‘You know; this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I thought things were changing for me earlier today.’
Odysseus kept fidgeting, trying to undo the knot of the rope that held his hands tied to a pole behind his back. ‘Damn, this is a very good knot; I must learn how they do it.’
Daniel just sat there, seemingly surrendered, tied behind him in the same wooden pole.
‘I know what you mean,’ he replied to the King of Ithaca. ‘It wasn’t what I expected either; but then again, when does one expect to be captured by flesh-eating giants?’
The Laestrygonians had carried the two men all the way up to their village and had tied them down in the middle of what appeared to be an arena of sorts. This must be where they had all their fights or competitions, because they saw all around them tall stone benches and stools, arranged in order and all facing at the centre of the arena.
‘What do you think they’re gonna do to us?’ Daniel asked, not really wanting to know. He simply wanted to keep talking and stop his brain from going on overdrive in regards to their current predicament.
‘Oh, I’m sure they’ll have a couple of good surprises up their sleeves, or whatever it is they’re wearing. They tend to be quite creative, you know. Whichever the road though, I’m afraid the destination remains the same, their bellies. We, my dear Daniel, are the guests of honour at tonight’s banquet. And we also happened to be the main course. Yum.’
‘Great,’ Daniel exclaimed, sorry that he asked after all. ‘There goes my quest. Some great job I did of it, getting caught and eaten by cannibals at the first instance.’
‘Don’t be too hard on yourself, young man; it’s not over yet. We just need to figure out a way out of this mess. You got any ideas?’ Odysseus asked, grinning as if he was actually enjoying this. And he probably was. Here was a man who lived for challenges such as this, so to find himself in one, after a whole year of practically just lying on the beach, was surely exciting.
‘Me?’ Daniel almost yelled. ‘You’re the cunning one. You’ve escaped from situations like this in the past; why don’t you think of something?’
‘A simple “no” would have sufficed, my young friend,’ smiled Odysseus, still struggling to break free from his bonds, and still failing. Eventually he gave up and turned his head towards Daniel as far as he could. ‘Alright, here’s what I’m thinking. If what I’ve heard about them is correct, they will split us. They will probably have a contest between themselves about who gets to eat one of us. The challengers will fight each other until there’s only one winner. The rest will probably share the other one of us. You with me so far?’
‘Wish I wasn’t,’ replied Daniel, but Odysseus ignored the remark.
‘Now, if I can challenge them, they might actually let me fight. Unless you’d like the honour.’
‘No, no,’ Daniel replied, now his turn to grin. ‘You go right ahead. Age before beauty, as they say.’
‘Yeah, didn’t think so,’ said Odysseus, pretending to feel offended. ‘Now, the only problem is, I’ve no idea how to kill them. I usually try and find a weakness in my enemy, but I don’t know them well enough and from what I’ve seen so far, they don’t really have any.’
That got them both to thinking. While Odysseus tried to come up with a strategy for them to get out of this situation, Daniel replayed in his head the whole day, from the moment he and Nemo had woken up to find themselves in the eye of the storm, up until now. What a day it had been, and the evening promised to be just as eventful, even if not to his liking.
He stared ahead into the horizon. It was almost sundown and he didn’t think they had much time left. The giants were probably sharpening their knives and getting ready to skin them alive, if that was their thing. What a way to go. He never thought he would have ended up as somebody else’s meal. He had survived werewolves, giant crows, ice dragons and wolfmen, only to be served on a plate to a bunch of overgrown cavemen.
Right at that moment, he remembered the Great Battle and how it had ended, and a light bulb went on above his head.
‘My lord, Odysseus,’ he called to the king behind him. ‘There might be a way we can get out of this alive.’
‘I’m all ears,’ the king said. ‘What is it?’
‘Do you remember what we talked about earlier today, about all the different dreamworlds out there?’
‘It’s all a bit blurry right now, if I’m honest. What about it?’
‘Well, when I first got to my dreamworld, I didn’t really know how everything worked. Bad things started to happen, a war broke out and we were very close to almost losing the kingdom because of this one evil man.’
‘We’re running out of time here, Daniel,’ Odysseus grumbled, now watching the giants heading their way. It seemed to be all of them. ‘If you have a point, get to it fast.’
‘My point is, I stopped it all in the end. I finally realised that it was me who had created that world and I could change anything I wanted about it.’ Of course he’d only created part of Endërland, but he did not have the time to get into details right now.
‘Are you saying I can make these bastards disappear if I wanted to?’
‘Well, this is your world, you are its creator. In here, you are Zeus. Anything is possible for you, I guess, even making them disappear.’
‘You guess? We’re about to be roasted alive here, and you guess?’
‘Well, if you have any better ideas, then I’m all ears,’ Daniel snapped back.
