#spnvore

His grip tightened and twisted around Warren’s wrist. The hunter let out a choke of pain. He noticed Eli’s appearance, the odd liquid sticking to him.

“Did— did a giant seriously try to eat you?” Warren said, but immediately regretted his words when his arm was twisted even more painfully.

“We don’t talk about this, ‘kay? If you bring it up again, I’ll make sure to bite you into nice little pieces when I’m back to normal.” Eli’s voice lowered to a threatening growl. He lowered Warren’s wrist and began to drag him off through the woods, trying to locate the nearest road to the city. Warren shuddered. “What if I don’t help you.”

Eli stopped in his tracks, snorting. “I never expected you to be agreeable. You want to get out of this alive? This is the only way you’re gonna get it. Oh, and what if the evil giant’s lying? Honestly, whether or not I’m telling the truth, doesn’t matter. I can kill you right here and now, and you’d never get to find out.”

“It’s better than getting eaten,” Warren said shakily.

Eli snorted. “Anything’s better than getting eaten. But that’s your problem, ain’t it? You humans are just born weak. Easy little morsels to pick off. Shouldn’t matter if you don’t like it. It’s just natural.”

He rolled his eyes, dragging Warren forward by the wrist in a way that signified finality. Warren grew increasingly anxious, beginning to feel like even if the giant said there was a possibility he would get out of this alive, that was more likely a lie.

They found the main road into the city and followed it for a distance, all while Eli occasionally cursed and complained about “stubby legs” or threw taunts at the unwilling human he dragged along. Warren quickly learned from this time that giants were exactly like how he had pictured. Self-centered, cruel, and apathetic towards anyone but themselves. Eli seemed to derive great pleasure from taunting and torturing humans, only making Warren increasingly uncomfortable and worried, only dreading what was to come if the “giant” was to return to his giant form.

He was curious about what exactly the giant went through after the alchemy shrunk him, the allusion towards being eaten by another giant. Were giants really cannibals? How did he survive? He did notice that his knife was gone, so there was a possibility he had killed the other giant. Though, the opportunity here was too good to waste. If Eli has gone through that, perhaps he could feel pity for him, and be more aware of the terror he inflicted on others. Only— Eli had threatened to deliver him a painful death if he said anything about it. But measuring his odds, he didn’t have much of a chance of survival either way.

-*-

Eli seemed rather anxious as he led them towards the city, covering it up with his tough facade. He wouldn’t reveal what exactly was wrong, but Warren supposed it might have something to do with him feeling vulnerable at this size. It seemed they were going the wrong way. They eventually stopped at a farm house on the end of the road, with no sign of the city in sight. A truck was in the driveway. Eli stopped in front of it, scratching the back of his head. “Huh,”

“I think we’re lost,” Warren said.

Eli’s eye twitched. “We’re not— I’ve traveled around this place at least five rotations at this point, I know this route. Curse little— ugh this perspective is screwing with my sense of direction. Thanks, tiny.”

His low growl of a voice sounded anything but grateful.

“We... we can ask for directions from the farm people here.” Warren offered.

Eli laughed. “Pfft, now really, what sort of person goes around like that?”

“...Normal... people?”

Eli raised a brow, “Wait really? The way you little guys can somehow get along is honestly mind boggling.”

He shook his head. He headed over to the front porch. Warren knocked on the door and stood back for a moment. There was no answer. He paused before trying again, met by the same silence. Eli narrowed his eyes, walking around the porch to try to get a good view of the inside. Nothing seemed to be amiss. It was like the owners had just gone out for a weekend or something.

“Huh.” Warren said. “Maybe they’re just not home?”

He jumped as he heard a crashing sound. The window shattered. Eli had thrown a stone at it.

“What are you thinking?!” Warren whispered frantically.

“No one’s home. Their scent’s at least a day old.” Eli responded, stepping over the glass and let himself in through the window. He wasn’t even completely certain, since his sense of smell had greatly diminished since he was stuck in this form, but he was at least 20% sure. He paused for a moment to pick up something from the floor before continuing into the house.

Warren lingered outside the window nervously, watching Eli head inside.

“What— but— why did you have to break in?”

Eli sighed, pointing at the sky. “It’s nearly sundown, and the hunting pattern crosses these parts this rotation. Not sayin’ they’ll be here here, but it would probably be best to stay indoors for the evening. I wonder if they have one of those storm cellars.”

He headed deeper into the house, glancing around at everything calculatedly. Warren’s eyes widened slightly at his words. If one giant wasn’t bad enough… The way Eli worded it, there would be a whole lot more. And that didn’t sound good.

He looked around the house to try to find a computer or something to find out where they were and how to get to the city, but the only computer was locked and he didn’t know the password. Maybe he could just get into the truck and get out of there. Giants couldn’t track cars, right? He would just have to find the keys first.

Feeling gross from all of the stuff that happened that day, Eli soon located the shower and took it for a spin. He had heard time and time again his victims complaining about how “gross” being in his stomach was, and wanting to get a “shower” as if it was some natural remedy for it. He hadn’t been inside of human houses much, but he at least knew some of the terminology. A shower was new to him, however.

Warren looked up as he heard the faucet sound upstairs. This was his chance. He searched around the house for some sort of hiding place for the keys. The table, drawers, the bedroom, the dresser, but to no luck so far.

He heard the faucet stop and he froze. He decided to hell with it, he could just run along the road to get out of here. He grabbed a steak knife, folded cardboard over it, and ran out the front door. The sky was darkening, and the sun had already sunk past the horizon before him. That’s it; The city had to be west of here! He heard the front door slam behind him. He couldn’t outrun the giant, even in his smaller form. He dove through the open window of the truck and curled up beneath the console. He knew it was pretty hopeless this way, but he just didn’t really care at this point. Footsteps sounded along the gravel driveway, coming closer before stopping. A head peaked up from the window, looking down into the truck. Eli snorted, holding up the keys that dangled from his finger.

“Forgot something?”

Eli had stolen a set of the farmer’s clothing; a dark green flannel over a grey shirt and jeans.

Warren’s eyes widened. “H-how?”

Eli rolled his eyes. “It was literally the first thing I found when I went through the window. I thought you’d be more observant. And put down the knife, kid. Don’t wanna get yourself hurt.”

Warren looked down at the steak knife again, but held it out threateningly, though his posture wavered. “Don’t take one step closer, freak.”

“Or what? Ya know... it could be pretty suspicious to find a dead homeless guy at some farmer’s property, and your fingerprints all over the scene, right?“ he huffed. “And honestly, I’d like to see you try to gut me with that thing.”

“I— I don’t give a damn about law enforcement here. I’m not helping you change back.” Warren stammered.

Eli rolled his eyes, reaching in through the window to unlock the car door. A foot suddenly came forward to kick towards Warren’s arm. His elbow shot up reflexively and the steak knife wedged itself into the glove compartment of the truck. A hand grabbed Warren’s shirt and dragged him out of the truck, shoving him onto the hard gravel. Stones and chips of gravel bit into his skin and he hissed in pain.

Eli stooped over him, sighing. “Really, no time for messing around. I was serious when I said we shouldn’t be out here after nightfall.”

“Is that because you don’t want to get eaten by a giant again?” Warren spat between nervous pants. “You don’t like how humiliating it feels to be one of the ‘little guys?’”

A fist suddenly collided with his rib cage and the wind was knocked out of him. Eli hoisted him off of the ground again by his arm with enough force to nearly dislocate it. Warren would have let out a shout of pain, but he was having too much trouble catching his breath again.

“I told you if you mentioned that again, I’d make you suffer. I’ll try to keep my word.” Eli’s voice lowered to a cold growl. He carried the smaller man into the house before dropping him on the floor. Warren was still gasping for a while, putting a hand to his injured ribs.

“You— you would make me suffer anyways. You want to— to kill me as soon as you get fixed.” Warren winced through his words. He didn’t try to get up from the floor, just looking sort of defeated.

Eli sighed, pacing the room as he looked out the darkened windows, almost seeming disinterested in him. “You keep bringing up that old argument and it’s getting annoying—“He stopped in place. “Shit.”

Warren got up from the floor, glaring at Eli. “Wh-What.”

“Welp, the owners of this house are dead. We gotta get out of here.” Eli spoke nonchalantly, digging the truck keys out of his pocket again. A barrage of curses were muttered under his breath.

Warren’s eyes widened. “Wait— what! Did you kill them?”

Eli moved toward the door briskly, ignoring him. “Can you drive?”

“Y-yeah, but—“ Warren lingered behind, confused what the rush was about, and not wanting to go anywhere near the giant.

“Good, we’re gonna need that.” Eli got in the passenger seat, prying the steak knife out of the glove compartment and held onto it. He glanced at Warren who was still on the porch. “Well? Get in.” Warren stood stiffly, shaking his head.

“C’mere, tiny!” Eli barked warningly.

A hulking shadow suddenly lunged out of the forest, bashing into the side of the car. Even hunched over, it was easily twice Eli’s size. The truck toppled over, rolled, and was knocked upside down. Glass shattered. Eli was suddenly covered in pricks of his own blood. He panted, trying to crawl out the truck, ignoring the stinging pain jutting up his arms. A massive hand suddenly gripped him and hoisted into the air by his ankle. The rough motion gave him a head rush and his heart pounded in his ears. His eyes grew very wide.

A giant stared down at him. One of the bigger ones. He stood at fourteen feet tall with weathered features. Countless leather bands were tied around his wrist, nearly reaching the elbow. The giant’s expression was sort of groggy, as if he had just woken up, but it still carried the same malice and hunger to be expected. His mouth curled into a sneering grin, baring his long, sharp fangs.

“Well, looky here. It seems we caught one in camo.” 

Eli felt a swell of hope. He knew he was a giant. He probably knew that it probably wasn’t the best idea to swallow a giant in camo in case he reverted to his true form.

“Y-yeah, just tryina catch that human over there, but that sorta got interrupted,” Eli panted, feeling queasy and disoriented from being upside down. He glanced with widened eyes as a giantess emerged from the treeline, moving toward the farmhouse. Warren was no longer at the doorway. He must have hidden in the house somewhere. Coward.

“Ya know, if you already ate the farm people here, why bother catching this one as well? You don’t wanna end up all sluggish now, right?”

There was a cracking, shifting sound near the farmhouse up ahead as the giantess shrank down to her camouflaged form, going in through the doors to try to find Warren. Things weren’t looking good. Eli needed him to find the alchemist.

The giant lifted Eli a little higher, getting a good look at him. His reflective silver eyes narrowed. 

“Where’s your Bands, fella?”

Eli froze, eyes widening as he tried to think up some sort of lie. “O-oh, about that...”

“ELI!”

His attention was brought to the farm house. The camo’d giantess dragged Warren out of the house before her bones shifted again painfully as she reverted back to her full form at thirteen feet tall. She held up Warren, laughing. “Aww who’s Eli? Maybe I should meat him as well.”

Eli’s eyes narrowed. “Careful with that one. He’s a damn Hunter and he has some nasty tricks up his sleeve.”

The giant holding Eli seemed intrigued. “A Hunter, eh? What sort of tricks? And why are you still in camo? Cat’s kinda out of the bag now...” he paused and let out a laugh. “Oh. Are you stuck? Is this one of the Hunter’s tricks?”

Eli’s eyes widened and he held his breath.

“Oh stars! This is GOLD! He’s stuck in camo!” The giant let out a mocking laugh, reorienting Eli in his grasp to be held upright and closer to his face. Too close. Eli shuddered, trying to kick or squirm away from his grasp, but it was pretty much helpless.

“Oh no you don’t— don’t even think of it.” Eli muttered in a low growl, his voice was quivering. 

The giant seemed unphased by his pleas. “Eh, why not? Might as well take advantage of this and avenge your lost Bands, right? Disgusting outcast,”

He opened his maw and leaned closer. His tongue lapped out, dragging across Eli’s face and soaking him in saliva. Eli grimaced, panting harder. “Sh-shit—“

Just his luck. He was going to end up getting eaten twice today.

He was raised higher and his head was brought into the wet mouth. The tongue rose up against his face as it tasted him, pushing him toward the entrance of the throat. Eli struggled wildly. His fist gripped tight.

A sudden slash cut through the giant’s neck, not quite deep enough to kill him, but bad enough to be serious. 

The grip around Eli loosened and he was dropped to the ground. The bloodied steak knife landed next to him. Just his luck that this giant was clumsy and forgot to disarm him. He probably didn’t expect a fellow giant to carry any human weapons.

