Post by Ridel on May 9, 2010 21:16:52 GMT -5
He hadn’t had this much fun in years.
The little thing had shown up on his island about twenty one moons ago. It was tiny. Barely worth his interest. Or so he’d thought at first.
He’d poked around its little camp back near the start of all this. It hadn’t been around, and so he’d made himself at home. Ripping open the little cloth sack tucked away in the roots of a tree.
He couldn’t make heads or tails of the things that spilled out. Metal things and cloth things, and a few other things he couldn’t identify.
He wondered what they could possibly be used for, so he climbed a nearby tree and waited for it to return. Maybe it’d pick up one of the things and use it. Then his curiosity would be satisfied, and he could eat it.
He waited a long time, his tail swishing impatiently as the sun began to sink. But the little thing never returned. Eventually he became bored and climbed out of the tree.
It’d probably been eaten by something else by this point. Something that size probably wouldn’t last long on his island anyway. He’d come back tomorrow to see whether or not it’d come back. But for now, he needed to hunt for something a little bigger.
He did come back the next day, but the tiny camp was completely gone. If he wasn’t convinced that he knew every inch of the island by heart, he’d have thought he was in the wrong place.
So… Probably not dead then.
Now his curiosity was piqued. He got close to the ground to see if he could pick up its scent. He wasn’t used to hunting for things this small, what would be the point? But he wanted to see if he could find it nonetheless.
Eventually he found what he was looking for and followed the scent away from the small camp.
The smell wound this way and that, and was sometimes confused. It seemed that sometimes the little thing had started going one way, doubled back, and then continued in a completely different direction. He wasn’t used to this kind of cleverness in his prey. I was interesting to say the least. Finally, the winding trail lead him to the river.
The little minx.
It’d actually used the river to mask its scent.
His sense of smell would have been a celebrated one, had there been anyone else on the island to celebrate it, but even he could not pick up the things scent again after that.
Strangely, he hadn’t found it frustrating to be foiled like this. He was strangely proud. None of the animals that he preyed on had ever displayed a level of cunning before. It was sort of exciting. Well done little thing.
It was only a few days later when he finally picked up its scent again. It had been more or less by accident while he was tracking his breakfast. But as soon as that smell touched his nostrils, the thought of food was forgotten.
Ah, the thing didn’t know he was tracking it this time. Would it be so tricky if it was caught by surprise?
It took him a while, but finally he came upon a small clearing which held the last embers of a small fire. He didn’t like fire much, but this one was out, and so he approached with little trepidation.
The thing must have been staying somewhere close. He could smell it all over the place. Under those tree roots perhaps?
He smirked in triumph, his long canines showing ever so slightly. He reached forward, and heard something go ‘thwip.’
The silence of the clearing was shattered by a surprised yelp as several small somethings shot out of nowhere and hit him in the face. They we sharp and dug just deep enough into his skin to seriously hurt. It was as if he’d just stuck his face in a hornets’ nest.
He reeled back and felt something, a vine or something, snap on his arm. There was another ‘thwip’ followed by more sharp stingers. Panicking, he turned and bolted from the clearing. He didn’t stop until he was well away from it.
That, that sneaky little toad! It’d actually booby trapped its burrow!
He picked the small needles from his face gingerly, wincing all the time. When he finally had enough in the palm of his hand, he stopped to examine them. They weren’t stingers, but small pieces of wood, widdled down into sharp points.
It must have taken it a long time to make these, and to set up its trap. Despite the pain, he felt a familiar sensation of pride.
So it had patience and skill with tools as well. Fantastic! He’d be ready next time.
He crept back to the clearing to see what he could see, but the little thing was gone. Apparently it’d been ready to bolt at any moment.
All of its things were missing, and again, the only sign that it had ever been there was what little was left of the fire.
He could have followed it, but his face stung and his stomach growled. He’d try again some other time.
Ten moons past since the little thing came into his woods, and he’d only had a few real brushes with it. But every passing moon made him more and more focused on hunting it down.
It back tracked, it zig-zagged, it used streams to mask it’s scent and set traps around it’s burrows. It also learned of his fear of those large venomous lizards, and had taken to spreading their urine around its camp at night.
He did not want to speculate how it (She actually, for he’d had a chance to see her clearly by this point) had come to acquire so much of the stuff, but he had to admit, it had worked. The first few times he’d smelled it, he’d been too frightened to get any closer to the camp. Afraid that one of those things would drop out of a nearby tree and bight him. But when he’d seen her one day before moonrise spreading the stuff around the camp herself, he managed to muster up the courage to attack.
It hadn’t gone well.
She’d been lighting her way with a stick which burned at one end. Though he managed to charge through the booby traps and snatch her up in his jaws by the back of her cloth covering, her panicked struggles brought the burning tip of her stick in close contact with his main.
Just when he’d triumphantly thought that he’d finally claimed his prey, he realized that he was on fire.
He’d yelled in alarm, dropping the little thing from his jaws, and began swatting at his hair furiously. The fire only spread as his waving hands fed it oxygen. Finally he had no choice but to bolt for the brook gurgling a few meters off to his left.
When he finally pulled his head out, his black hair was a lot shorter.
