“So if I’m followin’ this right,” the stone-faced mercenary guarding the compound’s entrance growled, his voice distinctly reminding one of sandpaper, “Th’ job you wan’ all us backin’ you up on is walkin’ half a world away ‘cross the uncharted outside the colony, so we can be your safety net agains’ sky-knows how many o’ them giant lady-freaks case your negotiations go south.”

The man didn’t look keen on taking the job, or even reporting it back to his comrades. Glenn could feel his limited confidence in this idea dissipating already.

“Well… that’s the basic idea.” he said with a half-hearted shrug. “I know trying to fight the Oeza sounds like a suicide mission, but-…”

Truthfully, if it could be helped, he didn’t want his quest to involve much fighting against the reclusive tribe at all.

The mercenary scoffed.

“I’ll give ya a little advice free o’ charge, son, and this ain’t jus’ comin’ from the Ever Blades, it’s comin’ from me; seems t’ me you’re an honest kid, wantin’ right in the world. I ain’t gonna tell ya you’re wrong t’ want answers, but tryin’ to stroll on up to the Oeza in their territory an’ just make em’ give it to ya is only gonna end with your sad corpse lyin’ in a field to be picked apart by whatever else is roamin’ the wilds. You stay well clear o’ the Oeza, and I’d bet ya live to be a hundred withou’ one o’ them ever botherin’ ya again.”

Glenn was silent for a few seconds. He was staring at the ground when the mercenary spoke up again.

“… I’m guessin’ you came from that old village, right?”

“I did.” Glenn replied in a quiet voice, turning away slightly.

The mercenary paused before solemnly adding, “I’m sorry for what happened to that place. Folk there didn’t deserve it.”

Glenn sighed. “… Thank you.”

---

Glenn Avelly appeared quite unremarkable at a glance, easily mistaken for any other young man living in the colony. Those more familiar with him could easily pick out his bright, optimistic face, striking amber eyes, unkempt brown hair, and near-universal colour preference for pale blue and grey in his clothing.

It took a more personal relationship, however, for one to know what motivated him to come to the home compound of the Ever Blades. The mercenary group operated primarily from the large compound Glenn was now leaving, taking jobs from travelers, business owners, and any other viable clients to come their way. The Blades were generally a dependable organization, but even they had their limits, and as Glenn had feared, what he came to ask of them proved to be too much of a risk to convince them to lend their aid.

Glenn was nineteen years old. Nearly twenty, he would usually tell anyone who asked. Until twelve years prior to his visit to the Ever Blades’ compound, he had been a well-mannered child living with his parents and friends in the village of his birth. The village, Ashoh, had been a relatively ideal place for a child, with little danger posed by any neighbouring wildlife or hazardous terrain, and until Glenn was seven years old, it had remained that way.

Today, however, all that remained of Ashoh was a collection of scattered ruins in a devastated stretch of mountainside.

---

Moments after exiting the compound, Glenn could practically hear Aine rolling her eyes as she walked up to him, matching his pace.

“I could’ve told you before you left that the Blades would turn you down.” she remarked. “Might have at least saved us the walk here and back.”

“And I’m sure you would’ve loved to.” Glenn replied without looking at her. “It doesn’t matter, Aine – we can handle this ourselves. We’ve got enough people.”

“We have four.” Aine said, with the air of a correction. “Three and a half, really, counting you.”

Aine was a clever, level-headed woman. Not many people in this area of the colony had the dedication to study magic on the level that she did, and even fewer could put it to practical use, but with her orderly mind so deeply set on the comprehension and use of the art, she was the perfect exception. With wavy, brown hair, grey eyes with a piercing glare, and practical, heavy clothing with all the necessary protections for one performing magic as potentially hazardous as that which she preferred, Aine stood out very clearly in any crowd of the colony’s people.

“Listen, Glenn.” she went on, when he didn’t initially respond to her jibe. “This isn’t something you’ll want to hear right now, but the Oeza – they aren’t like a raider gang, or some pack of beasts. In a fight, if just one of them got the drop on us, we’d probably all be dead before we knew what was happening.”

“I know.” Glenn answered. “That’s why we’re not out to fight them.”

“You keep saying that, but your ‘plan’ is hinging on the idea what we manage to track down some of the Oeza, and just by sheer luck, the ones we meet just happen to know about Ashoh, and why it was wiped out, as well as absolutely none of them feeling confrontational enough to get violent. Any mature Oeza woman is over a hundred feet tall, and they’re stronger than any animal around. If you piss one of them off, you can throw your entire personal quest in the trash.”

Glenn slowed down. “We’re just trying to talk with them. Everyone’s always told me that the Oeza are peaceful, and keep to themselves, but twelve years ago, a whole group of them attacked Ashoh and completely wiped it out. There was nothing left.” he said.

“Yeah, and if they wanted to, they could take over the whole colony in a week or two, Glenn. Even if the Blades got every last man they have together to help us out, the Oeza would stomp them and anyone else fighting back out in a few days.” Aine circled to the space just in front of him on the footpath, walking backwards. “I don’t know why they attacked Ashoh. No one does. I’m just saying that by all appearances, it was one freak incident; totally isolated. A handful of Oeza did something horrible, you’re right, but we have no idea who it was out of their whole tribe, and even less idea of why. No one’s ever even heard of them attacking anyone else but overconfident raiders before. And while I’m on that point, you know the reason that we do know the Oeza have taken raiders out before? It’s because someone stumbles across what’s left of them lying in a mess of giant footprints and blood.”

“That’s why we’re not picking a fight with them, Aine.” Glenn repeated. “Maybe when I was ten I dreamed of raising an army to take them on, but I know that’s not the right decision. All I want is to know why the Ashoh attack happened.”

Aine groaned to herself.

“And that means I have to come along to make sure you don’t just end up with your oh-so-heroic head being kicked around like a ball by raiders after they cut it off. Got it.”

---

The laughter of the bar’s only two remaining occupants could be heard as Glenn and Aine approached. Glenn pushed the doors open, and the sound died down a bit.

“Glenn!” Heavy boots struck the wooden floor, and their owner crossed the room to greet him. “So? What’d the Blades say?”

“They said ‘no’, Aster.” Aine answered in his place, moving off to the side once she was inside the bar to sit down at a nearby table. “Like there was ever a chance of any other answer.”

“Void-bitten cowards.” a low, powerful voice sighed from the middle of the room. The barman, called Doane, a hulking figure with a shaved head and a trimmed, dark beard, rose to his feet as well, setting his drink aside. “So we’re on our own?”

Aster laughed. “You used to be an Ever Blade, isn’t that right, Doane?” Doane made a dismissive gesture.

Aster was a year older than Glenn, and somewhere near twice his size. She was tall, standing over all three of the others in the room, well-muscled, and proud of the numerous scars prominently visible on her body. She had jet-black hair tied into a voluminous ponytail, and wore battered clothing befitting a professional brawler like herself, padded to absorb impacts as she hurled herself at opponents to overwhelm them with sheer power.

She threw an arm around Glenn’s shoulders, forcefully dragging him to her side and ruffling his hair with her other hand.

“We’ll make it.” she said. “Nothing’s hurting Glenn without getting through me first, Oeza or not.”

A smile on his weathered face, Doane joined the group near his bar’s entrance.

“There’s not a raider out there that could take you down on their own, that’s certain.” he said, meeting Aster’s friendly eyes. “And the Oeza? I’d like to see them try.”

Aster gave another familiar laugh. “Glad you know it, old man.” She tilted her head to the side, looking over at Aine, who was seated with a tome open on the table in front of her. One of her hands was idly gesturing beside her, ghostly images of forgotten runes of old fading in and out of view around her wrist. “Aine? We can still count on you to patch Doane up when he trips over a rock, right?”

Aine lowered her hand, the runes vanishing into the air. “Someone needs to keep all of you safe from Glenn’s hero complex. I’ll be right behind you.”

“I’ll be watching for that magic of yours.” Doane said. “You’re better’n anyone I ever met in thirty years with the Blades.”

Aine gave a rare smile, closing her tome and standing back up. “I hope I don’t disappoint you, then.” she said. “Now, if you can all pipe down for the evening, I’d like to get some rest before we set out.”

“Aye.” Doane agreed. “Aster, Glenn? Care for another drink, or should I just leave things for Ida?”

Glenn ducked his way out of Aster’s grip on his shoulders, taking his travel gear off and dropping it on one of the bar’s tables. He slipped his dagger out of its sheath and checked it over for a moment before tucking it away again and making for the bar’s back staircase.

“I’m done for tonight, too.” he said. “See you all in the morning!”

“Night, Glenn!” Aster called out. She looked back at where she’d been sitting with Doane. “That bottle’s still looking pretty tempting, but I’m not walking into the uncharted with a hangover.”

Doane gave a low laugh. “I’ll lock up for Ida, then.”

---

Lying on the cot Doane had prepared for him, Glenn spent a few minutes looking over the supplies he and his three allies had prepared for their journey. Food, water, backup weapons, clothing – everything was well in place, and checked over by Aine. The disappointment of the Ever Blades’ refusal to join them was still stinging in his mind a bit, but he could manage. It didn’t take him long to fall asleep.

---

Another scream was horribly cut off by a crash, and an awful sound of booming laughter, like the giggle of some void demon.

“Glenn!!”

He had stopped in place, reacting to the sound, and felt a strong grip on his shoulder. He looked up to see his mother, her face still frantic. Beads of sweat ran down her cheeks as she hastened him back into motion.

They had left their home several minutes ago, just after the attack began. Briefly hiding out in a storage hut while two of the Oeza stomped their way past them, Glenn and his mother were now back out in the open, running for a nearby gorge in the mountainside flanking the village.

He felt like his lungs were burning. Tears were streaking down his face, and his throat was choked, the horrible cacophony of screams and destruction all around him impossible to shut out.

Ashoh was in ruins. The night had been peaceful up until a sudden rumbling marked the arrival of several Oeza women, their devastating footfalls bringing them closer until they entered the space of the village itself, and from there, everything Glenn’s young mind knew had begun to fall apart.

He hadn’t seen any sign of his father since leaving their house. Woken up and needing to flee in a hurry, Glenn had only vaguely registered what his father was saying as his mother rushed him out the house’s side door and they began to run for safety. His father had stayed behind.

They reached the gorge, and Glenn tripped. His knees began to hurt, scraped against the stone at his feet. His mother helped him back up, lifting him off the ground and continuing to move, manoeuvring through the rocky gorge in an effort to reach the forest. They would need to get there by crossing the river, and in the dark, that was a risky task.

Hiding his face, Glenn was shocked back to focusing on his mother’s path when she screamed, halting in place.

Before them, a foot large enough to crush a person had appeared, a terrifyingly large figure looming above their heads. Long, messy hair gave the Oeza standing over them a look as if she had been an extension of the forest itself.

And then she was crouching, a massive hand approaching them.

The next thing Glenn knew, he was falling before splashing into the river. The current immediately began to drag him away, and he splashed frantically, choking.

He knew how to swim. He was good at it, even, but in the dark, and unsure of where his mother was, he couldn’t hope to get a clear grip on where he needed to swim to.

“GLENN…!!”

---

Glenn lurched to his side, almost striking his forehead against a crate next to the cot.

He blinked in confusion, and Aster’s familiar face swam into view.

“Glenn.” she said, her face filled with concern. “You have a nightmare?”

He let out a breath.

“Y-yeah. Nightmare. Sorry… did I wake you up?”

Aster pushed backward, sliding across the floor to her own cot across the small room.

“It’s alright.” she said. “You were panicking. You still sure you’ll be alright to set out in the morning?”

