Fiora was nervous. No, nervous didn’t quite cover what she was feeling, and it wasn’t at the level of fear either. Apprehension? It was difficult to put it into words in her mind, but whatever it was that she was feeling, it was making her chest tighten as her nerves were on end.

  She had passed the point where the effigies marked the creature's territory, traveling further into the woods than she had previously. It was almost guaranteed that the mountain was where it called home, thought the specifics were a matter of debate as of right now. Fiora’s head turned frequently, on the lookout for any sign of the thing that had accosted her the last time she was here. It felt like every sound and brief flash of motion in the corner of her eyes could have been it, but it was more than likely just paranoia.

  There was no illusion of an idea that she was making progress unnoticed. Either it was watching her, or it was further away and currently traveling to intercept. Her hand was constantly in her satchel, grip nearly white knuckled on the bottle that she brought with her. The tension in the air felt thick enough to cut, and eventually it was broken after she caught some shifting movement in the bushes ahead.

  She froze, her body bracing for what was ahead as she had the benefit of preparation and knowledge this time. True to her expectations, the hulking creature emerged again, but this time it was different. Instead of standing straight, it was hunched over, fingers curled as if to emphasis the claws. The way it moved was strange, almost forced to her perception as it stalked diagonally toward her. As it moved, it bared its teeth and gave a rumbling growl to threaten her. She managed to stand her ground this time, though her heart was racing in her chest.

  There was a standstill between the two as neither of them moved from their spot. Fiora didn’t quite understand what was happening, but she worked up the nerve to speak.

  “I-I know you helped m-me the other day.” There was no reaction to her words other than another growl. “You c-can understand me, can’t you?” Again, there was no outward indication that it could, but it wasn’t attacking her either.

  Finding a burst of courage, she took a step forward, and it flinched. That had genuinely surprised her as she stared, baffled by the reaction. This thing that was probably close to triple her size and could easily rip her to shreds, had flinched away from her. Curiosity had begun to win out over her hesitance, so she took another step.

  It growled at her again, louder than before and with what she thought was a bit of desperation almost. Another step was taken as she closed the distance, and this time it even took a step back from her. Emboldened, Fiora began slowly walking forward, observing its reactions and feeding her curiosity as she watched it almost stumble over itself to keep distance from her. It was so bizarre that she had lost nearly all the fear that she might have had, even as it kept growling and roaring at her to stay away.

  However, her boldness reached a point where a confrontation was inevitable. She wasn’t thinking too much about that, admittedly, as she was lost in her analyses of the creature and its behavior. Things finally snapped when with a frustrated growl, the giant stopped retreating and suddenly lunged forward, grabbing her arms and pinning them to her side.

  She was shocked, and the fear returned as she was kicking herself for being so thoughtless in her approach. Her hand scrambled to try and grab the vial from her pouch, but even then, she couldn’t move it far enough to make any use of the thing. Fiora panicked a bit as she considered the possibility that she had made a mistake. The creature was in her face, all four eyes looking her way as best as they could while its face contorted into various unknowable expressions. Eventually a low growl began to build in its throat as its teeth gnashed together. She was convinced that was the part where she was mauled to death, but instead, Daegal finally broke with a frustrated growl.

  “What part of this don’t you understand!?” he shouted out, somehow making Fiora’s eyes widen even more.

  “Y-You can talk?”

  Daegal ignored her question and continued to rant in her face. “Bones hanging from trees! Large monster growling at you! Claws, fangs, danger, death, were you dropped on your head as a child or something!?”

  Fiora stammered, her mind broken as she tried to process everything. She recognized that he had a male sounding voice and attributed that quality to him. Amidst her internal turmoil she realized that she felt his hands trembling slightly as he held her. It didn’t last long, though, because Daegal shoved her away, gently by his standards, as she stumbled back and landed on her backside.

  With another, less animalistic growl, he told her off. “Leave, now! You are not welcome here, and don’t make me remove you with force.”

