Sylvie had never wanted to stuff a person in her boot more than she did Roth after a few hours of walking. She had traversed the forest and headed inland for many miles, before stopping in a field where she sat down and removed her makeshift pendant with her tiny prisoner attached to it. He hadn’t shut up since she began her trek, and the amount of threats and insults he threw at her began to drive her nuts. Finally, she decided she had had enough. She took the string he was attached to and twirled it around her finger, sending him spinning around like a cartwheel. He cried out in a panicky voice as she spun him, but when she stopped, he was finally quiet for the first time in hours.

“Don’t you ever run out of breath?” she asked him, dangling him in front of her face and glaring at him with eyes the size of dinner plates.

“How long are you going to keep me a prisoner?” he yelled back, completely ignoring her question. “Forever?”

“Don’t know...maybe.”

“Then maybe I won’t shut up! This isn’t funny anymore, alright? There are people who know me, you see, and they’re going to come for me!”

“You’ve said that ten times already! Something tells me no-one is going to challenge me just to get you back.”

“Sure they will! People who can really hurt you, too, no matter how overgrown you are!”

Sylvie flicked him lightly at the intended insult, though she wasn’t bothered by being called overgrown, considering how big she really was. She just didn’t want him getting away with it.

“You should talk to women with a little more respect, especially ones whose fingers are bigger than you!”

Roth looked at her gigantic fingers and nodded. 

“Yes, they do look deadly, don’t they? How many of my companions did you tear apart with them, huh? And you think yourself better than me?”

Sylvie sighed and rolled her eyes.

“I don’t have to explain myself to the likes of you!” she said haughtily. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not a cruel murderer like you and your kind. I make sure people pay for their crimes, that’s all. In other words, justice. But I’ll never kill anyone, understand? That’s just revenge.”

“A giant that cares about justice and mercy? I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“I didn’t ask you to believe it. You not believing me makes absolutely no difference.”

“Really? Doesn’t sound like it.”

“Well, you can believe whatever you want, you little worm!”

“Hey! I’m not little! I’m actually quite tall for a man my age.”

Sylvie smirked. She’d found out what it was that ticked him off.

“Oh, I don’t know, you look pretty little to me. Tiny! Shorty! Pipsqueak!”

“Monster! Freak! Abomination!”

“Oh, poor little guy! He’s upset that I’m teasing him!”

Roth had it at that point and he began thrashing about, shaking the rope to and fro and he swayed in front of her eyes. 

“Enough! I won’t be demeaned by a stupid girl!”

“Stupid girl! Sounds better than ‘monster’, I suppose.”

Roth continued fighting against the rope for a minute before he stopped and hung limp again.

“Are you done with your temper tantrum?” Sylvie asked patiently.

He didn’t reply, but she was satisfied. Maybe now  he would be quiet for a while, long enough for her to enjoy her travels before she dropped him off at the nearest village to be tried and locked up. She would have taken him right back to Arken, but considering they had just been through a brutal attack, she thought better of it. Besides, she wanted to get the fight out of him; it was like taming a wild animal.

Leaving the field, Sylvie traversed more forests, the trees never rising higher than her waist in these lands, and she crossed a river where she stopped for some water. She offered a cupped hand of water to Roth, but he was either too proud to take it or else he wasn’t thirsty. Knowing him, she thought, it was definitely the former. She ended up splashing the water onto him instead, hoping he’d get some of it in his mouth so he didn’t suffer from dehydration. Of course this meant he was wet now, so when she saw him shiver she took a part of her cloak and dried him off, encasing him in fabric as she rolled him between her fingers. Surprisingly, he didn’t flinch or yell, simply accepting this series of events.

An hour later, Sylvie sat down on the edge of a ravine so she could enjoy her lunch. Feeling a bit of pity for Roth, considering she nearly gave him hypothermia, she took him off the rope and set him on her palm while she ate the bread that she had made giant-sized with her elixir a moment before. She offered some of the bread to him, but he ignored her attempt at hospitality, seemingly prepared to sulk until he died.

“Alright, don’t you think you’re being a bit too dramatic?” she asked. There was no response. Sylvie shook her head, annoyed by him once again as she finished her bread. “Well, have it your way. I’m not stopping to eat again until suppertime.”

Deciding that she’d put up with him for quite long enough by now, Sylvie took her tiny prisoner and, using the string he was attached to, securely tied up his arms and legs. Then she dropped him into one of the little cloth pouches attached to her belt and sealed it again. Now that the little ruffian was out of sight and out of mind, she figured that her best bet if she wanted to find another village was to head back for the coast again. Choosing a more southerly direction, she began walking, whistling to herself to keep her spirits up. She couldn’t wait to be rid of her little ‘burden’, and again she regretted that she didn’t have some more agreeable companion to share her travels with.

