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Jiant

“Jiant. Look.”

Jiant paused his forward stride, and turned. Jora Lina waded through the river, carrying small objects in his hands.

“Recently burnt wood. And leather – Red leather.”

Jiant smiled. The Red Cave brats had come this way after all.

“Good work. Let’s quicken our pace.” He rumbled. Jora Lina nodded and scrambled out of the water, stomping quickly down the game path that followed the river’s course. Jora was still small, just a few head staller than most men, but well-muscled. The first dose of the potion was always the strongest. From now on, each taste would bring less and less growth but still, given enough time, Jora would be a fine henchman.

Jiant shaded his eyes, and gazed upriver. Several mountaintops loomed ahead, rounded with age. Small patches of snow still lurked near the tops, but it would not last much longer in the heat of summer. Judging from the way they came together, it looked like there was a large open area ahead – some sort of valley. The mountain tops were very near now, and there was no way a river this full could be fed from too much higher. They must be reaching the end now. With luck, the Red Cave children would still be camping there, wondering what to do next.

He continued slogging his way up the path, dodging tree limbs and rocks at almost every step as his stomach churned with hunger. Everything was in the way, or too small, or too brittle. He had tried wading directly in the river, but the riverbed was slippery, and full of holes, and after only a couple of falls he had returned to the game paths, reluctant to lose his dignity again.

As they traveled, Jiant glanced at his followers. Jora Lina was far ahead, easily weaving between the boulders and trees that peppered the mountainside. Smart, perceptive and eager to please – an excellent combination. Nash and Tamu were keeping close – they had been with him from the start, and had learned not to straggle behind or appear lazy in any way.

The others were keeping up as well. Even Suet, still walking gingerly from the pounding he had given her the night before last was keeping up, silently. She hadn’t spoken, or even looked anyone in the eyes since that night. Just as well – he wasn’t keeping her around for conversation anyways.

The water sparkled in the sunlight, while a cool breeze blew away the heat of their climb. If it hadn’t been for the escape and the betrayal of Irda, this would have been a fine day. As it was, vengeance pushed everything else out of his mind. Everything but the grating need for food.

The sun sank slowly in the west and the air grew colder as he passed the last stands of trees to find the great valley stretching before him, sloping up to the west until it met the sky. The river, white with foam, rushed down the slope, fed from somewhere beyond the ridge, dozens of streams feeding it from every direction.

He rumbled to a stop, frowning.

“What is it?” Nash asked.

“There should be people here. This is a fine valley.” He pointed towards a large patch of brown to the north. “Plenty of caribou.”

“Do you want me to bring you some?”

Jiant stared. “Do you even have to ask?”

Nash nodded. “Tamu.” He called, and jerked his head. The two of them ran off together, tree-trunks in hand.

Suet sniffed the air. “Do you smell that?”

“What?” He lifted his nose, but could only smell the grass and the air. But then, her sense of smell had been very sharp of late.

“Smoke.” She said.

He had them.

“Jora Lina.” He called out. The boy turned towards him. “Smoke. Up ahead. Now we run.”

Jora Lina nodded, and bolted up the mountainside. Jiant began working his legs, slowly, like an avalanche he built up momentum as he rumbled up the valley. Behind him, the earth groaned as the others matched his pace. The rocks and bushes flew by, buried in a sea of grass as he churned his way to the top, eyes focused on the top of the ridge.

Lungs aching, he kept at it, doggedly running as the fire burned his insides. The sooner he had those children over the fire, the better.

He was still three spear-throws away when Jora Lina reached the top. Muscles singing in pain, he kept pushing. Two spear-throws. One. Jora returned to the edge and waited for them.

“If they’re here, they’re in that cave.” The boy said, pointing towards a large opening. A cluster of ruined huts and tents sat nearby. Jiant shook his head. “Check to make sure they aren’t – ” he paused for breath, “- hiding in those huts.”

Jora Lina nodded, and ran quickly towards the huts and tents, smashing them to the ground with swift strokes of his spear. In a few short moments they lay in ruins, empty.

Jiant turned his eye towards the cave. The smoke was coming from a large fire just in front of it. No one appeared to be tending it.

