Chapter 9 – Nestled in Fur.

He watched as the human rode upon his beast with the white furred giant on one side and Willow on her direwolf mount on the other. It had been some days since the Giants had joined their party on their march south but in all those days there had been little contact between them and the Children of the Forest.

Not out of any malice as Hidden Path had noticed along with many of his kin that the Giants were a peaceful lot. It was just that many could not forget the image of a Giant's fist or club heading their way before they died. The only real point of contact they had was the human who seemed to have made a bond with the white-grey haired giant. Something a few members of the tribe feared as Willow clearly could not match the strength of the bond and the human was their source of security.

He followed the three of them quietly, slowly putting his thoughts together for what he had to say. Things had been a joke ever since the Elder died and the three little shits had somehow found themselves at the top of the tree. Willow who had only begun her lessons with the Elder, Root who was only allowed to become a hunter because he had the skill to warg a decent pack and Nails who was born a bitch to all but her brother and then to him as well when he lay with her.

It was as if the human had attached himself to the loudest idiots that made themselves known and talked only to them. Then the same shits take Hidden Path's own idea of warging the beast and use it at the worst time, fools.

Hidden Path stroked the fur of his direwolf and urged it forward. The trick with warging was to work with the animal and to guide it. There were those that forced the bond and were unable to do much more than control one being, but he or the other riders quickly taught them better. To control too much did not work and neither did controlling too little. Hoping for the best like the human did with the tribe left only chaos. The Elder had it right, a gentle touch was best, with the occasional slap and banishment.

"Human," he said squeezing between him and Willow who sent him a scathing look.

"Leave, Hidden Path," she said.

"No," he responded before looking back at the human. "I have a question for you if you're not too busy riding your beast to answer."

"Go on," the human replied, looking down on him with a strange expression.

"Do you know who I am?"

The human said nothing and Hidden Path noticed the firewolf he rode look at him curiously. "I can't say I do."

"Try to remember."

"He's Hidden Path. He wanted to kill you when we first met," Willow interjected.

The human stared at him for a moment, his hand gripping the short sword sheathed on his hip. "Nice to know. Anything you want?"

"Yes," he continued. Trust the fool of a girl to act so. "When are you going to take your job seriously."

"Haven't we talked about this?" the human asked. He looked exhausted with the question.

"No," Hidden Path replied, "I'm not talking about the night when they came for us. I'm talking about right now. You have every right to run from us. Fly on your beast to the south. It's what I'd do. But you don't, you've said some things about why and I don't really care about that. But that makes you our Elder now. You have to step up in your role in guiding us."

Willow and the human looked at him in silence for a moment. "I'm not," he began to say before Hidden Path continued.

"It's been two days since the Gods chose your beast to revive us and you are in charge of your beast. Tell us, what do you want us to do?"

"I'm not your Elder." The human said whilst Willow punched Hidden Path in the side and whispered insults at him.

"No," he replied, ignoring Willow. "He was much better than you. But you are the one in charge right now and we need orders."

"We're going south, that's it."

"We're also moving at the pace of the Giants. We could forage for food instead of slowly starve. Set up camps in advance of the Giants so that we can rest by the time the Giants reach us. Send some scouts at least."

"Aren't you doing that already," the human asked.

"Not since we're all scared of what could be in the woods," came his reply. "I'm sacred too but what we're doing now? We're moving too slowly. Someone has to sort something out because Willow's a shit that no one wants to talk to," she punched him again, "Nails is a shrieking shit that gave birth to an abomination and Root is a cowardly shit that hasn't gotten over what happened two days ago."

"He died."

"He didn't, but I did. You don't see me being a shit about it," came the quick reply. "Heck, he forgot to sleep out of moonlight, Nails had to smack some sense into him. The problem is that you talk with no one but these three shits."

"I thought you wanted to kill me?"

"That was in the past and by the stories given by the Elder I had every right to want you dead. You're human and you were going to kill us all. Then we all died and now you are the Elder, at least that's the way I see it, there's no need to want you dead anymore."

