The Door of Giants

The doors are now fully opened, and the group are in awe as they stare at three twenty foot tall woman, all adorned with fur-heavy armour.

"Speak your purpose." The giant in the front says.

"We're here to speak to your Queen." Terra answers, trying to keep her voice confidence and steady.

The giants are quiet for a few moments, looking amongst one another. The giants then look behind them, seemingly hearing something that the group cannot.

The giants look back at the group after a few seconds before the giant in front speaks again. "You can enter. You may bring your cart inside as well if you do not wish it to be covered in snow."

The group look amongst each other, trying to decide if it's a good idea or not, but they don't seem to have much choice as the snowfall is heavier up at the stronghold compared to down at the bridge.

Virra heads over, starting her cart up as the group begin walking inside. A few moments later, Virra rides through the door and re-joins the group.

The large doors then begin to close behind the group and a pit of dread grips their stomachs.

"Well, guess we're in the shit now, huh?" Amilia attempts to joke, but not even she can laugh at a moment like this.

"If you wish to meet our Queen, you must follow." One of the giants say as they begin walking ahead.

The group quickly follow behind, hoping that this goes as smoothly as possible, but they all know that won't be the case.

The seven start looking around, seeing nothing more than a huge, long, dark hallway, and they don't exactly feel confident as they continue down, following behind the giants.

"We smell blood on you. What did you kill?" One of the giants ask.

"We ran into bandits stalking the bridge. They blocked us in, so we had ****." Clarva bluntly replies.

"Bandits? Hmm. We must tell the Queen. She will not allow such transgressions in the future."

The group grow quiet, those words from the giants feeling like less of a comment and more like a warning for their impending meeting.

After another bout of quiet hits the group, John thinks about that impending meeting, and since he wants to know more, he decides to ask the giants.

"Excuse me..." John starts.

"What is it, little one?" The giant on the left replies.

"Uhh, I have a question about our meeting with the Queen. Is there anything we should do? Should we bow? Or take a knee?"

"You needn't do anything but be respectful and speak only when spoken to, small one. Our Queen will not tolerate any disrespect, and will impose any punishment she sees fit if you disrespect her in any way."

John stammers for a second. "Okay... understood."

As John goes quiet, Kyuala leans over to him. "Did that answer make you feel any more confident?"

"Fuck no." John whispers back.

The group plus their giants envoy continue forward, heading to a literal light at the end of the tunnel.

"Well, if that isn't foreshadowing, I don't know what is." Lani mutters to John.

A few more minutes pass, and the group as well as the giants finally get to the end of the hallway. They all cross the threshold, and that's when the group see that they've walked into a waiting room of sorts.

They see another set of doors ahead of them, but they're not as large as the front doors. The doors are also a lot more ornate, showing two carved images of a giant woman.

The image on the left door is the woman slaying what appears to be another giant. The giant being killed is on the floor whilst the standing giant is plunging a sword into their chest.

The image on the right door is the same giant woman, but this time, she is seemingly standing in victory with her sword held high. John notices that the woman had a cloak and crown on the second carving, and her boot was resting on top of the corpse of the other giant.

"You are looking at the story of how our Queen rose to power." One of the giants says. "She challenged the previous queen to a duel for leadership, as per the rules of our kind. The previous queen had grown stale in her rule, so our Queen decided that we needed a new ruler. The door on the left shows the fight to the **** in the Pit of the Ancients, and the one on the right shows our Queen's victory."

"So, they fight to the **** to become the new Queen?" Kyuala asks.

"Yes. It is a tradition as old as our people. The strongest survive and the weak must perish in order for us to grow stronger as a people."

"Oh, so they're that kind of people... fantastic." John thinks to himself.

The trio of giants then head to the doors before turning to the group. The giant in front then begins to speak. "You all wait here. We will alert our Queen of your arrival."

The giants then open one of the doors up and walk inside before closing the door behind them, leaving the group to wait.

"So, is making a mad dash for the door an option yet?" Amilia asks.

"No. We're here to save Erya. I'm not leaving until the Queen agrees to remove the curse... or we go with plan B."

Terra's tone and expression is as serious as the group have even heard and seen from their friend.

"Well sister, you sure know how to give an inspirational speech." Virra jokes, but they all know that she feels the same way as Terra.

As the group continue their fear-filled banter, they notice that Clarva has been silent since they walked into what is essentially the waiting room. Terra then heads over to the half-giant. "Are you alright? You seem... in your head."

Clarva looks around the room, seeing large tapestries depicting the history of the giants that adorn the walls.

"It's just like how I remembered it." Clarva mutters.

The group then start inspecting the tapestries, and the history buff inside Lani starts going wild. She makes her bag appear before pulling out her journal and starts copying the tapestries. "These are incredible! We had some knowledge of the history of giants, but being able to see it in person?! I can't believe it!"

"Well, at least someone is having a good time. Meanwhile, I'm currently shitting myself." John jokes.

"You're not the only one." Kyuala then takes John's hand, trying to bring back some confidence to him and to herself.

"Hey wings, you mind explaining what's on the walls?" Amilia asks.