Eli quickly caught his breath. Grabbing the knife he stumbled to his feet again. The giantess nearby was seen getting to work on swallowing Warren. The hunter was already halfway down her throat, and his legs could be seen kicking as the struggling bulge in her neck made its way deeper.

The male giant who had had Eli was now on the ground, one hand to his neck, clearly out of commission for a while. He was in agony as he tried to keep the wound from bleeding too bad. Eli could just run and get out of there. He could leave that troublesome hunter alone to die.

Without warning, Eli stooped over the injured giant, grabbing his tree-trunk-sized arm and slid the knife beneath the leather bands around the giant’s wrist. The giant didn’t move. The struggling and gagging from his throat mostly silenced as he noticed what Eli was doing. His motionlessness was a silent protest to not do it.

“Oi! Freak lady!” Eli shouted. “You wanna get banished? Go ahead and kill tiny there to find out what it’s like. Spoiler alert: It ain’t fun. And your odds of survival aren’t the best. But hey, gotta live life on the dangerous side, eh?”

The giantess was just swallowing down the feet when she was able to lower her head again to see her partner’s predicament. He was bleeding badly from his throat and his leather Bands around his wrist were just a nick from getting sliced through. She paused, the swallowing ceased for a moment and the bulge in her throat hovered above the collarbone. She held up her hands defensively and a hacking sound came. She lowered her head, bringing Warren slowly out before gripping his feet and pulled him the rest of the way out. Warren gasped for air, dripping of fluids. He was roughly dropped onto the ground.

Eli’s expression remained unwavering, knife still held warningly over the bands. “Now tip the truck over.”

The giantess snarled. “You’re already trying your luck here, camo.”

Eli held the knife tighter, applying more pressure to the bands. One snapped and fell to the ground. 

The giantess’s eyes widened. “No— stop!”

“I ain’t messin around when I ask you to do something, pal.” Eli snarled back evenly.

The giantess growled in annoyance in her throat. She was rigid and looked ready to kill someone. She moved over to where the truck was toppled over and pushed it over so it was right-side up. The truck was still badly dented in the roof, and one of the windows was shattered, but it was at least mostly intact. Once she was finished, she stopped to glare at Eli again. “Okay, let him go,”

Eli paused. “Warren, get in the car, and don’t fucking hesitate this time.”

The hunter didn’t need to be told twice as he scrambled to his feet, almost immediately falling over before he got up again and bolted toward the truck. Once he was inside, Eli released his hold over the giant and broke into a dash to get to the truck. He fumbled with the keys and tossed them to Warren as he ran. Warren missed, and it landed in his lap instead. He quickly scooped up the keys and started the car just as Eli half dove in through the door. The female giant lunged after him, claws lashing out to barely graze his back, but he made it.

“Go! Go! Go!” Eli barked. Warren slammed onto the gas and the engine growled in protest but jolted forward, speeding into action. The giantess tried to grab the back of the truck bed, and a grating sound of metal was heard, sparks flying up as her claws tried to grab purchase, but it managed to break free. The truck quickly accelerated and began to speed down the road. The speedometer quickly rose from twenty to sixty, but the giantess was keeping up in pursuit without much difficulty, practically on the car’s tail. It was only when they reached seventy then eighty when she began to fall behind and slowed down. She eventually slowed to a stop in the road, letting out an angry growl as she slowly shrank in the rear view mirror and out of sight.

Eli let out an exhausted sigh, leaning back in the seat as he rubbed his face. He noticed a sound coming from beside him and could see that Warren was crying. He didn’t realize how young and frail the little hunter was until now. How old was he? Twenty? He looked absolutely terrified.

“Hey, focus on the road, kid.” Eli reminded him. Warren sniffled, shaking like a leaf.

“I’m trying— I’m trying— I’m sorry.”

Eli put a hand on his shoulder to try to get him to relax, but the car swerved in response.

“Don’t f-fucking touch me—“

His hand withdrew uncomfortably. “Rrright, then,”

The car was silent for a while aside from the hum of the engine. Both of them were trying to process what had happened. After a good twenty minutes, Warren’s quiet voice broke through the silence.

“...Eli?”

“Mm?”

Warren paused for a moment. “Why did you save me?”

Eli looked like he would say something thoughtful for a moment, but his expression was schooled back into an amused one. “Because I can’t drive, dumbass.”

Warren’s expression fell. “Oh. S-So this doesn’t change anything?”

Eli was silent for a while, seeming to reflect on something before responding. “It doesn’t change my original plan, no.”

Warren bit his lip fearfully, appearing sick to the stomach. He seemed to be having trouble focusing on the road.

“You... do remember what my original plan was, right?” Eli said slowly.

Warren shook, gripping the steering wheel tighter. “Please... you know what it’s like— you can’t do— I can’t go through that again— I don’t want to—“

“Quit your whining, crybaby,” Eli interjected. “My original plan might allow you to live,”

Warren could have cried in relief, taking in deep breaths as he felt a weight lifted from his shoulders.

“Hey— I said might. I still don’t like you.” Eli said, noticing his reaction.

Warren sighed, letting out a bitter chuckle. “Right, right.”

They drove in through the darkness with the silver beam of the headlights stretching across the empty road, shining like a tunnel through the shadows. City lights could be seen in the distance.

“The alchemist shop should be closed at this time. We’ll have to try in the morning.” Warren sighed.  “You got a place for the night? A home or something?” Eli said.

Warren frowned. “I… I’d rather you not know where I live.”

Eli let out a chuckle. “Ah, right. ‘Stranger danger.’ Of course you could shove me out the door of the car and run away. Wait, license plate number. Ohhh and didn’t you steal the vehicle belonging to some dead guy? Yeah that don’t look good. Of course the police probably won’t find out the guy’s dead too quickly, but what if they were alerted somehow?”

Warren gave him a look, before returning his eyes to the road. Eli leaned back, folding his arms behind his neck in a relaxed posture. “Ah, don’t worry. Your secret’s safe with me.” The giant sighed with a smug grin. “Won’t tell a soul… as long as there’s a place I can stay where the other giants won’t hunt me down. Hmmm I wonder...”

Warren was sick of being blackmailed by this giant, but he was just tired at this point.

“If you come anywhere near my house when this is all over, I’ll make sure every Hunter makes you pay,” Warren said sternly.

“Aww, they’re so cute when they try to sound all tough and scary,” the giant chuckled, but he readopted a more relaxed tone. “Yeah, sure. Out of bounds. Not like I’d want to seek out any callbacks to this hell anyways.”

The car continued to make its way down the dark road until it passed through the city, arriving in a sketchy mobile home neighborhood, that harbored a hybrid of campers. Eli could actually recognize this place from three rotations ago. He had picked off someone who strayed a bit too far from their camper in the evening.

The truck parked at a run-down blue mobile home. A light was on from one of the windows. Warren stopped by the porch and his hand hovered over the door before it suddenly swung open and a young girl was seen in the doorway. Her hair was in braids, and she looked confused, but relieved to see the two men on the porch. She quickly went forward to give him a hug.   

“Rebeka said you were supposed to be home hours ago! I was worried. How was the race?” Her face became a grimace. “Why do you smell bad? And who’s him? Is he a friend?”

She eyed Eli shyly and warily. Eli raised a brow. He hadn’t expected to see others here. Warren seemed too young to have a daughter.

“Oh— yeah that’s Eli. He’s not really a—“

“Oh yeah, we’re great friends!” Eli interjected with a smile. “I just helped give him a ride home with my truck,”

Warren seemed hesitant, but leaned into Eli’s alibi. “Yeah, my friends and I got separated at the rally, so Eli stepped in here to help.”

He went further into the house, kicking off his shoes (which still were sticky from slime) before glancing around the small area in confusion. “Where’s Rebeka?”

“She called me earlier and said that work was busy so she’ll be staying a little later. That was three hours ago.” The little girl said. She sat on the old tattered sofa in the living area of the home, pulling up her knees to her chest and rocked back and forth, humming. She seemed to have a lot of energy, which was to be expected from a child her age. She seemed very chipper, despite being left at home alone.

Warren sighed, hoping she was alright. She rode her bike to and from work, so she could be at risk there. He hoped she was alright, especially since Eli had mentioned the hunting rotation coming this way.

He didn’t know how he felt about Eli being in the same house as his little sister for the night, but he reasoned that if Eli really wanted to get back to normal, he wouldn’t give Warren any reason to break their deal. Killing his sister was definitely a deal breaker.

“Alright, you stay here, Liss. I’m going to take a shower real quick and I’ll see if I can throw something together for dinner—“ he eyed Eli sternly. “Don’t try anything or I’ll--” “Ah, yes, insert empty threat below that you’ll probably never go through with.” Eli said. At Warren’s offended expression, he held up a hand quickly. “Ey, don’t worry about it, kid. Not a scratch. I know better than to make a scene here, heh.”

***

Eli barely slept that night, trying to fix his sleep schedule to match the humans’ was more difficult than it seemed. Though he would refuse to admit it, he was still haunted by what had become of him. Within 24 hours he had been shrunk to a humiliating size, eaten, narrowly survived, only to be hunted down by two more giants that would have loved to have eaten him as well.

This day was just all sorts of messed up.

Warren stayed up for a while longer, making sure that Eli wasn’t anywhere near Liss. He made a quick text to a contactless number before heading to bed. He barely got any sleep that night, and the only dreams he had were lucid nightmares.

He was staring before the giantess’s open maw. Strands of saliva glistened, dripping from the roof of the mouth. Salivating as she anticipated her meal. The throat opened up before him as he was shoved inside. The rippling pink tunnel crushed him as he was forced in deeper into the darkness.

In a lucid state of horror, the dream went even further past his memories. He was crammed into a tight fleshy area, filled with scalding acids and writhing walls as they digested him alive. The gruesome scene was beyond words to describe. The insurmountable pain and terror. The giantess’s muffled voice thundering around him as she mocked his feeble attempts to fight back. Strength slowly sapped from his body, and his head slipped beneath the acids. His hazy mind could no longer hold on. The pain felt foggy and distant. There was a sensation of sinking... falling...

Warren jolted upright, eyes shooting open. It was just a dream.

***

Rebeka had returned late that night, but was given a brief rundown in the morning of the situation (or at least a version of it) in order to keep an eye on Liss while Eli and Warren would go run “errands”, to see the alchemist in search of an antidote. Eli was eager the whole time, though it was clear he hadn’t slept much either. Bags were under his eyes where his usual stripe markings used to be in his default form. Warren introduced him to coffee, which Eli only seemed to like black with excessive amounts of salt that would probably give any normal human a heart attack.

The alchemist shop was at the very end of town, and it looked like a pretty sketchy place. At the front of the building was a sign that read “Olivia’s Herbs and Remedies”

The windows were all dusty and lined with shelves of weird artifacts and abstract looking weapons. There was a neon OPEN sign that flickered occasionally. Next to that was a piece of dusty paper with a strange star-shaped logo with a bold “UL” on it, that could be likened to a knight’s crest. Eli’s eyes narrowed at the sight of the logo, but as Warren went ahead to enter the shop, Eli followed after, at a distance.

A little bell rung as the door opened. Eli stopped back, making a disgusted face and held his hands over his nose. “Ugh stars— it reeks in here!” He muttered.

Warren gave him an odd look, “It’s not too bad,”

“Yes, it’s very very bad. Did something die in here? And why am I picking up the scent of wendigo and...” he paused, grimacing again. “Troll? Who would mess with those wimpy fuckers?”

Inside the alchemist shop was what could be expected. There were rows and rows of dusty old jars of herbs, crushed materials, and oddly colored liquids. The shop was small and cramped, and the lighting fixtures didn’t seem to be working too well, so the main source of light came through the dusty windows, casting a dull muddy glow throughout the shop.

At the far end could be seen a counter and outdated cashier where a young blond lady snored with her face planted into the counter. An entire carafe of coffee sat on the desk before here, half-empty and still steaming. As soon as she heard the bell ring, she groaned, tilting her head up to blearily blink at the approaching figures with her insect-like spectacles.

At first she just seemed too groggy and tired to care before her eyes suddenly widened. She gasped. A shotgun was produced from beneath the desk, aimed straight at Eli. In a mere moment she had gone from asleep to battle-ready, seeming extremely threatened by the mere presence of the camouflaged giant.

Eli raised his hands quickly, eyes narrowing at the cashier. “What the fuck— put the gun down, lady!”

“Don’t take another step closer, giant, or I’ll fill your guts with metal.” The woman warned coldly.

