SUBJECT // north // ???? //

THEORY POTENTIAL // burnished //

What the fuck is going on.

"Huh." Stone giant looks at me and grins. "Guess it's just us."

I try to dodge but the monster's massive stone hand clips my shoulder and sends me spinning to the ground. Roll to the side and struggle up but FUCK—

"Yeah. No one expects me to be quick. Unfair, huh?"

Got me by the leg, not crushing, just holding me upside down, could maybe swing myself up and get a good hit on his arm but have to time it right. He lifts me up and I catch the stink of stale sweat, then rotten breath as he speaks:

"So what are you supposed to be. Some kind of hero, I guess. Protecting them others. You know there's lizards over there—hah, you don't. Okay then. Let's go take a look."

Not yet, wait until he starts walking—NOW—

"Don't be fucking stupid."

Hollowness in my stomach and branches slapping against my face and then I'm falling, the hells-damned monster threw me in the air but all I have to do—

"FUCK!"

"Hah, yeah. Fucking awful, isn't it?" Monster's grinning at me again, holding me in both hands now, pinning my arms to my sides. "Do I got to break something? Maybe not, huh. Yeah, let's go like this."

He's too strong, can't even struggle—except wait, wait a second, maybe—

"Wouldn't," he grunts, I let out a growl of pain as he rolls me in his hands, gets me facing away from him. Walks me towards the others, and the lizardmen surrounding them.

"There you go," he says. "Looks like they're eating one of the little ones—haha oh fuck, look at that."

Can't do anything but watch as Cheer snarls and throws himself at a lizardman. It stops eating the little girl long enough to swipe him away. He crashes to the ground, coughing blood. Tries to push himself up.

"That's fucking tragic," the stone giant rumbles. "Haha, what the hell was he thinking."

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Another lizardman stomps on the boy's hands, crushing one after the other, then his ankles.

"Hell," stone giant says. "They don't fuck around, do they."

"Let me go—"

"—scamper off and get yourself heroed to death? Nuh. First you watch. After that, dunno. Maybe we follow the lizards. See where they're dragging everyone. Should be good for a laugh. Here, what's the little one up to? She cursed?"

Just Vee and the little girl with the patchwork cloak, the little girl's saying something, Vee's shaking her head—

"Ah, FUCK," because the giant squeezed me and I swear I heard my ribs creak.

"Asked you a question," he says. "Is the little one cursed."

"No."

"Yeah, well. We'll see. Oh fuck, there she goes—decent pins on her, look at that."

Vee's running, the lizardmen giving chase—

"Nuh, nuh, this is gonna—look, don't fuck around because I need a hand for a bit."

Pressure released as the giant shifts his grip, my left arm's free but he's running, flashes of trees and dark earth and grey sky and a lizardman being slapped out of the way and bursting open, another trampled underfoot—can't see the little girl, can't see Vee except—

"Haha, oh yeah, here we go. Yeah, watch this, watch where she's running."

I've got a shot, could swing up and get a decent crack on his arm but I'm just watching Vee run, there aren't any lizardmen after her because the giant killed half of them and scared the piss out of the rest. But she's not looking back. She's not looking anywhere, pure panicked flight, just get away and don't even think about where you're headed. But in a place like this—

"And whoops, there she goes. Hah."

I see Vee disappear before the giant starts running again, blurred green and brown and grey. Bile fills my mouth and I spit.

"Thought so," the giant mumbles, stopping. "Down there, look."

He holds me up. I can see down the slope, through the vines and trees to a valley of white—some kind of fungus, who the hell knows what kind of poison in a place like this—

"Fuck, think she broke her neck or something—is she breathing, can you see? My eyes ain't for shit."

"She's alive," I growl.

"Yeah? Okay. Okay, good."

Stone giant goes quiet. Lowers me a little. Attention on Vee, lying there in the middle of that fluffy white death. She whimpers and raises her hand to her bloodied ear.

"Moving even," the stone giant murmurs. "Funny."

"What's the point of this," I ask. "What are you trying to prove."

"Prove? Hah. Fucking heroes. Here, watch this, what's happening here—insects?"

Dark swarms rising from the ground at the edges of the fungus field, converging on Vee—symbiotic relationship maybe. Animals wander into the fungus, become paralysed? Vee was moving, but maybe humans are bigger than the usual prey.

Glance back and up. Stone giant's beady little eyes are fixed on Vee and the insects covering her. Distracted. Now or never—I clench my fist as tight as it'll go, feel a jolt and he jerks back, lets me get my arm free and crack him on the jaw and that's it, I'm dropping and rolling and shoving myself up and running like hell—

"See you later, hero!" he calls, and nothing but his laughter follows me.