  Daegal turned and left with speed that highlighted his eagerness to be out of this conversation. Fiora was stunned for a second as she watched him leave. She managed to snap out of it as she clambered back to her feet. The moment she took a step to follow him he heard her and shouted again without even turning around.

  “I said leave, not follow!”

  She swallowed her apprehension and called back to him while continuing to walk. “I... I know it was you that helped me the other day.”

  “I didn’t ‘help’ you, I was trying to get you all to leave so I could catch a meal, just like I’m trying to get you to leave right now. Go away!”

  Fiora was having to pick up the pace just to maintain her current distance from Daegal. “Whatever the case, you still saved me. I think that you’re actually a good... erm, person.”

  “If you really believed that, then why did you bring that disgusting mixture with you?”

  It caught her off guard that he knew about the bottle she had, but she shook it off as she kept pushing. “That was just a precaution. It would have been foolish to meet with you again without something like this when I had no guarantees.”

  “You still don’t,” he growled out angrily, hoping to drive that point through her frustratingly persistent skull.

  “Maybe, but you didn’t hurt me yesterday, and you didn’t me now.”

  Daegal stopped abruptly, causing Fiora to skid slightly on the leaves of the forest floor. He stood there, back facing her for a moment as the air around him seemed to chill. Tilting his head to the side, the bones in his neck popped and crackled from the pressure before he straightened it out again. When he turned around, his eyes were devoid of anything remotely hospitable or caring. He walked up to her with slow, calculated steps, looming over the small woman from his gargantuan height. When he spoke, there was a rumble in his voice that bordered on the edge of a growl.

  “But I will hurt you; you will be hurt, if you, do not leave me, ALONE!”

  The intensity of his words put more fear into her than she had felt at any other time. His red eyes burned their way into her very soul, but as she stared into them, she began to see beneath the rage and the anger. There was pain there, somewhere deep down in that otherworldly gaze. Even as he threatened her, she could feel it, and then it was gone, along with Daegal when he turned away with a frustrated huff as he stalked through the forest.

  Fiora remained where she was, breathing heavily from the encounter. A part of her wanted to keep going, but another part recognized that the situation was tenuous at best. Pushing might cause a complete breakdown, or violent reaction.

  She had learned very little from that exchange, but what bits that she did were valuable indeed. Fiora found out that her bizarre savior was more than just intelligent, and that he most likely had a personal reason for not wanting people in his territory. As Daegal disappeared into the trees, Fiora felt a strange sense of pity. She wanted to know more about him, and about why he was out here all alone, but she tempered her curiosity, for once. Stepping back, she lingered for but a moment more before turning and heading back home.

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  Her thoughts were swimming as she walked. It felt like she was wandering through a dream, barely able to focus on one detail long enough to analyze it. She needed time to process, to think, and she had to be back before her father got worried as well. Fiora had put him through enough stress as it was lately.

  Daegal, on the other hand, furiously stalked through the trees, huffing and puffing as his face contorted into many different sneers. His emotions were in chaos, his mind in turmoil and his body revolting. Frustration, anger, longing, all stupid emotions that conflicted and antagonized one another inside of him. It boiled over, and with a growl he slashed at nearby trees in passing, tearing deep grooves in the bark as he tried to vent to minimal effect.

  By the time he reached his home, he was still fuming, his insides feeling like a bubbling cauldron splashing scalding liquid all over the place. His roommate asked him what was wrong.

  “Everything! And no, I do not want to talk about it!”

  They asked if he could tell them what happened at least.

  Daegal growled with frustration. “What part of ‘don’t want to talk about it’ did you not understand? Nobody is listening to me today! Everyone is just ignoring me and doing what they want no matter how much I tell them to stop!”

  They told him that being angry won’t solve anything.

  “HA! That’s where you’re wrong! Apparently, being angry is the only thing that solves problems; the only thing that humans understand! It’s always anger and violence and death with them. It’s all they know and the only way to make them do anything!”