Warren put his hands out between the two tensely, “Whoa— whoa, hold on Olivia, relax! I texted you last night about this. Remember?”

Her eyes narrowed for a moment before she finally slapped her forehead, lowering the gun. “Oh damn. Of course. This must be Eren, then?”

“Eli,” the giant corrected, lowering his arms, only to look further pissed off than before. “And how did you know that I’m a giant? And why did you text her about this, Tiny?”

The lady tapped her glasses. “Kapre tears. They let me see the true form of anything.”

She took a long swig of coffee from the carafe.

Eli sputtered in amusement. “What did you do to a poor kapre to get em to cry? Oh! Take its maaaagic pet rock? Lame hippies. Pffft.”

Olivia seemed unimpressed and mostly ignored the giant, looking to Warren as she took off her glasses briefly to dust them off against her shirt.

“So, the reason you came here...” she sighed, seeming to think a moment as she remembered the text. “I don’t have the supplies to make an antidote...”

Eli’s eyes flared in disbelief. He lunged towards her, banging his fists against the counter. “WHAT?!”

She didn’t flinch, instead held her shotgun raised to click beneath his chin.

“...at this moment.” She finished, not seeming too impressed by his behavior. “Really, Elmer. If you want something so bad, you should at least not threaten the one person who can fix you.”

“It’s Eli.” He corrected with a snarl, pushing the gun’s barrel away.

She sighed, glaring at Warren again with a deadpanned look.

“Remind me again why it’s a good idea to give him an antidote in the first place. I can just kill him now and you can take the credit to get your sweet ticket into the U.L..”

“I’ll— I’ll find some other giant.” Warren said.

Eli snorted. “Pffft. That’s what this was all about? You thought you could kill me in the first place in order to become one of those weird modern knight people? Okay kid, do yourself a favor and just give up that whole quest. We both know you’re gonna get yourself killed. Couldn’t even protect yourself against that giantess back there. You probably don’t even know shit about us.”

Warren winced at the mention of the giantess. The memory and the nightmares were still fresh.

“Th-that was... it was different. I did my research. I’ll come prepared next time.” He looked to Olivia tensely. “Do you have the stuff I asked for?”

Olivia stared at Warren with narrowed eyes for a moment before handing out a small paper bag that was rolled up. Whatever was in it was small, and not very much of it. It didn’t seem that heavy either.

“What’s that?” Eli said.

“Melatonin. To help me sleep. You know she sells normal stuff here too, right?” Warren said.

“How long would it take for you to get the ingredients for an antidote?” Eli growled at Olivia impatiently.

***

“Three months! Is she insane?!” Eli shouted as soon as they left the shop.

“It does sound like a complicated thing to make.” Warren reasoned as he approached the truck. “Like why does she need giant sweat? Firstly, ew, and secondly, that sounds pretty hard to get.”

“It’s probably because our sweat is magic or something,” Eli snorted. “It’s how our clothes shrink when we do when we go into camo.”

“Camo?” Warren had heard the other giants throwing around that term before, but wasn’t sure what it was. They reached the car and Eli paused the conversation as he got in the passenger seat.  

“Well, camo is--”

His voice was cut off as a hand suddenly came up from behind the seat and wrapped around his throat tightly. Warren was restrained in a similar fashion. Claws could be seen tipping the fingers as they were held very close to the throat. A rough woman’s voice came from the back seat, which almost sounded familiar.  

“You’re going to keep driving, human. We’re just going to tell you where to go. Act natural. I won’t have any problem slitting your throat.”

The voice came from the one holding Warren. Eli glanced through the rearview mirror, seeing two faces that seemed familiar. They were blond and seemingly human though their teeth were sharper, and there were dark markings beneath their eyes similar to a cheetah. They both had sharp silver eyes. One was a woman, and one was a man who had bandages wrapped around his neck. Their clothes were tattered and stained. They looked just like the two giants who had attacked them the day before.

Eli’s eyes widened slightly. “Well there’s camo for ya,” he muttered in a low growl toward Warren. The claws pressed against his throat tighter, choking off his words for him to be unable to speak further.

Warren looked utterly terrified, and his breath caught in his throat, afraid to even breathe with the claws so close to slicing his windpipe. He hastily took the keys and started up the car and took off to drive along the road.  

“Make a right and keep going.” The woman’s voice came again. Not a word of protest was heard as he obeyed, but he was shaking. They began to head down a long two-lane country road overshadowed by the trees there. They continued along this road for a long while, getting further and further from the city, but there was no sign of exactly where they were going. They were closer to the mountains now, and the large formations could be seen as big green shadows that stretched above the treeline. The road dipped and turned as it winded closer, passing over streams and hills. Over time, the two hijackers began to loosen their grips slightly, just to a nonthreatening degree, but enough to be able to speak.  

“Where-- where are you taking us?” Warren spoke fearfully.

“You’ll see soon enough.” The camo’d giantess snarled.

“B-- but-- H-how are you able to be small? Were you cursed? Do you use-- al-alchemy?” Warren stammered. A million questions were brimming in his mind. Each one multiplying his fears and dreads for these giants to have found them again. The very giantess who had swallowed him just yesterday now had her hands over his throat and had him practically under her control.

“Toldjya. It’s called camo.” Eli muttered. “All wood giants can do it.”

“The outcast said it,” The giantess huffed.

“Outcast? Ya know…. I’m really thinking it’ll be a nice idea to finish tearing off your Bands sometime…” Eli retorted. The grip around his throat tightened and he lifted his hands against it. “Ey, knock it off. You don’t constantly need to be throttling me to keep me in line.”

Although he seemed to keep a relatively calm demeanor, he didn’t seem all that happy about being kidnapped by some giants who probably weren’t too happy about him slitting one of their throats, and stealing one of their Bands. Whatever the giants had planned, it couldn’t be anything good.

“Wh-what do you mean, outcast?” Warren said.

“It’s not import--” Eli began, but the giantess was quick to interrupt him.

“I think you’ll learn all about it in a minute, human. If you’re still alive by then, that is. We’ve never taken a human to a Banding ceremony before, but something tells me they’d love to host our vengeance against a hunter who wronged our kind.”  

Eli’s eyes went wide. He jerked up in his seat and a breath caught in his throat. “Band-- you-- you can’t seriously be-- taking us to--”

The grip crushed this throat again and he was silenced once more. But the clear expression of terror was seen past his eyes, despite how hard he tried to hide it with his usual stoic expression. Something about this seemed to terrify the giant, but it was a mystery as to why, or what this whole “Banding ceremony” even was.

Time ticked by. An hour, two hours on the road. The two giants in the back seat seemed to be growing restless, and occasionally they would crack their joints impatiently. Eli knew how that was. Whenever he was in camo too long, it would become excruciating and difficult to maintain. The longest he had ever been able to maintain a form like that before the alchemy trick was only three hours. These giants were doing miraculously at their control over their camo forms.

Eventually, the giantess seemed to be having enough of it and instructed they park on the side of the road so that they could readopt their full forms and carry their captives the rest of the way.

Once they disembarked, there was a cracking, shifting sound as their bones lengthened and they quickly rose to their full heights. The giant at fourteen feet tall, and the giantess standing at thirteen feet tall. Warren went deer-in-the-headlights for a moment as he saw the giantess once again looming above him. He cowered back, debating bolting back into the car to drive away, but before he could even act, the giantess picked him up and slung him over her shoulder. He let out a frightened yelp, struggling in her grip and letting out a shaky protest.

“Hey, chill human. I’m not going to eat you just yet.” The giantess snorted.

This was barely any reassurance for Warren, but he realized that here, fighting was futile. He looked over to see that Eli was being restrained in a similar fashion by the other giant. He supposed at this point, the other giant couldn’t talk, probably from that injury to his neck. He still wasn’t sure how that giant got that injury, but recalling the scene where Eli had cut off one of the giant’s bracelets with a steak knife, it was safe to bet that Eli had done it.

What was surprising here, was that Eli seemed even more out of it as he tried to cover up his fear as best as he could, trying to bargain not to go to this “Banding” thing again, since he had earned his survival before and he deserved to keep it. Warren hadn’t expected this giant to be that afraid of anything. His reaction was honestly unsettling to him.

As they traveled further, the sun began to sink past the horizon, casting long shadows through the mountain forest. Through the dimness, glimpses of movement could be seen in the distance, passing through the gaps in the trees as silent as shadows. They appeared on either side, slowly coming closer. As Warren began to focus on them, he could distinguish exactly what they were. Giants.

There were dozens more coming. Varying in grotesque proportions and features, they all traveled in pairs, each pair well distanced from the rest. It was tough to see exactly how many of them there were as the slightest movement in the distant darkening forest would begin to be seen as more numbers growing, but the ambiguous number made it more frightening.

There could be hundreds. Thousands. Here? But why? What brought this many giants in one place? Not even two months ago, he believed giants to not exist, and now he was in the midst of a massive gathering of the monstrous creatures. Now Warren not only had to worry about the giantess’s holding him, but hundreds more. If he even escaped this one, another was bound to catch him. There was no way out of this.

The giants began to gather in groups. Each group wasn’t too large and only harbored about thirty. Far off, he could see a couple of the groups had younger giants. Children. Even at their younger age, most of them were as tall or taller than the average human. They were being watched over by the much older giants. Warren wasn’t close enough to get a good look at them, nor did he want to. He just wanted to disappear from this place and get out of here somehow. His odds of survival were infinitesimal at this point.

The two giants who held them quickly bound Warren and Eli against a tree near one of the gatherings before going off to speak with one of the older giants with bone-white hair.

Eli had gone quiet since they entered the giant gathering. He was shaking. His expression was difficult to read, but could be interpreted more as a look of resigned horror. Warren immediately tried to get to work to break himself loose from the ropes, but the giants had tied them uncomfortably tight. Things were looking grim for them.

“Eli—?” Warren breathed shakily. “W— what’s going to happen?”

Eli didn’t respond immediately, but he eventually looked down, letting out a grin chuckle. “Ya know when I said I’d bite you into little pieces when I got back to normal? That was a lie back when I said it. But it doesn’t matter. These giants are gonna do a whole lot worse. You’ll probably get a lot easier of a death than me. They’ll probably eat you alive and you’ll be unconscious by the time you get digested. Slow and painless. Me?” Eli scoffed to himself, shaking his head. He sighed. “I fucking hate the whole Banding jazz.”

Warren shuddered, shrinking a little. He stared up ahead. Fears whirred through his mind. The terrifying memory of being swallowed alive by the giantess and the nightmares that had followed. He didn’t want to die. And he didn’t want to die this way. He wanted to be with Liss and Rebeka again. His poor sisters. He wished there was more he could do for them. They already had lost so much.

“E-Eli…” Warren looked to the small-giant, his voice wavering. “If… if you were back to normal, big again— would— would you still want to kill me?”

Eli let out a bitter laugh. “After all the shit you put me through? It would be my pleasure.”

Warren looked down, biting his lip. He struggled slightly in the uncomfortable ropes that bound him. They were almost painfully tight, and it was difficult to get his hands free at all.

Up ahead, the giants seemed to be arguing about things before making rough lines in pairs. The two blond giants who captured them were among them. There was some bickering and talking before they seemed to shift the focus. They were now binding leather bands on the right wrist of each giant in an almost solemn, or ceremonial way. The customs of the giants were completely alien to Warren and he was clueless as to what this all meant.

After doing this for a while, a fight seemed to break out. All of the giants seemed to single down against one. There was a deafening uproar of shouting and cursing and growling. The singled out giant was smaller than most of the others. He was hidden from Warren’s view as he was swallowed up from the crowd out of sight, but between gaps, Warren could catch glimpses of his right arm being torn to shreds into a bloody mess. Claws lashed out in every direction. The giant at first seemed to desperately try to fight back before being pummeled to the ground where he was hidden from sight and not seen again. The fight seemed to calm down a bit, but it was soon filled with a different kind of vigor. It came off as victorious jeering.

Warren could feel Eli stiffen next to him. His eyes went over to the bound small-giant. Eli was staring at the ground with a slight grimace on his face. He didn’t seem to need to look to know what was going on.

“Out— outcast,” Warren pieced it together. The giantess’s words from earlier began to grow clearer.

Eli only looked up to give Warren a glaring scowl that mutely said, “Don’t fucking mention it.”

Warren went silent again, still shaky. He knew he didn’t have much time left. Soon they would be done with their ceremony thing and would only look to him as a little snack to pick off. He dreaded that the giantess would be the one to do it, the very same that had killed him in his nightmares.

