Marta nursed her father’s wounds from the briar berry bushes.  Her long fingers and large hands gently dressed the cuts and scrapes.  Ansel never feared his giantess daughter’s hands as she carefully took care of him.  Ansel did understand that Marta was being as gentle as possible with him.  She treated her father as if he were a newborn babe since that is what Ansel’s size was compared to her own.

Ansel had greedily eaten the hare that Jakob hunted for their meal.   To Ansel it was more like a feast.  Ansel had never seen a hare so large in his entire life.  Ansel even drank of the clear clean water.  Everything on the table tasted much different to Ansel.  The water tasted clean, the hare was tender and the berries were the sweetest he had ever tasted.  Marta and Jakob both excused their father’s poor table manners because of his hunger.  Both of them understood their father’s excitement about the food placed before him.  They remembered the poor carpenter that struggled to keep food on the table for his family.

Ansel let out a loud belch after he had stuffed himself full of his giant children’s food.  Marta suppressed a giggle while Jakob smirks at the small man sitting on wooden blocks Jakob put into place so that his father may join them at the table.

“Very good, my daughter, you have become quite the cook.  You will make a good wife someday,” Ansel declared.  Marta looked down at the table shyly and blushed.  Marta knew that she was on the verge of becoming an old maid.  Girls much younger than Marta’s eighteen years have already wedded and started families of their own.  Marta always hoped for that but now truly understands the impossibilities of that happening now that she is a giantess.  Now Marta only wished that her father was right about finding a wizard to restore her back to the size she should be.

“And you my son are quite the great hunter and provider.  Many a maiden would be proud to make you their husband,” Ansel then declared.

“Thank you, papa,” Jakob said, knowing the impossibilities of finding a maiden willing to wed a giant.  Jakob and Marta both gave each other sad eyes knowing that there is a chance they may truly never return home…

“He is a fool, Marta,” Jakob said to his sister who was sitting on a log out in the darkness of night with only the warm glow on the cabin windows as their light.

“Oh Jakob, he seemed so proud of us and everything we have accomplished together, after all, he is still our father and not a fool,” Marta said, looking up at her brother who was pacing about.

“The way he spoke to us as if we were his size!  Look at us Marta!  Father barely stands to my knee now!  Imagine what the villagers will think when they see us and the fool has the nerve to speak to us as if we were of normal stature,” Jakob fumed.

“Keep your voice down.  You might wake him,” Marta said trying to calm her brother.  “He promised to find a powerful wizard.”

“Unlikely Marta, we have lived in these trees far too long to reverse what has been done to us.  I doubt a wizard can help us,” Jakob said, sounding defeated.

“Maybe there are others like us?  We have just never found them yet,” Marta said, sounding hopeful.

“Hmmm, you might be right, dear sister.  Maybe if we venture home with father, we just might run into others like us.  I just fear that the enchantments of this forest have been with us far too long for a mere wizard to fix.  We have taken in the bounties the Black Forest has given us for over half our lives,” Jakob said as he stopped pacing.

“You think the food and water has made us so large?”  Marta gasped and Jakob sat down next to her on the log.

“I believe so, dear sister.  We were just average children when we first entered this place.  You remember our first full week here?”

“My dress became too small and the hem seemed a little too high for just being a garment mother had just sewn me.  You pants and tunic appeared to do the same,” Marta said.

“Then about another ten days we started making garments from the skins of the hares I had hunted for our meals.  That was when I started building our cabin.  I remember feeling stronger with each passing day,” Jakob said and he looked to the cabin with sad eyes.  Marta looked to her brother with the same expression.  “Marta, we must leave as soon as possible.  We must get father back to mother before the forest claims him too.”

“Oh Jakob, but he is still weak.”

“True, but we must leave in the morning.  We both can carry him if we must.  Papa cannot stay,” Jakob said as he held his sister’s hand and Marta began to weep…

Ansel awoke the following morning feeling refreshed and better than he felt the day before.  His soreness left his body and he felt much stronger.  Marta and Jakob were watching him as he rose.

“Morning papa,” Marta said cheerily.  She wasn’t wearing the long natural gown she had worn since Ansel first discovered his giant children.  Marta wore a natural tunic with brown pants and tall fur skin boots.  Her shining golden locks braided back.  She looked the part of a warrior goddess.

“Morning papa,” Jakob said with a bow of his head.  Jakob looked dressed for hunting with the same natural tunic and brown pants as his sister but Jakob carried a dagger on his belt and a quiver on his back.  “We are ready for our journey home,” Jakob announced, giving his father a crocked smile.

“You are better now, papa.  If the journey becomes too much, I can carry you,” Marta said, turning around to show Ansel the empty pocket on her pack.  “I had sewn it just for you, papa,” Marta said, giving Ansel that warm sweet smile of hers.

Ansel did not want to leave The Black Forest and all its spoils but he knew he must be getting back to his ailing Gerta.  He thought of how she will react when she sees her two long lost ‘little ones.’  Ansel hoped that she wouldn’t be like he was.  “All right, my children.  Let us take leave of this place,” Ansel finally said to Jakob and Marta’s relief…