Last of a Kind

Fallen Titan by Jinhoe Bae

               It was their land once. The giants. They had roamed it for thousands of years, shaping it with their very footsteps, carving great valleys and raising mighty mountains. Theirs was a different way of life, one of nomadic wanderings and foraging off the land. They built monuments and idols to their gods and were intelligent enough to make clothes and tools. And weapons. When giant fought giant all that lay before them was victim to the greatest savagery the world will ever know. It is believed that the clash of their weapons could be heard as cloudless thunder even across the great seas. They were spread all across the continent, prey to none and masters over all. Various tribes moved and lived together and were united by blood, beliefs, and birth.

               That was how the land was when man came upon it. They came in vast numbers on huge ships that sailed across the great sea from the south. Man was not like the giants; they preferred to settle in one spot and build homes, towns, and cities. They explored and pushed into new places that where eventually settled as well. They lived shorter lives than the giants but multiplied twice as quickly. Soon, their towns and cities dotted all across the southern border of the continent, stretching from east to west along the coasts. When this space was no longer enough for them, they moved north, staying along the rivers at first, but eventually spreading into the forests and plains and all other places they could. With each new settlement came more humans and their livestock, as well as more clashes with the giants.

               The giants, once roaming wherever and whenever they pleased, were not fond of the new human settlements in their paths. In mere minutes, a wandering tribe could level a city which had taken years to raise, and not have given a second thought to it. As the humans expanded their settled territory they cut down, killed, and collected resources and food which the giants had once foraged for themselves. Angered, some giants raided settlements for food or simply out of malice. Yet other humans were unfortunate enough to be caught between warring tribes. Here, there were rarely any survivors, as not even the mountains themselves were safe from the rage of giant battle.

               But humans were not helpless in this struggle. The ingenuity and intellect of man is a mighty strength indeed, and thus humans sought new ways to protect themselves. They built new, larger weapons and created more potent magics to bring down the mighty threat of giants. When the earth shook with their approach, human readied themselves for the battle. Soon, it was giants who had something to fear. Brave souls among the humans formed the Voyager’s Corps, which explored new territories and cleared it of giants before settlements were made. The existing cities and towns created standing armies ready to stave off giant attacks at any time and protect the people. And so it was that giants began to fall to men, that their numbers were pushed north and their raids made less frequent, until none had been seen by any human for many years.

               Without the threat of the giants, man thrived upon the continent, spreading throughout it as the tribes had once done before them. They conquered each new environment they came across, and with the Voyager Corps leading every vanguard the humans reached into every corner of the land. But, as there became less and less to discover, membership within the Corps grew smaller and smaller. The old traditions and tools of the order were still known and practiced, but even the Master King and Mistress Queen in the south questioned the continued necessity of the Corps. There were simply no more places to voyage, save for the Grey Stone Mountains that formed the northern most border of the human territories. It was in these mountains that the voyager Eggther found himself on that fateful day.

               Eggther had been part of many voyages before. He had helped to conquer the Valley of the Reach to the north east. He had been part of the team which explored the Misty Swamp in the continent’s interior. He had even been there when the ancient giant monolith was discovered in Balthur’s Forrest. But now he walked along a windswept mountain path with only a food finding mountain sheep as company, the Corps’ number too small to provide anyone else for the journey. Eggther could more than look after himself; he had studied all of the old ways, was strong for his age, and had enough experience in new terrain to fill volumes. It was not fear for his life that gripped his heart on this voyage but loneliness and fear for the order which he loved.

               Eggther traveled for nearly a week along whatever path he could find along the sheer cliff faces. He documented his travels on the pages of parchment he carried in his satchel. With each new drawing, word, and place he cataloged he grew wearier and more disheartened. He knew his work was important for the knowledge of mankind, but also understood that its completion would hasten the fall of his order. Still he kept at it; he was nothing if not a loyal subject to the Master King and Mistress Queen. He was just using this thought to come out of his melancholy when he rounded a bend in the path and beheld the most awe-inspiring scene.

               Directly before him, the narrow path dropped off steeply to a wide valley below. Across the valley, illuminated by the soft glow of the setting sun, sat the immense skeleton of a giant. It was pinned to the side of the opposing mountain by a massive sword that had been plunged through its chest. The mouth remained ajar, as if still crying out at the mortal wound it had suffered. There was no smell of decay carried by the wind and no bits of flesh or viscera remaining upon the bones. The skeleton was bleached a harsh white and both it and the sword had been worn in several places by the relentless elements. A large flock of birds swarmed around the hilt of the sword, darting into and out of the skull where they had made their nests. The solemnity of the scene was underscored by the near silence of the evening; the birds made almost no noise as they flew and only a faint whisper of the mountain wind blew through the valley. It was both horrendously ominous and serenely tranquil at the same time.