As he squirmed to loosen the ropes somehow, he could feel a small object’s pressure against his front pocket. He froze. It was still there. His hand squirmed, trying to make its way into his pocket. It was a difficult task with his limited mobility, and he didn’t seem to get much luck.

“Hey, snap out of it. You’re tugging on me,” Eli grumbled next to him.

“N-no you don’t underst—stand. I— I can’t let them— I have t—“

Eli’s voice grew sharper and lower. “No seriously—“

His voice stopped suddenly and Warren froze in his actions. The crowd of giants seemed to part and the two giants that had captured them began to move away from the group, lumbering towards the two small captives. A grey-haired older-looking giantess joined them.

The three looming figures stopped over them, casting their enormous shadows that encompassed them easily. Warren shuddered and stopped in his actions, looking up at the three in dread.

“Well, I don’t believe it.” The silver-haired one said in a laugh. “Arawn lives, but he’s stuck as a little human. How humiliating. Serves him right.”

Eli’s eyes narrowed and he flattened his back against the tree. His jaw clenched stiffly and he stared on at the giantess.

“Well son of a bitch. Long time no see. Piss off, Rhyka.” He growled.

The silver-haired giantess only laughed. She looked to the blond pair of giants next to her. “This one hasn’t changed a bit. Let me kill him and finish what I started last time.”

The mute giant snarled hoarsely in his throat, gesturing to the bandages around his neck. He stood in front of Eli possessively.

“My brother and I caught the two, so we get to finish them.” The blond giantess interjected in a cold voice.

The silver-haired one took a bold step closer to the two. She was a full head taller than both of them, and was definitely one of the tallest giants among the whole gathering. “That Arawn was under my judgement seven years ago. I’m not asking.”

She shoved the mute giant aside and lashed out her claws to sever the ropes binding Eli and Warren. Her fingers closed around Eli’s middle and he was lifted off the ground. Warren let out a startled yelp and tried to get to his feet to run away, but the blond giantess quickly reached out to pin him against the tree again.

Eli put his hands against Rhyka’s grip, struggling with grit teeth. “You idiot! You know I earned my place! You— you can’t kill me!”

“Mmm, can’t or won’t? Because I think we both know the answer there.” She let out a harsh chuckle through her fangs before lifting him towards her face.

Eli’s eyes widened and he struggled harder. “No—nono—No—!”

Warren struggled beneath the giantess’s oppressive grip, his hand squirmed under to reach into his pocket. His hand closed around a small object like it was his only weapon or lifeline here. The giantess shifted her grip around Warren, noticing he was up to something. The slight readjustment allowed his arm to slip through. He held his breath and hurled the object upward with all his strength. In the darkness, it was difficult to see exactly what it was, but it missed Rhyka, hitting Eli in the back.

Warren let out a cry as the grip around him tightened, threatening to crack his ribs. Eli let out a shudder as the object came in contact with him. It was like he had been struck by the coldest blizzard instantaneously. Cold shivers ran down his spine. Then there were cracking sounds. Shifting. Snapping. Eli hissed in agony at the effect. His fingernails dug into Rhyka’s hands, enough to draw blood. The scent. He could smell it clear as day. Shifting. Cracking. A dizziness ran over him, putting him sort of out of it. And he grew.

His form lengthened within Rhyka’s grip until she could no longer hold him. His teeth grew into fangs. His ears sharpened. Claws jutted from his fingertips. A pained growl sounded in his throat before it came deeper and louder. A full-sized giant collapsed to the ground before her. He blinked, wincing as he seemed to reanalyze his senses. He looked up.

Rhyka was still much taller, but not nearly as tall as before. He barely had time to react to what happened before her claws suddenly lashed out, swiping clear across his face, digging deep into his skin.

“Gaah!” Eli shouted. A new vigor coursed through his veins. He leaped to his feet, using all his force to ram into her chest and knocked her back. The wind was knocked out of her lungs and she gasped for air, but quickly managed to regain her bearings. Eli didn’t give her time to recover. He lunged forward, aiming a kick against the giantess who held Warren.

She buckled backwards and her back collided into a tree. Her hand flew open, only for Eli to forcefully grab Warren and run. He still had a searing headache and his bones ached from the sudden change, but he was back. He was free.

The three giants behind soon followed in pursuit. Though Eli had an advantage. Although they were bigger, he was nimbler. He had been running away from the likes of them for seven years and had gotten pretty damn good at it.

Eli found a steep incline and took this as a chance to slow them down. He moved his hand towards his back which held Warren, sort of dropping him over his shoulder as he began to climb rapidly up the face of the cliff. Warren yelped. His heart raced, but he had no choice but to grip Eli around the neck to avoid falling to his death. It suppressed the giant’s breaths somewhat, but it didn’t matter. Eli could manage. He scaled the top of the cliff and his hand quickly grabbed Warren again tightly, wiping off his bleeding face on his sleeve with his spare hand.

He looked down and watched as the other giants caught up and attempted to climb up the cliff before skidding down. They were having trouble, but after several attempts, they seemed to begin to get the hang of it. Eli was still pretty high up and they had a little ways to go to catch up, but it was only a matter of time.

He gripped Warren tighter, holding him closer to his face with a look of unbridled rage. “You had that antidote this whole time?!”

Warren flinched, trying to lean away. “I— I didn’t trust you— I couldn’t just—“

“I don’t give a flying crap about your excuses! I don’t give a single shit! You’ve fucked up your last time, Hunter.”

Warren was brought closer to Eli’s face. So close he could feel his breath. Warren shuddered, squirming backwards. “W-wait— Eli— re—remember we— after all that happened— does— does that mean nothing?”

Eli’s eyes only narrowed in response. He glanced sideways down at the giants that were beginning to find more success in climbing up the cliff. They were getting closer. They didn’t have much time.

Without a warning, Eli’s maw opened wide before him. Warren could see a clear view of it through the moonlight. Strands of saliva glinted off the moonlight. The fangs bared threateningly around the maw. The slick wet tongue laid waiting. In the darkness, Warren couldn’t catch a good glimpse of what lay beyond, but he didn’t want to.

His breath caught in his throat and he pushed away from Eli’s grip. He was shaking violently. “No— no— noo— stop it— Eli, please—“

His voice might not have been heard at all. Before he knew it, his head was shoved into the giant’s hungry maw. The slick tongue rubbed against his face, getting a good taste of him, drenching his face and hair in sticky saliva. Eli let out a growling murr at his taste before getting to work. The tongue pitched upwards around his head, crushing him into the entrance of the throat. The giant’s hands continued to lift the human into his throat. A slight bulge formed in the giant’s neck as Warren began to enter, blocking off his airway momentarily.

Warren could feel the harsh, crushing muscles on every side of his face as the throat peristalsis began to grip him to tug him deeper with each wet gulp. He could already feel the encompassing heat begin to get to him. His heart raced, pounding in his ears. He fought against Eli’s oppressive grip, but to no luck. The giant had no difficulty restraining him. In the moment of feeble attempts, deep down, he knew Eli was right about his words from much earlier. Humans were weak.

GLK—

Another strong swallow gripped him, pulling his shoulders and upper chest into the crushing throat. The muscles were so taught and tight around him, he thought his shoulders would break from the pressure. But he couldn’t scream in pain. He couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t even breathe. He felt like he would suffocate before he would even reach the stomach.

The giant was being quicker about this. The hands shoved with more force as the throat accepted more and more of the tiny human. His head began to enter the tighter chest cavity where things began to get much louder. He could hear the booming heartbeat drum right next to his ears, vibrating right against him. The slick sounds of the peristalsis getting to work around him. The shifting, stretching sounds as the giant’s seemingly impossible anatomy managed to strain with ease to accommodate him.

The rest of his torso and hips disappeared down the dark gullet and only his legs remained. Eli could feel a pleasant shift within him as the struggling form wedged between his organs as it slid in deeper. The little helpless squirms and kicks did nothing but assist the descent and bring pleasant sensations, almost tickling the giant’s esophagus.

At this point, Eli would normally just tilt his head back and let his esophagus and gravity do the rest of the work, but he was in more of a hurry here. The other giants were getting closer. They were almost halfway up the cliff’s face. He gripped the struggling legs together and tilted his head back before pushing him in more forcefully. His throat relaxed slightly around his prey to allow him to slide down more easily.

Warren’s head began to press through a very tight opening before meeting a slightly wider area. He instantly gasped for air but coughed it up as a foul taste met his lungs. The air was scalding and humid, but was at least breathable. More of him began to follow as more of his legs disappeared down the throat. Eventually Eli released the kicking ankles as another swallow brought them into the mouth. Eli reached up for a moment to yank off the annoying shoes before the feet slid into the mouth and were squished back against the tongue before disappearing into the depths of the throat.

His jaw relaxed as the struggling little figure sank deeper into his hungry throat. He could feel the first pressure as Warren’s head entered his stomach and put a hand there to feel it begin to fill out. At a relaxed state, his stomach wasn’t much more than twice the size of a human’s, but it could easily stretch much more to accommodate larger meals.

Warren shuddered as he could feel the last of him disappear into the throat. All of him was now entirely inside the crushing possession of the other creature. His shoulders and upper chest soon followed through that tight ring of muscle into the hot chamber. His head was already pressing against the floor of the stomach, but it easily stretched and strained to allow more. He breathed through his teeth in rapid rasps to avoid slime from getting into his mouth. He could feel a shallow pool of a warm liquid gathered at the pit of the stomach only a couple inches deep which his head pressed into as more of him was crammed inside. Acid? He wasn’t sure, but it didn’t smell very good.

His torso, hips, legs, and feet eventually followed with a few more powerful gulps, stretching the small space and cramming him completely inside the larger creature. Warren gasped in horror, panting and shuddering as he was now utterly trapped. No weapons. No tricks. Nothing could help him out of this. His heart thundered in his ears, contrasting the slower, thundering rhythm of the giant’s around him that vibrated through the tight walls.

Eli let out a gravely sigh as he felt the weight settle completely inside of him, settling against his other organs. A hand pressed against where the struggling human lay. He immediately took in some deep gasps for air as soon as his airway cleared. He could feel the little hunter shudder and squirm inside of him, feel his rapid little breaths against the sensitive lining. It felt wonderful.

“Awwhh I missed this,” Eli’s voice came out in an almost purr as he caught his breath. It felt so good to be back to his normal size and have a human in his belly once again. He could see the little indentations from beneath his shirt as the little form struggled and fought against him. The efforts were more amusing than effective.

Warren kicked against the oppressive walls, his breaths coming in rapid pants. He couldn’t believe it. He had just given Eli his ticket to freedom, and was turned against in return. He thought giants could change. Eli had saved his life from the giantess before. He thought that had been something out of compassion, but really it was just his own greed. He was using Warren all along. He should have known. Why was he so naive?

The walls conformed tightly around Warren’s small form, restraining his struggles with ease. The living muscles rippled against him, covering him in the gross fluids and smothering him in the hot, slick folds of the stomach. It was hard to breathe. The heat was so much, it was difficult to focus on his struggles. It was tiring. He was stuck in an uncomfortable position, mostly still upside-down which was beginning to give him a bad headache. It was nearly impossible to reorient himself though, being how tight the environment was and how the muscles refused to relax around him.

Eli only got to appreciate his meal for a short moment before seeing how close behind the other giants were. They were nearly at the top. He bent down to a crouch, grabbing some large rocks the size of his fist and chucked them towards the nearest giant, the blond giantess. The rock hit her knuckles, breaking her grip around the rocky cliff and she clambered backwards, plummeting to the foot of the cliff and landed on her back. The giantess didn’t move. Her brother let out a choked shout of her name. His voice was raw and raspy from his injured throat. He paused in his efforts, but didn’t receive a response.

“You wanna lose your Bands too? Right after ya ripped that other giant to shreds? Well well, it’s still the Banding ceremony, so you might not have to wait a whole year to get banished. Endless running, being shamed and humiliated, hunted down by Hunters and your own kind as a weakling. Short life expectancy. You’ll love it. Might even last a few years. Wanna help your sis or would you like me to chuck another rock at her for good measure?”

The mute giant stopped immediately in his pursuit and skidded back down the cliff’s face to land at the bottom of the cliff to check on his sister.

