Ashley is following both Sir Gabriel and his adoptive father, Sir Olric, away from the town of Oakvale. After having eaten a nice meal, it was decided that they should immediately head out to Sir Olric's home, the same house that Sir Gabriel grew up in.

     Despite her extraordinary size, Ashley did actually have enough to eat, though she could eat a little bit more to tell the truth. With her meal brought out in barrels, it was actually enough food to feed a small army. Though for her, three barrels of shepard pie, a barrel full of apples along with a barrel of ale was only just enough to satisfy her hunger and leave her feeling sufficient. Eating that much and still being able to eat more isn't because she is a glutton, but rather because of her great size. She needs a lot more than the average person just to sustain herself.

    Ashley looks down at the two knights, making sure that there is enough distance between her and them as she walks. She would hate it if she accidentally kicked one of them, or even worse, stepped on them. She is walking at a pace that is a bit too slow to her liking, but her strides are so long she could easily walk past the two knights at her usual pace.

     Both Sir Gabriel and Sir Olric seem to reminiscing, talking about Sir Gabriel's days as a squire and Ashley can't help but feel a little left out right now. If only she could only hear their conversation, maybe she would be laughing at some of Sir Gabriel's embarrassing moments too. But with her being so high up, it is difficult for her to make out what the two are saying. Though sh can take comfort that her knight will share some of these stories with her some day.

     She wishes that she could be holding her knight as the three of them are making their way to Sir Olric's home. But she does know that Sir Gabriel does need to catch up with the older knight. Besides, she will have plenty of time to spend with him later. After all, they are together as a couple now and will be spending so much time together for as long as they both live.

     Ashley smiles when she sees a house in the distance, knowing that they must almost be there. She stops to crouch down, bringing herself closer to the two knights. "Gabriel," she says, grabbing both of the knights' attention. She points towards the house that is visible to the three of them while saying, "Is that your old home?" The house that Ashley is referring to does look simple, only being a single story tall. Though it isn't quite small either. Ashley can imagine that it must be because it has at least three bedrooms to accommodate the entire family that she has heard about.

     The two knights turn back to look at the towering woman. Despite the fact that she is crouching, they still need to look up at her. For Sir Gabriel this is slowly becoming a new normal for him, while Sir Olric finds it a bit odd to be looking up at a woman for a change. "Yes," Sir Gabriel answers, "That is where I grew up at."

     "I can't wait to get a closer look at it."

     "I am glad that you are so excited to see the old place," Sir Olric says. "But just wait until you see the actual land itself."

     "I bet it is really nice land if you are saying I should see it."

     "Well, we still gotta arrive there if you want to see it," Sir Olric points out, "Come on then." The trio continue to walk, with Ashley's excitement about seeing Sur Gabriel's childhood growing the closer that she gets.

     Before Ashley knows it, they arrive at the property. She is surprised at how much land there is. She can see that there is also a barn and a pond on the property, meaning that they must own a decent amount of land. She can't help but wonder just how Sir Olric came upon it. The maiden can only imagine that the old knight must have been granted it for some noble deed he had performed for a noble, but this is a question that she will have to ask later. Right now she is right next to Sir Olric's home, as the two knights are standing at the front door. She kneels down, looking at the two of them, eager to meet Sir Gabriel's mother. Luckily for her, the ground has already started to dry, so she does not need to worry about getting any mud on her dress as she is on the ground.

     "Right," Sir Olric says, looking up at Ashley. "Just wait here, and I will go get the wife. No doubt she saw you coming and is about as surprised as can be. Just let me explain you to her before I bring her out to meet you."

     "Is she going to be okay with me?" Ashley sounds a bit worried. For the past day she has been worrying about how Sir Gabriel's parents would receive her. Sir Olric has been nice enough sure, but she can't help but worry about his wife.

     "Is she going to be okay with you?" Sir Olric is asking this as though Ashley had just asked him a stupid question. "Of course she will. She is going to love you and treat you like you are already part of the family, I can guarantee it." He then points over to Sir Gabriel, continuing. "When I first brought Gabriel here with me all those years ago she was a bit surprised that I had decided to adopt him. But after that, she was treating him like a son who is of her own flesh and blood."

     "Thank you Sir Olric, that does help to put my mind at ease a bit."

     "Like I was saying, let me go get the wife." He heads inside his home, the last thing that both Ashley and Sir Gabriel hearing, "Heather, I'm home. I know that I have a lot of explaining to do this time, and it is a good one, I promise."

