This is the second bit of writing I got from @chibi-writings. It’s a continuation of the last one, set a little after the first. they’ve been talking and getting closer since they met. CW for a bit of violence on this one. Edit: now with art by @ferns-n-fables
The forests around the Kaldorian cities were always very lush and beautiful, and Elias always had a twinge of envy for the natural beauty that surrounded where the giant races decided to make their homes and buildings. Humans were so different when they came into contact with nature and tried to build their cities, as it usually involved the destruction of whatever habitat that was originally there.
The Kaldorians were so different; despite being so much larger than humans it seemed as if they were somehow able to weave both nature and civilization together seamlessly, to the point where there were trees growing right from their buildings as if woven into them somehow.
Humans could learn a lot from Kaldorians, he thought with a little wistful sigh as he looked around. The trees towered over even Raum, as it seemed that where the giants lived everything grew bigger in comparison. It was actually a little intimidating to think about just how large these trees were, and the thought of climbing to the top of one of them made his head spin. He quickly tried to pull his mind away from it, instead turning to the one next to him.
“Next” to him being a little bit of a misleading thing to say, as Elias was currently sitting on the edge of the cliff while Raum stood right next to it, as he was more than tall enough to keep talking to Elias even in his current position. The cliff came up to the king’s shoulder, so he was able to turn his head and smile
and talk to Elias as much as he wanted, while not having to bend down to speak to him in the process.
This spot had become one of their favorites for this reason, as well as the fact that it afforded them a bit of privacy.
Such things made Elias want to flush a little, even though he told himself there was hardly a reason to do so. It was not as if the two of them were doing anything wrong or immodest, hardly that! They were just two friends, and recently he had been feeling close enough to share some of his personal life and inner thoughts with Raum, things that he dd not feel entirely comfortable with others overhearing.
Raum was much the same, and Elias was soon learning personal little details about his life that he was certain Raum did not tell to just anyone, and he knew he was very privileged for being handed this information. There was a trust being placed in him that was clearly not on the same level that Raum trusted others in, and he wanted to prove himself worthy of this trust.
Suddenly, in the midst of their conversation where they were laughing and bantering with each other, he heard the enormous sound of footsteps approaching. It was nearly impossible for Kaldorians to sneak up upon someone, their bulk was simply too huge, and they always shook the ground with noise whenever they walked.
Another of Raum’s kind was approaching, no doubt looking for their king, and if that was the case then it likely had to be something important.
Hearing Elias fall silent, Raum looked to him in concern for a moment, before he too heard the noise that was approaching. “Ah, duty is never far from me, it seems,” he said with a look of clear regret to Elias. “I can go see what they want, quickly, if you don’t want to get wrapped up in the conversation.”
Elias had become something of an object of curiosity to the other Kaldorians as of late. Not in a bad way, of course, as the Kaldorians were a gentle people, but he did feel like that there was quite a bit of gossip going on among them. They always looked at him kindly, though there was a little bit of a knowing gaze in their expression, as if they knew something that he did not. It was hardly something that troubled him, but at the same time it did always make him flush to see it, and Raum perhaps wanted to spare him a bit of embarrassment for once.
“I can come with you, so you don’t feel like you are abandoning me,” he said bravely, looking up at Raum with a smile.
The answering one from Raum was brilliant. With how much larger he was than a human, his expressions seemed to shine through with more force, more energy and joy than what a human was capable of. “You are very generous,” he said as if completely aware of what Elias was doing. “But I will not take long. Sit here for a few minutes and I will be back soon.”
He waved a little at him with a hand that could have easily cradled his entire body in its palm, almost in a little bit of a joking manner, before he turned and began heading towards where the steps were coming from. His blue robes swished as he walked with each step, making him look like some sort of enormous, graceful titan as he glided serenely through the trees and vanished far quicker than anyone would have thought possible.
Elias never tired of watching it and never stopped being amazed by it; how something so large could vanish so quickly and completely was always a mystery to him, and no matter how many times he saw the Kaldorians do it he felt like he would never get used to it.
