“Glenn, what- G-Glenn!!”

He lunged forward, but immediately felt a strong grip around his right arm, just below the shoulder.

“Glenn!”

“Let me go-…!!” he demanded, without even looking back to see who had stopped him.

“Glenn, damn it, boy, stop and think…!!”

Another arm circled around to his front, and he was forced backward, falling awkwardly to the ground on his back.

Both Doane and Aster were looking down at him from above. Doane’s expression was stern, while Aster wore a look of questioning. For a moment, he thought of rolling to the side to try and escape again, but instead, just let out a tired groan.

“What in all the void was that, Avelly?” Doane inquired. “You’ve come all this way with a good plan in your head, and you decided to throw it out just like that?”

“Doane, I think-…” Aster interrupted, sounding unsure, “… I think I know what’s going on.”

She offered Glenn a hand, and he got back to his feet.

Bade made an impatient noise. “Aye? Well, by all means, lass, no need t’keep quiet on our account.”

“Glenn, you… you told me something one of the last times we visited the Ashoh ruins.” Aster said, still keeping a steady grip on her friend’s arm as she looked him in the eye. “Back then, before the attack, the community used to decorate the whole village together, right? You said that there used to be huge banners all over the place, patched together by everyone who lived there.”

Glenn didn’t say anything, but nodded stiffly, looking down at the ground.

“… Now that you say it, I remember ‘em.” Doane said thoughtfully. “Covered the whole village square, and went all the way down the main roads. They were beautiful.”

Finally, Glenn spoke up, looking around at all the rest of his comrades. “That Oeza woman down there. She’s wearing them.”

“What-…!?” was the approximate response from most of the group.

A frown on her face, Aster let go of his arm and moved toward the hillside’s edge again, looking down. Her gaze traced from one of the colossal figures down below to the next, and after a few seconds, she seized up.

It was as she’d feared, and fairly obvious, now that she looked again. One particular Oeza woman, just as staggeringly massive as all the rest, was wearing a much more distinct and colourful outfit than those of her tribeswomen. Wearing only enough to cover her chest and crotch area, much like any human woman would have looked with only her underwear on, the clothing of the Oeza in question was clad in an eccentric mix of colours and patchwork designs, all stitched haphazardly together with no particular care for consistency. Aster supposed that the Oeza woman wearing the old banners had understandably placed greater concern in simply keeping her clothing in one piece than trying to make it appear uniform. The Oeza had tanned skin, and ashen brown hair, hanging messily down to the middle of her back, some draped partly over her shoulders in the front. She was clearly well into adulthood, though not showing any particular signs of advancing age just yet. Or rather, Aster assumed as much, accounting for her own lack of knowledge on the aging cycle of the reclusive giantess tribe.

She sighed, stepping back from the cliffside.

“Like they’re taking fucking trophies…”

“Glenn.” Aster could hear the anger bubbling up in her best friend’s voice once more, and hurried to slow its advance. If he was upset to the point of cursing, there was a major problem. “Look, I-… we still don’t know exactly where she got those. … It’s been twelve years. Raiders could’ve stolen them after the attack, and eventually they ended up here. There’s no way to know if that Oeza down there was involved in the attack or not.”

“She’s right, Glenn.” Aine added, walking forward to place herself between Glenn’s position and the hillside. “And this would be the perfect subject for you to start with, whenever you’re ready to try your diplomacy idea with the Oeza.”

Glenn looked between Aster and Aine, a mix of emotions on his face.

“… Sit down, lad.” Bade said after a pause. “I’d say yeh need some time teh… re-evaluate.”

Aine gave a snort of laughter. “If you’d known Glenn for more than a day, you’d know he never thinks things over twice.”

“That’s enough, Aine.” Doane admonished her. “We’ve all got to make sure we’re keepin’ level heads. No matter what, we’re still walkin’ into a village of Oeza as the next part of the plan.”

“… We’ll go in tonight. After dark.” Glenn said, drawing everyone’s attention back. As Bade had suggested, he had dropped to the ground, settling in the grass. “No contact, just… I just want to get a look around.”

“You’re sure?” Doane asked. “Glenn, what happened to Ashoh was terrible, and I know you’re hurting thinkin’ back to it, but-…”

“I’m alright, Doane.” Glenn responded shortly, letting out another sigh. “We won’t have to be down there for long. And like I said, we won’t have to get too close to any of the Oeza. Just split up into a couple of groups and check out the whole village. Try and figure out how many of them are down there.”