His heart was still thundering wildly in his chest, and he sighed.

“I’ll manage. Thanks, Aster.”

She watched him for a second before her face split into a wide grin.

“Good to hear. What kind of best friend would I be if I didn’t make sure?”

Glenn smiled. “Even if you didn’t, I’d say you were still a pretty good one. G’night.”

“Night.”

“So we’re all set? No one left their bra behind?”

Naturally, Aster’s voice was the loudest among the four as they completed the last of their preparations for their journey. For the past several minutes, she had been trailing from one friend to the next, double- and triple-checking everyone’s gear and supplies, while clearly enjoying the mild irritation this tended to inspire from Aine in particular.

At last, most of the group was out the front door of the bar, everything they needed safely packed up for travel.

“Glenn! Wait a second!”

He turned, looking back in surprise at the sound of the soft voice.

“Ida?”

Doane’s niece, and another long-time friend of his, Ida was the next in line to take ownership of her uncle’s famous bar once he felt ready to pass it down. She couldn’t possibly have looked more different from her uncle, with tanned, smooth features and a veritable waterfall of chocolate-brown hair spilling down her back and over her shoulders.

She smiled, standing in front of Glenn at the doors. Stepping forward for a moment to give him a brief hug, she let out a little sigh. “I know there’s no chance in all the void that I’ll manage to talk you out of this, so just do me a favour, OK?”

“Uh… sure?”

“Do your best not to get any of you four killed, alright? Least of all yourself. I’d miss having you all around too much.”

Glenn laughed. “We’ll be fine, Ida. I promise. A week or so at most, and we should be back home, ready for a good drink.”

“You’d better be.” Ida replied, offering one last smile before she turned to head back to the bar. It was nearly time for her to open up for the day, though there likely wouldn’t be anyone coming in for at least a couple of hours yet.

“Glenn, my niece isn’t trying to cuff you to the bar and keep you from leaving, is she?” Doane’s booming voice sounded from outside.

“Coming!”

---

The edge of the colony was out of sight now. Anything beyond where the group currently stood was uncharted land, and home primarily to wildlife, particularly brave travelers, and in worse cases, raiders.

It was mid-morning as Glenn led his three allies down a long stretch of hillside to reach the edge of a mountain pass. There had, as expected, been no sign of the Oeza yet, as they were not known to come anywhere near the edge of the colony most of the time. The giantess tribe had more than earned their reputation as a passive and reclusive bunch, keeping well away from human civilization and usually only being met on rare occasions by wayward travelers. Word occasionally made it through the colony that someone out in the uncharted had encountered them, normally just exchanging a brief greeting at most before carrying on their way. The pass ahead, however, was sometimes rumoured to be a location they visited for one reason or another.

“You have to be curious, too, Aine.” Aster was saying.

“I am, but that doesn’t mean I want to be out here babysitting Glenn to make sure he doesn’t do anything suicidally stupid.” Aine replied. “If I had to guess, I’d imagine that the group of Oeza that attacked Ashoh were… how do I put this…? They might have been social outliers of some kind. Attacking a human settlement is completely out of character for them.”

Glenn was listening, but ever since devising this plan, he had spent most of his conversations with Aine listening to her insult his intelligence and generally express her disdain for his opinions, so he tended to tune most of her words out whenever she wasn’t directly addressing him.

“Now, if I were as stubbornly optimistic about this plan as Glenn is,” Aine went on, “I might hope that the rest of the Oeza might not quite jump at the chance to defend the group behind the attack. Once they hear what happened from Glenn, at least.”

Surprised, Glenn glanced back at Aine. She naturally tempered it with her usual sarcastic edge, but she actually seemed to be genuinely considering the potential merits of his plan at the moment. If she’d really felt like there was no reason at all to have faith in what he hoped to accomplish, then she would have stonewalled the entire plan from the beginning.

“Fellow up ahead, there.” Doane said, interrupting the conversation by pointing outward in the direction of the mountains.

He was right; not too far from their current location, Glenn could see a man making his way past a rocky section of the terrain. He was dressed in the manner typical of travelers brave enough to explore the uncharted. Glenn felt a brief swell of hope in his chest, and picked up the pace.

“Excuse me!” he called out once he was closer. The man had looked as if he was partially keeping an eye on him as he moved, and now looked up properly to see him. “Sorry to bother you, but… well, this is going to be a bit of a weird question, but is there any chance you’ve ever seen any Oeza around this area?”

The man stopped, bracing his arm against the side of a sharp boulder.

“You say ‘Oeza’?” he responded. “Y’mean them hundred-foot-high lady-monsters?”

“Right.” Glenn said, nodding. He gestured back toward the trio following him. “We’re… looking for them.”

The traveler – he looked to be a hunter of some kind, now that Glenn saw him up-close – gave him a curious look. “Actually want t’find the Oeza? There’s easier ways of dyin’, out here.”

“Look, I know it sounds really strange, but please – is there anything you can tell me about them?” Glenn prodded. “I’ve heard that they sometimes visit areas near here, and anything you can give me will help.”

The others were stopping just behind him. The hunter paused a moment, glancing at the rest of the group.

“Afraid not.” he said after the moment of silence. “Can give you a tip, though, if you’re plannin’ t’keep movin’ out this way.” He gestured back to the mountain pass. “Y’see this rocky gorge? Unless y’favour fightin’ your way along past sharp rocks and a raider gang, I suggest y’stay away from there. Y’can pass ‘round the canyon to the left side there. Slower, but them raider bastards won’t cut your throat.”

“Oh.” Glenn said, surprised. “Um… well, thank you.” He stepped forward, moving to the hunter’s side to look off at the pass. “How far along the-“

He was suddenly interrupted by Aine’s voice calling out, and a sound like a powerful gust of wind. The hunter beside him yelled out in confusion, seeming to freeze in place, and by the time Glenn managed to turn and see what was happening, Aster had charged right past him, tackling the hunter to the ground at full force.

“Wh-what in the void…!?” Glenn stammered, staring. As was always the case when Aine practiced her magic, ghostly images of runes could be seen floating in the air surrounding the hunter’s body as Aster held him down, her other elbow digging into his throat. “A-Aster, what’s-“

“He’s a raider, Glenn.” Doane answered. “Aine spotted him going for his knife while your guard was down. Stunned him with some kind of spell.”

“Raider…?” Glenn repeated, looking back down at the man on the ground. “But why would-“

Another loud sound cut him off again; a bang like a firecracker going off had split through the silence of the area, and an explosion of black smoke erupted from the ground, forcing Glenn to stagger backward, coughing. He heard panicked voices all around, and hastily grabbed at the fabric flap attached to the collar of his travel wear, tugging a blue mask into place over his mouth and nose. It couldn’t stop the smoke entirely, but he could at least stop himself coughing. His other hand moved to draw his dagger, and he tried to ready himself. There were people moving around in the billowing clouds of smoke, which now filled all the space around him. He wanted to swing at any figure that approached him, but there was no way to identify enemy from friend with such poor visibility.

He let out a startled yell as someone caught him from his left side. The next thing he knew, he was on the ground for himself. Before he could fight back, his dagger was knocked from his grip, clattering against the stones on the ground, and he suddenly found a knife resting against his own throat. His eyes were watering, but he could make out what looked like a woman’s face, wearing a mask over her mouth and nose as well.

A rough hand dug into the satchel at his side, rifling through its contents.

“Nothing!?”

The woman cursed loudly, pressing her knife more firmly against his throat. Any harder, and he would be bleeding out in seconds. His heart pounding in his chest, he frantically looked around for any sign of his friends. Strangely, the woman holding him down seemed to flinch for a moment, but whatever had caused it, she shrugged it off a moment later.

“Enjoy the void, y-you-… ugh-…”

Confusingly, the woman went limp, her knife sliding from her grip and dropping harmlessly to the ground as she collapsed on top of him. Not wasting time, Glenn pushed back against her, forcing her weight off of him. As he rolled her motionless body to his side, he spotted a long bolt embedded in her left shoulder, a slight trail of blood dripping from its point of entry.

With the raider on the ground, Glenn grabbed his dagger and stood up again, still panting with the adrenaline rush that had set into his whole body in the past few moments.

In front of him, he spotted another raider through the smoke, his unfamiliar clothing and filthy hair giving him away. Glenn lunged, driving his dagger straight into the man’s back, and the raider let out a choked sound, going totally rigid on the spot. With one hand braced to his enemy’s shoulder, Glenn yanked his dagger back out, bringing a spray of blood with it. He kicked the raider’s left knee from behind next, sending him crumpling to the ground.

Barely two seconds after the second had fallen, a third raider crashed to the ground next to his comrade, knocked clean off his feet. Glenn looked and spotted Aster regaining her balance after landing the devastating punch. The raider looked as if most of his teeth had just shattered, and his head had struck the ground with a sickening sound.

“Alright, Glenn?” Aster called out, seeing him as well.

Suddenly, the remaining smoke surrounding them swirled into motion, and the area cleared as it rushed up into the sky, dispelled in an instant.

Aine was standing near the centre of the brawl, her hand raised in the air to direct the smoke away, runes swirling all around her arm. A wind spell of some kind, no doubt.

Glenn next spotted the raider he’d been speaking with before the attack began. The man must have gotten free after the smoke bomb exploded, but was now very quickly grabbed by Doane, a crushing grip on his neck. Doane slammed him against the nearby boulder, holding him there. Glenn was startled to see at least four other raiders on the ground, the entire group apparently taken down by the combined efforts of his friends in a matter of moments.

“So let’s forget the Oeza for a moment,” Doane said, his voice laced with uncharacteristic venom. “There are some other subjects I’d like to cover with you first.”

The raider was struggling, but couldn’t budge Doane’s muscular arm.

Aster suddenly whirled around, drawing everyone’s attention.

Another man had appeared, dressed quite differently from the raiders. A rust-coloured greatcoat covered most of his body, making his build near-impossible to identify. He had a mess of auburn stubble all over the lower half of his face, and the rest of his hair stuffed down the back of his heavy coat. In his arms, he carried an intimidating crossbow, clearly extensively modified from its original design. His coat also seemed to have several attached belts and holders for other equipment looking to be related to the crossbow.

 “Got teh say, my friends, it is right beautiful t’see someone ou’ here fighting this bastard raider scum withou’ ending up dead on the ground the firs’ mistake they make.”

Striding up the boulder where Doane was holding the raider, the newcomer jammed the weapon’s bolt straight up at the raider’s face.

“Now then,” he went on, “Yeh mus’ be the scout fer this lot. Looks like most o’ yer friends are takin’ a one-way trip teh the void by now, but that one there is still alive.” Hefting the crossbow in one hand, the man pointed his free hand back toward the raider woman that had been attacking Glenn before being shot in the shoulder, jabbing a thumb in her direction. He then dug into one of the pouches hanging from his greatcoat and produced a vial of some kind. “I give ‘er about eight or nine more minutes ‘fore the coating on tha’ bolt turns ‘er into a vegetable. I’ve got the antivenom righ’ here, so it’s my humble recommendation tha’ yeh tell the big man what he wants teh know.”

The raider continued to struggle, looking frantically down at his last remaining comrade. The woman was still motionless on the ground, her eyes rolled back in her head. The sight might have been concerning, had she not been trying to kill Glenn just a minute or two earlier.

“By the way,” the newcomer added, lowering his crossbow and looking at Doane, “Wha’ exactly do yeh wan’ from this lowlife?”

Doane, still holding the raider firmly against the boulder, returned his attention to his interrogation subject. “Any more of your friends around?” he asked. The raider frantically shook his head to the best of his ability. “Good to hear. Going back to Glenn’s question, have you ever seen the Oeza out here?”

