หัวขโมยแห่งบารามอส 2 คทาแห่งพลัง (แปลอังกฤษ) English Version

ลำดับตอนที่ #6 : Chapter 6: In the Land of Giants (บทที่ 6 เยือนแดนยักษ์)

CHAPTER SIX: IN THE LAND OF GIANTS

The boat cut through the mist into the afternoon Sun streaming onto both sides of the river. A strange terrain welcomed them; the only plants in sight were queer trees with dark green trunks swirling to the wind and no signs of flowers or branches at all. The weather was hot and humid. Their boat was dragged closer and closer to land, but no-one and nothing came in sight, except the leafless trees.

“How large d'you think giants are?” Felin ended up starting the conversation again.

“Hard to guess.”

Kalo’s response was brief and unfinished, as usual, but his blue eyes darted around, and it was clear he had gathered more than he was letting on.

“Blithering hot here.”

Felin griped and wiped his forehead. When he finally raised his gaze, he jolted out of his skin. He cried out in panic as his hand pointed vigorously.

Kalo’s eyes followed Felin’s quivering finger. He looked up and saw a face no different from his studying them also. Only the fact that its diameter was the same as his height, and it was filled with tangled beard and mustache made it extremely startling.

Automatically, Kalo grabbed his own rucksack and threw Felin’s rucksack and sword to him, prepared for battle. His eyes widened and his senses were fully alert, his brain whizzing for a way out.

“Fighting giants? Are we going to survive this?”

Felin muttered, breathing deeply to gather his courage. His strongest asset was his inexhaustible courage; Felin could smile in any situation, and even now, he is grinning and shaking his head, amused.

“Now I get what that red-beard was talking about. Even we seem so small compared to that. If Godome were here he’d be giant boogers, no doubt. They’d use our swords to pick their teeth, dammit.”

Felin heaved his belongings onto his shoulder and stood up, but his move tipped the boat to one side and he slipped, sending Earthsplitter plunging into the river.

Felin’s eyes bulged. He gulped, but before he could even start to rant, the river parted violently. A second later, his sword was thrown back up. It speared through the air and hit the boat, erecting on the gunwale, leaving the owner sighing softly.

“Luckily for us, there’s an underwater guardian.”

Felin muttered. Kalo sighed, shook his head then spited.

“So any moment now your guardian would pop up and ask whether that stupid sword is yours, right?”

“Well, what d'you think?”

But the rascal was still not repenting. He hitched up a toothy grin and reached for his trusty sword. But before he could touch it, the boat tipped again. Felin’s eyes grew wide, then something flung him and the other passenger high into the air, before gravity yanked them back down again.

Crash!

The noise was unusually loud. Kalo frowned and quickly scanned the boat for the troublemaker. Then, he saw something he couldn’t stand looking at for long; Felin landed on his behind, hit his bottom smack on the floorboard and was now green in the face, grievously sick in the stomach.

“You’re okay?”

Kalo called as the troublesome thief crawl his way back down to the hold, incapable of neither speech nor standing up, then his gracious guardian appeared as requested.

Water sloshed into the boat. The gunwale rocked. Then the monstrous guardian resembling a gigantic octopus whipped its tentacle at the boat.

Crrr-ack!

The obnoxious tentacle broke the boat in two and sent the two on board somersaulting ten feet into the air. However, before they can plummet down into the doom of the monster’s gaping beak, an enormous hand snatched them just in time. Gigantic fingers held their backpacks and Felin’s toothpick sword, and raised them all up for a closer look.

“Curious, curious…”

The voice loud as lighting clap had Felin clamping his hands over his ears. The gusting breath was so forceful his and Kalo’s soaking wet clothes slapped back and forth and they themselves were nearly blown off.

Felin completely forgot the pain in his behind for a moment when the large face leaned close, then he stroked his buttocks, feeling sure they would turn black and blue in a while.

“Where are you hurt? Come, I’ll heal you.”

But then came the voice of the dedicated healer. Felin shot him a sour glare, cursing silently. How can he let him? He’d die of embarrassment!

That settled, he forced out a grin and lied.

“I’m not hurt.”

But it seemed Kalo knew better, for he smiled softly in a way that had Felin itching to swap professions with Kil.

The giant turned and walked into the city. At this height, Felin and Kalo had a much wider perspective. They realized that the leafless trees they had seen earlier were merely grass, and that the real trees were much larger, but quite few in number, probably because of the scorching and arid soil. The gaping summit of the volcano was also still fuming, rendering the weather much more sweltering than in Eden.

Giantcity has everything in common with their homelands; there were male giants and females, and their children. Everywhere they look they see houses, buildings, and shops. All that differ was the size, including that of the animals, which, though familiar, were so enormous they seemed intimidating.

“Master Giant, nice to meet you. I’m Felin, and this here’s Kalo. What’s your name?”

Felin decided to befriend the gigantic bloke, though he still felt a little bit shaken. Dad always taught him that he must turn whatever bottleneck he’s in to his advantage.

“Tiny.” Hearing the booming answering voice, Felin nearly doubled over.

“How about you tell us a bit about your town, say, what do you do with the prisoners here?”

Tiny turned and looked at Felin perplexedly, for ever since he could remember, all the other prisoners did were mainly fainting or wetting their pants, too shocked to speak, but somehow this little dolt is surprisingly talkative.

“Do you eat them?”

Tiny grinned broadly at the query.

