It was late and the sun would be setting soon. Maybe two more hours of daylight and it would be dark. She was standing by a creek and looking at the countryside that was laying before her. Green and juicy hills, the outer rim of a large forest where her village was and the mountains in the distance. Looking down to her feet she giggled by the sight of the earth that was oozing up between her long toes while her feet sunk into it. She enjoyed all those small things like the warmth of sunbeams on her skin, the smell of rain and the squishy feeling of grass and earth beneath her feet. She continued her stroll towards the forest because she wanted to be back home before nightfall. Daydreaming she enjoyed the mild west wind on her almost naked body. She loved wearing nothing but her loincloth and her breast holder during the warm seasons... anyway, it was not that she had much of a choice since it was the only cloth she owned besides her winter fur coat. Thinking about food because she started to feel hungry she suddenly realized a column of thick, black smoke raising up to the sky where her village was located. Something awful must have happened she thought while she started to run home.
Thick branches and even the logs of fallen trees burst under her thundering steps and the animals of the forest jumped out of her path and scurried in all directions. Under normal circumstances Deva would have been careful not to break or hurt anything but now the only thing that was occupying her mind was her village, her family and friends and what was going on. When she was almost there she was already able to smell the smoke and with her heart pounding in her chest and out of breath she broke through the last trees and was standing at what was left of her village. Houses and barns were on fire, bodies of people and farm animals were all over the place. No sign of life, they all were slaughtered, laying there in their blood. Her dark blue eyes were wide open in disbelief when she slowly placed one foot in front of the other thinking and hoping that this was all a bad joke or a nightmare and that this all would be over any minute and life would return to what it was before. Tears started to roll down her cheeks, and she was trembling while she was slowly walking through the paths between the houses. Blood and mutilated bodies everywhere. "Hello... hello... is there someone", she stuttered over and over again... "is someone still alive ?"
She reached the center of the Village where the house of her caretakers was. Balfor and Suja never had own children, but they had raised her with the love and patience all parents should raise their children with. She panicked when she saw the burning ruin of this house that used to be the home of the people she loved... her family. The smoke burnt strong in her eyes when she leaned over the debris and rubble. Within the ruins she found the bodies, burned beyond recognition, of Balfor and his wife. Both were hugging each other tightly and the fire had melded their bodies into one. Anger and rage were victorious over her sadness when she let out a ground shaking scream "Noooo !" Deva just stood there for a while which seemed like an eternity and recalled all the memories she had of them from the day she hatched till this morning when Balfor had sent her down to the creek. "I will avenge you, father and mother... I will avenge you. Whoever has done this to you will pay", she was mumbling to herself while she carefully placed one foot in front of the other because she was afraid to step on corpses, debris or anyone that might have survived.
As she arrived at the burning Armory, she realized that this must have been the center of the fight. Many armed villagers were scattered in the front yard, laying there cold and stiff in their own blood and also many other men all dressed in the same armor were amongst the dead. When Deva bent down to look at, who she thought of as the enemies bodies, she heard someone coughing and moaning in agony. It was Harald, the village´s blacksmith who was sitting on the cobblestone ground and leaning against the well. Harald was barely conscious since he was badly wounded. He had an awful wound on his right shoulder and was bleeding heavily. In his left side he had two arrows that went right through his plate armor and were stuck in his flesh. Yet he was breathing and coughing up blood. "Harald... Harald, what happened ?", Deva asked the wounded man.
It took a moment before he opened his eyes and Deva was able to spot the pain he was in by the look on his face. A thin line of blood was dripping down from his lips, and he coughed again. "They were looking for you, Deva. They were searching for you and they´re probably still somewhere near... run away, girl... go south or anywhere but north, because that´s where they came from." Deva got on her knees and leaned over the wounded man. Again tears started to roll out of her big blue eyes and slashed to the ground. "But who were they and why were they looking for me and why..." He coughed up more blood and the talking obviously took him a lot of strength "They´re Mercenaries who work for Kathami, the Queen of Tharkas. When we told them we were not giving you to them they started to kill everyone, Deva. I am so sorry my dear, there was nothing much we could do. They got us on surprise and by the time we got armed most of us were already dead. Your father fought like the brave man he was, Deva." His eyes closed for a moment then he opened them again. "Deva... you gotta leave the village for they´re probably come back to find you. They did this massacre for a reason... to lure you towards them. Go, Deva... go now and don´t come back. And... do an old man a favor." She carefully touched his hair with her fingertip and nodded "What do you want me to do, Harald ?" He looked her straight in the eyes and his voice was clear "Bring to an end what they haven´t finished... put my life to an end before you go." She was shocked by his wish and shook her head "Harald, I can´t do this... you´re my friend. I´ll get help somewhere and I will come back and then..." "Deva, I am dying... Death might come soon or it might take it´s time but no healer in the world will get me back together and if you leave me here like this the animals will come and feast on my flesh... I don´t want to die like this, girl. Show some mercy with an old friend and help me find some peace. I will meet my wife and kids and all my friends that got killed in the afterlife... now that is something good, something I´m looking forward to." She got back up on her feet again and stood over him. Tears of sorrow and anger rolled down her face and left shiny lines of liquid salt on her white skin. Her lips were trembling when she looked down at Harald who was holding his wounded shoulder with the other hand. "Give me a quick Death Deva, a merciful death... " he whispered and nodded. She looked around and thought of how she could kill the man without causing him much more pain, and she was also thinking if she could avoid his request somehow. "Just think of me as a bug, girl... a wounded bug that should be put out of it´s misery" he said as if he had read her mind. With his last strength Harald crawled away from the well he was leaning at and to a spot nearby that was free of dead bodies. He laid down on the cobblestones his arms on his chest. He looked at her and with a warm and thankful smile on his lips he closed his eyes, ready to leave this world.