His voice alone would’ve been reason enough for Glenn to crack under pressure. He’d never seen Doane back in his Ever Blades days, and was quite unused to seeing his bar-owner friend in such an intimidating mood.

“A-alright, alright, fine, yeah-…!!” the raider choked, clutching at Doane’s wrist with both hands. "But we always stay as far from them as we can…!! The only idiots who ever tried t’mess with those she-freaks ended up stomped t’death and left as a stain on the rocks…!!”

“I can believe it.” Aine remarked. “If they were anywhere near as dumb as you, and the rest of your friends here.”

The raider uttered something vile toward Aine under his breath, only for Doane to tighten the iron grip he held on the smaller man’s throat, forcing him to scramble desperately against the boulder in pain.

“I wouldn’t go insulting her.” Doane said dangerously. “Even if I don’t kill you, she’ll curse the lungs out of your chest.”

“Hey, hate teh interrupt,” the crossbow-wielding man interjected, “But I’ll have teh revise that estimate. I give the woman on the ground five more minutes at most ‘fore her brain’s as rotted as ‘er teeth. Course, I could always jus’ shoot ‘er in the head an’ save us all the time…”

“I-I can tell you where we saw them…!!” the raider scout begged.  He raised a shaking arm, pointing toward the opposite end of the mountain pass from where he’d previously tried to direct them. “The Oeza… they always come from out that way…!!”

Doane glanced backward at Glenn, and then toward Aine and Aster. No one objected, and at last, he threw the raider to the ground. The man landed with a strained grunt, clutching at his throat and gasping.

“Right.” Doane said, stepping back. “Glenn, lead the way.”

“Uh…”

Glenn watched the man in the greatcoat as he attached his crossbow to a holster of some kind at his side. He crouched next to the raider and set the vial he’d offered on the rocks.

“Bes’ give that to ‘er in short order.” he said, clapping the back of his hand against the raider’s face before straightening up for himself again.

“Hey…” Glenn said, stepping toward him. “We never got your name.”

The man looked him in the eye for a moment, then grinned.

“Call me Bade.” he said. Gesturing with one hand, he directed them away from the boulder. The group followed, leaving the raider scrambling to revive his only surviving comrade behind them. “An’ no need teh thank me for the save. It’s just good teh see travelers that ain’t too useless teh handle half a dozen raiders.”

Aster laughed. “I had opponents back in training who were tougher.”

“Yeh’ll be a champion brawler, then?” Bade inquired. “Hand-teh-hand was never my bag, but yeh look like yeh could’ve taken at leas’ half that scum back there down on yer own.”

“Oh, you flatter me.” Aster responded with another confident laugh. “Say… wanna join up with us?” She clapped a firm hand against Glenn’s shoulder, causing him to briefly stumble. “Glenn here is trying to track down a group of Oeza he met years back.”

“Right… Oeza.” Bade repeated, looking carefully at the four members of the group. “Can’t say I’ve got more experience than th’next man at fighting hundred-foot-tall lady giants.”

“No one has experience fighting them.” Aine said dismissively. “Unless you count the second and-a-half of panic before they turn into a bloodstain on the underside of an Oeza’s foot.”

Glenn sighed. “We’re not looking to fight them, Bade. I just want to talk once we find them.”

Bade gave him a curious look. “Talk? That might be even more strange.”

“Of course, if things don’t quite work out, I’d love to see what those bolts of yours might do to one of the Oeza.” Aster added.

Bade gave a low laugh. “Good point, girl. Still…”

“I can pay you!” Glenn suddenly blurted out. Doane glanced at him from the corner of his eye, immediately recognizing this as a lie. To the group’s considerable surprise, however, it was Aine who spoke up next.

“He can.” she lied. “And given that you clearly know your way around medicine better than these three, I think you could make a good addition to Glenn’s team. … I wouldn’t mind learning a bit from you, as well, if you don’t mind.”

Another laugh. “Yeh want lessons on medicine after I jus’ watched yeh cast a whole smoke cloud into the sky with a flick of yer hand? Well… in that case, yeh’ve got a deal.”

“Yes!” Glenn threw a hand forward. Bade accepted, giving a firm handshake.

“Tell yeh the truth, wandering the uncharted alone gets a bit boring. Think I can stand having some friends ‘round for a change.” he said.

---

As all of this was going on, up on an outcropping of rocks, a fair distance up the looming cliffs, a raider was watching the last two survivors of the group down on ground level stagger away from the site of their failed attack. He stood up, dusting himself off, and began to walk, a full rundown of what he and his friends would soon be up against already prepared in his head.

“Agh-…!”

Glenn’s exclamation of surprise was followed by a few seconds spent blinking, one of his hands partially covering his eyes. He hadn’t been expecting to wake up with a brightly-glowing ball of flame hovering in the air before him. Once he had a moment for his eyes to adjust, he shuffled to a sitting position. Aine was on her feet already, leaning casually against a wall with one hand lazily held out in the air, keeping the sphere of magical flame alight.

The cave looked unchanged from the night before, when the group had settled in to rest.

After spending the remainder of their first travelling day making their way around the surrounding cliffs following the raider attack, everyone had been quite ready to find somewhere to sleep for the night. Most fortunately, they had come across a cave that seemed well suited for the job, and before long, supplies had been laid out and spaces had been claimed inside their makeshift shelter.

Glenn stood up, glad that he hadn’t been sleeping on the rocks alone. Bringing along their cots from the bar had been a wise decision.

He stretched for a moment, and was just beginning to move toward the cave’s entrance when he felt a strong grip on his shoulder. Aster had stopped him.

“Hold on.” she said, then looked backward into the cave. “Bade! Glenn’s up, so care to get rid of that thing you put outside?”

“I hear yeh, I hear yeh… give a man a moment…”

Bade looked quite a bit smaller without his greatcoat and collection of gear on. He approached the entrance to the cave, where light was filtering in, and crouched to the ground to locate something.

“Ah…”

With a firm pull, he wrenched free a component of some kind from a concealed trap that he had assembled in front of the cave, apparently disabling the device. Gathering it up, he returned to his place in the furthest section of the small cavern.

“Alright, go on.” Aster said, releasing Glenn’s shoulder. “Just thought you’d like it better if you didn’t lose your legs trying to walk outside.”

Glenn chuckled, giving his best friend a grin.

“Appreciated.”

Stepping outside, Glenn took a look around. The cave was fairly remote, and there didn’t appear to be any signs of raiders nearby. No one had sprung Bade’s trap overnight, at any rate.

“Glenn.” Doane said from behind him, walking up to meet him. “If you’re taking a walk first thing, don’t go alone.”

“You don’t need to tell me twice.” Glenn agreed. “I guess you didn’t hear any Oeza footsteps overnight, either?”

The pair began to walk the area surrounding the small cave together.

“Afraid not.” Doane replied. “Not that any trap our new friend set out would be likely to help, if one of them came stomping around.”

Their walk wasn’t long; circling back to the cave, Glenn felt about ready to set out for the day once more, at least once he’d gotten something to eat. Aster was carrying the group’s food, though Bade naturally had some of his own as well.

Upon their return, they found the rest of their group gathered near a small fire Aine had set a short distance into the cave.

“There you two are! Get over here, you wouldn’t believe the food Bade’s got with him!” Aster called out, beckoning them over.

Doane laughed. “And the way I’ve seen you eat, I’d wager we don’t have long before it’s gone!”

“Right you are.” Aine said with a small nod. “Find a spot, old man. And you too, I suppose, Glenn.”

---

The travelling party enjoyed their breakfast together, exchanging further banter one way or the other. Even Aine could be seen laughing at the occasional joke, helped by the presence of Aster and Doane, two people she was actually willing to acknowledge as her friends.

When at last it came time to set out again, with the varied supplies and food gathered back up and stowed safely away, Aster was again the first outside, more than ready for another day’s travels. She had chosen a lighter outfit today, with her muscular arms out on display in the absence of sleeves. She fiddled with the bit of padded armour strapped to her left elbow as she observed her companions gathering outside the cave with her.

Glenn yawned rather loudly, not noticing as Aine rolled her eyes in response.

“Good to go.” he said, drawing his dagger and looking it over. Once it was stowed away again, having been thoroughly cleaned after the previous day’s run-in with the raiders, he looked forward in the direction of the still-rising sun and flashed a familiar grin.

“So,” Aine sighed, back to her usual deadpan, “Where to, hero?”

Glenn glanced back, and then shrugged. “Dunno. Same way as we were headed last night?”

“Aye.” Doane stepped forward, examining the path ahead for himself. “That coward raider seemed about ready to piss himself when he pointed us in that direction. It should be a safe start.”

“So we’ll jus’ hope no more o’ them oxygen-wastin’ pansies decide t’step into our path again today, won’t we?” Bade jibed.

“What, out of darts that melt brains?” Glenn asked as he began to jog forward. “C’mon, keep up!”

Aster darted forward, and her comparatively massive steps passed by him almost instantly.

---

They were nearing the last of the cliffs. Whatever was beyond would most likely be considerably more flat and open, which meant that they would at least have more warning if they were about to be attacked.

“Hold on.” Bade suddenly interjected, after the group had been silent for a minute or so. Glenn looked back to find the older man pointing off in the direction of a forested area. “Trees’re missing.”

“What?”

Bade turned from the path, moving off toward the area he’d indicated. When the others followed, they could see what he meant; an entire open space in the adjacent forest that ought to have been as densely populated with trees as the rest seemed to be quite barren at an initial glance, but upon closer examination, it was actually marked by dozens and dozens of fallen trees, jagged stumps left in their place, and trunks split and broken all across the area. It looked as if a particularly vengeful but exceptionally unskilled team of lumberjacks had worked the place over, taking everything they could reach down in crude fashion.

“… Oeza. Not a doubt in my head.” Bade stated plainly.

“Wait, you’re sure?” Glenn asked. He spotted a withered-looking tree that remained standing and clambered his way up to an upper branch. His eyes visibly opened wide. Sounding a bit breathless, he nodded and said, “I-it looks exactly like…”

“Glenn!”

Aster rushed up to meet him, standing beneath his position in the tree. Glenn had suddenly slumped in place, only barely catching himself against a branch. His usually-cheerful expression was almost blank-looking.

“Glenn, talk to me!”

He blinked a few times, then groaned, shaking his head.

“S-sorry, it just…”

Aster was looking out at the fallen mess of trees that scattered across the wide space before them now for herself. “… It looks like Ashoh, doesn’t it?”

Aster hadn’t been there for herself at the time of the attack, but she had visited the ruins of the village with Glenn before. He never handled visiting the place well, but insisted upon returning every year or two. Aster had to admit that the destruction here in the forest distinctly reminded her of what was left following the attack on Glenn’s home village. She remembered seeing entire homes and shelters crushed into rubble and scattered bits of debris, and patches of earth torn up entirely, as if the Oeza rampaging across the village had done their level best to devastate as much of the area within as possible. The footprints were horrifying enough, indicative of feet large enough to crush several people to death at once, but the pattern of the damage on the ground almost seemed to show that the attacking Oeza had been outright wrestling atop the devastated ruins, treating the destructive attack as little more than entertainment.

“Glenn, c’mon…”

She helped him down from the tree, leading him back to the rest of the group. Staying around here, in an area that reminded him so strongly of the trauma in his past, wouldn’t do Glenn any favours.

“We know the Oeza have been around here. We can check the surrounding area.” Aine advised once they had regrouped.

“R-right.” Glenn agreed. “Didn’t want to go clambering around on a bunch of fallen trees, anyway.”

