Gathering Supplies

Myo

It was tricky figuring out what to harvest with only the meager light of the skybelt, the stars, and the moon, and a waxing crescent moon at that. First Myo blindly plucked leaves and tore out grasses. He cut off parts of several different cacti, doing his best to also collect the fruits and flowers without pricking himself on the thorns. Then he wondered if the thorny parts might also be worth gathering, so he lopped off a couple cactus limbs just to be on the safe side. Myo ended up with only three thorns in his arm, not a very high price compared to the beatings and starvation that had dominated his life these past few weeks.

Every few paces brought him to another new plant, and another sample for Surabi. He never would have imagined there could be so many different species of plants in the desert of all places, yet he kept finding more and more varieties.

The strangest plant he found looked like a bunch of evenly placed poles sticking out from the ground. Perhaps some sort of desert bamboo? It took him several minutes to cut through one with his knife, but once he'd sawed through the outside he discovered the stalks were hollow, and filled with a white sap which could be a useful property, whatever that meant.

Myo had no idea what all of these plants could possibly do, but Surabi had insisted. Whatever her plan was, it required these plants, and he wasn’t about to second guess someone her size. He remembered she said something about the substances of life. Whatever she had in mind must require a number of different living things. Maybe they were ingredients for a spell that could break her out of that cage, or some kind of potion that would allow her to slip out of her manacles? Truly, all he knew about magic was that she had used it to heal him, and that was enough for him.

Though a part of him wondered if he was being manipulated, or if her concern for him was genuine. He had no experience with women caring about him, or even pretending to care about him. It was hard for him to imagine this stranger cared more about him than anyone in his former village, including his own parents.

Granted Surabi was far from a normal woman, and his parents were more than willing to sell him into slavery. Perhaps his standards for human decency were on the lower end, or maybe she’s different because she isn’t truly human.

But what if Surabi had bewitched me?

She’d already demonstrated incredible healing powers. Mind control, or some subtle influence wasn't that far fetched. In Fey stories, the beautiful ones were the most dangerous, and there was no denying she was a great beauty. A great, great, great, enormous beauty, with boobs wider than wagon wheels.

Fuckin hells, those breasts!

As far as he could remember, Myo had never touched a pair of breasts since his infancy. Hell, he couldn't even be sure his own mother had breastfed him.

She probably thought it would be a waste of good milk.

Surabi would have had no such qualms. She had placed him in her cleavage to keep him warm, and let him lie atop her breasts just so they could converse at a more equal level. She'd made no effort to hide her body from him, and his memories of her ultra-voluptuous form kept cycling through his mind. Myo found he couldn't stop thinking about her. Nineteen years of pent up lust finally had a target, and he was defenseless; a stranger to both infatuation and acts of kindness.

Maybe I really am the mouse with the lion, or lioness in this case.

He hoped. That fable ended well for both the mouse and the lion, why not for Myo and Surabi? He tried not to delude himself about any potential romance, there was no way she could really find him attractive. The mental image of being intimate with Surabi was too arousing for Myo to focus on his task, so he did his best to banish those thoughts and keep his mind on the desert life around him.

How would that even work anyway? She's so much bigger than me, like a draft horse next to a miniature donkey. Surabi would probably need a man with parts bigger than my whole body.

It was only after several hours of walking around and cutting plants that he realized that he wasn't the least bit hungry, though he hadn't eaten all day. On the contrary, he felt more energized than ever before.

It must have been her healing spells.

The thought gave him renewed hope. It was another demonstration of her power to strengthen him, just like she had said; proof of a magical bargain that was not a secret trap for gullible humans.

Myo wasn't sure how much longer he had until the sun came up, but he didn't want to take any chances. Besides, the sack was getting full. Navigating back would be no trouble, even under the moonlight he could still see a plume of smoke that must have been the outpost.

