strength." The mage said, calmly but stern. "Our city had six thousand inhabitants, give or take, before this nightmare started. Our current estimates approach ten thousand soon, counting the refugees outside the walls. Think of the massacre that will ensue, when the giants hit. Whether they have hundred meter tall monsters or not."

Thorwalsh were not good at defending anything. That's why they only held such a small strip of land by the sea, from where to fish and go raid. If the mighty fleets of Horas came to root them out, they would scatter and rebuild later or, better yet, meet the huge, heavy and barely manoeuvrable hulks, cogs, caracks and war galleys in the open waters and fight them to glorious death. Attack had always been their choice strategy for defence. That was also why they preferred raiding over conquest.

No, Thorsten thought, putting his proud warriors and shield maidens on city walls would not serve.

"What of Gareth?" He asked after a while. "What does the high throne say?"

"Nothing, as of yet." The queen replied bitterly. "But we can't be sure if our riders got through, or if they stuck true to their tasks. They might as well have abandoned us."

"Horas never abandons her allies." A snarky, arrogant voice with Horasian accent said behind Thorsten.

He spun around to the entrance of the throne room and the queen and mage were looking as well.

A man stood there, of slim, average built. Of his face, only a wide, grinning mouth was visible under a broad, black hat, adorned by a white feather. His britches and vest were black too, but under that bulged out a fine white garb with quilling at the hemlines. He seemed to carry nothing but a few different sized leathern sacks on his belt as well as a floret, a long, thin stabbing weapon without a blade.

"Forgive my manners." He continued. "Interrupting you like that without introducing myself. Léon Logue, is my name."

He raised his head and showed them their face. His green eyes were narrow, but very alive, his eyebrows as long and thin as his mouth. His black, shiny hair was slightly curled and reached to his jawbone. On his upper lip, there was a small, perfectly trimmed moustache. Thorsten was at a loss for words.

His grin grew wider when everyone was too startled to speak: "I can see by the looks on your faces that you have not heard of me. Given the dire, backwards state your 'country' is in, I shall not hold a grudge against you for that."

"How dare you speak to the queen like that!" The mage hollerred when he had found his words. "Sergeant, throw this man in a dungeon!"

"Ah, ah, ah." The man mused with a raised, gloved finger. "Be careful whom you make enemies of, Jindrich Welzelin. It might just be the one who could inform the White Guild about your lack of enthusiasm for eliminating druidism and heresy, eh?"

"As for your Sergant," the Horasian calling himself Léon continued, "it seems he has found some unexpected wealth and went to celebrate his luck in the nearest locale."

"We have more guards than you can bribe." The queen cautioned him, more calmly than Thorsten liked.

"Yes." Léon Logue replied with a weary smile. "You have thirty city guard patrolling the streets and one hastily replenished banner of halberdiers. Then of course you have conscripts, rabble and militia. Bowmen! I am sure you were able to draft many from the stream of refugees arriving here, but then again, I hear it's more of a come-and-go attitude at the moment."

"You are well informed." The queen admitted in defeat.

"You forget about us." Thorsten finally said into the room and everyone turned towards him.

He felt insecure all of a sudden.

"By Horas!" The Horasian exclaimed cynically. "You can speak! Why, I had mistaken you for a buttress!"

Thorsten balled his fists.

"No need for that! I apologise." The man mocked. "I know you northerners like to settle your disputes with your hands. Well, if you feel inclined to give that a try, I hereby challenge you to an armed duel of first blood. Who ever wounds their opponent first, wins. That's much better sport than brawling, don't you think? So much more civilized."

"That little toothpick of yours couldn't parry my axe if I swung at you." Thorsten pointed out through his teeth.

The man was much smaller than him, both in height and mass.

"Agreed." Léon said with superior calmness. "Too bad you swing it so slowly I could kill you thrice over and still have time to dance away before it could crash down upon me."

"I forbid you both from killing each other in my city!" The queen blurted out, rising up from her throne, interrupting them.

"You!" She pointed at the Horasian with flaring nostrils. "Tell us why you are here!"

"Yes, Queen Effine." Léon said, bowing his head. "I am here to find my elder brother, Lionel Logue, an adventurer, discoverer and scientist, last seen in these parts. You wouldn't happen to have any information as to his whereabouts, no?"

"I do recall a Lionel Logue, my queen." The mage raised his voice quickly. "Odd fellow. Inquired about giants and where to find them and talked to a lot of people. He said to go north, to Andrafall, as I recall, but has not returned."

"Hmm..." Léon sighed, darkly. "I had somewhat hoped the old fool had gotten himself into one of your dungeons."

"Well." The queen said briskly. "Now that that's settled, you are excused, Léon Logue. We wish you the best of luck with your brother."

"Thank you." He bowed in reply. "But I fear my business in this city is not settled yet. I have challenged this Thorwal brute to a duel and the man has not even had the honour of telling me his name yet. Therefore, let us raise the stakes to second blood, if you're up for it. The first one to lose the ability to fight, has lost."

"My name is Thorsten Haffthor Olafsson." Thorsten said before the queen could protest. "And I will smash your Horasian brains out of your skull."

"That would be third blood then." Léon smiled confidently, equally as quick to reply. "Very well. Let's convene in an hour on the central market."

"I will have the both of you hanged if you do that!" Queen Effine bellowed, full of indignation. "You, Thorsten Haffthor Olafsson, have a city to defend!"

Léon looked perplexed for a second before laughing heartily: "Defend this city against the Pale King? Ha!"

"What are you talking about?! Explain yourself!" The queen inquired angrily after a moment of silence.

"Your outer walls are four meters at the highest." León pointed out. "And you have neither crossbows nor ballistas or catapults on them at all."

"Who is the Pale King?!" The queen specified, one of the eyebrows on her ugly face twitching dangerously.

"Ahhh." He said, soothingly putting his hands up and preparing to back up and explain.

"Well, according to what we know, giants have shown up in small numbers all over the continent." He began. "They have been known to band into tribal structures sometimes, but from no where have our spies reported the level of organization and concentration that they employ in Andergast and bordering Nostria."

He gestured with his hand and went on: "Now, this leads many of his Magnificense's historians and scientists to believe that they have a higher leader here a...king, if you will. As the most ancient scripts and tomes we could get our hands upon tell us, at the time of the giant-wars there was a pale-skinned beast called 'Albino', leading armies of giants into battle, before the earth some day swallowed them all. Their recent re-emergence has some worried that a new age of giant wars might come. Not everyone shares this opinion of course but if the giants are back, their king might be too. We can find no record of him being killed or wounded."

There was another silence.

"Well, of course, we cannot be sure about this." Léon said more lightly after a while. "But I say it is likely, which is precisely why I came to get my brother home, no?"

"If it were true, what would you have us do?" Queen Effine asked meekly.

"A smart man would grab his things and run." He shrugged in response. "A confident queen might pray that her kingdom is just too insignificant and strategically unimportant. A hero might step forth and meet them in the field, beat them while they are still weak, for all humanity's sake. Their lingering in the forests could indicate that they haven't finished gathering sufficient numbers yet."

"I will march and meet them!" Thorsten called out immediately, again, causing everyone to turn towards him.

"You and what army?" Léon sceptically replied. "I have seen your ten dozen on the docks. Fierce warriors all, I have no doubt, when it comes to murdering fishermen and boarding merchants' cogs. But what good are your axes against giants, I wonder? How fares your brittle, northern steel against their skin? Spears and longbows are the best you have against them. To meet them in the field you would need pike walls and heavy crossbows in line formation, pitch fields, traps, firebombs, artillery. Did you know, a huge new sword to two and a half hands has come into fashion with Horasian sell-swords, called the 'Andergaster'? Ironic, isn't it?"

"We know, our military is a little behind on the latest developments." The mage began cautiously. "But Horas has always been on the forefront of new technology, hasn't she?"

"Indeed." The Horasian said, smug and pleased. "That is why the manufactures are working tirelessly, new soldiers are being trained and Nostria is receiving more men and material as per our protectoral agreement than ever before. As I said, Horas never abandons her allies."

"And we do not abandon ours!" Thorsten fell in with as much conviction as he could. "We will set sail today."

"As much as I do not care if you threw your life away," Léon said sharply, almost completely devoid of his arrogant tone, "you must know that you are sailing into your doom!"

"We are not afraid to die." Thorsten countered, allowing himself the superior smile this time.

"You will do no such thing!" The queen protested hysterically. "You will stay here and man our walls!"

"You heard yourself why the city is indefensible." Thorsten shrugged. "If you want to stop us, try. But I think, Gareth would not hold it against me if I sacked this city and returned home after your soldiers attacked mine."

"But where will you go?" The mage implored him. "Where will you start your campaign?"

"You did say north of here was worst, didn't you?" Thorsten replied with a mild smile. "That's where then."

The Horasian sighed and lowered his head for a moment: "If you want to be a fool, be a useful one. Let me go with you, north, to Andrafall."

Thorsten was perplexed: "Did you not say doing that meant death?"

"Yes." Léon Logue replied and raised his head again, showing a thin smile himself. "But would you not die for your brother?"

-

Janna had awoken horny and with an unmistakable urge to kill something. Fingering in her panties for the tiny tavern wench she had left there, she found her first victim of the day missing. Looking everywhere on the bed, she couldn't find her either. Her blanket had slipped partially off the bed during the night, so there had been a reasonable way for the tiny thing to get down but scanning the floor didn't reveal anything. Surely, the tiny thing was around somewhere, hiding.

When Janna looked over at the table, she saw a tiny person waving furiously at her.

As silently as she could, so not to wake Laura, Janna tiptoed over. It was Steve, wearing blue, shiny shorts, running shoes and a white T-shirt. Christina and Valerie were seemingly still in their beds, sleeping. Turning everything upside down for the tiny wench would not serve with Steve onlooking. Janna would have to wait for an opportunity and hope for the best.

"Hey." She greeted the tiny man, whispering.

He had stopped waving and just gaped at her in awe. Not at her face but, as Janna now noticed, her bare breasts.

"Hey!" She scolded him, still not too loudly, and covered herself.

"Good morning, uh, sorry!" He caught himself, scratching the back of his head in shame.

"What's it with you and my boobs, huh?" Janna pushed on, angrily.

"So sorry." Steve explained quickly. "They're just so...really, you can't blame a man for staring at them."

He had a point, Janna thought, feeling a little flattered. The size of her breasts was something she could honestly be proud of. Biting her lip, she took her arm off her chest and uncovered them for him to see. She was worked up and knew she had to be careful not to get carried away. But surely, a little banter wouldn't hurt, plus she really craved feeling good about herself.

"Like 'em?" She whispered seductively after a moment.

He was clearly awkward: "Janna, please don't do this."

"Aww, is my teeny tiny boy getting hard already?" She cooed playfully, happy with herself.

He shook his head: "They're the size of fucking water towers, man. You could kill someone with them."

"Biggest you've ever seen, huh?" She grinned and lowered herself closer to him. "Yeah, I have to be real careful when giving boob jobs."

She gave him a little wink on top of that.

Janna was proud of herself for having said it. Usually, she was coy and timid with boys. It had sounded like something Laura would say, who was so much better with men than her. But then again, her now girlfriend was just so breathtakingly beautiful, no wonder she had so much self esteem. Janna was eager to see if it would have the same effect it had when Laura did it.

"Janna, please, just stop." Steve urged her, averting his head.

"What's wrong?" Janna pouted, still as seductive as she could. "Don't you men like boobs?"

Something inside her really needed his approval. She couldn't have him as a sex slave, but he could still give himself willingly. But even if he only had told her she was 'hot', would have satisfied her. She loved Laura, but her current feelings made her realize that she wasn't a fully grown lesbian yet.

"Yeah, slightly oversized boobs on a slightly undersized girl." He said, still not looking. "Not this."

"Come on." She cooed desperately and leaned even closer to him. "You can touch them if you want. I'll be careful..."

When her breath washed over him, Steve cringed and covered his mouth and nose: "Jesus fucking Christ, what have you eaten!? Smells like death!"

His figure of speech was more true than he knew, but Janna felt offended all the same. At the same time she had to admit that she had not brushed her teeth the night before. No doubt there were still remains of the tiny tavern patrons stuck in between her teeth.

They had been about the size or a little smaller than him, so it made sense for Steve not to find her beautiful. After all, she was one hundred meters tall. A freak. It gnawed away her self-esteem, but the bitter reality was that there was nothing she could do about it. She hated being big for a moment and felt peculiarly like she was losing the ground beneath her feet.

To rinse her mouth, she looked around but found that the Erlenmeyer flask they usually used for filtered water but found that it was empty. Next to it, the dead, ken doll sized giant and the squashed but somehow still alive druid were lying, both of whom Janna hadn't gotten around to inspect further. More problems. Luckily though, they were out of sight for the people on the table.

Sighing defeatedly, she turned around and wanted to slip into her T-shirt which, adding even more to her displeasure, was just too dirty to wear.

"Fuck this." She muttered and took it with her on the way out of the ship.

"Hey wait!" Steve called when she passed the table. "Take me with you! I want to go out!"

"No." She said, matter of factly, feeling a hint of pleasure from being able to deny him as a little punishment for hurting her feelings.

She lingered a moment to see his reaction.

"Seriously, take me outside Janna." He demanded. "I want to take a run."

That explained his attire, Janna thought, but was perplexed too because it seemed very unlikely for someone stranded on a different planet to go jogging. Steve was that sports type of guy though.

"Run here, on the table." She gestured briskly. "It's big enough for you."

"Ey, I can do push ups and everything here, I don't mind, but doing a five K on a fucking metal plate is just balls, man!" He countered, sounding rather displeased. "I make one every morning. No exceptions."

"Well, looks like you are going to have to make an exception because I'm not taking you out." She replied, uncaring.

She was in power and she loved it but this tiny man was seemingly not willing to accept that.

"Why are you being such a bitch?!" He fell out at her.

Janna had to swallow before she believed her ears. She had lingered to hear him protesting and let him run against a brick wall, but this was far, far over the top.

"What did you just say?!" She whispered threateningly and took a step towards him.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry." Steve raised his arms but did not sound nearly sincere enough for Janna. "But seriously, you guys take us here and then you won't let us out. It's like kidnapping! I have rights, you know? Take me outside, now!"

Janna's voice was shaking with anger: "First, you don't have any rights, because you are the size of a bug. Second, you will fucking do what I say, because you are tiny and insignificant to me. And third, you will apologize on your knees right now and if you call me a bitch ever again, I will fucking kill you."

By the time she finished, her face had gotten threateningly close to him but Steve looked utterly unimpressed.

Crosing his arms, he spat: "No! Fuck you! Take me outside and you will apologize for threatening to kill me!"

Janna felt the sudden urge to just slap the table and squish him like the pesky little fly he was. She had to remind herself that he was off limits. There was a way, she knew, to defuse the situation, but that would not nurse her wounded pride. And it was wounded dangerously right now.

"Apologize and we are good." She said softly and calmly as she could, reaching him an olive branch.

"No!" He replied defiantly. "If you think you can bully me around because you are as tall as a skyscraper, I'm sorry, but that makes you a fucking bitch!"

A split second later, Janna had snatched him off the table and placed him on the floor at her feet. She stomped the ground, hard, causing him to lose balance and fall on his behind.

"Can't bully you, huh?!" She stomped again, closer to him. "Can't bully you?! What's wrong little bug, you scared?"

She stomped a last time and grinned with satisfaction when he shrieked in terror. Laura, turning in her bed, caught Janna's eye and she suddenly remembered the two other sleeping girls too. Biting her tongue, she stood still and listened but as through some kind of miracle, her stomping didn't seem to have woken any of them. The only thing she could hear was Steve, whimpering at her feet. Her anger melted within seconds as the reality of what she had done began to sink in.

"Oh shit, I'm so sorry, Steve." She whispered and crouched down to pick him up.

She needed him to forgive her and shut up about the incident. Besides that, she was genuinely sorry.

Crying harder, he crawled away from her fingers and she let him for a moment before she took him gently and lifted him up. Following an instinct and what she knew about biology, she cupped him against the nipple of her breast and talked soothingly to him.

"I'm so sorry." She cooed. "I never wanted to hurt you. I lost it and wanted to scare you."

The effect might have been amplified because of her size, but comfortable warmth and scent worked their wonders surprisingly quick.

"I'm sorry too." Steve said, wiping his tears away. "You're not a bitch, I...I should never have said that."

Janna was satisfied with that.

"That's okay." She replied understandingly. "I should've just done what you wanted. I only wanted to keep you here because it is dangerous out there, you know?"

"I can manage the locals I think." Steve said, his voice growing less whimpering and pathetic and more manly again.

"Look at this." She said and reached over for the corpse of the giant. "These guys are out there and they want to hurt tiny people like you."

With the rot setting in, the ken doll sized man looked scary, even to Janna. She put him back and wiped her hand on her butt, quickly.

"Holy fuck!" He exclaimed.

"You get it, don't you?" She asked Steve sincerely.

"Yeah." Came the bitter reply after a moment. "Damn, he looks mean."

"The life ones are meaner, trust me." Janna chuckled.

There was a silence and she was unsure how to ask and make sure that Steve would remain silent about the incident. She couldn't leave before being sure.

"Look..." She said after a while. "I feel horrible. Let me make it up by watching over you while you go on that run."

"Nah, that's okay." Steve declined. "You were just on your way out doing something and...I shouldn't be so selfish. Just put me down, I'll make some jumping jacks or something."

"No." Janna insisted. "I really want to make it up to you. I was just going to the lake to bathe, get water and wash my stuff. That can wait, really. I mean, our ship's not going to fly anywhere any time soon."

She showed him a friendly smile in the hopes of convincing him.

"Hey!" He called out, suddenly, as though he hit a brain wave. "If there's a lake, let me swim a few a rounds, that's cool. That way we both get what we want!"

All the way to the lake behind the space ship Janna held Steve closed in her fist. He would see Laura's village eventually, she foretold, but now was not the time. When she looked at it from the distance however, she noticed the giant corpses lying around. First she thought Nagash was one of them, but then she saw the tiny giantess, already at crane duty.

She was conflicted. On the one hand she was curious as to what had happened. On, or rather in the other hand, was Steve, and she just couldn't put him back into the ship now. He had priority, she decided and continued to the lake only to discover the next problem.

Villagers were there, fishing with rods, no doubt at work to collect food for her and Laura. Of the approximately twenty men, women and children, all but six dropped their gear and ran off into the woods in terror. The remainder gaped up at her in terror before they bowed down in a gesture of worship.

"Spare us, goddess!" One woman called up at Janna. "We serve at your pleasure!"

Under different circumstances, Janna would have turned the people into toe jam and thought nothing of it but now she was insecure and didn't know what to do. Steve wriggled impatiently in her fist. No doubt, he had noticed that Janna was not walking any more. After a few seconds, she just opened her hand a little and peered inside.

"Finally!" Steve called out. "I'm suffocating in here! What's the hold up, are we there yet?"

"Yeah, umm..." Janna began before she had properly formulated her thoughts. "There's people."

"You mean, like, locals?" Steve was aghast.

"What should we do?" She asked insecurely in response, deciding it was best to let him call the shots this time.

Janna had messed up enough for one morning.

"What are they doing?" He inquired immediately, springing to action.

"Some ran away..." Janna began to explain. "Others are...praying. I think they think I'm a goddess."

"Oh man, of course they do!" Steve said angrily. "Have you forgotten how big you are?! Let's get out of here, you've probably caused irreparable damage already!"

"But I can't get out of here, this is our lake." Janna explained. "We wash here and take our drinking water and stuff."

"You drink the water you wash in? That's harsh!" Steve commented. "Why are there people here anyway?"

The question made sense and Janna could only think of one way to explain it sufficiently.

"They're from the nearby village." She said, knowing she would have to give a more thorough explanation. "They know us, they give us food sometimes and we protect them. Not by the book, I know, but they are so close they can't help to see us every day as we come and go, so..."

"I see." Steve called out of her hand and seemed to think about it for a second. "Well, if they already know you, it's alright, I guess?"

"I guess." Janna echoed with a shrug.

Unsure what to do next, she simply crouched down and set Steve on the ground in between the villagers and her feet. Upon seeing the young man with his strange haircut and shiny blue shorts, they stopped bowing to their goddess and stood, looking at him. Some took a few steps forward and seemed curious but superstitious fear seemed to win eventually and keep them at a safe distance to him.

"They seem to fear me more than you." Steve observed perplexed.

"I think they are just very...conservative here." Janna suggested almost apologetically.

"Hello!" Steve called at the villagers and raised his hand as a gesture of greeting.

They looked at him suspiciously, but one returned the gesture after a while and, encouraged, Steve dared to make a few steps forward.

"Steve." He over-pronounced his name and pointed at himself.

"What is this man, goddess?" The man who had returned the gesture called at Janna. "Is he not of sound mind? What do you want us to do with him?"

"What did he say?" Steve asked enthusiastically and turned towards Janna as well.

"They think you are a retard." She giggled heartily. "Can't blame 'em."

It felt good to laugh and it lightened the tension of earlier a little.

Steve grinned sheepishly: "This sucks, how did you learn their language so quickly?"

Janna shrugged in response: "It's real easy actually. We started by pointing at things and learning the names for them. After that it was just listening for the grammar."

"But then again," She laughed, "they probably took us more seriously than you."

"Tree." Steve said, over-pronouncing and pointing at the forest.

They looked at him and then at Janna again, seeking guidance.

"Fuck, I feel like an idiot doing this while you stand next to me." Steve pouted.

Janna was still giggling: "Your first meeting with extraterrestrials didn't go as planned, huh?"

She actually felt sorry for him. It was such a big moment and it turned out ruined and awkward. Deciding to let him struggle for a while longer, she threw her T-shirt into the lake, filled the Erlenmeyer flask and finally slipped into the water herself.

What was actually an average sized lake for Steve was but a longer garden pond for her. When she sat upright in the middle the water barely reached her nipples. It was a little less than luke-warm.

"Tree!" Steve said again but the people still would not answer him.

They nattered amongst each other before a woman addressed Janna: "Goddess, please give us wisdom! Why does this man not speak the common tongue? Is he of a place, far away? We beg you to enlighten us!"

"Should I tell them to teach you?" Janna asked Steve.

That was a bad idea, she noticed as soon as she said it. If he learned the language as quickly as she and Laura had, Steve would know very soon what they had done to the little people. That would look bad, particularly in the light of what she had done earlier.

"Not now." Steve said, disappointed. "I came here to swim. No exceptions."

And with that he slipped out of his T-Shirt and jumped right into the water. His upper body was impressive from what Janna could see. He didn't have the ridiculous muscle-mountains that many body builders had, but a great deal of definition and contours. He didn't look like a balloon inflated with steroids, more like a normal man that someone had improved a little. Janna took great pleasure in watching him swim, even though her craving lust of before had vanished.

He was quick, swimming to the far end of the lake and back, butterfly style. People who swam butterfly had always impressed Janna. He didn't mind her at all, absent-mindedly washing her shirt, and swam by her to the other end and turned around again. Even the villagers, standing somewhat forlorn on the bank, seemed impressed with his swimming, debating and pointing occasionally. Janna wondered if they could swim at all.

That gave her an idea.

"Who of you can do this?" She asked them, gesturing at Steve who took no notice at all.

