Otataral, 956th Year in the Time Dying

[albatross]

Long before the distant speck on the horizon comes into view, something else is visible on the path the goat herder is taking.

It looks like copper. As everyone approaches closer, the copper can be seen to be in the form of a woman. Perhaps a statue lying in the sand? As they near whatever it is, distance seems distorted, as if it takes far longer to get to the woman than it should.

Eventually, someone realizes that the woman is closer, but that judging by the goat herder - she is a giant. The copper skinned giant sits up and shields her eyes to view the approaching goat herd, as if she is tanning out here in the desert. She slowly pulls on some bits of armor and some gauze-like clothing and waits for the goat herder to approach her. His progress slows a bit when he realizes the copper woman is alive, but there really isn't any other path through the desert, so he leads his goats onward to their fate.

The copper skinned giant just sits in the sand and waits.

[Renekin Skywalker]

Realising his team is armed and armoured, Allen gets an idea. "You know, we could do our guide a favour. What say we surround the herd?"

At the same time, he makes a note to give Dryzh some extra water. In retrospect, those water pits would have been good for Dryzh to swim in once and a while...

[shiivster]

Aki looks back at the others 'is the big one going to eat the little stickers? maybe one of hte camels could feed it instead? .. or .. maybe something else?

*she pauses to study Dryzh and turns her camel and moves back to him .. and holds out her water skin. 'you take .. we have one that will last use two days. we not drink much' Yumi pokes her dark nose out and sniffs the air and chitters then ducks out of view again

[albatross]

The goat herder looks uncomfortable as they surround the herd, but for once, he isn't thinking about them.

Eventually, he stands before the giant. She is seated, but she has to be taller than fifteen feet and probably weighs more than a thousand pounds. Her copper feet are bare, though some gauze is tied like a ruffle round her ankles to shade her from the sun.

Her gold eyes peer out from a white gauze hood contrasting sharply with her black hair. Her breastplate appears to be grey wood made into scale mail, but the "armor" on her arms and legs looks to be shells linked linked like chain mail over more of the white gauzy cloth. Cute, but probably not very protective.

The giant looks at the herd and the people and sighs, shaking her head. She has a short conversation with the goat herder and laughs, but its the tight laugh of a warrior.

She stands up, revealing her height to be slightly more than sixteen and half feet tall and moves closer to inspect everyone moving gracefully across the sand. She barely glances at Tesla and Sapphire, she furrows her black eyebrows at Allen, then steps closer to Aki and Dryzh. She gestures to Dryzh's sword and says something rapidly, smiling and she nods at Aki.

[shiivster]

Yumi pokes her head out and then clambers into view on Aki's shoulders and stares at the stranger then chitters at it. Aki looks at the little beast then up at the tall woman and in korean she states "greetings, tall mountain spirit woman".

*the young Beastmaster chitters at the beast, who hisses once and then settles on the saddle in Aki's lap instead and glares up at the giant.

[dakota]

"Dryzh not understand." The mantella said, looking at the others for help," Why sword interest big one?"

[shiivster]

Aki looks at Dryzh and shrugs 'not knowing. am afraid that she want eat me? but i am little and small. maybe just ... snack?'

[albatross]

The giant just laughs, her teeth aren't quite fangs, possibly omnivorous. She swings away from Dryzh and Aki after saying something in a blunt but good humored tone. She appears to find the whole group quite funny. She strides back over to where she had been lying down, her giganticly long legs covering the distance in a moment. She fishes around it what looks like a pile of shattered stones and then selects a big piece which she wraps to her forearm like a buckler. She then picked up a massive sword. The sword is over eight feet long and like the buckler appears to be made of some kind of flint. There is simply no way such a sword could survive impact, it would shatter under force of its own weight. It must be some kind of magic. Thus armed, the giantess stalks forward towards the speck in the distance. Plainly there is going to be a fight, but against what. The goat herder simply sits down, unwilling to follow the sword wielding giant.

[Renekin Skywalker]

"Oh, I do love a mystery!" Allen said, his tone sounding a little insincere. "So, do we proceed with the goatherd, or wait for the all clear from the giant, or just simply follow her?"