Rhyka still climbed, but she was much older and significantly slower than other giants. As soon as her claws reached to top of the cliff, he stomped on her fingers, but wouldn’t let her go. She let out a hiss between her fangs, grabbing his ankle with her other hand, but he wouldn’t yield. He stooped down and grabbed around the wrist. Countless leather bands were bound around her wrist, going all the way up to her elbow. The ones closest to her wrist were weathered by decades of wear. Her silver eyes flitted between them, and then Eli. She froze.

“Ever heard of bad karma?” Eli sneered. His hand lashed towards her, the claws striking through each of the bands effortlessly, leaving long lashes through her skin. She gasped and let out an angered scream, gripping his ankle tighter.

“Pff, gotta try harder than that. Seeya on the other side, bitch.” Eli lifted his foot from her hand, only to step on her other wrist, breaking her forearm clean with a sickening crack before he shoved her off the cliff’s edge. She screamed, flailing her uninjured hand to try to grip the side of the cliff to slow her descent. Her claws scraped against the edge of the cliff, but didn’t gain purchase. She barely managed to catch her fall at the bottom of the cliff, but it didn’t make much difference. The impact must have broken some of her bones, and there was no way she would be able to climb up again.

It was over. Eli took in deep breaths and stood to his full height, flipping his middle finger at the three giants below before he left the side of the cliff, following the only available path along the upper mountainside.

The giant felt a sudden squirm of movement inside him as Warren attempted a kick. Eli paused after a moment, chuckling. He pressed a hand against the tiny captive, crushing him into submission.

“Yeahhh no. That ain’t gonna work, kiddo.”

Warren panted in the tight darkness, sucking in a choked breath as the walls seemed to collapse tighter around him, clenching him to the point of immobility. It was hard to even breathe. He had been stuck in this tight, hot, terrifying place, left quite literally in the dark to the commotion Eli just went through outside. He could hear the giant’s looming taunts towards the invisible enemies and picked up a muffled sound of the scuffle going on, but beyond that, he remained clueless as to what happened. Not that he could bring himself to care if the giants killed Eli now. Eli betrayed him. Warren thought he could be trusted, but he betrayed him.

“St—stop— I— I —cantbreathe— pl—s.” Warren grunted through his teeth, trying his best to fight against the oppressive walls, but to no luck. The walls finally lightened around him slightly, but still occasionally clenched and tightened from the subconscious peristalsis. Warren gasped for air, still shaking, feeling like each breath choked back a cry.

“Whoops.” Eli’s voice came in apathetically. The pressure returned, but less concentrated. Was he rubbing at him? Warren was disgusted at him, gloating over him like a filling meal. He shuddered, trying to burrow away from the pressure, but it was easier said than done when there was nowhere to go to escape.

“Y-you monster. I— I thought I trusted you. I hope the other giants kill you.”

Eli let out a snort. “Meh. Too late for that. Already kicked their asses.”

Warren was surprised, but that only gave him further reason to fear. The old saying; “The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” came to mind. If the other giants had the slightest chance of killing Eli to spare his life, that was the only chance of survival he had. And now even that was gone.

“Yo, Tiny.”

He flinched as there was suddenly a poke at his side. He squirmed, batting it away. “D-don’t touch me—“

Eli ignored the resistance, only pressing more firmly with his palm. “You like it in there? The shit you forced me to go through?”

Warren grimaced, panting in the hot darkness. He squirmed, trying to right himself, but it was exhausting. It felt like he had run a marathon. The intense heat was getting to him, beckoning him to sleep. He felt like fainting just from the fear alone, and it was a battle to stay awake. Eli’s looming words from earlier echoed forebodingly in his head, “You’ll be unconscious by the time you get digested. Slow and painless.”

Here, passing out meant death. He knew if he gave in, there was no awakening.

“P-please…” his voice pleaded quietly.

“Please what? You seriously thought you could kill me a day ago. Me. A giant. I think you forget what part of the food chain you belong in. Riiiight there.” Eli smirked, giving his belly a curt pat to punctuate his statement. “Ever since your little trick got me stuck in camo, I’ve been thinking about this moment, planning it out just perfectly. And, aaaah it feels so good to be back again. You humans are just so crippled by how weak you are.”

Warren flinched as he felt the pat. Following this, the walls collapsed tighter around him again, distributing fluids over him. He could feel that his skin was softer. They were getting to work.

“I— I’m sorry. I’m sorry I tried to kill you. I j-just wish I ha—hadn’t done any of that and s-stayed home,” Warren choked back a sob that broke in his throat. He curled up tighter, squeezing his eyes shut.

“Meh, sorry doesn’t change nothing, kid.” The giant’s voice dismissed him.

He continued walking along the mountain path. He was grateful to have all of his senses back to prime shape. His night vision, his sense of smell, his acute hearing. A whole day stuck in his camo form was more than enough to be sick of it and be more grateful for his natural size. Reaching a certain height along a steep part of the mountain, he could see headlights of cars weaving down a snake of asphalt that winded through the mountains.

He could feel Warren still squirm slightly, but he was getting weaker by the minute. He still enjoyed the slightest sensations coming from his motions, and occasionally if he put his hand on Warren, he could prompt another flurry of movement as he would attempt to avoid or retaliate against the pressure. It was sort of amusing.

He could feel Warren’s breaths against the sensitive lining. The slight shuddering movements as the stomach contracted around him. He noticed the breathing patterns had shifted slightly. They were jerkier, and tense. Was he… crying?

The giant blinked, putting a hand to where Warren laid, still sort of upside down. His hand rested beneath the human’s shoulders that were felt through his lower belly. The jerky motions were felt more clearly, but he didn’t flinch against the pressure this time. He was almost… giving up.

“Hey.”

There was no response.

“Hey, snap out of it, kid. You should’ve saved the tears for earlier. Those always add a nice taste,” The second comment was more to himself than directed at the little captive, but it was still heard clearly.

“You f-fucking— beast—“ Warren’s voice was seasoned by a surprisingly powerful kick to the lungs that made Eli hiccup in surprise, wincing. “I’m— you— you’re going to kill me and you’re— you’re just talking about h-how I taste? I’m— not food! I’m a person! My s-sisters need me— after a—all they’ve been through— A-and— and— you—“

Eli patted his stomach to interrupt him sighing. “Hey, enough of that drama, ‘kay? We giants don’t ‘do’ emotions, so guilt tripping me ain’t gonna get you anywhere. Aaalllso… um… Well I haven’t been a hundred percent honest with ya. You’re probably going to be fine.”

Warren went still for a moment, before his voice snapped. “Are you crazy?”

“Hm? No. At least not much.”

“Y-you frickin ate me and you said I’m going to be alright. I am not okay. My skin is going soft and numb, I can barely breathe. It burns in here. Whatever you’re doing is crushing my ribs and shoulders right now. The blood is rushing up to my brain, I’m upside down. I’m barely even able to stay awake— And you’re saying I’m fine.”

“Yeahh no. There’s no acid in there right now. Whatever that numb stuff is, it’s harmless.” Eli huffed. “If you were really that uncomfortable upside down, ya could have told me earlier. Sheesh.”

Warren was trying to wrap his head around this new information when the walls began to shift around him again, clenching and rippling as they began to get him at least laying in a slightly more comfortable position. There was only so much control Eli had over there, so it was difficult to fully get him upright, but at least he was no longer upside down. After a moment, the muscles relaxed around him again, still occasionally tightening massaging subconsciously, but no longer quite as cramped as before.

Warren held out his elbows to try to keep the folds of the walls mostly off of him as he caught his breath and readjusted to his new position. He blinked in the darkness, glancing up to speak again just as a glob of the fluids dripped onto his face. He grimaced, quickly trying to wipe it off, but didn’t make much progress since there wasn’t an inch of him that wasn’t covered in the stuff at this point. It was really, really gross.

“You— you’re saying I’m safe?” Warren said. “I— I’ve been safe this whole time?”

“Well, with the giants on our tail, that’s technically the only place you can be safe.” Eli pointed out. He made his way down another route to decline down the mountainside toward the highway. A hand was held against his belly to stabilize Warren and not jostle him around too much as he moved.

“Damn.” Warren breathed, still processing this. He didn’t trust Eli after what he had done. How he had humiliated him, terrified him, treated him like nothing but a satisfying meal. It hurt. “W-why didn’t you--”

“Tell you that you were going to be safe?” Eli seemed to read his mind. It seemed like the giant had heard this old question many times. It certainly wasn’t the first human he had eaten, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. “Well for starters, we didn’t have much time with those giants chasin’ us. And also it’s boring to eat a meal without a struggle. They say hunger is the best seasoning, but I think fear is. And thirdly, you deserved it. ‘Cause that’s exactly what I went through since you shrunk me. So. Ha. Revenge.”  

Although Warren couldn’t see his face, Eli smirked. The giant was able to find his way down the mountain trail, following the sound of an occasional car off in the distance to navigate toward the nearest road. He listened out carefully for any sign of the other giants nearby, but they were all probably too occupied with the Banding to wander off too far.

“You— you do realize you were n-never the victim here. You’re an apex predator. We ‘little people’ have to deal with being belittled by your kind, and for just one day you had to deal with it.”

Eli rolled his eyes, pushing aside a branch in his path to reach the road. He glanced down it for any nearby cars and followed just within the treeline to avoid being seen by oncoming cars.   “Hey, you shouldn’t be the one complaining, kid. You’re lucky you’ve been nabbed by a giant who doesn’t kill humans anymore. Real lucky.”  

Warren sighed shakily, still having trouble wrapping his head around the situation. This felt so wrong, and strange, and scary. Even if he was technically safe, he was in the stomach of a giant who had killed people in the past. People had likely died in the same place where he was right now. That thought was unsettling and he knew he shouldn’t dwell on it, since he was already sort of panicking anyways.  

“What… what made you stop killing people?”

There wasn’t immediately a response as Eli kept walking along the side of the road, working on locating Warren’s car they had left behind earlier. A long sigh sounded around Warren, and Eli readopted his usual gruff voice.  

“Meh, it’s a long story. Too boring.”

Warren’s curiosities only grew, but knowing Eli, he knew that probing around too much would probably be a bad idea and would be met with more rough messing around and teasing. A small question probably wouldn’t hurt, though.

“Well… There’s n-not much I can do here anyways. Unless… Can you let me out?”  

“Mmm, nah, not yet. We’re still pretty close to the whole Banding thing, and also mountain giants can get real nasty around this time of the year. You’re so terrible at defending yourself, that-- ‘Oh no, a breeze knocked him over. Whoops. Warren’s dead now.’ Ya get that?”

Warren frowned, but there wasn’t much he could offer in his own defense. He squirmed slightly in place to try to find a more comfortable position, but it was so tight and cramped that it was difficult. It was still not easy to breathe in the limited space, and the heat sapped him of his energy, making it difficult not to doze off.

Eli could feel the little form grow more limp and relaxed and supposed that his core temperature was getting to him. It wouldn’t be long before he would soon pass out. Eli was feeling pretty tired himself. He hadn’t really slept last night because of his nocturnal sleep schedule, so he hadn’t slept in over 24 hours. The adrenaline from the Banding was the main thing keeping him going at this point. He also knew he probably shouldn’t fall asleep with Warren inside. Although Warren was safe for now, since giants only digest when they’re asleep, that could make things really dangerous for the little captive.

Eli eventually felt Warren’s breaths calm down within him and smirked a little. After a long while of walking, he could see Warren’s car up ahead. The sounds of the Banding far off were growing fainter, so it was probably safer around there. Eli stopped next to the car, leaning against a tree. He pat his stomach to wake Warren and felt a sudden groggy shuffle of movement within him as the small man re-acclimated to his surroundings.

It took Warren a minute to remember all that had happened, and he was surprised at himself. He had just fallen asleep inside the giant? Wasn’t that dangerous? He tested all of his senses. At least he was still able to breathe, despite how hot and humid the air was. His skin wasn’t burning at all, but it only felt a little bit softer, like how one might be after a long soak in a hot tub. He looked up as Eli patted at him, trying to wipe most of the slime away from his face.

“Hmwha?” A tired mumble came from him.

“Oh nice. He lives. What a surprise. You got all sleepy? Aw.”

“It’s-- not my fault-- it’s hot in here, okay? Ugh.” Warren grimaced as he heard a gurgle nearby and the walls massaged against him. This place was gross. He felt a blunt chuckle around him from Eli before the walls tightened around him again, almost painfully this time. The crushed against him, eventually forcing him streamlined-- upward?

He pressed back through the tight stomach opening before being forced into the throat. He was tugged along for a while before his head pressed into open air once again and he gasped for breath as a huge hand grabbed him and pulled him the rest of the way out with a sickening GLK sound.

