Lucifer Devil Jr.'s Christmas Surprise... And Other Short Stories

Giant Love

Once upon a time there was a princess whose name was Arabella. She was her parents' only child and would one day inherit the throne. So naturally, she was spoiled rotten and pretty arrogant.

One day, she met an old beggar in the street who asked her for a penny. Arabella, who was on her way to a dress fitting for a beautiful ball gown, said she had no time for poor people and that they should not hang out in the streets in broad daylight. The beggar took the insult personally and pushed back her hood. As it turned out, she was no one else but Amaltheia, the most dangerous witch in the entire kingdom.

"I have heard of your arrogance, child. This is how it ends!" Amaltheia exclaimed and put a curse on Arabella: Arabella would never ever in her life be able to attend glamorous balls and other events that took place after sunset again. From now on, she would always transform into a giant as soon as the night began unless she found someone who would know about her curse and love her in spite of it. 

"But there is no prince who will ever fall in love with a giant!" a tearful Arabella exclaimed.

"That's not my problem!" the witch said. 

With the curse firmly in place, Arabella was miserable. At the same time, she didn't want anyone to find out about her problem. She withdrew from the world, gave up all her friends and snuck out every night so that no one would see her after she had transformed. It was bad enough that she had no memory of the things she did at night. 

There were rumors about a female giant running wild in the woods at night that started to circulate in town and in the palace soon afterwards. The king was worried and secretly sent out his most experienced general, San Pietro to investigate the matter. 

Arabella didn't know that San Pietro, a man she had had a crush on for years, would be in the woods that night because she would have gone somewhere else. 

So San Pietro lay hidden behind a tree that night when a giant Arabella stomped through the woods. You could hear her footsteps for about a mile because they were that loud. Even louder were her cries. 

San Pietro looked up when he heard the giant cry and wished at once that he hadn't. The giant had Arabella's face. 

"Oh, Arabella, what have you done this time?" he asked.

Arabella's wailing increased when she discovered him. "I'm a mean person!"

"No, you're not. You've just never been around real people because you're a princess and live in a palace," San Pietro said and tried to comfort her. "Is there anything I can do to help you?"

"You can love me."

"I may not be a prince and can never marry you, but I've always loved you," he stated truthfully.