  They were worried about him and tried to gently get him to calm down.

  “I can’t calm down! That’s the fucking problem! Everything is going wrong! I just...” He laughed, though it devoid of any humor and instead filled with self-pity, and loathing. “I’m pathetic. I can’t even scare away a single girl as she practically chased me down through the woods. What’s worse than that is I’m talking to myself. I’ve always been talking to myself. You’re not even real! I just made you up because I couldn’t stand the silence anymore! I make up arguments in my head and challenge my own thoughts because I have nothing better to do! I hate you! I hate myself! I hate everything!”

  He panted heavily as he turned and thumped his head against the cave wall, holding it there against the cold stones for a few minutes. All the pent-up emotions he held inside him were slowly drained during this time, leaving him feeling hollow and exhausted. As Daegal brought his breathing under control again, he sighed deeply.

  “I’m sorry,” he said at almost the level of a whisper. He waited for the reply, but it didn’t come. Blinking, he turned his head and looked at the little straw doll propped up in its nook.

  “I... I’m sorry,” this time he said it a little louder. “I didn’t mean it.” There was still no reply to his apology, and now he was starting to feel worried.

  “Please... I didn’t mean it. I don’t hate you. Y-You can talk if you want.”

  Nothing. No voice was heard and no reply given. He walked toward the doll, his legs wobbling with every step. He collapsed to his hands and knees and crossed the rest of the distance by crawling. With gentle hands, he scoops up the doll, holding it in front of him as he pleaded yet again.

  “You... You can talk. You can talk. I promise I won’t be mad. You can ask me anything you want. I’ll tell you exactly what happened, I’ll let you make fun of me, I’ll be quiet and listen to you, please just say something!”

  The inanimate doll he held remained silent and lifeless, as it always had been. His breathes came in shuddering waves, and he pulled the doll close to his chest, hoping that they would come back to him as he rocked in place.

  “Please don’t. Please... I don’t want to be alone. Please come back. Please... Please don’t leave me too.” Daegal collapsed onto his side, curling up in a ball around the little doll. “What do I do? Someone tell me what I’m supposed to do!”

  His eyes fell on several wooden slabs leaned against the far wall of the cave, charred and burned in several places and with a collection of cornflowers laid out around them. As he stared, his eyes became blurry with moisture before he clamped them shut tight.

  “What do I do... Adelaide.”

  Back in the village, Fiora was sitting in her home, idly picking at her mid-day meal as she was lost in thought. Her behavior did not go unnoticed by her father, who looked across the table at her with curiosity, and concern.

  “You seem to be quite concerned about something,” Emil finally said, breaking the silence.

  Fiora blinked, snapping out of it as she turned her attention to her father. “Oh, sorry, I was just deep in thought.”

  “About anything in particular?”

  “No, I just... Dad, have you ever had to deal with someone who used anger to hide pain?”

  He tilted his head to the side. “A strange question. In what way do you mean? Physical, or emotional?”

  “Emotional, probably,” she answered.

  “Hmm...” Emil considered for a second. “Well, I do remember one instance where I was assisting my mentor with a patient. It was a young woman, newly married and injured in a robbery that went poorly. She passed from complication with the wound. The husband was distraught, enraged, went on a personal campaign to find and kill the man who had murdered his wife. Thankfully, or regretfully, depending on who you ask, the guards found the one responsible and he was summarily hanged. The husband never got over it, was never satisfied with the outcome, and continued to be resentful and angry for months after the fact until he just... gave up, I suppose. One might say he died of a broken heart.”

  She understood, and it made her descend deeper into contemplation than before. Could the circumstances have been the same for the creature she had encountered?

  If he lost someone important to him, and humans were responsible, then it stands to reason that he would resent us for it. But if he hates humans, why did he seem so hesitant to hurt me, or even touch me?

