The babe snoozed against his mother’s bosom, the woman fanning the embers nearby in order to cook the eggs in a particular way, scrambling them lightly between moments of fanning the embers, cooking the eggs gentle and slows while the others continued to cook their meals to one side, eyeing up the strangers who approached. However, the woman was easily three heads taller than the half elf, while the babe was almost twice the size of Amal, the babe’s hair curly, dropping down under her earlobes.

‘What a chonky baby!’ Adam thought, his eyes wide, his brows shooting up, with the want to spoil the baby filling his heart. Though he had tried to kill that part of him, how could he not spoil such a cute chonky baby when she was right-,

“We should not disrupt her sleep,” Kitool said, emerging from nowhere beside him, causing the half elf’s heart to skip a beat from the shock, before he calmed once more.

“I suppose you are right, Executive Kitool,” the half elf whispered, letting out a sigh burdened by regret. Adam’s eyes darted to the rest of the giants around him, each with skin like bronze and gold, their hair like gold, their eyes slightly darker than their hair, though some held blue eyes, others green, and some amber, some orange, each at least three heads taller than the half elf. They people wore attire reminiscent of the Aswadians, loose robes, with light chain upon all the adults, though he spotted a particular giant who wore a breastplate. The giants carried larger than typical weapons, as one might expect for those who stood greater than eight feet tall, roughly two and a half metres tall, save for the younger giants, as well as a particular loud woman.

She was only about a head taller than the half elf, her skin more golden, like sand, her hair even lighter, adorned in light chain, light for a giant at least, with a scarf wrapped around her head and shoulders loosely, pinned to her simple round helmet. She shouted at the older giant beside her, and Adam blinked, imagining his Virot troubling him as he tried to mind his own business.

‘Should I take Giant?’ the half elf thought, hearing the pair continue to shout to one another, vaguely understanding the words, for he could hear a little Elementi and Aswadian slipped into the words, as well as some words that sounded familiar to others, like mother and father.

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“Betti, no more, no more,” the older giant said, reaching up to his forehead, rubbing it gently with his forearm, returning back to the large slab of meat, cutting it into cubes, sliding it along to another figure who wrapped it within the tent behind. Every piece of meat was cut identically, each two palms wide and two palms tall.

“It is time, now, it is time!” the, without a shadow of a doubt, teenage girl replied, pointing at her father with an accusatory finger, though she quickly returned back to removing the bones from the meat, and waiting for her father to cut down the giant slabs of meat to size so she could mince the meat.

“Time?” The old man stopped, turning to the side to notice her hands were still busy, so could not deflect to her not working properly. “It is time you find a wife and give me some grandchildren.”

“Again with the grandchildren!” The young woman clenched her fist, crushing the bone within her hand, before tossing it into a box behind her. “I haven’t even fought yet, but you want me to have children?”

“You should give me at least two or three grandchildren before-,” the man replied, before noting the group had gotten too close, and he motioned a hand so she would return back to her work, and he approached the group, noting the appearance of the figures within, furrowing his brows.

Sokikez, Lion King, an azure half dragon, two from Black Mountain, and so many Iyrmen? His eyes darted around, trying to find the one who led them, until Dunes finally stepped forward, followed by a half elf.

“Good afternoon,” Dunes said, his eyes darting across the meat. “Are you selling meat?”

“Shukhur, Mo, I sell much,” the giant replied, an innocent smile encroaching across his lips. “I hope we are selling what you wish to buy.”

Dunes leaned in to whisper into Adam’s ear. “They sell much more with the meat too, spices, drugs, medicines.”

“Oh?” Adam smiled wide, his eyes darting around the giants. “Uh, so you guys are giants, right?”

“Yes?” the butcher replied.

“Oh. Uh… like… you know…” Adam cleared his throat.

“Sand,” Dunes whispered.

“Sand? I’ve never heard of sand giants…”

“They are…” Dunes stopped, before switching tongue, only to realise that was an issue too. He shook his head, deciding against saying what he wanted to say.

“Alright, well, I would like some meat, and considering how everyone is excited to see you all, I assume your meat is good,” Adam said, doing his best not to chuckle.

“Our meat is second only to the halfzers,” the giant said, noting how the Priest smiled slightly at his thoughts. “They often say we are the halfzers of giants, for our size, and our culinary skill.”

“I never heard they were good at cooking, so that’s news to me,” Adam admitted.

“They are almost as good as cooking as they are at fighting,” Dunes informed.

“Damn! Really?” Adam raised his brows. “Considering my brother always compares them to Iyrmen, they must be great at cooking then. Small, cute, good at cooking. I need to adopt a few halfzer children, since they are so well behaved and don’t grow up too quickly, causing me trouble.”

The giant blinked, slowly nodding his head in understanding, before letting out a small sigh. “You should be careful, especially with daughters.”

“You’re telling me, man,” Adam replied, shaking his head. “My eldest daughter, Konarot, she’s never caused me-,”

Jurot noted how his brother froze in place for a moment, the half elf recalling how the little girl had almost killed Vonda.

“She has never caused me trouble that wasn’t someone else’s fault, her little sister, she’s never caused any trouble at all, neither the youngest of the trio, but my Jirot?” Adam let out a sigh that said more than any words could. “Then we have Virot.”

The giant laughed as the half elf shook his head and his head, almost begging them to stop talking about this. “What brings you this way?”

“I am returning to Black Mountain,” Dunes admitted.

“Hnn,” the giant replied, grunting affirmatively. “Master Isam passed by not long ago and said he was going to pay a visit. It was not that long ago now, just a few days.”

Dunes smiled. “We met him while he was in Jabad.”

“Met him?” Adam called. “He almost killed me!”

“Why?” the giant asked, raising a brow.

“He wanted to duel Anka to the death and I decided to take her place, so then we duelled to the death, but I wasn’t just going to kill him, so I just took his sword, but then I realised I don’t use greatswords, so I gave it back to him,” Adam replied, shrugging his shoulders.

“One moment,” Dunes said, pulling Adam to the side. “Please do not speak in such a way of Isam.”

“What do you mean?”

“You sound disrespectful.”

“How is telling the truth dis-,” Adam began, only to realise he sounded extremely dumb, before bowing his head. “My bad.”

“Thank you.”

As they returned, Adam smiled innocently. “Ahm Isam gave me the honour of facing against his blade, so I could show off to my children.”

The giant’s eyes fell to the Priest, glad he had taught the young half elf a lesson, otherwise he would get himself killed. “Mo, you must be careful, for you may be a follower of Lord Sozain, it will only allow others to gift you a wish.”

“I’d like to see them try,” the half elf said. “I let down my guard a few times, but unless they’re as strong as ahm Is-,”

Dunes was glad the half elf had stopped himself, the young man reaching up to his chin, rubbing it gently.

“I appreciate your advice, ahm,” Adam said, smiling innocent towards him. “I do have quite the habit of acting the fool, and though I’m doing my best to change, I keep falling into the habit. I pretended to be a fool for so long, it’s now engraved within me.”

“If you were perhaps the grandson of Flame Brand, I could see you behaving this way,” the giant said, having packed meat into large leaves, tying them together with twine, bowing his head towards the red skinned Iyrmen.

“I am her grandson, but even so, I don’t think I should do it since no one believes me until my brother confirms it,” Adam said, motioning his head to Jurot.

“It is true,” the Iyrman said.

Tanika had listened intently to the conversation between the group, from the fool of a half elf, to the Priest of Black Mountain, and finally the Iyrman confirming his words. ‘It is time?’

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I rolled to see if he knew Gangak and hit the natural 20.