Rae of Hope

by W.J. May

  Quiet as a mouse, she grabbed her clothes and paddled to the opposite side of the river, climbing out onto the far shore. After quickly slipping the dress over her pale shoulders she crept up the slick bank, holding onto handfuls of the tall grass to help, and out into the sunlit meadow beyond. It was here that she stopped. Looking around. Listening hard. Half convinced she’d imagined the whole thing as her eyes danced with a sea of butterflies.

  That’s when the world turned upside-down and she flew into the air.

  She managed to let out a piercing scream, just the one, before her eyes focused on what had grabbed her and she was stunned silent. Never could she have believed it was possible. Never in her wildest dreams could she have thought it was true. But there he was. Staring right back at her.

  A real-life giant.

  “Pretty.”

  He swung her back and forth by the ankle, dangling her at least twenty feet in the air. A wave of nausea crept up her throat and she clapped her hands over her mouth—half to keep from throwing up, half to keep from screaming all over again.

  Not that it mattered. Just a few seconds later, Dylan was there.

  “Kat?!”

  She and the giant heard him shout, and turned toward the river. Rather, the giant turned, and she was swung like a rag doll over the grass. Her dress flew up over her head, and she’d just managed to pull it back down when Dylan raced into the clearing, then skidded to an abrupt stop.

  “Crap…that’s big.”

  For a second, he froze in what could only be described as boyish terror. Then he sprinted forward with a fierce shout—fighting it with everything he had. Arrows. Knives. Rocks. Anything that let him keep attacking without getting too close.

  It was a valiant effort, but the giant hardly seemed to notice. Quite the contrary. He glanced over curiously, seemed to get annoyed, then lashed out with the back of his hand—swatting, the way one would get rid of a fly. Katerina let out a horrified shriek as Dylan flew seventy feet across the clearing. He landed with a soft crunch in the tall grass, then lay terrifyingly still.

  Please let him not be dead! PLEASE let him not be dead!

  Katerina was still staring in horror when the giant shook her again, poking at her red hair with a crooked smile. “Pretty.”

  “Would you stop saying that, you stupid brute!” She smacked his finger away with every bit of strength she had, furious to the point of hysteria. “You might have killed him!”

  “Killed?” The giant’s face fell with unmistakable remorse as he turned back to look at the fallen warrior. A second later he was plodding across the meadow, crossing it in just three huge steps. He picked up Dylan with a single hand, trying to prop him up as though he was still standing, then let out a miserable sigh when he fell to the ground once more. “Bernie didn’t mean to…”

  An enormous tear slid down his cheek. Soaking the base of Katerina’s dress.

  “Bernie?” she asked tentatively. She hadn’t seen any blood on Dylan, and it was enough to at least temporarily calm her nerves. “Is that your name?”

  The giant nodded at the ground, his bottom lip quivering precariously as more tears slid down his ruddy face. Katerina hastened to reassure him. Half because the tears melted her heart, and half because she was afraid they might unintentionally drown her if they continued to fall.

  “My name’s Kat. And that’s my friend Dylan.” She forced her lips up into a smile, trying to cheer the colossus as best she could. “I don’t think you killed him. I think he’s just asleep.”

  “Sleep?” The giant squinted curiously at the sun before throwing his head back with ear-shattering laughter. “Now is not the time! There is still light! Silly human!”

  “Yeah…” Katerina’s eyes watered involuntarily as her ears popped a dozen times. “Silly human. Have you met a lot of us? Humans, I mean?”

  Bernie shook his massive head, looking suddenly sad. “They hate Bernie. Call him a monster. Try to burn down his cave.”

  Katerina stared up in shock, both arms wrapped around his largest finger. “They try to burn down your cave? Even after having talked with you? That’s horrible!”

  The giant nodded, and sniffed in a way that reminded her very much of a child. The most unlikely of smiles tugged at the corner of her lips, and she suddenly found herself considering the impossible. A second later, she was putting it to words.

  “Bernie…could you take us to your cave? Until my friend wakes up, at least?”