They had a bit of a natter after which the woman who had spoken before too asked: "I humbly beg your forgiveness, oh goddess! Do you mean swimming like him or swimming at all?"

None of them could do the butterfly, Janna had figured out that much just by watching them.

"Swimming." She clarified. "Who is your fastest swimmer?"

A man stepped forward, a bit taller than the others but still smaller than Steve. He had short brown hair and bushy eyebrows and looked rather average, the only slightly striking thing about him being his bushy moustache.

Steve was still going adamantly about it, taking no rest and paying neither the other tinies nor Janna any heed.

"Get into the water." Janna commanded. "You will race him. If you win...I will not eat you and the others."

Steve did not speak the local tongue and was not listening anyway.

They patted the man on the back a few times while he abandoned his ragged shirt. All of them looked gravely concerned, for they saw how fast Steve was. When the man entered the water, Janna blocked Steve's path with her hand.

"Hey!" He shouted angrily when he came up from a dive.

No man liked it when a woman interrupted his hobby.

"You have a challenger." Janna told him calmly. "This one wants to race you."

"...kay." Steve shrugged after mustering the guy. "How many lengths?"

"One should be enough." Janna decided and gently pushed the two contestants to her designated starting point.

"To the other far end of the lake." Janna explained to the man with the moustache who looked absolutely terrified. "Go!"

"Hey!" Steve shouted again as his opponent started ahead of him.

The villagers on the bank were cheering but within four pulls Steve was already even. The local man swam a pathetic, improvised mix of frog style and dog paddling. He was not slow by normal standards, Janna judged, but lacked all the grace and ultimately also the speed of the butterfly.

When Steve had overtaken the man by one length, Janna suddenly saw his opponents hand on his ankle, pulling him back. She couldn't help but giggle again. Steve protested and wriggled free, of course, but the man kept fighting unsportsmanlike and Steve continued cursing at him, not knowing what was at stake for the man.

After a while they were even again but didn't make much in terms of way towards the goal line during that time. Then, finally, Steve freed himself and rushed off like a mad man, reaching the goal line three lengths ahead.

"Fair player wins! Woooo!" He announced proudly while the villagers on the bank started crying and hugging each other, clearly not expecting any mercy from Janna, of all people. In truth, though, she couldn't hurt a single hair on their heads, while she was with Steve.

But then, suddenly, all hell broke lose.

When the other neared the goal line he didn't swim past Steve but straight at him, opening with a sudden punch to the young man's face that sent the water splashing.

They were fighting hard there in the water, exchanging punches and pulling each other under. Janna couldn't see who was on top and even who was who at some times. Then, both were gone, under water. Turning around each other, they were grabbing and wrestling at each other's throats and faces. It was not easy to see and only distorted, from above. Janna had not foreseen this reaction at all.

Perplexed and in shock, it also occurred much too late to her that she was the only one there who could pull them out.

When she reached for them, she felt them briefly but they slipped away through the water. She had to grab a couple of times, before she got a hold of one of them. When she opened her fist, she saw Steve, on all fourths, coughing and dripping with water, bleeding from his nose. She was relieved.

"What's wrong with that guy?!" Steve cried, still coughing. "He tried to fucking kill me, man!"

Of course, Janna thought, he is mad. In his opinion, Steve, by winning, had just doomed them all to her belly. He couldn't know Janna wouldn't follow through with her threat.

To her surprise though, the other man had not resurfaced yet. Her hand, reaching for the strugglers the first time, had kicked up mud and debris from the ground, muddying the water so she had to reach around blindly for a minute until she found the man. When she lifted him out, he was unmoving.

"Fuck!" Steve cried out when Janna held her hands together to show him.

He rushed over and touched the man, shook him, talked to him and began reanimation.

"Twenty two, twenty three, twenty four...", He counted, while pushing on the man's chest.

"Come on!", He cried desperately and blew two mouths full of air into the man's lungs before starting another round of thirty pushes on his chest.

Janna watched it for what seemed like an eternity.

"He's dead." She whispered after what had probably been three minutes.

"No!" Steve cried in disbelief but his pushes grew feebler with every one.

Finally, he collapsed in Janna's hand on the dead man's chest and whimpered. Janna felt a strong urge to cup him against her breast again.

"Shhhh, it's alright. It wasn't your fault." She cooed, softly.

Steve lifted his head off the man's chest and looked at her with a thousand mile stare. Blood and snot were running from his nose and his eyes were blue lined and dark.

"I killed this man!" He cried pathetically. "Do you know what that feels like?! No, you don't!"

Janna stared back, baffled, before she involuntarily chuckled straight in his face.

"This isn't funny, you fucking idiot!" He screamed at her and collapsed again.

She had been taken aback for a moment but caught herself and switched gears.

"First of all," she reasoned softly, "he may look like a man, but he is an alien. Remember that. Also, he attacked you. Besides," she smiled at the fact that she had finally found leverage on him, "no one will ever know."

Steve stopped whimpering in a peculiar sort of way and looked back at her. Then his eyes fell on the locals, still crying and hugging, and he lost it again.

"They saw everything!" He wailed and gestured at them. "They'll tell everybody. I'm going to be the evil anthropologist that killed a poor Indian! On his first fucking contact with them too!"

Janna bit her tongue: "That's only if they are still able to tell."

Slowly his head turned towards her as the implications of her words settled in.

"Oooh no!" He called suddenly when he had fully understood what she was suggesting. "We can't do that, that's wrong!"

This was turning into something Janna could enjoy.

"Your call, killer." She shrugged in response. "I won't do anything unless you say the word. And I would only be doing this for you, so that your reputation remains intact and that you can go, with Christina, and start explore their culture and stuff. I don't know if the others will even talk to you if this story spreads."

Steve pulled at his own hair as though he wanted to rip it out with the skin, torturing himself.

"But it was self defence!" He cried meekly. "He just wouldn't let go! I wanted to swim back up but he...and I was running out of breath...so I grabbed his throat and..."

"I don't even think they have 'self defence' here." Janna pondered, playfully. "Interesting question, though. I would guess, to them, it looks like strange, evil foreigner kills one of their friends. And that's how they are going to tell the story. Ironic, isn't it, how the most primitive savages sometimes turn out to be the biggest xenophobes?"

"But they are still people!" He pleaded, audibly in conflict with himself.

"Okay." She conceded with another shrug. "I was just concerned about your future, is all. You wanna let 'em go, let 'em go! I wouldn't have my future ruined by some backwards-ass aliens though. Do you want me to throw the body into the forest or should I give it to the villagers for burial, so that they have some nice proof to fit their story?"

He was silent, kneeling in the palm of her hand his head bowed and his hands balled to fists, resting on the dead man's chest.

"You really think we should kill them?" He asked after while, a futile attempt to divide the burden of responsibility away from him.

Janna didn't really care either way. She and Laura had killed so many already that it was too late to care about how they were percieved, once rescue would arrive. But she wouldn't let Steve weasel out of this moral dilemma either, so she remained silent.

"Do it." He sighed after another while, unable to look upwards from all the guilt he was feeling.

"Come again?" Janna asked to rub it in a little.

"Do it! Make them disappear!" He screamed into his hands, his voice breaking a little, yet loud and determined.

Of course, in his state of mind, he couldn't have seen coming what Janna would do next. The game wasn't over yet. The villagers were cowering by then, absolutely at a loss as to why Janna hadn't eaten them yet. Why they didn't run like the others, Janna couldn't tell. Perhaps they thought that it would facilitate their deaths.

"Okay, umm." She played as insecurely as possible. "How do I do this?"

He looked up at her, in his eyes was that thousand yards stare again and he shook his head in disgust of his own words: "You weigh twelve thousand nine hundred tons, Janna. Figure something out."

"So, I should crush them?" She asked feebly. "Like, step on them or something?"

The weakness in her voice seemed to give Steve a little strength back. He looked up and seemed to think a little clearer. Janna could almost see how it dawned upon him that she, according to his knowledge, had never killed anybody. Something that he had now more experience with than she.

"I don't know." He admitted. "Wouldn't that leave...traces? What if Laura uses the lake?"

"I don't want to eat them!" Janna said quickly.

Not that she didn't dare to, but she had to continue playing hesitant.

"Of course not. Umm..." Steve made and stood up, scratching his head. "Maybe bury them?"

"Alive?!" Janna asked aghast.

"No, that would be too cruel." He followed up, quickly. "Uhh..."

He scratched his head again and looked around, searching for answers.

"Look." He said after a while. "Dig a hole here by the lake where the ground is all crushed anyway. You put them in, close it up, step on it a few times. Quick death, end of story."

Once morals were over board, human minds looked frighteningly rational at killing. Janna let Steve hop off her hand into the water and stood up but made herself hesitate again and tremble.

"I'm not sure I can do this." She displayed, looking downwards insecurely at the tiny men and women Steve would have her murder for his career.

"Janna, please, you have to! Just...think of them as bugs!" He urged her from below, the terror in his voice changing more and more to desperation.

She made herself swallow hard.

Behind the group she dragged her hand through the ground once, creating a ditch already large enough to contain them all. There were still some roots and things like that in the ground, but nothing that could give her any meaningful resistance.

The villagers didn't seem to know what to make of this until she dropped the dead body inside. They seemed relieved at first but that only lasted until her hand came and pushed them, all together, into the ditch as well.

It was not deep enough to prevent them from escaping though, and as their survival instincts took over, two tried to crawl out. With equally as many gentle flicks, they were back in their grave and Janna quickly dragged the hand full of earth over them, that she had taken out to create the ditch.

"Mercy!" Was one woman's last cry before she was buried.

A handful of dirt, to her, was evidently enough already to kill them. They were suffocating in there, she knew, but she'd rather they were suffocating under her.

"Crush them!" Steve called up, reminding her.

Janna lifted her foot over the grave but put it down again, settling instead for turning around and sitting down, purposefully slowly. The soft earth compressed under her buttocks and finally, there was the satisfaction she craved. Poor little bastards, she thought. Crushed to paste under a twelve thousand nine hundred thirty seven ton college girl. No doubt their bodies were becoming more mingled with the compacted earth around them with every heartbeat she sat on them.

"Are you okay?" Steve called up at her, treading water next to right leg that rose out of the water like the pier of some highway bridge.

He didn't look as woebegone as Janna expected. Apparently, killing one man in self defence was not so far from having five more crushed to death while buried alive when one's career was at stake.

"Do you think they are dead?" She asked, looking down between her legs.

"Yeah..." Steve nodded bitterly. "They're dirt."

She lifted herself and slipped back into the water. Her butt had left a clear imprint on the bank of the lake but of the tiny people nothing could be seen.

"Are you really okay?" He asked again after swimming in front of her.

"Yeah." Janna shrugged. "You said, think of them as bugs, and that's what I did. Just like that."

"That's fucking scary." He observed.

"Hey, I did this for you, okay?!" She snapped at him.

He remained silent for a while, still treading water.

"Can we...not talk about this ever again?" He said hesitantly, looking up at her.

"And not to anyone, ever." Janna promised and reached him a finger to shake.

The tiny man had to settle for a fist bump because her finger was almost one meter in diameter. She found it so amusing that she proceeded to push him down, under water. He went effortlessly.

"Hey, haha!" He laughed when he came back up and Janna laughed back.

Some harmless playing would release the dim gravity of the earlier business, she decided, and made sure that Steve had sufficient time to catch himself before pushing him under again. He seemed to like it. On the last push, he held onto Janna's finger with his arms and legs and she lifted him up to her face.

"Haha, you're just like a baby frog." She teased him.

"No." He grinned back. "You are a sea monster! Catch me if you can!"

Janna's hand was raised between fifteen and twenty meters above the water, but Steve stood up on her finger and jumped, plunging head first into the wet. After that he dove away from her, unhurt.

Playing along, she lunged forward on all fourths, tracking him from above. It was amazing how long Steve could hold his breath. Eventually, though, he had to come up and Janna greeted him with her open mouth, snatching him up in between her lips. His head and torso were inside her mouth, while his legs were outside, kicking.

"Woa, hey!" She could hear him scream, still playfully though, just a little bit scared.

She took him by the legs and lifted him above her head, grinning at him.

"Oh my, has the sea monster caught a little frog man." She mused from below. "Mhh, I'm gonna eat you, little frog man."

"Never!" He called heroically and pulled himself up her finger.

Janna released her grip on his legs, so that he could pull himself up completely. Then she hovered her hand over her open mouth and turned it, so that the tiny man had to move constantly and climb over her fingers. It was all in good fun but the power she had over him made Janna become aroused again. Inconspiciously, she snuck her free hand into her panties under water and played with herself while she played with Steve.

A pant escaped her lips but he did seem to have heard it and went right on.

When he was just been climbing over her index finger, Janna pinned him with her thumb and brought him down to her mouth, where she licked straight across his body. He began protesting something, but Janna's tongue drowned his words. She could feel him nicely with her tongue. His muscular chest, arms and legs. His cock...

She wasn't sure if he still thought this was a game, but she was far too deep into play mode to stop.

Her breath quickened while she licked him a last time, before she shoved him past her lips and began to suck on him. She did it gently and carefully, so not to rip his tiny body apart by the forces. He tumbled around her tongue, helpless, only getting fresh air when she gasped or moaned. She put him through that for maybe three minutes before she was satisfied.

Panting, she took him out of her mouth. He seemed unhurt, physically, but looked at her insecurely and afraid.

"Awww, what's wrong, tiny frogman?" She asked playfully. "Scared of the big sea monster?"

"Did you just get yourself off?" Came his dry response.

"No, I was just playing." She lied. "You have a really interesting taste by the way."

"I overdid it a little, didn't I?" She asked after he said nothing, to which he only nodded.

"Well." Janna shrugged. "Chalk that up on the list of things we never ever talk about again."

Feeling good about herself, she cupped Steve against her breast, reclined in the water and touched herself gently in between the legs, soaking.

Chapter 10

"Wake up! Laura, wake up!" Someone called in the distance, and Laura had a sudden deja vu of their crash when she had woken up from stasis.

She didn't take long to work out that it was coming from the table. The voice, though tiny and weak, made it sound rather urgent. From the corner of her eye, she found Janna's bed already empty. That wasn't uncommon and she thought nothing of it at first.

"What's up?" She asked towards the table, tiredly rubbing her face.

"Steve is missing!" It came back and Laura's rheum encrusted eyes shot open.

Now she saw Christina, visibly upset, walking up and down in front of their tiny space ship. Valerie was standing next to the door, leaning against the frame.

"Are you sure?" Laura asked and rushed over.

"Yes!" Christina explained hurriedly. "He always goes out for an early run but where would he have gone? Janna is missing too!"

That was alarming indeed, Laura thought, although she knew she couldn't let Valerie and Christina know about that. She was in a pickle, really, because if she went out and looked for them, as reason told her she should, she'd reveal her concerns. She would have to go look, but play it down first.

"Well, maybe she took him with her." She suggested with a shrug.

"Or maybe she ate him." Valerie threw back venomously but not so much that it tainted her cool demeanour.

Christina looked helpless.

"Where do you get off talking like that?!" Laura shot at her, finding it a good way to cause some distraction. "I'm awake ten seconds and you're already bitching. Have either of us done anything that would warrant accusing us of fucking cannibalism?"

"She's right, Val." Christina said calmly. "You are not helping."

Valerie looked unimpressed.

"How is your period, Laura?" She asked coldly.

Laura cringed involuntarily. She hadn't even put in any cotton wad to pretend she was on it. Valerie was much too smart for her own good. Laura fought for an answer but couldn't come up with one in time.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." The tall, blonde pilot added cynically.

Laura was getting a headache already. She was still too tired for this.

"Laura?" Christina asked concerned after a few seconds, clearly expecting her to come up with an answer.

"I don't know why there was blood, okay?" Laura snapped. "Vags are complicated and sometimes they bleed. Maybe I should have it checked out. You wanna go down there and do that?"

"But I saw someone struggle in there." Valerie rebutted heatedly now.

"You think you saw movement in the twilight of yesterday night." Laura corrected her. "How can you find it more likely that I would put a tiny person in my panties?"

"Normal sized person." Valerie shot back. "And I don't know what the fuck you giant freaks get off on."

"But it is more likely that you saw a shadow, right?" Christina feebly tried to bring reason into the debate.

Laura wanted to thank her but even more she wanted for this dangerous conversation to end. This was growing more important than looking for Steve by the second.

"I don't think so." Valerie argued. "Think about it. First there is movement, she sits down, then there's blood. I've been thinking about it all night."

"Well, maybe you should have slept instead of pulling conspiracy theories out of your ass." Laura commented snidely.

"Maybe you shouldn't put people in your panties!" Valerie sneered back.

"It could have been an animal." Chistina pointed out. "It may have crawled in there or something."

"Oh, come on!" Valerie fell out at the black girl. "What is the likelihood of that?"

Laura didn't like were the conversation was going. Group-think was working more and more against her.

"And somehow, me, putting a person down my pants, is more likely?" She tried to swing it back around.

"She has a point, Val." Christina commented and raised an eyebrow.

Valerie just glared at Laura.

"I saw, what I saw." She repeated her phrase from the day before. "She's a fucking monster, Chris. They probably both are."

"Let's say that's true." Laura argued tiredly. "Wouldn't you think, maybe, I would have done something to you guys by now?"

"You're afraid." Valerie explained. "You will have to explain our deaths when help gets here."

"Valerie." Laura said, calmly. "There is so many ways to kill you, you don't even know. And if I wanted to, I could make it look just like an accident. I could sneeze you guys off this table right now. Or sweep you off, or drop something on you or whatever."

She let them chew on that for a moment.

'I could even crush your ship and keep you as my toe slave for the rest of your miserable life for being such an obnoxious, little bitch.' She thought to herself.

"But see, I don't do that." She said instead. "You know why? Because I'm not what you say I am."

"That doesn't change the fact that you had a person in your underwear that you killed!" Valerie adamantly refused to back down.

"Chris, you believe me right?" Laura turned away from Valerie.

Since the tall blonde was not going to be convinced, it was a battle for the little black girl's mind now.

"Yeah, I guess..." Christina struggled. "I don't know..."

"I can't fucking believe this." Laura acted sore and turned away in a huff.

"I'm sorry!" Christina justified herself. "I don't know what is true any more. I mean, look at his shit!"

She gestured around at the, to her, gargantuan space ship.

"Can you go out and find Steve, please?" She asked hesitantly after a while that Laura had acted hurt and looked outside.

Laura chose not to answer. If Janna came back right now, with a happy and jolly Steve in her hand, that would be best. But she didn't come.

"He's dead. She knows it." Valerie needled on, calmly, evilly sneering.

"No he's not!" Christina said firmly, much to Laura's surprise. "Give her a break, Val."

"Give her a break?!" Valerie screeched hysterically. "She killed someone!"

"You don't know that!" Christina shot back. "She's innocent until proven guilty!"

Laura's act was finally bearing fruits.

"She's ninety meters tall!" Valerie pointed at Laura's face, to them, at least twenty meters above. "She is jury, judge and executioner here! You heard her say how easily she can kill us."

"Yes." Christina's voice was firm as iron. "We have no choice but to trust her."

"But she's a monster!" Valerie repeated.

"You can say that all you want." The tiny black girl followed up. "Until you have concrete evidence, all that is, is a stupid allegation. And it's taking us nowhere, Val."

"Why are you taking her side all of a sudden?" Valerie asked aggrieved. "Why don't you insist she prove her innocence before you trust her?"

Pilots often were not the smartest of people, Laura remembered.

"And how exactly do I do that, huh?" Laura rejoined the conversation. "Do you want video footage of all the shit we've been through since Janna and I got here?!"

"That would be a start!" Valerie roared at her in response.

Christina shook her head with a grimace of pain on her face: "Val, go inside, grab a soda and cool your fucking head."

"But..." Valerie began.

"Now!" Christina shouted, much louder than she had spoken before. "You are giving me a fucking headache with your bullshit!"

Valerie glared at her for a second before she turned so abruptly that her blonde hair flew to the side and rushed into the space ship.

There was a moment of silence after all that unpleasantness.

"I'm sorry." Christina began slowly. "She's been grumpy every since we got here and I'm still kinda confused about all this shit."

"So, you guys have sodas?" Laura asked in response, her voice filled with envy.

"Yeah, we do." Christina said softly. "Along with all the other conveniences an explorer-class ship brings. Rations, hot showers...a toilet. Looks like of your ship only the boring science part is left."

"Pretty much." Laura chuckled bitterly and grinned.

"Yay for science." Christina chimed monotonously into the melancholy.

"I'd give you one of 'dem sodas to cheer your ass up, but I think you couldn't even taste dat." She added after a second, letting her original low-class accent fly.

Laura smiled again. She didn't even know if she was still acting hurt by then or if she was genuinely sad. All she knew was that she would kill for a can of soda or a hot shower.

"So, Steve?" Laura asked after another while of thinking.

"I'm sure he's fine." Christina said reassuringly. "Just...make sure he really is, okay?"

When Laura left the ship she couldn't see Janna anywhere. But when her eyes fell on the giant corpses in her village, she ran over there and demanded to know what had happened. Expecting her loyal foreman Dexter to step forward, she was perplexed to not see him anywhere and grew displeased. The villagers had laid down their labour and watched her anxiously. Nagash was the first one to respond to her, when no one else did.

"He is dead." The tiny giantess said crisply in her raw voice.

"How?" Laura demanded to know.

"The giants." Came the equally crisp reply.

"What happened?"

"They attacked us." The Barbie-doll-sized woman shrugged.

Laura waited for a more detailed reply to follow.

"They attacked us last night." Nagash reported eventually. "They wanted to take me with them but I didn't want to go. So they killed Dexter and tried to kill me too. Then we killed them."

Laura didn't have time to deal with this. She snatched the dead bodies up to take them with her before she addressed the whole village.

"I am pleased with what you did." She told them. "As a reward, I will not kill any of you today. I will choose a new foreman later."

"Goddess." Nagash began insecurely when Laura had finished. "It seems your weak, human foremen are dying like flies. I will last longer. Humans do what I say. We have prepared breakfast already.”

That was true, Laura saw now, though the amount of food was considerably less than on Dexter's first breakfast. It would still be enough though, she thought. She was already looking forward to fill her hungry gut. Looking around the village she saw that Nagash was the only one of them now she knew by name.

"Good. You are my new foreman, uh...forewoman then." Laura announced, pleased. "Have you seen my friend, Janna?"

They pointed her to the lake where she saw her bare chested lover bathing and took her leave of them after freeing her new foreperson from the thread around her neck. Surely, to fulfil her new duties, Nagash needed the freedom of movement. Also, Laura decided, the fact that she had chosen Lauraville over her own kind, sort of earned her that right.

-

"Act normal." Janna hissed at Steve through a broad smile when Laura approached.

She let go of him and he swam a few centimetres away and started treading water.

"There you are." Laura greeted her, smiling as well.

Her hands were filled with the three giant corpses Janna had seen earlier.

"So you found them." She remarked, nodding at them. "What's that all about?"

"I'll tell you later." Laura evaded the question. "Have you seen Steve?"

"I'm here!" Steve called from below.

He had to speak really loudly for Laura to hear him at that distance.

"Oh! Hi!" Laura said perplexed but visibly happy to see him. "Uh...what are you up to?"

"Just bathing." Janna shrugged. "He begged me to let him take a run, so I took him here."