Deva stood there and looked at Harald while she slowly started to walk towards him with her arms crossed on her chest and crying heavily about Haralds fate and her involvement. The moment that the ball of her foot hovered over Haralds broken body she closed her eyes and even more tears burst out. A crowd of Crows was already flying in circles above the village... watching and waiting to feast on the bodies. Everything inside her revolted against this. Deva didn´t want to do this... it was the opposite of everything that had been taught to her. All life had to be respected and treated with great caution... how could she do this and how would she ever be able to find forgiveness. She felt the Leather and the metal of his armor and the warmth of his skin as her majestic foot touched his tiny body. She was so big, and he, this strong and proud man, was so vulnerable... so small at this moment. With her mind fighting an inner battle she let it happen and sent Harald to his doom by descending under the ball of her foot. Slowly, because she was afraid to hurt him more than necessary, she brought down her whole weight on the foot Harald was under. There was some resistance for a second or two and then his body burst beneath her foot with a disgusting, crackling noise as if one breaks the shells of eggs in the fist. The tendons in her foot flexed and her toes fanned out to accept her weight. The Cobblestones on which Harald had laid down before sunk under her great weight and a few rays of blood exploded out from beneath her foot. She stood on Harald and didn´t dare to move. The only thing she felt was the warmth of his blood beneath the sole of her foot and the pain in her broken heart. She bent at her waist and looked down the length of her body to the foot she crushed the man under. Without ever looking at what remained of her friend the Giantess walked away and laid down near the ruin of her parents House. She needed to find the people who did this... she needed answers and someone had to pay for it. But at first she had to mourn and to bury the dead. By the time the Night came she had already cried herself to sleep.
Rahul was almost three days late when he arrived at Grywood or what was left of it. Balfor was one of his fathers friends and when he was a young boy it was Balfor who gave him his first lessons in sword fight. When the Owl that Balfor had sent him with a message to come to Grywood because he needed his help had arrived he knew that it must have been something big, something urgent. Now he was sure that whatever it was that this old family friend needed his help for was something big, because it looked like everyone in and around Grywood had paid for it with their lives. The houses were all burnt down, looking like huge black skeletons. Some beams were still hot and glowing white red. Bodies, some burnt others mauled down by arrows, hammers and blades were scattered all over the place. A massacre... this was truly a massacre and whatever Balfor had needed him to come here for must have been very important to whoever was responsible for this massacre. Scanning the streets, searching the bodies of the dead for clues he was getting closer to the center of the village where the battle must have been quite awful. The smell of decay was all around. Dead men, all armed, attackers and defenders were everywhere. Rahul walked up a small hill where a fire was still feasting on the remains of a big house that must have been an armory or something of importance. The yard was filled with bodies and debris. The smell of smoke and decay was so strong here that he had a hard time keeping his stomach from emptying itself. Obviously the attackers must have been Mercenaries since they weren´t wearing any emblems signing them to be troops but yet they were equipped too good to be brigands. Either they were just passing by Grywood and had decided to just plunder the village or someone must have sent them here, he was thinking while he carefully examined body after body, looking for clues. Hopefully Balfor was still alive, maybe save somewhere outside of the village he thought to himself when he noticed the corpse of a man that must have died a horrible dead.
They must have dropped a huge boulder or something really huge and heavy on the poor guy. He was squashed beyond recognition within his plate armor. Guts and blood and viscera were pressed through the openings and spaces in his armor and his flesh and bones were pressed flat and into the spaces between the cobblestones he laid on. Some hard cobblestones were even cracked by whatever was smashed on this unfortunate fellow. He picked up a burning piece of wood and used it as a torch, then walked down the other side of the hill and down the path toward the west of Grywood.
Something woke her up and she opened her eyes. For a moment she hoped that she´d just had a bad dream and everything was back to the way it was before. The smell of smoke and the crackling sound of fire eating wood reminded her that this was no nightmare. But there was another sound that caught her awareness... footsteps. They were coming from up the hill and down the path towards her position. As graceful as possible for her size she got up, took a step back between the trees of the forest and waited. Being at her full height she had a good view at the path from above and it didn´t take long until she discovered the silhouette of a man walking down the path He was holding a torch in one, a blade in the other hand. Anger crawled up inside her. This had to be one of them. He had to be one of the men who were responsible for this, and she would hurt him for it before she would kill him slowly. But at first she wanted answers.
Rahul almost tripped over the body of a dead man who must have been one of the attackers, according to the armor he was wearing. He got on his knees and searched the man carefully for clues. All he found was a porch filled with coins that he cut off from the belt it was tied to. Within a heartbeat everything around him turned into pure chaos. The trees nearby exploded, wood broke, and he was knocked over when something hit the ground with such force that it shook and trembled. He rolled over on his back and was about to get up when a huge shadow fell on him from above. He raised his arms just in time to hold against it, and he realized that he must have dropped his sword and also the torch when he fell down. His hands made contact with a warm and soft surface, and he tried to push back the beast that had ambushed him.
