I don't own any of this, Loud House belongs to Nickelodeon.
"Alright Luan. What story do you got?" Lori question.
"Let's just say that this story has a giant problem." Luan giggled before starting up with her story, while her siblings groaned over that pun she made.
Once upon a time in the far off land of Oklahoma. There lived a family of farmers who are known for growing the best vegetables and fruits in town. The family loved their farm and the animals they had: from their cow's, to the chickens. The farm has been with their family for generations and one day Liam will own it all with his own family.
Unfortunately times have been tough for the family. A long drought has struck the land and in result their crops and produce have perished. The drought also killed off all the grass, leaving behind cracked dirt that generated dust when the wind blows through. If that wasn't enough, the family had to sell most of their animals in order to have some money for bread on the table, the animals that were still around have unfortunately met their end in order to feed the family.
They essentially have become poor and starving to the point where their ribs are visible. Liam felt his stomach grumble as he sat at the table with his mother and older brother Mike. He had never ever felt this hungry before in his entire life, he literally felt that his stomach would start eating itself. Oh, how he hoped that his pa will return from Oklahoma city with a ton of food.
From across the table, Mike looked to the ceiling with a open mouth with the thought of food drilling through his head like: roasted chicken, steak, corn, lettuce, and bacon. He is so hungry that he will eat a bug or mouse, too bad most of those critters have left because of this blasted drought that killed their poor farm. Mike slowly looked to his brother and hallucinated that he had turned into a giant slice of pizza, this makes him stare hungrily at him with fresh saliva flowing out of his mouth.
Liam took notice of the way his brother is looking at him and snapped his fingers. "Hey, are you feeling alright Mike?"
Liam's voice gets him out of his hallucinated state, good thing to as he had been very sure that he was about to take a large bite out of Liam. Once he did that, Mike was sure that the spirit of the Wendigo would take hold of him just like what he had read in a book. "Sorry. I'm just very hungry."
"We are all Mike." Their mother spoke up.
"When is pa going to be back from his trip, ma?"
"I have no idea Liam. Your pa has to find a way to make some money." Their mother replied.
Mike would've groaned right now, if his hunger had allowed him to. He needed something to eat right now, looking out the window he spots their last ever cow; Bessie standing around in the dusty landscape. Looking at her made the starving boy think of beef, hamburgers, or a nice juicy steak. "You know, I know how we could feed ourselves for the week."
Liam and their mother looked to where Mike had his eyesight trained on. Liam gasped in shock from what Mike is thinking of, he quickly gets himself off his seat and in front of the window with his arms spread out wide. "No, not Bessie!"
"Look bro, I'm turning into a skeleton here and I need to fatten myself up or else I'll go insane and we all don't want that." Mike exclaimed with ravenous eyes.
"But she's family." Liam protested for he had raised Bessie ever since she was a calf.
"We ate our other animals. Besides she'll die in this drought with the lack of food. All we need to do is grab our trusty ax and slice her into nice, little pieces for all of us." Mike explained.
"No way!" Liam shouted.
Their mother now got up from her seat and gets herself in-between her two sons. "That's enough boys." She says firmly which silences her boys at once, as they both knew that it isn't wise to upset their mother. She let's out a sigh as at least she stopped this argument, she then looked out to Bessie. "But you know, Bessie may help us in our current predicament."
"How so ma?" Liam asked uneasily for he hoped that it didn't involved eating her.
"I want you to take Bessie to town and see if you could trade her with someone who will give money or food in return." His mother answered.
"Aw! Do we have to sell the old girl?" Liam really didn't want to give Bessie to some stranger, they wouldn't know that she liked to listen to karaoke as she got milked.
"We must make sacrifices in very desperate times Liam." His mother firmly said.
Sighing in defeat as he knew that there isn't anyway out of this. Liam slowly walked off to collect Bessie.
"Come on Bessie." Liam sadly leads the cow off of their property and started walking down the road towards town. "Don't blame me for this girl. This certainly isn't my idea, but we do need to eat. Besides you'll probably be safer with someone else, considering Mike wanted to hack you up."
