Kiriban - The Beauty and the Beast - Part 1

All that rain was seriously pissing her off... after having passed a whole sunny week in a town where they could have slept comfortably and in a relatively dry place, of course only when they set out once again did it start to rain... just her luck really.
And it was also part of her usual luck having to go up front and ask for shelter in a creepy castle as the others tried to get back most of the supplies that survived falling in the river when the bridge snapped... not a good day, not a good day at all... and it was only going to get worse by the look of it.
She was completely drenched by the time she reached the gothic castle that she saw from afar, and the sheer size of the thing truly tricked her perspective.
She thought the building was only a mile or so away and instead she had to walk for hours to reach it, every step she took towards it made the structure bigger and bigger, until she truly thought that she was just imagining things.
“Why do nobles always have to go overboard with these things... I'm sure the lord here is like three foot tall and wants to compensate or something...” she muttered sarcastically under her breath.
And now even if things worked out and the owner of that ridiculously large keep would host a group of gypsies for one night she was too far away to return to the others and lead them here within the night...
But since I'm here I might as well try to get a shelter for the night... I'm sorry for the others but I'm so not going to walk back to them like this.

Now that she was standing right in front of them she looked up to the massive wooden gates that seemed to go up and up without an end but from a few paces back she saw that they actually was about ninety feet tall and some fifty feet wide... seriously excessive, but all about that castle was.
She tried to knock on the door and there was no result, the door didn't open nor did she hear any noise coming from within... that could have also been because the sheer rage of the storm was enough to cover most noises, so she decided to be less polite and started to bang her fists on the large wooden wall that was in front of her.
This time she at least managed to hear some noise resounding off the wood but she soon gave up on that as her hands started to ache.
Still no signs of life from inside the castle.
“Just what's wrong today? I walk for miles to reach this stupid place and what? It's abandoned! I hate it!” she yelled angrily and kicked the humongous door before resting her back against it and sink her head in her shoulders in a sign of scorn.
In the minute that followed the storm just got worse, with great thunders that shook the earth with their rumbling and lightnings that cut through the darkness of that night...
She hated those kind of storms and was now grateful to be somewhat shielded by that fury of the sky standing so close to the castle.
Even if no-one was home she was going to be better off in there than trying to move out under that wrathful sky.
She tried to look up the walls using the brief illumination that those bolts of light running through the clouds provided but saw no easy way to climb up them, nor windows from where to sneak in... the two windows that she saw where so up high and seemed to be made of stained glass, not to mention very thick... just reaching up there in that moment, with the stone walls made of huge squared rocks even more slippery under that rain, was close enough to suicide and the fact that the windows weren't made to be opened in the first place...
Better to stay down here... at least I don't risk breaking my neck that way. She concluded and returned to slump against the door, this time also crossing her arms over her chest as she curled down on the paved ground in front of the door.
The thunders were getting even stronger now, since she could feel her body shaking up with their impacts, and the storm was apparently right over her right now... which could have meant that it was going to pass soon but, knowing her luck that day, was more probably going to remain over her head and rain its worst right on her.
“Come on then! Do your worst! I'm not scared, you hear?!” she screamed angrily at the threateningly black sky.

Then the earth-shaking thunders stopped and the door she was leaning against suddenly moved a bit behind her, making her fall backwards and roll a couple of times on the floor before she could try to regain her balance on her wet shoes and cold, shaky limbs, but after falling on the ground once more she decided to wait a second before trying once again, this time more calmly.
The floor beneath her was very slick and became absurdly slippery with all the water she brought in with herself.
She looked around quickly but couldn't see anything in the darkness that covered that whole place... she couldn't even say how big the whole place was supposed to be. Her only references were the opened door and the stained glass windows... which had quite unsettling scenes painted on them, like something about fallen angels being chased out from heaven or something like that.
She slowly got to sit and then heard something that could have been another, more quiet thunder, but if that was it than this thunder said “Strange... I thought there was someone out there.”
And then there was a moment of brightness, light was screaming through the stained glass and glared harshly on the whole place.
She didn't manage to see much around her also with this light, but she saw that over her was some sort of statue or something... a colossus that had legs thicker than trees... or that was the only explanation that she could make for the two columns, seemingly covered in cloth, that were beside her and then came closer until they converged in a single massive bust...
But why would such a huge statue be right behind the door? Nobles could be strange, but this was almost too much...
Then light disappeared and the door closed heavily in front of her eyes as the thundering, earth-shaking rumbles started once more and rapidly got more distant.
She remained stiff, frozen with fear as she realized that she was now stuck inside an empty and probably haunted manor... how else could the door close down on its own if not for the trick of some ghost or other entity?
But then her eyes got used to the darkness of that place... and she immediately noticed that the columns that she saw beside her were no longer there...
She finally felt steady enough to try once again to get up... the floor might have been slippery and all but she still was a dancer and wouldn't have some stupid water have the best of her when it came to balance and moving around.

