Chapter 98

Giantess gets a horse

Shortly before Freya's fifteenth birthday, a ten acre parcel of land near the house became available for purchase.

As it was adjacent to both their house and the library property, it was a mixture of woods and open land.

To Roger's surprise, Freya showed a great interest in acquiring it for farming on.

To his even greater surprise she had the financial backing of Anna Karlsen AKA Anastasia Karloff, actual vampire and author of popular Gothic romance novels. Freya put in her bid and to everyone's surprise, bought the land.

Roger could only mutter, "I hope you know what you are doing."

Within a few weeks after her purchase, a new fence had been put up around the property while the old fences between the new property, the house and the library property were all taken down, essentially joining the three properties.

Roger could only shrug as Freya extended the gardens into the new property and soon, new fields of growing vegetables were covering the land.

Even with her great strength at fifteen years old and standing eight foot six now, Freya realized she was simply over working herself and so, she decided she needed some help.

Roger was out in one of the fields when her idea of help arrived.

A truck towing a horse trailer pulled up and a sunburnt looking man wearing a cowboy hat got out.

He waved at Roger and called out, "I'm Sammy Tubbs and I'm looking for a Freya Sigurdsdottir?"

Roger pushed back his straw hat and replied,"She's at school right now, can I be of assistance? I'm Roger Tate."

The man glanced at his paperwork, nodded and said, "You'll do, I see your name here on the receipt as well."

Intrigued, Roger walked over to Sammy and asked, "May I ask what this is all about?"

Sammy grinned at him and said, "This is all about me delivering a horse, only I don't see any sort of a barn or a stable for him."

Roger struggled to keep from gaping at his remarks, Freya hadn't mentioned any horse being delivered.

He finally said, "I'm afraid you have me at a real disadvantage, this is the first I've heard of any horse being delivered here. Freya and I are gonna have to have a little talk about this after you leave."

Sammy frowned and remarked, "I don't wanna be the cause for any trouble here, but the horse and the delivery have already been paid for, the equipment, the traces and the training we've already thrown in as part of the deal."

Roger sighed and said, "Well, I guess you'll have to uphold your end of the bargain, business is business."

Sammy walked over to the trailer and let down the loading ramp, then opened the gates.

He made a clicking noise and at the signal, an enormous, dark grey, nearly black gelding backed down the ramp.

Sammy hooked a lead line to its bridle and he stood there grinning.

Roger chuckled and said drily, "Leave it to Freya to get the biggest horse she could find. I know nearly nothing about horses, I do know this one is really big and not one for riding. Then again, you haven't seen Freya yet."

Sammy smiled and asked, "Does she like big horses? Is she a big girl?"

Roger laughed as he gently stroked the smooth flank of the massive horse and replied, "Freya will likely be the biggest girl you'll ever meet and she should be getting home fairly soon."

"What breed of horse am I looking at here and why is he so damn big?"

Sammy grinned and replied, "He is a shire gelding and he is a draft horse, bred for working and great strength while having a gentle disposition."

He looked around at all the growing things and remarked, "I'm guessing she wanted him to help haul things and for plowing?"

Roger shrugged and remarked, "Freya has an incredibly green thumb and her garden just kept getting bigger and bigger. She bought this land with some help and well, you can see what she and I have been doing here."

Sammy looked around and smiled, "I think you've gone from gardening to hobby farming, especially around that big house over there."

He squinted at the house and remarked, "Those stories are pretty high, who was it built for, a giant?"

Roger grinned and replied, "Retired circus giant couple actually, they were both around eight feet tall and the house was built to scale. It has twelve foot high ceilings on the ground floor and ten foot high ceilings in the basement and the second floor."

Roger noticed Freya approaching and said, "And here's the reason why we bought that house."

He gestured and Sammy looked at Freya's towering form, all eight foot six of her as she approached with a big smile on her pretty face.

"Holy cow!" he muttered, "She's pretty, and she's huge!"

"And, she's still growing!" remarked Roger with a grin.

Sammy started and blurted out, "You're kidding...Right?"