Trapped in his makeshift cell and unable to move, much less escape, Roth lay and quietly fumed to himself. He should never have thought he’d get away with stealing from the giantess. Who knew what unpleasant fate she had in store for him now? The fact that she hadn’t crushed him under her boot or eaten him as a snack did puzzle him a bit. Like most people throughout the vast lands of the known world, Roth knew all the stories that were told of the giants of ancient times. Their savagery and contempt for human life was legendary. He had no idea that his captor was nothing like her ancestors, however, nor that she was actually a princess of a distant land, that her sister was a queen, and that both of them had no desire at all to harm the humans that were so much smaller and weaker than them. He didn’t even know her name. All he knew right then was the hunger that came from not having eaten in over a day - but he also had no intention of letting her feed him as though he were her pet mouse. He needed to find a way to escape somehow, whatever it took.

As the afternoon turned into evening, Sylvie finally approached within sight of the coast again. She never grew tired of the sight of the sea, shimmering in the setting sun. It reminded her that, even for a giantess like herself, the world was still a really big place, with so much to see and to experience. She hoped that Valdan, wherever he was, was feeling the same thing, and that his own travels were as rewarding to him. She also hoped that Belena, back home on her throne in Vandan, would also someday get a chance to explore the world around her and see all of the wonders that it had to offer.

Instead of heading all the way to the shoreline, she decided to take refuge in the night in a forest of maple and pine trees, located in a little dell just inland. There was a sizable river in the area, which provided her with enough water for drinking and for preparing her supper. This consisted of a few vegetables from her supplies, which she enlarged to giant-size with her special potion, and then chopped up into bits. From these she made a soup in a small metal pot from her bag. As for the fire, she simply used a few fallen tree trunks from the area which looked old and dry enough to burn easily. It was a much more rustic way of life than what she was used to at home, but she’d grown used to it by now and even enjoyed it from time to time. Her longing to return home grew greater each day, however, and before long she decided it might be time to call a halt to her travels.

Meanwhile, Roth had worked tirelessly at his bonds, going so far as to chew on the rope to try and break it. His teeth began to hurt and his mouth had bits of rope in it, but he finally broke free. He was hoping she was busy enough to ignore him as he shuffled about and peeked out of the pouch. She was distracted with supper. Seeing his chance, he hoisted himself up and out, then scrambled down her hip, holding on to the fabric of her skirt. When he was close enough to the ground, he took a leap and landed in a bit of snow. Luckily, it was deep enough to make the fall safe, and he got himself out of it quite easily. He was just about to make a run for it when he turned around and saw his prize. The potion. There it was, right in front of him. She had set it on the ground as she ate, rather than putting it back in her pouch. He looked at his escape route, then the potion, then looked away one more time before he made a mad dash for it. The closer he got, the crazier his ideas got about what he could do with it once he had it.

He reached it and, using both hands, managed to turn the vial onto its side and twist its cork off. Would he really be able to do this? Yes, he thought. Imagine the power he would have as a giant. He could stop this cruel girl, get revenge on the pirates, and rule over the lands. It was at this moment Sylvie noticed him and she was about to reach down and grab him, but it was too late.

“See how you like it, you monster!” Roth cried out. He lowered his mouth and took a sip of the potion as it dripped from the vial’s mouth, but the taste was so bad that he had to spit it out while he fell over, ready to throw up.

“You idiot!” Sylvie said, laughing at his shock. “What did you think would happen? That you would suddenly become my size? It’s not a regular potion, it was made from an extract that came from the giant plants that grow in my home. So it only works on plants, you see, not on meat and certainly not on living people or animals.”

“Giant plants? Home? You mean, there’s a place out there where there are more of you giants?” He finally felt the nauseating effect wear off, and he felt strong enough to stand again.

“Of course there’s more of us. Well...one more, actually. My sister Belena.”

“Oh, I see...and I’m sure she’s a kind and gentle giantess just like you!”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, she is. A lot kinder and gentler than me, actually.”

Roth stood there, looking at the potion with a disgusted face.

“Then why isn’t she here with you, hmm? Did she kick you out of the house because of your cruelty?”

Sylvie was about to reply, when some birds flew above her head and landed on her hand, which she was resting on top of her knees. She remained still and looked as they pecked at her skin, hopped around a bit as if on a branch, then began whistling, signaling other birds for a safe place to rest. Sylvie whistled back to them, matching their song perfectly. Roth just watched, transfixed. A giantess and some birds which were no bigger than her fingernails, whistling back and forth. Eventually, the birds caught on to the fact that they weren’t sitting on a little hill but on a person and they left her hand, though Roth was still amazed.

