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2024-05-01
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2025-06-15
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Giant Burden

Summary:

A young princess suddenly but unsurprisingly finds her life turned upside down, and finds herself forced to flee past the safety of her Kingdom, and into the Giant lands. While she's desperate for protection from a Giant, he is less than pleased.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Chapter 1: Blue Blood

Chapter Text

Francoise was dead. She hadn't even survived a year in the marriage.

It was inevitable. Everyone had perished before her. Inevitable, yes, and that was already its own hell that had to be suffered. But why didn't Francoise even last a year?

And Francoise's younger sister, Isabella, thought she'd at least have that. For at least another few years, she could exchange letters with her older sister, where she could look out to the stars and relish the fact that her sister might be looking at the same set. But no, it was cut much shorter than expected, and robbed barely scratched the surface of her feelings.

Isabella was in Francoise's former bedroom, a mere grave and place of memory now. Like the rest of her late sisters, it was full of portraits, a tedious thing their father always ordered to have done. But now, as she looked at them, Isabella was beginning to wonder what the purpose of those portraits was.

It would take hours for them to be done, having to sit still and let themselves be painted. And for what? The end product never looked like the subject, just an uncanny mockery of it, and how badly Isabella wished it wasn't so.

After all, the only reason she was gazing at the latest portraits of her sister was because she wanted to see her in some way and capacity. But, her straight nose, dimples, and thick eyebrows were missing, replaced by plump and full lips, long eyelashes, and a stone face. She looked like a porcelain doll. Nothing like a person-

"Your Highness."

From how Quentin said it, it was clear that he had been trying to capture Isabella's trancelike attention for a while now. The girl barely flinched, looking back over to the door where the butler stood, concern mixed with exasperation on his face and tone.

A sigh escaped him as he saw the blankness shrouding Isabella's eyes. She had only learned about her sister that morning, but it looked like she hadn't slept. "Your Highness," He repeated softly, "Your maid is not with you-?"

"I told Dorothy I wished to be to myself." Contrary to her blank and quiet state before, her answer was quick - but still sounding very much rehearsed. "And she has granted this request. I know my father has only abided by it by pure accident." Something she was confident of, and as she drew her eyes back to her sister's more recent portrait, she felt the stinging anger settle painfully into her stomach.

The longer Quentin didn't deny her claim, the more anger festered. However, it didn't go away when he denied it with something substantial to back it up. "I've specifically come to find you because he is on the way to speak with you."

"... Oh." Not what she expected, admittedly. But it's still not better. "Well, I suppose it's the least he could do, talk to me about sending me to my death."

Quentin nearly winced, "Your Highness-"

"Am I wrong about that? I beg of you to try to refute this claim, too."

"I've not yet been made aware of what he wishes to do-"

Another searing pain of anger in the stomach, and Isabella's breath hitched, "It's going to be the same as what he's done the last four times this has happened." She thought that alone was enough for him to admit defeat, but she wanted to stomp and tear away any idea that he might've been able to try. "Tell me, did any of them act as I am now? Did you try to instill hope into them, too?"

She moved from her spot, circling around the bed and facing the window, so bitter she'd refuse any potential satisfaction she might've found on his tense and frozen face. Biting away the urge to do that, she kept looking out to the night sky, the mountains high off in the distance. And this time, she knew her sister couldn't look at the same sky, which depressed her so that she was quickly pulled out of her defensive mode when Quentin finally spoke.

"As long as you're in this Kingdom." He said, voice soft, almost as if testing the waters. "I will not let any harm come to you. That is an oath I take seriously."

Isabella believed him. She truly did. After all, he didn't say he could or would protect her should she leave the kingdom. And that was, indeed, where their protection ended.

And now, Quentin stepped back out of the room at a certain someone's arrival. "Your Majesty." He greeted with a bow of the head, looking a bit anxiously between the King and the Princess before closing his eyes and stepping aside, as was expected of him. Once Quentin's footsteps drew further down the hall, Isabella heard her father enter the room, closing the door behind him.

"Isabella."

Words were hard to escape her throat, no, her chest, but she managed. "Walden." Such a childish move, even she was aware of that. But, perhaps she just wanted to cling to that. Look at me, she wanted to cry, I'm being a child, I can't possibly be a bride. His youngest and last child, she especially wanted to say.

If Isabella hadn't known any better, she'd have assumed silence got a hold of him, too, but she knew this was typical behavior of him. Not saying a word, letting a long pause bring further dread into her before he walked over, joining her beside the window. Isabella found herself shaking right away, sweat beading at the back of her neck as she felt her father's heavy presence beside her.

With eyes that looked just as dead as his daughters did a moment ago, Walden tilted his head, straining to look off to the side down at the townspeople. "Our people are already growing anxious. Many have started packing up everything when they've received the news." He said with a quiet voice, and Isabella swallowed nervously. "... Heinrich's threats are not empty. This is well known by now."

"You're delaying the inevitable." Escaped Isabella's chapping lips, "Tell me, what will you have when he's done with me? I might be able to buy you all just a few years, but..." She hadn't a clue what her father's plan was all this time. Had he been hoping one of his five daughters would do the trick? He hadn't even remarried to have more children, which put much more pressure on Isabella.

When Walden failed to answer, Isabella found it dreadful. A few years. Was her entire life worth just that? A few more years for their people to prepare to be forced out to the dangers beyond the mountains? Beginning to shudder, she focused out the window again, straining to see amidst the darkness of the night. It had become routine for her to always look out during tea time, seeing the people that lay beyond the range, but of course, she missed her chance today; she had also refused her meals.

An ache strained in her throat, a tingle in her stomach as she struggled to force more words out, "It can't... possibly be that bad out there-"

That's what got a quick reply, almost snapping. "You wish to see our people meet cruel ends? Have I not educated you enough on what happens to us out there?" Before Isabella could bring up the people she'd see over the mountains, he refuted quick. "Those men simply patrol to make sure nothing comes to US. But once we cross over - into THEIR lands? Most certainly not. Our protection lasts in here and in here alone."

Isabella could not stop shaking. She wished to feel anything but this. Perhaps the numbness from before, maybe the sharp anger. Not this. Not the shaking knees, the difficulty breathing, the fantasies of something crushing this entire place so she'd be given a quick death. Her chest felt like it weighed a ton, and a sputter died at her lips before she felt her father's gaze bore at her once more.

"Not... Not mine..." The words tasted just as sour and bitter. "I'm not... protected at all... You know he's going to k-kill me, too. You knew since I was little, and I knew that, too." For her father to be terrorized by another King for so long, handing off his daughters one by one, she couldn't even muster the energy to feel betrayed anymore. "What kind of... of... man are you supposed to be?"

All Isabella heard was the beating of her own racing heart and her occasional shuddering breaths. Not any of those from Walden, so definitely not his words. Still, part of her waited to be scolded or punished somehow. She heard Walden step away, his footsteps moving through the room, but even then, she refused to look, simply waiting for him to say something. But, even after that long minute, he said nothing.

What he DID do was walk away out of the room.

 

-

 

The following day, he was gone.

Isabella hadn't even noticed he was gone until Quentin came to tell her after Dorothy tried to ease her into getting dressed for the lazy day. Off to do business, Quentin said, the Regent settling everything in. Isabella didn't have a sliver of doubt that he was off to Heinrich's kingdom to talk about her engagement to him.

So, when Quentin presented a sealed letter written by the King to his daughter before his departure, the daughter didn't care for it, lazily saying she'd read it later.

It was tiresome how her days were expected to continue and be the same. Up and getting dressed just to spend her days in her palace wing. From meals to lessons to teatime, it was hard for her to focus on any of it, and she only tipped her toes back into some of them solely because Dorothy begged her to. She noticed as soon as they left her room for the dining room that her latest massive portrait was missing, and she didn't complain. This went on for a week, and during teatime, as usual, she would sit out on the balcony and look over everything.

The townspeople down below, noticeably fewer people, as her father had said, moved around the streets from building to building. They looked like ants from where she sat, and she was more drawn to look up to the mountains surrounding the land. She couldn't see anything past the mountains today...

"Your Highness," Dorothy suddenly cut in, and Isabella looked up at her calmly. "I am terribly sorry if this is out of place, but..." The maid hesitated, sighing before drawing out the letter from behind. "This has been unopened."

Isabella stared at the letter in Dorothy's delicate hand, eyes soft and passive. "... It has. Unopened, I mean." She said, "I don't wish to anger myself further." But, she would reach out, taking the letter from her and looking it over with blank eyes. "Perhaps I will read it when I'm sent to Heinrich when I feel more justified in my powerlessness."

"Your Highness..."

Blue eyes drew to Dorothy, widening slightly at the woman's look. Dorothy was usually more composed, always maintaining some eye contact. But, now, she was just staring down at her hand that was still held up in the pose it was when she was holding the letter. Her features looked slack, and Isabella remained silent, allowing the woman to continue what she was trying to say. But nothing was said.

It made Isabella silent, too. She made her feel the same, her stomach feeling heavy, her ribs feeling tight, and she considered some unsavory things as she was aware of the balcony's height.

"... Dorothy." She managed out, and the maid's eyes snapped as if pulled from a trance and thankful for it. "Can you please fetch that latest book I was reading?"

She would indeed fetch it quick, almost desperately. Isabella wouldn't yet read the letter, treating it more like a bookmark as she read. She could only stave off the feeling she got by looking down by mimicking the ones she got when looking up. The feeling she'd get as she'd gazed out over the mountains to see those towering figures like fog in the distance... she felt the same as she read these silly romance novels.

It wasn't unlike any she'd read before. In it lay the things she never thought attainable. Threats lied in the fiction, too, of course, but there was a man, daring, handsome, romantic, who'd help save the day, always doing so grander in the climax, and therein always lied the happily ever after.

But as she placed her father's letter inside it, serving as a bookmark for her to finish the epilogue tomorrow, she was slammed hard with reality.

 

-

 

Isabella was plagued by more nightmares that night. Her sisters, all one by one, hanging from nooses. All of them lining up at the guillotine. Silly, since even now, she didn't know how they died, the truth was permanently barred from her. But, no dream was remarkably realistic. Like the one of her mother, trapped and beating at the inside of a painting, it obviously wasn't based in reality. She supposed that was one comfort she could find.

But this one seemed more real.

"Isabella! Isabella, for Gods'-! Dorothy, hurry, pull at her, rip it all off if you have to!"

"Ah - b-but, Quentin, sir, you're-"

"Regent's orders! Now hurry!"

It had been hell to wake Isabella up this entire week since even when she was awake, she was in a trance, and this morning was no different. But the butler and maid weren't speaking as if this was an inconvenience; they were panicking. Their words were a fuzz at first, slowly becoming clearer just in time for Isabella to choke when her blouse was pulled on and tightened. She nearly collapsed into Quentin's chest, but his arms held her back up, keeping her upright as Dorothy fetched a cloak.

"What - what is-?" Isabella sputtered out, alarmed. But, not ashamed about seeing the Princess in a near state of undress, Quentin just pushed her back onto the bed, keeping her from falling flat on her back.

"Isabella." He hissed out, brow glistened with sweat as he yanked the cloak from Dorothy, adjusting it around Isabella as the maid went to fetch some shoes. "Listen to me. Heinrich's men are here." She wasn't too sure if this wasn't supposed to be a nightmare. "They're here, and we need to get you out right away."

Scratch that, Isabella thought. This was a dream, not particularly a nightmare. It was a fantasy that they thought and seemed confident enough that they could spare her from her fate. "I know." She said as Dorothy hurried some shoes on her person. "... My father is going to kill you-"

"They're looking for him, too." He said, helping Dorothy tie the Princess's shoes. Isabella blinked down at them, confused. She thought he was traveling to them. Did something happen - did he not make it? "Okay, someone left some provisions on the ground floor by the back gate. Come on, let's go."

Not waiting for her to wake up any further, Quentin grabbed her arm and hauled her up, and Dorothy panicked as she followed, leading her out of the hall. "Wait, what?" Isabella could hardly keep up, shoes clapping against the marble floor. They had dressed her in her outerwear, plus this strange cloak, when she'd go outside in the garden. "What happened-? Did my father get into an accident? Or..." Her eyes opened some more, blinking rapidly. "What did the letter say?"

"That was for you to read, Isabella." Dorothy hissed, "But we've reason to believe they found it when you left it in the southern balcony."

Quentin continued, "I don't know what it is either, but they're becoming belligerent and violent, and the Regent ordered us to get you out of here as soon as possible."

Isabella's heart rate was beginning to pick up again. "To where?"

"Past the Divide-"

Now, it was two of her dreams in one; she dared to think for a moment before it was interrupted by loud stomping down the hall. Multiple footfalls. In unison, Dorothy and Quentin hurried, dragging Isabella towards the door leading down to the Servants' quarters. "Downstairs - there's a satchel and-" Quentin spat out, rushed and hurried as he pushed the ladies down into the narrow stairwell - before the steps in the hall had quickened. "Out." His last hiss of a word made harsh eye contact with the still-dazed Isabella before he closed the door.

Isabella nearly tumbled down the stairs as she stumbled, gasping as her world spun. Dorothy grabbed her Princess' arm, trying to yank her away like before, but her feet were planted hard onto the steps now. Cringing, Dorothy kept trying to pull while refraining from making too much noise, while Isabella kept staring at the oak door, its frame still being pushed against by Quentin.

The heavy and multiple footfalls in the hall got closer yet slowed as they obviously closed around their target. Isabella dulled out the feeling of Dorothy trying to drag her away, her breathing quiet as she strained to listen.

"You're the head butler, aren't you?" A deeper voice said beyond the door. "Trying to hide away more of your underlings? I assure you, we only deal with those who try to hinder us."

There was silence a moment before Quentin's muffled voice rang through. "And I assure you, I am not hindering."

"Please." Replied the man, "If you were not hindering, you would not have run when we were demanding to find the old man's daughter. You'd have taken us to her right away." The steps rang closer to the door, and Isabella's eyes wandered below the door, seeing the two shadows now of the man and Quentin. "Would you like to correct that now?"

Isabella might have finally heeded Dorothy's desperate attempts to run away now. But, determined to have her answer, Isabella remained rooted, holding her quiet breath as a flutter went on in her stomach.

There was a long silence before Quentin replied, voice muffled from beyond the door but still ringing well enough in Isabella's ears. "This is her home." He said, voice a lot more forceful and daring, nearly spitting out. "I will not allow any harm to come to her in her own home."

Isabella was stunned. She released the breath she had been holding to take in a sharp one immediately. Goosebumps rode up on the back of her neck, and she felt lightheaded as the smallest and weakest of smiles graced her face. It was a dream, she thought.

But she was always meant to awaken from them. Whether she awoke from the sunlight's rays, her servants waking her up, or blood dripping. The sword pierced through the wooden door like nothing, the wood splintering before the sound of that was replaced by the deafening drip of blood. The smile on Isabella's face faded quickly, and she blinked, confused, before her eyes drew to the bloodied blade and down to the drip it was creating on the top step.

What escaped her was the quietest breath, "... Oh-"

And then she allowed herself to be dragged away, Dorothy in tears as she grabbed the Princess and hurried down the narrow stairs, taking advantage of the noise of the blade being removed and Quentin's body falling down on the other side of the door.

Once down at ground level, the maid looked around frantically. "Th-This - this..." Dorothy picked up the heavy satchel, carefully trying to put it around the dazed-looking Isabella. The maid was frantic, shaking so terribly as tears filled her eyes. "Okay, here, here..." She flipped on Isabella's hood and hurried outside with the Princess in tow. "Isabella, please, you must go - past the Divide, please."

Isabella hurried this time, face pale and sweaty with panic, as she ran alongside Dorothy towards the back of the garden through the gates towards the townsfolk. "I - I can't, I..."

"Please, I d-don't know what it is e-either, but if Quen-" The woman choked back a sob. "If Quentin was ordered to ensure you get past, then g-get past. You know Heinrich and his men won't stop searching for you here, p-perhaps that's it."

"And what about-?"

"They'll look f-for me in a moment." That had to be certain. As the Princesses' personal maid, of course, they'd look for her if they couldn't find the Princess. Dorothy stopped inside the outer gate, where townspeople hid or panicked from Heinrich's men's sudden arrival. The gate was just creaked open, clearly coordinated like her bag. Dorothy grabbed Isabella by the shoulders, looking just as terrified as she was. "P-Please, just g-go, run, run and run. I'll try to return back into our quarters to buy time, but you must go-"

Dorothy didn't wait another moment, not even letting Isabella say anything in response, before grabbing her and, with full strength, yanking and throwing her outside the gate before shutting it closed while Isabella was still dazed. When Isabella regained her footing and looked back, Dorothy was already hurrying back to the servants' quarters. Isabella gasped, throat, heart, and stomach afire, but when her eyes drew up to the balcony she usually read from, she found her resolve.

She turned on her heels, struggling to run past the buildings, weaving from alley to alley in case she was being watched from up in the palace. Many 'breaks' were made as she frequently lost footing, falling and sprawling on the ground before continuing. Bile burnt in the back of her throat as she ran and ran, swearing she heard the sound of shouting and horns just as she was leaving the edges of her kingdom.

Her one saving grace was that she knew where to go. She had always watched ever since she was young, always sitting in the southern balcony to get the clearest view of the Humans' Divide, the mountain range that separated their land from the others.

She remembered always watching, wondering, maybe even fantasizing. She knew what lay out there by stories. Everything was up to scale. Everything. Nature, animals, people. It was the land of the Giants. And she'd often just watch with a sense of wonder whenever she'd occasionally see the cloudy shape of a giant far in the distance, usually the same ones, the ones doing patrol from the nearby Giant kingdom. They never came too close, but just close enough to look. A single, sweeping look ensured no other Giants came to cause havoc in Human lands.

And how the Princess used to wonder and dream if they would notice her at all. If they could save her from the fate planned for her here. And now, with the image of the path ingrained in her mind, she swore she'd be the one finding them.

Chapter 2: The Divide

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Isabella was beginning to wonder if she'd make it past the Divide at all. Was she sent out here just to die a different kind of death? She didn't even know how each of her sisters had perished. She didn't even know if her Father had passed, nor if Dorothy. She can only imagine Quentin was stabbed through the chest. And her? Was she meant to die here in these mountains?

