• Published 3rd Apr 2013
  • 3,701 Views, 139 Comments

A world with no giants - TheSexyMenhir



Chose! Live forever ignorant, or die and see eternity. Angelo Gordon may never see the completion of his lifework, this realization causes him to jump into the still unfinished portal-project, only to awake in a world far beyond his comprehension.

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Angelo Dianae

In a world with no giants
Ch.07 “Angelo Dianae”

With an absent minded gesture, Angelo carved another groove into his “calendar.” Counting the new one, fortyfive marks adorned the stick besides his resting place.

The “burrow” had transformed. A curtain weaved from flexible young branches and covered in leaves, shielded the entrance, making it blend into the background. Inside his new found home, there were several wooden containers, some of them filled with berries and nuts, others with water, and others yet again with various pebbles, sticks, and other knick knacks he had thought interesting or useful. His “bed” was made up of moss and leaves.

It still was a hole in the ground, but by now it was a comfortable hole.

He crawled out of the bed and towards one of the bigger bowls to wash himself. It seemed counter intuitive to waste water on pure vanity, but Angelo was well aware of the amount of illnesses that could be caused by a lack of hygiene, and while he was thankful for Empress companionship, he doubted that the white hare would make for a good nurse if he ever fell ill.

“Rise and shine!” he shouted towards the curled up fluffy figure, that lay in a corner of the burrow. Somewhat sluggish the hare lady raised herself, from the small piece of bedding, which had been crafted by Angelo, under the carefully, one might say bossy, watch of her.

“Oh look it’s nuts and berries for breakfast,” Angelo groaned. He had managed to snatch an egg from a low hanging nest once. Fighting down a feeling of guilt, he had been relieved to find that the egg was unfertilized, just as he had assumed. A pre heated stone had been his makeshift pan, and he had nearly cried tears of joy while eating the slightly undercooked mess he had produced. Today however the taste of egg was only a far of memory.

“Well, let’s try to get a bit farther today, shall we?” he asked Empress, after they had finished their simple but filling breakfast. “Exploring” had turned into his main way to spend time whenever he didn’t need to worry about food, or water. He had once again taken up leaving markers, but with his new knife he had also started adding some more information, like direction and distance to the burrow, or his water sources.

And slowly but surely he had expanded his search range. The expanse of the forest had proven vast, but not endless. At times he had come across vast fields of grass that somewhat reminded him of the hills around Ireland, or maybe the less populated pieces of France. However no matter where he turned, he had found no signs of civilization. Still, it was not like he had anything better to do.

Naked like the day he was born, he stepped out into the open. Whatever improvements he had made to his lifestyle, it was the production of fabric that still eluded him. Different tries with, bark, leaves, and woven grass had all proven worthless, and whenever he looked at Empress, he knew that fur was out of the question.

He winced slightly as he tried to stretch his arms. Generally the constant pain reminded him that his shoulder was still dislocated, and that he had no idea what to do about it, but shortly after waking up, he sometimes managed to forget the pain for a while. Never for long though.

“Let’s go, the day isn’t getting any longer,” he said, and started walking east...

---

Day sixty...

Two and a half months...

Angelo tried not to think about the time he had already spent in this world. He ignored his reflection in the bowl of water, and he didn’t look as he made another mark in the calendar stick.

“Let’s go,” he grumbled in the direction of Empress, not bothering to see if the hare was actually following him.

He stepped outside and looked around. He had erected some basic windshields by weaving branches between the trees, somewhat shielding his home from the elements, and giving him a weird sense of security. It was amazing how much even a symbolic wall between himself and the rest of the world served to reassure him.

But even so, the wind still made him shiver.

“Hmm,” he grunted. If the weather took a turn for the worse, that would be a problem.

Nonetheless he continued his way, this time he was northbound. In the north there lay the small creek and the berry fields that had kept him alive during the first few weeks of his stay. By now it took him him nearly half a day to catch up to the point where he last had stopped his exploration, even though he knew the landscape much better.

There! That was the marking that he had left the last time, roughly thirty to forty kilometers from the burrow.

“You’re gonna take the lead?” he asked turning around, only to notice that he was alone.

He cursed. Not only was he left without a guide, but he was pretty sure that among the birds he had seen thus far, there had been at least some birds of prey. For a moment he thought about turning back, but that would mean to waste a complete day, just to satisfy his paranoia. Empress had survived without him before, and if worse came to worse, she could always hide in the burrow.

He resumed his track northwards. The forest was thick, and even the normally light underbrush grew heavier as he pressed on. At one point he had to backtrack for almost ten minutes, because the shrubbery around him had grown so thick that he couldn’t move anymore.

...

“You gotta be kidding me,” Angelo cursed. He had just broken through a particular dense part of the undergrowth, and now found himself standing atop a large gorge.

Beneath his feet the landscape suddenly fell, leaving a five meter wide cleft in the landscape. On all fours Angelo crept towards the edge, slowly sticking his head over it. The cliff walls were littered with sharp outcroppings, making the gorge look like the hungry maw of a woodchipper. What was worse was the fact that he couldn’t even make out the bottom, which was hidden beneath thick fog.

