Chapter 4

Laying still, he noticed the two giants hovering above his bed, and watching him adoringly. This was a much better outcome than he previously predicted. However, his mind was still in chaos. "What gods, and where did I come from?" "Who are my parents?"

These questions, and many more were racing through his mind. Despite his confusion, at least he knew he was not in any danger at the moment. Exhausted, his my mind was overextended, and his body crashed, falling into a deep sleep. Awakening the next day with a headache, and a stack of unanswered questions.

Over the next few days, he formed a new schedule in the village. Having his new mother and father carry him outside in the mornings, and going to the village square, or meeting with his mothers or fathers friends. Then introducing him to everyone around the market. He could finally get the chance to see where he was!

He cried when he saw a crystal-clear sky, with no pollution. All of those terrible experiences from his previous life seemed to fade, ever so slightly, as the cool, clean air hit his skin. This is a pristine world. Untainted by human greed. "I truly hope humanity does not exist here, or if they do, I hope they will be a very small group, or very, very, far away" As he was walking through the village, he quickly came to a realization. "Am I a part of the wealthy group?" "How strange."

Most of the giants that he had seen, seem to have built their tepees with the tallest trees they could find. Otherwise they made smaller, but wider tents, if they had all the materials. The giants who don’t have the material for tents, built their homes on the side of the mountain and used the caves, or dug them out by hand. If they did have the materials, it seems they prefer to live in the massive bone tents. He saw a lot of smaller tents walking through the village, but the big bone tents like his parents had, seemed to be a luxury, that wasn’t all that common.

His mother continued to walk him through the village, and as they traveled into the center square, and he saw a massive...."is that a dinosaur?" Looking closer, it was a massive, four-legged, scaly behemoth, with a, "holy crap, it’s a long neck! They killed a freaking sauropod! So that’s what the bones are inside our tent! No wonder not everyone has a big tent. These must be the kills Mother was talking about before." Laying on the village floor was a massive 200-foot-long dinosaur, with multiple giants walking on, and even inside, the creature. This must be the big male she took down.

Watching as the men stood on top of the creature’s rib cage, cutting downward in between their feet to cut out the creature’s ribs with their axes, they seemed to be very happy. A little farther down, he could see a group of women with their children, seeming to be waiting for their husband's with a happy, and expectant gaze.

Further from that, he could hear the pinging of the metal workers. "Huh, so I guess one moves up in this world if you get a kill, or maybe help the most?" "Which means you and your family get enough to eat and a nice big tent." "Meanwhile, everyone else gets to eat as well, so it’s a win-win." Strangely enough, this was the only time that he could ever recall seeing a civilization say, "You can pull yourself up by your boot straps” or "You can move up; you just have to try hard enough", and it actually be true.

"Just keep working at it, and you are sure to move up." However, in all of those situations, he had never seen someone actually be able to move up on their own. Usually, they get pushed through by their family, or never move up. So seeing this happen in front of him, was a bit of a culture shock, to say the least.

Standing near the kill, his mother seemed to be waiting for someone, when a smaller male came over. Standing around 15 feet with dull black hair and bits of gray coming through. The man had a sharp nose and eyes like a predator, facing straight forward with eyes like a predator. He looked like a textbook creep. If he had seen him in a dark alleyway in his previous life, he would have passed out of fright.

Despite the majority of the giants being exceptionally bulky with either muscle, fat, or both, the man in front of him seemed exceptionally skinny, yet did not seem weak, more like a wiry lightweight fighter. The distinct man wore a set of dyed black furs, which was not the norm for the group, but over the furs, he wore a full set of steel armor. With an exquisite helmet tucked under his arm. Surprisingly, the armor seemed very well made, even having a logo of a horse with multiple legs on it. While thinking about the armor insignia, the man arrived and began to talk.

"Saram!! Gaia, be with you! We have truly been blessed by your hunt this time! Not only will we have enough food to last the year, but we will also have enough to barter for the upcoming winter. It was truly the best hunt we have had in the last decade! Two high necks! And one was even a big bull! I don’t remember the last time we were able to hunt a fully-grown bull!"

Listening to the short and irritatingly cunning man, she felt her blood pressure rising as she begrudgingly responded. "Yes, we have truly been blessed, but tell me, trite, what do you want?" Her eyes shrank as she looked suspiciously at the shorter giant in front of her. "Oh, come now, don’t be like that. I just wanted to chat up an old friend. Word around the beer hall is that you have a son, and now seeing him myself, I came to congratulate you. I was truly saddened you did not come and see me as one of your, “oldest friends. Speaking of old friends! You, being the one who essentially took out the large bull by yourself, I was hoping I might be able to interest you in some interesting items for some of the bones of the beast and perhaps some of the meat."

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Rolling her eyes in irritation, and looking at the man like he had finally revealed his true intentions, she spoke. "Don’t think that I don’t know about your dealings in the black market and even selling to smaller beings. I wouldn’t mind so much, even if you just sold to the sub-giants. But how could you even sell to humans?"

