ตอน 59: Warlord of the Giants
"We've finally arrived."
Gerd said, his head up looking at a chain of mountains that bordered the coast.
"They don't look that big."
Said Oswin looking at the mountain range.
"The city of giants is at the foot of the mountains, it will only be a day from here."
Gerd answered him, relieved to finally reach their destination, he was afraid of getting hit by another storm and losing even more fingers.
"Tuk Woh Darnor Who Nag Gin?"
Blake, who was off to the side walking alongside one of the giants, asked in the ancient tongue if the city of giants was among the mountains.
"Tia."
The giant nodded, with a word that sounded somewhere between a burp and an exclamation.
Then the giant raised his hand pointing to a spot on the mountain range.
The mountains were not very high, they could be climbed in a day at most as they were not steep either, but the place where the giant pointed was not over the mountains but at the foot of them, much to the relief of the group.
"There's still time, let's get this over with."
Oswin looked at the sky, the sun was at the high point, so he ordered to continue the march.
The group had split up, half the men stayed on the boat with Wymond and Zafar leading them, while the other half continued the march on foot, north.
They had encountered several giants along the way, but the giant who had joined the caravan some time ago, Wul Gin Tuk Bok nar, or as Blake called him, Wulgin, had mediated and no major inconveniences had arisen.
When Wulgin struck one of the tribe's brothers as he entered the camp, the latter did not die but broke two ribs, ending up badly wounded.
Wulgin had approached the camp attracted by the smell of food, and Blake took advantage of this to make use of the giant.
Wulgin ate a lot, as many as 5 men, so Blake made a big wagon to help them with the load and also to carry the wounded man.
As for the second giant, the one who had almost been kidnapped, he had followed them since they freed him from his captors and gave him food to recover.
This last giant didn't utter a word, Blake didn't know if he was mute or if his tongue was missing, but he hadn't spoken a word since they rescued him, he did know the ancient language, as he could follow some orders and understand what they told him, but that was all.
"Some giants are such idiots that they never learn to speak, or are left so young that they don't remember, it's better to leave it behind to save us trouble."
Were Gerd's words when Blake asked him about it.
Blake wasn't sure he could correctly differentiate the features of all the giants as he had seen very few, but he was sure that this last giant was much younger than Wulgin, besides, he hadn't caused any trouble, so Blake allowed the young giant to follow the caravan for now.
They left the coast to head back into the forest, walking in the direction where Wulgin had pointed.
"Father...!"
"Yes, they're everywhere..."
Blake quickly approached Oswin when he saw more than a dozen giants sleeping in the forest.
Oswin slowed the caravan as they moved deeper into the forest.
"Show no fear, keep walking, and don't draw your swords."
Gerd, who was walking in front, instructed everyone.
Wulgin and the little giant kept walking undeterred, but the men in the caravan were frightened at being surrounded by so many giants.
"If they decide to attack us... we can do nothing but die..."
Clay whispered with his hand on the hilt of his sword.
"And that's exactly why you should drop the sword, we can't fight here."
Gerd said again.
"Let's move on."
Oswin furrowed his eyebrows at the giants, some awakening, showing themselves as they walked.
"I can see it!"
With the group getting more and more nervous, Blake said with his eyes set on the bottom of the path.
"How far is it?"
Oswin asked in relief.
"Only a couple of miles, the road is straight ahead!"
With Blake's reassurance and knowing that the city of giants was real, the group marched on much calmer.
No giants stopped them or got in the way, Blake didn't know if this was because there were two giants in the caravan or was it because they didn't care, but several giants, female and male, old and young, turned their eyes to the caravan as they made their way through the forest.
What awaited them was a huge stone entrance, at least 7 meters high, surrounded by large stone walls.
"These stones must have been brought from the Frostfangs."
Blake said after seeing the walls and entrance.
"There are runes carved into the rock."
Oswin murmured, looking at the hundreds of ancient runes.
Blake had detailed them, but, though he could speak the ancient tongue, he had not learned to read it.
"Here sleep eternally the guardians of the world of the living, who gave their lives and never got to see the light."
Gerd said, reading the runes at the entrance.
"That sounds like a curse."
Said Clay, somewhat afraid to enter the city of giants.
"Never mind, let's go in quickly, it's getting dark already."
Oswin finally ordered.
As the group moved forward, Blake detailed all the runes at the entrance, then looked at the walls noticing that there were hundreds more runes, gave them a glance, and continued along with the group.
"Woh Grannar nel Bor."
When Blake arrived back at the caravan, Wulgin turned and said to him, The talking rabbit must not wander off.
