“Annallya? . . . . Annallya!”

Annallya’s head snapped up from the book she had had it buried in to see Thoren standing before her. The shorter, darker woman was standing with her hands planted firmly on her hips and a scowl etched across her lovely face. She was dressed in her armour, with her sword sheathed at her hip, and her shield on her back. Annallya blinked.

“Is it time already for battle practice?” She asked as she rose from her seat at the table. “I apologize Thoren, I seem to have lost track of the time.”

But Thoren only stood there and blinked at her. “Annallya . . . battle practice is over.”

Annallya stiffened. “What? Impossible!”

She cast a disparaging look at the nearest window. Sure enough the sun was well past it’s midday peak and on it’s way down. Had she really spent so much time reading? Mother would not be happy if she ever learned of this. Annallya had risen early in order to investigate the books of the palace library for information. Ever since her unexpected, and downright horrifying encounter with those humans in the woods, Annallya became determined to learn something she considered to be groundbreaking.

“What book has had your attention for so long, when you struggle so hard to complete your regular studies?” Thoren asked. She walked around the table and inspected the books Annallya had been reading for most of the day. “Maps? You were investigating maps? Is this a part of your advisor lessons?”

Annallya considered lying to Thoren for a second and letting her believe exactly that. However she felt as though she needed to confide in someone her potential discovery. Someone she trusted to be more open minded than the majority of Titans. Looking around cautiously for eavesdroppers, she pulled Thoren in closer to sit besides her at the table. In a hushed voice she unfolded before Thoren the events of the other day, starting from Andrill’s assistance in her training, all the way to her encounter in the woods with wild humans.

“Annallya! Has reason abandoned you entirely!” Thoren admonished her in a forceful whisper, that was barely a whisper. “What sense do you have that could have driven you to such dangerous impulses!”

“I could have grown myself back again at any moment Thoren, I was never helpless.” She retorted. “Do not address me as a wittless child playing with fire.”

“No! A wittless child playing with fire would not be in half as much danger as you were. We know so little of what else lurks in those woods.” Thoren explained through clenched teeth. “What if there had been venomous animals lying in wait of you? Or suppose there had been more humans preparing to ambush you while you were small?”

“Thoren! Can you not see the more significant picture here?” She insisted. “The human male claimed that there was a village of other little people hidden deep within the forest. A village of men and women, Thoren! Everything we have been taught of humans could potentially be wrong!”

“Do not use such ridiculous notions to distract me from the topic at hand.” Thoren said in an accusational tone of voice.

“They are not ridiculous Thoren.” Annallya intensely whispered. “How else can you explain Andrill’s unnatural insightfulness? Animals do not observe so well as he.”

“Who under Sun and Stars is Andrill?” Her friend asked.

“Andrill is the name of my human. It was given to him by his own mother out in the wild!” Annallya excitedly explained. “You see Thoren? We know so little of them, and have always assumed we have learned all there is.”

Thoren tensely closed her eyes and began taking deep breaths to reign in both her temper and her patience. Annallya wanted very much to believe that this was somehow an unlikely sign of progress, and not of another oncoming lecture.

At last Thoren opened her eyes, and gazed intensely at Annallya. “First and foremost,” she began. “Humans do not name one another in the wild. They can barely speak as it is, and must be taught and encouraged to expand what little vocabulary they have.”

“Andrill,” Annallya emphasized heavily on his name. “Speaks quite well. True he lacks proper grammar and sentence structure, but I would hardly call him uneducated. Who else could have taught him in the wild except for other humans?”

“The Seekers taught him.” Thoren shot back. “Once they find a wild human and bring him to Thylara, they are then trained for a short while. They have the capacity to learn language, but it is alien to their primitive minds, and so they must be taught before becoming pets.”

“Then how is it that Andrill knew so much of swordplay?” She asked. “He gave me information I myself was never taught. Where then did I learn these ideas from, if not from a human?”

“You practice in your room. Most likely he was spouting nonsense in an attempt to feign intelligence. It was pure luck that his words made sense. I doubt he understands very much what it was that he told you. Humans do not use tools or weapons. They hunt and kill with their hands.”

Annallya stubbornly folded her arms across her chest. “Explain then the weapons I saw the wild humans brandishing?”

Thoren shrugged. “Just sticks. It does not take great wisdom to figure out that a stick may be of use in hunting. Perhaps that is a measure of some intelligence we have over looked. But it is of little significance when compared to a sword and shield.”

“What of the bow the young girl was carrying?”