No chance. Whatever attacked him was of such great weight that it just pushed his arms back like they were nothing. Rahul realized that he had to act fast as it was just a matter of a second or two until he was either crushed beneath the beasts heavy body or it was about to open it´s jaws and bite off his face. He withdrew his right arm and reached for the sword that was laying nearby. His fingers just touched the steel as he was buried under the heaviest pile of flesh and bones one could imagine. It covered him entirely. Just his head and his right arm were sticking out from somewhere beneath the beast. His fingers just closed around the swords handle when the force his attacker was smothering him with was becoming breathtaking... literally. The air was pushed out from his lungs and his bones were about to break in the most unpleasant ways imaginable. Rahul was in pure panic as he was about to be crushed to death by a mountain of flesh. The image of the poor man in the yard that was nothing more than a flat sack of skin with bones crushed to tiny pieces inside it and his flesh and guts forced out of him, just squished to jelly in a puddle around him came to his mind, when he heard a female voice. "I can stand on you right now, little man, and break every bone inside your tiny body or I can listen to the answers you´ll give me and I might consider giving you a quicker and less painful death. It´s up to you", the voice whispered from somewhere high above. Rahul tried to give an answer but the pain he was in and the matter that he just wasn´t able to breathe made the attempt impossible. A moment later a huge amount of the weight that pinned him to the ground was taken off him and the horrible pain of his bones that felt as if they were about to break any second was gone. He gasped for air and inhaled as deeply and greedily as he could. Whatever she had buried him under was still on him and pinning him firmly to the floor but the immense pressure was more bearable. "We´ll talk but you have to let me out from..." he didn´t get to finish what he was going to ask for. Immediately the weight started to become a threat to his life again, and she answered "I don´t have to do anything besides smear you across the path if you don´t do what I say". Unable to speak he nodded his head, hoping she could see it from wherever she was speaking to him from. Again the pressure on his entire body was taken off a little. He was able to breathe but not to move. Rahul realized that now wasn´t a good time to demand anything. He had to play along this game and that would give him enough time to think and take an opportunity if one would show up. He tried to calm himself, and he tried to focus on his opponent. He was sweating as the animal she was riding on that was on him now was radiating a lot of heat. It smelled of salt and iron... the smell of sweat on human skin. Slowly his eyes started to get used to the little light that came from the torch that had fallen to the ground somewhere out of his sight, and he tried to see what he´d become a victim to. Unfortunately his attacker wanted to start a conversation he realized as she interrupted him "Why did you kill my people ?". Rahul had no idea which people exactly she was talking about. Was it the villagers of Grywood or did she belong to the Mercenaries ? He decided not to lie and wheezed "I did not kill anyone. I was asked to come here and help but obviously I was too late."
Deva was trying to figure out if the man she had pinned beneath her right foot was speaking the truth or if he just tried to talk himself out of this unpleasant situation. She felt him wiggling under the ball of her foot and looked down at him. He seemed to be in quite some pain. His head was sticking out between her big and her second toe while the rest of his body was covered by the ball of her foot. His face was beet red and the wild frenzied look in his eyes told her that he was in total panic. "Who asked you for help ? Who asked you to come to Grywood ?" she asked him with a sinister undertone in her voice just to give him an understanding that it´d be better for him to tell her the truth. "B-Balfor... the man´s name is Balfor... he´s an old fam..." he tried to say but Deva was so surprised to hear him say her fathers name that she totally forgot about his vulnerability as she leaned forward and put a lot more weight on the foot he was under. His words were cut off in a heartbeat and became a gurgle as his face turned from red to blue and his opened wide, ready to pop out of their sockets. Shocked about her clumsiness she took her foot off him and almost tripped as she made a step backwards and felt something squish with a wet crunch beneath her heel as she put all of her weight on it.
It was the body of one of the attackers, the body of the man this guy examined before her ambush on him. Her bare heel was just big enough that it had covered the dead man completely and turned him into a slimy mush of blood, viscera, broken bones and squashed flesh. It was a disgusting sight, but she was fascinated somehow what a simple move of her could accomplish. The guy that she needed answers from was lying there where she had trapped him before, and he was struggling to breathe. He was still alive but probably badly wounded she thought, as she noticed blood dripping out of his nose and eyes. She let herself fall on her knees right in front of the man, and she saw the terror on his face as she did this. She would have to get used to people reacting on her like this is what she thought to herself when she leaned over him and lowered her face as close as possible to the small human.
Within the blink of an eye the immense weight that pinned him down was becoming a mountain. A mountain that would break every bone inside him to dust and squish his flesh to liquid. Rahul wasn´t ready for it, but he accepted this fate as there was nothing else he could have done. As fast as the terror of being crushed to death and the pain came it released him once again and all he was thinking of was if he was still alive or if that was already the afterlife, and he was dead. Then he felt the pain in his limbs that were twisted and about to be torn out of their places, his muscles were aching and at least three of his ribs must have been broken. He tasted blood... his blood. A shock wave rocked the ground he was laying on, and he squinted his eyes in the acceptance that he´d finally die now. The deadly strike did not come, and he slowly opened his eyes again. He looked in the concerned eyes of a young woman. A beautiful but gigantic face of a woman. Looking down the length of his body he noticed that the gigantic face belonged to gigantic female body and that he was laying between her knees. "I am Deva, stranger. I am sorry and I hope I didn´t hurt you too bad. I am Balfor´s daughter" she whispered. All Rahul could do was stare at her in disbelieve. He looked around to see if there was someone or something else when it finally dawned on him. She had attacked him. It was she who had almost killed him. There was no huge wild beast under the control of an evil witch. It was this beautiful young giantess who had almost crushed him to mash beneath her foot. Rahul found himself humiliated, hurt and angry at the same time. He was not a warrior, but he was battle proof, and he had kicked the one and the other ass in the battle pits of Pesquot. He had also lost some fights and got his own asked kicked but never had he been so delivered to a woman. "Rahul... I am Rahul from Pesquot, and I am a friend of Balfor" he told her as his mind slowly started to focus on the situation. He sat up and felt a sharp pain in his chest. He had broken some ribs... or better said, she had broken some of his ribs he thought as his eyes rolled back, and he passed out. Rahul was already unconscious and didn´t notice anymore how Deva´s Hand reached out for him to catch his fall. He landed softly in the palm of her hand and even though she was thirsty for answers she decided to let him rest as long as he had to.