Even then, there was a wide range of possibilities. Was Isabella meant to die of hypothermia? Or to injure herself? Or by an animal? Or from hunger?

Despite her bleak fate back home, she knew she had always been sheltered beyond belief within her walls. Now, fate thrusts her into this escape through the unforgiving mountain terrain. Her clothes were tattered, stained with dirt, and torn from the constant sharp branches she ran into. Even the simplest shoes Dorothy and Quentin hurried her into weren't suited for such rocky terrain. These clothes beneath this cloak were her simplest attire, meant to sit outside in the garden by herself. A lazy day. Not a day fighting for her life - that would have been her wedding dress.

For most of that day, it might've been shock alone keeping her going. Running, and running, and running. It was only a matter of time before Heinrich's men were sent around the Divide to scour for her. She thought they had experience in the Divide after forcing so many out of it. So, breathless, she ran, dragging herself up through rocky terrain and hills. By the time her body was catching up with her, she thought she might die from exhaustion. She collapsed, propping herself up between two trees to avoid falling back down, the branches of the many trees around her providing shade.

When she allowed herself to look through the satchel given to her, she found what was left to her. Clearly, the contents were scrambled together. A single canteen of water, some rations of nuts, crackers, dried fruits, dried meats, a tinderbox, a blanket, a dagger, a compass, and a jingle of something else beneath it all.

Breathless and not thinking, Isabella drank half of the canteen in a few large gulps before moving on to the food, tearing half of it apart. A problem for another time, it was sure to become. The tinderbox she was aware of what it was, but she needed to figure out how she was supposed to utilize it. The compass was handy since she knew she had to keep going south.

She briefly paused as she looked over the dagger and was putting it back when she found the item tucked in the bottom. Frowning, she lifted it up, finding an amulet with her family's crest.

Red filled her vision when she saw it.

This wasn't fair, she thought, as her hand shook with the amulet tucked in the palm of her hand. It wasn't fair in the slightest. Was it not enough to have such a death sentence on her head from a young age? To know that she was to be wedded off and killed within years like her sisters before her? That was supposed to be hell in of itself, but now?

Anger surged within her, boiling over like molten lava. She seethed with resentment as she held the amulet tighter and tighter, as she imagined Quentin ordering it to be tucked away in the satchel. What good such a thing did. He was dead; that much was obvious, that silence only accompanied by the drip back in the stairwell kept replaying again and again.

Despair mingled with her bitterness as she faced the harsh reality again - that no one could protect her. Not her mother, her Father, her sisters, her loyal servants. She felt like a porcelain doll tossed around in a hurricane. And for a second, she might have taken up the task of doing something for herself. Her hand clenched around the amulet, and seething with rising tears, she readied to throw it down the hill.

But she knew she was incapable - just like everyone else. She knew that much was obvious when the tears slipped from her eyes and when she couldn't bring herself to throw the cursed amulet. Instead, she hung her head, sobs erupting from the deepest parts of her chest. She felt so angry and disgusted with herself as her hand, wrecked with its shaking, stuffed the amulet back into her satchel. She couldn't take care of herself and her family, her servants; they couldn't either. The hope of her foolish fantasy was all she had, so she took a deep breath, chest feeling afire as she struggled to find her footing again.

 

-

 

There hadn't yet been a sighting, nor a sign, of Giants. Isabella tried to reason it was only natural. She could see them before from her balcony only barely, as blurred and foggy shapes since they never came too close. Here on the mountain itself? She wasn't close enough, but she wished badly to be.

As night fell, Isabella was so cold, the summer nights proving surprisingly brutal. For a moment, she had tried to stop to set a fire, but she proved inadequate at her blind attempts. Forgetting it, the blanket was ripped from her satchel, and she perhaps got a mere hour or two of sleep, only successfully due to pure exhaustion. When she heard distant howls and snapping of twigs, she would shoot awake, her throat tightening as she imagined the beasts lurking in the shadows. Not just the obvious wolf but Heinrich's men catching up with her.

So, afraid and desperate, she'd get up and continue up the hill, the blanket still wrapped around her, a second cloak of sorts. The chill of the night seeped through her garments, and she at least had to thank the fear for making her senses sharper. Come sunrise, she found herself on a high part of the hill, and she knew it was so because she could see past the Divide.

Past the remaining valley of trees on this mountain, she could see more ahead. For a second, the illusion got the best of her; the forest miles and miles down the mountain and even more miles past the fields almost looked normal. But she knew it wasn't so. It was Giant land. She was halfway there. Just down the Divide, past the fields, and then...

Then, the Giant world. The giant trees. The giant bugs. The giant animals. Such a thought made Isabella's throat burn with the potential rising bile, but she swallowed it as she tried to remember the Giants themselves. A foolish thought, even she was aware. Stories were already grilled into her, how if Giants found humans before their animals, they'd be made a mess of. Stomped on. Eaten. Sold for other purposes. If Heinrich always forced his enemies beyond the Divide, such stories had to hold merit.

But Isabella had more specific Giants in mind. The knights of the Giant kingdom were ordered to patrol the Divide to ensure no other Giants go past. Her Father, sisters, Dorothy, and Quentin all always tried to slap away her fantasy, claiming they helped no human that crossed their land. But, if she presented her amulet and proved she was of royalty, perhaps they'd just hear her out? After all, they were the knights of Giant royalty.

That was her idea. So, she kept trekking on.

Her fantasies wouldn't spare her from the strenuous and damning trek, though. She was dismayed that fate had the exact same 24-hour repeat for her. When she stopped to eat hours later, she was dismayed to realize she had drank and eaten through all of her provisions only after the fact, not used to rationing. And by that time, when she was trekking down the mountain, her hands were already grazed and bruised, her feet blistered and sore. Nighttime came again, and that, too, would be a repeat. The noises, the fear, and she was back on her feet again despite her labored breaths and bleeding heels. Then the morning was another repeat, but this time, without food, without drink. Another repeat for night, and another repeat for the following morning.

Fear clawed at her, forcing her to imagine every rustle in the trees and foliage to be an animal stalking her or any pursuing guards of her 'betrothed.' But she tried to convince herself she was safe. It was the third day in this hell, and she had hardly taken breaks. With that in mind, she kept trudging down the mountain, using her bruised and scraped hands to steady herself to avoid falling down, though she had the occasional short tumble a handful of times. She pressed on, ignoring the hunger gnawing at her.

Sunrise turned into midday, and she dreaded spending another night without any provisions. Her ankle caught on a root, and once more, she was sent falling down the hill, a short fall, but definitely longer than the ones previous. She even hit a tree, groaning and reeling as her body tumbled into flat grass.

... Flat grass.

Biting back her pained groan, Isabella raised her head, her entire body aching in agony. The shade the trees provided had ended, the sunrays finding the entirety of her for the first time in what felt like forever. When she looked around, her suspicions, her hopes, were confirmed. She was out of the Divide - past it. The grass blades seemed normal here, right at the edge of it.

Curses were stuck in her throat when she rose to her shaking and blistered feet, allowing herself to look south, not needing her compass to know which direction it was. It was forward, where the field of green stretched out, until it turned into trees like the ones she escaped from, but larger. So much larger. Now, down on the ground level, there was no illusion. The trees far in the distance stretched on so high that she found her neck aching as she looked up and up to see them reach higher than she'd ever been able to conjure.

Here. She was here.

She breathed quietly at first before it quickened as her mouth gaped open. Then, a smile, a chuckle, and shaken laughter. Her dirtied and worn hands found her eyes, pressing against them as she trembled. Her legs and feet ached, weighing a ton, but it wasn't the current cause of her nearly losing her footing.

"Thank you. Thank you, God, thank you." She moaned out, voice dryer than she expected before she lowered her hands and looked up again with teary eyes. Biting her lips to keep from smiling like a goof, she walked further and further into the field. As long heavy minutes passed of her walking, she found the grass blades beginning to rise. It was normal at first, but then it rose to her ankles, shins, knees, and thighs. Perhaps it was then that she began to frown again.

Swallowing, Isabella began to look around again. The sun was high in the sky. Teatime, when she usually saw the Giants over the Divide. And if she moved directly towards the South, she should have seen them by now. Maybe even felt them if they were large and heavy enough to make the earth rumble. Had she missed them? It couldn't be. Where were the Knights?

"Over there!"

A voice, almost familiar, was far behind her. She almost thought she imagined it. Perhaps still haunted by Quentin's death, imagining the same muffled voice that had spoken to him before his end. But that wasn't a dream, and this wasn't either, she realized as she turned to look over her shoulder.

It was almost hard to miss, especially with her blurred vision. The sight of royal guards - the wrong ones - back up in the mountains where she had just tumbled from. She blinked repeatedly, trying to almost will the image away, but it was there. Several of them, in fact. And they were looking right at her, made even more apparent at the one who shouted pointed.

"OVER THERE!"

Back into panic mode, it was.

Isabella turned forward again, charging through the grass. No, no, no, she thought again and again, no, no, NO! They caught up with her? They chased her this far out? That wasn't fair! She almost swore she heard their distant shouts as they hurried down the Divide to catch her, and she wanted to curse at the God she had just thanked moments ago as she rushed further into the field. They were chasing her, determination matching her desperation to escape their clutches.

The blades of grass rose around her like towering pillars, their tips beginning to sway far above her head, creating a dense maze of greenery that seemed to stretch endlessly in every direction. Perhaps welcome, since it hid where she was running - if the Guards were true idiots since she was just running forward and forward. She hadn't even noticed how long she'd run, how far she'd run, how she was entering the forest before she was already in it.

Fallen leaves became vast canopies, and pebbles transformed into boulders blocking her path, the only time she would shift from just running in a straight line. The air around her seemed to shift, the change in scale disorienting, underbrush now taller than her, and trees reaching for the sky.

The air was thick with the scent of earth and vegetation; the sounds of the forest amplified in her ears. The rustling of leaves felt like a chorus of whispers, trying and daring to distract her. She scrambled over fallen twigs, their girth akin to tree trunks. The towering ferns loomed like dense forests, their fronds casting shadows stretching for miles.

Her journey through the giant lands was an arduous odyssey. Each turn presented new challenges, whether scaling a rock the size of a boulder to her or navigating around a puddle that felt like a vast lake. But, she hadn't a moment to spare to gawk or gander at it, not when she still heard their muffled and distant shouts far behind her.

Why, oh, why were they still on her? Hadn't she been through enough? How desperate was the world to see her dead? Without the Giant Knights here, she was bound to die anyway; why did they want to see her die on their own possessive terms?

How she wished them dead. She had always hoped for this to be so, but now more than ever. Not just Heinrich, but his men too, and she found this further justified after what was done to Quentin. But no... Perhaps not, because it didn't end there. Heinrich. His men. His Kingdom. The entirety of it. The men, the women, the children. Oh, how she loathed them all.

She prayed that they all drowned in her blood that they seemed intent on spilling. She wished to call the most starving Giants forth, to urge them to satiate their hunger on Heinrich and his people.

Another foolish fantasy of hers. The Knights weren't in their usual spots, so she didn't expect to find any further in these woods. Yet, she found someone anyway. Forced to - since a Giant was impossible to miss.

Isabella had just rounded around a pebble - a boulder - when she found herself screeching to a stop. Her eyes widened in disbelief at the sight before her. Up ahead in the clearing, seated on the earth against a towering and monstrous tree, was a towering and monstrous figure. A Giant. Not far in the distance, the mere shadowy shape of his head, but the entirety of him. His immense stature and form silhouetted against the dappling sunlight filtering through the branches above.

And the part that shocked her further was that he was sitting. Sitting. And he still daunted her. The enormity of him dwarfed her. She was frozen in her tracks, her frame nearly invisible amidst the expanse of the forest floor, and her wide eyes scanned every detail of the giant before her. The giant's colossal hands folded over his stomach. His chest rose and fell with each breath, and she wasn't sure if it was coming out rushed and ragged to him or if it just seemed that way to her. His clothing, plain and what she would see of the common folk below her castle, seemed more like a giant tapestry as it held and folded around each part of his massive body.

The giant's face, too... He clearly hadn't noticed her. He was looking over his opposite shoulder, furthest from her, eyes hidden, but she could still make out the contours of his face despite much of it hidden in the play of sun and shadow, and his blonde hair almost appeared white where the sun hit his locks.

And as she stared... Isabella couldn't move, the men chasing after her almost forgotten in the face of his giant. There was a sense of wonder mingled with an overwhelming sense of vulnerability. The trees that were definitely taller than this giant seemed like nothing in comparison now. They weren't the same as he. She had never come across anything so colossal and beyond her realm of understanding than this giant before her.

Never...

Fear tugged at her, urging her to flee. She knew she needed to move, but she was transfixed, kept rooted to her spot. The giant was oblivious to her, perhaps lost in his thoughts as his breathing became heavier. She could have bypassed him if she wanted.

But, never has she ever...

"... Hel..." A whisper escaped her at first. How often she had wished to call out to the distant giants, to the idea of them, from afar, for so long. She hoped for it so much, so this should have been easy, instantaneous, but her words kept deep in her throat. Part of her almost feared she would wake up if she raised her voice.

But, hearing the distant rustling far behind her, Isabella remembered that this was real.

"HELP ME!" The words then escaped her as if they were yanked out, fighting and bloodied on the way out. Her voice might've been feeble in the enormity of the forest, but it was a primal scream born of sheer terror and an urgent need for salvation. She gasped loudly, eyes wide and feverish, before straining her vocal cords once more as she pushed herself forward. "PLEASE, YOU HAVE TO HELP ME!"

And she was heard. The giant froze momentarily, heavy breathing halting, before his head turned from where it was directed. Isabella could have sworn the air shifted once more with just that movement alone high above her, but when his eyes were directed straight down to her, it might have just been her body's urge to pass out.

 

Notes:

early update bc we needed a certain giant to show his face. Unfortunately, I mean JUST THAT. Just to remind that this is a g/t story before we get into g/t interactions next chap!!

Chapter 3: Giant Knight

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Isabella's breath caught in her throat as the giant shifted, his gaze descending upon her tiny form in the tall grass with a gradual movement. Seeing a Giant up close was damning, she thought, but it compared little to a Giant seeing HER for the first time. The enormity of being noticed by a being so grand sent shivers down her spine.

And the Princess thought this was it. This profound moment was etched into her memory, forever altering everything in her life-

"Oh, hell no."

His voice, if his words weren't so confusing and short, might have stunned her, too. But, she didn't have the opportunity to gander and take the booming voice in, not when the giant shifted once more, startling her further from her trance. "Huh?" She whispered, alarmed as the giant sat up, hand on his knee as he readied to stand up, no longer looking at her.

Was he... leaving?

"NO!" Isabella's heart pounded in her chest, and mustering every ounce of courage and desperation she possessed, she darted faster, the grass blades hitting her all over. She kept repeating and shouting, her words barely audible, lost amidst the rustling leaves. The giant's boot was shifting, and ignoring the danger of getting stepped down on, she ran to the base of his massive boot, larger than the size of one of a larger carriage.

The giant halted his movements abruptly, almost freezing, a dying sputter on his lips as he narrowed his eyes down at the girl. "Wha-?" Confusion laced his voice before irritation. "Get away-"

But Isabella remained glued to the side of his massive boot, pressing her body against it. She muttered refusals and pleas under her breath against the leather, her dry voice choked up beyond belief. Her hands started to cling as if she had the strength to keep him sitting there. "Please - pl-please, please, please!" The pain in her body seemed to focus in on her throat and chest now as she sweated profusely with her begging. "Please - please sir, you h-have to help me, you...!"

She forced herself to look up. And up, and up. She was as close as she thought she could be from watching miles away past the Divide, from watching just nearly a dozen meters away a moment ago to clinging right up to their form. If she had anything in her system, she might have felt the need to hurl as she craned her neck up and up just to see a face that intimidated her. Up past his leg, up past his chest, the giant was leaning down just to glare and scrutinize her. The sheer enormity of his gaze was overwhelming.

"I..." The Princess tried to speak, to demand. But, she looked nothing of her title, not anymore. Even her daily and casual attire that she was quickly dressed in days ago were fine garments, but not when they were all torn, all dirty. Same as her tangled hair, scraped up and dirtied skin. As she realized this, she maybe understood just a sliver of why he was looking at her like she was a sewer rat. "I need help. Please, please, they're..."

The giant's head pointed down and hovering above her, tilted, eyes narrowing further as they watched her crumple against his boot. "I don't know whether I'm supposed to find this amusing or idiotic."

Isabella wished there was just an ounce of gentleness in his voice. It rumbled around her, after all, vibrating the air around her and seeming intent to envelop her entirely, resonating in her bones and echoing in her chest. Was that not enough? He had to speak cold words? She didn't wish to be enveloped by that.

"No!" She cried out and was reminded of the stories about this place with his cold gaze and cold words. This giant here wasn't a Knight. Was he one of the ones she was warned about? Giants who grabbed humans that were found past the Divide. Killing them in many ways, stomping, crushing, eating, chewing or swallowing whole, or using or selling for other purposes. "Please - d-don't eat me, don't kill me!" She also knew of the other, somehow more damning fates, where humans were just... taken away. To be sold for... what? She didn't know. "I need - I need your h-help."

It was likely a delusion caused by her desperation when she swore there was a contemplative look in the giant's eyes. It couldn't have been so. Another cruel tone and choice of words followed the giant's pause. "Doubt a tiny like you has ever begged for help from one of us. Normally, it's begging for mercy." Confirming her fears. "Help from what? Don't tell me you're being chased by a baby mouse."

"Men." Surprising even to her, the words came out quick. "They - they've chased me out of my k-kingdom! They're g-going to take me b-back to torture me, I know it!" If they wanted her dead, they'd have left her out here. And to marry Heinrich, with his wrath already risen, was the worst torture she could imagine. Clinging to the leather of his boot, she pressed her forehead against it, looking down as she pled and choked out. The giant wasn't saying anything, and she assumed he was still looking at her with the same cold look. "Pl-Please! Th-They're after me, ch-chased me here, they're going to g-get me! J-Just, please, k-keep them away-"

Without warning, the giant moved his foot that she was clinging to. A dust storm surrounded Isabella as he moved his foot further away from her. He rested it closer to his other foot, easing back into the sitting position again. Isabella squealed when his gigantic shoe moved away, leaving her in a cloud of dirt yet further exposed to his watchful eyes.