"That and a boob show, I see." Laura commented with a smirk.

"Ey, I only have this one shirt and I can't wash it when I wear it." Janna protested in reply, giving the soaking fabric next to her a nudge.

"And he doesn't mind?" Laura went on, hinting at Steve.

"Nah, he's gay." Janna laughed in reply.

"No, I'm not?!" Steve protested, finally getting his old wits about him. "You're just fat!"

Janna didn't mind. She knew she wasn't fat.

"Don't be mean." Laura joined in, smiling. "Janna just has some...lovable extra inches."

"Wanna join us?" Janna asked casually after a moment had passed.

"No, actually..." Laura began. "I was kinda looking for Steve. The others were worried sick when you guys were gone this morning."

"Nothing to worry about." Janna said innocently. "We were just bathing."

"Just leave a note next time or something." Laura said, making a face. "You don't know the kind of shit I had to take from Valerie. Come on big guy, better get inside."

She crouched down and Janna could see beneath her T-shirt right onto her panty-covered crotch. A fully grown lover was still better, Janna decided, even if it was a girl. Laura put her hand in the water next to Steve and let him climb on. Janna wasn't worried. After all that had happened that morning, surely he would keep his little mouth shut.

Laura took him and the three giant bodies with her and returned soon after with neither of them. By that time, Janna had climbed out of the pond and hung her shirt on the ship to dry.

The embrace was sudden and passionate and they kissed non-stop for a few minutes. It wasn't a initiating-sex kind of kiss, it was more loving, caring, almost familiar. Laura was full of love and longing for her, Janna could tell, and she returned these feelings but doing it openly in front of their classmates was something she was still not comfortable with.

"I'm sorry." Janna said when pulling out of it.

Janna could see that her lover knew what she was talking about.

"It's okay." Laura said softly. "I'm a little embarrassed too."

"Let's wait a while longer and adjust to them." Janna suggested. "It will get easier."

They went over to the village together to have breakfast once more and were both pleased to see that it had already been prepared for them. Laura explained that the tiny giantess Nagash was in charge of it now and that they could trust her not to run away because of what happened with the giants the night before. There was a drop of bitterness in that, Janna found. It had been fun to use the little doll-sized girl for sex. But on the other hand, as proven by the bodies Laura had left inside the space ship, there were many more too be had. They'd only have to find them.

Janna noticed that the amount of food was considerably smaller this time. Still, it would suffice to fill both of them. The question was, for how long the village could keep up the supply. Her mouth watered as she looked over the carts, wagons, barrels and baskets of fruit, bread, vegetables and meat. To her surprise, on top of one cart full of meat, she saw the leather clad body of a girl.

It seemed familiar, somehow, and she gingerly picked it up to look at it more closely. The tiny thing was limp and unmoving.

"Hey Nagash, why do you give us dead people to eat?" She asked, a little disappointed.

"There was always dead humans in your food." The tiny giantess said, unconcerned. "Dead humans taste good."

Laura almost choked on the cart of meat she had just dumped into her mouth and swallowed. Her eyes met Janna's.

"I suppose it's okay." Janna said in English after a while. "I didn't get a bad stomach or anything before."

"Still...I don't know..." Laura whispered back insecurely.

"We eat'em anyway, might as well eat the dead ones." Janna pointed out. "Plus, I'd rather eat corpses than starve."

"But isn't it kind of cannibalism anyway? I mean...eating people? They're so much more human than we thought, after all." Laura said unconvinced.

"They're not our species, so no, it's not." Janna explained with a mild grin. "There's no way we could be genetically related to them at this planetary distance."

Having said it, it made the aliens' hominid appearance all the more weird once again. She looked closer at the girl, dangling by a leg in between her fingers. She was sure she had seen this tiny one before.

"Wait a minute!" She exclaimed in the local tongue. "I know this one! This one killed a giant! She's that fierce, little fighter brat."

"Aww." Laura sounded disappointed.

"Aye." Nagash said, entirely unconcerned. "Looks like she killed two of last nights attackers and gouged the fat one's eyes out before she was injured."

"Injured?" Janna asked perplexed. "She's alive?"

"She is breathing." Nagash shrugged. "But she will not wake up. Dexter always said not to waste any meat. She is meat."

Now Janna was disappointed too. She remembered how relentlessly the tiny girl had fought in her mouth and how she had decided to spare her because of that. Had she not forgotten about her, she would surely have revisited to play. There were lots of games she might have played with the poor little thing, but even only eating her would have been a fun experience. This way, limp and unconscious, she was no fun at all. But Nagash was right, she supposed, the little girl was food.

"Janna!" Laura called out when Janna was about to drop her into her mouth. "I promised them not to kill anyone today."

"Well, you didn't speak for me." Janna laughed and lowered the girl further.

"Wait!" Laura said demandingly. "I want to keep her. If she really can kill giants, I need her in the village. They might come back!"

That was true, Janna thought, but she didn't have a mind to be ordered around.

"That's if she ever wakes up." She rebutted and shook the tiny, leather clad thing to bring it home.

"Look, she's all limp and boring anyway." Laura argued. "I'll give you a live one for her."

Janna really liked the sound of that.

"Three." She demanded the first reasonable number off the top of her head. "Three stupid little villagers for the tiny, unconscious fighter."

She smirked and Laura bit her lip.

"Fine." Came the response, much more light hearted than Janna had expected. "Choose whom you like, but no more."

-

Nagash was cautious. She found her new position much more befitting, but as much as she liked it, she always had to be on her heels when dealing with Laura and Janna. Janna, pleasuring herself ontop of her while fingering Daisy to pieces, was still a vivid memory in her mind. She couldn't wait until the gargantuan beasts had eaten and left, making her the giantess in the village once again.

Without the rope around her neck there was a multitude of things she could do, but also many responsibilities. Nagash had never really been in charge of anything before, other than maybe a few human slaves. The best way, she reckoned, was to do things the way Dexter would have done them and keep a tight regiment in the village. What she lacked in experience, she had in size and strength. The thought of escape hat crossed her mind again, but if she was honest with herself, she had to say that this new development was intriguing enough to make her stay.

She didn't want a part in Albino's war, and while she was in lack of a family, this village would provide food, human slaves and something to do for her. Ever since she had gotten into the village, neither Janna nor Laura had touched her. Surely, if she ran away, they'd punish her, and it would not be pretty.

"Here." The giantess called Laura suddenly addressed Nagash and gently lowered unconscious Dari so that Nagash could take her. "Treat her, let her rest and see that she wakes up again. I want her to survive."

Nagash took the body carefully from Laura's hand. She didn't like it. Laura would be angry if the strange little human didn't survive but that was not the only thing that bugged her. The ease, skill and precision with which Dari had killed in the attack last night was causing Nagash a great deal of discomfort. Humans were dangerous when they wore their shiny suits, long lances and swords. Dari was not supposed to be able to kill giants like that.

Nagash had rather Janna had eaten the little girl. Now she couldn't even kill Dari herself, as per Laura's orders. Cure her, Nagash thought, and then brake her, subdue her and make her a willing slave like all the others. When Laura had announced Nagash to be the new foreperson, the villagers had exchanged a few looks but she knew no one would ever dare question her openly. No doubt, the memory of how she had repelled the attack on Dexter was still on the forefront of the villager's minds and Nagash planned on adding a few more memories for them to remember.

It was frightening to see how fast the titanesses consumed the food. A cart that would have fed Nagash twice wasn't even half a mouthful to them. More, Nagash thought, they'd have to produce more food. From what she could see the villagers were still able to pull a lot out of the surrounding forests but at the current rate, that would not suffice to provide a meal for Laura and Janna every day. She had heard of Dexter's raid. A smart move, she judged, still accounting for the vast majority of their offering.

If there wasn't enough food, Janna and Laura could of course always eat villagers. As if on queue, Janna reached into the onlookers and took three of them up to her maw, greeting them with a menacing grin. Nagash was glad not to be a human. Nagash ate humans, bite for bite, but Janna could just swallow them whole if she wanted to, and several of them at once. The huge tongue came out and licked the gargantuan lips. Janna had chosen two hunters and a builder, but Nagash couldn't tell if she payed that any mind.

They screamed, begged and grovelled but if Nagash was any judge, it made Janna only more determined to eat them.

She made them watch as her boulder sized teeth reduced two carts of turnips and meat to a fine paste at once. Then the builder followed, dropped gently on the giantess' tongue, before he was swept inside and sealed from view behind Janna's lips. Pressed together, the lips gave him him chance of escape, but Nagash saw Janna's jaw move as well. When the mouth opened again he was gone, or at least that's what Nagash thought at first. On second glance he was still there, mingled with Janan's spittle, torn apart, dissolved, only a few bones betraying that he had been a man.

The display of sheer power made even Nagash tremble. All around, mumbles, whimpers and prayers were uttered, not a small deal of them directed at Laura. The two hunters on Janna's hand lost their minds in an instant. Their screaming was so loud, so shrill and so utterly mad that even Janna seemed discomforted by it.

"Shhhhh." She cooed at them from above, sounding as gentle as a mother.

It was in vain though, Nagash thought, she could have put the men down and sent them back to their families, they would have screamed still. But it worked, their agonizing screams stopped.

"That's better." Janna showed a friendly smile. "I like my food sane and quiet."

They were silent after that, even after Janna took the first hunter and dropped him onto her tongue. He sat down, quietly, as though taking a rest after a hard day's work before her lips closed again and everyone could see her swallow.

The last man seemed to talk to her for a little but was too far away fro Nagash to hear. Janna listened carefully, before she smiled again and opened her hand at Laura. The man was standing upright, balancing against the gentle shaking of Janna's gargantuan hand.

"Goddess!" He addressed Laura. "You have seen fit to sacrifice me and I go willingly! I pray, you will protect my wife, for as long as she lives, and watch over her!"

He bowed down submissively after that.

At first Laura looked perplexed but then she smiled warmly and said: "I will. Let your wife come forward to let me see who she is."

A young woman, crying and whimpering, was shoved forward until she went on her own, staggeringly at first.

"Ahh." Laura smiled generously and reached for her. "Is she it?"

The man nodded in response and Nagash thought she could even see him smile.

Then, so suddenly that nobody could react, she threw the woman into her mouth and popped her between her molars like a cherry.

"No!" The man on Janna's hand screamed while he had to watch his wife being chewed noisily in his goddess' mouth.

Laura was grinning like a child after she swallowed: "Your wife is in me now. Quite an honour if you ask me. It's the closest she could ever be to me."

The man had no time to respond because Janna's hand was lifted and tilted until he slid into Janna's maw were he was pulped into mash the same way his wife had been.

"Gods, protect us." Someone whispered near Nagash and was instantly hit behind the head and told to shut up by someone else.

"Laura giveth, and she taketh away." Someone whispered on the other side and quickly the villagers returned to normal.

It was astounding to Nagash, to see, what humans were willing to get used to. As for Laura breaking her promises, she wasn't surprised. Someone this big and powerful didn't need to stick to her word.

-

Dari awoke in a bed of straw. Her head hurt and her vision was blurry at first but her senses didn't take long to come back to her. When she tried to get up, a small, gentle hand held pushed against her chest.

"Stop, you need rest!" A weak female voice urged her.

It belonged to a pretty, young girl in a relatively good dress, by Lauraville's standards. The girl handed her a bowl of water and let her drink. Discomfort spread from Dari's chest into her belly, for she knew who the girl was. It was one of Birsel's newest acquisitions.

Outside the sun was shining bright already. Dari had no idea for how long she had been knocked out, but she remembered being thrown by the fat ogress and crashing into something hard. Her body was covered in bruises but she was used to that from growing up poor in the city. She seemed to have hit her head too, but that as well was nothing that had kept her from functioning before.

"She's awake!" The girl yelped when Birsel herself suddenly rushed through the door, accompanied by a bang and a gust of wind. She wore the best dress by far, having it taken off one of the refugees and she was a comparatively small, weak girl herself. Her aura, however, was that of a baroness.

"Good." Brisel said crisply, sounding as though her time as unbearably valuable. "How do you feel?"

"My head hurts." Dari answered, unsure what to make of all this.

"Nothing else?" Brisel inquired with a sharply raised brow.

Dari shook her head.

"Splendid." Birsel remarked coldly. "Than you will be out of my house even quicker."

Dari had no intention of lingering there any longer than necessary, but it seemed odd that whoever was in charge now put her in this of all homes.

Birsel seemed to be able to read her mind, because she said: "Oh, you wonder why you are here, do you?"

The smile that followed foreshadowed something bad.

"Nagash the forewoman took that filthy raider's place. She told me to train you and bring you back to her." She continued, still smirking virulently. "You're pretty enough. Still, I don't like taking orders from anyone but the goddess herself. Dexter or Foreman would never have dared to make me do this..."

That was bad. Not only did Nagash not trust her, Dari had always resented the idea of becoming one of Birsel's whores. And now that she would inevitably become one, she would serve Nagash and never get into the giant, iron thing to rescue the druid. She had half a mind to get up, kill them all and run. But there was still the possibility of Nagash helping her, if only she could be convinced. Or maybe she'd be handed over to Laura or Janna at some point. The chance of success was dubious, but still the best shot Dari had. She didn't even know if there was a way to do the climb on her own.

Biting her own cheek for what she was about to say, Dari sat up in the bed: "I'm ready for you to teach me, I feel fine. I've had much worse than this."

Birsel looked surprised but smiled.

"Well, in that case..." She said and started lifting her dress.

Dari's head was still pounding when she lowered her head in between Birsel's legs. She knew exactly what she was doing. In Gareth, the nobility and moneyed aristocracy had their freaks and sexual extravagances too. Many a masked ball Dari had been to had in fact been an orgy where every could indulge with whom ever they liked, living out their fantasies, what ever they were.

It didn't take her long to let Birsel believe she was a natural, but instead of calling it off, the girl really seemed to be enjoying herself. Dari hated her for it.

"Good, good, good!" Birsel moaned as her womenhood contracted and spasmed in pleasure.

With flushed cheeks and panting, Birsel still had the audacity to tell Dari she needed more practise, an excuse to keep her around, as Dari well knew. The idea of killing the arrogant whoremonger came back to her head. Then they left her alone in the room, before the other girl returned to bring some soup before leaving again. Part of her welcomed the opportunity to catch up on her sleep and get some rest but all she really wanted was to finish her mission and let this nightmare be over.

-

On the construction sites, Nagash still helped the villagers erect the large wooden frames but did not have to linger around any more for the small hands' work. The titanesses had retreated into the giant metal thing for now, after the rest of their meal had passed mercifully calmly. Now Nagash was the boss again and had no second thoughts about showing it. So far, she had choked a tired builder within an inch of his life, shattered a pausing wood cutters nose and almost trodden on a little boy, simply because he was playing in her path.

"The second smoke house needs wood, uh...forewoman!" A young lad informed her after running over.

"Then get wood, you meagre little worm!" She shouted down at him, threateningly.

He might have been fourteen or sixteen, Nagash couldn't tell exactly, but he was of small stature and bony for any age.

"But the first smokery took all the chips the sawyers had!" He explained, naive as he was. "And the wood cutters say they won't give us any because they need the wood for the construction."

Her anger flared up again and she indulged in it, giving the lad a soft kick to knock him to the ground and putting her foot on his chest. Slowly leaning over him, Nagash felt his torso compress slowly under her weight. His scrawny little arms tried to claw and shove at her foot, but he was a human and a far too weak one at that.

"Don't you think you could have solved this problem on your own?" She asked him mockingly from above while applying more pressure. "Maybe go to the first smokery or the forest, instead of bothering me?"

"I went to the smokery." The boy croaked under her foot. "But they won't give me none either. And I tried to get the workers from our smoke house to join me and gather wood from the forest, but, argh..."

The pressure on his chest had reached a point that did not allow him to speak any more. Nagash wanted to simply shift her weight on top of him, squash him and be done with it. Thinking of what Dexter would do calmed her temper a little and made her decide that she really needed to hear what the boy had to say about the workers of the second smoke house.

"You can crush me," The boy coughed when she lifted some weight off of him, "but it won't get you no meat cured none!"

That was awfully accurate, Nagash had to admit. Killing him would not solve this problem.

"What of the second smoke house?" She inquired of him and gave him more room yet to breathe.

"They told me it was my duty to get it from the sawyers." The boy continued, breathing heavily. "They won't help me. Alone I'll never get enough wood there to get it working."

That was true as well. Her anger ebbing away, Nagash lifted her foot off the boy and even went so far as to pull him up by his tunic.

"Come." She told him and took off, walking energetically, the boy tailing her at a difficulty to keep up.

The smoke houses were on the edge of the village for fear of fire and the constant harassment by the smoke. The first and older one was on one end, the second and newer one on the other. When Nagash came near she saw the workers hastily getting up from resting and talking, quickly busying themselves, some with the most bizarre tasks. No smoke was rising from the chimney.

A woman burst forth from among them, running towards Nagash.

"We're out of wood, forewoman!" She called out with a voice that betrayed a lung ruined by smoke.

They came to a halt in front of each other and the boy caught up a few seconds later, cringing with a whooping cough.

"Is she in charge?" Nagash asked of him and he nodded while spitting a mouthful of slime from his throat.

"We can't cure any meat, we're out of wood." The woman explained again, frantically.

"Out of your mind is what you are, wasting my time!" Nagash threatened her from above. "Give me one good reason not to break your back for this insolence!"

"I..." The woman stammered with desperation creeping into her voice. "I tell everyone what to do. I have the most experience! Please!"

This was already getting boring.

"And did you tell this boy to bring wood?" Nagash pushed on, grinding her teeth against each other.

"No, no!" The woman shook her head. "We just ran out a moment ago, I swear!"

"Hey, where should we put this?" A bold man pushing a cart of raw meat called from the house.

"No, not here, we have no wood, bring it to the other!" The woman ordered hastily after turning around.

"What? Still?" The man asked in disbelief. "I just came from the other, they're overloaded, meat for two days, at least! Hey, forewoman, the other smokery is overloaded, do you hear?!"

When the women turned around, she saw Nagash's foot already hovering above her head. After giving her a last glance, Nagash brought it down with force. A few wet cracks and a sickening crunch from her skull could be heard, followed by the boy next to her, throwing up on the ground. Everyone around had stopped working for a second, but as the silence became too deafening, they picked it back up, with more pep this time. Only the workers of the smoke house remained where they were, staring in disbelief and horror.

Calmly, Nagash walked over to them, the crushed body squelching moistly under her first step.

"Put that meat here, human." She ordered the man with the cart.

"And scrap that over there into it." She added referring to the squashed, broken body of the woman who had defied her.

"You." Nagash went on pointing at the most able bodied man she could see. "You are in charge of this now. Do not disappoint me. The next time I will not make it so quick!"

He swallowed hard and nodded fearfully.

"Let's see if you are up to it." Nagash narrowed her eyes at the man. "How many should gather wood from the forest and how many should relieve the other smoke house?"

There was no mistake that he believed she would punish him if he answered wrong. Although it was true, Nagash did not really have any idea how many people exactly he had to send. Only if he said something absurd she'd sit on him while choosing and testing the next person in charge.

"You three, go and get meat!" He said after chewing a little on the task. "You, you and you!"

That included the boy that had followed Nagash here.

"The rest of us go get fire wood. Come on, move it!"

He gave Nagash a nervous glance from the side to see if she was satisfied before moving on. Nagash was satisfied indeed, but she also realized that she was getting more and more used to engaging with humans like that. And still she had gotten to kill one of them, which she called an all around success.

As she walked through the village, checking in, here and there, the humans picked up their pace. People ran instead of walking, hammers were beating faster, saws and axes were cutting more energetically.

Everything seemed very much in order and the villagers tried to solve their problems actively and on their own, as much as they could.

Chapter 11

The new camp was situated amidst the forest. It did not sit upon any roads, rivers or bridges and no sane man would ever come here on his own accord, or so a good soul might have thought. The ground was trampled under the heavy footfalls of the multi-ton monsters that walked here and the herds of slaves they brought with them. Most trees had been cut down and used for fire wood and other things. Smoke rose from the primitive fire pits and the air smelled of sweat, ash, copper and piss.

If in the abyss of antiquity there had once been cities of giants, this was the closest thing to one in thousands of years.

Around five hundred giants dwelled here now, an army in service of the pale king. Their numbers were nowhere near those in the last war, but to the humans they would be a force to be reckoned with. Sustaining such an army on foraging alone was a difficult task though, and had been the immediate reason behind their move of camp.

Stonetree was out of place as he walked in between stockades, packed with human slaves, livestock and plunder. He came past groups of his kin, talking and indulging in the stinking, foul human drinks that dulled the senses. There was a fighting pit too, where giants let humans fight each other to the death, betting drink, plunder and more slaves against each other.

A human life was cheap and easy to take, but the old giant saw much less barbarism than he had expected. In an effort to evolve with the times, the giants tried themselves at metallurgy and smithing, so far only with dubious success. Stolen metal from the humans, they attempted to melt down and mould into things useful to them, like pots, weapons or even armour. But while copper and maybe even bronze could be worked in a fire pit, iron was a much more stubborn and steel of any useful quality was simply out of reach, even with the help of human slaves who knew the trade. A smith had little to fear in terms harassment and abuse, as did other skilled slaves like furriers and tanners.

Druids and witches, though, were not suffered to live. In charge of their questioning and ultimate disposal was a beast called Varg the Impaler. She was young, but her talent for violence had already earned her a reputation. Amongst the tallest of her kind and unusually muscular for a female, her face was that of a young girl with a horrible overbite, blue eyes looking in opposite directions and coarse, blond hair braided into pig tails left and right on her head.

She had earned her nickname by practice of inserting sharpened wooden stakes into the bodily openings of her victims and ramming the other end into the ground, leaving them to be impaled more and more, their own weight crushing their inwards until the stake eventually emerged out of the other end of them. Some took days to die this way.

Other methods were quicker and she employed those just as eagerly. When Stonetree saw her, she was naked in a circular arrangement of her impaled victims, a human boy’s feet kicking out of her bunghole, while pushing a girl-human’s face into her cunt.

He turned away to look for the pale king. The white, red eyed giant stood at fifteen meters tall, the only male larger than the females, but still, Stonetree could not find him anywhere.

A group of armed humans caught his eye, wandering through the camp, unmolested and unopposed. They looked serious but a little forlorn, like a fawn that had wandered into a bear’s den. Some wore mismatched pieces of armor and their attire and weaponry was far from standardized but all wore some resemblance of Wolf about their person, be it a crudely drawn picture on a surcoat or piece of cloth, or a piece of wolf’s fur itself. Stonetree had seen these humans before. They were the ‘Howling Wolves’, a raiding band of thugs that pestered the countryside.

Now they were thralls to the giants. It was another brilliant move by Albino. The giants’ numbers were still too small and while the humans had been able to rebreed after the long and horrible war, the giants had not. By elevating some humans over others, Albino bound them to his cause. Soon, more would follow, perhaps more reliable and better equipped ones than this lot. Maybe Albino was finding more human allies even now.

“Hail, Impaler!” The Howling Wolves’ leader, a copper-skinned man with black hair bound to a ponytail hollerred when they halted in front of Varg’s gruesome enclosure.

