As soon as Tal reached the top of the hill, he knew that he was too late. He could see the small village down below, or to be more accurate, what remained of it. There was little left of the buildings besides broken wood, and the fires that burned everywhere were quickly consuming even that. How long ago had Idaria been here? Tal wondered. It couldn’t have been that long. A few hours at most. His right hand unconsciously tightened around the hilt of his sword, his fingers constricting until they ached. He wanted very badly to draw the sword from its scabbard. And even more than that, he wanted to kill her with it. Soon, he told himself. After years of waiting, what was a day or two?
Tal guided his mare toward the ruins of the village, trying to locate any survivors. Not that he really expected to find many of those; after all, Idaria usually killed almost everyone that she encountered. That he had survived one of her rampages was little more than dumb luck.
Eventually, he found an elderly man with a dazed expression. There was a purplish bruise on his wizened forehead and he was clutching his arm, holding it against his chest, but other than that, he seemed to be unscathed. The villager looked up at him, his filmy eyes wide and confused.
“What happened here?” Tal asked him, although he already knew the answer. The old man studied him, looking first at his antique armor, dulled by age and neglect, and then up at Tal’s squarish face.
“It-it was a giant woman,” the villager replied at last. “Bigger than anything that I’ve ever seen. She just showed up out of nowhere and started to…to…” His voice drifted off and he looked down at the ground, still grasping his injured arm. Tal didn’t say anything, chewing thoughtfully on his lower lip.
The old man glanced back up, an angry edge to his voice. “You don’t believe me, do you?”
“Of course I believe you,” Tal said. “She attacked my town a few years ago. I know firsthand what she is and what she’s capable of doing.”
The villager nodded slowly, obviously relieved that someone believed him. Once more, Tal longed to unsheathe the sword, but he ignored the urge.
“Now,” he said, “tell me which way she went.”
***
The mare’s hooves clopped rhythmically against the dirt road as Tal became lost in his memories. He had told the old man the truth; several years ago, the sorceress Idaria had visited his town and left behind ruin and despair. It was times like this, when he was by himself, that he relived that awful night over and over again.
Tal gazed upward at the cloudless night sky. The moon hung overhead, full and golden, just like it had the night when Idaria attacked. He had been one of the guards patrolling the town wall, not paying much attention because nothing exciting ever happened during his shifts. And just like tonight, he had looked up at the full moon, surprised by its startling size and brightness. He had considered pointing it out to Rien, one of the other guards, but something else had caught his attention.
In the far distance, a shape had appeared. It had seemed like the outline of a woman, but it couldn’t have been possible. After all, what person was that large? As Tal had stared in astonishment, the shape had become even larger, swelling and expanding as it moved closer to the town. He hadn’t believed what he was seeing until he felt the ground quake underfoot. All around him, the other other guards had panicked, shouting at the strange sight.
Tal had watched the shape as it came closer and closer, until he could make out the details of the woman. Yes, it had been a woman, impossibly immense, but clearly female. She had looked like a member of the northern barbarian tribes, dressed in robes of thick fur, her light brownish-blonde hair braided and glittering with silver adornments. Other than her massive size, it had been her eyes that had caught Tal’s attention. They had been as golden as the moon, the pupils a dark and terrifying red.
Anything that had been in the gargantuan woman’s way had been obliterated; Tal saw entire trees uprooted like dandelions, smashed against the huge walls of the giantess’ shins. Looking back, he wished that he could have claimed that he was brave, that he heroically stood his ground while the gigantic being thundered toward him. But he had fled with the rest of the guards, running faster than he ever had before. Behind him, he had heard a deafening rumble and when he had snuck a glance over his shoulder, he had seen a brown leather boot the size of a small castle crash down onto the town wall.
The sight had been absolutely horrifying and because he wasn’t watching where he was going, he tripped and went sprawling on the ground. Little did he know at the time but that fall had saved his life, because a moment later, the giantess took another step, her foot landing on top of the fleeing guards. She had crushed them instantly, not even bothering to look down or acknowledge their existence. Another step and then she had pulverized several buildings, the shoemaker’s shop and the bakery and several others. It had been like watching a woman destroy ant hills.