Roger merely smiled and replied, "I would never kid you about her, she's as real as you can get."

Freya stopped to admire the big horse.

As big as he was, Freya made him look normal sized.

She smiled as she gently ran her hands over his smooth flank, his skin twitching under her gentle touch as she murmured to him.

He snorted and Freya laughed gaily.

She smiled at Sammy and said, "He's bonnie. We ur gonnae become guid friends heem an' Ah."

Sammy pushed his cowboy hat back, grinned and said, "I'm glad you like him, 'cause he's all yours now!"

He cleared his throat and continued, "Now, per our sales agreement, we included a plow, a wagon, a couple of sets of traces, a couple of extra bridles and a week's worth of training on how to hitch him up to a plow or a wagon and actually get some work out of him."

Freya nodded her understanding of his remarks and she replied, "We hae a spaur bedroom ur twa, ye can bide in whichever a body ye loch fur th' week."

Sammy grinned, "That'd be just fine, I'll take it!"

He rubbed his callused hands together, "When would you like to get started on your training?"

Freya grinned, "Woods today be too suin?"

Sammy laughed and said, "No time like the present eh?"

Stepping over to his well traveled truck, he opened the rear passenger door and took out a large box.

"For starters," He began.

Roger cleared his throat and said, "I'm heading down to the house, I'll leave you two to your training."

Freya smiled at him and said, "We'll come doon when we're finished haur."

"Gotcha!" replied Roger and as he turned to go he heard Sammy ask, "You kinda sound like you're Scottish or something from your accent."

Freya chuckled and replied, "Ah'm nae Scottish, me fowk ur frae auld Jotunheim an' we learnt English frae Scottish fur trappers we mit."

"Ah"

"Now these are the traces you'll use for plowing..."

Moments later, Roger was too far away to hear any more of Sammy's lecture and he continued down the hill.

Entering the kitchen door he found Silky looking over her dinner menu and he said apologetically, "I'm sorry to do this to you Silky, but we're going to have a guest staying with us for about a week. It seems Freya has acquired a big horse and as part of the deal, the deliveryman will be showing her how to work with him for a week. He's going to stay in one of the extra bedrooms for a few days, I'm sorry to say."

Silky nodded her acknowledgement of his remarks and he asked, "Any idea where Dena's gone off to?"

Silky's merest of shrugs was all the answer she could give him.

And he just smiled at her, "Not a problem dear, Dena will know to keep out of sight when she sees that big truck parked outside."

That evening was a bit quieter than usual, with Sammy Tubbs sitting at the dining table, Dena was no where to be found, neither was Silky.

The sprites were pretty quiet too.

However, Warren Johnson and Anita Larsen along with Roger and Freya took up the slack when it came to entertaining their house guest.

The elk steaks Roger had grilled were a hit with Sammy and he talked about his annual elk hunting trips to Colorado with his cousin and some friends of his.

When he asked where Roger had gotten the steaks, Freya replied,"Roger shot twa elk th' last time we went tae me haem up in Canada. He always brings his grandfaither's auld huntin' rifle an' goes out huntin' wi' mah dad."

Visibly impressed, Sammy remarked, "What kind of rifle is it and where do you go hunting up there?"

Roger took a sip of his ale and replied, "It's an old Marlin 1895 in .45-90 Winchester, I use 400 grain bullets and it really anchors them. Freya's people live in Tweedsmuir National park and because they're considered 'first nations' people, the government pretty much leaves them alone."

Sammy squinted at Freya and said, "Please don't take this wrong, but you don't look very 'native Canadian' to me. Your size aside, with your skin and hair color, I'd swear you were of Norse descent."

Freya smiled at his remarks and replied, "Me fowk hae lived in Canada fur almost twa thoosain years. Th' natife Canadians consider us a natife fowk by noo."

She smiled, "We originally cam frae whit is noo Norway, we left thaur tae get away frae th' Scandis an' their sharp spears."

The light of comprehension dawned in Sammy's eyes and he exclaimed, "You're one of the Jotuns I've heard about!"

He laughed and said cheerfully, "I must be gettin' soft in my old age! I'm looking right at you and seeing all the signs and I completely missed it!"

