Ellas Past

Kane

Fifty yards from my target, the abomination lifted his huge arms, the sun reflecting off the curved six inch blades that extended from what was left of each of its hands.

I let my knives fly, not for the giant, but at the Nargu that flanked him – the abomination I would kill with my bare hands.

Then, the knives still in flight, the giant screamed out a cry, words that I did not know, his voice deep and powerful, carrying far across the ravine.

In the distance the voices of other giants took up the chant, for chant I somehow knew it to be, even as the one before me swung his arms to cut through the Nargu surrounding him. They fell like chaff. Arms, heads and blood filled the air, as the giant turned and marched back through the throng of Nargu, cutting them aside like a thresher through wheat.

I was stunned, and as I slowed, Gremok, too, stopped his advance, as the Nargu that were his intended, fell before the other giants that flayed about them with their so very wicked claws.

The Nargu ran in all directions screaming, many towards us as we stood amazed at what we witnessed. But even as they ran, the very ground in front of them erupted.

Huge holes in the rock floor appeared across the whole of the ravine, and hundreds of giants, true giants, leapt out to charge into the approaching Nargu.

It was all over in minutes. Thousands of Nargu died, not a one was left standing. Those at the rear of the host were cut down by giants that had emerged from the ground behind them.

Neither I nor Gremok had moved in the few moments that the carnage had taken. We had simply watched in awe at the sheer ferocity of the giants’ attack.

And now, all that stood were the giants and the creatures that only moments earlier I had named abominations, abominations that I had intended to kill.

They faced each other, the giants and the others, those that I knew had once been giants.

Long moments passed as each looked, each appraising those that stood before them. Then they surged toward each other, each with arms stretched wide, each whooping and shouting, to finally embrace as they collided.

Giants and the creatures that had once been giants bellowed, and slapped backs and shoulders as long lost brothers.

It was a strange sight, one that I did not understand, and yet it somehow almost moved me to tears.

Gremok beside me snuffed and wiped at his eyes, as he said, ‘They have come home… I only pray that I am welcomed by my people in such a manner.’

As I turned to him, one of the changed emerged from the throng of giants that still hugged and laughed with their returned. For that is what they were, just has Gremok has said – giants come home, free from him.

The changed one walked directly toward us. He was larger than the true giants, larger than all the others that had been changed. He stood almost twenty foot tall, and his hair which hung to his waist was as grey as the flint in his eyes.

His size however was all that would make you name him giant. The true giants were as the People, as any human, only their great size differentiated them from a human.

But this poor creature had been changed beyond all recognition.

As he reached the huge holes that separated us, he stopped, the blades that were almost as fingers to him hung down to touch the stone floor. He was the creature that I had raced towards.

For a moment he looked at us appraisingly.

Finally, he said, ‘My brother tells me that you must come with us.’ His voice was not the booming and yet melodious voice of the one giant I had met, Findal. His was gravelly, discordant somehow, as if my master had wished to take away even that small thing from these poor creatures. ‘

He says that the Dreamer has asked this boon, and that we must now do as she has asked.’ His gravelly voice suddenly became angry, and he smashed his hand down into the stone floor, his blades sending rocks and dust flying up into the air.

‘I say that we go back! I say that we go now to destroy him!’

All those behind the giant turned at the rage in his voice. One broke free of their ranks, and ran toward us, shouting as he did so, ‘No, Garath. Stop, be calm…’

But before he could draw near, Gremok leapt across the crater before us and walked to stand in front of the giant, Garath.

I could have stopped Gremok. I had felt him tense, and guessed that he would go to the giant, but I knew that they were brothers in a way, and I knew, too, that Gremok needed to do this, whatever it was.

‘I will come with you, Brother,’ Gremok said, as his hand moved forward to touch the blades that were an extension to what was left of Garath's hand.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

He seemed to caress the blades for a moment, and then he took hold of Garath’s hand itself, and held it as if in friendship.

‘Together we will kill, Brother. Together we will die. But I will come with you if that is what you truly wish. For what he has done to us deserves nothing less.’

Garath stared down at the so tiny creature that stood at his feet. Despite his so distorted features, I could see surprise on his face, and what seemed to be tears forming in his flint grey eyes.

‘You name me brother, little one?’ The anger was now gone from his voice, instead there seemed a sorrow, and yet also a hope. ‘Why is it that you do not look upon me with loathing? My own, my brothers here, they could not hide the revulsion from their eyes when they saw what had become of us.’

‘I am as you, Brother. Your pain is my pain. I, too, wish to destroy him for what he has done to me, what he has made of me. You say that your comrades here saw you not for what you were… but what I saw was a welcome that I can only pray my people extend to me. We are not of the same kind, we two, but what he did to us makes us brothers. What he does to this world makes all creatures that would stand against him, brothers.’

‘You speak well for such a little one,’ the giant who now stood next to Garath said. ‘But such fine words must wait.’