“Another stick.” She clarified. “Your mind was racing with terror in the face of bloodthirsty beasts, and in your haste you perceived something that was not. I would not be surprised if the clothes you saw were nothing more than leaves, plastered to their bodies from the mud.”

Annallya angrily blew through her nostrils at each rebuttal and dismissal of her experiences. She knew what she had saw in those woods was no mistake. There had been a family, a family of humans! Fending for themselves in the wild and caring for each other. They wore clothes on their backs and carried weapons in their hands. It shook the very foundation of her beliefs.

“Why will you not believe me? You are my oldest and dearest friend Thoren. Have we ever lied to one another? Have you no more trust in me?” She asked, almost pleadingly for Thoren to understand her point of view.

Thoren’s ebony face softened as she took in her childhood friend’s voice. “Annallya I love you as I would a sister, and I always have. However you have always had these preposterous notions in your head that go against our very way of life.”

“What notions have I had?” She demanded.

“Your idea of ending all conflicts with every Titan settlements forever.”

Annallya snorted. “Is it so bad that I wish for an end to these pointless conflicts?”

“If it were up to you Annallya, all of Thylara would become craftswomen.” Thoren asserted. “How then would we protect ourselves from other cities and other lands?”

Annallya merely shook her head sadly, as she stood up from the table. “I thought you would believe me. I thought you would understand.”

She walked out of the library, leaving her exasperated friend behind. The library had yielded no results, and her best friend believed her to be deranged. Yet there was still on place that she could go to that might have the answers she sought.

********************************************************************************************************

Her mother kept an immaculate study. The room was half the size of Annallya’s bedroom, and decorated modestly but beautifully. The floor was of polished marble; and the walls painted like landscapes, with rolling green fields and a sky of blue. A desk and chair of intricately carved wood were placed against the wall closest to the doorway. The wall directly opposite of the desk was lined wall to wall with bookshelves. The wall opposite of the doorway was mostly covered by a single great map of all of the known Titan settlements and cities, along with every notable piece of geography in between. On the desk sat a few organized charts and papers. A single candle sat unlit in a stick on pure gold, carved and decorated with the likenesses of flowers. A gift from her friend Queen Phelonous herself, and not the only one. To Annallya’s right hung a gladius sword with an ivory handle, and a hilt decorated with rubies the size of her pinky nail. The sheath of the sword was of the finest leather, decorated with gold at both the head and tip, and painted with a swirling design in gold paint. It was once the sword Annallya’s mother had used during her service in the Thylaran military. On her fortieth birthday, Queen Phelonous had the sword reworked and decorated, as a gift to her childhood friend.

Currently, her mother was attending the Queen’s court, advising her on decisions regarding the cases of her citizens. All the same, she wanted to spend as little time in this room as she could. The last thing Annallya wanted to do was be caught looking through her mother’s private charts. With the utmost haste Annallya strode to the bookcases, searching for a book on maps that had not been in the library. A few she had found, but none were of the woods of the humans. That was always classified as unexplored territory, or of nothing but uninhabited wilderness. Turning from the bookcases, she went to the desk and began rifling through the charts. These were much the same as the ones in the books. Becoming slightly frantic, she opened the drawers of the desk, looking for anything of significance. Just as she was clawing her way through the widest drawer of the desk, Annallya felt the wood beneath her fingers shift. Curiously, she shifted it again with her fingertips, and found that it was a fake bottom, a piece of wood resting on top of the real bottom of the drawer. As cautiously as if it were a trap, Annallya lifted and removed the wood from the drawer. Beneath it, lay a small assortment of letters, and a single folded piece of paper. Upon unfolding the parcel, she saw that it was another map. This map focused primarily upon the city of Thylara, and the land surrounding it within a radius of a mile or two. What made this map different from any of the others was its greater emphasis on the woods outside the city, the same woods she had enter into the other day. And at the center of those woods, scratched across the page, was an X. The mark of a secret of great importance. So important, in fact, that only the Queen’s most trusted advisor was allowed possession of such knowledge, and kept it hidden in her most private of rooms. Annallya could not help the smile that broke out over her face.

********************************************************************************************************

The very next day, as soon as the sun peaked out above the horizon, Annallya got dressed and set out. She left a note for her mother explaining that she was going out to run errands and practice her forms somewhere alone. That should be enough to excuse her for being gone the whole day if need be. She wore her usual outfit, a green sleeveless top trimmed with white, a leather belt in place of the red sash, and a green and white trimmed skirt. Attached to her belt was her knife, a pack containing some bread and cheese to eat as the day progressed, and the map she had taken from her mother’s study. With the palace only just starting to rise, and the streets empty, Annallya made her way outside of the city.