Aster gave an encouraging laugh, but watched her friend closely for a few moments to follow. She wasn’t afraid to admit that she was worried about him.

---

Back out of the forest, the group continued along the trail separating the trees from the last of the cliffs.

“Seein’ as the Oeza were near enough t’be tearin’ up tha’ stretch o’ forest,” Bade was thinking aloud, “I’d say it’s a fine wager we’ll see plenty more signs of ‘em ‘round the place.”

“I did already say that, but you have a point.” Aine remarked. “No one as oversized as them could get here and away again without making a mess of the area.”

“Aye, but yeh might not know tha’ there was a fierce rainfall here jus’ two days ago.” Bade went on next. “Could make whatever they might’a left behind a touch harder to spot.”

“Hmm. Also true…”

Falling silent again, Aine began to gesture with her hands in the space just in front of her, magical energy beginning to swirl in place between her palms.

“’Nother o’ yer spells?” Bade inquired.

“Just practicing my control.” Aine answered without looking up. She didn’t even have her eyes open as she walked along.

Doane was the next to speak. “Cliffs are ending.” he remarked. “If the Oeza did leave any other evidence out here, it should be easier to see once we’re past-“

His voice was cut off by the sudden, roaring noise of an explosion. An entire stretch of trees to the group’s right erupted in a sizeable fireball, leaving minimal time to react as debris and ash scattered into the air.

Bade cursed loudly, whirling around on the spot. He hastily wrenched his elaborate crossbow from its holster at his side, hefting it upward and looking around for any further signs of hostility. “Raiders again!” he said aloud. “Eyes open!”

Glenn was better prepared this time, drawing his dagger and moving toward a sturdy rock formation for cover. Aster suddenly dropped into place next to him, having vaulted over the largest boulder entirely. She pushed him downward a bit, one hand on his shoulder.

Back out in the open, Aine, Bade, and Doane had moved into a tighter formation together, watching different directions.

Another explosion suddenly rocked the area again, this time above them. Fragments of rock came tumbling down, forcing the group to reposition.

“Got ‘em!” Bade aimed his crossbow upward, beginning to move again. “Bastards’re up on the cliffside!”

Another explosion. Now that they all had some idea of where their attackers were, it became clear that the raiders were hurling explosives of some kind down from their vantage point above.

“We aren’t safe here…” Glenn said, drumming a hand uncertainly against the boulder. “Aine! Anything you can do?”

“Pipe down, it’s a work in-progress!”

Bade fired a shot upward, then bolted toward the same rock formation Glenn and Aster had taken as cover. The bolt he’d just launched was attached to a length of some kind of cord, which was now rapidly unwinding from a brace mounted to the back of his greatcoat. He grabbed the end of the line, and extended his arm toward Aster. At the same moment, a voice cried out from above, suggesting a raider was in pain.

“Only got one o’ these. Be a peach an’ give this line a pull, would yeh?” Bade asked as Aster grabbed the cord from him. She did as requested, firmly yanking on the line with both hands. The same voice from above was suddenly heard again, this time letting out a drawn-out scream.

A raider fell into view, and Glenn grimaced slightly at the sight. The bolt that Bade had fired had embedded itself in the unfortunate target’s chest, and the raider was now hurtling down from the cliff, still bleeding from the entry wound.

A heavy-looking bag was falling with him. Reacting quickly, Aine performed a spell of some kind, and the large satchel slowed in its descent, coming to a gentle stop on the rocky ground.

Its owner was less fortunate. With a sickening impact, the raider crashed to the ground, his scream ending very promptly. His survival seemed unlikely.

Aine rushed toward the cliff to join the others now, Doane just a few steps behind her. He only narrowly evaded another explosion as a bomb was dropped onto the space he and Aine had just been occupying, resulting in another fireball seconds after it landed. Momentarily stopping to wrench the grappling bolt out of the dead raider’s body, he joined his comrades under the cliffside as well.

“Stupid bastards…” Bade was saying, accepting his grapple line back from Doane. “Got enough explosives there t’level a village, an’ they just stand up there chuckin’ ‘em down at us. Could’ve jus’ set a trap big enough t’send every one of us t’the void in one go.”

“Well, seeing as they didn’t, what’s the next move?” Aine asked, panting with the strain of having to so quickly switch between concentrating on spells and sprinting for safety.

“This.”

Bade suddenly launched forward, and at the same moment, several more bombs landed nearly, setting off yet more explosions that threatened to bring down the entire stretch of cliffside above the group. Deftly avoiding the landing zones, Bade reached the dropped bag of explosives the fallen raider had been hauling and turned on his heel, bringing it right back. He stopped early, reaching into the bag and pulling out three of the handheld explosives it contained.

“Magic lass – any chance yeh know a barrier spell or summat?”

Aine sighed, but threw her hands forward, her usual display of ghostly runes appearing around both her arms and Bade’s position. Bade, meanwhile, was fastening the three explosives he’d taken to another different bolt from within his greatcoat.

“Get ready teh run!” he called out, before aiming his crossbow upward again and firing off a shot.

The bolt looked unlikely to make a lot of distance with three bombs crudely fastened to it, but it seemed to perform at least as well as Bade had hoped. A moment passed, and a deafening blast shook the entire space around them.

“Move!!”

Wasting no time, the group took off from their position behind the rocks, following Bade’s lead as he slung his crossbow back into place at his side.

All around them, streaks of bright flame fell from the space above, as if the sky was raining fire down on them. The raiders up on the cliffs were in a complete panic, screams erupting all around. Bade’s shot had clearly caused all the trouble he needed.

Keeping pace with his friends, Glenn briefly looked back, and his mouth fell slightly open.

The entire cliffside above where they’d been positioned was a miniature inferno, flames blanketing the band of raiders from above. Whatever had been in the bolt Bade had used, it had reacted quite powerfully with the pilfered explosives.

---

Moving back into the forest, the group came to a halt as they arrived next to a river.

No one could speak completely clearly, their exhaustion from the past few minutes finally taking effect. Glenn slumped into the grass, panting for air, but when he looked up again, he had a wide grin on his face.

“Bade, that was-…” He barely even knew what to say. The new recruit in their travelling party was already proving to be a more valuable addition than he ever could’ve hoped to receive.

Bade laughed for a moment between heavy breaths.

“Raiders? They’re nothing.” he said. A moment later, he gave a strained groan and toppled to his side, clearly also exhausted.

“You could’ve saved at least one of them for me.” Aster laughed. “Haven’t punched anything today.”

For a few minutes, the group exchanged only the odd comment here and there, just resting in the aftermath of the attack. The raiders seemed unlikely to try and pursue them, if any had even survived Bade’s counterattack.

Aster was at the riverside, splashing water onto her face.

“Aine, you still worried we aren’t gonna make it back home?” she asked, grinning. Aine didn’t respond. “Aine?”

She looked back to find Aine staring at the ground, her eyes tracing a path along it.

“What, see something?”

Aine stood up, taking a step back.

“Look at where we’re sitting.” she said plainly. Aster blinked, pushing a bit of her black hair away from her face.

“… W-wait…”

“These are footprints.” Aine said, backing up for a better look. “We’ve all been sitting right in them!”

“Huh?”

Glenn rose to his feet as well, and to his amazement, he could almost immediately tell that Aine was exactly right. The ground at the riverside, where they’d all been resting, was visibly sunken down in several different areas around them, and now that he looked, he could pick out the shape of a bare foot, several toes…

“The Oeza have been right here?”

It seemed so. The recent rain appeared to have partially masked them, but there were clearly footprints left by at least one Oeza woman dotting this area, looking identical to human footprints, though obviously much larger.

Doane gave a low laugh.

“So those raiders actually pointed us right to where we needed to be.” he said. “By the void…”

“Then we follow the tracks.” Glenn said. He darted along the river for a moment, and his face lit up. “Yes! They go right along here!”

The shift in luck was hard to believe.

---

Once everyone was sufficiently rested, they were on the move again. Following the river upstream, they were able to continually track the movement of at least one Oeza woman, if not more, weaving along the thinner area of forest that now surrounded them.

It was hard not to be intimidated by the incredible size of the footprints, each one large enough to match the entire bodies of at least two people, but with the addition of Bade to their group…

“Oeza won’t stand a chance against us…!”

The group was silent, and Glenn became aware of what he’d just said a moment later.

“I-I mean…”

“And there it is.” Aine sighed. “You keep saying it, but you just can’t get your fantasy about fighting them out of your head, can you, Glenn?”

“I didn’t-… look, I know we can’t hope to just walk up and starting swinging, but…”

“Glenn, I followed all of you out here because Doane and Aster are my friends, and even if you’re a stubborn moron who can’t shake his delusional hero fantasies, I’d really rather not let you get killed. But if you start trying to pick a fight with the Oeza, you can forget about me backing you up.”

“Aine.” Aster interjected, sounding stern.

“If Glenn wants a suicide mission, he can have it, but I’m not sticking around.” Aine went on, turning her glare to her friend. “Being ambushed by raiders twice was enough for me. He’s lucky to even still be alive, Aster.”

Aster sighed. “You always call Glenn an idiot, but he isn’t one. He’s a great guy, and I’ve got his back no matter how this goes.”

Doane nodded. “Aine, I’ve known you since you could barely speak, let alone use magic well enough do half of what you can do now. I won’t tell you that you have to agree with Glenn, but just think again about why you’re out here. And you know -- if you’re afraid, you’ve got every right to be.”

Aine cast him a frustrated look. “The only thing I’m afraid of is Aster and Glenn getting the rest of us killed.”

Bade had slowed down, trailing behind the group to avoid participating in the conversation.

“Oi!” he called out suddenly. “There’s a lake up ahead!”

Distracted by their conversation, the others hadn’t noticed, but he was right. There was a large clearing up ahead, and with it, a reasonably large lake came into view, the sun sparkling off the clear surface of the water.

“Good time for a proper break.” Aine said. It sounded as if she very much wanted to end the discussion that had been building up. “Is anyone hurt at all? Healing is… complicated, but I can probably help, if you’re in any pain.”

“Aye, brilliant.” Bade said, stepping forward. He removed his greatcoat, all of its equipment clattering loudly on the ground as he dropped it. “Haven’t had the time teh check for bruises, but…”

“Let me see.” Aine said, examining him.

“Aster? Wanna go for a quick swim?” Glenn asked.

Aster blinked in surprise, but then grinned. “You’re on.” She shook her heavy boots off, kicking them aside.

Glenn removed his own boots as well, along with taking off all of his travel gear and the blue coat he favoured. By the time he worked his undershirt off of his head, Aster was already moving toward the water.

With most of her clothing removed, her imposing figure was put on full display. Her back was scarred in several places, much like the rest of her body, and the incredible muscle mass she was so proud of was accentuated more than ever now that she was dressed only in thin shorts and a bra.

She rushed into the water, beckoning for Glenn to join her. He tossed his undershirt aside as well, and followed.

While the two friends enjoyed a bit of time swimming in the lake, Aine had moved on to checking Doane over for any injuries.

“Oh, Doane, why didn’t you mention this earlier…?” she asked sadly. “It wouldn’t have been hard for me to patch up, and you wouldn’t have been in pain for so long…”

“You’ve got bigger concerns, Aine.” he said earnestly. “No sense in worrying over an old man all the while.”

She shook her head, finishing up the job of healing a jagged gash on Doane’s right leg from the previous day’s fight with the first raider ambush.

“Alright, stand on it.” she said, the runes hovering around her hands vanishing.

Doane stood up, chuckling. “Good as new.” he said. “Why don’t you take a swim with Aster and Glenn?”

