Hooked (Jack and Mark)

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A/N I liiiive. Drafting is slowly but surely coming along for the Anthology book, which will contain BTS, author notes, and exclusive/early access content just for y'all's eyes! Planning to make it a PDF available on my Ko-Fi once done, so bear with me a little longer and have this snack in the interim. Love y'all <3

Also when did scheduled uploads become a thing, HELLO-!?




A roar suddenly reverberated through the forest, startling the birds into flight. Mark sharply looked up from the fish he'd been cooking at his cosy campfire, but he could see nothing amiss. Had he imagined that? No... Something had made that noise. And it sounded like it was in pain.

The camper got to his feet, removing the fish and extinguishing the flames before grabbing his pack. As he set out to investigate the unusual sound, he couldn't help but wonder what its source was. A large cat? A bear? It sounded like it, yet somehow even louder. Big cats were uncommon in these parts, while bears were only loud when feeling threatened— to his knowledge, at least.

"Hopefully nothing that'll eat me," Mark muttered under his breath, weakly chuckling as he kept up the jog. A squirrel scuttled out from underfoot, chattering at the man as if to warn him. But as Mark kept on, he realized he was headed straight for the lake; the people in charge had warned him that trespassers commonly fished illegally in this body of water. The warning was why Mark had set up camp near the river, since it was running water anyway. Had that roar been from a human?

As Mark finally stepped out of the thick trees, he would come to find the answer to his question... And it made him halt dead in his tracks.

Stretched out before him was a creature of unfathomable size. Directly within Mark's line of sight was merely its shoulder, he realized numbly, but it was shuddering and making choking noises. With a nervous swallow, Mark slowly moved closer. Its shadow alone in the low sun dwarfed his entire form— and Mark considered his own stature decently large!

"Hell-o...?" Mark had tried calling out as softly as he could to let the creature know of his presence, but he jolted when it suddenly swung its head around to bare its teeth at him. Except, instead of a face-ful of fangs and animalistic snarling, Mark found himself face to face with a giant.

The humanoid was unusually pale, with sharp pearly canines and crystal blue eyes to boot. Their brow was thick and matched the short scruffyness of the beard that outlined their lips, and their hair was a wild knoll of dark brown floof short at the sides of the head. The majority of their body was covered in furs from other animals— but there was blood trickling down from the bottom lip, and something invisible looked to be firmly clasped around their jaw.

Mark found his startled fear quickly giving way to concern.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" He fretted. The low snarl lost its intensity. The giant's brow lost its wrinkles, and the beast looked confused. "How the hell did that even happen?" Mark cocked his head, having eyes only for the giant's conundrum. "That must hurt like hell."

The giant croaked out a rumble, only to choke again and claw futilely at their throat. Mark found his gaze landing on the lake nearby, and suddenly the gears in his head clicked.

"Were you thirsty?" He suggested, keeping his voice soft. "Did something go down that shouldn't have?"

After a small pause, the giant finally lowered their head, letting a pained whine escape. And Mark's heart immediately went out to the poor thing... Even though it was like fifty times his size.

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⏰ Last updated: Dec 22, 2023 ⏰

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