He was left surrounded by the peace and serenity of nature. Glancing down, he saw the edge of the cliff he was on dropping down before him, a sheer face of rock that was nearly vertical in its shape, so he had no chance of survival if he managed to fall when Raum was not around to catch him. In fact he was up here in the first place because of the king, as climbing the rock wall would have taken hours on his part, and would have likely needed some sort of special equipment, whereas Raum simply picked him up and placed him on top of the cliff in a matter of seconds.
Without the Kaldorian around he felt far less secure sitting so close to the edge of the cliff than usual, and he quickly stood up and took several steps back from it, as if it was somehow dangerous and lunge for him when he least expected it. He told himself he was being silly, that he should not be so easy to spook like this, but his brain was having a difficult time listening to its rational side.
He should just sit there and wait for Raum, though he supposed it was rather smart to not put himself in any sort of danger while the giant was away. If nothing else he would not want to see Raum get worried in any way.
It all happened very suddenly, with absolutely no warning. One moment he was walking backwards, about to stop and then look for another place to sit while he waited for the king to return, the next there were hands on him, a weight crashing on him and restraining him.
Elias yelped and thrashed out of pure instinct, his brain struggling to understand what was going on, but his efforts were in vain. Whatever had happened these people had been prepared for it, that much was obvious.
“Got the giant-lover here!” he heard a triumphant voice yell from somewhere above his ear. “Let’s take him back!”
“No, we don’t have time! Let’s do it right here!” another voice argued with the first, all the while Elias still struggled against his captors’ hands with no result.
What was this all about? From the sounds of it and the fact that this had happened at all, these people must have been waiting nearby the whole time, waiting to do who-knows what, and now that they had Elias they had the perfect opportunity to do it.
He frantically turned his head to try and get a look at the people who were holding him, and so far all he saw was a group of five people, humans obviously, and they were helping hold him in place.
“Let me go!” he demanded, anger boiling up inside of him. He opened his mouth to yell, to call out for Raum as the giant would definitely hear him, but before he could one of his captors shoved a rag into his mouth and tied it behind his head as if he had been waiting for that moment.
“No calling for your oversized friend, traitor,” the man snarled at him, in a voice that sounded sincerely angry, and it made Elias freeze in fright. “This is between us humans.”
The way they talked… Elias was beginning to suspect who these people might be, and it was making his blood run cold.
Not all humans were accepting of Kaldorians or liked them very much. Some of these groups were even quite vocal and demonstrative about it, saying that humans needed to stand on their own and not cozy up to “giants,” and those were the best of them.
There were others who simply hated Kaldorians, who thought that they were some sort of abominations or freaks of nature, and that the less of them were around, the better. They were barbaric and brutal, and Elias knew that with some of these groups the only thing they hated more than the Kaldorians themselves were humans who associated with them, considering them traitors to their own species.
It seemed like his current captors were precisely those types. He and Raum had actually dealt with some of them before in the past, so he knew precisely what kinds of things these people were capable of, and his heart began to pound even faster in his chest. None of the people around him looked or sounded familiar, but that did not mean much at the end of the day.
“We gotta teach everyone a lesson about what happens to those who get too friendly with those giants,” another one of the men said, and Elias noted with a thrill of fear that he had a club in one hand.
“Starting with you.” He could not move to run, as he was still being held in place, and the blow landed into his stomach with a force that would have driven the breath out of him if he had not had his mouth gagged. He coughed, wheezing a little, but there was no time to recover or even brace himself as another hit landed from somewhere else. With five against one, it was impossible to brace for every single hit or fight his way past all of them, especially when he already was being held by at least one of them.
Still he tried, thrashing about again to try and break free from the grip holding him, and though he heard his captor cursing and struggling against Elias’s weight and strength, it ultimately proved useless. He was held tight and barring some sort of outside help, he wasn’t going anywhere.
A fist came next and slammed into his cheek, dazing him from the force of the blow and causing him to stop struggling for a moment as he tried to right himself. Then another blow hit, and another. It was becoming difficult to tell what was going on, as the blows and their subsequent pain seemed to be coming from all directions at once. The moment Elias thought he righted himself and got a hold on what was happening something would then come and destroy it all over again. He knew he had to be fighting at least a little, on instinct if nothing else, but it was hard to tell precisely what was going on.
