Chapter 24 We Saw Giants
"Ow," I said drily, standing and dusting the dirt off my pants.
"Hey, are you okay, El?" I asked, looking down at her.
"Yeah," she groaned, getting up. "But where's Mel?"
We heard creaking from the tree above us. Suddenly, Mel broke through a branch and came hurling down, slamming into El forehead-first. They both let out a scream of pain, rubbing their heads.
"Why would you—"
A loud bang shook the ground, vibrating through our bodies.
"What the hell was that?" I said, looking around.
"I don't know. And where the hell are we?"
"We're in the forest around the Stump," El said. "I saw it as we fell. It was hard to see from the top of the Stump, though."
"Wait—you saw a whole ocean as we were falling and decided to teleport us onto a hard, spiky tree?" Mel said drily.
"Well…..well, I had to think fast," El said, a little embarrassed. "We were literally free-falling from the sky!"
Bang.
"What the hell is that?" Mel said, glancing around again. We still saw nothing.
"We need to get to open ground and figure out what the hell happened—"
Bang. Bang. Bang. Again, the ground trembled beneath us.
Then, the thick wall of foliage split open right in front of us—revealing a humongous eyeball. Black and purple, with thick veiny corners and a glowing white sclera.
Big sausage-like fingers grasped at the trees, bending them with ease.
It was a giant.
We didn't even need to say anything—we bolted, all of us screaming.
The giant looked at us in confusion.
"Tiny giants?" he said, scratching his head.
We didn't hear him—our screams were too loud.
We ran through the thick foliage.
"Keep running!" I shouted as we jumped over large rocks and shallow puddles.
Finally, we broke through the forest, landing on soft white sand, the sound of ocean waves filling the air. We were on a beach.
We stood there, eyes wide, not believing what we were seeing. It's hard to say this without sounding insane, but there were rivers of chocolate, mountains covered in sprinkles, and trees made of marshmallows on fire—burning, yet not turning to ash.
"What is this?" I muttered.
"We're dead, aren't we?" Mel said. "El's dumb teleport killed us. We're in heaven."
"Hey…..man..." El said, defeated, with no counter.
The dessertscape in front of us was surprising—don't get me wrong—but that's not what truly stole the scene. There was something even more ridiculous than chocolate lakes.
In the midst of all that chaos, we saw giants—dancing and drinking, their every step shaking the ground. Some smacked on self-made drums, others played strange instruments we couldn't name.
It was a giant party.
"What on God's green land am I looking at?" I said drily.
From the patch of greenery behind us, the giant from the woods stormed out, out of breath.
"Wait….small giants!" he called, catching up. "I'm not going to eat you!"
"They speak too?" El said drily. "What the hell have we crash-landed on?"
The giant was massive, with a large round stomach, puffy cheeks, rough skin, calloused hands, and bare feet. He walked toward us, shaking the ground with each step.
He bent down as he got closer.
"Phhhhhhshhh...hahahahahaha!" He burst out laughing and collapsed onto the ground with a huge thud.
"So tiny!" he said. "Small giants—where did you come from?"
We stared at the monstrous thing before us—something that could crush us at any moment—speechless.
"Come with me, small giants. The boss will have a big laugh when she sees you," he said, getting up and dusting off his strange garment. He wore no shirt and a small half-garment that covered his lower half.
We followed him as he stomped along, until we reached a house made entirely of cake and ice cream—an actual ice cream cake house, complete with a wafer door, jelly windows, and biscuit tiles.
In the center of the room, as we walked in, I saw a huge throne made of different types of candy, with a marshmallow cushion. Sitting on it was a giant even bigger than the one who had led us here.
This one had long red hair, a more muscular body than the first, red lips, and long legs. She wore the same style of bottom garment and a short top that barely covered her chest. A large sword rested beside her.
She was munching on an entire cake stuffed with ice cream and candy.
As we stepped in, she threw the rest of the cake behind her with a dramatic toss.
"Who disturbed my... um... thinking?" she asked, unconvincingly.
"Stella! Look what I found—tiny giants!" the first giant said, gesturing to us.
She squinted down at us, trying to make out our figures. Then—
"Phsshshshsh!" she laughed. "Where did you find such a thing, Danny?"
"In the woods," he said. "They fell from the sky—I think I saw a pink light after the explosion."
"Ahh..." she said, intrigued. "Very interesting. Leave us, Danny. You three—come over here."
We stood on a giant coffee table also made of candy.
