Ansel slept in the chair next to his wife’s bed.  The chair barely fit his newly larger size.  His long legs propped up onto a wooden stool and a blanket that didn’t reach his feet.  Ansel awoke slightly sore from his uncomfortable arrangement.  Gerta still lie fast asleep as the morning light touched the leaded glass windows.

Ansel kisses his wife’s forehead as she still slept.  Ansel could see that her cheeks looked fuller and her lips pink.  Even her gray hair appeared to have gold spun through it.  Ansel was pleased to see the improvement in his wife as he smiled to himself.

Ansel went outside to see a new and fully constructed barn next to his much larger barn.  The barn looked to be made of the best wood and constructed masterfully by the hands of a giant.  Ansel looked proudly upon his new building to find that all the animals are where as they ought and already well feed.  Even the milk jugs were full and the eggs delicately collected in the straw baskets.  His two giant children did days of work in the matter of one night.

Ansel went to the old large barn and gently opened the door so as not to let in too much light.  Ansel knew that the two giants were sensitive to sunlight.  Marta and Jakob both lay beside one another on a large mound of straw.  Marta’s hair blended in with the golden straw and her braid appeared ropelike as it lay in front of her pale face.  Marta wore a white gown with one of her giant blankets covering her.  Jakob was covered up in a blanket too.  He had no skirt on showing off his pale skin and dark curly chest hairs.  His exposed arm showed long slender muscles of a hard working man.  Both giants were fast asleep despite the noises the animals made outside the large wooden barn.

“My children have worked hard all night long so that I may care for my Gerta.  You have made your old man proud,” Ansel whispered.  He walked over to Marta and kissed her cheek.  He then kissed Jakob’s forehead.  Both the giants stirred and fell back into their dream state.  Ansel then patted Marta’s large slender hand before leaving the barn to attend to his wife…

Ansel made a large meal for his wife over the large stone hearth.  The bounty his children worked so hard for helped Ansel greatly as he slaved over the fire doing what is normally woman’s work.  Ansel never minded, he only wanted to see his wife well again.

“Ansel, my husband,” Ansel heard Gerta calling for him.

“I am here, my dear one,” Ansel said as he brought his wife her morning feast.  Ansel frowned when he noticed that her eyes were still that glassy green of blindness.  “I have brought you some food.”

“Good, I am starving.   I think the cure is working.  I feel so much stronger this morning,” Gerta said to her husband.  “I think even some of my eyesight is returning.  I see colors.”

“That is wonderful, Gerta,” Ansel declared and kissed his wife’s forehead.  Ansel then saw an unsure and suspicious expression on his wife’s face.  “What is wrong, my dear one?” Ansel then asked as he took her small delicate hand.

“You feel… different,” Gerta said and Ansel quickly let go of her hand.

“What do you mean?”

“Your hand feels much bigger than I remember,” Gerta said and Ansel stared down at his hands.  His size hasn’t changed that he could notice.  Not since the witch had given him the elixir had Ansel noticed any changes.  Everything around him was the same as it was the day before.  Then Ansel realized that his wife was far too ill to notice the day of his return.

“Something extraordinary happened to me, Gerta.   You will see in time.  Drink the water every night and you will see,” Ansel said with a small smile that his Gerta couldn’t see.

Ansel feed Gerta the feast he had promised.  Gerta had eaten more than Ansel had expected.  Ansel knew that Gerta hadn’t eaten anything in two days since the blindness stole her of her sight.

“Eat well, my love,” Ansel said as he feed her with his own hands.

“I will, my dearest.  I want to see my children and this extraordinary husband of mine,” Gerta said with a small smile.  “I’m feeling stronger by the minute.”