     Sir Gabriel turns to face Ashley, smiling at her. "He is right, the moment Momma meets you, she will be treating you like you are already family." Before he can add anything else, he cringes when he hears the front door burst wide open.

     "I knew you couldn't stay away forever!" he hears a familiar voice that he has been long dreading to hear. The voice belongs to a woman who is at least several years older than the knight. Her long red hair falling just past her waist and she is wearing a simple dress. "I knew you would come back sooner or later."

     Sir Gabriel turns around to face his sister, just wishing that she hadn't have come outside so soon. "Hi Laura," he says with no enthusiasm.

     Laura doesn't bother replying to her brother, but instead rushes right at him. She wraps her arms around his neck and leans him forward, putting the knight into a headlock. She is smiling, this being one of her favorite ways to torment her brother. "I hope you got some good jobs while you were gone, cause I could really use some extra coin now."

     "Laura, could you just skip this ridiculous routine of yours this one time?" Sir Gabriel pleads.

     "You know the deal. Pay up, then I will let you go." There is a tone of glee in her voice as she is doing this. She absolutely loves picking on her adopted brother, doing so at every opportunity that she gets. "You better give that coin up soon, cause I am in a good mood and you know how I can get when I am like this."

     Ashley is watching as the two siblings are fighting. Actually, fighting doesn't quite describe it correctly since it seems to be a one-sided fight. Ashley decides to finally speak up, her curiosity getting the better of her now. "Uhhh... Is this how siblings normally treat each other?"

     "Why do you want...to...know?" Laura is finally noticing Ashley, stunned at the fact that she has to look up at this woman. She ends up letting go of Sir Gabrie out of shock at what she is seeing, who is relieved to be free from her grip, as she takes a couple of steps back just so she can see all of this woman.

      "I take it that you must be Laura, Gabriel's sister?" the large maiden says. "I'm Ashley, the maiden that your brother rescued."

     Laura slowly turns to face her brother, giving him a wide-eyed look. "Sh-she is the maiden that you rescued?"

      "Yes she is," Sir Gabriel answers, rubbing his neck frow how tight Laura had him in her arms.

      Laura busts out laughing, actually holding her sides as she leans forward. "I must have really, really screwed you up," she finally manages to say while pointing at her embarrassed brother.

     "What do you mean?" Ashley asks, sounding very confused at what Laura had just said.

     Laura doesn't even pay Ashley any mind, instead she just keeps talking to Sir Gabriel. "All those years of me picking on you, about how you are so much shorter than me."

     "By three inches!" Sir Gabriel argues.

      "Doesn't matter. But still, the first time you go out and rescue a maiden who just happens to be four inches taller than you. What was her name again? Delores, I think." Laura is still laughing, her sides starting to hurt now. "And she, and she turns you down because you aren't tall enough for her. So what did you decide to do then? Rescue the biggest maiden you could find?" She points to Ashley, still laughing. "Because, she certainly is the biggest maiden in my opinion!"

     "Laura I... That is..." Sir Gabriel knows that no matter what he says, his sister is just going to twist his words around, but he has to defend the woman he loves. "Look, I just happened to find her and..."

     "I can't imagine that finding her was very difficult to do. Even a blind man could see her from a great distance!"

     "Laura Sophia Darrold!" a feminine voice says in a very firm tone. The voice is enough to stop Laura's uproarious laughter and cause her to turn to the woman who is speaking to her. She is an older woman, who looks to be in her earlier forties, looking very similar to Laura. The only differences in her are that her red hair is short and wavey and she does have a decent amount of weight on her, giving her a full figure. "If there is one thing you should know, is that it can't be helped who one falls in love with."

     "But Momma she..." Laura tries to protest.

     "No buts," Heather interrupts. "Now, apologize to both of them before I decide to give you sole responsibilty of the chicken coop for the rest of the week."

     Laura sighs, slowly turning to face her brother and his maiden. "I'm sorry." There is no hint of sincerity of her voice as she says this since she is being forced to do so.

     "Young lady!" Heather says in a stern tone. "Be sincere, and be specific about what you are apologizing for."

     "I am so sorry for making fun of your height, Ashley." There is still a bit of an attitude on Laura's voice, feeling as though she doesn't need to apologize. As far as she is concerned, she had every right to say the things she did.

     Heather walks past her daughter, feeling very disappointed in how she acted. Now standing in front of Ashley, she looks up at her and smiles warmly. "It is so very nice to meet you Ashley."

     "You must be Heather, Gabriel's mother," Ashley responds.