He had laid there, too paralyzed by own his terror to even stand up, as the giantess had devastated everything around her. It had seemed as if her actions were mindless, driven only by a need for destruction; then, as he had continued to watch, he saw how deliberate she was. The way that she had crouched down, the vast expanse of her furred cape spreading around her, and ripped open a house, rooting around for the people inside…that had been the action of a cruel and calculating mind, not a beast.
Tal had felt completely impotent at that moment, watching as the giantess had withdrawn her hand and squeezed, dark streams of blood running down between her fingers. Afterwards, when he had recalled that night, he had felt a sort of disgust at his reaction and at his own powerlessness. He had only been able to watch.
In the end, she had killed almost everyone, slaughtering them with impunity. It wasn’t until much later that he had discovered her name, a name that he associated with terror and burning hatred. Idaria. From what he understood, she was a sorceress and a powerful one at that. During a trip to a tavern, an old soldier had informed him that she had once been the leader of a barbarian clan.
“What happened to that clan?” Tal had asked as he sipped his ale.
The soldier had regarded him with his one remaining eye. The other had been nothing more than an empty socket, outlined with heavily scarred flesh. “All dead. Idaria killed them, every last one.”
“I don’t understand how she could do that, though. Weren’t they her own people?”
“Some people are just monsters,” the soldier had answered with a shrug.
Idaria certainly qualified as a monster, and a powerful one at that. As Tal finally pulled the horse over to the side of the road to allow her to rest, his fingers touched the sword’s hilt. He had his own source of power right here. It wasn’t much to look at; like his rusted armor, the sword had seen better days. But it was imbued with magical power, enough to kill an ogre or a dragon.
Or a giantess.
The sorcerer who had sold it to him had charged a hefty price, but it had been worth it. As Tal had carefully inspected the sword, feeling its solid weight, he had once again asked the sorcerer whether it would kill Idaria.
The other man, who had been sitting cross-legged on a mound of velvet pillows, had smiled at him. Most of his teeth had been discolored from years of smoking and red wine and the lips were thin and diseased. It had been an awful and unnerving smile.
“You’ll get what you’re seeking,” the sorcerer had told him.
And now, as Tal stood outside, lightly caressing the hilt and staring up at the huge moon, he hoped that the sorcerer was right.
***
After following the trade route for several days, Tal arrived at the large city of Gerveen. It was an ancient city which had been passed between many hands. The southern desert tribes had ruled here once, as had various city states. The city’s architecture reflected this; the buildings had a variety of architectural features, ranging from overly-elaborate spires to heavy columns.
Tal had a very strong feeling that this would be where Idaria attacked next. For years, he had studied her patterns, her moods, her motivations. By this point, he felt like he understood her better. And this old city, which was the only human settlement for miles and miles, was the perfect target for her.
He checked into a boarding house near the edge of the city and once he was alone in his room, he did what he did almost every night: he unrolled faded maps and examined them, making marks here and there. Each mark represented a town or village or city that the giantess had leveled. Tal traced the marks with his fingers, lost in thought. In his mind’s eye, he once again saw Idaria, her inhuman eyes glittering with sadistic lust. His hatred for her had burned brightly at first; then, as time had passed, that hatred became something like a terrible affection. She consumed his thoughts in the same way that a lover would.
Tal fell asleep at the battered desk, sprawled over his maps. As usual, he didn’t dream, but rather drifted in the blank darkness. It was almost as if all of his mental energy was used up during the day, when he was awake and thinking about Idaria. He had fantasized about killing her in hundreds, no, thousands, of different ways. The satisfaction that he always felt was euphoric, better than sex.
He slept until a series of rumbling quakes and screams woke him. For a moment, Tal was disoriented, glancing around the small room in confusion. Then he heard more shrieks and he ran to the window, his heart hammering with a violent excitement.
