Roland and Jimmy sat, stunned, in the underbrush along the path. The clearing ahead of them, footprint-shaped like the others, was actually a marked path of a giant.
A giant!
Seeing one in person was so heartily overwhelming that it stopped his heart for several moments. His head sang with adrenaline as the mental image of the enormous foot almost squishing him into a flat, bloody pulp flooded his mind.
Thankfully, the giantess, for her retreating form was clearly feminine, did not notice the two… well, one-and-a-half, Roland thought wryly, normal-sized people making their way through the jungle.
He glanced over at Jimmy, who was quickly putting a nonchalant expression in place to cover his shock and alarm.
"That was something," Roland said a little breathlessly.
"That was someone," Jimmy corrected. "Just cause she ain't human doesn't mean you get to call her a thing."
"I meant almost getting stepped on and squashed, but all right." Roland huffed. "You don't think she can hear us?"
He eyed her large ears, and realized she was walking towards the sound of the intermittent noise he and Jimmy were tracking.
"If she can, she don't care much about it," Jimmy spoke softly, making Roland doubt the man's confidence. "Or she'd be investigatin' us instead of that. I imagine it's her kinfolk."
"What makes you think so?" Roland squinted into the darkness as the sound of the giantess's feet faded away.
"Why else would she be chasing down such noise? Gotta be her man or her kid. Mebbe both," Jimmy chewed the inside of his cheek. "For better or worse, you're in charge of this half-cooked expedition. We movin' on or goin' back to report?"
Roland considered the options grimly. On the one hand, he'd figured that dangerous creatures roamed the jungle… he just didn't expect giant people to be amongst them. It really didn't change the goals of the scouting trip, and didn't provide any information on Edmar's whereabouts.
They also didn't have any information on how to avoid the giants, other than staying out of their footprints, which they had apparently used more than once in this part of the jungle.
Should they backtrack to warn Haf and the others? He inhaled deeply. The footprint they were camped next to was really a hole.
Apparently the ground there was unable to support the weight of one or more of the giants, so the large humans were unlikely to travel there.
Haf and the Cetoans were likely safe, relatively speaking. At least for the moment.
"We press on. We should find signs of Edmar and the others, if we can." Roland decided after a moment.
Jimmy didn't respond except to shoulder the pack he'd dropped in his mad scramble away from the giantess's foot.
He took up the lead again, leaving the taller man to dash after him in the green light of the slowly setting moon. Roland wondered if the moon's descent meant the coming of day, or if the night would continue indefinitely without their main source of illumination.
"Can you see in the dark, Jimmy?" He asked, realizing he meant the question as more than a joke. Jimmy had spent so much time in the Darkness, surely he must have either supernatural sight or some way of navigating without it.
"Scared of the dark, are ya?" The quarter-halfling responded. "Don't you worry, you're with ol' Jimmy. I probably won't let no monsters get ya."
The double negative couched in an indefinite promise left Roland less than comforted, but he continued after him nonetheless. A loud chirping behind caught his attention, and he wondered what kind of bird made such an insistent noise.
Jimmy held up his fist and turned, signaling Roland to stop. The second man did so, a little annoyed, but reluctantly trusted Jimmy's hearing over his own. He'd been right about several things so far, and Roland could find no logical reason to doubt him just now.
The chirping continued as the men held still. Roland's annoyance grew. Though he couldn't see the bird making the noise, it surely couldn't be too dangerous. The little voice of the sound was almost adorable. He took a slow, deep breath, watching as Jimmy stared behind them into the jungle.
His head was slowly turning, following the chirping sound as it moved them, low to the ground, towards the front of the path they were following. Roland turned as well, finally tuning in to the fact that the source of the sound was circling them.
Though the moon's light was growing fainter, Roland squinted into it as he saw movement ahead. The low leaves of the brush stirred, and he tensed as, slowly, silently, out of the shadows, a large paw emerged.
The creature's face was like a striped cat, with large yellow eyes set deep into black fur. The face was, startlingly, at Roland's eye level. He was frozen in place as the animal moved closer. Its sleek, black body was spotted with green–or perhaps that was just the moonlight?--and six muscular legs stalked towards the pair of men.
Roland's eyes widened. The animal's pointed ears were alert, and trained on him. Its long tail flicked back and forth, a sharp, spear-like spike as its tip. The fur around its neck was long and thick, and puffed outward slightly as the creature examined him. The man swallowed his fear, gripping his blade more tightly.
This monster could likely tear them apart without batting an eye, if it wanted.
Instead, it lifted its nose and sniffed at them, and then opened a mouth that boasted three rows of gleaming white fangs. Jimmy sniffed in derision, as if preparing himself for an unpleasant task.
And then it chirped.
Roland stood up straighter, surprised that the sound had been coming from such an animal. Quickly overcoming the mild shock, he tried to hold still. The creature hadn't attacked yet, and Roland wasn't going to provoke it.
"Should we back away?" He whispered to Jimmy, who stood between him and the creature.
"You're the one in charge, kinda, anyway." Jimmy whispered back. "You do what you want."
Suddenly, almost without Roland even noticing because the movement was so fast, Jimmy was standing behind him.
The large cat noticed, and moved proportionally closer as quickly as the quarter-halfling had backed away.
Roland grimaced. Running from a six-legged cat had not been high on his list of options for the situation, but that was clearly out of the question now. It was simply too fast.
They stood still, at a stalemate, while the creature examined him. It continued its sniffing, stepping closer one slow-moving paw at a time. Roland held still except to stand taller, remembering the army's instructions on dealing with a mountain lion. Make yourself tall. Don't be intimidated.
Hopefully it will lose interest and leave.
Should he also be yelling at it? He didn't want to draw the attention of anything worse…
The Cat, for he had no better word for the strange, spotted creature, finished its sniffing, having come almost within reach. It blinked hard into Roland's eyes, reminding him briefly of the crowned bird he had seen the previous day.
The longest day of his life, literally.
After the hard, squinting look, the cat lowered its head, falling into a crouch, and Roland flinched as it appeared ready to pounce. Such an attack would be impossible to avoid with the creature so close.
And impossible to survive.
But instead of pouncing, the Cat lowered its eyes as well, almost touching its nose to the ground.
A bow?
The group stood frozen like that for several long seconds before the creature lifted its head again, looking into the Rhone Prince's face.
"That thing just… bow to you?" Jimmy whispered incredulously.
"I'm as baffled as you are," Roland answered quietly, before speaking to the Cat. It felt a bit silly to do so, but it seemed the proper thing. He nodded to it, and it chirped in response.
"Hello," He began. The Cat sat back on its muscular haunches, which lifted its head slightly higher. Roland was now looking up as he addressed it, but sitting nonetheless seemed an improvement. "My name is Roland, and this is Jimmy."
The Cat blinked slowly, and Jimmy elbowed him from behind. "Tell it we're not very tasty. Well, that I'm not."
Roland ignored the quarter-halfling and continued. "We're looking for a man who arrived here, perhaps recently, but up to a few days ago. Edmar is his name. He may have a lot of other men with him, and a halfling, who looks like a small man." Roland held his hand out to indicate Edmar's rough height, and then lowered it to indicate the height of the halflings he'd seen.
The Cat turned its great head to look over its shoulder. The direction the giantess had been walking.
"Are they with the giants?" Roland realized he assumed the plural, subconsciously having accepted Jimmy's theory about the female giant going to meet her kin.
Sighing, the large creature moved its body, lowering its shoulder toward Roland with a significant glance as it tilted its head.
"Do you… are you asking us to climb on your back and ride you?"