The sound of distant thunder woke him up and brought him back into a world of pain. Every limb, every muscle and every bone in his body was aching, and he had the worst headache of his life. Rahul opened his eyes and the headache immediately became worse because of the daylight. He rolled on his left side and was welcomed by another sharp pain in his chest which made him remember the chaos that he found himself in last night. He was laying in a camp, much more a nest, made of twigs, branches and leafs. A majestic bare foot came down just ten feet from where he was laying and left a huge footprint, at least ten inches deep in the wet soil when it was lifted up again. He turned his head and looked up to see the gigantic frame of this huge woman that had just passed him by. She was no giant. Rahul had seen giants before and he even knew one. Giants were huge but compared to the size of her even the tallest giant would look like an infant. Anhrag must be like almost thirty feet tall, Rahul was thinking to himself while he slowly got up on his feet and walked toward the footprint she had left in the earth. He inspected it very carefully and walked around it when he came to the conclusion that Anhrag, the giant he knew, was maybe just a little longer than her foot, which made her foot like four times his own length. He turned to the direction she had walked to and noticed her on her knees piling up small hill of dirt. She had her back turned towards him and her round buttocks, each the size of a building, were resting on her heels. As he approached her she said "I am glad you´re awake, Rahul from Pesquot". He walked closer to her his mind still trying to find an answer to what she was and without saying anything back he stepped beside her right foot. Since she was on her toes and resting on her knees her soles were stretched out. He stood beneath the sole of her foot, touched it and through the mud on her skin he could feel the warmth of her body. Higher above him where here heels and her large buttocks hovering above him. Indeed, she was flesh and blood. "What are you ?" he asked her while his eyes examined every inch of her. She looked over her shoulder and down at him "I am Deva. Daughter of Balfor and Suja. A child of Grywood" she paused for a moment before she continued with a voice so sad that it tore Rahul out of the inspection of her "And I am the last one alive... I am alone now." Rahul walked around her and up the hill of earth that she had piled up. "I buried the dead" she told him while he was standing on the edge of a mass grave that just recently had been covered by the fresh soil of the forest.
Rahul was thinking to himself, and he fought an inner battle. By his heart he felt that he should, if possible in any way, help this young woman. She was alone and probably somehow in trouble. Or she would get herself in trouble somehow soon. He looked up the length of her body. Her smooth, white skin was stained with dirt all over the place. Even the loincloth and the shaggy breast holder she was wearing were torn and dirty. Her long black hair, which under other circumstances must have been a proud mane falling over her shoulders almost down to her waist, was now a rain soaked mess. Within her deep blue eyes, those beautiful and warm eyes, was such sadness that he had to swallow down. His head kept telling him to go back to Pesquot and go on with his life. Balfor was dead and whatever he needed Rahul´s help for was something that died with him... or did it not ? It was because of her that Balfor had asked for his help. Deva was the reason he had come here. He looked at the grave again and spoke to Deva "You´re not alone. I am here and I will help you... I don´t know how or where to start with but I will find out".
She looked down straight into his eyes and on her sad face he was able to read gratitude, relief and hope. He nodded his head to put even more weight in his words and touched her hand with his.
End of Chapter I
The sun started to set higher as Deva told Rahul everything she knew which was everything that Harald told her before she had put him out of his misery."We have to catch up with them" she said and looked north.Rahul knew she was desperate to seek her Revenge, but he also knew that the enemy was just expecting her to do this.
He shook his head and answered "First we have to find out more. We need to know why Kathami wants you and why Balfor and everyone in Grywood had to die for it".Deva looked down at him in disbelief and replied "By the time we have those answers they´ll be gone, and we´ll never find them"
Rahul looked up to her while he tied his long blonde hair to a ponytail behind his head."We will find the men who did this, and they will pay. But we have to find out more about the circumstances which lead to this massacre, Deva. Trust me, I know what I´m talking about. If we go straight after them we´ll find our self either captured or dead. Let´s not do what they want us to do" he told her.
She thought about his words for a while before she nodded and said "You´re probably right. We will find them later, and we will avenge Grywood".Rahul noticed that her stomach was growling like an army of hungry bears when he walked down the Path again to the burnt down house of Balfor."So what do you eat when you´re hungry ?" he asked the giantess. "Anything you give me. Meat, fish, fruit or vegetables... I´m not picky when it comes to food" she answered.
While he was taking off the branches that Deva had covered the corpses of Balfor and Suja with he was thinking about the large amount of food he would have to gather to fill up a stomach of a woman her size. He tried not to breathe when he removed the last twigs and branches because he knew the smell of dead flesh and it was something else but pleasant to him.
Rahul inspected the bodies of Balfor and Suja because he wanted to make sure that they wouldn´t be buried before he could take a look for a clue, no matter how small, anything was more than they had. Unfortunately there was nothing that had escaped the fire, but he found out something.
The body of the man holding on to Suja was not Balfor. He was able to tell because small parts of his armor were spared by the fire and those belonged to the attackers."Deva... how do you know that Balfor is dead ?" he asked the Giantess that was standing behind him. "He´s there... dead, embracing my mother" she answered and got on her knees. Rahul turned around and looked straight in her eyes, replying "This is a dead man, yes... but he´s not Balfor. So, unless you haven´t buried his dead body with the other ones in the grave you´ve dug out, he might still be...". "Alive..." she finished what he was about to say.
He nodded and a boyish smile lightened up his tired face."We have to find him now. They might torture him to find out about me or even worse, kill him if he doesn´t speak", Deva insisted.Rahul only met the young giantess a day ago but by the look in her eyes and the urgent tone in her voice he knew it would be impossible for him to change her mind now that she knew that there was a chance that the man she called father was still alive.
He looked up and in her eyes, bit his lip and said "Oh well, at first we should get you some food. Otherwise, your belly will deliver us to the enemy when we´re close."He squinted his eyes because the sun was just raising behind Devas right shoulder and smiled at her."Fine" she answered as she got on her knees and paid attention to the two merged corpses again.