She looked around the hall and saw that there were other such windows around the room, even if so far away that it seemed that they didn't even belong to the same hall... with the spectral light that came in flashes through those glass windows filled with scenes of damnation, as if they were mouths stopped forever in a scream of eternal agony, that all seemed to be even more a pit of hell rather than a castle.
In the middle of it all was a large, darker shape of what seemed to be a staircase ascending for an impossible height...
“What's with this place? I thought it was for show but... this was all built up to some huge scale?”she said in a spooked whisper.
She started to tread carefully around the place, for once welcoming the lightning storm that was raging high over the castle and gave her some seconds of light to navigate the place.
She saw that there were a couple of doors, still huge as everything around there, standing on opposite sides of the immense room and noticed that there was a dim light coming from beneath one of them... so there's at least a single person living here...
At first she thought of running towards that door hoping to get help from someone who was in there, but then she remembered in what kind of place she was right now and wasn't that sure that she wanted help from a local resident... after all it could have been a demon or something... so she instead turned and ran towards the other door.
She almost slipped and risked falling a couple of times but feeling once again those strange approaching thunders she wasn't going to slow down for any reason... worse came to worse she would fall and break her neck before a hideous monster caught and killed her...
She was against the other door, searching frantically for when the one behind her swung open, warm light flooding from behind her... she hid herself against the door's jamb and flattened against it before daring to take a glance at the other door...

What she saw wasn't as frightening as she thought it would be... but in a certain sense worse.
Had it been a ghost or a demon she still could have hoped of being able to do something about it, those were actually not that hard to repel and keep at bay... she wouldn't have been sure she'd be able to do it, but at least there was a glimmer of hope.
What she saw instead was a young man, who clearly just woke up by the sleep-bound look on his face, who was treading heavily through the dark hall bearing a candelabrum with three lit candles shining on top of it, the light from the candles playing on the short blond hair and making his green eyes almost glow in the darkness.
It would have been pretty normal, or almost reassuring in her situation... if only that guy hadn't been on the same immense scale as the whole castle was.
It was a giant... a real, living, walking giant... either that, or she bumped her head harder than she thought when she fell in...
He went directly for the larger door that gave directly to the outside and opened it.
In that moment her heart sunk... she was standing in the wrong place while her chance of getting out of that place was passing before her eyes.
She still decided to be brave and run for it, she wouldn't let her possibly only chance of leaving that god-forsaken place alive slip away like that.
As she tried to cover the impossible distance between the two doors the giant looked closely outside the door and then said in a little more than a loud whisper “Is anyone out there?”
He watched out in the heavy rain for a while more before closing down the door and turning around.
She stopped abruptly in that moment... she was so close to it... almost out of that spooky place and her way out just snapped close in front of her.
But what was worse was that now she was standing right behind that colossal man, so close to his feet that just a careless step and... she tried very hard to keep down a squeal at that point.
And she didn't manage to keep it in anymore after one of those impossibly large feet landed heavily just an arm's length away from her.
“Hmm? Is someone in here?” he said in another hushed whisper that still rolled like a small thunder in her ears.
She fell to the ground and tried to inch her way away from that huge person in silence, but she knew that she wasn't going to get away with that when she saw him slowly go down on his knees, placing the candelabrum on the floor and looking around more carefully.
He turned around slowly and for how much she wanted to become invisible in that moment she remained quite perfectly visible and noticed the look of surprise sobering up the half-asleep, huge face that was now staring down at her.

