The girl clenched her silk hood even tighter around her face, concealing her features as she looked around the city in utter fascination. She shied away from the city block where there was an even bigger crowd of people. Even then, she was uncomfortable. She wasn’t used to being around so many people that she knew, nonetheless ones she didn’t know.

Suddenly she heard protests from the crowd and curses. When she turned around she was knocked down by the very person who had been raising such a commotion. It was a man at least a foot taller than normal and twice as wide. His arms were so muscular that it seemed like he could lift up much more than a truck load of weights. His face was smooth-shaven and he had a bald head.

He was grinning down at her and offering his hand for her to hold on and use as a lever. Her mind didn’t register anything else except that he was so huge. His grin faltered and then he smiled even wider as if determined to be cheerful. When she finally reached for his hand, his hand engulfed hers like drop of water in a pond.

He hoisted her up effortlessly and proceeded on brushing the dust left by so many shoes off her. When she had fallen, her hood had fallen off and she hurried to cover her face again. She was not quick enough however. The man had seen her face and now he stared at her in awe. She hurried away from him, her bare feet skillfully avoiding shod feet and leaving soft tracks in the dust. She could not stay long. She had something to do.

She turned a corner and headed toward the palace on top of a tall, barren hill. When she got to the door of the palace, the gates swung open to let out a tall man yelling to a couple in back of him. “You are blind!” he yelled. “You cover your eyes from what is obviously out there. I don’t care if you call me insane, but I’ll tell you what is bothering our borders; magic! Open your eyes a little!” The man stalked out into the path leading to the city below.

The girl took a look at the people who that man was yelling at and almost gasped. He had been yelling at the king and queen.

Her errand forgotten, she followed this man who had dared to yell at his king and queen. She followed him like a shadow, being detected by no one. He did not even think to look back and see if anyone was following. He should have been afraid of guards coming after him, but it was apparent that he wasn’t.

She was halfway through the city when a dark figure appeared from a side alley and started walking beside her. The girl looked up and was not in the least surprised to find that it was the man that had seen her face earlier. “What do you want?” she hissed.

“I am just wondering,” he whispered back, “why a creature, such as yourself, is wandering around in a great, human city.”

“What are you,” she asked, “a half giant?”

He just shrugged. “Why are you here, faerie?”

“That is not your concern, giant.”

He nodded his head cheerfully. “Just like a faerie, always secretive and up to no good.”

“What are you now? Some kind of faerie expert?”

“I don’t need to be. Anyway, I think I will follow you to find out what it is that you’re doing here.”

“I think not.”

The man just shrugged and kept pace with her.

The faerie grunted in disgust and muttered, “Just like a human.”

The man laughed silently and whispered back, “I thought I was a giant.”

The faerie refused to answer; instead she concentrated on following the man just in front of her. She followed him for so long that the man beside her started to complain about his feet hurting. Still she followed him until he led her out of the city and into the dirt road outside of the great wall.

Then, she had to follow him even more carefully than before, as the crowd going into the city was greater than the crowd going out. The man seemed to start to finally get nervous. He kept looking back and searching the crowd. The faerie thought that either this guy was so stupid as to have finally remembered that he had insulted the human queen and king or that this guy had other reasons to be scared now.

The giant also grew more and more nervous. He was sure that the man had noticed that the same people were always in the crowd in back of him and that one of them was so tall that he could always be noticed and the other one had her face suspiciously covered with a hood.