Alban’s father, Mildar, had been the ruler of Elgon for over thirty years. In all those years, he had been required to deal with many things which threatened his kingdom, but none of them had given him as much concern as the tale he’d just heard from his son. He, and all of his subjects who were present in the throne room, were utterly confounded. None of them could imagine that their future king was really intent on leaving his land, to go and live with a giant princess, with whom he had somehow fallen in love.

“No!” the king finally exclaimed, ending the silence which had hung over the room. “There is no possible way, Alban, in which I would allow you to throw away your duties as my heir, for such a mad, such a preposterous, notion. Whatever has gotten into your head, my boy? How could you even think up something so deranged?”

“Deranged? I am not deranged, father, not even close! I am sorry that Turas didn’t return, or any of the others; I don’t think a day will pass from now on, where I won’t blame myself for their deaths. If you think I should be punished for their deaths, then I agree. The only thing I wish of you, is that you would welcome Valerie as a friend and ally of Elgon, and that you would accept the fact that we love each other, that we…”

“That’s enough! I’ve heard enough, and I can see it’s going to take some time for you to get back to your senses. You will be punished, in due time, but first I want you to get off and tell that giant…friend of yours, that if she does not leave our lands at once, I shall order my forces to attack and kill her. There’s never been a giant who was friendly to humans, in all of history, and I strongly doubt that this…whatever her name is, is any different.”

There were nods and voices of agreement from almost all the others in the chamber. Alban felt his heart sink, even though he had already half-expected this response before he arrived here. He made his way towards the windows, not looking anyone in the eye, and wondered what he could say that would change his father’s mind, at least a small bit. Unfortunately, he could think of nothing, except that perhaps it would be a good idea to say goodbye.

Back outside the city, Valerie had grown tired of sitting and waiting, and had decided to get up and take a look around. As soon as she moved, the small army that had been watching her responded, and she saw a myriad of bows being drawn, and catapults being loaded. But they weren’t fast enough, and she easily walked past the soldiers, who weren’t able to keep up with her. She left them behind and headed towards the western edge of the city.

On this side the walls ran alongside the face of the castle hill, whose sides were steep, almost cliff-like. So close were the two structures, that Valerie could almost touch the top of the castle if she stretched out her arm. She was standing right next to the wall, which only rose a little bit higher than her knees. On top of it, armed guards were running to and fro, some of them firing arrows at her, some running for their lives. She just ignored them; she wasn’t planning on staying long anyway, since that army was still heading in her direction. She wondered if Alban was in the castle right now, and what he was doing.

“Oh, just shut up, won’t you?” she cried, after yet another yell of “Die, monster!” came from the wall below. “I don’t even look like a monster, and I certainly don’t act like one!”

The guards stopped their futile attacks, and looked up at her, frozen in their tracks. She crouched down, so that the top of the wall was at eye level to her. Smiling at the frightened men, she carefully seized one of them by the waist, and picked him up. He seemed scared beyond words, even though all she did was flick his helmet off and give him a kiss on the head. She put him back down again, and he promptly collapsed.

“Some soldier you are!” she laughed. “Frightened by a sweet lass like me, hmm? That’s just not acceptable! I’m…”

She stopped upon hearing her name being shouted, and looked up. High above her, in one of the castle’s windows, she saw her prince, leaning out and calling to her. She quickly stood up, but before she could ask him what was going on, he suddenly leapt out of the window and came plummeting down towards her. She had to react fast, but she managed to catch him safely in her hands.

“Alban?” she exclaimed, as he struggled to get back on his feet. “What’s happening? Why did you just jump like that?”

“We have to leave!” he ordered her. “Right now! I tried to tell them, but…they all think you’re here to destroy the city, or something, and my father has decided to attack you!” He looked up and, sure enough, there was the king, and his nobles, watching from the throne-room windows. Some of them were screaming, terrified by the sudden appearance of the giantess right next to the castle. Meanwhile, the guards on the wall had regained their composure, and had begun firing arrows again. Valerie turned around and, to her alarm, saw that she had lingered too long. She was completely surrounded by the army, and even more men, both soldiers and commoners, had come out of the main gate, to boost the ranks. She didn’t think she was in any mortal danger, but the army was huge, and she was trapped, with no way of escape, other than to fight her way through the legions of soldiers.

Alban looked down from the safety of her cupped hand, and regretted the decision to come here. They should have gone straight back to the Vandanian castle, but no, he had to introduce her to his people, foolishly thinking that they’d all have the same change of heart he’d had. He didn’t want to ask Valerie to fight the soldiers, but he couldn’t think of anything else to do. Looking up at his giant girlfriend’s face, he was surprised to see a look of determination on it. Had she thought of something, some plan to get out of this mess? She didn’t say a word to him, but put him firmly on her shoulder, where he clutched onto a few strands of golden hair.

