4 Princes

XXVIII part II

RED
Jack was stable again, but it wasn't as stable as I liked him to be.

I laid on the cot with him, listening to his slow beating heart. It didn't seem like he was going to live. His wounds were slowly being infected. When he breathed, it sounded wet and thick.

His hands ran lazily through my hair. "So you can survive giants, but a spear to the chest was too much? You're not that great after all," I insulted.

Jack tried to chuckle but it turned into a coughing fit. "Red, that story gets blow to proportions."

I looked up at him. "How so? Did you not grow a beanstalk and then climb up? Finding riches beyond any King's dreams?"

Jack shook his head slowly. "Not riches, no. Heaven."

I rolled my eyes and then looked away from his face. I just wanted to hear his heart beating.

"I'm serious. Riches beyond King's dreams means peace and, silence. I climbed a beanstalk and met a woman giant, a woman giant who knew no war. She offered me a plate of food the size of our kitchens."

Only imagining that amount of food made my stomach growl. That much food could feed the villages that had been forgotten during the war. Forgotten, entirely, really. The King didn't give a shit about us. The family I now slept in the same building as.

The son of the man I hated.

"I ate, shared drinks with her, enjoyed her company. But there was a goose, a good that laid golden eggs," Jack said.

This sounded like a fairy-tale, not something that actually made sense.

"Are you joking?" I asked.

"I am quite literally named Jack the Giant Slayer, Red. You kill wolves, I kill Giants," Jack laughed. "I stole the goose, because who would pass on an opportunity like that. As I carried it down the giant beanstalk, it began crying."

He told stories like Adam read them, and I could almost feel myself in his shoes.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up," Jack tried to squeeze the neck of the goose but it began screaming louder.

"You've stolen my goose!" A giant roar screamed from the clouds. Jack looked up and saw the Giantess's husband looking down at him.

Jack let go of the goose and watched as his fell, far far down, only to hit the ground in an explosion of feathers.

Jack's breath grew larger as he all but slid down the beanstalk. His hands grabbed at thorny vines and grass that seemed too sharp.

He never should have been this close to the Grand Forest. This place was magical, in all the wrong ways.

He slid down until his feet hit the hard ground.

Jack looked up and saw the giant following down the stalk after him. He threw his bow off of his shoulder and grabbed an arrow from his quiver.

He drew back, aiming at the Giant's hands. This wasn't going to be enough. These arrows would feel like toothpicks to him.

Jack looked around for something, anything, to help him.

Wait. And idea hit Jack's head. He unsheathed his sword from his side and began hacking away at the beanstalk.

The giant was climbing nearly as fast as Jack.

And surely, the beanstalk became too weak to bear the giant and the gashes in it from Jack's sword.

The beanstalk creaked, and fell back into the Grand Forest, the Giant's body falling with it.

Jack looked at the giant's body, waiting for it to move. He heard no sounds, saw no movements.

Suddenly, the giant began screaming, letting out painful howls. Black vines from within the Grand Forest began climbing over the giant's body.

They strangled his neck, tore him limb from limb, and slowly pulled him into the soil, suffocating him in the dirt.

Jack backed away from the Grand Forest, eventually tripping over the root of the tree.

The vines began inching their way towards Jack. Jack knew the dangers of the forest, knew what blackness lied inside.

But as the vines got closer to him, the stopped. Jack's feet were on the green grass right outside the forest. On the line that Jack and his siblings would walk along, daring the other to go inside.

Jack knew then, that he was glad none of them were ever stupid enough to actually venture inside.

"So... the beanstalk grew on the outskirts, and then toppled into the Grand Forest? Killing the giant?" I asked.

Jack nodded slowly. "That was much less dangerous than Hans." He admitted. "If Rook is in there... he's dead. No man has ever survived."

I couldn't dare make eye contact him. I just stared at our intermingled legs. "But Babar?" I asked.

Jack sniffled. He sounded so stuffy, so clogged with blood and sweat and tears. "His mother gave birth to him on the outskirts. He's human by all means, but the Grand Forest seems to acknowledge his being as part of them. It's why I've never trusted him, it's why my father always has."

I had heard stories of the Grand Forest. Heard the awful things that went on, the dark magic that flooded the grounds and the trees.

Elaina's mother was buried on the edges. Magic fueled that place, but it never seemed to be good. But it seemed to help her, it made me wonder what other mysteries the Forest held.

"Jack. Why would Babar drag Rook into the forest? Why isn't he facing those consequences?" If Babar really dragged Rook out there, then he should have been killed.

Jack kisses the top of my head. "My father will deal with this as he sees fit. I'm sure Babar will pay for his actions against my family."