Gurag the giant was afraid. He and his tribe had been out roaming when the metal king had ordered the army to march on the human empire, and they had been eager to catch up and turned straight around to leave for the front as soon as they heard the news. Now though, something was killing his tribe.
The tribe had split up to hunt, no animals in these woods could threaten a giant and moving individually they stood more of a chance of sneaking up on their prey than as a group, but that was at dawn and it was now midday already. Gurag hadn't seen any of them since. Not alive at least. Not long ago he had heard a roll of thunder and found Folli slumped against a small tree, scorched and charred as though struck by lightning even though the sky was clear. There had been no sign of the others so far.
So Gurag ran through the trees, bellowing out to anyone who might hear, trying desperately to catch a glimpse of his fellow giants through the dense evergreen forest. He was starting to get out of breath from running and yelling when a flash of movement up ahead gave him new strength. It was big, and walking on two legs. It could only be one of his brethren. He yelled louder and sprinted towards it.
The gigantic figure slipped behind a tree before Gurag got close enough to see it clearly, though he kept running in the direction he had seen it go. It was strange, the figure was definitely giant sized and shaped, but from this distance it almost looked like it wasn't made of flesh. It was as if the whole figure was made from...
Vines and branches shot out from behind the tree to tangle Gurag's legs. He crashed to the floor and skidded on his face until a particularly gnarly root halted his progress. The vines continued to grow and entangle him. He fought and pulled against them but they were too strong, unnaturally strong, and then a tree trunk stepped on him and pinned him even further against the earth.
Stood above the giant, the tree-like figure was giant-shaped only in the loosest sense. Its legs went nearly all the way up to its shoulders and its arms hung down almost to the ground. It had no head, only a canopy of leaves and branches, and in place of hands and fingers were the thick vines and branches that reached down to bind Gurag's prone form.
Another trio of figures suddenly appeared in the canopy, leaping down from the foliage above to peer down at Gurag's face with disgust. They were the height of beastmen, but thin like goblins. Long, pointed ears stuck out from the sides of their heads as they pulled down the hoods of mottled green cloaks.
"Well done Asha," the smallest one with shorter, lighter hair said. He smiled up at the tree-thing with paternal pride. The thinnest one hung back, watching warily from behind her companions. The tallest one, with long brown hair, just scowled.
"Disgusting creatures," she spat, "Just stand back and let me deal with it, Yan."
"As you wish, Lady Styrrwin," Yan bowed, retreating and gesturing for Asha to do the same.
The vines around Gurag began to recede as the tree-thing stepped away, in a matter of moments he would have enough freedom to try and make a break for it. He struggled harder and vines began to snap, though the two elves didn't seem concerned. The lady was singing a low, rolling song that sounded like wind blowing through trees. Up above, dark clouds began to gather in the cold blue sky. With a bellow of triumph one of Gurag's arms came free, but he didn't have long to celebrate. With a blinding flash of light and pain, a bolt of lightning struck down from the clouds and killed him in an instant.
"Back to the caravan then, my dears?" Yan asked, heedless of the smouldering corpse.
"Of course," Lady Styrrwin sniffed haughtily, "We have no further business here."
*****
Alex heaved, and rolled the dead giant over onto its back. He could have used his mech, but he wanted to see this up close. In any case he was glad of the exercise, and the chance to fill his lungs with fresh pine air. They'd been marching north for five days since the battle and he'd had little chance to exert himself, apart from his evenings spent with either his lieutenant or Talia and Elizabeth.
"Another lightning strike," Elizabeth pointed out the telltale branching pattern of burnt flesh down the creature's neck, "Plus ligature marks from bindings all the way up the legs and arms. Similar time of death based on the lack of decay. If it really is two attackers, then this kill was both of them working together."
This was the fifth dead giant they had found today, and the furthest from the abandoned campsite. Counting this one, two had been bound before they died and three had been struck by lightning despite clear skies for days. The two who hadn't been zapped had been bludgeoned to death, showing signs of a struggle, splinters in their knuckles suggesting they had punched something wooden at some point before dying. Elizabeth was convinced from the tracks that they had been travelling south together before splitting up in all directions to search for food, which at least meant they weren't one of the retreating elements of the Wildling army that they were theoretically racing. Whatever had killed them had somehow left no tracks at all.
"Uh uh, uh huh," Anna walked her stocky mech over and made a show of examining the body, a massive metal hand scratching at the chin of the face plate, "Yep, it's definitely fucking dead. Can we keep moving now?"
Elizabeth shot a scowl at the lieutenant and Alex winced. After getting over her initial shock at the pilot's foul mouth and filthy mind, the major had taken a dislike to her attitude which Anna was not doing anything to help. Alex and Talia's attempts to heal the rift had met with limited success so far. At least Elizabeth, despite being less than half the pilot's age, was being mature about it and kept her feelings to herself rather than attempting to provoke something.
"Something in these woods is killing giants, Anna, and chances are it's ahead of us," Alex chided her as Elizabeth stalked off back to the horses.
"So we fight it or avoid it. Coeus could watch a sparrow shit from a kilometre away and Leto could vaporise the tree it shat on, it's not like we're gonna be ambushed," she jerked a thumb at the other mech.
"Caution costs us very little, Lieutenant. This kind of examination might be old fashioned but it gets us intel we can't get with scanners. The more intel we have on these things, the better prepared we can be if we come across them."
"Shit Alex, I know you're terminally curious but we need to get to number one as soon as possible and every delay is costing us. We're already going slow as all hell so the fucking horses can keep up."
"No, what we need is to arrive there in as good a shape as possible and with as many tools and allies at our disposal as possible. We're still well ahead of any remains of the Wildling army, and he's been on this planet for a century already. He can wait an extra little while for us to be careful and prepared."
Anna opened the cockpit of her mech, revealing her frowning face. Behind her, Talia was approaching with an even more troubled expression, passing the scowling redhead on her way.
"You think these giant killers could be allies against number one?"
"Maybe," he nodded, "It's worth investigating at least. What's up Talia?"