Looking to Garath, he said, ‘We must go now, Garath. All the Callers were taken before he could be summoned, but he will know soon enough, and so will come to this place. Will you put aside your anger and come with us, your family?’

Garath did not answer immediately, and for a long moment he stared down at Gremok, who still held what his hand.

‘What say you, little brother?’ he said, finally. ‘What do you counsel? For it seems that we two will fight him together. Be it now, or another day?’

‘My hatred burns, Brother. But the one that stands behind me, Kane, and the Wise Mother gave much to free me from him. My heart tells me to kill and die this day… but my head and the debt I owe, tells me to go with your brothers and seek the counsel of the Wise Mother in this fight.’

‘So be it then. We, the changed ones, will follow you, little brother. If you go with Isal, then we shall come, too.’

Turning to the giant next to him, he said, ‘Lead on, Isal. Have no fear that we will not follow.’

Isal turned back to those that had watched silently from behind. ‘Make haste, and leave no sign. Let him wonder at what has happened this day,’ he said. And with that he turned again, beckoned to me, and then stepped into the gapping hole before him, quickly disappearing from sight.

‘Go now, I will follow you soon enough, with my new brother. Go, friend Kane,’ Gremok said, in a voice that suddenly seemed at peace.

I stepped forward toward the hole where the rock and stone were just somehow gone.

Looking down, I could see the giant, Isal, looking up, waiting for me, some thirty or so feet below, his arm held up as if to catch me. I stepped off the edge, and fell to land in a crouch beside him.

‘You need no aid then, friend of the Dreamer. She said that you would be stubborn… as all men, she said,’ Isal said, a deep barrel of a laugh escaping his lips as he turned towards the solid rock wall that encircled the hole we had just entered.

‘Come, we must be away,’ he said. Then, as he stepped forward, the rock for ten yards in front of him disappeared. It was just gone, replaced by a semicircular tunnel higher than the giant himself leading steeply downward.

‘How —’

‘Later,’ Isal cut in. ‘For now we must go quickly, and I must concentrate. Do not concern yourself with your friend. He will follow… truth was in his words. He is now truly our brother.’ And with that he stepped into the tunnel and walked away.

I followed in amazement as the rock in front of Isal seem to be continually yards in front of us – a solid rock face ten yards away that moved as we hurried along.

We walked for quite a while before I realised that I could see. We were now deep below the surface, and it should be pitch black, and yet I could see.

Then, as I looked back the way we had come, the rock, not ten feet away, reformed behind us. I was amazed.

‘Do not stand and stare. Follow me quickly. We must be far away before he comes.’

‘But what of the others?’

‘They come. If you stand too long, they will trample you. So do as I tell you for now. Come!’

So we marched on, Isal leading, and I never more than ten feet behind, as the rock before him simply ceased to exist and then reformed behind me.

The giant’s pace was unrelenting, his legs far out reaching mine. Exhaustion had not been far from claiming me before the giants came, but now fatigue had almost set into my every muscle. Yet on we went.

Soon after we had begun, my concentration seemed to lapse and I saw little consciously. I simply followed the giant form in front of me, my every muscle burning with the effort of putting one foot in front of the other. But on we went.

For almost an hour our way led steeply downward into the bowels of the earth, before the tunnel Isal created finally levelled out. As far as I could tell the route we had taken had been straight, never deviating from the northerly direction Isal had first taken. But with only ten yards of tunnel as a reference, for all I knew, we might well have been travelling in a large circle and now be back where we started.

Hour after hour past, or at least it seemed so. Time, as well as bearing, had long since blurred for me.

The light, I now believed, emanated from the rocks themselves; it was not harsh, and somehow cast no shadows, as it lit all around us, but it did give everything a dreamlike quality.

For me, it was almost as though I walked through a fog, a fog where I continually walking towards stone that was suddenly not there.

The only thing that changed was the stratification that made up the rock that we walk through – grainy bands of coarse yellow sandstone might give way to mud-stone, or limestone, or sometimes a granite type rock, but it was a change that was hard on the eyes, and on the stomach, so for the most part I found myself keeping my eyes on Isal’s back as he lumbered forward.

A long time later, hours or even days perhaps, Isal came to a stop. ‘We will all rest here,’ he said.

‘All…’ I began, the words dying on my lips as the stone all around us receded away, outward and upward, to form an enormous open circular area, at least fifty feet high.

Then, all around the circumference of the area, holes appeared, tunnels from which giants streamed.

Stepping to one side, Isal took my arm and pulled me with him, just in time to allow a flood of giants, headed by Garath and Gremok, to flow through.

I was stunned, but too tired to question what I saw before my eyes.

He said that he would explain later. I can wait. I have to. And with those last thoughts, I leaned back against the cold stone wall and slowly slid down. I was asleep before I reach the floor.