Grannar, as Wulgin called him, or talking rabbit in the common tongue, since he asked him so many questions, was the nickname the giant gave him after talking to Blake on numerous occasions.
As to why he told him not to wander off, Blake wasn't sure but decided to listen to him.
Amazingly, inside the town was a large clearing of tall green grass, and it wasn't until they walked a couple of miles that they saw the large "stone houses" mentioned by old Lopt.
More than a house, it looked to Blake like a garden Gazebo, with 6 stone columns without walls, and inside, a huge giant was lying sleeping on a stone slab.
Winter had helped them a lot, as most of the giants were sleeping.
"WOH NAG THENN WES GAS!"
Still, some giants would wake up when the caravan passed, and Wulgin would go ahead to tell them that they were coming to exchange gifts.
The giants, after listening, would go to their shelters and bring back furs, ivory, and sometimes old rusty or dented armor, following the group.
More and more giants joined until they reached the deepest area in the city, where there was a large, 10-columned Gazebo, with runes carved all over the rock surface.
"WOH NAG THENN WES GAS!"
Wulgin stepped forward, shouting toward the sleeping giant inside the Gazebo.
The giant, awakened by the noise, opened his eyes and stood up.
The giants Blake had seen so far were very different from how they appeared in his last life.
They wore no furs, for their skin was thick like that of a wild boar, and they had luxuriant fur from waist to foot, like that of a gorilla.
The giant who had awakened, and who lived in the center of the city, by the sea, had a grayish fur that denoted his advanced age.
The old giant, although awake, looked sleepily at his surroundings, as if he did not understand what was going on or the words that Wulgin had just shouted.
It wasn't until after e hour that the giant focused his eyes, looking around at the entire caravan that had pitched their tents several meters from the gazebo.
"MARTUN WUL NAG!"
The giant shouted at the top of his lungs alerting the entire caravan.
"The damn giant finally woke up!"
Oswin shouted, causing Blake and Gerd to jump out of the tent behind him, and run towards the giant.
"WHO NAG THENN WES GAS! WHO NAG THENN WES GAS!"
Gerd was the first to approach the giant, who had picked up a huge sledgehammer and was coming toward the camp.
The old giant seemed not to hear his words, swinging his mallet at Gerd.
Oswin, realizing that the old giant was going to crush Gerd like a lemon, quickly lunged, knocking Gerd out of the way.
The huge giant was like a tank, he didn't stop when he lost his target, but ran towards the camp, ready to crush them all.
Blake gave a glance at the other giants, who began to grunt, kick, and scream as the old giant began to attack, not knowing if they would also go berserk.
At Blake's back was the camp, with the brothers of the tribe, resources, and horses, if the giant made a sweep through the entire camp, dozens would die.
Blake drew his dagger, as he had no sword or axe at hand, he intended to cut off one of the giant's feet, that would be enough to stop him.
"ROOOOAR!"
As Blake was about to try to cut off the giant's foot and not get crushed to death, Wulgin, who was off to the side, charged at the old giant, knocking him down and rolling with him.
Both giants crushed two tents in their struggle.
A thousand ideas went through Blake's mind, and none seemed possible, if these giants attacked them, they were all likely to die.
Blake remembered the words Lopt had told him and ran to the larger tent to get something.
All the tribesmen had drawn their swords or held their spears in a circle around the camp, ready to die fighting.
Although Wulgin was bigger than the old giant, it didn't take long before the old giant took the initiative in the fight, and after a few blows, Wulgin had been practically knocked out, with the old giant on top of him, holding his mace ready to kill him.
"Woh Gas Rar Mag!"
Blake stood in front of the giant, holding a huge Wineskin, made from the skin of an entire sheep, offering it to Mag.
The old giant's face was full of rage, but with Blake waving the huge Wineskin, his eyes seemed to regain a light, lowering his mace and holding the Wineskin in his hands.
"Woh Nag Thenn Wes Gas!"
Blake shouted again to the giant, who removing the cork took a big gulp of wine.
"Glup, Glup, Glup, Glup, Glup!"
The giant drank the wine for a long time.
And when Blake thought that this giant could drink the 50 liters of wine in one sitting, he stopped, giving a big sigh and belching.
"MAG MAR TUN DOH WEG TIA GAS."
The old giant stood up, looking at the huge Wineskin with a smile, he had accepted the gift.
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hi guys, as Martin didn't give much information about the ancient language and the giants will be an important part of the story, I had to make a glossary of my own about the ancient language, maybe I will publish it later, but for now it's in work <3
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