“The humans of Eden will devour anything smaller than them, right? Interesting, really.”

Felin gulped. He felt all his strength left him and slumped onto Tiny’s hand once more, only to jolt at the pain in his behind and felt it gingerly.

“You’d do better just staying put.”

Kalo scolded tonelessly. Felin burned red with anger and retorted.

“And I’d rather the giants eat you first!”

“The giants here are vegetarians. They don’t prey on humans.”

Felin gaped at Kalo’s answer. He spun around to Tiny, who was also glancing over interestedly.

“You’re a bright one!” Tiny praised and laughed in glee, “How do you know that?”

Before Kalo could reply, the talkative thief cut through with another enquiry.

“And what do you actually do with us prisoners?”

Tiny looked at the anxious Felin and began.

“We put you to work, of course! There are a whole lot of things out there to be done. See there? That’s the construction site.”

Tiny pointed to a clearing where seven giants and their labor elephants were directing hundreds of human workers to assemble chairs and tables and other furniture. Some of the furniture were as small as fit for a dwarf, while some were human-sized and giant-sized.

“And over there, we have agriculture.”

The giant pointed to the fields on the other side. It was also filled with humans and giants, and also buffaloes and cattle driving the plough. Mature rice swished green and gold in the light breeze.

“And there’s also mining; for minerals, jewels and also iron. Whoa, lots of them work.”

Tiny concluded and continued.

“Most of you who came here were sentenced to just twenty years of labor.”

“Twenty years!”

Felin exclaimed, utterly flabbergasted. He whipped around and met Kalo’s eyes, completely forgetting that they were still angry at each other.

“Relax, it won’t be that long. It’s the first decade that decides your fate. Most prisoners go nuts or kill themselves during this time, but after that if you behave yourselves we’ll let you out to join us in the city. You can also stay past your two decades and receive salary. You may say it’s hot and unpleasant here, but mind you, we’re Demos’s breadbasket. Our exports go all the way around Demos and even all Eden. We’re the heart of Demos!”

Tiny explained with pride and added.

“You’ll love it here, believe me. Lord Evides built our city the way he imagined his ideal land. Nobody’s unemployed here. I’ll tell you again, you’ll have fun! We don’t smell blood here. We live like family. And we don’t have to bolt our homes at night. There are no thieves.”

The so-called thief laughed at that. Felin scratched the back of his neck and asked.

“What if someone breaks the rule, then?”

“Well, he goes back and serve another twenty years of slavery, shan’t have asked!”

The conversation ended when a gigantic citadel loomed up in front of them. Tiny said a few words to the two taller giants there and pushed open the doors.

The interior was hot, stuffy and deprived of light, not inviting in the least. There were no stairs, and only enough space inside the tower to house about three giants at the most. Thirty feet from the ground, dotting the surrounding walls and jutting out on top of another, were hundreds of rows of ledges with cages.

Just like a birdhouse!

Felin swore under his breath. Glancing around, he saw his human friends poking their heads out for a look. He also noticed with dismay that they all looked pale and frail.

Probably ill.

He concluded silently and thought miserably.

What did he expect from prisoner welfare? It’s the same when people lock animals in cages as pets. Some days you remember them, and some days you leave them to fend for themselves. That’s probably what humans are like to giants, too.

With a gentle flick of his finger, Tiny flung open a vacant cage. He plopped Felin in first, then Kalo, before closing it once more.

“It’s been fun chatting with you two. Wait here for a while, okay? They’ll come take you out to work in a while.”

Tiny bent down, shone a toothy grin through the bars then stomped back out.

The cage was quite unpleasant. It was humid and musty, and the temperature was that of an oven. The bars weren’t locked, but it didn’t make any difference unless you can jump thirty feet. The floorboard was wooden and carpeted with old, stale, damp hay.

The accommodation was as worse as it can get for the Prince of Kanoval. All he did was eyeing the room in a manner that stated he wasn’t nearing the haystack, though the disgust didn’t show on his ever deadpan face.

But, over to Felin, the roadside thief felt nothing about the low hygiene and discomfort. He’d slept in worse.

Felin walked in, heaved the smelly hay out of the way then sat down on the fresh, dry hay underneath. Glancing to his neighboring cage, he noticed the prisoner inside. He was tall and burly, with a dirty, tangled beard, cloaked in tattered old rags. He was staring curiously at Felin.

Felin gave him a smile then turned to the haughty prince.

“Come sit!” He called and added. “Or can’t the Prince of Kanoval sit on a haystack in jail?”

Kalo’s blue eyes flashed with annoyance, then he strode right in and sat down. He didn’t talk back, however, as he wanted to think, but the troublemaker always had trouble staying silent and plowed on.

“Twenty years here’s not that bad, eh? What d’you think? Who knows, some of your swagger might have worn off by then.”

Felin chuckled hilariously, but the prince didn’t find that amusing in the least and instead retorted sternly.

“But your Chronic Rotten Mouth Disease will probably flare up even more severely.”

Felin laughed in reply then slumped down on the hay. His eyelids fluttering close, he mumbled.

 “I’m sleepy.”

“It’s okay. You can sleep for now.” Kalo replied.

“I’m about to. But mind you, don’t you sneak off while I’m sleeping, you hear me?”

Felin started a little, then reached up and grabbed Kalo’s arm. Yanking hard until the prince fell down beside him, he ordered.

“Sleep, your highness, I’m sleepy!”

******