     "I am. I must admit though, when I first saw you approaching the house I nearly fainted."

     Ashely is well aware of how surprising her appearance can be to most people, which is one of the reasons why she stayed secluded in her castle. "Sorry about that," she apologizes.

     "No need to worry, Dearie," Heather replies. "Olric told me all about you and how Gabriel is courting you." She holds her arms out, wide open while still smiling warmly. "Come on now, love. Why don't you go and give me a hug?"

     "Are you sure?" Ashley seems a bit hesitant at this request, only having experience picking up Sir Gabriel. “I meanb I have only just met you.”

     "You're practically family now, I insist."

     "Okay..." Ashley reaches out picks up the insistent woman, still feeling a bit uneasy about doing so. She gives her a quick embrace before setting her back onto the ground. Heather only smiles at her, acting as though what she has gone through is quite normal.

     "She is such a lovely woman, Gabriel," Heather says, turning to face her adopted son.

     "That is something I have learned about her over the past couple of days," Sir Gabriel says. "She is a kind and gentle soul."

     Heather wraps her arms around her son, giving him a tight hug. "You really should visit more often. You worry me when you disappear for long periods of time. Well then," Heather says, letting go of her son as she looks at both Sir Gabriel and Ashley. "Before we start getting acquainted, Gabriel you should really wash up. It looks like he got into a bit of a fight." She is looking at the dried blood that is still on the knight's face, assuming that it is from a fight that he has been in during his travels. She then turns to Ashley, looking back up at her. "And you are more than welcome to come inside..." She cuts herself off, realizing that she is making an offer that Ashley is unable to take. "Oh, I guess that..."

     "It’s okay," Ashley interrupts. "Your offer is very much appreciated though. I don't mind waiting outside. Besides, I was hoping to wash up a bit as well and I was hoping that I could us the pond to do so."

     "You are more than welcome to dearie," Heather says.

     "Ashley," Sir Gabriel says, grabbing the giantess' attention. "Could I have my duffle bag back?"

     "Oh," Ashley responds, already reaching for it, "Sure." She has some difficulty undoing the knot that she had made so that she could tie the bag to her waist. The drawstring being very thin compared to her large fingers, she might as well be trying to undo a knot in some fine thread.

    "Ashley, do you want me to untie my duffle bag?" Sir Gabriel offers. "I can imagine how difficult it must be for you. You are kneeling so I am more than capable of reaching it."

     "Please?" Ashley answers, moving her hands out of the way so that the knight can approach her waist.

     Sir Gabriel doesn't have to reach up very high in order to reach the knot. Though he does need to remove his gauntlets in order to untie the drawstring with little difficulty. Freeing his duffle bag from Ashley's waist, he slings it over his shoulder. "There we go," he says as he steps in front of Ashley. "I'm going to head inside and get cleaned up and changed."

     Ashley reaches down, placing her finger on Sir Gabriel's cheek, smiling at him. "Do try to be quick, I get lonely whenever you go somewhere I can't follow."

     Sir Gabriel reaches up and rests his hand on her finger, looking back at his loving maiden. "I will try to be as quick as possible. After all, I do find it hard to be apart from you as well."

     Ashley watches as Sir Gabriel starts to walking into the house through the front door, already missing him even before he has left her sight. "Gabriel," she calls out, grabbing his attention just as he steps through the doorway. "I love you."

     Sir Gabriel looks back at Ashley, seeing the look on her face. From how she is looking at him obe would believe that he is preparing to go on some long journey. He simple smiles up at her, looking at her beautiful face. "I love you too."

     Ashley sighs, watching as her knight disappears into the house. She does wish that she could follow him inside, but her size does prevent it. All she can do is wait for him to come back out and rejoin her, believing that he truely does enjoy being with her.

     She stands back up, stretching a bit due to her legs becoming slightly cramped from how long she was kneeling. She looks over at the nearby pond then down at her right foot, her toes still a bit brown from the mud that she had accidentally stepped in earlier that day. She starts to smile, remembering how Sir Gabriel so willingly wiped the excess mud fron her toes using two of his shirts. Her smile only widens as she remembers how he agrees that she does have pretty feet. “The prettiest I have ever seen,” she hears him say inside her own thoughts.

     She makes her way over to the pond, sitting down close to the edge. The pond itself is of a decent size, being large enough for her to clean herself up a bit. Though it isn't big enough for her to actually bathe in it, which she feels that she needs to do. She would need an actual lake in order to do that.