Liam continues to lead Bessie down the road, he gets right up to a dead tree when he encountered a man with a bag next to him. "Howdy there boy." The man addressed.
Liam stopped to address the man with a polite wave. "Howdy mister. What's your name?"
"You can call me Flip." He proudly addressed before he pointed over to Bessie. "What ya doing with that cow there, boy?"
"I'm taking her to town for a trade. This drought has choked us to the point where we're starving and I'm pretty sure that my brother is wanting to eat me." Liam explained.
Flip nods his head. "Yep, this is definitely some drought. Heard that a couple dust storms have stirred up in some parts." Flip then gets a good idea that's very beneficial for him. "I can trade with you."
"What do you got?"
"I'm glad you ask my boy." Reaching into his bag, Flip pulls out three, small beans.
"Beans?" Liam question in doubt. These beans were definitely not enough to feed his family.
Flip meanwhile wags his finger. "Not just any beans my boy. They're magic beans."
"Magic beans?" Liam exclaimed in surprise.
"Yep. They fell right out of a spaceship and then got sprinkled with magic dust. Why with these beans, you could feed your family for generations." Flip explained with a con-artist smile for he knew that he hooked a sucker from the look in Liam's eyes.
"Wow! You got yourself a trade." Liam hands Flip the rope for Bessie and received the beans in return. With his prize in his hands, Liam raced on home with Flip waving goodbye to him. "Pleasure doing business with you!" Once Liam is far from earshot, Flip sniggered. "What a sucker." He then turns his attention to Bessie. "Now lets see if I can sell you to the rodeo?"
Liam raced into his house in joy. "I'm back!"
His mother and brother came out from the kitchen in surprise for they didn't expect him to be back so soon. At least they expected him to be gone for about two hours. "Goodness Liam. That had been certainly fast." His mother exclaimed.
"Did you get anything good? Like a big feast?" Mike asks with hope.
"Even better. I got ourselves some magic beans." Liam proudly shows the magic beans to his family. His mother and brother looked at the beans in complete silence, then Mike's face changed to complete rage and suddenly rushed forward and grabs his brother by the neck. "You numbskull! You traded Bessie for small, worthless beans that can barely feed us!"
"The man who gave them to me said they were magic." Liam choked out as his brother shook him back and forth. Their mother quickly comes in to pry Mike off of Liam's throat. "That's enough!"
She pulls Mike safely away from Liam, then move herself in-between the two in order to prevent Mike from completely strangling his brother. "Calm down! I said calm down!" She ordered in her most firm voice.
Mike eventually did lower his hands as his hunger state couldn't allow anymore energy to give him any more strength for his arms, but that didn't stop him from giving the most intense death glare towards his brother who visibly shrunk under it. Now with everything clam down their mother slowly turned to face Liam. "I'm afraid you've been scammed Liam."
"What? But he told me that these were magic." Liam replied.
His mother took the beans out of his hands. "These are nothing but worthless." She tosses them out the window, and the beans landed on the ground where they sunk right into it.
This goes unnoticed by the family. "Looks like we're going to bed hungry again." Their mother said sadly as she walked out of the room, leaving the brothers alone in which Mike glare hardened. "Thanks a lot you bozo." He growled as he also walked off, leaving Liam to look down in guilt for he has failed his family and now they have nothing but their roaring stomachs.
That night as everyone fell into an uneasy sleep, something strange started to happen.
Right in the spot where the beans had landed, a green vine broke out through the ground. It started out small, but in a matter of seconds it sprouted up into a large beanstalk that reached high into the sky.
Liam woke up from stomach pains. It hurts so bad and it is no doubt that he couldn't get back to sleep any time soon. "Maybe some fresh air will help ease my pain."
Jumping out of bed, Liam tip toed out of his room, through the house, and out through the front door. Now outside of his house Liam let's in that cool night air, he then notices a shadow created by the moon light. "What in tarnation is that?"
Liam looked back and nearly fell to the ground in shock upon seeing the giant beanstalk that's by the side of his house. "Holy moley! Those beans were magic!" He shouted in surprise.
Going on up to the base of the beanstalk, Liam looked at how high it is, why it's so high that it reached passed the clouds. "Oh boy! This has got to be a record! We're going to be rich because of this thing."
