On the Path of the Giants

Chapter 3: Joshua

        It would be noon soon, although the sun was cowering behind dark grey clouds. Joshua could feel the dampness of the air. Rain was coming. He had been wandering the Giant’s forest for several hours already, battling against the winds as they became stronger and harsher. The thought of experiencing rain in this accursed place made him shiver, and he felt like he would need to find shelter as soon he felt the first drop. Fortunately for him, shelter was plentiful in the Giant’s forest. The huge trees, he realized earlier today, were hollow, and some of them were larger than the whole village, let alone taller than anything Joshua had seen in his entire life. Their greying, stone-cold trunks were towering the landscape. Their stumps, or at least what looked like it, were themselves larger than any house in the village. They were all filled with holes, letting the living vegetation and the occasional hare or cat in and out of them. Had it not been for the wind, Joshua would have thought that the place looked idyllic and peaceful.

        Joshua heard the thunder rumbling in the distance. A slight panic took him, and he ran for the nearest Giant’s tree, a stump that could comfortably house everyone from the village.

        “There should be rain” he thought, as he watched the forest’s floor, safely inside the tree. “Why isn’t it raining?”

        The thunder rumbled a second time. Joshua readjusted his scarf, clinging for comfort. His scarf had been in his family for longer than anyone in the village could remember. Old man David said that it was made by the Giants, though Joshua had trouble believing such massive creatures would have made something as small as his scarf. Its soft underlining brushing against Joshua’s cheek gave him comfort and courage. He would not die here; he had to prevail.

        The sky was getting darker and darker by the minute and Joshua, not daring to leave his impromptu shelter, watched it happen as he prepared a fire. He had been able to kill a hare earlier that day, and was glad to be able to cook it at last. He had gone through his already small food supplies yesterday morning, and all of his walking had starved him. “For an accursed place, there sure is a lot of game in this forest” thought Joshua.

        By the time he had the fire started, the rain was falling. It was only light rain, but Joshua did not dare test it. The smell of the cooking hare had Joshua’s mouth salivate with anticipation. Soon, the smell had filled the inside of the tree. Joshua had made the fire close to one of the holes, to make sure the smoke could escape without drowning the interior, and it seemed to have worked relatively well.

        He was halfway through his meal when Joshua heard dogs barking, seemingly getting closer to him. “The smell of the hare must have attracted them” he thought, until he heard some of them growling strangely. “No, that’s not growling” he thought. “That’s people talking. Why had they come back for him, and why did they come all the way into the Giant’s forest to do it?” Joshua started to panic. In a hurry, he buried his fire, extinguishing the last remaining embers, and found his bow. He had only time to notch his arrow when he first saw them. “They are not from the village” thought Joshua “Are they the Giants then? But that can’t be, they’re just as tall as I am.” Joshua feared they might be ghosts from the past, brought back by the curse, and coming to punish the trespasser that entered their homes. But never had Joshua heard of ghosts that had dogs on leashes with them. Joshua still did not know whether to shoot them or not, but the longer he wondered, the closer they got to him. The hounds had already caught his scent; there was no way he could outrun them. He could either fight, or surrender, wherever that might lead him.

        But Joshua had spent too much time thinking about it. They had seen him, and they were shouting something at him. He did not understand, but he dropped his bow and moved in plain sight. It felt like the right thing to do. As if by instinct, Joshua took his remaining cooked hare, and threw it, close to, but out of reach of the dogs.

        He could hear them speak amongst themselves, but could not understand what they were saying. They were seven, three men and four women, dressed in a way Joshua had never seen before. The men were bare-chested, with weird pants that stopped cleanly below the knee, while the women wore what looked like sheets of cloth wrapped from one shoulder to their waist, leaving one breast bare. Their three dogs were barking, trying to get at the meat that was just slightly out of reach. Joshua felt highly observed, but he was glad there was no weapon pointed at him. After a strongly animated conversation, one of them, a middle-aged woman, looked at him, and shouted, with a broken accent:

        “You no Sharp? Who you?”