  To be fair, it’s probably not the best idea to voluntarily enter a giant’s lair. But with Dylan knocked out cold, she had no way to defend herself. Or him, for that matter. The giant in question seemed nice enough. He might be their only hope.

  “You come visit Bernie?”

  She nodded tentatively and the giant leapt up into the air, cheering in delight. The earth trembled and shook as they came down, catapulting Dylan’s body another ten feet away. She glanced down nervously and beat against his hand with all her might, trying to get his attention. The last thing she needed was to negotiate their safe passage, only to have him accidentally squash her protector in celebration.

  “Yes, we’d love to visit Bernie. But you have to let me down first to see if he’s okay.”

  The giant immediately complied, lowering her to the ground with surprisingly delicate hands, then looking around curiously to see where Dylan’s body had rolled off to. By the time they found it, he was looking distinctly the worse for wear.

  Both Katerina and Bernie flinched at the same time.

  “He doesn’t like me. Your friend doesn’t like Bernie.”

  Katerina sighed, looping one of Dylan’s arms around her neck. “Don’t worry. He doesn’t like anybody…”

  Chapter 7

  While Katerina hadn’t been in a lot of cave-homes to compare them, she had to admit that this one was quite nice. And for a giant’s home… she couldn’t even begin to allow herself to fathom that this was actually, truly, happening. Bernie had clearly gone out of his way to make things as comfortable and cozy as possible. Scavenging what little he could from campsites, and using flowers and strings of garland to make up the rest. There was a roaring fire in the middle, a pile of wagon covers shoved into the corner to make a bed, even a rudimentary table made from a giant tree stump.

  Katerina was propped up on a stool as tall as she was, happily finishing her second bowl of broth. She set it down with a wide smile, licking her lips as she cheerfully applauded the chef. “It was wonderful, Bernie! Thank you so much!” As soon as she’d been sure she wasn’t going to be placed in the caldron, she’d embraced the idea of dinner wholeheartedly. “Another recipe of your mother’s?”

  The giant nodded happily, helping himself to second leg of what looked like a giant sort of cow. “She taught Bernie when he was just a baby. Most humans don’t know all the spices and yummies you can find in the forest. You just need to know where to look.”

  They had been talking happily for the last few hours as Dylan lay unconscious upon the hearth. It was a strange meeting, to be sure but, circumstances aside, Katerina had to admit that she was having a fine time. She’d helped him drag the ingredients to the mixing bowl, lobbing them over the side one by one to his fervent applause. She’d perched upon the tip of the spoon as he circled it around and around, trying to explain the finer points of chess. She’d even found the time to drag Dylan further away from the flames when the sleeves of his coat caught fire.

  All in all…it had been one of her better days.

  A soft moan made them both turn towards the fire. There was a hitch in Dylan’s breathing and he was starting to stir, his eyes fluttering open and shut. Katerina set down the piece of mutton she’d been chewing and looked on with interest, while Bernie leapt to his feet.

  “He’s awake! He’s awake! Kat, look—he’s awake!”

  In his excitement the giant started jumping up and down, waving around his arms in wild delight. Unfortunately, that was the precise moment Dylan opened his
eyes for good.

  “What the hell??” He yelped, and scrambled backward, only to hit his head on the wall.

  “Careful,” Katerina said with a sympathetic wince. “Bernie thinks you have a concussion.”

  Dylan’s eyes drifted from the giant to the princess, dilating wide with fear. They took a second more to focus—either from the head wound or from the impossibility of what he was seeing—before he pushed shakily to his feet. One hand went to the wall for balance. The other drifted up to his temple in a daze.

  “What in seven hounds is happening right now?”

  The giant jumped again, shaking the very stone foundation they were standing on.

  “Bernie will get more wood for the fire!” he exclaimed. “Make the cave nice and warm for your friend.”

  “Oh, that’s all right, Bernie,” Katerina said quickly. “He really doesn’t need special—” She glanced behind her but the giant was already gone, bounding away towards the woods. “—treatment.”