Before she even had the time to take in a breath deep enough to scream her fright the giant spoke in a quiet, but very meaningful whisper “Don't be frightened, I'm not going to hurt you... and whatever you do, don't scream, okay? Please?”
In that moment she was too surprised to even understand the words that she heard, but that also meant that she wasn't going to scream soon. She just nodded as she kept her wide open eyes set on him.
“Good... you don't want to wake up the master of this castle in the middle of the night... trust me on that.” he said and flashed her a strange smile that was somehow sweet.
She was even more shocked when she noticed that, despite the large size, the man seemed to be mostly harmless... maybe it was the way in which he was moving, but he didn't seem threatening in the least.
“Are you lost or something? We don't get many visitors in here and...”
She was almost going to get back to her original purpose and was going to ask if she would have been allowed to rest in there along with the rest of her companions but then a few memories about folk tales popped in her head... giants weren't nice. They ate people or something like that... she couldn't just bring here them all, nor give away their position.
“Umm... yeah... kinda. I didn't want to come in like that and I'm sorry for that, so now I'll be taking my leave and...” she said with shaky voice.
“In this storm? You've got to be kidding, lass... there's no way I'm leaving someone out there in a rainstorm like this one.” he said and his eyes suddenly became sad for second, he then shook his head and then returned to fix his green eyes on her.
“I'll be fine... really. I'm used to traveling under any kind of weather... being a gypsy and all that.” she said quickly, hoping to win her freedom from this seemingly understanding giant.
“A gypsy, eh? Even less chances that I'm letting you out now that you said that, girl.” he said and then gave her a warm smile.
How could he have not noticed on his own? Well, sure drenched that way her clothes didn't seem anything more than a mass of rags, but still...
“What? Why?” she yelled then.
“Shh! Keep it down, will ya?” he said as he quickly looked around and strained his long ears as if trying to hear some distant noise.
“Well? Why can't I just go? I really don't mind the rain.” she said more quietly.
“It's... a long story. Just be our guest for one evening, when all this is over you can just be on your way, okay?”
“Is that a promise?” she asked, regarding the giant with a perplexed glare.
“Well, it is as far as I'm concerned.” he replied earnestly.
“Meaning?”
“Meaning I'm not the lord in here... but I'm sure he won't hold you here against your will.”
She quickly made some thoughts about all that... that guy didn't seem eager to let her go, and didn't seem to be that bad all in all... it might have been all a plan or something, but did she really have any choice?
Not really, so the best thing I can do is be supportive and go with it... at least I might get a comfy bed if I play good kid.
“Well then... if that's it, then I'll accept your offer... umm, didn't get your name, actually...” she mumbled.
“It's Kai. And you are...?”
“Just call me Sam.”
“Well then, Sam... allow me to show you a guest room.” he said and slowly put down a hand with the palm turned up.
“Ehm... yeah, right. Lead the way then...” she said completely ignoring the hand.
“You'd reach it after sunrise like that... and I'm not too keen on being awake at dawn myself, so if you would just hop on and let me carry you...” he said gently, but she still understood that his wasn't really a suggestion.
“You won't drop me or anything, right?”

