Tornerik was busy cutting the fish up for supper. He was regarded as the best fisher in all of the West Winds and the fishing business he ran earned him lots of gold and even a friendship with the village chief of West March which made him and his family well respected in the large village. 

Tornerik looked up at the setting sun and asked himself,"Where is Erik?". Tornerik knew that Erik, though being his youngest son, was the most eager to equal and even surpass his father's title as "Best fisherman of West Wind". Erik would be the last to head the family business but that never stopped his son from always fishing in the early rays of the day to even the darkest of nights. Tornerik admired his son's ambition but he felt that Erik's ambition was just too ambitious. Walking around the forests was dangerous at night because of the wild animals and bandits and thieves wondering about but Erik usually did his fishing in these forests because that's where the most tropical fish of are and once when Erik was in pursuit of a Blue Hake, he had ran into a couple of bandits and had fought them off but returned home with thousands of cuts and lacerations.

Tornerik, gazing at the dying embers of the sun, decided to go search for his son so he grabbed a spear and a knife and told his family he was going to go search for Erik. Tornerik was a well built man even for his age of 52 years old. Standing at 6'3 he was also intimidating but everyone knew that he was one of the most kind hearted men in the village. His family in general were all kind hearted and supplied fish for even the poorest of men wondering about the village. As he was approaching the east border wall of West March, he saw the chief's soldiers lighting the fires on the walls. One of the soldiers approached him and asked where he was going. Tornerik told him and the guard advised him to be careful especially in the woods. Tornerik thanked him and proceeded on with his journey to Temes, the village closest to river where the Salmon King was rumoured to be.

A few hundred meters from West March, Tornerik continued on his journey when he stopped, crouched down and held his hand against the ground. He could feel vibrations in the ground and tried listening now. He could something in the distance. It sounded like earth breaking away and sounded constant too… almost as if the sounds were like any normal Joe walking across gravel. Then he heard the undeniable sound of trees cracking as if they were subject to an unbearable load of weight. Tornerik climbed the tree nearest to him and when he got to the summit, he almost fainted at what he saw. It was the silhouette of a giant, a giant amongst giants. It was at the very end of the forrest but he knew it would eventually arrive at West March in no time. He turned back to the village and saw the soldiers running through the village and the villagers closing themselves in their homes. He looked back at the giant and it was much closer now. Because it was much closer, he could make out the figure of the giant as a woman. He decided to climb down the tree and return to the village with haste. 

When he got back to walls of the village, he asked the guard from earlier what was going on. The guard told him that they would try to talk to the giant. Tornerik asked the guard if there was anything he could do to help and the guard told him that he could help in getting the giant's attention. As the giant drew nearer, Tornerik was given a bow and arrows. He was concerned at first and asked why he needed these. The guard replied and said that a being of that size would surely not be harmed by an arrow. Tornerik saw the other guards with bows and finally realised that they had no intention of establishing communication. When the guard turned around, Tornerik ran off in towards the centre of the village.

Tornerik, and the rest of the village, could undoubtedly feel the tremors running through the earth. Tornerik hid behind a water mill and turned back to the face the guards. He saw them shoot off arrows into the giant and saw the arrows deflect harmlessly off the giant. Now that the giant was close to the village, the lit fires illuminated her figure and Tornerik was breathless when he saw her immense beauty. She stopped just in front of the guards. Everything was still, the sounds of the nearby shouts of the villagers, the animals in their pens even the insects and the wind seemed to come to a silent suspense. Tornerik could swear that he could even hear the crashing waves of the nearby sea come to a halt. For that moment in time, no one did anything then the giantess crouched down low to the guards. Tornerik finally saw the that the giant's eyes were black, almost as if there was no person in her body. At that moment Tornerik knew that everyone was in danger.

The giantess picked her hand up and held for 10 seconds, then almost as quick as a diving falcon, slammed it on the guards in front of her. The whole entire village broke out in chaos. Tornerik watched as the giantess picked her hand up and saw blood dripping from it and even some lucky guards who had survive her initial attack fall from her hand to their deaths. Everything that was close to the giantess was obliterated. Tornerik knew that nothing could be done to stop her so he ran back to his home to try and escape with his family.

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The village chief, Bogdan, saw the unveiling wrath of the giantess from his home perched up on the hill. Aged at 65 years old, Bogdan thought that there was nothing new left to surprise him in life until he saw her. The goddess of death at his front step. Bogdan told his servants to go and retrieve the horses from the stables so that he and his wife and daughter could escape. He knew the servants would no longer be returning with his horses so he got a few guards to take his family somewhere safe and told them he would be with them soon. Bogdan saw the giantess stomp out the village he had fought so hard to fortify from his father's previous reign. He saw a family of villagers hugging each other outside of their home then saw a boot in their place as well as their house and twenty other houses that had previously surrounded them. When she picked up her boot he saw broken wood and stone stuck to her sole and saw the blood and gore now formed as a part of her soles.    

