An Unknown Land

The rain was ragging against Yuuki's back, soaking her hair and wings. Normally, Yuuki loved the rain, but this was really pushing it. She was very nearly forced to do barrel rolls in the air because of the immense strength of the wind that howled around her ears. She was tired, and felt like she would collapse at any moment, but she knew that if she did, she would be blown away like a pale piece of insignificant paper.
As she flew, desperate to continue to move in a straight line, she spotted a large, rocky formation in front of her. She very nearly passed out in relief when she spotted the mouth of the cave that was etched into its face—she had probably never been so relieved to see a hole in a wall in her life.  Landing, however, was a tad difficult; the wind pushed her wings up for as long as she kept them out, but if she pulled them in too soon, she would completely lose control, and would be sent flying towards who-knows-where. Gasping, she finally hit the floor of the cave. She barely had the strength to drag herself deep enough inside so that she was out of the weather before she passed out from pure exhaustion. She didn't even wake up when the rain finally stopped.


Zeek and his friend, Josh, were walking through the mountains—the entire clan had been sent to search for provisions to make up for the hurricane last night. Most of the few actually buildings that made up their small town had been destroyed, and all make-shift tents were long gone. The clan had just recently moved to the small valley of Benthin, in an attempt to become a sovereign nation. They weren't doing so well, however. They had little to no food, and they had to set up real buildings before the summer was over. Josh began to climb higher, which, like always, left Zeek a little slow to catch up. Josh laughed lightly, "no wonder you're only sent on gathering duty—you couldn't hunt a deer if you tried!"
Zeek snorted angrily. "You were sent with me, remember?
"Yeah, to make sure nothing happened to your skinny behind!" the bigger boy retorted. They were roughly the same age, but while Josh was a more toned boy with the clan's usual dark hair and eyes, and tanned skin from working in the sun, Zeek was a bit more on the lanky side. Easily the smallest in their clan, Zeek was only about 5 foot 4", with sandy blond hair, green eyes, pale skin and glasses. His mother had married a man outside of their tribe, and had very nearly been executed for it when it was discovered that she was pregnant. The only thing that had saved her and her unborn child was the agreement to exile the boy's father. Zeek looked a lot like him though, and was therefore shunned by the rest of the tribe. He wasn't very interested in hunting. Rather, he preferred scientific study. His mother often warned him not to let anyone else know that he had no plans of becoming a hunter. He could be executed for such thoughts. He snorted at Josh's comment—he was 15, but hadn't even managed to hunt anything yet. Honestly, he didn't really care.
"come on, there should be some mushrooms in the upper caves. Let's just get them and go." He said grumpily. The pair climbed up to the first cave—a very large one, as caves go. Zeek figured there would be more mushrooms there because of its size, and the fact that it was one of the easier to reach caves was a definite plus. When they walked in, however, the cave didn't seem to go as deep as it used to. Josh frowned. "Did the hurricane cause a cave in?" he wondered out loud. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a flashlight so that he could see the state of the cave better. Zeek did the same, swinging the beam along the walls of the cavern. What they saw froze them in place. For a moment, Zeek felt as though his heart had simply stopped beating. His breath froze in his chest, and his legs stiffened, refusing to allow him to run away. Fear held him completely in its grasp as his mind processed what he was seeing.
It was a giant. There was no other way to describe it. Zeek could see its chest rise and fall as it slept, curled on its side. The thing that stood out the most, however, was its wings---white, feathery things that covered the giant like a blanket. Zeek and Josh didn't move an inch—they hardly even dared to breath in fear of waking it. Their efforts were in vain, however, as the great, hulking figure began to shift.

Yuuki was having the strangest of dreams about her family, when she suddenly hear voices. Strangely enough, however, they were extremely quiet, even to her keen ears. She frowned in her sleep, and shifted slightly, confusion wrestling with her mind as she was pulled out of unconsciousness. Still not completely awake, she opened one eye, blinked, and opened the other one. She sat up slightly, lifting her head from her hands and preparing to stretch, but she froze when she just happened to look down.
There were two boys there, but they were only about 3 inches tall. Yuuki's mouth opened slightly in shock as her brain attempted to decipher what was going on. Her eyes widened. "N-nani ka?" just how far had she flown in that storm? Was she hallucinating?

Josh and Zeek watched in horror as the giant sat up, both of them praying desperately that the giant wouldn't look down. Neither of them had the courage to move or run away, not even when her wide, blue eyes finally landed on them. Zeek's heart was thumping wildly in his chest, so loud that he wondered if the giantess could hear it. It had squeezed in violent fear when she had sat up, her real size still only slightly apparent, as she was only sitting. When she spoke however, Josh's brain finally de-thawed.  A swearword passed his lips before he grabbed Zeek's thin arm, and suddenly start turned to flee toward the mouth of the cave. "RUN!" he yelled. Zeek blinked in shock before his legs started working. They felt like jelly as the two boys sprinted through the mouth of the cavern, back toward their clan.