As before she strayed from the Titans path and continued on towards the very same place where she first encountered the human family. She stayed at her Titan height even after setting foot into the trees. This area of the woods was sparse, and so she could carefully watch her steps, without having to worry about being taken by surprise again. After a minute, however, the trees became more and more dense, until it felt as though she were trudging through a river. In order to find and approach the village it would seem she could not longer travel at her full height. Looking down at her sandaled feet she saw the thick forest of trees, barely reaching the height of her waist, and closed her eyes as she began to shrink. When Annallya opened her eyes again she was amazed at what she saw. Before her lay an entirely new world! Lush, green grass carpeted the ground as rocks, leaves, roots, and vines decorated the scene. The trees, that only moments before were level with her thighs, now soared above her head! A gentle breeze brushed through the forest, rustling the leaves and making the birds chirp as they flew from the branches. Birds! There were no birds back in Thylara! Looking at them now they seemed so small, even at human size, yet beautiful. This was nothing like the sparse trees she saw last time. This was deeper, thicker with life and so much more! She could have spent hours standing there, watching them move with such incredible grace, as she drank in the serenity of the forest. Unfortunately she couldn’t afford to waste such time. Travelling as a Titan may have turned a two day trip into one of only a few hours, but she still had a lot of walking to do now that she was smaller. Adjusting the handle of her knife one more time Annallya set off for the west.

The journey was slower than she was used to, but enjoyable. Getting to see the world hidden beneath the trees was an experience she would never likely forget. However Annallya had to move slowly as she had never walked along the forest terrain before. Her footing was constantly shifting up and down, and occasionally rocks would shift and move out from underneath of her. Never-the-less she continued walking, determined to see everything. At one point she even came upon a river, the first river she had ever seen. Back in Thylara, Titans drew all of their water through irrigation systems and wells from enormous lakes. But out here she could marvel at the shimmering water, watching it sparkle as the sun touched it’s flowing surface. The fish were another sight, jumping out of the water and splashing playfully at her. After stopping to rest for a minute, Annallya grew just big enough to step across the river, and then shrank back down to continue her trek.

Minutes slowly turned into hours and the hours wore on. By now the sun had already reached it’s peak and was beginning its timely descent back towards the ground. Annallya stopped for a moment to consult the map, using the sun to make sure she was still heading west. The village should not be more than another hour or two of walking. But when she looked at the map she saw a group of hills that represented where she should be now. Except that there were no hills where Annallya stood. She sighed. This meant that she would have to retrace her steps all the way back to the river. Tucking the map away, she started to get on her way when her stomach began to rumble. She remembered that she had eaten the last of her bread and cheese at that last stop for rest. Of course there must be food here in the forest, though. How else could so many animals thrive out here? All it took was a bit of scourging and she found a bush covered in pretty red berries. They appeared fat and plump, and filled with a wonderful jeuce. Annallya picked one and was about to eat it . . . . when something cold and sharp rested on her throat and stayed there.

“Make one wrong move Titan,” said a deep, male voice from behind. “And I’ll open your throat”

Annallya’s breath caught in her throat, but she somehow remained absolutely still. Glancing down with just her eyes she was able to see the arm of her assailant. She could feel his left arm pressed against the back of her neck. It wasn’t exactly a thick forearm, but there was no way to tell how much muscle there was due to the man’s coat sleeve. Not that it mattered much to her, there was no possible way that this human could match her Titan strength. But, so long as she was in this smaller state, Annallya was no stronger than a human female of her height. Which meant that she was in very real danger now. “Please, lay down your knife.” she requested, straining to keep her voice soft and steady. “I do not wish to hurt you.”

“And I don’t want to kill you.” her captor replied. “Now what’re you doing here? The last offering was given to your people over a month ago.”

“O-Offering? I know not of what you are talking about.” Which was not a lie, she really did not.

The knife pressed a little harder against her skin. Not yet cutting it but not feeling particularly comfortable either. The man’s voice did not rise in volume, yet it hardened like steel “Don’t play games with me Titan. Your people remind that village constantly of the price it has to pay to stay alive. So why’ve you come back!”

Annallya gasped. It was a serious effort not to cry out with that knife pressed against her throat. “Please! I truly do not know! I only wanted to meet a human in person!” she whispered frantically.