He walked towards the fire, studying it intently as his followers fell in behind him. There wasn’t anything remarkable about this fire – it looked like a bunch of poles and stakes were being burned. The ground around the entrance showed signs of recent digging.

A man appeared from the cave entrance. He looked directly at Jiant, and waved, speaking a greeting of some kind. His skin seemed to shimmer in the firelight.

Jora Lina poke up from behind – “He says ‘Greetings, large men’”.

Astonishingly, he showed no fear at all at the approach of nearly a dozen towering men and women. He walked to the fire, tossing a load of stakes and poles onto the fire. It seemed like a waste of good poles.

“Ask him what he’s doing”, said Jiant. Jora Lina translated, and the man responded. At the answer, Jora Lina spoke again, more quickly and sharply. The man replied calmly again, nodding his head in agreement.

“He says that he is punishing his guards for letting the children get away. The children dressed in red.”

Jiant pondered this for a moment as they continued to walk forwards. “What did he want with them?”

Jora Lina spoke up again, and was answered. “He says that he offered them food, and they did not offer proper courtesies in response. They ate and ran. He told his guards to stop them, so they could be punished, but they failed.”

Jora Lina paused for a moment. “I don’t know exactly what he’s talking about – he is burning sticks, not people”

Jiant nodded – a mystery.

The man spoke up again. They were so close now that a regular speaking voice was sufficient.

Jora Lina said: “He invites us in for dinner.”

Jiant’s stomach rumbled, and he remembered just how hungry he was. “Agreed, ” he said. “Anyone who dislikes those children is my friend.” He looked back at his warriors. “Three of you will join me for dinner. Makari, Jora Lina and… Vela,” Vela was the other woman in his tribe. It would be amusing to see how Suet took this. He watched her reaction closely to see how she would respond to this honor. But she kept staring at the ground, hardly moving. If anything, her head dipped further down.

His eye twitched in annoyance, and he turned forward and strode past the bonfire into the main room. A cooking fire crackled merrily in the center of the room, and a large skin was hanging on one of the walls. That was odd. He crossed his legs and sat down on the floor. It was quite interesting to be treated like some ordinary guest. It hadn’t happened in some time.

The man had disappeared into a dark portion of the cave. Jiant’s stomach ached with hunger. What is taking him so long? “Man. Where is our food?” He growled, his words echoing across the chamber. Jora Lina echoed his words in the man’s own tongue.

“I am coming.” The man responded earnestly. “Your food is almost ready.” Jora translated quickly.

The skin on the wall seemed to flutter slightly. Jiant stared at it, frowning, but it did not move again. A trick of the firelight.

The strange man reappeared a few moments later, carrying a stack of bowls. He circled around the fire, handing the bowls out. Jiant was the last to receive his, and his mouth was practically swimming in spit as he studied the pile of greens.

“Where’s the meat?” asked Makari with a dangerous edge to his voice, having had a moment to sift through the bowl.

The man responded, and Jora translated. “No meat.” He said . “We only eat lake-weed here. Try it.. it is delicious. ” The man immediately started scooping the dark green stems into his mouth.

Too hungry to just put it down, Jiant grabbed a piece, and, throat quivering in disgust, bit down on it. As the bitter taste swept across his mouth, he gagged and spit it out.

Leaping to his feet, he shouted at the small human, still shoveling weeds into his mouth. “This is not food, little man. Bring me meat, now.”

Incredibly, the man ignored them and kept eating. Jiant paused for a single breath and then lost his temper. In two steps he had reached the man, and had him by the throat, effortlessly ripping him off the ground. “Why aren’t you moving?” He roared, bits of lake weed exploding from his teeth.

“Shub.” the man shrieked, wailing like a woman. “Shub. Help!”

Huge green vines, thick and waxy exploded from the wall, rushing towards him. Jiant threw the man aside and dodged out of the way as Makari and Vela did the same, flinging themselves into a corner. Jora Lina was not so lucky – in the blink of an eye, three of the sinuous ropes had wrapped themselves around his legs and middle, and were dragging him, struggling towards the large pink maw at the center of the creature.

