The Mountain Giant

Something terrible was happening. The earth began to shake violently, as though the end was near, and the two of them flailed their arms in panicked attempts to stay upright. But they didn't succeed. They fell to the ground, dug their heels into the dirt, clutched at green strands of grass and yellow buttercups, doing their best to remain in place as the ground rattled.

Wide-eyed, stomachs tight with fear, they could do nothing but watch as the glacier in the distance began to change its form. Like a sleeping figure stirring from deep rest, its sides crumbled as it shifted and stretched - boulders and layers of ice crashing down the steep slopes. Like distant thunder rolling over the land, vibrating through their chest, countless stones smashed into the ground hundreds of meters below.

Some birds screeched and fled from their branches. Others did the opposite and landed: a hundred black dots of crows huddling together to wait out the chaos.

Then the mountain’s eastern edge cracked wide open - a jagged line that tore across the meadow, hurtling toward Keara. She screamed and rolled aside as it missed her by inches. The two scrambled back from the widening breach as the ground continued to tremble. Neither dared to look into the abyss to see how deep it went.

The eastern slope had split into two, like thick legs stretched on either side of the fissure. The stiff limbs rolled and flexed, before the opposite end of the mountain - the western slope - began to rise. Like a head lifting from its pillow of dirt, it rose higher and higher, pushing off the ground until nothing remained beneath it but a deep imprint of where it had once rested. Soil and debris cascaded down its flanks as it climbed into the sky. Eventually, the western end towered above what had once been the summit - the central peak - now forming a broad chest. It stood at a ninety-degree angle, its frozen tip pointing directly at them like a glistening ice-spear.

It shoved itself upright with two uneven arms - limbs of stone and snow - until its head stirred the clouds.

For just a moment, the tremors ceased and all was still as the giant stopped moving. There it loomed before them: a glacier, reformed into a colossal, living creature. But this peace was short-lived.

Under its immense weight, the ground gave way. Its feet plunged deep into the earth - half its legs vanishing below - until it struck a solid layer far beneath. The impact sent out a shockwave that made the land convulse. Their hair whipped around their faces, dust sprayed into their eyes, and the grounded crows were blown into the air and flew away.

When the ground stopped shaking and the breeze had calmed, they cleared their irritated eyes and looked toward the giant, which now stood perfectly still in the distance. Once again, it appeared as an unmoving glacier - though it now lacked its snowy crown. If one didn’t look closely, its distinct limbs - tightly pressed against its body - were barely noticeable. It merely resembled an oddly shaped mountain: much taller than it was wide.

Its head hovered just below the high-hanging clouds, blocking out the sun. A quarter of the meadow lay bathed in its cold shadow - including the patch where they now sat. Perhaps it was scanning the horizon from what must have been a remarkable view, but they could not tell since its lump of a head remained utterly still.

Keara and her friend finally dared to rise, unsure whether the giant would harm them if it noticed their presence. They could not distinguish if it had any eyes, a mouth, or other human features beyond its familiar shape. All they saw was its dark, rocky surface.

Just as they believed the transformation was complete, the gigantic figure moved. Its left arm slowly stretched across its chest, reaching for the stump that was its opposite shoulder. Unfurling what looked like three chubby stone fingers, it gripped its own torso and began to pull. With a loud crack, the chest fractured along a clean vertical seam, and the giant peeled back a slab of stone like a grey cloak - releasing a billowing mist from its core.

A waterfall of thick white smoke spilled to its feet, flooding the ground. But within the fog, something else stirred. Small, dark silhouettes marched out of its chest - impossible to make out clearly, quickly swallowed again by the swirling mist.

“These are my own loyal creatures: my eternal protectors, my brave knights. For a week, they shall be yours - yours to command, yours until their deaths. Use them, and your own time, wisely,” spoke the giant, its voice booming across the meadow.

Keara and her companion exchanged a nervous glance. Had it spoken to them?

With that, the giant drew its left arm back across its chest, closing its stone cloak once more and ceasing the outpour of smoke. Then, it moved no more.

No longer did a giant stand before them - only an oddly shaped glacier, surrounded by a steam-filled and cracked field. As if Mother Nature had just endured a rough battle, and she had won.

And somewhere within that misty field, an army still hides - her soldiers, waiting.