"Hey, we don't want any trouble," I said, looking her in the eyes.
She couldn't hear us.
"Wait," she said after thinking for a moment. She waved her palms, and a sparkle flashed. A second later, we were glowing—for just a moment before it stopped.
"Now you may speak," she said.
"We… we don't want any trouble," I repeated.
"Oh!" she laughed. "How adorable."
"Well, worry not. You landed on the right side of the map," she said. "We don't eat insects here."
Ignoring the insult, I asked, "What spell was that just now?"
"Oh," she said, eyes narrowing slightly. "You know what magic is? How interesting."
"It simply allows your words to travel directly into my ears," she explained.
Mel and El watched in silence, still taken aback by everything they saw—barely believing their own eyes.
"Was that one of your people?" I asked more seriously. "The one with the trident?"
"Oh," she said, clearly intrigued. "So he was your target after all. What did you do to anger First Thing enough to have him come all the way here?"
"First Thing? Who is he? And why did he attack us?" I asked, a bit of anger creeping into my voice.
"To answer your first question First Thing is not one of my people. He's more of a god, in the grand scheme."
"And as for your second question—before today, the top of that huge tree out there had a black dome around it. That dome came crashing down, and as it did... he appeared."
She leaned back slightly.
"Now I shall ask you some questions, little—"
"Madoxx. You can call me Maddox. These are my friends, Eliza and Melody."
"Ahh, how adorable," she said with a sly smile. "I'm Stella. It's nice to meet you."
"For my first and obvious—question: you came from that dome, didn't you?"
"Well, yes... but you knew that."
"What was in that dome?" she asked. "Besides you?"
"Kingdoms. Homes. People like me," I said. "There were more of us."
"iI SEE ," she said, but her tone shifted she was more exited now . The air turned
"But," mel added, her voice sharper, "that man—or whatever he is—First Thing froze all our lands. Unprovoked."
"Hmm. How interesting. That's his ability... They call it some dumb name like Eternal Ice, or something like that." stella said
"Anything trapped in that spell stays frozen... until he decides otherwise," Stella explained.
"Wait—until he decides?" I repeated. "So they aren't dead?"
"No, I don't believe they are," she said. "Until he deems it—or is defeated—that frozen lightning will hold."
A knot loosened in my stomach.
"As much as I'd love to talk more," she said, standing, "it's almost nighttime. I need to ring the bells. Stay here."
She stepped out onto the porch, in front of a huge bell. She rang it, sending a low hum across the land.
I hadn't noticed before—but the parties had ended. No one was outside. It was dead quiet now.
She walked back into the room, shutting the door and placing a massive wooden plank across it, locking it in place.
"What's the meaning of this?" El asked.
Stella walked over to the table and gestured for us to climb onto her palms. She lifted us to the window frame to see the world outside.
For a moment….nothing happened.
Then the skies lit up, painted in shifting shades like an aurora borealis. A beam of light shot down from the heavens... and from it, something disturbing crawled out.
Something gross.
Something absolutely frightening.
It was giants—but twisted. Their limbs contorted, bent at impossible angles, resembling spiders. If that wasn't horrifying enough, they had no skin—only raw muscle, streaked with dried blood.
Their mouths stretched far back, with muscles pulled tight, allowing their jaws to open unnaturally wide. Self-sharpened, razor-sharp teeth filled their mouths.
Melody gasped, placing her hands over her mouth. El did her best not to throw up.
Some of them had hollow eye sockets, while others had pure white eyes—but none of them could see. They sniffed the air as they walked across the beach, looking for something.
From behind a secret panel in the wall, Stella flipped a switch.
Then, on the beachside, four large containers made of transparent glass shot up from the sand. They were labeled JOY. Inside, white particles zipped around wildly, lighting up the night sky.
The terrifying monsters' jaws opened wide as they bolted toward the containers. Two of them latched onto one and pulled at it until it came loose, falling and crashing to the ground. The substance inside spilled out and floated into the air.
Their jaws widened—unnaturally wide, like a snake's—and like a vacuum, they sucked in hard, absorbing all the white stuff. Their bellies expanded, but they didn't stop until it was all gone. One by one, after all the chambers were empty, they growled and leaped into the sky, where a white beam seemed to carry them up and away—until they vanished.
What—
The—
Actual—
Hell is going on here?! Mel, El, and I shouted at the same time.
Note~
I feel like I use the word hell a lot in this chapter, lmao.