Teagan looked around her. She was deep in hostile territory, traveling dangerously close to a number of tomkin settlements. It was of the utmost importance for her to reach this river quickly - she was out of food and water, and was being tracked. Teagan turned her walk into a brisk jog, although her muscles burned in protest. Her backpack, now lighter than ever since being depleted of the hardtack, bandages, and cheese it contained, was starting to tear. Teagan resumed walking, still surveying her surroundings. As she continued onwards, Teagan noticed a number of willow trees around her, which thickened as she went forwards. This was a good sign indeed; willow trees tend to grow near bodies of water. Teagan, spirited by this good omen, doubled her pace and continued onwards, a half smile spreading across her tanned face. After what seemed to be an eternity, Teagan crested a hill and came face to face with a river, with water as green as the grass that grew around it. The trapper told Teagan that this water was not only safe to drink, but even healthy and delicious, perhaps the result of magic. Teagan quickly staggered over to the river and drank her fill. When she was done, she then proceeded to fill her flask. Teagan then undressed, revealing her shapely form, and took the first real bath she'd had in months, refreshed by the cool water. She smiled with pleasure as she submerged her tired and aching legs in the river, relaxing for the first time in what seemed to be forever. After a quick scrub, Teagan clambered out of the river, redressed, and started heading downstream. While she was certainly no longer thirsty, Teagan still felt the occasional pang of hunger. She opened her backpack, and withdrew the small wooden box. She looked at it, examining it for a few seconds, before putting it in her belt where a weapon would normally be put. Indeed, this makeshift prison was her weapon.

It was time to secure some food, be it sapient or otherwise.


Teagan knew this area well; it was the site of her home in her youth. Even though she hadn't been by the river in nearly 15 years, Teagan could remember most of the landscape, making her an enemy to be feared. Teagan also knew that this was now a favorite foraging ground for tomkins, who would occasionally come for the delicious but somewhat rare wild strawberries that grew in the area. While certainly tasty, these uncommon berries wouldn't be enough nourishment for Teagan and she knew it. Indeed, they were hard enough to come by when she was a girl, and now that tomkins were harvesting them, the berries would be a rare find indeed. Teagan's footsteps were silenced by the grass that blanketed the riverside, and she was faster than the vast majority of tomkins. She strained her ears to pick up on even the faintest sound of speech, and looked around for even the slightest shift in the grass.

Teagan grinned wickedly as she heard strains of singing drift up a nearby hillock. Although she couldn't tell for sure, the music seemed to be coming from more than one voice, and was most certainly in the strange language of the tomkins. Teagan lowered her lithe form onto the ground and crept silently towards the sound of the singing. She tentatively peeked over the hillock, and clenched her fists in anticipation of the hunt. Four little tomkin maidens were headed towards her, each bearing a number of miniscule water buckets. Two of them were singing, unaware of the danger they were headed for. Teagan darted back behind the hill, knowing that she had limited time before the water girls crested the hill and saw her. Teagan knew that if one if the tomkins escaped after seeing her, it wouldn't be long until a platoon was sent to find her by the nearest tomkin settlement. A peal of laughter rang out from behind the hill, signaling the the maidens were drawing ever closer.

Teagan, sensing that she was running out of time, snuck quickly but quietly behind a willow with a trunk just thick enough to hide her. She waited there patiently, not daring to look out from behind her cover and scare her prey away. She listened intently to the singing, which drew nearer with every passing second. Finally, Teagan heard what she was listening for. There was a series of audible plops as the maidens filled their thimble-sized buckets with the green water. Teagan snuck out from behind her cover, taking advantage of the fact that the tomkins now all had their backs turned to her. She made a wide arc before sneaking up behind the maidens, taking advantage of the sounds of rushing water and singing to drown out her stealthy footsteps. Teagan’s muscles tensed as she drew less than a foot away from the oblivious tomkins. She slowly extended one arm…
With a rapid movement, Teagan seized two of the tomkins in her hand and put them in her box, which she had at the ready in the other hand. The other two tomkins, startled by the sudden movement, turned around to behold the comparatively giant Teagan stuffing their comrades in a box. One of them, a tall (by tomkin standards) lass with ebony hair and a dark complexion, dived into the river, while the other one, a shorter girl with ginger hair and wide eyes, tried running to the right. Teagan instantly leapt towards the tomkin that dived, knowing that the current could carry her to safety. She extended her hand with lightning speed towards the flailing tomkin, and snatched her out of the water. Once she placed this tomkin in her box, Teagan turned her attention to the other tomkin, who was now running as fast as she could towards what Teagan presumed was her town. Teagan dashed towards her, like a stoat chasing a rabbit, and slid onto the ground, hoping to use the extra distance she would gain to reach the tomkin. The tomkin, however, saw this coming, and veered sharply away from Teagan’s grasp. Teagan, now both angry and worried, scrambled on all fours towards the terrified tomkin. The tomkin, hoping to escape Teagan again, veered the other way, but Teagan predicted this and swept her hand in the same direction as the tomkin was headed, catching her. The tomkin weakly struggled, but it was of no use. Teagan put her in the box as well, ignoring the feeble resistance.