"And why would I help you, tiny?" He questioned callously, a thunderous snort accompanying his question. Isabella almost found herself sobbing in dread as she trembled, as this giant spoke to her with such condescension, and that dread just grew as he pursed his lips to say more.

She couldn't hear it. She refused. "Because I'll do anything! Be anything! Absolutely anything!" Her words started barely more than a squeak before they turned into a flurry, the terror and desperation plainly evident in them. The dramatized stories of what was done to her kind here still in her mind made her pleas more outspoken and painfully direct, pathetically so. "Your companion, your plaything, your toy, your PET! Whatever you want!"

The giant's scowl initially deepened, becoming a glare as he watched the ruckus Isabella was causing. That glare could have curdled milk, but her more panicked pleas seemed to give him some pause. His eyebrows squished together, and his lashes batted repeatedly. "My - my what?" He scoffed then, shaking his head, "Enough of this. It's offensive enough that you dare speak to me, let alone beg for my aid when it sounds like even you know that you're better off in my guts-"

Isabella almost shrieked now, pointing back behind her with one shaking hand. "Then THEM! Eat them in my place! There are several of them, and they'll be, without a doubt, more filling than just one of me! And e-even after that, if they k-keep sending more after me, you'll have m-more meals!"

They deserved it, Isabella thought with such blinding rage behind her desperate eyes. And second by second, she began to even turn that into one of her fantasies. Those men... Swallowed whole, left to die slowly, that's the specific way she would have wanted it.

It didn't help that she was sure that the one who called out her location back in the fields was the same one who dispatched Quentin. Nor the fact that these were Heinrich's men... they had definitely given each of her sisters hell. She found it impossible that they wouldn't have. She didn't need to know if they had, what it entailed... She just wished for them to drown and rot.

The Princess was sweating profusely as she looked up at the giant's visage, eyes looking overly bright and feverish as she hugged her shoulders. Her vision was blurry by then, but his features were large enough that she saw his wide eyes, blinking eyes, and raised brows. He had paused, listening to her frantic breathing, before his gaze drew up and away from her. Fearful of being ignored, Isabella shivered before turning her own gaze to see what he was looking at.

And she discovered she was right. The men had finally reached the spot she was in when she had first noticed the giant, down further ahead beside a boulder-sized pebble. As she had promised, there were several of them, the one leading the rest and who had called out before. They all looked shocked, possibly having been listening for a while now. The younger guards in the back had slack jaws and all the widest of eyes, and Isabella wondered if they had ever cared to try relating to those they had chased out here before.

The leader of them all swallowed, stammering momentarily before steeling his jaw. "Please, noble giant!" He called out, voice loud to try carrying over to the giant in question, who was still sitting beside the Princess. Raising his wrist, the guard untangled the emblem around it, presenting it, and it confirmed Isabella's suspicions that royalty and their guards were meant to be given some semblance of mercy here.

Well, perhaps from the royal guards of this land. Royalty or noble, this giant here clearly was not.

The guard continued loudly, "We are but guards of the Arvendell Kingdom, serving for King Heinri..." He suddenly cleared his words, face nearly resembling those who followed him. Whatever face the Giant above Isabella made, she wagered it didn't instill confidence. And she was desperate to try using that to her advantage.

She didn't even realize she was still pointing in their direction, but she wouldn't complain. Made pointing again and again that much easier. "Them! All of them! They've chased me out here! HERE! That's how desperate they are to bring me back to torture how they see fit. And especially THAT MAN!" She screamed, seething but relishing so in the look of panic on the man's face.

The sound of the drip kept on haunting her, and it was louder and louder as she didn't know if anyone else was killed. Dorothy? She didn't know. Other servants? She didn't know. And was it cruel of her to not care regardless, to wish him death anyway?

"He's killed dozens and dozens in my home just days ago! So many women!" The lies escaped her before she could even conjure them in thought; they were turned physical first. She could vaguely make out the man gasp, shaking his head and sputtering out denials loudly, so she tried to be even louder. Her vision was beginning to blind in her sheer rage. "Please, sir, please! You have to keep me away from them, p-please just keep me safe f-from them, please, e-eat them all instead of me! Plea-!"

Isabella had only been looking at the group of frozen and terrified guards, but even then, it was hard to see; pure red seared into her vision. She didn't see much of the giant's face above her, so when he 'responded,' she nearly choked from the suddenness of it. "God, enough!" He hissed out through clenched teeth, having been trying to listen to both humans' panicked screams and clearly annoyed by it. But then, he leaned over, and Isabella nearly fell as she tried to move out of the way from his hand, which collapsed onto the grass beside her, to steady himself as he leaned towards the Guards.

All of them looked terrified, of course, the ones in the back drawing their swords and stepping back, while the main guard just gulped and raised his emblem again. "I am here on behalf of the Ar-" He tried to repeat as the giant's hand loomed closer, and closer - before, without further warning, forefinger, and thumb pinched around the guard's leg. "Wha-?!" The guard cried out, inevitably losing footing as he fell on his back, leg still hung up in the giant's fingers. His men kept their weapons drawn, but they unanimously knew they could do nothing - only for the captured man to try reminding again, with a panicked shout, struggling to get it out in time before the giant presumably lifted him up to make a meal of him. "We are here on behalf of not only the Arvendell kingdom but the Ver-!"

His pleas were cut short by a sickening crunch. The giant's fingers closed around his leg even tighter. Excruciatingly tight for the victim but just a tiny squeeze to the giant. The result was inevitable, though, and purposeful as well. Pain erupted through the man's body with searing intensity as bones splintered and snapped under the crushing grip of the giant's mere two fingers. A swift and brutal act, executed with a mere squeeze as if crushing a twig - probably even less than that.

Isabella stared ahead, blinking repeatedly, trying to rid the red in her sight so she could try soaking it in. The guard's agonized screams pierced the air, as well as the panicked ones of his men. As Isabella listened to the screams, barely able to see the agonized face of the screaming man, her shoulders drooped, all previous tension leaving her body. She felt light-headed, goosebumps riding along the back of her neck, and she took a shaken breath, ready for more-

But the giant released the man's leg as soon as he had broken it, letting go just as quickly as he'd taken hold. "Wh-" She sputtered as the giant loomed back to his previous position, withdrawing from the men. "Wh-What? But, I th-thought..."

His shadow loomed over her, his voice sounding just as short as it did before, "You're telling me you can't make it past a man with a broken leg?"

"Th-that's not it! The others, the-there's still others! You d-didn't kill them!" She panted, looking back and forth between the giant and the screaming guard and his men. "And b-besides, I c-can't go back anyway; there's hundreds more back in my l-land and..."

A sigh escaped the giant, "And what do you want me to do about that?"

"I a-already told you!" Did he assume that she only wanted... a mere broken bone on ONE man? Absolutely not. "I'll be a-anything, do a-anything, just keep me away from... f-from here! And again, you c-could eat them, do whatever-!"

"Fucks' sakes." The giant grumbled. Isabella had just been looking at the men behind her, so her world lurched suddenly. Unable to prepare herself, something grabbed her. She realized with terror that it was the giant's fingers. His forefinger and thumb pinched around her midsection. Panicked and afraid of getting crushed like the man, her hands clasped over his thick digits, trying to sputter anything out, but the giant didn't wait on her.

He didn't crush her or break anything; no, she was plucked off from the ground. Not to just be taken up to his face to see better, no, because the giant rose to his feet, shakily dragging himself into a standing position, and it proved to be all the more disorienting to Isabella. The sensation was overwhelming - a whirlwind of motion and force as she was hoisted into the air and spun into new directions. Her stomach dropped and churned with the movement, and she was sure she'd have hurled something if she had something at all. Everything was a dizzying blur, and it felt so surreal.

She kept waiting for him to stop, to hold her up, to not let her just dangle. But that was what was in store for her, it appeared. She remained suspended between the giant's fingers, her midsection pinched tightly, and her face was forced to look straight down to the towering heights below. It was beyond nauseating and terrifying; she guessed she was about fifty feet in the air, which wasn't even the giant's standing height. The giant casually walked through the forest away from the scene, his hand hanging nonchalantly at his side as if he wasn't pinching a person between his fingers.

Each of his steps sent shockwaves through Isabella's frame, his colossal movements creating a swaying motion in his hand. Isabella felt like she was caught in a tumultuous pendulum, legs kicking and body swaying precariously with each colossal footfall. With her stomach churning, Isabella struggled to reach around her stomach, to cling onto his massive fingers as to try grounding herself in this hell.

It certainly wasn't what she had expected when she had dreamt of getting carried off by a giant.

Notes:

Finally onto what everyone's been waiting for! Excited hehe. I really hope y'all are enjoying so far, let me know your thoughts! :D

Chapter 4: Mad Vow

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Isabella didn't know what she exactly expected when she envisioned getting saved by a giant. Granted, those thoughts were always meant to be curbed and stopped very quickly, so there wasn't much imagination to be had. But she was still thinking and imagining it all as she went along, and it was enough to know she didn't like this.

The giant had been walking for a few minutes now. A short walk, yes, but if the Princess had to wager a simple guess, a single stride of his seemed to cover a whopping 20 feet or so. And Isabella thought she had a relatively good guess since she was forced to look down at his strides.

It was the most uncomfortable experience. Nauseating, painful, all senses of discomfort were thrust upon the girl. The giant had yet to lift her up during the entire walk. Gargantuan thick fingers were pinched together beneath her, nearly stabbing into her stomach. She'd have complained more about that, but she didn't want the giant's grip to loosen. No, not at all. Her body and face were facing straight down; it was already hell.

Each giant step sent shockwaves through Isabella's already spent and beat-up frame. The colossal movements of the giant created a swaying motion in his hand, causing Isabella to swing alongside with the rhythm of his strides. It felt like she was caught in a tumultuous pendulum, her body swaying precariously with each colossal footfall. The immense height of the giant placed her at level with his side, and the view below was terrifying. Isabella would never have said she feared heights, but this was cruel, and on a completely different level, she didn't think anyone would be able to handle it.

If she had anything in her system and wasn't starving, she knew she'd have been a victim of hurling it right back out. As empty as it was, her stomach would churn regardless with a queasy sensation, horrified at the weightlessness she felt. Isabella had wrapped her arms forward, her tiny hands clinging to the giant's fingers pinching into her abdomen, a way to try grounding herself. But she could only do that for so long.

Calling up to the giant seemed asinine, but she was at her breaking point, "Si-" She choked it out initially before gasping and nearly choking bile she was surprised she had. "S-SIR-?" And then, evidently, she needn't call out too much. The giant's steps below her steered to a stop, and she found herself winded from the abruptness of it. She wasn't pulled up yet, left hanging aloft, gasping and squinting as another hand filled her view.

It was pointing down to the base of a giant tree. "Do you want to go now?" The giant spoke up again, heavy breathing surrounding his question.

Heaving for her own breath, Isabella also closed her eyes, "Y-YES, please!" The answer left her without a thought since she just wanted to stop being held like this. However, a mere second later, her stomach and heart shot up, and she realized quick that she was being lowered down. "W-WAIT!" She shouted, grabbing on tight to his fingers again, legs kicking. "NO, NO! Sir, please! I didn't mean that!"

Much to her relief, the motion stopped, but to her dismay, the giant still didn't sound too soft on her. "For fucks sake." He cursed, "What? Afraid they'd find you? If you get caught by someone with a broken leg, that's on you."

She hated to be reminded that this giant didn't kill that man. He might have whisked her away as she so desperately hoped... but even a giant seemed to not meet her expectations. "S-Sir, I...! Th-That's not it! I c-can't go back at all! I t-told you! They'll be looking f-for me, there's more of them! I c-can't... I can't go back at all, please..."

There was a long pause, and she hated not knowing his expression. Based on his ever-constant tone, though, she bet it wasn't good. Perhaps she was just hoping he'd speak to her with a tone that didn't reek of disdain. "... Huh?" The giant grumbled under his heavy breath, "So it's like that. Must've pissed someone off real good."

She wished that was so. No, she didn't do anything for this, she thought.

A choking gasp passed her lips when the giant moved again. She was terrified of him continuing his stride with her still in this uncomfortable hold, but he walked in a short and different direction. "Fine. Rest time. I ain't made for nonstop walkin'." The giant grumbled before quickly finding a spot to sit and rest on a huge rock. With a racing heart, Isabella clung to his fingers again and barely could refrain from the squeal that left her when the giant's hand jolted with his sitting. For a moment, she had assumed that was going to be it, but no, her heart dropped into the pit of her stomach when she was risen up in his pinching grasp, her body still facing downward.

Meek whines and struggles escaped Isabella as she dug at his fingers, but she was quickly stunned into silence when she was lifted up to the giant's face. It was already damning enough to have been beside and below him mere minutes ago when his frame was enough to block her from everything. But being directly in front of and close to his face was an entirely different story. Isabella's comparatively small size allowed her to see every minute detail of the giant's face clearly. Everything about him was so grand and immense from her perspective.

Tousled blonde hair cascaded down the sides of his face, each strand a thick thread, and Isabella could see the individual strands, the way they fell against his skin and framed his face. His scowling expression etched deep lines across his face, each furrowed brow, pore, and crease visible to her as cast canyons on a landscape. His freckles dotted his skin like constellations against the canvas of his face.

Isabella found herself utterly entranced by the sheer enormity of the giant's facial features. His scowl, freckles, and the intricate details of his facial contours appeared as vast, monumental details, each a colossal sight. Every imperfection, every blemish, every freckle seemed monumental to her at her reduced size. The giant's features, which might have seemed mundane to him, were a colossal sight for Isabella, each detail a vast expanse that she had never fathomed could exist at such scale.

What took her more by surprise was his eyes, and she was astounded that she missed the color of them before. Violet. Giant pools and lakes of violet. The intensity of his stare felt immense, as if the entire universe existed within those extraordinary eyes. She wondered if all giants had odd eye colors. Just when she thought his face was so astoundingly human, despite how gargantuan every feature was. More human than the portraits back home were, that was for sure.

"And what the hell do you expect me to do about it?"

Isabella was so lost in her trance that she flinched violently at the question, another booming voice from him that shook her core. She thought she would have seen it coming since she was so focused on his face, but she had been in the middle of zoning in on his eyes instead of his lips that time. Her hands were frozen, stuck at the space between his two fingertips against her abdomen. "... Huh?" She squeaked out. After some processing, she heard what he said... but simply didn't like it.

"I SAID," the scowl deepened on his face, his voice rising with clear purpose. "What do you expect me to do 'bout it? I just broke the obvious leader of those guys' leg. Should slow 'em down and break morale. Took you further out so you won't run into them again." His gaze hardened on her, eyebrows furrowing closer together as he inched his face closer. "I've helped like your little ass demanded. Now, get."

When Isabella's heart dropped, it was for two reasons, though both were related. She was being lowered back down again, and it hit her fast just how much she couldn't have that. "NO!" Shouting once more, the Princess dug her hands in harder into the giant's fingerpads, "Sir, no, pl-please! It's like I t-told you, I can't go back, th-there's no where for me to return to! I c-can't go back over the Divide, I j-just can't! I'll repeat myself again and again-"

"Evidently." The giant commented with a dry expression, but Isabella was not deterred.

"I'll d-do anything, be an-anything, Sir! A companion, a toy, a p-pet, do wh-whatever you want! I've h-heard rumors of all kinds of things your k-kind does to us, and... I a-accept! So long as you l-let me live, or... N-No, so long as you KEEP me alive! I'll never s-survive here on my o-own..."

She knew this to be true. It wasn't just people who were on a giant scale. Nature itself was hell to get through, and then there was wildlife. Isabella felt tense, her voice choked, and her eyes were wet and overly bright. She was still held by his fingers, having been lowered just a tiny bit, but she didn't dare feel hopeful just yet. Her fingers dug tight into his finger pads, trying her hardest to lean forward, but it proved difficult when he was keeping her there. It made her neck more tense; she pulled up to look him in the eye and strained to move even closer since she had no real control of the distance or her position. Her legs, dangling behind her, even pulled themselves out, too, matching the desperation.

"Pl-Please, Sir! You're a Giant, you kn-know this place, you l-live in this place. You're strong, c-capable, and know what you're doing." She pled, straining further. "So please-" Her voice came out in squeaks now, shaking and desperate, as she tried and tried to close the impossible distance as she was being held. "Just take - care of me - please."

Isabella's vision became a blur as her eyes got wetter. Trying and definitely failing to appear less pathetic and desperate, she bit down her bottom lip and shivered with a drawn-out, shaken whimper. The giant's lips, too, pressed together, though it resembled more of a slight grimace. His nose wrinkled, his lips pursed before promptly closing, and his eyes glared downward away from her.

The silence was killing her, but his eventual words would too. "So," He said, "You'd really whore yourself out to avoid the jaws of death, eh?"

Such a suggestion had the Princess growing red in a matter of seconds. Initially, she was stunned into silence, her reaction processed before she squealed out, shooting herself back and trying to shrink away in his fingers. Her knees shot up, pressing against the fingers of his she was holding. "Excuse me?!" The cry was loud as it escaped her lips. "I am doing no such thing!"

"Yeah, but you are." The giant said with a frustrated shake of the head. He looked almost disappointed. "I can only hope you don't beg and grovel like this at men your size, but... No, I've got no hope for you." A sigh escaped him, resulting in a hot breeze past Isabella. "Whatever. The fact that you're... doing that gross shit should get you killed. You clearly know what happens out here to you tinies."

"Don't speak so c-confidently, Sir! I have not! I swear it - on my life! I'm just desperate to survive, nothing more than that!" Isabella was still burning red, sweating even more. But dread would still find its place in her heart, never mind how drowned it felt. Shaking, she gulped and implored, "Like...?"

The giant's lashes fluttered twice before his nose scrunched. "Like?" He repeated, "You seem to have had an idea. I mean..." He looked away, shrugging. "People are always on the lookout in these parts for idiot tinies like you who leave their land. Like... Like you said - pets. Could be sold as one, or... to make more pets, or... or food. Chewed or swallowed alive, which would you prefer?"

