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

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

"No, my king." The first one responded and knelt, bowing his head.

"Rise." King Aele said generously. "Are the stories untrue then?"

"They are true, my lord." The rising soldier said with a shaking voice. "We have seen."

"And?" King Aele pressed on impatiently. "What have you seen that so frightens you? Have they killed people?"

"They have slaughtered them!" The soldier broke down, sliding forward on his knees like a beggar. "One hit the village of Andrafall yesterday, past noon, killing over a hundred. She played with people like a kid likes to play with ants! She crushed houses with a single step. We have seen the bodies. We are no match for their strength, my king!"

"How big was she then?" King Aele asked concerned.

"About a hundred meters, according to the villagers." The soldier responded. "We have seen her footprints as large as long-houses!"

"Nonsense!" The court mage entered the conversation from a window seat. "The old scriptures tell us that a giant is five times the size of a man! That means nine meters, scout, not a hundred. And their feet could never cover a house. It's a common peasant exaggeration."

The soldier looked helpless. He could never accuse a magus of being untrue.

Unhindered, the mage went on: "It is known that they are of violent nature, yes. They seem to just enjoy killing. I am sure that Andrafall was befallen by giants, my king, but I assure you, that they are not nearly as tall as this soldier reports."

It was said that giants had been forged by the gods and ascended from the sky. They ruled the world when humanity was still young, enslaving the people until an alliance of druids, witches and men defeated them, banning their kind into the highest mountains where, to this day, they remained.

-

Janna had slept naked because of the lack of clean clothes. The small fire at the edge of the ship had burnt down and Laura was still sleeping tight. In the mood for an early snack, Janna slipped out of the sheets and walked over to the table where they had deposited the food and the prisoners. The tiny girl in the Erlenmeyer flask was already awake and watched her anxiously.

"Aww, don't be afraid little one." Janna whispered softly and tapped against the glass of the bottle.

Yawning and stretching she looked between the food and the prisoners and thought about what to eat. The food was quite alright, but as much as she hated to admit it to herself, she had really grown to like the taste of the tiny people. It was as if with every other one she consumed, they tasted better.

Looking back to see that Laura was still asleep, she licked her lips and took four of the nine remaining morsels into her mouth. She felt their weak little bodies struggle for a moment before her jaw turned them into mush. It was really good, of all the treats this planet had to offer, people were her favourite. Eating them alive was cruel though and thus it was a guilty pleasure, like a box of chocolate on a diet.

When Janna swallowed the mashed corpses one of the blind prisoners started to run.

"Stay here." She purred and found herself quite amused by her food's attempt to run away from her, effortlessly catching him in her hand. She put the tiny man on her tongue and pushed him against the roof of her mouth until his body burst open and joined the others in her gut.

"Please, what did we do?" One of the last four remaining prisoners cried.

"I think you know that best." She rebutted, lifted him by a leg and over her mouth. "Think about your poor victims."

Then she dropped him. Munching evil people was not only a treat for Janna's palate but also made her feel all good and righteous inside.

"I'm innoce-," were his last words before her molars squelched him.

"He wasn't innocent!" The last remaining female of the prisoners spoke up. "He was a murderer and a drunk! I know he...he told me!"

"But you are innocent?" Janna cooed as if she believed the woman.

"Y-yes!" The woman stammered. "I'm innocent, please! Let me go!"

"Okay." Janna said with a grin and lowered herself beneath the table. "Follow my voice, it will bring you to safety."

Hesitantly the woman got up and stumbled into Janna's direction but the two remaining males tried to get to safety as well. The tapping of their tiny bare feet on the steel table alarmed the tiny female and she quickened her pace.

"Come, come." Janna lured them with her voice. "Only the first one gets free."

Upon hearing that, all three of them started to sprint heedlessly towards the edge of the table where Janna was waiting with an open maw. Unrestrained, they ran straight into their doom. Janna only had to move her head a little to catch the last one.

"Sorry." Janna giggled when she felt them all squirming inside her mouth. It was really untypical for her to play cruel like that, however she found that she was still utterly uncaring about the prisoners. They probably deserved what they were getting anyway. Or maybe not. This world made it really hard to judge.

Quenching any further second thoughts, she put the people to the grinders, ultimately silencing their pleas for mercy as her teeth crushed their tiny victims and tore them apart. When she swallowed the puréed people she involuntarily made eye contact with the girl in the bottle.

The little female was absolutely loosing it, crawling away from Janna as far as she could, cowering against the glass as if she could squeeze through somehow. It had an erotic touch of absolute dominance and Janna found herself seriously contemplating to eat the innocent, little thing.

She weighed her options. She was hungry for more and since Laura was still asleep she could claim that the tiny thing had somehow gotten away. What was one more or less innocent dead, on this planet anyway.

-

Shiela's heart was racing. This giant, naked goddess had just devoured nine living, screaming people for her breakfast, and maybe Shiela was next. She had tried everything, like summoning a wind to uncork the bottle but it was impossible to cast magic where she was.