Despite the initial fright, coming from the sheer height at which she was traveling and the distrust towards that Kai fellow, she began to feel comfortable staying on that solid, firm layer of warm flesh under her and feeling the warmth returning to her cold limbs.
After a long walk towards some winding corridors, which admittedly would have taken her hours to move through, he set down the candelabrum once more and opened the door to then immediately close it down again before she even managed to take a peek in it.
“Let's forget about it... okay? After all you cannot stay in a room that size on your own, right?” he said before turning back embarrassedly and quickly.
“What was wrong with that room?” she asked curiously.
“Ehm... you know I said we didn't have a guest in a very long time? Well, apparently no-one even bothered with cleaning the guest room...there were spiders bigger than you in there.” he said in a very neutral tone, that still did little to mask the shame he was feeling.
“Oh, I see... so you're taking me...?” she tried her best not to laugh at him... she didn't want to have him mad at her like that.
“To my room... at least it's clean... mostly clean. Okay, it's a bit of a mess, but nothing like that.” he finally admitted.
“What's wrong with yours?”
“Umm... there are books everywhere. I say I'd clear them but every time I just start reading and... whatever, here we are.” he said and stopped in front of another door.
That actually could have been reassuring... if he read that much then he surely wasn't dumb as the giants in fairy tales... which on one side meant that he was less likely to be just a bully, but on the other hand if he wanted to be mean she wasn't going to escape him with some cheap tricks...
As he warned her the room was a mess... it was seriously hard to see the floor under the thick layer of books piled up here and there around the room and on just about every surface that wasn't the gargantuan bed that filled one side of the theoretically spacious, but actually crammed, room.
“What can I say... at least it'll be warm?” he said tentatively.
“Don't worry so much... I'm used to far worse than this. And I'm really grateful that you're making me rest in here in the first place.” Instead of killing me? Hell yes I am... But I still would have preferred to remain out of this whole story and never find out that there were giants in this castle...
He let down the candelabrum on a table and the candles just died down on their own, filling the room in darkness for just a second before he snapped his fingers and light flooded the room once more, then with his free hand he cleared a pile of books from his bedside table and let her down on it.
“It still isn't exactly what staying in a castle should be though... - he said and scratched the back of his head – Let's see...” he turned around and started to rummage through a drawer to then turning back again with a handkerchief, that would have been large enough to cover a whole house if completely uncurled, neatly folded in a hand.
“This can do?” he asked as he put the piece of fine white cloth down beside her.
“Yeah, of course it's fine... you're still fretting too much.” Which made her suspicious... why was he so concerned about how she was going to pass the night? Most times nobles just shooed them away or gave them a hard floor to sleep on in some forgotten aisle of their manors... something was truly fishy in all this.

She looked around quickly and saw another pile of books that was still on the bedside table looming over her... some books were thicker than she was tall and most of them were written in languages that she didn't understand, or at least the spine was...  just one of them was comprehensible and it read 'Secrets of Hex. Cursing and Curse-lifting practices'.
“You read strange stuff, Kai...” she mumbled before her brain managed to stop her.
“Oh, these... yep, all books on magic. Most of them are moot, really. But others...” he replied without even turning around towards her, still covered in blankets and clearly just pretending to be asleep.
“You mean magic really works?” she asked in plain disbelief.
“What do you say, Sam?” he asked as he outstretched an arm towards the ceiling and a small green flame formed and started floating right over it before he dismissed it with a wave of his hand.
“It's... impossible.” she just muttered.
“Impossible is something I don't believe in from a long time... well, apart from a couple of things that just can't be done...” he added sourly.
“But then why did you bring candles if you can just do this?”
“It's just... more normal, I guess? I thought that candles would be less scary for a random traveler.” he muttered.
“Yeah... candles. Being a giant is not scary at all, right?” she muttered under her breath.
“You said something?” he asked, but his tone made her think that he heard her just fine.
“This Master of the castle guy... what is he like?” she was mostly wondering how scary he could be since Kai seemed to be somewhat frightened by the possibility of him waking up in a bad mood... and anything that could scare a giant should be scaring her as well.
“He's... well, how can I say it... he's hardheaded and somewhat edgy. But all in all he's not that bad, once you get to know him, if you get to know him at all that is.”
“Is he also...?” she started to ask.
“A giant? Yeah, he's my cousin actually. Lord of the castle only 'cause he's older than me, really. But it's his fault that we're stuck in this place... and I guess that our family is all but forgotten now... I guess you didn't even hear once about the McCraes, right?”
“Nope... doesn't ring any bell. And I've had my share of traveling, trust me.” she said and giggled a bit.
“I knew it... talk about lost family honor... we used to be an important household around here.”
“But I never heard of giant rulers before...”
“That's because... well, that's a long story as well, and one not suited for this night... you'll have to stay here more than just one night if you want to hear it.” he said, and even if he wasn't facing her, she was sure that he was grinning as he said that.
She didn't want to just leave it at that, and she didn't even want to just give up to sleep and be completely defenseless in that place, but she was feeling just so tired... the storm, all that walking, the heart skipping more than just a beat that night... yeah, all of those might have been enough of a reason to feel sleepy.
“Okay... if you say so.” she said with a yawn that she was trying to keep down.
“I do... goodnight, lass.”