She gave a little laugh. “Are you trying to say I need to bathe, old man?”

Doane responded with a louder laugh, his deep voice echoing across the clearing.

---

When Glenn and Aster returned from the lake a short while later, chatting idly with one another, Aine held a hand up to stop them.

“Hold on.” she said. “Don’t move; I want to try something.”

Aster raised an eyebrow, but didn’t object. A few seconds passed before another swirl of runes appeared around Aine’s extended arm, and a sudden, violent flurry of wind began to rush past them.

“Whoa-…!!”

Aster’s lengthy hair was flapping wildly in the air behind her, and fell against her back in a messy curtain when the wind finally stopped as Aine lowered her hand.

“Well… I guess we’re dry now?” Aster said, glancing toward Glenn.

“That’s the idea.” Aine said with a nod. “Now, are you two ready to set out again?”

---

The trail of footprints next led them to the end of the forested area. Ascending a hill, the group soon found themselves overlooking a huge valley.

Leading the party, Aster froze.

“Uh… Glenn?”

He caught up, and his breath hitched in his throat.

They had found the Oeza.

Down in the valley below their position, an incredible sight had appeared. A woman could be seen strolling casually along a path carved into the barren ground of the valley, but this was no human woman. Standing well over one hundred feet tall, the first Oeza woman Glenn had seen in twelve years was unmistakable.

She wasn’t alone. Following the footprints had led them to an entire community of Oeza, at least a dozen other similarly colossal women in plain view, some walking around, and others seated and engaged in other activities. They wore only patchwork clothing, looking more like underwear alone. Gathering enough materials to make clothing at their incredible size was quite a bit harder than it was for humans, no doubt.

The sight was already enough to stop Glenn dead in his tracks, his body completely frozen up, but as he and his companions looked down into the valley, there was one Oeza woman in particular whom he couldn’t tear his eyes from once he spotted her.

“Glenn, what- G-Glenn!!”

He lunged forward, but immediately felt a strong grip around his right arm, just below the shoulder.

“Glenn!”

“Let me go-…!!” he demanded, without even looking back to see who had stopped him.

“Glenn, damn it, boy, stop and think…!!”

Another arm circled around to his front, and he was forced backward, falling awkwardly to the ground on his back.

Both Doane and Aster were looking down at him from above. Doane’s expression was stern, while Aster wore a look of questioning. For a moment, he thought of rolling to the side to try and escape again, but instead, just let out a tired groan.

“What in all the void was that, Avelly?” Doane inquired. “You’ve come all this way with a good plan in your head, and you decided to throw it out just like that?”

“Doane, I think-…” Aster interrupted, sounding unsure, “… I think I know what’s going on.”

She offered Glenn a hand, and he got back to his feet.

Bade made an impatient noise. “Aye? Well, by all means, lass, no need t’keep quiet on our account.”

“Glenn, you… you told me something one of the last times we visited the Ashoh ruins.” Aster said, still keeping a steady grip on her friend’s arm as she looked him in the eye. “Back then, before the attack, the community used to decorate the whole village together, right? You said that there used to be huge banners all over the place, patched together by everyone who lived there.”

Glenn didn’t say anything, but nodded stiffly, looking down at the ground.

“… Now that you say it, I remember ‘em.” Doane said thoughtfully. “Covered the whole village square, and went all the way down the main roads. They were beautiful.”

Finally, Glenn spoke up, looking around at all the rest of his comrades. “That Oeza woman down there. She’s wearing them.”

“What-…!?” was the approximate response from most of the group.

A frown on her face, Aster let go of his arm and moved toward the hillside’s edge again, looking down. Her gaze traced from one of the colossal figures down below to the next, and after a few seconds, she seized up.

It was as she’d feared, and fairly obvious, now that she looked again. One particular Oeza woman, just as staggeringly massive as all the rest, was wearing a much more distinct and colourful outfit than those of her tribeswomen. Wearing only enough to cover her chest and crotch area, much like any human woman would have looked with only her underwear on, the clothing of the Oeza in question was clad in an eccentric mix of colours and patchwork designs, all stitched haphazardly together with no particular care for consistency. Aster supposed that the Oeza woman wearing the old banners had understandably placed greater concern in simply keeping her clothing in one piece than trying to make it appear uniform. The Oeza had tanned skin, and ashen brown hair, hanging messily down to the middle of her back, some draped partly over her shoulders in the front. She was clearly well into adulthood, though not showing any particular signs of advancing age just yet. Or rather, Aster assumed as much, accounting for her own lack of knowledge on the aging cycle of the reclusive giantess tribe.

She sighed, stepping back from the cliffside.

“Like they’re taking fucking trophies…”

“Glenn.” Aster could hear the anger bubbling up in her best friend’s voice once more, and hurried to slow its advance. If he was upset to the point of cursing, there was a major problem. “Look, I-… we still don’t know exactly where she got those. … It’s been twelve years. Raiders could’ve stolen them after the attack, and eventually they ended up here. There’s no way to know if that Oeza down there was involved in the attack or not.”

“She’s right, Glenn.” Aine added, walking forward to place herself between Glenn’s position and the hillside. “And this would be the perfect subject for you to start with, whenever you’re ready to try your diplomacy idea with the Oeza.”

Glenn looked between Aster and Aine, a mix of emotions on his face.

“… Sit down, lad.” Bade said after a pause. “I’d say yeh need some time teh… re-evaluate.”

Aine gave a snort of laughter. “If you’d known Glenn for more than a day, you’d know he never thinks things over twice.”

“That’s enough, Aine.” Doane admonished her. “We’ve all got to make sure we’re keepin’ level heads. No matter what, we’re still walkin’ into a village of Oeza as the next part of the plan.”

“… We’ll go in tonight. After dark.” Glenn said, drawing everyone’s attention back. As Bade had suggested, he had dropped to the ground, settling in the grass. “No contact, just… I just want to get a look around.”

“You’re sure?” Doane asked. “Glenn, what happened to Ashoh was terrible, and I know you’re hurting thinkin’ back to it, but-…”

“I’m alright, Doane.” Glenn responded shortly, letting out another sigh. “We won’t have to be down there for long. And like I said, we won’t have to get too close to any of the Oeza. Just split up into a couple of groups and check out the whole village. Try and figure out how many of them are down there.”

As he was saying this, a booming sound of laughter echoed up from the valley. Apparently one of the Oeza women below was amused with something.

“So a scouting trip, then?” Bade inquired. “I’d say it’s the righ’ idea. Any opposed?”

“I’m with Glenn.” Aster said immediately. “Aine? Doane?”

“Not one of you is goin’ down there without me.” Doane answered.

All eyes turned to Aine, and after a moment, she sighed, rolling her eyes and throwing her hands in the air. “Fine. Just do me a favour and don’t act like it was my idea when something goes wrong.”

Doane chuckled. “As if you’d let us.”

---

“Last call to agree that this is a terrible idea.” Aine grumbled, drumming her fingers against the edge of a rock on the hillside. “Any takers?”

“Why don’t you pipe down for once, Aine?” Aster jibed. “Glenn, are we just going straight down this way?”

Night had fallen. For several hours, the group up on the hill had put aside any further discussion of their planned approach to the Oeza village, instead occupying themselves with idle chatter about the other affairs of their day-to-day lives, brief sparring sessions, and anything else that came to mind.

“Right. Straight down the hill, and once we hit that central path, we can split up.” Glenn said. He was perched on top of the same boulder Aine was leaning against, surveying the scene.

The Oeza village was silent now, the last embers of a distant bonfire gradually dying out, and by all appearances, the entire population had retired to bed for the night.

“Bade, you’re with me and Glenn.” Aster reminded their newest comrade.

“Aye. Yeh need me to shoot, jus’ say th’word.”

“But we’ll hope it doesn’t come to that.” Doane advised him. “Aine? You’re ready as well?”

“No.” she said dryly. “But we’re going anyway, isn’t that right?”

“Right you are. I’ll keep an eye out – you just try not to forget your spells.”

Aine allowed herself a smirk at the idea.

“Alright, let’s get moving.” Glenn said, hopping down from his spot to land smoothly in the grass. The effect of the landing was diminished a bit by the way he nearly lost his balance a split-second later, wobbling on one foot until Aster grabbed his shoulder to steady him. She gave him an amused grin.

“Careful, dummy.” she said. He grinned back.

It was hard to ignore the tension hanging over the group during the trip down the hillside. The valley was enormous, making it an ideal place for the Oeza to have chosen for a home. On the negative side, this made for quite a lengthy trip down, during which Glenn’s travelling party remained uncomfortably silent. On the upside, however, the position from which they had surveyed the Oeza village from on high had at least felt fairly secure. They would have been very difficult to spot from all the way down in the valley.

Even so, with the reality of the mission they were all about to undertake sinking in at last, it was nearly impossible for the group to feel anything but a looming sense of dread as they approached the village.

The living spaces the Oeza occupied were varied, but all quite strange-looking from a human’s perspective. Owing to the tribe’s massive size, they didn’t appear to have entire houses, but rather single rooms either built into cavernous openings in rock faces, or assembled from massive collections of uprooted, enormous trees, stone slabs, and any other loose bit of terrain that could be reasonably put to use.

The ground below was positively littered with heavy footprints, much of the terrain worn right down to the rocky layers well beneath the dirt and grass.

Finally reaching the bottom of the high slope they’d descended to reach the village, the group reconvened.

“I’ll be damned…” Doane said as he looked around, even his worn face marked by something almost like amazement. “Hard to believe we’re finally seein’ this. Most in the colony go their whole lives without ever seein’ anything more than a glance at one of the Oeza.”

“Heh. If I was their size, I could take any one of ‘em on, no problem.” Aster remarked. “I mean – don’t get me wrong, this place is impressive, but you saw all of them walking around. Not one of them looked half as strong as me. It’s just not a fair competition, since they’re the tallest race anyone’s ever seen or heard of.”

“But, seeing as they are so huge that you’d be the size of a doll to them, Aster,” Aine interjected, “I don’t think you should be running up and telling them that.”

Aster shrugged, deliberately using the motion to show off her incredible upper body strength. "Yeah, yeah; I’m not looking to arm-wrestle with ‘em. Now, c’mon.”

The group separated. Glenn started off in one direction, followed on either side by Aster and Bade. Doane and Aine began to make their way forward in the direction of the main footpath the Oeza in the village used.

---

“… So, where to, Glenn?” Aster inquired after half a minute. “If we’re trying to scout this place out, shouldn’t we stick to the main road for now, like them?” she asked, jabbing a thumb toward their other two comrades.

Glenn pointed to one particular cliff face, which had a massive opening carved into it.

“What, you want to go in there?” Aster probed. “You know there’s gonna be an Oeza sleeping inside, right?”

“And we’ll be quiet.” Glenn said. “There’s just something I want to check, first.”

“I don’t mean teh sound like yer brainy witch friend,” Bade said, stepping forward to put himself ahead of Glenn as they continued moving, “But I don’ believe yeh. If we already know there’s an Oeza sleepin’ in that cave, then why in th’ void are we walkin’ straight into ‘er damn bedroom?”

“Look, there’s just…” Glenn trailed off, but Aster was reasonably sure she already knew the answer he was skirting around.

“We’re going after those banners, aren’t we?” she guessed. Glenn didn’t answer, but he noticeably lowered his head when she asked, staring at the ground. “Glenn…”

“Ah, righ’, o’ course.” Bade said with a distinctly airy tone of sarcasm, “We’ll jus’ stroll inside, grab the knickers off that Oeza lass, and skip righ’ back out. That the long-and-short o’ your plan, lad?”