The reason why druids commonly carried obsidian daggers as ritualistic weapons was that touching iron or steel with the bare skin made casting magic almost impossible. In an iron rich environment like a steel cage or a smith's workshop it was also very difficult. This giant grey temple, or whatever it was, seemed to be made up almost entirely of steel.

Suddenly, the giantess took the bottle with one hand, uncorked it with the other and tilted it towards her mouth. It happened so quickly that Shiela couldn't react before she already felt herself slide downwards. Futilely she searched for a hold on the glass and screamed in terror.

Sliding faster and faster she saw the giantess's awe inspiring maw. She closed her eyes and hoped with every fibre of her body that the spell would work. It didn't. There was a moment of free fall and utter hopelessness before she landed on a hot, wet surface. Then it went rather quickly.

Horror-struck, she felt the impossibly huge tongue move her onto a hard surface and another one pin her from above. Then her body gave in to the pressure.

-

Janna savoured the taste of her last tiny morsel, which tasted especially good. The tiny thing would have been useful to get that strange idea of 'magic' out of Laura's head, Janna thought, but it was probably not too bad. Laura often got into stupid ideas but never stuck with them for too long.

She didn't mind starting the clean up before Laura awoke but it felt unusual doing it all completely naked. First she brought her clothes to the lake and started to wash them, putting them up the entrance of the spaceship afterwards so they could dry. After cleaning her boots as well, she thought about how to get the spaceship clean.

There wasn't any cleaning equipment onboard and the lab supplies only had a couple of paper towels and rags for mopping up spills. When she rooted through the dark coven chamber however, she made a different discovery. Jake's case of beer. She decided to leave it where it was for now. Laura would probably drink it all up in a few days and there wouldn't be anything left when there was something to celebrate.

"Aww, no!" Laura's voice rang from the laboratory.

"What's wrong?" Janna asked genuinely when she came back, though she could already guess what was upsetting her friend so early. Laura was naked too and comprehensibly displeased.

"Shiela, she's gone!" She said pointing at the empty and uncorked Erlenmeyer flask.

Janna guiltily rubbed her belly where what apparently had been 'Shiela' was currently being dissolved in acid.

"I know." She said meakly. "She must have gotten out in the night."

"I wanted to show you her magic." Laura pouted. "I shouldn't have underestimated her powers."

She shook her head, still completely serious about the issue.

"What do you mean?" Janna teased carefully. "You think she conjured the bottle open, turned into a bird and flew away?"

"How else would she have escaped?" Laura countered the question.

That was true, Janna had to admit to herself, but she obviously couldn't tell Laura the truth.

"She might have climbed." She offered instead. "Maybe the prisoners helped her, see, they're gone as well."

"Little shits." Laura muttered and started to look around in the ship. "You think they're still here? I want to make them pay."

"Nah, don't think so." Janna lied. "I already started with the clean up and didn't find a trace of them."

"I think it was probably the druidess that helped the prisoners escape though." Laura pondered, "Filthy little witch. We must find more of them so we can study their magic or what ever it is they are doing."

"Laura...” Janna was uncomfortable. "There is no such thing as magic. You probably overreacted because it is all so horrible with the crash and all or maybe there were hallucinogens in the food that those villagers gave you. I mean, listen to yourself."

"Fuck you." Laura spat. "I saw what I saw."

"I know." Janna reasoned calmly. "But maybe what you saw wasn't real."

Laura was in a bad mood for the rest of the clean up. She too washed her clothes in the lake before both girls mopped the floor together. Without buckets it was an annoying task, sitting on their knees, scrubbing.

Janna offered Laura the rest of the food and Laura thankfully downed what was left at once. The weather outside was really good and the girls agreed upon going to Sir Ludwig's keep for a real breakfast once they'd finished to clean the ship.

"I'm starting to get fed up with this planet and it's people." Janna mentioned at some point, vigorously scrubbing the floor.

"Because it's all so dirty here?"

"Dirty on the outside," Janna began angrily, "and dirty on the inside."

"Can you believe earth was like that once?" Laura pondered. "And I mean, it pretty much still is in the poor countries. My mum watched the news the other day."

"Really?" Janna responded. "That's fucked up."

It really was more than three years ago that Laura's mother would have been watching what ever particular broadcast Laura was referring to, but since they had been in stasis it didn't feel that way to them.

"I know, right?" Laura laughed. "I mean, why would anyone watch the news in the first place. God, I miss TV, do you think they sent help yet?"

"Not if they don't expect a transmission from us." Janna said bitterly. "Honestly, I don't know. But we'll be stuck here for a few years at least, you know that, right?"

Laura swallowed hard at that. Perhaps she hadn't realized it before, or else chosen not to think about it.

"We should make the ship more cosy. I don't feel at home here at all." She said, dismissively looking at the grey walls and tables. "Paint some pictures or whatever."

"We can ask the tinies to make us something!" Janna cheered. "I'm sure Sir Ludwig would be happy to help."

"What's with that Ludwig guy anyway?" Laura asked suspiciously. "What does he gain from you other than keeping you from squashing him?"

