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other giantesses who were working around her also gazed at me curiously. Joy,
of course, spoke in their language in deference to the others around her.
"Oooo, you're right, she looks very tired. Will she be alright?" Charity
asked, gazing down at me for a moment before pouring another pan of roasted
seeds into the center of the millstones to be ground.
"He," Joy corrected, smiling, and gripped each side of the two-ton millstone
in her hands, then began turning it slowly, grinding the seeds. The task would
have been impossible for her three months ago - but now, it was quite easy. Of
course, this was because she was the same size as any other giantess sitting
nearby, helping with the yearly harvest.
Making the enchanted bracelet Joy now wore had been simple - I'd simply picked
up a stone, and used the Spell of Stone Shaping I'd discovered researching
dwarven magic years ago, and shaped it into something that would easily fit
over her wrist. Enchanting the bracelet, however, had been far more difficult.
Any permanent enchantment causes a permanent drain to both body and soul, and
for her bracelet, I needed three separate enchantments - invulnerability, so
it would never break, a sizing enchantment so she could shrink it down to her
wrist and never lose it, and of course the growth enchantment itself. I also
added a fourth enchantment - the same age-restoring spell the Mountain Healers
used to maintain their eternal youth, and the one I would eventually use on
this body in a few centuries when it finally began to age. I told myself at
the time it was because I knew it would make her happy. At night, however, as
I lay there alone in the darkness, I realized it was simply because I couldn't
stand the thought that someday, she would be gone. It would probably be
another six months of meditation and strict physical regimen before I was back
at my former strength - but the results were more than worth it.
Now, at a simple thought, Joy could alter her size to that of a giant - and,
because the enchantment came from an item, the effect lasted indefinitely. I
warned Joy about the dangers of shrinking herself down to her normal size
while tired or wounded - she could die - but she simply laughed, and said it
was highly unlikely she would ever reduce herself down to the size of a Little
Person again. 'It feels right to be this size, Old Man... As though this was
how I was always intended to be - and I will always be grateful to you.' I had
shaped the stone in more of an oval than a simple circle so it would fit her
wrist better, and Joy wore it snugged down with less than a finger's width of
room between it and her skin - the only way it could come off was if her hand
came off, first. Naturally, the growth enchantment altered the size of the
bracelet, as well as anything else she was wearing - her wedding dress was now
tremendous in size, and lovingly stored and cared for in her new home in
Dohbari Village.
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"Oh! I'm terribly sorry, Eddas Ayar! We've all heard your story countless
times, I should have remembered!"
"It's nothing, Charity. I am not offended. And yes, I'll be alright in a few
months," I replied, smiling up at her.
Charity smiled. "Alright. Thank you," she called, and slowly rose to her feet
to get more raw seeds to roast.
Joy smiled, her gaze upon her mate as he worked with the other giants,
harvesting the seeds from my byallar trees. "Old Man," she rumbled, "you will
never know how happy you made me. Softhand is... Everything, to me."
"So, he's that much like Darian?" I asked, smiling.
Joy paused, looking down at me, and sighed. "No, Old Man. Darian was... Darian
was a warrior, and a King of the Little People. He had the same gentle touch,
with me, but... Other than that, he was a different man. I loved him, as well
- I always will. But Softhand is not Darian, nor would I ever want him to be.
I love him as he is, just as I loved Darian as he was," she replied, then
smiled at me. "No, no... I can see by your face you think you've offended me,
and you haven't. I've known you too many years, Old Man. I know you didn't
mean to offend, you were trying to be nice."
"Thank you - I was, as well."
Joy grinned. "Besides... To Darian, I was a blonde goddess, as you and he
often put it. But to Softhand and the rest of my people, I am quite ugly," she
said, and laughed. "I have the face of a Little Person, really - long, not
round, and my nose sticks out too much. If it were not for my hair and the
color of my eyes, I doubt Softhand would ever have noticed me."
I smiled, shaking my head. Blonde hair was extremely rare among the giants, as
were blue eyes, and both were considered marks of high beauty. "You are hardly
ugly, Joy, but I won't argue with you, today. I'm a bit too tired for that."
Joy frowned. "I am sorry for that, Old Man. Are you sure you'll be alright?"
"Yes, Joy. It's nothing - merely the rigors of imbuing an item. I should be
back to my old self again sometime this spring."
Joy smiled again, and resumed turning the millstone. "Well, that's good. And I
have a surprise for you that may make you smile."
"Oh? What?"
Joy grinned broadly. "I am carrying Softhand's child."
"Joy, that's incredible!" I yelped, leaping to my feet. I took a moment to
assense her mana-flow, and grinned. She was pregnant. I was elated.
"Are you looking at my baby now with that wizard's eye of yours?"
I nodded, widening my perception and examining her astral aura, and the
smaller aura within her that was the unborn child.
"Good, because I want you to tell me..." she said, then paused. "I want you to
tell me if it will be alright, Old Man," she said in the language of the
Larinians, because many of Dhobari village could now speak Hyperborean, thanks
to Joy's patient tutelage over the twenty years she had been my companion.
"Mmm? What do you mean?" I replied, in the same language.
"You said once my ability to bear children was due more to a quirk of my own
germ plasm than it was any relationship to humans that giants may have. I am
worried, Eddas... What will my baby be like? Will it be a human, or a giant?
Or perhaps half-giant, like my son? Or even-"
I smiled, my gaze still upon the auras I was examining. "Joy, don't worry. You
are a giant, not a Little Person, and what I said was true. That's why it took
you so many years of trying with Darian before you finally conceived your
first child, yet you've conceived easily with Softhand. The child is a giant,
and nothing else. And it does not carry that quirk that made you small,
either. It will be a normally sized giant-child..." I said, then paused, and
chuckled. "Which means you had definitely better not take off your bracelet,
my dear, or you will be in trouble. You are enlarged by its enchantment, but
the child is not!"
Joy threw back her head and laughed for a long moment. "Never fear, Old Man,
that will never happen," she said, returning to the language of the giants.
I grinned. "Would you like to know the baby's gender?"
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Joy laughed again, and shook her head. "No, Old Man. I think I'd rather be
surprised in a few months. But thank you anyway - once again, you have made me
very happy." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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