Isabella gulped, clenching her teeth and tensing further as she looked at his face, "You didn't do any of that to those men." Something that still left her irate. "So, I'm assuming you're not one of those types, Sir? Exactly why I r-refuse to be shamed for begging you."

His violet eyes narrowed at her, and his lips pressed together. "And you dare to assume yourself? A false assumption, at that."

Isabella was torn between fear and anger. Fear for herself, obviously, and anger that he hadn't shown more of this side of him to those men. "But, you didn't do anything to those men-" Before he could comment on the lead guard's leg, she shook her head, "You l-left them alive."

Now Isabella knew he had only been scowling at her before because now a full-out glare was out. "You've got a lot of fuckin' nerve, don't you?" He growled. "I'm not your personal assassin. You want them dead so bad? Then you can do it yourself. And the reason why I didn't is simple. I wasn't hungry. I've already eaten, and even then, you lot are so damn small it's like eating a singular berry."

There were several of them, Isabella wanted to retort.

"And besides," He added, tone growing colder. "Humans are especially a meal when they piss me off. And trust me, you're dangerously close. So, shut your fucking mouth because if you don't like it, you can always wriggle out of my hand and run back to them. I'm sure they'll be more than happy to torture you or whatever you were whining about."

Isabella's world froze in terror at the way the giant entertained the idea of consuming her. His words echoed in her mind like a nightmarish echo, and as if trying to keep hold of her sanity, a loud part of herself inwardly called his bluff, but another knew it'd be foolish to count on that. Her heart pounded against her chest, each beat echoing her growing panic as she was kept dangling precariously in his colossal grip.

"Y... You..." The words barely escaped her dry lips, hushed and hoarse. She wasn't even sure if the giant heard her, if his further glare was pointed at her words, or if he was trying to hear. "Y-You w..." Gasps kept taking over her, trying to stop her from continuing. "You w-would'n-"

Those eyes glared further at her, and a hot gust of his breath swept right at her with his sneer. "I would. Do you really need a fucking demonstration?" The digits around her waist tightened then, just the tiniest fraction to the giant, but it had the girl wheeze out and hold on in a panic. "But maybe you're not even worth the damn effort. Maybe you'd do me more good if I just sold your ass to somebody; let them do it while I could just laugh and watch with more coin in my pocket."

Another squeeze. The thudding against Isabella's chest was hard as she tried to sink her dirtied and already bloodied nails into the giant's thick skin, her thighs and legs beginning to squirm. Her mouth opened to sob out more pleas, but mere stammers escaped her, always cut off short and left to start over with each bat of the giant's lashes.

Scrutinizing her further with his squinting gaze, the giant scoffed, nearly blinding her again with his breath washing at her. "Doubt you'd sell for much, though. Look at you." She didn't want to. "You're nothing; you look like you've been rolling in the gutter. I'd get more money selling a damn plague infested rat."

He wasn't wrong, and Isabella hated that. She was definitely worse for wear. Days in the Divide had worn her down; her clothes were tattered and torn, her skin bruised and scraped and dirty, and her hair tangled in numerous knots. She had never felt both so dirty and hurt all her life. Hearing this giant spit down at her about her appearance made her chest clench up all the more, and for such a foolish moment, she considered shouting and crying back in defense. Maybe even reaching for her bag, for that cursed item hiding within to prove her status.

But she gave herself a brief pause to consider since he had been implying she had monetary value here. And that pause was enough to give an outright answer by the giant himself.

"Maybe... fuck..." Lips pressing together, the giant now looked more conflicted, if anything. But it didn't exactly lessen any of Isabella's shrieking worries. "Those damn men would have been worth more. And you wanted me to kill them!" He scoffed, and he shook his head. "They were royal guards... Would have... been..." His words kept getting cut off with his head shaking. "Been worth... a lot... would have had me set..."

Isabella swallowed, trying to lessen her panicked squirming and shaking as she looked up at the giant's eyes. Definitely failing. After all, if royal guards were worth so much, how much would she have been worth? She felt compelled to thank God that she hadn't spoken prematurely. And another part of her wanted to dare order him again to go back and do just that to the men. If he refused to kill them, then maybe whoever he sold them to would, but not only was she afraid of attracting his ire again, but his eyes distracted her. They looked past her now, and she tried not to mind the heavy breathing started to trickle at her.

"Might... even..." With the way he was speaking, Isabella almost worried he was going to pass out right there for some damned reason. "Go back just to get them. Can't." He shook his head firmer this time, "They might be moving back to the Divide, don't wanna deal with... with actual knights..."

Seeing that he had some brittle interest in going back for those men, Isabella tried to bring the words up out of her throat after another anxious swallow. "Th-There's... There are no knights." She flinched, tensing up when those giant violet eyes of his snapped right back onto her.

"There's always knights. Real knights, not those puny guards." He replied, the sharpness returning in his tone, much to her dismay. Though she was anxious over his previous manner, she still found herself shrinking back between his fingers at this one again. "They patrol around the Divide. Those men probably showed off that emblem to explain what the hell they were doing, right? Chasing a little thing like you, what a waste."

Isabella quickly shook her head, and the words came straight out. "No," she corrected, "No, they weren't. I w-would have seen them - heard them! I c-couldn't miss a g-giant knight!" It was something she was well aware of and something she felt so robbed of as well. It was the knights specifically she always dreamed and fantasized about, but they weren't there. Leaving her between this giant's much too tight grip. Becoming more conscious of the fact, she panted as she pressed her hands further onto his finger to squirm her dangling legs. "I was looking for them, and they w-weren't...!"

The girl panicked for just a second when she felt the fingers holding her up tremble, barely suppressing a squeal as she held on. She thought he was going to drop her for a second, but his grip tightened back. The tremble resumed, though, and confused, she looked up to the giant with panicked breaths. He was back to not looking at her, but was now looking to the side, though neglected to turn his head. He swallowed, the sound loud, and Isabella found herself watching the lump in his throat go down. Slowly, he finally turned his head to look further back to the side.

She waited, but he didn't turn back to her quick enough that she would have liked. He swallowed again, and the sound echoed in her ears, her eyes watching the lump in his throat even from this different angle. Letting herself swallow, too, she tried to get his attention, "S-Sir-?"

"What do you want?" He had asked similar questions several times by now, but this time, she swore he almost sounded desperate. When he turned his head to face her again, it was a quick movement. He stared hard at her, a tightness in his eyes and lips that distracted her, prompting him to groan and give her a rattling shake between his fingers. "What do you WANT?"

Gasping, she lurched forward, disoriented, and leaned her arms down over his fingers to hold on better. Even when the cursed shake had stopped, the tremble remained. "H-Huh?"

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me. Are you deaf all of a sudden? What do you want?" He was speaking quickly, and she winced when spittle rained down at her. "You could try going back - but I can't take you. J-Just - look, you look and definitely smell bad enough that you might blend in with the animals-"

Isabella shot her narrowing eyes up at him, "Excuse me-?"

He swept right by her cry. "Or just - h-here, you could just stay and... I don't know! Figure it out; it's not my problem. But I have to go-"

Deciding to forgive the comment instantly, Isabella sputtered before shrieking, "Then take me!"

The giant sneered at her, "Not this again-"

"I say it a-again because you MAKE me! J-Just, please - I can't go back, I CAN'T! I don't w-wanna stay o-out here, I don't w-wanna..." The knowledge that her amulet was useless had her choking back tears. "I d-don't wanna d-die...! Please, you c-can't just..."

"And what could I do for you?" He asked and swallowed again. And again. Isabella swore she might have seen some sweat on his brow now, well, if her own vision wasn't beginning to waver.

"Take me!" She cried, almost hugging his finger below now as she lurched forward, looking up at him. "Please, please...!"

Heavy puffs of his breath swept at her, but she kept her gaze up. The giant glared at her, shaking his head, "What do you... Seriously... think I could do for you?"

Such a question made Isabella's heart skip a beat before returning back to its hammering against her chest. Even harder this time. She blinked away the bristle of tears as she looked up at the giant. In just a second, she tried to look at every patch of his face. The galaxies in his eyes, the creases around his eyes, the freckles she couldn't even begin to count.

Oh, oh, how much she wanted to say. But she kept hearing this sound, this aggravating dripping noise that just echoed in her head, and it compelled her to answer as quick as possible.

"Anything." She said with a hushed gasp. "You c-could do a-anything. Like I s-said, you know... everything, you c-could so e-easily take care of me, and I don't have anywhere to go back to." The dripping noise continued. "I'll... d-die without..."

Her vision wavered, and she didn't realize she was crying again until she blinked and her cheeks were all soaked. She sputtered, swallowing and clearing her throat for another set of desperate pleas, but another particularly strong gust of the giant's breath silenced her.

"God..." The giant's free hand moved up, planting over his face that she had been focusing on just a moment ago. His blonde locks fell over his hand, which pressed firmly over his eyes, before dragging down to his lips, but by then, he had hung his head, blocking more of himself from her already blurry vision. Shoulders hunching forward, his hand that was holding Isabella trembled again. "What..." A heavy sigh escaped him, "What am I doing...?"

Isabella blinked some more, "Huh-?"

"Don't got time for this shit. You talk too much without actually sayin' shit. It's annoying." He straightened back up for just a second just to go back down, not long enough for Isabella to try seeing his face. When he lowered himself down from his position a bit more, Isabella was lowered in turn, and she squealed in alarm at the prospect of being put down. "Shut up!" The giant spat, "Calm the hell down, I'm not putting you down."

Panting, Isabella gazed down, trying to get a good look from her angle at what the giant was doing. Around his waist was a thick leather belt, and attached at its side was a small bag, which he was unbuttoning open. Starting to feel lightheaded, Isabella tried looking at his face, but he was turned in a way that she couldn't.

"If you want out, you tell me. Anywhere, anytime. Alright?" The giant mumbled as he opened up the bag. "Because God, I'll do it. I don't want you around, so if you see any opportunity that you'd rather be in, tell me right away, and I'll get you there. Got it?"

Isabella held her breath for a few seconds, just to let it out, large and heavy, "... What?" She breathed out. "You're... you're t-taking me?"

There was a quiet scoff from the giant, "Don't say it like that. God. But yeah, sure."

He was taking her.

Again, the girl took her time inhaling and holding it just to let out a hefty exhale. Thank God, she thought, that he was still holding her up because she felt her body slump and grow weak instantly. Her lips kept parting as she struggled for words, "You're t-taking... me..." She repeated despite the giant's correction. "You're..."

The tears were back. Her constantly pursing lips were pulled into a smile, and she hung her head down onto his finger. A mockery of a laugh escaped her that ended up just being puffs of high breaths against the giant's skin, and her tears would soon join there.

Oh, she felt like she was on cloud nine. "Thank you. Oh, th-thank you, thank..." She gasped, struggling to bring her head up, tears flooding her gaze. She swore through the blur of them that the giant was looking at her again. "Th-Thank you, S-Sir, I..."

"Enough with the Sir." His booming voice corrected.

"W-Well, I..." She panted, sniffling and gasping. Though she wanted to wipe away the heavy tears that kept coming, she didn't want to release the giant thumb underneath her. "I d-don't know wh-what else to call you."

There was a beat before he answered, quietly and plainly. "Rick."

"Rick." She repeated, then again in her head for good measure. Rick. She exhaled, biting her lips to keep from smiling like a goof so she could properly introduce herself in turn without being a giggly mess. "I'm-"

Her words were snatched from her as she was sent moving again between Rick's fingers, and she squealed from the sudden movement. After being held aloft in one place for so long, the sensation had her heart up her throat. Tears falling from her eyes, she blinked again and again to clear her vision, and she felt sick quick from being tilted to look straight down again.

Through blurred vision, she knew the sight below was the side bag Rick had been opening prior. Before, it looked modest on his hip, but the width of it was like a corridor to her, albeit a short one. Most of the space was taken, though, from a load of items she couldn't make out with her blurred vision.

But then she was given a closer look. She shrieked as she was lowered further before being dropped down into it, her body hitting something flat and sturdy before she tipped over and between the item and something else softer, something covered in cloth that just barely pushed when she was against it. With raspy coughs, she tried to regain herself, hands pushing on the cloth before going to the other side, where the obstruction was hard, flat, and tall, boxing her in.

"W-What?" She looked straight up to the light that wouldn't be present long because she saw giant fingers grab the leather flap of the bag before curling it over the opening. "W-Wait!" Gasping, Isabella tried to scramble up but only slipped and fell onto the thick cloth beside her, and then darkness blanketed the confined space. The space rustled, shifting and not helping her at all in terms of getting her footing, as the giant presumably clasped the bag closed.

Not a moment later, the shifting was back and worse, Isabella's heart and stomach dropping to the pits at the familiar movement that could only mean Rick was standing back up from his spot. Again, the girl was given just a moment to compose herself in the cramped darkness before everything was shifting and rolling again. She was moved side to side, slamming and rolling from the thick cloth to the hard surface, which she would painfully ram into.

"Ri-" She coughed after another hit on the side against the hard surface, then back to the cloth. "R-Rick! RICK!" Knowing the next roll was coming, she quickly shimmied backward against the leather. It was firmer there, she noted, and she held on as it shifted from side to side. Definitely where the bag met his hip.

Gasping, Isabella repeated the giant's name again, but of course, he wouldn't hear her from there. If he did, would he have even bothered? Of course not, she thought at first, but she was here. He did pick her up, he did put her here, he was moving.

He took her.

She wasn't in the Divide any longer. No longer would she have to run, and run, and run - without a breath or a break between. Even smack in giant lands now, she didn't have to bear the weight or pain of that, not now that she wasn't alone - a giant at her side.

Nothing, she swore, nothing could happen again. She was away from those cursed portraits, those cursed reminders. No longer could she lose anything again, she thought.

After all, what else was there?

The forsaken Princess heaved for breath in the dark, feeling lightheaded but trying her damndest to remain holding onto the leather. She exhaled and closed her eyes, then let out a string of pained giggles. She was here, she told herself.

She was here, and she would never have to hear a drip ever again.

Notes:

and so their shared journey officially starts!!!

Chapter 5: Weak Flame

Notes:

been awhile, but it's back!!! hope y'all enjoy ;v;

Chapter Text

In the strangest ways, time felt slower for Isabella here, trapped inside this pouch, than when she was walking and fighting for her life up in the Divide. At least before, there was fresh air and, damn it all, some sense and knowledge as to what was going on. Now, trapped here as she was, in the cramped darkness that seemed intent on rocking her back and forth, she was lost.

Though she discovered earlier that pushing her back onto the leather where it presumably met the giant's hip helped to avoid slamming from side to side every second, it was still a difficult position to maintain. Her feet, blistered and sore, strained to stay pressed forward to keep her anchored, as did her torn-up hands on either side of her. But it was either all that or being shoved back and forth against whatever her companions were in here.

What also didn't help was just... her body in general. Oh, she was blessed for that adrenalin earlier. It was undoubtedly the only thing that kept her going. Because now she felt so weak. Hands and feet aside, her stomach felt like it was eating itself, and her throat felt so dry that it was going to shrivel up. She had almost forgotten that she hadn't eaten or drank in nearly two days. Now? She was well and painfully aware. As much as she wanted to return to shouting for these needs to be met, she could barely even croak out or hold herself together. 

And the giant - Rick - he didn't exactly make it better. Seemed it would end with him taking her, and that was all. At least three times now, the movements would stop, just for a minute or two. Isabella would hear his heavy breathing during such pauses; even less so, she'd hear bare-bone complaints and mumbles. She was never able to pick up the entirety of it, but she'd listen to the typical curses of "fuck" over and over and "cursed," too. And much to her absolute aggravation, she would shakily get up to try pushing at the other side of her leather prison, starting to call out and say his name, and each time, he'd get back to walking instantly, sending her falling back with the motions. She didn't know whether to blame poor timing or him.

His steps slowed again, but Isabella wouldn't struggle to get up yet. A worthy decision, seeing as the steps returned a moment later. "Here." She heard him mumble. "Will work." The steps went on for a while, but something made her weak heart skip a beat. Or rather, it made it fall to the pits of her stomach as gravity pulled her and the whole space down. Barely able to gasp, she tried to hold on after she slipped onto her back, but then everything tilted forward, and she slid and hit the other side of the leather, just for everything to shoot back up and for her to slip the other way again. That entire ride would just repeat, again and again. 

Again, she felt it was worse than when she was outside being squeezed and swung around by his hand because, at least then, she could see and understand what was happening. In here, she had none of that, just all the turbulent motions that left her hitting one side and another all in a second.

By the time light and a breeze of fresh air came up top, she was lying on her side in the cramped space, of no will of her own, as gravity had surged her back down a moment ago. Panting, she peered up through the mess of tangled curls in her face, and she swore from the light up above that she had passed on. Genuinely, fear quickly took hold of her heart.

Seemed she wasn't the only one who came to that conclusion. "... Are you dead?" Rick's voice came out muffled and far away but not quiet. Even if he had tried, Isabella doubted a giant's voice would be anything like that, and it was only for that reason that she calmed her racing heart. Closing her eyes tight, she grimaced, groaning as she tried to sit up, and Rick clicked his tongue loudly. "Unfortunately not. Got it." A shadow fell over the opening of the bag now. "Just... don't touch me."

Isabella tried to croak something out, but nothing really came out. Heaving for breath, she tried to push herself up to lean against the firmer wall, but she flinched and moved off at the giant pillars coming down for it. Rick's fingers, she realized after a shaken breath, were reaching in for that cursed hard surface. Once she realized that, she disregarded his order entirely, crawling forward to press her hands against the finger closest to her - his thumb. She tried to wrap her arm around it, but she was quickly shaken off.

"The fuck!" Rick cursed, flinging his thumb out, sending Isabella back against the softer end of the bag. "Wh - What did I just say? If you want out of this, you could just use that annoying voice of yours. Don't touch me!"

Oh, she wished she could use that voice of hers. Instead, she panted, her muscles cramping up as she looked up. Yet, she couldn't see Rick's face, as high up as it was, and she wondered if he could see her. She hoped he would because it'd be the only way for him to see her pleas as she weakly reached up and nodded feverishly.