Janna was taking offence: "I wouldn't squash anybody. I think he just wants to help 'cause he's a good guy."

"Come on Janna." Laura said, shaking her head. "A, you straight up ate people yesterday, you would squash anybody if it was convenient to do so and B, 'good guy', are you fucking serious? Do you have any idea how much food we need?"

"I study biology." Janna rebutted angrily. "I know exactly how much fucking food we need."

"It's a lot, isn't it."

"Yeah." Janna admitted. "But they have a lot of food too."

"Which is why they have now started to feed their fellow people to us." Laura smiled and cocked her head as she did often when winning one of their friendly arguments.

"Those were prisoners!" Janna countered vigorously. "They would have been executed!"

Laura's grin grew wider: "And you are sure every one of them was guilty?"

Janna searched for an answer for a few seconds before she turned and directed her anger at a particularly stubborn stain on the ground instead.

-

The soldiers groaned under the weight of their field kits and long spears. The sun was burning hot but King Aele's army had made good progress. Five hundred fighters, mostly men except for some few Thorwalsh mercenary women. Next to the infantry and rabble, there were a hundred and twenty horses, lance riders, some knights and skirmishers. Skirmishers were simple, but those on horseback were mercenaries of a different breed. Aele had no doubt that they might be raiders in truth, turned sell-sword to make a quick coin, but they would serve their purpose nonetheless. Same was true for lance riders, another breed of soldier rather uncommon in Andergast.

Andergast's regular army was made up by enlarge of levied spear men, longbow archers along with light cavalry from peasants able to ride. Lastly, there were the knights in heavy ring mail, sitting formidable horses, men of noble blood many with ancient families and claims to land, much to lose and near unwavering loyalty, fervour and honour. There weren't many of them though, and at the end of the day, a man was a man, title, land or no. The call for the banners had been on very short notice, and only so many men could be assembled, so Aele was glad for the mercenaries in particular.

The city guard and a the stationary handful of longbow men were left behind to protect the city in his absence. Who knew what other evils were brewing in the forests while he had been idling.

He figured that a smaller army like this, composed of more able fighting men, would do him more good in this case anyhow. The plan was to feather a giant with spears and arrows and then drive so many lances into him that he would die. None of the soldiers, or King Aele for that matter, had ever seen a giant though. But that could only mean that there were not too many of them.

Confidently the king had his men march faster, eager to put Ludwig to justice. Vengyr had said that Ludwig was a traitor. That was enough.

'Slay the giants and the debt is paid.'

"Bloody Bastard" King Aele mumbled through his teeth.

When they came onto the village of Andrafall they discovered what the scout had been talking about. A part of the village lay in ruins, many people had fled, abandoning their homes and the local economy had halted. A wheel on a stick, the sign of Boron, god of death and sleep, marked a huge, fresh mass grave.

The remaining people came running towards his army with praises and whatever gifts they had left, bestowing them upon his men. Usually the people in these northern parts would get suspicious when he and his men came through. More often than once during the civil war, they had ravaged the village, raped their women and seized their supplies. Now his men were treated like heroes and it was as if their presence dragged the villagers out of a state of deep depression and shock.

"Apologies, my king." An old man approached and bowed deeply. It was the Travia priest of the village, leaning on a wooden staff. "Had we known you came, we would have made preparations!"

The looked rather unpresentable with mud spatter on his hands and white-green tunic, but Aele didn't care for that.

"It is war that brings me here." He said briskly. "I have no use for pomp."

"Of course, my king." The man bowed submissively again. "I am none of the wretched, ungodly seers but it will please you to hear that even I have foreseen your your victory. Indeed, I have seen you in my dreams, holding a white goose, standing on the shattered body of the giantess that did this to our village."

He pointed to the ruins and the grave. King Aele fathomed that although this was a lot of destruction for a single, nine meter tall giant, it was less than one would expect from a hundred meter tall one. He didn't give much prophecy, although he did hold the Twelve in high regard. He just couldn't picture himself holding a goose, the animal of the goddess of hospitality, friendship, peace, hearth, cooking and of all things marriage and family.

"A single giantess did this?" He asked sceptically. "How big was she?"

"As large as a mountain, my king." The priest explained. "She crushed houses with a single step and buried men alive under her feet, her lust for murder could only be quenched by a sacrifice. We beg of you to purge these lands of her evil and the treachery of our lord who is stealing from the innocent to feed the behemoths and make them his mercenaries."

"I vow to destroy the giants and bring to justice your treacherous lord!" King Aele announced proudly although the very convincing statement of the giantess's size made him shiver inside.

There was no way of knowing if his army of five hundred would be enough to stand up to such a giant, if it turned out that way. According to court mage Jindrich Welzelin they were much smaller, and mages for all their estranging weirdness were said to be wise and well-read after all. A larger number of smaller giants may prove equally troublesome though.

