A Giant's Heart: Chapter 1 (Patreon)

The plan is for this to be a futanari romance story.  Fingers crossed that I can finish it this time!

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The language being shouted angrily is definitely a dialect of Giant.  I draw my longsword and feel that old familiar hum of its arcane power in my grip.  Giants were a rare sight in these parts but even an encounter once every few years was too much.  The amount of damage a band of giants could do in the area was enormous.  Beyond my weapon I wasn’t equipped as I would like to be for dealing with such a threat, I had only been taking a leisurely hike through the woods after all, but by the time I either alerted the local militia or got myself armored and provisioned this group could be miles from here.  And who knows how much death and carnage they might wreak before they could be tracked down.  Besides, this was my land and I’d be damned if a group of giants were going to just stroll on in and make themselves at home here.

I creep forward and crest a rise.  Moving a branch to the side I look down into the gully beyond.  I see them in an instant, at nearly a dozen feet tall each they were hard to miss.  The group consisted of a trio of Hill Giants, a race of savage and unthinking brutes.  I let out a sigh of relief.  This would be easy work.  Had this band been members of one of the larger varieties I might have had to reconsider my bravery.

I crouch and watch for a time.

There is an older couple, I was guessing a mated pair, shouting at a younger adult female.  I smirk as I wonder if this was some sort of lover’s quarrel, perhaps the old fella was caught messing around with a younger woman or maybe a it was a menage a trois that went sour.  Some things were just universal.

However, as I read the body language and listen for the handful of words I knew in their language I soon realize this wasn’t the situation at all.  The younger female was too deferential and kept trying to reach out to touch the older pair who were having none of it.  I come to realize that she must be their daughter.  In all of my years adventuring I had never seen a Hill Giant her age still with her parents.  She ought to have been mated off by now.  I was no authority on Giant lore but I was willing to bet that was a big part of this argument.  The couple were waving her off.  Shouting at her to “GO!”  And even throwing sticks and rocks at her.

Having nothing pressing to attend to I settle down inside the foliage and watch the drama unfold.

Despite the daughter pleading and mewling in sad pitiable tones, literally on her hands and knees at times, the parents only became louder and more violent.  The throwing of sticks and stones escalates to open hand slaps and hair pulling.  The daughter doesn’t even try to defend herself she just continues to beseech her parents for mercy.  Although I knew I would be putting all three of them to the sword shortly I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her.  What a terrible day to be her last.

The parents try to leave but their daughter springs up to follow behind, her head bowed in submission.  The mother suddenly turns and grabs her adult child by the hair then heaves down with ferocious strength.  The younger giant’s feet slip out from under her and her head comes down onto a large gray-black stone peeking up from the earth with a sickening thud, the impact would have shattered a human skull like an egg shell.  There is a moment of still as the girl rolls on the ground dazed and the parents look down at her.  They then look at each other with an expression that makes my skin crawl.  I had fought mad cultists, extra-planar horrors, and even gone to the Abyss itself, but never had I seen a look of such pure evil.

Not a word was spoken yet the message was loud and clear.  As his daughter writhes at his feet the father raises his great tree root club and brings it down with lethal intent, striking her across the back.  She cries in pain.  The mother grabs her hair again and holds her down hissing something spiteful at her through clenched teeth as the father brings down the club again. This blow strikes her thigh.  A mighty meaty crack can be heard the femur snaps under the violent force of the knotted wood.

The daughter wails and holds her mother’s foot.  The mother kicks off her hands then, after just an instant of hesitation, encourages her mate to hit their progeny again.

I had seen enough.  While I appreciated the fact I only had two to fight now this cruelty was too much to bear.  The one being battered might be an evil brute but nobody deserved to be beaten to death at the hands of their own parents.  I would give her a quick and merciful end once the parents were dealt with.

Another blow falls as I step out from the underbrush.  The giants are so distracted they don’t even notice me until I am already slipping my blade through the older females side and into her heart.  My legendary sword could carve through a dragon’s scale, the hide and flesh of a giant didn’t even slow it down.  The woman is dead before she hits the ground.

The male looks on stunned by my sudden appearance and the death of his mate.  I step back and spin my weapon, the blade singing through the air, and wait for the inevitable attack.  The attack comes and a moment later his corpse joins his mate’s on the ground, minus his big lump of a head.  I flick my sword and the blood spatters off of it leaving the magical steel impeccable.  It was good to know that even after two years of retirement my skills hadn’t yet left me entirely, even if my enthusiasm for wielding them had long since waned.  Being called to action was just a chore for me now, barely different from splitting wood for the fire.  The thrill of battle I used to feel so intensely in my early adventuring days only a hazy memory.

I let out a grim sigh.  My work wasn’t done yet.

Rounding the bodies of the slain parents, sword held at the ready, I approach the battered and beaten female giant.  Her head is down, her long thick curly black hair forming a curtain around her face.  While I could not see her features I could hear her weeping and see the tears and blood fall to darken the rough stone her head had been smashed against.  The sound of her sobs hits me right in the gut and a wave of nausea swims over me.

That sound…how many times had I heard it?  The pitch and tone of one throat to the next was different but the forlorn agony was the same.  So many different creatures, so many different enemies, the final stragglers begging for their lives.  So many.  So many.  So, so many.

I shake my head.  Fuck, the nightmares had been letting up recently.  They’d be back again tonight with a vengeance.  Just do this and get home.

I take three deep fortifying breaths and tighten my grip.  Slowly I raise my sword arm.  One swift thrust and it would be all over.  I’ve done it a million times before.  What was one more?

Just then the giantess raises her head.  Her curly locks drape down over her face and I see…the most stunning pair of amber eyes gazing back at me.  Her face was wide and round.  Her features were symmetrical with full lips, a broad nose, and a gently curved and subtle brow ridge along which her thick black eyebrows grew.  A friendly face one might call it had it belonged to a human or halfling.  She was quite simply the most comely giant I had ever seen.  But it was those eyes that truly made her appearance special.

All goes quiet.  Even the birds and the breeze go silent as I stand over her frozen in place.

The tears continue to flow down her cherubic cheeks and she grunts in pain but I see no hint of fear in her tortured amber gaze.  She was not simply awaiting her end, she welcomed it!

Something in her expression dazes me.  I stagger, my arm lowers on its own, falling limply to my side.  The hilt slips from my grasp and falls to the ground.  There is a flash and a pop then I feel the weight of the weapon return to its sheath at my side.  I back away from the giant shaking my head as I look at her in horror and try hopelessly to calm myself.  Those amber eyes, so full of pain, so full of despair, so full of judgment, would not stop staring at me.  

The next thing I knew I was running through the woods at a full sprint.  Fleeing the first enemy I could ever remember to have bested me.

Chapter 2