The man was silent for a few moments. Then the knife was removed from her neck and Annallya let out a breath of relief. She kept a hand at her throat while she tried to shake off what had almost happened. Reluctantly, she turned to face the man who had almost killed her. It was her first time seeing a wild man this close before, and it amazed her how different he appeared when compared to a Titan. He was fairly tall, taller than she was in her human form. Strange to think that she now had to look up at a human. His facial features were notable, though. They were hard as stone, and appeared just as strong and unmoving. His brown hair was somewhat long, but did not reach any farther than his neck. He had a full beard, and icy blues eyes that held an unusual gleam as he watched her. He wore a black coat left open to expose his white laced shirt underneath. Attached to the coat was a black hood that framed his face, and gave him a darker, more sinister appearance. Brown trousers were tucked into his calf high leather boots. His knife was sheathed but he still held a bow in his left hand, a quiver of arrows poked out from behind his back. Tied to his belt were the bodies of three small animals with ears too long for their tiny heads, all strung together on a piece of rope. No doubt he had been out hunting.

What was particularly interesting to notice was that he stood a little more than five steps away from her, and she had turned around almost as soon as he had let her go. This human, he was quick, and . . . and scary. The way he stood there, studying her with those cold, unforgiving eyes. It was completely terrifying to think that she had almost been killed by him. Titans believed themselves to be all but invincible, and for good reason. The only thing people actually believed could kill a Titan was another Titan. To think that a human, a creature that was so puny and insignificant compared to her, had almost slit her throat made Annallya shiver. Unconsciously, she clutched the hilt of her own knife as if it was all that kept him at bay.

“You wanted to meet a human?” he asked in that quiet baritone of a voice.

Annallya nodded, not trusting herself to speak

“Why?” his expression, his whole body actually, never changed a bit.

“I-I . . .” It was an effort for to regain her composure, knowing that his gaze still held her captive. “I have never before seen a human that was not yet . . . rescued.” It was becoming progressively easier to speak calmly. “None of the rescued humans speak unless told to, for they are afraid of us. I wished to see what you were like where you come from.” she swallowed. “You are . . . not what I had expected.”

His eyes narrowed at the word ‘rescued’, the rest of his face was unreadable. However, there was no mistaking the quiet anger buried underneath of that stone-like face. Annallya began eyeing the bow in his hand, as if she could sense his urge to use it against her. Mentally, she prepared herself to grow back to her normal size the instant his hand moved for an arrow. But he continued to stand there, and spoke.

“Those berries you almost ate are poisonous. If you only eat one, the chances are you’d feel sick all day. Eat a few more and you’re dead in hours. If it’s food you need then you can always find eatable fruit in most of the trees.”

She was unable to meet his gaze for longer than a few second, but she made sure never to look away from him entirely. Those berries she had almost eaten were poisonous? Did that mean he had just saved her life? Why save her life if only to threaten it, and then offer food? She truly did know nothing of humans and their ways. However, the more she did learn, the more she yearned to continue. Even his way of speaking, gruff and straight-forward, was uncommon to her, and hypnotic.

After checking the creatures on his belt, the man faced her. “Go back to where you came from, Titan. If you return, I won’t hesitate to kill you” Then he turned to leave.

“Wait!” Annallya called urgently, taking only a step forward. He stopped and cast her a look over his shoulder. “What is your name?”

The man hesitated, looking her over once more. Weighing her against his answer. “Gaelin. Gaelin Val’ Saida.” He plainly stated.

“I am Annallya Rhaolin,” she announced. “You mentioned earlier of a village. Is it close? You must take me there.” She did not make it sound a request. And why should she? Annallya was a Titan, used to making humans obey her orders. Perhaps it will work on this wild man.

But Gaelin only hardened his glare. “There are good people in that village. You’ll not go near them.” His was not a request either. Then he turned away and darted into the forest brush.

“Stop!” Annallya called out. She was not about to let him go so easily, not when he knew where this settlement was. So she pursued him into the trees. Finally, Annallya had the chance to see a real village and speak with humans in their own habitat. She was prepared to run him down and talk with him until he listened to reason. There was only one problem, though. This Gaelin, whoever he was, has clearly spent years in these woods. As soon as he disappeared through those bushes, Annallya never saw another sign of him. How could anyone disappear so easily in a place like this? The answer to that became apparent after Annallya realized she had lost her way again. Searching did no more good than to waste time. If she did return home soon, Mother would be furious at her long absence. For a brief moment she considered growing to full height, only to try and see where this village was, but dismissed it outright. It was unlikely that she would be able to find it among all of the thousands of trees. Worse, the humans would see her first and flee as far away as they could. So she set out, still at human size, for home but resolved to return another time. At the very least she had learned a few things this day. She’d travelled through a forest and spoken with a wild man, and he had left her with more than enough questions to answer. The foremost of those being: what was the ‘offering’?