A Giant's Heart: Chapter 7

I find the giant right where I left her.  She lay disturbingly still even for somebody unconscious.  Setting two of the water filled bottles to the side I take the remaining gourd and approach her.  I kneel at her side and listen to the sound of her breathing, still shallow but steady.  Her shivering had eased.  The fire had warmed the space and I could feel of it reflecting back from the earth and stone behind her.

Her head was raised slightly against the earth bank the boulder was embedded in which was helpful, but I couldn’t simply pour the water down her throat.  Pouring some of the liquid onto my fingers I dab them against her dry lips and allow a few drops to drip into her slightly open mouth.  I do this again.  And then one more time.  Smacking her lips I watch as she instinctively swallows the minuscule amount of water that had dampened her tongue.  

“That’s it.”  I whisper.  “Atta girl.”

Her mouth was as soft as any humans’, simply larger.  I continue this for a time, feeding her water literally a few drops at a time, as I look her over to assess her injuries in the cozy wavering radiance of the fire.

“What did you do to deserve this?”  I wonder.  I recall how she groveled and begged as her parents so adamantly tried to drive her away.  Who could say with these savages?  Their simple minds were not like ours.  Even as I tell myself these things her touching lullaby echoes in my ears.

The nasty blood caked gash on her head was taken from the initial attack when the mother had driven her head into the rock.  I’d have to get a better look at it though to really judge how bad it was.  Along the side of her arm and hand that lay outside the coverings I could see dark bruising and I knew there would be a particularly brutal one across her back, but I had seen her move enough to know her spine was not broken.  Shifting closer I open her eyelids with my fingers to see the pupils of unequal size and not dilating as they ought to in the firelight.  Not a good sign.  Not good at all.  She needed medical care much more urgently than she did water.

“Damn!”  For a creature I eventually intended on killing I am surprised to find myself disappointed at this dire prognosis.

The healing token I kept in my belt pouch, a wedding gift from my wife’s brother, could help her but it was a rare item and a limited resource.  Was I really going to use some of its potent magic to cure this giantess?  And to what end?  To get her into fighting condition so that I might slay her then?  

My eyes pan down her body to her leg.  The deafening crack as that bone snapped may have meant a clean break but I couldn’t be sure.  Even if I did use the token for her head that broken femur would not be so easily mended.  That was a big bone deep inside the thick meat of her huge thigh and it was sustained hours ago now.  Even with a skilled healer at her side it would take a week or more to get her to her feet.  I could almost hear Lymandri lecturing me about the importance of getting magical mending to deep hard tissue damage as quickly as possible.  “If you’re hurt, tell me!  Injuries I can deal with but stupidity is incurable.”

I smile sadly.  “You were right Lym.  Older, grayer, but I’m still as stupid as ever.”  Looking back over my shoulder at the spectacular night sky I could see it was barely past midnight.  Morning seemed an eternity from now.  With a sigh I repeat.  “Stupid as ever.”  I look at the giant.  “But…I told you that you’d see the morning and you will.”

With that I stand up and, after adding more fuel to the fire, come around to the other side of her.  After cutting the cleanest piece of cloth I could find from the patchwork rags I douse it in water, fold it, then lay it over the right side of her forehead to start softening the dried blood.  Cursing myself for the foolish mistake I was about to make I dig the elf crafted token from my belt pocket.  The snow white disk wasn’t much to look at.  Unmarked and a mere two inches from side to side it would have been easily mistaken as just a bit of polished ivory.  But it was a treasure worth this giant’s weight in silver.  It glowed with an internal warmth of its own and as I held it I watched a small scrape I’d gotten during my run through the forest earlier fade from sight as the healing magic coursed into the flesh.  When Lana found out I used her brother’s gift in this way I would be in store for a serious haranguing, and I will deserve it.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this.”  I say as I look up.  “I hope you are seeing this Arjan, from whatever afterlife you ended up in.”  Our wizard had been the sweetheart and idealist of our merry band.  He had such limitless faith in both monsters and fair folk alike, showing mercy to those that didn’t warrant it.  That kindness ended up being the death of him as we warned him it would be.  He was a naive fool but I dearly missed his unflagging optimism and his bright humor.  I missed him so much.  I knock my knuckles against my temple and look back down again.  “Enough memories Caspian.  Let the dead rest.”  I refocus on the job I had in front of me.

Placing the token in the giant’s blood encrusted hair over the head wound I proceed to clean her head and face with the wet cloth as best as I could.  As I wipe the blood and the grime from her face I unveil more of her well-proportioned friendly features and smooth russet skin.  Her face was slightly broader than it was tall, her wide cheekbones giving her face a sideways oval shape.  Her jet black eyebrows are thicker than my thumb, her rounded nose as wide as my hand, and her full plump mouth proportionally both taller and wider than my own.  When they were open her large eyes were round.  She was not old by any stretch but certainly beyond the age where she should still be with her parents.  By human standards I would judge her to be somewhere shy of thirty years old.  Before I knew it I had cleaned not only the blood along the right side but also the dirt across her whole calm visage.  She was…lovely, for a giant.

“Among your kind you must be quite the ravishing maiden.”  I quip.  “A host of suitors do doubt.”  After a pause.  “Why were you still with your parents?  No matter.”

I check on the wound.  There was no visible improvement but the token had darkened slightly signaling that it had been active.  When it turned black the magic would be drained from it completely and permanently. I clean the area there as best I could through her thick black hair before placing it back again.  I give her a bit more water then move down her body to inspect her thigh.

I shift her coverings away from the area only to see that her crude knee length tunic went right down to her knees.  I was a strong man but I didn’t have a hope of moving this much dead weight in order to free the tunic so I opt for slicing the garment from knee to hip along the side of her leg.  Once cut I carefully peel it back to be greeted with a waft of the pungent musk from her crotch.  

“Whoo!”  I fan my hand.  “Would a bath kill you?”

Strong as it may be the odor was more human than animal.  I had smelt a lot worse in my day.  Right away I see the site of the club’s impact, it was impossible to miss.  A nasty purple bruise the size of a serving platter colored the side of her thigh starting just below the hip.  The flesh itself was swollen and even through her grime I could make out the reddened discoloration.  It wasn’t misshapen or resting at an odd angle however, so it could have been worse.  I couldn’t imagine the pain she went through dragging herself from the gully to here.  Even for a monster she was tough, I’ll give her that.

From what I could see it was a clean and simple break but I had to check the inner thigh and the hamstring to see if there were any distensions or protrusions.  I look to her face to make sure she was still out cold then I pour more water over the now brown cloth and then over her tree trunk of a leg.

“Let’s get a better look at this.”  I mutter to myself.  Then, as a jest, I bow my head to her as if she were a lady of decorum.  “Pardon my brazenness my dear, but I must clean the area.”

Kneeling higher I push her opposite leg away a few inches to provide me more room then I throw back the flap of fur to expose her entire left leg and in doing so inadvertently reveal a bit of her nether regions.

What I discover stops me dead.

Chapter 8