He took a sip of his ale and remarked, "I'm guessing those four giant wolves in the front parlour are from Norway too?"

Roger grinned, "Yep and a better guardian you'll never find. The Jotun children grow up under the very watchful eyes of these wolves. And in fact, Warren and Anita each have a guardian wolf of their own."

"Did they buy them?"

Warren chuckled and replied, "Actually, no. I helped raise Astrid from a puppy and we formed a bond, Anita did likewise with her wolf she named Axel."

He grinned and remarked, "We were told not to get too close with the pups as they had been promised to some Jotun families up north. Things didn't quite work out that way and we bonded with two of the pups. Apparently once a bond is formed, it's for life."

Taking a sip of his ale, Sammy remarked, "I take it they stick pretty close to their people then? I sure never heard of any of those wolves getting shot by trophy hunters."

Roger said quietly, "Up until about five years ago, Jotuns wore a bear skin to conceal themselves while traveling across Canada and sadly, a number of them were shot by hunters thinking they were after a bear only to find they had killed a man by mistake."

He sighed, "When I first met Freya she, her father and her brothers were all wearing bear skins and when we got to her home, I was confronted by a widow who mistook me for a trophy hunter."

He glanced over at his companion, "Thankfully, she realized I was unarmed and calmed down. Still, it was pretty scary, having an angry nine foot tall woman looming over me like she did."

He smiled, "We've become good friends since then and she has since remarried."

Sammy remarked, "I'm guessing the Jotuns habit of wearing bear skins is what led to the legends of Sasquatch then?"

"Yes, we think so too. How else could sightings of giant manlike creatures in the North American forests be explained?"

Roger grinned, "Funny thing though, at first we thought the Jotuns were this deeply hidden people hiding in the Canadian woods. It turned out that many of the people who live and work in the forests knew about them but chose to keep quiet about it. Their prevailing attitude seemed to be "No sense in telling the government about them, they'll just mess things up with their red tape BS."

Sammy burst out laughing and said cheerfully, "Governments're like that, always sticking their noses in people's business, good for them!"

The next morning, Freya and Sammy were out working with her big horse while Roger was deciding where they were going to put his corral and stable.

Per Sammy's advice, he was eyeing a stretch of semi flat ground above the house that was easy to get to with a truck for hay and feed deliveries.

With sketch pad in hand, he quickly worked out a combination barn, stable and corral that was big enough for one very large horse.

Next he sat down and figured out how much material he would need and began shopping for cheap lumber.

The closest place he found was the Gilmer Wood company, they seemed to be the most promising in terms of selection and price and so the next morning, he went for a little drive.

Arriving at the Gilmer Wood company's yard, Roger sought out the yard boss and showed him his sketch, "I need to build this..." he said.

The yard boss looked over Roger's sketch and said, "You're in luck mister, we just pulled down an old barn and much of what you'll need is already on hand...Let me show you what we have."

An hour later, Roger was watching as his newly purchased lumber was being loaded onto a flat bed truck and secured.

He had even purchased a couple of premade doors and gates taken from the old barn.

An even two dozen bags of premix cement and some bricks was added to the load, carefully secured and the driver said, "You can lead the way or I can go by Google maps."

Roger gave him his address and a moment later the driver said with a grin, "I know that house, it was built for a giant couple. My cousin goes to school with this girl that lives there, apparently she's a writer or something."

Roger smiled, he had half expected to hear Freya's name being mentioned, instead he heard Anita being mentioned.

"Yep, that would be the place...I'm gonna run on ahead to make sure you can get the truck where it needs to go."

"That'd be great, I'll see you there!"

Arriving ahead of the delivery truck, Roger exited his little truck and smiled at the sight of Sammy and Freya working with her big horse.

He was teaching her how to use him to pull a plow and she was gamely walking behind the powerful animal as he easily pulled the single row plow through the soil of a small plot of ground.

Looking for all the world like the American ideal of a farm girl, Freya wrestled the plow in a straight line while flatbreaking the plot to be planted later on.