               Eggther stood staring at the mighty skeleton for a long while. He drank in every detail with his eyes, studying the scene until the fading light became too low to see anything more. In his chest he felt a strange sense of both foreboding and relief. Never in all his travels had he seen such a magnificent sight but neither had he seen such a stark reminder of the past’s brutality. The giant, forever frozen to the mountain side, had obviously been killed by another of its own kind. It was a battle that had perhaps lasted days but ended in the most gruesome way many years ago. As the moon began to rise over the valley, Eggther coaxed his sheep onward and looked for a place to settle down for the night.

               Farther along, the valley-side path widened out a bit and small overhang of rocks formed the perfect makeshift shelter from the light snow that had begun to fall. Eggther laid down his bag and started a small fire to keep warm. He had finished eating a small piece of bread with some snow truffles and was writing down what had seen that day when he felt a small tremor come from the mountain. He paused for a moment only to feel another one, this time slightly stronger. The tremors began to grow more frequent and more violent with each passing moment. A chill colder than any the mountain wind had produced ran down his spine as he realized what they were: giant footsteps. He quickly put out his fire and gathered up his staff, ready to unleash his spells should he need to defend himself. The tremors gathered even more power and Eggther crouched under the overhang as the giant came into the valley before him.

               The giantess stood nearly 200 feet tall, fairly short for her species, but more than tall enough to be imposing in the moonlit valley. Her long auburn hair was dusted in a light layer of the powder falling slowly down. Her thin frame was wrapped in the tattered remains of pelt clothes that seemed far to sparse to be keeping her warm. Through her slightly protruding teeth her breathing was rhythmic and deep enough to echo off the mountain walls around her. Once in this valley, she stopped her forward march and stood staring up at the moon. Looking down from his perch on the path, Eggther thought he could see a kind of sadness in her eyes as the reflected the white disk above.

               Just then, the sheep, who had been such a good companion, bleated out a long cry for whatever reason. The giantess broke her gaze on the moon and any sadness in her eyes quickly turned to rage as she saw Eggther crouched away. She snarled, revealing her huge yellowed teeth, and let out a huge roar that shook the valley and nearly blew Eggther off the cliff. She began to move towards the mountain on which he stood and climb up towards him. Eggther knew he had no choice but to fight. Amidst the trembling on the mountain, he stood in the middle of the path and raised his staff in both hands. He started to recite the ancient incantations he had memorized, and dark clouds gathered in the sky above the valley. The giantess let out another growl and continued her accent, struggling to gain purchase on the snowy mountain side. But she was too slow. Eggther completed his incantation and brought the staff down to strike the stone beneath him.

               It was over as fast as it had begun. A great bolt of lightning flashed down from the clouds above and struck the giantess directly on the head. If she let out any cry it was lost to the deafening thunderclap. Without any resistance or argument, she fell back from the mountainside and crashed down into the valley below. The weight of her fall seemed to shake the whole mountain range as snow and rock could be heard falling throughout the valley. Exhausted, Eggther sat back down under the overhang trying to catch his breath while the spell clouds slowly dispelled overhead.

               Trying to fully comprehend his day, Eggther closed his eyes and placed his head into his palm, listening to the growing silence around him. It was short lived, however, as the silence was cut by the sharp cry of a bird. Eggther looked up to see falcon flying over the valley in a wide circle. He could see the small parchment around its leg showing that it was a messenger falcon, likely from Loggers Town where he had left from. He lit the end of his staff with a small spell and the bird began to descend towards him.

               When the bird landed near him Eggther stood up and took the message off its leg. The wax seal was that of the Voyager Corps, which he broke and read over. The note was short. Is simply read “The Master King and Mistress Queen have decided to disband the Voyager Corps. Please return to Logger’s Town immediately for further instructions.”

               Eggther made a deep sigh and crushed the note in his hand. He knew this message was coming but still felt a great sorrow in his gut. He looked down at the valley below and saw the body of the giantess lying still, the snow already trying hard to hide her away. Instead of relief that he had saved himself, his sorrow only grew and mixed with a new sensation of pity. Down there lay the body of someone who may very well have been the last of the giants. And her above stood the man who may very well have been the last of the Voyagers. With this painful reality in sight, Eggther bedded down for the night, ready to begin the journey home at first light. The humans had come to this continent to seek a new home and explore new lands. And, with nothing new left to discover, it was their land now.