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Description
Tren crouched behind one of the calmer hens. Looking over her to make sure the coast was clear.
He decided to raid the chicken coop, while his friends went for the pantry.
He had three eggs in his bag, he was worried more would just slow him down, in case he needed to run. He was waiting for the others to exit the pantry door and give him the sign that they are ready to leave. The two would leave first, Tren shortly after them. It wouldn’t be safe to travel in a group. If they get caught, all the food they stole would be taken away from them, and nothing would be left for the children at home.

Tren felt his heart pumping in his throat, his arms trembled from his nerves. Every second felt like an eternity in the cold night. In the moment when he decided to abandon the plan and check on his friends, he saw a small, black shadow exit the crack under the enormous door. The floor was made of dirt, it was easy to dig a wide enough opening to get in. When the second shadow appeared, Tren saw them hoarding the dirt back into place to hide their tracks. All according to plan. In the soft, blue moonlight, the two figures began to wave in the chicken coop’s direction, then started to head for the gates, where they came from.

Tren gave a nervous sigh. Maybe they were over the hardest part, but they weren’t home free yet.
And in the second he thought that, the front door of the gargantuan building has slammed open. The unexpected noise caused Tren to jump back and give a short yell. He fell onto another chicken, who cushioned his fall, but the bird quickly left her position.
‘Damn it…’ He murmured to himself. Having to result to theft in order to survive was already embarrassing enough, being found by one of the giants was way worse. They all had they unique little punishments. A few days in a cage, a long, boring lecture, or in some cases, some sick games that were borderline torture.

But that sick, sinking feeling in his stomach told Tren something different. Not to wait for the just punishment, but to RUN. That giant who stepped out of the building was someone new, who moved in the village a few weeks ago, he came from the city, nobody really knew him. But since the tiny folk never liked to steal from someone too often, they made their rounds around the village, and this house was still untouched by them, so it seemed like the ideal candidate. They didn’t know what he would do to them, when discovered, but they didn’t expect anything like this…

The giant growled with anger. ‘You dirty little rats!’ He yelled as he closed the distance between himself and Tren’s two friends. No matter how fast a human was running, a giant could always catch up. He swiped down with one of his arms in the direction of one of them, and swooped him off the ground. After that… seemingly without even a second thought…he went on to cast the tiny, pleading, frail body in his hands down on the cold concrete with enough force that it shattered and got crushed. Silencing the pleads immediately.

Tren, watching from far away, stopped in his thoughts. ‘Wh-what?’ He wanted to say. But couldn’t. He stared in front of him with disbelief and a sense of dizziness in his head.
The other human screamed. Tren saw him almost taking a step towards the body of his now dead friend…but then his senses kicked in, he threw away the bag in his hand. Some plums and grapes rolled on the ground as he made a break for it. Maybe if he could squeeze through the gate, he could gain some distance from it, and maybe he could escape. The giant was furious, he quickly crouched under the gate reaching his left arm after the human.

Tren didn’t see the outcome of this second chase. With the cold feeling of vomit seeking up his throat, his eyes turned over as he fell backwards on the hay to black out.

***

A deafening racket kicked Tren awake again. With warm sunlight and hens walking around and over him. The sound of the rooster above the chicken coop. It was already the middle of the day. He trembled and looked around himself. The door of the coop was open, the eggs gathered, other than the three in his bag.
Tears quickly started to gather in his eyes. Just thinking that that murderer was right here, reaching over him for the eggs as he lay defenseless in the hay. It somehow didn’t notice him. He stood slowly, wiping tears off his eyes. He emptied his bag, placing the eggs back where he found them. Then stepped to the nearest hen and gave it a big, warm hug.
‘One of you probably fell asleep on top of me, right?’ he whispered. ‘Thank you…’ He almost started to cry but he reminded himself, that he needed to stay calm. He was still in danger. He walked up to the entrance of the coop, looking around the yard, trying to make himself as unnoticeable as possible. His brown attire and hair made it easy for him to hide in the hay and the hen, but as soon as he started to move, he would be easy to spot. And he knew for a fact that simply running away wouldn’t work. He didn’t want to wait for nightfall again. The giant would surely check on the coop once more, and he might not have the same luck as before.