Just beyond the opposite row of buildings he saw her, a titanness towering high above the city. Even though Tal had seen her countless times in his head when he was replaying that night from years ago, he was still astonished at how vast she was. The tallest structure only came to her lower calf so that she appeared to be wandering through a city of toys. He saw that her eerie eyes were as he remembered them, gold with those awful red pupils.
Idaria was looking down at the swarms of people who were fleeing into the narrow streets. Cradled in her hands was some kind of immense weapon. It resembled a mace, its steel head as big around as a temple and intricately decorated with magical runes. As Tal stared in horror, the giantess casually swung the weapon around, aiming for some of the buildings at her feet. The mace struck with the force of a meteorite, the buildings disappearing beneath the colossal metal head. Tal was thrown backwards from the impact, the entire boarding house shuddering.
As the building groaned and cracks ran down the length of the walls, he pulled himself up. Another impact shook the boarding house but he gritted his teeth, snatching up the sword. He dashed through the door, down the staircase and out into the street, where chaos had erupted everywhere. A woman with several crying children pushed past him, nearly bowling him over. There were numerous people clogging the streets, fighting to get away as Idaria obliterated entire blocks with her mace, sending debris and tiny bodies flying in all directions. Now and then, she hunted down clusters of survivors, reducing them to splotches of blood and blobs of meat beneath the deadly mace.
What made the wanton destruction even worse was the vicious smile on her face, as if razing cities was the most exhilarating thing in the world for her. Perhaps, he realized, it was.
Tal fought against the panicked mob, trying to work his way toward the giantess. For every step that he made toward Idaria, however, he seemed to be shoved back two more. He shouted in frustration, pushing aside terrified people as he struggled toward his target. Idaria, meanwhile, had become bored with smashing buildings and dropped the massive mace onto a stable, crushing the structure instantly. She stood there, hands on her hourglass hips, staring down at the people far below. Then she raised one foot, casually hovering it over the street. Some of the people, seeing her terrifying shadow, glanced up and cried out when they saw the sole of her boot hanging overhead. They couldn’t do much more than scream before she brought her foot down, flattening her victims with cruel glee.
The frenzied noises of the crowd was suddenly drowned out by the thunderous footstep and the sharp cracking of human bones. The terrible sounds spurred Tal on and he finally made it to the outskirts of the mob. Rising like a gargantuan column was Idaria’s leg, stretching impossibly high into the air. When she lifted her foot again, all that was left was a crater-like footprint and the smeared remains of people.
The giantess glanced at the awful mess on the ground, then at the bottom of her boot, which was still dripping with viscera and pulverized flesh. She grinned horribly, scraping off the mess onto a row of buildings. Tal was now so close that he could smell the leather of her boots and the metallic tang of blood. So close. Each step made his heart pound with desperate anticipation. As he reached for his sword, Idaria slammed her other foot into a lavishly-decorated temple. The building imploded, collapsing into itself with a deafening crash. Shockwaves radiated outward, knocking Tal to the ground.
He wasn’t injured but he found that he couldn’t stand back up. For some reason, his legs wouldn’t respond and as he laid there in the street, his steely resolve gave way to panic. It was just like that night all over again. He would lie there, helpless, looking on as the sorceress destroyed yet another city.
Something incredibly huge soared by overhead. Still paralyzed, Tal watched as Idaria’s leg swung through the sky, landing somewhere in the distance. Her other leg swiftly followed, the displaced air rushing over his body. How could he possibly stop someone who was so colossal, someone who could flatten entire armies like termites? Perhaps it was best if he simply fled with everyone else…
Absolutely not. He shoved those thoughts aside and pushed himself up, trying to determine where Idaria had gone. It didn’t take more than a few seconds to spot her, towering over another neighborhood. Blackish-gray clouds of smoke curled around her lower legs, partially obscuring them. Raging fires had already broken out in numerous places, and those buildings that hadn’t been leveled by the giantess would eventually be destroyed by the ever-growing flames.
Idaria hardly seemed to notice the fires burning at her feet and the wide trail of destruction that she had created. It was almost as though the city of Gerveen and its citizens were nothing more than a trifle to her, a small source of amusement that she would use and then obliterate. Nothing would be left of this place, not when the sorceress was finished with it.
