When Miryh approached the Grand Cabal, they had already received reports of giant sightings in the southern clearings, but it wasn’t until they pried a full explanation from the panicked, disgraced would-be wizard that the true desperateness of the situation became clear.

Usmag chastised the fool for tampering in forces he did not understand.  She stressed that she had not been so close to him for many centuries that he would be rotting in prison for the rest of his miserably long life.  As she was dressing down the oaf, a report came back from a scouting mission to the area of the giant sighting.

A particularly frazzled scout gave a report of a giant attacking their encampment.  Though the giant had speckled blonde hair and dull green eyes, he held himself with the grace of a nobleman.  Quickly he scooped up the scouts as they fled until only the commander remained.  Yet once he identified his prey, all veneer of honor and nobility fell away.  The giant made the scouts watch as he tore their commander limb from limb.  The commander then had the rest of his body mashed between the giant’s fingers.  Yet surprisingly, he let the rest of the scouts go as soon as he finished his sport with their leadership.

Two days of preparation passed, when rumbling was heard from the south in the direction that the scouts came.  Trees dropped low, the ground quaked, and the elven army started lining up to protect the border of Aaq Samer, with the Grand Cabal seeing them off on their dangerous mission.  Unfortunately, they underestimated the speed of the giants.

The sky darkened over Aaq Samer as Miryh looked up at a figure that could only appear in his darkest nightmare.  Yet here it was, made flesh.  The elf knew his role in this ghastly creature’s appearance in their forest home, but could no longer stop the atrocity that was unfolding before him.  In a flash, his lifelong friend Usmag was whisked away from his side.

The blonde giant held the elven woman with his middle and index fingers against her shoulders, and his thumb against the gap between her shoulder blades on the back.  He gave her a self-satisfied glare.

“So this is the High Conselwoman?  Are you telling me you used to rule over the Matja Plutarchy?  Pathetic!  Good thing a new set of rulers is in town.  Hey Arthur!  Justice!  I found them!”

That’s when two more giants charged from past the trees.  One that seemed to answer to Justice was a black-haired youth with wide eyes and sharp features that Miryh didn’t recognise.  The same could not be said for Arthur.  His face Miryh would recognise anywhere.  After what he witnessed him massacre the gnomes for his own sexual gratification, how could he not?

“I suppose introductions are in order.  My name is Rook.  These are my companions Arthur and Justice.  We’ve decided that since you elves are so weak and powerless before our superior might, you should become our subjects.  The capital of Matja is now under the control of us giants!  And our first order of business as your new rulers…”

He lifted Usmag to his face and beamed at her.

“... is to get rid of the old rulers.”

Usmag screamed as the giant shoved her spine forward while holding her shoulders in place.  She heaved and cried as a hole began to tear in her chest and her guts and bones were roughly shoved through it.  The elven army tried to charge Rook, but Arthur began to scoop up soldiers and press them against his cock.  Rook went after more and more members of the Grand Cabal.

Justice simply squished soldiers under his foot as they approached, until he noticed a particularly portly elf flee from the battlefield.  His curiosity peaked, he stepped past the army and went in pursuit of the fat merchant.  He would have caught up to him sooner, but not every civilian had evacuated Aaq Samer in anticipation of the attack, so each one Justice saw, he crunched beneath his toes.

Finally, Justice finally plucked Miryh up in his fingers and got a good look at the strange, ugly coward.

“Please, I’m nobody of importance.  Killing me won’t get you any political power, and I’m hardly an appealing individual.  If you want wealth, I have plenty.  Just spare my life, please!”

The giant simply tilted his head and looked at him as though he had spoken a different language.

“But I don’t really want any of that stuff.  It’s Rook that wants power, and Arthur that chases after more lovers.  My wants are real simple.  If I see a small creature, I wanna squish it.”

Justice suddenly dropped Miryh and screamed.  Looking at his finger, a clear bite mark was dripping slightly with blood.  Miryh’s right leg broke on impact with the ground, but his sense of fear and self-preservation pushed him forward until he came face to face with a cliff formation, trapping him in.  He watched Justice approach, unable to escape.

Miryh begged and pleaded for his life, but it was clear that his tormentor could not hear his cries, nor would head them if he could.  Nothing could satisfy his unchecked destructive urges.  Miryh’s only hope was that whatever the man had in store for him would be a far cry less horrifying than what his allies and friends had gone through.

“Wait!”  He said and lifted the tome of spells over his head.  The giant seemed perplexed by his actions and bent down to take a look at whatever artifact the tiny elf was waving at him.

“Don’t you want to know what spell gave you such a power?  If you spare me, I can give you the spell that made your village big.  Surely you want the rest of humankind to have the power you do, right?  You’ll be a hero to your people.  All you have to do is spare…”

The giant stopped listening and rose to his full height.  Putting his hand to his cock, Miryh stepped back, but not far enough to avoid the horrid yellow fountain that rained down on him and his book of spells.  The book gave a ghastly howl as the ink ran and the parchment turned to mush.  Miryh for his part struggled to keep his head aloft as the soil beneath his feet was carried in the current, sinking him into the marshy ground.

“That’s a good offer, merchant man!  I bet Arthur or Rook would have taken you up on that in a second.  But I told you already.  I don’t wanna make tiny things grow bigger…”

He lifted his dirty sole over the cowering, shivering elf.  In his last moments, he cursed Usmag for ever letting him near that cursed book.

“... I wanna squish em!”

Justice’s foot dug into the ground until he had trouble pulling it out.  When he did, Miryh’s body was so thoroughly buried in the mud that it couldn’t be seen.  Justice smiled at a small creature well squished and went off to join his friends in more adventures, terrorizing the elves, gnomes, fae, and even other humans in their hedonistic pursuits.

The footprint left in the mud hardened in a drought.  When a storm hit the area, it filled and became a small pond.  Woodland creatures gathered at it for lifesaving water, and a weeping willow came to grow at it’s side.  The pond was given the name Clin Siid, or “The Foot Pond”, both because of its origins and it’s convenience as a stop for weary travelers to rest their feet.

But travelers beware, should the ground rumble, run.  For although the giants have formed their own empire alone in the empty plateaus of Riyasyk Nus N’la, cruel giants still roam this forest.  May the influential, the beautiful, and the weak keep their eyes open, for giants are always on the lookout for their next prey.

Travelers should also beware traveling to Clin Siid on the night of a new moon.  It is said that at the new moon’s apex, the weeping willow will open its branches and reveal the Dryad of Matja.  There are three telltale signs that a creature beneath the willow is the Dryad of Matja: its foul stench, its haughty ego, and its greedy heart.