Welcome to Miror

Horvath the Giant

Female Reader x Male Monster

My village is close-knit. We all work together to help each other out, sort of like a big family. My father is the village head, as my grandfather was before him, and my great grandfather before him too. I'm the first girl born into the family for thirteen generations, a rarity. My father named me Opal, for the gemstone our village is famous for.

My father has always enjoyed having me tag along with him on his business, helping out the people of the village and solving problems. He thought it was best I learn how to lead the village when the time came. He wanted me to be prepared for anything, as there hadn't been a chieftess in ages. My mother's family owns the most fruitful land for opals, and it was she who found the largest thunderegg to ever come from the territory. The giant opal became a centerpiece for our home, but also a source of arguments between her and my father.

My father wanted to sell the opal and put the money back into the village. However my mother wanted to keep it in case of an emergency, or to provide for me and my little brothers' futures. My father thought it ridiculous that we could possess so much wealth, and that the village should have it. My mother found it equally ridiculous that he was putting the village above his own children. So the opal remained in our home, a strange knickknack tucked into the shelves.

My brothers became opal miners, going out every day to our mother's territory while I accompanied our father. Our mother's mine was located at the edge of the Colossal Hare Wood - perhaps one of the most frightening places in all of Miror. It was named for the monstrous trees that looked like the infamous Hares. The forest was like an ocean - endless, deep, and full of things we knew nothing about.

My brothers would come home with stories, talking about how they could hear voices beckoning from within the wood. They said it felt like something was watching them while they worked, eyes on them all the time. They claimed, like many, that there was a race of giants living in the woods, able to blend in with the colossal trees and remain unseen.

Their tales sent shivers up my spine. They terrified me. The trees were so massive I could not imagine there being a creature that met their stature. But legends of giants have woven themselves into the fairy tales of the village, becoming stories parents told their children to make sure they did not wander too far from home - or god forbid, into the wood itself. It was the cause for many of my nightmares, and many others' nightmares, I'm sure. I didn't understand how my brothers continued to work so close to those trees every day, confident that they weren't really giants.

In a way, I was happy I never had to go hunting for thundereggs like my brothers. I wasn't one for heavy lifting or getting my hands dirty. They called me Princess Opal in jest, but I felt lucky. I got to help my father, which was a different form of hard work, but I thought it was easier than theirs.

One afternoon, my brothers and I are arguing about our respective jobs. They call me 'Princess Opal', saying how much easier I have it. I throw back that they wouldn't be able to talk a bird into flying if they had to. It gets heated, and my parents have to step in.

"Opal," my father's voice booms. "Tomorrow you'll be going to work with your brothers."

"What?" I nearly screeched.

"End of discussion, Opal!" My father sits back down at the table. "You'll see what work they put in, and later they will work with us to see it's not as easy as they think." He gives a decisive nod and sniff.

I clutch my hands around my chest as my brothers sneer and giggle. "But I've never been to hunt opals! I'll only get in their way."

"We're used to that," Soloman chortles.