And thank God, it seemed he did. "... Reach for and touch me like that again, and I swear, I will drop you." His voice was still disdainful, and his fingers shifted to reach for her instead. Isabella sighed, closing her eyes and hanging her head, letting it happen. His two thick digits closed around her torso, squeezing slightly before lifting her up. She noted that it was the same way he picked her up before. And then came back that dizzying sensation. 

She also noted how bearable the dizzying sensation was between his fingers than in the bag.

Then came the light and the fresh air again, though she only grimaced at it, blinded after what felt like hours inside that dreadful closed space. She waited for her spot to settle, hanging aloft in front of his face like before, but it seemed he had different ideas. Her empty stomach and heart seized up as she was lowered right back down, though not as much as she thought she would before the fingers snapped away from her, letting her fall a foot or so onto the ground.

Isabella didn't even try to catch herself when she was released; she was too weak to even try, so she stumbled before falling back. Once there, she tried to catch her breath, each clawing in and out of her throat. Vision blurry, she blinked repeatedly, and for a moment, she mistook the towering grass blades above her for trees. Slowly, her hands dragged on either side of her, dragging over the oversized grains of dirt and pebbles. Still outside in this wretched forest. Why? She had hoped to be somewhere indoors by now, giant or not.

Further above her, Rick's sitting figure just exceeded in height and her own sight. Just a shape, a blur. An utterly massive one. And it got closer and closer. Darker, too.

His voice rang out, and his breath wafted down at her. "You look disgusting. More so than before. What's going on? You dying, or what?"

Already knowing a spoken reply would be a bust, Isabella pushed her hand against her throat. 

"... Thirsty?" 

She nodded quickly.

There was a pause before Rick clicked his tongue. Isabella was slightly dismayed that even with her inability to see his face, she could just hear that scowl. She wondered if it was permanently etched onto him. "It's because you wouldn't shut up. All your damn yapping and screaming." Isabella instinctively winced when his blurred shape moved again in a way that had the earth rumbling beneath her. "Serves you right. Now, I don't know how you're supposed to drink... I'm guessing you'll scream and whine more if I make you drink it from the mud."

Indeed, she would have.

"So, here. This is what we're going to do, you little fucking headache." He cursed, and Isabella closed her eyes tighter when gusts of wind hit her. Upon opening her eyes and squinting, she could barely tell it was a leaf he was waving over her. He dropped it, letting it fall onto the dirt near her before his shape moved more, and something hovered close. More squinting, and Isabella's eyes narrowed more. 

A waterskin, it looked like. Isabella hadn't seen it before, so it must have been hidden on his person beneath his cloak. But that was the least of her curiosities at the moment. Really, she was more stunned at the growing reality she was pushed into. How much water could have fit in that thing? An entire pond, if not more than that.

She flinched when it tipped over, and clear water poured out from the opening. The sight of the falling water alone was anticlimactic if looked at in isolation, as it was only a few drops, unlike the waterfall it could have potentially mimicked. But the amount lying in the curve of the leaf, almost like it was held in a bowl, was more than enough. It glimmered in the fading light, and her cracked lips pursed opened, her eyes opening some more.

"There. Better not fucking drown now." 

Groaning, Isabella winced as she tried to turn her body around. Using every bit of strength, she turned over onto her elbows, shaking to keep her hold and not collapse down face first. Her fingers dug into the dirt as she crawled forward, and she ignored the discomfort as she dragged herself over what was meant to be tiny pebbles. Finally, she reached the edge of the leaf, and her hands trembled as she gripped its rubbery edge and pulled herself up. The pool of water in the leaf seemed enormous, and she found herself shaking more at just the sight of it.

With a desperate gasp, she plunged closer to the water. The liquid washed over her face, filling her mouth, and she gulped it down in greedy, frantic swallows. It soothed the burning dryness in her throat, and for just a second, she forgot all other drinks before - this was the sweetest she had ever had.

"I said don't drown." Rick's voice boomed above her, and she was astonished that it seemed so much clearer already. "What'd you even do when I wasn't here? Have you always just been a flopping fish out of water?" With an annoyed grunt, he raised his waterskin, and Isabella heard his gulps sounding out. 

Gasping, Isabella licked her lips, trying to catch every drop of water that dripped down her face, and they felt so heavy on her skin. But with the leaf now scavenged of the water, she allowed herself to lean back into a sitting position, having to ground herself so she wouldn't teeter over and fall back. She looked up hesitantly and found that while her sight was still blurred, it was nowhere near as bad as it had been moments before. However, the dizziness worsened when she craned her head up to look up at Rick. It was the same as before when she first approached him, with him sitting down and her at his side, though on the opposite end this time. She tried to watch his throat as he gulped down water before he lowered the waterskin and wiped the remaining drops off his lips with a loud grunt.

Finally free from that bag, Isabella shuddered as the air around her shifted at Rick's movements. Like now, he turned his head to glare down at her. "Are you ready to go back inside, or can you go on your own now?"

Swallowing, Isabella started to shake her head. "N-" Finding her throat still to be suffering, she coughed and cleared it. "N-No. Need - I need - I need fre-fresh - fresh air..." She assumed that was why he stopped and needed some rest as well. "J-Just a - a m-minute..."

Rick frowned. " Didn't hear any of that; you're too quiet. I'm not complaining, though. All I needed was to see that shake of your head." Sighing loudly, he shook his own head before turning in front of him. "Don't bother me, then."

Isabella prayed that she wouldn't have to. Because her thirst wasn't the only problem here, she was starving hopelessly. She thought that perhaps he'd give her some food when he made it home. Whenever he got back up from this spot... 

This spot. Slowly, wrecked with her shudders, Isabella looked more around her surroundings, and once again, looking at how immense everything was made her more dizzy and nauseous. Still in the woods. Behind them was a rocky overhang, blocking that side for Isabella entirely. She was amazed at how much it took up space, and she had been so distracted that she barely noticed Rick had reached into his bag to find what he had been searching for earlier. By the time she looked, thanks to the noise of fire that made her flinch, it was because he already lit up a match and lit a cigarette.

A cigarette. Isabella squinted before cringing. "Oh, that's not..." 

He wouldn't have listened even if he had heard, she feared. Isabella wrinkled her nose, making a choking noise as she finally relaxed into a proper sitting position. It reminded her of how Marguerite and Cecile took to smoking from those puffy pipes before they were wed. And how she hated to be reminded...

Shaking her head, she tried to do the same to such memories. Ignore the way he was smoking. Ignore the memories of smoking, she told herself. She thought she'd instead be focusing on her hunger as her arms cradled her pained stomach. Grumbling, she could only wait until Rick finished his little smoke break. She hoped it would be a short time until he reached home. It was getting late. The sun was near setting, confirming that he'd been walking for several hours. 

It concerned her. How much longer was she going to be stuffed in a bag? She wanted... well, whatever this giant's home would entail. Even before, she had wondered how giants lived, and she only presumed it wasn't much unlike how humans lived this whole time. After all, they had their knights, those knights' royalty, and even the wretched forest out here weren’t any different. Just... huge.

She could already imagine it now. A dollhouse as a home? She wondered if those would even fit appropriately; she never had such a thing growing up, no matter how much she used to beg for one. Or would something else have to be converted to house her? It'd have to always be close to Rick, of course. And then his own home. He didn't look much different than a typical village boy. Probably a small and humble home, but she was confident it could be enough for her. As long as she got to live comfortably.

Her thoughts and daydreams were rudely disrupted by Rick's new movements and their grating noises. Rick had leaned forward, his enormous hands spreading apart loose dirt and dry leaves in front of him. Each movement of his fingers gouging the earth sent vibrations through the ground and up Isabella's body. Wary, Isabella scooted back a bit, confused what he was doing. Rick moved some more, reaching to his opposite side and returning with a handful of splintered twigs, leaves, and sticks. Twigs as thick as rope and sticks as heavy logs. She watched as he set them down in the patch of earth he had crudely dug out with his now dirtied fingers. Three big sticks form a triangle, then the thinner mass of splintered twigs and leaves atop. 

"What..." She breathed out, coughing into her elbow. "What are you doing...?"

The same as before - no answer. Rick reached to his right side again to retrieve thicker twigs, piling more on top. Isabella stared, watching his massive hands as he worked, and her mouth began to feel dry again. Her head began to shake back and forth. 

"No. No, no, no..." Her jaw dropped. "You're not - h-hold on, just a minute." Starting to sweat, she raised her voice, calling, "Rick. Rick! RICK!" Raising it more and more to get his attention, and by the third call, she started coughing and clutching her throat.

The cigarette was hanging between his lips, and Rick glared down at her. As he inhaled deeply, his fingers caught it, pulling it just a bit away so he could exhale out a long stream of smoke. The plume curled upwards, and Isabella was surprised she hadn't smelt anything harsh from it. "What the fuck?" He spat, "Stand and talk clearly, tiny. Yelling like a rabbit with its leg caught in a trap - and I'm in no mood to touch you again."

Like hell would she stand, she didn't wanna topple over in exhaustion again. She glared despite her trembling. "Why are you setting up a fire? Is your home not nearby?" It had to be. She was utterly convinced. "Just keep walking to reach it. It doesn't matter that it'll get dark; you're just wasting time right now." She thought she had the right to order such a thing. After all, she made her way up and down the Divide in the dead of night, too. "Come on, let us go."

But Rick glared more and more at her, leaving a feeling of dread inside her. This wasn't going right at all. Not at all. She needed him to soothe her, reassure her, and fulfill her needs, but instead, he was looking at her with so much contempt. 

"Your... Your h-home isn't too far... right?"

His entire body seemed to stiffen, and the noise of his inhale was sharp and loud. With his free hand clenching tightly, his nostrils flared, and his cheeks rose in color. Isabella started to see him tremble on top of it, and she worried he would squish her flat right there.

"What..." He finally spoke, not breaking the deadly glare he had aimed down at her. "Did you think I have a castle or something? Are you fucking kidding me? What gave you that sorry idea?"

Isabella cringed, shaking her head, "That's n-not what I-"

"No. No home. What, were you expecting to be tucked in like a damn infant? Let me tell you what we have for us instead - a camp. That's it. And if it’s even any of your business, a village in a day or two. Making me entertain leaving you to rot all over again." 

Isabella couldn't believe this. No home? Really? How was that possible? Of all the giants she had to run into, it had to be this one - who didn't even have a roof over his head? And what exactly did that mean for her? "But... I c-can't - I simply can't..." Gasping, she shook her head. "I - in this place? Everything is - is too big. In the - the dirt? With insects bigger than me? What about outright animals - what if - a bird or... or anything! Not just th-that, but it's filthy, and..." So foolishly, she gave in to that hope again that she'd be reassured and protected, but of course, Rick failed again.

"Do me a damned favor, and stop that godawful squealing!" He growled, leaning down towards her to really hammer his glare home. "If you don't want any of this, go! Walk off, I'm not restraining you! It'll save me the damn trouble, I'll tell you that much. Matter... Matter a fact, go fetch some more kindling for the fire, why don't you?" Isabella remained there, shaking under his gaze, and he just stared hard at her. "WELL?" He boomed out after a beat of silence. "Go on!"

She didn't think he was serious with that command. He couldn't have been. "I..." Anxiously, her eyes drew to the side, and the grass blades blocked her view. Not the best start. Then, they drew to the pile of sticks and kindling he had laid out. "I... I cannot. Everything is too... too b-big and..."

"And you're useless." He spat, his chest rising and falling in anger. "If you're - if you're too damn - too damn weak to do any-anything of worth, then you might as - as - as well shut up so you don't give - give me a headache on top of everything e-else and-" The speed of his curses rose and rose until his breathing became ragged, and then he started coughing. His fingers tightened on his cigarette, and his face flushed as he hunched forward and coughed repeatedly. Each one had Isabella tensing more and more, and she swore she could feel them from her spot down below.

His other hand, once clenched and terrifying Isabella out of her wits, went to push against his throat as his coughs subsided to wheezing. Shaking still, Isabella watched as he forced himself to bring his cigarette-holding hand back to his face. Cigarette to his lips, he inhaled deeply, and Isabella held her breath as she prepared to watch him lose more of his, but that wasn't what happened. Steady inhales and exhales, more heavy streams of smoke, and the wheezing subsided. 

Perhaps a minute passed, and Isabella waited anxiously before Rick huffed, "I know what I'm doing. And if you don't like it, just leave."

But she couldn't. Absolutely not. What was the alternative? Walk off in the forest of tall grass? Be picked off by an animal or even a bug? Or to the elements? Or to her own hunger? It would have been the Divide again on a gargantuan scale. Literally. She wouldn't last a minute past this spot right here, besides this absolute brute of a man, she was convinced. 

This man... Oh, she was beginning to loathe all of this again. Why him? Why hadn't she come across one of those knights she dreamt of? Why instead of them, it was... this? This man without a care of manners, without decorum, without even a place to call his own? And for him to lack all those things and still talk down to her in such a way. Of all the giants to have found...

He was useless.

Isabella flinched slightly at a sound she heard. Concerned, she turned her head to where she heard it. She expected to see a drop of rain, as it was what she swore she heard, but there wasn't a drop anywhere.

"Alright, back to this bullshit," Rick said above her, seemingly not feeling any rain either, as he leaned forward to go back to tending to the pile of kindling and sticks in front of him. Isabella hadn't even realized how much time passed since he dismissed her, as his cigarette was finished, and the sky was turning a redder shade in the skies. She heard him set down stick after stick atop the kindling, but she kept staring back over her shoulder, her own heartbeat beginning to flood her ears. The only thing keeping her from being swept right out of reality was the growing cold. She could have sworn it was colder than the previous nights and wasn't even nighttime yet. Trying to ignore the way the grains of dirt under her felt like large rocks, she shifted slightly, wrapping her cloak firmer around her. 

Moments later, Isabella was startled by the sound of another match being lit. By then, there was just... a pile of sticks, layers of them getting thicker and more prominent in size the higher up they were in the pile. It didn't look like any traditional fire Isabella had ever pictured before. It didn't work as intended either, as Rick brought the lit match to the top of the pile, but no flame was holding it. 

"Son of a..." Curses came grumbling out of Rick's mouth as the flame on the match went lower and lower towards his fingers, and he waved the flame away before moving on to the next match - but then the same thing happened again. Isabella frowned as he went onto his third match, and she wondered if he'd be useless at this, too. 

When the third match was slowly turning into another bust, Isabella began to cautiously look up at his face again, but no sooner than that did his eyes flick down to her. She cursed internally while he did outright. 

"Damn. You're still here?" He hissed out, eyes narrowing down at her in his quick glance.

Isabella hated the implication that he wasn't even watching her that entire time. What if something snatched her? Hell, what if she DID decide to leave? He wasn't going to stop her? "I don't... have anywhere else to go." She gulped, "I told you." Because as useless and disappointing as he was, she didn't have a second option around. 

"Of course you don't..." He coughed, and Isabella tensed, anticipating another coughing fit, but he cleared his throat. Several times. Isabella watched his face more than his working hands and the flame, slowly becoming the only beacon as the sky darkened. Rick glanced down at her again, and though she flinched, she didn't look away. "You got a right to be afraid, though. I'm sure even a bug could make quick work of you."

"I know," Isabella said, lips tightening as she fought to put on a brave face. Likely failing, too.

"Even the tiniest bird could snatch you up."

"I know..."

"Hell, I could even kill you on complete accident. Wouldn't that be a waste of coin when I could have sold you instead?"

God, she hadn't even thought about that.

"Then whether I should sell you when we reach the village, oh, I wonder..."

Slowly, Isabella started to scowl. What in God's name was wrong with this man? Pure silence when she needed reassurance, comfort, even something as simple as distraction, yet choosing now to speak only to remind her of how easily disposable she was here? And once again, to do all that without ending it with promises of protection. She waited for it, too, and none of that came from him. Instead, all she got was the further spread of dread. 

Village, he said. That would be at least another similarity between human and giant lands. She even wondered how many villages there were here, remembering from her lessons how many of her own peoples' villages were slowly chased out, leaving the kingdoms and their capitols. She thought there must be a few villages here, not enough space for such massive people.

Though, they had been walking awhile...

And then, after, came another thought. "You said... a day or two until we reach one of your villages?" She asked hesitantly, and she got his frown deepening in response. "What are... what are you expecting when we reach it?"

"What kind of stupid...?" Rick started with a click of the tongue, and another match was lit in his fingers. He glared at the flame, hesitating before scowling back down to Isabella. "What'd you mean, what do I expect? Before moving on, I expect to get good food and bed for the night."

The mere mention of food had Isabella tensing up. She prayed he'd notice it, but he was blind.

"Or, are you trying to figure out what you should expect? If it's anything pretty, you've got the driest of brains." The light of the dwindling flame lit up the underside of his face as he focused back on the botched fire. "The second anyone sees you, they'll want to get their hands on you."

For a moment, Isabella distracted herself as she imagined what it would be like. She had seen her first giant here, yes, and he was just... just one. To see more, all in one place? The girl was sure she would faint in such circumstances. Hell, she was surprised she didn't do so with Rick. After all, he did fit... well, specific attributes. Shame he failed at all the rest.

"What the hell are you staring off into space about?" Rick asked, brow furrowed as he frowned at her for another second before lighting another match. His eyebrows pushed further together. "Knowing you, you'd probably like that, wouldn't you?"

Isabella glanced around quick before giving him her attention and answering, "Like what?"

"Don't play stupid now when you were trying to whore yourself out earlier." He said it so casually, making Isabella's face instantly warm. It was one way to combat the growing cold. "There ain't no human that would pick you up without any ulterior motive."

Ears red too now, Isabella glared, her chest rising and falling in humiliation and anger at his repeated misconception. "Well, I AIN'T talking about humans; I'm talking about giants." After all, she had already given up her hopes in the safety of her own kind. "And for the last time, I was not...!" She couldn't even repeat the other part.

"And you've got us confused, too. Wonderful." Another glare at her lasted a moment longer than it should have, accompanied by an annoyed huff. "Whatever. I saw that hope in your eyes. It's stupid. Anyone who'd give you a second look - it wouldn't be for anything pretty, I'll tell you that much." 