Hearing the conversation going on, Anom's mind went blank at her words. "Humanity exists here? How many are here? Are they the same as the ones from Earth?" Confusion and panic set in as he looked at the pristine air and land around them, and imagined hulking robots rolling over the corpses of his new family, as the sky was blanketed in smog so thick it chocked out the sun. Rivers of blood, and radioactive, sterile land, would be all that’s left. Coming out of his delusion, he decided right then and there. "I can’t let that happen."

Still smiling and speaking softly trite replied to the accusation. "Look, I know you haven’t liked humans since Tragar, but" Interrupting his speech, Saram snapped at him. “Don’t you dare speak of him! He was a better protector than any of us! Damn insects and their plots and gadgets! Using children and poisons. How disgusting can a race be?" With a regretful and saddened look trite continued. "Look, I don’t like them much either, but they pay, and they find things that are hard to find."

Grabbing something out of his massive pouch that he had hanging on his side, he pulled out a big treasure chest. Looking side to side before scooting closer to us and slowly opening it. Bright gold coins flooded out, and in between the coins were an assortment of jewels, broaches, daggers, and other oddities. But the thing that drew Anom's attention, was a giant crystal ball that was completely black, and had small glints of purple and red circling in it. Something in his body was immediately drawn to it, and while he stared at it, he could feel his mind telling him that it needed it.

Almost insulted, Saram pulled back. "I don’t deal in dirty money!" Right as she was about to tell Tite off, she felt a small tug on her chest where Anom was coddling. Looking at him questioningly as he held out his hand towards the treasure. “Ahahaha!!" "I knew that the kid and I were going to get along!" "He has great taste!" "What do you say?" "Why not get the kid something nice?" "I’ll even give you a good deal.”

Holding the chest closer to Anom as he immediately grabbed the ball. “Oho!" "It looks like you picked yourself a beautiful crystal ball there, little one.” "All of these treasures were taken from the tomb of an ancient human king." "I’m not 100% sure what the ball does, but I know that out of everything I picked up, the ball has the most magical power in it." "Even I am a little scared of it."

"Haaaaaa..." sighing as she looked down at anom playing with the ball, a look of acceptance finally relaxed on her face. Looking back at Trite, she reluctantly spoke again. “Fine, what do you want? Don’t be too greedy; it’s just a damn crystal ball, and from the look of it, it looks broken and blacked out. Whoever used it must have pumped in too much manna, and the ball couldn’t hold it. Even though the amount of magic is indeed terrifying, it looks like when it broke, whoever owned it had a sealing spell imbued just in case.

Basically, sealing the whole thing in its own dimension. Whoever did it is indeed very smart, as without the seal, it could have been very, very bad with that amount of magic. But with the seal now, it’s just a broken ball. So, what do you want for it?" Smiling, trite moved closer to saram and rubbed his hands in anticipation. Much to the annoyance of saram “I won’t ask too much; how about: 3 ribs, 1 leg bone, and a ton of meat?

“Three ribs and a leg bone!" "And a ton of meat?!" "You’re like a lion trying to swallow up the sun, aren’t you?" "I’ll let you have one rib, no leg bones, but you can have a ton of meat." "And if you don’t like that deal, then you can just take the broken marble back; I’ll get him a ball.”

Quickly seizing the moment, trite snatched her hand and shook it, quickly signing the deal, and finally relaxing after.“Ok, ok, calm down." "I’m still a merchant after all; I have to at least try and get as much as I can." "But for you, leader, of course you can have it." "Not only that, but”, rummaging through the chest, he pulled out a golden belt with tons of rubies and diamonds on it, looking similar to a belt a belly dancer would wear but much more gaudy. “You can also have this belt, as a bracelet. I have it on good authority that it was used by a late queen to seduce the king, who was fond of dancers. The gems inside have bliss magic inlaid onto them.”

Looking at the beautiful golden belt, a small smile crept across her face. “Hmm, well, at least you know how to treat your own people, or I would have tossed you out long ago." "Now go, get lost.” Bowing respectfully, he quickly scampered off as Anom was inspecting his new treasure.

The crystal ball was bigger than most. Around the size of a basketball from Earth, and he could definitely feel his body craving something in it, but he couldn’t figure out what to do with it. Eventually, he gave up for the moment, and decided to wait until they got back to the tent to figure it out.

Once Trite left, they stayed in the village square until another giant came up and handed his mother a slate of clay, or was it stone? Either way, she took a look at it, said a few words, signed it, and then they began to leave. From what he could see of the village, everything seemed to be set up temporarily.

The tents, the way food was processed, and even the caves many were staying in seemed recently dug out and not permanent by any means. He wondered how 150 to 200 giants are able to be nomadic and still have the resources to stay together.

The only thing that he could think of that made any sense was that they must be hunting the “high necks”, and probably following them to survive, like the native Indians did in the Americas, with buffalo.