Remon had heard stories about it, but they never made much sense.
It was stone. How could you feel anything from it?
But now that he was here he understood. The looming figure staring down at them released a feeling of remorse.
As if it was trying to tell you that it wished it did things differently. That it wanted another chance.
But it got no second chances and as punishment, it was stuck here for eternity.
To gaze down upon those who happen to find the secret valley.
“I would’ve loved to have been given the chance to fight that monster.”
Remon looked to his right and saw Vamir looking at the stone giant with a smile.
“At no time would it have been able to handle my speed. Have I ever told you that I’m…”.
Yeah, Remon had heard it all before. In fact, he listened to the same stories about 100 different times. At this moment, he felt jealous of the stone giant for it did not have to listen to Vamir but that’s as far as his envy stretched.
Remon recalled when his Grandfather first told him the story of the Giant, Kretto. One of the last of its kind, Kretto sought peace so that he and his kin could continue to live.
But humans wanted nothing of peace. They wanted ownership of everything as they most often do.
“…and that Dwarf had absolutely no idea what hit him…wait, did you see that?”
Remon turned to Vamir to see that he was still looking up at the Giant.
“Did you see it? I swear it moved!”
Remon looked up at the Giant but saw nothing. It stared back at him as it had been doing since they came down the mountainside.
“There it is again!”, yelled Vamir. “Can’t any of you se…”
Vamir clutched his throat. He gasped for air that seemed to evade him. It was almost like he was choking.
No, that was incorrect.
Something was choking him, but nothing was there.
The party hurried to Vamir’s side. His skin was turning purple. His gasping sounded more horrific with each passing second.
Nobody knew what to do and looking at their faces you could tell they were more concerned about themselves than saving Vamir.
Vamir reached for Remon and grasped his shoulder, but Remon was a warrior. Not a cleric.. He looked into Vamir’s eyes and only a few moments ago they were full of confidence…now all he could see was fear.
Remon laid him down and put his hand on Vamir’s chest. He closed his eyes and said a prayer.
Before he was done, Vamir had stopped breathing.
Remon looked at the others. They were all looking around to see what or who could’ve done this.
“I knew we shouldn’t have come this way”, said Ouein. “You don’t pass through The Valley of Gigantic Broken without some type of sacrifice.”
But Remon knew that wasn’t it. There was something else at play here. Something that he didn’t believe was true because if it was, then they were in greater trouble than they realized.
After a while, they agreed that it was best not to stick around lest it happen to one of them.
They gathered their things and began to move further down the valley.
Remon was the last to leave. He looked up at the Stone Giant and noticed something was different.
A smile.