As he was saying this, a booming sound of laughter echoed up from the valley. Apparently one of the Oeza women below was amused with something.

“So a scouting trip, then?” Bade inquired. “I’d say it’s the righ’ idea. Any opposed?”

“I’m with Glenn.” Aster said immediately. “Aine? Doane?”

“Not one of you is goin’ down there without me.” Doane answered.

All eyes turned to Aine, and after a moment, she sighed, rolling her eyes and throwing her hands in the air. “Fine. Just do me a favour and don’t act like it was my idea when something goes wrong.”

Doane chuckled. “As if you’d let us.”

---

“Last call to agree that this is a terrible idea.” Aine grumbled, drumming her fingers against the edge of a rock on the hillside. “Any takers?”

“Why don’t you pipe down for once, Aine?” Aster jibed. “Glenn, are we just going straight down this way?”

Night had fallen. For several hours, the group up on the hill had put aside any further discussion of their planned approach to the Oeza village, instead occupying themselves with idle chatter about the other affairs of their day-to-day lives, brief sparring sessions, and anything else that came to mind.

“Right. Straight down the hill, and once we hit that central path, we can split up.” Glenn said. He was perched on top of the same boulder Aine was leaning against, surveying the scene.

The Oeza village was silent now, the last embers of a distant bonfire gradually dying out, and by all appearances, the entire population had retired to bed for the night.

“Bade, you’re with me and Glenn.” Aster reminded their newest comrade.

“Aye. Yeh need me to shoot, jus’ say th’word.”

“But we’ll hope it doesn’t come to that.” Doane advised him. “Aine? You’re ready as well?”

“No.” she said dryly. “But we’re going anyway, isn’t that right?”

“Right you are. I’ll keep an eye out – you just try not to forget your spells.”

Aine allowed herself a smirk at the idea.

“Alright, let’s get moving.” Glenn said, hopping down from his spot to land smoothly in the grass. The effect of the landing was diminished a bit by the way he nearly lost his balance a split-second later, wobbling on one foot until Aster grabbed his shoulder to steady him. She gave him an amused grin.

“Careful, dummy.” she said. He grinned back.

It was hard to ignore the tension hanging over the group during the trip down the hillside. The valley was enormous, making it an ideal place for the Oeza to have chosen for a home. On the negative side, this made for quite a lengthy trip down, during which Glenn’s travelling party remained uncomfortably silent. On the upside, however, the position from which they had surveyed the Oeza village from on high had at least felt fairly secure. They would have been very difficult to spot from all the way down in the valley.

Even so, with the reality of the mission they were all about to undertake sinking in at last, it was nearly impossible for the group to feel anything but a looming sense of dread as they approached the village.

The living spaces the Oeza occupied were varied, but all quite strange-looking from a human’s perspective. Owing to the tribe’s massive size, they didn’t appear to have entire houses, but rather single rooms either built into cavernous openings in rock faces, or assembled from massive collections of uprooted, enormous trees, stone slabs, and any other loose bit of terrain that could be reasonably put to use.

The ground below was positively littered with heavy footprints, much of the terrain worn right down to the rocky layers well beneath the dirt and grass.

Finally reaching the bottom of the high slope they’d descended to reach the village, the group reconvened.

“I’ll be damned…” Doane said as he looked around, even his worn face marked by something almost like amazement. “Hard to believe we’re finally seein’ this. Most in the colony go their whole lives without ever seein’ anything more than a glance at one of the Oeza.”

“Heh. If I was their size, I could take any one of ‘em on, no problem.” Aster remarked. “I mean – don’t get me wrong, this place is impressive, but you saw all of them walking around. Not one of them looked half as strong as me. It’s just not a fair competition, since they’re the tallest race anyone’s ever seen or heard of.”

“But, seeing as they are so huge that you’d be the size of a doll to them, Aster,” Aine interjected, “I don’t think you should be running up and telling them that.”

Aster shrugged, deliberately using the motion to show off her incredible upper body strength. "Yeah, yeah; I’m not looking to arm-wrestle with ‘em. Now, c’mon.”