‘She set me on fire. She set me on fire!!’ He’d thought frantically. ‘This thing is vicious!’
He wondered for the first time where it had come from. Were there more of these things? Where had she learned to do all the things she was doing? He knew how to hunt because long ago, he’d had his grandfather to teach him. He knew how to fashion protective covering from animal skins because his grandfather had shown him how. But this thing, it just showed up out of nowhere. It couldn’t possibly know all these things. He’d never seen one before.
It was immensely frustrating.
And yet… and yet… He was enjoying himself.
It wasn’t the ordinary thrill of the hunt either. He was being challenged mentally. He was feeling the presence of not just another animal, but a person on his island. He’d often caught himself wondering what went through that tiny little head of hers when she realized he was coming for her again.
He liked that she was probably scared of him. She ought to be. But more so he liked how she overcame all that and outwitted him again and again.
And that’s when he finally realized what he was going to do when he finally caught her.
It was another ten moons before he managed to take her by surprise again.
It was well before moonrise. Normally he’d be napping right now, but he’d been stalking this prey long enough to know its habits.
When the sun was three hours from its highest point in the sky, she would start to set up her camp. This was when her insidious little traps were laid and her fire was started. (He’d found out that she always used this fire to burn her food over. He couldn’t fathom why.)
At this point she was tired. She’d been walking all day, and it had been a particularly hot and humid one. These conditions never bothered him, but they always took a toll on her.
She finally stopped near the roots of yet another tree and began looking around herself cautiously. Ah, she was contemplating setting up camp here.
He hid nearly a dozen yards away from her, the trees hopefully shielding him from view. To his satisfaction, she hadn’t spotted him there.
He crouched in the foliage and watched her work for a while.
She was rather pretty, to his tastes anyway. She had long messy brown hair which was tied back with a red band. Her skin was a little lighter than his own, but still pleasantly dark.
He crept forward quietly on all fours, as alert as any one creature could possibly be.
He could have sworn he hadn’t made a sound, but suddenly the little thing whipped around and stared him directly in the eye.
Both of them were caught off guard for a moment, but the spell didn’t last long. The tiny girl screamed, then in one movement she got to her feet and ran, leaving all of her things behind.
He cursed and lunged forward. It was just his luck that she’d see him while he was so far off.
You would think that with his longer limbs it would have taken him no time at all to catch up to his escaping prey, but in this case his size was a distinct disadvantage. His movements were slow and cumbersome when placed alongside the tiny female’s.
Even when she ran headlong into the woods she was graceful. Even when she was frightened out of her mind she moved with a fluidity he couldn’t match. He adored that.
He grunted and panted as he ran, straining every muscle to its limit to catch him up with his prey. He dimly realized that the chase had brought them close to the waterfall.
He quickly changed his tactics, running off towards her side, forcing her to change course in a desperate effort to get away.
The cliff face was close, very close now, if he could only…
He lost sight of her for a moment as she rounded a large tree but, yes, his plan must have worked, because a second later he heard the scream.
It wasn’t a scream of absolute terror but a scream of despair. He quickly rounded the tree and came face to back with the girl. She turned from the terrifying drop in front of her to the terrifying predator behind. For one electric moment, she looked like she wasn’t sure which was worse.
He grinned slowly, his long canines glinting cruelly in the afternoon light. Despite his humanoid form, he still stood on all fours, like a hungry cat advancing on a helpless mouse.
Suddenly something snapped in the girl’s head.
If she was the rat then she’d rather end up a drowned one then some cat’s dinner. She turned quickly and jumped. Unfortunately, so did he.
He heard the scream of terror when he caught her in his mouth. It had been a close thing too. Half a second later and she would have gone over the edge. He couldn’t allow that.
He did however allow himself a moment of absolute satisfaction.
There was no torch this time. One quick swish and a swallow and he’d officially win. There’d be no last minute escapes this time.
With sickening smugness, he strolled back to the tree line. He lay down on the mossy forest floor and made himself comfortable, propping his shoulders up against a tree trunk.
Then he raised his hand to his mouth and spat.
The girl landed in his palm with a wet splat, and instantly began gasping for air. She viciously wiped the saliva from her face and stared up at him in absolute terror.
He simply smirked back.
“I won.” He said with finality. The girl blinked back.
“…W-what?” she asked finally. It was the first time he’d really heard her talk, He decided he liked her voice.
“I, won.” He said again, stressing the word.
The girl continued to stare at him uncomprehendingly. “What do you mean w-won? A-as in won a game?” she asked. The disbelief on her face was priceless. He wished he could etch it in stone and keep it forever.
“That’s right bight size. I won the chase. I’ve finally got you where I want you.” The smugness coming off of him was almost as strong as the horror coming from the girl. She cringed back and looked around herself for any possible escape route. She found none.
Breathing deeply, she put on a brave face, but he noticed a few tears leak from her eyes.
“T-then what are you w-waiting for?” She challenged, voice cracking. “A… Aren’t you going to…?” She stopped. She couldn’t say it. She felt like she was trapped in a nightmare. She couldn’t imagine a worse fate then the one staring her in the face. The one that had almost claimed her twice already.
