I stared at it. It was fey, it had to be, but I’d never seen anything like it.
It didn’t have a body, just a huge, bulbous head covered in shaggy white hair that hung down to its knees. No, not knees…knee. The giant had one thick stump of a leg ending in a massive clubbed foot, dirty yell 145/387
ow toenails gripping the ground like a giant claw. Two long arms sprouted where its ears should’ve been, and a pair of huge, uneven eyes gazed down at us with detached curiosity.
I tensed, ready to attack should the giant lunge at us. That single leg, once taken out, would make it easy to bring this huge creature down.
But the giant only blinked at us sleepily, then turned to gaze at the river again, where the string of his fishing pole met the water.
The Wolf panted, grinning at Puck, who had leaped to his feet, furiously brushing mud from his pants. Ariel a stepped up beside me, her apathy forgotten as we gazed up at the strange creature, continuing to fish as if nothing had happened. “What is that?” she whispered, clutching my arm.
“I’ve never seen a creature like this before. Is this some kind of human nightmare?”
“It’s not a nightmare,” the Wolf said, sitting down to watch us. “It’s fey, just like you, but it doesn’t have a name. At least, none that anyone can remember.”
“I did not think any still existed,” Grimalkin said, reappearing on a piece of driftwood, his tail still f luffed out to twice its size. He peered up at the oblivious giant and sniffed. “This may be the very last one.”
“Well, endangered or not, maybe it can help us,” Puck said, edging up to the giant’s treelike leg. “Oy, stumpy! Yeah, you!” he called as the giant’s massive head swiveled around to stare at him. “Can you understand me?”
The Wolf blinked at Puck, astonished, and Ariel a pressed a little bit closer to me. I could feel her soft fingers gripping my arm, and casually 146/387
reached for my sword hilt. “I’m not about to scrape you off the bottom of its foot, Goodfel ow,” I warned.
“Touched that you care, prince,” Puck called back, retreating a few steps to meet the giant’s gaze, craning his head up. “Hey there,” he greeted, waving cheerfully. “We don’t mean to intrude, but would you be able to answer a couple questions?” He blinked as the giant continued to stare. “Uh, bob once for yes, twice for no.” The faery shifted, and I tensed, ready to attack if it tried to stomp Puck like an irritating cockroach. But the giant only pulled his line out of the river and turned to face Puck square on.
“What…do…you…want?” it asked, very slowly, as if it was just remembering how to talk. Puck’s eyebrows shot up.
“Oh, hey, you can speak, after all. excellent.” He turned to grin at me, and I stared back, unamused. “We were just wondering,” Puck continued, giving the giant his best charming smile, “how much farther to the End of the World? Just as a curiosity. Do you know? You look like a local, you’ve been here awhile, right? What do you think?”
“I…do not remember,” the giant said, frowning as if such a thought pained him. “I am sorry. I do not remember.”
“You won’t get anything useful out of him, Goodfel ow,” the Wolf growled, standing up. “He doesn’t even remember why he’s here.”
“I was…looking for something,” the giant mused, his large eyes going glassy. “In…the river, I think. I forgot what it was, but…I’ll know it when I see it.”
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“Oh.” Puck looked disappointed, but only for a moment. “Well, how about a boat, then?” he went on, undaunted. “If you’ve been here awhile, you must’ve seen a boat f loating down the river once or twice.” The Wolf shook his head and turned to stalk down the riverbank, obviously fed up with the conversation. But the giant frowned, his huge brows knitting together, and nodded thoughtfully.
“A boat. Yes…I remember a boat. Always going in the same direction.” He pointed with a pale white finger in the direction we were headed.
“That way. It makes one stop, just one, at the dock on the river’s edge.” I looked up sharply. “Where?”
The giant’s furrows deepened. “A town? A settlement? I think I remember…houses. Others…like me. Lots of mist…” He blinked and shrugged, which looked strange because he had no shoulders. “I don’t remember.”
With a final blink, he turned away, as if forgetting we were there, and none of Puck’s continued prodding seemed to reach him.
“Do you know anything about this town?” I asked Grimalkin as we continued down the riverbank. Farther ahead, the Wolf had stopped again and was looking back in annoyance. I would’ve asked him, but he looked ready to snap someone’s head off.