The Forgotten Land: The Return of the Giants

Two Stones, Two Curses

A woman runs about the room, pounding on the walls, the floor, hoping to spring some sort of trapdoor, and come across some secret entrance. “Help me!” Her loud screams can be heard in the empty room. 

A room with no doors. No window. A single bed, and during the night, that man appears. “Help me! Please… spare my life!” And as she begs for mercy, the laughter in her ears is getting louder, unbearable.

“Help me! Please! Help, I can’t take it anymore!” 

Her calls were unanswered and she screams in frustration to the bare walls. She lost her sense of time. How many days had passed since she had been trapped?

Used. Abused. Being touched. Nonconsensual. The terrifying face of the man. Everything. She was afraid of his entire being.

“Tch. How noisy.”

Cynthia froze at the sound of his voice. It’s him again. A man. Cynthia whirls around. “When…” Her lips trembled as she whispered. “...when will you let me go?”

A wicked man chuckled, seemed untouched and unfazed by the dank and dust of the place. Cynthia’s pleas and begging for mercy no longer excites him. “Not yet.” He lets out a crooked him, with a snap of his finger a single light illuminates the room. An orb filled with golden dust. “Soon. Soon enough.” 

It’s fear, she’s sure of it. It’s anger and a whole lot more. “Please. I can’t take it anymore… why don’t you just kill me?”

“Kill you?” The man laughs, then, exposing sharp, sharp teeth. “Why would I kill an interesting lamb like you.”

“I–” Cynthia struggles to find the right words. Lamb, this man always calls her a little lamb. “Then let me go.”

“Why should I let you go? Ah, your bravery inspires me. Makes me excited.” The dark druid unearths the room, and soon they are transported to an unfamiliar place. A place that makes Cynthia’s damp empty and damp room appealing. “It seems like you’re not liking your accommodation, how about you stay here instead.”

Cynthia looked down and wrapped her arms around her shoulders. Shivering. There were bones all around and some of those bones still had fresh rotting meat clinging onto it. “What do you want from me? Tell me. What do you want?” Cynthia asked, and the man was pleasantly surprised at how steady her voice was. “I — I can’t take it anymore. Please, kill me… I’m losing my mind. I can’t take it anymore. Take whatever you want.”

The man laughs again, but his heart – if he even has one – doesn’t appear to be in it. She looks so pitiful now. Odd, since she had been fighting for her life before. “Huh, have you lost your will to live? How boring.”

“Yes.” Cynthia's lips trembled. “You killed my family, I have nothing left.” 

“Funny, you really think they’re your family.” The man's eyes glint, whorls of colour surfacing in their depths, as he stops by the door to his catacombs to take the girl there. “They did not tell you the truth, did they?”

Cynthia stills. “What?”

“You were ten years old. The generous man adopted you. Reasonable. You were hit in the head pretty hard so you probably don’t remember a thing.” The man hiding behind his cowl drawls, pushes hair out of his eyes. “Pitiful.”

“You’re lying!”

The dark druid let out a crooked smile. “You don’t believe me? Yet they offered you to me so that they can be spared from being eaten by my precious creations.”

Cynthia's hands balled into a fist. “That’s not true, they were just scared!”

“Ah, denial.” The man barked a loud laughter. “If you asked me, they shouldn’t have let you go, little lamb.” 

“You’re just playing with me, why can’t you just kill me and get this over with?!”

The dark druid moves before Cynthia even has a chance to blink, his arm up against Cynthia's windpipe, trapping her up against the wall, voice like honey. “If only they knew how precious your blood is. Oh well. Stupidity cannot be cured, can it?”

“Shut up! My family loves me!”

“Sure they do… Cynthia the Grey.” The dark druid breathes.

There’s a charred circle on the floor where Cynthia's family had been consumed and became fuel for my pets. "You are only alive because your body fuels me."

Cynthia sags to the ground, her body trembling as the look on the man's eyes changes. A familiar look. The look that he gives her, a mix of lust and intimidation. A brief respite, and then –

“Until you turn into skin and bones, I'll continue to mess you up, Cynthia the Grey.”

============

In a small town called Lihlay, an enchanted forest remains hidden. It was outside of the village and was very beautiful. It had trees that were broad and healthy, with life that scurried across their branches. The animals were also beautiful there, each creature more graceful than the last. It was rumored that the lovely place was enchanted with good and dark magic. 

But the children, even the teenagers did not listen to the warning of the village head. did not pay this much heed, for children only believed in what they could hear or see.

But in the town of Lihlay, there was a young lady who was particularly doubtful…

"Why would I believe it if I didn’t see it for myself? If someone told you that gold grows on trees, would you believe it too?" The young woman would say to herself, "Would you believe it if someone says you can plant coins and bills will eventually grow from its branches?"

It so happened that it was a foggy day, and as it is written in the books, fogs are full of magic. The other villagers clung to their superstitions of the fog and stayed away from the forest, but the young woman named Marie Claire threaded on. 

She didn’t listen to all the warnings and still went to the enchanted forest. She paused to stop under a large tree and began climbing on it, wanting to get a few apples for her to eat. But then tree proved to be slippier and thicker than she imagined, and she tried to climb it again before finally lifting her hands in the air and declaring,

"Stupid tree! Why won’t you let me enjoy your fruit? Why bear apples if you won’t let anyone enjoy it all?!"

The woman in her rage disdainfully kicked the tree trunk, but to her surprise an apple fell from a branch and rolled away, deeper into the forest.

The young woman, not wanting to lose her snack, followed it aimlessly into the woods.

Deeper and deeper the teenager went, her pretty face getting scratched and bruised from the thorns and branches she ran into. All the while, the fog became thicker, until she felt she could reach out her hand and stuff some in her pocket. Finally she tore into a clearing and rubbed her eyes, for he did not believe what she was seeing.

The clearing was covered with moss that seemed to glow like gemstones, and the moss encircled a pond that shone an iridescent blue. The air was full of small, glowing insects that seemed to vanish when you looked at them directly. A thick fog crept from out of the pond and stuck lowly to the ground. The fog only seemed to float as high as the young woman’s ankle, and it coiled like snakes around the young one’s feet.

It wasn't any of this that startled her. For out in the middle of the pond there was a giant stone, caked with moss and kelp, and on that stone was the most handsome young man the girl had ever seen.

His long silver hair clung to his shoulders and reached all the way down to his feet. His skin was pure white, without blemish or scar. His eyes were deep, and as beautiful as the pond itself. His lips were as tempting as the most glossy and fresh apple, and he ran her tongue over them when he saw the young woman standing there watching him. He waved his big and veiny hand and smiled at her, revealing dangerously pointed canines of pure white.

"Hello, beautiful," the man said.

The girl did not answer, yet remained still in her very spot, wide eyed. The handsome man let out a laugh. It was a pleasant yet bitter laugh that sent shivers down the young woman's spine. Yet the handsome man’s eyes did not show any antagonism, so the girl stepped forward to the edge of the pond, so she was only a few feet away.

"Who are you, may I ask?" She called out to the handsome young man on the Pond.

And with that question, the young man sneered for he had another victim.