The monster seemed to think about this for a while. The silence stretched on, and with every second the girl’s heart beat harder.
“No,” he said at last, and dropped her onto his chest. She landed with a squeal of surprised, and would have made a break for it, but his hand landed heavily behind her to box her in.
“I’m not going to eat you.” He elaborated, catching her attention again.
“You’re just too much fun.”
The girl sat completely still, the giant’s words sinking in slowly. “I, you… WHAT?!” she demanded.
She almost got to her feet, but the hand behind her twitched warningly and she suddenly stopped all movement. Still enraged by the giants answer, she managed to work past the crippling fear and speak her mind.
“O-only a total sadist would consider what you’ve been putting me through for the last month fun!” she shouted in total indignation. “I thought you were going to kill me!” Tears were now rolling freely down her face.
The giant had the good grace to look at least a little abashed. “Well, that was then and this is now.” He said lightly. The girl stared at him in newfound horror.
“You were going to kill me! Why? What have I ever done to you?!” she screamed, a new level of terror taking hold.
“Well, nothing.” He conceded. Very few of the animals on the island ever did anything to provoke him. But that had never stopped him from hunting them before. “But look, I didn’t know you then.” The giant defended himself, more out of annoyance than anything else.
“Wha- Y-you don’t know me now!” Ah, again he was forced to concede. Bight size did have a point.
“…But I’d like to.” He said. The girl’s mental gears ground to a halt. She couldn’t help but stare at the giant, not entirely sure how she was supposed to react to that.
“It’s been a very long time since I’ve met another animal that thought like me.” He said wistfully. “I’d like to get to know the little creature who came onto my island and actually managed to keep me on my toes for twenty moons.”
The girl was a little thrown. A part of her told her, in no uncertain terms, to fight and scream and run. A part connected to the more rational side of self preservation said, milk this for all it’s worth! If he’s talking to you than you haven’t been eaten yet!
“W-… well I’m not an animal, so…” She trailed off, he was looking at her again with interest.
She gasped quickly when he scooped her up in his hand and brought her within inches of his face. She’d never wanted to be that close to his mouth again. Behind the raging terror, a lightheaded part of her realized that his skin wasn’t quite as dark as she’d thought it was. More tan than black. But then she had been seeing him mostly at night.
“If you’re not an animal, then what exactly are you?” His huge inverted blue eyes held a look of rapt attention in them. She didn’t enjoy it at all.
“I- I’m a human. You know, a h-human b-being?” She squeaked. He did not seem to be following her. The giant waited impatiently for her to elaborate. In the end she sighed.
“You uh… You’ve seriously never even heard of a human before?” she asked a little hopelessly.
He shook his massive head. “Many of you?” He asked. She wrung her hands nervously.
“Um… yeeeaaah.” She said at last. She wasn’t sure how much information she out to give this guy. He had tried to eat her after all.
“But I’ve never seen any of you before!” He whined suddenly. “Not even when I’ve swam to the other islands!”
The girl latched onto that information and stored it away for later. Other islands? Could be useful.
“Ah,” She said at last. “My island is a little further away than those.” She chuckled nervously.
“Oh…” The giant sat up and turned a bit, so he was facing back towards the cliff. The girl squeaked in panic as he did this, but his hand held her firmly in place.
Over the expanse he had a good view of the sea.
He was silent for a little while.
“A whole island full of you…” He said absently. The girl’s eyebrows furrowed in worry. She severely hoped he wasn’t thinking about paying her “island” a visit. But then, she’d been able to hold her own against him pretty well with only a few sticks, some matches, and time. Maybe his sudden appearance in lower Manhattan wouldn’t be a disaster of Cloverfieldian proportions.
Yeah, a few F-22’s and…
Suddenly the giant turned his attention back to her. She felt her heart try to crawl up her throat.
His playful smirk was back in full force.
“And do you give the animals there such a hard time catching you too?” He dropped back down into his loafing position, once again setting the girl on his monstrous chest.
After she’d recovered from the fright of his sudden movement she managed to muster an answer. “We don’t really get hunted over there.” She croaked hoarsely.
A look of shock slowly stole over the giants face.
“Wait, you mean, not at all? But then- But how-? But you…” His mouth flapped uselessly as he searched for words. “Then how did you know how to do everything you did?” he finally asked.
The girl was wringing her hands more vigorously now. God, just what was he expecting from her? Already far past the point where she was sure she should have fainted, she opened her mouth and let the words tumble out on one long nervous stream.
“Well, I was always kind of interested in that sort of thing! I used to go camping all the time, and watch stuff like ‘man against nature’ and stuff. Then my friend told me about this Australian walk about thing, and we were totally going to go, only he got bit by a rat a couple days before the flight and had to stay in the hospital cause he got rabies, and he said I should still go, but like, I didn’t want to go alone, but the tickets were already paid for, so I got on the plane but then I just decided to stay in Sydney and… ” She trailed off. Her audience looked completely lost.
She bit her lip, and then had to restrain herself from spitting when she realized that she was still covered in… well, spit.
“Basically I trained myself to live out in the wild.” She simplified. “I just… never expected things to get this wiled…”
The giant looked a little dubious, but he didn’t say anything for a while.
