Protecter: A Giant Tale

Chapter 1

Lyra began crossing through the trail she herself was just blazing. The forest floor itself seemed to light up with her presence as she continued to move forward. Her steps were light as she took in her surroundings. Birds sung throughout the branches, greeting the beautiful spring day. As she walked, she saw a clearing with large flat boulders overlooking a glade. She walked briskly over and stopped right at the edge, now seeing over the cliff. Determined to get to the glade quickly she looked around the rocks. Then she reached to the string holding her hair in a ponytail and tugged on it twice, thinking of the best possible way down. Soon it hit her. Just at the side of the cliff was a branch that was large enough to walk in single file and then a large leap. Calculating if she could make it, she tugged the string twice again and slowly walked onto the fallen branch. Creaks broke the otherwise normal sounds of the forest, but rather than back up, she continued. Lyra took a deep breathe, looked around and leapt without hesitation. She soared to the other rock and landed with ease. she smiled, looking back before walking onward. 

After a few minutes of scaling down the rocks, Lyra had made it to the edge of the glade. The tall grass reached above her waist. A gust of wind flowed over the open meadow, parting the grass as though it was an ocean. Lyra backed away a bit and sat down. As she sat down, she reached into her bag and took out a small pad and graphite pencil. She smiled as she begun to draw the scene in front of her. To her, nothing could have been more perfect. Hours passed and she had finished her sketch, closing the journal and slowly rising back to her feet. As she did, she heard a snap of a twig behind her. Lyra's neck snapped as she looked around. 

"Hello?", she asked looking around a bit. "Hello is anywhere there?". Silence answered her back. 

She kept looking around, trying to find the source of the noise, but nothing answered for it. Slowly, she packed her bag, thinking it must have just been a squirrel or something. As she slung her backpack of her shoulders, she heard a thud and a growl from behind her. Her hair stood up straight, her chest feeling tight. Lyra slowly turned around, a shiver tracing her very spine. Right behind her had been a single lone coyote. It's roan colored fur stood as his sharp yellowed teeth were on display, haunched and posed to attack with his final warning being a loud growl. Even on all fours, the coyote reached above Lyra's elbows, unusually large for any coyote that had hung near the villages. Lyra slowly took a step back before another growl came from behind. A second coyote appeared on the rocks. Two more then jumped from both sides, smaller than the first but just as ferocious; growling and stalking their new prey. 

Lyra kept looking around as the coyotes inched in closer. She then reached into her pocket and took out her small pocket knife that was less than 4 inches long, gleaming in the sun and held tight in her right hand. "Go away!" She shouted, trying to assert herself as her senses screamed. Her eyes frantically searched for an escape root, a stick to keep them at bay, anything. The coyotes soon inched closer, drool leaking from the mouth of the much larger coyote, the two behind her seeming to crouch lower, the two in front keeping their stance. "Come on, think Lyra, think! There has to be an escape route. Come on..." As she kept scanning for a route or thinking of a plan, she noticed a rock just near her foot. But it was no ordinary rock, it looked black like obsidian. Slowly a plan began to unravel. She slowly crouched, hoping to avoid making the pack of beasts react any faster. She reached the string for her ponytail, tightening it twice before grabbing the small rock in her hands. Then as she slowly rose back to her height, she clenched her teeth. 

"Think fast you rotten mutts!". As she yelled as loud as she could, the two coyotes to the back of her lunged. She quickly turned and dropped to the dirt as they hurled themselves over. Then she through the black rock at a different one causing sparks to fly and the obsidian to break. The coyotes backed away, but as they did, Lyra ran to the side through tall bushes and kept running. 

"Ahh someone help! Please anybody!". Lyra ran fast, running through trees, bushes, anything to get as far as her legs would carry. The coyotes were soon following pursuit, howling as they lusted after her like a common rabbit. She lost track of her trail or what direction she was running until suddenly she halted to a stop. Lying in front of her was a rock wall. There was no way to climb up, no way to go around, and the wall seemed to stretch throughout the area. She turned herself to face the oncoming coyotes, her back leaning against the stone, sweat dripping down her face. The coyotes got into formation, all exits blocked. Lyra bared her knife, knowing well the last thing she can do is fight. As she gets ready, one coyote from her left lunges. Shocked, she threw the knife towards the coyote which just backed up a bit to dodge the small knife, the knife sticking up in the dirt. Tears began to stain her face. That was her last defense. The coyotes soon began to slowly encroach to her standing point. 

"Somebody...please...help me." She no longer shouted, she couldn't bare to, she knew too well that no one that could help would hear her. She then shut her eyes, hoping the pain would be fast. Just as the larger coyote crouched down, ready to strike first, something broke through a row of trees and seemed to roar. Wood snapped and then the coyotes yelped at first before growling and lunging at something else. Lyra quickly opened her eyes and gasped. Standing in front of her, now grabbing and attacking the four coyotes was a beast she thought could not possibly be real. It was a giant. 

The giant was humanoid, with black hair and a long curly beard to match. It wore a tunic that seemed to be made of fur and leather. The giant seemed to growl and bare his own massive teeth, each one bigger than her hands. He towered as tall as some of the forty foot trees surrounding them, his feet, large and hairy bigger than half her body dug into the ground. The coyotes trued biting his ankles and arms, like puppies to a grown man. The giant simply shouted when they bit him and drew some blood but he brought his fist down like a mallet and knocked one with one blow to the head. Another coyote jumped on his back when he crouched to smack down the other one. He shouted again before grabbing him by the neck and throwing him at the other. The large roan colored coyote backed up and growled, his pack whimpering. He howled and the four coyotes fled deep into the forest. The giant rose and growled before turning back towards Lyra and staring down intensely at her. He slowly took a step forward with a large thud, and then another.

Lyra just looked in absolute terror. The blood in her veins turned into ice, her legs refusing to move despite her brain screaming at them. Thoughts raced and quickly flooded her mind. On one hand, the coyotes were taken care of, but on the other, there was a giant. Stories from her teacher had always said giants did one of two things: they either ate humans or tortured them. The giant had her pinned to the wall leaving her in the same situation as the coyotes had, nowhere to run. 

The giant glared even more at her. She looked and saw him raise his hand, the same way he had with the coyotes. As he slowly brought his massive boulder sized fist down, it became too much for Lyra. The anxiety holding her chest became too great and she gasped for breathe. The world around her turned blurry and then black.