Alden threw his arms out and was enveloped in a flowing light of dark, purplish blue, summoning his base magics. Mimmie threw a foot up, the dirty sole aiming to make Alden equal with all the debris plastered on it. He darted out of the way as her stomp came down, a loud crash frightening the livestock. Alden bolted away from there.

“Get back here, you chicken!” She chased, as Alden wanted. In his empowered speed, he made sudden pivots to evade those stomps. Her feet drummed the soil and left weak footprints upon the grass. She didn’t have the keenness to track his movement, to think ahead. As if she saw the world with a delay, she prepared to kick when Alden still hadn’t made his move, committed her energy to try and crush him when he’d already gotten out of the way. Not surprising from her young age, she wasn’t practiced.

“Stop running!” she exclaimed, jaws clenched, ineptly casting her feet after him. Alden wasn’t on his best either, a semi-competent giant would already have him flattened under her soles.

Alden led her away from the farmlands, to minimize the damage caused. She shoved the maple trees aside, laying low the tall and proud sedge and grass, branches cracking and falling in her wake.

“Did you train just to run?” she taunted again. Alden had her where he wanted her, lowering her guard to the point where she’d never expect retaliation. The surprise would enhance his attack, he had to make it count. He charged the blue, flashing magic in his arm. He took focus off his dodging, making her stomps land closer and closer. Fortunately, his waning evasion gave her hope of getting him, and she committed hard on the next stomp. Her left foot crashed right next to him, hitting him with a rush of wind.

Alden unleashed his charged load right on the inside of her foot, letting it erupt with a cast of his arms. The explosion of blue threw her leg with enough force that it swung aside like a pendulum.

“Aw!” Mimmie jumped up, stumbling on her other foot and tripping over. Alden rushed up and swung a charged kick on the arch of her exposed sole. She yelped again, folding that leg in as well where she sat, holding her soles. “S—Stop! Stop, I don’t want to anymore!” Her voice wavered by the end. All his determination evaporated along the magic as she sniveled and sobbed.

“So, we’re done here?” Alden said. “You’ll leave?”

“Yes, whatever. Go away.” She shielded her face with her palms, sniffling.

“You know, it’s not nice to bully people like that,” he said, trying to make something of it. Alden didn’t feel like a noble deliverer of justice. “Come on now, stop crying. It wasn’t that bad.”

“Shut up. That hurt.” Mimmie let one of her hands go to the foot he’d struck, rubbing the arch.

“I can kiss it to make the pain go away.”

“No, go away.”

Alden shrugged. It was worth a shot.

She wiped the tears around the corners of her eyes. “What’s your name?”

Alden snorted. “Eh, I’m not giving you that.”

Without another word, Mimmie got up and ran away, towards the farm.

“Goddammit.” Alden tailed her, but when he arrived at the farm, he saw her disappear around the hillside. She was gone.

“Why did you do that?” The father got up from the porch, throwing him a frown quite the opposite to the triumphant return Alden expected.

“If I’m not living in a dream right now, I’m sure I saved you. Unless you were keen on kissing her feet.” Projection was Alden’s best way of detracting from his own bizarre obsession.

“You may think you sent her away,” he said, “but you only multiplied her petty anger.”

Alden shrugged, pointing to Marley who stood by the doorway. “Your daughter urged me to do it.”

Marley turned to her father. “We can’t just accept it, Father. How long is she going to keep coming around and annoying you?”

“For as long as she wants. That’s the life we’ve accepted, and it hasn’t been terrible neither, so I don’t know why you would go thinking up an idea like that. This just made everything worse.” The father turned to Alden. “That girl is part of the Sorrel Clan.”

Alden turned his head about nonchalantly. “She was a nobody.”

“Doesn’t matter, they protect their own.”

“Not just that.” The son came from behind Alden. “How in all the gods did you send her running? Have you reached your arts?”

Alden tried to hide his tired sigh. “No, I haven’t.”

“Whatever you say, but you’re not weak. So it won’t just be protecting their own, but they’ll hear about some mage that popped about and blasted one of their giants away with a decently impressive show. They’ll know you’re from Gharn and assume you’re from one of the kingdom’s guilds. They’ll find you.”

“That’s a good point. They won’t accept someone from Gharn just waltzing into Wessfarrow and attacking their clan. You need to leave.”

“What? I was promised a stay here, free of charge for sending her off, even.”

“You haven’t been listening?” The father received Alden’s backpack from the son, handing it over. “You did us no favor. They’ll come around here soon, and you need to be gone.”

Alden took his backpack and didn’t argue, although he wanted to. “Fine. At least help me confirm if the Ruins of Addrar is northwest of here.”

“Still on your guild’s errand? You should be going the opposite way, east, back to Gharn.”

Alden stepped off, his course northwest. “Good luck.”

“Same to you, gods have mercy on you.” And so Alden left them, off the road and under the maples. Alden wondered how quickly other giants from this Sorrel Clan would be upon the homestead. According to the man’s warning, it was ‘soon’. Alden summoned his base magics and kicked into a jog, leaping his way through the woods. His backpack was heavier, Marley must have filled it with provisions as promised. At least he’d gotten something out of that business.