He looked at her continuously crushing out the lives of his subjects and his kingdom and he began to cry to himself. He had terribly wished that he could do something to stop this force of nature and protect his people but knew there was no hope left to save his people. He looked up, his vision was slightly watery from his tears neigh his people's tears. He saw her face down on him and he got down on his knees and began silently thanking the gods for all he has received and prayed for his people to be guided safely to the afterlife. He looked up at her descending sole and saw arms and legs hanging from her sole, the faces of some his people stuck to her shoe, blood dripping, the remains of homes falling to the ground and then nothing. He saw nothing, felt nothing and heard nothing.

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Tornerik watched from his home as his chief's home was crushed under her shoe."Farewell my friend.", he said as he closed his eyes and looked down.

He turned back and caught up with his fleeing family. His wife saw a tear drop roll down his cheek and looked back at where the giantess stood and realised why her husband had strayed off from them. She hugged him tightly and he hugged her back."Alright, we are nearing the southern wall. We have to climb over quickly."

As his eldest son climbed to the top and held out his hand for his mother to grab a hold of, Tornerik noticed that he hadn't heard or felt the powerful steps of the giantess for a while now. He turned back and clenched his fist. "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!", he shouted out to the giant. "HAVE WE DONE SOMETHING TO HAVE YOUR WRATH BROUGHT DOWN UPON US?". 

All she did was pick her foot up and hovered it over the family, the last living people of West March.

Tornerik prayed for Erik's safety to the gods and prayed for his life to be blessed as well as he accepted his final moments on Earth with his family.

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Erik woke up with a massive headache. He tried to move his legs but felt…nothing. He could not feel his legs. He opened eyes his eyes and looked around and saw nothing but a graveyard left of the forest. He looked down at his legs and saw a large piece of bark had impaled itself deep into Erik's right leg. He knew he was paralysed because he could not feel the pain. He tried shouting and shouting for someone but no response came. There was the sound of thunder far off in the distance but Erik dismissed it. Erik's eyes began to falter again and saw the massive amount of blood gushing out of his leg. He looked at his body and saw that he was covered in branches and leaves. The cool night air brushed his against his face. "I'm sorry I couldn't prove my self to you father. Please forgive me for my failure.", Erik said through laboured breaths and a dry voice. His eyes closed fully.

Erik woke up and saw he was in a house. He was covered in a blanket and new clothes. There was a fire lit in the fireplace opposite from him. He looked at the end table next to him. There was a fresh cup of tea and hot soup next to it. "Hello?", he called out. No one responded. He tried to sit up and felt he couldn't move his legs then he remembered what he saw. He removed the blanket and rolled up the pants he was wearing. He saw a bandage where the wood piece had pierced him and lay back down. Then he remembered his encounter with the two giantesses and he remembered gazing into the tall giantess's eyes and remembered feeling something leaving his body and then she looked away and he felt normal again. He remembered her eyes going black and her enormous foot rising into the air and then he remembered jumping into the trench when she had stomped her foot down hard. He realised he was panting hard and was clutching the bed sheet he wore tightly. He heard the door open and close and saw a man walk in. The man was bald and his face was cleaned shaved. He had brown eyes and he was smiling. The man wore a brown robe and sandals. He looked about the same age as his father too. "Are you all right?", he asked.

"Who are you?", Erik said defensively while still breathing hard.

"I'm Phin. Please don't be scared, I'm here to help. I was the one who carried you of that forest or rather what remains of that forest. I made you some mince soup and a hot cup of Jasmine tea."

"Where am I?"

"You're in the Beau Lands."

Erik started to calm down as he looked at Phin's eyes and felt safe. Erik had learnt over his life from his father that a person's eyes can tell a lot about them. But there was something nagging at him about Phin.

"Wait the Beau Lands? Have you been to West March recently?" 

"Yes…"

"What is it?"

"Well…no nothing at all"

"No. Tell me what you saw?", Erik demanded.

"I saw nothing."

"You saw two giants didn't you?"

"No nothing of the sort. I mean I saw nothing left of West March. Everything was destroyed and there was no sign of life left there."

Erik sat there motionless with his heart held in his mouth."Tell me you're lying!"

"I am sorry but I'm not lying."

Erik sat faced down and began crying.

Phin proceeded to sit down next to him on a chair and put a consoling hand on Erik's shoulder.

"I'm sorry Erik but its gone."

For the rest of the night Erik sat silently to himself. As he fell asleep Erik remembered that he had never told Phin his name!