Both his sight and hearing seemed to be getting mixed up, something he could hear but not see anything, sometimes he looked at the scene of the angry humans in front of him but could not hear what they were saying.
At some point the hands holding him captive abruptly let go, causing him to drop to his hands and knees
immediately. The sensation was incredibly painful, and it was done because of his body’s natural reaction more than anything else, and a groan of pain escaped him. He shuddered all over from it, his body one big knot of agony, and no amount of time or air he sucked into his lungs seemed to be able to help. Struggling to his feet proved useless, as his limbs seemed to not want to cooperate with him properly in order to make it work.
How long had they been beating him? Where was Raum?
“Oh no, we’re not done yet,” he suddenly heard one of the men say with a laugh, as if he was replying to someone else. “We’re just getting started!”
Then he landed a swift kick to Elias’s ribs, causing the man to cry out as pain lanced through his chest and he was thrown onto his side. Before he could push himself to his feet a boot pinned his arm against the
ground and another blow landed on his back.
“So you want to have fun with giants, huh?” someone shouted above him, and from the sound of it he had a feeling that they had been shouting something like this before. “You want to turn your back on your own kind and take some overgrown mutant over us! Here’s what happened to giant-lovers!”
If this was what happened to friends of Kaldorians, then it was obvious why someone preferred their company over than of humans. It was a rebuttal that popped into his head in an instant, and even if he would not have been gagged he would not have spoken the words anyway, as he knew that would have set them off even more. But where was he wrong all the same? From what he had seen of the Kaldorians they were far more accepting of humans than humans were of them, and he could not help but think how incredibly sad it all was.
These thoughts lasted only a fraction of a second though as they flitted across his mind, because the pain from the blows and kicks they were raining down on him were destroying all of his thoughts in waves of pain.
He had no idea if he was merely bruised, or if anything was broken. It felt like there was not a single part of his body that did not hurt somewhere and was currently not screaming in agony. He wanted to just get up and run, but they were pinning him down and he felt like he would not have been able to even if they were not. It was hard to move and coordinate his body, his limbs felt like they were no longer obeying him and they lashed out mindlessly, usually rewarded for his efforts with another swift kick, and then the whole cycle would begin anew.
“Let’s be done with it soon, before that giant comes back,” he heard one of the men say in a low voice, panting and excited through his exertions.
How much time had passed? It felt like an eternity, but he knew that Raum could not have been gone for that long. He said it would be quick and Raum never lied to him, even if whatever drew him away was more complicated than he thought It would be he would still have come back for Elias, that he knew for certain.
Another groan left him, an attempt to call out for help, but another kick silenced him with a gasp of pain.
“Shut up!” another man hissed at him, kicking him again for good measure.
“I think we got the message across,” the voice who first spoke said again. “We need some time to get away, still.”
So even despite all of their bluster, they were still cowards at the end of the day who knew they could not face Raum, or any Kaldorian for that matter, on their own. They would rather wait until they were distracted to inflict some sort of damage, rather than face Raum head on! It angered Elias to hear it, how they thought they were so clever when all they were were a bunch of pathetic cowards, but that anger did little to help him. It did not take away his pain nor help him get out of his current situation in any way, just help him realize what a truly lowly group of people these were.
“Let’s go then, quickly.”
Elias thought that meant that they were planning on fleeing and leaving him there for Raum to find later,
as a message. The thought of it was a terrible one, as the last thing he wanted was for Raum to see him like this. To watch the gentle, beaming face of his friend darken into sadness was one of the last things he ever wanted to see, and his heart pounded at the idea that it would happen. He did not want to make Raum sad or to worry him, and a part of him wondered if he could limp his way back to the Kaldorians himself before the king saw him, but he knew right away that was a foolish idea. What was there to do, though, aside from lay there and let the king find him? That was--
His thoughts were interrupted by hands roughly grabbing him under the shoulders and dragging him, causing him to cry out in pain as the agony of it jolted his entire body. It felt like it was on fire, and he panted, kicking a little again and listening to his captors cursing in anger. “Damn it, come and help me with him already!”
Then more hands grabbed him, lifting him off the ground entirely. Where in the world were they going? What was happening? In a daze he looked around, before he noticed that they were heading back towards the edge of the cliff.
