“The village should be close,” Ansel said as he recognized his surroundings. Marta looked down at her father who was walking. Marta had been pondering the witch’s words. She didn’t want to be a giantess just as she knew Jakob didn’t want to be a giant. The children that they once played with will be adults like the two giants. Marta remembered her friends and wondered how much they had changed. The girls would be wives with children of their own. The thought saddened Marta because Marta wasn’t a wife or a mother. She was still a sister and will always be but nothing more.
“Papa, are you upset that Jakob and I can’t be as you are?” Marta asked her small father.
“No my dear daughter, I am upset for you. I know that you want to be as I am but that doesn’t mean I can’t love you. You are not the same children I remember. You have grown in more ways than one. I can accept that my children are giants even if they look differently than how I remember. Marta, you are more beautiful than I could have ever hoped for. You would make a princess envious of your great beauty. You will find a husband worthy of your love,” Ansel said, looking up at his gigantic daughter with a warm smile. Marta returned his smile.
“We should rest for the night,” Jakob said as they came to a clearing. Evening touched the skies. Jakob and Marta didn’t have to worry about the brightness of the sun. They never realized how bright the world was outside The Black Forest. Ansel even noticed their eyes narrowed in expression at the bright daylight. Maybe that was why the large creatures never ventured outside the trees?
Marta lays out blankets on the grassy clearing while Jakob prepared some dried fish for a meal. Ansel did the same with the contents of his pack. Ansel looked at the sleeve of his tunic once again. The sleeve seemed a tad higher on his arm than it once was. His body seemed fitter and leaner. Then he looked at the two giant siblings eating their small ration of food. Jakob and Marta both had pale white skin and tall slender bodies, their limbs and necks appeared longer than a normal person’s, even their torsos were long and slender. Jakob and Marta talked quietly among themselves. One of them would smile now and then. Ansel could see that Jakob and Marta were more than just siblings, they were friends.
“Papa, I would offer some of our food but I don’t think it wise since the witch’s elixir,” Marta said.
“No, I don’t think it wise either, my dear girl. I have my own,” Ansel said and took a bite from his bread.
“Papa, what are you looking at?” Jakob asked.
“My two children and how different you look now, not at all like the giants in the tales,” Ansel answered his son.
“What do you mean, Papa?” Jakob asked. “We are older now.”
“Aye, you are but you do not look at all like the giants in the old tales,” Ansel said.
“Please explain, Papa,” Jakob then said.
“We were told tales of The Black Forest and its giants. It was always said that the giants were large creatures in every way. The men were big and broad just as the women were. It is said that these giants can move mountains and uproot trees with their great size. I look at you my children, you are tall but there is nothing broad. You two are slender but you are strong, perhaps the tales were exaggerated. Maybe the giants of The Black Forest are different from those tales,” Ansel said, looking up at his two ‘little ones’.
“Papa, we do not know of these tales,” Marta said as she wrapped up in her blanket by the bonfire.
“You wouldn’t, would you? There is only one way to know, you must find others as yourselves,” Ansel said, looking down at the ground. Ansel prayed that his children could be restored. They could come back to the village where Jakob could help him and Marta could find her husband but it would be for naught. Jakob and Marta stood taller than the abodes and inn. They couldn’t even fit into their old home anymore. This made Ansel sad, not for himself but his two children.
“Papa, we wish to see mother first. We want to help heal her if we can,” Marta said.
“And help you with the house and animals for a while,” Jakob said. Ansel felt happy for the first time in a long time.
“I don’t know if the cows will like you, son. You remember how they can get, although they are the size of lap dogs compared to you and Marta now. Maybe you can intimidate them into abiding,” Ansel said and Jakob smiled.
“Papa we will do what we must to help you and mother,” Jakob said.
“We must work by the darkness. The sun is too much for our eyes to take and we cannot risk the village knowing about us,” Marta said and let out a yawn. The day had been long and so have their journey. The two giants were fatigued. Marta lays her head down and Ansel walks over to her face and kisses her cheek.
“Sleep well my little one,” Ansel said in a fatherly way as he ran his finger along her soft hair.
“I will Papa,” Marta says as she takes Ansel’s small hand into hers. Ansel grabbed her index finger and gently squeezes it. “I’ve missed you Papa. Now you are here to keep me safe again. You sleep well too,” Marta whispers, looking up at her standing father.
Ansel turns to his son. Jakob stayed seated and alert with his dagger close by. “I will watch over us for the night, Papa. I knew Marta would be fatigued,” Jakob said, looking down at the small man.
“She is still delicate despite her size. Marta was always a delicate one,” Ansel said as he glanced over at his already sleeping daughter. Jakob smiled.
“You sleep too, Papa. If you are right, we should make it to the village by mid-day,” Jakob said as he pulled out a piece of wood and began carving the horse he had been working on in his free time.
“I will my son. Wake me, if you start to feel slumber coming. I may not be able to frighten off bears but I am perfectly capable to keep watch,” Ansel said and Jakob quietly laughed.
“I will Papa, for now, I’m still wide awake. You sleep well, Papa, so that you may see mother again,” Jakob said as he watched Ansel lay down in the blankets next to his sister.
“Good night, my son,” Ansel said with a warm smile.
Jakob woke Ansel up when he felt the fatigue of the day take over. Jakob lies on the opposite side of the bonfire as Marta. The fire wasn’t much anymore. Ansel watched over the two peacefully sleeping giants. He still couldn’t believe the size of his two children but understood that this is the life they have lived for the past ten years, lives as tall slender creatures with eyes that can’t handle the bright day but in small doses. Marta stirred a bit as if having a dream. “No Jakob, I don’t want to go,” she moaned quietly. Ansel's heart broke, Marta had been dreaming of the day her and Jakob ran away from home…
Before daylight broke, Ansel found a clear stream where he could refill his canteen. The full moon reflected of the mirror like water that ponded at the end of the stream. Ansel decided to see if his reflection showed in the water. The moon gave off enough light for Ansel to see. Ansel had been curious to know how The Black Forest had changed him. The elixir the witch gave him only stopped the effects of the magic but never reversed what had already been done. Ansel knew he was different now. He felt younger and his back straighter. He even felt taller than he did in his younger days. Ansel even thought his arms and legs seemed longer.
Ansel looked at his reflection and realized that this is not the same person that left the village to search for his children. His gray hair turned the brown color of his youth. His face appeared to be thinner and younger despite the beard that had grown into the same brown color as his hair. His eyes were the same brown color they had always been but on a much youthful face with a slightly different structure. Ansel had never thought himself handsome but he was never ugly either, he was plain in his looks but now his cheekbones seemed higher and his jaw more defined. He had the looks of a warrior the ladies in waiting would swoon over. Ansel didn’t look and feel like a lowly carpenter anymore. He had the looks that royalty would envy. He hoped that Gerta would recognize her own husband….