A Giant's Heart: Chapter 9 (Patreon)

Ugh, I hope this chapter turned out okay.  I'm having a very busy week so this was written in fits and starts, I never got a good flow going with it.  Hopefully the next chapter won't take so long.  Thank you for your patience.

***

I clean the fresh blood from her head and return the token to Osa’s injury.  My fantasy of finishing the job in slaying this monster was now totally exposed as the fiction I knew it to be in my soul.  That moment I hesitated in killing her the first time had laid bare something deep and something raw.  Unless she initiated it and my very life was threatened I knew I could not do it, and even then I wasn’t sure.

It is not long before her big round eyes flutter open and she tenses up.  Then they focus on me.  “You help.”  She rasps.

“Yeah.  I’ll help.”

“Good.”  She takes a deep breath and her body relaxes.  “Thirsty.”

The first gourd canteen was empty from cleaning so I bring her one of the others and pry the stopper loose.  She takes it from me and downs most of the contents in three great gulps.  Smacking her lips she lets out a satisfied sigh.  She sloshes the remainder around and passes it back to me.

“You drink.”

“I’m fine.”  

“Drink.”

“I said that I’m fine.”  I take it from her and set it down with the others.  I point to her head.  “Once the wound is healed take the token off.  It will keep working in that area as long as it is touching you and drain the magic.”

She takes a moment as she thinks.  “Heal leg.”

“I don’t know if it can.”  I say.  “And even if it can it will take days.”

Putting her hand over the magical disk she says.  “My magic now.  I put on leg.”

I sigh.  “Fine.  I’m not arguing with you Osa.”

She looks at me for a moment before surprising me with a big honest to goodness smile.  “You say Osa!”

“It’s your name isn’t it.”

She nods and lower her hand to join the other folded over her belly.  “You like name?  Osa?”

“Sure.”  I shrug.  “It’s a fine name.”

This pleases her greatly.  “Drake good name too.  Strong name.”

Her smile is short lived as a flinch of pain flashes across her face.  The broken limb was testing the bounds of even her impressive tolerance.  She shifts slightly, trying to find a more comfortable position.  I look at her handsome down to earth features contort in agony and cannot help but bemoan how unnecessary all of this was.

“Osa, why did you come here?  You and your parents must have known how dangerous it was.”  I go down to one knee beside her arm.  “Why here?  You should have stayed out there.”  I motion to the West.  “Why trespass onto my land of all places?”

“Tres…pass?”

“Yes.  This is human land.  This is my land.  You must have known it was a risk coming here.”

“Land not yours.  You not hold, you not have.”  She picks the empty gourd up as if to demonstrate.

“We believe differently.”

“Humans stupid.”  She mutters.  “You stupid.”

“You keep saying that.  If you had any idea who it was you were talking too.”  I mutter.

She shakes her head.  “You Drake.  I know.”

“Osa, why were you here?”

She looks at me for a long moment, the sheen of sweat across her face giving her wide face a warm glow.  Reaching down she pulls the covers back and then her tunic to reveal herself to me.  I catch a glimpse of her twin genitals before, for her dignity’s sake, I turn my head away, though she seemed completely unashamed.

“I am wrong.”  She says as she looks down at herself.  “No mate want me.  Bad woman.”  Reaching up above her to the overhanging boulder she slaps it with her hand.  “We come, pray.”  She reaches to touch my lips but I pull back.  “You stay.  You pray.  You cry.”  She then hums a few notes of the tune from before.

“I thought it was just a lullaby.  A song for children.”

“Both.”  She says.  “Good prayer.  Sing to stone.  Stone to sky.”

I look up at the great boulder.  While it was out of place here in the deep forest beyond its size it was entirely unremarkable.  “This is a holy site?”

She nods and points to the heavens.  “It there.  Woman spirit.  We pray.  Pray for Osa.  Ma, Da, want Osa gone.  Hate bad woman.  Shame.  Leave me here.”  After a solemn pause.  “Now they gone.”  Her tone was not accusatory or angry, simply a sad statement of fact.  I had seen this stoic attitude before among the savage races.  Life wasn’t as precious to them.  In the brutal life of a wandering giant death would be commonplace.  She lets out a long breath.  “You stronger.  You live.  They die.”  Her voice trembles with emotion.  “They try kill me.  You not let them.”

“Well…why didn’t you leave earlier?  Why stay with them at all?  You are not a child.”

“Lonely.”  Is her one word reply.  As plain and honest as an answer could get.  I felt an instinct to say something comforting but I resist it.

“When you are better you will have to go back to the West.  There is no place for you here.  You are not welcome on my land.”

“Not wel…come?”

“No.  You must leave as soon as you can.”

“I stay.”

“You go!”  I say firmly.  “I will not have a giant camping out in my…”

The next thing I knew Osa’s thick fingers were around my neck!  The monster had finally revealed herself.  She had taken me completely unawares and I curse myself for getting slow in my retirement.

“Name Osa!”  She growls.  “I crunch you!”  Her irresistible grip tightens.  “I take place.  My place.  I stay.”

“Stop!”  I grunt as I twist against her might.  If I could gain even an inch against her powerful grip I could escape, but she was so damned strong!

Just as quickly she lets me go and pouts angrily.  “You help!  You say!”  A thunderous punch hits the earth beside my leg.  I spring back and my hand rubs at my throat more from surprise than anything.  Truth was she hadn’t hurt me at all.  The frustration seemed even more fretting to her than the incredible amount of pain she must be feeling.  Again she slams her fist into the ground, I could feel the tremors from ten feet away.  “You help!  You help!  You say!”

