Sherry-By-The-Bend.

Addie hummed a sweet little tune as she rocked the wee baby Stella. She peered down at the swaddling babe with a smile.

"Winnae be long now! Soon you'll be spendin' time with Clive 'nd get 'im wrapped 'round yer finger! Tha'll teach tha' hussy Carrie 'nd Kilpa ta stick their noses where they ain'y wanted!"

She continued to hum before hearing the tent flap ruffle. She turned and glanced at Hamish as he limped into the tent.

"Wha' 'appened ta you?!"

Hamish was limping and had thin red marks on his head and arms.

"Gettin' involved is wha' 'appened!"

Addie cocked a critical eyebrow at her husband.

"Wha' did you say?"

"Nothin'! Jus' finished gettin' done showin' 'im tha 'ouse when 'e took a switch ta me! Gam'd my leg jus' ta get away!" Hamish replied as he made his way over to his chair and pulled out his pipe.

Addie shuffled closer and peered down at her husband.

"Wha' did you say ta 'im Hamish?"

Hamish side-eyed his wife as he puffed on his pipe.

"Why you think I said somethin'!"

"'Cause you always do!" Addie said firmly.

Hamish puffed huffily on his pipe as his eyes darted from and to his wife.

"Nothin'! Jus' sayin' I kinda owed 'im a wee bit."

"Fer wha'?"

"Fer gettin' 'im kicked out o' 'is box." Hamish mumbled before getting a smack to the back of his head.

"Why in tha seven hells did you tell 'im tha'?!"

"'Cause my conscience felt troubled fer it! Took 'im from 'is box 'nd put 'im in some drafty tent we did."

"Dinnae mean you tell 'im 'bout it!" Addie chided.

"Well now I wish I didnae! Looked at me queer like befer grabbin' a switch 'nd beatin' me like a rug 'e did!" Hamish retorted before returning to his pipe.

Addie sighed tiredly.

"Well, did you at least get 'im ta look after Stella 'nd Feryl?"

"Yes I did."

"Good. At least Stella can spend some time in 'er new nursery fer tha time bein'!"

"After 'e gets it furnished she can."

"Wha' you mean? Didnae you make furnishin's?"

"No I didnae! Me 'nd tha lads built 'im a 'ouse! We're tired! 'Sides, 'e 'as 'is own furnishin's!"

"Oh? Does 'e 'ave a rocker? Does 'e 'ave some place fer 'er ta sleep?"

"Well... I dinnae ken. Maybe?"

Addie smacked Hamish over the head, causing his spectacles to become jarred from their position on his face and causing him to choke on his pipe.

"You didnae at least build Stella some furnishin's BEFER flappin' yer tongue?!"

"Now see 'ere woman! I am tha 'ead o' this family 'nd I'll not be treated like this!" Hamish declared as he fixed his glasses.

Addie glared intensely at her husband at his tone and declaration. Hamish folded his arms defiantly.

"You 'eard me! I did wha' I could! Tha rest will sort itself out!"

"Hamish." Addie said simply steely.

"No." Hamish retorted.

Addie walked coldly up to her husband.

"Hamish."

"No." Hamish replied, his eyes flickering from the cold look on his wife's face and everywhere else. The air turned tense as Addie continued to glare down at Hamish even as he grew increasingly reluctant to meet his wife's gaze. Despite the cool air, Hamish began to sweat.

-----

Over at the hothouse, the halflings continued to tend to the produce that grew fat and ripe faster than they thought possible.

"So wha' you think it is?"

"It's 'Enry it is." One of them declared.

"But I thought 'Amish didnae want us ta mention 'Enry?"

"Well wha' else could it be? 'Umans ain'y THIS good at farmin'! Certainly ain'y better than us!"

The door creaked open and the halflings turned towards the noise and saw a very tired looking Hamish walking in.

"We thought you was restin'?"

"Aye, so did I." Hamish replied in an exhausted tone.

"So wha're you doin' 'ere?"

Hamish sighed.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"We gotta build some furnishin's."

-----

Sloth's Treehouse.

The strange thunderbirds still circled the strange human town in the distance. Sloth watched them from a distance. When he first heard their thundering he had fled and hid as his father had told him to do if he ever heard their cries. He had been so fearful that he dared not leave his home within the tree.

He was more fearful when Clive did not come to comfort him like he did at first. Did the thunderbirds attack the halflings and him? Did they attack the town? Would they come for him and the tortles next? After a few days he worked up the nerve, and hunger, to finally leave his home. He wished he was like his father, able to eat a single large meal and not need to eat for many cycles.

But he was not yet old enough. He still required constant food. At least the small wonpigs were plentiful and stubborn. Despite his presence and targeting of their numbers, they refused to depart from the area. Sloth didn't mind though. Though he would never admit it, they were sweeter than the mutton given to them by the shepherds.