On the other hand, the soldiers were fairly well trained and armed and more banners were already being called in so that Aele might return and get them after he had brought Ludwig to justice. In the meantime the giants would be having more trouble to find food, hopefully wearing them out enough for an easy victory once he'd return with an army tenfold as large as this one.

The crowd erupted in cheers and Aele's morale among that of his men rose considerably. Still, the king thought, he'd probably have to burn down as many villages as possible to starve the giants for good. With any luck they would die or move over to Nostria and cause their mischief there. When Ludwig was dead, Aele decided, he'd come here first and lay waste to the village and it's people.

It was nice to be in a war again, with all the excitement in the air. Raping a few peasant girls would hopefully make him forget about his sour wife.

-

"I'm thinking about fixing this stupid planet." Janna said when they were almost done with the cleaning.

"What do you mean?" Laura asked perplexed. "We shouldn't interfere with their society too much, it will mess up the science."

Janna wasn't pleased to hear this: "But we must help them somehow, at least give them a just leader or something."

"And who would that be?" Laura inquired sceptically. "Sir Ludwig?"

Janna nodded: "Why not? He is intelligent and kind. He will be good to the people."

"And what about their old king?" Laura kept asking.

"The old king is the problem." Janna explained. "He's some kind of Hitler or something."

"Yeah, but he will have his own followers, right?" Laura retorted. "You could inspire civil war if you're not careful."

"Then I'll squish his followers and anyone who questions Sir Ludwig's reign." Janna rebutted grimly in turn. "Oh, you liked the old king? Nice! Let me introduce you to the bottom of my foot."

Laura noticed how erroneous her friend's logic was but was also intrigued by the idea. They'd spend the next couple of years on this planet and not only might it become incredibly boring but their presence would have a detrimental impact on the tiny alien's society anyway. It was also a convenient excuse to crush people.

"I'll help you." She said confidently. "Let me meet that Ludwig guy."

Janna was happy to be able to share the effort with her friend and they decided to go after a break of enjoying the sun and trying to get a tan.

"Should we go naked?" Laura asked jokingly after half an hour.

"Huh?" Janna said, awaking from a snooze. "You wanna get a few hundred men flustered with your giant pussy?"

"What are they gonna do?" Laura asked. "Try to have sex with me? Okay, but I'll be on top."

"Death by snu-snu!" Janna horsed, laughing.

"You know there was a case once with some remote rain forest tribe or something called the Yanomami. One of the anthropologists studying them, old, bold, ugly-ass fucker, married like a twelve year old girl of their tribe. That perv."

"Eww! What did the tribe think of that?" Janna frowned, appalled.

"Not much." Laura mused. "Twelve was like the usual marital age for them so it was okay. The scientific community felt different about it of course."

"What became of the tribe?" Janna asked after a short pause.

"Well, another group of anthropologists visited them but some of their helps had the flu. They didn't want to wait because they wanted to get famous and ended up killing most of the tribe. The Yanomami still exist today but they totally hate westerners and don't want to have any contact."

Janna sounded concerned: "You think the same could happen here, if we're not careful?"

"Sure." Laura said, shrugging her shoulders. "But I don't think it will matter much. We don't know how big this planet is and if we fuck up this kingdom or the other there will be still enough of their civilization left for other scientists to destroy."

Janna scratched her head at that and seemed to think about it for a moment.

"Okay." She said then. "We should definitely wear clothes though. No point in getting these poor guys all excited for nothing. Let's go, I'm freaking starving."

-

"Into the keep!" Sir Ludwig yelled as the king's army attacked. They had been waiting by the wagons for the giantess to arrive and have breakfast when suddenly banners appeared on the road to the east. King Aele had somehow learned about Ludwig's plot and been able to march through the fiefdom without Ludwig learning about it. Pressing the food from the peasants had turned them treacherous. That was something neither he nor Lares had considered before.

They abandoned the wagons full of food and made it into the keep just in time. King Aele's soldiers seized the wagons, searched through the houses outside the walls and encircled Sir Ludwig and his fifty soldiers. Not raising levies to protect themselves while the giantesses were away had been another mistake, he reflected. A handful of peasants were trapped behind the walls with them but putting spears into their hands might bring it's own troubles, plus Aele had only brought a small force of well trained troops.

Ludwig stood on the battlements and saw the king approach the gate after coordinating the construction of siege equipment.

"Come out you filthy traitor and we'll let your people live!" He yelled up at him. "You are encircled, trapped, how much food do you and your men have? How long can you hold out?"

Ludwig gritted his teeth. The truth was that they didn't have any food, having sacrificed all they had to the giantess. He saw that some of the king's men were already destroying houses to gain material to build ladders. It was only a matter of hours now. The question was if the giantess would come today and if she would arrive on time.

"We are strong!" Sir Ludwig lied. "We will repel you until help arrives!"

"And what help would that be?" The king sneered. "Your unholy alliance with the monsters? I don't see any of them here. You are alone, Sir!"