“Osa!”  I snap sharply.  “Enough of this!”

With a loud snort she scowls at me.  “Liar.”

“I didn’t lie.”  I sigh.  “I will help you.  I will help you and see you on your way.”

“My way here!”  She slaps the stone with her meaty palm then points at me.  “You stupid!”

“Osa, stop acting like this!”

“You…AHHHH!”  As she tries to reach for me she turns her injured leg.  Grasping it with both hands she lets out a howl of pain.  “AAAOOHHH!”

I step forward, more on my guard, and pick up the magical token that had fallen from her head.  “You deserved that.”

“It hurt!”  She whines.  “It hurt Drake.”

“Well then lay down you dumb oaf.”  Suddenly I could sympathize with what Lymandri must have gone through trying to keep the rest of us healthy.  I push against her shoulder to indicate she should lie back then flip her tunic back over her crotch.  “And cover yourself up for the gods sake.”

She takes my whole hand in hers and holds it tight.  “It hurt.”  She hisses.  “Help me.”

I pat her thumb with my free hand in an attempt to settle her.  “Relax Osa.  Lay back down.  I promise I’ll do what I can, though I don’t know why.”

“What…that?”  She grunts as she gradually starts to ease back down with my help.  “What…promise?”

“It means I’ll do what I say.”

She doesn’t seem to understand but given the distraction of her leg this wasn’t surprising.  Pulling me to her she keeps my hand held firmly as she closes her eyes and pushes back the pain.  I go to pull away but she keeps me right where I was.  It would be nothing to pry my arm free but I give her this moment.  Slowly her breathing returns to normal and her grimace relaxes.  Her amber eyes open with none of the anger in them from just moments ago.  Osa had a mercurial spirit, no doubt.  I ought not be surprised, she was a monster after all.

“I not crunch you.”  She whispers.

“Well…thank you.”  I say.

“What that?”

“Thank you?”

“Yes.”

“It means…”  I weigh up a variety of ways of explaining I felt they would each lead to another explanation being needed.  “It means I like not being crunched.”

This brings a laugh to her.  “Funny.”

“I should try to splint that leg before I start the healing.  Although…I don’t know.”  Given where the break was and the size of the bone and thickness of muscle my chances of creating an effective splint out here seemed hopeless.  Turning over the disk in my hand I see it had grayed more but it was still far from black.  “The best thing you can do is just stay still.  If this can heal it at all there’s a good chance it will end up crooked.”

“Like that?”  She points down to her plump hairy bare toes on her right foot and I see the second one in had a sharp bend outward.

“Yeah, hopefully not that bad though.”

“That okay.”  She says.  “I live.”

“Yes.  You’ll live.”  I say.  “Your head okay?  It’s not bleeding anymore.  Looks better.”

As I lean forward to take a closer look she suddenly pulls me into her with a quick tug, my chest landing hard onto the soft mound that was her closest breast.  It was as wide across as my whole chest.  Straining her head up she gives me a big hard warm wet kiss that covers my cheek.  Wrapping her massive arms around me she squeezes pleasantly and kisses me again.  It wasn’t the kiss of a lover but a kind of plain honest kind of smooch I hadn’t felt since my Gran died.  She lets go of me but leaves me where I was.

I push off her tit and stand up rubbing my damp cheek.  “What was that for!?”

“I dunno.”  She says.  “Want to.”

“Ah, to be a giant and just do whatever you want.”

“Osa, not giant.”

“Sorry.”  I hold my hands up.  “Osa.”  I pause before I add.  “It’s a good name.  Strong name.”

She smiles brightly.  “Yes!”

“Okay.  Enough talking.  The sooner I get to that leg the better.”

I do what I can for putting together a field splint around her huge thigh.  With the same trusty sword I’d used to slay beasts of myth I slice down a young tree, delimb it, then carve it into nice even lengths.  With the rope I’d scavenged I tie them tightly along the inside and outside of her upper leg.  As I work Osa watches intently and continually paws at me, just touching me for the sake of touching me.  Never enough to interrupt what I was doing but persistent.  At first I angrily pushed her away but, impudent as ever, she would not listen to me.  Eventually I just allow it as I focus on my work.  She was doing no harm and the physical contact seemed to soothe her more than my words ever could. Between the bit of fur I used as padding for the splint and her bare inner thigh I slip the healing disk.  There it could work its magic and would be very difficult to dislodge.

I am knelt between her legs, tunic carefully arranged to cover her sex, when I give her good leg a hard slap.  “There you go Osa.  As good as I can do.”

With unexpected tenderness she pets my hair with an encompassing hand and smiles down at me fondly.

Taking her wrist in both my hands I bring her hand to in front of me and hold it there against my chest.  “You are one tough woman Osa.”

“Woman.”  She says softly.  Stroking a finger along my neck she adds.  “Man.”

“Yes Osa.”  I chuckle.  “You’re a woman and I’m a man.”

“Strong man.  Good name.  Good man.”

“You flatterer you.”  I jest as I pat the back of her hand.  Despite knowing better I was taking a liking to her.  “Now I’ve seen everything.  A sweet talking giant.”  

She giggles.  “Sweet talk?  Funny words.”  Her rich amber eyes glittering in the firelight gaze into me.  She blinks slowly then bites her bottom lip and everything goes quiet.

It is only then that I realize Osa’s capricious mood had shifted once again.

Chapter 10