  There were still many unanswered questions, and all she had was theories at this point. She needed to learn more, but for that, a plan to gain the creature’s trust would be required.

  “Why do you ask, by the way,” Emil followed up, wanting to understand his daughter’s thought process.

  She couldn’t tell him exactly the reason. He wasn’t likely to believe her even if she did. So, she thought about how to keep it vague enough that he wouldn’t question her too deeply.

  “I saw someone today that was rather angry, but their eyes were filled with pain. It... confused me.”

  “I see. Emotions can be confusing, and some are so painful that no amount of medicine could possibly fix them. I can understand that.” Fiora watched as her father’s eyes grew distant, lost in memory as his expression became vacant. It didn’t last long before he took a deep breath and refocused on the here and now. “Has this mysterious person interested you? Has my daughter found a man that has captured her attention?” He spoke with humor, but Fiora just sighed.

  If you knew who I was talking about, you wouldn’t even joke about that.

  “Keep dreaming, Dad,” she simply said, effectively defusing that line of questioning. Emil just chuckled as he went back to finishing his meal.

  Fiora was glad that the subject was dropped, and now she had time to think. She needed something to offer, but what does a giant like that even want? While poking at her bowl of stew she had a realization.

  Food! Everyone needs to eat, and I doubt that he has had anything properly cooked out in the woods like that.

  She figured he liked meat based on all those sharp teeth, so that helped her narrow down her options. There was one food that she liked, had plenty of meat in it, and was tasty when prepared right. Fiora made her preparations for cooking later that day and planned to put it all together tomorrow.

  The next morning came quietly and without ceremony in the forest. Daegal wandered through the woods listlessly. He didn’t sleep well last night, spending it in deafening silence, and now he was exhausted both physically and emotionally. Even considering what he was going to eat for the day was a draining thought.

  While walking through his territory, he smelled something as the wind shifted. It was rich, meaty, familiar, and concerning as he picked up faint whiffs of the human girl again. He didn’t smell her anywhere nearby, but she had been in the area. Curiosity, and maybe hunger, got the better of him as he followed the tantalizing scent toward the source.

  Several minutes later, he had found the point where the smell was coming from. There was a basket hanging from a tree a little bit above his height where he could easily reach it but many animals from the forest could not. Daegal approached cautiously, wary of some form of trap surrounding the lure. He did not see any snares or clamps scattered about, and the rope holding the basket aloft was only tied to the base of the tree.

  His suspicions abated, but didn’t disappear entirely as he reached up to the basket. Undoing the simple knot, he lowered the container and was able to see what was inside. The crisp outer shell of baked bread greeted him, and it dredged up many memories from deep inside him. He could smell the well-seasoned meat beneath the surface, and it instantly made his mouth water.

  Reaching a hesitant hand into the small pile, he pulled out one of the pies, bringing it up to his mouth to take a bite, he chomped into the crispy shell and came out with a chunk of the juicy middle. The tender meats were cooked until soft and had herbs spread all throughout to improve the flavor. It was a little different than he remembered, but it was close enough that after a decade without them, he was overcome with emotion.

  As he slowly chewed that first bite, his shoulders relaxed, his eyes closed, and he let out a tense breath that he didn’t even know he was holding. He stopped holding back as he stuffed the meaty treat into his mouth, followed by another one, and another. The basket was emptied in relatively short order as Daegal feasted upon the pies, and as the last of them disappeared down his gullet, he felt a warmth inside him that he hadn’t experienced in years.

  His head hung as he let out a sigh. It wasn’t one of exasperation, annoyance, or even frustration. He sighed in defeat. The girl had beaten him with this, hitting him hard when he was already down, and now he had fallen completely. He knew eating the pies would only invite her back, and this time with more confidence than she had before. Daegal dropped the basket as he rubbed his face, tail twitching nervously as he scratched on a nearby tree with anxiety.

  What am I supposed to do now?