After making sure nobody was outside or looking out of a window, he climbed down the ladder that was placed there for the hens, and he hid in the shadows of the space under the coop in the company of three other hens, who hid there from the hot sun.
His head was still light from his memories last night, he basically didn’t feel his own weight, as if he wasn’t even there. God, how he wished that were the case. He began to move. Slowly, staying in the shadows. He crawled in the tall grass first, making stops on the way. If someone would look, they’d probably assume it’s a lizard, at least from a distance. He arrived at a barrel that collected rainwater from the roof. It was cool to the touch and a reassuring hiding place. Tren leaned to it in hopes that the cold would refresh him enough for his final dash. The gate was about fifty yards away. He calculated his chances and hoped for the best, then began to run. Run like there was no tomorrow. He locked away all noises, all distracting sounds, all he focused on was the gate, and the possible safety that was behind it.

No sane giant would harm an innocent, cute little human in broad daylight. He hoped. Even if the murderer catches up with him, someone else would stop him, right? Animal cruelty and all. Lost in thought, Tren glanced to the side. He shouldn’t have. About ten yards away, on the concrete, a hastily cleaned dark red puddle gave him a grave reminder of last night.

‘No fucking way!’ A chilling, angry yell broke the moment. ‘How many of you are there?!’ The giant huffed in frustration, he dropped a bucket he was holding as he stomped after Tren. The giant’s shadow overtook the human boy but he didn’t look back, he just kept running. He reached the gate and squeezed himself under it, like his life depended on it. He was almost completely on the other side, he only had to pull out his leg. And that’s when he heard the crack. And that’s when he felt the pain. His entire left leg was aching in a pain he could never even imagine before. But he could still move. He pulled again on his crushed leg and to his relief, it gave. He knew he couldn’t really run with it, but the giant would take a few seconds to open the gate and continue the chase. He had to get away.

He didn’t risk standing up, the adrenaline was at it’s peak in his bloodstream, with the wide, open dirt road ahead of him, showered in sunlight, there was no way he would waste time with something he knew wouldn’t work. He kept going on all fours, dragging his crushed leg behind him. He was quicker than he expected, he made it to the neighboring house on the far side of the road. There was a stone wall as a fence, but there were holes carved in it, where the rainwater could leave, and Tren happened to fit in there perfectly. He heard the giant stomp after him, and he knew he had to make it through, if he didn’t want the giant to drag him out of the wall.

‘Damn little thieves, I’ll kill you do you hear me?! If I get my hands on you, I’ll…’ He was furious. Tren almost started to wonder why. Why the hell was he so angry at some one-feet-tall humans trying to steal a few fruits? What the hell was his problem?

He made it through the opening on the wall, but kept running in the uncut, tall grass towards the middle of the yard, in case the giant’s arm would still reach him there. But looking back, it wasn’t trying to reach in. He went for the gate and freaking opened it and stepped in the yard.

Tren froze.

‘What the hell? This is private property!’ He yelled as loud as he could, seeing this was his last line of defense.
The giant chuckled. With slow, and heavy steppes he walked up to Tren, stood over him, like a hunter over his prey. With a condescending smirk on his face he added.

‘Suddenly you care about that, rat? I thought there wouldn’t be as many of you here on the farm. But damn you, you swarm like cockroaches.’

‘That’s not true…’ Tren attempted to argue but by that time the giant’s boots, boots as long or even longer than tall he was loomed over him ready to crush him without remorse. And as the boot began his descend, a loud noise hit from the side, and in a second, black, curly fur filled Tren’s vision, and the giant was nowhere to be found.
Loud barking filled the air, and soon even more barking. A fat, black dog stood over Tren, loudly growling at the giant who sat on the ground now, with his back to the wall.

The dog’s fur had the smell of dirt and dust and heat radiated from the huge animal as it was panting in the heat, Tren made sure the animal’s paws weren’t going to touch his hurt leg. A dog stepping on him wouldn’t be that bad. They are way lighter than giants and their weight is spread amongst their four legs, so being stepped on by one would almost be nothing. Another dog appeared soon. Tren could only see its legs, but this dog seemed taller and thinner than the previous one, with short, spiky fur.
Then the sound of a door being slung open was heard where the dogs came from. Tren wanted to keep running, but he was terrified of the dogs, if they notice him, it would take no time for them to capture and eat him. Or maybe, they would leave him alone as long as he didn’t move. If he ran, they might mistake him for prey.

