The mountain giant

Something terrible was happening; the earth began to violently shake as though the end was near, and the two of them flailed their arms in panicked attempts to maintain their balance. But they did not succeed. They fell to the ground, dug their heels into the dirt, grasped green strands of grass and yellow buttercups, and did their best to remain in place as the ground rattled them.

Wide-eyed and with fear-filled stomachs, they could do nothing but watch as an entire glacier changed its form in the distance. Its sides crumbled to pieces, and those big boulders and layers of ice came crashing down the steep slopes. Like distant thunder resounding over the landscape, multitudes of stones smashed into the ground hundreds of meters below.

Some birds screeched and lifted from their branches, fleeing for their lives. Others did the opposite and landed: a hundred black dots of crows that huddled together, waiting out the chaos.

Then, the mountain’s Eastern edge cracked wide open in front of them - continuing to shoot straight out and across the meadow, hurtling towards Keara who screamed and rolled to the side as it missed her by inches. The two of them hurried to push away from the wide breach as fast as they could, while the ground still rumbled. They did not dare risk taking a peek to check how deep the cleft actually went.

The opposite end of the mountain, the Western side, began to rise higher and higher. It pushed itself off the ground, and continued even when nothing remained beneath it except for a deep imprint of its own figure where it once had rested. More dirt and debris fell off as the Western end climbed towards the sky. Eventually, it towered right above what had once been the summit of the mountain, which now leaned at a ninety degree angle, its frozen tip pointed towards them akin to a glistening ice-spear.

Like a sleeping figure that had just been awakened, the Eastern side had separated into two long legs resting in front of them on either side of the fissure; legs that the giant rolled to test the movements. The opposite - Western - side had become its massive head, and the central peak was now its broad, pointy chest.

Attempting to stand up, it moved two uneven arms at its sides that it utilized to shove itself upright until its head stirred the clouds.

The earth’s vibrations finally settled as the giant stopped moving.

For just a moment, all was still. But it was short lived.

Under the giant’s immense weight, its feet plunged into soil that could not bear it. The giant sunk a good length - half its legs disappearing underground - and crashed into a firm bottom, causing the ground to convulse once more with a massive thud that rippled across the landscape, causing their hair to whirl around their faces, dust to spray 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 observed the giant who stood so perfectly still in the distance. Once again, it was an unmoving glacier, although it lacked the snowy top. If one didn’t look closely enough, its distinct limbs - tightly pressed against its body - were not noticeable, although it was clearly an oddly shaped mountain: much taller than it was wide.

Its head was now just below the high-hanging clouds, blocking out the sun, and its tall stature bathed a quarter of the meadow in its cold shadow, a part of it where they were sitting. Perhaps it was scanning the horizon, from what clearly must be a great view - but its clump of a head remained unmoving.

Keara and her friend finally dared to stand up again, wondering if the giant would hurt them if it spotted them. They could not tell if it had any eyes, a mouth, or any other human traits aside from their similar anatomy. All they saw was its dark, rocky surface.

Just as they believed its transformation was complete, the colossal figure stretched out its left arm towards the stump at its right shoulder. Unfurling what looked like three chubby stone fingers, it grabbed onto itself and began to pull. With a snap, the surface of the chest fractured in a clean vertical line, and it pulled this stone cover aside like a gray cloak, allowing a billowing white mist to fall out of its core.

A waterfall of thick smoke cascaded to its feet, flooding the ground. But within the fog, something else stirred. Small, dark silhouettes marched out of its chest, but it was hard to make out any details as they were quickly swallowed by the mist.

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

Keara and her friend looked at one another nervously: was the giant speaking to them?

With that said, it extended its left arm back across its chest, closing its cloak of stone and ceasing the outpour of smoke. Then, it moved no more. No longer stood a giant before them, only an oddly-shaped glacier, surrounded by a steam-filled and cracked meadow; as if Mother Nature had been through a rough battle - and she had won. And somewhere out there, in the misty field, still hides an army of her soldiers.