Roger noted that she was going to need longer handles on the plow so she would not be so stooped over as she worked, he resolved to correct that little problem as soon as possible.

Finishing up the row she had been plowing, Freya halted the big horse and grinned at Roger as he was approaching them.

Roger cried out, "Now we've gotta find you a big straw hat and some overalls, then you'll be a real Iowa farmgirl!"

Sammy laughed and said, "With her green thumb, she'll be growing some real prize winning vegetables by next spring!"

Beaming with pride, Freya hugged Roger, "Whaur did ye gae thes mornin'?" she asked.

"I went down to Gilmer Lumber and damn near bought a whole barn, they'll be delivering it this afternoon."

At Sammy's puzzled expression Roger said, "They had pulled down an old barn recently and I bought about a fourth of it in terms of the lumber, gates and doors."

"Ah"

Roger took out the sketch he had drawn up and handed it to Sammy, "I thought about what you said and scaled it to fit Mister Big Stuff over there."

Sammy chuckled and said, "We've been calling him Samson after the Biblical hero, but he's Freya's now, she can call him whatever she likes."

Roger shrugged, "Who knows what she'll call him."

Sammy looked over the sketch and nodded his approval, "If you'd like, I can help you lay out the post holes for the barn and corral so when you get a bobcat up here, everything will be already marked out."

Roger grinned, "I'd like that, thanks!"

The two men glanced over at Freya and her big horse, she was brushing him down with a curry comb and braiding his mane while smiling all the while.

Sammy said quietly, "There's something about a pretty girl and her horse, y'know what I mean?"

Roger chuckled, "They do tend to go together, " he said wistfully, "She looks so happy right now."
Moments later they watched as she mounted her horse with a big grin on her face and began riding him around the property, with Sasha and Goldeneyes trotting along behind.

Sammy pushed his battered cowboy hat back and said, "Now that's something to see, a big girl riding a big horse with two really big dogs, trotting behind her."

He took out his cell phone and snapped a couple of pictures, saying, "My wife needs to see these!"

He scanned through the pictures in his phone and showed Roger a photo of a diminutive red head dressed like a cowgirl standing next to 'Samson'.

Roger whistled and said, "She's a tiny thing, is she even five feet tall?"

"Five foot one half inch, and don't you forget that half inch!" replied Sammy with a grin.

"Duly noted!"

They walked up the hill behind the house and with a measuring tape, some stakes and a hammer, laid out and staked up where the barn was to be built.

Pausing in their labors, Sammy looked around the property and said, "You guys have a regular farm and ranch going here."

Gesturing towards the wooded area, he said "There's some real mature trees in there, you gonna cut any of them down?"

"We weren't planning to, although we have planted a bunch of berry bushes and grapevines deeper in the woods to give the local wildlife something to nibble on, instead of our crops."

"Has it worked?"

"Let me get back to you on that!"

Sammy grinned and remarked, "Seemed like a good idea at the time, eh?"

"Yep!"

"So what kind of wild life do you see around here?"

"Around here we have black tailed deer, some coyotes and the occasional fox, raccoons and opossums, cotton tailed rabbits and the usual assortment of squirrels. Although since the wolvies have been here, the coyotes have scrammed and our wolves keep the black tailed deer population in check, only don't tell the neighbors 'cos they'll flip!"

Shrugging, Sammy replied, "My lips are sealed."

The lumber truck pulling into the driveway and tooting its horn, interrupted their conversation and Roger trotted down to meet the driver.

The driver grinned at him as he climbed into the passenger side of the truck and pointed out the way.

Engaging low gear, the driver with practiced ease maneuvered the truck right where Roger wanted it.

"Is right here good?" he said to Roger.

"Couldn't be better!"

They exited the truck and Roger stood back while the driver laid a couple of rough looking boards on the ground, then engaged the PTO to raise the long bed and let gravity do the rest.

A few minutes later, Roger was signing off on the delivery of sufficient lumber to build a suitable home for a large horse.

The driver, a young man wearing a ball cap with a sports team logo on it said, "I have a buddy with a bobcat tractor, he could drill all the post holes for you in no time and do a bit of grading if you want to level this out a bit more."