Robert woke up to the sound of birds chirping and slight chatter from outside of his room. He looked at the bedside clock and saw that it was off.

He walked out of his room,after changing, and saw what seemed to be all of the guests gathered at the car park. He joined the large crowd of people.

At the centre of the huddle stood the receptionist he met last night when he checked. It appeared as if she was about to announce something.

"Ladies and gentleman, we apologise for any inconveniences caused but we suspect the powerlines were damaged during last night's thunderstorm so we were,and are, still without electricity for the time being. While we work to get the generators operational, everything will still run as normal. Breakfast has been prepared in the dining area and a battery powered radio is available in the reception area. Thank you all for listening and once again, we humbly apologise for any inconveniences!" She concluded.

Robert walked into the dining area and found an empty table nearest to the window and gave his order to the waitress.

"What were you working on dad…" Robert wondered as he stared out the window.

Simply put, Robert had no idea what his father's actual occupation was. He knew his father was in love with anything to do with history and he was often always away on some expedition or trip. He offered Robert to go with him on some of his trips but Robert never really shared the same love for history as his father so he declined most of the time but there were some that he went on with his old man.

Robert sat for a while thinking about the last time he was on a trip with his father when a man sat down opposite Robert. The man was a matured man, probably late 40s to early fifties, dressed in beige trousers, a red striped shirt and some glasses. There was something familiar about him though but Robert was more concerned about why he sat across him.

"You don't mind yeah?" the man said with a slight english accent.

"I-I guess not…uhm do I know you?" Robert asked.

"So I take it you don't remember me?"

"Should I?" Robert asked with a slight smile.

"Well it has been some time hasn't it? Almost 7 years I'd say." The man chuckled.

"7 years…wait in Cairo! You were with my dad and I! Uhm Finn right?"

"That's the one. Good to see you Robert! How've you been chap?"

"I've been great and you?"

"I've been getting old!" Finn said with that famous humour he was known for.

"What are you doing here?"

"Ah just passing through. I saw your mum just yesterday. She's really excited to be seeing you."

"Yeah, she's been calling everyday. So where are you headed off to?"

"I was here to explore the mountain range. This area has some interesting history. Your father and I came here at one stage after being tipped off from an unreliable source, in my opinion, so we found that people say that something is inside the mountain. A great power that dwells within. Try as we might, we couldn't find a single opening,cave,tunnel… so we abandoned the search. I came back to check on any parts that we missed but I landed up finding this."

Finn reached into his pocket and brought out a weird sort of stone in the shape of the number eight. It looked rough, and very black in colour.

"What is it?" Robert asked.

"I don't know…I think its a key of sorts. A key into the mountain."

"Did you find what was inside?"

"No, I couldn't bring myself to go in without your father so I'll leave it in your hands. Not many people know about it but some might come poking in around to find the mysterious power so one day if you decide to go on an adventure or expedition, here's where you can start off." He said, handing over the object to Robert.

"Thanks." Robert said as he looked the object over.

"Well I best going off now. Cheers and say hi to your mum for me." Finn said as he stood up to leave.

"Will do."

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Robert stood outside of his mother's new house. It was a small place with a picket fence, a garden on the left and a picnic table on the right of the front lawn. The house itself was small and painted in a light orange colour.

Robert knocked on the door and was greeted with a hug by his mother.

"Robbie! Its so good to see you! Come in come in!" Mary-Anne exclaimed as she led Robert into the cosy lounge of the house.

"So what do you think?" She asked.

"It looks great. Its nice, cosy and surprisingly lively. The neighbours are friendly and, busy. It seems nice."

The two sat in conversation for a while catching up on the past few months they haven't seen each other.

_________________________________

Robert checked the time was 20:30 and packed his bags in the guest room.

He pulled out the object Finn had given him and stared at it for a while. On further inspection he noticed the object now had a faint yellow glow to it.

He walked to the living room to ask his mom if any of his father's items like a diary was there.

She told him of the diary his father wanted to give him.

After retrieving the diary, Robert started reading through it. Absorbing page after of information that luckily pertained to this particular "artifact" that he held. The last entry in the diary was what got Robert's attention as it read:"My ongoing quest to find the origin of the 'key' has lead me to Pinewood Mountain Range. I believe that somewhere along the mountain, the 'key' must be inserted and the mountain will open to reveal a long hidden power but we hit a bit of a snag. The was a slight tremor that day that resulted in falling rocks and boulders from the mountain summit. The mountain rangers had evacuated the area immediately and closed the mountain range until they were sure that no more rock avalanches would occur so unfortunately we had to halt our excavation. I gave up the quest and the key as it served as a constant reminder of my failure to discover what lay in the mountain. Anyway now I can return back home to wallow in self-pity."

