**********
It was the face of a male giant, and the eyes were examining Crush as if it recognized him. The tooth remained hidden behind his back, though it was a rather large artifact to keep hidden from the giant’s eyes.
“Where is the pendant, human?” the voice thundered, and the fingers curled up around them as they stood in the palm of the calloused hand. Suddenly the eyes looked away, and the giant raised his head at a noise that was coming from the cave. Simon, Crush, and Mouchard’s attention turned to the approaching figure, and another face appeared from out of the dark, a giant face, but this one was a female. It would be ridiculous to only say that she was tall and elegant. A better description would be to say that she was beautiful in Crush’s eyes, and from what Crush gathered about Mouchard, he thought so as well. Her face was smeared with dirt, and she was gasping for air as if she had been running a long distance. She bent over to place her hands on her knees in order to take the pressure off of her lungs, and Mouchard seemed to recognize her instantly. The giant stood up straight and withdrew a sac from his belongings, and he gently placed Crush and Simon inside the bag and sealed them inside with a drawstring. There were many small air holes for breathing, and Crush looked through these holes to see the giantess’ boots and long legs. His eyes wandered higher, and he noticed that she wore a thin leather armor with gloves that stretched to her elbows. He climbed up higher to the top of the bag to get another look at her face, and he stared at her as she turned to the side to breathe. It was then that he saw who she was. She was the face on the pendant that he had carried for a shield. That face had been covered in dragon fire and should have been long buried in the collapse of the cave.
But where had she come from? Did the dragon hold her captive, and she managed to escape? Crush did not know the answers to his questions since he had ran away before seeing her magical release from the pendant, but he hoped that he would be able to find out. More importantly, he hoped that he would be able to escape. Looking overhead, the giant’s hand was holding the top of the bag shut, so there was no way that he would be able to escape easily that way. Climbing back down, Crush made the claws in his fingertips pop out, and just as he was getting ready to cut the bottom of the bag, a thunderous shaking came from the cave. The two giants grabbed hands and started running down the side of the mountain and out toward the open field. Crush and Simon were shaken like a bag of fried chicken in flour, but through it all, Crush listened to the rumblings that came from the cave. He had a feeling that despite the cave-in and the avalanche, the dragon might still be alive. If that were true, he was fortunate the giant was transporting him away from the dragon’s lair. Maybe the colossus would even give him a ride back across the river to the mountain. If that was where they were going.
Simon stuck his arm through one of the air holes in the sack, and he managed to hold himself up through all of the jostling. Crush followed suit, and they were able to withstand the mishandling in the bag while the giants ran out into the forest.
Crush’s thoughts then turned to Boulder, and he wondered if his friend had endured the catastrophe inside of the mountain. He had seen him smothered in flames by the dragon and yet he had walked away unscathed, and that was enough proof for Crush that Boulder may have lived through the dragon’s attack. What concerned Crush the most was the subsequent cave-in that had taken place afterward. Though Boulder was made of stone, the cave-in would have smashed him to fragments. There was no doubt that Boulder’s chances of survival were slim, and maybe, Crush thought, maybe he would return someday to search him out. He wished he could have thanked the man of stone for his help, and he silently mourned the loss of his companion while the giants walked and talked at the edge of the forest that night.
Uncanny Tales of Crush and Pound 9 Page 12