“I’m getting tired of telling you this, but I’m not cruel,” Sylvie said.

She worked on her soup, now fed up with her companion, and she knew it was time to get rid of him once the night was over. The fire blazed on while she ate, and Roth just sat at her feet, his mind racing after seeing the incident with the birds. She was incredibly gentle for a creature so unfathomably large. Just sitting next to her boot gave him chills, and that was just one part of her. Could she really be a gentle giant like she claimed to be? The more he thought about it, the more he saw how badly the two had begun their tenuous companionship. He did try to steal her belongings, and he was wearing the clothes pirates wore, so was it fair for him to be mad at her? She had even dried him off after trying to get him to drink, something that he only now realized meant she cared at least a little for his well-being.

Looking up at her face, Roth sighed. Perhaps he had misjudged her, and because of that, she had judged him unfairly too.

“I’m Roth,” he said, speaking loudly so that she could hear him all the way up there. “Just in case you were wondering what my name was.”

Sylvie raised her eyebrows and looked at the miniscule man, hunched over by her boot.

“I’m Sylvie,” she replied. “Have you finally decided that I’m worth getting to know after all?”

“No, I can’t say that I have. But maybe I gave the wrong impression before. We both did.”

“Don’t blame this on me Roth, I’m not the one who was caught while sneaking up on a woman during her breakfast. I’m also not a pirate.”

“See! You’ve judged me before you’ve even come to know me. Would this sister of yours act this way?”

Sylvie sighed. He had a point. Belena would have been gentle and understanding with Roth. She would have attempted to start a conversation with him at first and would have sought to understand his motives. Sylvie just took him as an unwilling companion and decided she knew who he was immediately. It was no wonder Belena was queen while Sylvie was here, alone in the wilderness. This made her feel a need to return more than ever.

“Well, whoever you are, we will have to cut our acquaintance short,” she said. “I need to return home, and you need to go wherever it is you belong. Whether that’s to go back to those pirates or to some village far away, you need to leave. If you want, I’ll take you to the nearest village.”

“That wouldn’t be a good idea. I’m not loved around these parts, especially in the larger villages by the coast.”

“Well, maybe it’s best for you to go there anyway. Then you can pay for your crimes. I’ll drop you there in the morning and be off.”

Roth shook his head as Sylvie lay on her side for some rest.

“No, I’m better off with you to be honest. I’ll be stuck in a cell for years in any of the towns hereabouts.”

“Maybe that’s a good thing then, Roth. Stealing is stealing, it must always be punished.”

“Yes, well, if I didn’t steal I wouldn’t be alive!” he said, spreading his arms as he looked at her in frustration. “I’m sure you have it all very good and comfy back home, but out here, if you aren’t siding with the pirates you’re either getting raided or struggling to get any yield from the land. This is my life; I don’t have any other choice.”

The giantess looked down on him, and he thought he saw some pity in her eyes.

In her own head, Sylvie was processing what he was saying. The 20-year old giantess had never known poverty. Rismark was well off, her parents had provided for her her entire life, and even the poorest people she had known were able to keep themselves fed, thanks to the generosity and hard work her parents had put in, in order to improve the lives of their subjects. A life of hardship like Roth was describing was quite foreign to her. Knowing that part of the reason for this hardship was because of those pirates made her angry too. Greed and power were turning this beautiful land she had explored into one of devastation, and she didn’t like it at all. Was it really time for her to turn around and leave for home?

“Well, it doesn’t matter,” Roth continued, interrupting her thoughts. “I’ll probably be caught one day in any case, so you can take me to the nearest town tomorrow. I might get fed well in prison, at the very least.”

Roth laid himself closer to the fire, his back to her, and she merely watched him while she considered her options. She had the strength to repel the pirates with ease, and she wasn’t needed at home just yet. She did miss her bed, the ease of life at home, and her sister. Belena was the one person that was her own size left that she knew of, and no companion she could have out here would match that. On the other hand, Sylvie felt a need deep within her to make a name for herself. All her life she had been in the shadow of her mother and then Belena, two people she wished to please by following their examples. Maybe this was her chance to be a hero like them.

“Roth,” she whispered. She didn’t get a response, but she hoped he was still awake and listening. “I want to help you. We can talk again tomorrow. Get some rest for now, then maybe we can figure something out.”

Content with herself, Sylvie closed her eyes, the fire flickering on through the night.