Polianna and the Beanstalk

Chapter 5

Neftali's hands clench into trembling fists. Her teeth are grinding together hard. Polianna presses her back against the wall behind her.

"Would you like to tell me... just what you think you're doing?" Neftali's voice is dangerously low.

"I-I was... I'm s-so-sorry, I wasn't t-trying to-!" Polianna stammers, her eyes brimming with tears of fear.

"SAVE IT!" Neftali bursts out.

Neftali glares down at the human.

"I... I should just CRUSH you right now!" Neftali slams her foot down, barely missing Polianna. She screams at the thunderous impact and the shake of the floor and cowers further against the wall.

"Please!" Polianna cries.

"Shut. UP." Neftali yells.

They're both silent for the longest time. That is, until Neftali bends down with lightning speed. Her hand opens and outstretches directly at Polianna. The latter shrieks and shields her face from the presumed crushing force. When she feels nothing, she hesitantly opens her eyes. Neftali's hand is open, trembling, right in front of her.

Their eyes meet, and Polianna feels the tears escape. Neftali's fingers twitch with anger. She contemplates grabbing the girl and squeezing her life between her fingers. But her tiny, scared face makes her pause.

"...You're coming with me." Neftali mutters, about to grab her.

"N-No, please! I'm sorry!" Polianna begs, curling tighter in on herself. When the giant girl pauses again, she hastily pulls the sharp bone she had used from her pocket. "I-I used that... to get out. I-I won't do it again, I was just sca-scared... please... don't put me back in that cage!"

Neftali eyes the carved bone from the food she'd given her. She flicks it aside like nothing, then wraps her fingers around Polianna. She whimpers, waiting for her body to be squished effortlessly. Instead, the grip only tightens slightly, enough to secure her and keep her from squirming.

"Let's go." Neftali snarls.

Polianna closes her eyes at the stomach lurching feeling of being lifted what feels like hundreds of feet into the air. She only opens her eyes when the feeling stops, and finds Neftali, still glaring her down.

"I'm going to make some food. If you try to run, I'll crush you for real this time." Neftali threatens in almost a whisper.

Polianna just nods timidly as Neftali walks slowly out of the bedroom.

Neftali roughly sets Polianna down on the kitchen counter. When she picks up a knife, she takes a nervous step back. Neftali rolls her eyes.

"I'm not using this on you. Relax." Neftali scoffs. "Besides. Why dirty a perfectly good knife when my boot would work just fine."

Polianna just keeps her head down. Neftali picks up a green pepper from off to the side and begins to cut it into slices, then cutting along the slices to make them into small cubes. Polianna briefly looks up at the giant, then puts her head back down, mumbling something.

"Did you say something?" Neftali turns to look at her. Polianna just shakes her head, still looking at her feet.

Neftali gives her a deadpan stare, before she gently takes her pointer finger and tilts the human's head up so that their eyes meet.

"Look me in the eyes if you're going to speak to me." Neftali states.

Polianna can't sense any malice behind her words, nor any sort of compassion either, though.