Two Worlds among the Stars (G/t)

4. Chapter: His Responsibility

Late at night only the crackling of the fire could be heard inside the cave, as the red-haired giant sat on his chair, with his elbows resting on the table and his face buried in his hands, after spending hours upon hours racking his brain.

Today had been a disaster. Almost nothing had gone the way it was supposed to. Originally, his day had started like any other. The hunter he had seen on his daily patrol this morning had been the first indication that today wouldn't be just another peaceful day. But even then John would have never guessed that this to be fair unexpected encounter would lead to something - that couldn't possibly be further from an ordinary day - like this!

From the moment he had seen the human everything went downhill. But who could have predicted this day would end with him suddenly being stuck with a tiny human child?

Humans weren't allowed in this area of the forest. It was his job to make sure they stayed out of it. And here he was doing the exact opposite. Now he was the reason why one of them was here in the first place. The irony was priceless. He was sure he would've laughed about it, if he weren't the one, who had to deal with the aftermath.

Honestly, he liked his job. It was easy. His sheer size was enough to keep out most intruders. And when it wasn't, all it took was a simple threat to get rid of them. He was doing this job for years now without a single incident. Until today...

Actually, he had heard the hunter, before he had seen them. When his ears had picked up the sound of a gunshot, he knew what to do. All he needed to do to scare the unwanted visitor away, was to put some extra weight into his steps.

Oh, if only his job would have been done with only that. But, of course, he had a promise to keep. When he had made his way towards the human village, his intention was to teach them a lesson and scare them a little, so he wouldn't have to deal with any other humans for a while. The only thing he had to do was to pay them a short visit, get it over with, and leave again. Simple, right?

Wrong! Of course, the humans just had to make everything more complicated than it had to be. Instead of begging for mercy, like every normal human being would do, they offered him a sacrifice as "compensation". Not only hadn't he been prepared for that turn of events, that alone had already thrown him off guard, to make matters even worse they didn't give him just any sacrifice, like some livestock or something. If that had been the case, John would've nothing to worry about now. But no! Apparently, they thought an innocent child was the perfect scapegoat to make up for their foolish mistake. And they had the audacity to call giants monsters. Ridiculous!

Like most giants John had never been very fond of humans, but as long as he didn't have to deal with them, he couldn't care less about them and what they did.

Today they hit a new low, though. The fact that they were willing to use one of their kind to save their sorry asses without batting an eye was already mortifying enough. But choosing a child was just cruel and straight up heartless. He knew he hadn't been thinking and had made a mistake, when he took his so-called sacrifice with him, but what other choice did he have? If he hadn't played along the rest of the village would have gotten suspicious. And he couldn't let them get any ideas. He was responsible for the safety of his folk after all.

That... and maybe, just maybe he felt sorry for the boy and didn't want to leave him there with the same people, who didn't care about what would happen to him. For all he knew they probably thought he was going to tear the kid to shreds like a starved animal, or do something just as gruesome.

Obviously, he didn't think this through. Because now he had a whole different problem to worry about. Though "problem" wasn't really the word he wanted to use. The child clearly had nothing to do with this mess and didn't deserve any of this. He was just as thrown into this situation against his will as John was and obviously didn't want to be stuck with him either. That didn't change anything, though. John still had to deal with the tiny human in one way or another, no matter how much he didn't want to. The only good thing about this situation - if you could even call it that - was that after everything that happened today, John was sure he wouldn't have to deal with any other humans any time soon. And, as harsh as this might sound, he was also glad he didn't have to worry about anybody looking for them and discovering his home in an attempt to rescue the boy. So at least he had one thing less to stress about. But John still didn't know what he was supposed to do now.