“Oi, Kai... What happened last night?” asked him the other giant while they were in front of breakfast.
“Oh... you heard that? Sorry 'bout it, Finn.” he said quietly.
“I dun care fer excuses, jus' tell me what happened, 'kay?”
“I just found a... guest that managed to get in here... just thought I'd let her stay here for the night, that's all.”
“A guest? That's strange... I'm sure there was no-one out there... - he mumbled – whatever. So why all this kindness?  We dun need strangers poking their noses in here.”
“You know, Finn... it's because of that attitude of yours that we're stuck like this, you know?”
“I dun know what ye mean.”
“You know what I mean... maybe you could at least try being nice with this lass and break this stupid curse?”
“What if I like things being like this?” he said angrily.
“Oh, yeah... the dream of your life... being stuck forever in a castle alone with your cousin... think I could ever believe that?”
“Look at tha bright side... we're giants this way, right? Not much of a curse if ya ask me.”
“If we could go around I might even agree with you... but in here? Yeah, it's a curse.”
“Yer point?”
“My point is that now you'll go see this girl and try to be nice and charming... if it works we'll be free, and you know it.”
“Since when ye think ye can boss me around, Kai?” Finn asked angrily.
“I'm tired of this, Finn... really tired of all this. So you either do me this little favor or... well, I saw lotsa cool spells in my books... too bad I don't have a target to practice them...” he said almost casually, but his eyes filled up with an indescribable amount of malice, just seeing that glare made Finn almost choke on what he was eating in that moment.
“Okay... okay, I'll try... jus' put those eyes away, will ye?”
“Good... you'll just have to make her fall for you and we break this curse... it shouldn't be too difficult for you, right?” he said sarcastically, hoping that prodding Finn's pride would make him try harder.
“I'll make ye eat those words... ye'll see.” Finn hissed angrily as he got up, then leaving the room quickly and noisily.
“And everything is set in motion... I sure hope to see some results...” he muttered quietly after his cousin had already left.

He stopped in front of Kai's room and took a deep breath... He so didn't want to do this... sure, flirting and stuff was fine and all, and he had been quite good at that before this whole curse stuff, but what was needed here was 'true love'.
He barely managed to keep down a snort.
Yeah, right... as if true love just comes knocking at your door. I'm surely willing to try before Kai decides to turn me into a frog or something but... he shouldn't put his hopes up too high.
He tried to put on a charming smile before opening the door, and the expression just froze on his face as he saw the girl that Kai let in last night... she was awake and looked at him with some kind of surprised regard... But those long, reddish-brown hair, those violet eyes... everything, even the color of her skin and the features of the face... also the clothes were almost the same of that bitch...
“Hello, sir... are you the lord of the...” she started to say but he immediately stepped back out of the room and slammed the door behind him.
“KAAAAIIII!” he screamed angrily at the other giant as he started to run through the corridors, slamming open the doors that were on his path and soon reaching his cousin who was still sitting at the breakfast table.
“I can hear you just fine, Finn... what's with the screaming?” he said calmly.
“What the fuck were ye thinking? Ye let that... that... that thing in here? Are ye fuckin' blind, or just completely insane?!” he said as he slammed his hands down on the table.
“You're freaking out too much... she might look like that, but she can't be the same person...”
“And why's that, genius?”
“You know how many years passed from then? Hell of a lot too many if you ask me... she can't be the same as she was back then, so this girl must be someone else...”
“She's a witch, Kai... a fuckin' witch, dammit! She probably jus' came here again to...”
“Relax, Finn... especially since she looked like that there was no way that I was leaving her out in the rain again, right? Didn't you learn anything from last time? Being an asshole doesn't help... now you go back there, apologize for that terrible scream and try to play nice for once.”
He just growled in response.
“Look, you know I'm right, so just give it up and go back there already... after all the girl is quite your type, dear cousin.”
“No, she's not! I dun want anything to do with that hag!”
“Finn... it's been almost forty years since last time we had someone stumble in here, even because thanks to your awesome attitude this place is probably very notorious... so unless you hope to find true love with me, in which case I'm going to kill you personally and painfully, you'll go there and try to get us out of this mess! Now, march!” said Kai calmly but purposefully and pointed towards the door.
He just kept on grumbling as he left, walking slowly and stomping his feet at every step.