King Aele had probably seen or heard of the destruction the giantesses had caused to the forest along the eastern road and knew that he didn't have time for a prolonged siege. If he was able to turn Ludwig's men against their lord he would be able to end all this in a matter of minutes. If not, he'd have to take the keep with ladders which wouldn't take very long either.

Ludwig heard a commotion behind him and turned around just to see one of his own men with a desperate look in his eyes come charging at him with a dagger. Lares, having stood only a few meters away rushed in his path. In a single move, Lares drew his sword and delivered a blow to the soldier's head, instantly killing him.

"Your men's morale is already fleeting!" King Aele declared. "Give up now and I promise you a quick death!"

"Sooner will I cut off my own manhood before spending another day ruled by you, fat king!" Ludwig hollerred angrily.

"Men!" King Aele addressed the others behind the wall. "Bring your liege lord's head to me and I promise you not only life but riches! A gold piece for each of you if you submit him to me now!"

A murmur erupted from the group of Ludwig's men and he saw in each and every one of their faces that they were giving the king's offer serious consideration. Helplessly he looked at Lares who curiously returned a look of happy relief.

"My lord, look!" He whispered and nodded over to the eastern road.

Horns were blown and the men in the keep cheered. The siege that could have turned into a nightmare was already about to be smashed.

-

King Aele was caught in a dire situation. Hastily he organized his army away from the keep towards the approaching behemoths while still keeping pressure on the men on the walls. Not many nine meter tall giants he had to deal with, neither a single a hundred meter tall one, but two of them. Fear struck his heart but he was confident that his army stood a chance.

"Knights, dismount!" He yelled. "Light infantry, get the ladders up, bring me Ludwig's head!"

A scream from the light foot and knights showed their acknowledgement of the command. While it seemed like the men had been wavering for a second, the strong voice of their leader tied their morale back together again. They took the few ladders that had been built so far and rushed towards the castle walls. Sword men, Aele reckoned given the giantess's size, would be more useful on the walls while only troops with a certain range stood a chance at holding the giantesses off.

"Heavy infantry, defensive positions, spear wall! Lance riders, right flank! Skirmishers, charge!"

-

From afar Laura and Janna had noticed the commotion at Ludwig's keep. There was an unusually large amount of tiny people there, carrying banners that Janna hadn't seen before. When they got closer they noticed that the men were armed with long pikes that were pointed in the direction of the girls and a handful of riders coming at them. Janna couldn't really make sense of the situation.

"Hey, little people." She greeted the fast galloping riders. "What's going on?"

They didn't answer and rode past her and Laura's feet, throwing their spears at them. Both girls were wearing jeans and t-shirts again but while Janna wore her trusty boots, Laura had decided to go barefoot once again in the hot weather.

"Ouch, they are throwing needles at me!" Laura cried as she noticed the pokes on her bare feet. The jeans cloth and Janna's boots however were absolutely impenetrable for the tiny projectiles. Laura danced a few meters into the forest to be out of reach.

"Didn't you say Sir Ludwig's guys were the good ones?" She asked perplexed and watched the skirmishers futilely thrust their javelins into Janna's boots.

"I'll get to the bottom of this." Janna said confidently, carefully stepped over the riders and went over to the tiny stronghold. She saw Sir Ludwig standing on the battlements of his keep frantically waving his arms. When she came closer to the large bulk of foot soldiers they came charging at her with their little, iron-tipped sticks.

"Are you kidding me?" She asked dumbfounded and watched the soldiers vigorously trying to pierce the heavy leather of her boots with their tiny weapons. "You can't hurt me, little people, sorry."

There were now so many tiny soldiers swarming around her that it was impossible to get any closer to the keep without getting some of them underfoot. She lifted her right foot and hovered it above the crowd that hastily dispersed. Some, however, remained were they were and confidently stuck their pikes into her heel. The space where her foot had been before was now covered with soldiers as well and so Janna stood there, balancing on one leg, trying not to kill anybody.

"Get away from me! This is dangerous!" She scolded them, rowing with her arms to stay balanced.

She tried until the last moment, refusing to crush any of what she believed were Sir Ludwig's men. The fighters beneath her took her hesitation for a sign of success and more joined them, ramming their pikes into the sole of her boot as if it had any effect.

Feeling that she was going to lose balance Janna lowered her foot until the weapons broke like the little insignificant twigs that they were to her which finally convinced the soldiers to get out of harms way. Her left foot followed the same way but this time Janna oversaw a young soldier that tripped and fell. Vainly, he raised his hand at his fleeing comrades who failed to turn back as the shadows engulfed him and the giant boot pushed him into the ground.

His last scream was barely audible over the battle-cries and turned into a gargle when the unstoppable weight settled. As Janna raised her right foot again to get closer to Sir Ludwig the young man became the first victim of the fight.

When the flattened corpse was revealed as the giantess took yet another unstoppable step towards the keep the soldiers became furious. Some dropped their pikes and hauled themselves at the mighty feet in an attempt to climb up and try their luck with their side arms. Janna ignored them. She just kept taking small, careful steps until she was close enough to bend down and address Sir Ludwig from up close.

