The Giants Get Creeped-Out

Walter and Mavis were sitting next to the fireplace for warmth. They were at the military camp, consisting of tents, near the giants’ palace that had been stolen by the humans. They couldn’t use their old cave, because the humans now knew about it. Mavis’ shoulder, where Godge had stabbed her, had been heavily bandaged by the giants. It wasn’t a very big wound, but it hurt Mavis like crazy. She didn’t show this, though, in case the giants left her behind like last time.

The rest of the Resistance was sitting next to them, all trying to decide what would be the best way to attack the humans and get their kingdom back.

‘We’re no match for them; that’s the truth,’ said Waina. Mavis felt a bit uncomfortable. She had never seen Waina so grim.

‘How will we attack?’ asked Nwayi. ‘Battle will simply weaken our troops, but the humans would be untouched.’

‘What I think,’ said Mavis, ‘is that we need allies.’

‘Impossible!’ cried Thina. ‘We have a terrible reputation. Before you knew the truth, you thought we were the villains, if you remember.’

‘It’s the only way,’ protested Mavis. ‘And this is for Mrindawa, isn’t it? If the other kingdoms don’t act now, it will collapse. They will help.’

‘Well,’ said a giant slowly, ‘if you ask me, she’s right. We need allies. Let’s write each kingdom a note and send it to them with birds.’

‘In Mrindawian!’ put in Waina. ‘Not the language of the humans!’ She glanced at Mavis and Walter. ‘Err . . . No offence.’

‘None taken.’

‘I’ll write the letter,’ said Mavis. ‘It’ll take the other kingdoms a year to read your big handwriting.’

‘All right, said Thina; ‘till we have help, we will remain in hiding.’

‘But–'

‘That’s final,’ he said firmly, ‘we will not weaken our troops further.’

‘We cannot give time for the humans to recover,’ protested Walter.

‘There is no damage we have caused them,’ said Waina miserably. ‘It is our army that has been harmed. Not theirs.’

Walter fell silent at once.

That night, Mavis and Walter could hardly sleep. They kept thinking of the humans attacking the giants and taking over the palace. When they tried to go to sleep, they dreamt of it.

Mavis tossed and turned in her sleep all night.

Walter shared a tent with her and used the bed on her right. He saw her do this and said, ‘Are you not able to sleep?’

‘Yes,’ she answered, ‘I keep dreading that the humans will overthrow the army of the giants.’

‘Me too,’ sighed Walter then froze. There was a shadow on the walls of their tent. He glanced at Mavis. She appeared to have noticed it too.

Without a word, she stood up and walked to the entrance.

What are you doing? Walter mouthed.

Mavis gave him a sideways glance and then threw open the sheets that were like the doors of the tent.

Outside, stood the biberesanguinemo that had shown Mavis the way to the Kingdom of the Giants.

‘Oh, it’s you!’ Mavis cried in delight and spread open her arms. The biberesanguinemo gave a gleeful woof and leapt into her arms.

‘Um, what’s going on?’ asked Walter.

‘This guy used to guard the cave that the giants used to hide in. He somehow found his way here, though I’m not sure how.’ She froze when she realised there was a note tied to his neck with some thread. She ripped it off then unrolled it and began to read it out loud:

Walter turned pale once she’d read it out. ‘We must tell the giants,’ he whispered.

Mavis nodded. ‘Yes, at once.’

They rushed to Thina’s tent, the biberesanguinemo at their heels.

The tent, of course, was giant-sized. They couldn’t reach the door, so they squeezed in through a hole in the cloth used to make the tent.

Thina was sleeping inside, and they quickly woke him up. ‘What is it?’ he asked, picking them up in his hand so that he could see them clearly.

Walter hurriedly told him about the letter Godge had sent. ‘But–but, we won’t surrender, will we?’ he said nervously.

‘No,’ answered Thina; ‘but we will have to move from here. I fear the humans really will destroy us.’

‘But wait,’ said Mavis; ‘how do they know we’re here?’

‘Not a spy amongst us; I can guarantee you that,’ said Thina. ‘But I think the humans must have spotted us from the tall towers of our palace, after which they must have come here, and begun eavesdropping. Nevertheless, we’d better be on the move. Let’s go wake up the rest.’

With that, he picked up a lantern and crawled out of his tent with Mavis and Walter. The trio rushed to each tent and quickly woke up the other giants. There was no time for explanations; they simply told them to grab as much of their rations as possible and wait outside.

