A time To Die - Dont Be A Hero Book 2

Giants

Natalie twirled her rope above her head before flinging it skyward and swinging herself up to head in Jordan's direction. Her heart pumped and she let out a loud, yodeling woot as she swung herself above the tree-line. Her excitement turned to dazed confusion and shock when something big and powerful came out of what seemed like nowhere and knocked her back to the ground with a "thwump" that was hard enough to knock the wind out of her.

She lay on her back, briefly seeing nothing but a blur as the world spun. It slowed and eventually the dizziness faded, leaving her staring up at an enormous girl. She looked to be young. A child of perhaps ten or eleven years old, but she towered far above the tallest tree.

For a moment Nat thought she may have had her perception knocked screwy and that her eyes were playing tricks, but when she sat up, she realized that the girl was, indeed, towering over the trees. Her body was proportionate, making her look like a giant and in turn causing Natalie to feel the way she assumed Alice must have felt when she drank the potion in Wonderland that caused her to shrink.

The girl looked down at her and her face twisted into a deviant, wicked smile. She bent over, bringing that face closer to Nat's and then she laughed.

"Bet you feel a bit like a bug right about now, do ya?" she said, winking at the stunned rope-swinger. "I will conquer you and your friends and then I will rule the world!"

"Yeah. Like that's ever panned out for anyone ever in the history of mankind," Natalie replied, struggling to get to her feet. "Let me know how that works out for you, kiddo. I'd love to stay and have a tea party, but I've got dinosaurs to battle."

She got her legs underneath her and began to unravel her spare rope (the first one had been sent flying off into the trees when she was batted out of the air). A shadow fell over her and she looked up to see the bottom of the girl's giant shoe descending upon her very quickly. In less than the time it takes to blink, Natalie's rope shot out to the side and attached to a tree. She pulled herself clear just as the shoe came grinding down onto the ground where she had just been standing.

From the shadow of the tree, she leaned back and looked up at the giant girl who seemed to be the type who enjoyed torturing animals and pulling off one wing and half the legs of flies unfortunate enough to be buzzing against her bedroom window.

"You really need some discipline, young lady!" she shouted up at the kid, who had pulled her foot up and looked under it and then turned her foot upside down to inspect the bottom of it. When she heard Natalie's voice, she jumped a little, seemingly startled that she wasn't squished flat.

She turned toward her and her expression darkened. Natalie noticed that the girl's movements seemed slower than a normal person's, as though her size was a direct trade-off for speed. It was subtle, but she looked like she was moving in slow motion. This put her at a definite advantage over the psychotic, world-domination obsessed child. Her rope moved too fast to be detected by the human eye and the girl howled in anger when she felt it ensnare her wrist. Natalie gave it a yank, nearly toppling the surprised giant.

Suddenly the rope went slack and she looked around in confusion as her captive disappeared from view. It seemed like she sank into the dense vegetation she had just been thigh deep in. Nat pulled her rope in until the end came back into view and she spun in a circle, trying to locate the girl. She nearly jumped into the thicket when something shot out of the shadows and darted between her legs.

"How dare you attempt to bind me!" a tiny voice squeaked from somewhere in the bushes. "You will bow to me and I will make you my slave, rope lady!"

"What the...? Where the hell did you go?" Natalie yelled, trying to see into the thick greenery.

She reached out cautiously to part the brambles, but yanked her hand back when a tiny person shot from the undergrowth and attached herself to her wrist with speed that didn't seem possible. Suddenly her arm was wrenched behind her back and she found herself pinned to the ground, face first, with the weight of her once again growing opponent pressing into her back.