“What’s Australian?” He asked at last, choosing one word out of several that he had not understood.
The small woman took a deep breath and thought for a moment. “Uhh… Well, Australia is sort of like this… Really really huge island way far away from here.” She tried to explain.
The giant seemed to understand, but he frowned a little.
“If it’s so far away, then how did you get here? You didn’t swim.” He said the last part as if daring her to disagree.
The girl chuckled nervously. “No way, I could never swim that far. I was on a boat.”
“A what?” The giant asked with a note of exasperation. He was starting to get annoyed with her foreign words. It made him feel stupid not to understand.
The girl wrung her hands again and thought fast. “Okay well like, you know how wood floats in water?” The giant nodded slowly, and so the girl pressed on. “Well a boat is sort of like that, only it’s hollow, and you ride inside it to… just, float to places that are too far to swim to. It should have been fine, but while we were out there was this storm and…” She stopped.
The giant had turned his head to look up at the tree he was leaning against. Again the girl worried frantically that she’d given him the idea to try and visit these other islands she was talking about. That could never be a good thing. Not for anyone involved.
“Well,” He sniffed, bringing the conversation back into territory he felt more confident in. “Even with all your tricks, your boats and burning sticks, you only lasted twenty moons.” In fact, his pride was a bit stung by the fact that he’d been outwitted so long by a creature who, on its home island, had never had to deal with a predator before. It was embarrassing. He tried to puff himself up in defense against that feeling.
“Hey! Considering I basically had a book of matches and an itty bitty hunting knife to my name, I think I did pretty good to… last this long…” The girls voice grew small and timid again. Yes, she’d lasted this long, but would she last another day? What if the giant got board of talking with her? What if he… What if he…
He turned to her and gave another prideful smirk. For a moment he’d forgotten how much fun he’d had chasing her. If she’d been easy to catch, then they wouldn’t be having this conversation right now. He was actually grateful that she was possibly even more clever than he was.
“Okay okay I admit, you did pretty good bight size.”
There was that nickname again. She could feel the color draining from her face.
“M…M-my name is Sophie.” She said quietly. She wasn’t even sure if the giant had heard at first. But he surprised her yet again.
“… Sophie.” He said once. “So-phie. Sopheee…” He rolled the name around in his mouth a few times, but didn’t seem to like the taste. “It’s no good.” He said at last.
Of all the absurd things to say at this point “Wha- yes it is!” wasn’t actually the worst she could have done. But it wasn’t exactly stellar either. She blushed in flustered embarrassment as soon as the words were out of her mouth.
“But you don’t look like a Sophie.” The giant insisted. “You look more like a…” He thought for a little while, his tail whipping the ground impatiently.
“Well I don’t know yet.” He admitted. “But as soon as I can think of one, your name is changing. If you’re going to run with me, then you’re going to need a proper hunters name.”
Sophie was, not for the first time today, stunned. Was he… wait, what was going on? “Uh… Run with you?” she repeated quietly. The giant shifted a little, making to stand up.
“Of course!” He said matter-of-factly. “On this island, the food chain starts and ends with me. If I’m not going to eat you, then I’ll be damned if anything else will.” Sophie gasped as he stood up to his full height. Gravity pulled her down into his palm as they both rose.
Once her heart rate had settled a little she managed to lift her head and look at the giant’s face again. He was still smiling. “And like I said, you’re way too much fun to waste on a snack.”
She wasn’t sure how to feel about that last remark. Relief and dread fought for dominance while hope and vomit grappled for second place.
“Gee thanks.” She managed after a while.
The giant smirked. “You’re welcome.” He moved his enormous hand to his shoulder and waited for the girl to climb up. She hesitated for a moment, but eventually worked up the courage to climb on her own.
She’d never noticed them before, but the tip of one long black ear was poking out of his shaggy black hair. Not for the first time, the question of just where on earth she was and what on earth he was entered her mind.
“You might want to hold on bight size,” he said nonchalantly. Sophie barely had time to grab onto the only thing close enough, his hair, before he started walking.
It wasn’t nearly as jerky as she’d expected. Since he wasn’t actively trying to chase anything down right now, he was actually walking quite slowly from her point of view. Though for him she was sure it was just a leisurely stroll.
“Please tell me this new hunter name of mine isn’t going to be bight size.” Said Sophie.
The giant chuckled. “It’s not exactly fear inspiring is it?” Sophie smiled and shook her head. She might not have been resigned to staying on the island long, but maybe she had to resign herself to at least a few inconveniences in the mean time. Being called bight size by a giant who had already tried to eat her twice might have to be one of them.
Suddenly a thought struck her. “So… what’s your name?” She asked timidly...
So this is what I wrote for the contest. I'm not actually all that happy with it. :[
Probably because it touches on vaguely vore like subject matter.
It's not what I was going for, I pretty much despise vore in all its forms. I hope I didn't offend anyone with this thing.
If anyone feels it's too vorish let me know and I'll take it down right away. :S
And... I guess that's all I really have to say about that. I'ma go ahead and start writing about nice giants again. ;;>__>
The little thing had shown up on his island about twenty one moons ago. It was tiny. Barely worth his interest. Or so he’d thought at first.