Understanding crashed on him in a wave of pure dread, and he thrashed in their arms again, his aching body putting up such a sudden burst of strength that they did almost drop him, and he heard their curses again filling the air as they tried to keep a hold on him. “Stop that!” one of them shouted, and a blow to the head rocked his world so much that for a moment the edges of his vision went grey.
He was limp again, groaning a little, and felt himself being carried again, before he was thrown off the edge of the cliff.
For a moment he felt completely weightless and free, the bright sunlight in his eyes nearly blinding him and making it hard to realize where he was or what was really happening. His mind knew it, but at the same time it was hard to grasp it completely with his senses. It all felt so surreal, wrapped up in the haze
of pain his body was in and the past few minutes. He felt himself falling, and then there was thunder, a noise that seemed to split the earth and sky open and a great darkness descended on him, or maybe rose up to meet him? It was hard to tell which direction was which, all he knew was he landed on something far softer and warmer than the unforgiving ground which he had been heading towards.
He did not understand at first, not until enormous fingers closed around him protectively and he realized that he was in the palm of a gigantic hand.
Raum’s voice thundered around him in pure rage, so overwhelming and loud that he clapped his hands over his ears out of pure instinct, as the sound of it was painful to listen to. Within the confines of that protective hand he had no idea what was happening, no inkling of the outside world, but he did hear terrible noises coming from outside.
Some sort of crashing sounds, almost what he would liken to an earthquake, over and over again. Was it Raum making those sounds? Were they running somewhere? He could not imagine at all the kind, gentle king of the Kaldorians unleashing such a wrath upon anyone, and yet he had no other explanation for what was happening. Only a Kaldorian could be the source of those world-shattering noises, and the only one around him was Raum.
He clung to the palm he was in, noting that his initial assessment was not incorrect. He did fill up the giant palm quite nicely, just enough room in there for him to lay underneath the curled up fingers without
sticking out of it. It might have frightened someone else, being so trapped within this hand, the strength of which was so great that it could likely crush him without a second thought. But for once Elias was finally not afraid. He felt the infinite gentleness with which the hand held him, how lightly Raum actually put any sort of strength into his hold, and he knew without a doubt that the king was far more afraid of accidentally hurting him than Elias was of being hurt.
It seemed like the noises went on and on forever, and yet when they finally, abruptly stopped, it felt like it was too soon. Like some sort of terrible thing had descended down all within a second and had happened
so quickly that no one had any time to really understand what had happened. Elias was left lying in the palm, groaning a little in pain, before he finally moved and reached up to undo the knot of his gag. He spat the cloth out with a small cough, feeling his body aching in response to it.
Gingerly he tried to move, to wiggle his hands and feet and other limbs to see if that hurt at all, and it very much did, but at the same time he was fairly confident that he had somehow managed to not break anything. At least, he thought that if something was broken it would hurt a lot more.
Then the fingers uncurled and the light of the day shone in, and he winced and held up a hand to shield himself from the glare of it. Within moments the light disappeared, shade descending upon him, and he lowered his hand to see Raum’s face peering down at him, sadness and worry tightening his features and making Elias’s heart ache at the sight of it.
However there was also a fire in his eyes that Elias had never seen before, a narrowed glare of anger that almost at once had his heart seizing with fear, even though he knew he had nothing to be afraid of. He was not the one who did anything wrong, after all.
“Elias, what did they do to you?” Raum asked, his voice rumbling through the air even despite the fact that he was clearly trying to speak as gently as he could. There was a thread of anger coloring his words, and Elias wondered at that what had happened to his assailants.
Raum had clearly not seen nor heard the whole ordeal and for that he was grateful, but when he was looking upon Elias now…
He did not even want to look at himself. He knew he must have been a mess, but he tried not to acknowledge that to himself. The only thing he wanted to do was assure Raum that he was fine and alright, that everything was better now that the Kaldorian was here, though it was hard to make the words come to him at the moment. “Nothing too bad,” he said, knowing that was a ridiculous lie, so he added after a moment as Raum’s face scowled at him: “The throwing me off the cliff was the worst part.”
