Chapter 3 - Home Sweet Home

Here is chapter 2 if you missed it: http://www.loverslab.com/blog/182/entry-739-chapter-2-small-and-wounded/

Alania had spent almost a year with the giants and her former life was a fading memory.

She traveled and hunted with them and even learned how to handle mammoths but by giant standards, her methods were a bit unorthadox.

Over time, word had gotten out about a human girl was living with giants and ocassionally an adventurer would try to take her away. This never ended well for the adventurer. Alania would always see if they had anything neat before her family moved the bodies though.

She had learned how to speak giant, how to repair her clothes, how to make weapons, and how to cook some really good skeever. She had also realized the giants could speak a little bit of Tamrielic.

Most days, she kept busy but something about tonight made her thoughts drift to her parents.

The next morning, she spoke to the giants about them being her family. The giantess that took care of her the most said, "daughter" in a deep feminine voice. Analia hugged her leg and called her, "mom."

The two of them were inseparable most days and now more so.

The time had come again for them to move and the mammoths wanted to head north. Somehow, she just knew. She hopped onto her favorite mammoth, Stinky and rode most of the way there.

It took a few days travel to make it to the next camp, which was near Winterhold. There was something special about this place. Mom told her it had old magic.

The giants prepared paints and several tools. Alania looked to one giantess, "Mom?" The giantess spoke in her gutteral tone but Alania got the jist of it. There was some kind of ritual about to happen. A rite of passage of some kind.

To tattoo her body, Mom used several sharp instruments, dyes, and more care than Alania had ever seen any giant use. The markings meant that she was fully one of them.

They had been there for a few days when a mage from a place called The College approached. He wanted to know about Alania's relationship with the giants.

At first, the entire camp was cautious but he brought an offering with him and the giants allowed him to speak to Alania.

She told him about them taking her in but his interest peaked when he heard her respond to a giant. "Wait!" he exclaimed. "You can understand them?"

"Well yeah," Alania chuckled, "it took me a while but I understand most of what they say and there are some words they understand too."

He asked if he could come back and talk to her some more. "Sure, I guess," Alania said. "Great. My name is Tolfdir by the way. I'll be back soon." Over the course of the next week, Tolfdir came back several times and asked her about the giant's language and rituals. Alania told him what she knew and he took several notes.

He invited her to the college to visit. She asked her family and they told her to come back by dark.

To be continued....