The giantess grinned at them and pulled the two humans out of herself. Murmuring spread through the ranks of raiders at the sight. The boy was dead after finally having suffocated but the girl was coughing and wheezing when Varg dropped them to the ground. The fall had hurt her, but she was not given any time to linger in pain, as her head was crushed under Varg’s heel a moment later. Stonetree could see the Howling Wolves’ Leader swallow hard.

“Diego!” The impaler greeted him with a menacing smile.

“My scouts have reports for the king.” He announced insecurely. “Where is he?”

“He left to hunt down a traitor and murderer.” Varg replied, still smiling. “I am in command until he returns.”

That was not good.

“What reports do you have for me?” She went on after taking another step forward, threateningly towering over the tiny humans.

Her common tongue was excellent and proof enough that she was cut from a different cloth than Edda the ogre, albeit not quite equal to her cruelty.

“Thorwalsh on the river.” Diego reported dutifully.”Making north to Andrafall, from the capital. Meanwhile Horas marches men and material to Nostria. Judging by the machinery they bring with them they either want to revive their old feud with Andergast and sack it while it’s weak, or…”

He cocked his head as though he feared to be punished for his next words: “Or they are meant for you.”

“You humans are truly pathetic.” Varg scoffed. “Needing machines to kill us.”

“Yes, impaler.” He replied submissively. “But I urge you to be cautious. The Horasian war machines are famous, all through the world.”

“Do you think the Nostrians and their petty reinforcements would submit to our cause if we promised them Andergast in return?” The impaler inquired, cocking an eyebrow.

“They might.” Diego replied cautiously. “But Andergast has already been promised. I am to rule it and marry the ugly widow-queen as soon as the walls fall.”

That produced an even wider smile on Varg’s girly face.

Diego looked appalled: “If you presume to cross me on this…”

“If you presume to threaten me,” she interrupted him angrily, “I will add you and your pathetic little friends to my collection.”

She gestured at the impaled humans around her. Many a tiny hand reached for their weapons, but no steel was drawn.

“Did you really think we’d give you a kingdom for your handful of raiders?” The giantess laughed at his scowling expression.

“I command near three hundred now.” He cautioned her. “If it weren’t for the walls, I’d have taken Andergast myself by now. Give me ten of your giants and the city is mine within a fortnight.”

Varg shook her head: “I will give you two sacks of that gold you love so much. One for your trouble, and one to convince those boat people on the river to join forces with you.”

The raider made a sour face at that.

“The Thorwalsh are not unlike you giants.” He explained. “They do not value the metal quite as much as a man should. They will carry it most gladly off a merchant’s cog but you cannot buy their loyalty with it, nor make them forget who their friends and allies are.”

“Iron is harder than gold.” Varg shrugged. “Smash them then.”

“They have no horses, true.” Diego looked in pain. “But their warriors are fearless and strong. I might lose half my force if the terrain does not allow me to ride them down, which it most likely won’t in these gods-forsaken forests.”

Varg rolled her eyes which made her look like an imbecile.

“Pathetic.” She repeated, dismissively. “I will have a look at your boat people then, most of us are itching for a fight anyway. But you will join us. I want to see if you and your men are worth our trust.”

“Humans and giants, fighting side by side? That will be a first.” The raider said and scratched his chin again. “But tell them not to kill anyone with a wolf about him.”

Varg grinned mischievously, and Diego cursed under his breath. In alliance with giants the humans drew the shorter straws. Diego’s gamble was that their enemies drew an even shorter one. In the scheme of things, nothing was certain.

“Do not look so dread!” She laughed at him. “We will try not smash your puny, little friends.”

“There is another thing that should be cause for concern.” He began, but Varg’s eyes turned him down. “The titanesses…”

“If you continue to spread this vicious lie I will tie you to the bottom of my foot and step on you, all the way to Andrafall.” She interrupted him, threatening. “Too many of our own believe the stories and it saps their spirit. Albino is the largest and most powerful giant there is, and that is all you need to know.”

Diego bowed his head to hide his face.

“Three of my outriders ran into a druid.” He changed the subject. “A mighty one, it seems. He was riding a bear. The beast killed two of my men while he got away. The third one only lived long enough to tell me of it. I believe he might be the one you seek.”

“Where?” Varg inquired feverishly.

“Near the…” He began, but halted.

The giantess seemed to understand and her face turned dark.

“He could be anywhere by now but send more outriders that way anyway. Tell your men not to let any more of them get away. I will give you a fat sack of gold for any witch or druid you bring me. Next time, bring me news of these tidings first. Catching Vengyr is our highest priority.”

“Aye. Gladly.” He nodded with a sour smile.

While Varg commanded a dozen giants and giantesses with her and Diego and the Howling Wolves returned to their horses, Stonetree fled the camp. There was no doubt in his mind that Albino was out to get him. How Albino knew of what he had done, Stonetree could not tell, but it was not uncommon for the pale king to simply know things. Why he had done it, he could tell neither, but the urge to do it had been strong and he had failed to fight it. It had just felt right, much more than he could say of anything he had done in Albino’s service as of late.

But without his kin, where was he to go, he asked himself. There was a way though, to gain Albino’s favour back: Find the old druid, before Albino would find him.

-

Back inside the spaceship, Laura and Janna sat at the table while their tiny classmates marvelled at and measured the dead giants. Janna had put on a bra and pants, Laura was still only in panties and T-shirt.

"Alright, eleven meters, sixteen point four metric tons, is that one." Christina read from her sheet when she had stepped out of the tiny space ship. "Her shoulders alone are three point three meters wide and her hips two point six meters. That's normal proportioning, though. I've added common amount of blood for her size into the calculation because she was pretty bled out from her wounds."

"The other one, with the head wound," she continued, "a little smaller, uh, ten meters ten, twelve point seven tons. And finally the fat one, eleven point six meters and, obviously, twenty three something tons."

"God damn!" Steve commented, looking around the bodies in amazement.

"Uh..." Christina began, clearly uncomfortable. "I have analysed their stomach contents. There is lots of stuff in there, indicating that they are omnivores. Also, there are traces of alcohol. What I found too though, was something that, according to my knowledge, could be nothing else than human bones."

"You mean they ate humans...from earth?" Laura asked with wide eyes.

"No, I think they ate locals." Christina said with a look on her face that said her stomach was turning. "I plan on sequencing the genome but that will take a while."

"You do that." Janna threw in. "I would have done it by now but we have no energy supply."

"Also," Christina said and visibly had to fight throwing up, "there were bones of children in the fat one's stomach."

"Jesus Christ." Steve murmured and looked at the bloated body of the monstrous killing machine in front of him.

"You guys are seriously lucky we found you." Laura remarked grimly.

Valerie leaned next to the entrance of the space ship and kept her mouth shut, but now she gave Christina a bump into the ribs with her fist.

"Uh, yeah." Christina said, even more uncomfortable than before. "We would actually like to analyse your stomach contents too."

Janna thought she hadn't heard right.

"Why would you do that?" She asked.

"To prove your innocence." Christina replied, uncomfortably.

"I can't believe you are still going on about this!" Laura commented in disgust.

Christina looked genuinely embarrassed but determined too.

"I know..." She argued. "But what do you have to lose?"

"My stomach content, for one." Janna pushed back. "It's hard enough to find enough food at our size. We don't have a nice pile of rations we can snack on anytime we want."

"Yeah, and we just ate!" Laura joined in. "I'm not puking it out for you just to prove Valerie wrong. That's sick!"

"Oh, what did you eat?" Valerie asked bitingly.

Janna cringed inside. The suspicious pilot had kept her mouth shut the entire time and waited for them to make a mistake like this.

"Uh...you know..." Laura stuttered. "Berries and fruit and wildlife and stuff."

"Pretty quick." Valerie pointed out with a victorious smirk. "How did you find that much food so quickly? How many tons do you eat in one meal?"

"The nearby village gave us some, alright?!" Janna tried to shut her down.

"Oh, so there is a nearby village. How convenient for you!" Valerie went on, her voice pregnant with cynicism. "I guess I would give away my stuff too to keep two fucking Godzillas from eating my kids."

"We don't eat any fucking kids! What's wrong with you?!" Laura shouted.

Valerie laughed: "So, only grown ups then, huh. There's more meat on them anyway, am I right?"

"They protect the nearby village and they give them food in return. It's okay." Steve joined the conversation in an attempt to cool it down.

Valerie looked glaringly at him for picking the opposite side.

She remained adamant: "Then just take the fucking test and be done with it."

"No." Laura and Janna said firmly at the same time.

"Guys, please." Christina argued. "I don't like this one bit more than you do. Just take the test and we can all move on in peace."

That was hard to argue against.

"I knew Valerie was a colossal bitch from the first time I saw her." Laura addresssed the tiny black girl. "But I really thought you would trust us."

"Go fuck yourself, you giant monster!" Valerie shouted at her.

A sudden pinch in Janna's chest told her to defend her girlfriend and she could feel anger rising within herself. She really wondered what would happen if she and Laura would tell the truth now. They probably wouldn't have to watch every word that came out of their mouths any more and that sense of uncertainty she felt inside their 'home' since their tiny classmates arrived might go away too. The more she thought about it, the more inclined she became. Also, there was something else she had come to think about.

"Come on, guys." Christina raised her voice again. "By not taking the test you make it look like she is right."

"What's the point?!" Valerie now fell out at her too. "They wont take it, basically admitting that they eat people! They probably ate a bunch just a few minutes ago!"

Janna looked at Laura who looked back, helpless.

"Let's assume that's true, what will you do with that knowledge?" Janna asked calmly.

"Report it!" Valerie blurted out. "We'll add it to our emergency call! 'Hey guys, SOS, we've stranded on a different planet and found extra terrestrial life. Oh, and we met some giant freaks from your program who are mass murderers, so please hurry.' Catchy, isn't it?!"

"And what's the call right now?" Janna went on, looking at Steve.

"Just standard." He shrugged, having no idea where she was going with this. "We've been sending that, ever since we got here."

"I see." Janna smiled and turned back to Valerie. "And what do you hope to accomplish, reporting us?"

"So you'll get punished!" Valerie explained, perplexed as to why that wasn't obvious.

Janna looked over to Laura once more, and this time Laura's eyes seemed to beg her to stop. It seemed she suspected Janna was going to come clean.

"Mhmhm." Janna nodded at the three tinies on the table. "So we get thrown in jail, reputation tarnished, big scandal..."

Valerie nodded vigorously: "Just what you deserve!"

"Professor Miller is maybe going to jail too, university discredited, anthropology department closed..." Janna went on.

The blond pilot's nodding grew slower until it ceased completely.

"You see..." Janna began. "I don't think they would do that. I think it's more likely they'd try to sweep it under the rug. The government too, I mean, this is the first time anyone has found aliens, right? Can't have this sort of thing spoil everything."

Laura looked relieved that Janna had seemingly found a way to deal with the situation that didn't involve revealing anything. However, Janna wasn't quite sure about that yet.

"Well, let's see about that." Valerie stubbornly said and walked to enter the ship.

Janna was about to reach out and grab her but Christina was quicker, still standing in the entrance, blocking her path.

"No, Val, we agreed to let them take the test first." She argued firmly.

"But they won't take it!" Valerie shouted at her. "And they have just admitted that they eat people!"

"No they haven't?!" Christina heatedly pointed out. "Janna said 'suppose it were true.'"

"But it is true!" Valerie shouted and tried to push past the black girl in her way.

They were wrestling and shoving each other. Valerie, taller and with longer limbs, had the upper hand, but Steve intervened before a clear victor emerged. Janna still felt the urge of just coming clean and ending this ridiculous farce. The time ahead, as she foretold it, would be unspeakably stressful if Valerie kept doing what she had been doing all the time. But that would put the three tinies, and maybe Laura too, in an uncomfortable position.

"We can't go on like this." She finally said. "We need some ground rules for living together. I am not having this discussion every time we talk."

"Then take the test and be done with it, for the hundredth fucking time!" Christina angrily repeated her mantra.

"No, ain't gonna happen." Janna said simply. "Off the table. What else have you got?"

Christina and Valerie looked at each other, past Steve who was still keeping them at a distance, but Janna couldn't see that they were saying or even whispering anything.

"Well, if there is nothing else," she continued, "I suggest you guys stop going on about it and we continue to study and catalogue this stuff."

She reached for the decaying male giant and put it next to them, so that they could measure it. The male was fully grown, but was still significantly smaller than the females, a fact she found duly worth noting. But in that light, bringing him around didn't have the effect she desired.

"Fuck off!" Valerie spat enraged. "I am going to send out that message. You guys can't watch me all of the time!"

That was what Janna had anticipated and feared.

"Well, in that case," she began unconcerned and reached for the ship on the table, "I'll have to take away your ability to do so."

Laura didn't look comfortable with that but said nothing.

"Wait, you can't do that?!" Christina said, baffled.

"I have to." Janna explained with a shrug, lifting the ship off the table and setting it in her lap. "If you guys want to escalate this shit like that, I have to take away your leverage."

"But where do we sleep, eat, shower and stuff?" Steve asked helplessly.

"Not my problem." Janna replied, giving Valerie a victorious smirk.

There was a moment of silence before Laura finally rejoined the conversation.

"Janna." She said soothingly. "We can't do that, that's unfair."

"Hey!" Janna justified herself. "They pushed us into a corner, I'm just reacting here."

"Yeah, but there is a smarter solution." Laura replied with a smile.

"Janna is right, Valerie." She continued and regarded the tall blonde with a sorry expression. "We can't risk letting you wreck us like that."

"Hey, what the fuck?! Put me down, you bitch!" Valerie screeched hysterically when Laura pinched her in between thumb and index finger.

In retrospect, Janna would have said what went wrong started when Laura's fingers snatched tiny Valerie up. They both hated the tiny pilots guts, but before that point they had never violated her bodily integrity. With that barrier crossed, the doors had been opened for disaster.

"Sorry." Laura mused, wrinkling her nose in that cute way Janna loved so much.

"Wait, she's not going to kill her, right?" Steve asked, horrified, when Laura stood up with the kicking and cursing pilot and walked over to the supply boxes.

"No." Janna replied and put the ship back to where it had stood before. "I think she is just putting her away for a while so that she can cool off."

"But you can't just do that to somebody!" He fell out, spreading his arms.

"She threatened to crush our reputation." Janna shrugged in response. "We're actually quite civil about it. I know someone who would kill to safe his reputation."

That shut him up for good.

Laura found a small glass cup and returned with Valerie inside. The girl was still screaming obscenities at them and demanded to be let out, but they ignored her completely. At the initiative of Steve, they allowed Valerie a blanket, a pillow, some food and drink and a bucket, all from the tiny ship. It was humiliating all the same.

After that, Laura was suddenly having a blast, venting on her. She lifted the cup and shook it, turned it and played with it, turning Valerie into a rag doll inside.

"Hey there!" She cooed playfully and tapped against the glass with her fingernail. "Enjoying your new home?"

Incomprehensible, raging screams were the reply and Laura shook the cup again, throwing Valerie off her feet.

"Oh, what's that?" She mocked from above. "You want out? Sorry, can't let ya. First you have to apologize. I might just let you out right now, if you ask nice enough."

Nice was clearly not the choice word for the answer Laura received but it seemed to please her even more. Janna could fully understand the urge of bringing down a little payback on Valerie for being so obnoxious but she figured that it wasn't the smartest thing to do in front of Christina and Steve. Valerie seemed to know that too.

"Look at what they are doing to me!" She screamed in tears inside her prison, beating against the glass to get Christina's attention. "They are guilty! They are guilty, otherwise, why would they do this to me?!"

As much as Janna enjoyed punishing her, she had to agree that it made sense.

"But really..." Christina turned to Janna after chewing on her tongue for a while. "If you guys really didn't do anything, you could just let her send the call. The government, if they even care, will clear you of any wrong doing, right?"

"Watch this!" Laura exclaimed suddenly, full of excitement and completely ignoring her tiny, black classmate.

She picked Valerie's glass prison up and brought it around her back after lifting herself off of her stool. The grimace Laura made already told Janna what was coming. With a short, high-pitched tone, she farted directly into Valerie's prison. After that, she cracked up with laughter and put the cup back on the table. The fart smelled quite bad because their diet was too rich in meats, Janna concluded.

Valerie was coughing furiously before she bent over and puked into the bucket.

"That's so disgusting." Christina said and turned away while Steve looked on with great discomfort showing on his face.

"That's what she gets for all the names she called me." Laura said viciously, before her face lit up again. "Oh, I have another one coming!"

The cup was already in her hands when Valerie screamed: "No! Please! I'm sorry, I'm fucking sorry, please!"

Laura listened to it with interest showing on her face.

"Aww." She cooed, as if she were talking to a baby. "Don't want me to fart on you no more? Is my fart too stinky for ya?"

And after another wicked grin, she quickly brought the cup around her backside again.

Janna was unsure what to make of this. Laura's attitudes often changed dramatically in a matter of seconds. Whether or not she could join in on the fun or whether she should preach moderation, she didn't know. Maybe Laura was playing, humiliating Valerie as a means of changing her attitude.

Laura laughed heartily though, when she farted on the tiny pilot again and put the cup back on the table. Without anything left in her stomach, Valerie was coughing and crouching over her bucked, convulsing with gag reflexes.

"Rocked you real good, huh? You little fucker." Laura laughed victoriously into the cup.

The air around started to smell worse than rotten eggs and Janna felt sorry for the tiny girl. On the other hand, it felt incredibly just to see her suffer. When Janna looked at Steve and Christina, she found that the latter was missing. A moment later, the tiny black girl emerged out of their ship.

"You can stop now and take her out." She announced sternly, but with a tiny hint of fear in her voice. "I just transmitted the call she was going to make."

"You did what?!" Laura asked aghast, her smile gone in an instant.

"You heard me." Christina said, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

Janna felt as though someone had swept away the ground underneath her feet.

"So, let me get this straight." She said with a shaking voice. "You have just potentially jeopardized our life, career and freedom?"

"I had to put a stop to it. You were endangering her life." Christina argued. "That amount of gas can kill someone, Janna, you know that. Just look at her, for bloody Christ's sake."

Christina was the biologist of their group and Janna knew that she was right. Valerie was curled up in a ball, wrapped in her blanket, seemingly barely conscious though still convulsing from time to time. But Janna only registered all that from the corner of her eye.

"You just made a huge mistake, little girl." She said, glaring at Christina.

It felt like Christina had taken the last thing Laura and Janna had had to lose. Of course, that wasn't true. What Janna had said about the government potentially sweeping their crimes under the rug was a good possibility, but of course not one hundred percent certain to happen. On the other hand, it would all have gotten out eventually anyway, and then there was that little fact that Christina was a real human and a classmate of theirs. But Janna paid these rationales little heed. She was furious.

Steve seemed to grasp the situation quickest.

"Woa, woa, woa!" He pushed forward and put himself protectively in front of the Christina. "I get that you guys are angry, but you're not going to hurt her, right?"

"I don't think that is a smart place to stand right now." Janna threatened and could almost see his knees begin to tremble.

"Step aside, Steve." She continued, breathing heavily. "She's mine."

Christina started to whimper and cry involuntarily. She may have had anticipated some retaliation, but when the reality of Janna's size and power kicked in, she became afraid and hid behind Steve's broad, muscular back.

"Hey, I want a piece of her too!" Laura protested and leaned closer to the tiny couple.

"Guys, that's not funny!" Steve called out with a shaking voice.

"Step aside, you little shrimp, before you get hurt!" Laura dismissed him, angrily. "She just flushed our lives down the fucking toilet!"

Eventually, Steve became overwhelmed by his fear and, with a hint of shame in his eyes, abandoned Christina and stepped aside.

"But she is a human being!" He called helplessly upon Janna.

That pinched something. It was true, killing Christina would, without a shred of a doubt, be murder. But Laura was right too, and Christina deserved some punishment. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth...life for life?

"Please don't hurt me!" Christina cried.

She had sunk to the ground and started to shiver.

"You brought this upon yourself!" Laura berated her before turning to Janna. "It's okay, Janna. You can squish her as long as I get to watch."

"Hey!" Steve intervened quickly. "It's totally understandable that you guys are angry! But let's not blow this out of proportion, alright?!"

If they really killed Christina, Steve and Valerie would have to go too. The thought of making Valerie her little bitch was intriguing to Janna, but putting Steve through some hours of pussy play before squashing him with her boobs seemed even better. She could feel herself getting wet beneath the table. But it was wrong, something cried out within her. Wrong!

"I didn't send anything!" Christina called out. "I wanted to, but I couldn't figure out the damn console, please!"

"A snitch and a liar, huh?" Laura mused. "Come on, Janna, squelch the bitch!"

If it had been a lie, it had been a good one. But then again, adrenaline often sent the brain into overdrive. Then, Steve was suddenly sprinting towards the ship and vanished inside before anyone could stop him.

After a moment of perplexity, Laura looked alarmed and reached for the ship, shaking and turning it to get him out of there. A good amount violent shaking later, he came tumbling out of the entrance, hit the surface of the table with a smack and cried out in pain. Something in Janna wanted to reach out and protect him, but Laura seemed far too determined to let that happen.

"What do you think you are doing?!" She growled, her face menacingly hovering over his tiny form "Wanted to make sure the message got through?"

"Argh!" He grunted and sat up, rubbing his back and head. "I wanted to see if it's true. It is. She didn't send anything, we are still broadcasting standard SOS and coordinates."

He seemed miraculously little hurt from that fall, Janna thought. That little guy could take a beating for sure. A few seconds later, he was on his feet again while a certain silence befell them all. Janna wanted to see what Laura would do, but Laura did not seem to know that either.

"Look, uh..." Steve began, still looking somewhat in pain. "Let's chalk all this crazy talk up under rage and fear over losing your careers. Get Val out of that thing, we all apologize a little and it's all good. Right?"

He looked up at them, grave concern on his face. Janna sensed an opportunity to de-escalate and chose to take it. It was either that or murder them.

"Okay." She said quickly and to Laura's visible surprise. "We're sorry. I never would have hurt you, Christina."

That was a blatant lie but the tiny, black tomboy wiped the tears from her face and looked up at Janna: "I'm sorry too, I only wanted to protect Valerie!"

It seemed to be Laura's turn then, but she did not agree.

"I won't apologize for farting on her." She said, nodding at Valerie. "She got what she deserved."

"You're a bitch, Laura!" Valerie's voice sounded strange when she spoke softly and weakly in her glass prison.

Laura looked at her for a moment, before she snatched the glass off the table with her right hand. It happened so quickly that Janna could only shriek when Laura held the glass cup like a pitcher in a softball game and hurled it through the ship. With a crash, the glass cup that contained Valerie burst into a thousand splinters on the wall next to the door to the room with the stasis covens.

Christina started howling and collapsed, Steve looked with wide eyes and his mouth agape, trembling. Laura glared at them for a moment before she opened her left hand on the table. Valerie was inside, awake and unhurt, but visibly shaken up. Pillow, blanked, rations and bucket were with her, all sprayed with her vomit.

Janna understood. When Laura had picked the cup up she had done it with so much inertia that Valerie flew right into her open left hand when Laura halted the cup at her own chin. All the other stuff of course, most unfortunately the puke bucket, came with her. Then Laura had thrown the empty cup with her right and made it look like she was killing the tiny pilot inside. It had been quite a neat, little magic trick, almost, and perfected by the shock value of it.

