I entered the cave slowly but deliberately with my flanged mace gripped tightly in my gauntleted right hand. I rose the kite shield in my left hand up to my chest and steeled myself. I was weighted down not only by the coat and coif of mail but also by my own trepidation. With each step I reminded myself why I had come. For honor. For glory. For the accolades, for the land!
Slay the Giant, Lord Edmonton had said, and the East March shall be yours. You will be lord protector of the East and lord to all its people. To be a lord with my own lands after a lifetime of struggling would be worth the violent and dangerous battle ahead.
They said he was twelve feet tall, a vile and brutish beast who crushed the bones of the cattle he killed. He had terrorized the land for years. Some say he ate small children and on at least one occasion a full grown man. He had razors for teeth, they had said, and that the crushed wall of the keep on the shore was his doing, bare-handed in a fit of rage and hunger.
The darkness consumed me. I could hardly see the hand in front of my face. With hesitation I returned my mace to the loop on my belt,taking a torch and some flint from my pack.
As I struck the flint and ignited the torch, it illuminated before me not the dark emptiness I had expected, but a face - large and twisted, grinning with its razor-teeth! I stumbled backward, tripping and falling on my bottom, the torch extinguishing and sprawling into the darkness behind me.
All was silence for a moment as I waited for those massive hands to snatch me up, or for a boulder to crush me. I reached for my mace and scrambled to my feet, raising the weapon high above my head.
Suddenly, the woosh of wood catching flame filled the air and a great red fire ignited, lighting the cave, now much smaller in the light. The sound was followed a chorus of laughter. The giant fell to his bottom as well with a thud that shook the very ground, and all around him were men - great heroes and warriors placed hands on bellies as they loudly guffawed.

There were Belthar the Bold with his gray beard and mighty axe, Roger the Ribald and Garret the Grey - Even Jorma the Fool who we were all sure had gone to his death. These and many more sat around the fire, sipping from wine glass and stein alike, jesting and japing.

"What is all this?" I demanded at the fearsome beast, all the less fearsome for his childlike sitting on the floor, though we were now eye to eye.

"Why are you all here?" I asked, looking around the cave. "Why have you not slain this... this abomination?"

Another chorus of laughter flooded the cave. I winced and turned away as the echoes boomed inside my head.

"Relax, Sir Darris!" roared Gran the great, his big fat belly shaking under his jerkin. "Good Garl here was just having a laugh. Come, sit, have a glass of wine or some of this Giantish Ale, it's actually quite good! Gives a man a good kick in his pants though it does."

"Aye," perked up Sir Meryn the Meek, his slight frame obscured by the giant's head. "The ladies will be here soon!"

"Ladies? I..."

The giant put his hand on my shoulder. In a subdued voice with a thick brogue he said "Ya do lakh gerls, doncha lad? If ya prefer a boy ah kint do nothin fer ya but yer welcome to me grog all the seihm."

"I thought you were all dead..."

More laughter. "Eh, We may as well be after disobeying Edmonton. But this giant of ours? My God he's brilliant! Have you tried this beer? He brews it himself! Makes his own wine too! And the stew - it's better than my wife's!" Piped up Jeremy the Just.

"Aye, and you should hear him sing! He's teaching us all songs." offered Sam the Slim.

"And can he fight!" boasted Wick the Wise, "We watched him wrestle a bear!"

"Yeah!" Said Lars the Leper, "And he rides that bear like he were a horse!"

The Glory, I thought. The Honor. The LAND! I'd have it made for life if I just brought down the mace right now.

"Turncloaks!" I shouted, "have you forgotten? He crushes castles, eats children! He'll eat the lot of you when the stew runs out!"

I raised the mace again and a half a hundred voices gasped.

The giant put his massive hands up. "I dinna mean yeh no herm! And ugly rumors all that bonk aboot eatin cheldrin and that. Aye, I stole a sheep or a goat or two, but what choice have I gaht? Who's goin' to heir a giant to tend 'is fields, eh?"

Glory. Honor. Lands.

"You are a sorry lot, lads. Making bedfellows with a giant for what? Some laughs and some ladies?"

I raised the mace as they abandoned their cups and rushed at me.

The sun rose up to the sound of birds chirping. A giant could be seen, a large black bear at his side, tilling the fields while singing to himself.

I sat in my tower, drinking a hot cup of black coffee. He really could sing, there was no question about that. When I went to court in the morning, sat in the great hall of my manor, my bannermen marched in procession toward my seat of power. Men all free to serve me in exchange for the holding of my tongue.

My page stood and addressed the court.

"His honor Darris the Dominant, Master of Giants and Lord Protector of the East, will now hear your cause. Bring forth your grievances for his divine justice."

Glory. Honor. Land.