“That is wonderful my dear wife,” Ansel said happily.  “Sooner you are stronger, the sooner I can take you to see our beautiful children.”  Ansel ran his large hand through Gerta’s hair and feed her some more.  Gerta fell back to sleep shortly after eating her meal.  “Rest my beautiful wife,” Ansel then said and kissed her forehead…

Ansel went out to his new barn tend to his animal when a visitor came, Erik the blacksmith.  Erik is a young man of twenty-two who moved from the palace shortly after the loss of his wife.  He lived with his sister and his young daughter.  He worked as an apprentice to the royal smith and quickly moved up as he gained a reputation for being the best around.  Erik is tall and handsome with golden hair and intense blue eyes.  Some say too handsome to be a smith but Erik ignored the fawning women and took care of his family instead.

After moving from the palace to the village, Erik befriended the carpenter who had suffered a great loss of his own.  Erik and Ansel found solace in each other’s company.  Erik sometimes looked to Ansel for guidance and Ansel looked to Erik for his great skill as a smith and the son that he lost so long ago.  Erik could not recognize the tall man feeding the pigs in the strange barn on his friend Ansel’s property.  He had heard of a mysterious giant of a man entering the carpenter’s house, so Erik thought it only right to see if his friend and his wife are safe.

Erik could not believe the size of such as man as he watched for a moment as the strange man filled the doorways.  Oddly the very large man was wearing garments too small for his lofty frame and there was a familiarity about him that Erik could not deny.  Maybe this was Ansel’s missing son, Jakob?  The man seemed older than the twenty years of age Ansel’s son would be.

The strange man spotted Erik and gave him a smile, a very familiar smile.

“Greetings my friend!  I have returned,” said a familiar sounding voice coming from the strange man.

“Ansel?  Is that… you?” Erik managed to say, staring at the man.

“Aye, it is dear friend,” the man answered as he approached Erik.

“What happened to you?  You look different,” Erik said as Ansel kept walking in his direction.  Ansel stopped in front of the younger man who had to look up.  Ansel smiled when he could see that Erik had only come as far as his shoulders.  Ansel had always been a bit shorter than the younger man but now since he returned, he was truly different.

“The journey has been kind to me,” Ansel said, looking down at Erik.  “But not my garments,” Ansel then said with a laugh.

“Have you been enchanted?” Erik asked, still stunned by his friends appearance.

“Aye, but witch of the rainbow house saved me.  I have even brought back a cure for Gerta.”

“That is wonderful.  Is the cure working?”

“Aye, it is.  She will be well enough in a day or two,” Ansel said, stunned himself at his size.

“I must be on my way.  The merchant needs new shoes for his horse.  I thought I would come by and check up on Gerta on my way,” Erik said as he walked away, still stunned by his friend’s appearance…

Marta looked out a crack in the barns wood to the world outside.  She woke up after a long night’s labor; helping Jakob build a barn worthy of their father and making sure his animals were taking care of.  Marta wanted so much to go out and greet the new day but knew that it wouldn’t be wise for a giantess to make herself seen in a village of humans.  She saw her father duck out the doorway of the small house.  Marta never remembers her father being so tall before, at least not before he went to The Black Forest.

Marta watched her father feed the pigs and she wanted so much to help him.  Then Marta watches a young man from afar observing father feeding the pigs.  Marta sighed for the man’s beauty captured her.  Tall and broad with golden hair and eyes that looked to be much older than the man himself.  He dressed like that of the old blacksmith Marta remembered from her so long ago childhood before her and Jakob ran away.

The man knew father as Marta observed the two men talking.  The young man must have been a friend of her father’s.  Marta giggled at the stunned look on the man’s face when father approached him.  She jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder.  Marta turned around to see the Jakob had awoken from his slumber.

“What are you looking at sister?” Jakob yawned and Marta hushed him.

“We must not be too loud Jakob,” Marta whispered to her brother.

“I want to know what has piqued your interest dear sister,” Jakob then whispered with a smile picking up on his sister’s emotions.

“There is a man talking to papa,” Marta whispered.

“Can I see?”

Marta moved over so that her brother could look out the crack.  A smile played across Jakob’s lips when he saw the man his father was speaking to.  Jakob knew then and there that this little man has captured his fair sister’s heart…