Eternity | T.J.

I Hate Being The Negotiator

     Everything was fine until we had to talk to the giants. Nothing bad happened as we scaled the wall, nothing bad happened as we were walking to where they sat, in fact, we even managed to hold a conversation on our way to them.

     " I feel like Jack up the beanstalk," Magnus remarked.

     Sam laughed." Where do you think that story comes from? It's a cultural memory, a watered-down account of what happens when humans blunder into Jotunheim."

     " Super."

     " Besides, you can't be Jack," Jack pointed out." I'm Jack."

     " Touché."

     We approached the giantesses.

     Sam turned to me." Ready?"

     I nodded, before looking up at the two giantesses." Excuse me! Do you have a moment to talk!?... Hello!?"

     Both of them turned to look at Sam, Magnus, Jack, and me, before they could get a word out I spoke again.

     " Just so you know, we claim guest rights!"

     " Now why did you have to go and do that?" One giantess asked.

     " We just are here to talk, we don't want any trouble. We're looking to free that Swan, and we want to possibly receive a powerful weapon from you."

     " Very well," the same giantess replied." I am Gjalp, this is my sister Griep. We agree to host you while we barter. What are your names?"

     " My name is Willow, daughter of Natalie, this is my brother Magnus, and our friend, Samirah daughter of..." I trailed off, not knowing Sam's mother's name.

     " Daughter of Ayesha," she finished for me.

     " You are welcome in the house of our father, Geirrod. But I can barely hear you down there. Do you mind if I put you in a chair?"

     " Uh, Okay," Magnus said before either of us could disagree.

     Thankfully that didn't cause our death, as all that happened was that Griep grabbed all of us in one hand and placed us on a chair.

     " Oh dear," she said after a moment." That's still too low. May I raise your chair for you?"

     " Magnus-" Sam began before my brother interrupted her.

     " Sure!"

     Griep shrieked happily before throwing the chair over her head, the back of the chair hitting the ceiling, barely keeping us from being crushed.

     " It didn't work," the giantess said disappointed.

     " Of course it didn't work," the other said." You never do that trick right. I told you, it has to be something without a back, like a stool And we should have installed those spikes in the ceiling."

     " Spikes!?"

     " You were trying to kill us!" Magnus yelled." That can't be in the rules for good hosts."

     " Kill you? That's an absolutely baseless accusation. My sister did as you requested. She asked your permission to raise the chair."

     " You just said it was a trick."

     " Did I? Pretty sure I didn't."

     Magnus turned to his sword." Jack, have they broken the host rules yet? Because trying to kill us seems kinda borderline."