“You two don’t have to come in with me.” Glenn said quietly. “I won’t take long, if you-“

“Ohh, no. Not a chance.” Aster interrupted him. “This isn’t a one-person job to begin with, and the last person I’m gonna let go in there alone is you, Glenn.”

Bade scoffed, adjusting the crossbow at his side. “S’pose I’m comin’, too. Bit late for me teh turn tail now.”

They approached the cave, impressed once again by its vast size. A small village could’ve been built into the covered space, had humans been the ones to come across it first. The ground was mostly dirt, with odd patches of grass littering the area.

In a far corner, a fire was wearing itself down. To the Oeza who occupied this cave, it would’ve been quite a small campfire, but to the three intruders entering her living space, it looked like an entire house burning to the ground. The fire cast just enough light to reveal some of the massive space inside the cavern. A few odd furnishings were scattered here and there, with the standout being a massive plateau of stones assembled as a bed in the corner opposite the fire. There, the trio could vaguely see the owner of this makeshift home.

The Oeza woman Glenn had seen wearing the banners stolen from Ashoh was fast asleep, judging by the rumbling snores audible throughout the cave. She wasn’t terribly loud, in relation to her size, but her snores would obviously be much noisier up close.

Aster let out a nervous sigh. “So, don’t wake her up. Easy enough, right…?”

Glenn nodded. “Wait…”

He was looking up at the Oeza woman’s bed. Something was hanging from its side.

“One of the banners…!” he exclaimed. “She must have taken it off!”

“Ah, brilliant.” Bade grumbled. “So now we’re invadin’ the privacy of a naked woman the size o’ half a town. Jus’ when I thought I couldn’t love this plan any more…”

“That’s the spirit…” Aster said. “OK, Glenn, what’s the play here?”

“That Oeza up there…” he said, more to himself than to Aster, “If she attacked the village…”

“Glenn?” Aster repeated. “This isn’t exactly a safe spot for us to stand around right now.”

“Uh… right. Listen, Bade – you think there’s a way to get me up on top of that bed?”

Bade blinked, his eyes widening a bit. “You jokin’? Yeh’re tryin’ not teh get killed, right?”

“You want to steal the banner back.” Aster correctly guessed. “Bade, can you help him?”

Still looking aghast at the very suggestion, Bade distractedly waved a hand in the air, answering, “I-I can do tha’, but still… yeh don’ think yeh’re takin’ a bit of a gamble? Crawlin’ ‘round in that Oeza’s bed in the middle o’ the night?”

“Look, I’ll take care of everything else, just… can you help me get up there?” Glenn asked again.

Bade sighed. “Yeah, I told yeh I can. Guess I’m jus’ not used to providin’ an assisted suicide.”

Pulling his crossbow from its holster, Bade fiddled with the same grapple line he’d used to take down one of the raiders, back in the morning’s ambush.

“Give us some space.” he said. Glenn and Aster stepped back. Taking position near the Oeza woman’s massive bed of stone, Bade readied his crossbow, fixing the wound line’s other end to the floor. After a brief moment of preparation, he lined up his shot and fired.

The bolt flew upward, and once it dropped onto the plateau of rock, Bade gave the line an adjusting pull until it settled itself into a gap in the stone surface, locked into place.

“Alrigh’, tha’ ought teh hold yeh.” he said. “Lass, hold this end down.”

Aster took position and pinned the line’s other end down. It was still partially coiled, and fixed to the ground, but the extra security would be worth it once Glenn was partway up the line.

Glenn tested the line, finding it suitable. They were near enough to the massive stone platform that it was almost a vertical climb. Taking a grip, he jumped from the ground. The line wobbled very slightly, but held.

“OK… see you both in a few.” he said.

Aster was nervous, watching Glenn’s ascent. If he fell, or if the rope loosened, there was a potentially deadly fall waiting for him. She glanced at Bade, who was standing off to the side and watching as well.

“Bade.” she said. He looked over. “Go back outside and grab Aine and Doane, OK?”

Bade hesitated, but then nodded. “Aye. Take care o’ the kid, meantime.”

With that, he was on his way, running back to the cave’s entrance. It hadn’t been too terribly long, and the others were probably just planning to travel down the Oeza village’s main road and back. Hopefully, they would all return in time to help out, if Glenn managed to get himself into trouble. Aster rolled her eyes, imagining what Aine would have to say about Glenn’s latest change of plans. Nothing good, she had to imagine.

---

Fingers fumbling against the rock, Glenn dragged himself up onto the stone platform, rolling onto his back. He was a bit tired, but was ready to give up, or even slow down for any longer than required. He needed to do this. This Oeza woman, whether or not she had been personally involved in the attack on Ashoh twelve years ago, was wearing banners stolen from the ruins, and Glenn couldn’t accept that. Maybe it was stupid, like Aine would have told him, but he felt that he just couldn’t let this go.

Back on his feet, he approached the banner.

To his right, the astounding figure of the stone bed’s occupant was sprawled across the massive plateau. Even in the very dim lighting, she was incredible to look at in sheer scale. The Oeza looked strikingly similar to human women, though with the obvious difference in size as the main distinction.

She was definitely asleep, her vast body rumbling softly with her snores. The snores, on the other hand, were decidedly not soft. The noise was almost painful, actually.

Moving past her upper body, Glenn arrived next to the banner. He crouched to grab at it, memories flashing in his mind. He remembered these designs. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying his best to keep a level head. This was the absolute last place to get angry, or otherwise distressed.

He pulled on the banner, trying to move it, but found it stuck.

“Huh…?”

He squinted in the dark. One end of the banner – which he now identified as the section the Oeza woman had been wearing to cover her chest – was hanging from the edge of the stone bed, but the other end was pinned beneath her massive arm.

He groaned. There was no way he was moving it from that spot, but an idea came to mind. He dropped the fabric, and drew his dagger instead. Reclaiming at least as much of Ashoh’s stolen art as he could without waking the Oeza would be good enough for him.

He began to work, cutting through the fabric. It was slow progress; his dagger wasn’t built for this kind of thing. Aster would be able to help him carry the banners back out of the cave, once he finished.

---

“Aster! Where in the void is Glenn…!?”

Aine and Doane were back. Bade was a short distance behind them, panting with exhaustion.

Still holding the grapple line down, Aster gestured up at the stone bed above. The Oeza woman’s snores were still rumbling down from the high plateau.

Aine’s eyes flicked between the bed and the grapple line, and she slapped a palm over her forehead.

“That idiot…!! What’s he thinking!? Why would you two help him go up there…!?”

“It’s… you see the, uh… the really big bra hanging off the bed up there?” Aster asked awkwardly.

Aine looked again. A long moment passed, and she let out a heavy sigh of mixed frustration and resignation. “Moron… hold that line, I’m going up to help him.”

Aster blinked in surprise, but didn’t argue. Bracing the grapple line again, she motioned for Aine to begin climbing. She could hear Aine grumbling something, and she almost laughed.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t have taken Glenn for the type to try and steal underwear, either.”

---

“Glenn!” Aine called out in a harsh whisper. Glenn was crouched next to the patchwork bra, up on the bed’s top. He turned, surprised.

“Aine? When did you-“

She cut him off, marching right up to him and stopping in place, looking like she had half a mind to punch him in the mouth.

“You-…” She groaned with clear frustration. “What could you possibly be hoping to accomplish like this…!? Look, I get it – you’re pissed off that this Oeza made a bunch of banners from Ashoh into her new underwear. Is stealing them back really the reason you wanted to come all the way down here in the middle of the night…!?”

Glenn stood back up. He was almost finished with cutting the banner apart. “Aine, I know you’re going to call me an idiot, and maybe I deserve it, but this… it matters to me. I’m sorry I lied about this, but we can argue later.”

Aine stared at him in disbelief for several long seconds.

“… Fine. You fucking idiot.”

Glenn smiled in spite of the insult, and turned to resume his task of cutting through the heavy fabric. “Great, I’m almost-“

Aine seized up, watching in alarm as Glenn’s dagger slipped from his grip. She lunged, knocking him aside as she tried to catch it before it could clatter down on the stone floor.

She missed.

Falling to the ground somewhat painfully, she felt like the sound of the dagger’s blade connecting with the stone was loud enough to wake the dead.

Glenn had stumbled when she pushed past him, and fell onto his back. He let out a choked sound on impact.

Barely a second later, the rumbling snores of the Oeza sleeping next to them were interrupted, and Aine felt like her heart had stopped. She held completely still, her eyes closed.

She heard Glenn moving.

“A-Aine…!!”

Still on her front, she pushed up from the ground at the sound of his yell, and if it was possible, became even more horrified at what she saw next.

The Oeza woman beside them was rolling onto her side, and their positions meant that her bared chest was coming straight down at her.

Feeling her blood running cold, she only just had enough time to wave one hand in a rough facsimile of a motion she’d practiced before.

-WHUMP-

…

Glenn gaped, barely able to believe what he was seeing. The Oeza had stirred slightly, but instead of waking up, she’d rolled to her side, and in the process, her staggering breasts had slammed to the stone ground, one coming down right on top of Aine.

The Oeza in the bed was around one hundred and twenty feet tall on her feet. Her breasts looked big enough to flatten a small house, each being several feet across in either direction from this angle. A tanned nipple slightly bigger than Glenn’s head hovered in front of him, drawing his attention until he was shaken back to focus by a gasping voice.

“G-Glenn…!!”

Aine had one arm free, and her face was pressed completely to the stone, just barely visible. The rest of her body was trapped entirely beneath the devastating mass of the Oeza woman’s bare breast, its twin weighing down on her as well. For a moment, Glenn was astonished to see that she was still alive, before he noticed the ghostly runes hovering all around her.

A barrier. Aine had reacted quickly enough to save herself from being instantly crushed to death, but she clearly couldn’t move. Her single free arm was struggling against the rock, a look of utter panic on her partially-hidden face.

Glenn stepped back, looking at the edge of the bed. He was very close to it now. There was no longer any way to get the banners free, and from the look of it, helping Aine was a tall order as well. He stared around in alarm, frantic to figure out what to do.

His dagger was lying just in front of him. He grabbed it, putting it back in its sheath for now.

“G-Glenn, get me out of here…!!”

“I’m… I’m working on it…”

He had absolutely no idea of what to do until he noticed the grapple line he’d used to climb up here. Desperate, he ran toward it, yanking it free from the gap in the rock and dragging it back over to Aine.

“Hold onto this.” he instructed her. She closed her scrambling fingers over the line.

Turning back to the bed’s edge, Glenn looked for Aster, spotting her along with Doane and Bade. He was hesitant to yell, but…

“P-pull on the line!!” he called out, trying not to raise his voice too much. When Aster gave him a confused look, he added, “Just do it!!”

A moment later, Aster was helping Bade to wind the line back in. Glenn turned back to look at Aine. She was struggling to keep her grip. He moved in, closing his hands over her fingers to help her.

A shudder ran up his spine as he heard the Oeza woman’s snores stop entirely. A tiny sound like a giggle bubbled up from her lips, somewhere behind his back.

Almost too scared to do so, he slowly turned to find himself staring down a woman’s face, its size magnified just as many times over as the rest of the Oeza’s massive body.

She was awake.

Glenn’s breath froze in his throat. He gasped pointlessly for a moment, completely unsure of what to do.

He was staring down a pair of grey eyes, which blinked in apparent surprise at the sight of him.

Down near his feet, he heard another groan from Aine. Having released her hand, he had left her once more struggling on her own to maintain a grip on the grapple line intended to drag her free. He was too distracted by the Oeza woman awakening to continue what he’d been doing moments ago.