He was still cautious and fearful when he returned to the woods to hunt for the wonpigs. He kept his eyes towards the sky on the look out for the strange thunderbirds but he was glad to see the halflings still around and the strange thing Clive used to climb into and go places. He wished he was braver. But he still ran and hid when he heard the thrumming noise they made when they crossed the sky. He wished he was as big and mighty as his father was. He wished he could go out onto the mountains and do battle with beasts just as large as the mountains were.

But he wasn't. His belly ached more than once because of his cowardice towards the strange thunderbirds. However, over the past few cycles he's been brave enough to observe the strange thunderbirds from a large enough distance. He's noted that they act more like the strange thing that Clive used. It wasn't like the horses that he knew the shepards rode. It transported him, but it did not drink nor eat. The strange thunderbirds acted the same. They flew overhead, sometimes they would leave and return, sometimes they would land just outside the town and humans departed from them.

He was starting to think that they weren't thunderbirds. Especially when he watched one of them land and remain over the night. Unmoving. It did not react until the sun rose again and he saw one of the humans climb into it. It made him braver these past few cycles. He still hid when the strange not-thunderbirds flew too close to the woods though. They might not be thunderbirds, but he didn't like the way they vibrated the air in their presence.

In comparison he was relieved when the humans visited him. They were just as strange though. If Clive spoke in a flowery language than they were worse. At least with Clive he could understand some words here and there. But the way they spoke and how they spoke it made him confused. Which wouldn't be a problem for him. He was bigger than them and they couldn't harm him, he thought when he first met them. They seemed like they tried to poke him several times, but unlike when the halflings hurt him when he was thin and weak, now he was big and strong and their pointy things couldn't do more than mildly bother him if even that.

It wasn't until they had some sort of shiny bug fly up near his head did he decide that he didn't like their presence. He swatted the ugly thing away, causing the strange humans to point their strange things at him. But he did not fear them. Why would he? If they could hurt him surely they would've by now. One of their number seemed to think the same and told the others to depart.

Which left him alone once again. Clive was busy with the halflings, more so than usual. The humans seem to largely leave him be except they would come some times and point something towards him that gives a little brief flash before departing. Even the tortles were largely keeping to themselves as they continued to construct their enclave while communing with the dreaded water.

But that was fine by him. Giants did not need constant interaction like the mortal races seemed to need. Still, part of him did long for another giant. At the very least some familiarity. But he dared not call out for one. This was a strange world he found himself in. With the itchy wrongness he felt when he turned his gaze towards the mountains and the strange feeling of extreme life within the halfling colony and somewhere towards the rising sun, he didn't dare reveal his location. Even more so with the arrival of the strange not-thunderbirds.

But he had plenty of time. He was a giant after all. He would live to be as tall if not taller than the mountains were long. By then the only thing he would have to fear was The Stoning that would claim him eventually and return him to the ground and stone once again like all stone giants did. If he was fortunate, he would eventually find a mate and continue the cycle. But he need not worry about that for many many long years away.

He shook himself from his musings and returned to his hunt. Though it wasn't really a hunt. All he did was go to a favorite spot in the woods and wait for the wonpigs to return. Then he would snatch up the larger ones, allowing the small ones to flee and grow big and strong. The only thing of interest during his time was the odd halfling that would wander into the woods to set up snares to entrap small game. On occasion they would seek out the wonpigs while Sloth was near. But they rarely did more than shoot a stray arrow towards a runt that wouldn't do much other than scare it away further into the woods.

He did watch a small band of them try their luck on a larger wonpig. But it didn't go so well for them and if not for his intervention they would lie among the moss and leaves. He did not give them the wonpig though. He captured it and it was his. They grumbled but left him be. Since then they've been more careful of hunting the wonpigs, preferring to set traps around Sloth's spot and trap a fleeing runt or two if they were lucky.

Which they rarely were. The snares and traps seemed to work well for small things like rabbits and squirrels, but the small wonpig runts were too strong and rough and snapped or broke any lain snare or trap. Other times he would see them try and climb the trees in search of bird eggs. Which didn't go as well either. The halflings were not expert climbers. They tried to bribe him with small strips of wonpig so he could assist them with getting nested eggs down. But he merely showed them the several large wonpigs he captured already and left them to continue to try and climb the trees.

The halflings were strange, Sloth thought. The humans were strange. This world was strange. But at least it had wonpigs to feast upon.

-----

Research Tent of Dr. Zhu.

Dr. Zhu pulled the stained latex gloves off her hands with a dissatisfied grunt.

"Subject is in a similar state as others acquired during the attack. I don't even want to waste my time dissecting the others."

One of her assistants turned to her.

"What should we do with the rest?"

"Send them to Headquarters. Let them waste time and resources cutting open adolescent thugs." She replied and tossed her gloves into a incinerator.

