The last thing Ansel remembered was being chased down by a fox the size of a horse.  Ansel had never seen such a beast in his life.  In fact everything in the Black Forest seem much larger to the lowly carpenter.  Day and night for the past ten years Ansel searched for his children to no avail until his wife fell ill and Ansel had no choice but to search the Black Forest for his son and his daughter.

The fox chased him into some briar berry bushes.  Ansel thought he was safe until he realized the bushes thick long thorns cut him.  Ansel crawled out of the thick dark bushes and to a stream as clear as glass with fish as big as Ansel had ever seen.  He lost his pack and his horse refused to enter the forest and so Ansel thought he would try to drink the clear fresh water but before he could do that, he fell from exhaustion.

Ansel felt something wet patting his cheeks.  He let out a moan.  Ansel stretched a bit before opening his eyes to the sight of a fair maiden with sad and familiar eyes.  Standing next to the seated maiden stood a tall thin lad with the same familiar eyes.  Ansel eyes widened and he jumped when he realized that the maiden and the lad were giants.

“Don’t eat me, please!  I hardly am nothing more than bones!” Ansel pleaded.  “I am but a lowly carpenter who is only seeking his lost children!”

The two giants looked at one another with sad eyes.  The female’s eyes began to fill with tears as she said, “He does not recognize us.”

The male giant pats the giantess’s shoulder.   “I knew this would happen,” said the giant sadly.  “We are not the same.  Even if we were normal, we are still not the same,” the giant with the curly brown hair mumbles.

“You do not wish to eat me?” Ansel then says, surprised at the giants.  As a child, Ansel heard tales of the giants that lived in The Black Forest.  Tales told through the generations of children that lived in his village.

“No we do not,” said the giant in an almost angry voice.  Ansel cowered at the pitch of the giant lad’s voice.  The giant softened his feature to the babe sized man.  “Do you not know us?” the giant than asked.   Ansel dared look up into the giantess’s soft youthful face and her sky blue eyes.  The same kind of eyes he remembered his Marta had.

“That’s impossible,” Ansel mumbled in shock.  “My Marta?”  He then looked to the giant lad and noticed the small scar above his right eye from when his son fell from a tree.  “My Jakob?  How can this be?  My you have grown.”

Jakob stifled a laugh when Marta elbowed him.  “It is us, papa.  We have lived here for the past ten years.  Jakob built this cabin and I made our fine clothes.  We never realized what happened to us until…” Marta’s excitement dwindled.  She did not want to say it.  Sadness filled her eyes once again.

“It is all right, my dear girl.  You and your brother can’t help that you were enchanted.  Maybe I can find an old and wise wizard to make you as you should be,” Ansel said, looking up at his sad but beautiful daughter.  Marta had grown fair and healthy just as Jakob had grown handsome and strong.  Marta was a willowy creature despite her size.  Her long white fingers reached out to fix the animal skins that made up the homemade bed Marta made just for her father.  Ansel grabbed one of her fingers as if he would hold her hand.  “I promise my dear and beautiful daughter,” Ansel said as he squeezed her finger.  Marta gave him a small but sad smile.

“Why have you come for us, papa?” Jakob asked.  Ansel looked up at his strong and slender son and realized that both his children couldn’t fit into the home they once shared.  Ansel knew that he must tell them of Gerta’s condition and how he didn’t want to leave her side, but Gerta insisted that her children be found before she is to die.  Ansel let out a sigh.

“Your mother is ailing.  I fear she is knocking on death’s door.  I didn’t want to leave her side but the stubborn woman insisted that I find the both of you and return to the village before she dies,” Ansel said as tears formed in the corner of his eyes.  “She wants to know that her children are alive and well.”

“Oh papa,” Marta said as the tears begin to form in her eyes.  She gently lays her hand on the fur skin bed.

“I fear we cannot leave our home, papa.  The villagers will most definitely try to slay us,” Jakob said as a tear rolled down his cheek.  Jakob always tried to be the strong one but hearing of his mother’s illness broke the giant lad.

“You are not well either, papa.  Those briar berry bushes hurt you severely.  You must stay and get your strength back,” Marta said to her diminutive father.

“Besides, we don’t know the way back to the village and even if we do find our way back… look at us papa.  The villagers will not take too kindly of two giants, even if they are the carpenter’s son and daughter,” Jakob said, pointing out his and Marta’s sizes.

“We can enter the village veiled by the night.  You two should at least fit in the barn where you can hide during the day.  At night you can visit with your mother,” Ansel said, trying his to best figure out how to hide two giants.

“We can stay until she…” Marta couldn’t finish her sentence as tears began to fall once again.  Jakob embraced his weeping sister.  Ansel hated seeing his daughter like this.  Ansel remembered Marta as a happy little girl with an endless smile, even when things seemed their darkest, Marta’s smile shone like the sun.  Ansel wanted so much to embrace his little girl once again but Marta wasn’t a child anymore.  Marta had grown into a lovely and fair maiden that Ansel hoped would find the perfect suitor someday, after she is restored back to her true size of course…