He was held by the scruff of his shirt above the ground to once again face the huge giant. He blinked blearily as he readjusted to the dim light. He shivered as he was once again exposed to fresh air, which felt freezing in comparison to the giant’s insides. Filling his lungs with fresh air never felt so refreshing. He was dripping in slime, seeing threads of saliva connect him to the giant’s mouth. It was disgusting, but he was at least grateful to be free and alive.

Eli gagged residually, but swallowed the buildup of saliva before smirking down at the little human. He always found them to look so funny whenever he released them. Warren looked pitiful right now, soaked down to the bone, shivering, and dripping with stomach fluids. He chuckled. “Ah, there he is. Welcome back to the free air.”

The grip around Warren was released and he slumped to the ground dizzily. He tried to get to his feet, but his legs felt all wobbly and stiff from being curled up in that tight space. He was gasping for air, sort of gaping up at the huge giant in disbelief that he had been inside of him just seconds ago.

“You-- you’re disgusting.” Warren said between pants. He could see his car nearby and stumbled over to it, taking out his keys from his pocket and tried to wipe off the slime as well as he could before unlocking the car.

Eli just shrugged to the insult with a predatory smirk. “Welllll at least you’re not.”

Warren grimaced at the comment. “Don’t ever refer to me ugh-- tasting-- good or anything ever again. That’s just weird.”

Warren loaded into the car, just feeling gross and slimy and just wanted to get a hot shower after all this. Eli just chuckled in response. Of coarse Eli wouldn't bother to comply.

The huge giant crouched down to peek towards the driver’s window, leaning his weight against the car which made it creak slightly. Warren glanced at him, still wary and nervous around the huge creature, but felt oddly comforted to have such a big creature able to protect him against those other giants. That was a close call. It was just sheer luck that he was still alive.

He sighed, “Well… I guess this has been the craziest two days of my life…” Warren said. “I..” He took in a deep breath. “Take care, Eli. I hope the other giants don’t kill you.”

Eli grinned gruffly. “Eh, I’ll be fine. Now don’t go messing around with giants and monsters anymore. If we meet again, I’m eating you for reals, ‘kay? I still don’t like you. Much.” He chuckled, though his face softened slightly. “And take care of your sisters. You’re lucky to have a family like them.”  

His expression suggested there was more to that, but he just backed up and stood too his full height again, his usual grin returning to disregard any mystery behind his words.  

Warren had never considered himself lucky to be in his family’s position, but he nodded anyways, promising to take care of them. Despite how the giant had traumatized him, he was grateful to what he had done to keep him safe from the other giants. Though even with this, he was an undeniable jerk. He hoped he would be alright.  

“Will do, Eli.” Warren said with a slight smile. He started up the car and gave a last nod of goodbye before driving off. In the darkness, it was difficult to even see the giant in his rear view mirror as he drove away, but he seemed to disappear into the treeline immediately.

Warren would reevaluate a lot of his choices, but first, he wanted to make sure he was more prepared next time something happens.

--------------------------------

Warren turned to see the shopkeeper to the side. She didn’t look like much from what someone might assume from a powerful alchemist. She looked like she was sixty years old. Her unkempt hair was divided into twin ponytails that were slung loosely over her shoulders. Perched on her nose were a pair of buggishly big spectacles with a silver rim to them that enlarged her eyes almost comically when it hit the right angle. Despite the comical emphasis on her eyes, she looked very tired and droopy with baggy eyes.  She was holding an entire glass carafe of steaming hot coffee. 

“Oh— sorry, Olivia,” Warren quickly retracted his hand away from the bell. He paid no notice to her getting his name wrong. She never got it right anyways. For the reputation she held for her own intelligence, part of him wondered if she actually messed up his name on accident, or if she was just messing with him. 

Olivia ignored his apology and took a swig from her carafe. She motioned for Warren to follow as she turned toward the doorway. “C’mon, let's get this over with.”

Warren sighed and followed her inside the doorway. There was a stairway leading down into a basement with a higher ceiling. This area was furnished a bit differently than the area upstairs. There were bookshelves of ancient volumes, some titles were written in foreign tongues that couldn’t even be recognized. On the far end of the room was a workbench area and some pots and alchemist equipment that looked almost like what one might find in the lair of a mad scientist. Across from the alchemist equipment, there were a couple of armchairs to the far side of the room with a coffee table between them and a book set on the table. 

Warren took a seat as he was directed to one of the chairs and Olivia set down her carafe of coffee, picking up the big, heavy book. 

She paused, staring Warren in the eye with a very tired sigh. “Alright, so you wanted to know about how to survive being attacked by a giant, right?”

Warren nodded, opening his mouth to elaborate, but Olivia spoke first.

“I couldn’t neglect to notice that when you were returning my silver bullets from your little werewolf hunt that three bullets were missing… and the werewolf’s body. I needed that werewolf hair for my alchemy. I would have thought that you would be more concerned about how to kill a werewolf properly than try to learn about something as random as giants, especially since their rotation has already passed this town and probably won’t pass by for another three years.”

Olivia yawned for a solid ten seconds before sighing and took another swig of coffee. Warren frowned. “But-- you know what happened last time I was around giants. They kidnapped me! They nearly killed me! And they somehow tracked me down, too! I can’t just--” Olivia held up her hand with a tired sigh, instantly silencing the young Hunter. “Look, you don’t have to explain your whole merry tale. It’s fine. I’ll teach you anyways. And I think that this would be the perfect opportunity to bring in someone who knows a lot more about the topic than any normal Hunter or alchemist.”

She sighed, her eyes rolling toward the side of the room. She glanced at her small brass watch around her wrist impatiently. “Ugh, well he’s a bit late, but he should show up any minute now. Anyways… To begin I think you should get to know the different species of giants, or at least the ones you’re most likely to encounter in this particular area.”

Warren’s brow furrowed in curiosity, wondering what sort of co-teacher Olivia had in mind to bring. Even though he knew he should figure out soon enough, his curiosity made him impatient to figure out who exactly it was. Was it one of the veteran U.L. members? A weathered hunter who had seen decades worth of hunts and slain countless monsters?

He was a bit distracted in his own assumptions as Olivia flipped through her huge book and landed on a page titled, GIANTS. There was a diagram there that portrayed the size differences of all of the different species. The book, despite being weathered and torn in some places, seemed relatively up to date and printed out in at least the past decade or so. There was a size chart that showed several different species of giants, and to the far left was a tiny human in comparison to demonstrate the scale. He could instantly recognize the giant in closest resemblance to Eli’s height titled, Wood Giant. He could at least recall Eli using that term once or twice in the past, and previously wasn’t sure if it was just a term they called themselves, or the actual title of that species. 

Olivia’s bulbous dark eyes followed his and she tapped the image with her weathered fingertip. “I’m sure you’re familiar with the wood giants. They’re some of the most common these days. Most other species only have a couple thousand to a few hundred left in the wild, such as the mountain giants,” She tapped the largest giant on the page which was easily twice the size of a wood giant. Warren’s eyes widened at the sheer size. It was difficult to believe that creatures of such scale could even exist. His eye followed the page where paragraphs elaborated on each species. He stopped as he saw the information on the mountain giants. 23-27 feet tall. That was insane.

“How have people never discovered them to exist?” Warren pondered. With creatures at such scale, it sounded impossible.

“Well, they were discovered back in the medieval days. There used to be a lot more giants in the past, and they were a lot bigger too. In the late 15th century, there was a movement to eradicate all monsters, and the king of England at the time was just desperate to get rid of them, so he teamed up with the outcasts, such as alchemists and sorcerers to get rid of them. The larger species were quickly run to extinction while the smaller ones evolved to survive under the radar. Out of nowhere, they seemed to gain camouflaging abilities, which you’re probably familiar with. Camouflage varies by species. Wood giants can disguise themselves as humans for brief periods of time. Mountain giants can merge with stone and camouflage into the mountain. Kapres can merge with trees. Cave giants can turn invisible. And so on.”

She stopped to take another few gulps of coffee. In the momentary pause, she glanced up as they could hear footsteps coming from the shop and the door at the top of the basement staircase opened. A tall figure stepped through, and he could be recognized immediately. Golden eyes, spiky black hair, tall, muscular build. Eli. And he was in camo form, currently standing at 6’1, instead of his usual towering height of 13’3. 

Warren’s eyes widened slightly as he saw the figure approach down the stairs. The camo’d giant was smirking. “Hey there ya little humans!” He announced cheerfully in his rough voice. Warren shot a look towards Olivia in confusion, but from her expression, he could tell that this was an expected entry. 

“Speaking of camouflage, hello giant.” Olivia spoke calmly. “Warren, this is your co-teacher for now.”

“Wait-- really?”

“Who better to learn about giants, than from a giant? This is a rare opportunity, since most giants just love killing humans at first chance.”

Warren sighed, frowning slightly as the camouflaged giant came closer, skipping over to slouch against the side of Warren’s chair. “So! What are we learning about here? We doin’ those lessons ya asked about, Tiny?”

Warren narrowed his eyes at Eli, not feeling all that comfortable with Eli standing that close. “Uh, yeah, I guess that’s what this turned into then. Olivia was going to help me learn how to stand a chance against giants.”

Eli laughed. “Ohhh. Welllll sorry to disappoint ya then. Humans in general don’t stand a chance.”

“That’s not helping.” Olivia said tiredly. “You should probably know how your ancestors were driven to extinction by humans in the past, unless you’ve forgotten, or if the giants tell different tales about what happened.”

Eli rolled his eyes. “Aw, you’re no fun all talkin’ about history an’ shit. How about we talk about more fun stuff, like giants eatin’ people and all that fun jazz.” He smirked down at Warren and he scooted to the side of his seat uncomfortably. “Oh and by the way, since this room is big enough, I’m gonna get outta camo for a sec. I can’t stay in this form for very long anyways.”

Olivia shrugged indifferently, continuing to sip from her carafe. “Sure, just don’t break anything.”

Warren shot an uncertain glare toward the giant, “And don’t you dare try anything, okay?”

Eli chuckled. “Ya know I find it hilarious when ya put on that scary face, Tiny.”

He stepped away from the chair with a smirk and there was a sound of shifting and cracking of bones for a moment as his form regrew into massive proportions. He had to sit on the floor to avoid contact with the ceiling. His eyes became slitted like a cat’s, and they were lined with dark markings similar to a cheetah’s. His ears were long and pointed. His fingers were tipped with long, sharp claws. Ivory fangs protruded from his lips in a grin. Warren’s heart skipped a beat at the sight of the creature at his full size again, not feeling all that thrilled to be so close to the very same creature that had eaten him twice in the past.

“That feels so much better,” the giant sighed in a deeper voice. His sharp eyes focused again on Olivia as she seemed completely unphased, even tired at the sight of the transformation. 

“Can we get back on topic now?” Olivia tapped her fingers against her carafe impatiently. Warren could only guess one thing might be on her mind right now; sleep. She couldn’t seem the slightest bit interested or thrilled in the prospect of this “class” and just seemed to want to get it over with. But then again, her true expression never really changed, so it was difficult to read past this.

“Yeah, whatever.” Eli snorted. He smirked at Warren’s alerted expression, baring his fangs. 

Olivia sighed. “Alright, so now that we have the species of giants out of the way, now we can work on some techniques on how to survive them.”

“Wait-- what about fighting them? I should have to know that at least…” Warren glanced at Eli uncertainly, who scoffed at Warren’s statement. 

“Look, kiddo. I’ve got claws, fangs, I can run almost as fast as one of your cars for long distances, I have a lot more stamina and I’m a lot more durable than any human. Look at what you got. You’re just a soft little thing that needs all sorts of bells and whistles like guns and knives to make up for all that lot of nothin’ you’ve got goin’ for ya.”

Warren looked hurt. He looked to Olivia for some sort of contradiction to Eli’s statement, but she just shrugged. “Well he said it. That’s why knowing how to survive is more important than winning in any situation. A lot of Hunters need an assortment of tools and tricks up their sleeve in order to stand a chance. Hence why alchemists are often employed with a lot of the Legion’s affairs. Back in the medieval days, Hunters had tried to use blunt weapons, but they were pretty much useless in comparison. Giants, apart from other monsters, were the sole reason why alchemists ever got accepted as allies of the Legion.” Warren frowned. This wasn’t any sort of answer he had wanted. He would just have to get better at using his weapons effectively against giants, but against Eli he couldn’t really do that. 