He’d poked around its little camp back near the start of all this. It hadn’t been around, and so he’d made himself at home. Ripping open the little cloth sack tucked away in the roots of a tree.
He couldn’t make heads or tails of the things that spilled out. Metal things and cloth things, and a few other things he couldn’t identify.
He wondered what they could possibly be used for, so he climbed a nearby tree and waited for it to return. Maybe it’d pick up one of the things and use it. Then his curiosity would be satisfied, and he could eat it.
He waited a long time, his tail swishing impatiently as the sun began to sink. But the little thing never returned. Eventually he became bored and climbed out of the tree.
It’d probably been eaten by something else by this point. Something that size probably wouldn’t last long on his island anyway. He’d come back tomorrow to see whether or not it’d come back. But for now, he needed to hunt for something a little bigger.
He did come back the next day, but the tiny camp was completely gone. If he wasn’t convinced that he knew every inch of the island by heart, he’d have thought he was in the wrong place.
So… Probably not dead then.
Now his curiosity was piqued. He got close to the ground to see if he could pick up its scent. He wasn’t used to hunting for things this small, what would be the point? But he wanted to see if he could find it nonetheless.
Eventually he found what he was looking for and followed the scent away from the small camp.
The smell wound this way and that, and was sometimes confused. It seemed that sometimes the little thing had started going one way, doubled back, and then continued in a completely different direction. He wasn’t used to this kind of cleverness in his prey. I was interesting to say the least. Finally, the winding trail lead him to the river.
The little minx.
It’d actually used the river to mask its scent.
His sense of smell would have been a celebrated one, had there been anyone else on the island to celebrate it, but even he could not pick up the things scent again after that.
Strangely, he hadn’t found it frustrating to be foiled like this. He was strangely proud. None of the animals that he preyed on had ever displayed a level of cunning before. It was sort of exciting. Well done little thing.
It was only a few days later when he finally picked up its scent again. It had been more or less by accident while he was tracking his breakfast. But as soon as that smell touched his nostrils, the thought of food was forgotten.
Ah, the thing didn’t know he was tracking it this time. Would it be so tricky if it was caught by surprise?
It took him a while, but finally he came upon a small clearing which held the last embers of a small fire. He didn’t like fire much, but this one was out, and so he approached with little trepidation.
The thing must have been staying somewhere close. He could smell it all over the place. Under those tree roots perhaps?
He smirked in triumph, his long canines showing ever so slightly. He reached forward, and heard something go ‘thwip.’
The silence of the clearing was shattered by a surprised yelp as several small somethings shot out of nowhere and hit him in the face. They we sharp and dug just deep enough into his skin to seriously hurt. It was as if he’d just stuck his face in a hornets’ nest.
He reeled back and felt something, a vine or something, snap on his arm. There was another ‘thwip’ followed by more sharp stingers. Panicking, he turned and bolted from the clearing. He didn’t stop until he was well away from it.
That, that sneaky little toad! It’d actually booby trapped its burrow!
He picked the small needles from his face gingerly, wincing all the time. When he finally had enough in the palm of his hand, he stopped to examine them. They weren’t stingers, but small pieces of wood, widdled down into sharp points.
It must have taken it a long time to make these, and to set up its trap. Despite the pain, he felt a familiar sensation of pride.
So it had patience and skill with tools as well. Fantastic! He’d be ready next time.
He crept back to the clearing to see what he could see, but the little thing was gone. Apparently it’d been ready to bolt at any moment.
All of its things were missing, and again, the only sign that it had ever been there was what little was left of the fire.
He could have followed it, but his face stung and his stomach growled. He’d try again some other time.
Ten moons past since the little thing came into his woods, and he’d only had a few real brushes with it. But every passing moon made him more and more focused on hunting it down.
It back tracked, it zig-zagged, it used streams to mask it’s scent and set traps around it’s burrows. It also learned of his fear of those large venomous lizards, and had taken to spreading their urine around its camp at night.
He did not want to speculate how it (She actually, for he’d had a chance to see her clearly by this point) had come to acquire so much of the stuff, but he had to admit, it had worked. The first few times he’d smelled it, he’d been too frightened to get any closer to the camp. Afraid that one of those things would drop out of a nearby tree and bight him. But when he’d seen her one day before moonrise spreading the stuff around the camp herself, he managed to muster up the courage to attack.
It hadn’t gone well.
She’d been lighting her way with a stick which burned at one end. Though he managed to charge through the booby traps and snatch her up in his jaws by the back of her cloth covering, her panicked struggles brought the burning tip of her stick in close contact with his main.
Just when he’d triumphantly thought that he’d finally claimed his prey, he realized that he was on fire.
He’d yelled in alarm, dropping the little thing from his jaws, and began swatting at his hair furiously. The fire only spread as his waving hands fed it oxygen. Finally he had no choice but to bolt for the brook gurgling a few meters off to his left.
When he finally pulled his head out, his black hair was a lot shorter.
‘She set me on fire. She set me on fire!!’ He’d thought frantically. ‘This thing is vicious!’