The group separated. Glenn started off in one direction, followed on either side by Aster and Bade. Doane and Aine began to make their way forward in the direction of the main footpath the Oeza in the village used.

---

“… So, where to, Glenn?” Aster inquired after half a minute. “If we’re trying to scout this place out, shouldn’t we stick to the main road for now, like them?” she asked, jabbing a thumb toward their other two comrades.

Glenn pointed to one particular cliff face, which had a massive opening carved into it.

“What, you want to go in there?” Aster probed. “You know there’s gonna be an Oeza sleeping inside, right?”

“And we’ll be quiet.” Glenn said. “There’s just something I want to check, first.”

“I don’t mean teh sound like yer brainy witch friend,” Bade said, stepping forward to put himself ahead of Glenn as they continued moving, “But I don’ believe yeh. If we already know there’s an Oeza sleepin’ in that cave, then why in th’ void are we walkin’ straight into ‘er damn bedroom?”

“Look, there’s just…” Glenn trailed off, but Aster was reasonably sure she already knew the answer he was skirting around.

“We’re going after those banners, aren’t we?” she guessed. Glenn didn’t answer, but he noticeably lowered his head when she asked, staring at the ground. “Glenn…”

“Ah, righ’, o’ course.” Bade said with a distinctly airy tone of sarcasm, “We’ll jus’ stroll inside, grab the knickers off that Oeza lass, and skip righ’ back out. That the long-and-short o’ your plan, lad?”

“You two don’t have to come in with me.” Glenn said quietly. “I won’t take long, if you-“

“Ohh, no. Not a chance.” Aster interrupted him. “This isn’t a one-person job to begin with, and the last person I’m gonna let go in there alone is you, Glenn.”

Bade scoffed, adjusting the crossbow at his side. “S’pose I’m comin’, too. Bit late for me teh turn tail now.”

They approached the cave, impressed once again by its vast size. A small village could’ve been built into the covered space, had humans been the ones to come across it first. The ground was mostly dirt, with odd patches of grass littering the area.

In a far corner, a fire was wearing itself down. To the Oeza who occupied this cave, it would’ve been quite a small campfire, but to the three intruders entering her living space, it looked like an entire house burning to the ground. The fire cast just enough light to reveal some of the massive space inside the cavern. A few odd furnishings were scattered here and there, with the standout being a massive plateau of stones assembled as a bed in the corner opposite the fire. There, the trio could vaguely see the owner of this makeshift home.

The Oeza woman Glenn had seen wearing the banners stolen from Ashoh was fast asleep, judging by the rumbling snores audible throughout the cave. She wasn’t terribly loud, in relation to her size, but her snores would obviously be much noisier up close.

Aster let out a nervous sigh. “So, don’t wake her up. Easy enough, right…?”

Glenn nodded. “Wait…”

He was looking up at the Oeza woman’s bed. Something was hanging from its side.

“One of the banners…!” he exclaimed. “She must have taken it off!”

“Ah, brilliant.” Bade grumbled. “So now we’re invadin’ the privacy of a naked woman the size o’ half a town. Jus’ when I thought I couldn’t love this plan any more…”

“That’s the spirit…” Aster said. “OK, Glenn, what’s the play here?”

“That Oeza up there…” he said, more to himself than to Aster, “If she attacked the village…”

“Glenn?” Aster repeated. “This isn’t exactly a safe spot for us to stand around right now.”

“Uh… right. Listen, Bade – you think there’s a way to get me up on top of that bed?”

Bade blinked, his eyes widening a bit. “You jokin’? Yeh’re tryin’ not teh get killed, right?”

“You want to steal the banner back.” Aster correctly guessed. “Bade, can you help him?”

Still looking aghast at the very suggestion, Bade distractedly waved a hand in the air, answering, “I-I can do tha’, but still… yeh don’ think yeh’re takin’ a bit of a gamble? Crawlin’ ‘round in that Oeza’s bed in the middle o’ the night?”

“Look, I’ll take care of everything else, just… can you help me get up there?” Glenn asked again.

Bade sighed. “Yeah, I told yeh I can. Guess I’m jus’ not used to providin’ an assisted suicide.”

Pulling his crossbow from its holster, Bade fiddled with the same grapple line he’d used to take down one of the raiders, back in the morning’s ambush.

