Grawn grumbled about Dansot’s absence as they packed up the tents in the morning, but the group did not dwell on it. Harper gave Arabel knowing smirks while Caracae carried herself as though nothing had happened. As they continued their journey, Eko’s mind was clearly on other things, as she consulted maps and frequently stopped to check for animal tracks.
After two hours of riding, as they passed through a patch of woodland, Eko slowed down and listened carefully. Arabel heard the sounds, too. A distant rumble. People shouting. There was trouble ahead. Eko kicked her horse and rode quickly on, leading them to the edge of the trees, where they looked out to a chaotic scene: down a muddy slope, at the edge of a river, sat a ramshackle village of wooden buildings, and in the middle of it was the same thundress they had seen the day before. A couple of the buildings had been crushed, and a watchtower was broken in half, its debris scattered around the perimeter. The villagers were running, with many trying to get away from the giant woman while a brave few took up arms; men and women in canvas tunics with long spears and fish-knives, scruffy and ill-equipped for a fight. The thundress regarded them with disinterest, casually scanning the scene at her bare feet, picking her targets without urgency.
She had the same set of people hanging from her hair and the leather strap on her thigh, Arabel noticed, with the newly-added pretty woman in pink still bound up in a braid by her shoulder. Had she been there all night?
A group of three men yelled a battle cry as they charged in towards the giantess, with spears aimed at the giant’s ankle. She lifted the foot before they could reach it, and as they tried to redirect, pivoting their weapons up like toothpicks against her, she stomped down on them. Two of the men disappeared under her sole while the third rolled clear. As he tried to right himself, the thundress reached down and grabbed him. He screamed as she lifted him, squeezing.
“We have to do something,” Grawn rumbled. “You cannot tell me we are not close enough, witch. And you cannot tell me these lives are not worth saving. She will kill them all.”
Arabel was transfixed as the thundress shoved the village’s brave fighter into her mouth, holding him between her teeth. He struggled, legs kicking from her lips, as the giant reached down and snatched another two villagers up in one hand, a woman and a man. She shoved them into her sack. It was bulging now, writhing with bodies – how many people had this monster captured?
“Again,” Caracae said. “I cannot reduce the giant without reducing all those it holds.”
“And if we separated them from her?” Grawn demanded.
Caracae gave him a curious look. “You’d attempt that, would you?”
As she said it, another man attacked the thundress’s ankle, striking it with a hatchet. The giant woman snarled with irritation, more than pain, the loud sound shaking the village walls, and she flicked her foot aside. The man flew back and crashed into another man, knocking him down. As they fell in a tangle, a giant hand slammed down over both of them. The thundress lifted them squirming before her face, looking mildly annoyed, and shoved them in her mouth together, making her cheeks bulge with their struggles. She started chewing and Arabel looked away.
“Eko?” she whispered. “Should we retreat? It might see us.”
“The knight is right,” Eko said, carefully, as the thundress raised a massive leg and stomped down on a wooden hut. It cracked like an egg. “This isn’t just a couple of travellers, it’s an entire village. I can cut the people free from that bag, I’m sure. Then you can shrink her, witch. If I don’t kill the beast myself.”
“Bold words,” Caracae said.
“Mark them. Giants, witches, you’re all manageable. Just be ready to help if I need it.”
“By all means,” Caracae said.
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As the group watched, Eko galloped towards the village and drew her enormous blade. She rode between villagers running up the road and quickly got the attention of the thundress.
“I should follow,” Grawn said, drawing his own sword, but Arabel held up her hand.
“Absolutely not. If she can’t handle it, you won’t be able to help. Caracae, can you do magic from here?”
Caracae held up a hand as though to test the air. “Yes.”
Arabel frowned. The village wasn’t much closer than the road they had passed the day before, when the witch had been reluctant.