"Thank Phex you are here!" Ludwig hollerred at her, frantically looking for attackers that were still climbing the walls. They had been able to repel some of them but they were gaining a foothold on the walls.

"What's going on?" Janna asked again. "Why are these men fighting?"

"They're the king's men!" Ludwig explained frantically. "They want to destroy us! And You! Argh!"

In the last moment he noticed a heavily armoured knight that rushed past Lares to Ludwig's right. Lares was fighting two light swordsmen at once. Ludwig raised his sword to block the knight's blow that would have cut a man in two if left un-parried. He tried to sweep at the knight's feet but the man skill-fully dodged the attack and hurled his sword over his head to deliver another mighty blow.

Using the momentum of the failed attack Ludwig hurled his sword over his own head and was able to parry once again, leaving the edges of their blades digging into each other.

"Usurper!" The knight growled and pulled Sir Ludwig close to him, hitting his opponents face with his helmet. The lord was knocked back which freed the swords again, Ludwig barely being able to hold onto his one. Sensing his opponents weakness the knight charged with another mighty blow but Ludwig was once more able to defend himself.

The knight knew his advantage however and rammed his opponent with his heavy ring-mailed shoulder. Sir Ludwig was thrown onto his back, his sword sliding over the cold stone, out of reach. The victorious fighter stood over him raising his sword for the final blow when Janna noticed that she could no longer stay inactive. Catching the knight off guard she took him in between her thumb and index finger, lifting him away from the tiny lord. It seemed that only now he acknowledged her, starting to scream angrily and thrusting his long sword into her finger.

"Ouch!" Janna exclaimed and dropped the man.

The knight fell a few meters deep by comparison but his armour saved him from any major injury as he crashed on top of the stone wall. He was a battle-hardened fighter and quickly found back to his feet only to look into the glaring giantess's face.

Janna cocked her index finger behind her thumb and quickly gave the man a flick. To her surprise, it sent him flying over the small courtyard and the opposite wall as well, down the hill that Ludwig's keep had been built upon. Pieces of ring mail were flying off him whilst he tumbled through the air.

Janna noticed one of Sir Ludwig's men whom she had seen before, skill-fully defending himself against two attackers at once. Aiming carefully she flicked the first one off the wall as well before she took the other in between her fingers and lifted him to her face. After she had made sure that he had dropped his sword, Janna threw him into her mouth and started chewing. His clothes and chain mail made no difference to her at all except for spoiling the taste a tiny bit.

With a sweep of her hand she disposed of the ladders leaning against the battlements, sending countless swordsmen tumbling to death and injury. After flicking some more of the king's soldiers off the walls she turned her attention to the army at her feet.

-

Meanwhile Laura lingered at the edge of the forest, luring the skirmishers on horseback closer to her to risk a shot. She didn't like being poked with needles and, Sir Ludwig's men or not, these little guys would die.

Getting an idea, she yanked a massive oak tree out from the ground and used it as a brush to sweep the riders off their horses. They didn't stand a chance. They tried to avoid the massive tree coming at them but it was much too quick and the giantess wielding it much too agile and a thousand twigs swept them off their horses sending them to the ground leaving many with injury and some dead.

Laura grinned at her tiny victims and took her time with them. The first one had his lower half buried under his injured horse and couldn't even move when Laura's foot came down on top of him. Not without personal satisfaction, she crushed him as slowly as possible until his body became one with his animal under the pressure.

She noticed a next one, frantically crawling away from her.

"Aww, are you hurt?" She whispered with a grin. "Here, let me help you."

She pushed him down with her big toe until he was pinned and then continued until he was mush. Next, she spotted a horse that made it back to it's feet and took off without it's rider who was stumbling into the opposite direction. She violently stomped the animal into the ground before turning her attention to the tiny guy that had been riding it.

While going after him Laura noticed another one that tried to cover himself with greens as a camouflage. She just squashed him flat without breaking her stride.

"Come here, little guy, I wanna play!" She laughed as she caught up with the runner.

Putting her foot in his path she saw him slide to the ground before getting back up and trying his luck running into the opposite direction. Again, Laura put her foot in his path and came to a tumbling halt, fearfully looking up at the giantess's face.

"Please, don't kill me!" He begged and threw himself to his knees.

"Lick my toes." Laura commanded playfully and put her foot next to him.

After a short moment of hesitation he picked himself up and obediently licked Laura's big toe, embracing it with both his hands, while shooting fearful glances at her face. Laura relished the power rush and felt herself becoming aroused.

"Please don't crush me!" He cried again as she lifted her toe a little to force him to lick the bottom of it.

Ignoring his pleas, Laura lowered her toe until she could feel him squirm underneath, still licking for his life, before she pushed down hard and gave it a little twist. A gasp escaped her lips when she felt him crush.

-

King Aele was starting to question his strategy. The immediate idea had been to bring the giantess to a fall and have the lance riders charge but realizing that would not happen, the lancers stood idly by, awaiting his command. Some where already looking for which way provided the best route of escape.