Isabella hated how he read her so easy there—so much so that she didn't even need to say anything.

"Do you even know what happens to tiny shits like you here?"

Swallowing, Isabella willed herself to not just shake her head but to use her voice. "I... I'm assuming I’d be eaten, right?" It was true that she knew nothing about this place, but she heard enough horror stories growing up. After all, if Heinrich drove so many of his enemies, entire villages worth of people, out here, nothing good could have come from it. And she also remembered one of her earliest memories. 

It was way back when, she was just a little girl. When Eloise was still around. People were running all over the palace, the others whispering to each other. Someone made it past the Divide, they said. Made it past the giants. All the adults were making arrangements to talk to him, to help him, and Eloise had insisted on joining. She had a responsibility to learn and help, she said, it was her duty as the eldest.

What good it did her.

"Huh. Look at that. The tiny is starting to catch on." Not noticing or caring about Isabella's flinch as she swore there was a drop of rain again, Rick glared down at her, his violet eyes full of warning. "Let me paint you a pretty little picture, because man, the bigger the crowd, the more variety. You could get munched or swallowed, whichever one. I think I had this conversation with you before, so maybe you're not that smart and are only being a damn parrot."

Starting to breathe heavily, Isabella's eyes flickered to his frowning lips. There was the sound of another match being lit.

"You have no fuckin' clue how worthless you are, do you? If not a snack, you could be cattle. Getting you pregnant with some other worthless tiny male to create more worthless pests. Or," He drew out the word, letting it hang in the air. "They would pluck off your limbs one by one, playing with you like some sick toy before crushing you underfoot. They wouldn't even care that you were alive once. They'd care less for you than they would their own shit." 

Isabella's mouth dried again, a lump forming in her throat. "No..." She shook her head, and Rick scrutinized her further.

"No? Are you acting like you have any idea what happens here? Okay, then, let's say you get the attention you seem to want. What'd you say earlier? A pet? Because sure, maybe the richest of the rich would like having something annoying like you. Some love your kind. Utterly adore ‘em. But do mind you won't be sleeping comfy. They'll..." 

Rick faltered. A blink of his eyes before his eyebrows furrowed together. His nose wrinkled, and he slowly shook his head.

"... The most... Most disgusting shit. It's the kind that fancies your lot that are the most disgusting." Still shaking his head, he straightened his posture, running his hand down his face with a shudder. "I don't even wanna... fuck."

It was the one thing he couldn't go into grotesque detail for. The rest was all free game to him, which both unnerved and infuriated Isabella. No hesitation in telling her all these sick things and frightening her. To be treated in such a way - not even Heinrich would have...

Not only that, but it also didn't bode well for his refusal to delve into the rest of the possibilities. It felt so backward, as it was the kind who would have loved her, would have taken care of her, for no reason other than her size in this place, that she wished she could be with, but now Rick was treating those very people like they were worse than hell itself? That wasn't fair. Was nothing safe for her here?

It couldn't be. She refused for her to have been wrong all this time.

"Would..." She gulped, "Would they at least take care of me?"

"They'd want you to take care of them." Rick didn't explain what that meant, much to Isabella's dismay. He just scowled, nearly cringing as he readied to light another match. "You really are worthless, aren't you? That's all you're worried about."

Her cheeks felt hot all over again. Feeling the thrum of her own pulse, she sucked her cheeks in and shook her head. "I'm afraid I don't have a choice." She choked out, "I physically cannot worry about anything else until my basic needs are met."

Rick pursed his lips flat. "Your needs are met, but I still hear a lot of complaining about those same needs. You're alive. You had your water. What else is there?"

"Food," Isabella spoke a little too quickly. She had been desperate to get that request in. It was the main one she needed to meet. She hadn't eaten in so long; her stomach felt like it was eating itself. 

But as soon as that was spoken, she already thought of a million other things in the exact second. She needed a wash, she felt dirty all over. She needed her hair brushed, it was all tangled and knotted. She needed fresh clothes, these ones were soiled and ripping at the seams. She needed warmth and shelter, it was dark now, and she was starting to shiver from the cold. So much she needed, but this giant seemed utterly incapable of every one, just like everyone.

"Oh, now the food wants food!" Rick complained, his jaw tightening. "You know, I should really take care of MY own needs! I'm hungry, you know, I could eat and get rid of this annoying noise all at once." At this threat, Isabella shrank back, pushing and crawling back a bit. Rick lit the match against the matchbox, quick and sharp, and the tiniest of light against him made him stand out more in the darkness. "It'd be the best way to get it through your head, right? That you're at the bottom of the food chain-"

Suddenly, he quieted. His mouth was still open, and his gaze was flat, looking ahead before he blinked rapidly a couple of times. And just as suddenly, he would hunch forward, turning his hand around and lowering and positioning the lit match under the bundle of sticks, down under where all the dried leaves and stripped and ripped twigs were. With a tightening chest, Isabella watched, confused at how this was supposed to help when he couldn't keep a flame going.

But then a fire sprouted. It spread through the stack, bottom to the top until it rose through the cracks and above it. Gasping, Isabella recoiled, her heart lurching as the fire exploded upwards. The flames danced, casting long, flickering shadows around the clearing, making the rocky overhang behind them seem more like a cave. Each crackle and pop of the flames in the wood was like a thunderclap in her ears, and heat pulsed against her in waves. She scrambled backward away from it, her hands digging into the dirt. 

"Fuck! There it is!" Rick spat out the words, then quickly shuffled around, placing both his dirtied hands on the dirt to push his face closer, and he started to blow.

Seeing him have to lower his head so much to get the source of the fire blazing further, Isabella was struck by the size difference because it towered over her. Much like how the twigs he carried were like logs to her. Just a match to him, while it might as well have been a bonfire set by the Gods to her. Her world narrowed to the crackle of the flames, the oppressive heat, and the towering figure beside her. There it was again, that feeling of being so small, so insignificant. Yet her heart still pounded despite it.

Rick pushed himself back, seating himself again as he studied the dance of the rising flames. He chuffed a heavy exhale, then covered his mouth with his hand.

"God..." Shuddering, he turned his body slightly away from Isabella, hiding himself a moment while Isabella just kept staring up at the fire. Eventually, he'd peer over his shoulder to her before exhaling loudly again. "See that, tiny?" He barked out, finally turning to look at her, his hand removed from his face to gesture to the fire. "Now, this is a fucking fire! Bet you couldn't make one yourself, huh? Is that why you're so desperate?" He said, "Well, so much for your unmet needs, huh?"

He looked back at the fire as he shifted his massive frame again, reaching down to his side pouch. As he did that, Isabella was just mesmerized. Almost without thinking, she rose to her feet, stumbling forward and nearly tripping immediately as she approached the fire. The warmth enveloped her, almost burning the inside of her chest. It was such a welcome change to the chills that were taking hold of her earlier, that and the dreadful nights she'd been having. Her attention barely wavered when she spotted Rick lighting another cigarette from the flames, and he was quick to recoil once it was lit. She hesitated before taking another slow step forward and raising her hands to soak more heat into them.

"It's so large. So warm." She said it under her breath, the corners of her lips barely starting to tug upward as the air shimmered with heat.

Rick paused before grunting, "You like it?"

But then, the warmth turned savage. Isabella's smile faltered as a wave of blistering air hit her. Her skin felt like it was baking, the heat now oppressive and relentless. Too much. Panic surged through her chest as the air seemed to boil. Her heart pounded as she threw her arms up, trying to shield her face from the scorching blast. "Too much!" She gasped, stumbling back as her vision blurred, the heat distorting everything.

The little distance she was making didn't seem to help, and she was about to start crying from her panic before a wall of flesh blocked it off, slamming right down in front of her. "God, you're an idiot," Rick grumbled, using his hand to push her backward through the dirt back to her previous spot - no, even further than that. It happened too suddenly. One minute, Isabella's body was flush against the skin of his palm, and the next, she was nudged and fell back into the dirt on her behind. "Can't believe you're trying to cook yourself. Are you that eager to be a meal? That fire will roast you if you get too close with that tiny body, you dumb shit."

Isabella breathed heavily, dazed as the hand pushed against the dirt, and Rick leaned down to look at her. 

"A little rosy, but not burnt. I swear-" Rick groaned, pushing himself upright again, "Seems like you'd find a way to choke on air if you could." He said, returning to his cigarette. "Damn nuisance you are."

Isabella kept on shaking, not just from the fire's heat now but from the sudden jolt of his touch, from his imprint all over her. For another long moment, she just sat there, her chest heaving, eyes aimed straight ahead but not taking in anything. She was back with that feeling again—of being so small.

Above her, Rick let out a low grunt after fishing through his side pouch again. "Fuckin' hell. This'll have to do." He grumbled, and Isabella only snapped out of her trance once something dropped in front of her. Startled, she jumped and nearly scrambled away. Her eyes narrowed, and she audibly choked and gagged in her confusion before she found her answer just by looking up at Rick.

With his cigarette held away in one hand, the other held strips of dried meat that he quickly bit right into. The sight of him eating had Isabella inhaling, her body quickly trembling, her lips parting.

Rick grumbled without looking at her, "Eat."

Blinking, she paused before looking back at what was before her. Dried meat. It was exponentially smaller than what Rick was chewing at, and the edges suggested he ripped it off, and she had to look closer to ensure he didn't bite it off. It didn't look like it, but it was in the dirt.

"I... It's..." Shaking badly, she swallowed. "It's dirty." She mumbled, looking up to Rick. 

He bit into another strip, chewing as he scowled down at her, his harsh look worsening at her sheepish look. She could never tell if he heard her, as he seemed intent on always giving her that look and mocking her. "You said you were hungry, right? If you don't finish it in a minute, if you waste my food, I swear I'll turn you into it."

Of course. Isabella shuddered, gulping before looking at the piece. Disgusting, she thought. It was in the damn dirt! It was soiled, she couldn't eat it! She wouldn't have. Not if she wasn't utterly starving. Shuddering and gasping, she reached forward and took the piece. It was as big as an entire dish to her. She noted it was like a large steak, a dry one, but large. The surface was dark and leathery, the texture tough, feeling solid.

Sitting cross-legged in the dirt, she dug her nails into the edge of the meat, trying to peel off a small strip, but her fingers slipped. It was so thick she couldn't get a grip. Gritting her teeth, she tried another few times before groaning and bringing it to her mouth, dirt be damned. The texture was worse than she imagined. It felt like she was trying to chew through rubber. 

It took forever to break down a single bite, and her jaw was aching badly by then. She swallowed what she could, and the roughness of the meat scratched all the way down her throat, making her cough and gag. But the feeling of anything in her stomach was enough to get her to try again. Her jaw worked hard, teeth gnashing through the tough fibers, and every swallow had her gasping in triumph and relief. 

She didn't know how long it took before she finished it. Evidently, it was long enough because, as she gasped and heaved in relief, Rick was already looking at her when she looked up at him. He was tapping the remains of his used-up cigarette against his knee and was scrutinizing her with that usual frown.

"I ain't chewing it for you next time, either."

Shooting him a glare, Isabella huffed and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "I don't want you to." 

Rick glared at her before groaning and rolling his eyes, then shifted his body back. Isabella felt the tremors in the ground around her as he pushed himself backward until his back was closer to the wall of the rocky overhang. He then wrapped his cloak tighter around him, kicking his feet out and laying one ankle over the other. Cautiously, Isabella watched as he kept shuffling, seemingly trying to get comfortable.

"What..." She asked, "What are you doing?"

He grimaced, "The fuck's it look like I'm doing? I'm trying to sleep." As if anticipating Isabella's rounds of questions, he added, "Sun's been down long enough. There's no point traveling in the dark, so I might as well sleep to be ready come sunrise."

Thinking about her past few hellish days, Isabella wanted to retort that he could keep going. But she was more concerned about something else, especially as she watched him attempt to get comfortable. "What about me?"

"What about you?" He huffed, "You sleep. It's more than warm enough, as I'm sure you saw. Just..." A groan escaped him as he pushed himself up slightly to the side. "Just sleep, tiny."

"I can't..." She shook her head. "I can't sleep, not here! It's still too open; anything could come and snatch me!"

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me..." Rick growled, eyebrows knitting together. "You're making me regret feeding you, you know..." He straightened up and pushed his hands down into the dirt on either side of him. "Well, what do you suggest?"

"Anywhere, just not here in the dirt!"

"Oh, anywhere?" He coughed, "How about in my damn boot, would you like that? My only pockets are on my pants, and I doubt you'd want to be there. I can't say I'm a nice and still sleeper. You'd get crushed in my sleep, I'm sure. Would save me from all your headaches, though..."

Isabella pushed her position to better look up and face him, and her voice rose, "How about that bag of yours? Anything, anything would be better than this!" She realized her mistake quickly, noting how it was on his side, and she certainly did not want to be crushed if he tilted down on that side. "You could just turn it over until it's on your front!" Judging from his position, she doubted he'd turn over on his stomach so easily.

Shaking his head, Rick muttered some cursing under his breath as he looked down towards his side where the bag was. Several times, he glanced between Isabella and the bag, eyes narrowed. His scowl deepened, "For fucks sake," He grumbled, reaching for the belt as he sat up, and there he started pulling it to his other side. Isabella breathed a shaken sigh as he opened the bag, not thinking she'd be happy to be back in that cramped hell. But she felt that with him being still, maybe it wouldn't be as bad.

Rick swiped through the bag with his fingers, pushing things apart to make room, and then he gave her a glare. He moved over, hand outstretched, and Isabella jumped, freezing and stilling herself, but much to her disappointment, he just pushed his hand against the dirt to hold himself up. "Don't mess." He said, giving her a warning glare, "Don't fuck around. Just stay still and sleep."

Fidgeting and grabbing onto each of her hands, Isabella nodded feverishly up at him. He furrowed a brow at her before sighing, and then he resumed reaching for her. A gasp escaped her when his thumb and index finger clasped around her torso, eliminating her expectation that he'd pick her up some different kind of way. The feeling of going from sitting in the dirt to being lifted in the air was dizzying, and now, with a satiated stomach, Isabella had to watch herself and keep from purging. 

"And here you were whining about your needs not being met..." Rick grumbled once he carried her over his lap. "How annoying you are..."

Swallowing, Isabella looked down, swinging her feet as she saw Rick's lap below her, his bag open above it. Knowing her time up here would soon be up for the night, she looked up at Rick, wanting to fix one last thing before then. "There's one more." She said, and wanting to get it out before his scowl worsened, she leaned forward, feeling breathless. "You haven't asked for my name."

His response was quick. So quick that his scowl didn't even worsen or anything, just straight to the point. To his point, anyway. "That's not a basic need. You'll survive without me asking your name."

For a few seconds, an awkward silence stretched out, before he lowered her down into the bag. Her feet landed on something solid, probably the matchbox, she realized now. She should have been settled by the time the fingers around her torso released her and retreated, but she was still reeling from his response, so she collapsed and fell into the leathery pit between the matchbox and the softer, wrinkly surface on the other side. She remained there, her cheeks flushed, her ribs growing tight, and her eyes watering. Her breaths kept hitching, and she started to chew on her lip.

Once a moment passed, Rick closed the bag's flap above her. Not all the way, but enough to keep her secure while leaving a small gap. There was more shuffling from his person as he presumably got comfortable, and Isabella was rocked from side to side. 

"... Damn..." Isabella whispered in the dark, "Damn beast." 

Once she swallowed a whimper, she shuffled around to get comfortable. Indeed, it was a lot easier now that he was staying still. It almost felt like a proper bed, minus the leathery smell and rising surface below her. She could feel the faint rise and fall of his body beneath her, like a gentle roll of waves. It was initially unsettling, but as she laid herself on her stomach, it became a more welcome distraction paired with the crackling fire outside. Slowly, her eyelids got heavy, and she fell asleep to the movements and sounds soon enough. 

It was a suitable shelter, she had to admit. Much better than the last few nights. But not as comfortable as her nights before that, and the shelter himself was unpleasant.

She didn't know when exactly, but she'd be abruptly awoken. It was still dark out above, so it couldn't have been too long. What had woken her up was faint at first, like distant thunder. But it quickly grew into a long growl that reverberated through the walls around her. The sound came from above her but vibrated a bit beneath her, as well, and she blinked into the darkness of the bag, disoriented. 

The rolling waves of his breathing were still going, and though it hitched a bit after the growl, it mostly remained the same. Still safe, her shelter was still going strong, she thought. And cautiously, she laid her head back down, starting to drift asleep.

Rick's mumbled curses were the last thing she heard before surrendering to sleep. 

Chapter 6: Drawn Small

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Despite everything, it was the best sleep Isabella's had these past few hellish days. Aside from that brief wakeup with the growl earlier in the night, the rest of her sleep went uninterrupted. No more waking up in the middle of the forest in fear of all the sounds and threats, no more having to interrupt her own sleep to walk through the night in such utter pain. No more of that. Now, she was allowed to just sleep in the pure dark, the inside of the bag obscuring much of the outside and eliminating all threats from her mind.

By the time she was woken up, it felt like she overslept.

The space around her jostled, nudging her to one corner before she flopped back to her original spot. "You awake?" Rick's booming voice came from above, making her wince and scrunch her face.

She just needed a second or two to process everything, to be reminded that yesterday really happened. It was not long since the second she felt comfortable, she had already figured it out.

"Hey. Tiny?"

She almost swore it sounded more soft-spoken. It had her perk up some.

Isabella shivered involuntarily, and she let out a groggy groan as she turned over before shakily pulling herself up using her forearms. "Ye-" She wiped her face, flinching when she noticed the sheer amount of drool plastered around her mouth. Red-faced, she wiped it off, "Yes?"

Following a scoff, the more soft-spoken tone was gone and replaced with its usual roughness, "Get up." Isabella squinted, immediately confused and even frustrated that he was back to normal. Maybe she had been so sleepy, she made up the tone. Either way, she was disappointed. "I need you to get out and just... wait here, leave, I don't know. I have to go."

Her heart instantly leapt. "Huh?" She delivered another rough wipe across her mouth before sitting up, squinting opening and rays of light filtering through. "Go? You have to go? Go where? You're-" She shook her head, raising her voice, "You're leaving me?"