Now that he looked, the eyes of the Oeza woman staring back at him looked a bit off, in some way. It reminded him of the expression Aster sometimes took on, on the rare occasions that she failed to control her alcohol consumption. Did the Oeza drink? He’d ever thought about it before, and had no idea.

Suddenly, her lips moved, and she spoke, in a mumbling voice.

“You… human.”

The words were simple, but not inarticulate.

The Oeza blinked again, her slightly-glazed eyes still fixed on him.

“U-uhh…” he stammered, his mind still a blank.

“Human here…? Why?”

Her voice was loud, even when she was mumbling, barely awake, and seemingly slightly intoxicated. Her grey eyes shifted, dropping to the ground next to him.

He jumped, suddenly aware of a movement near his position. The Oeza was moving one of her arms, which had previously been resting over her side.

The grapple line jerked awkwardly, and the Oeza woman began to sit up from her bed. Glenn stumbled back, nearly falling right off of the stone plateau. His heart was hammering in his chest as he watched, frozen in place.

The Oeza pushed herself off from her bed, one hand closed over part of the grapple line. Her massive fingers squeezed at the line as she examined it, squinting. It looked like she’d pulled it right out of the grip of everyone down on the floor.

Glenn spotted Aine. She was up in the air, clinging to the line with both hands now. Aine looked to be frozen with terror, too. She must not have been able to tell who was pulling her free until she was suddenly lifted off of the ground.

“Why humans here…?” the Oeza asked again, a bit more loudly this time. She didn’t sound angry; just curious and confused.

Her gaze followed the grapple line, which dangled from her grip down to the edge of the bed, and then most of the way to the floor. Her eyes widened. Glenn couldn’t tell why, but guessed that she’d just spotted the others, down on the floor next to her bed.

She laughed. The sound was loud enough that Glenn flinched, raising his hands to cover his ears.

“Hah… not expect guests!”

She was moving again. Glenn let out a startled yell, ducking to the ground and covering his head. Something huge moved above him, and then settled down on his other side. He looked up, and found himself looking at a solid wall of tanned skin. Behind him was another. The Oeza woman was sitting on the edge of her bed now, leaving him trapped between her thighs in the small space that remained. He had nowhere to run to, now. Two of his sides were flanked by the Oeza’s huge legs, one side held only the sheer drop all the way down to the hard ground, and on the last, he was looking at a fabric wall, the mangled banners taken from Ashoh being worn on the Oeza woman’s lower body, fashioned into a pair of underwear.

He was still too scared to even try and escape, on top of lacking any real options. He looked up, finding that Aine was still dangling from the grapple line in the Oeza’s grip. She was making panicked noises, but none of them sounded like coherent words. Glenn did his best not to acknowledge the Oeza woman’s bare breasts, which loomed ominously in the air over his head.

“Should be dressed!” the Oeza went on, her syllables audibly a bit slurred. “Being naked impolite for visitors.”

A huge hand moved in the corner of Glenn’s view. The Oeza fumbled to lift up her improvised bra. Her other hand lowered as well, and when it came back up, she wasn’t holding the grapple line. She must have set Aine down on the bed beside her.

Glenn looked toward the Oeza’s thigh, but couldn’t see any way past it. It was taller than he was, and she probably wouldn’t react positively if he tried to clamber over it.

The Oeza was attempting to tie her bra back into place, covering her breasts, when it suddenly tore, the fabric splitting apart where Glenn had been cutting through it.

“Hm…? Why…”

She held it up to her face, and a moment passed before she let out yet another laugh.

“Human cut this?” she asked, looking down at Glenn. Her ashen hair swayed in the air, dangling around her face like thick curtains. “It old. Not fit on human, so why try steal it?”

It felt strange to hear speech so close to his own language coming from the Oeza’s lips. Truthfully, he’d never really considered how communication between humans and the reclusive tribe might have gone. It didn’t really seem like the kind of thing that needed to happen often, but clearly this Oeza woman had at least a partial grasp of human language. Her words were coherent, even if her sentences were fragmented and simple.

His throat felt dry. He thought of responding, but what would he say?

The Oeza suddenly looked away again, in Aine’s direction.

“Human not survive jump!” she said, one hand reaching forward. Glenn heard a scream, and a second later, the Oeza woman straightened up, holding a struggling figure in her hand. She’d picked Aine up directly this time. “Human dumb? Why try jumping?”

Aine stammered something mildly vulgar, clearly too panicked for a proper response.

Discarding her ruined bra, the Oeza moved her other hand to pick Glenn up as well. He couldn’t go anywhere to escape, and her huge fist closed around him. He was trapped from the shoulders down, unable to even kick his legs. Her grip wasn’t hurting him, but he couldn’t budge anything more than his head. He struggled pointlessly all the same, desperate to escape. He needed to get everyone out of here as quickly as possible.

The Oeza looked him over with a smile on her sleepy face.

“Human like Oeza clothes? Can share!”

“Wh-what…?” he stammered. The Oeza was moving her hand again, but this time, she was moving him downward. He’d been level with her exposed breasts for a moment, but now he was moving back to the space between her thighs. He flinched, his eyes widening. “Wait, y-you’re not gonna-…!?”

The Oeza brought him right down to her navel, and then her fingers pushed their way into the patchwork article of clothing around her waist. Glenn caught a brief glimpse of a small thicket of hairs coloured the very same shade as the hair dangling past the Oeza’s shoulders, and then he was lurching forward released from her grip. He yelled in alarm, covering his head as he was deposited straight into her underwear, falling against her patch of pubic hair before sliding helplessly downward. The opening above him closed, and he was sealed into complete darkness, upside-down and pressed against the Oeza’s skin. The space around him was horribly warm.

---

Aine screamed, swinging dangerously through the air. She’d just watched this drowsy Oeza woman stuff Glenn down the front of her panties, leaving only a struggling lump visible against the fabric, and now she herself was dangling upside down, huge fingers closed around her ankles.

With her arms freed again, she began to frantically perform whatever spells came to mind. Runes hovered in the space before her, looking inverted. She tried everything she could think of to make her captor release her, but nothing seemed to have any real effect. The Oeza woman was just watching her, unimpeded by the spells.

Aine let out a stifled squeak of protest as the Oeza’s other hand moved in close, a huge thumb suddenly pressing firmly against her face. The mildly sweaty digit was large enough to block her eyes and mouth at the same time, leaving her blind and unable to get so much as a single syllable out. She could still hear clearly, however, as the Oeza began to speak again.

“Lady human use magic!” she said, sounding pleasantly surprised by the discovery. “Magic no work for Oeza.”

Internally cursing Glenn in every way she knew how, Aine pressed both hands against the tip of the Oeza’s thumb, trying to force it away, but it didn’t budge. The Oeza made a thoughtful noise.

“… There old Oeza myth, talk about magic. Way to… borrow magic from human!”

Something moved in close, and Aine recoiled at the sound of a sharp inhale, her clothes fluttering. It felt like the Oeza woman had just sniffed her.

“Mm… lady human smell nice.” were her next words, confirming the unpleasant guess. Still totally unable to fight back to any effect, Aine squirmed uncomfortably while the huge fingers of the Oeza’s free hand moved across her body. The satchel she wore over her shoulder was forcibly pulled away, the clasp popping open. Her canteen came next, followed by her belt itself. Why was all of her travel gear being taken away?

The Oeza plucked the last of her equipment from her, and finally, her huge thumb moved. Aine gasped, taking in clean air for the first time in half a minute.

She was still upside-down, naturally, and felt horribly exposed without her gear. The Oeza was moving her through the air. She gasped.

“N-no…!! No, absolutely not!!”

The Oeza’s head was tilting backward slightly. Aine thrashed in the air, horrified at the sight of her captor’s lips parting, revealing a terrifying open mouth. An unpleasant fog of warm air brushed over her when she drew closer. The Oeza’s breath was laced with something like the sting of alcohol.

The Oeza didn’t eat humans, did they? She’d never heard anything of the sort, but…

She screamed, almost falling. The Oeza woman had suddenly flinched. When Aine looked, she saw several darts embedded in the giantess’ skin, one in the side of her wrist near where Aine was being held, and two in her neck. They had managed to very slightly pierce her thick skin, but didn’t seem to have inflicted any real damage.

Trying to look all the way down to the floor, craning her neck, Aine spotted the rest of her companions, back down on the floor. Bade was frantically reloading his crossbow while Aster and Doane stood back, watching in alarm.

The Oeza woman made an impatient noise, her mouth closing again. Aine almost felt like she was safe for a moment, but then, in less than a second, she was suddenly forced up against her gigantic captor’s lips, disappearing into a dark void as she was popped into the Oeza’s mouth like a piece of candy.

She screamed, thrashing in blind terror. Trapped in an oppressively warm and cramped cavern, she felt the soft mass of the Oeza’s tongue shuddering under her, and she coughed, forced to take in a breath of the stale, alcohol-tinged air. It wasn’t breathable.

---

Bade, halfway through reloading his crossbow, nearly dropped it in disbelief. He cursed under his breath, his arms slumping a bit at what he’d just witnessed.

Aine had been shoved into the Oeza woman’s mouth with practically no chance to resist, and now, the Oeza herself had an amused grin on her face, clearly taking the opportunity to toy with the young woman using her tongue.

Then her eyes fell on him. He watched, wary, but didn’t have time to react before a huge, bare foot suddenly swung toward him. He yelled, his voice cut off as he was slammed to the ground on his back. The sole of the Oeza woman’s foot had come down on him, knocking him flat. She wasn’t crushing him, but he couldn’t hope to escape with such a heavy mass pressing down on him.

He’d dropped his crossbow when he was struck, leaving it lying uselessly somewhere off to his side. He couldn’t even see anything, his vision filled completely by the colossal foot pressing him down. He thought that one of his hands might have still been free, at least, scrambling pointlessly between two huge toes.

There was a distinct, combined odour of dirt and sweat filling his lungs. He struggled with all the strength he had, desperate to escape from this spot. He felt horribly warm.

---

With the more annoying intruder immobilized for now, the Oeza woman returned her attention to the small human woman struggling and thrashing inside of her mouth. There was no way that she could hope to escape from there, but swallowing her would also be quite difficult without something to help the process.

A large, flat stone next to her bed had a drinking basin resting on it. The Oeza smiled lazily, reaching over to pick it up.

She was still enjoying a pleasurable tickle from the other human squirming around near her crotch, as well.

Picking up the basin, she brought it up to her lips. It was filled with a special drink prepared for and offered to Oeza woman only once they reached adulthood. She had taken quite a liking to it, though it was much stronger than most other drinks, so some level of moderation was necessary. She knew of at least one time in the past that she’d consumed entirely too much at once, resulting in a bit of a mess to deal with once she sobered up in the morning.

---

Utterly drenched in saliva, still choking on the humid, foul-smelling air, and exhausted from thrashing, Aine looked up in desperation as the Oeza’s lips suddenly parted again. She tried to crawl forward on the soft surface of her captor’s tongue, but before she could get anywhere, a rushing wave of some unidentified, lukewarm liquid poured into the space around her. She gasped, immediately getting a mouthful of the stuff and reeling backward.

She’d never been more terrified. She really was about to be swallowed by this tipsy giantess, wasn’t she…?

Choking until she forced the mouthful of whatever the Oeza was drinking back out of her own mouth, Aine only had time to scream, her voice echoing noisily off of the fleshy walls around her as she slipped helplessly backward into a soft, horribly cramped tunnel leading straight downward. The beverage used to wash her down was still trickling down as well, all around her. She was soaked in it.