An image flashed into Tal’s mind, of Gerveen a few hours from now. The ancient buildings would be toppled, the city’s inhabitants crushed beneath gigantic feet. A once-thriving city would be completely dead, sacrificed for a monster’s entertainment. Like so many other towns and villages. He saw Idaria, her golden eyes blazing with inhuman cruelty as she stomped across the landscape, always hungering for more destruction. The thought filled him with seething rage.
No, he couldn’t allow that.
Tal followed her path of destruction, which was more difficult than he would have predicted. Collapsed buildings and all kinds of debris was in his way, and he clambered over the remains of entire neighborhoods. All around him were the ghostly shrieks of the dying.
In the distance, Idaria had squatted down, her forearms resting upon her thighs as she inspected the tiny people all around her. She seemed to be contemplating something, and from her devilish expression, it was probably something horrendous.
Just as Tal reached the top of a crumbled building, its bricks strewn all over the street, the giantess sat down. She did it with a slow deliberateness, giving those below a view of her mammoth buttocks. Had she been normal-sized, it would have been an erotic sight. Her ass was perfectly-proportioned, the skin tawny and gleaming with a light sheen of sweat. At her current size, however, it was horrifying.
Idaria sat down, pulverizing a small section of the city beneath her. Tal held onto the building as the ground shook, several more bricks sliding free. He hoped that anyone who had been beneath her butt was dead. At least it would have been a relatively-quick death. To be trapped and half-crushed beneath those gargantuan buttocks would be nightmarish.
There were some survivors, he saw, scurrying and cowering between Idaria’s legs. In comparison to the titanic woman, they were nothing more than multicolored dots, running around chaotically. She leaned closer and to his astonishment, spoke to them.
At last, he heard her voice. When Tal was alone and fantasizing about his final battle with the sorceress, he frequently imagined the way that her voice would sound. Surprisingly, it was similar to the voice that he heard so many times in his dreams, a thunderous and imperious voice that befitted a goddess.
“Hello, citizens of…” she paused for an instant. “…whatever the name of this pitiful city is.”
Silence fell over the crowd between her legs. Dozens of people stared up at the giantess, amazed that such a godlike being would actually address them.
“Listen carefully,” Idaria said. “I decide whether or not you live today. So you will all do as I say.”
Frightened murmurs of assent rose up. Perhaps some members of the crowd believed that the giantess would spare them, but Tal knew better. Idaria never spared anyone. Not on purpose, anyway.
“Good. I’m your goddess now, and I desire worship.” The enormous eyes glittered lustfully. “I want to feel your hands, your lips and your tongues against my flesh.”
No one moved until Idaria swatted her hand down, pulping a few people beneath her palm.
“Now!” she barked. Everyone rushed forward to fulfill her command, caressing the mountainous walls of the giantess’ thighs. Idaria smirked, watching their desperate attempts to please her. Then she begin to select people at random, dropping them here and there on her body. One overweight man disappeared into the deep crevice between her breasts; several other people landed on her stomach, near the huge pit of her belly button.
“I can’t feel your tongues,” the sorceress growled, and the tiny people on her abdomen dropped down to their hands and knees, licking at the plain of flesh beneath them. There was no way that she could have felt them. Even thousands of people couldn’t have produced much of a sensation for such a gigantic creature.
Still, she groaned with pleasure, a rumbling noise that vibrated everything within a mile. The giantess shifted just enough so that several of the men and women rolled off of her body. The ones who managed to hold on renewed their fearful worship, kissing Idaria’s flawless skin. Despite their attempts to please her, however, Idaria soon grew restless, flicking the ant-like people off. Some tried to flee, only to be smushed under a single fingertip.
Tal was half-climbing and half-sliding down the remains of the building when Idaria stood back up. She casually brushed off rubble and bodies from her ass, although he still spotted bright spots on her buttocks, hideously red against her skin.
This was it, the moment that he had dreamed about for all of those long years.
The searing heat from the nearby fires made him sweat, droplets of perspiration running down into his eyes. Tal took a deep breath, unsheathed his sword. The weapon gave him a dose of courage as he marched toward his massive adversary.