She washed her hands thoroughly and made her way to her desk within the separated section of the research tent. It had finally arrived on the last shipment from base and she wasted no time in getting it set up. Now she had proper holding facilities to keep test-subjects in as well as a secured location to conduct precious research in peace.

The dissections of the otherworld thugs was amusing at first. She hoped, in vain she would add, that there might be some kind of unique trait or quality that she would find among them! Some sort of new disease or organ or... something. But nothing she found was worth the time and effort. She may as well have cut open some homeless man from their world. The only difference was the obvious lack of certain things more common in the modern world that allowed a better standard of living.

For instance, dentistry. Almost all of those she's cut open, or were awaiting to be, had poor dental hygiene. If they had any at all. The contents of their stomachs contained, to her immense unsurprise, little better than trash. Fish bone, rotted bread and fruit peels. If she or the halflings didn't kill them then the dozen or so foodborne illnesses would've.

Well that and the rampant malnutrition and abuse they suffered when they were alive. Most were half starved and broken. Probably as some sort of gang initiation, she thought as she flicked through her reports to make sure what she wrote was correct. At least the signs and scarring was consistent of typical gang "jumps". Blunt force trauma to the head and body to make them more compliant and to toughen them up without potentially permanently handicapping them with a leg or arm strike.

Which they saved for after their initiation was complete as it appeared they would have them punch anything remotely tough to break their knucklebones in order for them to thicken and harden. Something she's heard has been happening in the town itself by the... Delta Guard? She rolled her eyes at the name.

"Let me guess, they guard a delta?"

No sense of creativity, she thought as she pulled the report that stated that they were conducting their own such initiations in a similar manner. She also had a report that said that the goblinoids were seeking cooperation with the National Guard! She ground her teeth in frustration and sat aside the report roughly.

Mason gets a biological treasure trove and she got stuck with these bloated locusts, she thought irritably. Even being sent back to HQ would allow her to acquire a goblinoid subject to study. But she has been "assigned" here instead. At least she wasn't Obermann. If she thought her assignment was unfair at least she could still do her job. Not to the degree she desired, but compared to Obermann being all but grounded she wasn't going to complain. Too much.

The only thing worth a damn to study was the giant, which was proving a headache to retrieve samples from. The turtles, which was even MORE frustrating! Then the halflings. Which was just hair pulling at this point! It seemed like no amount of heart disease she introduced they didn't seem at all bothered by it! She even tried injecting pure cholesterol into one several times a day over the course of a week and found no change in his overall health!

If only HQ would allow her to introduce something to make their appallingly fast reproduction cycle to a much more manageable rate. But alas, she was INTENTLY instructed not to do so. At first it was an interesting challenge. Just introduce various heart related diseases and they'll even out. But their stubborn fortitude was turning an interesting challenge into an annoyance that she was growing tired of.

"Oh my sweet almond pie?! Where are you?!" An annoyingly familiar voice called from the space outside her office.

She snapped a pen in half as her eye twitched.

"I told them not to let that thing in here!"

The opaque plastic curtain parted and reveal her "suitor". He had a name, but she didn't bother to remember it nor even attempt to recall it.

"Why there you are! Wha're you doin' hidin' away in this dark room my sweet turnip?"

"Deciding how to kill a particularly annoying locust." She replied between her teeth.

"Locusts? Oh thems nasty critters they is! Eat tha feed o' my family's hogs they does! Near lost a whole drift o' 'em we did one summer!"

If only engineering locusts to target specific crops wasn't both idiotic and bound to backfire, she thought. If she did that she could use them to target the halflings' food production instead. But bioengineering was like chemical warfare, it was inevitable to come back to bite you. In some cases literally.

"Why, it got so bad one time tha' we 'ad ta resort ta importin' gulls ta eat 'em all!"

"Surprised you didn't just eat them." Dr. Zhu replied.

"Oh we did after they done finished eatin' tha locusts. Fattened 'em right up they did!" Mr. Hogswaddle replied with a wide grin.

"Not the bugs?"

"Harvest Mother's ample bosom no! Who would eat somethin' nasty like bugs?!"

"People that are starving for one." Allie replied and tried her best to ignore the annoyance.

"Well there're plenty ta eat ifin you bother ta look befer resortin' ta eatin' bugs! They's pests they is!"

"Like someone I know."

"Is you talkin' 'bout thems Habbershoms? Told ya they's were nosy bodies! Always buttin' their noses where they dinnae belong they does!"

Allie sighed and rubbed her head as the halfling went on a tangent about another halfling family. Then another, then he started complaining about the weather, and the gnome, and all the ruckus the humans were causing during construction, and the elves.

"Èr bī gǔn dàn!" She hissed.

"Oh no dear, it's DER-BY HOG-SWAD-DLE! Goodness, yer workin' too 'ard you is! Cannae e'en remember my name!"

"I wish that I could forget more." She hissed.