---

Glenn had not yet ceased his struggles, thrashing and squirming against the fabric wall restraining him, despite his persistent lack of progress toward escaping.

Most of his body was ensnared in the Oeza woman’s thin tuft of pubic hair, which covered him from his feet to halfway up his chest. His precise position, upside-down in the front of his captor’s underwear, meant that the entire space just in front of his face and neck was filled by the mildly-swelling nub of the Oeza woman’s clitoris. It took all the effort Glenn could manage just to push off of her skin hard enough to keep his face from making contact with the sensitive spot. He was already in a worse situation than he ever would’ve predicted; getting personally acquainted with this Oeza’s labia wouldn’t make it better for him.

His lungs were completely choked out by the intense scent of the Oeza’s body, a heavy musk filling every inch of the cramped space she had entrapped him in.

One of his arms was bent, his elbow and closed fist pressed to the smooth wall of skin before him, with his other palm performing the same task in his desperate bid to minimize contact with the Oeza’s body. His heart was thundering in his chest, and his breaths were heavy and panicked. Between being upside-down, and being trapped in such a cramped and uncomfortably warm spot, he was starting to become lightheaded, as well.

Suddenly, the fabric pressing firmly against his back eased off, and something pinched at his left ankle. He yelped in alarm, feeling his body being dragged upward.

He emerged, finding himself dangling by one ankle from the Oeza woman’s fingertips.

She was looking at him with an amused expression, her eyes partly lidded, and still looking slightly glazed. She had to be at least a bit drunk, he was certain now.

“Human come here just to try stealing Oeza clothes?” she asked him, her fingertips playfully twisting at his ankle a bit and making his whole body sway in the air.

He groaned, clutching at his forehead as he tried to dispel the dizziness swirling around him.

“Mm… fun, keeping human in there. Human like, too?”

“Ugh…” Glenn closed his eyes, taking a moment’s pause to try and straighten out his clouded thoughts. This was absolutely nothing like the circumstance under which he’d imagined questioning the Oeza, but if he had a chance now, he was going to try and take it. Looking up again, he responded in a shaky voice, saying, “T-twelve years ago, when I was little… my village was attacked. You-… I-I mean your tribe attacked it. The entire place was torn apart overnight.”

Being dizzy was only one part of his current problem. His emotions were running quite high, as well, making a level-headed response hard to articulate.

“I’ve spent twelve years trying to decide on what to do, and I came here with my friends to look for answers.”

“Answers?” the Oeza repeated. Her hand twitched a bit, giving him an uncomfortable shake in the process. “What human ask?”

Glenn felt like he was going to pass out from all the blood rushing to his head at any minute, but managed another response. “I just… I just want to know why your people attacked the village.” he said. The Oeza was still just watching him curiously, and he pointed a shaky hand toward her clothing. “Those… clothes you’re wearing; they’re made from banners taken from my village.”

Finally, something like recognition flashed in the Oeza’s eyes. She picked up her torn bra with her free hand, holding it up.

“Get this long time ago.” she said. For a moment, she looked as if she was remembering something. To Glenn’s disbelief, she cracked a smile. “Fun night with friends.”

“F-fun…!?” Glenn’s anger was flaring up again, but from his current position, he couldn’t do anything.

“When Oeza grow up, get special drink. Good drink! Ninula get drink, and have party with friends.” the Oeza went on fondly.

Glenn blinked at the unfamiliar word, “Ninula”. Was that a name?

The Oeza laughed. “Think Ninula drink too much. Friends drink too much, too. Take long trip together, but get lost.”

Glenn had a very bad feeling that he knew what this rambling story was working toward. If he hadn’t been so dazed, he might have been yelling accusations already.

“Not remember trip well, but Ninula wake up holding pretty fabric. Make special clothes to remember.”

This was too much. Glenn couldn’t listen to any more. If he was understanding this correctly, Ashoh -- his entire village, along with his parents and his friends, had been wiped out not by a deliberate attack, but by the destructive antics of a group of drunken Oeza enjoying what effectively amounted to a particularly rowdy girls’ night.

Completely overcome by blind rage, he awkwardly grabbed his dagger from its place at his side, wanting nothing more in that moment than to cause the massive woman holding him to experience some small fraction of the pain and trauma that the destruction of Ashoh had caused him. He swung his dagger furiously, taking swipe after swipe at nothing but air. He yelled in a hoarse voice, too angry for any further words.

And then the Oeza dropped him. He tumbled downward to a painful crash on the solid stone of the giantess’ bed, stunned by the impact. He collapsed on his back, struggling to breathe.

Huge fingers closed around him again before he had a chance to recover, and he was lifted up a short distance before being forcefully shoved back inside of the Oeza’s underwear, ending up right back where he’d been just a minute or two ago. Still stunned from the painful drop, and exhausted from all the struggles in the last few minutes, he couldn’t fight back as a firm weight pressed against the back of his head, pushing him face-first against the Oeza woman’s labia, her overpowering scent once more filling his lungs as he gasped for breath.

---

The Oeza had one hand resting on the edge of her bed, and the other directly between her thighs, teasingly pressing the head of the human she’d caught up against her crotch with the tip of her index finger.

She looked down at the floor again, returning her attention to the other human she’d pressed into the floor with her bare foot. He was still squirming down there, but getting nowhere. Two others were attempting to help him.

Reaching down, she grabbed one of them. This one was a woman, but taller, and much, much more solidly-built than the first. Lifting her new catch up to her face, held upright in her fist, she looked the human woman over.

---

Aster almost couldn’t believe that even her strength was completely insufficient to fight off the simple grip of this Oeza woman. With just one hand, the giantess was immobilizing her almost entirely. The feeling was humiliating on its own, but worsened by the knowledge that the Oeza was simultaneously using her best friend as a toy to masturbate with, and that she had just eaten Aine, as well.

“D-damn it, let go of me…!!” she demanded, using both hands to pry the Oeza woman’s thumb slightly loose from her front. The effort was undone in less than a second. “And Glenn, too…!!”

“G-… len?” the Oeza repeated, seeming confused. She appeared to understand after a second. “Glenn? Human name?”

“Y-yeah, the one you just shoved back into your-… ugh!!” A firm squeeze cut her off. The Oeza smiled lazily at her.

“What name? You?” she asked, and moved her huge thumb for a moment, pointing toward herself. “Oeza name Ninula.”

“What…? M-my name’s Aster, now let me go…!!”

Her chest and shoulders had been briefly freed from the crushing grip holding her when the Oeza woman – Ninula, evidently – moved her thumb, and Aster took the chance to try and wriggle free.

“Mm~…”

Aster lurched awkwardly forward as the hand holding her suddenly pressed to Ninula’s chest, slamming her entire body against a bare breast at least three times her size. “Urgh…!” she groaned in great discomfort, feeling a nipple comparable in size to her entire head digging into her stomach.

Ninula was laughing again. “Aster strong! Very good body, and pretty, too!”

Aster couldn’t help but notice as she was being toyed with that Ninula’s other hand was still quite busy down between her thighs. It looked like it had slipped inside of her handmade panties entirely now, pressing against poor Glenn.

“Ninula think Aster make good friend for Oeza. Take to see friends after sunrise.”

“Wh-what…!?”

She was being moved again. Ninula transported her to another of the stone structures next to the huge bed. It looked like a bin of some kind, perhaps for holding food. She was dropped there, falling to her hands and knees against a stone floor. She hastily got back up, but Ninula’s hand had already retreated. She was trapped. The stone walls around her were too tall to climb over by a considerable margin.

“GLENN!!” she called out, terrified for her friend.

---

As it happened, Glenn was not having a particularly wonderful time, either. With Ninula’s other hand joining him inside of her panties, his entire head had been forced past her labia and inside of her body, now.

Greatly enjoying the sensations that Glenn’s squirming was still providing, Ninula suddenly thought of an Oeza friend of hers.

“Tomorrow, Ninula take Glenn to meet L’neene.” she said. “L’neene friend, but very quiet. Shy. Never find mate, so shy. Ninula think L’neene like Glenn!”

There was still another human on the floor that she hadn’t accounted for, yet. Once more, she reached down, a bit surprised that he hadn’t run away yet. She grabbed him like the others, interrupting his continued efforts to free the human still under her foot.

“If you think I’ll let you make me, or anyone else here, into your void-bitten toy, Oeza-…”

She frowned. This human looked a bit over-the-hill. He was strong, like Aster, but much older, and he smelled a bit like the drink she liked so much. He wasn’t quite as appealing as Aster, but Ninula still guessed that he could be good for something. Fun, at least.

She got an idea, and reached for the basin her drink was in. Dunking this last human’s head into the drink, she swirled him around in it, watching with tipsy amusement for a few seconds.

When he lifted him free, he was much quieter than before. That was an awfully strong drink for a creature as small as a human.

Satisfied, Ninula deposited him into the same place as Aster.

She suddenly realized that the last human down on the floor had gotten free. She’d absentmindedly moved her foot a few seconds ago. She spotted him making a break for the cave’s exit, and stumbled to her feet. She had been drinking quite a bit with her friends earlier, and wasn’t moving with quite her usual grace. Nevertheless, she followed the fleeing human, watching him with amusement.

Outside, the last human darted toward the village’s side. The river wasn’t too far away, and he seemed to be heading for it. Ninula kept pace with him, moving very slowly. She wanted to see where he was going.

To her great amusement, he did indeed run for the river. She caught up, observing him.

He dove straight into the fast-moving water, but Ninula cut off his seeming escape instantly. Bringing her bare foot over him again, she pressed down, flattening him into the riverbed. He was struggling again.

“Why swim in river?” she asked, her shoulders shaking with laughter. “Oeza use river to piss!”

She paused, the tiny human beneath her sole still struggling under the water. Come to think of it…

“Ninula drink much before sleep. Maybe use river now!”

Her mind was made up. She lowered her slightly-stained panties to the ground, Glenn being dragged downward with them. Then, squatting over the river, she got to business.

A steady, pale stream struck the water, causing it to become noticeably murkier immediately. Pissing just behind the position of her foot, the space where she’d pinned the last human down was becoming completely diluted with her urine.

The human’s thrashing was getting much weaker. Still needing a while to finish up, Ninula held position, her piss stream continuing to swirl into the flowing water all around her foot, and the human’s position on the riverbed.

Soon enough, she was finished, and when she checked, the human had stopped moving entirely.

She picked up a stitched cloth from nearby to wipe herself, setting it aside once done.

Raising her foot again, she watched the unmoving human in the river as he began to drift along with the current.

Bade was gone from sight by the time Ninula returned her attention to Glenn. He was lying in a heap in her stained panties, right between her ankles. It looked like having his head forced inside of her body for a minute or two had left him too dazed and tired to even try and escape any longer. His brown hair was quite drenched by a mix of her sweat and the stickier fluids that had been trickling out from between her thighs when she’d been toying with him.

Smiling, Ninula lifted her panties back up, securing them around her waist. She would get Glenn cleaned up in the morning, and then present him to L’neene. He seemed like the perfect potential mate for her, even if he was quite small, being a human.

She didn’t even consider that Glenn was entirely unaware of the fates of his friends as she sauntered back to her room in the cave. Aster was still trapped in the same place she'd left her, trying fruitlessly to get Doane back to his senses after his sudden consumption of such a powerful alcoholic drink, and Aine was currently engaged in a terrified bid to stay alive in Ninula's stomach, casting every healing and protective spell she knew of.

Of course, Ninula also didn't particuarly care about any of this at the moment. She was holding onto Glenn for now, and that was all. He was hers for tonight, no matter what she planned to do with him in the morning.