Song- Last of the Giants by Karliene

"I hope they don't get in a lot of trouble for helping us out," Says Silver as we start up the trechous mountain side.

"I know right...but if you think about it they only let us rest for a while. It's not like they helped us to get out of the woods."

"True." He walks ahead of me finding the right places for our footing but makes a misstep and slides down. I hold my hand out and catch him from sliding down any farther. He looks up at me with a simi-worried look but then smiles seconds later. "Nice save." He pushes on past me and I continue to follow.

The mountain side takes us most of the night to climb. Once at the very top we stop to rest. I sit down and admire the view from here. I can see back towards Orestes and I can only imagine everyone dancing and having the nightly festivities without me. I hope that Scolecite is happy with Jade. I know he still has feelings for me because he stood up to Malachite and I pray that he did not get into too much trouble standing up in my defence. As well as my parents, I have never seen them so upset.My mum and dad were the greatest ever. I wish that I was able to tell them goodbye however everything happened so suddenly. I hope they know that I am still here and that I will be all right.

I don't even realize that tears are forming and streaming down my face until Silver wraps his arm around me. "Hey...what's on your mind?" He pulls me into him, letting me rest between the crook of his arm and his shoulder.

"Just thinking of my mum and dad; I wonder if they know that I am all right." I wipe away the tears falling silently.

"I'm sure they know you are alright."

"How can you be so sure? The last I saw them they were both begging for him to stop. Did you see my mum? I have never seen her cry so hard and my dad...he looked hopeless like there was nothing he could have done to save me. What if they think I'm...like...dead."

"Hey...stop thinking that way. They tried to stop him; they love you more than anything and you are going to have to try to accept that they are going to be ok. I think they are thinking of you too right now. I think they are hoping that you make it out safe and sound to a whole new world. Therefore we should get going we don't want to upset them now do we."

"Silver...what if we don't make it? I mean really what if we get trapped here forever."

"I won't let that happen. Now come on, by the time we get back down it will be daylight and we will need to find a place to rest again." He stands up and reaches down for my hand. When he pulls me up, I happen to take a step back and almost fall. He pulls me into him bumping me into his chest. I gasp coming into contact with his bare skin.

 I slowly tilt my head up and he is looking down into my eyes. I get that feeling again and out of nowhere he leans in to kiss my lips yet again. His hands go around my waist and he pulls me in closer as I wrap my arms around his neck, letting his lips press into mine. When I let go he does too and we both smile bashfully.

Without saying anything he turns and starts going back down the mountain holding my hand as I walk behind him. Halfway down I feel something drip on me and then another drip, more water from the sky drops more steadily.

"Crap...seriously it has to rain now...we need to find somewhere to keep dry until this blows over," Silver yells behind him.

We try to go down faster as the water comes down even faster. The sky goes extremely dark and starts to rumble. Out of nowhere the sky lights up and then goes dark only for another rumble to quickly follow. We are almost at the bottom when we both lose our footing and slip. I hear him yelling and then I gasp as I fall to my bottom and slide the rest of the way down. At the bottom of the mountain he gets up and turns to help me up. We are both covered in the Earth. We look at each other and start laughing. "Are you ok...you didn't get hurt did you?" he asks.

"I think I'm ok," I giggle. "That was a little exciting now wasn't it?"

"If you say so...scared the shit out of me." He lets go of my hand and looks around. "Maybe we can sit under there for now until this blows over." He points over to the edge of a rock where there is just enough room underneath for the two of us to get out of the falling water. He heads right over and I follow him.

Once under ledge the water falls against the rock missing us. I sit down and fold my legs inward to me and he sits down beside me. I start to shiver from the chill of the water and the wind blowing so he wraps an arm around me and hugs me close to him. We sit there in silence watching the water, watching the dark sky light up and go dark again. The rumbles come and go, some are so loud that it hurts my ears causing me to jump.

"It's just thunder and lightning it will be over soon," he reassures me.

"I know...I just hate the sound when it does that out of nowhere."

"Well I got you...you're safe with me."

"Awe...my savior....thank you." I wrinkle my nose up at him and giggle. He laughs under his breath and pulls me closer to him. We both fall asleep listening to the storm. Once it blows over its daylight and both of us wake up about the same time feeling the sun's heat shining down on his. I look over at him at the same time he looks at me.

The earth is stuck to our skin making a think crusty layer on top. "We should find somewhere to wash all this off."

"Yeah...but you may have to lead the way the sun is killing me. I can hardly see anything." I keep blinking, trying to keep my eyes open but it's extremely bright.

"Ok...I got you." I feel him grab my hand and pull me up. I walk behind him. And it's actually nice having his hand in mine and trusting him to get me to wherever we are going. "I think there is another cave up ahead maybe it will have a pool of water in there," he says as he continues to lead the way. Once inside he stops. "You can open your eyes up now. It's pretty dark in here."

I open them slowly and see him standing there in front of me. I glance around and realize where we are. "Yes there should be a body of water in here. Come this way...it should be right around the curve."

He follows me and sure enough there is water. "How did you know where we were?"