Odysseus seemed to be thinking. Before him, the giants were aligning themselves, most of them taking a seat in the auditorium. A handful of them stood gathered before the tallest one of them, an older, motherly looking giantess, wearing a necklace made of what appeared to be human bones.
‘So, what do I do?’ Odysseus whispered back to Daniel. ‘How do I make this work?’
‘Well, it’s actually rather easy. All you need to do to make something happen, is to just think it. Try with something small first, just to test your power.’
‘Like what?’
‘I don’t know. Think of big momma there having horns, for example.’
‘But, won’t they see the change?’
‘Only you can tell when things change; to them it will be like she’s always had horns.’
‘Hmm, interesting,’ said Odysseus, a bigger grin now returning to his face.
His eyes focused on the giantess taking her place in her high seat before her children. Without an announcement, a sound, or anything else at all accompanying the change, a pair of big horns, much like those of a cow, sprang on both sides of her head, arching upward and giving the large woman quite the comical look. Daniel couldn’t help but chuckle, while the giants continued with their business as if nothing had ever happened.
‘Hey, I thought you said only I could tell when things change,’ Odysseus complained. ‘How come you notice it, too?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe because it was my idea? Or maybe it is because I’m not of this world. Who cares? You’re quite the artist, by the way,’ Daniel complimented.
‘Yeah, my wife tells me that all the time,’ Odysseus answered with a self-satisfying look on his face. ‘That was actually pretty easy. Though, I’m not so sure about those horns; I think I can do much better.’
‘Forget the horns,’ Daniel almost yelled, looking anxiously at the gathered giants. ‘Think about how you’re gonna get us out of here.’
‘Don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll come up with something.’
The giants now fell into silence and all of them sat down but one, the ugly one whose hand Odysseus had injured earlier. He held in his hand a long bone, sharpened and fashioned into a blade. Right then, big momma spoke.
‘My son, Aschius, claims for himself the fat one,’ pointing at Odysseus. ‘Is there a challenger?’
‘Did she just call me fat?’ Odysseus turned his head towards Daniel.
‘Rude, right?’ Daniel replied. ‘What are you gonna do about it?’
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‘Oh, I’ll show her fat,’ Odysseus was about to probably turn big momma into an even bigger momma, when another giant from the group in front of them got up and approached Aschius. He was slightly taller than the ugly one, and a good deal more robust. He held in his hand a club, which Daniel thought looked quite similar to the one little Bamm-Bamm from The Flintstones carried with him all the time.
‘Ooh, I bet on him,’ Odysseus quickly said, giddy as a little child.
‘Nah, I’m with ugly,’ said Daniel, struggling to see from where he was seated.
‘Are you kidding me? Look at that guy.’
‘You better than anyone should know that looks can be deceiving, my lord.’
‘True that,’ Odysseus admitted. ‘Still, I bet on him.’
‘Alright. What are we betting then?’
‘I don’t know. We can think of something later; they’re about to start.’
Without much fanfare, the duel began, announced only by a collective shouting of the giant spectators. The giantess watched with a huge smile on her face, seemingly unconcerned about her own son’s fortune. The challenger advanced with his club raised and a sneer across his round face. Aschius had been unchallenged for a long time, and the rest of the giants had grown tired of it. Not many of them had the guts to go up against him, however.
Standing his ground, Aschius waited until his opponent reached him and raised his left arm, easily blocking the club aiming at his head. It absorbed the hit and must have hurt plenty, but the giant’s scarred face refused to show pain. He swung his blade at the other giant, but he leaned back, the blade barely scratching his bare chest. Another blow came towards him, and Aschius stopped it the same way, launching another swing of his blade, which again missed its target. A series of attacks and counter-attacks followed, making it look as if they were watching a well-matched duel, but while the challenger seemed to be giving it his all, Aschius still had to break a sweat.
‘C’mon, c’mon, stop toying with him and just hit him,’ Odysseus egged his giant on, much to Daniel’s amusement. The two fighters ignored him, focused in their duel.
Almost half an hour passed and the fighting went on and on, with no apparent end to it. Both giants were strong, but Daniel could see that the challenger was already growing tired. It was just a matter of time before he made a wrong move.
As if he had read his mind, Aschius apparently decided he’d had enough of playing with his opponent, and launched himself towards him, with a speed and energy that up until now he seemed to have been stowing away. The challenger looked surprised, and in a fit of panic struggled to block all the consecutive blows he was receiving.
The blade in Aschius’ hand was now flying in the air, barely visible. Numerous cuts began appearing all over the challenger’s body, most superficial, but some of them quite deep. As the duel headed towards the end, he raised his club for what he thought would be a definite hit, when Aschius’ blade cut his entire arm off, dropping it and the club on the ground. The wounded giant screamed from pain and rage and raised his other arm to knock Aschius down, but with an incredible speed, the scarred giant turned the blade the other way, and cut the second arm off. Without giving his opponent a chance to even scream again, he swung his blade one last time, and cut his head off clean at the base of his neck. Then, with a raised foot, he kicked the still standing body down, and let it fall, watching his head roll towards his mother’s feet.