A groan was given, and giant fingers pried the flap of the bag open wider, prompting Isabella to shield her eyes from the light. "If you want to be left alone and free to go, then yeah-"

"But I don't want to be-!"

"Then calm down!" His own voice rose. "I just need to leave real quick. It won't be for long."

She asked, "Where are you going?" But silence was her answer. Starting to shake, she shook her head, shimmying away from the light. "No, no, I don't want to be alone! I told you before, hadn't I? A-Anything could get me here! Just t-take me-"

Rick sputtered, "A-Are you insane?!"

"I don't see what's insane about it!" She cried, "I just d-don't want to be snatched up or hurt or killed while you're gone!" She was frustrated that this man was so stupid and daft to her vulnerability here. Must she have to explain everything to him? Her lips curled, "I... I re-refuse to be called i-insane for..." Though she was shaking too much to finish.

He was silent for a moment before groaning out, "You're impossible." And then his fingers disappeared. Before Isabella could even internally question what he'd do, she was jostled off to the side again, and then again, and again, and again. The entire space was shuffling back and forth, and she gasped in alarm each time.

But then, when she was shifted down to the left a seventh time, it dragged on much longer than before. Her heart leaped up to her throat for a second, and she was about to panic as the feel of a drop surged in her stomach, but the space was surprisingly set rather gently on a flat surface. Pushing her head up, her hands felt the ground, noting how it didn't rise and fall with breath.

As her breath started to rise, the flap was opened more, adjusted by Rick's fingers, and when Isabella looked over, she could see the dirt and blades of grass.

He wasn't...

"Stay here, do whatever you need to do, or go. I don't care." Rick's voice got further away, and a jolt tremored the earth around her. "I'll just be gone a minute."

He was!

Quickly hyperventilating, Isabella scrambled to get up, tripping some to barrel out of the bag. The second she was out of the cramped and stuffy enclosure, she found herself blinded by light instead and closed her eyes for a moment before she spun around in the direction she felt Rick's quaking steps distance off to. She already saw him walking off, already beyond far away. She swore he was looking over his shoulder at her, but he was quick to turn forward again.

"Ri-" She choked out, stepping over stones and brushing away the blades of grass. "RICK!" Nothing, of course. He didn't even hear her. Just a few seconds later, he had already gone past the trees. Her panic quickly turned into rage as her teeth clenched, and she huffed breath after breath through them. "Da - damned...!" She hissed out before shouting, "Damned beast!"

He had to be coming back. Isabella knew that. He left his bag here, after all. Still, it didn't negate how enraged she was with how... careless he was! She wished she was allowed to sleep in longer than deal with his strange behavior. Where was he even going without his bag? There was nothing out here as far as she knew, and he was homeless, the wreck he was.

The sound of birds calling in the distance had her jumping in alarm, and she took a second too long to scurry back under the bag's flap, having kept looking desperate to where Rick disappeared off to. Retreating under the flap for cover, Isabella continued to heave and pant for breath for another moment. The noises were too much, and fear clouded her judgment again. She banged her knuckles on her head, grimacing as she tried to calm her racing thoughts and worries that Rick wouldn't return. He had to. He wouldn't have abandoned his entire bag here.

Curious, she turned around and tried to look into the bag, the space where she'd been kept twice now. Every time, it had been too dark to look and see what she was being slammed against with each jostle. It was still a bit dark, but there was some visibility with the lack of motion. Tilting her head, she peered in, finding it was, of course, a mess.

Inside, she spotted what she had been rolling against when he was walking yesterday. One was a cotton sack, just larger than her, and she recalled it as the one with a cushy feel under it, like a pillow. She definitely used it as one sometime during the night. Pausing, she wondered what was inside, but it was closed well. On the other end, the one she hated ramming against was a rectangular box. Not just one, but two, one behind it. It took her a second to realize it was probably his matches and cigarettes. Just the thought had her grimace. Cecile had used those dreadful pipes back when she was around. Having so many of these cigs around for Rick to use was irksome.

To look better at the rest, Isabella had to duck more and tread closer, trying not to block too much with her shadow. Behind the cotton bag were another two pouches, both made of leather, and she had no idea or guess what they were holding. Then came the bottom of the bag, the bottom surface she had been on when he was walking. Paper. Just paper. Seeing it from this angle, she could tell it was folded several times.

Despite the size, despite how a single of those pouches dwarfed her in size... she felt somewhat dissatisfied. Unimpressed, even. That was it? Pouch upon pouch upon pouch? And cigarettes? Even if she knew he had the canteen of water somewhere on his person, maybe something else, it was still nothing. Shaking her head, she looked down at her bag, surprised it was still on her person after all this time. Her bag was, at least... well, a proper bag. This one was more of an oversized pouch, strapped to his hip the way it was. And she may have eaten and drunk through all her provisions, but she still had a blanket stuffed in there, and a dagger, and a compass, and some... disgusting little thing. He didn't have any of those! Did he just sleep without any cover last night? Pathetic!

Shaking her head and scowling, Isabella turned to face the fresh air again. Begrudgingly, she had to admit that now she could breathe better, being somewhat out in the open like this. She had gotten too used to the leathery, musty smell inside the bag. She inhaled deeply, trying to relish in the fresh air below the ground.

How badly she needed clean, fresh air. But it didn't feel as fresh as when Rick held her up. Too close to the dirt. The grass blades were suffocating with their size.

Then, with a quick look, she realized her state likely didn't help. It was a humiliating thought that some of this smell was wafting from her, but it was one she couldn't ignore for much longer. She reeked of sweat; how much she sweated in her dreadful run here. Everything was wrong with her now; she realized that she wasn't running on pure adrenalin every waking moment. Sure, she had a moment to spare before, but Rick was there, and she was starting to resent him. Now, she resented him for being gone, letting her assess like this.

Her dress was torn, the sleeves ripped and torn, and the hem was worse and ruined with tears and dried mud. Her shoes, never meant for anything but polished floors or cobbled paths, had clearly given up, with one of her soles coming loose.

And her hair, oh, her hair. She ran her fingers through her curls, wincing alone from the greasy mess, then grimacing outright when they snagged on a clump of tangles. Recoiling, she looked at her hand, knuckles, fingernails, creases, cracked and dirtied with grit.

Then... Gods above... The realization of another problem hit her, sharp and insistent. Her body had been so focused on survival before; it was a miracle she did anything to fix this problem the first time, but now it was back, and she had been busy with other events unrelated to running in the wild. Still. Not here, not now. She shifted uncomfortably, putting her knees together as she leaned out of the shade, peeking and wondering when Rick would return.

Her cheeks burned despite herself. After all, a proper lady wasn't supposed to bring up such personal matters, but she was desperate. She needed Rick and his lackluster assistance for the most unbecoming of needs.

After what seemed like an eternity, she felt the shuddering of the earth beneath her, then again and again, each stronger than the last. By the third one, she was already peeking out, and the sight of Rick returning and walking toward her had her breath hitch a moment. Teeth clenching, she stumbled out of the bag, turning to face him.

Noticing her, the giant seemed to slow down, eyebrows furrowing together as he scowled and raised his hand, covering his face slightly with his wrist. "What are you doing?" He asked though Isabella thought she was doing quite literally nothing. "You're still here? Are you sure you don't wanna... go wherever the hell? I don't really care..."

It seemed he did a bit, but the emotion he felt about her staying was clearly irritation. Refraining from a grumble, Isabella stood impatiently as he got closer, but his pace just slowed more and more. She waited, but seeing how he wasn't coming down to her, Isabella had to keep the groan strangled in her throat, "I have no intention to go anywhere, but..." Her chest tightened, "But..." Still, she waited for him to give her anything, but he stood away and glowered down at her, wrist still covering his pronounced frown. Then the groan came out. "I have to... go."

He didn't offer anything in reply.

"... You..." She nearly growled.

But embarrassingly, she didn't think that he couldn't have possibly heard her from up there until he spoke, "What? If you want to leave, go further out. Get. If you wanna keep annoying me, back in the bag. I don't have time for this..."

She wished to strangle him. Groaning again, she gestured down to herself. Seeing that he kept his glare, she begrudgingly stepped back closer to the bag, hiding under its shadow, and only then did Rick continue stepping forward after an almost miserable sigh. And, steeling herself against the tremoring steps, Isabella stepped back out when she felt the weight of him kneeling down. Before she could say anything, the giant grimaced, covering the lower half of his face again as he glared at her.

"You have five seconds to leave..." He started, voice a bit shaken.

"I need something!" She yelled out, still finding herself woozy from looking up at his knelt-down form. As expected, Rick's sour expression down at her didn't inspire much-needed confidence, and she felt her cheeks get hot. "An... urgent need..."

"Frankly, you act like everything is an urgent need." Though she wanted badly to retort that she'd only asked for her base needs to be met, now wasn't the time - as she had to ask for one of those needs to be met.

She gritted her teeth, wincing, "I... need..." Oh, how it pained her to say. "I need... to..." Damn it all. "take... care of some... needs..."

There was a beat of silence. Isabella couldn't even look up at him anymore; she looked down at her ruined, nearly torn-off shoes. When Rick's voice came through, she winced harder.

"You've got to be kidding me." He muttered, "Did I not just leave you alone? For several minutes while - while I-" A string of sputters followed. "What did you do the whole time? Just sit waiting so you can annoy me with this proper?" Her face got redder and redder. "You - are you truly that useless that you need my help to - to ...!?"

God, she felt like she was gonna pass out from how hot her face was getting. Unable to take it anymore, she frantically tried to fix it, "T-To what?!" She nearly squealed. "I n-need - I require a wash - some body of water! There isn't a-any around, and I wasn't going to risk my life looking!" She prayed her eyes didn't betray her when she looked up at him. It wasn't like it was a lie; she desperately needed a wash, but that wasn't what she was more immediately worried about.

Rick's eyes were narrowing more and more down at her. Isabella gulped, praying he believed it was just a misunderstanding. Her heart raced the longer he went without saying anything.

"Is..." She nearly squeaked out, "Is there no water n-nearby...?"

For a moment, she feared he'd characteristically say a puddle in the dirt would do, but he eventually caved with a massive, annoyed sigh. "There... is one where I plan on heading. A river. Should..." His face almost got red as he grimaced and looked off to the side, his hand still under his face, blocking the lower half of it. A pause, before he sighed again. "Should take a few hours to reach."

She didn't know if she could last that long. "H-How many hours?"

"I don't..." A groan escaped him. "If we can hurry the fuck along without pause, then maybe... an hour? Two? Three? Maybe two..." He tilted his head up, squinting up through the branches. "I just follow down south, assuming I don't get misdirected or..."

Well, now she was getting impatient. "South? Do you not know where it is?" Neither did she, really, but she had a way.

Just like that, the snappy, irritable tone was back. "I'm trying to figure it out. If you just shut-"

"I have a compass!" She called out, then hurriedly went through her bag, and flinched when she felt the cold chain of her family's pendant. Finding the compass, she fished it out, turning to get a sense of direction. "South," she said, pointing where it did. "Down this way!"

There was a pause above her for a moment. "And west?"

She responded by turning and pointing where it did.

A grumble now. "Fine. Then get your ass back in - and don't-" Rick hissed, lowering his hand finally to the dirt beside her. "Don't jump out again unless you genuinely want out or just a way to die. I don't have time for this."

Neither did she. So, nodding feverishly, she stumbled and ducked her way back into the bag once she shoved the compass back into her bag. Finding the space she had slept in previously, she crouched down, pressing her hand against the softer surface to stabilize herself.

"And don't piss in there, please."

The heat in her face was back, and she squealed, "I do NOT-!" But the squeal was cut off with a new one when she felt the space around her lift and shake. To avoid flipping and tossing over entirely, she dropped down voluntarily before everything turned sideways. Her heart and stomach sank to the pits when she felt the bag she was in lift up, and she had to refrain from potentially hurling. There was still some moving adjustments, side to side, shimmying almost, until she felt the firmness on the side of the bag - secured once again.

An hour. Two. Three. Isabella kept hissing out through her clenched, chattering teeth as she settled down, already counting the hours down. How was everything laid out here - that reaching water could possibly take that long? Of course, it wasn't entirely outrageous for her - Lord knows she had to suffer so much up in the mountains, but this was different. He was different. Just one of his strides covered so much land - and how much land could there possibly be?

Oh, she just wanted to cry now in the dark and cramped space in the bag, grimacing as she clutched at her face, toes curling in her pathetic excuse of shoes. Just stay still, she breathed out under her breath, shaking yet tense. Just distract yourself. Time had to pass somehow.

To distract herself, she tried daydreaming about her many books back home. She wished she still had them on her person, though her sight here was limited. She could think of the ones she remembered, like the back of her hand.

For example, The Knight of No Name was a good one. A nameless knight with no memory stumbles into the orchard of a widowed Baroness! She nurses him to health, and an attraction grows, but when his memories return, the knight realizes he was sent to destroy her estate. As Isabella goes down to relive the entire story, she finds herself delving a bit too deep into reality, remembering how she found it amongst Marguerite's old things.

Suddenly, Rick would slow in his tracks before going to a complete stop. Isabella tensed, wanting to shout and question but assuming her voice wouldn't break outside the bag. Especially when she started to be shaken around, ragged coughs escaping the giant outside. Tense and going red in the face from waiting, she did so for about five minutes before he resumed a walk again, and groaning, Isabella tried to remember some more.

Another one, Beneath The Laurel Tree. A noblewoman, torn between becoming a nun or marrying a man she doesn't love fled away from home, only to be caught by a band of outlaws hiding from the king. Their leader offered her sanctuary and freedom - but at a cost. And this time, the real life memories came much faster, as the one with Cecile simultaneously scolding and teasing her for reading such a book came front and center.

Isabella was already growing red and groaning at the memory when Rick stopped again, more shaking and mild coughing coming up from him. Glaring up at the tiny sliver of light above, Isabella really had to refrain from yelling at him before he continued his pace again.

Fine, another, a series. A Veil of Thorns. A princess had to fake her own death after being threatened for her illegitimate status, and she hid among a travelling troupe in the countryside. But the troupe's new sword master - brooding, battle-scarred, and much too observant - clearly recognizes royalty when he sees it, and the princess is terrified whether he would protect her secret or sell it for a bounty. And Isabella didn't know. She didn't get to finish the thing! The third book ended on a dreadful cliffhanger...

Groaning again and entirely too fed up by the time Rick seemed to inevitably slow down to a stop again, she couldn't stop the agonized yell coming out of her. "Why do you keep stopping?!" It went out shrill. "How much longer?" There was nothing, and it was hard to discern whether he just didn't hear her or outright ignored her. Gradually, there became more evidence of the former, as he started to cough like before. She groaned loudly as she buried her face in her hands and curled her toes, leaning back stiffly.

It'd take a few minutes for him to continue, but by then, she couldn't even bother to distract herself. This was pure torture! So much so that when he would finally call out to her after what felt like another hour later, it felt like she was making it up in some hallucination.

"Found it," The giant's muffled voice came through, and Isabella tensed further when the space rocked back and forth. She heard the pull of leather, and gradually, she felt her stomach drop as she felt a descent. Was he... Did he really not want to just reach in and grab her himself that much?! "Here. Get out and... do what you had to do."

Eventually, the bag found a surface, and Isabella winced when the flap was opened, revealing the light and more blades of grass, though mostly pebbles and dirt. Isabella found herself eyeing a portion of Rick's finger, seen lifting the flap of the bag before it disappeared.

"Wh-Where? Water?" She had so much she wanted to make clear and settle, but her current need felt the most pressing. It was difficult to stand and get up with how tense she was, but she eventually pushed herself up, ducking, thighs close together as she stumbled out, wincing at the light. Still daytime. It felt like ages in there.

Grinding her teeth, she looked around, and to her right, she heard it before she even fully saw it. A river. A damned large one, of course, and for a second, she wondered if this was the ocean itself. Waves rolled in slowly, and the sunlight bouncing off it almost made her have to squint. It had smelt so much fresher here, too, and the sounds...

... No time to dwell.

"Are you certain it's safe for me to get into?" She asked quick, squirming as she looked up to Rick. He, typically, was still in an almost protective stance, with his hand going under his face once more.

"I don't know. Why don't you go see for yourself?" He sneered but then, right afterward, added with a groan, "Just don't go in. You'll be fine at the shore if you... I don't know, kneel down to collect more water." His eyes drifted to the river. "And maybe-"

Good enough. "And you won't look?"

He blinked quickly. "A-Absolutely not! I've no reason to-"

"But you won't stray off or leave me either?"

There was almost a disappointment tinged in his annoyed eyes now like he thought she was more annoying than before. "I..." He looked away, and after a pause, a noisy breath escaped his lips. "I won't. At first. I have some stuff to look over, and if you're not out by the time I - by the time I call you for the second time, then I'm going." Grimacing, he pointed behind him. "I'll just be sitting there."

She hadn't even noticed what was behind him before, too entranced by the ocean. Across the river, stretching from one land to another was a bridge. Not a natural path or fallen tree. No, it was straight and perfect. Massive. Huge stone arches rose and went across the water. The bridge looked old and weathered but strong. It was the first sign of something... made. And again, she wondered more about what else was here.

Her trembles rose, and she found her gaze drifting to every massive and giant stone in the structure, lowering down to the shadow it cast in the running water and-

Agh, good enough, good enough.

"Do you-" The giant started, but Isabella interrupted. Not like he would have said anything kind or helpful, she reasoned. She hadn't the time for this.

"Then go!" She shrilly called before hurrying over to the water. Whatever expression Rick made upon being given an order, she didn't see it. Still, she did hear the typically annoyed huff from him before he very quickly stood up straight, taking his bag with him and then his thunderous footsteps sauntering off. She didn't even take the time to follow him with her gaze; no, she fought through the trembling earth, her trembling knees, and the uneven terrain to go straight to the freezing water.

 

-

 

Isabella feared she hadn't thought much of this through.

After all, she had no spare clothes on her person, nothing at all, but her clothes were so dirtied with dirt and sweat that the idea of washing them just to change back into them was dreadful. And she had never done her own laundry before, so stripping them off to wash was a tedious task she was certain she was messing up, even with the justification of not having anything to wash them with.

