G/T Stories

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Freya arrived at the amphitheater built near the pine forest. She was the first and should have waited for rest of her colleagues to come. But she thought it won't hurt to rehearse her part before they arrive.

She dressed up in her ballerina costume. She then entered the area and looked at the empty seating tiers. She breathed in and out and began her performance.

Her ballet dance was something truly magical. She always felt like she was leaving all the problems behind her, while she was swirling furiously. She felt like a young fawn, free and agile. Then the time for her last move came.

She bounced off from the ground and did a wonderful pirouette in the midair. As just she was about to land, she put her foot wrong, sprained ankle and fell down.

Her whole body was aching, especially her ankle. But it didn't worry Freya as much as the fact that she may lost her role. The show is going to happen in less than a week, she highly doubted that she'll recover to that time.

Hopeless, she curled up in fetal position and began to sob, all alone in the dark night.

***

Terence was aware that he shouldn't be so close to humans' buildings nor anything human in general. But they were such interesting creatures! Similar to him, but smaller and more fragile and they communicated with more complicated language than his own. Nevertheless, they were amazing, they could erect buildings thousand times their size, they had all that "technology" and their culture was fascinating too.

It was a coincidence. Terence was collecting some herbs, when he heard a commotion near forest boundary. Curious, he wandered there and saw an arena, where few humans were doing something weird. He first thought that they're fighting for domination, just like giants on their arenas, but it wasn't violent nor brutal. Their moves were harmonic and equal, they were working together like ants or bees.

It amused Terence and since that night, he always found a while to stare at humans' actions called "show", as his grandpa told him.

And that's where he was going now. Humans probably hadn't arrived yet, he got to find himself a safe vantage point. Far enough to not get caught, but also close enough to enjoy the show.

He climbed up on the top of the arena. Last row wasn't lit, so Terence blended in the night's darkness. He was about to sit and wait for humans to come, when he heard someone's crying. He perked up his pointy ears to hear better and found the source of weeping. Small human female, laying in the middle of the arena.

Terence bit his down lip. She looked hurt, he couldn't just let her suffer there. But on the other side, she was a human. He had heard many stories about what humans are doing to captured giants.

He looked around. She was alone, so even if she was screaming, no one would hear her. He decided to take the risk and went down, slowly approaching the female, revealing himself.

***

Freya stopped pitying herself, when she heard heavy footfalls. She then was enveloped in huge shadow, she gulped and hesitantly raised her head. Just as she thought - a giant!

25 foot tall human creatures with pointy ears. Zoologists' new object of interest. They were discovered not so long ago and yet, zoologists managed to catch few of them and described their behavior: giants are almost as intelligent as humans, they are living away from people, they are fighting for domination in makeshift arenas, they communicate with single sounds like grunting, huffing, snarling, chirping etc. and they are masters of natural medicine.

And because of that, many people sought for giants to use their services. It wasn't easy since giants avoided humans, but they always helped those in need in the end. On top of that, giants always helped out of charity, that's why people had developed a draft act protecting giants, something similar to an act of species protection. But since government hadn't accepted it yet, many people, especially zoologists and ethologists, were still catching and examining giants.

Freya knowing all of this became little calmer. Maybe this one will help her with her sprained ankle? She took her ballet slipper off and shown her puffy and blue ankle.

Giant grunted sympathetically and got down on his knees. He gently took Freya's ankle in his hands and then examined it closely. Then, he took crucible, mortar, gauze and some herbs out of his satchel. He tossed herbs to the crucible and ground them with mortar. Later, he added a generous amount of his saliva and mixed the ingredients until it all became an indistinguishable mash. After that, he placed mash on the gauze and applied to woman's ankle.

It quickly absorbed into the ankle and healed it. Soon it came back to normal and it was like she had never sprained her ankle.

Freya stood up and timidly tried to do fouette. When she felt no pain, she dived into that passionate dance, laughing sincerely from happiness. Her role is safe!

She threw herself on kneeling giant's neck and hugged him.

- Thank you so much! - she exclaimed. But she was taken aback when giant barked at her angrily, causing her to retreat. He was frowning and showing his teeth, he probably got upset that Freya invaded his personal space.

- Okay I uhhh... I get it, no touching - she said and raised her hands to show that she had no bad intentions.

Giant calmed down and now sat cross-legged, starting at her with curiosity. Freya was curious too, she wondered if...

- I'm Freya - she introduced herself and pointed at giant - Do you have a name? - she asked him, but then facepalmed herself in mind. He can tell her, but how will she understand him?

Giant took burin out of his satchel and having took medium-sized rock in his second hand, he engraved something in it. After that, he passed it on to Freya. She eyed it quickly.

- Terence... It's your name, right? - she asked. Giant nodded.

Freya knew that Terence helped her for free, but she did want to pay him back anyway. But how? He doesn't need money, she didn't have anything sweet with her or anything worth to him in general.

Then she recalled that he looked pretty mesmerized by her fouette, when she was looking at him with the corner of her eye. Bingo!

She quickly got to her back and pulled a ticket for the spectacle out of it. It was booked for seat in the last row, in that way Terence won't block other people view.

She walked up to giant and shoved ticket in his hand. He looked at it and then back at her.

- It's a ticket for a show which will be performed here in few days! It's a token of my gratitude, I hope you'll enjoy it - she explained.

She then proceed to tell him what he should do with the ticket, when suddenly Terence stiffened and then left the amphitheater in hurry. Soon Freya could hear her colleagues - they came for rehearsal.

Woman really doubted that giant will come for her spectacle, but deep down she had a little hope that it'll turn out otherwise.