"Don't listen to him" Willow interjected. "You'll be better off doing the opposite of what this fool says."

"He's talking sense," the human sighed and then looked at Hidden Path in the eye. "but, I'm not looking to make you my people."

"Until someone finds out that they have a brain, we are your people." The human had a look of frustration on his face. "I am Hidden Path and I am the best hunter here, because I see problems and I make answers. I said that we should kill you or die and we died, now I'm saying that you have to get everyone in order or we'll all die… again."

"Can't you do it?" the human asked, he looked frustrated.

"No," he replied. "I hunt and say what needs to be said just like how Nails throws rocks and hasn't been a bad den mother for the tribe since she ripped Willow's face apart."

"Go and fuck your face Hidden Piss-stain." Willow snapped then looked at the human. "I can do it," Willow said; it was only the recent argument and the reaction from the tribe that had stopped her from claiming the title of Elder herself.

"All you're good for is telling stories, handling the bloodletting and slapping a poultice on a wound- which you don't need to do anymore with the pink- egg healer."

"Chansey," the human murmured.

"Besides how is our 'clever' leader ever going to learn to lead? Or be clever? He's got one thing he said he'd do. Lead us to safety wherever that would be and he can only do that by leading us."

"I don't remember saying it like that," the human mumbled.

"And all he has to do is train that creature of his like he's been doing"

"Mew," the human interrupted. "Its name is Mew."

"And if you talked to us a little more we would stop calling it 'creature'. But you have to do that and keep the tribe in check. You can't do that if you spend all day doing nothing but ride slowly."

"We got Willow to agree to tell us some stories tonight," the human said with a sigh. "And I'll admit, Willow might have a point. Your argument started out good but ended up in a mess. You sound like you're the sort of person that talks a lot of shit." He frowned, "but it doesn't mean you don't have good points." He then looked to his side and up and Hidden Path followed his eyes to see the Giant.

"Grun gar hev," the Giant said. It was unnerving just how the creature had blended into the background.

"Gre kak res," the human responded and looked at him and Willow. "Your name was Hidden Path? This is Han Gar. Han Gar, kot tek Hidden Path des tro," he said to the Giant then turned back to Hidden Path. "Keep him entertained or he'll grind your bones to make bread." The humans firewolf transformed into a black and white striped horse and rode away to the rest of the tribe, Willow tailing behind him.

Hidden Path looked up at the giant and tried not to think of that night two days ago. It was true that even after death they would all return to the Roots of the world, to be one with their Gods. But the thought of doing it so soon was terrifying.

"You don't know anything about what I'm saying do you?" he asked the Giant.

"Krak arg wak," was the response.

"Thought so. Forgot to get him to check up on the boy. Boy's a shit but deserves better than his shrew of a sister. Ha! I forgot. I still didn't manage to get the human's name from him." Hidden Path looked up to the Giant. "You wouldn't know, would you?"

The Giant didn't reply.

"You're just a two legged bear aren't you?, slow in the head as the stories say." He pointed to himself and repeated his name "Hidden Path", pointed to the Giant and said "Han Gar," then pointed to the human trying to see if the Giant knew their protectors name.

It took a few more tries before the Giant understood his question. "Toh Red," was his answer.

"Strange name," Hidden Path murmured. "Let's see if we can train a bear," he pointed to a tree, "tree."


Bolor crouched behind a tree, the four others of his hunting party hidden in other positions. He and his party had left Rockhill a day ago on this hunting mission. A small village with a handful of men and women but not so different to the others that littered the forest north of The Wall.

But of all the things he had seen in all his time hunting, the man and creature besides him was not one of them. The man wore strange clothing underneath a snow bear cloak, the creature besides him had the shape of a woman but was so different in appearance that it couldn't be called such. It had green hair and a pale white inhuman face as well as what seemed to be a red horn piercing through her chest and what may have been clothing in the form of a white strip of fabric.

He and the rest of his party remained in their positions, watching the two as they stood doing nothing. Possibly waiting for someone? He hoped it wasn't them.