"Certainly!" Lani answers before moving to the first tapestry on the left wall. "This is the beginning of the giants. The original giant was a drop-in from a world that was apparently like our own, according to the knowledge my people have from her assigned fairy. That fairy didn't stick around the giant long due to the giant's... actions, which are seemingly still practiced to this day."

"Actions?" Virra asks.

"Taking people and using them as breeders whether they agree to it or not." Clarva clarifies.

John then has a thought. "Hold on, doesn't that mean that every giant is technically a half-giant?"

"Only at birth. After the half-giant in question reaches the age of burgeoning adulthood, there is a ritual in which the giant is given the blood of an elder to drink. From what I overheard, the blood apparently purifies the body of the father's genes, making the half-giant--a full one."

Clarva's explanation stuns the group, but Lani has something to ask. "If I recall correctly, that's not all that happens in the ritual..."

Clarva's face shows that Lani is telling the truth. "Yep. The second part of the ritual... involves the child killing their parent."

The room goes quiet once again, but it doesn't last long as they all hear Terra mutter, "Just like Erya."

"Your sister?" Clarva asks.

"Yes. Our father was reading an excerpt about the Giant's Eye, and it said that if the cursed person didn't get cured within the two months, they would turn into a giant and kill their family to eradicate any remaining ties to their previous life."

Silence grows once more as no one knows what to say.

Everything the group about the giants just seems to add on to the ever growing pile of dread they all have within them, but it also adds more fire to the group's combined determination to help the youngest Tarron sister.

After a minute of silence, Lani carefully asks, "Should I continue with the history of the giants, or...?"

"Please do. If we have another silence on this trip, I'm going to head-butt the damned wall." Virra answers, bringing some humour to the dire mood.

"Alrighty! Well, on the next tapestry, it shows the beginning of the giant people..."

---

MEANWHILE:

The trio of giants that brought the group into the stronghold are kneeling before a massive throne with an equally massive woman sitting upon it.

"Did you meet with our new arrivals?" The Queen asks.

"We did, your majesty. They are smaller than expected." The giant in the middle responds.

"There is one of them that is much bigger than the rest. She could almost pass as one of us, your majesty." The giant on the right adds.

"One of us, huh?" The Queen hums as she rubs her chin as quite a few thoughts seemingly enter her mind that she begins to mull over. "What about the others? What are they like?"

This time, the one on the left speaks up. "There are seven in total, including the big one. There is an orc, a catfolk, two elves, a fairy and a race that I do not recognise."

"One you don't recognise? Elaborate."

"Your majesty, he is strange. I assume he is a drop-in because of the fairy next to him, and he is similar to a Fuckion, but his skin is... different than a regular one. He also has this strange scent to him. I can honestly say that I have never smelled anything like it before."

That last part really catches the Queen's attention as she leans forward. "A unique scent, you say? Not only that, but he's a drop-in and doesn't look like any race that we've seen... interesting."

The Queen then takes a deep breath, seemingly trying to pick up on this supposed scent. Her eyes then shoot wide open as everyone realizes that the Queen has found the aforementioned scent.

"It's him..." The Queen says with a muted yet excited tone, and all of the others giants in the room are just confused.

The Queen leans back in her throne. "Bring them to me. I am very curious to learn why they've come all this way."

"At once, your majesty." The trio respond before they all stand up from their kneeling position.

---

OUTSIDE THE THRONE ROOM:

"... And after that, it seems like the Thirteen Leaders broke off from each other. There must be a clan of giants in each of the major continents and some smaller countries. I wonder if there's a clan in Reduna'zriam!"

Amilia leans over to the others as Lani continues her happy tirade. "I regret asking her about this shit now."

"It's definitely taken the nerves away, that's for sure." Virra comments.

"Replacing nervousness with being annoyed isn't exactly much better." Clarva adds.

Terra then follows up with, "Well, I for one, would much rather be pissed off than pissing myself."

"Alright. I believe we've passed the piss talk quota for this adventure, can we please move on to something different?" Kyuala asks, trying to move the conversation along.

"So, I can still say that I'm so nervous that I could squirt, right?" Amilia jokes before receiving a slap to the back of her head from her mighty, green friend.

"Well, if we need a good distraction, Amilia can do that on the ground, we can call it Plan P." John begins chuckling to himself, seemingly proud of his joke, but he also receives a slap from Kyuala.

Unfortunately for Kyuala, the others also found it amusing, and she just sighs in disappointment.

"And that concludes the last of the tapestries! There's a lot in-between, but I don't know how long we have until we meet the Queen." Lani says, recapturing the attention of the group once again.

"So, basically the giants are horny and powerful, so they kill, fuck and repeat. Sounds like my kind of people."

Lani is a little hesitant to agree with Amilia's crass explanation, but knows that the cat isn't wrong. "In the simplest of terms... yes."

"Huh, maybe I should ask if I can sign up." Amilia jokes... kinda.

The group then quickly jump back as the doors open up. One of the giants from earlier then walks through before saying, "The Queen will see you now. Follow me, and do not stray."

The giant then turns around, and the group look amongst each other, all simultaneous worrying about what they're walking into.

After a deep breath, Terra starts walking forward, and the rest follow suit as they head into the throne room.