‘Neighbor what is this commotion? If you wanted to give me a visit you should’ve called first.’ The voice of an older man was heard from above. A little annoyed, but calm.
The murderer sighed and stood up, seemingly with a limp. Apparently the first dog bit the leg the giant was going to crush him with.

‘Good.’ Tren thought. This might be the only revenge he could get for the lives of his friends.

‘I was just chasing that damn rat in your yard and I wanted to finish the job.’ The intruder giant said, pointing to Tren’s direction, under the black dog.

‘Blacky, move!’ The older giant ordered. He was clearly curious what his neighbor was talking about. The growling black dog turned his head to his owner and then hopped away all carefree. The human was horrified being in the open in front of two giants and two huge hounds who were going to decide whether he lives or dies.

‘That’s a human boy.’ The older giant said with confusion in his voice, stroking his beard.

‘Um, yeah, now if you’d just excuse me…’ The giant took a step towards the human, causing Blacky to return and continue his growls.

‘Would you tell your lovely pups to step down? Please?’ The giant said with annoyance in his voice.
The other dog, the taller one, with the short fur walked behind Blacky, realizing what everyone was paying attention to on the ground, half hidden in the tall grass. She leaned down with her huge, vet black nose and sniffed the human curiously. Tren was worried he would be attacked, so he raised his arm in defense, only to feel the cool touch of the nose as it rubbed against his arm. Then the dog’s attention was directed to the injured leg. It was bleeding and twisted. She rubbed his nose to it, smelling it, and Tren yelped in pain, when the limb was moved. The dog withdrew a little, then continued the sniffing, this time, not bothering the leg that much.

The older giant’s sigh was heard from above.
‘Look, son, I don’t know what you city folk are doing with humans and honestly I don’t want to hear it. But here in the village, things are different. We don’t just go around killing them for no reason.’

‘No reason?! This damn little rat was stealing from me!’ The giant yelled, stomping on the ground in clear frustration.

‘Really? What did he steal?’ The old man asked, while lighting his pipe.

‘Well, he…I was…I saw him running and…’ The giant stopped for a moment, looking down at the human, with a crushed leg, teary eyes, with two dogs standing over him protectively.

‘Umm, last night, there were two of them, with bags and…’

‘I don’t care about last night.’ The older giant said with a firm voice. ‘This one.’ He nodded towards the human in the grass. ‘What did this one do to you?’

The younger giant was speechless for a few seconds but then continued.
‘This one was with the other two I’m sure! He was planning to…’ The older giant held up his hand to signal the other to stay quiet.

‘Boy! Did you steal something from this man?’ He asked the human. The younger giant huffed.
Tren shook his head. After all, he did plan to take the eggs, but he didn’t, so technically, he didn’t steal anything. He wasn’t going to tell them that though.

‘Asking a human, right. My word should be more than enough.’ The young giant rolled his eyes.

‘I think things are settled then. You two should make up and consider this dispute to be over, right?’ The old man said, puffing his pipe, seemingly disinterested with the situation.

Making up with him? He killed my friends for no reason and almost did the same to me…This guy is a monster.

Tren thought, with hands in a fist. The sad reality that giants could do anything to them never hit him on the head this hard. This man has murdered two people and he’s going to get away with it. And what if Tren did decide to bring the eggs? Then maybe even this old man would agree that he deserved to die. Villagers mostly just ignore humans. Young giants might chase them and catch them and try to ask for a wish, but humans can usually bullshit their way out of that. Some women and old ladies like to give food to humans because they think they are adorable. But Tren didn’t know what to think anymore. Is this where the world is headed? Giants growing up will think humans are okay to kill?

The young giant huffed and ran his fingers through his unusual red hair.
‘Whatever. But if I see this rat again, or his little friends, I won’t be this kind.’ He stated, looking at Tren with obvious contempt. He might have even considered spitting on him, but he just turned around and left through the gate with a slight limp.

Tren gave a sigh of relief as the monster disappeared from his sight. With him gone, both dogs have decided to turn their attention to the weird, small giant in the grass. The fatter, long, curly haired dog leaned down, happily panting, with his big, pink tongue bouncing in and out of his mouth.