Rahul just stood there and watched as she carefully loosened Sujas leftovers from the burnt corpse of the dead enemy. When she was done, she put Sujas corpse back to the ground, close to the ruins of her house and covered her with several rocks that to her were just the size of pebbles.
Rahul wanted to give her a few moments as he noticed a single big tear running out of her eye and down her cheek. It dropped down and hit the ground as she stood up. Deva bent over and reached out for Rahul, and before he could protest she softly closed her hand around him and picked him up."We will go to my lair and eat. I will also pack some food for the way" she told him as she started to walk towards the wood.
Twigs, Timber and old wood cracked and burst under her massive steps and as he took a look back he was able to see her footprints on the soft soil of the forest, each one as deep as a grave.
A few moments later they arrived at the entrance to a cave. The opening was huge for a human but for Deva it was just high and wide enough to crawl in. It was covered by a curtain made out of the skin of a Habragh and some pine trees that grew on the hillside left and right to the entrance.
Habragh´s were huge but peaceful land animals that roamed the grassy plains all over Thar. They always made Rahul think of what a giant Slug with the fur of a bear would look like. Habragh´s were no danger to humans as they avoided getting to close to settlements or cities since they were very slow in their movement and therefore very vulnerable. Even when they we´re hunted for their meat or fur they didn´t fight back and were easy prey.Rahul realized that to Deva, those fifty feet high and seventy five feet long animals must be as big as a medium-sized dog would be to him, and no matter how much he tried not to think of it, he couldn´t get over the thought what a force she could be in battle.
Her hand was warm and soft, and she was somehow naive and innocent, he thought. If she really wanted to avenge her people she would have to learn to think and to act like a warrior. He would do his best to turn her into the weapon needed to bring her the justice she was looking for, but it would take time. He had his doubts if he was even the right man to aid her on the journey she was going to start. Rahul was more like a mercenary himself... selling his skills with the blade for coins and wasting coins to get drunk, to get laid and to gamble. But then it was Balfor who asked him to help... he didn´t ask a skilled and noble warrior... he asked for Rahul´s help and here he was.
Deva set him on the ground and got on her hands and knees after he stood on his own feet again. "That´s my lair. Let´s go inside and hurry up. I want to catch up with them, and they´re a day and a half ahead of us." she told him as she pulled the curtain aside and crawled in. Rahul followed her and as incorrect as it felt to him, he couldn´t help keeping his eyes from Devas tremendous cheeks that were bouncing up and down in front of him while she crawled further down into the cave in front of him.
They were huge and round and silky... like a ripe fruit ready to splash with the sweetest juice once one takes a bite. Her cheeks were that huge, he realized as she squeezed herself through the tunnel in front of him, that they were brushing the rock walls more than once, and the distance between one wall to the other was good fifty feet apart. He really had to get over these lustful thoughts he told himself.
The tunnel turned into the rock for about two hundred feet and ended in a large chamber. Through a gaping crack in the rock wall, weak light penetrated, enough for Rahul to look around the hall. Habragh's other skins were scattered on the floor and there were six clay bowls on the floor, which, judging by the smell, contained food.
Deva could not stand upright in the room, even though it was high, so she knelt and moved toward a pile of Habragh skins. She inquired if he wanted to eat, but Rahul was not hungry now. Deva took the time to fill her growling stomach with much of the food that would otherwise be left behind and spoil. Rahul could hardly believe what amounts of food, even for her size, she could eat and wondered how they would find such masses in the days ahead, possibly weeks.
At the left end of the chamber was an opening leading into another tunnel. As Rahul approached, he heard the distant splash of water and a horrible smell struck him."There is nothing of interest there, unless you have to make a pile", Deva told him. "Thanks, but I can suppress it", he replied, turning quickly to the other side where Deva packed food. "I pack dried meat, millet, corn and apples. Will that be enough?" she wanted to know. Rahul answered "yes" and turned to something else that had sparked his interest.
Something silvery shimmered through the big pile of furs Deva had taken one from to make it into a rucksack."What have we here ?" he inquired as he pushed aside the Habragh furs to examine what was underneath. "My egg ..." Deva replied. "You know, the one I hatched from. I'm sleeping in it or at least I've done it so far." Rahul was confused.
In fact, under the pile of fur were the fragments of a huge, silver-shining egg. Curiously, he examined the splinters, most of which were about as big as his palms, and noticed that they exuded a beneficial warmth."May I wrap some of them?" he asked the giantess. "They might prove useful or valuable later on," he continued, "Of course, take as much as you can carry, I'll take as much food as I can," she replied.
As he stuffed his belt pouches with shards from the egg, he asked, "How could Grywood feed you all the time? It must have cost a fortune to get so much food for you." Deva thought for a moment and said, "We cultivated things our self and hunted the Habraghs, and the whole village helped to cultivate the fields above the hill."Rahul considered and tried to visualize the whole picture. He did not know such conditions, but he had heard that similar action was taken in many denominations.
Maybe the attackers had been looking for this egg. Maybe it was really valuable. There were so many questions and nowhere to find answers. It really seemed to be their only chance to follow the assailants to find out what was so important to kings to Kathami that she invaded the open land and made such a massacre.
Deva was already finished packing as Rahul was desperately trying to stow more and more of the pieces in his belt pouches. "Can we go?" she inquired, and Rahul answered with a nod.
She crawled back into the tunnel which led outside and partly enchanted by the sight, partly ashamed by his lust, Rahul followed the huge woman.Once outside, Rahul asked her, "Are you sure it's revenge you want," which she answered with a nod after she straightened up to her full height. "I'll need your help," he added, "I do not know how many men we'll get involved in. I'm sure I can handle three, maybe four, but I'll not be able to do without your help in the fight if there are more. "I want to fight and kill them" Deva replied "but I have no weapon."
