Killing the Gods of Giants

By Ocelot

      "Sid, can't you move any quicker? We have to get out of here real soon," asked Snagin, looking more and more urgently toward the exit. Sid decided that he would search the entire horde for all the copper he could find. Any gems he found (which Snagin didn't already gotten) he was throwing into small sacks and putting into a backpack. Needless to say, gathering all the copper was a tedious task, considering the large amount of it there was.

      "Ha! Ha! I'm Rich! It's all gonna be mine!" said Sid insanely as he plopped yet another copper ingot into a small sack.

      Snagin rolled his eyes in annoyance at Sid's insane notion of copper's incredible wealth. In reality, every hundred copper coins equaled one gold coin. Platinum was worth five gold coins. Snagin was careful to hide all the platinum he could find from Sid when he as picking through the treasure. Sid had a habit of destroying platinum when he saw it due to its blasphemous "inferiority", and Snagin had no intention to fight the elf about it. Sid was quite insane at times, but when it came down to it, he was a good person to have around in a fight, and he was an incredibly adept thief. He was even a good friend when one could get through to him, which unfortunately wasn't very often.

      The sheer quantity of the dragon's treasure, even though the beast was young one, was far too much for the elf and the halfling to carry. Sid and Snagin agreed to bury the remains of the horde and come back for it later. This took a long time, and both were very tired from working so hard. They decided to sleep in the lair until morning, since neither of them could move fast enough to get by any patrols of giants they might have run into. Snagin had a very hard time sleeping with one eye open. At least three times he woke up during the night. Two of those three the elf was nowhere to be seen. Sid didn't sleep as much as one would think since he was an elf. Elves, when they slept, didn't lose consciousness per say. They just entered a sort of daydreaming trance state called the reverie. Snagin hoped that Sid wasn't causing too much trouble in his nightly prowling. Snagin was relieved to see that Sid was sitting up near him when he awoke the next morning. The dead dragon was really beginning to smell quite ripe. In several places, its hide was pierced where Sid had pried out various organs and put them in a large bag. Cave rats were already gnawing at the corpse in many places.

      "Ok, Sid. Let's get moving. The sooner where out of this cave, the sooner we can get back to spend this cash," said Snagin with a gleam in his eyes.

      The previous night, Sid had made a fire and tried to cook some of the dragon's flesh to eat. He was very frustrated to find out that he couldn't cook the meat since red dragons are immune to fire of any sort. Eventually he gave up and just ate it raw instead. During the night, he apparently had laid some of it out to dry. Now he held in his hand long strips of dried meat.

      "Haha.. Want some dragon jerky?" laughed Sid as he offered his new food to Snagin; "It tastes like chicken!"

      "I'll pass, " said Snagin, smirking wryly.

      Both thieves gathered their gear and headed toward the entrance. The damage from the ferocious fight the night before was very evident. Broken rock was everywhere. Several stalactites and stalagmites were broken off. The walls of the entry chamber were singed with black soot where the dragon had breathed fire at Sid. A faint scent of brimstone still hanged in the air. It was amazing the cavern hadn't collapsed what with a rampaging dragon writhing around and crashing into the ceiling and walls.

      Sid led the way, moving carefully and quietly down the long tunnel leading to the entrance. Snagin moved slowly behind Sid, looking behind himself every once in a while. When they rounded the final corner toward the mouth of the cave, Sid suddenly froze, holding up his left hand for Snagin to stop and be still. He then dropped onto his belly and began inching his way forward toward the cave entrance. Snagin waited for what seemed an eternity. Sid finally made his way back.

      "Giants. Lots of them! They're here for the copper. We have to stop them!" reported Sid, an evil gleam in his eye.

      "How many giants?" asked Snagin wearily.

      "About fifty or sixty. All of em I think! We can take 'em. You take the right side, and I'll take the left!" laughed Sid maniacally.

      Snagin looked blankly at Sid. The elf may have been Snagin's friend, but the halfling was NOT going to die to a bunch of moronic giants. Knowing Sid had made up his mind and that there was no changing it, Snagin reached into his pack and pulled out a short wrapped blade.

      "That's the spirit!" said Sid with extreme enthusiasm.

      Sid then turned and moved back toward the entrance, both scimitars drawn. Snagin ignored him and began to unwrap his short sword. As the white wrappings were removed, there appeared to be no sword. In actuality, the sword was invisible. Its name was the Sword of Lyons, and Snagin had found it on an adventure long ago. The hilt was endowed with many beautiful rubies, emeralds, and diamonds.

      "Well it's about time you took me out of that pack! I was getting sick and tired of the attitudes and primitive thoughts of all those "other" weapons you had stuffed in there with me!" yelled an unearthly fairy-like voice.

      "Shhh! Be quiet, Sword. We're in a touchy situation! There is a horde of giants just up ahead there outside this cave!" Shushed Snagin, waving his hand at the sword.

      "Well if you hadn't left me in that stupid pack for so long, I wouldn't be this irate!" countered the sword.

      "Just be quiet and don't give me any crap!" said Snagin as he was got up to move.

      As Snagin stood, he sheathed the Sword of Lyons in a ruby encrusted scabbard on his waist. When he did so, he slowly seemed to fade away. In fact, he was invisible. When the Sword of Lyons was ever sheathed, the halfling thief would be rendered impossible to see. When the sword was drawn, the blade was invisible but not the hilt. Snagin moved up to the edge of the cave just as Sid walked out the entrance.

      The sight before Sid was quite intimidating. Apparently the entire tribe of mountain giants had mobilized in the night and encamped at the entrance of the cave. All of the warriors were standing with huge spears and clubs, ready to pummel anything, which emerged from the cave. Sid didn't seem to care as he charged outside the cave and stood in defiance of all the giants. Behind him, an invisible Snagin just shook his head.