“Give us some space.” he said. Glenn and Aster stepped back. Taking position near the Oeza woman’s massive bed of stone, Bade readied his crossbow, fixing the wound line’s other end to the floor. After a brief moment of preparation, he lined up his shot and fired.

The bolt flew upward, and once it dropped onto the plateau of rock, Bade gave the line an adjusting pull until it settled itself into a gap in the stone surface, locked into place.

“Alrigh’, tha’ ought teh hold yeh.” he said. “Lass, hold this end down.”

Aster took position and pinned the line’s other end down. It was still partially coiled, and fixed to the ground, but the extra security would be worth it once Glenn was partway up the line.

Glenn tested the line, finding it suitable. They were near enough to the massive stone platform that it was almost a vertical climb. Taking a grip, he jumped from the ground. The line wobbled very slightly, but held.

“OK… see you both in a few.” he said.

Aster was nervous, watching Glenn’s ascent. If he fell, or if the rope loosened, there was a potentially deadly fall waiting for him. She glanced at Bade, who was standing off to the side and watching as well.

“Bade.” she said. He looked over. “Go back outside and grab Aine and Doane, OK?”

Bade hesitated, but then nodded. “Aye. Take care o’ the kid, meantime.”

With that, he was on his way, running back to the cave’s entrance. It hadn’t been too terribly long, and the others were probably just planning to travel down the Oeza village’s main road and back. Hopefully, they would all return in time to help out, if Glenn managed to get himself into trouble. Aster rolled her eyes, imagining what Aine would have to say about Glenn’s latest change of plans. Nothing good, she had to imagine.

---

Fingers fumbling against the rock, Glenn dragged himself up onto the stone platform, rolling onto his back. He was a bit tired, but was ready to give up, or even slow down for any longer than required. He needed to do this. This Oeza woman, whether or not she had been personally involved in the attack on Ashoh twelve years ago, was wearing banners stolen from the ruins, and Glenn couldn’t accept that. Maybe it was stupid, like Aine would have told him, but he felt that he just couldn’t let this go.

Back on his feet, he approached the banner.

To his right, the astounding figure of the stone bed’s occupant was sprawled across the massive plateau. Even in the very dim lighting, she was incredible to look at in sheer scale. The Oeza looked strikingly similar to human women, though with the obvious difference in size as the main distinction.

She was definitely asleep, her vast body rumbling softly with her snores. The snores, on the other hand, were decidedly not soft. The noise was almost painful, actually.

Moving past her upper body, Glenn arrived next to the banner. He crouched to grab at it, memories flashing in his mind. He remembered these designs. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying his best to keep a level head. This was the absolute last place to get angry, or otherwise distressed.

He pulled on the banner, trying to move it, but found it stuck.

“Huh…?”

He squinted in the dark. One end of the banner – which he now identified as the section the Oeza woman had been wearing to cover her chest – was hanging from the edge of the stone bed, but the other end was pinned beneath her massive arm.

He groaned. There was no way he was moving it from that spot, but an idea came to mind. He dropped the fabric, and drew his dagger instead. Reclaiming at least as much of Ashoh’s stolen art as he could without waking the Oeza would be good enough for him.

He began to work, cutting through the fabric. It was slow progress; his dagger wasn’t built for this kind of thing. Aster would be able to help him carry the banners back out of the cave, once he finished.

---

“Aster! Where in the void is Glenn…!?”

Aine and Doane were back. Bade was a short distance behind them, panting with exhaustion.

Still holding the grapple line down, Aster gestured up at the stone bed above. The Oeza woman’s snores were still rumbling down from the high plateau.

Aine’s eyes flicked between the bed and the grapple line, and she slapped a palm over her forehead.

“That idiot…!! What’s he thinking!? Why would you two help him go up there…!?”

“It’s… you see the, uh… the really big bra hanging off the bed up there?” Aster asked awkwardly.

Aine looked again. A long moment passed, and she let out a heavy sigh of mixed frustration and resignation. “Moron… hold that line, I’m going up to help him.”

Aster blinked in surprise, but didn’t argue. Bracing the grapple line again, she motioned for Aine to begin climbing. She could hear Aine grumbling something, and she almost laughed.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t have taken Glenn for the type to try and steal underwear, either.”