~

Sihil wept as the giantess dropped her into the small box. She was so close to escaping. Everything was dark, and the air was stale. Sihil knew little about these giants, but she did know that they had taken to eating people alive and whole after they lost the Giant War. Sihil flinched when something wet touched her shoulder, but calmed down when she realized it was the hand of Fersi, her closest friend who had tried in vain to swim away from the giantess.

“Sihil… I th-thought you m-might have gotten aw… awa…”

Fersi burst into another bout of tears, unable to finish her sentence. Sihil, now having partially regained her composure, started looking in vain for some sort of way to escape. She tried pushing the top of the box open, pounding on the walls, and scraping away at the floor, but her efforts did nothing. Sihil then did the only thing she could do.

She waited.

Sihil, who had fallen asleep in the box, woke with a start when bright light flooded the box. Sunlight poured through the previously black holes in the lid as the giantess drew the box out of her massive satchel. The giantess said a few words in a strange language and opened the lid of the box completely. Sihil bit her lower lip as she watched a giant hand descend into the box, headed straight for her. Sihil shakily stood up and prepared to face death.

“I am not afraid of-”

Sihil stopped her speech as the hand swerved away from her and plucked Fersi out of the box. Fersi started shouting and thrashing, but to no avail. The hand drew nearer to the giantess' face, now clutching the panicked Fersi. Fersi started hitting the hand with her fists, but this unsurprisingly turned out to be ineffectual. She then started begging the giantess for clemency.

“Please, please, if you have any heart at all, let my companions and I go! We have done you no wrong! I'll do anything! Please, just don-”

Fersi was cut short when the giantess opened her mouth, revealing a set of perfect white teeth. Fersi screamed and started struggling, but could do nothing as she was lowered into the monster’s mouth. Sihil watched in horror as Fersi’s legs disappeared into the giantess’s mouth, followed by her torso, and finally her head. The giantess grinned in sadistic pleasure. Sihil watched aghast as the giantess moved Fersi around in her mouth. Finally, she tilted back her head, and with a small gulp, swallowed Fersi alive. To prove her terrible point to the rest of her captives, the giantess opened her now empty mouth. The other two people trapped with her, whom Sihil didn't know well, started screaming insults at the apparently amused giantess. Sihil, knowing that her fate was sealed, simply sat there as the giantess put the lid of the box back on. Sihil silently wept as she was submerged, once again, in darkness.

~

Teagan placed the box back in her backpack. She could swear she still felt the struggling of the tiny creature inside of her, and she honestly enjoyed it. While Teagan was certainly an empathetic person who could easily feel for other people, she didn't think of tomkins as people. Rather, she thought of them as savages, akin to creatures like cows and pigs that were quite naturally and intellectually inferior to humans. Her already biased view was influenced even more heavily by the fact that all of her friends and family were slaughtered by tomkins, and she viewed her actions as justifiable retribution. Teagan rubbed her stomach; yes, the tomkin was still struggling inside of her. She knew that the other three tomkins would only last her until nightfall, and turned her steady downstream march into a jog. At this pace, she was able to reach a strange-smelling bog in little over an hour. She delved in.

The trapper told Teagan that the old man’s hut was well hidden among a grove of three red willows, but not too hard to see if one knows it’s there. Teagan slogged through the peat bog, doing her best to ignore the smell. She soon came across a sparse grove of red willows, and looked around for a group of three. It wasn't long until she aspied such a grouping of willows, with long leaves draping down. Indeed, the hut was concealed well among the willow leaves, but Teagan saw the roof peeking through the leaves after a careful examination. She strode towards the hut, which had no door.

“Heya! Anyone there! I'm looking for someone who knows the way to Whitebreeze Keep!”

Teagan waited for a reply. There was none.

“I'm coming in, is that okay?” she inquired.

“No. Stay out there.” responded a hoarse voice.

Teagan watched as a short balding man with a willow cane hobbled out of the hut. Upon beholding Teagan, he smiled, and did a curt bow.

“It's been a while since I saw me a lovely lady like you. Please excuse my earlier rudeness, and make yourself comfortable.”

The old man led Teagan inside. The interior of the hut certainly contrasted with the outside, which consisted of a few mud-brick walls. The willow wood walls were adorned with a number of paintings. A small bed sat in the corner of the house, while the center consisted of a table, a chair, and a few reed baskets.

“I rarely get company, so’s I've only got but a single chair. You can have it, I'll just sit on the bed. Care for some tea and bread, lassie?”

Teagan smiled.

“I'd love some, yes. However, I didn't come here for tea. I was told you know the way to Whitebreeze Keep.”

The old man chuckled as he started boiling water.

“I thought that's but a legend. And even if it did exist, why would I of all people know where it is?”

Teagan froze. The man didn't even believe in Whitebreeze Keep. She had come out here and risked everything for absolutely nothing. She nearly burst into tears.

“I - but - you were supposed to…”

Teagan stopped for a second, and regained her composure, before speaking slowly to the old man.

“I'm sorry to have bothered you. I guess I'll be having that tea and going, then. I was told you'd know where Whitebreeze Keep is, but if guess it was too good to be true.”

The old man nodded and strained a number of green herbs out of his tea with a fine cloth.

“You've got spirit, lass.”

The man placed a mug of tea and a loaf of coarse but hearty bread in front of Teagan.

“I do know the way to Whitebreeze Keep, and I'd be more than happy to tell it to you.”