"Let this be a lesson to you." Laura said coldly from above. "We're not in this with you, you are in this with us. And no more broadcasting."

In a swift motion, she took the ship off the table and set it at the ground by her feet.

"No, don't!" Steve called out as her knee shot up, but it was too late.

When Laura brought the ship back up, the lights were out inside and the cockpit looked like crushed tinfoil, occasional sparks and smoke rising from it, before the circuits gave out completely. It was just like Laura said, there was no more broadcasting, even though the rest of the ship remained intact, if a little bent.

Disgusted, Laura turned her hand and dumped the contents unceremoniously on the table before wiping her hand clean, using Valerie's blanket like a tissue. Every tiny's chest was heaving up and down and they seemed far too shaken to say anything.

"We walk barefoot a lot so we will need to pick the glass up." Laura commanded calmly and placed her right hand on the table. "Hop on."

There were no protests now, not even from Valerie and after a moment they all complied without saying a word. It looked like Laura's scheme had it's desired effect.

"I'm sorry for scaring you guys." She said, sounding deeply serious. "But you have to understand that there is only so much shit I'm willing to take in one day."

Careful where to step, she carried them over to were the glass had shattered and the distribution of splinters on the ground was densest. After that, Janna slipped into her boots and Laura into her sneakers. Glass splinters were a real danger. One could get one in the foot and maybe not even feel it, before it could make it's way, travelling through a person's body and end up stuck in nerves, causing chronic, excruciating pain, if it didn't end up in the heart or the brain to cause much greater damage.

The three tinies were gathering shards of glass like they had been told to, and piled them on a paper tissue Laura had put there for them. It was tedious work and Janna helped as much as she could. Two or three big shards were so large that the tinies couldn't pick them up, but others were so small that Janna had a hard time even seeing them.

She tried to keep a safe distance to them, crouching on the floor in her heavy boots. Whenever she shifted her feet, something broke and crackled under her soles.

Valerie was still shaky on her feet and Christina still looked frightened. Steve was easily the most productive in removing glass and he could lift some of the bigger pieces that Valerie and Christina were struggling with.

"Uh, there is bound to be a lot of stuff behind those boxes!" He called up at Laura who was sitting on the bed, watching them with disinterest. "Do you want to move them, or just leave that where it is?"

Laura didn't bother helping them and looked bored instead. Janna knew, dangerous things could happen when Laura was bored.

"We can leave that there." Laura decided with a derisive frown. "Better scoop up the small stuff under Janna's boots."

"Janna?" He called over to her, a little embarrassed. "Could you, maybe, move away a little bit?"

"Uh, sure." Janna replied and let herself plop on her behind.

She pulled her feet up and carefully brushed the debris off the soles with her hand, letting it fall on the ground she had crouched upon before. Nagash and that tiny thing Janna had fingered to death had cleaned her boots from the outside, but clearly never bothered with the sole.

Steve rushed over and went to work in his earlier industrious fashion. Soon, though, he frowned and held something up in his hand.

"What is it?" Laura inquired of him, leaning closer.

"It, uh, it looks like a spear tip." He answered. "There's like a ton of weird stuff here."

No doubt a remainder of squashing King Aele's army under her boots, or maybe raiders in the forest, Janna thought, but it was easy enough to explain away by claiming it had been stuff lying around somewhere that she hadn't noticed.

"Wow, this here might have been a helmet." Steve went on and lifted a flattened metal disc from a small pile of earth. "It..."

He swallowed hard and seemed to poke it with his finger until something fell out.

"Oh my god, that's part of someone's face!" He exclaimed and started to gag.

The flattened helmet fell to the floor and rolled once around it's own axis before it halted with a clattering sound. Christina and Valerie had stopped working and watched.

"Oh...uh..." Janna fumbled for an answer. "I must have stepped on the poor guy in the forest."

"There's more." Steve said disgusted and rummaged through the debris.

By the end of it there were two more helmets, a dozen spear tips, two broken swords and a squashed torso in chain mail, mingled with a bunch of earth that had stuck to Janna's sole. How such an amount of metal could cling to it without falling off while Janna moved her twelve thousand something tons through the forest was beyond her. But then again, squashed bodies were messy, as the ground had been on the day that she planed the battlefield at Ludwig's keep.

Laura looked alarmed now and chewed on her lip.

"How did all that stuff get there?" Steve asked, directed at Janna.

"I don't know." Janna shrugged and put an extra amount of effort into looking distraught over the find.

She looked over to Christina and Valerie. It was perfectly clear what the two girls thought, but both of them remained silent. Before, the blond pilot would have thrown a fit, but not this time. Maybe Laura's stunt had worked wonders, Janna thought and wondered, how long it's effects would last.

"Did you miss an entire army when you were walking though the forest?" Steve asked again but Janna couldn't tell whether it was meant seriously.

"Well, sometimes it gets kinda dark." Laura answered for her. "And twelve spears don't make an army as far as I know. Might have been a group of bandits or what ever."

"Or maybe you stepped on some poor little weapons cache." Steve added to Janna, leaving no doubt this time that he was being sarcastic. "Oh, meh. I forgot about the head and the torso."

To Janna's surprise though, he didn't press the issue any further and carried the items over to the tissue and dumped them with the glass.

"What are you two whispering over there? Get working!" Laura commanded over Christina and Valerie.

Without so much as exchanging another glance, the two tiny girls hurried back to work. Janna sensed that it would be easier now. Fewer problems, fewer fighting, less tantrums thrown, but the battle for Christina's mind was probably lost. That didn't sit well with her at all but as much as she wrecked her brains about it, she could not come up with something to turn the tide around again.

While she was still thinking about it, she suddenly found Laura soundly asleep. It had to have happened fast, very fast, but was not entirely unprecedented. En plus, sleeping was the smartest thing they could do at noon, except for going out and finding food. A sleeping body used far less energy and thus required less food to sustain itself.

Janna wondered how many lives would be spared in a day, just because Laura took a nap. She knew she would be smart to do the same, but Laura's absence presented her with an opportunity to maybe make things right by Christina.

Chapter 12

Janna knew she was being stupid, reckless and probably naive. But when all the glass had been gathered up, she had decided to take the next step in introducing her tiny classmates to the equally tiny people's society. She had made no precautions, spread no safety net, she would simply put the three into Laura's village to see what would happen. Another attack on them, similar to that on Steve, was not what she feared. That could be easily thwarted by her. What she feared was that all the ugly truths came to light.

Still, she was here now, in front of Lauraville, Steve, Christina and even Valerie on the palm of her hand. This was about giving them something to do, distracting them, rebuilding a healthy relationship with them. She could have just put them back on the table and let them rot in their now dark and boring ship without electricity. But she did not want that. She wanted her class mates to be happy and she desperately wanted Steve and Christina to help her restart her study of the alien species.

Without the electronic equipment in the tiny space ship things would be difficult, she knew. Her hope was that at some point Valerie would be able to fix it. She would have to have some knowledge of how to fix the wiring to get things working again, surely. But for that to happen Janna first needed to regain, or rather build, a certain level of trust. Either that, or she could just make the tiny pilot do it, which seemed the immoral yet undeniable plan B.

Black smoke was rising from one of the new buildings that the tiny villagers had constructed. The giantess Nagash was standing next to it, looking up at her with unhidden discomfort.

Janna greeted her with a warm smile: "Hello, Nagash. How are things...?"

It was terribly awkward.

"In order." Was the short and sceptical response.

"Is this a bakery?" Janna asked hinting at the new building with the smoke.

"A smithy." Answered Nagash. "Tools need repair."

"Oh!" Janna cheered happily. "That is interesting. I have three friends of mine here on the palm of my hand, they do not speak your tongue but I would love for them to see your village."

Nagash clearly did not understand what she meant.

"Look." Janna started again, briskly. "I will put my friends into your village. Every thing will be nice, no one is to harm them and they will witness neither killing nor cruelty. Understood?"

Nagash nodded insecurely and Janna proceeded to put Steve, Christina and Valerie down in front of her. The three were still awfully quiet, even Steve's enthusiasm seemed dampened. Upon seeing Nagash, with her wild, brown mane, dirty skin and skimpy clothing, they froze in fear. She was the first, living, indigenous giantess that they had ever seen.

"It's fine." Janna reassured them from above whilst protectively crouching over them. "She is harmless. She helps the villagers to build houses and they give her food in return."

The three still stood there, eyeing Nagash suspiciously but also not making any effort to explore the village on their own. Meanwhile, locals gathered, anxiously gawking at the newcomers in their strange, grey-orange overalls. This was not working to Janna's satisfaction.

"Tiny people!" She addressed the village in the local tongue. "My friends have arrived. Give them some of your delicious food as a welcome! Let them receive your hospitality to the utmost extend!"

That put Nagash to action. Striding energetically towards the center of the village, she gestured wildly with her arms, barking orders. Maybe some smoked ham would brake the ice. The villagers picked up their work again, after that. No one wanted to be caught making lazy.

Janna noticed activity in the smithy in front of her as well and she lowered down to peer inside beneath the roof. The building was made from wood, entirely, except for the fireplace and chimney which seemed to have been made from clay and the occasional field stone. Inside, she could see three figures at work on some weird apparatus. No metal was being worked at, at the time.

"Isn't it unwise to build a smithy from wood?", She asked into the building, "It could catch fire, couldn't it?"

A stout man in a leather apron ran out to greet her, bowing his bold head, deeply, shiny from sweat.

"This is the smithy, if it please the goddess!" He said after standing upright again. "And it is true that wood can catch fire, which is why we have constructed the vital parts from clay that does not burn, if it please the goddess!"

He scratched his backside briefly before adding, fearfully: "If it does not please the goddess, I humbly ask you let my two apprentices out the building before you crush it. They are good lads, the lack of sufficient good stone is no fault of theirs!"

"Your smithy is safe, tiny man." Janna laughed in response and the man seemed to let out a sigh of relief.

"The work will be starting shortly, goddess!" He went on. "My apprentices are constructing a bellow, then I only needs find an anvil and I might actually do some good things here. If I get some steel, that is. We have no trade, you see..."

He cleared his throat so noisily that even Janna could hear it and spat on the ground.

"I will get you some." Janna replied with a friendly smile. "An anvil is that iron thing you beat on with a hammer, right?"

"You say that true! If you gave me steel, that would be most kind of you, goddess!" The smith exclaimed, surprised but also a bit suspicious.

He was clearly not expecting any help from Janna, of all people. That gave her a new idea.

"Steve." She began, determinedly and in English. "Why don't you check out the smithy and see about their metal working skills. Christina, I think you should take a look at their domestic animals. They look just like on earth, but I am simply too big to tell."

The two looked up at her without saying a word or making a move.

"Valerie," Janna concluded, "you should try and get a layman's perspective on their society. Your point of view should matter as well, for the work we do."

Still, no one was moving and so Janna rose to her feet. She saw that Nagash was approaching, four tiny people in tow carrying all manner of hastily scrambled food items.

"No one will harm my friends." Janna told her once more in the local tongue. "And no cruel stuff, while I'm gone. I will step on all of you if you disobey. I will return shortly."

By the time she got back from the ship, the tissue with glass shards and steel items in her hand, Steve, Valerie and Christina had moved. She saw Valerie, lingering around, gawking at things and avoiding the stares of the locals and Christina, fighting with a piglet trying to get it to hold still.

When she crouched in front of the smithy, the tiny, bold smith came running out again.

"Here is a little to get you started with." Janna addressed him and laid out the paper towel in front of her. "There's not much steel, but I will get you more when I can."

"Aye, goddess, you are most kind." He bowed once more and his boldness flashed in the sunlight. "But, pray tell me, what is that other stuff that I am seeing?"

"It's glass." Janna shrugged apologetically. "See if you can use some of it, maybe as spear tips? If it is useless just..."

"No, no!" The smith interrupted her, lifting a tiny glass shard to the light, marvelling at it.

That he had taken the liberty to interrupt her, startled Janna for a moment. He seemed to notice that too and he shrieked and began a grovelling apology to which Janna only raised her hand.

"If you can make use of it, you can keep it. It is yours." She told him, calmingly.

He bowed his head again and continued marvelling at the glass. He seemed so intoxicated by it that he eventually took it to his own arm and cut himself. Then he shrieked again and Janna could see his hand turn red with blood.

"You tiny, pig-headed fool!" Nagash growled suddenly and came stomping at him just as Steve was exiting the smith's work shop, chewing on a hard sausage.

Seeing him, the tiny giantess stopped in her tracks, fearfully looking over at Janna.

"The smith hurt himself on the glass!" Janna addressed the puzzled look on Steve's face.

"Yeah, man!" He answered, scolding. "That shit is sharp, like, horribly."

He came jogging over and crammed for something in the breast pocket of his uniform. Janna had entirely forgotten about the first-aid kit that was standard in all the explorer's uniforms.

"Calm down, man." Steve told the smith who seemed to be in a horrible scare of Nagash.

Eventually, though, the bold man allowed Steve to treat his wounds and the college boy had him patched up in no time and even gave him something mild for the pain.

"He will make you a hunting knife, he says." Janna translated for Steve after the smith had stopped incredulously staring at his bandages and showering Steve with thanks.

"Woa, cool!" The boy exclaimed and scrambled to repeat the words for 'thank you' in the local tongue.

It came out well enough and the two patted each others shoulders before dividing the metal on the tissue from the glass sharps and carrying it to the smithy.

When the smith lifted the chain mail, he laughed throatily: "Ha, seems this one has half it's owner still in it, heh!"

Steve replied in English, with an apologetic grin: "Yeah, dude, there's totally a dead guy in there."

Janna was happy to see her plan bear fruits. Wash away the awkwardness, put them to work on what they came here for, make them forget about the earlier unpleasantness. While she was thinking these things, Steve came running back out.

"Janna!" He called up at her. "I think we need a hotter fire to work on the metal but that wind-blowing-thing is not ready yet. I thought, uh, maybe you could create some wind for us?"

"Did the smith tell you that?" She asked him in response.

Surely he couldn't have learned the local tongue that quickly.

"We're kinda communicating with hands and feet!" He shrugged and grinningly scratched the back of his head. "Do you think you could blow on the flames for us?"

She brought her head down again, peering under the roof with one eye to see were the fire was. Then she blew, softly at first but gradually building up. Dust and debris kicked up from the mighty gust of wind she created. The tiny smith's apprentices' hair thrashed around, as did the heavy leather apron of their bold master. Eventually, the flames were blown out but the wood turned white with heat. When Janna ceased blowing, the fire restarted, furiously crackling and roaring up the chimney.

She blew one last time, so hard that one of the apprentices lost his footing and everyone was shielding their eyes until a few wooden boards from the roof of the smithy flew off. The fire's flames went so high now, that they kicked out of the chimney every now and then.

"Sorry about the roof." Janna chuckled.

Had she blown to the extent that she capable off, she could have toppled the entire structure and reduced it to a pile of rubble.

"That's fine, I think." Steve said, scratching his head again while he watched the smith and his lackeys feed more wood to the flames.

"Christina, Valerie, come here, please." Janna called out.

Steve seemed to have a great experience. She wanted to see if it worked on the other two as well. That did not seem to be the case, however, because Christina was striding furiously towards her, shaking her head. Valerie came too, still ambling stiffly and awkwardly in between the huts and houses.

"So." Janna began when all three were in front of her. "What do you guys think?"

They exchanged glances.

"Well, uh, they can work iron, obviously, and they have the knowledge to make simple devices." Steve began with a shrug, when no one else would. "They use what they can pull out of land around here, I guess. I'd say they are an intelligent people, going through the same kind of development as ours. Assuming they are developing as fast as we have, I'd say their species is somewhere between one and one point five thousand years younger than ours."

"Wow, that's quite a good observation. You follow that hypothesis." Janna said praisingly and Steve nodded.

"Yeah, fucking great observation, Steve!" Christina scoffed at him, inexplicably furious. "How about the fucking observation that they are humans?! Yeah, that's right, they are fucking humans!"

"How do you know that to a degree of scientific certainty?" Janna asked. "Have you sequenced their genome yet?"

"No!" Christina's fury now directed at Janna. "I don't have to. Plants and animals on this planet are textbook earth-stuff. Everything here is!"

"You never picked up a textbook." Steve laughed at her. "Which is why you had to agree to go on this mission, as did I and Laura and Janna too."

"I might have partied a little too hard," The tiny black tomboy defended herself, "but I know a fucking pig, and a cow, and a chicken, and a goose when I see one! That's elementary school biology!"

"Maybe they are different on the genetic, or molecular level." Janna suggested in an attempt to calm her down.

"Janna." Christina said frustrated. "An organism's body is the expression of it's genes! Sure, there might be slight differences if you sequenced it, but that you more likely be to mutations in reproduction!"

"Hmm." Janna made and pursed her lips. "So, you think everything here, came from earth, originally?"

"That would be my conclusion." Christina said, calmer now. "I don't know. Maybe a fucked up government experiment or what ever."

"That would mean we're not supposed to be here, right?" Steve rejoined the conversation.

"And it would mean that we have discovered absolutely nothing." Janna added with a hint of disappointment in her voice.

They all pondered that dark thought for a while.

"We should continue studying them and get to the bottom of this." Janna finally suggested after a while.

"What's the point?!" Christina argued. "There's nothing new here, at all!"

"We don't know that with certainty. Maybe things here just evolved the same as on earth?" Steve threw in, completely out of his element.

"That would suggest determinism in evolution." Christina shook her head. "That would rock the entire theory to the last fucking, fossilized bone."

"We must have a look at their genes." Janna reasoned which sent Christina into another furious outburst.

"Yeah, right!" She spat. "Thankfully, you guys didn't cut off our energy supply, you gigantic shitlords!"

Janna let that slide as well deserved and turned to Valerie instead.

"Do you think you can fix that?" She asked the tiny, blonde pilot.

Valerie looked up at her in fear and helpless anger, but did not say a word.

"Val, come on, this is important. For all of us." Steve joined in and even Christina nodded.

"Maybe." Was the short and crisp reply.

"What do you think about this, anyway?" Janna inquired in an attempt to get a few more words out of her.

Janna already sensed a certain degree of trust when talking to Christina and Steve, but Valerie remained the hardest nut to crack. Surely, she had to notice that Janna wasn't killing people, but maybe the fearful looks that the villagers gave her hardened Valerie's position to the contrary. With everyone staring at her, though, the tiny pilot opened her mouth to speak in the end.

"I don't know." She began, insecurely. "I mean, even if this is a government thing...it's still kind of a big deal, right? Maybe we're not discoverers but whistle-blowers."

"I want to know that for certain." Janna proclaimed. "All this vagueness makes me sick."

Her stomach was actually aching, but not from sickness, she knew. It was hunger that pained her again. It was well past time to go and find some village. Maybe she would have to sleep outside tonight. The possibility that she had eaten, or rather cannibalized, humans all this time was slightly troubling too. Maybe she would change her diet back to only local produce, even though that way would take far more work to get her full. It would also not unlikely doom whoever's food she took.

That was a reality Janna had come to terms with long ago: Her survival meant the death of others.

"Alright." She said to Valerie. "Can I put you in the ship right away or do you want to hang around the village some more?"

It was the right thing to ask her if trust was to be established at all.

"That's okay. I can start now." Valerie called up at her, insecurely. "I don't understand any of this stuff the way you guys do. It will take a while though."

"Can I stay here?" Steve asked, enthusiastically. "I want to learn the local language. Human or not, their language is interesting and it beats sitting in the ship without video games."

"I'll help you." Christina fell in, quickly. "I've got nothing else to do, and I don't even understand the ship's control panels, let alone the wiring."

Janna chewed on her lip.

"I have to go, get food." She cautioned them. "And I don't feel comfortable leaving you here by yourself."

That was only half of the truth.

"Then stay here and eat their food." Steve argued. "They've got plenty, don't they?"

"Laura and I only come here to eat in the morning." Janna explained. "We can't take away too much from them, or they'll starve."

Steve looked around and shrugged: "They all look reasonably fed here. I'm sure you can ask them for an additional meal."

An additional meal would cause problems for the tiny village but maybe Janna could borrow some food now and give it back to them later.

"Nagash." She called in the local tongue and the tiny giantess came over as quickly as she could.

Valerie, Christina and Steve retreated away from her approaching form and towards Janna. Another small victory.

"What do you wish?" Nagash asked with a face that already knew she wouldn't like the answer.

"I need food, a whole meal, and maybe even more in the evening and Laura too." She said, studying the tiny giantess' reaction.

"Goddess..." Nagash began, painfully. "We are working at full capacity. If you take this food from us, we will not be able to provide it tomorrow. We are struggling with one meal per day, as it is. I was about to cut our own rations in half, we are running short on tools and the humans need clothing. I will select our most useless humans for you to eat, if you wish.”

Janna shook her head: "I will not eat villagers. I need food."

The tiny giantess looked helpless.

"I will make it up to you." Janna vowed. "Tools and clothing should be easy to get and I will bring new livestock for you, if I find it. I will go out tomorrow morning."

"You would do that, for us?" Nagash asked, her eyes full of mistrust.

She probably remembered how Laura and her had broken their promise about not killing people earlier when they had breakfast. Still, Janna did not like for her honesty on this to be called into question.

"Yes." She replied coldly. "But you will have to take my word for it. Serve me or I will take the food myself. Your choice. My friends wish to explore your village, and I will stay here to watch over them."

Too late she remembered, that safety for them was not her only concern. If Steve and Christina too learned the local tongue, they would almost inevitably hear about her and Laura's misdeeds.

"Bring food for the goddess! All of you! Now!" Nagash shouted into the village.

All work was dropped immediately and people scrambled on top of each other. From the barns they had erected to store most of the food, barrels and baskets were carried and carts were loaded and rolled over to were their goddess was crouching. Helpless, Janna watched the scene unfold, unable to stop it now.

She put her hand down besides Valerie to allow her to climb on, which she did with much less reluctance than before, and took her to the space ship. Climbing up with a tiny person in her hand was always a bit harder, but she managed well enough and arrived inside, finding Laura still soundly asleep. She looked cute and lovely, and Janna wished to lay beside her for a while. But there was no time for that now.

She looked down at Valerie in her hand. Had she really eaten humans? She tried to imagine putting Valerie into her mouth right now and gulping her down. There really was not much to it. Her stomach grumbled angrily over the lack of food. It would be easy. Just one bite and Valerie would be gone.

Janna had to blink a few times to banish these hunger-driven thoughts from her head before she put the blonde pilot down on the table. She wished her good luck and turned to leave the space ship when Valerie called after her.

"Wait!" She called. "What if Laura wakes up?"

That is your problem, Janna thought and pretended not to have heard. Laura wouldn't kill her, maybe fart on her again, or scare her. Most likely she would just ignore the tiny girl or not even look for her. That Valerie trusted Janna more than Laura was a good start though. Another small victory on this day laden with small victories and defeats.

When Janna came back to Lauraville, she found Christina and Steve nibbling at hard sausage, local fruit and bread, washing it down with broth from wooden bowls. The tiny villagers were around them, praising their food to them like merchants on a market and doing everything to make them happy. When Janna sat down in front of them, though, they all retreated to a safe distance and watched.

She felt the need to express her disgruntlement over this to her classmates.

"I really don't know why they run away from me." She lied convincingly. "I never do anything to them."