Rahul frowned and looked up at her.After his eyes found hers, he declared, "You will not need a weapon for this, you are the weapon, I saw what you made of this man ... Harald. Just crush them beneath your feet, that will do. It's a terrible and painful Death that fills the enemy with fear and terror. No man wants to die like this. "Deva put a hand on her hip and said, "I trod down on Harald because I had to release him from his suffering, but I will crush these men because they deserve it." Rahul smiled as he fixed her eyes with his and nodded.
"Did you ever kill someone except for Harald and, well ... me ... almost?" he wanted to know. She shook her head hesitantly and answered, "I would not have killed you, I knew you were not one of them, but I was desperate." "You'll have to kill if you want revenge, Deva ... those men, and maybe many more men soon," he added as his eyes eclipsed."More?" she asked in surprise, "What do you mean with more?" Rahul rubbed the bridge of his nose and answered, "Well, if we find and kill them, Katahmi may be able to send more to find you, and if one of them escapes and can report to her, she'll certainly send new hunters.
"Oh, that's conceivable," she agreed. "This Kathami is the one who is responsible for all this anyway, and my revenge is only accomplished when I can crush her slowly under my foot," she continued.
Rahul had to hide his horror over Deva's naive mindset. It was one thing to kill a bunch of mercenaries. However, messing around with an infatuated Queen and her armies was an Ascension Commando.
His forehead was wrinkled as he admonished her, "Well, then adjust to wounds and pain, and possibly even to death." Deva raised an eyebrow cynically and grinned as vile as it was possible with her beautiful face "I'm looking forward to all that, as long as I'm Kathami's downfall."
She bent down and laid her open palm in front of him on the floor. "Let's go look for them ... I can not wait to stand on them," said Deva.
It was not difficult to track down their tracks and track back in which direction they had gone. The attackers had made no effort to cover their tracks. Apparently they were even interested in being found, because after all, they had not found what they were looking for in Grywood.
Dusk was already setting in when they found the camp of the mercenaries. It was below a cliff that grew about one hundred feet above the camp, right on the edge of the forest. Rahul made Deva understand that she should approach very quietly and try to keep a face to be able to make good use of the element of surprise.
As they approached the camp, he motioned for her to persist. From the height of Rahul he had a good overview of the enemy. A tent stood directly below the cliff, and blue smoke came out of the openings in the ceiling. He counted seventeen men scattered around a campfire. Some of them sat and ate their provisions, others drank and diced or polished their equipment. They were loud, laughing, joking, and seemingly unaware of any danger.
Rahul tried to spot anything that pointed to Balfor, but could not see anything like that when suddenly the curtain of the tent opened and a tall, gaunt figure stepped out. "I need to rest, I have to concentrate, you worthless pigs. I know, your mind is too inferior to understand that, but to work my magic and penetrate the prisoner's mind, I need silence ... Now, rest. Tomorrow we'll go to the village and keep looking for the tear, "the dark-robed figure shouted at the men in a voice that seemed to come straight out of a grave before he went back into the tent.
Rahul's stomach turned a little at the thought of dealing with a magician. Like most of the beings he knew, he was afraid of magic, or rather, he wanted to avoid anything that had to do with it. Sorcery was a powerful and unpredictable science that could subdue and extinguish beings ... and worse.
The figure in the robes had to be Anh-An Dasmion ... an archmage notorious for his dark arts and, it was said, he was in Kathami's service. Nothing else was known about him. People feared him and some even claimed he was a powerful demon from the Shadow Realm.
One of the mercenaries in the camp got up while the others followed the magician's orders and retired, announcing with a laugh, "First I'm going to shit a big pile" as he walked straight to Deva's and Rahul's hiding place.
Rahul hastily whispered to her, "Be quiet, but if he notices us, kill him quickly and quietly." The man almost stumbled over Deva's toes. These, however, were deep enough in the soft forest floor, that he stepped on them and did not bother about it because he had obviously considered them the roots of a tree. The man pulled down his pants and crouched down. He probably thought this site was good and intended to empty his bowels directly over Deva's toes.
Deva suddenly pulled her foot back, causing the squatting man to lose his balance and fall backward into the nearly four foot deep footprint she left there. Immediately, she raised her foot again and hovered it briefly over the confused man, who grunted and grumbled a bit. Then she set her foot down with deadly determination and buried the man underneath. He did not even know what happened to him and did not have time to protest. He was pushed deeper and deeper into the soft ground by something incredibly heavy.
His screams were completely stifled by the earth and the sole of her foot surrounding him. Deva shifted all of her weight to the foot he was under and even lifted the other foot to concentrate all her weight on that one point. She felt his bones break in countless places and his body burst like a ripe fruit. Large amounts of warm blood and guts sneezed her sole and the earth underneath where she had sunk in to her ankle.It felt good and fair to give this particular type of fertilizer to the soil, and she could not resist a grim smile.
"If ever there is a chance, remember me to do that to any of them," she whispered to Rahul, who she was holding close to her face. "What do you mean ?" he inquired. "Make a pile on one of them," she replied. Rahul had to shut up otherwise he would have laughed aloud at the thought of it.
He leaned towards her and whispered, "We'll wait a moment until most of them lie, then we'll attack them. You'll rush in the camp and just trample everybody to mush. But watch out for the tent, it may be that Balfor is being held in it."She looked at him worriedly, nodded and said, "All right, let's do it." Rahul continued, "Before you attack, drop me off, I'll fight my way to the tent and try to free Balfor." She did not say anything, but Rahul noticed her getting instantly impatient and hastily looking back and forth between the mercenaries and the tent.
A few moments later, one of the other mercenaries rose and wandered to the edge of the forest. "Roghar, are you alright or do you need help with shitting?" he inquired in a set but sarcastic voice. He came closer and closer and Rahul hastily whispered to her "Let him get close, then step on him and sprint to the camp, try to kill as many as possible, let me down, fast."