     Ashley dips her dirty toes into the water. "Brrrr... That's cold," she comments. The day is still early, so she isn't surprised that the water is still a bit on the chilly side, though it doesn't change her displeasure about it. She starts to run her hands along her toes, using the water to get the last of the mud off. After a few minutes of focusing on the dried mud, she is satisfied with how clean they look. Holding her foot up in the air, she looks at it, examining just how clean her foot looks. "There we go, nice and pretty again."

     Though she isn't done quite yet, she takes the time to give her feet a proper cleaning, again. She doesn't have to look at them to know that her soles have a decent amount of dirt and grass on them from all the walking she has done today.  It may seem like something minor to most people, but it is something that she feels is very important and that she needs to take care of.

     With her feet now thoroughly clean, she looks back at Sir Olric's home. She can't help but wonder just how much longer Sir Gabriel is going to be inside. The longer that she stares at the home, the more she becomes curious about its interior. She is tempted to look inside through the windows, just like she did before in Vershire. The only problem that occured before was that when she peered inside, the residents were very surprised to see a giant face looking in at them. Then Ashley realizes something, Sir Gabriel's family is fully aware of her and her size. So surely peeking in through the windows will be okay this time. Besides, Heather did extend an invitation for her to enter, and looking in through the windows is the closest thing she can do to entering the household.

    She gets up from the edge of the pond and approaches the house, wondering what the inside of Sir Gabriel's childhood home could possibly look like. She gets down on her hands and knees, lowering her head so that she can see inside through the windows.

     The interior does look pretty typical, with a couch and a chair in what she assumes to be the den area. Though she is surprised to see a bookshelf with a small collection of books in it, wondering who in the household enjoys reading. She loves to read, but it is an activity that she can no longer enjoy. With the print on most pages being so fine to her she can barely make out any of the words that have been printed.

     She moves on to the next window seeing the kitchen. Again, it is a typical kitchen with common amenities. It does look a bit on the small side, but she figures that it must be large enough to serve it's purpose for the family.

     The next window she peers through is Sir Gabriel's room. She only knows this because she can see the knight in there who is currentky getting dressed. She blushes when she can see that he isn't wearing anything at all, oberserving him as he gets fully undressed. She knows that the proper thing to do in this situation is to look away, but she doesn't do this as her curiosity is compelling her to loom at him. In her head she justifies her actions by telling herself that he is her knight, so it isn't wrong to look at him in this state. The one thing she notices about him, among other things, is that his body is a bit toned. She can imagine that it must be from all the training he did as Sir Olric's Squire.

     Grabbing a pair of boxers from the chest at the foot of his bed, he starts to put them on. He turns around just as he is about to pull them up, freezing when he sees an oversized face staring right at him from outside his window. "Ashley?!" he says, pulling his boxers up quickly feeling very embarrassed about his exposed state.

      "Hi Gabriel," Ashley says quite casually. "I'm guessing that I surprised you."

      "I will admit that you did, yes. But one doesn't normally expect to see a face as large as yours looking in at them." He approaches the window, lowering his voice a bit as he continues. "How much did you see, exactly?"

     "Hmmm..." Ashley gets a bit of a coy look on her face, acting as though she is thinking. "Enough to know that I actually like what I just saw."

    Sir Gabriel turns away slightly in an effort to hide the fact that his face is now starting to turn a bit red now. This is not only due to Ashley seeing him fully, but her actually saying that she did like what she had just seen. He does feel embarrassed b but he can't help but feel a sense if confidence about himself from what the maiden had just said to him.

     "Awww... Did I embarrass you a bit?" Her tone is one of a mixture of both sympathy and playfulness.

     "A little, I will admit. I just never imagined that you would see me like that through a window." He looks back at Ashley, seeing the smile on her face. "Just let me finish getting dressed, and I will be right out."

     "You're not going to be wearing your armor, are you?"

     "No, there is no need for me to wear it right. Besides, Momma doesn't really like it when either Sir Olric or I wear our armor around the house."

     "Good," Ashley responds, sounding very pleased with the knight's answer. "I've been wanting to give you a proper embrace tge moment you come back out, your armor makes it a bit difficult for me to enjoy doing so"

     "Then I guess I should get dressed quickly then, shouldn't I?"

     "Please?" Ashley is watching as Sir Gabriel returns to the chest to grab the rest of his clothes. She can tell that he is eager to return outside so that he can be with her. Though she knows that this feeling is mutual between them, since this us very normal for a couple who have just recently fallen in love with each other.