  The door swung shut behind him, leaving the cave in ringing silence. Katerina looked at Dylan. Dylan looked at Katerina. For a moment, neither one spoke. Then the floodgates opened.

  “Who the heck is Bernie? How long was I out? Where the… Where are we?” He paused his rant long enough to glance down at the meat her hand. “…why are you eating a ferret?”

  Holy crap, is that what this is? Katerina set it down gingerly and started making her way back to the ground level. It was a laborious process. After she hopped off her stool, she was at a bit of a loss as to what to do next. Bernie had lifted her up onto the high table, and without his giant hands she had to shimmy down the wood face herself, digging her nails into whatever grooves in the bark she could find.

  She made it halfway down before her dress caught on a snarl in the wood. A not-so-clever jump later, and her foot got stuck in a crevice. Dylan watched with increasing levels of irritation and restrained sarcasm, and by the time she fell in an undignified pile at his feet he was ready to explode.

  “Are you good now?” he asked testily. “You ready?”

  Up close, he didn’t look nearly as steady as he had from the table. One hand was twitching sporadically against his leg, and the other was half-reaching towards the wall, as if at any moment the blunt-force trauma might catch up and his legs would give way.

  “Yes, I am.” Katerina straightened herself up with as much dignity as she could muster, trying her very best to project an air of calm. “And to answer your questions, you were only out for a couple of hours and Bernie is the giant you just saw. We’re in his house.”

  There was a beat of silence.

  “The giant’s name is Bernie?”

  Another beat.

  “Well…Bernard, really.” Katerina tossed back her long hair. “But you can hardly expect to be so formal. Not after he invited us over and cooked his mother’s soup.”

  Dylan followed every word, then blinked several times and lowered his eyes to the floor. Not entirely convinced this wasn’t all a dream. “…his mother’s soup?”

  The princess lit up with a bright smile. “Yes, well, you see, Doria had a knack for cooking that she got from her paternal grandfather. So from the time Bernie was just a baby, she tried to—”

  Dylan closed his eyes and held up his hand, a wordless plea for silence. It was clearly taking every bit of restraint he had just to control his temper, and when he finally did speak it looked like each word was taking a physical toll.

  “Okay…” he began slowly, “you’re not from around these parts, so there are certain things you can’t be expected to know. One might think common sense would guide you there, but in this case it clearly missed the mark.” His eyes flickered back to the cave door before burning into hers with a panicked sort of intensity. “Giants are savage, brutal creatures. Rip you in half for losing at cards kind of brutal. And you’re playing house in the middle of its freakin’ cave??”

  “HIS freakin’ cave,” Katerina corrected angrily. “Don’t be rude. I don’t discriminate against you just because you’re an intolerable street urchin with a penchant for taking things that don’t belong to you.”

  Dylan grabbed the chain around his neck in a muted rage. “This is for services rendered! I didn’t steal it!”

  “Oh, really.” Katerina folded her arms across her chest with a smug smile. “I’m paying you to get knocked unconscious by a giant and make me nurse you back to health?”

  Dylan’s face paled as his eyes flashed in the firelight. “You call this nursing me back to health?”

  She resisted the strong urge to stick out her tongue. “I didn’t let you catch on fire, did I?”

  In what was probably fortunate timing, the door to the outside world swung open again as the giant came back. He had what looked like half the forest piled up in his arms, and without a second thought as to his new little friends he threw it full tilt towards the flickering flames.

  Katerina and Dylan dove out of the way just in time.

  “Katy?” he called, looking around the cave. “Katy?”

  Dylan raised his eyebrows, flashing her an accusatory look as fiery bits of ash rained down around them. “Katy?”

  He hardly dared to speak above a whisper, and was discreetly pulling them both out of sight behind a fire poker the entire time. Katerina rolled her eyes and tugged herself free, whispering back.

  “What? I call him Bernie, but he doesn’t get to use a nickname? Be reasonable.”

  “Reasonable.” Dylan made a visible effort to rein himself in. “You’re going to lecture me about being reasonable when you’ve landed us straight in the middle of—”

  “KATY!”