‘Good job.’ Tren whispered, reaching to his nose and petting it gently. The pup got excited and rubbed his nose into Tren’s chest, knocking him back and pinning him to the ground. The human didn’t mind. He kept petting Blacky’s face where he reached it. The fat dog was excited, the other one was rather concerned. She tried to push Blacky’s head away from the human slowly.

‘Just play nicely, Silvy.’ The old giant added. As he saw his two dogs playing with the human, he sighed and turned away, retreating back into his home, to his newspaper he was distracted from.

When Tren felt Blacky’s nose leave his chest, he sat back up, petting Silvy’s as she sniffed him curiously. He then proceeded to stand up, thinking that, even if it’ll take all day, at least he can return home alive. He grabbed Blacky’s curly fur to help him stand. The slight pull was almost unnoticeable to the pup. He was more than twice as tall as Tren. The boy could probably walk under the dog without crouching down, if he wouldn’t be so overweight. As he stood, the dogs found him even more interesting. Blacky jumped up and down, all around the human, to inspect him from all possible sides. The huge animal was a little more intimidating like this. All that weight just carelessly moving around. Tren didn’t exactly have the agility now to jump out of the way if something went wrong.

And then he felt it, the moist, vet, hot air, swooping in from behind. For a second he saw huge but dull teeth all around his waist, closing in around him, and before he knew it, he was being held in Silvy’s mouth, two feet up in the air. Blacky just becoming more excited, he felt the teeth pushing in his sides and stomach, not tearing the skin, but still being very uncomfortable. Tren didn’t want to struggle, in fear that the dog will bite him, and no healer could bring him back from that.

Silvy started to walk, slowly and gracefully, carrying Tren with him, with an excited Blacky to follow. Tren felt the dead weight of his crushed leg pulling him down, he now realized he couldn’t move it. The boy saw the enormous house moving beside them, as the dog carried him past it. She walked to the back yard, under some stairs, she leaned down, and ever so gently placed Tren on some soft cloth and some warm, furry hat. The place was warm, homey, and protected. The human was quite relieved when he saw that Silvy wasn’t planning to eat him. After all that happened, all Tren wanted was a long, safe sleep. He leaned back down on the fur and he slipped between two little baby puppies, sleeping so deeply, they didn’t even realize they became somebody’s bed.

Description
Tren crouched behind one of the calmer hens. Looking over her to make sure the coast was clear.
He decided to raid the chicken coop, while his friends went for the pantry.
He had three eggs in his bag, he was worried more would just slow him down, in case he needed to run. He was waiting for the others to exit the pantry door and give him the sign that they are ready to leave. The two would leave first, Tren shortly after them. It wouldn’t be safe to travel in a group. If they get caught, all the food they stole would be taken away from them, and nothing would be left for the children at home.

Tren felt his heart pumping in his throat, his arms trembled from his nerves. Every second felt like an eternity in the cold night. In the moment when he decided to abandon the plan and check on his friends, he saw a small, black shadow exit the crack under the enormous door. The floor was made of dirt, it was easy to dig a wide enough opening to get in. When the second shadow appeared, Tren saw them hoarding the dirt back into place to hide their tracks. All according to plan. In the soft, blue moonlight, the two figures began to wave in the chicken coop’s direction, then started to head for the gates, where they came from.

Tren gave a nervous sigh. Maybe they were over the hardest part, but they weren’t home free yet.
And in the second he thought that, the front door of the gargantuan building has slammed open. The unexpected noise caused Tren to jump back and give a short yell. He fell onto another chicken, who cushioned his fall, but the bird quickly left her position.
‘Damn it…’ He murmured to himself. Having to result to theft in order to survive was already embarrassing enough, being found by one of the giants was way worse. They all had they unique little punishments. A few days in a cage, a long, boring lecture, or in some cases, some sick games that were borderline torture.

But that sick, sinking feeling in his stomach told Tren something different. Not to wait for the just punishment, but to RUN. That giant who stepped out of the building was someone new, who moved in the village a few weeks ago, he came from the city, nobody really knew him. But since the tiny folk never liked to steal from someone too often, they made their rounds around the village, and this house was still untouched by them, so it seemed like the ideal candidate. They didn’t know what he would do to them, when discovered, but they didn’t expect anything like this…

The giant growled with anger. ‘You dirty little rats!’ He yelled as he closed the distance between himself and Tren’s two friends. No matter how fast a human was running, a giant could always catch up. He swiped down with one of his arms in the direction of one of them, and swooped him off the ground. After that… seemingly without even a second thought…he went on to cast the tiny, pleading, frail body in his hands down on the cold concrete with enough force that it shattered and got crushed. Silencing the pleads immediately.