Idaria paid him no heed. She had bent down, scooping up howling victims. Often, she was careless in plucking them up and so she squished them between her tremendous fingers. The few people who managed to avoid being mashed were ushered into the center of her palm. They stood there, trembling, gaping up at the giantess who held them in her cupped hand. With a devious grin, Idaria stood back up and raised her hand over her mouth, spilling dozens of people into the void between her lips. One older woman bounced off of the giantess’ plush lower lip, leaving behind a streak of scarlet, and then plummeted to the ground.
Tal reached his opponent just as she was swallowing her mouthful of living, shrieking snacks. Her other foot was resting upon the remains of a shop, splinters of wood littering the area around her titanic boot. He gripped the sword tighter, wrinkling his nose. Being this close to someone so immense was overwhelming. The giantess practically radiated heat, warming the air around her, and she gave off normal human smells that were amplified by her great size, acrid sweat and the earthy odor of flesh.
He inhaled slowly, the air tinged by her scent, and shouted up to her. “Idaria!”
Again, the giantess ignored him, and the resulting anger pushed aside the last traces of doubt and fear. Tal lunged at her boot, slashing at the dark brown leather. That seemed to finally capture her attention and she made a noise of disdain.
“And what do you think that you’re doing, insect?” From this angle, all that he could see were her two colossal legs and the lower section of her torso. Her face was too far away for him to make it out.
“I’m here to kill you,” Tal announced, and even as the words left his lips, he realized how laughable they sounded. The giantess uttered a harsh, deafening laugh. When the vast body began to lower, crouching, he backed away. He caught sight of Idaria’s face at last, surrounded by those thick, swaying braids. She wore a smile but her eyes were lacking any sort of warmth.
“Is that right? You’re going to kill me?” Again, the giantess chuckled. She reached for Tal with her index finger and thumb, trying to pinch him between them. He swiped at her thumb, bellowing with fury. The sword swung in an arc, flashing as it came down on the tanned skin just below the thumbnail. He expected to see the blade slice deep into the flesh, to see gushing gouts of blood.
Nothing happened.
Tal refused to believe what his eyes were clearly showing him. Once more, he slashed at the massive thumb, using all of his strength. And once more, the sword couldn’t penetrate the armor-like skin.
“No,” he whimpered. “The sword is supposed to be magical!”
The thumb and finger closed around him, twin walls of ridged flesh and muscle that threatened to squash him into bloody goo. Somehow, he clung onto the sword, as useless as it seemed to be. Idaria picked him up as if he were nothing more than a beetle, holding him close to her face. The giantess’ grip was incalculably strong and he couldn’t move his arms or legs as he hung there, squeezed between her mammoth digits.
“ ‘Magical’? That’s nothing more than a cheap sword,” the giantess said, her humid breath washing over him. To Tal, her breath smelled like death, heavy with the stink of decay. It made his stomach churn, his eyes water.
“But the sorcerer said—,” Tal started, arguing more with himself than her.
“I’m sure that he told you many things to sell you that sword. It’s a pity that none of them were true.”
Tal made a low noise of rage and despair.
“It’s hilarious to think that someone as small and pathetic as yourself tried to stop me,” Idaria sneered. “Now, what should I do with you? Eat you? Pop you between my fingers?”
He began to wiggle, trying futilely to free himself.
The giantess’ smile became lascivious, her white teeth gleaming between her blood-red lips. “Oh, I know!”
His stomach dropped as she lowered him down at an alarming rate, past her long neck and the enormous hills of her breasts. Below him, he saw Idaria’s other hand grip the top of her loin cloth, pulling the strip of leather away from her toned abdomen.
Realizing what she was doing, Tal began to shriek threats, then pleas, then prayers. Nothing that he said stopped the descent of Idaria’s hand, though. She lowered him down into her loin cloth, bringing him face-to-face with the frightening sight of her sex.