Liam could already see it. Him and his family wearing luxurious clothes, living in a very upgraded farm, money up to their necks, and the food, oh all the food they could ever want. Liam should inform the press right now, if only it wasn't for one thing. That thing is the strange impulse to climb the beanstalk. Why? He doesn't know, it was as if some unknown force is telling him to and he couldn't deny it no matter how hard he tried. Besides, perhaps he could see Oklahoma city from that height.
Grabbing on firmly to the beanstalk, Liam began to climb himself up and up the large stalk. Half the night was over by the time he got halfway up it, he also remembered that from this far up that he has a pretty nasty fear of heights. So this is just loads of fun for him.
After many more hours of climbing, Liam finally makes it to the top of the beanstalk where a huge surprise is waiting for him. Up here in the clouds is a large castle and garden full of very large vegetables. "Whoa! Either I lost my mind, I'm dead, or I'm dreaming as I don't know how all of this can be up here?"
Looking at the vegetables however, Liam didn't care at the moment as there is giant food in front of him and it's all his for the taking. Jumping off the beanstalk and landing on the soft puffy clouds, Liam raced himself as fast as Roadrunner over to the first vegetable he reached; which is a tomato that is as big as a two story house. Liam began to happily gouge himself with the tomato, it felt so good to be eating something after so long of nothing, his belly definitely appreciate it as it finally got refilled.
Unknown to Liam though; the owner of the garden comes out from his back shed with garden supplies in his hands. "Fee, Fi, uh? Whatever the rest is." Grouse the Giant exclaimed. He is excited for his precious garden is almost ready for the yearly harvest, even better was that with all the hard work he has been doing with it, Grouse is positively sure that he'll win first prize at the county Fair.
Getting to his garden; Grouse immediately began work on the garden. He pulls the weeds, smokes out the bugs, watered them, and gave them new soil. When Grouse is finished, he walked along proudly as he inspected his vegetables. "Heh. I told everyone that living in the clouds is the best way of growing a healthy garden: clouds have plenty of moisture and the vegetables get tons of sunshine. Sure it's difficult to breath up here from time to time, but it's absolutely worth it."
Anywho from what Grouse can see from his inspection: the lettuce is green, the eggplants are purple, the tomatoes are red and have someone eating off it, the carrots look ready to pull out. A record screech plays in his head as he stopped in mid step. Turning back to his tomatoes, Grouse looked down and sees a ugly bug eating away on one of his tomatoes.
"A bug eating my tomatoes? Not on my watch." Grouse slowly reached his hand towards the bug, he'll squish it before it eats anything else of his.
Liam with his mouth full of tomato juice notices the sudden shade overlapping him. He looks up and jumps out of the way just in time before the hand slammed down. Peeking out from behind a potato he had jumped behind, Liam stares up at the giant glaring down at him. "Holy guacamole! That sure is a huge fellow."
A Yelp escapes him as the hand came down at him again. Running off in a flash the hand squishes the potato into mash potatoes. "Oh! You darn pest!" The giant shouted.
Liam raced around the vegetable patch with the giant right behind him, trying to squish him with his boots. Liam makes it to some corn and quickly pulls the stock down and tripped the giant who fell with a mighty crash. Seeing the giant down for now, Liam runs towards the only shelter he could see; the giant's castle.
Getting himself up to his knees. Grouse rubbed his shore chin as that had been some nasty fall he took. He gets himself back up to his feet, then slowly looked back to discover that in his horror; the chase with that pest made him accidentally smush some of his vegetables. "No! My babies!" Grouse cried, before he let out a growled and looked over to that pest who is running towards his house.
"Why you son of a"
Squeezing himself underneath the door to get himself in. Liam looked around at the vast room in both terror and wonder as he tried to figure out on where exactly he should hide. Spotting a coffee table, Liam quickly makes his way towards the legs and hid behind one of them just as the giant opened up his door.
"Alright! Where are you? Ya no good pest?" He demanded as he scanned around the living room. The giant stomps over to the TV and looked behind it. "Not there."
