The Hunt for Aquatenite

Chapter - 16 Lucy

Liza was on her way to distract the monster. She trash-talked to the giant and now, he was concentrating on her. Olivia and Oliver were on either side of the giant, hiding behind some trees around the beach, ready to attack anytime. And me? Well, I had no idea how to climb a giant. No one taught us that so I just waited for the right time. Nexiana was trying to find the giant's pearl from the ground. Probably a sensible thing to do.

"Hey, Mr. Giant!" Liza shouted to turn the giant's attention to her and it was working. The giant growled in response. "Buddy! How long haven't you brushed your teeth? Your breath smells like rotten meat. Go brush your teeth right now!"

The giant wasn't in the mood to brush its teeth. It didn't move a little from its place but snarled from there. There was my chance to jump on it. I landed on its ankle. Other than its bad breath, the giant hadn't even bathed. Liza kept on with her trash talks while I was climbing further up.

"So Mr. Giant, your job is to eat people? I would prefer to be jobless over that."

Mr. Giant tilted his head as if thinking whether to show a demonstration of his job to Liza or go find another job. Whatever it was thinking, it was interrupted when Nexiana sneezed very hard. She was standing beside Olivia and the giant's attention was now on Olivia. It growled and drummed its hands on its chest like a gorilla. Mr. Giant had seen Olivia's spear and now it was attacking her. I was holding onto the giant's XXXXL torn shirt for dear life.

Liza tried to turn the giant's attention back to her but it was useless. Oliver had also come out of his hiding place and was in an attempt to save Olivia. Nexiana was nowhere to be seen.

"Beast!" Oliver screamed as he raised his dagger to show him he was dangerous. "Here! I'm tasty." He invited Mr. Giant.

That beast gave him an excellent answer by growling at his face and sending him back flying. Olivia gave him a similar answer by stabbing her spear at his foot. It howled in anger and smacked me with its hand. I landed near Oliver, head first on the ground. My head ached from the hit.

"You dare hurt my sister!" Liza screamed at the giant. She raised her sword while her eyes gave a flicker of glow. The bonfire near the dock ignited and moved towards the giant at an intense speed. The fire hit his stomach and went around covering him from head to toe. He howled again in agony.

"It is hurting him but it wouldn't kill it," Olivia told us.

I was still lying on the ground but managed to speak, "We need to find the pearl. It has to be somewhere. I'm sure."

"I'll find it," Oliver said as he got up. He had injured himself a lot. His arm was bleeding like hell and his little finger was twisted at a weird angle. "Olivia, you help Liza, she will be drained out any second."

As soon as he said it, the fire started to smother and Liza fell to the ground on her knees. The fire extinguished but the giant was barely burnt. He was now equipped with a weapon. It had a metal chain and right now, it was swinging it to get hold of Olivia. She bent and rolled to the right. Soon, she would be worn out. My headache was increasing every minute. Liza was in no condition to fight. Nexiana was still not in sight. Oliver was doing an important job. He had to hurry up or we would be dead.

We needed a plan but my head wouldn't work. It was out of my hands. Liza had to think of a plan.

I searched for Oliver. He was on the giant's shoulder waving his hand at us, trying to tell us something. I wasn't able to understand anything from that distance but he had found something. I fought back my pain and stood up on my feet. As I tried to walk, my head started hurting even more. I ignored the pain and continued to reach the giant.

When I was pretty near it, I could hear Oliver faintly. "Lucy...pearl...foot."

I tried to come up with the meaning of those three words. Was the pearl's name Lucy's Foot? No, the pearl had to be the shape of my foot. For a few minutes, I came up with stupid meanings until I tripped. I landed on my head once again, hard. I heard a loud shriek. It was Liza. She might have thought I had injured myself more but she was dead wrong. It helped me to get back to my senses. I understood what Oliver had been trying to say- The pearl was near my foot. It made sense.

"I'm okay!" I said for Liza's benefit, forgetting about Mr. Giant. It spotted me and swung its chain like a cowboy. Olivia ran towards the giant and threw her spear, a bit late. The giant had grasped me with its chain. It loosened its grip on the 12 feet chain but it fell on me.

The last thing I saw was Oliver getting off the giant before everything went black.

* * *

I woke up to a loud bump. I was on a bed on a ship. There was a circular window beside my bed. I looked into it to find water all around and seagulls flying in the sky. There was a knock on the door. It creaked open and Liza burst in.

"Hi," I said trying to sound casual. She strangled me in a hug, curling my hair with her finger.

"Ouch. Liza, it hurts." I said. There were band-aids all over my body and a bandage covered my head.

She let go of me and wiped her tears. "I thought you were not going to..." She didn't need to complete the sentences.

"It's okay. Nothing happened to me. See, I am here."

The door creaked open again and this time Olivia and Oliver came in with Nexiana by their side.

"Nexiana, where did you go?" I asked, a little mad at her.

"I was...scared." She said, her head down. It was difficult to shout at her with that face.

"Lucy, you were amazing!" Olivia exclaimed.

"But what did I do?"

Oliver cleared his throat dramatically. "As soon as that chain fell on you, there was a tide that hit the giant. I was on my way to get the pearl near your foot but it was buried under the chain. Note: The giant was unconscious at the time. We tried to lift it but it seemed impossible. In a while, the giant had risen again. He picked up the chain on his own to attack us. Liza dragged you out to a safe place. Olivia distracted the beast while I destroyed the pearl. As soon as I thrust my dagger into the pearl, its purple aura started to flicker and light emerged from the giant's chest."

"That tide. It must've been my last defense mechanism." I concluded. I did feel something before collapsing. It had to be the powers that I used.

At last, Liza spoke, "We've also got a plan for killing all the giants from this world."