As a side-thought, he added, "Or we can place bets as to whether or not she's a minion Fakir?"

[shiivster]

*Aki is torn now on what to do.

'i be back soon. we go watch what she do now .. sword mean fight'

*that said, she asks her camel to follow and leaves the others behind with the goatherd

[albatross]

The other camels are relieved to remain behind. Aki's camel has to trot to keep pace with the giant's strides, but eventually the copper skinned giant halts in sight of a strange creature.

It has four legs, a long neck, and a tail - kind of like a dinosaur. Only it is covered in an exoskeleton which resembles bone and the thin gaps in the exoskeleton are black. The thing makes the giant tiny by comparison, it is huge. Aki doesn't sense an animal intelligence. The thing is some kind of alien, but its is plainly not a normal animal. it might be intelligent, though it is hard to tell.

The thing swivels its head and charges the giantess. Both of them are extraordinarily quick. She stands her ground to meet it, taking a stance with her massive stone sword. In an instant, the monster is on her. She stabs for its eye, but the sword chips. She doesn't falter, but instead thrusts the sword right into the creature's open mouth. For a moment Aki wonders if the sword will punch right through the thing's head, but instead the sword shatters in its mouth and it swivels its head and bashes the giant sending her sprawling.

She rolls up into a crouch and gathers her energy as the thing changes again. This time she sidesteps and punches it in the neck. There is an audible crunch as the exoskeleton crushes and the giant hammers the creature again.

Hesitant, unused to fierce resistance and never having been hurt, the massive creature turns and runs off into the desert. The giant roars her displeasure, and runs after it, but she can't catch up and the thing gets further away.

The whole exchange lasted only a few seconds.

Finally the giant returns, picks up her broken sword, which is only a couple feet long now, and sits down to rest her sore ribs. She pods a couple spots, sighs and waits for the others to arrive. She says something to Aki, but of course Aki can't understand her.

[shiivster]

Aki moves the camel closer now and roots about for the supplies for her for the rest of the day and makes motions to "eat". there is a faint sigh as she realizes its probably not enough to make any difference for the giant.

*she gets the camel to settle down and wait and crosses the sand to offer the meager food to the large person. then turns the head to look at the 'ribs' area. there isn't much she can do at this time but put her hand on the same spot on herself, make a face of pain, point to the camel, nod and make a smile. then repeats the jestures and points at her and shakes the head

*looks at the camel and wonders if there is a voice box or not [radio] and not recalling one she looks back the way they came and raises the hands and half pats towards the ground, asking silently for the large one to 'wait'

[albatross]

The giant takes a piece of the food and nibbles it thoughtfully. She points to her ribs and pats them heartily and smiles, apparently entirely healed, though Aki didn't see the giant do anything except run her hands over the area.

Seeing Aki's attempts to communicate, the giant nods and stands up. She thumps her breastplate and says, "Ora." Then she repeats this gesture and says, "Ora" again.

Then she holds out a hand towards Aki.

[shiivster]

the young beastmaster looks up and points at the ginat and states 'Ora'. waits and after a nod .. pats herself 'Aki' .. then pulls out Yumi who's hiding in the carrysack and holds it up and states "Yumi". puts the mongoose back in the sack again then moves to the camel and mounts up.

*the camel stands up and looks to where the 'herd' is, and Aki looks at Ora and points back the way they came 'Aki friends ... Aki return. Ora come?' the camel waits a bit longer for a command to head off and looks at Ora and makes a camely grunt and slowly starts back

[albatross]

The giant repeats Aki's words, pointing at the appropriate creatures - first saying "Aki" while pointing to Aki and then saying "Yumi" while pointing to the mongoose.

The giant seems confused by the desire to rejoin the herd. Aki doesn't know this, but they are standing upon the goat herder's trail, so the giant realizes the goats and camels will be coming this way shortly.

The giant says something to Aki, points to the camels and everyone else off in the distance, and sits back down to wait for them.

Indeed, the goat herd is now herding his charges towards where the little fight took place, though he keeps a nervous eye out for the huge creature that scampered off.