Liam tiptoes himself underneath the couch where giant dust laid. "Doesn't he ever clean under here?" Liam question, some of the dust goes into his nose causing a chain reaction that ended with him giving out a loud sneeze.
Grouse stood up straight next to a bookshelf that he's been checking behind. The sneeze sounded like it came from underneath the couch. "Ah ha. Your under there are you." He muttered lowly.
Slowly tiptoeing up to the couch, Grouse slowly got down to his knees and looked under the couch to see nothing but dust. "What the? I could've sworn that sneeze came from under here." Grouse pondered only to sneeze himself, creating a cloud of dust to rush out from the other end.
What Grouse didn't know is that Liam had ran off towards another door and slipped in underneath it. The room behind it is refitted to care for a goose, from the pool full of water, filled up food bowls, and a nest for the said goose who looked at the strange newcomer with a tilt of her head.
"Hi there. Please don't make a sound as I don't want that giant fellow to find me." The goose thankfully didn't make a honk, instead she lifts herself up to reveal a clutch of golden eggs.
"Wow! A goose who can lay golden eggs. What will they think up next?" Looking at the eggs, then to the goose. Liam came to the idea that this goose and her eggs will solve his family's problems. He'll just take it back home with him, sure he is technically stealing, but um, the giant chased him and tried to squish him. So it's justified, although really Liam did trespass on his property and ate one of his produce like the bugs he and his family had to deal with in their garden. Boy he better not think about this too hard as he's sure that somehow he's the good guy in this whole thing.
Liam climbs up on the goose's back like some sort of horse. "Getty up goose." Kicking the side of the goose gently. The goose responded with a honk, before taking flight off her nest and out through the window. "Good girl." Liam exclaimed as he petted her neck. "Now to the beanstalk."
Grouse looked everywhere for that pest, but couldn't find it anywhere. You could imagine his surprise when he looked out the window and saw the pest riding away with his goose. "Hey!"
Quickly Grouse rushes out of his castle and goes after his stolen goose. "Stop right there you little thief!"
Reaching the beanstalk; Liam looked back at the chasing giant in panic as he stomped ever so closer.
"No time to climb down. Dive girl! Dive!" The goose does what Liam ordered and dived down like a fighter jet all the way down to the ground below. Liam had to hold on tightly as the high winds threaten to push him off, and Liam did not want to do any skydiving at the moment.
But now safely on the ground. Liam happily jumped off his ride. "Yeehaw! I'm safely back home and I left that giant behind." As soon as he said that the beanstalk started to shake, looking up in terror. Liam saw the giant climbing down the beanstalk.
Liam needed to do something quickly before he reached the ground. An idea pops up in his mind and ran behind his house, then returned shortly with the ax that he used to chop the beanstalk until it couldn't support the weight of the giant.
The beanstalk began to tilt and creak. "Timber!" Liam shouted as the beanstalk with the giant fell. The giant impacts the ground with a mighty boom that with enough force, he pushes away an enormous cloud of dust that spreads out in a perfect circle, which engulfs anything in its way.
The goose did indeed helped with her golden eggs. They used them to buy a greenhouse that will help them grow new produce throughout this drought. The golden eggs also made some good omelettes for the breakfast table.
Yes. with the golden eggs. Liam's family have never been so happy and full. Life has never been so great.
For poor Grouse however; although the fall didn't outright kill him, but just knocked him out for a couple days. He didn't exactly have a happy ending for when he woke up, he found himself chained up against the wall in a theater that's in New York City.
Flip had came across the unconscious giant after all the dust had settle and immediately took the chance to have the discovery of a lifetime, that giants are real and everyone is going to be paying top dollar to see him. So after bringing him to New York and placing the strongest chains on his arms, legs, and waist. Flip stood proudly in a fancy suit as he addressed the awaiting audience. "Ladies and gentlemen! Prepare to be amazed by the most thrilling discovery of a lifetime. I, the great Flip has brought to you Grouse! The 8th Wonder of the world!"
The curtain is drawn up, revealing Grouse to the audience that gasped in shock over him.
"This is why I hate pests." Grouse grumbles as he got flashed by cameras.
The End