      "You smelly and ugly fools don't have a prayer! Why don't you surrender now while you have the chance, and then I won't slit the throat of each and every one of you filthy bastards!" bellowed Sid at the top of his lungs.

      All the giants, including all the old and feeble ones, laughed so hard that Snagin thought the noise would bring down part of the cave mouth on his head. An older giant with a big club stepped forward.

      "You kill our god! You must pay price for treachery!" yelled the apparent giant chief, judging by all the colors and decorations on his ugly hide.

      "You stink! I smell you from here, you filthy ugly dwarf!" yelled Sid with glee, an insane smile on his face. He then held up the dead dragon's tongue and swung it around his head in mockery.

      Right as Sid did that, everything fell into chaos. A heavy net of sorts was dropped from above the cave mouth. Sid immediately detected it, but he didn't move fast enough to get out of its way. It was weighted heavily, and it dropped the elf to the ground. Snagin, even though the giants couldn't see him, was unfortunately within the radius of the net and was also caught in it. He immediately began trying to cut his way out with a sharp black dagger. Strangely, the magical dagger seemed to have no effect on the tough and sticky substance which the net was made of. At that point, several giants jumped down from where they dropped the net and began pummeling Sid into submission. The elf managed to cut off two or three of their arms and legs, despite the net, before he finally fell under their powerful blows, unable to resist. One of the giants picked up one of Sid's magical adamantine scimitars and broke the hilt off the blade. A loud bang ensued, along with a very bright flash of light. Sid screamed with rage, despite his weakened state.

      "You dirty, filthy, spidery, ugly, smelly, moronic and insidious BASTARD!" yelled the elf at the top of his lungs, "You WILL die, and very soon!"

      Sid then tried to stand, tearing at the net with his teeth and trying to move toward the giant that broke his rare and powerful blade. All the other giants just laughed. One of them backhanded Sid, and he fell to the ground, growling like a wild animal and frothing at the mouth. Another of the giants picked up his other scimitar and his pack, moving them outside of Sid's reach and laughing at him.

      The flash of light had temporarily blinded the two giants near Snagin. The halfling decided that was his chance to escape. Moving toward the edge of the net, he began lifting it up and trying to crawl under it to freedom. He managed to get outside the net with ease. The thief then stood up and looked around for the nearest cover, thanking all the gods that the Sword of Lyons had made him invisible. Finally, he found where to go and began moving toward it. He was suddenly stopped in his tracks by a powerful pain all over his body. A bright red magical beam had blasted into him, knocking him to the ground. His world turned black as he entered unconsciousness.

      A woman's loud and unthinkably evil laughter permeated throughout the entire scene, quieting the giants and even Sid. Out from behind the mountain giant chief stepped a slender and shapely dark elven woman.

      "No one escapes. Warriors!" she called loudly, waving an evil looking whip.

      At that, three more dark elves, male ones with evil looking black blades, emerged from some underbrush near the cave mouth. All were wearing thick hoods, their faces deep within them. One of them reached down and picked up Snagin's inanimate form, the thief now visible since the Sword of Lyons was knocked from its sheath when he fell over. Another of the dark elves picked up the apparent jewelled hilt of the Sword of Lyons and put it in a bag.

      "Thief! Thief!! Hey, who the hell are you!? I don't belong to you!" yelled the sword in protest.

      The dark elf laughed evilly and put the bag in his pack. The third dark elf moved toward Sid to collect the elf's beaten but still breathing form. He grunted to the giants in disgust.

      "Get the net off of him. He's no harm to us now!" he spat.

      That was the last thing that the dark elf would ever do. Using the last bit of strength he could manage, and with unbelievable speed, Sid leapt up like a striking snake at the dark elven warrior. Pulling a razor sharp dagger from his boot, he rammed it straight through the dark elf's throat, knocking him down. Sid's entire forearm and face was spattered with crimson blood as the dark elf warrior gurgled out his last breaths of life.

      "I HATE DROW ELVES!!!!!" screamed Sid as he then turned and leapt toward the dark elf who was holding the unconscious Snagin.

      The other dark elves weren't prepared for the ferocity of Sid's attack. The one holding Snagin stumbled backward, tripping and dropping the halfling's unconscious form to the ground. The other, stepping between Sid and his companion, just barely managed to bring up his blade to stop Sid's killing blow. This did not thwart the enraged elf though, as when his dagger thrust was parried away, Sid brought his free hand up into the Drow's neck. With a horrifying ripping sound, Sid tore out the dark elf's throat with a steel grip. Blood flew everywhere. Sid threw the body aside and then leapt toward the final dumbfounded Drow elf. All of this had happened so fast, that the giants hadn't even reacted yet and were all standing around in confusion. The final Drow, terrified by the look of bloodlust in Sid's eyes, turned and ran into the underbrush before Sid could get to him. Sid began to bound after him, but he never got the chance. A thunderclap sounded, and the elf found himself engulfed in electricity, sharp pain reaching every part of his entire body, knocking him savagely to the ground. Sid was still feebly trying to get up and crawl for the underbrush toward the fleeing dark elf when a giant bashed him into unconsciousness.

      The dark elven woman smiled evilly. These would make fine slaves, so long as they weren't dead. They would pay for what they did - in blood and agony. They had no idea how long it took her to raise that dragon they had killed. She then ordered the giants to collect all the bodies and head back toward the giant village. When the male that had run away returned, she promptly executed him for cowardess. Males could always be replaced anyway.

In a tree high above the scene, an owl hooted in alarm and flew away.

To be continued...