My breath caught in my chest as my quivering sword bit deeply into the leg of the titan. His blood flowed down its length and across my fingers. My daughter‘a body hung limp in his hands as he ignored me, taking great steps from the plateau toward the waterfalls as I clung to his leg.

Again and again my sword bit into his flesh. He ignored me. Ignored my screams. He closed his mouth on my daughter’s face and I screamed louder.

I was back in the first betrayal. The torment of giants as they trapped me in a collapsed building. Their demons using my children for sport. I should have known then that the titans cared not for me or my kin. My children had lived, but their dreams were disturbed for weeks, months, and even now, years later, I could feel their hot breath sticky on my skin.

He pressed her body like he was trying to wring something vital out of it and put her face in his mouth. Again. And again. I screamed and my sword bit into his leg over and over. The bleeding lines ignored. I might as well have been carving into a mountain.

Long hours stretched on. My arms were lead, but still I swung. It the moon was out when he returned and set her body, stiff and cold, on the plateau in the heart of his domain. The place where he would butcher cockatrices and dragons. I knew he ate meat but I had never dared think my children would be his nourishment. My daughter set aside he reached down for me.

My sword bit into his fingers, into the palm of his hand, and as the blood flowed her seized me. I struggled, but, fought. His grip tightened and I closed my eyes, waiting for his wrath uncaring as I unleashed my own. The world shook with pain. Agony.

I opened my eyes.

My Titan. Rivers flowed from his eyes as he hugged me to his breast. He held me firmly, but gently. His fingers stroking my head and down my back. He said no words, I wouldn’t have understood most of them anyway, but he held me.

My children had been playing. My son and daughter had fallen into the water. He had fished my son out, coughing and sputtering. My daughter— She hadn’t—

His grief was my grief, and I had been blind to it. Blind by fear and rage. By memories. And still he held me. She had already been dead. He had been trying some arcane ritual trying to force life back into her cold body. I hadn’t trusted—

He had been there since I was a child. He had witnessed the birth of my children. He had given us shelter and love and I had turned my blade against him. And still he gave me love. Without condition.

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As the sun rose, he walked out past the edge of his domain into the wilds. There he broke the earth with his own two hands. My daughter was laid beneath it and covered. Returned to the earth.

His kin returned from their migrations and for a while things were fine. My middle son was distraught. He wouldn’t talk about that day, but My Titan started doting on him as he had once doted on my youngest daughter before her big sister had passed. He was better, but he never played quite the way he once had; his spark of joy diminished.

Then the nightmares began.

I could hear my son’s cries as my titan took his sister. I could feel the hot, putrid breath of the giants’ deamons. And I would startle. My sword would fly out if its sheathe to defend me. Again and again. A dozen cuts, two dozen I delivered the youngest titan and his mother. My titan stilled her fury. Soothed me though my episodes.

My daughter was sent out into the world, a female titan coming to take her to distant lands. It was the way of things. He had taken pains to raise her in love and trust, like his own daughter. He taught her manners and bearing, and he accepted no payment for her, only wishing for her well-being.

Next two titans came to take one of my sons. They arrived while he was helping my youngest clean his gear and they were so smitten that they offered to take all three brothers to keep them together. He thought for a long time before to let them take my youngest and eldest to care for.

Years went on. My nightmares would ebb and flow. New life entered my world as two new titans found their way to our family. The female was kind and patient, just as my own titan was, when I had my episodes. But the youngest, newly arrived into the world…her cries wove through my nightmares.

There was a cataclysm. I heard roars and pain and half asleep I went to war. When I came to my sword and hands were covered in blood. So too was the youngest titan. Her mother thundered and the stones shook with her rage.

The next day My Titan left with me. We traveled far and there he passed me into the care of another. His eyes were rivers again as he left.

I awoke in a stone room. My sword dull from trying to carve my way out. I had been betrayed! Again! But… I had food. And my weapons. And the titans caretaking my cell were kind and patient, even as I tried to carve into them.

Slowly, I realized the truth. I had betrayed My Titan. He had no choice but to cast me out for my own safety, to keep his family together. His love had been unconditional, but my place in his home had not.

He could have slain me. He could have abandoned me in the wilds to be consumed by some beast. As I calmed across the days I realized the truth of things. He wished for me to find a measure of peace in a place that didn’t remind me of all the pain. To get past the fear and heartache.

The titans caring for me lit up as they saw my temperament change over the months. I would continue to grow. To live. And I would put my faith in My Titan’s wish for me to find a place called home.