'Bloody mercenaries.' He thought. What he had thought to be early successes in the battle turned out to be something else entirely while the giantess had already relieved the keep of the pressure he had put on it.

The men were still surrounding her feet at the bottom of the hill, stabbing at them but she didn't seem to pay them much attention any more. Until now.

She had picked up a sword fighter from the top of the hill carelessly dropped him onto the army. The man fell, screaming, before becoming unluckily impaled on one of the pikes, showering it's carrier with blood. And then the giantess was looking down again.

-

Janna wasn't really sure if she was supposed to feel sorry for what she was about to do. She did pity the fools at her feet though, who were going to die in their stupid effort to serve their stupid king. Nonetheless, it had an awesomely powerful touch to be invincible. It put a smirk on her face.

She raised her foot and moved it over a particularly tightly packed part in the formation. She could almost see the tiny faces turn from battle rage to fear. Then she brought it down.

The sickening crunch of breaking pikes, helmets, armour and bodies squelching under her unforgiving sole was enough to send the idle lancers into retreat. Foot soldiers forced their way away from the giant foot and anyone who had still been trying to climb up fell down on top of his comrades.

Lifting her foot, Janna inspected the liquefied bodies. No one had survived the mighty stomp, even the one's that only got half way under her foot and popped under the pressure. Stomp, and another part of the army was gone, chaos ensuing all over the place but Janna wasn't going to let them retreat just yet.

Her smirk grew wider and wider as she now used both feet to rhythmically stamp up and down, stomping the army into the dirt. Soldiers dropped their weapons and tried to scramble away from her but most of them quickly found a squishy end in her footprints.

As the ranks thinned out, a giggle escaped Janna's mouth as she watched straggler for straggler disappear beneath her foot. The place turned into a swamp of blood and body matter, producing horrible squelching noises with each time her boot sunk into the ground.

-

Sir Ludwig stood on the battlements and rejoiced in watching the massacre. This horrible monster could not only make him king of Andergast, it could make him emperor of the world. Still there was a drop of bitterness in watching so many good fighters perishing under the gargantuan foot falls.

"Nothing except a battle lost could be half as horrible as this. By the gods, my lord, what have you done?" Lares pondered, looking down. For a man of such unscrupulousness it was quite a statement indeed.

-

Somewhere in the back of her head, Janna realized that she was treating conscious almost-human beings like ants but decided to be practical about the situation. Anyone crushed today would not be there to fight tomorrow. She tracked two tiny soldiers with her foot who then started to split up. When her foot came down on the left one the other stopped, stretched out his hand fell to his knees.

Janna laughed more evilly that she had ever before and twisted her foot. "Did I smush your tiny friend? Ha, sorry!"

Making bad things happen to bad people made her happy. And then she went on to go and kill others, leaving the devastated guy alone.

-

King Aele had helplessly watched his cavalry retreat and his infantry being slaughtered. The scout, earlier that day, had been right. They didn't stand a chance against a giantess' might. When half his army had already been crushed to paste his horse decided to flee as well, throwing the mighty king of it's back and into the dirt. Weighed down by his heavy and recently quite ill-fitting plate and mail he got up in the horribly reeking mud and found that the giantess had overlooked him. Her back turned towards him, she happily trod on his fleeing men, mercilessly crushing them into pulp.

Seeing his chance, he stumbled through the dirt towards the forest. Away, he thought, just away from this madness. He'd try to raise a peasant army, as large as possible and get the best engineers he could pay, perhaps even Horasian ones, to build giant machines, scorpions, catapults, to try and kill off the giants that way. It was either that or appeasing them as Ludwig had apparently chosen to do.

Aele spotted one of the female Thorwalsh who had dug herself into the mud in order to avoid detection. Their eyes met as he stumbled past her and he thought nothing of it but after a few more steps he could hear her roar from behind.

"Uargh!" She screamed and jumped his back, bringing him down to a fall and tumbling along with him. She was barely armoured and quicker at her feet than he was, using her advantage to deliver a kick to his face. He fell to his back again and the woman picked up a broken spear from the ground.

While the king was standing up she kept beating his back and shoulders, her blows however defeated by Aele's armour. He drew his sword and the two looked at each other for a moment. She was a Thorwalsh indeed, a huge, muscular, big chested shield maiden with curly, fire-red hair, painted leather vest and sail cloth britches in white and red stripes running down the length of her legs.

Theirs were a folk of fishermen, seafaring raiders and pirates, fortune seekers and the such like who were proud of their freedom and independence, taking particular pride in the fighting strength of their shield maidens. In Thorwal, women were known to beat their husbands just as much as taking it. Aele had no love or patience for such a queer people.

"What are you doing, woman?!" He screamed at her. "I bought your loyalty, stand down!"

The response was immediate and brutal. With another scream she came charging at him, thrusting her broken spear at his neck. He beat it away with sword and abruptly carried out a riposte but only managed to strike the woman's head with the flat side.