"Well, that's because you are as tall as a skyscraper." Steve said happily with a mouth full of food. "And they have never seen a skyscraper. Man this food is great, it's like...totally...real!"

"That's because it is real, silly." Janna raised an eyebrow at him and smirked.

"No!" He laughed in response. "I mean, like, you can really taste the oven and the fire in this bread."

"So, Steve's bread tastes like fire." Janna smiled at Christina. "Does that ham taste sufficiently like smoke?"

"It does, actually!" Christina chuckled. "It tastes better than anything I have eaten before. Makes you wonder what we do to our food on earth."

On earth, food production had become rather clinical. No germs, bacteria or dirt had a chance to get within a mile of any food product. Treating food like medicine, however, seemingly had the effect of making it taste like medicine too. It was not that bad, but Janna agreed that the earthy produce on this planet was considerably better. Still, the taste of the tiny people in her mouth was her favourite. Another thought she banished as quickly as she could.

Instead, she took a cart of cured meat and poured it into her mouth. It was despairingly little. Seeing her tiny friends, which she considered them now, with mouths full of food, stuffing their faces with, to them, long sausages, loafs of bread, larger than their heads and drinking from bowls that filled both their tiny hands.

A wagon that would otherwise be pulled by a horse was about the size of a matchbox car to Janna. Delicate to her touch, she picket one up gingerly and poured it's content into her mouth. Then the next and another, until the contents of no less than five wagons was in there. It was hard to really get the full taste at her size too, adding to her displeasure. She actually considered throwing in the wagons themselves as well, just for the sake of their volume, but she knew that the villagers needed them. She chewed it all and swallowed in a matter of seconds.

"That's fucking scary." Steve observed, seemingly for hundredth time already, and Christina nodded.

Janna didn't care and proceeded to fill her mouth with turnips. The taste was bitter, raw and dirty, but food was food. Bread, carrots, beets, some baskets of mushrooms, her mouth turned it all into mush. The cooked fruit paste that the villagers made was not half bad and reminded Janna of jam. Another cart of meat she mixed with bread and berries, producing a sweet, savoury taste that she liked.

She noticed that Christina and Steve had put their food down and were not sitting any more either.

"What's wrong?" She asked them after swallowing a basket of carrots.

"You're like a grinder." Christina replied. "Watching you is like watching a giant machine."

"I'm starving." Janna justified herself. "And their food is quite good."

"What do you eat when you can't eat here?" Steve followed up foolishly, forgetting how long they had fought over that question already.

"What I can find." Janna replied briskly and threw a meat cart into her mouth, meat and cart both, crunching it noisily in between her teeth.

"Back to work, you maggots!" Nagash called when the first cries for Laura erupted from the crowd. "You have been idle long enough for one day!"

Janna forced herself to slow her eating so not to upset the villagers and her friends. She was getting more hungry the more she ate, but she agreed that she should not use up so much food so quickly that it would crush their spirits or scare them. Once again, the feeling of saturation had to be enough, especially because she had to leave some food for Laura. There would be nowhere near enough food for dinner.

She wondered if, maybe, she had to eat people. Perhaps there was simply no other way. The crowd dispersed quickly while Nagash marched through, treating stragglers with gentle kicks from her foot.

"We should look at the giants' genetics too." Janna turned to Christina. "If they are related to us, theirs is quite a mutation. If they are not related, voilà, that's our intelligent life discovery right there."

"Mhmhm." Christina agreed, nodding. "I hope Val can get that wiring fixed, though. In the meantime, I'd like to get started on their language. Where is the local school?"

"I don't think they have one." Janna began, looking around if maybe one of the buildings had a bell tower or something like that.

"If my earlier observation about their state in civilization is true, there are no schools in villages." Steve lectured. "The smith's apprentices are kids, like eleven or twelve or so, so I am guessing that is correct. They might have schools in cities and maybe monasteries or temples teach the kids of those that are well off but the common folk simply don't get any school education. Look around, there is not a single piece of writing anywhere around."

"I've seen people with lists though, so they must have some form of literacy." Janna added. "And they have religion as well, so maybe there is some sort of scripture?"

"They're not monotheistic by any chance, are they?" Steve inquired enthusiastically.

Janna tried to remember the few instances she had come in touch with the local forms of spirituality.

"No." She said with a shrug. "There's some forms of animism, very prevalent here but also a cult that involves twelve gods I think, and like a thirteenth, evil one for all the bad stuff."

"Amazing!" Steve exclaimed. "I could write an entire book about that alone already!"

"Uh...the villagers of this village seem to have incorporated Laura and me right into their believe system though." Janna added with a cringe to try and show that she did not like that either. "They believe we are goddesses."

"Obviously." Christina finished with a derogatory laugh.

Janna let that slide too.

"So, if you want to learn their language you have to sit down with the locals." She told them.

"I don't know if this is the right time." Christina said, insecurely. "They seem rather busy and I have a hunch that giantess of theirs is being rather mean to them. She acts like she's their leader or something."

"That's because she is." Janna explained. "Look at her, she's so big, why should she take orders from the tiny folk?"

"But she's not going to hurt us, right?" Christina asked anxiously, stalking the athletic, long-legged giantess with her eyes.

"I told her I'd crush her if she did that." Janna replied confidently. "She believes me."

"You could do that?" The tiny tomboy asked perplexed.

Maybe for someone that small the proportions were a little hard to make out, Janna thought.

"Yes." She explained. "She's the size of a Barbie doll for me. You can crush a Barbie doll, right?"

"I guess." Christina replied. "What size are we to you then?"

Janna put a calming touch to her voice: "You guys are about three centimetres, that's a little more than an inch. Of course, I measured that with our measuring tape that has grown with us, so that's really more feely data."

The tiny black girl crouched down and seemed to grab for something on the ground. She held it out on the palm of her hand but Janna couldn't see what it was by any stretch of the imagination.

"You mean, I am as small to you as this bug is to me?" She asked incredulously and Janna nodded.

She had no idea how big the bug on Christina's hand really was, but she wanted to know where this was going. She learned when Christina flipped her hand over, searched for the fallen creature on the ground and stomped on it, twisting her foot a few times while giving Janna a challenging look.

So, that again. Janna had had just about enough of it.

"Yeah, I could crush you if I wanted to." She said, calmly but firmly. "I could crush anyone here and there's not a thing they can do about it. But you knew that before, so I really don't know why you keep bringing this up."

"I don't like it, that's all!" Christina pouted. "Nobody should have the power to squash other people like bugs!"

"I agree." Janna concurred reluctantly. "But I'm pretty happy it turned out this way. If I were small, like you, Laura and I would probably have been caught and sold by some lord or or eaten by bears or some shit. And this way I can keep you safe too."

She allowed herself to eat again, slowly and only taking the smallest baskets and boxes which mostly contained nuts, berries and wild fruit. It was simply not enough. Meanwhile, Steve had wandered off, back into the smithy where the bold man had started beating on steel a while ago.

-

The smith's work shop was running, at least. Maybe restoring the many broken tools would help up the production in the village. Once the construction of the buildings was done, there would be more free labour Nagash could put to the production of food too, but that would all take a while still. The way in which the titanic giantess called Janna had unmade their stocks of food was frightening. Nagash didn't expect Janna would follow up on her promise either and she tortured her brain about how to get more in the short run.

Around the village where the trees had been cut or trampled there were large patches of land with healthy, green grass on them. Where the giantesses walked, the earth was either poached up or compacted so densely that it would take forever for something to grow there. In any case, anything that dared spread it's seed there was snuffed out by the next gargantuan footstep that landed upon it. But the parts where Janna and Laura did not walk, those could be the solution if only Nagash had a large amount of livestock to breed from. It was too late in the year to plant anything, but animals bred at a comparatively steady rate.

She had cut everyone's rations in half even though she knew that was against Laura's directive, for it would reduce productivity after a while. Nagash didn't want to know what would happen when there would be no breakfast tomorrow. Half rations meant bad morale among the humans too and while Janna's strange 'friends' were in the village, Nagash could not even kill a man or two to put them back in line.

Dexter would have just led them all on another raid and everything would be fine. New tools, new clothes, more labour, food. Dexter would likely have known where to get an anvil for the smithy too. Right now, the bald, bearded man called Hammer was beating his steel on a relatively flat stone and cursed it with every swing.

Nagash did not know where refugees camped, or where populated villages could still be found. If she just walked in one direction for two, maybe three days, she'd surely happen upon something useful eventually. That would mean leaving Lauraville behind though, and that did not serve. With all the raiders dead, she did not trust anyone with the task of leading a nightly raid. Maybe that tiny thing called Dari, she would be able to, but Nagash was too worried of what else she was able to. There were also no horses for the humans to ride.

Horses were good, Nagash had heard someone say, because Laura and Janna ate them alive and whole and they were large creatures, but Laura did not allow them in the village for she feared the humans would use them to escape. They had a few pigs and cows left, a few sheep and goats, chickens and geese. Chickens and geese laid eggs and the villagers could make a half decent cheese from the milk of cow, goat and sheep. They had offered the milk for the goddesses to drink but they had refused. It simply wasn't enough.

Livestock was the solution, if only they had more of it. Or if Janna would just eat villagers for the time being, but with her tiny 'friends' around, the titaness was neither crushing nor eating anyone. She did even appear rather gentle all of a sudden. The humans in the otherworldly clothing had to be important somehow. Why, Nagash could not say and did not really care to learn either.

One of those tiny humans had black skin and funny, short hair. Nagash had never seen such a human but a villager had explained that those in the very far south of the world, where ever that was, had skin and hair like that. The other villagers seemed strangely opposed to the female, only on account of the colour of her skin. Nagash did not know why that was either, maybe the tiny, black thing tasted different.

She was pondering all this after she had absent-mindedly settled a dispute between two wood cutters over a saw made from the antlers of a stag. Both claimed the saw to be theirs and under normal circumstances she would have broken a few bones on both of them and not bothered with the rest of it. But now, with Janna forbidding her to do that, she had called other sawyers for witnesses and settled the dispute according to their account, with the loser, instead of her foot on top of him, receiving rights to the first iron saw that Hammer the smith would be able to repair.

She still sat there from where she had cast her judgement that had left the two sawyers both equally disgruntled and pleased when a young boy drove the remaining goats and sheep right past her, singing.

"Lord Mannelig, Lord Mannelig, why won't you marry me, for the plunder, that I lay before you?" He sang merrily. "Your answer may be yes, or your answer may be no, it shall be what you put your will to!"

He could only be six years old and had a high-pitched, innocent voice.

"Accept thy gifts I will, for I desire them much, so I tell thee my answer is yes!" He went on. "But my men say, your name is Bergatroll, and you are a creature of the Nameless!"

"Do you like my singing?" The boy asked her so suddenly that she flinched.

Her mouth quivered and she found herself unable to reply.

"Father says, I shouldn't sing when I work but I find it helps herd the sheep." He went on without irritation. "I'm the best shepherd in the village! I don't need dogs to herd the cattle, they listen to my voice and follow me. Look!"

He called for one goat by it's name and gave a whistle. Haltingly, and keeping a weary eye on Nagash, the animal came trotting over.

"See?" The boy cheered at her.

Nagash felt the sudden urge to eat him. He wasn't fat, rather scrawny if truth be told, but his flesh would be tender and sweet all the same. She didn't even have to kill him outright. She could make him look on, as she sucked the meat off his arms and legs before twisting off his head and crunching his torso in between her teeth.

She got that urge every once in a while. All giants got it. The urge to kill and cause pain.

"Very impressive." She told the boy with a smile and got to her feet.

Her, towering above him, finally put the fear into the tiny kid. He drove on, his meagre herd, hastily. Nagash stalked after them with a slow, soft steps. She could crush them all, if she wanted to. And she wanted to, a lot. None would miss the boy, save his parents, and if their grief was so much then Nagash would simply rejoin them with their kid. She'd sit on the father, slowly crushing him to jelly, whilst pushing the mother's head in between her legs.

But she wouldn't. Instead she turned to see Janna devouring yet another cart of food, not even saving the vehicle for the humans to use, instead crunching it noisily in between those giant, white teeth of hers. No killing, had been the command, and Nagash would do good to obey. She still remembered Janna on top of her, using her. Janna could kill her as easily as Nagash could kill a villager. Only, Nagash was itching to kill again.

The boy had made distance whilst she had stopped. It was probably best that she couldn't kill him, if he really was 'the best shepherd in the village. With Janna and her curious 'friends' occupied with eating food and studying villagers, Nagash turned for the forest.

If someone asked, she'd be checking on the hunters or go and try to find some game herself. That was not a lie entirely, only she intended her prey to have two legs, instead of four. Most hunters and trappers walked the forest alone to cover more ground. They died, sometimes, ripped open by a boar or bear, or falling to their death somewhere. Getting themselves under Janna's or Laura's uncaring feet seemed to be their number one cause of death though. But not today.

Somewhere in these woods, Nagash would find herself a hunter or huntress and show them what it meant to be smaller than her. Her heart bounced in her chest. She loved to hunt.

-

Thorsten’s ‘Fishermen’s End’ was the first in the row of longships. The other captains all had declined to take the Horasians on board. His own crew shared the outspoken hatred for the southerners, as did Thorsten himself, but the grief of a brother lost was something he sympathized with. The Horasians would go their own way, as soon as they beached at Andrafall, so he had been assured and that was well enough.

Of course, someone of Léon’s format did not travel alone. No less than eight Horasian sell-swords he had with him, wearing poofy, brown tabards over white shirts and matching knee-high britches, complete with high, white socks of wool and black leather galoshes. For armor they wore only comb morions on their heads.

Three of them carried the sword Léon had talked about. With two meters the Andergasters were as long as Thorsten was tall and much taller than the mercenaries that wielded them. The blades were wrapped in blankets for they were meant to cut a giant’s feet off from under him and thus kept as sharp as razors.

Two other mercenaries were no men of war, but big game hunters by trade and carried obscenely large crossbows with winches. These crossbows had to be rested on sticks in order to shoot them, for they were too heavy to hold and pull off an accurate shot with, just by hand. They also took forever to reload but Léon swore that they could punch through a giant’s skin and kill him, if the shot was good.

The three last sell-swords were artillerists and all serviced a single weapon. The scorpion, they called it, and it was something between an oversized cross bow and a ballista, shooting a bolt that was heavy and almost one meter in length. Getting the machine itself and it’s tiny wagon onto Thorsten’s ship had not been problematic, but the old nag that had pulled it to Andergast was afraid of ships and simply would not go aboard. Gnashing their teeth, the sell-swords had sold the horse to a butcher and agreed to drag the wagon from then on, until they could get another animal for the job.

“The wind is working against us.” The one talkative sell-sword said ponderously, standing at astern beside Thorsen.

There was not a large wind at all, only a mild western breeze that barely touched the feather on Léon Logue’s hat.

“That is why we are rowing and the sail is reefed.” Thorsten explained briskly, giving the rudder in his hands a little nudge.

With a steady rhythm, the oars moved up and down, splashing into the water and rising out again.

“You should have traded the ships for floats.” The sell-sword went on. “The river will become too shallow soon.”

“Our draught is less than half a step.” Thorsten explained. “We can go as far as the ford at Andrafall, and even carry her over it if we want to.”

Incredulously, the other turned his head: “How can a ship this size have such a small draught, let alone be carried?”

Thorsten felt very pleased with himself. Longships were built lightly, for swiftness and manoeuvrability, yet they were durable enough for any weather.

“It is still small though.” The sell-sword went on. “In Havena I saw a war galley with one hundred oars and towers on top, just like a castle, and I saw Hulks so big, they could sail right over this one and not even take a scratch.”

“I once saw one of your war galleys turned pirate.” Jutta, a bearish hunk of a woman who had once sailed with Thorsten’s father, said. “Turns out, below deck all the oars were pulled not by free-willing men, but slaves. One day, they had enough and freed themselves. I can’t blame them.”

“Not slaves.” The sell-sword protested. “Criminals!”

“They screamed all the same when they burned.” Jutta spat, pulling on her oar. “Had the pocks or something, the whole lot, and beached themselves too, in the middle of the sea!”

She chuckled heartily at that and Thorsten smiled. Sandbanks were much more hazardous to the large Horasian ships than they were for the smaller Thorwalsh ones.

“It’s hard to believe you went to war against his royal magnificence’s fleet, in tiny rowing boats like this.” Léon entered the conversation.

To call it a war was far-fetched. More had it been an exchange of raids by the Thorwalsh and retaliations by the Horasians with no outcome other than some burned and sunken ships and villages. Still, Thorsten was angered by the remark but Jutta answered for him.

“Ah, those were the days.” She said, grinning. “When you still had some fight in you.”

“Yeah, what happened to that?” Thorsten added. “The hetman is raiding your costs even now, and here you are, travelling with us and not losing a word about it.”

“What’s a few dead fishermen.” Léon replied with a weary grin. “Your raids have barely touched the price of fish. Meanwhile we capture a lot of pirates. I must say, your tall and strong people breeds excellent oarsmen.”

“That we do.” Jutta agreed happily and pulled on her oar.

Disarmed, Thorsten saw that Léon’s derogatory remark had escaped her completely. He felt a sour pinch in his stomach as he imagined his father, brothers and sisters, chained to an oar in the dark belly of a Horasian galley. It was worse than death. Not only was a man robbed of his freedom, but also of the opportunity to enter Swafnir’s halls. That a freedom-loving Thorwalsh could be made a slave of could only be explained by a significant amount of whip lashes. Every man had a breaking point. It shuddered Thorsten, deeply.

“Watch your tongue.” He said, softly and slowly. “The river is still deep enough to drown you and your scum and there is no one here to fish you out.”

That was true. There was no one on the river but them, no floats, no boats, no canal ships, only the occasional piece of driftwood. Léon narrowed his eyes at him.

“Aye…captain.” He replied sourly after a moment and turned away to continue watching the banks of the river.

A little later they saw a rider on the bank. The scruffy looking man was draped in a wolf-skin cloak and had what looked like a broken, rusty saber strapped to his black horse over a woolen blanket. Thorsten raised his hand for greeting, but the rider did not return the gesture. Instead, he turned his horse and rode off, startling the Thorwalsh.

“Load the crossbows and the scorpion!” Léon sharply commanded his men and immediately, his minions scrambled to work.

“What are you doing?” Thorsten asked perplexed.

“That rider means bad business.” The Horasian replied sternly. “He has the looks of a scout or sentry for some larger force.”

“…Of scoundrels, with broken sabres?” Thorsten asked jestingly and the crew echoed his laughter.

“There are raiders and outlaws in these parts!” Léon countered angrily. “I will sooner be safe than sorry!”

That drew even more laughter from the crew. A band of outlaws was the least Thorsten and his men feared.

“Let them come.” He proclaimed. “They might serve to warm us up a little before we fight the giants!”

The crew agreed and rowed harder while Léon only rolled his eyes. Although he tried not to show it, Thorsten was excited. He had accompanied his father and siblings in raiding, reaving, boarding and hijacking before, but if there really was a band of outlaws that would attempt to attack his force, it would be his first battle in command. The only drop of bitterness was that bandits and outlaws would hardly stand a chance at all, if they were so foolish to attack, which they probably weren’t.

“Pull, pull!” He bellowed at his crew. “Faster!”

“We are working against the stream and have no wind!” Léon criticized him once again. “You will not want your crew to be spent when we arrive, what if the outlaws attack?!”

“We have to even the playing field.” Thorsten boasted confidently. “We have half our stamina and they have half our courage.”

“Aye!” The crew shouted in unison, not a trace of exhaustion in their voices.

When the sun kissed the treetops behind a broken and destroyed village, they had arrived at their destination. It looked as though someone had burned down the village, though not a trace of black could be seen upon the withering timbers. Remnants of floats and bound logs still swam on the river, bound to posts on the shore. This had been a lumber-mill town, Thorsten remembered briefly.

They beached next to the ford and carried the longships on land before unloading them and turning them over for camp.

“Maybe we should go further, into the forest.” Thorsten pondered within Léon’s hearing. “Those gargantuan monsters the queen talked about might be able to spot us here if they come wandering through.”

He still had not gotten the Horasian’s view on this matter.

“You do not believe those tales, do you?” Léon asked, turning away from his sell-swords who were lifting the scorpion onto it’s wagon.

Tales, Thorsten thought. It had not even occurred to him that they might just be stories and exaggerations after what the court mage at Andergast had told him.

“Some call the giant krakens of the sea tales.” He replied cautiously. “Yet many swear to have seen them and every now and then a ship goes missing.”

Léon stared back at him with disinterest.

“If you choose to believe them, that is your right.” He shrugged. “But you would do good not to be chasing ghosts and shadows. I thank you for taking us here, I shall not forget it. We will be on our way.”

“I wish you luck. Find your brother. Alive.” Thorsten replied and the two men nodded at each other.

His quest to find his lost sibling was the one thing Thorsten respected the Horasian for, and it weighed heavy enough to look over all the reasons he despised him, for the time being.

The Horasians had just made their first step in direction of the forest when someone yelled: “Riders!”

On the other side of the river, a good three hundred strides over to where the forests began, riders broke through the undergrowth. Their horses were trotting, slowly, but more and more spilled out from in between the trees. Their faces and the weapons in their hands, made it clear that Léon had been right. They were raiders.

Like the sentry they had seen, the raiders all bore some resemblance of wolf about them, as a means of telling friend from foe. Some wore mismatched armor, their weapons were loot and most their clothing ragged.

“Finally!” White-haired Snorre Bjornson exclaimed happily.

He was an old fisher from Thorwal who had asked Thorsten if he might join them on their voyage as an oarsman in order to get an opportunity to die fighting and enter Swafnir’s halls, not an uncommon endeavour for old men whose profession did not involve regular fighting.

“We will see each other again.” He announced to everyone around. “I’ll keep your seats warm. Forgive me, but I am too old to take any chances.”

And with that the old fisher took his shield off his back and onto his left arm, pulled a throwing axe with his free hand and started walking towards the enemy.

“Wait!” Thorsten called after him. “They might not want to fight. Ask them and come back, if they don’t. Otherwise, kill as many as you can and send the others this way!”

“Aye!” Came the answer and Snorre turned and continued.

“You cannot mean to fight them!” Léon suddenly came running to Thorsten’s side. “Look how many they are, I count two hundred and fifty and they have horses all!”

“You better get going then.” Thorsten smiled at him, mildly amused.

“For the love of Rondra, at least have the wits to retreat into the forest! They have more than twice your numbers and horses all!” Léon pleaded.

“Have you grown fond of me all of a sudden?” Thorsten snorted. “I mean to charge straight at their line of plough horses, if they are foolish enough to fight.”

“Even if they were plough horses all, which they aren’t, they would ride you down like grass in this terrain!” Léon argued feverishly. “They can flank you, left, right and rear! Are there no brains in that thick skull of yours?!”

It did make sense, Thorsten thought, the raiders’ force was considerably larger than his own, and insanely large for a group of bandits by any standards. He wasn’t afraid to die fighting but it would reflect poorly on his memory having gone to Andergast to kill giants and then falling victim to a band of ragged thugs, before even having seen a giant yet. Retreating would not serve though.

“They are coming for Snorre!” Someone said and Thorsten saw six riders galloping towards the old man.