He hopped over the thickets, leaped off the maples, but he had to stop eventually. This wasn’t sustainable for a long period of time, and he was wasting energy. Here in the woods, giants would have a hard time finding him anyways. He walked with a fast pace after for about half an hour, the occasional chirp sounding from the trees. The underbrush was sparse and thin while some trees stood at a slant, others broken and fallen over, their leaves yellow and withered. Giants roamed through these areas, and not infrequently.

The maples grew fewer and fewer, until Alden came to its border. Open fields followed, curving up and down through a spread of hills. Alden pushed through. Those giants weren’t coming anyways.

The decision couldn’t have had a worse timing. Alden was halfway up the first hill when the rustle and crinkle of moving trees grew from the woods, and he saw a giant push through. She raised a hand for his attention.

“Great…” Running wouldn’t be too clever. In the woods, perhaps, but he’d have to run towards her, and she’d reach the fields before he’d reach the trees.

She was a beauty, a brassiere holding a well-developed bosom together, her bare waist slim and fit. The rich dark hair came together at her neck with a band, then puffed out again over her upper back. After exiting the woods, Alden could see her skirt. Long to her calves, it had a slit cutting all the way up to her waist which let her bare, right leg flash out with every step. Her feet were graceful, well-shaped with slender toes, yet they had the strength to remain practical, able to find a home both inside a jeweled set of sandals and out here to brace the wild roads. An anklet of bony trinkets around her left foot captivated Alden further, so much so that she literally had to snap her fingers and call to him.

“Buddy, I’m up here.” She was before him. Up on this slope, she stood like a person would with a foot placed on a chair. Alden was on the chair here, her right foot next to him, and she leaned onto her right knee. It looked like she was about to fall on top of him. Her brown eyes were sharp, her cheeks defined, and she had a confident forwardness that made it clear this was her area.

“Good day to you, madam,” Alden said, trying to sound confident. That brat wouldn’t be able to bully him, but this lady was a step above. The sense of their hierarchy became obvious.

“I’m looking for a troublemaker in these areas,” she said, one end of her mouth turning up in half a grin. “A young man, flaunting a strong magic of a dark blue hue. Since you seem to fit the description so well, could you show me your magic?”

“Oh, I’m not a mage, madam. Just a trader, traveling southwards.”

“Is that so? And what’s your name?”

“Ken. Ken Miffels.”

She chuckled. “So you say. Alright then, Ken Miffels. Could you show me what’s in your pockets, as well as that turtle’s shell you call a backpack?”

Alden took a defensive step back, feigning offense. “I’m sorry, but is this necessary? I’m just passing through. This is no toll, is it? You don’t look like an official.”

She put a palm on her throat, fluttering with her eyelids. “And what do I look like?” God, she was captivating.

Alden moved his arm in a half-circle, taking in the area. “I know there’s clans here around Wessfarrow.”

“Correct. And coming into our territory, attacking one of our own, it tends to bring out the mother lion in us. You get me?”

Alden nodded. He didn’t know what to say, what words would help him out of this. Another body moved through the woods, the trees rustling.

The giant before him turned her head back. “Ah, there she is.”

Mimmie arrived, eyes red and tender from having cried. She stuck around behind the other giant, pointing at Alden. “It’s him.”

“Could have guessed.” The giant turned back to Alden. “I’m Leila Rister.” She pointed a thumb back. “That’s my little sister, Mimmie Rister, though you two seem to already have met.”

“Listen,” Alden said, pointing past Leila and at her sister, “she was annoying some innocent folk, I tried to teach her something valuable, something her mother or older sister should have. That’s the problem with giants, honestly, no men, just brats running around in all their entitled arrogance.”

Leila craned her head up in a burst of laughter, leaning back forward with a wide smile. Her teeth were straight and perfect. “I like you, Ken Miffels. Mimmie is a little stupid, with many things to learn. You’re right about that. We can teach her.” She moved her lips with a seductive slowness, making Alden blush. “Together. But first, why don’t you tell me your name, and what guild you’re from? I’ll go easier on you. Or perhaps…” The grass tore as she raked them with a drag of her foot, and her fingers gracefully slid over her presented leg. “You want me to go hard on you?”

“I think I like you too,” Alden said, though he was still unsure what lay behind this performance, how serious she was. She had caught his seventeen-year-old boyhood in her webs. “What part about Ken Miffels don’t you like?”

“Last chance. Give me a real name.”

“If I do, will you let me be on my way?”

“Unfortunately,” Leila said, slipping a hand down her toned abdomen, into the skirt between her legs. “I’ve fallen for you. I might have to take you in anyway.”

He thought so. He’d already made too much noise attacking one of them, with magic that was far from weak. They wanted to know who he was. He thought about giving his guild’s name, the Tailglows, to help his case as they were neutral on the political side. But then he’d drag their name down. As for his father and the Oakwell name, although Alden didn’t feel like he owed him anything, although he’d been shamed enough, he didn’t wish to shame it further. His father’s disdain was neither new nor raw, but it still hurt.

He chose to fight for his anonymity. Alden put his rucksack down.

“Interesting.” The foot next to Alden left as Leila stepped back. “I wanted to fight anyway.”

“We can get him,” Mimmie said.

“No.” Leila waved her back. “You’ve embarrassed yourself enough. Let me show you how it’s done.”