"How much does he charge? Is it by the hour or by the day?"

The young man grinned and replied, "That kinda depends on how fussy you are about the grading, you do want it to have some slope to it so rainwater drains off."

Roger said, "How about both of you grading the hillside, drilling all the post holes and putting up the basic frame to my sketch?"

He looked thoughtful and said, "We can do it, but it'll have to be this weekend, we both have regular jobs."

"I'm cool with that, this weekend it is!"

They shook hands on that and the driver hopped back in his big truck and motored off.

By Friday afternoon, Sammy Tubbs had shown Freya how to hitch her big horse to a plow and, flatbreak and row a field.

She also learned how to hitch him to a wagon and drive it around the property.

The sight of her driving the wagon with the two wolvies riding in the bed tickled Sammy and he took pictures of them all together saying, "My wife's gonna get a real kick out of this!"

Friday evening they waved good bye as he drove off, heading towards home.

The big horse known as Samson chewed placidly on his oats drizzled with molasses, he was home now.

That Saturday morning a large dump truck with a bobcat tractor sitting in its bed pulled into the driveway and parked.

Roger came out of the house and waved at the two young men before calling out, "You guys want any coffee?"

"We're good, thanks!"

He watched in amazement as the driver of the dump truck opened the dump bed gate and deftly maneuvered the bobcat tractor out of the truck's bed and down on the ground without using any loading ramps.

Roger laughed and said, "You've done this before I take it?"

The bobcat's owner grinned, "A couple of times now...Now, where do you want this?"

"Follow me!"

Roger led the way and soon, the two young men were looking over the job site.

The tractor was started up again and using the bulldozer blade, the area where the building would go was scraped off to level it.

Next, the earth auger was engaged and the post holes were drilled in rapid succession.

There was a break in the work when Freya came up to see how things were going.

Evidently, the two men had not seen her before and they stood gaping at her towering height and Norse goddess looks.

Freya smiled at them and said cheerfully,"Guid morn! Ah'm Freya, pleasure tae meit ye!"

The bobcat owner grinned, "Hector Sanchez, pleased to meet you ma'am!"

Freya smiled and replied, "Ah'm nae auld enaw tae be a 'ma'am', Ah'm oanly fifteen years auld."

The driver tipped his hat and said, "Tom Bennett, pleased to meet you. Are you going to Lincoln High?"

Freya smiled and nodded a yes, Tom grinned and said, "My cousin goes there, I'm surprised she's never mentioned you, although she has mentioned an Anita Larsen."

Freya shrugged, "Anita diz bide haur, but we dornt hae th' sam circle ay friends."

Hector grinned and boldly asked, "Do you have a sister?"

Freya laughed and replied cheerfully, "Ah hae four aulder brothers an' aw ay them ur merrit."

Tom rolled his eyes and said to Hector, "What is it with you and asking about sisters?"

Hector grinned, "You never know, I might get lucky someday!"

"Not today you won't!" riposted Tom, Hector only shrugged.

Freya was admiring Hector's bobcat and said, "Ah saw thes 'hin at wark when Ah was comin' doon frae th' library, an' thooght eh'd help it some."

Hector grinned, "Welcome aboard!"

With Freya's help the three men soon had placed a brick in the bottom of each post hole, set a post in the hole and after bracing it, poured wet cement around the stout wooden post.

They worked until noon and took a meal break in the house, where Tom and Hector got their first taste of Jotun ale.

Hector took a taste, smacked his lips and said, "Man, this stuff is pretty strong!"

Tom grinned and replied, "That's cause you're used to that fizzy yellow beer you're always drinking. This stuff's for real!"

After lunch they spent a few minutes admiring the interior of the big house, Tom laughed when he saw Sasha and Goldeneyes snoozing in the front parlour and said, "I have never seen any kind of a dog that kinda big before, what's their breed?"

Roger smiled and replied, "They are great guardian wolves, their kind came across the Atlantic when Freya's people left northern Europe about two thousand years ago."

"Freya's people?" asked Hector.

