Colossus was a Titan, a towering fifty-foot giant capable of smashing the mightiest gates with a single kick. Though he'd heard tales of other Titans in the world, he'd never laid eyes on another. Since gaining consciousness, he knew himself to be the only Titan. Thus, Colossus was the Titan, and the Titan was Colossus.

The absence of other Titans was a blessing, for it made Colossus an unrivaled force in Yararoth.

Though it was said Titans lived for millennia, Colossus had been in this world for less than a decade.

She had summoned him with her magic, pulling him from a heap of shattered stones in a desolate mountain range when Yararoth was a land of dry desolation and death. She had called him forth and wielded him as a weapon in human wars.

More precisely, Colossus was part of the dowry when the astrologer Kyra Starglow married Duke Erik Lightcrown.

Colossus’s presence tipped the scales of power. He shattered enemy gates with a single kick and pulverized the thrones of those who dared crown themselves kings among men.

Victory followed victory, Erik was crowned king, and Kyra became his queen.

Colossus heard the tales of Kyra and Erik sung by minstrels in the streets and taverns. Occasionally, a few minstrels would mention him—the stone giant Colossus.

As Colossus trampled his foes into pulp, fewer men went to fell the trees that once fueled the forges. The druids emerged from their hidden caves, sowing their precious seeds in the war-scorched earth.

At first, wild grasses thrived on the nourishment of corpses. Then came the bison and yellow-tailed deer, followed by the wolves and bears that hunted them. Soon, the trees took root and grew. Otters appeared, perhaps from the druids' enchanted pouches, gnawing at the trees to build dams, transforming streams into ponds. Fish returned, attracting migratory birds to these new havens.

"This is all my doing," Colossus mused, perched upon the castle walls, overlooking the lush summer landscape of Yararoth, speaking to the egret perched on his shoulder.

The egret did not reply but instead left a dropping on his shoulder and flew away.

A larger creature appeared on the horizon, its wings beating powerfully—it was a griffin from Silverwing Castle, with Kyra and the five-year-old Prince William riding atop. The well-trained griffin landed gracefully before Colossus.

Kyra’s face was stern, and Colossus sensed an ill omen.

"Did you lay siege to Boulderfort?" Kyra asked.

"Yes, the battle was fierce. The enemy's walls were carved from a solid rock, and they had dug a thirty-foot trench around it, making it impossible for me to reach them. The soldiers scaled the mountain by night and attacked from behind. Half of them died, but the survivors managed to lower the drawbridge," Colossus said, pointing to his ankle. "That night, the bodies piled up to my ankle."

"And then?" Kyra pressed, her tone sharp with accusation.

"Then?" Colossus scratched his head. "We won."

"Let me be more specific. What did Erik's soldiers do after they entered the city?" Kyra asked.

"The soldiers ran wild like mad monkeys. They set fire to every building. The cries of women and children were everywhere," Colossus answered truthfully.

"Erik has broken his oath!" Kyra growled.

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"Has he taken another woman?"

"No! He swore to me he would serve the god of kindness and spare the innocent. That's why I summoned you," Kyra said. "I have been to Boulderfort. They raped the maidens and slaughtered the people."

Colossus pointed behind Kyra. "I think he should explain himself to you directly."

"Kyra!" Erik, with several guards, rode up on a white purebred horse from the Golden Vine Valley.

"Let me explain, Kyra," Erik dismounted and approached her. "The battlefield is not always as we wish. It is a realm of demons, filled with hatred and chaos…everything spirals out of control."

"To take Boulderfort, thousands died. In my army, fathers and sons fight together. That night, many lost their kin. The survivors were consumed by hatred…everything spiraled out of control…" Erik explained further.

"Forgive me, Kyra. I will repent to the god of kindness, but if I had restrained the men, they would have refused to fight…you might not understand men…" Erik made a gesture of contrition.

