Quinn - A Tuatha Dé Danann Novel

Chapter Six

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The howl of the wind that night carried a dark omen. It took a lot to scare me, but I couldn't shake this uneasy feeling in the pit of my large stomach. Before me sat my brothers from the other clans. A meeting five hundred years in the making was finally happening, and it was all thanks to me, Lorcan Doyle. I excused myself from the meeting. The stale air from twenty giants breathing inside the large cave was not helping my stomach. I needed fresh air. Outside, the rain splashed against my face. Storms were never a good sign. They usually signaled a change in the balance of magic. Who could have so much power to cause such a storm?

I grabbed the nearest tree and ripped it from its place with ease. Roots fifteen feet long dragged along the ground as I built up the strength to toss it. The tree flew from my hands and crashed into a brush fifty yards away. It tumbled down the mountain, slamming into its neighbors, the crack from every tree it hit masked by the sound of thunder in the air. Wild animals did their best to run from the angry site. A few made it out unscathed, but others were not so lucky.

I didn't like surprises, and this storm wasn't going to help my cause. The superstitious giants inside that cave were already hard to persuade in to coming to this meeting. Now it was going to take everything in my power to convince them it was finally the time to act. I may have been younger than the others but I had ambition. While they hid in their mountains and caves, I traveled to the other clans stirring up fear and hatred towards the humans. Our race once flourished over this land, and now we hide in the forests and mountains as if it was our decision to be here. We won the war and yet we were the ones banished to solitude.

Another clap of thunder shakes me from my thoughts. I don't know how long I was gone, but I figured I better get back before they voted and all my hard work would be for nothing. I ducked low beneath the fifty-foot arch in the side of the mountain, careful to not hit my head. Down the end of the hall the mountain opened up for me to stand tall with my brothers. The vast cavern we stood in could hold a hundred giants, and at one point it did.

Over the years our numbers had diminished. We were one a proud nation of giants, and now we barely had two-dozen clans left. I had traveled to the few clans that shared my resentment and persuaded their leaders that it was time to act. Still they chose to follow formalities, and demanded a meeting amongst all the clans before they'd agree to civil war. I returned in the middle of a heated debate between two of the larger clans.

"War is the only answer. We have tried reasoning before and look where that has gotten us." His words were not swaying his opposition.

"We cannot just decide to go to war with the sprites," A giant with a beard down to his animal skin belt now had the floor. His belly was so vast the belt was made from the hide of a bear. The bear must have gone out fighting, because he bore a scar from the claws across the side of his face. "They have done nothing to deserve our rampage upon their lands."

"Done nothing you say," I interrupted. I knew it was not my place but my anger got the best of me. "They banished our people to these mountains in the hopes of keeping peace with the humans. And yet the humans have no true knowledge of our existence. Once they feared our power, and now they write stories making fun of us as if we are nothing more than a child's fantasy. It is those sprites fault that we are here today."

"The sprites are the ones who control magic, it was their decision to take the knowledge of our existence from the humans. Youare too young to understand their strength. Do we really want to go to war with such power?" He was not helping. I could see the shift in the faces of the few giants who were easily manipulated by fear. Fine if he was going to use fear then so was I.

"Their magic is not as strong as it use to be. Look outside these walls and see nature trying to fight itself to bring balance back to this world. How long before they decide the best way to do that is to be the strong-arms, and attack our people into submission? What will we do then, when we are the slaves? I for one do not wish to risk our clans safety over a sense of false peace." It was working. I could feel the change in the air. Giants all around the room, nodded in agreement. "I am not looking to enslave our brethren sprites, but if they will not join us in reclaiming our lands peacefully, then we will have to force them into seeing the error of their ways."

"Then let us put this night to and end Lorcan. It is time we vote. All those in favor of the war?" An earthquake like boom shook the mountain as thirteen of the twenty giants pounded their chests in favor. A few stones in the wall dislodged themselves in the chaos and crashed to the floor. I smiled as the mountain stopped shaking.

"Are you with me my brother?" I asked the scarred giant who was my biggest opposition.

"For the safety of my clan, I fear I must be." With him came the rest of the stragglers. Finally, a plan a hundred years in the making was coming to fruition. Outside the storm grew. Rain poured relentlessly while lightning and thunder shook the mountain. Inside the mountain shook for a different reason. Twenty giants now stomped the ground and banged their chest in unison. A battle cry pierced the air, and we all roared with excitement. War was coming.

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