Like the rest of the giantess, it was unbelievably huge, a living cavern of purplish-red. Curly brown hair, each strand the thickness of his finger, grew like a thicket around it. As she brought him closer, he saw the slightly distended inner lips, fleshy and deep crimson like huge rose petals. They glistened with a fragrant slime and he jerked his head back, disgusted.
“Put me down! Put me down!” Tal howled.
His captor laughed yet again. “With pleasure.”
Idaria did put him down…on top of her clitoris. He slid on the slimy surface, the sword slipping from his grip and tumbling down the cliff-face of her outer labia. Desperately, he clung onto the clitoris, his gloved fingers digging into the dark bulb of flesh. Tal’s movements evidently pleased the giantess, because she let out a deep, unearthly moan that rattled his body.
He glanced down, which he shouldn’t have done. The ground seemed so very far away, tiny blossoms of scarlet and orange fire illuminating the miniature buildings. Spasmodic shudders ripped through him as he tried to pull himself up, although the weight of the armor made it difficult. His grip loosened, and he felt himself sliding down…until Idaria pinched him between her fingers once more.
Tal twisted, fighting her even as she pushed him into the gaping chasm of her vagina. He roared in anger and humiliation, the noise echoing around him. All around him was soft, pinkish flesh, although it was too dark to see much. He wanted so badly to hurt her, to make her suffer, but as he clawed at the slimy living walls, he realized that was impossible. His feeble movements did nothing more than arouse her, the massive tunnel filling with thick, pungent liquid.
If that wasn’t bad enough, her finger returned, blocking the last of the light that had been filtering into the hellish place. It bashed him against one of the vaginal walls, hard enough that he felt something snap in his torso. Coppery blood filled his mouth and he wheezed in pain, trying to push the finger away but failing. Once again, it rammed into him as the giantess pleasured herself. The flow of the sticky secretions increased and he tasted them on his tongue, mixing with his own blood.
Tal tried to curse her, but he couldn’t breathe, not with the fluid choking him. The finger withdrew and then the walls around him began to contract rhythmically as the giantess orgasmed. His bruised body was dragged upward, toward her immense cervix, and he was certain that he was going to die there, in this living tomb.
Something grabbed him unexpectedly, yanking him out of Idaria’s vagina. The giantess held him between her fingers, savoring his pained expression, and then she placed him on the ground. Tal remained still, fighting to breathe. His ribcage throbbed, sending ripples of pain throughout his body. When he was able to draw some air into his lungs, he snuck a glance at Idaria.
The giantess’ eyes hung high above him, glowing with malice. Tal tried to crawl away, leaving a snail-trail of blood and viscous love juices as he pulled his broken body along. Darkness descended over him; shaking, he looked upward. The sky was now a boot sole, caked with dark soil and the gruesome remains of people. Even though he slithered away as quickly as he could, the foot still came down on top of him. He felt the hard sole press down into his back, forcing his face down into the dirt.
All those years spent waiting for this moment, and it was nothing like his fantasies. Everything was so very wrong. Something began to break inside of his mind.
He tried to cling onto his dream of vengeance until the pain became too great. Suddenly, the agony was everything, overtaking every single nerve in his body. Something cracked sharply; it may have been the rest of his ribs, or perhaps his pelvis. Tal opened his mouth to scream out Idaria’s name, but then she stepped down and he knew nothing more.
***
When the giantess lifted her boot, there was a ruined little body in her footprint, its blood slowly seeping into the ground. Myna remained where she was, hidden behind the segment of wall that had once been part of a building. Her heart galloped in her chest and she prayed to every god and goddess that she could remember, begging them to shield her from the giantess’ eyes.
Perhaps a deity heard her prayers, because the huge woman turned away. Smiling, she reached for her mace, picking up the weapon with effortless ease. As Myna looked on, the giantess purposely plowed through a few surviving buildings, smashing them like sandcastles. She strode toward the edge of the city, seemingly pleased with all of the mayhem and carnage that she had caused. The young woman continued to watch her as she disappeared over the horizon, the earth still trembling with her footsteps. Myna should have felt relieved by the knowledge that she had survived, but her thoughts were occupied by something else.
Already, she was dreaming of revenge.