Tren, watching from far away, stopped in his thoughts. ‘Wh-what?’ He wanted to say. But couldn’t. He stared in front of him with disbelief and a sense of dizziness in his head.
The other human screamed. Tren saw him almost taking a step towards the body of his now dead friend…but then his senses kicked in, he threw away the bag in his hand. Some plums and grapes rolled on the ground as he made a break for it. Maybe if he could squeeze through the gate, he could gain some distance from it, and maybe he could escape. The giant was furious, he quickly crouched under the gate reaching his left arm after the human.

Tren didn’t see the outcome of this second chase. With the cold feeling of vomit seeking up his throat, his eyes turned over as he fell backwards on the hay to black out.

***

A deafening racket kicked Tren awake again. With warm sunlight and hens walking around and over him. The sound of the rooster above the chicken coop. It was already the middle of the day. He trembled and looked around himself. The door of the coop was open, the eggs gathered, other than the three in his bag.
Tears quickly started to gather in his eyes. Just thinking that that murderer was right here, reaching over him for the eggs as he lay defenseless in the hay. It somehow didn’t notice him. He stood slowly, wiping tears off his eyes. He emptied his bag, placing the eggs back where he found them. Then stepped to the nearest hen and gave it a big, warm hug.
‘One of you probably fell asleep on top of me, right?’ he whispered. ‘Thank you…’ He almost started to cry but he reminded himself, that he needed to stay calm. He was still in danger. He walked up to the entrance of the coop, looking around the yard, trying to make himself as unnoticeable as possible. His brown attire and hair made it easy for him to hide in the hay and the hen, but as soon as he started to move, he would be easy to spot. And he knew for a fact that simply running away wouldn’t work. He didn’t want to wait for nightfall again. The giant would surely check on the coop once more, and he might not have the same luck as before.

After making sure nobody was outside or looking out of a window, he climbed down the ladder that was placed there for the hens, and he hid in the shadows of the space under the coop in the company of three other hens, who hid there from the hot sun.
His head was still light from his memories last night, he basically didn’t feel his own weight, as if he wasn’t even there. God, how he wished that were the case. He began to move. Slowly, staying in the shadows. He crawled in the tall grass first, making stops on the way. If someone would look, they’d probably assume it’s a lizard, at least from a distance. He arrived at a barrel that collected rainwater from the roof. It was cool to the touch and a reassuring hiding place. Tren leaned to it in hopes that the cold would refresh him enough for his final dash. The gate was about fifty yards away. He calculated his chances and hoped for the best, then began to run. Run like there was no tomorrow. He locked away all noises, all distracting sounds, all he focused on was the gate, and the possible safety that was behind it.

No sane giant would harm an innocent, cute little human in broad daylight. He hoped. Even if the murderer catches up with him, someone else would stop him, right? Animal cruelty and all. Lost in thought, Tren glanced to the side. He shouldn’t have. About ten yards away, on the concrete, a hastily cleaned dark red puddle gave him a grave reminder of last night.

‘No fucking way!’ A chilling, angry yell broke the moment. ‘How many of you are there?!’ The giant huffed in frustration, he dropped a bucket he was holding as he stomped after Tren. The giant’s shadow overtook the human boy but he didn’t look back, he just kept running. He reached the gate and squeezed himself under it, like his life depended on it. He was almost completely on the other side, he only had to pull out his leg. And that’s when he heard the crack. And that’s when he felt the pain. His entire left leg was aching in a pain he could never even imagine before. But he could still move. He pulled again on his crushed leg and to his relief, it gave. He knew he couldn’t really run with it, but the giant would take a few seconds to open the gate and continue the chase. He had to get away.

He didn’t risk standing up, the adrenaline was at it’s peak in his bloodstream, with the wide, open dirt road ahead of him, showered in sunlight, there was no way he would waste time with something he knew wouldn’t work. He kept going on all fours, dragging his crushed leg behind him. He was quicker than he expected, he made it to the neighboring house on the far side of the road. There was a stone wall as a fence, but there were holes carved in it, where the rainwater could leave, and Tren happened to fit in there perfectly. He heard the giant stomp after him, and he knew he had to make it through, if he didn’t want the giant to drag him out of the wall.