He wondered for the first time where it had come from. Were there more of these things? Where had she learned to do all the things she was doing? He knew how to hunt because long ago, he’d had his grandfather to teach him. He knew how to fashion protective covering from animal skins because his grandfather had shown him how. But this thing, it just showed up out of nowhere. It couldn’t possibly know all these things. He’d never seen one before.
It was immensely frustrating.
And yet… and yet… He was enjoying himself.
It wasn’t the ordinary thrill of the hunt either. He was being challenged mentally. He was feeling the presence of not just another animal, but a person on his island. He’d often caught himself wondering what went through that tiny little head of hers when she realized he was coming for her again.
He liked that she was probably scared of him. She ought to be. But more so he liked how she overcame all that and outwitted him again and again.
And that’s when he finally realized what he was going to do when he finally caught her.
It was another ten moons before he managed to take her by surprise again.
It was well before moonrise. Normally he’d be napping right now, but he’d been stalking this prey long enough to know its habits.
When the sun was three hours from its highest point in the sky, she would start to set up her camp. This was when her insidious little traps were laid and her fire was started. (He’d found out that she always used this fire to burn her food over. He couldn’t fathom why.)
At this point she was tired. She’d been walking all day, and it had been a particularly hot and humid one. These conditions never bothered him, but they always took a toll on her.
She finally stopped near the roots of yet another tree and began looking around herself cautiously. Ah, she was contemplating setting up camp here.
He hid nearly a dozen yards away from her, the trees hopefully shielding him from view. To his satisfaction, she hadn’t spotted him there.
He crouched in the foliage and watched her work for a while.
She was rather pretty, to his tastes anyway. She had long messy brown hair which was tied back with a red band. Her skin was a little lighter than his own, but still pleasantly dark.
He crept forward quietly on all fours, as alert as any one creature could possibly be.
He could have sworn he hadn’t made a sound, but suddenly the little thing whipped around and stared him directly in the eye.
Both of them were caught off guard for a moment, but the spell didn’t last long. The tiny girl screamed, then in one movement she got to her feet and ran, leaving all of her things behind.
He cursed and lunged forward. It was just his luck that she’d see him while he was so far off.
You would think that with his longer limbs it would have taken him no time at all to catch up to his escaping prey, but in this case his size was a distinct disadvantage. His movements were slow and cumbersome when placed alongside the tiny female’s.
Even when she ran headlong into the woods she was graceful. Even when she was frightened out of her mind she moved with a fluidity he couldn’t match. He adored that.
He grunted and panted as he ran, straining every muscle to its limit to catch him up with his prey. He dimly realized that the chase had brought them close to the waterfall.
He quickly changed his tactics, running off towards her side, forcing her to change course in a desperate effort to get away.
The cliff face was close, very close now, if he could only…
He lost sight of her for a moment as she rounded a large tree but, yes, his plan must have worked, because a second later he heard the scream.
It wasn’t a scream of absolute terror but a scream of despair. He quickly rounded the tree and came face to back with the girl. She turned from the terrifying drop in front of her to the terrifying predator behind. For one electric moment, she looked like she wasn’t sure which was worse.
He grinned slowly, his long canines glinting cruelly in the afternoon light. Despite his humanoid form, he still stood on all fours, like a hungry cat advancing on a helpless mouse.
Suddenly something snapped in the girl’s head.
If she was the rat then she’d rather end up a drowned one then some cat’s dinner. She turned quickly and jumped. Unfortunately, so did he.
He heard the scream of terror when he caught her in his mouth. It had been a close thing too. Half a second later and she would have gone over the edge. He couldn’t allow that.
He did however allow himself a moment of absolute satisfaction.
There was no torch this time. One quick swish and a swallow and he’d officially win. There’d be no last minute escapes this time.
With sickening smugness, he strolled back to the tree line. He lay down on the mossy forest floor and made himself comfortable, propping his shoulders up against a tree trunk.
Then he raised his hand to his mouth and spat.
The girl landed in his palm with a wet splat, and instantly began gasping for air. She viciously wiped the saliva from her face and stared up at him in absolute terror.
He simply smirked back.
“I won.” He said with finality. The girl blinked back.
“…W-what?” she asked finally. It was the first time he’d really heard her talk, He decided he liked her voice.
“I, won.” He said again, stressing the word.
The girl continued to stare at him uncomprehendingly. “What do you mean w-won? A-as in won a game?” she asked. The disbelief on her face was priceless. He wished he could etch it in stone and keep it forever.
“That’s right bight size. I won the chase. I’ve finally got you where I want you.” The smugness coming off of him was almost as strong as the horror coming from the girl. She cringed back and looked around herself for any possible escape route. She found none.
Breathing deeply, she put on a brave face, but he noticed a few tears leak from her eyes.
“T-then what are you w-waiting for?” She challenged, voice cracking. “A… Aren’t you going to…?” She stopped. She couldn’t say it. She felt like she was trapped in a nightmare. She couldn’t imagine a worse fate then the one staring her in the face. The one that had almost claimed her twice already.
The monster seemed to think about this for a while. The silence stretched on, and with every second the girl’s heart beat harder.
“No,” he said at last, and dropped her onto his chest. She landed with a squeal of surprised, and would have made a break for it, but his hand landed heavily behind her to box her in.