Soon, everyone had gathered outside in the cold night, not knowing what was even going on. Thina quickly told them about the letter sent by the humans. ‘We will leave this camp,’ he told them. ‘Somewhere far away, where the humans can’t find us.’

‘But where?’ asked someone.

‘Being in the marshlands, there is no place to hide,’ said Thina, ‘but do you remember the cave which we pass through to come here–the portal between the desert and the marshland?’

‘The one where the humans planted hover ivy so that no one would find them?’

‘Precisely,’ said Thina.

Everyone looked like they were about to argue, but realising that there was no other place to hide, they shut their mouths.

‘No objections? Good; follow me.’

He picked up Mavis and Walter, along with Star, Peanut Butter, Snowdrop, and Alpha, then set off, followed by the rest of the giants. Ruby fluttered around and perched on whoever she liked when she was tired. The biberesanguinemo walked in front, with its ears perked up, alerting them if it thought there was some danger.

Everyone was grim as they silently walked in the cold night. Each was worried that the humans were spying on them at this exact moment, anticipating their next move.

They walked on and on. Time passed in fear, and it seemed to go on forever. It looked like they would never find the cave.

Mavis and Walter may never have covered such distances, but the giants took good, long steps and should have taken less time to reach the cave. In fact, they did, but no one felt that way. They thought the cave couldn’t come any sooner.

Finally, the giants stopped. Mavis and Walter, who had been asleep in Thina’s palm, woke up with a start.

‘We have reached,’ whispered Nwayi.

The two looked up in amazement. In front of them stretched the most magnificent cave they’d ever seen. It was a rocky opening that stretched underground. They had already been in a lot of caves, but this seemed different. It would be granting them refuge.

The giants stood there, taking in its beauty, then they trudged on into the cave.

As they entered it, they suddenly found themselves in a huge dark abyss. They were floating through the cold air. They weren’t flying, nor falling. It was a strange feeling.

Mavis pointed to the other end of the abyss, where they could see a distinct hole. It was far too dark, but they could make out its outline. ‘We need to get there,’ she said. ‘I and Walter have been here before.’

‘But how will we get there?’ asked Thina.

‘Well, Mavis and I can blast ourselves, along with our animals to the other side with magic,’ said Walter, ‘but I doubt we can do the same for you. It hardly matters, though. You should be able to just flap your arms, and be there in a couple of minutes.’

‘All right,’ said Thina, ‘you go first.’

Mavis and Walter got onto their horses. They turned around, then blasted their magic on the walls and flew forwards. Snowdrop, with Alpha, Ruby and the biberesanguinemo on her back, took the cue and blasted her magic on the walls, and joined Mavis and Walter.

In the dark abyss, they looked like shooting stars, with their magic streaking behind them, to the giants who could only gawp in amazement.

When they reached the other side, they were greeted by the hover ivy that hung on the walls of the cave. ‘Wait!’ it said, ‘I’ll let you pass, but first answer my riddles!’

‘We will,’ said Mavis, ‘but our friends are still in the abyss. You can ask us when they get here.’

‘All right,’ grumbled the ivy.

When the giants finally got there, they seemed a little surprised to see the ivy talk.

‘Now time for my riddles!’ it said in delight. ‘What has a neck, but no head?’

‘Um . . . a bottle?’

‘How did you guess that?’ gasped Waina.

‘Well, it’s a common riddle asked in our time,’ shrugged Mavis.

‘No fair!’ wailed the ivy. ‘You’re time-travellers. You’d know the answer to everything!’

‘Well, you still need to let us pass,’ pointed out Walter.

The ivy muttered something under its breath, but let them pass. It parted away, revealing the tunnel that led into the underground chamber.

They walked down the tunnel. The giants had to crawl on all fours so that they wouldn’t bump their heads against the ceiling. Since the previous time Mavis and Walter had been here, Mavis had pulled a lever on the ground, the ground sloped downwards into the underground chamber.

When they reached it, they were welcomed by a bunch of skeletons decorating the ground. Yay!

‘Egad,’ said Waina, looking thoroughly disgusted.

Nwayi picked up a skull. ‘The poor things must have fallen in, but were unable to get out!’

‘Mavis glanced around. ‘Would this place be big enough to fit a bunch of armies?’

‘Of course,’ said Waina. ‘This place is huge!’

‘I suppose so,’ said Mavis and yawned.

‘We should get some sleep,’ said Thina. ‘We need to be fresh tomorrow.’