Originally Bolor wanted to watch to see if anything happened and trace to two but now it was clear that nothing was. He had the option of shooting them with arrows, they didn't look armoured. Alternatively, he could have captured them. As inhuman as the creature was there were many that would have use for it it if it had a warm hole. Talking was out of the question, such things rarely ever went well when two groups met in the wood, and he was not one to tempt fate.

But he didn't get to where he was by being a fool. Some of their group had young back at their homes. It would not do for them to never see their parents again.

He made his decision, Arlaf could use his hand tonight. He motioned to his group to pull away and leave. Gradually they moved away from the two until a voice rang out, "wait!" The group paused and looked back at the pair.

"I just wanted to say-" they realised that the voice that they were hearing was not being spoken out loud but was being echoed inside of their heads. Skinchanger, Bolor thought and shot two arrows at them as a reflex along with more from his companions.

The arrows stopped in mid-air before the pair, surrounded in a light blue glow. More arrows were let loose only to meet the same fate. The arrows floating in mid-air were released from their grip and fell to the earth.

"Sorry about that," the voice in their heads spoke, "new body, getting used to it."

They all ran away through the trees as if their life depended on it, weaving through the trunks and looking back to find that they were not being chased.

They did not stop running.

Bolor looked at his fellow hunters for the signs of a human being taken over by a warg. Namely the jerking movements that came with getting used to a new body and the signs of a mind fighting back. Taking a human was near impossible from what he heard from the wargs he had met, but that creature could have been capable of anything. He had never heard of anything like that creature, was it a human? A monster?

Then it appeared from thin air a distance before them. Svanna let loose an arrow out of reflex only to have it stop in mid-air like all the others before it.

"Teleport is amazing," the creature spoke in their heads. Arlaf raised his spear and charged the creature with a battle cry only to be pushed back by an invisible force.

"Grab Arlaf!" Bolor shouted, "run!"


Han Gar Run Gen was his name In the Great Tongue. He looked down at the human, Toh Red as he stood amongst the trees and stood breathless at how sharp his eyesight had become since that dark night.

"Didn't expect them to run," the human said more to himself then the Giant. "Then again I didn't expect you and the rest of the giants to be so good at hiding big guy." The human stopped for a moment before continuing briefly, "and they won't stop running."

Han Gar continued to look down at the human as a short silence established itself.

Toh Red sighed, "you're right I should stop this joke and get them to talk. Let's try to use Butterfree, it's a new form. they shouldn't see it in the air and I haven't used Stun Spore before." He grinned and said something in the language of the squirrel people.

From where they were hidden behind the trees the squirrel people revealed themselves and their mounts and began to march forward to where the men had run off to.

The human walked at a leisurely pace whilst Han Gar Run Gen thought of the place he now found himself in. Toh Red was young and so were the squirrel people, all of the eager to reach answers and swiftly move forward, scared of the future. Unknowing that the answers that they needed answered already lay within them, all they needed to do was wait for a moment and let the answers come to them.

Han Gar began to march forward. The heavy thump of his feet on the ground the first sound he had made in some time. He felt his fur shift as the young family of birds that had made nest in it cried to their mother for food. There used to be a family of mice as well, they ran when the cold came.

He regretted his actions that dark night two days ago but all he did, he did with the intention of preserving his family. It was to his shame that he had failed and had to be saved by the humans' creature.

He lifted Toh Red up and placed him on his shoulder to ride. Given the irritatingly slow speed of the human when he had no mount it seemed best. He saw the red-haired squirrel person approach to ride by his side, he could smell her frustration with the human.

The birds in his fur calmed down but the grip he kept on his club didn't. It would be strange to see the wall the Stone Giants made.


Surprised how much you guys like the Giants but for a while the Children have been facing a crisis of leadership and of purpose. Choosing the loudest option may be the simplest but it isn't always the best... neither is breaking promises.

Toh Red and Thored are the same name but given the different methods of speech coming from the two species it comes off as different.

Happy Easter!