When they were close to him and did not reduce their speed, no talking was necessary. Snorre flung his throwing axe at the first rider hitting him in the face so hard that he fell off the back of his horse. That was enough already to make four of the others abort their charge and ride to re-engage. The one that didn’t had a spear locked in his armpit and meant to drive it through Snorre’s neck but it broke and splintered when the old man raised his shield at the last moment.

In turning, Snorre smashed his axe into his attacker’s back and the pain on the rider’s face could be seen even from Thorsten’s vantage point. He fell off his horse some five meters afterwards and the mare eventually slowed down and started eating flowers.

“He fights well for a fisher.” Someone remarked, drawing nodding agreement all around.

“He fights well for any man.” Jutta added, smiling.

The remaining four attackers knew that too and circled the old fisher, weapons in hand. He could not face all of them at once and so it came that the one behind him threw a spear through his left knee. Visibly grunting, Snorre went down.

Then a horn was blown and the broad front of riders advanced in slow gallop, the attackers falling in on the flanks. They rode right over the immobilized man in their way, and also over their comrade who had fallen off his horse, crushing all under their thundering hooves.

“We will take the ford and hold it!” Thorsten commanded his men. “Advance, for Swafnir, hoorah!”

“Hoorah!” The men and women echoed in unison and advanced with him into the shallow water, beating their weapons on their round, ornamented shields.

The ford was almost waist deep at the deepest, enough to deny the horses a decent charge. That way it would come to fierce hand to hand combat in the water, and Thorstens men would have the advantage. Also, allowing only thirty men standing abreast, it was narrow enough to deny any flanking manoeuvres.

“Shield wall!” Thorsten commanded when they reached the point he wanted to hold. “Anyone who brought a spear, make it to the front of the line!”

The enemy formation halted and a few of the riders dismounted producing slings and shortbows and making ready to fire.

“Raise shields!” Thorsten bellowed. “Bowmen to the back, return fire!”

It was the obvious move to tackle his favourable position and grudgingly he had to see that the enemy had far more bowmen and slingers than he had. Already stones and arrows came flying their way, but the shields took most of them. A few Thorwalsh were hit by stones, but they produced little more than painful bruises and no one went down. The return volley by his own bowmen was pathetic, but it managed to kill three enemies at least.

One Thorwalsh bowman was hit in the throat by an enemy arrow and collapsed, face down drifting down the river.

Suddenly, there was a wooshing sound over Thorstens head, coming from behind, and two riders were thrown violently off their horses, causing terror and dismay in the ranks amongst them. The bolts from the Horasian crossbows carried enough force to shoot straight through a shield and kill the man behind it.

When the scorpion was loosed, it’s heavy iron tipped bolt ripped through two horses and a human leg and the riders were buried under their mounts as they went down.

Léon pushed through beside Thorsten, his pathetic little florettt in hand.

“I saw you were short on artillery, Sir.” He grinned, keeping his head in the cover of Thorsten’s round shield as two stones and an arrow crashed into it.

"I'm no wretched sir." Throsten grumbled but was glad of the re-enforcement all the same.

As powerful as they were, the Horasian weapons took long to reload and three Thorwalsh bowmen and four enemy slingers died before the crossbows fired, once more to devastating effect. Shortly after, the scorpion fired too, taking the top of a poor man’s head off, before throwing a second one off his horse with the bloody bolt through his chest.

“When this is over, I will help you find your brother.” Thorsten told Léon, confidently. “But I fear for your longevity with that meat skewer in your hand.”

“It skewers a man as well as it does a suckling pig.” Léon laughed in reply. “You will see that soon enough.”

Thorsten had about enough of exchanging missile fire. He wanted to charge at the enemy, but that he knew would be foolish. As much as his position put him at an advantage, it put the initiative entirely into the enemy commander’s hands. The Horasian artillery fired one more time and Thorsten was down to five bowmen, before the outlaws decided to enter the melee.

Forced to advance slowly into the water, Thorsten saw the fear on their faces. There was something odd about it, though. Even though their numbers were much greater than the Thorwalsh’, they would have to see that they were like to lose fighting hand to hand. Common outlaws attacked the help- and defenseless in hopes of making an easy coin, they ran from war parties that were armed to the teeth and aching for a fight, and more than that, had little to no valuables to rob. Not these though, these had the painful looks of a greater motive about them, as though they were forced to fight. Or they were just foolish which was just as likely.

Their slow advance permitted the Thorwalsh to fell the entire first row with throwing axes. Horses panicked, men died and splashed into the water and other horses tripped over them, sending their riders tumbling as well.

“For Thorwal!” Thorsten screamed, raising his axe and the shield wall broke into open charge. It was carnage and the water turned pink and red from the blood. Who fell had a split second of time to get up again and was pushed down and drowned if he didn’t make it. In the water, the horses impaired the raiders more than they aided them and soon Thorsten and his men were walking on dead and dying animals, making it easier to hack at the elevated riders.

Piet Arnson, a madman who had eaten his infamous and mildly poisonous mushrooms before the fight, climbed over Thorstens shoulders and jumped onto the enemy formation, two short, double-bladed axes on his belt and a gargantuan longaxe in his hands. The toadstools had catapulted his mind into berserk, or whale-rage as it was called in Thorwal, and he stood on the backs of two horses, cutting men down left and right, before one of the horses died and he fell.

Thorsten saw Léon, sticking his florett into a man’s gut, time and again in quick succession until he was riddled with holes and bleeding like a pig. One of his sell swords pushed through to him and screamed into his ear, then Léon turned to Thorsten and the two pushed him to the back of their line of battle.

“What are you doing?!” Thorsten screamed angrily at them but the terrified look on Léon’s face kept him from attacking him.

“Come, you need to see.” Léon urged him and led him away from the fighting, towards the scorpion that was hastily being reloaded by it’s crew.

Then he saw them, giants, a dozen of them, standing where the bandits had broken through the undergrowth, observing the battle.

“They are still out of range, Sir!” One of the big-game hunters reported to Léon in a terrified voice.

“Why are they not attacking? They could crush the raiders from the rear!” One artillerist mentioned while he frantically worked the scorpion’s winch with a lever.

“I do not think they are here to kill any outlaws.” Léon replied, darkly.

Humans allied with giants. The idea made Thorsten sick to the stomach. The male giants were hairy and looked rather squabby, approximately four and a half times Thorsten’s height. The four females were significantly taller by up to another three meters. Ragged small clothes were all they wore, made of fur or leather, by the looks of it. The males carried large wooden sticks for weapons, the females carried none at all. Given their size and weight, they presumably didn’t need any.

They did not seem to be joining the battle as of yet though. Instead they stood and watched, and seemed rather amused by their allies’ failure. The carnage in the water had taken another turn for the ugly when the lines broke open and melted into each other. Many a raider was fleeing, on horseback or on foot, but many others pushed into the melee. Bodies were drifting downstream on the red- and pink-tainted river. The Thorwalsh had lost only twenty men yet, while more than a third of the enemy force was gone.

“Loaded, Sir!” The artillerist reported to Léon. “Do you want us to fire at the giants?”

Léon looked at Thorsten who hesitated. Then he gave a nod. It was what they had come here for after all. Léon raised his arm and the artillerists started aiming. When he brought it down, the bolt was loosed. It sailed through the air with all it’s death-bringing might and slammed into a male giant’s chest.

The giants were perplexed while their comrade collapsed and fell face first into the dirt. Then they looked over to the machine that had killed him. Thorsten’s blood froze in his veins when he saw the rage on their faces.

They covered the distance quickly and soon they emerged behind the outlaws to Thorsten’s men. He could have sworn to see a few men waver at their sight.

“Steady, hold the ford! For Swafnir!” He commanded them, but from behind his words did not seem half so convincing as from the front of the shield wall.

To his shock, the giants did not advance through the ford but beside it. Being as tall as they were, they did not need to wade through the shallow water and were able to cross the river easily at it’s regular depth.

The Horasian crossbows loosed and killed the foremost giant with two bolts to the heart. The tallest giantess took his body and hurled it onto the Thorwalsh, burying three fighters beneath it and displacing many others. The remaining male giants began to attack the Thorwalsh from the side while the giantesses marched through the river. By then, the scorpion could fire a last time, killing an eleven meter tall giantess with a bolt to the face.

“Fight!” Thorsten heard Léon scream and he accompanied his three swordsmen to face the three behemoths in front of them.

Thorsten was still in shock as the battle turned.

The tallest giantess was at the front striding towards the scorpion, ignoring the Horasians with Andergasters and walking straight through them with menacing speed, burying one under her foot. A series of cracks and a pop was heard, as the man’s guts came squirting out from under the monster’s foot. The artillerists ran for their lives but the big-game hunters still cranked their crossbows like madmen.

Léon stuck his florett into the second giantess’ leg, producing a scream, while the sell-sword that tried to slash at the same leg was stomped flat under the other.

Too late Thorsten realized that the third giantess was coming for him. At the last moment he managed to avoid being crushed under her foot and he slammed his axe into her leg with all the force he could muster. The blow did not even break the skin.

The giantess pulled her foot around and kicked him. He flew about two meters, losing his axe, and crashed onto the ground. Before he could get up, she was over him, stomping down. He rolled sideways, once again narrowly avoiding certain death. Her foot came again, but so quickly this time that she almost missed him completely. When he pulled his arm out of his shield, her bare sole crashed down on it, smashing it to pieces and driving it into the ground.

“Argh!” The giantess screamed, as a crossbow bolt slammed into her thigh.

Thorsten used this time to get up and run for an Andergaster, lying on the ground beside Léon and his last swordsman, dancing a dance of life and death with their giantess, who seemingly enjoyed the game a lot.

With a crash, the scorpion was smashed under the tallest giantess’ foot and she started running after the fleeing artillerists, quickly catching up with them.

Before he reached the obscenely long sword, Thorsten saw the man next to Léon landing a blow to their giantess’ foot, producing a scream of pain and a long, bloody gash. The beast was so furious that she concentrated on the man alone, ignoring Léon who stuck his weapon into her knee from behind. With a growl, the giantess went down to one knee and fumbled for the Horasian behind her but Léon was already around her, climbing onto her knee and sticking the florett through her chest and into her heart.

The sword was heavy and cumbersome in Thorsten’s hands. He lifted it and turned, only to see that the giantess he had been fighting had turned towards the crossbowmen. She had lifted them both by their heads and laughed like a maniac as she squeezed. The men screamed horridly as blood began to squirt out from in between the giantess’ fingers.

This was it, he realized, this was what he had come for. He could almost smell the fine ale being served and the songs of glory being sung. But he was not done for yet.

"For Swafnir!" He screamed at the top of his lungs and laughed with sheer joy when he began his charge.

The Andergaster befitted him much better than the smaller built Horasians and he slammed it into the giantess' left leg using all the force and momentum he could muster. She was still laughing at the squashed bodies in her hands, when the steel cut into her flesh. It went all the way to the mighty bone in her leg and she screamed with pain. Thorsten wrenched his weapon out of the gash while she raised her right foot above him. He had anticipated this. While it came crashing down, he already spun to the side, turning like a dancer at some wedding and using the momentum to let the heavy sword smash into the heel of the already injured leg.

Uncomfortably warm blood shot out of the first wound and drenched Thorsten head to heel. When his weapon found his opponent the next time it sounded like the crack of a whip, only so unfathomably loud that it made his ears ring. If the giantess had screamed before, she was howling now. Her entire leg seemed to fail her and she fell, hitting the ground with a thud. She was groping for where he had stood, blind with pain, but Thorsten was already on his way to her throat. She opened her eyes one last time before he brought the Andergaster down on her neck, again and again, until her boulder-sized head came off, tumbling to the side, and he was showered in even more of her blood.

He screamed towards the heart of the battle, raising his bloodied sword.

What he saw almost disheartened him though. Some Thorwlash men and women were fleeing others were cowering underneath their shields, three enemies on top of them. The giants with their long, heavy sticks were beating mercilessly into the crowd, smashing shields, arms and skulls. It seemed they did not care too much about who was at the recieving end of their blows and many a raider fell victim to them as well. The Andra ran red with blood. Maybe downstream in Andergast, they would still be able to see it. Then they would know.

Well, Thorsten thought, if he and his men were to die today than that was fine. They would meet again and toast to the glorious battle faught. The force of raiders had reduced considerably and they had killed no less than five of the giant creatures so far. Léon came running at him, drenched in blood himself.

"Run!" He screamed at Throsten and shook by his sheep skin vest. "We must flee! Now!"

"No, my friend!" Thorsten screamed back into his face. "We must die! Oh, what a day! What a glorious day!"

Léon looked back at him in sheer disbelief and terror for a moment, before he brought his arm around with the pommel of his florett. It struck Thorsten on the temple of his head and he felt his mind go numb instantly. The world swam before his eyes as he turned to the carnage in the ford one last time.

"We will meet again, beneath the sea..." He managed to mumble softly before his eyes turned back into his skull.

-

Guiltily, Janna looked before her. Empty carts, chests, boxes and baskets stood there and barely a crump of bread left. She had eaten all of it and cursed herself for a glutton. She was used to filling her belly to bursting with villagers but the last time she had been able to do that was a few days past.

Now she was full and had not eaten a single soul but that did not feel as good as she had expected. She pondered going and trying to find a village, for Laura as well as for dinner. She had been foolish before, when she had flattened entire villages, inhabitants and all, once she had gotten her fill from them. She had better brought them here, or stored them elsewise, to eat another day.

Nagash was gone, some where. Maybe she had fled when she saw that the food production could not keep up with Janna's appetite. In absence of the tiny giantess, Janna helped the builders put those wooden parts in place that were too big for them. It had the feel of toying with delicate models to it, but Janna managed without destroying anything.

From time to time, she spied one of the builders shooting glances at her breasts, bra clad, dirty and squished beneath her as she lay on her front side, trying to get the best angle on what she was doing. She entertained the idea of squishing him under a three hundred ton boob. Steve was still occupied in the smithy and Christina had taken to cataloguing plant samples after it had been revealed that the local people were, understandably, a bunch of bigoted racists and did not want to talk to her. Neither of them could see Janna but it would still be more prudent to make his death look more like an accident.

She could just crush him to paste with the wooden beam she was carrying, or carelessly drop her hand upon him on the way back. She didn't mind Steve looking at her breasts and she did not scorn a bit of positive attention either, but this was an ugly, older man with a broad back and a mighty moustache of brown hair.

He glanced again and their eyes met and Janna showed him the evillest smile she could muster.

That was almost better than popping him. He stared back at her, shaking, visibly in terror, until the reaction of the workers around him told Janna that he had pissed his britches.

She glanced around carefully a few moments before she snatched him as quick as she could, rolled side ways and put the man where her right breast had left a dent in the ground. He made a queer sound before her breast settled on top of him, something of a whimpered cry of despair, the wailing of a child from a grown man's throat. A muffled 'pop' marked the end of him.

"Back to work." She told the builders and the afore silenced hammering, sawing and shouting resumed.

Steve's head popped out of the smithy, looking curious: "What happened?"

'I squished a man under my tit, you idiot.' Janna thought viciously.

"Uhh, some builder fell." She lied instead. "But he's fine, no worries."

"Okay." He shrugged but came trotting over anyway.

"So...building houses, huh?" He observed vainly inspecting the construction sites.

Janna used that time to rise up and brush off her front side, ridding herself of any evidence clinging to her person. A well placed knee took care of the flattened corpse in the imprint of her tit, smearing it into an unrecognisable mess.

She could not help but notice that she was dirty all over again though, which made her angry. Dirt had become a part of their lives of course, but she still despised looking like the ragged builders before her. Smashing a few of them would no doubt help vent her frustration, but there was Steve and Christina too, and once again Janna despised the game of deception she was forced to play.

She exhaled through her nostrils a few times to calm herself.

'We aren't going anywhere,' she thought in her head, 'and we're not making any step into the right direction. We're spinning in fucking circles here.'

When Steve did not seem to offer anything of importance, Janna stood to her feet and walked around the village and over to the edge of the forest, where the woodcutters were. The village's supply of wood had grown short, she could see, and that much she could help them with at least. It was foolish to believe that the smokeries that cured meat and fish could come up with enough food to provide Laura when she awoke, but it seemed a step in the right direction.

The two dozen men and women looked up at her in confusion and layed down their work as she approached.

"To the village." She told them in the local tongue. "I am going to lend you a hand."

That they did, running, clinging to their saws and axes.

The average tree stood thrity meters tall, she judged, and the tallest came up just to above her knees. She grabbed a mighty oak by it's stem and pulled, then another. The roots resisted her for a heartbeat before the earth yielded and gave way to her savage strength. What did not come willingly was torn off almost effortlessly.

On this planet, she was a goddess, a force of nature. She should not have her whims denied by three puny little worms such as Valerie, Steve and Christina.

When she had collected a good dozen trees, she gathered them up and took them over to the edge of the village, where the wood cutters awaited her.

"Here." She said and dropped her load a reasonably safe distance away from them.

Still they shied away a few meters as the trees rolled from atop of each other, crashing, creaking and breaking branches. When it had settled the woodcutters still stood as though they had roots of their own, all but one who boldly rushed forward with his axe, starting to hack at a branch to sever it from it's stem.

Janna saw that Steve and Christina had come to see what the commotion was all about, standing well in the distance.

"I'll break it up for you." She told the villagers, pretending not to notice the man already at work.

Shouts erupted from the woodcutters when her foot rose but Janna only gave the man enough time to chance a glimpse at his doom before she brought it down. She felt the wood, smashing to kindling underneath her sole, not the man. But when she raised her foot, she saw that her twelve thousand nine hundred tons had not failed her. He was nothing but paste.

Janna continued to stomp on the pile of wood until all of it was broken to splinters, half of it driven beneath the earth.

"Now, come and gather it up." She told the loggers. "You will have to dig some of it out but I trust that is easier for you still."

"Move." She added coldly when none of them dared step close to where she had crushed their friend out of existence.

"Are you done collecting samples?" Janna addressed Christina after walking over to the tiny black girl.

"Did that help them much?" Christina asked in response, ignoring the initial question. "They didn't look like they liked your help."

"They're just scared." Janna shrugged purposefully unconcerned. "And I accidentally crushed one of their friends."

"You shouldn't be around small people!" Christina scolded her. "Now look what you've done! Someone's dead because you couldn't just mind your own fucking business!"

"They die all the time." Janna replied defensively. "If not me, it's falling trees crushing them or animals tearing them apart. It's some noble lordling or corrupt king and his soldiers burning their villages and all that. Or the smaller giants."

Christina did not seem to have an answer at that any more, as Janna was pleased to see.

"Anyway." The black girl said after a few moments. "You and Laura shouldn't be here."

To that, Janna could only shrug and nod.

"But we are here." She finally said, determinedly. "And, honestly, I intend to get out of this alive. So I will step on as many people as necessary and a few more. If they are too stupid to stay away from my feet, that's their problem, not mine."

Satisfied she noted that Christina did not complain, for once.

-

Atop the mountains a wind had come up. It was not a northern breeze, cold and uncomfortable, but a southern one, carrying warmer, more pleasant air. A late autumn this was and a queer one too. In the distance to the south, the titanic young woman could be seen, not quite as tall as their mountains but large enough, so that the mountain range would be little more than hills to her.

Lord Mannelig had heard the stories, one more gruesome and concerning than the next and others outright unbelievable. The two titanesses had erected a village next to the queer, enormous, shiny thing they lived in, but if they were protecting or enslaving the villagers, scouts gave differing accounts of. So far, Lord Mannelig and his subjects had remained undetected and he could only hope, that it would remain this way.

Formerly a knight to King Aele's service, Mannelig had been given a pityful spit of land to posses, "Along with all rights to the mountains north of it."

They were good mountains, rich in game as well as tin and copper, but they belonged to the clans, as it had been for as long as people could remember. When Mannelig and his men went to mine and hunt, the clansmen would fall upon them, time and time again until his party was routed. Raiding they would come, oft as not, and stole what they could. In trade, they were niggardly and suspicious. Still, Lord Mannelig had held on, growing his numbers, keeping a well trained garrison to fend off the raiders and herding ever larger numbers of goats and sheep. Lord Mutton, some of his subjects had come to call him, but unlike King Aele, Mannelig had never been cruel. Quiet, peaceful, productive, that was how he wanted his life and lands to be. By that maxim he had made a very good life for himself.

Then, he had met Bergatroll and claimed her for his wife.

A joke in the eyes of other Lords who would not even invite him to feasts, weddings and other such high-born occaisions, no one proved willing to give a daughter to him, forcing him to live like a eunuch for many years.

Then she had come. Instead of raising a motte, Mannelig had restored a huge, ancient manor with thick stone walls and a great hall that was five and a half meters high. On the day of their wedding, performed without any representative of the twelve gods, she had sat in his hall and her head had still scraped the ceiling. He had not invited any lords or sirs, either, and so only common folk had stood witness when she leaned down to her husband and kissed his face with her thick, dark lips. They despised it, all, as well he knew, for they deemed it abomination. Still, most remained loyal to him and those that fled were not missed by many.

Mannelig had been smitten, when first he lay eyes upon her. She was neither beautiful nor ugly by any standards, but she was strong and had a gentle face. More than that, she had brought his people protection and power over the mountain clans. She had roamed the hills before coming to him, killing clansmen and taking their belongings. When she came down from the mountains, chased off a goat-herder and two levy spearmen before feasting on the goats, Mannelig and his men had ambushed and cornered her.

"I will squash each and every one of you!" She had warned them, backing against a wall of cold, solid stone.

"No!" Mannelig had replied.

He had brought close to a hundred spears that day, but it was out of the question that dozens if not most of them would have perished, had it come to blows.

"Marry me!" He offered instead, sounding like a drunken fool.

'Drunk I was,' he thought, 'with love.'

"Lord Mannelig, Lord Mannelig, why won't you marry me, for the plunder that I lay before you?" That was how the song went, the song that his small folk were singing.

They could not believe, that anyone could love such a humongous thing and so they made it sound as though he had married her for the pile of plunder she was carrying. Bronze axes, helmets, painted leather shields, furs and crude emblazonments she had taken from the mountain clans, useful to have but not of import to Lord Mannelig in this matter.

She had followed, so not to be killed, he suspected, but had stayed for a roof above her head, warm meals and ale of which she could consume barrels at a time.

She was demanding, true enough, but not a monster. They slept together in the hall, the only room that could accommodate her size, and she was careful enough not to crush her husband in her sleep. Making love was...challenging, sometimes, but always rewarding. And when they were done, Mannelig would crawl up onto her huge breasts and sleep like a suckling babe.

From time to time, his wife would go up into the mountains, alone, and return with more plunder. Then, the people of the mountains would pay tribute again, and bring even more in hopes of keeping her away. By now they were paying so much that Lord Mannelig did not need to run any mining operations of his own. In his stores, copper and bronze were stacked in abundance, his herds larger than ever. In the hall, he had stacked so many furs, that even his wife could sleep comfortably. Just as the dumbest peasants tended to harvest the largest turnips, the barbarians found salt, in their effort to dig for copper and tin. Several huge sacks of the precious stuff were already stored at the foot of the mountain, more than they needed for the winter.

But trade was dead, it seemed. The small, wormy game trail that led to Mannelig's manor had not seen a wagon in some time now and they were running low on ale. The local water was drinkable after a good boil and there was fresh water to be had in the mountains, but without ale, he feared his wife would grow unhappy. She loved to drink.