Turning his head left he saw the fault stretched into the horizon, and to his left it continued for at least 20 kilometers, before making a turn towards the south. It seemed that without a way to cross over the enormous gap, this was where his exploration would end.

“Damnit!” he dragged himself to his feet, and turned back for the burrow.

---

The sun was slowly nearing the horizon, and he still had a lot of ground to cover, before he would be back.

“I should have paid more attention to the sun,” he muttered into his beard. He broke into a brisk jog, trying to make up for the time he had lost, circumventing a large field of unpassable thorn-bushes.

Focused on his breathing and the path ahead of him, it took him several minutes to realize that something was wrong. He stopped and tried to hold his breath, even though his burning muscles were telling him to gasp for air. He perked up his ears, but the only thing that broke through the silence were the leaves rustling in the wind.

Weird.

During all the weeks he had spent here, the forest had always been full of life. And even if the critters of the forest avoided him for the most part, their squeaks and chirps had always surrounded him.

Angelo might not have been the most connected to nature, but one only had to visit the movies or pick up a book every now and then to know that sudden silence never was a good thing.

“Did I douse the fire this morning?” he thought, horrific visions of a sleeping Empress slowly being consumed by the flames filling his mind.

“No, don’t panic! I didn’t make any fire yesterday. It’s got to be something else,” he tried to calm himself, as the sun slowly crept closer to the horizon.

His first impulse was to start running towards the burrow. But what if there was a predator? He hadn’t seen any signs of larger animals so far... except for the dislodged tree that had provided his first wooden bowls.
Carefully he sneaked towards the burrow, his senses strained to the limit, trying to pick up even the slightest hint of danger.

Then he heard the howling...

It was a strange guttural sound, carrying with it the images of vicious teeth and ancient forests. This was no greeting, no declamation of territory, it was a hunting call, and it came from straight ahead, from the burrow.

Angelo ran. His mind was blank except for the image of a small white hare, being chased by nightmarish creatures. Just for a short moment he thought he heard a all too familiar squeak. The sound of blood pounded in his ears, and his legs burned, as he forced himself to accelerate even more.

With a final jump he burst through the canopy and onto the clearing.

Empress was surrounded by three creatures, wolflike, but made up of sticks and leaves. A green fiery glow emanated from their eyes and their chest, and a smell of moss, rotting leaves and blood hung about them.

He didn’t take the time to look at them closer. With a savage war cry he lept at the closest creature. The thing that collided with the timberwolf was no longer Angelo Gordon, but an ancient savage beast, made up of instinct, muscle and rage.

The pain in his arm was irrelevant as he grabbed onto the beast’s back with one hand, while the other raised his stone-knife, only to bring it down where a normal creatures throat would have been.
Something snapped and what had been a fierce predator just moments ago, was now only a pile of sticks and shambles.

Before he could turn towards the next wolve a hard wooden body crashed into his own, pushing him down into the remains of what had once been his enemy. Just barely did he notice the feeling of something puncturing his skin, that wasn’t important right now. Something had tried to hurt the only friend he had in this world, and he wouldn’t rest before it had been wiped from the face of the earth.

Again a cocktail of rage and adrenaline shot through his body, as he pressed his hands against the ground slowly uprighting himself again, the timberwolf still on his back. A small tremble went through his body as the third timberwolf sank his teeth into his arm. He sank to a knee.

There was a flash of white fur, and the wolf holding onto his back yelped. Temporarily being relieved of this burden, Angelo brought down his knife into the eye of the wolf before him. There was no blood, but the fiery orb almost seemed to explode, and Angelo had to let go of the sharpened stone.

His eyes shot towards his other enemy, just in time to see him swipe at Empress. Time seemed to slow, and for a moment Angelo couldn’t focus on anything but the few droplets of blood that seemed to hover in the air.

Despite his injuries, Angelo launched himself into the distracted wolf. He threw the dog sized creature to the ground, his fist raining down on the stunned being. He grabbed one of the larger sticks that made up the wolfs body, and began to pull. Slowly but steady the wood began to bend, until finally accompanied by yowl of pain it snapped in half. Once again he reached for the creatures chest and started to pull. And again. And again. He pulled and clawed his way straight into it’s chest, straight to the source of the green glow. A small pulsing green orb hang there, amidst the the branches and sticks. He closed his hands around the orb.

Another body slammed into his, the timberwolf which he had blinded on one side, quickly withdrew again. Heavily breathing Angelo came to his feet , trying to keep his eyes on the last wolf who was circling him cautiously. Slowly he took a step back, and another, until he stood above the wounded Empress.
He leaned down to the blood stained hare. Much to his relief, he saw her sides rising and falling. Her breath came erratically, but she was still alive.