“So… How do you survive against giants, then?” Warren said.

“Ya don’t.” Eli quipped with a smirk. “The only chance that humans have against giants is with your little tools and tricks, and giants know that. We’ve been trained ever since we were giantlings, all of the best ways to disarm ya tiny fellas, and we know how to find any hidden knife and weapon from years of practice even before our first Bindings. We don’t just have the looks goin’ for us to be the perfect predators. We were trained for it.”

Olivia sighed, not seeming to like the interruptions. “Without weapons, there’s still a few ways. Blunt attacks such as kicking and punching won’t do much against that, so you shouldn’t waste your energy. And energy is key here. Because if you’re eaten, the temperature is high enough to send you into a coma-like state within an hour or so.”

Warren frowned, recalling how the heat had been the main thing to subdue him so easily both times, even sending him to sleep once. “But-- if you’re eaten, it’s already over though, right? That’s it. There’s no way to escape.”

“Yuuup.”

“No,” Olivia said at the same time, and gave Eli an unamused glare. “No, that’s not it. There’s still ways. Pressure points and weak points to get familiar with. For the exterior, the point between the thumb and index is a pressure point, as well as beneath the bicep. Immobilizing the arm with pressure points might aid in your release. Interior points, for instance, the lungs. If eaten, you’d be directly beneath the lungs, and continued, repeated pressure to them can be uncomfortable, even shock the giant into awakening again by changing their breathing patterns. Keeping a giant awake is your first priority. Though their digestive system varies slightly per species, for Elmo’s type specifically, wood giants only digest when they’re asleep in order to conserve energy when they’re awake.”

“It’s Eli. Ya keep gettin’ my name wrong.” The giant glared daggers at her. She ignored him. 

“Another point is a cluster of nerves against the spine. Harsh enough pressure there can actually send a giant into temporary paralysis and knock them out. The giant digestive system is directly linked to their preservation of energy. Since they’re a lot bigger, their energy can only be localized to a certain number of functions. For instance, if they’re severely injured, but just ate someone, their body will divert most of the energy to recovery before digesting anything. For getting knocked out, same thing here, and momentary paralysis affects this. So by knocking them out, you can actually set back their digestive system by a few to several hours. This can really buy you time, but the key thing here is that you are actually able to stay awake for any of this.“

Eli’s brow furrowed as she spoke. “A bunch of bullshit. I’ve never had anyone do that to me before. It’s probably just a myth. Cuz they always try everything, and it doesn’t do much except feel good.”

Warren grimaced disapprovingly at Eli’s words, but at least found Olivia’s words informative. He still had reason to be hesitant to credit it however, because of Eli’s comment. 

“So basically… The best chance you have of surviving a giant is if you have weapons, or if you’re already eaten… But I mean if you’re hurting them, it’s not the same as being released. It’s just… prolonging death.” Warren said, the corners of his mouth tilted in a lopsided frown. 

“Not exactly. The pressure point against the spine can set them off long enough in repetition to drain them of energy overtime into eventual release, which must be timed properly if you’d have any better chance of escaping them there, or to eventually kill them slowly from energy deprivation. That could take days, though. And you’d need methods of keeping yourself awake during that period of time.” 

Eli let out a very loud yawn, that was more of a statement of boredom than him actually being tired. 

“Do you have something you’d like to say?” Olivia raised a brow, unimpressed.

“Nah, nah. This is riveting. Just thought it’s ridiculous that y’all think it’s possible to kill a giant from a technique as lousy as that. It’ll never work anyways. How about we get to the hands-on learning part ya told me about already.”

Olivia ignored him again, beginning to continue. Warren’s brow furrowed slightly upon the mention of hands-on learning, not because of the opportunity to learn to defend himself against a giant, but because of Eli’s uncanny enthusiasm about the prospect, which couldn’t mean anything good.

“Another technique is to block their airway long enough to get released. Giants can’t breathe while they’re swallowing someone, but can hold their breath for a very long time, up to six minutes easily. Stretching out your elbows in the throat if swallowed forward, or locking your arms around the jaw if swallowed backwards might help you buy time until they begin to run out of air.” Olivia gave Eli an almost curious look behind her tired eyes. “How effective do you think this is, with your experience?”

“That doesn’t really work all that often.” Eli huffed. “I think there was only one person who tried that against me that got close, and he was like, a football player, so he had the build goin’ for him. He just grabbed onto my lower jaw for a solid five minutes and I was really tempted to bite him in half. ‘Course I’m stubborn and prefer live prey and managed to get him down whole just by biting a tiny bit. Totally worth it though. He struggled real good. Tasted like laundromat detergent though.” 

Olivia frowned slightly. “We didn’t need those details.”

Warren was listening to the story with wide eyes. “Wait— so you killed him?”

Eli snorted. “What do ya take me for? Some sorta merciful giant? Pfft. Yeah, I killed him. Oh, terrible me! What an evil giant! Who knew giants actually killed people!” His voice raised an octave in mockery and he smirked. 

Olivia’s eyes narrowed. “Can we get back on topic?” She took a swig from her carafe before sighing. “So what I’m gathering from what Ethan said is that if you try to choke them, you’ll get bitten in half.”

“It’s Eli. And most giants would probably want to avoid biting you in half unless they’re desperate. We like squirmy prey.”

Warren grimaced. Olivia ignored him. 

“Anyways. Onto the hands-on learning part. Edgar?”

Eli’s eyes lit up with enthusiasm, barely bothering to correct her on his name again. He leaned forward, now sort of kneeling on the floor to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling. “Ah, right. The hands-on part. C’mon over here, Tiny.”

His eyes locked onto Warren’s hungrily. Warren’s heart skipped a beat and he jumped out of his seat stiffly, taking a few steps backward. “Uh-- hands-on? What… what exactly does this mean here?”

He was trying to hide the unease from his voice and expression. He knew that Olivia probably wouldn’t let the giant do anything outright terrible to him in her presence, but she also tended to be fairly apathetic enough to make things rather uncomfortable for anyone without seeming bothered too much by it. 

“It means you’ll get a chance to try to ‘survive.’” Olivia sipped her coffee casually, her voice oozed of disinterest in the situation. She leaned back in her arm chair, seeming to halfheartedly be fighting off the ebbing tiredness that tried to draw her to sleep. Beneath her bulbous spectacles, there was a slight tinge of curiosity, though she dared not really show it. By principle, it was impossible to read what she really thought.

Warren’s eyes narrowed as he glared at Olivia. “Wait-- survive as in--” his eyes flitted back over to Eli who was trying to crawl towards him in the small space. His breath caught in his throat and his heart picked up pace. He stumbled backwards and quickly slipped behind the armchair. “Nononono-- wait-- Eli-- Eli stop.”

The giant rolled his eyes with an amused smirk playing over his face. “Yeah right… of course telling the evil ravenous giant to stop will work every time. You get a gold star for that, Tiny!” Warren felt a pang from his words. “But-- I don’t have any weapons! You should have told me I would--” “Blah blah, yeah keep complaining. C’mere Tiny.” The giant lunged forward in the small space, an arm reaching out to snatch the hunter. Warren dove out of the way, just narrowly grazed by the giant’s claws. He gasped, flattening himself against the wall. He glanced down at his arm that had thin lashes that shredded through the sleeve of his shirt. “Wh-- What the HELL, dude!” Warren shouted. 

Eli only chuckled at his angry shouts, closing in on his prey that was now cornered. Warren could only see a small opening that led to the alchemy workbench. If he was quick, he might make it. He just had to make a run for it and hope that the giant’s disadvantage of size here could give him an opening. 

Bracing himself with a quick breath, Warren burst forward. He ducked beneath the giant’s arm, flinching at the uncanny proximity to the beast. He had to keep running--

A hand roughly grabbed the back of his hoodie and yanked him backwards. Warren yelped. He struggled to pry off the giant’s grip. “Remember the pressure points,” He could hear Olivia’s voice lazily call out. Right! Think! The Hunter twisted to reorient himself in the giant’s grip. He could feel himself brought closer. The giant was now in clear view before him. Warren fumbled, recalling the pressure points mentioned. He quickly japped two fingers in between the back of the giant’s thumb and index finger to try to trigger release. Miraculously, Eli’s fingers reflexively came loose and Warren quickly tugged away. He stumbled onto his back, fumbling with his feet as he tried to get up or scoot away. 

The momentary freedom was short lived as Eli’s hand clamped over the Hunter’s chest, pinning him to the floor easily. Warren pushed around the giant’s fingers trying to pry them off without much luck. He tried again to jam the pressure point, but without any success. Most of the force holding down Warren came from the arm after all, so his efforts came out useless. 

“All out of luck now, eh Hunter?” The giant taunted. 

Warren’s eyes narrowed. “Okay fine. You win. Let me try again.” 

Eli let out a snort. “Uhh nope. I don’t think that’s how things will be working here. I’m not lettin’ ya go quite yet.”

Warren’s eyes widened by a hair. He shot a pleading look to Olivia, who appeared bored out of her wits as she sleepily sipped from her carafe. “Don’t look at me. Just practice those internal techniques we talked about.” She yawned, leaning back in the armchair, seeming almost ready to sleep. 

Warren looked back at Eli nervously, but he knew nothing he said or did would change the giant’s trajectory now. He squeezed his eyes shut, taking in deep breaths. “I f-frickin’ hate this,” he muttered under his breath. 

Eli disregarded the Hunter’s nerves and lifted the little human off the ground, leaning back to kneel on the floor comfortably. Warren flinched as there was a pause before he could feel and hear the hot breath of the giant waft over his face before things became warmer. His cheek was pressed against a plush, slimy surface. The tongue rose up to slide over his face, slicking him down to be swallowed more easily. And from the pleasant sounds Eli was making, Warren was once again reminded about how much the giant seemed to enjoy his taste. Disgusting. 

It was even more humiliating here, knowing that Olivia was just sitting there idly watching as she would drink her coffee. Warren’s head was pushed in deeper and the tongue pushed him firmly back as the giant made the first swallow. He took in a quick breath, and his head was now stuck tight in the confines of the throat. It was too tight to breathe, so he had to conserve air. 

The giant took his sweet time tasting him for a while as more swallows sounded, bringing him in deeper. It was a necessary function in order for the giant not to be harmed during this to allow his prey to be slicked up enough to be swallowed more easily. 

Warren should have been used to this process at this point. He had been swallowed two and a half times already (the half was a bit of an unpleasant story). It was still frightening to him nonetheless. Not to mention, he couldn’t breathe in the tight space, and Eli taking his time with this only deprived his lungs from air even longer. 

The giant had only swallowed the human up past the hips when he heard Olivia clear her throat impatiently. He shot her a confused but angered glare, pausing in his swallows. His neck was filled out with the bulge of Warren’s slightly struggling form and the legs dangling from his maw would twitch uncomfortably  

“You’re taking your sweet time. You know humans can only hold their breath for so long. Take your time any longer and you’ll suffocate the poor Hunter,” Olivia muttered. Her voice was still very tired by default, but there was a strictness in it. 

A muffled growl sounded in his throat and he rolled his eyes, tilting his head back. He made several more powerful swallows, gravity aiding the smaller form to sink in deeper before Eli rose up his hand to pick off Warren’s shoes. He swallowed one last time, the back of his tongue rising up to squish the little feet into the throat before they disappeared. The bulge in the giant’s throat sank in deeper before it disappeared from his neck, reforming as a small protrusion from his torso that wasn’t too noticeable, as the giant’s larger form could harbor the little human quite easily. 

Warren coughed up the stale humid air as soon as his head pressed into the tight opening of a wider area. The air was hot, and already he could hear the gross, squelching sounds of the stomach as it stretched to accommodate him. He could hear the giant’s muffled heartbeat pounding nearby, and his labored breaths as he caught his breath from his airway being cleared. The rest of the Hunter was forced and squeezed inside the tight space, curled up in a puddle of clear drool. He was dripping with slime, and that gross stuff slid down the ceiling, connecting with him and getting in his hair. Warren panted for air for a while, disliking the heat and foul air that filled his lungs. It smelled disgusting. 

Once again, Warren was stuck sort of upside-down in the tight space, forced to curl up so his limited mobility made it hard to right himself. He aimed an angered kick near the throat’s opening, scowling and shaking in the darkness. 

Eli smirked through his fangs between breaths as he felt the small retaliation, then shot an annoyed look to Olivia. 

“Why rush it? That ain’t no fun.” He huffed. 