'We may have to send out for traders.' He thought. 'Let the people know what riches I have collected.'

That would draw more refugees, no doubt, but at this rate Mannelig could feed ten times as many subjects as he had now. He kindly had taken in anyone in need, given them food and shelter and organized work and housing for them. The people dwelled scattered around his large home and into the mountains in natural caves, huts of stacked stone or wood and the poorest of them in hide tents. Mannelig had let people sleep in his halls too, but that was before he and his wife slept there. The south end of the hall, restored in wood, where before there had already been a massive doorway, was able to swing open entirely now, hanging on huge bronze hinges. Lord Mannelig had done everything he could to accommodate his wife, and in return she had made him into the happiest man under the sky.

The Lord loosened the coat over his boiled leather shirt. He had started to sweat, marching down the mountain on narrow trampled paths. There were no foot hills here, only large mountains of hard, naked rock and even larger mountains north of that.

"Milord." An old goats-herd greeted him mumbling on the way down.

There was no bow, not even a nod, Mannelig recognized dismayed. Instead the man stared gloomily at him for a moment before he spat on the ground. Lord Mannelig was used to that though.

'My people love me not.' He reflected once again. 'Though I have been good to them and kind.'

But as long as he had his wife, the opinions of goat-herders concerning marriage and abominations did not trouble him. More cold eyes greeted him and his party on the way down, as the huts and stables came more often the lower they went and he thought to hear the word abomination in between the milords and muttered curses. At the foot of the mountain, where rocks and pebbles met the edge of the forest, his manor stood.

"Milord." Ulf, captain of the garrison, greeted him as monotonously as ever.

"Has there been a trader during my absence?" Mannelig asked him.

"Uh, no, milord." Ulf replied, lowering his gaze. "But the bea...uh, I mean, your lady wife, has brought a dozen more goats."

"Has she?" Mannelig was surprised. "When did she go?"

"Uh, shortly after you departed, milord." Ulf replied, still talking to his boots.

"What's wrong?!" Mannelig demanded. "Is your lord so uncomely that you cannot look upon his face?"

"Milord..." Ulf began uncomfortably. "Two scouts I sent after her. They..."

"Ha, that was foolish. Her legs are long and she can traverse these mountains much faster than any man." Mannelig interrupted him with a smile.

"Yes, milord." Ulf went on. "Only...we found them. Dead. One was crushed flat, the other torn to pieces."

"Ah, the mountains are treacherous." The Lord grimaced. "Falling stones and animals...their deaths are unfortunate. Give their families the usual compensation."

"But, milord..." Ulf started, raising his head, showing a hint of desperation in his eyes.

"I'll hear no more of this." Mannelig cut him off again.

"Yes, milord." Ulf bowed and took his leave.

'So, that again.' Mannelig sighed, thinking.

The small folk were so hidebound and suspicious of his wife that they would blame anything on her. Occasionally people from the outskirts of the settlement would turn up dead, but that had always been the case. Ever since his marriage, no one had been killed by clansmen though, but the commoners did not seem to see that that was good. The raping, the plundering and the carrying off women had all stopped as well.

Yes, his wife was demanding, but not a monster. The people had reacted badly to the deaths of a few serving girls however. His wife liked them young and pretty but their small frames did not serve them well when they got themselves in between Bergatroll and where ever it was she was moving. One girl had died whilst sweeping the floor, with his drunken wife sitting down clumsily on top of her. She had been so ashamed that she pretended not to notice and drank and feasted merrily away. When they finally recovered the girl after his wife had crawled upon her furs to sleep she had been as flat as a flounder.

Another had died under his wife's huge teat, smothered to death keeping her company while Lord Mannelig was away.

'That one's on me.' He thought ruefully. 'I should not have kept away so long.'

The last one had been killed trying to wake his wife from her sleep. Half asleep, sore and sick from too much ale, Bergatroll had flung the girl through the hall, smashing her on the wall at the opposite side.

'That one was quick, at least.' Lord Mannelig allowed.

He knew from experience what it meant to be pinned beneath his wife, how heavy she was, how strong, how utterly powerless one felt beneath her.

His cock stiffening in his britches, he entered the hall through a small door in the huge gate. The air inside was warm and sticky and it smelled of ale, smoke and roasting meat.

"Husband!" His wife's thunderous voice greeted him mockingly.

She had drunk again, he could tell from her voice. Naked and enormous, she sat at the other end of hall, a barrel of ale in one hand and the carcass of a roasted goat in the other. A fire burned in the middle of the hall where three more were being turned on spits. It made his wife's long, black hair and copper skin shine so beautifully. She put half the carcass into her mouth and chewed noisily, crunching the animal's bones in between her crooked teeth.

'She does have crooked teeth.' He thought. 'But that does not make her hard to look upon.'

She had developed a bit of a belly too, since their marriage. Mutton and goat were greasy and she drank lots and lots of ale as well. But most of it had gone to her breasts it seemed, which pleased him.

'And maybe, there is my child in her belly.' He allowed himself to dream. 'A son, might be. He would grow taller than any man, maybe as tall as her!'

A son, grown to more than ten meters, would make a fine heir.

"I missed you while I was atop the mountains." He said coming over.

In the hall, at least, the serving girls curtsied and bowed, even if their Milords sounded a little fearful. His wife's kiss was greasy and tasted of goat and ale and Mannelig had to wipe his face clean with his cloak afterwards.

She belched before she spoke: "I was displeased not to find you here when I returned. My feet were sore and in need of rubbing."

He smiled at that: "I hear you brought more goats."

"I had a craving." She admitted. "But neither you nor the small folk had any mountain goats that I liked."

"That is sweet of you, not to weigh down our stocks." He replied. "But next time, have Ulf or me fetch you some. Two boys died while they were climbing after you."

"Why would they climb after me?" She cocked her head, challenging. "Does my husband not trust me any more? Does he feel the need to spy after me?!"

Her tone was growing progressively angry.

"No." Mannelig raised his hands to calm her. "It wasn't me, sending the boys. That was Ulf."

"Then he should pay the families the compensation. Not you!" She snapped at him.

"That's fine." He waved her off. "I have..."

"It's not fine!" She roared. "To compensate is to admit!"

The serving girls stopped their work all at once, anxiously glancing over.

"I just feel bad for their families, is all." Mannelig wriggled uncomfortably where he stood.

"You are such a measly worm!" His wife spat at him. "No wonder your people laugh at you behind your back!"

The lord gave the serving girls a look and they continued working, pretending to haven't heard.

"That's settled then." He smiled after she had remained silent for a time, sipping ale, angrily staring at the wall next to her.

The roast was fresh and good and he even allowed himself a cup of ale to wash it down with. He ate seven ribs and an onion ere he was full and motioned for his wife to eat the rest of the animal. The two others that had remained when he entered had went down her gullet already. After that she dismissed the serving girls.

"Come here, my good-for-nothing husband." The giantess said in a raspy voice.

She had turned sideways, exposing her roundly curved hips and large breasts to him. He loved it when she did that. On the way over to her, he was already struggling out of his clothes and arrived before his wife, naked and hard. Even though his head already started to grey, he had a lean body, tough from activity and avoiding overeating.

"Ohh, my little husband is excited." She mused and touched his cock with a huge finger.

It was all he could do not to spill his seed then and there. He loved her so much. When he tried to shove her on to her back so that he could start in between her legs, she told him: "No."

Instead she picked him up and laid him down on the furs so that she could reach him with her mouth. It was not often that she did that, but it was the best thing she could do to him. He moaned as her lips closed around his cock and she began to suck gently. Then she caressed the underside of his manhood with her tongue, driving him almost mad with pleasure.

Suddenly though, she stopped and raised above him.

"Ah, what are you doing?" Mannelig asked her smiling face when she mounted him. "I don't think that's such a good...urgh!"

Her weight drove the air out of his lungs.

"Please...get off me." He begged while she moved back and forth, grinding her slick, warm womanhood on his cock.

Her lips were pushing into his belly painfully when she came forward and his hips and legs felt like they were about to break.

"Awww." She pitied him. "Is my tiny husband too small for his lady wife?"

She got off for a heartbeat before sliding forward and settling on his chest.

'She's going to kill me.' Lord Mannelig thought as he found himself unable to breathe.

He was harder than he had ever been, then. Some part of him loved it, loved her, more than anything. It wasn't for the first time since their marriage either.

"You are not even supporting a fifth of my weight, lord husband." She told him from above. "I could crush you with my cunt if I wanted to. Would you like that?"

'Can't say I wouldn't.' He thought while his wife let him feel more of her mass, slowly crushing him to death.

He wondered if that was how the servant girl had felt when Bergatroll had sat down upon her. She must have squirmed, fought, clawing with teeth and nail at his wife's unyielding flesh. She had not been killed instantly, that much had been plain by her fingernails that she had ripped off on the stone floor.

"Listen." Bergatroll commanded and her playful tone was gone. "Ulf will pay the compensation. Not you. Understood?"

He nodded his head vigorously and tried to croak but couldn't.

"The same will be true for any oaf who sends scouts after me again." She continued and he nodded again, his head starting to spin.

She smiled warmly and gave him more of her weight to ponder upon: "You don't need to know what I do to the people of the mountain. Just know that I had a lot of fun with those boys. And I'm going to have even more fun with the next they send after me."

While she spoke, he could feel the life being crushed out of his body before all was black.

'She's done it.' He thought, hollowly. 'Or has she. If I'm dead, I have died a happy man.'

It was not the end though. When he came to his senses she had rolled beside him and spread her legs, allowing him to finally get to work, heaving, shaky on his feet. After he was able to regain his erection he spent himself in her too, but she did seem disinterested and already half asleep. Still, after some dozy minutes he managed to stir her again and made her gasp and moan with excitement until she was finished.

"I had gone the wrong way and had to turn back." She whispered to him, after, whilst she cradled him in her arms. "My blood was up and I chanced upon them following me, so I crushed the first under my foot while listening to the other's pleas before I ripped out his arms and legs."

Somehow, that made him hard again, and he wanted to love her once more but she only laughed, stuck his head in between her breasts and crushed it until he was dizzy all over again. Then she laughed even more when she discovered that he had spent his seed in the process.

"Give my soles a lick." She chuckled, tossing him away. "You good-for-nothing husband."

'It was stupid of Ulf to send those scouts.' Mannelig reflected, licking. 'She's demanding, yes, but not a monster.'

-

Janna was crushing people again, that much Dari knew. She could not see the titanic sadist from her window, but she could read the reactions of the villagers outside. Parents were eager to keep their loved ones in the shadows. Janna and Laura seldom steppen on any houses, but were happy to go an extra step to murder anyone they spied running around in the open, especially if they were alone.

She could also see Janna's massive shadow shift over the village whenever she moved, which she could do at terrifying speed. The gargantuan tormentor had brought wood and smashed it to kindling, along with some man called 'mumbling Tom' as two women, passing in front of the window had been discussing. Dari knew the man. An unexpectedly fearless wood cutter who had come in with the refugees that Dexter had led to Lauraville. Janna's stomping had shook the walls of every hut and hovel and all the wood cutters could find of mumbling Tom afterwards had been splinters of wet, red-painted wood.

For some reason, Janna was not eating anyone though, which seemed to give some of the villagers hope. They were fools, Dari concluded. As soon as she was hungry again, Janna would send people down her gullet as she always did, especially since the village had run short on food.

Nagash, the forewoman, had gone in to the woods as well, presumably to find more. If only, Dari could escape Birsel's whore house, but her back still ached. They had fitted her for a leathern collar with an iron fixing, attached to a chain that made her feel like a piece of cattle. The lock that fixed it had been almost too easy to pick the last time, but they had caught her, whipped her, and placed her under constant supervision.

Her confiners were two girls, one of red, one of golden hair. The golden haired one was a feeble thing, but the red head was taller than Dari by a head. Not, that that mattered much, but they would scream and cause commotion if she tried to escape and then it would be the whip again.

The girls acted submissive around Birsel, but elsewise exactly like her, within the pecking order they had worked out amongst themselves.

'Fools.' Dari thought again.

They thought themselves higher than the average villager, but did not see that their vain and arrogant lives would be cut short, as soon as Laura or Janna got an itching in between their godly legs that demanded scratching by a tiny human being.

Birsel had survived that, to hear her tell it, which was apparently why she was where she was now. Any others had not been so lucky.

The two girls stared at Dari, hateful and unrelenting. None of the villagers had forgotten Dari, the knife-wielding cut-throat. What had saved her of any new lynching attempts was the fact that they thought her in league with Nagash. Now, unarmed and Nagash gone for the moment, she started worrying again.

The worst thing was, that nothing was happening. The surreal training of how to please the 'goddesses' was only happening ever so often and in between licking cunts and listening to Birsel's lectures, where the 'whores' could distract themselves with daily chores, Dari could only stare out of the window and listen to whatever few words the passers-by were dropping.

Xardas, for all his weird magic and sorrowful smiles was not half as smart as he made himself out to be.

'Safe the world.' she thought, scoffing in her mind.

Kill the Empress of Gareth or any of the puppeteers that were controlling her, kill the Horas or the Sultan of Khom, kill the Bornyaren of the Bornlands, any of such would have been a task that she was suited to. But rescuing a druid from the clutches of two sadistic giantesses that dwelled in a demonic sanctum of steel was impossible!

But where was she to go? The amulet hung heavy around her neck. Xardas had come, the last time she called to him, but it was as though he had know the hopelessnes of rescuing the druid then and there beforehand. And if she failed? If she was not equal to the task that Xardas put before her? Then the world would end, or so the wizard had said.

Her train of thought was suddenly interrupted, when a strange face appeared in front of the window. White eyes gleamed brightly in a sea of black, intense, with pupils dark as night. They glimpsed curiously into the room, studying intently. Short cut hair of similar blackness hugged the head frizzly like some fur helmet. The mouth of dark, brown lips formed an 'O' when the eyes fell on Dari's chain.

Dari knew faces like these. They belonged to the people's most south of the continent. Wild, jungle-dwelling savages they were, hunted for by slavers of the city-states just north of the jungles. Occasionally, one of them would be set free, or flee, and make his way north were slavery was forbidden outside of villeinage. Gareth's taverns always held a few of these dark-skinned men and women and their stories had always been the ones Dari liked best.

But Dari was sure that none of them had ever wandered as far as Andergast where bigots might kill them just for the colour of their skin, thinking them ill, dirty or casting dark magic.

The girl's clothes were strange. It looked like an ornamented suit of some sort, but there was a system behind the ornaments, as though they served a higher purpose. Grey and orange it was, but Dari could not think of any faith or order she knew, that combined those colours. The material seemed strange too, somehow more rich and smooth than silk, but thick and durable, and otherworldly more than anything else.

'Is she a wizard?' Dari pondered. 'Has Xardas send her to help me out or spur me on?'

"It's one of the goddess' friends." One girl whispered to the other. "Too bad it's the shit-skin. The other is a beautiful girl and the last a handsome hero. This one looks like she needs a good scrubbing."

"Surely, the goddess wants to teach us something by sending them to us?" The other girl replied, a sense of uncertainty in her voice.

"How may we serve you?" She stood up and curtsied but the first whore grabbed her by the hand.

"They do not speak our tongue." She whispered and the spoken to gasped.

The black girl kept looking at Dari for some reason, visibly thinking, and seemingly disapproving of something. She frowned, cocked her head, looked around outside, then turned back, frustrated. She motioned to her own neck before pointing at Dari and making a quizzical face.

"She wants to know why I am chained." Dari understood.

"You are chained because you are a dangerous animal that doesn't know it's place." The red-haired girl hissed at her.

'You are welcome I saved your village from the ogres.' Dari thought. 'For all the good that did me.'

"Tell her that." She replied instead but earned only and angry grunt in reply.

Amused, Dari shrugged at the black girl, giving an apologetic look. The reaction of her jailers had told her that the girl had some power or station at least which got her an idea. She made a pleading gesture with her hands, tried to look innocent and gave the chain attached to her collar a tow. The iron rattled dimly as it fell back upon the wooden floor.

The black girl studied Dari for a moment, then wandered off with large determined strides. It hadn't worked, the girl had not set her free.

And the whores were unamused too.

"I do not know what you did." The red-head spat. "But you'll get whipped for this, be sure."

She produced the long, thin willow rod that Birsel punished her subjects with when she deemed them 'insolent', the same whip that had already given Dari a back of red stripes to show for. Knowing that resistance was futile, Dari freed her back of shirt and vest and bent over on the bed, so that the whore might give her another beating. The first one had hurt, but not to the extend that it could break her. That one had been administered by Birsel herself and Dari doubted that the red-head was able to lash much harder than that.

Before the first blow fell though, Birsel's whorehouse was cast in shadow.

"Who is chained here?" Janna's thunderous voice boomed from above.

Feet rushed over the floorboards in the hall shortly before the front door was opened.

"Goddess!" Dari heard Birsel proclaim loudly outside. "We are your humble servants! Are you...in need? I have trained many beautiful girls to service you! Would you like to take a look?"

"Keep the fuck-toys indoors." The giantess replied angrily. "I asked a simple question. Give me an answer before I squeeze it out of you."

'Yes!' Dari thought. 'Nothing would be sweeter than Janna smashing the arrogant harridan into a pulp.'

Then she understood that Janna was asking for her, and she thought: 'No!'

"The girl!" Brisel replied, not without a disapproving undertone. "We chained the girl that killed a giant, or so we are told. By orders of the forewoman, we did that. Goddess, if I could interest you in any of my other girls that are much better trained..."

Birsel despised Dari for some reason and had taken immense pleasure at whipping her. Dari hoped the whore monger was foolish enough to deny her to Janna, so that Janna might use Birsel instead, for what ever she had in mind.

"Why is she in chains, though?" Janna asked from above, interrupting Birsel.

"She is dangerous." Birsel replied, "And unobliging."

'Unobliging!' Dari thought. 'That cunt's words are getting fancier every day. And she is lying. I am here, because I have demonstrated that I can kill giants and Nagash does not want anyone who can threaten her about her person.'

She had figured out that much herself, and some girl had let slip that Laura wanted her to survive. That was the reason behind the collar and chain, she concluded. Nagash meant to keep her as a lap dog, a toy she could fuck and torture until Dari would never so much as think about crossing her, she realized all of a sudden.

Between that, Janna and staying in the whorehouse, the latter seemed almost like paradise.

"The fighter?" The titaness sounded perplexed. "What did she do so that you might keep her in chains? My friend wishes to know."

'You are an idiot.' Dari cursed at herself. 'You have written your death warrant, and signed it too.'

"She...umm...ehh..." Birsel stammered, not able to think of a lie quick enough. "The forewoman said to..."

"Bring her out." Janna cut her off, crisply.

Like a flash of sudden lightning, Dari was scared. Too well, she remembered being stuck in the giant bottle before thrashing around in Janna's mouth, waiting to be swallowed alive. This was not good.

"No!" She screamed when they came for her.

She could not even remember how to kill, she was so afraid, and instead of punching and kicking the whores' throats in or strangling them with her chain, she wriggled, squirmed and thrashed like a little girl.

"I can see what you mean." Janna said, amused, and Dari stopped thrashing.

She hadn't even noticed that they had already arrived outside.

The titaness' voice sounded even more terrifying directly beneath her. She was standing on the road in front of Birsel's house and everyone around kept well away from her feet. Dari could never escape of how massive Janna was.

Her legs alone were fifty meters long and were clad in blue, sturdy britches, covered with dirt. Her boot-clad feet were easily fifteen meters long, five meters wide, anything beneath them crushed and compacted. Her breasts were humongous, even for her scale, and looked as though the two of them were enough to flatten a bergfried. They were contained by an ornamented piece of garment, dirty as well, with string that otherwise could have carried a bridge of proportions such as the world had never seen.

Her huge, smiling face was ogling down at her and Dari turned away in terror.

Then, she saw the black girl, standing closer to the house, looking at her. They all looked, waiting to see what Janna would do with her.

'A stomp, please!' A voice said in her mind. 'Just a quick stomp. Turn me in to a stain beneath your shoe, make it quick!'

But Janna would most likely not make it quick. Not with her.

Dari's thoughts were racing and she had to fight hard in order to keep them from revolving around all the gruesome things Janna could do to her. Pleading with Janna, she knew, had a tendency to make things worse, so that was out of the question. Should she act mad? Maybe that would make the giantess dispose of her in a quick way. Should she confess to any lie that Birsel might have come up with by now, or defend her innocence, asking to be freed? After all, Laura had commanded for Dari to live.

"Tell me true, little one." Janna adressed her, smiling ominously. "Why did they chain you?"

There was not enough time to think.

"I killed giants!" Dari blurted out, hysterically. "Nagash is afraid I might kill her too!"

"Did she make any attempt on the life of the forewoman?" Janna asked then.

"No, goddess, none that we know of. She's been the forewoman a leal servant, as far as I can tell..." The voice of Hammer replied from the other side of Janna's mighty footwear.

The question had had been directed Birsel but in a twist of marvellous justice, Hammer, the smith, had decided to answered instead. The craftsmen's strength was more in his arms and back than in his head and he probably didn't even know what he had done. Dari wanted to kiss him. She saw him step around the gargantuan leather boot, on his shoulder the hand of a young, handsome man that wore the same strange suit as the black girl.

The two alien humans and the humongous titaness started to converse in the queer, alien tongue of theirs. It was weird to hear a normal person speak it but Dari did not fail to note that they very much spoke as equals. They were talking about her too, which she knew from the looks and nods they gave her. To her astonishment she thought to hear praise in Janna's voice and the man even pursed his lips and gave a commendatory nod.

It was enough to make Dari's head spin.

When the black girl came over to pull her on to her feet, she felt like retching.

"Please don't let her kill me." She whispered feebly to her, weak-kneed, tears in her eyes.

The girl didn't understand and gave an irritated look for a moment before compassion filled those bright, white shining eyes and she hugged Dari and started to rub her back. When they pulled out, the black girl looked into her eyes and smiled.

"Christina." She said, pointing at her self.

"Dari!" Dari replied, crying, unwilling to let go of the girl. "My name is Dari!"

Somehow, when Janna took her, she had not been afraid any more. The giantess carried her almost gingerly in her hand, her two alien friends in the other, and put them all down in the open field of trampled earth outside the village.

"You are the new forewoman." Janna addressed her out of the blue.

Even if she felt sure that Janna wasn't going to crush or eat her, this was far more than she had expected.

"But...but..." She stammered. "Nagash..."

"Well, if she returns, she is forewoman again, and you are second in command." Janna interrupted, annoyed. "No more shackling you, you have a problem with anyone, you come to me. You want anyone gone from the face of the earth, you come to me."

'Birsel.' Dari thought. 'And the two whores that guarded me.'

Janna could have the fuckfest of her live with those three, reducing them smears on her crotch as she had seen Janna and Laura do with the unfortunate brunette. But the thought did not cross her lips.

Then Janna started to explain her real intentions.

Protect 'Christina' and 'Steve' while they were going about their business in Lauraville. Oddly reminding her of Lionel Logue, whom Janna had half-eaten and spattered all over the ruins of Ludwig's keep, they meant to study the local population, flora and fauna. They also meant to learn the local tongue, in which Dari was to be of as much help as she could. She vowed as much, but hoped that the two would learn fast. Else, there was no doubt in her mind, Janna would not be pleased.