Deva set him down beside her foot and fixed the approaching mercenary from her hiding place in the shadows of the trees. "Roghar, where are you, you rat?" The mercenary shouted a little louder this time, while Deva already impatiently drew her foot out of the smacking ground and lifted it. Although the man had difficulty seeing in the darkness, the light cast by the moon and stars into the forest, was enough to see the deep hollow.
Horrified he looked down into the crater in which the body of his comrade laid smashed beyond recognition and vomited out the contents of his stomach by this sight. He had just enough time to notice how blood and guts dripped down on him when Rahul signaled Deva. She stomped her raised foot down on the mercenary below like a blacksmith would have smashed his hammer on the anvil.
Blood, flesh and scraps of warm guts splashed in long beams and stained Rahul, though he had not yet struck down any of them. With the deafening noise of breaking wood and a rain of bark and twigs Deva charged directly into the camp and started to jump. Rahul followed her, intending to use the chaos that she did. When he reached the rocky ground where the mercenaries had set up the camp, she came down, legs spread, just by the fireplace.
A tremendous quake caused the rock to tremble in its basal state, wich caused Rahul to stumble briefly. Three men which lay close to another, were buried in a splashing fountain of blood, guts, and torn flesh under her left foot.Two others found their inevitable death under the heel and the instep of her right foot. The rest of the men got up hastily and reached for their weapons. They took no notice of Rahul, who charged at the tent with his sword drawn.
In the camp hell broke out. Deva roared with rage and anger, and only the cries of anguish from the enemies who either found death under her stomping feet, or were thrown around like toys in the force of her movements, drowned them out.Blood spurted, bones cracked, and flesh and muscle burst. Deva was soaked in purple over her ankles. Rahul had arrived at the tent and on the way there he had chopped a gaping wound across his chest to one of the mercenaries.
The curtain of the tent opened and the magician stepped out, and out of the corner of his eye, Rahul could still see a dark shadow breaking from the top of the cliff.
Before the dark figure, seemingly falling directly on Rahul, hit the ground, it unfolded two huge wings and flew up with a hoarse roar and a draft that nearly drew the tent out of it´s anchorage. A simple hand movement and a whispered word from the mage in a language unknown to him triggered a sudden onslaught of raging pain in Rahul's entire body. It was as if the blood in his veins had turned to acid and was now eating its way through his entire body. Desperately, on the other hand, he tried to fight and lift his sword arm to strike down the hooded figure, who was slowly approaching him, but the cramps became stronger every second and forced him to his knees.
As he stood over him, he leaned down to Rahul and stretched his long, thin fingers toward his face. "Is that her? Is she the tear?" He asked in the same high-pitched voice, that sounded like an echo from the realm of the shadows, as before. Rahul tried to stand up to him, but a new, strong spasm broke over him, and he hissed only incomprehensible sounds. "Of course she is. And you brought her directly to me," the wizard answered his own question with a sinister giggle.
A shrill outcry demanded Anh-An Dasmion's attention as the winged figure plunged from the sky onto Deva, stabbing it´s claws in her shoulder. Deva screamed loudly in pain and started to beat frantically around herself in an attempt to shake off the creature sitting on her shoulder. "No, Nathranas, no! Let go of her !" The mage shouted in horror at the picture and hurried towards the action. The creature obeyed instantly, freeing itself from Deva's shoulders, causing it to fall to the ground. Deva stumbled backward, clutching her left shoulder in pain. Between her fingers, some blood dripped out and fell to the ground in large drops ... silvery blood.
A moment later, Deva had gathered and was more than ready to tear the winged horror to pieces. Another spell from the Archmage interrupted her movement, and she could no longer move. Rahul was writhing on the floor with pain and was not master of his limbs, so strong were the cramps that pervaded him.
The winged creature, which was a good fifteen feet tall, reminded strongly of a dragon. It was none, however. Rahul knew these monsters under the name Wyvern. They were winged lizards that ran on two legs and were very devious. Occasionally, they trained themselves as mounts that could transport their master through the air, but one should not trust their ferocity.The Wyvern scrambled to it´s feet and crawled to it´s master's side, looking at Rahul from the corners of it´s eyes, it´s teeth bared.
"Get the prisoner and bring him to the tower, do not harm him, I'll wait for you there." Anh-An Dasmion spoke to his beast who then crept to the tent. The magician slowly approached the motionless frozen Deva, and despite the fact that he was masked, one could clearly see his tension and enthusiasm.
The cramps that tormented Rahul slowly became weaker. The Wyvern strode over him, but when it had passed him, it turned it´s long neck back to him and growled at Rahul sullenly. The animal then took the canvas between it´s teeth and tore it from the tent. Beneath it was a frame of timbers that normally held the tarpaulin and a large beam that had been rammed vertically in the floor.
Balfor was chained to it and Rahul´s and his eyes made contact. The Wyvern let out a low growl and started to flap it´s wings until it hovered directly over the beam.It grabbed the beam with its claws at the top and as it pulled it out of the ground, Balfor shouted to him, "Stand up Rahul, you can not let him take her. Find a priest of Thar and listen to the story of the Tears of Thar... Ask Adaril to aid you and forget about me". With increasing wing beats, the Wyvern rose with its load and carried it away to the northeast.
Rahul gradually regained control of his body and glanced over at Deva. Slowly, as quietly as possible, he crawled up to Anh-Dasmion, who was standing in front of the giantess and making a monologue as he cast some spell on her. Rahul pursued the gleaming beam that sprang from his outstretched, devout hand and found it´s target on her left shoulder. "I will heal you and take you to a suitable place, away from the peasants and savages", he said to Deva without noticing how Rahul was on his feet again and had pulled a dagger out of a shaft in his boot.