Bleeding from a cut on her forehead the woman swung her spear at his head, hitting but only delivering a minor blow thanks to the helmet. While King Aele lifted his sword to deliver a sharp blow this time, the mercenary countered with a risky thrust at his sword arm.

With a shatter, the tip of the spear punched through ring mail and gambeson and through the king's wrist, crunching out from the other side, bloody red and dripping.

"Aaaahrgh!" He screamed in pain and the sell-sword yanked at the spear, breaking his wrist completely. His expensive sword fell to the ground and came to a quavery hold, sticking in the mud.

-

Having finished the annoying skirmishers Laura had seen the lancer cavalry's retreat and went after them. Running at full speed it didn't take long for her to catch up with them and the men and horses noticed the gargantuan foot falls behind. Trees in Laura's way were brutally crushed and it didn't take long until the first riders were carelessly flattened among them.

She slowed down to a jogging pace and playfully had her feet land on the fleeing men, enjoying the feeling of horse and rider squish equally under her. Give or take a few lucky survivors who managed to ride into the brush and hide, Laura was happy with the hunt and slowed down to halt to catch her breath before she returned over to the keep. Along the way, she saw the dozens of unlucky riders, squashed, deeply embedded in her foot prints.

-

The last stragglers of the infantry who had made it the farthest were worn out and Janna took a casual stroll around the immediate battlefield, squashing people flat. Many were injured, most probably having been trampled on by horses and other men. On her way back to the keep she noticed two figures on the ground whom she had evidently overlooked. She was going to finish them off as well when she noticed that one had more fancy armour on than the others and was being held hostage by a female, knife to the throat.

"Halt!" The tiny female screamed at the top of her lungs but Janna was unimpressed.

"Let me guess." Janna mused and leaned closer. "You're going to tell me why I shouldn't squish you."

The tiny woman made a step backwards.

"I have captured the king!" She said with a strong, raspy voice. "He's worth more to you alive than dead!"

Janna's face lit up. She had never expected to find the king among the soldiers, although in retrospect it made very much sense. He could have ended up beneath her, unnoticed, crushed beyond recognition like so many others and no one would have known. Still Janna decided to play a little game.

"And what makes you think that?" She asked playfully, grinningly leaning even closer.

The tiny woman didn't budge.

"He's the key to the kingdom!" She reasoned. "That lord Ludwig will want him alive!"

That statement was undeniably true. Holding the king alive could make putting Ludwig in his place a thousand times easier. Also, Janna was beginning to think that she had killed enough people for one day.

"Fine." Janna gave in. "What do you want?"

"Free passage back to Thorwal!" The fierce little fighter demanded. "And my weight in gold!"

Janna was equally offended and amazed by such bold bravery. After all, once the king was hers there was nothing to stop her from killing the tiny female.

"Alright, you shall have it." She said simply. "Now give him to me."

The Thorwalsh shield maiden eyed her suspiciously for a moment before she asked: "Do I have your word?"

Janna nodded, confused as to how this could actually be working. Perhaps the woman was just stupid, or else she was deeply believing in some honourable code of conduct. Spattered in mud and blood as the little one was, Janna found that hard to believe. Perhaps it was just panic and post traumatic stress after all.

The she-warrior pushed the king forward and gave him a kick in the back, sending him face first into the mud. Janna wasted no time and took him into her hand, raising back up to intimidate the tiny woman.

"Actually," She began with a smirk, "I think I'll just squash you flat."

"You can't!" The woman said, upset. "You gave me your word!"

"What are you going to do about it?" Janna asked amusedly and raised her foot.

"Fine!" Came the angry reply. "Crush me then! I will join my forefathers in Swafnir's halls and drink and feast with them in eternity! Crush me!"

That turned the whole thing on it's head for Janna. She was impressed and could also not overlook the fact that this was likely a person from a different culture than Andergast according to observation. Her clothes, her manners and her accent, all were different and she was fierce and admirable on her own merit.

She set her foot aside: "Okay. I'll let you live. You can go home."

"I'm not going home empty handed!" The tiny woman countered, stubborn as a stone. "Crush me or pay me! I am owed coin and plunder!"

"Again, little girl." Janna sighed. "You can't force me to do either, can you?"

The tiny thing roared and charged at Janna's feet.

Meanwhile Laura had joined the scene and amusedly watched the ridiculous exchange.

"She makes it sound like some Scandinavian Viking culture." She observed. "Let me have her, I'll add what she can tell me to my notes. I might even pay her cultural sphere a little visit. What do you think? A trip to the sea?"

While the Thorwalsh woman hacked at Janna's boots with her tiny knife Janna shrugged her shoulders: "I think we're seriously at war now, Laura. Ludwig might need our help and protection a few times more."

"Let him raise an army to protect him." Laura suggested. "Once he's done that we are more free. We can go around the country and persuade this or that little lord to join his cause. Or squish them altogether."

"Sounds solid." Janna sighed and gave the woman at her feet a gentle flick, putting her on her back and pinning her knife wielding hand with her index finger. "Let go of the knife. Or I'll squish your arm. With or without it, you're coming with us."