"We come here sometimes to play and explore. Come on let's get in and get this off of us." I step in and the water is amazing as it slides gently in every crevice of my body.

Silver steps in and smiles to the feeling as well. "What is it with the water here? I mean it's nothing like the water we have back home."

"It's just full of minerals and other things," I laugh as I take my hand and scrub away the earth from my skin. I dive in getting my hair all wet as well. When I come back out he is staring at me. "What?"

"Nothing." He smiles and dives under the water and comes back up. He still has a lot of the earth on him so I swim over to him.

"Here let me help." I turn him around and rub his back down, knocking off all the earth. My hand traces his back bone all the way down and then back up. His muscles are so tight, rock solid. I scrub each shoulder blade and down his back. When I'm done I turn him back around. "There you go, that's better." I smile.

"My turn." He smiles as he twirls me around. His hands are extremely soft against my skin. He tries to be easy to the sensitive spot in the middle of my back, even though my body tenses up the moment his hand touches the tender spot. He makes his way down and traces each wound with his hand, soft and gentle as he possible can. When he is done he turns me back around to face him. "Hi."

"Hi," I say back in return.

I watch as he watches my reaction as his hand comes up and moves my hair out of my face. My heart skips a beat as his hand traces down my cheek bone to the edge of my jaw line. One thumb traces my shaking lips. "God you are beautiful."I try to shake my head no but he stops me forcing me to nod yes.

"Silver."

"Shhh...it's true...you are beautiful." His other hand wraps around my waist and he pulls me in closer to him. The hand that was on my lips is replaced with his warm lips. His hand wraps around the base of the back of my neck and he continues to kiss me. I feel the other hand slide up the side of my body and cupping a breast. I jump back startled.

He looks back at me all worried as if he might have hurt me. "What? What's wrong, did I do something wrong?"

I turn my head ashamed and bashful. I don't know what this feeling is but something tells me that it is wrong. I cover myself up with my hands and get out of the water.

Silver gets out and walks over towards me. "Shit...I'm sorry I should have asked before touching you like that. It's just that....dammit Azurite you do something to me and I just can't stop myself when all I see is you like this all day."

I happen to look down and see this material and I wrap it around my shaking body. I tie it snuggly in a knot, covering the majority of myself. He walks over closer to me and spins me around to see the frightened look in my eyes. "I said I was sorry. Have you never done anything before with a guy?"

I shake my head no.

"But you and that guy...Scolecite. You telling me you have never been with him?"

"No...it's not like that in our land. You just don't go around kissing others. There are rules we have to go by."

"Rules...well lucky for you, you don't have to go by those rules anymore."

I stop and think about all the rules we had to go by and he is right. I no longer belong there so I guess the rules do not apply to me. I feel my body tremble as he reaches out and touches my face again."You are shaking...are you cold?"

I shake my head no.

"Are you scared?"

I nod. Because a part of me is scared inside. Kissing his lips is one thing; him touching me terrifies me.

"You are safe with me. I will not ever hurt you and we don't have to do anything that you are not ready for."

"Thanks."

He leans in and I let him kiss me again. This time he holds both of my hands and doesn't let go. His hand intertwines with mine and it feels normal to be there. But it only lasts for a second when we are jerked apart from each other.

I feel him being ripped from my grasp. I watch as his body is picked up by one hand and thrown to another, holding him back. I eye the creature standing before me. He is twice the size of Silver. His hand alone is almost bigger than my whole body. He grunts and when he exhales I about fall over from the rankness of his breath, stinking meat eaters. Not sure when the last time was that any of them and washed off either. The animal skins they were to shield their bodies are filthy as well. He uses one finger, the size of my body alone... to push me back against the cave wall.

His voice comes out dry and hoarse, "You are not supposed to be in here," he growls.

I quickly look back at Silver he is half-unconscious; his head tilts up and then back down and his eyes look like he is trying to force them open. I look back at the giant and glare at him for being so rude. "I'm sorry for intruding on your territory...please forgive us." I knell down quickly letting him know that we mean no harm.

He lets out an angry hiss, "You are the one the trees whisper about...the fairy."

"Yes...I'm Azurite. We are on our way to Onyx Quarters."

"Are you now? Looks like you were getting a little close to the outsider."

"It was nothing...please just let us be." I raise us and look up at him.

All the giants bust out in laughter. He comes to an abrupt stop. "He took your wings...therefore you are no longer a fairy. We don't have to do anything that you say. Matter of fact we might just keep you for ourselves and you can be our slave."

That is when it dawned on me. The fairies rule over the land due to the magic that they hold. For years Malachite orders the beings around. The Goblins refused to go by his orders and they were outcast years ago. This may be one of the reasons why they didn't care if they got in any trouble for helping us.

The giants on the other hand, I can see it in their eyes that they have a grudge towards me even though I technically had nothing to do with anything that was ever done to them."Please...I am nothing like the others can't you see that?"

He bellows loudly and his voice echoes in the cave. They all follow his lead and get a good cackle as well. I don't see it coming until it's too late; his hand swipes me and I fall to the ground.