Valerie lifted each of her feet, to shake off some pesky soldiers who’d been busy stabbing her with their swords. Then she turned around a few times, taking in the entire crowd at her feet, as well as the people in the castle, before addressing them.

“Listen to me!” she yelled, and they did. “I’ve just about had all I can take! How can an entire kingdom be so…stupid? After all the care I’d taken not to hurt anyone, or break anything, while travelling through your lands…and you still think I’m here to kill you and eat you? Seriously? I don’t even want to stay here! I just came to say hello to my darling Prince Alban’s family, and to meet the people of his city, and maybe even offer my services to the king of Elgon. But I couldn’t do any of those things, because I’m constantly being bombarded by arrows and spears, even after it should have been obvious that you can’t…defeat…me!”

As she said these last words, she stamped her feet hard against the ground. The circle of soldiers who were closest to her retreated hastily, and she had a bit more room to walk around in.

“I am not your enemy!” she repeated, turning to face the king. “I am not here to invade you – in fact, it would be an honour for me if some of your people would come and live with me in my land. Vandan’s only inhabitants right now are goblins. and I wouldn’t be much of a queen, if I had only an empty land to reign over. But I gather that you’ve all already made up your minds about me, so I’ll just leave right now, and not cause you any further problems.”

She turned around, glad that her speech seemed to have had an effect upon the crowd. The ring of soldiers surrounding her seemed unable to make way for her, even after she asked them politely. So she simply nudged the front row of men with her toes, pushing them gently aside, so that she could place her foot on the ground between them. Eventually they realized it would be impossible to stop her, so they moved aside and gave her enough space to walk through them.

General Monar watched the giantess walk away, with his nephew still riding on her shoulder. Then he turned towards the castle, and wondered how Mildar was reacting to this extraordinary situation. In his opinion, the king had become a bit erratic in the last couple of years, sometimes making decisions without fully thinking them through. Usually he, Monar, had to try and talk his brother out of pursuing a particularly rash or unwise course of action, and he expected he’d have to do the same now. For his own part, he thought it best to order the soldiers not to pursue the giantess, whom he already regarded as a potential friend.

“That went well,” Alban said sarcastically, as Valerie headed off on the journey back to her home. “I’ll be lucky if my father even wants to see me again after this, let alone talk to me.”

“I’m sorry, Alban,” Valerie said, taking him into her hand, and holding him against her chest. “I sort of knew that something like this would happen, but that doesn’t make it less hard to bear. But thank you for sticking with me through everything, it really shows me what a wonderful man you are.”

“Hmmm,” he muttered, nestling against her breast. “I never thought I’d fall in love with a giant, you know? What young lad would? Certainly not my father, who has had three wives, and divorced them all when he was no longer attracted to them. I hardly ever see my mother anymore – she was his second wife. The first didn’t bear him a son…”

She listened to him talk about his relationships with his family members, and thought it was no wonder that he preferred going on adventures to a life at court. There was too much unpleasantness that goes with that territory, it seemed, and she vowed that she and Alban would never stop respecting and loving each other, no matter how difficult and complicated their own lives might become.

When it grew dark, she lay down next to a small forest, and they ate some of the bread and fruit from her sack. There was now only enough food for a couple of days left, but she could walk fast, and knew that they could reach Vandan before it ran out. When they’d finished, Valerie took a few moments to tend to the wounds on her bare feet. The soldiers had been vicious in their attacks, and several of the sword-cuts went in deep.

“I am definitely taking a bath once I get home,” she sighed. “A long, warm, relaxing bath, and after that, a nice, long rest in my royal bed.”

“That sounds marvellous,” Alban said, helping her rub some ointment she’d brought on the soles of her feet. “In fact, I think I’ll join you.”

“Join me? In my bath? Now that’s going a bit too far!” She snatched him between finger and thumb, and gave him a good, firm squeeze. He made an attempt to break free, which didn’t succeed in the slightest. So he gave up, and let her have her way with him. She caressed him for a while, before giving him a long, tender kiss.

“Actually,” she said, “I would love for you to join me, in my bath and in my bed. Big girls like me have desires too, you know.”

“I see. And can a miniscule man like me fulfil those great desires of yours?”

“Oh, I think so. But there is only one way to be certain.” She looked at him suggestively, and, all of a sudden, Alban could also no longer wait to get back to Vandan.