His eyes shot back to the last timberwolf, but for some reason the creature held it’s distance, mustering him.
A rustle went through the first wolf’s body. Sticks and leaves rattled as if there was a fierce wind blowing, even though the clearing was shielded on all sites. Angelo could only stare wide eyed as a green glow took ahold of the remains and lifted them into the air. Before long a completely healed timberwolf stood before him.

Angelo didn’t wait to see if the other wolf would stand back up as well. He grabbed Empress and dashed towards the burrow. The wolves ran after them.
Hastily he pushed aside the woven mat, that had served as his entrance door, jumped into the hole, and pulled the cover back. The small mat of flexible branches, was almost laughable as a defense mechanism, but maybe it would buy him the seconds he needed.

Laying Empress on the ground he reached for the fire ruby, and his tinder.

“Come on, come on, come on!” he almost screamed as his stone clashed against crystal, causing small sparks to fly. The timberwolves howled and rattled on the door, but Angelo focussed on his task.
Before long the mat gave way under the wolves assault, but just as the first of the wolves jumped at him, Angelo spun around and rammed a piece of burning wood, into it’s body. The effect was immediate and drastic. In a matter of seconds the creature was ablaze, as if his body had been covered in lighter fluid.

Yowling and screaming it stormed out of the burrow. The two remaining wolves tried to escape, but Angelo ran after them a burning log in each hand. He jumped after the first one, thrusting his torch like a lance, and setting the creature ablaze.

The other one however had used his distraction and had almost left the clearing. He shifted his remaining torch into his healthy hand, took aim, and threw it after his fleeing opponent. In the dark of the evening the flying torch turned into a wheel of flickering fire, and for a moment he feared that it might be doused by the wind, but then a yowl and a spurt of flame coaxed a satisfied grin out of him.

Only for a fraction of a second though, then he turned around and darted back into the burrow.

A sizeable pool of blood had already formed around the white rabbit, and what remained of her movement was shaky and jittery.

Quickly he looked around to see if he could do anything to stop the bleeding.

“Can’t tie it off... no dressing material...” Angelo’s voice came quick and had a robot-like nature to it as he rattled of the ways he knew to stop a bleeding.

“MOSS!” he shouted, and ran to his bed, gathering up a small amount of dry moss. Quickly he pressed it onto the wound and applied pressure, but blood still spilled between his fingers.
His head shot left and right as he scanned the contents of the burrow, but he could spot nothing useful.

Then his eyes suddenly focussed. A warm orange shine was reflected in them...

---

Empress awoke in pain. She felt like something was clawing into her sides. Panic clouded her mind as she remembered the events from before she fell unconscious. Her gaze raced down to her side, where she expected to see the blood slowly dripping out of her, instead there were only three pink streaks of charred flesh and fur.

Confused she looked around until she notice the sluggish figure of her companion leaned against the walls. His fists were clenched, but his eyes were closed and his breath came steadily.

Fighting back the pain, she crawled over to him. As she came closer, she could see that just below his ribs, there was a spot of burned flesh, not unlike the one on her sides.

“Ah, you’re awake.”

She didn’t understand what the words meant, but hearing him talk was strangely comforting. She nestled against his leg. He stretched his arm out, as if to pet her, but as he opened his hand, his face contorted into a mask of pain. Empress caught a glance at the inside of his hands at this moment; There were black welts of burned flesh.

Empress didn’t quite understand but for some reason she felt safe as she pressed against this strange creature, which was so unlike everything else in this world.

---

Angelo watched as his breath turned into fog, as he lay in his bed. Besides his resting place there lay a small stack of sticks, each filled to the brim with carvings. He hadn’t counted them for quite some time, but it probably had been about half a year since his arrival. Or it least it would have been on earth, who knew what an year meant arround here.

“I guess there’s a winter around her as well,” he said, as he saw another cloud escape from between his lips. Empress apparently startled awake by his mumbling looked at him.

“Good thing that we stored some supplies,” he told her. He had made another few bowls, and lids to close them. He even had managed to fell some small trees. Fire wood, berries, and even water if the creek should freeze upstreams.

Although he would have traded that all for some warm clothing, or really any clothing at all.

His “bed” had turned into a large pile of dried leaves, in which he buried himself at night, trying to keep at least some of the cold out. He had managed to make a new “door” by weaving branches together, and it even held some of the warmth inside the burrow, but even with his supplies, he had to ration the firewood, unless he wanted to run out in the middle of winter. Provided that winter only lasted as long as on earth...

That Empress hadn’t fled or urged him to wander south, like a pelted southern bird, at least gave him some hope that the winter would be survivable.

“Let’s see if we can find some more supplies, before it get’s too cold to leave the burrow,” he suggested. As he went for the exit, he grabbed a long sharpened spear, that lay on the floor. The scars on him and Empress served as constant reminders of the dangers that lurked out there in the wilderness.

Together he and the white hare lady went into the forest, so focussed on discovering food, that they never even noticed the gray Pegasus above, that was pushing around snow clouds. And maybe she wouldn’t have noticed them either, if it hadn’t been for her left eye, which suddenly didn’t follow it’s owners orders anymore, and instead wandered down to stare at the ground below.