“I’m not going to eat you.” He elaborated, catching her attention again.
“You’re just too much fun.”
The girl sat completely still, the giant’s words sinking in slowly. “I, you… WHAT?!” she demanded.
She almost got to her feet, but the hand behind her twitched warningly and she suddenly stopped all movement. Still enraged by the giants answer, she managed to work past the crippling fear and speak her mind.
“O-only a total sadist would consider what you’ve been putting me through for the last month fun!” she shouted in total indignation. “I thought you were going to kill me!” Tears were now rolling freely down her face.
The giant had the good grace to look at least a little abashed. “Well, that was then and this is now.” He said lightly. The girl stared at him in newfound horror.
“You were going to kill me! Why? What have I ever done to you?!” she screamed, a new level of terror taking hold.
“Well, nothing.” He conceded. Very few of the animals on the island ever did anything to provoke him. But that had never stopped him from hunting them before. “But look, I didn’t know you then.” The giant defended himself, more out of annoyance than anything else.
“Wha- Y-you don’t know me now!” Ah, again he was forced to concede. Bight size did have a point.
“…But I’d like to.” He said. The girl’s mental gears ground to a halt. She couldn’t help but stare at the giant, not entirely sure how she was supposed to react to that.
“It’s been a very long time since I’ve met another animal that thought like me.” He said wistfully. “I’d like to get to know the little creature who came onto my island and actually managed to keep me on my toes for twenty moons.”
The girl was a little thrown. A part of her told her, in no uncertain terms, to fight and scream and run. A part connected to the more rational side of self preservation said, milk this for all it’s worth! If he’s talking to you than you haven’t been eaten yet!
“W-… well I’m not an animal, so…” She trailed off, he was looking at her again with interest.
She gasped quickly when he scooped her up in his hand and brought her within inches of his face. She’d never wanted to be that close to his mouth again. Behind the raging terror, a lightheaded part of her realized that his skin wasn’t quite as dark as she’d thought it was. More tan than black. But then she had been seeing him mostly at night.
“If you’re not an animal, then what exactly are you?” His huge inverted blue eyes held a look of rapt attention in them. She didn’t enjoy it at all.
“I- I’m a human. You know, a h-human b-being?” She squeaked. He did not seem to be following her. The giant waited impatiently for her to elaborate. In the end she sighed.
“You uh… You’ve seriously never even heard of a human before?” she asked a little hopelessly.
He shook his massive head. “Many of you?” He asked. She wrung her hands nervously.
“Um… yeeeaaah.” She said at last. She wasn’t sure how much information she out to give this guy. He had tried to eat her after all.
“But I’ve never seen any of you before!” He whined suddenly. “Not even when I’ve swam to the other islands!”
The girl latched onto that information and stored it away for later. Other islands? Could be useful.
“Ah,” She said at last. “My island is a little further away than those.” She chuckled nervously.
“Oh…” The giant sat up and turned a bit, so he was facing back towards the cliff. The girl squeaked in panic as he did this, but his hand held her firmly in place.
Over the expanse he had a good view of the sea.
He was silent for a little while.
“A whole island full of you…” He said absently. The girl’s eyebrows furrowed in worry. She severely hoped he wasn’t thinking about paying her “island” a visit. But then, she’d been able to hold her own against him pretty well with only a few sticks, some matches, and time. Maybe his sudden appearance in lower Manhattan wouldn’t be a disaster of Cloverfieldian proportions.
Yeah, a few F-22’s and…
Suddenly the giant turned his attention back to her. She felt her heart try to crawl up her throat.
His playful smirk was back in full force.
“And do you give the animals there such a hard time catching you too?” He dropped back down into his loafing position, once again setting the girl on his monstrous chest.
After she’d recovered from the fright of his sudden movement she managed to muster an answer. “We don’t really get hunted over there.” She croaked hoarsely.
A look of shock slowly stole over the giants face.
“Wait, you mean, not at all? But then- But how-? But you…” His mouth flapped uselessly as he searched for words. “Then how did you know how to do everything you did?” he finally asked.
The girl was wringing her hands more vigorously now. God, just what was he expecting from her? Already far past the point where she was sure she should have fainted, she opened her mouth and let the words tumble out on one long nervous stream.
“Well, I was always kind of interested in that sort of thing! I used to go camping all the time, and watch stuff like ‘man against nature’ and stuff. Then my friend told me about this Australian walk about thing, and we were totally going to go, only he got bit by a rat a couple days before the flight and had to stay in the hospital cause he got rabies, and he said I should still go, but like, I didn’t want to go alone, but the tickets were already paid for, so I got on the plane but then I just decided to stay in Sydney and… ” She trailed off. Her audience looked completely lost.
She bit her lip, and then had to restrain herself from spitting when she realized that she was still covered in… well, spit.
“Basically I trained myself to live out in the wild.” She simplified. “I just… never expected things to get this wiled…”
The giant looked a little dubious, but he didn’t say anything for a while.
“What’s Australian?” He asked at last, choosing one word out of several that he had not understood.
The small woman took a deep breath and thought for a moment. “Uhh… Well, Australia is sort of like this… Really really huge island way far away from here.” She tried to explain.
