Somewhere, West Virginia, USA.

The ground shook as Sloth groaned and awoke from his slumber. He looked around at his clearing. The bonfire was little more than a smoldering pile of ash, and his pile of wild swine was gone.

He shuffled slightly to get out of his tree alcove before standing up. Some of the branches of the massive tree he called home brushed his rough skin or outright snapped when they got too long.

He looked once more around his home. The clearing was spacious enough that he didn't feel so boxed in. Though from his height he can just see through the tops of the trees. He could see the hustle and bustle of the halflings in the distance.

He disliked them. Both for their behavior towards him as well as the noise they made he could hear even from here. Only the humans he's met seemed to have a measure of respect and concern for him and have been largely content to leave him be. Except for Clive, who would visit him at least once a day since he made his home by the lake.

Sloth still gave a weary gaze at the lake. Even being around it for so long already didn't make him feel any more at ease. All children of stone disliked water, it was the way of the eternal struggle of the children of the elements. Some adapted or were so far removed from their beginnings that they no longer feared the water. Some even embraced it!

Sloth stretched and lumbered off into the woods for food. The wildlife has feared him since he's made the area his home and hunting grounds. The trick he's employed to catch meals is to find a decent clearing that was usually populated with game and bury his mighty hand in earth. Then he would wait, and wait, and wait.

Eventually a pack of boars would wander over into his awaiting hand. With a meaty flex of his hand he would crush the boar. Then all it took was to shake the dirt away and repeat the process. Sometimes other game would wander over to investigate. But the strange smell of the giant would usually cause them to give him a curious glance and a sniff before darting off. He could chase after them. But then that would cause much damage to the woods around him.

But not the boar. The destructive things didn't care, or notice, the danger they were in. They simply saw a clearing that looked like a place to dig up roots and fungi.

The only hard part of this whole process was the waiting. But Sloth was a giant that would live for many centuries before The Stoning would even begin to claim him.

That was what his parents told him though, in the ancient language of the giants that sounded like a landslide when spoken. One day all giants would be reclaimed by the very land they walked for millennia. Inch by inch their flesh would turn hard as the stone the mountains were made from. Then eventually either the giant would find a place and willingly succumb and be one with the mountains they all called home. Or occasionally one would flee from the mountains in a vain attempt to avoid its fate. Only for it to claim them regardless. Forming a lone mountain in the middle of otherwise flatland.

It was said that was how the mountains formed in the first place. The dead of the giants increasing the size of the stony grave mounds. Sloth could believe it. Some of the stories his father spoke to him about said that some of the oldest giants were so tall they could touch the highest clouds with their fingers! Even as the stone claimed them bit by bit.

It made Sloth sad to think about his parents. The hardest part about his gathering was that he had time to think about them. Though he towered over everyone he's met in this world, he was but a child back in his. Barely coming to his own father's knee before tragedy took him and his mother both.

He still didn't know what happened. Not entirely at least. He was speaking with his mother and father while they ate of the shepherds flocks. There were many near their home and they would regularly tribute the giants a portion of their flock in exchange for keeping the land clear of other creatures that called the mountains home.

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Giant birds, manticores, and even packs of harpies would make the peaks theirs. The birds were the more deadly, they could get big enough that they could threaten to pull his family off the side of the mountain!

But thanks to his father, few got a chance to be so mighty! Manticore venom did little to the constitution of the giants and the harpies were little more than flies to them.

As they were eating though, everything seemed fine. They were eating and speaking about everyday things, dealing with the intrusion of the next possible pest they would have to deal with. When the frost would come and coat the mountains in their wintery embrace. The off taste the mutton had tonight, which made Sloth refuse to eat it. His father chided him for being picky, but his mother prepared some eggs collected from the giant birds they would leave behind when they were driven off.

The only thing that put a damper on the mood was when talk turned to their kin in the clouds. Sky Giants.

Traitors during the ancient War of the Elements. The giants were firmly on the side of stone. Or so they thought. A group betrayed them and their fealty and made a pact with wind and sky! Some giants even sided with their natural enemy the water!