"Indeed, I do not understand men. I trusted you wrongly. Now I understand," Kyra said coldly. "I am leaving you!"

Kyra turned to caress Colossus’s massive hand, still bearing countless cracks from human weapons. "I am sorry, Colossus. I cannot leave you with Erik. You would become their accomplice in more slaughter."

"Then take me with you, Kyra," Colossus pleaded.

"William and I are going to my homeland, the Starhold at the peak of the Zenith. Only griffins and dragons can reach it, and unfortunately, you can ride neither," Kyra said regretfully.

Colossus felt a churning within him, perhaps what humans called sorrow.

"I must shut you down. I am sorry," Kyra said.

"So… I am to die?" Colossus asked.

"No!" Young William ran to Colossus and embraced a part of his giant form. He then turned to his mother, pleading, "Don't kill Colossus, please."

But he saw an unyielding resolve in her eyes.

Colossus gently touched William with a finger. "Do not grieve, my prince. Giants do not die; they merely sleep. I will dream of you becoming king."

Kyra chanted a spell, and the light of the meteor faded from Colossus's eyes. He turned into a fifty-foot-tall stone statue.

Kyra picked up William and walked towards the griffin.

"Do not do this, Kyra! If you must leave, leave, but do not impose your will on William. Let him choose for himself," Erik said.

"No, William carries my blood. One day, he could summon Titans to be your war machines," Kyra shouted.

William broke free from Kyra's embrace. "You killed Colossus! You are not a good mother! I will stay."

Kyra sighed, made a sign, and cursed her son. "I curse the star blood within you. For three hundred years, it shall not awaken." Then, she mounted the griffin and vanished into the clouds.

"Let us go back, William," Erik said, taking his son's hand.

As they turned to leave, Colossus’s form suddenly cracked, revealing a small hand within.

William grasped the hand and pulled out a figure from the fissure.

It was a wooden puppet, about four feet tall, exquisitely carved to resemble a human girl, but like Colossus, its eyes were dull and lifeless.

"Perhaps it was Colossus’s gift, left unfinished," Erik said.

William cradled the puppet. "Can I keep it?"

"Of course. It can watch over you when you become king," Erik said, ruffling his son's hair.

William did not become king.

As Kyra foresaw, Erik's ambitions did not wane, but without Colossus's might, he turned to alliances through marriage. He married Lydia, the daughter of the wealthiest lord in Golden Vine Valley, and made her his queen.

With the wealth of Golden Vine and his army, Erik conquered much of Yararoth, pushing the borders to the Sharm Empire in the desert. In the north, he drove the rebellious forces into the icy wastelands, where they formed the Frost Alliance, a constant thorn in his side.

Erik and Lydia had five children, and their son Richard Erikson Lightcrown inherited the throne. William renounced his title and lived as a scholar in the royal library. He never married and had no heirs, and the bloodline of the Star family faded into obscurity. The puppet of Colossus vanished without a trace.

Rumors whispered that William indulged in drugs and whores among the smugglers' ships in Thunder Bay, fathering a bastard with a ship's whore, but these tales were never confirmed.

Generations later, the Lightcrown line ended, and the Golden Vine family ruled as regents.

Time passed, and three centuries drifted by…

Yararoth, weakened by civil strife and border wars, faced an unpredictable climate, with summer snows and storms that destroyed crops.

In the kingdom's decaying borderlands, a fortress known as Walnut Keep stood.

Lord Drake, the small lord of Walnut Keep, guarded a stretch of the border along the Buffalo River, staring across at the savage tribes on the other side.

Drake had no sons, only two daughters: his legitimate daughter, Catherine, born to his wife Eleanor, and his bastard daughter, Lyanna. Though the land was poor, the landless nobles of Harvest Town longed to marry Drake's daughters to gain the land.

One day, Catherine found an old toy at the market, a four-foot-tall wooden puppet. She soon discovered that her sister, Lyanna, seemed to have the power to bring the puppet to life.