---

“Glenn!” Aine called out in a harsh whisper. Glenn was crouched next to the patchwork bra, up on the bed’s top. He turned, surprised.

“Aine? When did you-“

She cut him off, marching right up to him and stopping in place, looking like she had half a mind to punch him in the mouth.

“You-…” She groaned with clear frustration. “What could you possibly be hoping to accomplish like this…!? Look, I get it – you’re pissed off that this Oeza made a bunch of banners from Ashoh into her new underwear. Is stealing them back really the reason you wanted to come all the way down here in the middle of the night…!?”

Glenn stood back up. He was almost finished with cutting the banner apart. “Aine, I know you’re going to call me an idiot, and maybe I deserve it, but this… it matters to me. I’m sorry I lied about this, but we can argue later.”

Aine stared at him in disbelief for several long seconds.

“… Fine. You fucking idiot.”

Glenn smiled in spite of the insult, and turned to resume his task of cutting through the heavy fabric. “Great, I’m almost-“

Aine seized up, watching in alarm as Glenn’s dagger slipped from his grip. She lunged, knocking him aside as she tried to catch it before it could clatter down on the stone floor.

She missed.

Falling to the ground somewhat painfully, she felt like the sound of the dagger’s blade connecting with the stone was loud enough to wake the dead.

Glenn had stumbled when she pushed past him, and fell onto his back. He let out a choked sound on impact.

Barely a second later, the rumbling snores of the Oeza sleeping next to them were interrupted, and Aine felt like her heart had stopped. She held completely still, her eyes closed.

She heard Glenn moving.

“A-Aine…!!”

Still on her front, she pushed up from the ground at the sound of his yell, and if it was possible, became even more horrified at what she saw next.

The Oeza woman beside them was rolling onto her side, and their positions meant that her bared chest was coming straight down at her.

Feeling her blood running cold, she only just had enough time to wave one hand in a rough facsimile of a motion she’d practiced before.

-WHUMP-

…

Glenn gaped, barely able to believe what he was seeing. The Oeza had stirred slightly, but instead of waking up, she’d rolled to her side, and in the process, her staggering breasts had slammed to the stone ground, one coming down right on top of Aine.

The Oeza in the bed was around one hundred and twenty feet tall on her feet. Her breasts looked big enough to flatten a small house, each being several feet across in either direction from this angle. A tanned nipple slightly bigger than Glenn’s head hovered in front of him, drawing his attention until he was shaken back to focus by a gasping voice.

“G-Glenn…!!”

Aine had one arm free, and her face was pressed completely to the stone, just barely visible. The rest of her body was trapped entirely beneath the devastating mass of the Oeza woman’s bare breast, its twin weighing down on her as well. For a moment, Glenn was astonished to see that she was still alive, before he noticed the ghostly runes hovering all around her.

A barrier. Aine had reacted quickly enough to save herself from being instantly crushed to death, but she clearly couldn’t move. Her single free arm was struggling against the rock, a look of utter panic on her partially-hidden face.

Glenn stepped back, looking at the edge of the bed. He was very close to it now. There was no longer any way to get the banners free, and from the look of it, helping Aine was a tall order as well. He stared around in alarm, frantic to figure out what to do.

His dagger was lying just in front of him. He grabbed it, putting it back in its sheath for now.

“G-Glenn, get me out of here…!!”

“I’m… I’m working on it…”

He had absolutely no idea of what to do until he noticed the grapple line he’d used to climb up here. Desperate, he ran toward it, yanking it free from the gap in the rock and dragging it back over to Aine.

“Hold onto this.” he instructed her. She closed her scrambling fingers over the line.

Turning back to the bed’s edge, Glenn looked for Aster, spotting her along with Doane and Bade. He was hesitant to yell, but…

“P-pull on the line!!” he called out, trying not to raise his voice too much. When Aster gave him a confused look, he added, “Just do it!!”

A moment later, Aster was helping Bade to wind the line back in. Glenn turned back to look at Aine. She was struggling to keep her grip. He moved in, closing his hands over her fingers to help her.

A shudder ran up his spine as he heard the Oeza woman’s snores stop entirely. A tiny sound like a giggle bubbled up from her lips, somewhere behind his back.

Almost too scared to do so, he slowly turned to find himself staring down a woman’s face, its size magnified just as many times over as the rest of the Oeza’s massive body.

She was awake.