And then, everyone thankfully began pushing the skeletons to one side to make the ground softer. They all lay down on it and fell asleep. Mavis and Walter got close to their animals for warmth.

When they woke up the next day, they all ate their rations for breakfast. They were already running out of it, so they could only eat limited food. As they ate, everyone spoke about which way they could attack the humans from.

‘At night would be a good time,’ said Nwayi. ‘Because then no one would see us coming.’

‘From all directions,’ put in Mavis; ‘with our allies, it would be easy to spread out the army, wouldn’t it?’

‘That would be a good idea,’ agreed Thina.

Just then, there was a thud above them. Everyone looked up at the quicksand above them.

‘Could it be the humans?’ whispered Walter, looking pale.

No one answered him. They looked up warily, waiting for something to shoot out of the quicksand and kill them for no particular reason.

Just then, a pair of legs appeared from the quicksand, kicking like crazy to get free. It was joined by a bunch of other legs.

‘Um, what are those?’ asked Waina.

‘Someone must’ve gotten stuck in the quicksand,’ answered Thina. ‘We’ll just have to hope it’s our allies.’

Everyone watched as all the legs sank further down, till at last, they were Woodland Elves, who fell on the ground with loud thuds. They looked up at the giants.

‘Oh, hello,’ said King Antaniama wearily, ‘you must be the giants. This better not be a trap.’

‘It isn’t,’ said Waina. ‘What we wrote in the letter is true. It’s a good thing your policy of “If it is a letter and not a person delivering the message, it’s a trap,” didn’t apply.’

‘We assumed it was a trap in the beginning,’ said King Antaniama. ‘But it said that if we didn’t come, you would break our heads open and scramble our brains like eggs and eat them.’

‘Egad, who wrote that letter?’ asked Thina.

‘I did,’ said Mavis looking apologetic.

King Antaniama blinked. ‘Hey, aren’t you the one who threatened me with the Flan to join the war? What was your name? Siara, wasn’t it?’

‘No,’ said Mavis, ‘I am Mavis. I didn’t trust you then, so I gave myself that name.’

‘Hmmm . . .that sounds like a human name,’ said King Antaniama.

‘Because it is. I am a human,’ said Mavis.

King Antaniama turned pale. ‘You-you’re the chosen ones,’ he gasped looking at Mavis and Walter. ‘Humans were meant to save us from their own people! No wonder you have the most powerful weapons in history!’ He froze. ‘Oh, I’m so sorry.’

Mavis knew he was talking about the fact that she and Walter were going to die. She was silent.

‘Anyway,’ said King Antaniama, deciding that it was up to him to break the frosty silence, ‘your army is so tiny. How the heck are we gonna win the war?’

‘We’ve called all the armies of Mrindawa,’ said Thina, ‘so it’s the humans who won’t win this war.’

‘All right,’ said King Antaniama; ‘the Olves should be here soon. Their kingdom isn’t far.’

The rest of the day was spent planning battle strategies and training soldiers for the war. Mavis and Walter practised using their magic in case something happened to their weapons. They weren’t very good at it, but it was better than nothing.

Small duels were kept for everyone to have practice in the war. Mavis and Walter were against each other. Their duel didn’t work out so well, because whenever she thought she was losing, Mavis faked her death, just as one tips over the chessboard when losing.

After this, everyone stopped for a little lunch consisting of some stale bread. It wasn’t much, but everyone was exhausted and hungry, so it tasted like the best thing they’d ever had.

Just as they were finishing up lunch, the Olves arrived through the quicksand. They all landed on the ground with thuds, looking around, bewildered.

‘Uh, are you the giants?’ asked King Rinta nervously.

‘Why, are we too tiny?’

‘No, I mean–never mind. We thought you were the evil ones.’

‘Didn’t you read the letter we sent you?’

‘We did, but you can’t always trust them. We once got a letter inviting us to the grandest feast in the world, but it turned out to be a prank . . .’

‘JACK!’ Walter shrieked in delight and threw himself onto the old wizard who was standing with King Rinta.

‘Oh, it’s you, Walter!’ said Jack, ‘I thought you were dead!’

‘Ah, Walter,’ said King Rinta, ‘where is that bird I gave you? I’d like to see her once.’ And Ruby came flying and perched on his shoulder with an affectionate twitter.

Thina blinked and looked at Mavis and Walter. ‘You two seem to have been to every kingdom of Mrindawa!’