“Get out.” Jiant shouted, scrambling backwards, too late. One snatched at his leg, ripping it out from under him and sending him crashing to the stone floor, pulling him through the fire.

Balling his hand into a fist, Jiant rolled forward and smashed the imprisoning vine. It squashed flat beneath his fury, and a high keening wail erupted from the creature’s mouth.

Jora Lina started screaming. Half devoured by the creature’s grotesque mouth organ, he was flailing his arms around, trying to pull himself out. Jiant watched for just a heartbeat before he turned his back to the creature and ran towards the exit.

The man shouted something unintelligible, that sounded like some sort of taunt.

Five vines immediately wrapped themselves around Jiant’s arms, chest and neck. He could feel them constricting around his throat as he struggled to maintain his balance. If he fell over, he was lost.

The strength was beyond comprehension – he had never before found anything – that could rival his own, but this creature was clearly his equal. If not my better. The stone underneath his feet seemed to groan as he pitted his strength against the creature’s, all the while fighting for breath. Spots began to sparkle across his vision.

The man laughed maniacally, smacking his lips.

Engraged, Jiant flexed his massive arms, muscles as taut as the belly of a pregnant woman. “I will not be anyone’s dinner.” Lowering his head, he fed his fury into his feet, and he took one. short. step.

The wet ripping sound from behind him sounded deliciously painful, especially when mixed with the popping retorts shattering stone. The strange man shrieked incoherently, like an angry bird, running back and forth across the cave. The tentacles continued to pull at him, but they were already spent, unable to leverage the strength of the mountain. Jiant lurched forward several more steps, carrying the weight of this creature behind him as it tightened its grip around his neck. Vision graying, he desperately clawed at his throat as he forced his way through the entrance, trying to rip away the grasping horrors. Relentlessly, they squeezed, the world dimming around him as his heart thudded slowly in his chest. Not fair. I am the strongest…

With a roar, Jora Lina rushed past him, hoisting the bulk of the monster overhead as he ran towards the lake. Immediately, the vines let go, turning to grasp impotently at stones and rocks, desperate to halt the new attack. Jiant gasped painfully as he watched Jora stumble to the beach and heave the body into the water. A fountain of foam erupted all around the monster as its tentacles thrashed the surface, but in a heartbeat it was gone, disappearing into the deep.

The man rushed out next to them on the shore, shrieking and wailing. Snarling, Jiant snatched him up and threw him into the air, arcing over the lake. Whirling wildly, burbling with fear, the man plunged into the dark waters, not far from the last bleeding bubbles of his pet’s watery grave.

And then he surfaced again, shouting angrily at Jiant in his incomprehensible tongue. Several tentacles erupted out of the water and lashed themselves to him, pulling him downwards. With a last, futile shout, he disappeared below the surface.

Jora Lina came over to him, standing quietly.

“Good work” Jiant said, eying Jora Lina from below his bushy eyebrows. “Quick thinking.”

Jora Lina nodded, and said nothing.

Hunger cramps rippled through his belly. “I wish I hadn’t thrown him in.” Jiant growled. “I could have eaten him. ” He scrambled to his feet and stared down the valley. “Nash better get back soon.” He paused and looked at Jora Lina. “How did you survive? How did you get out of that thing’s stomach?”

Jora Lina shook his head. “Go back and look inside – I passed through his mouth into some sort of cavern. When you ripped it from the wall, it opened a hole and I climbed back through.

Jiant blinked hard. “It didn’t really eat you?”

Jora Lina shook his head and sat down. “I don’t know what sort of creature that was. It seemed to be nothing but mouth and arms – nothing else. I don’t see how it could have lived. Do you want to see the hole?”

Jiant shook his head. “No. I want food.” He raised his voice. “You all. Find more wood for the man’s fire. And stay away from the water.” The others scrambled to obey as the few remaining scraps of the moon began to rise in the east, glowing orange in the light of the setting sun.

Wearily, Jora Lina stood up again and started walking towards the others. “You can stay.” Jiant rumbled. “By the way, what was the name of that bizarre little man?”

Jora Lina shrugged and shook his head. “I forgot to ask. “

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Thursday, June 8th, 2006 at 9:21 pm.
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