Rahul had no idea what he should do now. Would he murder the mage from behind, would that mean that Deva would stay in that state, or would she, like himself, slowly recover from the condition? He hesitated, looked around, and saw that the magician had picked up some of Deva's blood and filled it into a bottle that was now dangling from the belt he wore.
Had she just shrugged her eyelids? Rahul sneaked closer to the sorcerer who finished his spell the next moment. The gleaming beam faded and Rahul realized that Deva's shoulder was no longer wounded, not even a scar was visible. There it was again ... a momentary blink ... a twitching of her mouth. Rahul did not hesitate any longer and stabbed the mage with all his strength and up to the grip of the dagger in the right shoulder.
Anh-An Dasmion shrieked with agony and whirled around, for the reason that Rahul was torn from the dagger that was still buried deep in the mage's shoulder. The magician whispered a spell in a wicked voice and made a gesture with his left hand. Rahul did not know what hit him. It was as if the invisible fist of a giant had struck him, and he was catapulted in a straight line a good hundred feet back. As he bounced, he dived into a sea of r03;r03;pain before losing consciousness, but he could still hear Deva shouting his name.
The ground shook as he regained consciousness a few seconds later. Deva had jumped at the wizard with the intent to crush him under her feet but in the last second he had cast another spell.
A dome of tiny blue flashes surrounded the magician, who was on his knees holding the bleeding wound Rahul had inflicted on him. This dome must have kept him from being squeezed to pulp under Deva's feet. She trembled with rage and stamped again and again on the dome with the intention of stomping the structure and what protected it into the ground. The tiny flashes twitched with every kick, but did not give way. However, the wizard clearly had trouble keeping up his magic in order to not having to share the fate of his men as a puddle of red pulp on the floor.
Rahul wanted to help now and put the sorcerer to the final blow, but he was unable to move. He was lying on his stomach, bleeding from numerous wounds. Besides the three broken ribs, he now had a broken arm and certainly more rib fractures.A moan to his left gave him the assurance that he was not the only survivor suffering from pain. One of the mercenaries looked at him hatefully as he crawled towards him. Obviously, the man could not get up, but by the way the dagger that he held tightly clasped and the malicious gaze he had in his eyes, he was determined to give Rahul the rest.
Rahul was looking for his sword, but he had lost that at the first encounter with Anh-An Dasmion at the tent, which was far beyond his reach. The dagger was still in the mage's shoulder, and he had no other weapons to fend off the ever-closer man.Anh-An Dasmion struggled to his feet and fumbled under his robes. He took out an amulet and yelled, "You think you can take it with me?" He laughed shrilly and continued, "We'll see each other again in due time ... be prepared for the storm that will break over you."
With a crackling sound, the dome collapsed under Deva's foot, but not before the magician used the magic of his amulet to disappear. Deva looked under her foot to see if she had not caught him yet, but there was nothing but the pool of blood that had formed through the dagger wound. She was seething, and tears of disappointment filled her eyes.
Rahul heard him moan and groan, and could smell his sweat. The man was almost with him, maybe six feet away, when Rahul called with her last strength for the giantess. She looked to him and recognized the delicate situation in which he was. Slowly but purposefully, she strolled toward Rahul and the injured mercenary. Deva's eyes were blank and focused on Rahul. She paid no attention to the man, who was now eye to eye with Rahul, who was about to stab his dagger into his neck.Deva cast a long shadow over the two men lying on the ground. In her last step, she nailed the injured mercenary to the ground.
He was right under the ball of her right foot and his head and arms were visible from above through the spaces between her toes. Rahul could read horror and sheer panic in the eyes of the man from whom he was barely three feet away. Slowly Deva shifted her weight to the part of the foot under which the man's legs and pelvis were. The crackling and crunching of his bones as they splintered, along with the cries of pain, formed a symphony of horror. Deva paused, giving him time to catch his breath. "Help me ... get me out of here ... tell her to quit," the mercenary hissed at Rahul, gritting his teeth as he desperately tried to crawl away from under Deva's foot.
Rahul looked him in the eyes as Deva put her hands on her hips and looked down on her right side to the foot under which the devotee was. She shifted slightly more weight and broke his pelvis with a loud crunch . The man opened his eyes in horror and screamed with all his might. After another brief pause filled with the mercenary's screams of pain, she shifted her entire weight onto the ball of her foot, lifting the other and standing on tiptoe.
Rahul saw at close quarters how the man's upper body disappeared under Deva's foot with crackling, smacking sounds and was flattened. He was still trying to scream but with the air that was so abruptly squeezed out of his lungs he gave only an incomprehensible gargle. His eyes popped out of the eye sockets and hit Rahul in his face. At the same moment he bit off his tongue, which stuck out of his mouth. Then the skin between his neck and shoulder broke open and an incredible barrage of blood, flesh and intestines spilled out.
Rays of blood spurted in all directions from under Deva's foot and all over Rahul. The last thing he saw of the man was the head that first deformed and then burst like a tomato as Deva stood on tiptoe.
Rahul became unconscious again. When he woke up, it was already night. Moon and starlight cast a carefree peaceful light on the rock plateau. Everywhere lay the mutilated bodies of the mercenaries, crushed beyond recognition. Deva had not left anyone alive, and Rahul hoped somehow that she had quenched her thirst for revenge. He knew, however, that this was not the case.
He was laying soft and warm in her lap, her hands carefully and protectively placed around him. Rahul looked up at her and noticed how beautiful she was. Her stomach and chest raised and lowered regularly as she slept. In pain, Rahul managed to get to his knees, but at the same time she pulled her hands closer to her body and gently pressed Rahul against her bare, warm stomach. "Sleep now, little warrior, tomorrow we'll talk ... sleep now", she whispered half awake, half asleep.
To be continued.