Eko let out a challenging shout as she reached the village and the thundress took a powerful step forward to meet her. Her huge foot hit one running woman and sent her tumbling, and it came down carelessly on a man, squashing him. The giant woman crouched and snatched a hand forward, but Eko leapt off her horse, to the side. The grasping hand glanced her steed, knocking it down, but missed the monster hunter. Eko landed on the roof of a hut and ran without pausing, onto the edge and then up with another jump, sword swinging. The thundress drew back, not quick enough to move out of range – Eko’s blade sank into the bottom of the sack, and the monster hunter slid down, both hands on the hilt as she dragged the weapon through the canvas.
It split open and people tumbled out around Eko, villagers in different states of dress piling on top of each other, falling over the huts. The thundress stood quickly, swinging the sack around so the last few inside were thrown full over the rooftops, out towards the field. A few clung on, screaming as the canvas was tossed one way then another.
The thundress’s other hand squeezed the sack, working its material about. A man lost his grip and fell through a roof. Another was caught in her probing grip and she angrily snatched him off and tossed him away, high into the air. Then Arabel spotted a flash of movement – the reason the giantess’s attention was on the sack – as Eko scrambled up the top of the material, having somehow madly scaled the ragged canvas. She climbed over the hand holding it and the thundress let go of the sack to snatch her. Eko was too fast. She kept going, sprinting up the monster’s arm as the giant turned, trying to keep her in view.
“She’s dropped them!” Grawn said. “Now, do something!”
“There are still people on her,” Caracae reminded him.
Eko stuck her sword into the giant’s upper arm as it flexed back, and she used it as a lever to spring up, pulling the blade free with a spurt of blood. Like an acrobat, Eko leapt all the way up to the thundress’s shoulder, as the giant head pulled away from her and locks of hair whipped above. Eko ducked as the woman in pink was sent shrieking over her head, then she lashed forward, blade poised to jam into the monster’s neck.
“Look out!” Arabel cried as the thundress’s other arm snatched up. Either her shout or the shadow of the reaching hand distracted Eko momentarily; when the huntress looked up, the giant’s fingers closed over her.
The thundress pulled her hand back, Eko struggling with her sword arm pinned against her side, the other arm pounding against the huge fingers that trapped her. She was lifted towards the giant face, which stretched to a satisfied grin. It spoke, with a booming voice that shook the ground, “A monster hunter?”
Eko replied with something furious but was too far away to be heard.
It made the giant woman scan the surrounding countryside. At her feet, injured villagers were desperately trying to help each other up and tripping over their broken homes to get away. The nearest field was peppered with running people and the river alive with narrow boats. Beyond all that activity, the thundress somehow spotted the trees where Arabel’s team sat, and its eyes narrowed.
“More adventurers?” the thundress said. “How delicious.”
With that, Harper swore and turned her horse to flee. Watching them, the giant lifted Eko closer to her mouth, which stretched wide open to receive her. Arabel flashed an imploring look to Caracae and found the witch’s hands were already outstretched.
“Eko’s still –” Arabel started to warn, but the witch squeezed her hands together.
Arabel snapped back around to see the thundress’s face twisted in surprise, as her body contracted. It happened in a flash – as quickly as Dansot had shrunk; one second the monster was eclipsing the sky, a behemoth above a toy village, then it was gone, as though vanished.
“Holy hell,” Harper gasped, steadying her horse.
Arabel swallowed as she picked out the barbaric woman. For that’s what the thundress had become, she saw. She had not vanished, but was standing in the middle of the village, between broken huts. A dirty, feral-looking woman, barely taller than them.
Grawn recovered from the surprise quickest, to draw his sword and charge, with a shout. As he galloped down the road, villagers slowed down, disbelieving that there was hope.
Arabel followed, trying to pick out the detail of the now-distant thundress. Her hand was still up in a fist, something small struggling inside it. Eko. The witch had shrunk Eko along with the monster. And as Arabel watched, the huntress used the thundress’s surprise to break her captor’s grip, and jumped out of the hand, sword flashing.