The hand around him quivered, and he sensed the huge muscles beneath him tense as Raum had to restrain himself. His other hand, though, had nothing inside of it to warrant caution, and Elias watched as
the huge hand clenched into a fist, cords of muscle as thick as logs standing out against his skin. “They were trying to kill you,” the king said flatly, not bothering to hide the truth.
He flinched a little at the words, though he knew it was true. Why else would they have done that other wise? Whether it was to send a message or to make sure that he could not identify his attackers later, they clearly did not mind taking his life for their ideals. “That surprised me too,” he said, trying not to groan at how idiotic that sounded. Surprised was one heck of a way to downplay it. “I thought they were just trying to beat me up, really.”
“Why did they do it?” Raum asked, his voice still tense with anger, before a huge sigh escaped those enormous lungs like a great gust of wind. “No, I do not need to ask that. I know why they did it.”
Elias gulped and looked around, seeing that the top of the cliff now (which he was eye level with in Raum’s hand) looked as if a tornado had come through it. Branches littered the place, smaller trees had been uprooted completely, utter destruction coming from everywhere. He blinked, wondering where in the world his attackers could be in that mess. Kaldorians were extremely pacifist and a peaceful people, but only they could have caused such havoc within a short amount of time. And to anyone who was caught in the way… “What happened to them?” he asked, not even sure if he truly wished to know the answer as he looked at Raum.
The king gazed back at him with a flat gaze, still lightly tinged with sadness. “They won’t hurt anyone ever again,” he said, his tone final.
No, he realized he did not want to know. Whatever Raum meant by that, he was glad to know at least that no other humans would end up on the receiving end of what he just endured. It was terrible, his body still ached everywhere and every smallest movement reminded him of the agony they had put him through.
“I am sorry,” he said, reaching to give the hand he was sitting in a pat.
Raum looked to him like he had just lost his mind, his eyes very bright and green in their shock. “Why are you apologizing?” he asked, sounding as if he truly did not understand why he was doing so. “What do you have to apologize for?”
“Well, nothing, really,” Elias said, his tone a little sheepish as he tried to give the king a reassuring smile.
“But I am sorry it happened, so I felt like I should say that.” The Kaldorian let out a sigh, his expression dropping even more. “If only all humans were as noble and kind as you,” he said after a moment, his gaze wistful. “Then nothing like this would ever happen in the first place.”
There was a moment of silence between them, Elias knowing deep in his heart that Raum was correct.
Humans really did not make the best name for themselves at times, and yet he knew that there was a great deal of potential to be had between them and the Kaldorians. He just hoped that incidents like this would not put his kind into too bad of a light to others.
“Humans are messy,” he said at last, trying not to around like he was justifying their behavior or making excuses for it. “We have a long way to go, but there are a lot of people who are sincere about wanting to be friends with Kaldorians. But, well, there’s a lot of different opinions around.”
Raum nodded at him, almost a little absently, as his eyes focused on Elias again. He could almost feel how those eyes pierced right through him, as if Raum could somehow see every single injury of his in the smallest of details. It was almost uncomfortable, how sharply those eyes looked at him, and the sadness once filled the king’s gaze. “We have to have someone look at your injuries,” he said, bringing Elias closer to cradle against his chest, as if he was afraid something else in the world would come by to try and hurt him. “I am sorry I left you alone for so long.”
The sound of his huge heart boomed against his chest, filling Elias with a feeling of deep, peaceful serenity. It was such a magnificent thing to listen to, beyond words. How that huge, powerful beat pulsed underneath him, through him, and how incredibly safe it felt to be there.
“You don’t have anything to apologise for,” he said, reaching out to pat his chest a little through the robes. “You could not possibly have known.”
The king made a noise in his throat, almost like a rumble, but it was a much more soothing sound than the word implied. “Now I do, and I will not let such a thing happen again,” he said, his voice firm as he began walking back, away from the cliff.
He wanted to apologize again, somehow, but he knew it would not help. Apologizing was not even the issue, the problem was that he simply wanted Raum to be happy again. Happy and carefree like they were before, and now that the king was upset he wanted to do everything he could to take it away. He could not, though, not without erasing what had just happened, and that was impossible. So instead he sighed a little himself, sadly, and rested against Raum’s chest while the other carried him close to his heart
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