When Rick finally called out, she had been wringing her clothes out, barely at the shore of the river near the bottom of the stone bridge. "You're taking long. Hurry." And humiliated, she donned her clothes back on, soaking undergarments, soaking blouse, soaking dress. She clumsily put her socks on, then her feet into her already ripped-apart shoes, and picked up her cloak and bag, the only other things she spared from the water, before trudging up the rocks. A whole hike to climb up there and around the corner to the bridge, and she dribbled off water the entire time.

Getting there, she was stumped quickly. There were... steps? They were more like giant obstacles. It was taller than her, and then just another one, and another one, and another one... Fortunately, Rick didn't seem to expect her to climb up, but he wasn't sympathetic or helpful either. He was sitting on the bridge deck by the steps, an already dying cigarette in his fingers by his lips, a piece of paper on the floor beside him.

He eyed her, brows furrowing, "You look like a sewer rat." She wondered what she looked like before. Sighing, he stubbed the cigarette out and shifted, his leg swinging around as he faced her. When his boot slammed a few meters to her right, she jumped. "You didn't think that through, did you?"

A pout pulled at her face, "You don't happen to have anything for me to dry with?"

His shaking head was her first answer. "Don't keep clothes for mice on my person, no." And the second answer was just unnecessary. Isabella shivered from the sudden cold and her aggravation, and Rick just sighed. "You'll be warm when you're back in my bag, and you'll dry too, I'm sure." He pulled the paper beside him, lifting it up and looking it over with a squint.

The frown on Isabella's face pulled deeper. "And what's that?" She had recalled seeing the folded paper in his bag before, and based on the wrinkles on the back, she could tell it was folded several times over.

His answer was surprisingly quick, lacking the usual irritation. Likely because he seemed more preoccupied with it. "A map."

She blinked, "A map?"

"That's what I said, yes." He sighed.

Again, she wondered just how much land there was here. It seemed like he was walking for hours, and with a size and stride like that, she could have probably been back home in less than that time. Much, much less. Yet he was still walking? Still trying to find a village?

"How..." She had to suppress a shiver, growing cold fast in the air. "How does it look?"

The giant frowned down at her, but that was all the attitude he seemed to give her for now. After a sigh, he turned the map over, leaning down, holding it to her, and presenting it. It filled up so much of her view above her, right above the step, and she had to stumble back to see it. And when she did... well, she stumbled again - in pure shock.

It... wasn't her map. Of course, it wasn't. Yet it seemed so... grand. Almost... grander. Surrounded by water on all sides, so many rivers and pools on the landmass. So much space between the... townships.

Too much. It was too much. The wrinkled parchment's shapes and texts left the girl feeling sick.

"... What..." Her dress clung cold against her, which was an added and different main reason for her shivering now. "What... what is this? Where..."

The giant paused before he pointed to a spot closer to the upper left. "Here. We're right here." It meant nothing to her, just a vague area of green and trees, mountains to the east. There was another pause before his finger drifted upwards. "And here." He said, softer this time. "Is where you were."

He pointed to a small corner in the upper left of the land. There were no landmarks, nothing. It was just labeled "Divide."

That tiny mark. That corner. It was everything. Her whole world. The several kingdoms she learned about as a child. The great rivers and wild forests. The high mountain passes. The villages with winding roads, the farmland, and the lakes. Everything she had ever known.

And it was just a corner. A sliver.

She looked across the rest of the map, her eyes moving slowly over the names and borders she didn't recognize. There wasn't just one giant kingdom like she had always believed, but many. Sprawling and larger than her entire homeland. Kingdoms drew out larger than the whole of the "Divide." It was a vastness she had never imagined.

Her mouth felt dry.

She had assumed the giants lived in one kingdom - THE giant royals - the.... "Highline," she now read it being called, just east of her peoples' corner. She had imagined a big castle in a big valley, a small handful of villages, and that was it - like a storybook - something manageable. Not this. Certainly not this.

The map blurred before her eyes, and she stumbled again before falling and sitting herself down without meaning to. She kept her neck craned up, letting her stare at the map, trying to breathe, trying to understand.

It felt like ages passed before the giant spoke again, his voice low, "So I'm trying to make it over here first." His finger dragged down. "To Arcadia. Halfway there."

She didn't say anything.

"... What?"

She didn't answer right away, struggling to find the right words. Then, softly, "That's really all of it?" Weakly, she pointed, "That corner?"

"... Yes. We, uh... don't know what it looks like in there, but we have its general size, so that's where we mark it." The map turned around in his hand, lifting as he looked it over himself. "This is the most accurate map, though. Most other maps have this entire place marked as the Divide, but we can clearly see that's not true. This is the most accurate map you'll see here, frankly."

The most accurate map. And Isabella's lands were apparently smaller in it. It didn't inspire confidence. "I... you have so many... so many places and..."

"Mhm, that we do."

"But... the rest of us are so..."

She didn't think she had it in her to finish. The giant didn't say anything either for a long moment. Or maybe he did, his usual cruel remarks; maybe she just didn't hear them. She did hear a muffled, "You still want to come with me?"

As if staying by herself was an option now. It never was. But now? Really, that question was insulting in itself.

Trembling, she nodded.

"Mhm. Then come on. We can't linger around here for too long." And she felt the air shift, "Assuming you don't call for me to let you out, we're gonna keep going until sunset. So if you need to... well, just don't let yourself get too cold."

Isabella stared ahead blankly as she heard Rick digging through his pouch again, readying it for her to take refuge in again.

 

-

 

More and more hours passed, more than before, but this time, Isabella didn't bother distracting herself with past tales. Immediately when she went in, the giant left her another bit off piece of jerky, and just like last night, it was tough and painful to chew through, but it saved her from a future ache in her stomach. Then she was cold, so cold, wet clothes clinging onto her, and remembering the giant's more recent words, she clumsily discarded some of the clothes to wrap herself in her dirty, albeit dry cloak.

Then she slept. She didn't know how. It felt like everything was already blank when she was awake, becoming numb to the jostling steps outside, to the frequent pauses and coughs, and then everything dulled to sleep.

It felt like forever. When Isabella awoke, there was no more jostling or swaying. No coughs, either. It was still, and there was... a more stable ground. The bag was on the floor again. And, panicked, she didn't even wait to hear the sounds outside, just quickly shooting up, wide awake, "Wha-?" Terrified of having been left behind, she threw herself towards the open flap of the bag, her black cloak barely around her. "S-Sir!?"

He was there. Isabella didn't see his face, but his familiar hands extended from the right side of the bag, setting up a firepit like the one from last night. The hands paused their movements, and she felt the sound of shifting and grinding dirt to her right, his movements.

"What'd I say about calling me that?"

Isabella quickly became aware of her state of undress, and red-faced, she ducked back into the bag.

"About time, though. Hurry and come out. Gotta get my stuff in there to get this fire going." If he didn't get a look at her state, that was some comfort. Frowning, she looked around in the dark for her clothes. Still damp, but not soaking. Immensely wrinkled, too. Huffing, she ignored it and dressed herself, and within a few minutes, stumbled out of the bag, tripping with her ruined shoe.

The second she was out in the cold air again, the giant reached over and grabbed his bag, bringing it to his lap to dig through it, retrieving his box of matches and his cigarettes. Hesitantly, Isabella neared closer to his thigh before sitting herself down in the dirt, and she looked around. It didn't look too different from where they rested the night before. Hidden amongst gargantuan trees that should have reached the heavens, rustles in the growing dark. Uneasy, she shifted closer to him.

When the fire was lit and growing, Isabella released a heavy breath, waiting for the warmth to reach her. The fire - no, the bonfire grew and grew, and soon warmth swam right at her.

"... Are we... not any closer to the next village?" She asked, still watching the flames. The giant above her snorted as he took a drag of his cigarette.

"If you want to walk all the way there in the dead of night, be my guest." He scowled before grumbling under his breath. "It's no skin off my back to camp out one more night."

She had to hold back a sigh, "Then how much longer?"

"Impatient, aren't you? After what? Sleeping all day? Shut your mouth." And there was the attitude again. Grimacing, Isabella clung her cloak tighter around her. What a despicable man. "We passed the second river, so we'll get there by noon tomorrow." Another quiet grumble escaped him. "Now that we're finally past what they consider the Divide, I can breathe easy."

Well then, Isabella wanted to retort, let's see if that's the truth and you stop hacking up your lungs. But she remained quiet. She did, however, crane her neck to eye him as he took another quiet drag of his cigarette. Strange, as she'd have figured it'd make his previous coughs worse, but he seemed calmer now. Breathing wise, anyway. His grimacing scowl was, of course, back.

Frustratingly, his lack of care or concern for her just made her crave and need it so much more. It was aggravating. She sat there anxiously as he smoked the rest of his cigarette, sitting in silence, watching the flames for several minutes, then grumbling and grabbing his bag, dragging it through the dirt towards him. His hands dug through it for a moment, and knowing that the map was in there now made her chest feel so heavy.

"How..." Isabella shuddered. "How far are we...?" The giant's movements stopped, and she kept trembling as she could feel his gaze on her. Yet, more words escaped her: "From where... I started."

No response. She was just anticipating a cruel one more than none at all. "You mean how far from the Divide?" It might have been such a baited question. She knew how far... too far. And yet nothing at all. She flinched when she heard the rustling of parchment as the giant reached for the map, unfolding it and leaning further down to her, and she felt his weighted presence right above her.

The parchment folded on the dirt in front of her, his giant fingers keeping it pinned down. The size of the map alone, right in front of her, illuminated by the fire's light, made her feel sick. It covered the whole space in front of her.

"Here." The giant rumbled, one of his fingers dragging down, further south from when he pointed earlier. "We're here now. Started h-" His finger dragged over to the agonizingly full area labeled as "Highline" before quickly dragging to the south of the Divide. "I mean - here. Here's when I first became cursed with you."

Isabella squinted, a strange pause to her mood. "... It's a bit higher."

"No, right here."

"Certainly not." She didn't think she ran that much on her lonesome.

"Most certainly. Again, it might not be completely accurate, but it's one of our most accurate maps." He said, voice strangely soft. "You went through quite a bit here." His finger stuck to the edge of the Divide.

That... that she did. Inhaling sharply, she rubbed her cheeks. "But... that's nothing compared to the rest of this."

"What do you mean?"

"This." She gestured to it with a heavy sigh. "That's... so much distance. And it's nothing for you, isn't it? That's all... it's... Several times the length to get across my homeland and... I never even did that."

Isabella didn't even know how to articulate it to words. Her mouth kept opening, but nothing came forth. She closed her eyes, grabbing fistfuls of her hair as she rocked in place.

"Hey." His voice made her peek back up to the map in front of her, to his finger still between the space he had crossed. "Hey, enough of that. Head out of the fog, c'mon."

"I-" She stammered, "I - it's just - this is... a lot. And it doesn't make sense, but it does, and..."

He sighed deeply, "I shouldn't have shown you it. Clearly you're too dumb to handle it. You're real fucking stupid. But you're more resilient than that, aren't you? You've made it here, haven't you? This is just the next step."

Isabella's mouth fell open a bit. A flush growing in her cheeks, she turned to look up at Rick, and he was pinching the bridge of his nose, looking off with a grimace. His lips kept pursing repeatedly, and only on the seventh time did something come out.

"Here. Look. People don't know what the hell goes on here, either. I-I mean, here." He repeatedly pointed to the Divide, slapping the pad of his finger on it. "Fuckin' clueless. Did... did you know that?"

Blinking, Isabella stared. "Wh..." She wiped her face, "What?"

"You said before that we have so many places, right?" They did. So many kingdoms, so many villages, so, so many. "Is it like your map at all? Doesn't yours look the same?"

"... Mhm. For the most part." Isabella sniffled, rubbing the spot under her eye some more. "At least, our old maps look like it. A lot of places and people were..." Driven out. Taken over, sent to exile, expanding territory, or turning spaces to dust. "They're... not on the maps anymore. But not too long ago, they were. But, you also have... more water."

"... Hm? More water?"

"You're surrounded by water." She said, "We're surrounded by mountains. There's sea up north, but only up north." Thinking of something, she hesitated before asking, "Do you know what's beyond your waters?"

Rick wet his lips. Looked away. Pressed his lips together. Isabella's brow furrowed, and she felt a pit in her stomach when he ignored her. "Just... don't worry your little head about all this. You'll be fine."

Isabella felt her chest swell.

"Just... It's not like we're lost or anything. We're... travelling. Seeing more. And you've made it this far. Right?" He ran his hand down his face, turning slightly, so she couldn't see him well. "And if you want to talk about how little you've made it, like an idiot, lots of people on this map haven't left their little corner either. I haven't. At least, not that I..."

Her breath hitched as her eyebrows rose. She desired to know more, but Rick very promptly scoffed, a frown on his face when he finally lowered his hand and turned down again.

"Whatever. Forget what I said. Just - the world's fuckin' huge, is all. That's all."

He took the offending map, folding it back up, and Isabella sat back to watch. Once it was folded, he tucked it back neatly into his bag, still on his lap, and dug around it messily. "Let's just get another bite in. I got enough worries, don't need a starving tiny being one of them."

Isabella kept staring at him longingly, waiting and wishing for him not to forget about it like he said. But it seemed so, as he ripped apart some jerky he pulled out from the bag, looking at her with a passionless look.

"Food," He announced, showing it off a moment later. Yet another stripped-off piece of jerky, and he dropped it right beside Isabella. She scrambled to catch it before it hit the dirt. And now that she was more satiated than the night before, she found herself less eager to break her jaw to eat through - it'd be the third time by now.

And though he rescinded it, she found herself still stuck on what he was saying before. With a frown marking her lips, she hesitated before daring to test her luck to ask, "Is it always jerky? Do you ever... eat anything else?" She might have thought that was all, but that damned map proved there was a lot more here. Surely a lot more to eat.

It took a moment before the giant snorted. "Just jerky? What else you want, tiny? A five-course meal? Please." He began to chew down his piece. "Jerky is good for travel, you know. Easy to store, doesn't spoil fast. It's perfect and doesn't taste half bad, either."

Isabella paused, "It... kind of hurts to eat. It's tough. Thick."

A pause came from him, too. "... What does it matter? It ain't like you have to worry about starving to death."

She did not too long ago.

"Just stick to the crumbs I feed you, tiny. Unless you're volunteering to be a... a meal yourself. Or something." There it was again. Isabella shivered, hugging the cloak around herself to suppress upcoming trembles. His chewing sounds filled the air, making it harder to ignore her discomfort, but eventually, he'd slow. "... Again, lucky for - for you, we'll reach Arcadia tomorrow." His voice quieted more. "And I know I'll be looking forward to ordering a nice filling meal the second we're there."

Ordering. Isabella's eyebrows rose a tiny bit, and cautiously, she looked up at him just in time to see him finish and swallow down the last bit of his jerky. And without thinking to rephrase delicately, the question just slipped out, "You have coin to spend?"

His violet gaze flicked down at her quickly - so quick that she flinched. As expected, those eyes were narrowed harshly. "What? You think I've been mooching off the land, tiny?"

"... That..." Isabella cringed, genuinely confused. It seemed to be what he was implying the night before, plus he had just said he was traveling, so his sudden defensiveness left her stumped in which direction to go. "I... I'm not quite sure?"

"Yeah, I have fucking coin to spend." He growled, his hand rubbing the leather pouch still in his lap. "Don't think that means you'll be getting any expensive shit. Remember, I can even sell you to get some more hard earned coin, how's that?"

That, too. Isabella trembled, her heart hammering against her chest. "I just a-assumed... if you don't have a home-" She might have still felt such immense disappointment. "That you... well..."

He didn't say anything. Just kept glaring daggers at her.

Isabella's heart raced faster, and shaking, she sputtered out, "You said you were traveling." Hoping to steer the subject just the tiniest bit. "Where... where's your final destination? Where are you headed?"

Rick's eye twitched at her stammering question. He kept glaring down at her, face illuminated by the fire. He didn't say anything for a moment, and Isabella shrank back. "Finished asking dumb questions, or you're full of them?" He snapped. "You think because I took your sorry ass in, you have all the right to nose around my life?"

"Wh-" Isabella flinched, a forceful breath escaping her. "What? I simply-"

"My final destination," He drawled out, leaning closer, his hand planted on the dirt beside her to steady himself. Violet eyes sharpened right down at her. "is none of your fucking business, understand?" His voice dropped, gravelly and dangerously soft.

It hurt. Why did it hurt? Her chest, her throat, they all burnt so badly as she looked up at the terrifying and harsh visage of the giant above her. The fire wasn't burning her, but she felt so hot...

His face twitched again, and after a grumble, he sat up. "Forget it. Mind your own damn survival. It'll serve you better." And he faced the fire again, glaring into the flames before picking up his bag and dropping it into the dirt behind Isabella. She flinched at the rising dirt it caused. "I'm gonna try sleeping. Either you get the fuck out of my hair for good, or you do the same."

Spreading his legs out and resting his back against the tree behind him, Rick rested his hands over his stomach, turning his head to the side, away from Isabella. And she felt blindsided.

What... happened?

For too long a moment, she sat there. She was still watching Rick, waiting for him to glance at her. Hell, to even spit another insult or something. But nothing. At most, he'd shift in his spot but kept looking the other way.

After enough of that, she, with her chest and throat still burning, got up and, still holding the too-large piece of jerky, stumbled her way to the discarded bag. She ducked in, stumbling before falling on her knees in her now usual resting spot. Very soon, she would be curled up in the pocket of warmth and darkness, just a sliver of the opening by her feet giving a view to the fire outside.

Eventually, sleep would take hold of her. Strangely, while it did, she found herself craving the rising and falling she had slept the night before.

Notes:

VISUAL FOR THE MAP HERE! :3
https://www.deviantart.com/stash/0f0sbizy63m

trying to deliver again rahhh, and I'm super stoked to get to the next chapter I'll tell you that much...

Notes:

finally sharing these guys' story! I've been posting a lot of them to Twitter and I've just been holding onto this written stuff in anxious fear even before. But, finally sharing! Hoping you guys' have as much fun reading as I do writing these guys :D