Chapter Four

There was a smell burning her nose, something foul and putrid, something more like a powerful stench. They stood there, each woman clinging to the other, each seemingly taking it in turns to cry and sob. Enid could hear them. She could see them over the fence of their pen as those giants ate, as they sang and drank and celebrated.

And their women, somehow they were so tall, their bright blonde hair pulled back into thick braids, their faces soft and slim. Surely these were not ordinary people. Surely they had been taken by some half-creature, some half-giant or half-fae being. And she saw them, some of those tall, slender women dressed like men, with thick, leather trousers and axes of their own slung over their shoulders.

Surely they would not get a husband looking like that.

The sun was getting low by the time she saw him again. He seemed no different than the last time she had seen him, since he had flung her into this pen with the others and left her. Now he talked with another man, a man who was wrapped in big furs and leather, a man with many rings around his fingers and wrists.

For a while they stood there, talking quietly to themselves, for a while it did not seem like he would be coming back, but then that man with furs patted the giant's shoulder, then he gave him a quick nod and left. That was when that giant turned, when he unlocked the pen and stared straight at her. Was it relief that she felt then or just fear, Enid could not say. All she knew was that he had been kinder, he had fed her, had kept her warm when all the others had suffered, so she did not fight him when he reached for her, when he wrapped a thick hand around her arm and pulled.

Maybe he would be kinder still and she could ask him to take her back home. She watched him load his pack and his axe onto a cart, watched him lead a small horse around and turn it. Then he looked at her, jerking his head towards the bench in the front and waiting. For a second she hesitated, for a second she thought on asking him then and there, but he would not understand her.

So they travelled a long while in silence, the village falling away to the countryside, somehow so green, somehow so grey all at once. And cold, she felt it, creeping into her fingers, felt it biting at the back of her throat as she shivered. She rubbed her hands together, taking a big breath in and looking at him.

"I'm Enid," she said, turning and pointing a finger at her chest. "Enid." He stared at her, those eyes dim and unblinking. "Enid," she said again, and his head tilted to the side as his lips parted.

She thought then that he was about to say her name, that he had understood what it was that she was trying to tell him, but then she saw it, that hand that had been rummaging through his pack now emerging and holding that sack.

"No!" she shook her head. "No, don't!"

She made to stand and jump off that cart, but he grabbed her, yanking her arm until he forced her to sit. He was staring at her again, that sack held in his hand almost like a threat as he raised a finger to his lips.

"Ssshhhh…"

She looked at him, her eyes big and wide, her insides shaking and then she nodded. He was not kind and she would not make the mistake of thinking that again, but she did as he wanted. She sat there, her arms wrapped around her stomach, watching him from the corner of her eyes, never wanting to lose sight of him for too long. And she knew she would have to find another way back home.