"Freya is a Jotun, a frost giant." replied Roger.

"Say what?!"

"A frost giant."

"You mean like those frost giants Thor and Odin went around beating up for no reason?" asked Tom.

"Yep, those giants...They all left Europe and immigrated to Canada to get away from the ancestors of the Vikings."

Hector looked puzzled and asked, "Freya's pretty strong, probably as strong as any two of us put together, I mean she was carrying timbers I could hardly budge. The men of her kind have got to be really strong, how could the Norse defeat them?"

"Simple," Roger replied, "They're not warlike by nature and while very strong, they're slower on their feet, although Freya certainly is the exception to that rule.

"Bottom line was, the Norse were trained warriors armed with spears and swords, the Jotuns weren't. In a fight, the Norseman usually prevailed unless the Jotun got his hands on the Norseman, then it was game over for the Norseman.."

Roger grinned, "Some of Freya's relatives are over ten feet tall and think nothing of hefting a three hundred pound cask of ale.

"We have reason to believe they were the ones who built all those megalithic structures all over north western Europe, they certainly built most of the inukshuks scattered across Canada."

"Inukshuks? What's an inukshuk?" Asked Tom.

"That stone structure you saw out front? That's an inukshuk, Freya put that up shortly after she came here when she was ten."

"Ah"

After lunch they resumed work and by late afternoon, had put up all of the barn upright posts and several of the corral's posts.

It was a good day's work.

While Hector was deftly maneuvering his bobcat up into the bed of his dump truck, Tom said to Roger, "We'll let the concrete cure for a few days before we start stressing it any, then we'll come back and put up the rest of his stall and corral."

He smiled at the sight of Freya brushing down her new horse and said, "From a distance they look like any other girl and her horse, it's when you get closer that you realize how big both of them are!"

After Hector was finished loading his bobcat and tying it down, he hopped down from the truck and said, "Welp, that's a day's work right there." he gestured at the freshly erected posts for the stall and corral.

Grinning he said, "I gotta admit that girl of yours is amazing, she really worked as hard as any one of us and we got more done than I expected."

Roger smiled, "Yeah, when she's on a mission, you're better off staying out of her way, you'll live longer."

"So, what do I owe you two?"

Tom and Hector looked at each other and Hector said, "We ordinarily charge five hundred a day for the two of us and my bobcat, but since Freya was such a big help, how about four hundred for the day?"

"You sure about that?"

Tom grinned, "Yeah, we're sure...Besides we'll be back next weekend when the concrete has cured a bit, and we'll pretty much finish the job."

Roger smiled and handed them the money they asked for, "I'll see you guys next Saturday?"

They grinned and after a shaking of hands, they climbed into Hector's truck and drove off.

With the visitors finally gone, Silky and Dena reappeared and quickly made their acquaintances with Samson who promptly snarfed a flower from Silky's bonnet, to Dena's great amusement and Silky's dismay.

Spriggan had sent her that flower via Hazel, the centaur postman.

When she sent a note of apology to Spriggan explaining the loss of her new flower, Hazel made his acquaintances with Samson who didn't seem all that surprised to see the centaur who presented him with a juicy apple.

The household sprites flocked to Samson's broad back as Freya took him for long walks in the neighborhood to get acquainted with everyone.

Roger refrained from laughing the first time he saw Freya chatting pleasantly with one of the neighbors while Samson, with a tittering of sprites perched on his massive body noshed on her lawn, and the wolvies lolled while the neighbor's children played on the grass as if seeing a huge horse, led by a giantess and escorted by two giant wolves, was an everyday thing.

At the end of a hectic week, on a bright Saturday morning Tom and Hector arrived and were joined by Roger and Freya.

Over the course of a busy day, they put up the corral fence rails, the corral gates and the stall's door.

The barn was walled in and the roofing installed before the barn doors were hung in place.

The building and the corral was nearly finished that day and they had the satisfaction of seeing Samson entering his new home for a look see.

He evidently approved as he began drinking from the water trough provided for him.

All that was left to do was putting up some shelving and hooks to hang his traces from.

Samson was now in his new home.