“What did I say wrong? Did he get mad 'cause I called him 'sir' and not 'my lord'?” she asked herself under her breath, her ears still ringing after that terrible shout that the giant gave when he stormed out of the room.
“Bah... nobles are so strange... Anyway, I'll just have to hope that he'll let me out of this place...”
The door opened once again and it was once again that other giant... and it was quite plain that he and Kai were family. They had almost the same green eyes, and also their faces were somewhat similar, still this man now standing in the doorway had reddish hair and he looked to be some years older... probably also because of the goatee he was sporting.
He stood there in silence and looked down to the floor before finally muttering “I... I'm sorry for before... I just... mistook you for... someone else. I guess.”
“It was nothing, my lord... I'm sorry if I brought you bad memories.” she said in an utterly fake and way too courteous tone as she slowly curtsied.
“So... umm... my name's Finnigan, but ye can just call me Finn... and ye are?” he slowly came closer to her and then sat down on Kai's bed.
“I'm called Samira, my lord, but just Sam for short.” she said.
“I told ye ta call me Finn, didn't I?”
“Oh... yeah... I'm sorry, my... Finn.” she corrected herself just in time.
“It's fine, lass. So... how did you find this place?”
“Actually it's pretty hard to miss... it's the biggest building I ever saw in my entire life...” and it made sense since he was the biggest man she ever saw as well.
“It was a dumb question, aye? Well, what I meant is... what were ye doing out here?”
“I was just traveling with the others and then that storm started... they sent me to search for shelter in here while they took care of our stuff... I just hope that everything is okay, actually.”
“So, ye're what... traveling performers or something?”
“Yeah, more or less... “
“And what do you do? Are ye a beautiful gypsy fortune-teller, perhaps?” he asked with some benevolent humor in his voice.
“Not at all... I'm just a singer and a dancer.”
“And I was hoping t'get my fortune read... oh well, too bad, I guess.”
“We do have a fortune-teller with us... I might ask her when I see her later if you want to...”
“Leavin' so soon, are ye?” he asked with a sort of playful grin on his mouth... that showed a row of huge teeth that she didn't really want to see.
“I just thought I shouldn't be overstaying my welcome... is something wrong with that, Finn?” she asked slowly. I hope he'll let me go away... I don't want to become a captive of some giants in here...
“I was hopin' ye'll stay some more... we hardly ever have guests in here... and if yer a singer ye might as well put up a show or somethin' before leavin'... it's been so long since I last heard some nice singin'.”
“I might... just do that now, maybe? But please... I really need to go back to the others. They must be so worried about me...”
“We'll see... jus' let me hear yer voice fer now, lass, 'kay?”
“Sure... anything in particular you'd like to hear?” she asked softly.
“Anything ye want to sing is fine... yer fav'rite song will be good.” he said and gave her an encouraging nod.
“Okay, then... I hope you'll like it.” she said before taking a deep breath and starting to sing. She usually would have had some music to sing with, at the very least the rhythm of her tambourine, but that too remained with the others, so for this once that'll had to do.

Things are going fine... Just keep her talking and act nice, Finn... we'll finally be out of this wretched curse.
He thought before putting his ear away from the door and go to the library. As Sam just said, her friends were probably going to search for her... and since this was his great chance to see that curse broken once and for all he wouldn't put up with meddlers.
He walked to a shelf and quickly got out the book he was searching for, swiftly skimming through the pages until he found the one spell he was searching for...
“What? It takes that much to do this? Well, whatever... I'll buy time with this one then...” he started to mutter a spell that quickly conjured a thick fog outside the castle and for miles around it.
“So... we were saying... oh, yeah... They never are going to find this place with this...” he chuckled a bit as he started to read through the whole ritual with more attention.