‘Damn little thieves, I’ll kill you do you hear me?! If I get my hands on you, I’ll…’ He was furious. Tren almost started to wonder why. Why the hell was he so angry at some one-feet-tall humans trying to steal a few fruits? What the hell was his problem?

He made it through the opening on the wall, but kept running in the uncut, tall grass towards the middle of the yard, in case the giant’s arm would still reach him there. But looking back, it wasn’t trying to reach in. He went for the gate and freaking opened it and stepped in the yard.

Tren froze.

‘What the hell? This is private property!’ He yelled as loud as he could, seeing this was his last line of defense.
The giant chuckled. With slow, and heavy steppes he walked up to Tren, stood over him, like a hunter over his prey. With a condescending smirk on his face he added.

‘Suddenly you care about that, rat? I thought there wouldn’t be as many of you here on the farm. But damn you, you swarm like cockroaches.’

‘That’s not true…’ Tren attempted to argue but by that time the giant’s boots, boots as long or even longer than tall he was loomed over him ready to crush him without remorse. And as the boot began his descend, a loud noise hit from the side, and in a second, black, curly fur filled Tren’s vision, and the giant was nowhere to be found.
Loud barking filled the air, and soon even more barking. A fat, black dog stood over Tren, loudly growling at the giant who sat on the ground now, with his back to the wall.

The dog’s fur had the smell of dirt and dust and heat radiated from the huge animal as it was panting in the heat, Tren made sure the animal’s paws weren’t going to touch his hurt leg. A dog stepping on him wouldn’t be that bad. They are way lighter than giants and their weight is spread amongst their four legs, so being stepped on by one would almost be nothing. Another dog appeared soon. Tren could only see its legs, but this dog seemed taller and thinner than the previous one, with short, spiky fur.
Then the sound of a door being slung open was heard where the dogs came from. Tren wanted to keep running, but he was terrified of the dogs, if they notice him, it would take no time for them to capture and eat him. Or maybe, they would leave him alone as long as he didn’t move. If he ran, they might mistake him for prey.

‘Neighbor what is this commotion? If you wanted to give me a visit you should’ve called first.’ The voice of an older man was heard from above. A little annoyed, but calm.
The murderer sighed and stood up, seemingly with a limp. Apparently the first dog bit the leg the giant was going to crush him with.

‘Good.’ Tren thought. This might be the only revenge he could get for the lives of his friends.

‘I was just chasing that damn rat in your yard and I wanted to finish the job.’ The intruder giant said, pointing to Tren’s direction, under the black dog.

‘Blacky, move!’ The older giant ordered. He was clearly curious what his neighbor was talking about. The growling black dog turned his head to his owner and then hopped away all carefree. The human was horrified being in the open in front of two giants and two huge hounds who were going to decide whether he lives or dies.

‘That’s a human boy.’ The older giant said with confusion in his voice, stroking his beard.

‘Um, yeah, now if you’d just excuse me…’ The giant took a step towards the human, causing Blacky to return and continue his growls.

‘Would you tell your lovely pups to step down? Please?’ The giant said with annoyance in his voice.
The other dog, the taller one, with the short fur walked behind Blacky, realizing what everyone was paying attention to on the ground, half hidden in the tall grass. She leaned down with her huge, vet black nose and sniffed the human curiously. Tren was worried he would be attacked, so he raised his arm in defense, only to feel the cool touch of the nose as it rubbed against his arm. Then the dog’s attention was directed to the injured leg. It was bleeding and twisted. She rubbed his nose to it, smelling it, and Tren yelped in pain, when the limb was moved. The dog withdrew a little, then continued the sniffing, this time, not bothering the leg that much.

The older giant’s sigh was heard from above.
‘Look, son, I don’t know what you city folk are doing with humans and honestly I don’t want to hear it. But here in the village, things are different. We don’t just go around killing them for no reason.’

‘No reason?! This damn little rat was stealing from me!’ The giant yelled, stomping on the ground in clear frustration.

‘Really? What did he steal?’ The old man asked, while lighting his pipe.

‘Well, he…I was…I saw him running and…’ The giant stopped for a moment, looking down at the human, with a crushed leg, teary eyes, with two dogs standing over him protectively.