Olivia rolled her eyes, getting up from her seat with another swig of her coffee before she walked over to the giant. Her expression was unphased, though despite this, Eli could still smell a slight tinge of fear from her. This amused him. 

“You okay in there, Winston?” 

Warren’s face contorted into a further scowl as he heard Olivia’s muffled voice from outside. He squirmed wildly in place, trying to reorient himself in the sweltering darkness. He kicked at the tight walls angrily. “You frickin— freak! You just let me get eaten by a giant! What the f-fuck is wrong with you!” He glared up at the ceiling, grimacing as slime dripped onto his face. “And stop taking your sweet time. I’m not a dang candy!”

Eli snickered, rubbing at the form in his gut, much to Warren’s annoyance. “Nah, candies are sweet. You taste more like meat.” 

Warren’s eyes narrowed and he kicked angrily in defiance. “That’s disgusting. Don’t ever call me that,”

“Ya know, I might actually have room for seconds if you were interested in learning as well.” Eli sneered at the alchemist. 

“You do NOT.” Warren’s muffled voice came from Eli’s middle, punctuated by an angry kick that was visible from the surface.

The giant smirked. “Oh yeah? Wanna test that?”

Olivia’s eyes narrowed by a hair. Her voice lowered threateningly. “That would be unnecessary. And if you try anything, you’ll find yourself stuck in your camouflaged form again without even realizing what hit you.”

Eli smirked, “Aww you don’t think it’ll be fun?”

“Can we focus now?” Olivia’s voice came in a tired drawl. Any alarm from Eli’s threat of eating her was quickly gone from her countenance.

The giant rolled his eyes. “Meh, boring, but whatever.”

Olivia moved closer to the giant and poked his middle with an unwavering expression. 

“Stopit!” Warren’s muffled voice snapped angrily. 

Eli snickered.  “Yeah, stop it, alchemist lady.”

Warren paused. “...Olivia?” He squirmed slightly in place to try to get himself at least more upright, though without much success. All that could be seen were the bulges of his form shifting around from the outside. 

Olivia pursed her lips for a moment, part of her was curious and interested, and another part was a little fearful of the giant being completely capable of swallowing an entire human being. She had heard of it done before, but she had just never witnessed it. It was surreal to comprehend. The analytical, scientific side of her brain was curious about how it was physically possible, and how the hunter was even able to gather air there, despite having studied recounts of hunters who had confirmed that it was possible. It was a very curious opportunity to be able to work and study alongside a real giant. As far as she knew, giants never worked alongside humans, so this was a very rare occasion. 

“Yes, that was me,” Olivia withdrew her hand, her voice returning in her usual tired drawl. Any interest she had was impossible to guess from how well she concealed it. “Are you able to get your back to face me? Just by using the poke as a point of reference.”

Warren paused, panting tiredly. The heat was overwhelming here, and being upside down, the crown of his head was half-immersed into the gross puddle of fluids at the pit of the stomach. He was getting a headache from this. The darkness here was disorienting and made it even harder to figure himself out. 

“I can’t move. I’m upside down.”

“I guess you’ll die then.” Olivia huffed apathetically. 

“WHAT-!”

A flurry of struggles came from the giant’s middle and Eli shut his eyes, putting his hands against his middle with a grin. “Yeah keep up that stellar fighting and that’ll magically teleport you out.” He chuckled, looking down and poked at Warren’s form. “Ya can’t just expect every giant to let you go cuz you’re a little tired, or landed wrong.”

Warren grimaced, trying to push away the contact from Eli, but was stuck in too bad of a position to reach it properly. The best he could do was kick near the stomach entrance tiredly.  

“Okay, okay,” He muttered. He dug his foot into the low opposing wall, grunting as he tried to get enough purchase into pushing himself more upright. His socked feet slipped at first, just sliding against the slimy, malleable surface. He tried again a few times, finally managing to push the sides of his feet into the plush folds and tried to extend his legs just barely enough to push his upper back against the wall, sliding into a slightly more upright position. He grimaced at the gross sounds that came from this action, but at least his head was no longer immersed in slime. He panted for a while, the small change took way too much effort, and it was so hot and humid in here. The difficulty of breathing here didn’t contribute to his lightheadedness either. 

“H—O-Okay, my back is facing the ‘poke’ now,” he panted. 

“Wowww… you moved like a grand total of like two inches…” Eli’s voice quipped. 

“Sh-shut up. You’re n-not the one stuck in here.” Warren retorted between breaths. It was taking a while to gain his bearings, and the heat was really getting to him. But at least now being somewhat right-side-up, he was beginning to feel a little less light-headed. 

“Be quiet and focus, Wilfred.” Olivia drawled. “So from there, you’re in the perfect position to reach two pressure points. The lungs should be directly above you towards the front, and directly ahead of you would be the pressure point for the nerves along the spine.”

Eli’s eyes narrowed at her words, crossing his arms over his middle. “None of that’s gonna work.”

Olivia shot the giant a drained, unimpressed look. “Wilhelm?”

Warren tried to catch his breath in the darkness, putting out his elbows out to try to conserve a proper air bubble, as well as trying to keep the slime and stomach folds away from his head so he could actually hear. Olivia’s voice was muffled and he couldn’t hear it very well over the sounds of the giant’s innards and how his ears were probably clogged with the stomach fluids at this point. He was able to make out enough and pieced together the rest. 

He grunted, trying to bring his legs up near the stomach entrance in a weak kick, not bothering to use his arms if he didn’t want to compromise his little air bubble. He only heard Eli’s rumbling chuckle around him in response. His eyes narrowed in the darkness and he kicked harder towards the ceiling. Heat was rushing up to his head and the air was thick and hard to breathe, making the smallest actions exhausting. There was a jerky clench around him in response to his action and he heard a small “hic—“ come from the giant. 

Eli winced for a moment, but quickly smoothed out his expression with a smirk. “Hiccups, really? Wow… What a fearsome fighter.”

Warren glared. “Shutup!”

There were several more attempts of kicks and nudges that were barely visible from the surface, but were only felt as enjoyable sensations against the giant’s innards. 

“This is lame. Almost relaxing. What if I just take a nap here?” Eli feigned a yawn. 

Olivia glared at him, lowering her carafe for a moment. “Like hell you would.”

Warren’s struggles weakened and he rasped for air shallowly. His arms which had splayed out on either side to preserve his little pocket of air had grown too weak to maintain that position any longer. It was hard to breathe. He was exhausted. 

“P-please… just let me go… so tired… I’m gonna pa-pass out. I ca-can’t breathe.” The timid voice was barely audible. 

Olivia raised a brow, taking a minute to actually interpret the words because of their diminished volume. “Giving up already? You didn’t even manage one good hit.”

”What did I tell ya. It’s useless tryin’.” Eli scoffed. 

“I do-don’t frickin care. I can’t bre-eathe. I’m going t-to suffocate in here. Ple-please, Eli.” Warren just gave up at this point. Whatever position his struggles had landed him in just wedged him into the folds bad enough that he couldn’t gather breath properly. Normally, this shouldn’t be as much of an issue with the esophageal sphincter currently being lax enough to allow air to pass through.  His current position had him curled up downwards with his back facing the sphincter  to block off the only passage for fresh air. He was running out of air pretty quickly. 

Eli narrowed his eyes, at first thinking this was some sort of trick, but by focusing on the small sensations of the human’s breaths against the sensitive lining, he could feel the breaths were a lot shallower. He furrowed his brow. This wasn’t normally a problem, at least not one he commonly came across (not that he would normally care. Accidents happen after all.)

The giant sighed and rolled his eyes. “Meh, fine. You’re one pathetic human being getting stuck like that aren’tcha?”

Warren didn’t bother retorting. He was feeling lightheaded. The giant’s voice, as close as it was, felt foggy and distant. 

He was faintly aware of the walls crushing in tighter as they squeezed him up into the throat. The feeble breaths he had gathered were sucked from his lungs within the tight tube. The harsh muscles tugged at his limp form, slowly dragging him out of the confines of the stomach and completely within the throat and he was carried upward. 

Olivia stepped back, her expression only read of mild disgust as she watched the giant hack up the small hunter. The small bulge in his middle disappeared to reform in his throat. The fanged maw opened as the hunter was eventually emitted onto the floor in a slimy pool of drool. He wasn’t moving. 

The alchemist grimaced, moving forward as the giant wiped his mouth on his sleeve. She crouched down in the gross puddle of fluids, wrapping her arms around Warren to lift his face out of the puddle. Warren seemed unresponsive, or at least mostly out of it at this point. She scowled, squeezing an almost too-tight hug around him in a swift motion, collapsing his diaphragm enough to force a ragged cough out of his throat. 

Warren coughed again, spitting and rasping for air. His eyes were half-lidded in exhaustion. Olivia relaxed her grip around him with a sigh, letting him drop back to the floor on his back. She glared at Eli narrowly through her bulbous spectacles. 

“That was too close of a call, Elric.”

Eli quickly caught his breath after the harsh motions of coughing up the hunter and narrowed his eyes at the alchemist. “So? Most people eaten by giants don’t even get to live to tell the tale. Tiny here just got lucky.”

Warren tried to get up, but got too lightheaded from the small action and laid back down on the floor, squeezing his eyes shut as he continued to try to catch his breath. 

“I need… a… a shower.” Warren rasped quietly. 

Eli smirked. “Called it. See? He’s fine. Priorities, right?”

“I am not— f-frickin— fine.” Warren opened his eyes slightly to glare at the giant, but his gaze was more weak than angry. A part of him shuddered to see the creature that had just eaten him and nearly killed him effortlessly. “I could have died— and— and I learned nothing! Y—you can’t do that to me again. I— I can’t take it.”

Olivia sighed, getting to her feet. She disregarded the gross slime that was now dripping from her clothes from helping Warren. “If you really don’t want to train with giants, you can avoid giant related hunts. Just stick with the werewolves and spirits.”

Eli snorted. “Keepin’ your nose clean ain’t gonna deter giants from huntin’ ya. Might help your odds a bit on encounterin’ em, but your fightin’ techniques are still shit.”

Warren sighed in defeat, rubbing his face as he laid back on the floor. “People are still out there... getting killed by giants every day. Dying l—like that…. I hate it that I can’t do fr-frickin anything.”

Eli shrugged, making a slight grimace of nausea as his stomach settled again. “Why bother? They’re humans. They’re gonna die anyways. ‘Sides, giants do a good enough job killin’ themselves from what ya saw at the Binding.”

The Hunter frowned at Eli’s words. He winced as he tried to sit upright again. He still felt a little dizzy and lightheaded and his senses were beginning to return in full… only to realize how gross he felt right now. 

“I need to go home and get cleaned up before Rebeka comes back from work.” The young man said finally. He managed to get to his feet, but he was still a bit wobbly. 

Olivia frowned slightly, taking a small sip of coffee as she finished up her carafe. She glanced at the giant tiredly. “Well, I guess class is over then. And I’ll add to the Legion’s records that those techniques don’t seem to work.” There was a slight tone of disappointment in her voice. 

“You can tell the U.L. I’m done. I can’t… I just can’t do this.” He shot a wary look at Eli. Even seated, the giant was still a good three or so heads taller than him. He shuddered, still weary and recovering. He headed towards the staircase out of the basement. 

“Atta boy, tiny! I knew you wouldn’t stand a chance there!” The giant cheered. 

Warren turned on the stair for a moment to glare back at him. “I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing this for my sisters. I can’t do this to them. So you can shut the f...fuck up.”

He glared daggers at the giant before he stumbled up the rest of the stairs and left. 

Eli snorted, rolling his eyes. “Sheesh. Humans are so dramatic.”

Olivia raised an unimpressed brow at him. 

“What? Hey. D’ya wanna try out those ‘methods’ too, just for the sake of learnin’ something?” 

Her eyes narrowed in mute disapproval. 

Eli seemed to debate something for a while before backing down. “Fine. Fine. Some other time.” He’d rather not get stuck in his camo form again and didn’t want to give her any reason to do it. 

Warren was still sticky and icky from all the gross fluids as he went towards his car. He quickly found his borrowed silver knife from Olivia and his magazine full of silver bullets. He frowned in disgust. It was a stupid idea to ever sign up for this. He had almost died and Eli wasn’t even trying. 

Or was he? 

The thought sickened him to dwell upon. He quickly loaded up his borrowed hunting supplies and set them down on Olivia’s desk at the back of the shop. He didn’t look back as he left them there. They were an ominous reminder of his foolishness. He couldn’t go back to that now. 

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