He was careful to not make a sound on his way back, stepping around dead branches and stepping shallowly so he wouldn't kick up clouds of dust and give away his position. The last thing Myo wanted was for a guard to misidentify him as a wild animal and try to spear him, or correctly identify him as a wild ****, and try to spear him.

Yet just before Myo made it past the outpost’s unfinished outer walls, he caught sight of one last plant he hadn't collected from. It was a very wide bush, with light bark and small pale leaves that both seemed abnormally bright in the dark of night. Where he touched the bark his hand came away red and itchy. He scratched at the marks for far too long, nearly drawing blood before he managed to stop himself. Though unpleasant, that definitely seemed like a property of interest. He set the bag down at his feet and went about peeling strips of bark, holding his knife by the blade and the handle to avoid touching anymore of the bark.

Satisfied that he had sampled enough plants, Myo tied the sack and and crossed the final hundred paces through the gap in the wall, and back to the hill that Surabi was trapped within.

Once Myo found the opening he tossed the sack into the darkness, and began to climb down, down to his shackled protector.

“You did very well,” Surabi seemed pleased at his offering of assorted plant parts. Myo was just happy he hadn’t gotten caught sneaking back in.

The giantess began sorting them into separate piles with her manacled hands. Myo was surprised at the deftness and precision of her movements, especially given the sheer size of her hands, and the encumbering weight of the iron restraints. Once Surabi had sorted through them, she began to inspect the samples more carefully. First smelling, then tasting each plant type in an orderly fashion.

Finally, Surabi arrived at the plant with the odd bark. After tasting a small piece she spit it out immediately, then looked down at Myo. “Did you touch this one?” She asked, her tone and expressions conveyed a great deal of concern.

Myo nodded, and glanced down at his hands. He had begun scratching at his palm again without even noticing, and they’d turned pox red in mere minutes.

Surabi plucked a few leaves off some inconspicuous branch, popped them into her huge jaws and set to chewing. After a minute she took Myo’s hands into her larger ones and spat the resulting paste and green saliva into his palms.

“That should counteract the toxins from the bark, but do not touch it any more.” She released his hands and went back to examining her inventory.

Myo was more than a little grossed out, but could only take her at her word. She was the expert after all. At first his hand tingled unpleasantly, but over the next few minutes he found the sensations faded, along with the urge to scratch.

“It worked!” He couldn’t believe it. He’d never heard of such a skilled medicine woman before, but her methods were precise enough to identify both a poison and its antidote with just a taste of each.

Surabi huffed at that, “Of course it worked, I said so, did I not?” Not bothering to turn away from her work.

After a few more minutes she sat back on her haunches, seemingly satisfied with her findings. “Yes, these will do nicely. There will be no need for you to venture outside the camp again.”

Myo was relieved at first, but then he wondered why she had specified “outside the camp.” Does she need me to steal from the guards now? He didn’t like that idea, he’d only agreed to the last mission since it took him away from the slavers.

“So, when can we escape?” asked Myo, eager to leave this place well behind.

“Eager, are we? So am I. But, before we can escape, I will need you to gather one more ingredient.” She grasped a big handful of sand from the ground and let it spill out in front of Myo. “Sand.”

“Sand? How will sand help?” he asked, confusion plain on his face. Myo was still unclear on how the plants would help them to escape, and he couldn’t begin to guess what sand could do.

“Well, not just any sand, elsewise I could have made do with that from this cage. There are many types of sand in the desert, but it is the pure white sand that I need for one final magic trick. It is called gypsum. I can explain its power to you later, but we don’t have the time. Do you know where to find it?”

Myo nodded. That white sand was everywhere, and still quite reflective at night. It wouldn’t be hard to find.

She picked him up again, and Myo saw no point in arguing further as she lifted him up to the skylight, and out into the night once more.

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"Saved by the Giantess Alchemist" has taken a backseat to Chemical Control Lately, but I do intend to come back to it at some point, once I'm done with my more popular story.