Robert eyed the key. He decided that he would complete his father's mission of seeing if indeed the mountain had something inside of it.

Robert told his mother he was going out and quickly drove to the mountain range.
__________________________________________________________________

Now in the surrounding forrest, the full moon shining in the star glittered night sky, Robert navigated his way through the woods. The wind rustling the leaves added to the tranquility that Robert found in the forrest.

Up ahead the mountain stood high and mighty above the land. The local hikers and mountain climbers say that simply being on the mountain was a thrill in itself. You versus nature.

As Robert approached the looming mountain, clad in climbing gear, the key was glowing ever so brightly and was even becoming warmer. Robert knew it was dangerous to scale a mountain at night but his sense of adventure clouded his judgment.

He stood at the foot of the mountain and peered all the way up trying to the summit but he couldn't. Up close, the mountain was a thousand times larger and a thousand times more imposing which only served to add to the need to scale it. Roberts now understood why the climbers had called it a thrill to be on the mountain.

Robert placed the key in one of his pockets and prepared himself for some rigorous climbing. After a while, Robert reached a ledge he could climb on to and pulled himself on to it. He rested on the edge of the ledge, dangling his legs over it and taking in the view of the north side of the range.

Robert took out the key and saw that the glow was much more bright now. Robert stood up off the edge and traversed across the ledge which he now saw was a large flat surface. He walked across the strangely smooth surface but stopped when he observed a gaping, 8 feet wide gap in between his side of the surface and the other side.

"Well shit." Robert said aloud.

Deciding to turn back and find a way around he stopped and pulled out the key. There was pulling force on it like how a small metal object is drawn to a magnet but the key was pulling towards the other side of the gap. Robert eyed the gap to his proposed destination and considered whether he could make the jump or not. He was in good physical shape but this was quite the distance and the gap only lead to a rocky demise, 30 feet below.

Tensing himself, Robert walked back a few paces and broke into full sprint. As he approached the edge he jumped off with his stronger right foot and held his heart in his mouth as he was in mid-air. Robert quickly tucked into a roll when he landed on the other side of the gap, panting heavily from what he had just done. He had a quick little chuckle to himself as he realized that he could have very well died tonight.

Standing up, Robert pulled out the key and saw that the glow and the pulling force were very strong now. He followed where the key was being pulled on most and eventually found himself facing a smooth wall. He brought the key closer to the wall when suddenly a hole in the shape of the key appeared on the wall. Robert shrugged his shoulders and inserted the key into the wall. The mountain side started trembling when the wall started opening inward. The tremor quickly faded away.

"Well here goes nothing." Robert announced out loud as he entered the mountain wall.

The tunnel Robert was walking through was pitch black. Robert couldn't even see his hand right in front of his face so he pulled out his flashlight. The tunnel appeared to snake downward and probably to a chamber, Robert guessed to himself.

As Robert walked down the tunnel he could feel that there was something else in the mountain, something big.

After what felt like hours, the tunnel finally ended and lead into a chamber. When Robert walked entered the chamber he was shocked to see its size. The roof of the chamber was high like REALLY high. The walls of the chamber were lined with shining emeralds that gave light to the chamber and made it look all the more beautiful.

A few hundred feet away there was a huge column. It was about 300 feet in height and spanned about 2000 feet in width and length and was positively intimidating yet it looked there was something resting on it. Robert walked across the column tracing his hand on it. When he got to the other side of the column he saw a huge door at the far side of the chamber. It looked like it was made of solid gold. Robert dismissed that it was a door purely because nothing that big existed. It was probably just shaped like that from the past civilization that created this chamber.

Robert turned back to face the huge column when he noted small holes on the side of the column he was facing. They looked like hand holds. Robert approached the holes and carefully started scaling the column. As he was climbing Robert wondered why this ancient civilization had built this column. Maybe it had gold at the top?

When Robert finally got to the top of the column he looked around the chamber from his new vantage point. He turned back to look at what the column held but he saw something that just shouldn't be real.

Resting a few feet away from him was a mane of vibrant brown hair that led to a huge skull. As Robert looked down the length of the column he saw that it wasn't treasure resting on the column but a huge body! A female body!

"No way! This isn't real. I'm just dreaming!" Robert spoke out loud, convincing himself that he was in a dream.

Robert walked over to the side of the head and slowly reached his hand over to touch the giant woman's cheek, expecting to not feel anything and then wake up from this crazy dream. When he finally did touch the huge cheek Robert felt that it was warm and soft. He quickly retracted his hand when he felt a spark. Robert suddenly felt a drowsy feeling overcoming him and thought that he was finally going to wake up in his mother's guest room.

The world started spinning and fading away when Robert finally passed out not seeing the giant female's eyes slowly blink open.