Silence rained in the arena, while Aschius now turned towards the rest of the giants. Then, with both his arms raised up high and a vicious look on his face, he screamed, ‘who’s next?’ There was no answer. They all looked away as his eyes travelled to each and every single one of them, challenging them with his undefeated status as a champion. Seeing that no one else would fight him that day, Aschius spat at their feet with apparent disgusts, and turned towards the captive men. Behind him, the giantess continued to applaud and smile, full of pride for her son.
In a few short steps, the scarred giant reached Odysseus, and removing from his waist a small knife, Odysseus’ knife, he reached behind the captive king and cut off the rope that kept him tied to the pole. Then, grabbing him by his clothes and practically lifting him off the ground, he brought him up to his face and snarled.
‘Roast.’
Carrying him in one hand, he turned towards a big fire on the side of the arena and began walking towards it, while the rest of the giants watched, not without jealousy.
‘Excuse me, excuse me,’ Odysseus’ voice echoed over the silence. Big momma’s eyes lit up even brighter, as if she was quite amused.
‘Aschius, stop,’ she ordered her son.
‘Why?’ Aschius bellowed. ‘He’s mine. No one else has challenged me.’
‘I challenge you,’ Odysseus answered. As if on cue, the entire giant community broke into uproarious laughter. Aschius and his mother also joined in; the champion’s laughter was even uglier than his face. Still holding him in one hand, the scarred giant lifted Odysseus slightly up, looking at him in the eye now.
‘You what?’
Odysseus ignored him and turned to the giantess.
‘I challenge his royal ugliness here and all of you for my own life and that of my friend.’
‘No,’ The giantess answered sharply, looking at Odysseus as if she was calling his bluff.
‘Why not?’ Odysseus asked, feigning insult.
‘Because you’re not one of us; your challenge is not valid.’
‘Well, then make new rules. I have the right to fight for my own life, or are you afraid that your big baby here is not strong enough to fight a human?’
‘Let me fight him,’ Aschius growled. The rest of the giants were now following with interest this new turn of events.
‘Aschius, we do not play with our food,’ the giantess replied in a very motherly voice.
‘Hey, if you’re worried about him, feel free to join in,’ Odysseus kept teasing. ‘I’m sure I can take the both of you.’
While Daniel and the rest of the giants laughed, Aschius gave the king a slap upside the head for his temerity. Odysseus, who had now been left to stand on his own, fell backwards by the brute force.
‘So,’ he got back up, ignoring Aschius, and harassing the giantess again. ‘What’s it gonna be? Are you gonna accept my challenge, or will you let it be known that the race of Laestrygonians are too afraid to face humans in a one-on-one combat. Because that’s exactly what’s going to happen. Word of your cowardice will spread and you will become the laughing stock of your people. Worse yet, Zeus, who sees all and protects me, might get angry at you for not giving me the chance of a fair fight and smite you all to smithereens. Surely you don’t want that, do you?’
‘Let me fight him, mother, just so I can shut him up,’ Aschius growled again, growing impatient.
‘Yeah, good luck with that,’ Odysseus replied to him. ‘Not even the mightiest heroes of Greece were able to manage such a feat, my ugly friend.’
Aschius was about to smack him again when the giantess shouted.
‘Enough. You may have your challenge, but you will get no special treatment, and you can only bargain for your own life. If, by some miracle of the gods you win, you’re free to go. Your friend would have to challenge me for his own life. But if you lose, I want you to know, that I will cut that silver tongue from your mouth myself and eat it raw. Then, I will add your skull as the prize jewel to my necklace, and display you as a warning for every other sharp-mouthed midget out there, who thinks he can outwit me and my kind.’
She now got up from her seat and stared Odysseus down with pure malice. Her horns suddenly lost all their comical effect, instead making her look frightful and terrifying.
‘I know who you are, Odysseus, son of Laertes, King of Ithaca. I’ve been looking forward to having you on my table ever since you escaped my people in Telepylus. And you can be sure that I will catch the rest of your men, the last remaining ship you have, and they will all suffer the s
ame fate as your other eleven ships, inside our bellies or at the bottom of the sea. You may have conquered Troy and survived the war, o cunning one, but the whole world will know that it was the Laestrygonians who were the end of the great Odysseus. And not even Zeus can do anything to stop that.’
Having finished her little hate speech, the giantess locked eyes with Odysseus for a moment. Fire burned in the king’s eyes as he remembered all the men he had lost and the families that were still waiting for them back home. No longer feeling like teasing the giantess, he defiantly stared back at her and said through his teeth.
‘As Zeus is my witness, today you will all burn.’
