When Giants slumber

“I can’t sleep,” she thought to herself as she hopped out of bed. The chamber that stretched out in front of her was mostly dark, lit intermittently by shimmering moonlight playing hide-and-seek behind the clouds. This slow cycling rhythm of pale brightness and inky darkness made it seem like the space was breathing in shadows, giving itself bare for a moment then retracting back in mystery. In those moments of clarity she got a good look at the layout of the place that she had familiarized herself with the past few weeks. She had set up camp on the softest platform in the chamber, a tall rectangular structure with one wall running the length of its backside and the whole thing supported by only four stout pillars. It stood near one of the corners of the chamber and was made from the second softest material she had ever experienced, only inferior to her bed. Naturally so, since her bed was a gift from the Giants. Although they had many flaws, she had to give it to them. They were experts in magic. The unnatural softness of her bed was a clear demonstration of that.

“Enough day -in this case, night- dreaming about the Giants,” she thought while yawning. No reason to waste time if she couldn’t sleep. After all, nighttime was the safest to be up and about. No Giants, no Monsters. They were either asleep or locked in their lairs. She looked over the rest of the chamber. The gate directly across from her platform leading to the Giants wouldn’t open until morning. The two other gates embedded farther into the wall closest to her platform seemed undisturbed as well. This was a good opportunity to secure the routes she would take the next day. She jumped down from her platform and started walking alongside the nearest wall, giving a wide berth to the first gateway she passed by. Just like everything else in here it dwarfed her. Since the moon was bright tonight she could just make out the top of it if she tipped her head all the way back. Then again, what posed a problem to her weren’t gargantuan inanimate objects sized for Giants, but the Monsters they kept locked behind them. She froze.

The gate. Wasn’t. Locked.

She turned around and sprinted back towards the platform. Her heart pounded in her chest as she closed the distance. “Don’t look around, just run. Just run. Just run.” The words kept screaming louder and louder in her head. She landed with a thud and immediately dropped low. She couldn’t see the gate from where she was laying but she was too scared to move yet. She took a few deep breaths trying to calm her heart that seemed to beat in her throat. Once she felt sufficiently calm -as calm as one could be when a Monster ten times your size might eat you any moment- she started to shuffle her body to face the gate. Ever so slowly, bit by bit. Did moving always sound so loud? She peered into the dark waiting for the moon to emerge from the clouds, her breath held as if it was the last safeguard against certain death. At what seemed a snail’s pace the moon started to light up the chamber once again, slowly revealing the source of her fear in all its unlocked glory.

She finally let out a sigh. The gate didn’t seem to have opened wide enough for the Monster to fit through. What if it had pushed the gate more shut after leaving, lulling her into a sense of safety? She couldn’t see inside the gate from where she was laying. This was bad. Even though the Monster preferred staying low on the ground she didn’t think she was up high enough to avoid its ever-hungry jaws. She shuddered, thinking back to the time it had almost got her. In her defense, she hadn’t been around the Giants long back then. They had brought out the Monster from its gate, allowing it to feast on all it could find on the ground. She had tried to approach it. Form an alliance as she had done with the Giants of this chamber. Instead, it had tried to devour her, pulling her towards it jaws while howling its blaring, monotonous roar. She had tried to fight back but its skin was tough and dense, and no matter how she struck it kept moving forward, consuming everything in its path. All she could do was run and hide. So that’s what she was doing now, running and hiding.

Except right now, she couldn’t do either for long. She couldn’t be sure that the Monster was still in its lair which meant it could be roaming free. She looked around the once again darkened chamber, trying to catch any hint of movement or drop of sound. Nothing. Her heart picked up its beating pace again, thudding faster and faster. Her body had realized quicker than her mind and was preparing for what came next: she had to look inside the gate. She weighed her options. She could just stroll up to the gate and take a look inside but then she might as well offer herself as a midnight snack. No, she needed distance and height. Height seemed to be what kept the Giants safe from it since none of them ever got eaten. Well, that and their magic but unless she learned how to wield it right now that option was sadly impossible. Her only option was to get to the Tower. Another gift given to her by the Giants as a token of their alliance. It stood against the opposite wall some distance to the right of the gate that led to the Giants. It was high enough to be out of reach of the Monster and it had a direct line of sight inside the gate. Two birds with one stone. And boy, did she like birds. She should look for some tomorrow. If she survived today, of course.

The only problem was getting to the Tower. She’d have to jump down from her current hiding spot and run across the floor to get there. If the Monster was hiding behind any of the enormous possessions of the Giants, it would get her before she’d ever make it to the tower. Then again it could already be sneaking up on her, moments away from roaring and feasting. She steeled herself as her muscles tensed. It was now or never. She jumped down from the platform and ran as fast as she could towards the Tower. It was getting closer and closer, she was almost there. Then the moon lit up the room and shadows started dancing, grasping towards her while dodging the light of night, just like she dodged the Monster all those days ago. They tried to envelop her, contain her into starless black. Whether out of care for her safety or hunger for her flesh she didn’t know. She didn’t care. She would reach the Tower. Then, with a jump straight to the top, she was sitting at its peak. She was safe. Safe.

She looked down towards the open gate and saw the dreaded shape of the Monster. It seemed dormant with its long straight neck resting against the wall, connecting on one end to its rotund body sizeable enough to fit her whole. On the other end its wide, gaping, toothless mouth laying still with no intent of roaring loudly. She couldn’t see its tail, which was a good sign. After all, it only showed that part when it intended to hunt. A tail so far-reaching it didn’t even fit in the enormous chamber and disappeared into one of the walls. Now that she knew it had been asleep this whole time, she felt foolish. She’d spent all this time running and hiding from something that wasn’t even aware of her. Then that feeling of foolishness changed into anger. Why was she the one hiding and running? The Monster was the one getting locked up at night, not her. She got to roam freely. She was given the Tower. She was the one favored by the Giants. It was time the Monster knew this as well. If the Giants didn’t lock it up tonight, then she would.

She took a moment to collect herself but found that her heart was beating steadily. Once again her body had realized before her mind. No more running and hiding. She leaped down from the tower and walked until she stood right in front of the gate. She spared a single glare at the Monster before pushing the gate closed. “The night is mine, you cretin,” she thought to herself. She was no longer afraid. She had survived this long among Monsters and Giants. She would not stop now. Nothing would shake her anymore. She savored the moonlight enveloping her in a dimly lit blanket.

The next moment the light was blotted out by a colossal shadow. She turned around sharply but it was too late, her body was leaving the ground going upward at an alarming pace. A sudden stop and she was eye to eye with a Giant, its grip the only thing stopping her from plummeting down. “What are you up to at night zooming around like that Lucy?” the Giant said. “You’re going to wake everyone up,” as they rubbed her behind her neck in the spot she liked. “Want to sleep with us tonight?” She purred in response. She was fearless, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy the comfort of sleeping with the Giants. The Giant looked over to the closed gate. “Don’t worry, we don’t have to vacuum for a few more days,” they said with a smile. Little did the Giant know, she now ruled the night.