‘Umm, last night, there were two of them, with bags and…’

‘I don’t care about last night.’ The older giant said with a firm voice. ‘This one.’ He nodded towards the human in the grass. ‘What did this one do to you?’

The younger giant was speechless for a few seconds but then continued.
‘This one was with the other two I’m sure! He was planning to…’ The older giant held up his hand to signal the other to stay quiet.

‘Boy! Did you steal something from this man?’ He asked the human. The younger giant huffed.
Tren shook his head. After all, he did plan to take the eggs, but he didn’t, so technically, he didn’t steal anything. He wasn’t going to tell them that though.

‘Asking a human, right. My word should be more than enough.’ The young giant rolled his eyes.

‘I think things are settled then. You two should make up and consider this dispute to be over, right?’ The old man said, puffing his pipe, seemingly disinterested with the situation.

Making up with him? He killed my friends for no reason and almost did the same to me…This guy is a monster.

Tren thought, with hands in a fist. The sad reality that giants could do anything to them never hit him on the head this hard. This man has murdered two people and he’s going to get away with it. And what if Tren did decide to bring the eggs? Then maybe even this old man would agree that he deserved to die. Villagers mostly just ignore humans. Young giants might chase them and catch them and try to ask for a wish, but humans can usually bullshit their way out of that. Some women and old ladies like to give food to humans because they think they are adorable. But Tren didn’t know what to think anymore. Is this where the world is headed? Giants growing up will think humans are okay to kill?

The young giant huffed and ran his fingers through his unusual red hair.
‘Whatever. But if I see this rat again, or his little friends, I won’t be this kind.’ He stated, looking at Tren with obvious contempt. He might have even considered spitting on him, but he just turned around and left through the gate with a slight limp.

Tren gave a sigh of relief as the monster disappeared from his sight. With him gone, both dogs have decided to turn their attention to the weird, small giant in the grass. The fatter, long, curly haired dog leaned down, happily panting, with his big, pink tongue bouncing in and out of his mouth.

‘Good job.’ Tren whispered, reaching to his nose and petting it gently. The pup got excited and rubbed his nose into Tren’s chest, knocking him back and pinning him to the ground. The human didn’t mind. He kept petting Blacky’s face where he reached it. The fat dog was excited, the other one was rather concerned. She tried to push Blacky’s head away from the human slowly.

‘Just play nicely, Silvy.’ The old giant added. As he saw his two dogs playing with the human, he sighed and turned away, retreating back into his home, to his newspaper he was distracted from.

When Tren felt Blacky’s nose leave his chest, he sat back up, petting Silvy’s as she sniffed him curiously. He then proceeded to stand up, thinking that, even if it’ll take all day, at least he can return home alive. He grabbed Blacky’s curly fur to help him stand. The slight pull was almost unnoticeable to the pup. He was more than twice as tall as Tren. The boy could probably walk under the dog without crouching down, if he wouldn’t be so overweight. As he stood, the dogs found him even more interesting. Blacky jumped up and down, all around the human, to inspect him from all possible sides. The huge animal was a little more intimidating like this. All that weight just carelessly moving around. Tren didn’t exactly have the agility now to jump out of the way if something went wrong.

And then he felt it, the moist, vet, hot air, swooping in from behind. For a second he saw huge but dull teeth all around his waist, closing in around him, and before he knew it, he was being held in Silvy’s mouth, two feet up in the air. Blacky just becoming more excited, he felt the teeth pushing in his sides and stomach, not tearing the skin, but still being very uncomfortable. Tren didn’t want to struggle, in fear that the dog will bite him, and no healer could bring him back from that.

Silvy started to walk, slowly and gracefully, carrying Tren with him, with an excited Blacky to follow. Tren felt the dead weight of his crushed leg pulling him down, he now realized he couldn’t move it. The boy saw the enormous house moving beside them, as the dog carried him past it. She walked to the back yard, under some stairs, she leaned down, and ever so gently placed Tren on some soft cloth and some warm, furry hat. The place was warm, homey, and protected. The human was quite relieved when he saw that Silvy wasn’t planning to eat him. After all that happened, all Tren wanted was a long, safe sleep. He leaned back down on the fur and he slipped between two little baby puppies, sleeping so deeply, they didn’t even realize they became somebody’s bed.