Since then, the Sky Giants have prowled the heavens. Fighting their "lightning wars" in the skies. The tears of their widows would rain down on the mortals after many such fights. But as the age of mortals has grown, and their weapons have gotten more fatal to even the giantfolk, the Sky Giants have remained in the clouds above. Though some would try and fight their earthbound kin. Bringing their clouds close to the peaks and hurl great bolts of lightning at them! Some still would lay cloudy ambush on the sides of mountains and snatch up unsuspecting mortals!

But even they didn't explain what had happened. Once Sloth and his family had gone to rest everything seemed so normal. Then Sloth awoke, and his parents were completely solid stone! Though his father had started to show signs of The Stoning it shouldn't have claimed him so soon! Nor his mother!

At first he thought it a trick and tried to rouse his parents. But no amount of wailing and shaking could budge their immobile and completely solid forms. After crying for many hours he had left and climbed the mountains to the nearest other family of giants. But the result was the same. All were turned to stone.

Realizing he was all alone, Sloth returned home and tried to care for his mother and father. But it was pointless. For many days he would tend and care for them. But they showed no signs of waking from their slumber. Eventually hunger ate at him and he went down to collect the tribute from the shepherds. But when he arrived they were all gone!

He lumbered about the former grazing grounds in confusion. But none were here. Neither the shepherds nor their flocks. Sloth left the abandoned sheep village as hunger began to rake his body.

It was some months before the portal brought him to Earth. By then he had given up hope that his parents would ever awaken and had scrounged for any food he could find on the barren mountain peaks. The best he could do were the flocks of harpies that soon wizened up and left lest they become a meal.

Fighting a manticore proved too costly, especially since they had a habit of stinging themselves to envenom their own flesh! So any time he tried to hunt for one was effort and energy wasted. He dared not fight any of the giant birds though. They gave his father a hard time and he was much bigger than he!

When he stepped through the portal he was as Clive and the halflings saw him. Starved and afraid. Unsure of what new monsters this world held for him.

Unfortunately his first experience with this world's new inhabitants was less than welcoming. More fortuitous, he met Clive, who saved him from the dreaded waters that sought to claim him. He taught him how to make a proper shelter in the great tree he now lived in.

As he clamped down on yet another herd of swine Sloth thought it fortunate he met the human named Cliven. Though he still missed his parents, and still wondered what had happened.

While he liked the area, there were plenty of boar to feast on, he would on occasion look to the mountains to the east of him. Maybe one day he'll make his way to the peaks. But for now he was content to feast on his wild pig.

As the day drew longer he carried his haul with ease and went about tending to the fire. He didn't need the fire for warmth, his body was well suited for the cold climes of the mountain peaks of his former home. But it made eating the boar better!

Throwing some dry branches from the nearby forest and a great handful of dry leaves pulled from them onto the embers he would blow gently a few times before the fire returned to life. A few more branches were enough to return the flame to its roaring state.

Spearing a few boars, he set them to roasting on the flame. His mouth watered and his stomach rumbled at the sweet scent of the swine as their fat and juices sizzled and popped on the fire.

The air back home was too thin for such a great flame, and it caused the majority of their food to be lukewarm at best. But that didn't matter to the giant's constitution. Cold mutton or raw eggs, it didn't matter.

Over the course of his time here his strength had returned as the plentiful boar filled his muscles and his belly. Clive had mentioned something about getting the town to put fish in the lake and river again. But Sloth had no interest in getting nearer to the lake than he already was. He certainly wasn't going to try and fish!

He was content with his swine. He was curious as to what Clive was trying to teach him though. But the tongue of man was confusing to Sloth. The name he had taken and the name for the "Wonpig" were about as all he could handle before he grew tired of hearing it in such a capacity.

Clive talking to him was fine enough, he didn't use so many long and flowery words of the bastard language he spoke. He wasn't sure what Clive wanted to accomplish though. He may never will.

But that was fine. He had a friend in this world and he had food, that was good enough for him.