  The fire poker they were hiding behind lifted straight into the air as the giant beamed down at them in delight. He crouched down and laid his open palms upon the floor, but while Katerina climbed right inside—holding onto his thumb for balance—Dylan held back, looking like at any moment the beast might dislodge its jaw entirely and swallow him whole.

  “It’s okay, Dylan,” Bernie reassured him with a toothy smile. “I’ll be so careful.”

  “It knows my name…” Dylan said faintly, backing away into the leg of the table.

  Katerina pursed her lips to hide a grin. In hindsight, maybe the giant’s smile wasn’t so reassuring after all, not when it happened to show every one of his teeth.

  “Bernie’s just helping us up onto the table, aren’t you, Bernie? It’s the easiest way to speak back and forth,” she explained. “Otherwise he’d have to lie down on the floor.”

  It seemed so practical when she said it that way, when it was anything but. Her brave young warrior still looked like the world was about to end, but when it became clear that Katerina was going up with or without him, he placed himself hesitantly in the giant’s outstretched hand.

  “And we’re up!”

  The two of them jerked violently into the air before grabbing onto his fingers for balance. It wasn’t exactly ideal, and by the time they’d found their sea legs they were spilling out onto the table.

  “There, you see?” Bernie beamed at Katerina before reaching down ever-so-carefully to pat Dylan on the back. He was clearly being as delicate as possible, even when he accidentally knocked him over a fork. “It’s not so bad.”

  As Katerina smothered a fit of laughter behind her hand, Dylan caught himself gracefully and spun around to look the giant in the eye. Whatever was going through his head, battling a lifetime’s worth of experience must have been extraordinary. Because, after a lengthy appraisal, he nodded his head with a little smile.

  “Not so bad.”

  Bernie started smiling so hard Katerina thought his face might burst. Then his eyes welled up with tears, and she hurried forward to hold his hand. Life for something as ostracized and feared as a giant had to be very lonely. Especially so far out in the woods. She and Dylan had left the road behind more than eight days ago. No one came so deep into the forest. It was basically abandoned.

  At
least, it was supposed to be. But it apparently wasn’t tonight.

  “Bernie is so glad he made new friends,” the giant wailed, trying and failing to keep his emotions under control. “Such good humans. Not like the bad ones.”

  Katerina stroked his hand sympathetically, while Dylan stepped forward with a little frown.

  “The bad ones?” he repeated.

  In a flash, his entire face transformed. No longer was he the weather-hardened ranger, secretly plotting how to impale the giant and make his great escape. He was an open book. A shoulder to lean on. A gentle soul. If Katerina hadn’t been so disturbed by the whole metamorphosis, she might have been seriously impressed.

  “What bad ones, Bernie?” he asked kindly, silently pleading for more information. “Did you meet some of them tonight?”

  Bernie shook his head fearfully. A fairytale monster who didn’t know his own strength. “Not tonight. But there are bad tracks in the woods. Made by bad things.”

  An image of her brother’s hell hounds flashed through Katerina’s mind, and she stepped closer to Dylan with a shudder. Was it really possible? Had they somehow picked up on their trail?

  “What kinds of things?” she asked fearfully.

  It was the giant’s turn to shudder.

  “Bernie doesn’t want to say.”

  She glanced at Dylan for help, but the man said nothing. His eyes merely flickered out to the darkness, looking decidedly grim. In the end, it was up to her to lift spirits.

  “Well…you don’t have to say anything, Bernie.” She forced a cheerful smile, stopping the giant’s tears before they could begin. “You’re right. You made some good new friends today.”

  It was the right thing to say. The second she said it, the tears in Bernie’s eyes vanished completely, replaced with the brightest of smiles. “Yes, Kat and Dylan are my friends, and Dylan was not killed, and would he like some soup?”

  One sentence ran into the next, and it took Dylan a second to realize he’d been asked a question. “What? No, that’s…I’m fine. Thank you,” he added hastily, in an effort to be polite. And to stay alive.