‘That, we haven’t,’ said Mavis. ‘We have neither been to the Cave of the Trolls, nor the Kingdom of The Vikings, although we have seen their people.’

‘Well,’ said Thina, ‘we’d all better get some rest. We will be attacking at night today.’

‘But shouldn’t we wait for the rest of the allies?’ someone asked.

‘No,’ said Thina firmly.’ The human’s army is weakened now. We cannot give them a chance to recover. The Villagers will probably appear while we’re at war. We can hold on till then, I’m sure.’

No one argued.

Mavis was woken up roughly. She sleepily opened her eyes and looked around. It was always dark in the underground chamber, but she could tell it was the middle of the night. She wondered why she was being woken up, then remembered the war. She felt her blood run cold.

She quickly woke Walter up. He groaned and opened an eye. ‘Walter, it’s time for battle,’ she told him. He sat up at once.

The two watched the army of the Olves, the Woodland Elves and the giants prepare for war. Everyone was dressed in armour, each clutching a sword or a bow and arrow in their hand. Jack, though, held his staff in his hand and was lazily trying to undo a spell he had accidentally put on an Olf, transforming him into a frog.

Thina looked at Mavis and Walter. ‘You may want to get ready now. We haven’t much time.’

The two hurriedly mounted their horses. They decided to leave Alpha, Ruby and the biberesanguinemo in the chamber in case they got hurt in war. But they would take Snowdrop with them because she could come in handy.

Then, the battle troops marched through the tunnel leading out of the chamber.

As they marched out, Mavis realised that however hard she fought in the war, it would be for Mrindawa, and not her life. She was going to die now, and there was no stopping that. Now that it was actually going to happen, the thought seemed more painful. And the fact that there was nothing that could stop it added to that pain. She wished she had never taken life for granted and had enjoyed every bit of it. But now it was too late.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when they came across the hover ivy that was trying to baffle them with the hardest riddles.

‘Oh darn,’ it muttered, ‘I should have practised for this. Wait–lemme try to think of something.’

Everyone waited patiently for it to come up with something.

‘You know what,’ it said after a while, ‘I got nothing.’

‘So we can pass?’

‘No!’ it cried in panic, ‘I have one now! I am neither evil nor good. I’m like a dark empty wood. You cannot love me but cannot live without me. What am I?’

‘Hover ivy!’ someone squeaked.

The ivy would have stared if it had eyes. ‘No–’

‘It was right, wasn’t it?’ snapped Mavis. ‘You are hover ivy.’

‘Fine,’ grumbled the ivy, parting to reveal the tunnel leading into the abyss. The Olves looked a little surprised, but the Woodland Elves appeared to have predicted it.

‘Our ancestors once camped here,’ said King Antaniama. ‘They had to cross this abyss.’

‘Why did they camp here?’ asked Walter, surprised.

‘Well, before the humans came to Mrindawa, we maintained a friendship with the giants and we traded with them. As our ancestors were travelling to the kingdom of the giants, they passed through this place.’ He suddenly looked sad. ‘But once, the tunnel leading to the abyss got blocked by a few rocks. They were trapped in here. The skeletons we saw in that underground chamber belonged to them. The humans later cleared away the rocks and planted the hover ivy.’

There was an uncomfortable silence. It was broken by Mavis.

‘Well, how did they get past the abyss? There’s no way we all can. Walter and I could blast everyone to that end, but it would take us a lot of trips from here to the other end, and back.’

‘We don’t need to worry,’ said King Antaniama. ‘There’s a lever somewhere around here.’

‘There are so many levers here,’ gasped Mavis. ‘Even one in the tunnel leading to the chamber!’

‘Yes, there is. There’s even one in the chamber that makes the quicksand part so that we can get outside. Ah, I’ve found the lever!’

King Antaniama was crouching on the ground clutching a lever on the ground. It had the Mrindawian seal on it, but it was hardly recognizable in the dark.

He pulled it, and for a moment, nothing happened. Then, suddenly, blue sparks appeared in front of them, right on the edge of the tunnel, between the abyss and them. The sparks danced around, then began to multiply. Soon, the whole abyss was filled with blue sparks that lit up the dark and they could see better. The sparks all got together, forming the shape of a shimmering blue bridge, stretching from one end of the abyss to the other.

Everyone gasped in amazement, staring at the bridge.

‘Come along, everyone,’ said King Antaniama and confidently stepped on the bridge.