The giant seemed to understand, but he frowned a little.
“If it’s so far away, then how did you get here? You didn’t swim.” He said the last part as if daring her to disagree.
The girl chuckled nervously. “No way, I could never swim that far. I was on a boat.”
“A what?” The giant asked with a note of exasperation. He was starting to get annoyed with her foreign words. It made him feel stupid not to understand.
The girl wrung her hands again and thought fast. “Okay well like, you know how wood floats in water?” The giant nodded slowly, and so the girl pressed on. “Well a boat is sort of like that, only it’s hollow, and you ride inside it to… just, float to places that are too far to swim to. It should have been fine, but while we were out there was this storm and…” She stopped.
The giant had turned his head to look up at the tree he was leaning against. Again the girl worried frantically that she’d given him the idea to try and visit these other islands she was talking about. That could never be a good thing. Not for anyone involved.
“Well,” He sniffed, bringing the conversation back into territory he felt more confident in. “Even with all your tricks, your boats and burning sticks, you only lasted twenty moons.” In fact, his pride was a bit stung by the fact that he’d been outwitted so long by a creature who, on its home island, had never had to deal with a predator before. It was embarrassing. He tried to puff himself up in defense against that feeling.
“Hey! Considering I basically had a book of matches and an itty bitty hunting knife to my name, I think I did pretty good to… last this long…” The girls voice grew small and timid again. Yes, she’d lasted this long, but would she last another day? What if the giant got board of talking with her? What if he… What if he…
He turned to her and gave another prideful smirk. For a moment he’d forgotten how much fun he’d had chasing her. If she’d been easy to catch, then they wouldn’t be having this conversation right now. He was actually grateful that she was possibly even more clever than he was.
“Okay okay I admit, you did pretty good bight size.”
There was that nickname again. She could feel the color draining from her face.
“M…M-my name is Sophie.” She said quietly. She wasn’t even sure if the giant had heard at first. But he surprised her yet again.
“… Sophie.” He said once. “So-phie. Sopheee…” He rolled the name around in his mouth a few times, but didn’t seem to like the taste. “It’s no good.” He said at last.
Of all the absurd things to say at this point “Wha- yes it is!” wasn’t actually the worst she could have done. But it wasn’t exactly stellar either. She blushed in flustered embarrassment as soon as the words were out of her mouth.
“But you don’t look like a Sophie.” The giant insisted. “You look more like a…” He thought for a little while, his tail whipping the ground impatiently.
“Well I don’t know yet.” He admitted. “But as soon as I can think of one, your name is changing. If you’re going to run with me, then you’re going to need a proper hunters name.”
Sophie was, not for the first time today, stunned. Was he… wait, what was going on? “Uh… Run with you?” she repeated quietly. The giant shifted a little, making to stand up.
“Of course!” He said matter-of-factly. “On this island, the food chain starts and ends with me. If I’m not going to eat you, then I’ll be damned if anything else will.” Sophie gasped as he stood up to his full height. Gravity pulled her down into his palm as they both rose.
Once her heart rate had settled a little she managed to lift her head and look at the giant’s face again. He was still smiling. “And like I said, you’re way too much fun to waste on a snack.”
She wasn’t sure how to feel about that last remark. Relief and dread fought for dominance while hope and vomit grappled for second place.
“Gee thanks.” She managed after a while.
The giant smirked. “You’re welcome.” He moved his enormous hand to his shoulder and waited for the girl to climb up. She hesitated for a moment, but eventually worked up the courage to climb on her own.
She’d never noticed them before, but the tip of one long black ear was poking out of his shaggy black hair. Not for the first time, the question of just where on earth she was and what on earth he was entered her mind.
“You might want to hold on bight size,” he said nonchalantly. Sophie barely had time to grab onto the only thing close enough, his hair, before he started walking.
It wasn’t nearly as jerky as she’d expected. Since he wasn’t actively trying to chase anything down right now, he was actually walking quite slowly from her point of view. Though for him she was sure it was just a leisurely stroll.
“Please tell me this new hunter name of mine isn’t going to be bight size.” Said Sophie.
The giant chuckled. “It’s not exactly fear inspiring is it?” Sophie smiled and shook her head. She might not have been resigned to staying on the island long, but maybe she had to resign herself to at least a few inconveniences in the mean time. Being called bight size by a giant who had already tried to eat her twice might have to be one of them.
Suddenly a thought struck her. “So… what’s your name?” She asked timidly...
000
So this is what I wrote for the contest. I'm not actually all that happy with it. :[
Probably because it touches on vaguely vore like subject matter.
It's not what I was going for, I pretty much despise vore in all its forms. I hope I didn't offend anyone with this thing.
If anyone feels it's too vorish let me know and I'll take it down right away. :S
And... I guess that's all I really have to say about that. I'ma go ahead and start writing about nice giants again. ;;>__>
Tis Amaya from everywhere! *flails* x3 
It makes me extra cautious about things.
You're writing is excellent, and, from what I can tell, flawless. I love the way you protrayed the characters and the idea of a giant lion/ hunter thingy is awesome 
and, vore isn't my thing, but the way you used it in the story is fine and it's not as if it was a huge part of it. all in all: fabulous