She chuckled and then turned to her son, scowling.
‘End him.’
Aschius sneered maliciously and turned to Odysseus, ready to have at him.
‘Hey, wait,’ Odysseus raised a hand in front of him. ‘Don’t I get a weapon?’
Aschius stopped in his tracks, grabbed Odysseus’ tiny knife from his waist, raised it to his mouth and pretended to use it as a tooth pick for a moment, before throwing it at the king’s feet. Ignoring his gesture, Odysseus picked the weapon up and wiped it clean against his clothes.
‘Thanks.’
The giant waited no more, but launched himself against the smaller man. He swung his own blade upside down, aiming for Odysseus’ head, but the king moved swiftly out of the way. Just as swiftly, Aschius swung again, and again Odysseus jumped away. It had been a long and tiresome day, but the king seemed to show no fatigue just now. He moved around with such a graceful speed, that Achilles himself would have envied him.
It was a good enough strategy, Daniel guessed, Odysseus was small and agile, fast enough to avoid the giant’s blows, until he found an opening to strike. The problem with that was that not only would he get too tired before that could happen, but also, if he ever got a chance to strike at the giant, he didn’t have the strength or a weapon big enough to do any real damage. Daniel wondered what Odysseus’ plan was; how was he hoping to beat the ugly creature? He guessed he’d just have to wait and see, hoping the king knew what he was doing.
Aschius was relentless in his assault, as if an invisible force drove him and gave him energy. He kept coming at Odysseus, waiving his blade on all sides and from every direction. The king of Ithaca was well trained and knew his stuff, but he had a lot more work to do compared to the giant, who whatever Odysseus did and wherever he retreated, was there with just one big step. Very soon Odysseus would be too tired to move as he did, though Daniel had to admit, he was doing a commendable job so far. The giant was accumulating little cuts and scars all over his arms and legs, everywhere Odysseus’ knife could reach. Still, it would take much more than mere scratches to bring the giant down. The superficial wounds were not slowing him down at all and Odysseus would not be able to keep this up for long.
For a few more minutes, Odysseus kept baiting the giant, always escaping from his reach at the very last moment. This began to infuriate Aschius. He was growing more frustrated by the moment, and his initial anger soon turned to rage. He was now attacking blindly and furiously, having had enough of the troublesome midget, and not worrying about defending himself at all. In his mind he thought there was nothing Odysseus could do to him, other that scratch him with that tooth pick he had for a weapon. So, he grew more careless in his attacks.
This had been the moment Odysseus was waiting for. As the eyes of everyone around them watched their every move, Odysseus allowed the scarred giant to advance towards him once more. Just as the blade came down towards him, he swiftly dove between his opponent’s feet and tumbled several times on the ground, gaining a good distance from him. Aschius turned around, and watching the smaller man so far from him, yelled in frustration. Setting off in his direction, he raised his arms in the air once again.
Standing up and turning around, Odysseus now aimed his knife and launched it with all the strength he could muster. The weapon flew with an astonishing speed, as if the gods themselves had given it wings, targeting the giant’s unprotected heart. As it got closer to it, the knife began to sparkle with a bright gold, producing what appeared to Daniel like hundreds of little lightning bolts, all surrounding it and setting it alight. When it finally hit the giant’s chest, the knife dug itself deep into his flesh, piercing his heart. As if he was being electrocuted, Aschius began to shake uncontrollably, while the lighting released from the knife set his flesh on fire.
Before the terrified eyes of his kin and his mother, the scarred giant began to burn, screaming in unbearable pain and agony.
‘You did promise me a roast,’ Odysseus called after him, his eyes ablaze with the same fire.
The giant dropped on the ground, the stink of his burning flesh reeking all over the arena. Above them, the sky filled with unnatural dark clouds, threatening the worst storm they’d ever seen. Alarmed, the spectator giants got up and made a run for it, but as Daniel watched them go, endless lightning bolts shot down from the sky, setting them all on fire and dropping them on the ground one after the other.
The only one who did not run was the giantess. She was still sitting on her throne, her eyes glued to the burning pile of what once was her only son and heir. Odysseus now stepped in front of her, prompting her to look at him. There was anger and rage in her eyes, but also fear. This was no mere man, standing in front of her with eyes still burning bright; this must be a god.
‘Zeus,’ she barely managed to say, half asking, half stating.
‘Zeus is dead,’ the king roared at her. ‘I am Odysseus, son of Laertes, King of Ithaca. And I make this promise to you, giantess; when I am done with you, I will go back to Telepylus and kill every single one of your kind, turning them all to ash, so that you can never think to hurt anyone else again.’
‘Mercy,’ was all she managed to say, before Odysseus raised his hand towards her and the sky rained lightning bolts on her body, her throne and every stone around her, until there was nothing left of her and her human bones necklace.
With that, their captivity was over.