Polianna and the Beanstalk

Chapter 3

The giant girl lightly tosses Polianna onto the table, and takes a seat in front of her. Polianna sits up and rubs her head. Her breath hitches again as the girl looks down at her.

"S-So... h-hi." Polianna attempts to wave, but the girl simply scowls at her, causing Polianna to avert her eyes.

"Just shut your mouth." She snarls, "Now, you're going to answer my questions honestly, or I'll kill you."

"Y-You're big." Polianna remarks.

"You're in my world, now. So, YOU'RE small. Small enough that I could just crush the life out of you..." The giant says casually, "Or better yet, before I do that, if you won't talk to me, I'll just squeeze the answers out of you."

The giant starts to reach a hand in her direction, which makes Polianna stand and start to run in the opposite direction. The girl just chuckles.

"Ooh, so close." She taunts, dropping her wall sized hand in Polianna's path. Polianna stops in her tracks as the hand slides her back towards the giant.

"So, let me ask again. What are you doing in my house? What were you going to steal?" She asks again.

"I wasn't g-gonna steak anything!" Polianna answers.

"Liar!" The giant shouts.

"I'm NOT!" Polianna protests.

"Yes you are! All humans lie!" She accuses, "Tell me what you were trying to take from me!"

"Nothing!" Polianna repeats, "Just let me go!" She breaks off running yet again. The giant sighs deeply and just watches her.

"This again? You're not gonna make it." She rolls her eyes.

Polianna reaches the edge of the table and freezes. She takes only a second to process before she gets down on all fours and starts to scale down one of the legs, hugging it as she goes down. She barely gets down any further before she is yanked up by the back of her shirt.

"Stop! Please!" Polianna kicks and squirms as the girl lifts her to eye level.

"I'm not fucking around, human. Tell me what you were doing here or you're DEAD. You think this is the first time I've dealt with one of you? You're all the same, trying to sneak into my house, take my life, take my personal belongings!" She holds up her other arm, with a gold bracelet around her wrist, with her name engraved in it: Neftali.

Neftali stares at the bracelet briefly, then shakes her head angrily and looks back at Polianna in her hand.

"Well? Speak!" Neftali wraps her hand around Polianna in a fist.

"I-I...!" Polianna stutters as her movement becomes restricted. Tears prick at the corners of her eyes, "I just n-needed f-food!"

Neftali watches as Polianna starts to cry.

"I-I have no-nothing left! Me a-and my f-f-friend are starving! I-I climbed the beans-stalk and saw th-the house, so I went inside looking for food! I w-wasn't sure if anyone even lived here! I was-was going to j-just ask you for some if I knew! I'm s-s-sorry!" Polianna sobs, breaking down as tears flow from her eyes.

"Hmmph. Typical human. I'm not falling for your little sob story. I've heard the same thing from others before you, so don't even bother." Neftali narrows her eyes.

"A-Are y-you going to e-eat me?!" Polianna psychs herself up just enough to make eye contact with Neftali.

"What? No! That's... disgusting. And frankly, it'd just be way too messy." Neftali shakes her head, but Polianna still looks away, frightened, "I've got a better idea..."