When he got back to his room, after having put some illusions and decoys around the castle, he saw a scene that seriously displeased him...
Finn wasn't in, but Sam still was, she was laying on his bed and she was crying, and didn't even notice him entering the room... and taking no notice of a giant moving around was a bad sign.
“Umm... Sam? What happened? If Finn did something stupid I'm going to make him pay for it, I promise.” he said cheerfully as he approached the tiny girl, but in his own mind those words took a darker tone... he was hoping that Finn would at least try harder than that, and instead he already blown even this chance... he was so going to torture him for this... he seriously was going to.
“He... he said.... I'll have to... stay here... for... forever...” she said weakly between the sobs.
“I... I see... I'm sorry about that, Sam.” he said concernedly as he knelt down beside her. Well, maybe he didn't do that badly... the fact that he didn't let her go at least means that he's trying... but he could have put it more nicely... it'll take a lot more to get the girl's heart back at this rate... or maybe it's time for the sob story to make it all better?
“Why must this happen to me? I just wanted to be on the road again... why must he keep me in here like this?” she asked after having cleared her throat and tried to keep back her tears a bit.
“He was probably just exaggerating... forever is such a heavy word. Don't worry, lass, I'm sure he'll let you go sooner or later, it's just that all this solitary time made him... us a bit desperate in here. Passing almost a hundred years holed up in here can do that to anyone.”
“A... hundred years? I didn't think you were so old... - it was the first thought that popped in her mind, but then soon shook her head and said something more sensible – But why didn't you leave already?” she couldn't even begin to understand how could someone remain in the same place for a whole year, let alone a whole century... she was a nomad at heart, traveling and journeys were parts of her essence.
“We can't, lass. We just can't go out of this place.” he said bitterly and shook his head slowly.
“And why is that?”
“It's because of a curse, Sam... one that Finn probably deserved, if you ask me.”
“Well... I'm going to stay here more than just one night... so you can tell me even if it's a long story, right?” she asked as she looked straight up in the giant's green eyes.
“I guess you're right... well it's a story of many, many years ago but I still remember it like it was yesterday... it was a night pretty much like the one that just passed, a terrible storm raged also that night and, like you did, a lone gypsy woman came searching for shelter for the night. She was covered in rags, dripping with water and so cold... and yet Finn, being nothing more than a blockhead, decided to force her out of the castle instead of allowing her in, saying that we shouldn't keep such thrash inside our halls... as you can imagine the woman wasn't very pleased with that answer, and was even less pleased by how he changed idea once she took off her ragged cloak and revealed her beautiful face, and so she cursed him, giving him 'a form more fitting for his cruel heart' and to be trapped forever in this castle that he so egoistically claimed ownership of... Seeing the results, his cruel heart must have been pretty huge, right?” he concluded with a bitter smile.
“But... if she cursed Finn, then why are you also stuck in this?”
“You see... her curse wasn't worded that well... since she said that she would curse 'the lord McCrae' I guess that many of our family got stuck in it... my brother did for sure... only they are free giants now since they weren't in the castle to begin with. I was unfortunate enough to be in here when all this happened...”
“I see... that's why you're studying magic so much?”
“Yeah... I wanted to find a way to break the curse already... but it didn't go that well... Anyway, now you know the story... So, even if he's an asshole, try to give Finn another chance, will you?” he asked and looked her straight in her eyes.
“Okay... I guess I can understand why he doesn't want me to leave that soon... must have been hard, staying here alone for all this time...”
“Good to hear that you understand this... Now, think you'll be joining us for lunch? I guess that with all that happened you also skipped breakfast, right?”
The gurgle coming from her stomach when the prospect of food got mentioned was answer enough. “You're not going to have me for lunch... are you?”
“You'd hardly be an appetizer, lass. Don't worry, we have proper food.” he said with a laugh.